Virgil's Grandma Leggett and Aunt Grace

Jerry Buskirk, Jack Buskirk, Grace Leggett,Lottie Leggett, Althea Buskirk,?, Edith Buskirk,Holding Margie Buskirk,Grandma Buskirk.

In the Works

My daughter and son-in-law came over this weekend and helped out some. Virgil and Josiah have been living with his sister in Elizabeth, and Josiah has decided to try public school. So I guess they're gone for the winter. So Amber and Dave helped me get my wood stove going. Dave split all this wood by hand (actually, with an axe), and Amber helped him stack it, cleaned out the stove room, and clean out the stove. Then Dave built a fire, and I've kept it going.

Dave also fixed the stairs in the garage (there was an unfortunate accident while Josiah's friend was over for a sleepover one night and three stairs collapsed). He discovered that the first 3 stairs were constructed with nails instead of screws. That's why they came loose.

Anyway, I'm forever grateful for the inspiration to get to work, and hope the momentum continues, as I have lots to do.

Log Cabin

Here's the log cabin Virgil's helping to build for his sister, Patty.

Josiah in his new John Deere hat.

Virgil Leggett, Sr.,Family Portrait

I just had to share this old picture Virgil's sister discovered at their brother's house. It was a black and white photo which was artfully colored by their Aunt Grace. Virgil had to be only 3 days old because his mom told me she drove back to WV when Virgil was 4 days old. He was born at Fort Breckenridge, KY where his dad was stationed in the army.

Graduation

Graduation day finally arrived.

The Leggett Family appeared at a benefit concert in the park pavilion Saturday. Granddaughter Kylie played various accompanying instruments.

Plowing

Have pictures--will post!
Here, Virgil plows the garden with a tractor borrowed from the neighbor. The garden's about the size of a football field. Hopefully, we can get it all planted. Then, hopefully, we can keep the deer from eating everything.

Sarah and Kylie sing while Virgil and Luke watch

Leggett Reunion at Arlington

Family Trip

Wednesday, my mom, Josiah , and I took my grandmother, Mommo, to Walmart.

She did so well. We just put her walker in the shopping cart, and she pushed the cart. When we got to the pharmacy to get a toothbrush, we rested on the bench and talked. She was so happy to get out for a while. I hope she's not too sore from all the exercise.

Virgil got a job with the school bus garage as a substitute bus driver. He starts today driving a full-size bus to pick up some kids and take them home. He'll be doing a lot of weekend driving, taking deaf kids to school in Columbus on Sunday and picking them up on Friday.

Josiah is spending a few days with my mom. I hope he's not driving her crazy. He likes for people to do things with him and feed him constantly.

A friend who hunts on our property brought his small tractor and plowed our garden for us. I gave him a quart of honey.

Virgil has some work to do on his dumptruck and some gravel deliveries to make when he gets back from the bus trip.

Virgil's salad--it's a whopper!

Journal and Pictures for May 20, 2005

It's a beautiful day. I got up to pack Virgil's salad and get him off. He's volunteering with a Construction Club from Hocking College to do some work near Lancaster. I think it has to do with Habitat for Humanity. He'll be back by noon, but I have to go to the Farmer's Market to pick up some lettuce. We called Ed yesterday, and he'll have it all boxed up and ready to go--including 14 head of lettuce, a large bag of spinach, and 4 pounds of chard--all for only $20!

I made chili yesterday. I had the tomatoes thawed out and the beans soaking overnight, so I then ran the tomatoes through a colander, pressure cooked the beans for 10 minutes, added onions sauteed in olive oil, fresh pressed garlic, and chili powder, and heated it in the crock pot.

Yesterday, Megan came for her tutoring session. I had a page of her Banned Book project typed up for her, and had the corrections done on her report on the Civil Rights Movement. Then I typed up a presentation she had written, and we worked on her Banned Book project folder some more. She is a Senior and just has 3 days left. Good Luck, Megan!

While Megan was here, Virgil and Josi were out delivering a couple loads of gravel to a couple neighbors. Virgil got stuck up in a driveway because he made the turn too sharp, and it took them and several neighbors 4 hours to get it out. I guess the driveshaft broke or came loose, so they had to take the other (old) dump truck to pull it out. The local towing company wouldn't even touch it.

When they came in, they were starved and ready for the chili. We had to cancel our singing engagement at the nursing home--it was too late. So Josiah watched Sandlot 2 for the third time, while he ate grilled cheese. I helped Virgil with his Technical Writing--a report on driveway construction. We snacked on some watermelon, and I read Josiah a Bible story before sacking out.

My leg looks much better today, though it still aches some from the accident. It's not as purple. We'll go to my mom's this evening. Josiah and Eric, my brother, like to play music together. I've got to finish typing an outline for Virgil, and email his Driveway report to his online teacher.

The Day After

I admit, Virgil and Josiah picked up a vegetarian pizza on the way home from geting the Barley Max and the movie. We pigged out while we watched Sandlot 2. We also had watermelon, bananas and walnuts. Oh, yeah, Virgil got lots of nuts and olive oil at the store, too.

I'm hobbling around some this morning, my leg is a little stiff, and my arms a little sore, but other than that, I'm ok after the accident with the tool cabinet.

I put olive oil on the scratch on my leg, hoping to help with the scarring. It's healing up nicely.

This morning we all got up about 6am. Virgil has his first day on the substitute school bus driving job this morning. I helped him juice carrots while Josi watched Sandlot 2 again, with headphones to cut down in the noise department. Virgil just took some bananas, an orange, and an apple to snack on, since he plans to be home by noon. He has to be at the doctor by 10am for some blood work. He thinks his thyroid medicine needs cut again because he's been having headaches. I think it might be the salt. He eats a lot of chips and dip. However, the last time he was having headaches, he did need his medication cut in half.

Virgil was diagnosed with hypothyroidism about 12 years ago when he gained 20 lbs within a month. He initially refused to be medicated because of his adversion to going back to his old drug-addicted lifestyle (he used to be an alchoholic and pot-head--that's another story). He tried to manage his illness by nutrition. We went on the Hallelujah Diet (hacres.com) 6 years ago, and he used lots of exercise, running 3 miles a day, 300 situps a day. However, 3 years ago he was forced to go on sick leave because his blood pressure was so low. His heart rate was consistently 40 bpm, and he had lost most of his hair all over his body, along with slurred speech, and falling spells. When he went on medication, his TSH levels stabilized. Now, however, they are rising again, indicating that the thyroid is beginning to function again. He has already had to cut his medication. He is very encouraged and gives God the glory.

Anyway, after the movie, Josiah went to sleep in the recliner, I worked on Virgil's outline, and had a breakfast of watermelon, bananas, and walnuts. After checking my mail and the news, I started on this blog. I'm having a snack of cantelope.

The Accident

I will post a journal of our day today, May 19, 2005.

I got up about 6 am, when my husband was just getting out of the tub. I had to make him a salad for him to take to school for lunch. It consisted of one head of red leaf lettuce from our favorite farm market person, Ed (his lettuce is the best because he has a donkey and horse to help fertilize his garden--it's so sweet), mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, and boiled eggs. I packed some red wine dressing with it. He also took some apples and oranges to snack on.
(Can you tell we're into raw vegetables and fruit?) Actually, eggs are not on our diet, but everyone cheats once in a while, right?

Virgil had a couple of tests today, so while I packed, we discussed some of his test questions, and planned the day. Josiah got up around 7am, right before Virgil left, and they sat on the stairs together awhile to "connect."

When Virgil left, I fixed me some watermelon while Josiah put in a Scooby Doo movie. I checked my email while I ate, then fixed Josiah some fried eggs with toast and an orange. He usually eats raw fruit and french toast for breakfast, but we were out of bananas and pumpkin (I use pumpkin to make the frensh toast, because he has a dairy allergy and I have to replace the milk with something).

Josi wanted to check on his stocks, so he logged onto Sharebuilder.com and saw that it had gone up about 43 cents. You should really check into sharebuilder. It's a great learning tool. Larry Burkett recommended it (Moneymatters radio program, Christian Financial Concepts, cfc.org). It only costs $4 per month, you can have the money withdrawn automatically each month, they send you regular statements by email, and you can buy or sell online. Josiah decided to double his investment amount, so he changed that, and agreed to pay me the amount which is automatically withdrawn from my checking each month. His grandma gives him money each week as sort of an allowance, so he uses that.

The neighbor stopped by to ask if he could borrow the dump truck, and Josiah helped him unhook the trailer from it so he could pick it up when he came back. He asked if Josi wanted to go with him to pick up a load of dirt. While he was waiting on Larry to come back to get the dump truck, Josiah worked on his CB radio. He installed it in his car yesterday, and wanted to see if it would transmit out the driveway. He put one by my desk so I could talk to him while he drove out the driveway. (Josi's been driving on the farm since he was 7. His first vehicle was a Toyota truck--now he drives an antique Crown Victoria).

I was busy typing an outline for Virgil (he can't type), but I tried to communicate on the CB. It wouldn't work, so Josi set it up on the porch and begged me to come out there to use it. I abandoned the outline for time outside with my youngster. It was beautiful. I set to weeding my flower bed. I'm a multitasker. I can't stand to only do one thing at a time if I can do more.

The CB worked fair, but not to Josi's satisfaction. He tried various things like adjusting the antenna, changing the mic, and driving closer to the house. We went in for a snack (Josi had grilled cheese, and I had cantelope.)

When the neighbor came back, they left to go get the load of dirt. I took advantage of the time alone to straighten and sweep my bedroom. I had to rearrange the furniture a little--what little there is of it. When Josiah was born, I was 36 and too "mature" to go up and down the stairs to nurse him at all hours of the night, so I put a mattress on the floor next to my bed for Virgil, and let Josiah sleep with me. Since then, we've all gravitated (no pun intended) to mattresses on the floor. Now that I'm used to it, it's much more comfortable. We have three mattresses in my bedroom, and Josi likes to sleep with us, even though he has his own bedroom for daytime activities such as playstation. I painted a little dresser green for my room yesterday, and there is a cedar chest for blankets, a shelf for linens, and a shelf for books. While I cleaned, I munched on cucumber sticks (no seeds or peelings for me).

When Larry brought Josiah back, I was ready to paint a table for the kitchen. Josiah wanted to paint a rusty place on the back of his car, so he found some silver spray paint. I was looking for a paint brush after I sanded the table, when "it" happened.

I pulled all the drawers out on a big tool cabinet in the garage looking for a brush, and the cabinet fell on me (slow motion as the drawers all fell out more.) I screamed, and Josiah ran for the neighbor, since he didn't know his number (actually, he drove the car to the neighbor's, about 1/4 mile down the road.) I figured the car would be safer than the four-wheeler. We don't usually let him drive on the road. Anyway, they finally got the cabinet off of me (about 1000 lbs. worth of metal counting the tools) . I have a big scratch on my leg and lots of bruises.

Virgil came home shortly with groceries (lots of bananas, watermelon, cantelope, oranges, onions, potatoes, canned pumpkin, and fresh pineapple). Yummy! He snacked on some crackers and cheese dip. He did alright on his tests, he thinks. He worked on Josi's CB a little--crimping some wires and fittings together for him. Then they went to town to get a jar of Barley Green from a distributor. I ordered some, but it hasn't come yet. I know the fresh veggies and fruit will help my bruises and cuts heal faster.

I felt much better after a warm bath. I did take a Tylenol right after the accident to ease the pain, even though I know it's not really good for me. It makes my insides bleed. (no kidding)

While some dishes soak in the sink, and the dryer turns, I am typing this post for my blog. Virgil and Josi will bring home a movie to watch so we can relax a little before bed. I will fix them some snacks, probably watermelon and oranges, and will read Josi a Bible story before lights out.