WEEK 9: Phun With Phones! :)

As usual a lot has happened since our last post. I lost my phone while "trash mowing" with a brush hog, Here they are called flail mowers. Pretty violent machine we use on the rocky uneven ground or really tall weeds. I looked for my phone everywhere at the four farms we serviced that day and ended up buying a new phone. I got a Huawei, it has a larger screen  than my Samsung S7, is thinner, with all the same features, no contract, for 90 pounds including the first month's service. Makes me think we are being ripped off in buying phones in the USA. After a week I found my Samsung on the seat of a tractor I had parked. I also complained about the farm phone and they gave us not working, and they gave me a new Samsung S4 so now I have three phones!

Shelly and Ron Murphy came to visit this weekend on their way to a cruise. We took them to Sherwood Forest to see the "Major Oak". The picture doesn't do it justice because there is no scale. The trunk is over 12 feet across, the poles holding the limbs are 20 feet long. It is estimated to be over 900 years old. We saw lots of huge oaks and and said "this must be it" until we saw the real thing!  Wow!!! They say if Robin Hood was a real character, they would've met here!

Here again, no scale, but another huge, ancient tree. There is a four foot fence post to the right of the tree just past the white rock. The guide at the visitors center said the oaks take 300 years to grow to maturity, 300 years as a viable tree and 300 years to slowly die. I told him of a large oak I mow around that is  half rotted away. He said it would be another hundred years before it was completely gone. I still mow under it as fast as I can. 

Here are some photos I found on my lost phone. 

I bought a cheap metal detector on Amazon. When it arrived I put it together and tried it in our front yard. I immediately found a 1980 US dime, then a minute later I found a US quarter with a hole drilled in it. A few minutes later I found  a 1928 King George III penny about the size of our half dollar. 

As you can imagine, I was very excited and wished I'd bought a better machine.
 Since then, all I have found is junk. I'm sure there is lots of good stuff on the 18 farms
but it is hidden behind all the junk. 

We are still keeping really busy, there is always LOTS for us to do!  Robyn has been drying apples and making apple pies with all of the surplus apples around this area, that no one seems eager to use.  I keep telling Robyn, "you don't have to pick all the apples!"  She was taught to "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without", and has a hard time seeing the fruit go to waste.  

 We love teaching our primary class each Sunday, the kids are great! Well, that's our story for this week.Till next time.