This morning Chad, Addie and Nicole drove down. Chad drove his pickup and trailer and his purpose for coming was to help Vince clean out our rented storage units. There are two left to be cleaned out but they are double size – 10 x 20 I think. But, before the cleaning and sorting began, I’ve been needing cow panels for the garden but we have no way to get them home. Vince sold the trailer that we had in Texas and we don’t need one often enough to buy one. The thought occurred to me that maybe Chad would run down to the farm supply store and get them before they filled up his trailer with “stuff”.
They did! I asked for three panels. I wish I would have asked for five because I know I’ll need more eventually and who knows when Chad will be back down here with his trailer. Well . . they didn’t even get half of a storage building cleaned out so he may be back sooner rather than later.
Addie and Chad came down in Nicole’s car because she knew Chad would have the truck tied up all day and she wasn’t sure I was going to want to go to town with them. I did and it was nice that Nicole drove and I didn’t have to do that.
If I had chosen my own daughter-in-law, I would not have found one better than Nicole. She is so easy to get along with, always helpful, always thinking of others. I am so blessed to have her. As close as I am to Chad, I would have been very sad with a not so great daughter-in-law but I definitely have a good one. She hopped right up on that trailer to help Vince unload those panels. I don’t even know where Chad was. He always manages to disappear when I’m taking pictures because he knows they will likely end up on the blog.
Some of y’all may remember the accident he had when his car burned and he bought this used pickup. That was probably in 2008 or 2009 and it was a very clean used pickup. That’s what he’s still driving. I think he has well over 200,000 miles on it and it’s needed quite a few repairs but he loves it and he uses the heck out of it. He said there’s so much he does with this one that he wouldn’t do with a newer pickup. I’m glad it’s been a great pickup for him.
After the cattle panels were unloaded, he and Vince went to the storage building to work. Nicole, Addie and I went to Joplin. They have a wedding to attend soon and Nicole and Addie wanted new dresses so we shopped a bit. Neither of them found dresses but I had fun shopping with them and looking at the dresses as they tried them on. We went to the Sephora counter at Kohl’s because Addie “needed” more skin care products. That girl!
Addie suggested Panera for lunch so that’s where we ate and it was delicious. I like Panera but Vince doesn’t so it was nice to eat there with them.
About the time we were about done in town, the guys called and said they were done at the building and they were bringing the trailer back to our house and leaving to go to eat. We all met back at the house. There were some boxes they brought back from the storage building that I needed to go through so we went through those, kept what we wanted and sent the rest home with Chad. His town is having a city wide garage sale in a couple of weeks and he’s going to sell what he can and donate the rest.
They left and Vince said “Do you want to go get a taco at Ghetto Taco?” You never have to ask me twice. They had Quesabirria tacos today so I was happy to get that and a Mulita, which happened to be what they served on the Best Bites in Town show on Food Network last night and . . which they happened to win!
It was a busy day for all of us, including the dogs who played hard with Addie while she was here, but it was a great day. I love spending time with them and Chad was so helpful working to get that building emptied out. He really is a good son!
Liz says
OK – now I am curious of how you are setting up those cow panels!
I checked out Best Bites in Town and while I didn’t see an option to watch the episode online, there is a replay today and several over the next week. So, my dvr is set to record the show. If anyone else wants to see it, query for “Best bite in town” to see the options.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Use them for climbing plants – tomatoes, grapes, luffa, cucumbers, some of the squash that puts out the very long runners – those kinds of things. We already have a couple of them but they had to be cut in order to get them home so it will be nice to have whole panels.
Liz says
That’s what I thought you were going to use them for since I don’t recall you mentioning any deer or other critters going after your plants.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Most everything is inside the fence but deer COULD get over if they tried. I think there’s enough food around here that they don’t need to deal with what’s inside the fence but they probably sense/smell that there are dogs in the back yard even though they aren’t always out there. I’m hoping the deer stay out but the peas are just now growing and that’s probably their biggest temptation, at least in my garden.
Sheryl says
…We think so much alike. We’ve used cattle panels for lots of things especially when we had the alpacas. We’re getting ready to put some up by the kitchen door to grow cucumbers on and are going to use some for growing Louisiana Purple Pole beans.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
That’s why I wanted at least one full size panel – for cucumbers and Georgia Candy Roaster Squash. Not a fan of green beans but I may grow some next year because they’re so productive. I’ll see how my beans similar to Anasazi, purple hull peas and lady finger cream peas do this year and if I’m not overly impressed, I’ll grow green beans next year.
Sharon says
Not sure if you have a pick up truck but cattle panels can be rolled to fit in a truck bed. Wherever you purchase the panels should do this for you. We purchase ours at MFA in Golden City, MO.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
We have an S-10 and they have to be cut in half and rolled to fit in the back of our truck. I wanted at least one full size one to make an “arch” for cucumbers and some of the squash. They will do it at Atwood’s, which is the closest place to me but we need a “real” pickup, which we don’t have.
Sharon says
Got it! It’s nice to have bigger trucks but expensive if they’re rarely needed. Have a wonderful day!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Thank you. If I had my way, we would have a decent full size pickup and one SUV, neither of which was more than 3 or 4 years old but . . as you probably know, I don’t make those decisions and the S-10 is 28 years old, the Honda CRV is 23 years old and the Highlander is 17 years old. At least we’re saving on personal property taxes and insurance. 🙂
Here, we pay personal property taxes on our vehicles each year based on their value. For vehicles as old as our two older ones, we pay $4.78 per year. For new, even moderately priced vehicles, annual property taxes can be near $1,000 per year and for as little as we use our vehicles, it just isn’t worth it for us. Even though I squawk about it, I understand the reasons.
Sharon says
I hear ya.