Cars, Cemeteries, Contractors and Crustaceans...

So much to do, so little time -- even though I'm retired.

We FINALLY had someone come to the house to look at the work we need done.  The roof needs minor repair, and the framing of the front door needs work.  We have called and called and called, and people haven't even returned our calls.  Well, at the Danville Irish Festival a few weeks ago, we met a contractor who is on Angie's List, gave him our number, and he called today.  He came out to the house, took a look at the work we need done, and he's going to do it!  It'll cost more than doing it myself, but I've watched too many home reno programs on HGTV, and I just know that if I tackled it myself, I'd run into problems, and then would not have a contractor who would bail me out.  So, this is the best way, and  his price is reasonable -- not cheap, but reasonable.  The work should be done by the end of the day on Monday.

Barry also found out that he needs an upper ball joint replaced on his car so we scurried around today trying to find the best price for THAT job.  We did go up to Lexington (second trip this week) to check with the Honda dealer there -- and stop to buy a lobster at Meijer's -- they were on sale!  So he got an appointment to have that work done, AND he's having lobster for dinner along with our own garden-fresh potatoes and corn...tomorrow we pick tomatoes for sauce, stewing, salsa, and anything else we can do that begins with "s".

Barry and I have been researching several African-American records and cemeteries in Boyle County, and now the quest spills over into the next county east of us, Garrard County.  An African-American cemetery was going to be bulldozed to build an RV Park on Lake Herrington.  I saw the article in the local paper and alerted several African-American genealogists I know, and the bulldozing was stopped -- but only after one set of human bones had already been unearthed!  These people think that because the cemetery is overgrown, it's of no use to anyone.

Well, on Wednesday, Barry and I met with the lady who has been fighting to preserve this cemetery for 33 years now.  She's 82 years old, but I wouldn't want to tackle her in court!  We're doing our best to continue to preserve her family's resting place, and prevent it from becoming a parking lot for RVs!

Now, I'm working on at least two African-American cemeteries in the Davistown community of Garrard County.  It is SO important to me that these burials, some of which are 100+ years old, be preserved, at least on the Internet, if not in reality.  Most of the early burials had no stones, only fieldstone markers, or wooden crosses, all of which have disappeared over the years.  And before about 1970, African-Americans could not be buried in better-maintained and recorded "white" cemeteries.  So many graves and whole cemeteries have been lost.  I'll do MY part!