Jones Clan Journal

Today has been a productive day.  Truman and Stan have killed 3 deer this season.  Stan and the boys processed most of one to make some hard dried sausage.  Yesterday and today all of us pitched in to strip the meat off the rest of the bones.  Tamara is starting some jerky with some of it, and Stan and I made the rest of it into breakfast sausage to freeze.

I don’t really like processing the meat a lot, but I do enjoy eating it.  The dried sausage turned out really well.  We got the recipe from an older couple in our community.  He showed Stan how to make a smoke house several years ago.  We’ve used it for jerky a lot.  This is the first year, however, that we’ve make the hard dry sausage we like so much.

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Well, we’ve gotten as far as partially roofing the ‘green house’.  It’s decked and papered and partially shingled.  We’ve been blessed with some rain, and Stan still has to work to make a living, so it’s getting done a bit at a time.  Rico helped with putting shingles up last night and wants to come out this weekend if we haven’t finished by then.

The boys were hunting rabbits a few days ago and found a 3 foot long coral snake.  They dispatched it with their shot gun.  So, even though they didn’t get any rabbits, I felt they did a good days hunt.

Now for the pics:

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We’ve been busy working on the little building I call our ‘Green House’.  I suppose we will have to paint it green after all is said and done.  The site where the building stands is where Laurel Beth’s greenhouse use to be.  After she stopped gardening, she sold it, but the site was already cleared and waiting for another structure.  I was so use to saying something about ‘being down at the greenhouse’ when I was looking for one of the chidren, it just seemed to stay fixed in my mind that that location is the ‘greenhouse’.  Since it will be housing people instead of plants now, I’ve just altered it to being the Green House, rather than the greenhouse.

Enough of that.  Here’s the progress pictures.

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Madalyn returned from Honduras safe and sound.  She enjoyed her visit, but was a bit frustrated by her lack of language skills.  She has been offered a job as paramedic at our county emergency services as soon as all her paperwork gets finished.

Simon accepted a job in California, so will probably be there until after the baby is born in January.  After that, who knows where he will land.

Rico and Laurel are doing well.  Rico has started his own marketing business and has lots to do.  Laurel had to suffer through Ian having his first round of real fever this week.  There is nothing so helpless feeling as seeing your child suffer, and not being able to do anything to make it stop.

Oliver has a part time job, and is looking for a full time one now.  Hopefully, this one will either work into a full time, or he’ll find another one.

Kathryn is happy since it looks like we’ll be keeping the grand piano for a while to make sure tunings and other adjustments hold up properly.

Tamara is still planning on starting EMT classes in September.  She’s plugging away at her math book which is all that holds her back from graduating from high school and getting her driver’s license.

The boys, Truman and Edward, you’ve read about more than anyone else.  They are still into fishing.  They are growing up too fast, though.  I can’t believe my youngest is 11.

Stan and I just keep on doing the same things.  Work, school, keeping up with children.

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Stan walked outside the other day and found the boys had expressed their fondness of fishing on our driveway.

With my older eyes, I didn’t notice the importance of the love emblem.  Here’s a close up.

They have definitely gotten the fishing bug.

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It seems things have been changing fast around here. Madalyn finished her schooling and then left today for a month of clinic work in Honduras. I’ll miss her singing every time she comes rolling in from a shift.

Simon and Lindsey came down last week, and we got to visit with them for the first time since they got married. (Except for an hour or two when they were passing through from Florida to California) We found out they are expecting their first child in January.

Laurel and Rico are expecting their second child in late November or early December.

Oliver moved into Austin. He is renting a room from a man in south Austin. He will be closer to work and hopefully will be able to save a lot on gasoline. He exchanged his Mazda for our Honda Rebel, so that should help out on gas cost also.

Tamara and Kathryn are singing in the Wimberley Chorus Fourth of July concert, so practices are starting up for that now.

We are down to one normal size dining table. There are only 6 of us eating together now. It seems kind of lonely.

The young boys have a bedroom all to themselves now. So far (3 days) they have kept it immaculate. I’m hoping it will continue to be so.

Well, I’m off to round up boys for school.

Elaine

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We went to Iola, which is close to Bryan College Station on Friday, April 11th. We went to help clear brush for John and Kelli Kochan. The first day we got there (the “we” was Madalyn, Edward and me). It was raining so we ate lunch and Madalyn started cleaning (because Kelli had been in an accident and she could not be on her feet for long periods of time and John was gone.) She and swept the floor much to Kelli’s regret because Kelli started sneezing a ton. Then we watched a movie and finally John came home and we finish the movie and we watched a firefighter video while we had dinner. After that we got ready for bed and went to bed. The next day we got up and had breakfast. Oh yeah, Chris came over to help us clear brush. Chris is a guy who works with John at the wind tunnel. We went outside and John told Edward and me to move one burn pile to another burn pile. So we did it and it took some time but finally we got it done. Then we cut down about 7 good size trees covered in poison ivy which was bad for John because he is allergic to poison ivy. Then we cut up the stuff that they were going to use for fire wood and took it to the wood pile and John got his tractor and we pulled the big bad logs to the burn pile. Then we went in and had sandwiches for lunch and relaxed about 30 minutes.

Then we went to clear a fence line. So we cleared most of the fence line and called it a day and went to bed. The next morning we got up and had breakfast and we figured out that John and Kelli had gone to get B.281(that’s a brush truck) from the fire department. When they got back we lit the fire but it wasn’t burning very well. Then John mixed diesel and gas and threw it on the fire. Then we watched the fire for a while and had a snack. After that we went inside and watched NASCAR and took B.281 back to the station. Then we went to Yankees Tavern and ate dinner and went to bed.

The next day we got the rest of the fence line cleared and went to the wind tunnel (at Texas A&M) and John showed us around . It was VERY interesting I liked the models especially. Then we went to Freebirds (a burrito restaurant) and ate there. Then we said goodbuy and went home.

Truman (mostly with a little help from Edward)

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We went fishing on Tuesday and went to Pale Face Park. Whenever we got there (it’s an hour drive from our place) we unpacked and got our tackle, oars and our fishing rods into the boat. Then we decided who would go in the boat first. So 756 (also known as Tamara), 101 (aka Edward), 627 (that’s me, Truman)and Dad went out first leaving 127 (aka Kathryn) and Mom behind. 627 (which is me) sat in front while Dad steered. 101 and 756 sat in the middle. When we got to where we were going, we tied off and started fishing but we got hung up a couple of times so we moved into a small cove and started fishing. After a couple of casts I got a bite so I gave my rod a yank and started reeling it in. It wasn’t hard reeling so I had the fish in the boat in no time. It turned out to be a small large mouth bass (maybe four inches). We let it go because it was too small. In a couple more casts I got another bite, so I gave my rod a yank and felt a tug. I started reeling but the fish pulled and the drag started. It didn’t last long and in no time at all I had a 2 pound 18 inch large mouth bass in the boat. After we had settled down, I saw 101’s rod twitching so I yelled to 101 that he had a bite. So he yanked his rod and he pulled in a yellow Catfish (it was a keeper). After that we went back to shore and picked up 127 and and left 756 behind with mom. After we picked up 127 we headed back to where we had been. I steered most of the way but this time we went farther upstream. In a couple of casts Dad caught a crappie and then another and then another until he had five crappie ( one might be a rock bass ). Then we headed to shore (I was steering most of the way) and we packed up and headed home. When we got home we skinned the fish. The next day we fried the fish and ate em.

Truman

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Hey guys
We went fishing on Saturday. It was really fun. I got drenched a couple of times. One was when I was sitting in the front of the boat and we were going against the “waves” (they were not really waves) and on a flat bottom boat it makes a lot of spray and by the time we got to shore I was drenched. Another time we were going to put the boat on the trailer and I was walking down the boat ramp (which was really slick. And which I didn’t know because I had never been lake fishing) and the water was about up to my knee and I slipped backwards into the water (which was really cold). We didn’t catch any fish except for a tiny minnow.

Now for the catch. Picture no1 is the lure. Picture no2 is the catch.

Truman

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Stan, Truman and Edward took off early this morning to look at a fishing boat for the family.  It evidently satisfied their requirements.  They came home with a 14′ John boat with a 5 horsepower Honda engine and trailer.  The only drawback to it is that it is finally pouring down rain so they are going to have to wait a few days to try it out.

The rain also put a damper on Tamara and Kathryn’s plane ride.  This is the 3rd time we’ve had to cancel on account of the weather.  The first two times the wind speeds were around 40 mph so we decided it would not be a good time to take a first ride in a small plane.  We’ve rescheduled for next Thursday.

I am not complaining, however, we have been needing rain for months around here.  I hope it will continue to rain all day.

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