Welcome to Locust Trail Homestead

Saturday, September 13, 2008

We Walked In The Rain

Posted in Nature

Might as well , DH and I were already wet from checking out the water falls over at Moms. Really I went down as far as I could go and landed in a water hole, pant legs wet and hanging on a small tree and looking over the edge to see. Some of the boulders were loose so I had to watch my footing.
I could only hear the water rushing from down below. Oh I so wanted to get there.

You know when you have last minute thoughts of doing something , wing it so to speak. But your not prepared. We just went over to have a cup of coffee with Mom and it was slightly raining. I did not have the proper clothing and shoes on to hack through the thicket to get to the goal, the Water Falls.

Down in those woods and by the creek lies the claw foot iron bathtub that I want to get out and put in my outpost. The woods had been tamed at one time when we moved down from the city many years ago. My sister and I had the energy to weed wack a hill side , carry a big Army tent, water , supplies, food down a steep hill to the creek. Muck out the creek to make a bigger swimming hole. Chopped wood, sleep out with the wildest of critters all around us.
Camp out when the snow was on the ground, yes we had the energy. The woods is back to its wild ways and really you can never tame the woods, only be there to enjoy its beauty and what it has to offer which is never ending. While you give it respect to be wild and free.

My Aunt's place is next to Moms and we have caught many a fish in this nice pond. We even paddled boat on it , what fun and oh the exersize.

We picked a few pears so I can make some pear honey, yum good and so rich.

So back at home , dh and I go check out the Outpost. We had tornado watch yesterday and with the heavy rains all night and wind I was hoping all was well up at the campsite. It was, so we go for a walk on the trails. A light rain was falling , but the canopy of trees kept us nicely covered. Until it started to get heavy. Oh did we get wet. Drips of water from my nose, brow, lips, both of us in our wet T-shirts and wet pants, we were in the middle so no place to go but keep walking.

I love it when hubby is ahead of me on the trails. I always plan it that way, he gets the spider webs. Oh I get my share of spider webs in the face and do a weird dance on the tails tryin to get a spider off. But sometimes its just nice to lag behind and let someone else get those webs and watch them do the funny dance .

We are quiet walking and just listen to the rain come down. Seeing the tiny moss that brightens up from a nice rain and oh the smell of woods when a rain hits it.

We check out the Monarch chrysalis, the one I have been taking pictures of is still hangin on. Others that I have seen earlier in their stages disappeared, probably from birds , altho I have seen others just beginning their chrysalis stage.

That is one strong holden rope he/she's got. The shelter is gone from under that leaf so more exposed to the elements. The spots and coloring are starting to show up more.

Outpost:

Rain all day but I'm still going to camp out. I'll make a fire, well try, NO I will make a fire and have my coffee. I won't cook but bring a Thermos of bean soup and cornbread for a late night snack. While reading more of my wilderness adventure stories. I do hope it rains tonight, and its suppose to. I love the sound of rain on the canvas tent.

Brown Bagging:

Sis and I are still brown bagging our lunches and it happen that this last week going into town to meet with clients it fell on my Birthday. So we got to the lake and found a new place to have our lunch. Nobody around but us, but oh was it cold, probably why no one was there. That wind blowing off the lake chilled our bones. But oh how beautiful it was.

We had a beautiful stone picnic table to have our lunch on. Sense it was my birthday Sis made the surprise lunch. She spreads out the plastic wear, the fall print paper napkins and leaf print paper plates. She always does things in a dramatic way, like we our at one of the finest restaurants and spare no expense. Opens her Thermos and out plops Hot Tamales. We laugh, and laughed hard. We ate and oh was it so good and warmed us up too.

The lake is so peaceful during the week, once in awhile you'll see a lone fisherman in his boat crossing the lake. Here was a sailboat out enjoying the last of the summer days. So beautiful , quiet and the Canadian Geese in the foreground.

Each week we see how the trees are turning, sad and beautiful at the same time.

Well my beans and cornbread are done, the rain is coming down so off to have a bite to eat, clean up my workshop and get ready to camp out tonight.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are safe from the storms. My prayers have been for those that are in the hurricane areas.

Blessings this week
linda

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Little Things On The Trails

Posted in Nature

Well I should not say little things cuz this beautiful caterpillar will turn into a big spectacular Monarch. Now look at this picture, unless he did a quick switch-a-roo, he looks like he's eating from both ends.

Field observation in the open spot of our woods I notice many Monarchs caterpillars munching on their favorite food and a must host, Milkweed. This guys antenna's/ filaments, look kinda rubbery, ahh that must be the eatin end of the caterpillar.

This critter is amasing, flying 2,000 miles from Canada to Mexico and back again to the southern US. Millions migrate every fall. And often stop to take a break at the same place too. Wow keeping track of a butterfly, what a job. Some will journey to Hawaii and Eastern Australia.

Those girly monarchs have a relay race in early spring and summer traveling North, with new generations replacing old, laying their eggs along the way.

The caterpillars will be changing into a leaf -green chrysalis with gold dots, then the colors will start to show the developing butterfly inside. I hope to get some good pictures of this stage.

This whole process from egg to butterfly takes about 4 weeks with many generations a year.

Canadians call the Monarch, King Billy b/c its orange and black , colors of King William of Orange.

Heres another critter that likes milkweed, he's rather cute. Milkweed Tiger Moth

Not sure what these are called but they sure like hangin out on that milkweed pod.

Many wild flowers grow along the edge of the woods, this Thistle is growing tall in the woods to reach the sun through the canopy of trees.

I just love a field of yellow wildflowers. Not ID them yet but oh so pretty. We have the goldenrod starting to do its show too, still many with tight little buds ready to open this fall.

We call this Headache, its a Hedge Apple , you'll know what I mean if one falls on your noggin. So walking on the trails you keep your eyes open and your ears alert for the sound of a Hedge Apples falling out of the tree.

We have several huge Osage-orange with lots of hedge apples, also called Bodark which is French, (bois d' arc) meaning "bow wood". The Native American use the wood to make their archery bows. And the farmers used the wood to make fence post. We still have many old fence post that have been here many years and still as strong as ever made from the hedge probably here on the homestead. I think they use hedge to make the golf club woods too.

Early settlers used the bark to get yellow dye for cloth. The fruit was givin to stock so another name is Horse Apple. We use the hedge apple placed around/inside the house to keep spiders down.

I tried to slice and dry the apples , using my dryer, boy do they smell but makes a pretty decorations.

Plans for today:

Well it will be my 4th weeken sleeping out in the Outpost. Got a good book that I will be reading, its about women working in the wilderness , A Mile In Her Boots" by Jennifer Bove' I just got it yesterday and I think its going to be one of those books you just can't put down.

So coffee will be on at the camp, cozy up with a fuzzy blanket cuz its getting chilli theses days. And just take it easy today, no building, just the campfire.

And speaking of building I made up some tater soup on this cool late morning. This will hit the spot. I cooked one potato and onions with a tad of water tell they are none,then added milk. Slice some cheese in the cup,pour the hot soup, add a slap of butter also pepper and a piece of cayenne pepper for a kick.

Oh how I love potato soup on a cool day. Love it with cornbread, but having it with bought bread which has seven grains and I think theres a tree in it too.

Join me on my adventures on my next blog, it will be about the Outpost this weekend and what I'm reading. What comes up through the woods and all those night sounds. Hope I can get ol hubby campin tonight, its going to get cold and he's a great personal heater for my cold feet : )

I didn't get my Dutch Oven yet but hopes for next weekend and start some yummy good outdoor cookin.

Until then have a great weekend, and keep a lookout for those Monarchs coming through.

Many Blessings
linda

• Comments (2) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Sunday, September 9, 2007

A Good Blue Day

Posted in Nature

Spiders

Clever spider spins a thread
To make a trap we call a web.
Clever spider knows that she
Will have some insects with her tea.

(author unknown)

Heres the same web as the above pic, the way it really looks, a little playin around with the camera on the blue web : ). I like these webs cuz I can see them unlike the ones I run into while walking on the trails. It never fails no matter how well I'm looking I run into them, in the eyes or mouth and they are hard to get off. I always move fast when I run into them wiping them off and looking for the spider.

Another beautiful day , first walking in the woods with my lab, she will start out in one direction then head back to see if I'm taking the same trail, if not she'll pass me to check out what's ahead. Not to much today other then leaves falling, no critters for a chase, oh and those spider webs :/.

Early around noon dd brought the two grand boys over while she took the girls on a nature study and walk with others that are homeschooling .

The little guy is tryin to get around with the help of his big brother, it won't be long.

I would call this a day in blue, blue spider web,blue sky's, and beautiful boys in blue : )

This weekend it's hangin around the homestead working in my workshop and more garden cleanup. Going to be hard to stay inside with this kind of weather. I'll be taking lots of breaks from work : ).

The bright moon shines in the open deck doors tonight and the cool breeze as I'm typing. I just hope this kind of weather stays for a long time. Just had a cup of homemade chicken noodle soup,yum. So I'm feeling pretty good right now. Comfy food,smell of the woods, cozy fuzzy blanket,hot tea and my computer, perfect!!!!!! opps forgot knitting!!!!!!!

Well off to visit blog sites and see what everyones been up to. Have a great weekend.

Blessings
linda

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

My Weather Man's A Toad

Posted in Nature

: This little guy isn't sayin ,seein or hearin , hes playin hard ball here. I'll call him a tree toad, looks kinda like our tree toad that hangs around and lets us know without a doubt its going to rain. I tend to believe him more then the weather people. He gets it right 100%. He'll do his chirping and then within 24 hours we got rain. But now I hear nothing but those noisy Cicadas.

Weather man says were going get rain tomorrow, my weather bug on the PC says 30% chance of rain. I would say 0% cuz I have not heard the tree toad yet.

You know if you study the great outdoors you can pretty much tell what's going to happen weather wise. When we first move to the sticks the weather was a big deal for us to pay attention to. Whether we would be stranded for weeks from rains or snow. Hey we didn't really care. We had a big tent so it was buckle down the hatches if a storm was coming and hope the old thing didn't leak. We had pots and pans station around the big two room Army tent for the drips.

We parked it down in the valley and slept in it even in the deep snows. Went to bed with warm (hot) bricks that we heated up in the fire pit and wrapped in newspaper, paper would have a nice burn on it, nasty smell, scorched newspaper. Kept the toes toasty tho.

On hot summer days we would spend the afternoon under a shade tree, no AC and the inside of our cabin that we built was a bit warm. We would look at the clouds and find the strangest things, oh look a rabbit, a bear , a Pepsi can : ).

Out in the country one tends to look at nature for the way the weather will turn. Animals will move around as if gathering supplies for a big storm that is a comin. The exception was my old coonhound would just lay around and could care less, unless it was on the hunt. Never caught anything but I sure loved the sound of a hound in hot pursuit in the deep woods. Raccoons were safe from him, lol.

A teem of miniature mules up at the high school was getting ready for a game of Donkey Basketball ( One sits on the mules while dribbling the basketball and making the shoot and tryin to make the mule go!!!!) Well they all started to go crazy and jumping around outside. They knew something big was coming and sure enough a tornado came through. DH and I where sitting in the car and watching when all of a sudden the car was rockin back and forth and then some of our windows blew out, Tornado!!!!!! Got all the cars,vans, trucks windows in the school parking lot that day. And the mules where warning us all along. The owner of the mules knew his mules cuz he was packing them in the trailer and off he went.

Tree leaves will turn different other then just a windy day and you can see all the silver on the back and sure enough rain will be on its way.

Theres many signs for rain and other types of weather. Clouds can tell a lot to. The sign I like to see is the actual rain itself, that's a sure good sign. Just hopin we get some and cool things off a bit. We have had a wonderful share of rain this season so I should not complain. Just would like it to cool down.

Todays trip with sister. Check up was very good , her visits will be fewer in time.

We didn't do lunch, was wanting to get home. So nice to be home. Going to plop on a dvd, one that will put me to sleep, most of them do.

I got up early this morn 4:30 to see the lunar eclipse, and dang I didn't take pictures. It was sure pretty to see.

Take great care and I'll be around visiting blogs before I hit the hay.

Blessings
linda

Animation credits-----
http://www.appleanimation.com/

Sept.15, 2007

Gotta Love Fridays

Fridays tend to be unpredictable sometimes. I start out going in town with sis, meet up with some clients and toward the end of the day we head for home. But not this day. We decided to take in a movie, but first let me tell about this picture.

One of our clients needed to just have us pick up some fabric so sis went in to meet her while I stayed in the truck and took in this wonderful fragrances of honeysuckle. Oh was it delightful. The client wants to get us starts of this type so I'm very excited. We have wild honeysuckle growing in the woods along the trails and so great to walk springtime and just breathe in the heavenly smells.

I would love to have this type that blooms this time of year and grow it on the gazebo. She has it growing on her arbor , entrance to a beautiful garden. I could have spent the whole day there just taking it all in.

Now after our work , I just wanted to go see a movie. We hadn't done that for a long time and popcorn sounded good to. But what movie, good movies are hard to find.

Well sis wanted to see Mr Beans Holiday. MR BEAN !!!!!!!! She said it would be a hoot. So I said ok and here we are in a big theater with no one there. I figure this must be pretty bad and kind of wish we didn't pick this one to see. Ok we are sitting before movie starts and a mom and son comes in. Ok I'm thinkin now this is for kids. Then an older couple comes in. I'm feeling better now. We are up high on the very back row, looking way down with lots of empty seats. They sit right in the row in front of us, then two other older couple come in and they came way up and sat right in front of us too with a couple of seats between the first couple. Their seat was hitting my sisters knees as the old man rocked back and forth. Why do people do that? That was it , 8 people in that big movie theater and 4 of them are almost in our laps.

If I came in and seen all the seats and seen a couple of people sitting down already, I would go else where to sit. Give them space , give me space. I like to eat my popcorn without everyone hearing me, or slurping up my cola. Opening that high dollar bag of candy and not have to do it slowly so I don't interrupt anyone. But that doesn't work, does it, just makes the noise last longer.

I hate it when my belly growls so loud that the person in front of me moves thinkin it was a rude sound from me. I can't help belly growls. And I don't like to hear their bellies growling either. I felt they hindered are conversation and even our laughter cuz sis and I laugh at really stupid stuff, we laugh loud and hard. But I didn't want to let it all out, so I contained myself.

Thats the good part of a movie theater being packed, you can get by with making some noise without everybody noticing, even gas can slip by and you might be ok. Lol Im kidding , they would stop the movie and run everyone out

Now this movie turned out to be funny, a different kind of funny tho , the English tend to have a different type of humor. Oh I heard the older people laugh on a few things but mostly sober.

This Mr Bean reminds me of a cartoon character I watched as a kid, Mr Magoo, remember him. He would get into situations brought on by his nearsightedness and things seem to work out for him. This is what Mr Bean is about, situations and how things happen from cause and effect. Yet it all washes out nice and clean. I find this to be ironic in the everyday world,this cause and effect. One thing we do can go smoothly or go completely out of control, a spiral you might say, and can be the same thing happening to two people and they handle it so differenly. Or even a group of people being tossed into a situation that has to be dealt with, like it or not. And how each one perceives. It could look good to one yet bad to another.

I find the two characters similar in some things yet different in others. Take Mr Magoo, this is a fellow even tho a cartoon, we won't hold that against him, has an eyesight problem, gets in a sticky situation and things just happen to get him out of trouble and he is oblivious of what, when and how of anything that might have occurred. Where as Mr Bean , a real person,we won't hold that against him either, seems to find an ingenious way around problems.

Then I get to thinkin, which one would I rather be, a Mr Magoo or a Mr Bean. Be near sighted like Mr Magoo and not see anything ,not know that I had a close call. Not see that I'm almost going to fall off the roof and not see the scaffolds that I walk on and it brings me down to safety so I can go on walking on feeding the pigeons in the park. Or Mr Bean who things happen to and you stand there with your mouth wide open and then the light comes on and a brilliant idea comes to you that the world sees what looks like a compleat idiot. Both come out smellin like a rose, but goes through same thing differently. Boy this is a poll thing !!!

I'd give this a thumbs up movie to go see. Whenever a movie makes you smile, laugh or cry its gotta be good.

Have a great weekend
Blessings
linda

Lets do a Poll.

Are you a Mr Magoo or a Mr Bean sort?

Mr Magoo, things just always work out and I don't know how: 1
Mr Bean, yep the light goes on right when I need it to: 3
Neither, thank you very much: 1
I tend to like being Mr Potato Head, hes a well rounded guy: 3
Are you kidding I can't believe you made a poll on this: 2

Sept,5 2007

Lost My Cool

Yep I went over the deep end today, well not to deep but I stood up for something that was not right. Ok its wasn't that important and not something that mankind can benefit from . It was about lunch, ok petty yes but it was principal. Let me share.

Ok sis and I are in town to meet up with clients, we have a window to go do lunch. We chose a just open BBQ place. Its very nice and friendly. The usher takes us right next to a group of men in business suits and loud like a meeting. I asked if we could have a private booth , so he led us around tell we found a booth not around anyone, cool we wanted to talk about are up coming trip and we wanted to laugh loud. So with nobody around it was perfect. Now the usher said our waiters name is John and he will be here to slap us around,. What ????? that was different, now we did get curious. Ok John shows up and he has no idea what the usher told us. poor John, crazy usher. We asked John what the lunch special was and he was humming and hammering and said he didn't know and that he knew what it was but forgot, ok I forget sometimes, no big deal.

We order our lunch, and we both, sis and I go to the restroom to wash our hands, when we got back our booth was takin by two men in suits, and we fiddled with our napkins mind you on that table. And on the other side of our new booth a couple of other men in suits. Ok these guys are ordering. I'm kinda not happy about losing our booth but then that could be an easy mistake, so we drank our colas and waited for our lunch , we waited and waited. Then I seen it, our slaw was coming oh boy , we can eat the slaw , we were getting pretty hungry by now with all the hickory smoke and good smells. But no, our slaw went to the guys who got our booth. Oh I was a bit ticked but still ok. Then it happen the other two fellers got their cold slaw. That's when I was ticked, I told sis if they get their BBQ Sandwich before we get ours , after all were talkin 45minutes now waiting for a sandwich and we had clients to meet. "I'm leaving". And sure enough our booth warmers got their lunch , my ears where turning red now. Sis thought I was kidding and she stayed at the table as I left. She thought I was going to have a chit chat with the waiter to see where and when we might get our order. Nope , I went to the manager and said my piece, they apologized and that was that , but sis was still setting in the booth, guess she was real hungry and I wave her to come on . I felt I couldn't eat there and enjoy the meal while the men in suits who had no idea what was going on, heck no they were enjoying our slaw in our booth. So we left. I really wanted to slap poor John around tho ; )

Ok whether I was wrong or right it just ticked me off. I'm ok now. But I did ask sis what she would have none and she said she would have just waited ,dang she would still be there and its almost 11:50pm.

This is what prompt me to write this blog. What do you do when you have bad service? I'm putting a poll after this and I like to see what you all would do.

But let me share another lunch that I felt I was a total wienie. I said to my sister where is our gumption, we are big wienies. All right, here we are at Sonic's. I order a grilled cheese sandwich w/mustard,pickles,onions and lettuce. Every time I order that they always say, are you sure you want it that way ?

Ok I'm chowing down on my sandwich ( the one they think I don't know what I want) and there in between the pickle and the mustard is a long blonde permed hair, OH MY GOSH. I almost lost it and tried not to have chunks hurling out. We call for the manager and when we show him the hair he says the name of the girl who the hair belongs to : (. He asked if we wanted another sandwich, Are You Kidding , we handed him the hairy food and said no thanks and left. The wienie part was not insisting for our money back. I'm more upset with us. I do have to say it was a good perm, held up to the mustard and pickle. That was my last sandwich at Sonic's.

I told my sister we need to stand up with things like that, what's wrong with us. So today when she thought I was just kidding and seen that I really was doing what I said I would do , she was surprised.

Now this is so rare things like this, most the time we have good lunches and great service. Sometimes the waiters sit right down with us and chat away, we have fun. But I think from now on if things are not what you pay for then we should make a stand. Maybe not a big issue but its the little things we do that add up. Maybe the new place needs to be more on their toes.

With things becoming more of a do it yourself , maybe that attitude is working in the restaurants. People getting lacks on service and not caring. So maybe some things will be made for the better. I know it was for me today, take a stand cuz I got a life to and deadlines to meet and I can't wait all day for a sandwich.

All have a good one, hope you don't lose your cool : ) Lets do a poll

Blessings
linda

What you do when you get bad service

Let them know about it ASAP: 8
Sit quietly , its no matter: 0
no tip: 3
say nothing, but stew about it all day ( not any more for me): 1
walk out (like me today): 2
put your chewing gum under the table: 0
afraid to eat anything after you raised cain about the lousy service: 0
let the other people in my group complain (my sister did): 2
Ask the people next to you if they are enjoying your slaw ( I wanted to): 0
forget going out, eat at home: 1

June 9, 2007

The Scoop On Poop

You ever wonder what people come up with on their blogs? Well here's one that is probably new to the bloggers, maybe. There is the saying nothing new under the sun!!!!!! So go with me on this, everything is blog material, don't forget that valuable tool for your own blogs :).

Why poop, well its just not poop , its Bear poo and a good chance Grizzly. Still not interested, that's ok but hey theres a good website on Grizzlies that has some pretty neat pictures and who can resist a picture of a bear cub, they are so darn cute. Heres the link to

Grizzly Bear Home Page

I just like bears, I'm always looking for them around here but it may be quite hard. I have seen and come very close to a cougar, so a bear could happen. I have walked in areas that have signs saying talk loud so the bear will know your coming and scoot off, MAYBE!!!!!

The picture is bear poo and it could very well have came from the Grizzly. tenzicut from BC Canada, took this photo of bear poo on the road, there goes that saying "Does A Big Bear Poo In the Woods" theory. When you got to go you gotta go. I asked for her to get a picture and sure enough she was able to get one for me, thanks tenzi. I always wanted to know what bear feces looked like , so if I came across in our woods I would know if we had bear around. I have to say I have not come across anything like the looks of that photo, : 0

How would you like to be in your garden planting seeds and have to keep an eye on bears that visit you? This is what tenzi has to do, she'll be planting and the bear will be across the road eating dandelions. Also she tells of the bush being thick up on her mountain and a bear can be six feet next to you and you wouldn't even know it, yikes!!!!!

I have mention tenzi's website and her blog, it is so interesting to see what her life is like in the way Northern parts, with moose and bear coming around, dog sledding , cutting logs for a log root cellar and soon a writing cabin. I want to mention again she is also an editor of Down To The Roots magazine.

Her magazine is so young and is viewed by others in many countries and right up there with Mother Earth News. This is a wonderful magazine. My next project will be making a willow chair from her instructions.

This weekend I got the stuff to make granola from one of her recipes. If you like homesteading you'll like this magazine very much. Heres her site , you will so enjoy her blogs, not a dull moment.

Down to the Roots Organic Homesteading Magazine get 'back to your roots', organic living, green lifestyles, raising livestock, gardening and so much more.

Oh back to those bears. Why the interest in poop you say . Well lets just talk about poo for a moment. If your out in the woods and you come across some, hopefully not on your shoe. Observing and if you knew your poo you could easily identified. Ok so what !!!!!!.

Well lets say your losing cattle from an animal. So you might want to go after the coyotes or the wolf, tracking and finding their feces could tell you much what an animal had for supper. The wolf could have mice and snakes and small rodents and have no signs of stock animals , so there would be a good cause not to rid the wolfs. Same with the bears, looking at that picture might be hard for the laymen to see what it ate, but through tech samplings they would find berries and grubs , fish and other abundant things that a bear might like. So why knock off a bear when a bear didn't do it. See what I mean?

Now theres cases of a bad bear , cougar and such and those things can and should be dealt with, but to take out a whole bunch of wild animals for a few cattle loss seems unreasonable. There is a balance of nature that we should be mindful of. You take out the wolf and coyotes, which feed on deer, nothing is bothering the deer , so we then have a problem with deer. You wipe out the deer so the wolf or coyote goes after the farmers cattle. So a balance is needed. This also applies to many creatures and sub creatures,but thats another blog. : )

Wild animals need to be respected. They are like us in a way ,just tryin to find food and shelter for their offspring ,we can't begrudge them for that.

We lost a few of our farm animals from a cougar in a matter of a weekend. I was sick, but I didn't want to go after the cougar b/c in truth it was our own fault.
Not being here for one, not having a dog , not having better fencing and inclosure's for our animals. Even tho the cougar ripped into the pigmy goats house, if we had a dog running around that might have deterred it. We have not had any problems sense we have had our Lab.

Another thing is not let little ones play outside by themselves, you think having woods would be a problem but cougars have been seen in Overland Park KS. that's next door to KC,MO, so their stompin ground could be anywhere. Same with bear. The more construction being done the more animal movement to find better habitat. Or just habitat period.

So you might say I'm a poo inspector, that's right , from the time I brought our little one home it has always been that way for me. What Mom hasn't checked for the missing change in their toddlers diaper. That's lunch money for the older kids!!!!! Who hasn't seen wrappers from a Hershey Kiss on the lawn sticking out of their doggies droppings, or worst not sure what it was!!!!!! And who has not been upset when you just washed your car and the birdie "do" comes!!!! Yep and the poo can tell us a lot about our own health too,that would be a health blog. So I think theres a lot of us inspectors out there, whether we realize it or not. :P

When we first moved down in the sticks from the city , back in 72, we just had a 2 holer outhouse, that was good, cold in the winter tho. Later having my family, moving in our home that had running water and bathrooms inside, oh boy. Meeting others with children of the same age as ours I was given some sound frugal advice, my very first from the country side of folks. "If its yellow let it mellow if its brown flush it down" I have pass this great advice on down to my own.

So some of this is what I would call a pooy subject,but then again its a blog and blogs have no limits. Like I said everything is blog material. And then there's Winnie the Pooh, and he's a bear too, Perfect!!!!!

So this brings me to a Poo Poll , say that three times !!!!!!!!

When I see poo

I walk the other direction: 0
I call the dog , if the dog looks sheepish , you know its his: 1
I poke it with a stick to see if there's a crawdad in it: 0
I think compost (chicken poo): 1
If its bigger then a bread box I run: 0
I have my pooper scooper picker upper with me at all times: 1
I'm in a world that poo happens: 6
Pooh Bear rocks: 1

June 22, 2007

Those Beggars

That's what those fish were doing, begging for food, and they didn't let up. Sis and took the long way home and stopped off at Lake Jacomo in Lee's Summit MO last week. On one of their many docks, loaded with fishing boats, pontoons, sail boats, Oh all the summer fun you can have on a lake was there.

It was loaded with Carp, huge ones. And they all wanted a free handout, they had fish food in bags to buy and I just had to feed them, as many others where doing the same thing. The Carp would all have their mouths open for the drop. Funny to see, and if it didn't get into their mouth they would jump on the others. They were all over the place,good thing they were there and let the good fish to be caught in other parts of the lake,lol.

You sure didn't want to fall in, I was thinkin Piranhas, yikes. But at last ducks came swimming by and the fish would scoot. So maybe they would do the same thing if a human fell in, maybe :(.

We use to fish on that lake when we were kids, even got stranded , 3 days, b/c of rain and our old station wagon, you ever seen the kind with the wood look on the side of the wagon,(I think it was contact paper instead of real wood), oh we were stylin!!!!! Darn thing couldn't make it up the hill. We'll I think my folks didn't try hard enough,lol. And that was ok with us. Mom would cook up some good dinners, fried fish, potatoes and onions, oh and a can of Pork 'n Beans. Then bacon and eggs in the morning, cooked out on the open camp fire, we didn't drink coffee, until later , but it sure smelt good. Funny thing to is Mom brought enough food for those three days stranded, hummmmm!!!!!!

She put a clothes line from tree to tree, for our wet clothes, she brought that even, always prepared Mom was and still is. We had cardboard boxes full of pots and Mom's iron skillet, that was a must have,(she still cooks in one). Oil, salt and pepper, plates,utensils, a pan to wash dishes, coffee pot, and the cooler loaded with ice, butter ,milk and oh soda pop, our favorite : ). Then the old Coleman big water jug, and lanterns, the kind that had the little rag type lamps, that would poof up and have a nice bright light for night fishing, remember the sound the lanter made? Kind of scary sometimes, thar she blows!!!!! Set it away from you so the bugs wouldn't bother. Then the smell of OFF spray : (, cough , cough.

We would sleep in the wagon sis and I , I don't think the folks slept, they fished. They were addicted to fishing big time. Their dream was to live on a river boat and just fish all day. I think Mom watched to much of the movie Tammy, remember that movie? But really their love was for the country and even living in the city they brought country in like wild animals, baby skunks, raccoons, pigeons, chickens, you name it, they were country all the way. And gardens were their passion as well. Mom would do her can outside even.

They got their dream when sis and I finished high school and we all moved to the sticks and built the cabin, then had ponds made so they could get that fishing in.

Sis and I talked of renting a pontoon for the day and bring a cooler with food and spend the day fishing. We sometimes get a wild hair and talk of buying a big pontoon , but the cost of hauling (gotta have a big truck to haul it) and the time. If you have a boat you feel like you got to use it all the time, but that's hard to do when you have a homestead to run, so our time on going to the lake , either Jacomo or Truman Lake would not be much, so we'll go for a couple of day trips and get home to take care of homestead stuff. Fishing here at home can be anytime, just walking distance and you can throw your poll in and catch dinner. We have the camp grounds for tenting and someday , a big tipi, maybe this fall, I'm hopin!!!!!.

So making your home like your on vacation all the time has always been my goal. And that can be done in city or country. It's just different activities to enjoy. But having your home relaxing is the best vacation ever. You ever go on a trip and its so exhausting that you need a vacation after you come home????

Its not really the destination that is wearing , its the time to get to point A to Point B. Even tho I love to site see and road trips, it does wear one out.

Back to the picture of those fish, despite the oodles of fish there one thing that wasn't , the smell, I haven't been on such a clean dock before , very clean , and no smelly fish. We might bring our lunch and watch the Purple Martins and enjoy the noon time before we head into city to meet up with clients later today .

All have a good one. Hey could you share what you do to make your home a vacation spot when traveling is not possible for the time being. I would love to read about it.

Garden update:

Got a few new pictures in Flickr photos, you know Yahoo will be closing down the photos in this year

Yahoo! Photos

and we got to move are albums someplace else. I'm goin Flickr , its part of Yahoo, its still free, but limited, hummmmm, oh well. Heres the link to see some new veggies and I will be adding more

Flickr: Photos from walkabout202004

I have only used up 1% so I can get a lot of pic's in there.

Thanks for dropping by, see ya

Blessings
linda

• Comments (0) • Post A Comment! • Permanent Link

Happy Thanksgiving

Wonderful Autumn On Our Homestead

Fall:

Garden Area

"Would a Mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry, Would a Doctor sit in comfort and let his patients die, Would a fireman site idle, let men burn and lend no hand, Can you sit at ease on Zion with the world around you damned...?" ~Leonard Ravenhill

Are you a Mr Magoo or a Mr Bean sort?

What you do when you get bad service

When I see poo