Happy Halloween

It's Halloween! It's Halloween!
The moon is full and bright

And we shall see what can't be seen
On any other night.

Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,
Grinning goblins fighting duels

Werewolves rising from their tombs,
Witches on their magic brooms

In masks and gown we haunt the street

And knock on doors for trick or treat

Tonight we are the king and queen,

For oh tonight it's Halloween!

-Jack Prelutsky

No More Gas on the Ponderosa!

Last Tuesday we came home to find a card in our door from the "gas well police"  also known as the oil and gas inspector for the great state of Tennessee.  His card had a note that said 'please call concerning well, it is on plugging contract'.  We were not too concerned about this and placed his card on the table at the end of the couch.  You know the one-- where you toss all the mail and deal with it later.  Before we could deal, that very night someone called us.  He was the plugger who gets paid by the state of Tennessee.  He explained that he and the inspector had visited our property that day and  located the well.

We were not hiding the well, it is right there beside that cedar tree in the middle of the field!  See it?  It was there when we moved here 25 years ago.  We tried to use it a couple of times and it worked fine until it snowed a foot or was 25 below zero then it would go out.  After the second time we deserted it and never used it again.  That was at least 20 years ago.
We were told that it would need to be plugged or we could pay a 500 dollar fee for a bond.  Since it doesn't work and we don't use it there was a quick decision made to plug it.  The deciding factor being that the plugging involved no charge at all to us! 
So this morning two large trucks arrived.

 They inspected the situation, and confirmed that we had given them permission to cut the cedar tree

 The well was plugged with Peanut observing, because guys like big machines and of course you can always learn something-- you never know when you might need to plug a gas well.

 The whole process took several hours.  They drilled down 1400 feet and poured 5 bags of cement and then they came back up about 50 feet and poured 10 more bags and then on top they poured 5 more bags of cement.  They did not mean for us to be in that well again!! 
Finally they cut the top off about a foot below the ground in case we ever want to plow that area.

And here is what is left, you can't tell it was ever there and we have a better view of the horses and the road.  We just wonder why it took them 25 years to get concerned about the Ponderosa gas well!

Ponderosa Colors

It's been looking very" fallesque" here on the Ponderosa with lots of color in the trees and flowers.

The sky has been October Blue

The autumn decor is in place

The only thing left in the Ponderosa garden is this eggplant.

But the warm temps today said its still grilling weather so. . . 

This was dinner on the Ponderosa tonight.

And this is the secret sauces for grilling!  

Happy Fall Y'all!

October 12

Here's a quick version of my Twelve on the Twelfth Series, because it is getting late and its been a big day!

This boy woke me up this morning before dark thirty.  He said, "Nana, is it morning or night?"  I said, Parker, I don't know its still dark.  He decided to get up and look out the window to see! In this picture he is wearing oven mitts for socks.  Its a long story!

 After breakfast and a bath he beat me at several games of Hold On Scooby-Doo.  We ate some lunch from McDonald's and then he took off for a camping trip with his Dad.

 The day was a little overcast, but the Ponderosa stinkbugs love to be outside so we headed with them to the city to ride around in their strollers!

 If you watched the new TV series Nashville last week you saw a scene where the main characters were standing on the Pedestrian Bridge right in this very spot!  These people could probably get their own TV show since their lives are very exciting!

 This is art!  I don't really understand it!

 This is Brynn checking out the Cumberland River.  River watching is very serious business.

 This is part of Fort Donelson right on the riverbank in Nashville.  It wasn't open today.  The gates were locked.  Sadly it looked like it was being used as a storage area for beer vendor's carts.  I spared you that photo.

 This is a statue of John Sevier and John Donelson the founders of Nashville.  Stephanie, Brooks, Brynn and I are posing there because be think that John Donelson was possibly some of our ancestors, but we can't prove it right now.  That is something to work on.

 After a stroll down 2nd Avenue, where Brooks seemed to really enjoy the music coming from the Honky Tonks we stopped back at Cumberland Park for some. . .

 Running and climbing

 and some dancing on the bandstand!

 Then everyone went home, ate supper, took a bath and went to bed!  Hope everyone had as much fun as we did today!