One week and what have I done???

Sister Helen sitting on the M tractor on our farm

Our dilapidated granary, the little Ford tractor and the chicken house converted into a shed

I posted the picture because it tells a lot about our antique farm and Dad's antique way of farming.  The can on the exhaust of the tractor is to keep the rain out, we could not just put a new exhaust on!  The basketball hoop on the post, that is where I honed my shooting and ball handling skills--it is true but "honed" may be a stretch and perhaps I should say practiced.  BUT I did win all my games on the court and I played against such greats as Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and Bob Cousy.  REALLY   The car, well I am sure that is a junker.  The large piece of wood sitting against the barn, that would be what Dad cut out of the hay room on the north end of the barn.  He then used it for a garage.  When I was growing up the hay room was full of hay, baby kittens, mice and it even had a 5 gallon pail 10 feet up on the wall which was used for a mini basket ball hoop which we threw a rubber baseball into!  Our garage blew down in a storm at least 12 years earlier and never was replaced.  The pole by the side of the barn, that is what I would shimmy up and get on the barn roof if I wanted to be by myself and dream.  I also would get on the roof, lie down on the far side which faced west and watch for dust from a car when I was waiting for Dad to come home.  Some Sundays during deer season, when I was too young to hunt, I would lie there all afternoon watching.  We had no phone so what was I to do.   The pole in front of the granary was the yard light which allowed us to play kick the can and hide and seek at night!  What can I say about the granary?  Feral cats liked to hide in the floor, there may have been two rooms that were dry during the rain, one that housed baby chicks in the spring and one where coal was shoveled into when we had the old cast iron cook stove in the kitchen.  The Ford tractor was what all of us kids learned to drive young--perhaps by the age of 6.  It could pull a 2 bottom plow that when it struck a huge rock underground would stop the tractor dead in it's tracks and often give the driver a bloody nose as the steering wheel and face met!  In looking at the picture of the granary on the right, that is where Helen would be posing on the M tractor.  I know she was not going to work because the exhaust is still covered with the tin can that most likely came from pork and beans!!
We have now been in Naples a week.  I have worked on the printer many hours but I can not get the black to print!!  I have worked on a leaky toilet many hours but there is still a tiny tiny drip!  I have tried to set up the slide duplicator and it will not work!!  I have worked on the pool sweeper but it will not sweep!!  The picture is bleak to be sure BUT on the positive I had the plate removed from my wrist on Wednesday and it is looking OK. (It turned out to be a bit more invasive than I thought)  I purchased some wood and put up an extra shelf in the garage for storage and I have a start on a power point for next summer.  SO all is not lost when I think about it.  Oh and I found, by accident, a craft brewery two miles away and their beer is good.
By Naples standards today is cold.  At dawn it was 52 and it is not supposed to get into the 70's so a chill in the air for sure.
I could go on but my favorite cup, which Terry purchased at Delta Junction in AK , is completely void of FP and that means good-bye.