A Short Break!

We have had a very productive week, as you can see from the pictures. The kids worked hard, so we headed to Nashville for the weekend to visit Baine's brother and his family and just take a break. We have cleared the driveway, house site and septic site and we officially got our septic permit on Friday afternoon after a visit from the Soil Scientist and Environmental Specialist. The kids also enjoyed playing in the creek at the back of our property, building a dam with limestone and swimming in some of the deeper areas. It was a nice break for them in the late afternoon after dragging brush all day. We also received some great news on Tuesday, after my Mother's last surgery that the lymph nodes they removed were clear and the cancer had all been removed. She starts radiation in June but does not have to have Chemo, so we are thankful for that. We are expecting a visit from her around Mother's day and we will be sure to put her to work while she is here.

CLEARING THE LAND

Work, Work, Work!!!

We have almost completed cutting down all of trees on the driveway and cabin area. We have a burn permit to burn all of the slash and we should be able to start burning tomorrow because our water meter was set today. Baine will run a water line down to the building site tomorrow morning. More pictures and updates to follow soon. Internet connections are hard to come by in this small town. (Patrice)

Take a breath!

It has been a whirl wind of a week since Mom's last surgery. Though the surgeon was sure that the tumor was not cancerous the results came back malignant. We were all shocked but had to gather our senses and make a plan. Mom had surgery again today to remove the surrounding tissue that was left and to do a lymph node biopsy. She is feeling great but there are several more steps to go through. The week between surgeries, we worked on the RV brakes and the truck brakes and made one trip to TN to get some of the equipment to the property. Baine and the boys will officially begin working on the property tomorrow and we hope to update everyone with some pictures. (Patrice)

HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM

I AM GOOD AT CHANGING TIRES NOW

Jerry and Judy. Hosts of the RV park at Exit 519 I-20 in Texas. Very helpful people.

ARRIVAL ATLANTA

We rolled into Atlanta last night at about 1045 PM. We dropped equipment with family, visited a while, then left at midnight for Valdosta to be with Patrice's mom who was scheduled for surgery at 630 AM. We made it to Valdosta at 415 AM. Just in time to go to the hospital. We are all tired, and in need of rest. Grandma's surgery went well, and we will have the test results for the tissue taken sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Our updates have been spotty because the truck stops have been PACKED, and we were not able to log on and update the site as often as we wanted to. Posting pictures was impossible. I will post some pics later today.

One noteworthy comment is that yesterday started off with us waking up in a movie theater parking lot (truck stops were full) and realizing that we had more tire trouble. We discovered a cracked rim on the trailer, and a punctured front tire on the truck, and had to deal with that. After mounting the truck spare up front, and buying a new rim for the trailer we were leaving Missippi.

We will stay with Grandma for a few days then go back to Atlanta to head up to Tennessee. (Baine)

DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS!!

It is 9:37 PM and we just crossed the state line into Louisiana. We have had a crazy two days in Texas. We have had three tire blowouts on the black dump trailer, lost the awning off of the RV to 50 MPH wind gusts, and have spent many hours on the phone with fraud protection at Bank of America trying to convince them that it really is us going across the country AGAIN! All three blowouts have been scary sounding but easy to control. Thank God for that...Baine is sick of jacking the trailer up and changing the tires, but every blowout has been in an area where the people are exceptionally friendly, offering gracious hospitality. Jerry and Judy were the hosts of an RV park off Exit 519 on Interstate 20 (where we lost the last tire)and they let us hook up the RV, wash our clothes and pointed us in the right direction to replace the tire. Jerry even sent over one of his guys to help Baine out...If anyone is ever in that area you should stop by and visit, they are great people.. (Patrice)

Tennessee DAY 3

HI SPENCER VALLEY SCHOOL!

We have had a slow go of things. A rim on the black dump trailer was cracked so we had to stop in Deming, NM to search for another. Deming is no bustling boom town, so I expected the chances of finding a used replacement rim equal to winning the Lottery. I should have played the Lottery. We found one used, and with the correct size tire mounted for $65.00. What a bargain. After dealing with that we drove a little further past Las Cruces and are about 30 miles from El Paso, TX. Our route will be Interstates 8, 10, 20, 30, and 40 to TN. (Baine)

Load 'Em Up, Move 'Em Out!

RV and Silver Dodge loaded up and headed out of Julian, CA for our property in Tennessee. We left late Friday afternoon and made a short run to Yuma, AZ. We will drive hard tomorrow and stop somewhere in Texas.