It's always something going on here in Hoosier land...Today sweet pea and I rode our bikes with a definate goal in mind...We headed deep into Sherwood Forest to look for yeal you guessed it "paw paw's".....Why Sherwood Forest you say? Well one thing you learn here in the land of Indian's is you never give away your favorite spots for hunting Mushrooms and surely not Paw Paw's...They are both just too darn good to share..the fruits of the hunt or the location, it's just something you don't do....
One tip on paw paw hunting is look down once in awhile...opposite of mushroom hunting you are always looking down and sometimes tap your head on a low limb. But with paw paws you be lookin up for a sign of the elongated leaf of the paw paw tree..
I have 3 nice gashes in my leg from the first second and third strand of barbed wire, that was where I maybe should have been looking...Rusty wires too, thank goodness for tetinus shots....
But we had fun we came onto a huge patch of paw paw trees large and small...sweet pea would stand under the tree watching where they would land and I would shake the tree hard enough to drop a monkey out of....Down they would come plop plop and we would be on them soon after they hit the ground...we had a pay less brown grocery plastic bag and we almost filled it up with our one hour hunt...nice walk in the woods, lots to see, good exercise and fresh air....Some were actually dead ripe and it has not even come close to frosting yet so my previous statement of pretending to know when they ripen was not so right...They ripen when they dam well want to I guess so some of them went right in the freezer wrapped in newspaper and the rest are lying on the patio table to soak up more sunlight and then they will be eaten an enjoyed for sure....And we will never forget nor never tell the location of the bonaza of a paw paw patch in Indiana....
Gotta Run.......
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Synvisc/Hylan G-F 20-/Chicken Fat
Chicken Man, Chicken Man that's me I guess..Picture at right brings it home to roost for yours truly...This is my second injection of this material that is derived from the comb of Roosters...Yes chicken combs the little red crowns that chickens carry around contains something that will make my knee better is the word on the street...
One more injection next week and they tell me I will be good to go for 6 months maybe after that who knows...But I have a friend Dane Yoder who tells me that he had these shots a couple years ago and has not had any knee pain since....I'd like to have those results as well...Next step if not Doctor Hagen tells me is the new knee operation...Like to hold off on that for a few years at least, maybe never...
But there are side effects to this business...I was picking apples from a neighbors tree this week and had a real desire to get up in the tree and go to "roost" maybe for awhile...Probably a good thing the stock markets are down like they are or I could be trying to crow about my great decisions or stock choices...All kidding aside its good to know a lot of others ahead of me have allowed chicken fat to help them along the way...I will give it a good test and keep you posted....
Soybean harvest is progressing rapidly in this area of the midwest...Yeilds are good, hearing maybe high 50's to low 60's for the most part....that is good beans and with prices above 10 bucks a bushel, the farm economy is GOOD.....
Have a good evening.....JL
One more injection next week and they tell me I will be good to go for 6 months maybe after that who knows...But I have a friend Dane Yoder who tells me that he had these shots a couple years ago and has not had any knee pain since....I'd like to have those results as well...Next step if not Doctor Hagen tells me is the new knee operation...Like to hold off on that for a few years at least, maybe never...
But there are side effects to this business...I was picking apples from a neighbors tree this week and had a real desire to get up in the tree and go to "roost" maybe for awhile...Probably a good thing the stock markets are down like they are or I could be trying to crow about my great decisions or stock choices...All kidding aside its good to know a lot of others ahead of me have allowed chicken fat to help them along the way...I will give it a good test and keep you posted....
Soybean harvest is progressing rapidly in this area of the midwest...Yeilds are good, hearing maybe high 50's to low 60's for the most part....that is good beans and with prices above 10 bucks a bushel, the farm economy is GOOD.....
Have a good evening.....JL
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Fall and Harvest Began Yesterday
Gee does it have to come so soon? I guess we all love fall with turning of the leaves and cool temperatures and no heating and no cooling draining our pocketbooks.
But its the later part that ushers in winter that is kind of a bummer...
But anyway it begins the sun crossed the equator yesterday intent on blessing the southern hemisphere with its warmth more so than us who have been left to fend for ourselves until March 21 when our old buddy the sun heads across the equator again and blesses us with another growing season...
But also Harvest began yesterday, little did I suspect but it did..SP and I were riding our bikes yesterday about noon and passed my first planted soybean field..The one that the Sheriff thought he had a drunk on his hands..(See May 17th blog), Well anyway as we passed I said you know I think all the green is gone from this field we may just try and cut these beans later today...She said well if there ready lets turn around an go back and get started now. Well we completed the 6 mile ride and then I spent 2 hours of lubrication on the old but still good 1985 combine, a 1620 Case IH rotory model..SP wanted to help so I said well I guess the windows on the combine could stand a wash job...She got inside and said, "good greif I could spend a week in here cleaning"..."I see lots of places for spiders to hide"....Well the windows are clean and no spiders challenging me so far...
We pulled into the field about 3 maybe and sure enough they went through like greased lightning and we were making dust and beans were falling into the hopper. We got out to check behind the combine to make sure the settings were correct and we were not blowing these 11 dollar beans out the back onto the ground...
This was sweetpea's first ride ever in a combine and she startled me when about the second time around the field she said,"you know I think I could run this"...and I said, "really?".....So after a couple hoppers and giving her a few pointers while I was operating the combine I changed from the operators seat to the buddy seat and let her have a go at it...I have to admit she was right, it was not more than about 3 rounds or so and sure enought "she could run this" and almost as good as I could.
She did find that "operating" a combine was a little more than just "driving" a combine but she was "good" and catching on fast to details of keeping the header width full and the crop coming into the combine at the optimun speed and effecientcy....Well anyway pretty and darn good, and when she is around and I get fatigued at the wheel of the machine she will probably be a willing relief operator when needed...Well today is not her day off and so I am on my own and had better get out there as I am burning perfectly good sunlight as I type....
Good day to all and GOD Bless....
But its the later part that ushers in winter that is kind of a bummer...
But anyway it begins the sun crossed the equator yesterday intent on blessing the southern hemisphere with its warmth more so than us who have been left to fend for ourselves until March 21 when our old buddy the sun heads across the equator again and blesses us with another growing season...
But also Harvest began yesterday, little did I suspect but it did..SP and I were riding our bikes yesterday about noon and passed my first planted soybean field..The one that the Sheriff thought he had a drunk on his hands..(See May 17th blog), Well anyway as we passed I said you know I think all the green is gone from this field we may just try and cut these beans later today...She said well if there ready lets turn around an go back and get started now. Well we completed the 6 mile ride and then I spent 2 hours of lubrication on the old but still good 1985 combine, a 1620 Case IH rotory model..SP wanted to help so I said well I guess the windows on the combine could stand a wash job...She got inside and said, "good greif I could spend a week in here cleaning"..."I see lots of places for spiders to hide"....Well the windows are clean and no spiders challenging me so far...
We pulled into the field about 3 maybe and sure enough they went through like greased lightning and we were making dust and beans were falling into the hopper. We got out to check behind the combine to make sure the settings were correct and we were not blowing these 11 dollar beans out the back onto the ground...
This was sweetpea's first ride ever in a combine and she startled me when about the second time around the field she said,"you know I think I could run this"...and I said, "really?".....So after a couple hoppers and giving her a few pointers while I was operating the combine I changed from the operators seat to the buddy seat and let her have a go at it...I have to admit she was right, it was not more than about 3 rounds or so and sure enought "she could run this" and almost as good as I could.
She did find that "operating" a combine was a little more than just "driving" a combine but she was "good" and catching on fast to details of keeping the header width full and the crop coming into the combine at the optimun speed and effecientcy....Well anyway pretty and darn good, and when she is around and I get fatigued at the wheel of the machine she will probably be a willing relief operator when needed...Well today is not her day off and so I am on my own and had better get out there as I am burning perfectly good sunlight as I type....
Good day to all and GOD Bless....
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The Axis of Idiots.....
Came to me in an email and after reading this good peice of work I have to agree and could not improve on his thoughts so will publish this as is....Jack
"The Axis of Idiots"
Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief.
Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the U.S.S. Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.
John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam . Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq . You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam . You're a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq , like Vietnam , is another war that you were for, before you were against it.
John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq . You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa . Okinawa , John.? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt, and washed up politician. You're not a Marine, sir. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's ass. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John.
Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot, who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run.
Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster-sized pictures from Abu Ghraib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraqi's torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news, Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrated another beheading for you. If you truly supported our troops, you'd show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there. You're a bloated, drunken fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all the while sitting on your wide, gin-soaked rear-end in Washington .
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, the Hollywood Leftist morons, et al, ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels, will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists. Better to do it now on their turf, than later on ours after they have gained both strength and momentum.
American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.
You are America's 'AXIS OF IDIOTS.' Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam . If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.
Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.
No, Mr. President, you don't get off the hook, either. Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within. Your Soldiers are dealing with the outside force. It's your obligation to support them by confronting the AXIS OF IDIOTS.
America must hear it from you that these self-centered people are harming our country, abetting the enemy and endangering our safety. Well up a little anger, please, and channel it toward the appropriate target. You must prosecute those who leak national security secrets to the media. You must prosecute those in the media who knowingly publish those secrets. Our Soldiers need you to confront the enemy that they cannot. They need you to do it now.
Semper Fi,
J.D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired
"The Axis of Idiots"
Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief.
Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the U.S.S. Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.
John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam . Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq . You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam . You're a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq , like Vietnam , is another war that you were for, before you were against it.
John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq . You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa . Okinawa , John.? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt, and washed up politician. You're not a Marine, sir. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's ass. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John.
Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot, who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run.
Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster-sized pictures from Abu Ghraib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraqi's torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news, Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrated another beheading for you. If you truly supported our troops, you'd show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there. You're a bloated, drunken fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all the while sitting on your wide, gin-soaked rear-end in Washington .
Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, the Hollywood Leftist morons, et al, ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels, will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists. Better to do it now on their turf, than later on ours after they have gained both strength and momentum.
American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.
You are America's 'AXIS OF IDIOTS.' Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam . If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.
Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.
No, Mr. President, you don't get off the hook, either. Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within. Your Soldiers are dealing with the outside force. It's your obligation to support them by confronting the AXIS OF IDIOTS.
America must hear it from you that these self-centered people are harming our country, abetting the enemy and endangering our safety. Well up a little anger, please, and channel it toward the appropriate target. You must prosecute those who leak national security secrets to the media. You must prosecute those in the media who knowingly publish those secrets. Our Soldiers need you to confront the enemy that they cannot. They need you to do it now.
Semper Fi,
J.D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
FRUIT/FISH/FLOWERS
Its Hump Day Wednesday, gorgeous day in Indiana. I mowed the hay field (my lawn), what a summer, never has turned brown and after last week ends tale end of Ike I dumped 4 inches from my gage and figured if I did not want deer hiding in my lawn maybe I should mow it....The soybean crop is maturing quickly now..With the forecast 80 plus days ahead it will accelerate that even...Some beans in my area will be harvested within a week..mine maybe two weeks (remember I was suffering from MONO), but they look like a bountiful crop coming on. The corn is maturing well also probably a month away from serious day to day harvest of this years corn crop...
But hey take a look to the right of those delicious succulent and even taste "real good" red fruits of the dogwood trees in my lawn...They have now become very large, very ripe and very good to just suck that goodness right out of.....My catfish as show are beyond harvest size. I started with 300 channels and have eaten all but about a dozen that I leave in just to scare the grandkids and also help control the bluegill population that is always a problem...I really don't intentionally feed these monsters, but when I feed the blue gill, a few bass and these monterous dozen "fish hogs" show up to try and claim more than their share...
Last but certainally not least is my Susan Lilly, still blooming, all summer long, still beautiful, and promising by it all to most likely be here next year and hopefully many years ahead...I love those yellow flowers by far the best too...
But hey take a look to the right of those delicious succulent and even taste "real good" red fruits of the dogwood trees in my lawn...They have now become very large, very ripe and very good to just suck that goodness right out of.....My catfish as show are beyond harvest size. I started with 300 channels and have eaten all but about a dozen that I leave in just to scare the grandkids and also help control the bluegill population that is always a problem...I really don't intentionally feed these monsters, but when I feed the blue gill, a few bass and these monterous dozen "fish hogs" show up to try and claim more than their share...
Last but certainally not least is my Susan Lilly, still blooming, all summer long, still beautiful, and promising by it all to most likely be here next year and hopefully many years ahead...I love those yellow flowers by far the best too...
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
More thoughts on the Red Bull Motorcycle Racing
I need to add some thoughts on the event itself. I think I may go again some day, it was fun to watch them go around those curves. And it seems to be safer than I had originally thought also as we saw one bad spill when a rider lost it on turn 1 at probably well over a hundred miles an hour some say they take that curve at 140.
His bike slide down the track for maybe a quarter mile at least sliding onto the grass. He slid along behind it first on his tummy and then when he slowed a bit he flipped over onto his butt and then slid the rest of the way setting up until he hit the grass area of turn two and then just stood up and walked away over to his bike...
The leather outfits they wear must be very resilant to say the least...Of course the track was wet which would no doubt help a lot on the friction part of it...
But I enjoy it when they all take off from a standing start at the starting line and then zoom zoom for a few laps around the track...It reminds me actually of a bunch of honey bee's leaving the hive looking for honey...really does and then after a few laps they return to the pit areas kind of like a bee would do...And they kind of sound like a swarm of bees also as they move around all those turns in the quickest pace they can muster....
So I went because I wanted to see one of those races as I never had seen a motorcycle race ever...And the fact that the first races at the 500 track actually were motor cycles and not cars drew me there also...it was 99 years ago I found out at the "Indianapolis Hall of Fame Museum" that the first race was held at the track..Cars came along a couple years later but bike's were there first so I guess it is fitting they return. It is too bad it rained so much Sunday as it would have been pretty exciting with four seperate races taking place under drier conditions...
Maybe next year, one thing for sure it could not be any wetter...Wet they have had and these guys do run, rain or shine, so it does not stop them very long...A monsoon like was going on for a while did delay, but as soon as it let up they were out there and going...
The riders range in age from 14 or 15 up to 30 something...They are mostly small men of maybe 5 foot to 5 and a half feet and weight usually less than 150 pounds..it all helps with the quickness if the bike is not carrying a big guy...
We noticed that about half the spectators arrived on cycles of all types...and probably 75% were from out of state all over the nation, was fun to just walk along behind the bikes, admiring them, and looking at the plates where they were from...And the spectators also contained many who flew in from all over the world...So they do have some loyal folk who love to watch this sport...I think the stands were maybe less than 5% full so talk about starting from the bottom, they did...But I predict that this thing will grow, those loyals will all be there next year and I think curiousity will bring more and more locals as time move on...
Well that is my thoughts on bike racing, for me not as exciting as the 500 race or the brickyard 400 but maybe that is just what I am used too...I do have new respect for those men who have reached such a level of expertise as to ride on two wheels at 200 miles and hour into a curve at 140 laying it over where their knees almost hit the black top, quickly stand it back up and then lay it over to the other side to take the next curve...some duck tape a piece of steel to their knees so as they can actually let it hit the black top and make a few sparks as they make those turns....pretty darn exciting stuff all in all....
His bike slide down the track for maybe a quarter mile at least sliding onto the grass. He slid along behind it first on his tummy and then when he slowed a bit he flipped over onto his butt and then slid the rest of the way setting up until he hit the grass area of turn two and then just stood up and walked away over to his bike...
The leather outfits they wear must be very resilant to say the least...Of course the track was wet which would no doubt help a lot on the friction part of it...
But I enjoy it when they all take off from a standing start at the starting line and then zoom zoom for a few laps around the track...It reminds me actually of a bunch of honey bee's leaving the hive looking for honey...really does and then after a few laps they return to the pit areas kind of like a bee would do...And they kind of sound like a swarm of bees also as they move around all those turns in the quickest pace they can muster....
So I went because I wanted to see one of those races as I never had seen a motorcycle race ever...And the fact that the first races at the 500 track actually were motor cycles and not cars drew me there also...it was 99 years ago I found out at the "Indianapolis Hall of Fame Museum" that the first race was held at the track..Cars came along a couple years later but bike's were there first so I guess it is fitting they return. It is too bad it rained so much Sunday as it would have been pretty exciting with four seperate races taking place under drier conditions...
Maybe next year, one thing for sure it could not be any wetter...Wet they have had and these guys do run, rain or shine, so it does not stop them very long...A monsoon like was going on for a while did delay, but as soon as it let up they were out there and going...
The riders range in age from 14 or 15 up to 30 something...They are mostly small men of maybe 5 foot to 5 and a half feet and weight usually less than 150 pounds..it all helps with the quickness if the bike is not carrying a big guy...
We noticed that about half the spectators arrived on cycles of all types...and probably 75% were from out of state all over the nation, was fun to just walk along behind the bikes, admiring them, and looking at the plates where they were from...And the spectators also contained many who flew in from all over the world...So they do have some loyal folk who love to watch this sport...I think the stands were maybe less than 5% full so talk about starting from the bottom, they did...But I predict that this thing will grow, those loyals will all be there next year and I think curiousity will bring more and more locals as time move on...
Well that is my thoughts on bike racing, for me not as exciting as the 500 race or the brickyard 400 but maybe that is just what I am used too...I do have new respect for those men who have reached such a level of expertise as to ride on two wheels at 200 miles and hour into a curve at 140 laying it over where their knees almost hit the black top, quickly stand it back up and then lay it over to the other side to take the next curve...some duck tape a piece of steel to their knees so as they can actually let it hit the black top and make a few sparks as they make those turns....pretty darn exciting stuff all in all....
Monday, September 15, 2008
Red Bull Indy Motorcycle Races
Well, lets say it was a vacation...A vacation is doing something different that is fun...Maybe that is what we did by attending the first motorcycle races at the Indy 500 track in 99 years...
First pic is a stunt rider an probably as much fun as I had the four days as far as a spectator is concerned...watching these kids ride like crazy on the one wheel both front an rear at times....
Second pic is a disaster...the opportunity of a life time, well maybe a slight overstatement but the security man we met also from Lafayette McQuinn also a Farm Bureau agent on 350 south invited us to climb to the roof of grandstand E and took our picture....Let me tell you what you don't want to do and that is jerk your camera out of your pocket without checking the lighting setting and hand it to the nice gentlemen and say all you have to do is click it...What a photo opp and I blew it..but still impressed enought to blog it...ha
Third pic is a visit we did to the Indy 500 Hall of Fame Musuem on the race track grounds...This is a good day trip visit in itself folks...Only cost 3 bucks open about any day till 6 pm and parking right inside the track to see it off 16th street at the south end of the track...All the past winnering cars and drivers pictures and more inside to see...will take a couple hours to see it all pretty well....
Forth pic down is of one of the races, can you imagine 190 plus down the straight away and then leaning it over to almost touch your knee and then 140 MPH through turn one?????? These riders are young very young some as young as 15...I think they have to get them before they get to smart maybe...But hey some of them make 30 million a year so maybe not real dum either....
Fifth pic is of the forth day I was at this event...Rained like crazy.. I now have new appreciation for the people of New Orleans who live below sea level..A sweet pea sat to my right and damed the water from the bleachers from getting to me..She got real wet, a gentlemen you say I am not? Well she did ask for the seat on the end...what is a guy to do????
First pic is a stunt rider an probably as much fun as I had the four days as far as a spectator is concerned...watching these kids ride like crazy on the one wheel both front an rear at times....
Second pic is a disaster...the opportunity of a life time, well maybe a slight overstatement but the security man we met also from Lafayette McQuinn also a Farm Bureau agent on 350 south invited us to climb to the roof of grandstand E and took our picture....Let me tell you what you don't want to do and that is jerk your camera out of your pocket without checking the lighting setting and hand it to the nice gentlemen and say all you have to do is click it...What a photo opp and I blew it..but still impressed enought to blog it...ha
Third pic is a visit we did to the Indy 500 Hall of Fame Musuem on the race track grounds...This is a good day trip visit in itself folks...Only cost 3 bucks open about any day till 6 pm and parking right inside the track to see it off 16th street at the south end of the track...All the past winnering cars and drivers pictures and more inside to see...will take a couple hours to see it all pretty well....
Forth pic down is of one of the races, can you imagine 190 plus down the straight away and then leaning it over to almost touch your knee and then 140 MPH through turn one?????? These riders are young very young some as young as 15...I think they have to get them before they get to smart maybe...But hey some of them make 30 million a year so maybe not real dum either....
Fifth pic is of the forth day I was at this event...Rained like crazy.. I now have new appreciation for the people of New Orleans who live below sea level..A sweet pea sat to my right and damed the water from the bleachers from getting to me..She got real wet, a gentlemen you say I am not? Well she did ask for the seat on the end...what is a guy to do????
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Paw Paws / The Indiana Banana
The Paw Paw Trees of Indiana, the best kept secret for delicious fruit are worth the time spent looking. It happens each fall they ripen shortly after the first frost of the season. They are one of my very favorite fruits, mostly found in the wild, but some of us are bringing them into our lawns, and why not? They are a pretty tree with large elongated leaves and the purple blooms in the spring are always a welcome sight. The fruit is just delicious as you cut them in half and then spoon the fruit out and enjoy much like a cup of custard...The large flat seeds that come with it need to be delt with but if your smart you will save them, placing them into the freezer or refrigerator and planting them in the spring time.
They are not plentiful in Indiana usually found in semi wet areas of a woods, not swampy lets say "damp" areas....And they are not restricted to Indiana by any means, I believe I have read where they actually are located from central America all the way to Canada even. With some variatal changes as they progress northward...Indiana's version is probably as good as it gets or at least good enough for me and mine...I located one in a fence row behind my daughter Suzette's house. The whole family is now well aware of the "sacred tree" growing behind the house and up to speed on protecting it from any harm. I have about a half dozen growing in my land scaping at my home and thus the picture you see at the right.
My first experience with the Indiana Banana or Paw Paw was about 60 years ago when my sister Peg and hubby Charlie Ritchie lived along US 52 about 6 miles south of Lafayette...They told me I could come stay with them a few days and sell some Paw Paws that were in big numbers in a woods next to the house...Mom loaded me up with her fresh eggs to sell and dropped me off. I went into the woods and quickly picked a couple big buckets full of the delicasy that I knew nothing of only dollar signs for me...I placed some tables near the road in front of the house with a Paw Paw sign, also finding bitter sweet and added that to my array of goods to be turned into cash.
I was not there long and a little Crosley auto went whizzing by and applied the brakes and did a U turn and came back to my stand. He got out and said, "wow I have not had a paw paw for years can I eat one right now"? I said yeal if you pay for it when your done...He devoured a couple of them and then purchased just about all that I had picked. So back into the woods I went with new respect for this fruit that now had "demand" written all over it...Before the day was over I even got the nerve to try one of these myself...Can not say it was love at first taste, this is one of those things that have to kind of grow on you..But once it does, your hooked big time....for life....
As life went on I kind of forgot about paw paws, I guess until one day there was an article in the Lafayette Paper the Journal Courier, about a Mr. Paul Bauer close to Monitor that kind of was the Yule Gibbins of Paw Paw trees..Showed pictures of him and his trees and paw paws....Not long after that I met his son Bob and wife Cathy and asked about the paw paw man...they directed me over to meet him and he gave me some of the trees no doubt maybe the one that has the pics at the right here...I also sometimes dig them up in a woods if they are very small, as they quickly get long deep roots making it almost impossible if they have much size to them...Actually the very best way is just to save the seed placing them into a little nursery and then transplanting them when about a foot tall or so.
Anyway Mr. Bauer told me and it does work that if you are lucky enough to come onto say a hundred of these that you can wrap in newspaper and place in the freezer for a year or so, as the shelf life is short for these guys...I did it and they are as he said "wonderful" to thaw out and cut in half and spoon out the delicous custart thet they hold inside that ungly skin that with freezing has turned black....
Well that is my report on the most underrated little tree in Indiana, hope you will join me in adding them to your landscape, they are well worth the effort....
They are not plentiful in Indiana usually found in semi wet areas of a woods, not swampy lets say "damp" areas....And they are not restricted to Indiana by any means, I believe I have read where they actually are located from central America all the way to Canada even. With some variatal changes as they progress northward...Indiana's version is probably as good as it gets or at least good enough for me and mine...I located one in a fence row behind my daughter Suzette's house. The whole family is now well aware of the "sacred tree" growing behind the house and up to speed on protecting it from any harm. I have about a half dozen growing in my land scaping at my home and thus the picture you see at the right.
My first experience with the Indiana Banana or Paw Paw was about 60 years ago when my sister Peg and hubby Charlie Ritchie lived along US 52 about 6 miles south of Lafayette...They told me I could come stay with them a few days and sell some Paw Paws that were in big numbers in a woods next to the house...Mom loaded me up with her fresh eggs to sell and dropped me off. I went into the woods and quickly picked a couple big buckets full of the delicasy that I knew nothing of only dollar signs for me...I placed some tables near the road in front of the house with a Paw Paw sign, also finding bitter sweet and added that to my array of goods to be turned into cash.
I was not there long and a little Crosley auto went whizzing by and applied the brakes and did a U turn and came back to my stand. He got out and said, "wow I have not had a paw paw for years can I eat one right now"? I said yeal if you pay for it when your done...He devoured a couple of them and then purchased just about all that I had picked. So back into the woods I went with new respect for this fruit that now had "demand" written all over it...Before the day was over I even got the nerve to try one of these myself...Can not say it was love at first taste, this is one of those things that have to kind of grow on you..But once it does, your hooked big time....for life....
As life went on I kind of forgot about paw paws, I guess until one day there was an article in the Lafayette Paper the Journal Courier, about a Mr. Paul Bauer close to Monitor that kind of was the Yule Gibbins of Paw Paw trees..Showed pictures of him and his trees and paw paws....Not long after that I met his son Bob and wife Cathy and asked about the paw paw man...they directed me over to meet him and he gave me some of the trees no doubt maybe the one that has the pics at the right here...I also sometimes dig them up in a woods if they are very small, as they quickly get long deep roots making it almost impossible if they have much size to them...Actually the very best way is just to save the seed placing them into a little nursery and then transplanting them when about a foot tall or so.
Anyway Mr. Bauer told me and it does work that if you are lucky enough to come onto say a hundred of these that you can wrap in newspaper and place in the freezer for a year or so, as the shelf life is short for these guys...I did it and they are as he said "wonderful" to thaw out and cut in half and spoon out the delicous custart thet they hold inside that ungly skin that with freezing has turned black....
Well that is my report on the most underrated little tree in Indiana, hope you will join me in adding them to your landscape, they are well worth the effort....
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Mackinaw Island upper Michigan
Been there done that last weekend matter of fact. It was fun top pic to the right shows how much fun RVing can be...always fish to fry, alway's good wine and always 5 o'clock somewhere. George, Gladis, Jim and Kay all of Cold water Michigan where the water I suppose is just not cold enough so they travel 4 hours north to northern Michigans best RV camp ground near Traverse City and find even colder water I am sure. But a place where no doubt they find a lot of good freinds also to enjoy the surroundings of the north woods..Many of these same folk find their way to Silver Lakes RV park in Naples Florida each winter...Kind of like snow birds should do when the snow falls in the midwest and the sun shines and the fish bite down there...
Sweet Pea and I headed on up there just to say hi to them and while we were there Kay suggested and then we decided to visit Mackinaw island just about 90 miles farther north...It was fun and next pic down shows how you get there from Mackinaw City on Michigan's north shore...
Takes 17 minutes on the high speed ferry and you are smelling horse poop and fudge...
No cars allowed on the island, just "hay burners" and walking...we walked and after two good nights sleep and the last one in my bed with 10 hours of nighty night, I think I may make it....
Next pic is one of the coaches from the Grand Hotel with a tourist looking on. Horse and buggies are the center peice of the Island......Lots of little shops on every street...Lots of fudge for sale, and all looks so darn yummy...Desired so by the dummy, but advised as to what it would do to the tummy so we left it all there except for one piece that I am proud to say is only half gone....
Last picture is of the Grand Hotel with a tourist also looking on, we are told that it can cost as much as 600 a night to stay there, gosh that is more than my diesel fuel burned all the way up and back plus the RV park fees....Had a great time, may do it again sometime in the future....
One high point of the trip was watching Fox news again as I cancelled my dish network about a year ago...Had not realized I actually missed it so much...They are fair with the reporting as they say, simply can not stand the CNN's and MSNBC with the slanted views of reporting they do each day....Probably as bad for your brain as all that fudge is for my tummy....Had a nice show on one night called the "American Woman" highlighting the past life of one of the Vice Presidential candidates...the one that I hope will win the election with her running mate McBrilliant for picking her and cut a lot of the fat out of this government and then reduce taxes....and stop the incessant handouts of the past to ungrateful nations and people...
Well all that being said got to run putting peaches in the freezer today...Never done that before but I just know it will turn out wonderful....I hope...
Sweet Pea and I headed on up there just to say hi to them and while we were there Kay suggested and then we decided to visit Mackinaw island just about 90 miles farther north...It was fun and next pic down shows how you get there from Mackinaw City on Michigan's north shore...
Takes 17 minutes on the high speed ferry and you are smelling horse poop and fudge...
No cars allowed on the island, just "hay burners" and walking...we walked and after two good nights sleep and the last one in my bed with 10 hours of nighty night, I think I may make it....
Next pic is one of the coaches from the Grand Hotel with a tourist looking on. Horse and buggies are the center peice of the Island......Lots of little shops on every street...Lots of fudge for sale, and all looks so darn yummy...Desired so by the dummy, but advised as to what it would do to the tummy so we left it all there except for one piece that I am proud to say is only half gone....
Last picture is of the Grand Hotel with a tourist also looking on, we are told that it can cost as much as 600 a night to stay there, gosh that is more than my diesel fuel burned all the way up and back plus the RV park fees....Had a great time, may do it again sometime in the future....
One high point of the trip was watching Fox news again as I cancelled my dish network about a year ago...Had not realized I actually missed it so much...They are fair with the reporting as they say, simply can not stand the CNN's and MSNBC with the slanted views of reporting they do each day....Probably as bad for your brain as all that fudge is for my tummy....Had a nice show on one night called the "American Woman" highlighting the past life of one of the Vice Presidential candidates...the one that I hope will win the election with her running mate McBrilliant for picking her and cut a lot of the fat out of this government and then reduce taxes....and stop the incessant handouts of the past to ungrateful nations and people...
Well all that being said got to run putting peaches in the freezer today...Never done that before but I just know it will turn out wonderful....I hope...
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Vice President Sarah
It is late but sleep will wait. We have just heard from the next Vice President of this great nation...We are in good hands....The woman is incredible the Man she promotes deserves his turn at the Presidency....
We have a candidate, a pit bull with lipstick, with experience, with poise, with intelligence and a proven leader...and we will now win the war on terror. Guaranteed my freinds the terrorist of the world will not be rooting for McCain/Palin.......
I can not help but believe there is divine guidance for this nation taking place, it has happened...God is Good, Still in Charge and still blessing this land that we all love....
Good Night
We have a candidate, a pit bull with lipstick, with experience, with poise, with intelligence and a proven leader...and we will now win the war on terror. Guaranteed my freinds the terrorist of the world will not be rooting for McCain/Palin.......
I can not help but believe there is divine guidance for this nation taking place, it has happened...God is Good, Still in Charge and still blessing this land that we all love....
Good Night
The Republican Convention and Sarah
Or maybe my headline should read "Sarah" and the Republican Convention. In any case I agree with the video on the right side of the page here that this lady is "hot".
She is cute and attractive but what makes her "hot" for me is that she will energize this election and deny the inexperienced "wizard of change" Obama the chance at the White House...Sarah will put John McCain in the oval office, I am pretty sure. She has the right stuff to be his running mate and if need be the President of the Nation. Taking on corruption, big oil, the good ole boy system, firing people, that kind of stuff is refreshing as hell to me....Girl where have you been all our lives...Well we know where you have been in Alaska where the Press seldom goes unless on a fishing trip but you have been preparing to be the spark needed to win this election in November....
I liked the comparison from Fred Thompson last night about how Obama has governed no one and has never sponsered a major bill in congress....He is a wizard of change, but no one knows nor does he what that change would be...We know what we have with McCain and Palin we have seen them in action. We know of their charactors, not so with Obama. With him we are seeing one side of the coin as far as his background. Little is known of his muslim roots from the other side of the family..It is kept very quiet. To me this is huge and should be for this nation...This is serious business, we are at war with these people in the middle east and to even think of setting a President with any kind of links to these roots is propostorous.
Could the country be that naive? A week ago I was starting to wonder, have been praying all summer that we would not be. I think Sarah is maybe the answer to prayers to bring forth excitement and a reason to move away from putting a man with Muslim roots into our office in this time of war...She will do it I do believe. As soon as it was announced sweet pea said that McCain is a smart man. That this lady will energize women voters and Christian voters. I did not know because I was wanting Huckabee to be the VP choice here. But after hearing this lady talk about taking on the establishment and fighting corruption in government which we all know it is full of...Well I will go a little further even than sweet pea and say I think McCain made a "genius" move picking this running mate....he has shook things up good and brought intense excitement into this fray...I look forward to learning more tonight about this lady...The democrats and the press are falling all over themselves to paint her with problems...It will backfire on them big time starting tonight....
Hallalluya.........for after all God is still in charge......
She is cute and attractive but what makes her "hot" for me is that she will energize this election and deny the inexperienced "wizard of change" Obama the chance at the White House...Sarah will put John McCain in the oval office, I am pretty sure. She has the right stuff to be his running mate and if need be the President of the Nation. Taking on corruption, big oil, the good ole boy system, firing people, that kind of stuff is refreshing as hell to me....Girl where have you been all our lives...Well we know where you have been in Alaska where the Press seldom goes unless on a fishing trip but you have been preparing to be the spark needed to win this election in November....
I liked the comparison from Fred Thompson last night about how Obama has governed no one and has never sponsered a major bill in congress....He is a wizard of change, but no one knows nor does he what that change would be...We know what we have with McCain and Palin we have seen them in action. We know of their charactors, not so with Obama. With him we are seeing one side of the coin as far as his background. Little is known of his muslim roots from the other side of the family..It is kept very quiet. To me this is huge and should be for this nation...This is serious business, we are at war with these people in the middle east and to even think of setting a President with any kind of links to these roots is propostorous.
Could the country be that naive? A week ago I was starting to wonder, have been praying all summer that we would not be. I think Sarah is maybe the answer to prayers to bring forth excitement and a reason to move away from putting a man with Muslim roots into our office in this time of war...She will do it I do believe. As soon as it was announced sweet pea said that McCain is a smart man. That this lady will energize women voters and Christian voters. I did not know because I was wanting Huckabee to be the VP choice here. But after hearing this lady talk about taking on the establishment and fighting corruption in government which we all know it is full of...Well I will go a little further even than sweet pea and say I think McCain made a "genius" move picking this running mate....he has shook things up good and brought intense excitement into this fray...I look forward to learning more tonight about this lady...The democrats and the press are falling all over themselves to paint her with problems...It will backfire on them big time starting tonight....
Hallalluya.........for after all God is still in charge......
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Getting Rid of Ants
It was war this summer, they started to appear very gradual, down on the floor an occasional small brown ant would be seen...not to worry I thought, sweet pea will probably never notice them down there. A man left in charge of a home is probably a perfect storm as far as ant production is concerned. Sometimes a banana peel or spilled sugar on the counter, one of those things that can be put off for a day or two until it rains and you have more time to clean the place up.
A month passed and these guys moved to the counter tops but stayed kind of out of sight for the most part hiding under the coffee jar or behind the dog treats, in and around the spice tray..Not a huge problem but becoming one, the perfect storm for them is becoming the perfect storm for me it seems.
Then it happened, peices of a partially spoiled peach were left out on the counter over night, (I ate the good part) and as I moved to the counter to make my morning coffee there they were. It was like watching the old movie "wagon train", no Indians but man the long line of what could have been pioneer wagons looking down from an airplane maybe. There was a dual highway more or less as they were out in huge numbers and were harvesting that delicious jucy sweet peach (I should have ate all of it I guess)...The lines were from the back of the stove and about 6 feet long to the end of the counter top where the food source awaited them....
I knew action needed to happen here and happen quick, I jumped in my car and headed to D and R grocery store.. I said I think I need "ant traps or baits" of some sort.
He said don't have that try the dollar store next door I bet they will....They did, they had "RAID Ant Baits", a little expensive I thought but then I remembered the wagon train at home and grabbed an arm full of them and checked out. As I drove home I knew those boys days were now numbered...I read the instructions and put them out along the back of the counter tops where the trails of ants were scurrying hether to and fro and back again....I thought this will be like shooting fish in a barrel...I then stood and watched them as they came to the small white 2 inch by 2 inch igloo like plastic structures with holes in them and then they would take a turn and went right around the bait trap and then continued on their merry way to look for food intened for me and maybe sweet pea...
This was war and my artillary was not working. I stood and watched this for maybe an hour, thinking what the hell is going on here? I finally arrived at the logical conclusion that the dollar store had purchased no doubt a bunch of outdated worthless ant baits and selling the defective war materials to poor inocents like myself...I grabed a bait package, and there was an 800 number to call for help...I got a nice lady on the line and told her I think my baits are defective and that there was no scent from them and my ants refused to enter in and feast upon the poison I wanted to provide for them. She then told me what I needed to do to make them work, why this info was not on the package I wondered...Then after recent thought of proper housekeeping I realised that probably only men left alone in a house experience this...she said you have to clean the counter tops before you put the bait out for them, because when and ant finds a food source he then leaves a chemical scent trail back to the nest so others can then follow that path. So that is how they do it I thought, thanked her for the tip and did what men left alone in a house usually don't do and cleaned my counter tops. I used clorox with bleach spray and that in itself scares the hell out of and even kills some of the ants...
After my good clean up I again placed my baits out on the counter as the enemies started to once again appear seemingly disoriented because I had distroyed all their little trails to the food...Sure enough the little buggers ran up to and entered into the bait stations...Got themselves and big arm full of the poison and took it back to the women and children at "home"....Well it was kind of like this current war in Iraq for quite a few days...If I remember we killed a bunch of the bad boys over there but they kept coming...Our President said what I was thinking God Bless him, "hey bring it on", let invite all the bad boys in from all around and "praise the Lord and pass the ammunition", and kill them all. Well anyway back to "my war", it was a very slow process, way to slow for sweet pea, she would come out and look at my counter tops and grab my clorox spray and just "open up on these guys", reminisant of a Marine gunny behind a machine gun even....I told her we had to have patients here and allow these workers to carry this delicious poison back to the family behind the cabinets....She would look at me like I had just told her the earth was flat and again open up on any "still kicking" poor little al-kida type ants. I held my ground and kept the bait stations in place..When she was not visiting I would allow the enemy to wonder all around and harvest these little bait stations...
I am happy to report that today and maybe for the past 2 weeks I am 100% "ant free"..
Those Raid ant baits if allowed to work do the job and do it well...{*considering you are a normal house keeper and occasionally clean your counter tops) you got to destroy those chemical trails now and then...That I have learned this summer, that cleanlyness leads to happyness....All probably in the learning process of a "man left alone in a house", has to go through....
It is a great day here, not an ant in sight.........
A month passed and these guys moved to the counter tops but stayed kind of out of sight for the most part hiding under the coffee jar or behind the dog treats, in and around the spice tray..Not a huge problem but becoming one, the perfect storm for them is becoming the perfect storm for me it seems.
Then it happened, peices of a partially spoiled peach were left out on the counter over night, (I ate the good part) and as I moved to the counter to make my morning coffee there they were. It was like watching the old movie "wagon train", no Indians but man the long line of what could have been pioneer wagons looking down from an airplane maybe. There was a dual highway more or less as they were out in huge numbers and were harvesting that delicious jucy sweet peach (I should have ate all of it I guess)...The lines were from the back of the stove and about 6 feet long to the end of the counter top where the food source awaited them....
I knew action needed to happen here and happen quick, I jumped in my car and headed to D and R grocery store.. I said I think I need "ant traps or baits" of some sort.
He said don't have that try the dollar store next door I bet they will....They did, they had "RAID Ant Baits", a little expensive I thought but then I remembered the wagon train at home and grabbed an arm full of them and checked out. As I drove home I knew those boys days were now numbered...I read the instructions and put them out along the back of the counter tops where the trails of ants were scurrying hether to and fro and back again....I thought this will be like shooting fish in a barrel...I then stood and watched them as they came to the small white 2 inch by 2 inch igloo like plastic structures with holes in them and then they would take a turn and went right around the bait trap and then continued on their merry way to look for food intened for me and maybe sweet pea...
This was war and my artillary was not working. I stood and watched this for maybe an hour, thinking what the hell is going on here? I finally arrived at the logical conclusion that the dollar store had purchased no doubt a bunch of outdated worthless ant baits and selling the defective war materials to poor inocents like myself...I grabed a bait package, and there was an 800 number to call for help...I got a nice lady on the line and told her I think my baits are defective and that there was no scent from them and my ants refused to enter in and feast upon the poison I wanted to provide for them. She then told me what I needed to do to make them work, why this info was not on the package I wondered...Then after recent thought of proper housekeeping I realised that probably only men left alone in a house experience this...she said you have to clean the counter tops before you put the bait out for them, because when and ant finds a food source he then leaves a chemical scent trail back to the nest so others can then follow that path. So that is how they do it I thought, thanked her for the tip and did what men left alone in a house usually don't do and cleaned my counter tops. I used clorox with bleach spray and that in itself scares the hell out of and even kills some of the ants...
After my good clean up I again placed my baits out on the counter as the enemies started to once again appear seemingly disoriented because I had distroyed all their little trails to the food...Sure enough the little buggers ran up to and entered into the bait stations...Got themselves and big arm full of the poison and took it back to the women and children at "home"....Well it was kind of like this current war in Iraq for quite a few days...If I remember we killed a bunch of the bad boys over there but they kept coming...Our President said what I was thinking God Bless him, "hey bring it on", let invite all the bad boys in from all around and "praise the Lord and pass the ammunition", and kill them all. Well anyway back to "my war", it was a very slow process, way to slow for sweet pea, she would come out and look at my counter tops and grab my clorox spray and just "open up on these guys", reminisant of a Marine gunny behind a machine gun even....I told her we had to have patients here and allow these workers to carry this delicious poison back to the family behind the cabinets....She would look at me like I had just told her the earth was flat and again open up on any "still kicking" poor little al-kida type ants. I held my ground and kept the bait stations in place..When she was not visiting I would allow the enemy to wonder all around and harvest these little bait stations...
I am happy to report that today and maybe for the past 2 weeks I am 100% "ant free"..
Those Raid ant baits if allowed to work do the job and do it well...{*considering you are a normal house keeper and occasionally clean your counter tops) you got to destroy those chemical trails now and then...That I have learned this summer, that cleanlyness leads to happyness....All probably in the learning process of a "man left alone in a house", has to go through....
It is a great day here, not an ant in sight.........
Monday, September 1, 2008
69 and Summer keeps on coming
Well tardy from this blog for a full week I have to appologize and get some words down here to fill this gap. Sorry will try and do better but as summer's days are numbered from here on, one has to grab all the wonderment one can, and that has kept me away from my blogger duties....
Remember the beauty of the Kousa Dog wood tree from early summer? I said I would share when I start to eat the fruit and now is the time...I break them in half and they have a soft center with a taste all its own...not a lot of fruit inside but who knows what special capability it could hold inside? Maybe kill some form of cancer?, maybe make me smarter than the average bear? Guess we will never know for sure unless maybe this blog is still going 30+ years from now. Call me Yule Gibbens, call me a half a bubble off, I don't care, I like paa paa's even better.
Sweet Pea and I spent a couple hours floating in the pond yesterday. We removed the "redneck" (she calls it), airiation system I built before the water cools too much. She photographed a few of my bluegills eating some food...they have taken a liking to me feeding them this summer and now come right up to me in the water..Now and then giving me a thrill by trying to "taste" my legs and feet in the water. In the long run I will get them back one day when I fillet and then deep fry some of them...
Been a great summer for the roses that continue to blooming process until a hard frost shuts them down. They seem on a mission to produce as many of these perfect flowers as possible before that day. Very few Jap beatles this year to devour them, this has been as close to perfect a year as I have ever seen.
Water was warm yesterday as seen in pic 4 down. I took to the swing and have started to work on my form of water entry when I release and Susan snaps my picture and then gives me a rating...Yesterdays best was a "2", gosh I know she does not want me to "peak" to quickly as the next olympics are a long way off but I really worked hard on practice and I think maybe I may be under judged just a little bit, thinking more like a 3 or maybe a 3.5 even...notice the nice curve in the rope too, that should count for something....
Crops continue their path to maturity now. Corn is still healthy but ears are starting to give up moisture and shucks are browning a beganing to lossen. Soybeans are still just so healthy just a slight hint of turning yellow in spots. Very tops of plants continue to finish blooming and filling pods with beans. It should be a "best ever" year for the American farmers in my area and west of here all the way to Omaha...Sure some of those way to wet areas of last spring have or will suffer some yeild reductions from very late planting, early or late frost will tell the tale on those areas...thats it for today will try and get back here again before another week passes.....
OH, yeal the reference to "69", well it keeps coming also as this month I ate some birthday cake and am now 69 and 12 months and 7 days...I like that age, 51 weeks from now I will be 69 and 24 months...I like the system and it will keep my freinds sharp doing math in their heads as I roll these larger numbers at them....
Remember the beauty of the Kousa Dog wood tree from early summer? I said I would share when I start to eat the fruit and now is the time...I break them in half and they have a soft center with a taste all its own...not a lot of fruit inside but who knows what special capability it could hold inside? Maybe kill some form of cancer?, maybe make me smarter than the average bear? Guess we will never know for sure unless maybe this blog is still going 30+ years from now. Call me Yule Gibbens, call me a half a bubble off, I don't care, I like paa paa's even better.
Sweet Pea and I spent a couple hours floating in the pond yesterday. We removed the "redneck" (she calls it), airiation system I built before the water cools too much. She photographed a few of my bluegills eating some food...they have taken a liking to me feeding them this summer and now come right up to me in the water..Now and then giving me a thrill by trying to "taste" my legs and feet in the water. In the long run I will get them back one day when I fillet and then deep fry some of them...
Been a great summer for the roses that continue to blooming process until a hard frost shuts them down. They seem on a mission to produce as many of these perfect flowers as possible before that day. Very few Jap beatles this year to devour them, this has been as close to perfect a year as I have ever seen.
Water was warm yesterday as seen in pic 4 down. I took to the swing and have started to work on my form of water entry when I release and Susan snaps my picture and then gives me a rating...Yesterdays best was a "2", gosh I know she does not want me to "peak" to quickly as the next olympics are a long way off but I really worked hard on practice and I think maybe I may be under judged just a little bit, thinking more like a 3 or maybe a 3.5 even...notice the nice curve in the rope too, that should count for something....
Crops continue their path to maturity now. Corn is still healthy but ears are starting to give up moisture and shucks are browning a beganing to lossen. Soybeans are still just so healthy just a slight hint of turning yellow in spots. Very tops of plants continue to finish blooming and filling pods with beans. It should be a "best ever" year for the American farmers in my area and west of here all the way to Omaha...Sure some of those way to wet areas of last spring have or will suffer some yeild reductions from very late planting, early or late frost will tell the tale on those areas...thats it for today will try and get back here again before another week passes.....
OH, yeal the reference to "69", well it keeps coming also as this month I ate some birthday cake and am now 69 and 12 months and 7 days...I like that age, 51 weeks from now I will be 69 and 24 months...I like the system and it will keep my freinds sharp doing math in their heads as I roll these larger numbers at them....
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