Full pool and then some!

Full pool on Smith Lake is 522' msl.  What this means is that once the water reaches 522' above sea level, it will begin to go over the dam.  Right now, the level is at 515.9'.  Fortunately, it has stopped rising.

Last year in the later winter/early spring, we had some huge rains, and the water got right to 515'.  It's amazing how much difference that extra foot or so makes.  In our "subdivision" (very loose meaning), the only walkway not under water is Danny and Linda's.  The distance between the bottom of their walkway (land side) and the top of the water ain't much, either.  The nice thing about all of the rain is that we shouldn't have to worry about getting the level up for summer.  It's already there.  The not-so-nice thing is that now we have a ton of debris that will be left in our slough and will have to be cleaned out.  Yea...

I had hoped to sit out on the swim deck today and soak up some sun, but unless I walk over to Danny and Linda's dock, I won't be doing that because I'm not going to wade out to our walkway.  Brrrr!!!  I meant to bring my camera this weekend, but I forgot it.  I did take some pictures with my phone, but I don't want to walk around until I find service so I can email them to myself.  I'll post them later.

John and Ali are napping in one recliner, and Bama is snuggled with me in the other one.  I think I'm about to grab my Kindle and read for a while.

Remember,

Keep on dreaming!

Come on it! The water's fine!

Well, okay, maybe the water's still a little cool, but that didn't stop a few hearty souls yesterday who took advantage of the beautiful day.  Several fishing boats, a pontoon or two, and even a jet ski were out and about.  Even though it was a gorgeous, sunny day (and quite warm in the sunshine), it was still just a tiny bit too cool for me to want to be out ON the water.  Unless it was just sitting on the swim deck.  And I didn't even do that for long.

Mom and Dad gave us a picture for Christmas that has "Life is better at the lake" on it.  We hung it up yesterday, and I meant to take a picture of it so I could use it in this post, but I forgot.  I tried to find the same one online, but I couldn't.  I found the one at the right, though, and thought I'd use it. 

It was after dark before we got there on Friday, so we didn't do much except unload and turn on the water before walking over to visit with Danny and Linda for a bit.  We were thrilled to find NO BURST WATER LINES!  This was a first!  We don't think they would have burst last year, but apparently someone turned on the water after we'd drained the lines.  (John, for some reason, didn't leave the line open at the boat house, so after it was turned off again, the lines didn't drain.)  When we closed up for winter last year, we left that line open AND we put a note at the valve saying NOT to turn the water on.  Before we left yesterday, we drained them again, just to be on the safe side.  This is Alabama, and it has snowed in April.  Can't take any chances.  :)

Saturday was quite overcast and cool.  John needed me to help him attach the "new" swim deck to the walkway, but that didn't take long.  Once we finished, I got a chair and my Kindle, but it didn't take long for me to realize it was just a little too cool for me.  Plus, I was still feeling crummy from my cold, so I decided to sit on the porch and read, and John got his hammock out and napped for a while.  Doesn't that sound like a perfect way to spend the day?  (Aside from the cold, that is.)

Yesterday, we sat outside with Danny and Linda for a while.  (I hope we didn't share our cold germs with them!  If we did, we are SO sorry!)  The weather was much nicer than it was on Saturday, so that made packing up to come home so much more depressing.  Hopefully, we'll be able to go most every weekend from now on.  That's the plan, anyway.  :)

I guess I should run for now.  I read over this, and boy, did I ramble.  I really don't care, though.  This is my blog, after all.  LOL

Just remember...

Keep on dreamin'!

Lake time is winding down

EXTENDED lake time, that is.  My summer is quickly coming to an end.  This is the last of my extended stays here, and I'm feeling really depressed. 

Next week we have orientation.  Since I have seniors, I have to be at the school Monday by 8, and Mr. Reyes has requested that we come back on Wednesday for the make-up day, so I'll be there then, too.  I'll probably go back Thursday, and maybe Friday, to get everything back in place and make some copies.  Then the next week will be our inservice/professional development days on August 3, 4, and 5.  More than likely, I'll be there on that Monday (2nd), too, but unless I feel like I HAVE to be there on Friday (6th), I'll enjoy my last day of summer at home.  Maybe John can take that day off and we can come back on Thursday.  (That may not be possible though because he just had to let two of his techs go because of financial reasons.)

I planned on coming up Sunday, but I was so tired from all of the wedding festivities, I knew I couldn't make it.  It isn't that I was running around like a crazy woman (she didn't come to the wedding), but there are always those last minute things that have to be taken care of.  And on Saturday, I ran a couple of quick errands for Jessi.  Anyhoo, if you read my other blog, you know I was worthless on Sunday.  I decided to clean house on Monday so I'd have that out of the way, so the pups and I didn't get here until mid-afternoon yesterday.

One of the first things I did when I got here was to check on the wrens.  Either they have flown or something got them.  I'm not sure they were quite old enough to fly, but I can't stand to think that something bad happened, so as far as I'm concerned, they flew.  (Hey, this is my blog and Momma Wren made their "nursery" outside my window, so I can think what I want.  LOL)

It is HOT and HUMID, and the lake level is falling.  The level is down almost three feet.  By next weekend, unless we have a monsoon, we should be able to burn the brush in the slough.  I hope so anyway...I don't like anything that looks snaky, even if we haven't seen any so far.  (Knock on wood!!!)

I'm staying here until Friday, and then I'll meet John at his mom's for our weekend.  I haven't been since April.  (Bless her heart.  She won't even remember it's been that long either.)  We swapped with Danny and Linda in May--they did their weekend and our weekend that month, and John did their weekend in June since Linda was supposed to have gone to the beach with us.  Then we had Christie (Billie's neighbor) stay on our regular weekend in June because that was the weekend of Lance and Jess's couple's shower. 

Hopefully, the next couple of days will be sunny.  I want to get as much sun as I can while I can.  I know...I'll look like a piece of old shoe leather by the time I'm an old woman, but John will still love me.  :)

I think I'm about to get an adult beverage and sit on the porch for a while.

Remember, KEEP DREAMING!

River Rat

Phillip and Sam came up to the lake today to visit.  Katy was in PCB with Jessi and a few of her friends for Jess's bachelorette party, so it was just Phillip, Sam, Pop Pop, and Grana.  Right after they got here, we took a short cruise on the pontoon, and then we came back to swim.  Let me tell ya what...Sam LOVES the water!!!  He must have been a fish in a previous life.  LOL

We got in to swim/float about 11 or so, and we didn't get out until about 1.  Sam was NOT a happy camper (fish??) when we had to come in, but it was lunchtime.  I have never seen him pitch a tantrum like this, but pitch one he did.  I had a hard time not laughing at him.  Once Phillip got him changed, though, and he realized he was hungry, he stopped.  Pop Pop fixed him a delicious PBJ sandwich, some chips, and a cup of milk, and then Pop Pop gave him a Nutty Bar.  (John had grilled burgers for himself, Phillip, and me.)

After lunch, we just sat and talked and let Sam entertain us. This is the third time we've gotten to see him in the last three weeks, and we're loving all the Sam time!  We'll get to see him again this coming weekend because of the weekend.  He sat with John and "shared" his milk.  Actually, John pretended to drink it, and Sam would just cackle.  John is in HEAVEN when Sam is around.  So am I.  He was very generous with his lovin, too.  Hugs, kisses, and snuggles were there for the taking.  :)

After Phillip and Sam left, John got his stuff together and left soon after.  I came in and checked fb, only to learn that the daughter of someone I taught with years ago had passed away.  Kara was just 20, but she had CF.  She went into the hospital on June 13 and had surgery on June 18, but she lost her battle today.  Karen posted this on Kara's Praise Page (on fb) yesterday at 8:02 AM:  "Kara had another good night last night. She is responding well to everything. A slow process most definitely, but she is following Matt Crenshaw's advice to "keep on keeping on!" That is the plan today because. . .well, she's IN IT TO WIN IT!! Keep thanking God for the GREAT work He is doing in Kara! Happy Saturday! ~kc"  I'm not sure what happened or why...only God knows that...but my heart is breaking for Karen, Kara's dad, step-dad, and brothers.  I know this part of this post has nothing to do with the lake, but I just felt compelled to include it.  Take a minute to hug your child, your husband, your wife.  Tell them you love them.  Please pray for this family as they walk this difficult path.

As always, keep dreaming...

Bird orgy

We have herons (or maybe they are cranes) that live around here.  We've seen them flying around as long as we've been coming up here, and that's been quite a while since Danny and Linda have had their place for about 13 years now.  They've landed on the boat docks and made the dogs crazy.  They've done fly-bys that will scare the poop out of you if you aren't expecting it.  I mean, these are HUGE birds, after all. 

Well, now we have them nesting just across the lake from us.  For the longest, we didn't know WHAT IN THE WORLD was making all of that gosh-awful racket, but Marty told John last week that it is the herons (or cranes.  I googled both, and honestly, I still don't know what we have.)  Anywho, Marty said they were there, so John got out the binoculars.  At first we couldn't find them, but Sunday morning I got the binoculars out again and found them.  At that time, there were two in the tree. 

I heard them squawking when I was sitting on the porch a while ago, so I got the binoculars out again.  Knowing where they are made it much easier to find them, but you can easily see them without the binoculars.  This time, I bet there were six on the nest.  One of them kept sticking its neck up and the others were "bowing" to it.  (Maybe that's the Momma Bird????)  No lie...that one had its neck stretched out as far as it would go, and the others were gathered around flapping their wings.  Looked like an orgy to me.  Not that I would know what an orgy looks like since I've never been involved in one and never intend to be involved in one.  My only experience with them is what I've seen in movies.

I need to google to find out how long it will be before the babies are hatched.

Speaking of hatched babies...time before last when we were up here, we saw that a bird had built a nest in the bathroom window.  John was going to clean the nest out until he saw the eggs.  It looked like there were five or six total.  We kept watching, but we never have seen a momma bird anywhere near the nest.  We figured she had abandoned it.  After I came in from watching the heron/crane orgy, I went to the bathroom (okay, so maybe that's TMI, but hey...we all do it) and I thought I heard cheeping.  So I pulled the shower curtain back and stood on the tub to look.  I could have sworn I saw something moving, so I looked a little closer.  (It's kind of hard to look very close because of the screen and the way the nest is built.)  Sure 'nuff, a baby bird was in there!  Just to make sure again, I put my ear right next to the screen and heard the little cheep.  I think I saw an egg that hadn't hatched, but I really couldn't tell how many babies there might be.  So I guess momma bird hadn't abandoned the nest after all.  Either that or it's been so dang hot they hatched without her sititng on the nest.  LOL 

I thought we were going to get some rain, but alas, I think it has gone around us.  Again.  We need some rain SO badly!  The lake is down about two feet.  That's normal for this time of year because Alabama Power Co. uses the water from this lake to cool the towers at one of the steam plants.  I still hate to see the level go down this early. 

I guess that's about it for now.  I stopped to get some barbecue on my way up, so I'm about to make a sandwich for supper.

Don't forget...KEEP DREAMING!

Lake Vacation Part Two

I meant to get another update done before now, but it just didn't happen, but here it is now.

Day Four -- Wednesday
Yard work.  All. Day. Long.  Well, maybe not all day long, but most of the day.  We started about 8 and thought we'd be finished by about noon, and had it not gotten all humid, we probably would have.  It was pretty humid at 8, but by 10, it was extremely humid, so breaks were much more frequent and lasted just a little longer.  Finally about 2, we hauled the last load of leaves/sticks and dumped them.  If we hadn't paid someone to come clean the yard back in the spring, it would have taken twice as long to do the yard.  Our yard isn't huge, but it is filled with trees, so the leaves, the pine straw, pine cones, and limbs take forever to clean up at the beginning of the spring.  I'll gladly pay someone to do it every year from now on.  The maintenance is enough for me.  :)  The yard looks SO much better though!

Day Five -- Thursday
I got up about 6.  I guess I was excited about Katy and Sam coming and I just couldn't sleep any later.  They got here about 11, I guess.  We had lunch--Sam established HIS seat while he was here.  So funny...every time we were about to eat, he would run over to the table, pull out a chair, and climb up.  He did that every single meal.  :) 

After lunch, Katy got herself and Sam ready for the lake.  Pop Pop got the boat gassed up, and we headed over to Rock Creek Marina to see the "big fish."  There are carp over there that are as big as Sam is.  NO LIE.  John got some crackers so we could feed them.  By that time, some other people had come up and had gotten ice cream.  When John was getting the crackers (you have to buy them there) I got an ice cream sandwich.  Well, the other people's ice cream was more interesting to Sam than the big fish, so I gave him what was left of mine.  Maybe next year he'll be more amazed by the big carp.

We got back in the boat and headed back home.  The other times Sam has been in the lake, he wasn't that crazy about floating by himself.  Well, something changed this time.  Katy had him in the float with her, but he wasn't happy.  So put him in the water thinking he'd want right back out.  Nope.  He was like a little fish.  He "swam" all over the place.  He has really gotten the hang of kicking, so by next summer, he'll be swimming like a fish.  He's gonna be a little river rat as it is. 

After playing all day, Pop Pop made burgers on the grill.  Katy and I loved them, but Sam isn't much on meat.  He had beans and chips.  (The boy is going to turn into a chip.)  Katy gave him a bath and he entertained us.  Then, he climbed up into Pop Pop's lap. 

This trip, Sam really "took" to his pop pop.  He's always loved being around John (all kids do...he's just a big kid himself) but he "hung out" with John a lot more this time.  John was thrilled (as you can probably tell by his face.)  He loves this child more than he loves life itself. 


Not long after I took this picture, it was bedtime for Sam AND for Grana.  I probably didn't last 30 minutes after he went to sleep.  Between the yard work the day before and playing in the lake, I was a tired girl.

Day Six -- Friday
Sam was awake and giggling about 7, so Katy got him out of bed and tried to get a little more shut eye herself.  He entertained John and me by jumping off the step between the kitchen and den. (I'm sure he is thinking "Boy, they don't have much of a life if all I have to do is jump off this step to entertain them."  LOL)

After breakfast, John was sitting in the swing.  Sam decided he wanted to swing, too, so I put him up in Pop Pop's lap.  What a great picture!  I love the way Sam has his foot propped up on the rope.  Now, THIS is lake living.  :)  The two of them sat there for about ten minutes before Sam needed to get up and move.  (He is rarely still for very long.)  Whenever there is a moment like this, the camera better be handy.  :)

Katy and Sam left a bit before 10, and when the did, it was SO quiet around here!  Once they were gone, I decided to head down to the dock for some sun.  It was quite warm, so I did almost as much floating as I did sunning.  I couldn't really relax while I was floating though because I felt like I was going to fall asleep.  I can imagine waking up down at the dam.  Fortunately, if I did, my friend Cindy lives right there, so I know she'd rescue me.  hahahaha

John and I had "date night" last night.  Well, it wasn't really a date.  We went to eat at The Angler.  Yum! 

Day Seven -- Saturday

We're heading over to Ron and Cindy's in a few hours to cook out with them, Heinz and Suzanne, and Steve and Cindy.  This will be the first time we've seen Steve since his biking accident back in October.  He is a walking miracle.  Seriously!  He was on a cycling trip and wrecked, breaking his neck.  He was at Erlanger in Chattanooga and then he went to Shepherd's in Atlanta.  With the type of break he sustained, the fact that he isn't paralyzed is truly a God thing. 

I'm taking my camera, so I'll post some pictures of our day.  Maybe...

Just remember...KEEP DREAMING!

Vacation at the lake

One thing John and I decided when we decided to buy our lake place was that we wouldn't take "real" vacations, but we would vacation at the lake.  And that was fine by me!  Of course, I still do my beach trips any time I can, but when it comes to the time I spend on vacation with John, I would rather spend it here as anywhere.

So, how has vacay been so far?  GREAT!  Just a quick update.

Day One -- Sunday
We got up about 7 Sunday morning, did a few odd and ends around the house, and got on the road about 8:45.  We had to make a couple of stops because my back was KILLING me, and I HAD to get out and stretch it.  (Saturday night, I rolled over and tweaked my back AGAIN.  I barely slept for the spasms.  Finally about 2 AM, I got up, took Aleve--should've done that at 10 PM--got an ice pack and snuggled up with it until about 4:30.)  We got to the lake about 12:15, unloaded the truck, and had some ribs for lunch from a great little barbecue place in Good Hope.  I got an ice pack again, got comfy (or as comfy as I could) and napped until about 4:30.  We sat on the porch for a while, had the rest of the ribs for supper, and that was about it.  We didn't even go get the boat. 

Day Two -- Monday
I got up about 7, made coffee, and sat on the porch.  It wasn't too hot or humid yet, so it was a nice morning.  We left about 8:30 to go back to Good Hope to get a ladder for the swim dock.  THAT made me very happy because now we can swim off our dock.  I know Danny and Linda didn't mind us using theirs, but by the time I lug a float, bag (because I need it for my towel, book, iPod, etc.), and a cooler of water (soft side, so it isn't big, but still) I would be worn out.  And then I'd lug it all back after spending hours in the hot sun.  Ugh.  So now, we only have to walk to our dock.  I don't even take a cooler because I can walk back to the trailer for water.  After we did that, we did our grocery shopping for the week.  My Grillmeister will work his magic, and any weight I MAY have lost this summer will be put right back on.

On the way home, I dropped John off to get the boat.  I got home, unloaded and put away groceries, and then we put the ladder on the dock.  I'm proud to say I did a LARGE part of it myself.  :)  Of course, John was telling me what to do.  (It should be apparent that the back spasms went away.  Spending hours freezing those muscles must've done the trick.)  He was under the dock doing what had to be done there.  Then we floated for about a hour.  Ahhhhh...

Day Three -- Tuesday
We slept a little later than usual, but that was fine.  I planted some elephant ears (yeah...I know they should have been planted months ago, but I kept forgetting or we didn't have time or the weather didn't cooperate.) 
Danny and Linda rode out for a while.  They had to meet with the cabinet guy, and then they visited for a couple of hours or so.  Their house is coming along really well!  I told Linda that every time we come down here, I think I get as excited as to see what has been done as I would if it were our house.  Marty and I talked today about what I'd like to see whenever we build.  Unless something changes, he'll be building for us, too.

After Danny and Linda left, I went down to the dock for about an hour, and then it sounded like a storm was brewing.  It finally rained, but that was about it.  John worked on the door to the old boat shed and got it fixed, so now he can open it and close it much easier.  After he finished, we...floated.  :)

Now, he has the grill going.  He took thin cut pork loin, seasoned it up, put a slice of cream cheese and a few (3-4) jalapeno slices on them, rolled them up, and put them on the grill.  YUM!!!!  Believe me, these will make you slap yo' momma!!

The rest of the week
I hope tomorrow is a beautiful, sunny day because I want to spend it in the sun.  With a book.  Thursday, Katy and Sam are coming up.  They're going to stay until Friday.  Phillip won't get to come because of other obligations he has.  :(  Right now, I'm not really sure what the weekend holds, but I'm sure it will be fun.

Think I'm about to go jump in the shower, get comfy, and sit on the porch for a while. 

Just remember, KEEP DREAMING!