John Deere Fever

My husband has John Deere fever. 

 Before we were married I learned that green tractors, as long as they were the John Deere kind were the best, the only kind of tractors to have.  I learned about the styles and how the numbers changed over the years.  We didn't have one.  We didn't need one. And then we bought our current home with too much lawn to mow with a push mower and our first riding lawn mower was a John Deere.  I don't remember now how we got the 2630 for a garden tractor that isn't used anymore. We got a larger riding mower. When we started our business, Jim bought a nice little garden tractor with a loader bucket that he used there until he got mini-excavators.  Our renters of the farm bought and gave to Jim the JD B that his dad bought brand new, back in the day and has since been restored as earlier blog posts will show.  After Jim got that B, he traded another B he bought just before for an MT intending 

to restore it and buy a cultivator to use in the garden.

 He's been wanting a zero-turn mower for years and he bought one last year with our stimulus money.

That's where our John Deere story stood.

Until...the aforementioned neighbor told Jim he saw a plow on an online auction from Illinois for an MT so Jim went
to look and found not only the plow, but also a cultivator and a mower.

AND, a running MT, which Jim didn't need since he has one.  He decided that buying this working tractor wouldn't cost anymore than restoring the old one so he bought it. And the attachments. With the intent of restoring it as well. 

So, we went to Illinois to pick it up.

John Deere MT Lawn Ornament

Mere Words

I have always been fascinated with words.  My current words that I like to use just because I like to are exacerbate, recalcitrant, obstreperous, and tenacious. 

I grew up with a colorful language of "sayings" or idioms as they are called when you want to look them up, and I've always wanted to write them down, so I've been collecting, I had no idea I knew so many.  A few of these I use all the time, the majority I don't.  I've failed in passing them down.  

UPDATE! I have been collecting these right along, and I'm surprised at how many I use over the course of a few months. I've decided not to sort them all by anyway except alphabetically.  Some are idioms some are just funny ways of saying things.

According to Hoyle 

All in the same boat

All the bells and whistles

And there you are

Another day another dollar

Baptized by fire

Barking up the wrong tree

Batten down the hatches

Bats in your belfry

No use beating a dead horse

Beat around the bush

Beat the tar out of

Better late than never

Between a rock and a hard place

Black as pitch

Were here born in a barn?

Born with a silver spoon in your mouth

Bought/sold the farm

Bite the bullet

I have a bone to pick with you

A bun in the oven

Can't get blood from a stone/turnip

Can't carry a tune in a bucket

Can't fight your way out of a wet paper sack

Cash on the barrel-head

Caught with your pants down

Chances are slim to none

Changed his tune

Clear as mud

Comes back to bite you

Comes back to haunt you

Costs and arm and a leg

Cotton on to

Couple bricks shy of a load

As the crow flies

Cute as a bug's ear

Dark as a stack of black cats

Dead as a doornail

Deaf as a post

Dodged a bullet

Doesn't amount to a hill of beans

A dollar waiting on a dime

Don't count your chickens before they hatch

Don't judge a book by it's cover

Down to brass tacks

Down to the wire

Don't a be a stick in the mud

Don't go home until the last dog is hung.

Don't shoot 'til you see the whites of their eyes

Dressed to the nines

Driving like Jehu

Drop in the bucket

(Eat) like it's going out of style

Fall for it hook, line and sinker

Fell down on the job

First whack out of the box

Full as a tick

Funnier than all get out

Get it coming and going

Get it while the getting's good

Get out of my hair

Getting the upper hand

Getting your just desserts

Getting too big for your britches

Goes against the grain

*Going over like a lead balloon

Going to town (at something)

Get my goat

Grab the bull by the horns

The grass is greener on the other side of the fence

See the handwriting on the wall

Hanging by a thread

Handed on a silver platter

Happy as a clam (at high tide, some say)

Haven't seen hide nor hair of them

A hitch in my get-along

Hold your horses

Getting a heads up

Grasping at straws

Hanging by a thread

*I'm out of here like a herd of turtles

Hitting below the belt

Hit it on the nose (right on target)

Hit the spot

If the shoe fits, wear it.

I'll see you in the funny papers 

A fine kettle of fish!

Jumping through hoops

Kick the bucket

Kill two birds with one stone

Knee-high to a grasshopper

A leopard can't change it's spots

Lie through your teeth

Like a hot knife through butter

Living high on the hog

Like a bump/knot on a log

Like it's going out of style

Like pulling teeth

(Doing whatever) Like there's no tomorrow

Lying through their teeth

Living high on the hog

Living the life of Riley

Look down your nose at

Madder than a wet hen

Make hash of (something)

Make hay while the sun shines

Making a mountain out of a mole hill

For many a moon

Money burning a hole in your pocket

More than one way to skin a cat

More than you can shake a stick at

My way or the high way

Need that like a cat needs two tails

Needle in a haystack

Nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof

No holds barred

Not for all the tea in China

Not the only pebble on the beach

No time like the present

Not a leg to stand on

Nothing to sneeze at

Nothing to write home about

One brick shy of a load

One fell swoop

Open a can of worms

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Out of the mouth of babes

Passed with flying colors

Poor as a church mouse

Pot calling the kettle black

Pulling up by your bootstraps 

Pushing the envelope

Pussy footing around

Put a flea in their ear

Pull out all the stops

Put a brick on his head 

Put a lid on it

Put words in my mouth

Put your ducks in a row

Put your money where your mouth is

Put your foot in your mouth (Foot in mouth disease)

Quit beating around the bush

Right up my alley

Raining cats and dogs

Runs like a faucet (noses)

Sawing logs (sleeping heavily or snoring)

Saved by the bell

Scraping the bottom of the barrel

Scared the liver out of me

I haven't seen hide nor hair of (them)

Shoot yourself in the foot.

Sick a a dog

Six on on and half dozen of another

Slip through the cracks

Slow and steady wins the race

Slow as molasses in January

Speak now or forever hold your peace

Straight from the horse's mouth

Starting on a shoestring

Step up to the plate

Sticks in my craw

Stick to your guns

Stir the pot

Stopped dead in their tracks

Six ways from Sunday

Shot himself in the foot

Slower than molasses in January

Snug as a bug in a rug

Switch horses mid-stream

Take a gander at

Take a leaf out of (someone's) book

Takes to it like a duck to water

That's the way the cookie crumbles

There's egg on your face

The shoe's on the other foot

The tail wagging the dog

'Til the cows come home

Throw in the towel

Took the starch right out of me

Tough row to hoe

Turn over a new leaf

Two shakes of a (dead) lamb's tail

Up a creek without a paddle

Up one side and down another

Upset the apple cart

Water off a duck's back

A watched pot never boils

Were you born in a barn?

Whatever floats your boat

What's good for the goose is good for the gander

Work to death

The whole nine yards

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink

You make a better door than window

 

Other words

At loggerheads

Blowing up a storm

Bound and determined

A bum steer

Cabbage onto

Catty-corner (kitty-corner)

Cattywampus (catawampus kittywampus )

Chintzy

Chivvy

Cockeyed

Comeuppance

Cotton on to

Crystal clear

Cut and dried

Dead to the world

Dig in your heels

Don't piddle around

Fair to middling

Faster than all get out

Feel like I've been run over by a truck

Fit as a fiddle

First dibs

Flat broke

For crying out loud!

For Pete's sake

Get on the ball

Get up and go

Get your goat

Gist

Hidden up your sleeve

Hit like a ton of bricks

Madder than hops

My get up and go has got up and went

Gumption

Hankering after

Hitch in my git-along

Hoofing it

I reckon so

I have a mind to

Kerfluffle

My old stomping grounds

No spring chicken

Off kilter

Over yonder

Peter out

Plumb crazy (or plumb whatever)

Pulling my leg

Like pulling teeth

Put words in my mouth

Shaking like a leaf/Shaking in their boots

Silver lining

Sitting duck

Slept like a log

Smack dab in the middle of

Splitting hairs

Spot on

Stomping grounds

Stove up

Take a gander at

Tongue lashing

Two left feet

Under your belt (it's done)

Up to snuff

When pigs fly

 

Offered by others

Shanks mare

Went to Valhalla

These sort of sayings and word usage may be native only to certain parts of the country.

I use these and my dad is on the hunt to find more.  I learned them at home.

*Absolute favorites.

Second list

Playing Fall

When we bought our place, we didn't buy it for the color of the brick, (It's yellow) or the style (ranch).

We bought it because it had a big living room, lots of bedrooms, and 5+ acres.  It was a good place to raise our kids and a good place now for grand kids to come and play.

Nathan and Paislee were over for a fun 4-wheeling day and we have plenty of backyard for it. 

And obviously the front yard, too.

Bike fixing day.

Football...

And Soccer.

These boys just run and run. I love to see them improve over the season.  I am not much of a sports fan, and what I know about most sports you could put in a teaspoon. Playing sports takes a lot more strategy and thinking ahead than I ever knew. 

I don't know how interested others are in these photos, but I like them because they are of my grandchildren and I want to have them where I can look at them. 

 

The Rest of August

Paislee is 5,

Barry is 10,

School has started,

And so has football.

Junior high games are in the afternoon and this particular day was HOT! I should have known better than to wear a black shirt.  I about died of heat.

They won the game and Zane made a touchdown and a tackle.  

Right now, he's third tallest in his class.

 

Home Through The Badlands

Going Home

We planned to take in the Badlands on the way home. It is an impressive sight of miles and miles of rugged terrain.  I don't remember paying any fees when my family went in 1977, but that isn't a thing a 13 year old would remember.  I don't remember paying any fees when Jim and I took our kids up there in 2006 but since it is a National Park we must have.  I found a pamphlet on line that gave the fees for the 2007 season so I presume the $15 charged in 2007 was probably what was charged in 2006.  This year it was $30 for a car to go through.  That seems like a lot of money. Today with google you can get information on all kinds of things and the price was raised to $25 in 2018 and $30 in 2020 for private vehicles. So, we paid our fee and spent a lot of time looking and taking pictures. There are a lot here in this post.  I have to get my money's worth. They are in order, too.

Some kind of goat.  I looked in the Badlands website for a clue.  

They have a picture, but no name.

What I find most interesting about these massive rock formations is the depth.  A photograph isn't the best way to see that.  In these two photos there is a close ridge and then farther away, the rim.

Smoky Horizon

Colorful Layers

Vastness

Beauty in Nature

Jim is trying out his new hat with his pitiful old binoculars.  You can't remember everything when going on a trip, but it's too bad we didn't bring the better pair.

These are called "rainbow something or others".  I'm not terribly interested in the geology and make up of the rocks.  For those who are, google we shall always have with us.

Going farther south there are broad spaces between the high rock formations, where grass grows.

Finally, the sun came out and we get some blue sky!

Big Horn Sheep

There are a lot of photos here, I like them all.  Nature is amazing and I love to revisit it.