KentuckyDay

So -----my trails have turned again. After moving to Kentucky I put off getting a Kentucky drivers license as long as I could. At first I used the excuse of not wanting to get one and then buy a house and having to change the address on it which would cost more money. Really it was because I didn't want to take the final step of saying I didn't live in New Mexico any more but lived in Kentucky. So today was the big day. It didn't take very long and the people at the Carrollton, KY office were really nice. It seems really weird to me to have a drivers license as I had never had one from any state but New Mexico before.
   And I also, registered to vote.
     Which reminds me that we have had a lot of people finding us on our almost dead end road out in what seems like the middle of no where to  knock on the door and ask us to vote for them. I can't believe now many would be politicians have found us way our here and stopped to talk to us. Seems like an odd time of the year to have an election. Most elections I have voted in where in the fall. This one is for the county sheriff, jailer, magistrate and a few other things.
  Its not a special election as all the counties are doing it. So now I guess I need to figure out who I am going to vote for as I have never heard of any of the people who are running - until they appeared on my door step.
   Of course the guy that came today might get my vote as he said he donated the land and money for the animal control building which is a big plus to my way of thinking. Dogs and cats may have to be put down but it is better than letting them run loose, starve and be hit by cars.
  Speaking of which we found a hound dog on our carport on Saturday while we were having a snow storm. First thought - run him off. We don't need another dog. He wouldn't leave and it was easy to see he had been missing a lot of meals. He was really skinny. Of course being the weekend Animal Control wasn't open. I fed the poor thing. He was friendly but not pushy-friendly. He just wasn't going to leave. A carport with a trash can to cut the wind was better than being out in very wet snow. He wasn't a young dog - I would say about 5 or 6 years old, just at a guess. White with some red spots - maybe a Red Bone Hound. Anyway we built a shelter out of some bigger moving boxes. Added an old dog bed and a blanket. He acted as if he couldn't believe his luck. Food and a bed that cut the wind. He curled up in the box and stayed.
   But Ziva our dog didn't care for him. So we spent the weekend being careful not to walk her near the carport so we didn't have a dog fight. I've seen those and there not fun.
  We fed hound dog again late that night and twice on Sunday. He just stayed in the box shelter. This morning I called Animal Control and they sent a man right out. He said the dog was probably a coon hound and that he would be taken to the Coonhound Rescue group that takes in dogs like him. I was glad they had a rescue group for coonhounds. Guess there is still a lot of coon hunting goes on here. He seemed like a nice dog but I didn't need a coonhound or even a second dog. Hope he finds a good home.

A Day's Outing

We took a short drive one day and saw a herd of about 12 deer. The looked at us then took off.

We saw an old tobacco barn and the field near it. This was about a mile from our house.

Spring?

So on the day after the first day of spring we had a snow storm. We only got about 3 inches but other parts of Kentucky got a lot more. First photo is of our house, second one is of the road near our house. Third one is of the short tunnel we have to go through to go under the freeway to get to our house. Next photo is the tunnel as we are leaving our house. The tunnel is about a quarter of a mile from the house. 

This photo got its self in the wrong spot. Supposed to be the last one. It is of Carrollton,KY Point Part. If you look at a previous post you will see the part as it looked under water from when the Ohio River flooded. In this picture it is under snow 2 weeks after the flood. The weather is a bit strange this year. 

Daffodils

We are at the end of the road, sort of. There is an old house a half mile past us - or not so old but it has been abandoned and vandalized. Nothing left but the outer walls. But when someone had lived there they had planted daffodils and they have multiplied very well. Here are a few photos I have taken of those 'wild' daffodils that are blooming so pretty right now as they welcome in the spring.

This is the road that goes by our place and then by the abandoned house to end up at the Carrollton Waste Water Plant which is fenced and locked so no one can get in.

This photo shows the abandoned house in the back.

River Flood

Of course as soon as we moved in the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers decided to do a spring flood. Carrollton, KY is where the Kentucky River runs into the Ohio River. I had never seen where two rivers that big came together and found it quite interesting. I had asked our realitor about flooding here and was told it didn't happen very often. In fact it had been 20 years since it had last happened which was in 1997 and it was a small flood compared to the one in the 1960's which was smaller than the really big one in the 1930's. We were told with all the locks and equipment on the rivers there was very little flooding. They even checked to make sure we weren't buying a house in a flood area. Ha Ha. We had only been in our house a few days when the rains came, and were worse north of us in Ohio causing the Ohio River to get above flood stage and the rains here caused the Kentucky River to get above flood stage. The 2 rivers coming together caused a lot of flooding in all the farm land around us (and most of this part of Kentucky is farm land). Many of the roads around us were closed as there were places where the water was across part of the roads. For 4 days we watched the water come up through one of the fields about a quarter of a mile from us. We weren't that worried but were ready to leave if we had to. Thankfully we didn't, but we had seen lots of homes close to the rivers that were under water. Here are a few of the photos I too. I didn't get a lot as I was down with a cold and sinus infection and didn't get out to get good photos.

First 2 are flooded farm fields. Next is one of a forested low area.

This and the rest of the photos are of Point Park in Carrollton where the Ohio and Kentucky come together. These trees are not normally in water. This is part of the Ohio River.

They had just finished putting in new lights in the park and now they were in water. The white sign had a bench under it that we had sat one one day and watched a couple of small boats on the river

 This is the basketball court - under water.

This is a pavilion where picnics are held and sometimes bands play music - under water.

With in a few days the water was mostly gone. What an experience when you first move into a new home in a new town.

A New Home

So we were finally able to close on the house that we put an offer in several months ago. It seemed to take an extra long time for everything to go through. But finally we have moved from my son's home near Bedford, KY to this place near Carrollton, KY. It wasn't what we really wanted but I came to the conclusion you can not find a home exactly like you dream about. The house is OK but their could have been a bit more land with it. We have an acre but wanted about 2 acres. We wanted a place we could have our ponies at but not sure we can do it here. But there is lots of land around us without any other house so we have great views most directions. One of the biggest drawbacks is that there is no garage with it, just a carport with a small shed attached to the back. There are lots of trees - oak, hickory, and sycamore. There are some evergreens and roses right in front of the porch. I can't wait for spring to see what else might be there, but I don't think the previous owner was much of a gardener. Neither did she clean much. Most of the house didn't look like it had been cleaned decently in years. Plus anything she didn't want she just left here. We have been here a month now and I am still cleaning and throwing out her junk. There are 2 old sheds in the back you can't see that are full of 'stuff', and have lots of mice living in that 'stuff'. I have filled 10 big trash bags from one shed and haven't even started on the other. So far the trash company has been real good to pick up everything I have put out. Oddly enough there were no towel racks in either of the bathrooms. So that was one of the first things we did after figuring out why neither shower would drain - hair and ladybugs packed into the drain. Yes, I said ladybugs. There have been ladybugs all over the house. I have vacuumed up thousands of them and still they keep coming out of where ever they have been hiding. All I can do is be thankful they aren't scorpions, centipedes or black widow spiders like we had so many of in New Mexico. I know there was a fairly big ladybug migration last fall and that they will invade homes to hibernate and can be a problem. I hope that eventually I will get rid of the. There are 3 big closets and one bigger closet in the house but none of them had the rod in them for hanging clothes on. That was even weirder than no towel racks. And, no, no one took them down as we could find no holes or any indication there had ever been any rods in the closets. Just to weird. But Lee but some in so now I can hang clothes up. Maybe no way to hang clothes or towels but there is plenty of mirrors in the house. Great big ones in both bathrooms a big one in the dining room and one on the coat closet. The cats seem to really like it here and are happy to have more room to play in the house. Ziva, or dog, seems to like it better, too. Especially as she can smell so many critters since there is a lot of deer, squirrels, turkeys, and small birds. We are still having to walk her on a leash as there is no fence around the yard. That is supposed to be our next project.