Written by: Sherri
1/25/2009 2:58 PM 

Yes, us "city folk" have already gotten the country folk in East Texas shaking their heads and wondering about us!  In our wonderful 110-yr old farmhouse, it is heated with gas wall heaters.  Now I grew up with gas wall heaters that were simply lighted with a match if the pilot was out.  Not these here fancy wall heaters...they have an electronic pilot ignition...which is great if one has the "magic" touch to get it lit.  The gas company had been out the week before to clean the heaters and instruct us on proper use.  Two very nice gentlemen kindly explained it all to us...., or at least to Ted.  I listened but didn't get any "hands-on" experience.  A few days later I was at the farmhouse with the boys.  We had decided to drive up for the day to do some cleaning before we moved in.  (how that day went will be another story to be shared...later )  Well, due to one of my mischievous boys, I had to turn off the wall heater in a hurry!  After I had rescued the farmhouse from the potential fire disaster, I tried to turn the heater back on.  It wouldn't cooperate.  I called Ted, who couldn't talk me through it.  He called the gas company who couldn't come out for another 2 days.  In my very brief time to clean, I even found the manual for the heaters.  But that didn't help either!  It was hopeless.  I had to leave the farmhouse with only 2 heaters on to protect pipes from freezing weather (another heater was also unable to cooperate with even Ted).  Two days later, we were back at the farmhouse and the 2 nice gentlemen from the gas company came out again.  Of course, the heaters lit up very quickly.  I then insisted on getting a "hands-on" demonstration.  Found out, there really is a "magic" way to get the pilot to light.  Fortunately, the 2 gas company men  were able to chalk this up to "city folk" learning...and even showed our boys how to put out a match with their fingertips!

Another laughing story came out of the same weekend.  In the course of getting our farmhouse ready for occupancy, we've been replacing flooring material.  When the baseboards in one of the rooms was pulled off, we found some pretty bad news.....the a/c wall unit had been leaking and mold had grown on part of the walls.  The a/c unit itself wasn't in too good of a condition, so the decision was made to replace the unit since the wall and opening would be under construction anyway.  So off Ted went to the nearest Sears store to find a replacement....if one could find an a/c unit in January!  Ted said the folks at the store couldn't figure out why he would want to buy a a/c unit on a day that didn't get out of the 30's!  He bought the only one they had.....it just so happened to be the only one that would fit!  I bet they will be telling that story at the store for a long time .

And the weekend didn't end before Ted ran into the Saturday morn'n meet'in of the local farmers.  Of course, news had already spread like wildfire about this new family moving in that was going to do this "organic" thing on their farm.  Ted had a good conversation with them in which he challenged them to think about the "conventional" way of doing farming (which doesn't reap much profit), or this new "organic" way...in which a fair profit and decent living is being made.  We know alot of eyes are going to be watching to see which way this story turns out .

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