Smells of memories.....

I was frying bacon the other morn, and the aroma attacked my sense of smell...triggering memories of home. Feelings of well being. Childhood. Just everything rolled into one little scent. For the moment, I forgot all else. It seems like the older I get, the more I think about and notice smells and how they are associated with memories. And many of those are of childhood.

Is there anyone that reads this, other than family, who knows the smell of a corn crib? When seeing a corn crib one day on one of our rambling drives, I thought to myself I will probably never smell that again. It is hard to describe...kind of a dusty, musty smell I guess. When the crib is almost empty at the end of the summer, I can remember us kids digging through the last corners of corn, looking for the nests of mice. I know we found them, and I am pretty sure we killed the babies...but I don't remember doing that myself. (Now, I could not do that at all...and maybe I didn't actually kill them then...I don't remember. I know we did not attempt to raise them as pets.)

And then there is the smell of a cow and/or horse barn. That odor offends many people's senses, but I always take a deep breath of it....again transported back in time. I remember playing with calves when they were born. Our barn had individual stalls for each cow...each cow had a name of course. The barn did not sit in the pasture but at the edge of it.

We only put all the cows in in the winter; in the summer, we sometimes kept a calf or two in the barn and would turn the mom in to it, then turn her back out of the morn. Or let one in to be milked.

But back to winter, we made sure all the stall doors were open before we opened the gate. Once the gate was open, the cows and Old Bob would come rambling in, pretty much in an orderly fashion. Each cow had an assigned stall, and each one went into its own stall...we didn't have to direct them or anything. Why we had them assigned to their own place I don't know...unless it was just easier. We went behind them and shut the doors...made sure all was fed before we left.


I think Dolly Parton said it well when she wrote these lines to

My Tennessee Mountain Home
Sittin' on the front porch on a summer afternoon
In a straightback chair on two legs, leans against the wall
Watch the kids a' playin' with June bugs on a string
And chase the glowin' fireflies when evenin' shadows fall

Chorus:
In my Tennessee mountain home
Life is as peaceful as a baby's sigh
In my Tennessee mountain home
Crickets sing in the fields near by

Honeysuckle vine clings to the fence along the lane
Their fragrance makes the summer wind so sweet
And on a distant hilltop, an eagle spreads its wings
An' a songbird on a fence post sings a melody

Is there any smell better than honeysuckle blooming when you are driving down the road and pass through an area where it is growing. It grows over by the railroad here close to home. When the girls were young, they would take walks over there and bring home bouquets of it....the smell would permeate the whole house. So every time I smell it, I think of my own childhood, plus think of our girls....and I wonder do they ever think of those times.

And there is woodsmoke. I always write about woodsmoke. I always make a comment if I smell woodsmoke. I would dearly love to be able to bottle it...I would use at as perfume...I would make a candle that smells like it...I would have those car deodorant things in that smell.

And hay that has just been cut...I love it just about as much as wood smoke...

Oh, and the smell of the cooler at work when it is getting full of apples....it is an all enveloping smell...or when we made cider.

And the smell of pine needle.....

Now showing...

I thought I would show you the damage done to our Rav4...notice the wheel cover is split/cracked...the photos are probably best if enlarged.

There is a good little dent beside the tire....

The bumper is dented in...

This don't look too good either....

The back does not open...we both felt that the tire being mounted there absorbed a lot of the shock and maybe kept us from getting seriously injured.

I did wonder last night if I was going to wake up hurting this morn, but did not feel any worse for wear. I am thankful for that.

Downtown Fashions

I cannot remember the rest of this sign, but it was seen in Newnan, Georgia....and it just struck my funnybone. The wig part. Just something about seeing that followed by prom dresses...just who is going to the prom?

By the way, it is Newnan, not Newman as I originally thought. I misread the sign...
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We got up and headed to Terre Haute this morn, originally to go by the book store but decided to go to Hobby Lobby first. We had left there and were sitting at a stoplight and we were rear ended...a pretty good hit. We had our seat belts on...I did not notice at first but stuff, mainly change, had flew out of the cubbyhole; I had a can of Coke and some of it had splattered out.
We at least walked away from it....
Edited to add:
I told Roger other than the first three or four years of our marriage, I don't think we have had a single vehicle that hasn't been involved in at least one wreck...some more than one. And only one was my fault.

It is not even funny. I don't even think I can remember all of them...off the top of my head I can remember nine. One of them don't count in ways...someone hit us from behind but it was so minor we could not see any damage so we all just went on.

On the other hand, we had a Dodge minivan that seemed to have a bull's eye on it. We had had it 6 months when Roger was coming home from work...down a 4 lane highway...55mph and this old man got confused at a stoplight and turned in front of him. The old man was hurt...

We got t-boned in it...no one hurt. But both it and the one above really did a lot of damage to the van.

I was going to pick up my daughter at school and a girl pulled out in front of me...I was right at the cross street and even though I was only going 25-30 mph, I couldn't stop when the teenager pulled out in front of me. But it didn't hurt the van too much nor me at all...

Then Roger had it at work and someone went to pull through a parking space and pulled into him. It was one of the guys I didn't know. But thankfully, Roger had a buddy with him...the guy that hit him started to claim it wasn't his fault and Roger reminded him he had a witness.

I feel like I am forgetting something that happened with the van....but I think 4 accidents is a lot for one vehicle.

I don't think the rest of our families combined has been involved in this many wrecks.

The redneck gourmet & Decorating Otti!

On our way home from Brunswick, Georgia, we took a couple little scenic routes off the interstate...one led us through Newman, Georgia. It was late, had been rainy so somewhat overcast so my photos are not the greatest, but I am going to show two or three of them over the next few days. This was one mural/name that really caught our eye.

I would have loved to have had time to stop there and stroll through the town...I saw so much stuff I would have loved to photograph.
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I am slowly recovering from 1650 miles four days...the cats are glad we are home. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 71º, followed by several more days of cool weather. We can live with that.
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Lorelei and Otto are sure turning into a pair. Sarah said yesterday evening Lorelei slid off the couch head first onto him, got up them, and sat on him and started bouncing on him, all the while he is trying to sleep through it. After that she got off him and laid down beside him and started pinching his skin and examining it real closely.

I don't remember if it was yesterday or another day, but Sarah was in one room and heard a commotion in another room. First their cat went running down the haul, next came Otto, and he was followed by Lorelei just giggling. And Sarah never did know what they had done.

I leave you with a little clip titled; be sure and have your sound on!
Decorating Otti

From the road...in more ways than one

This was taken two or three nights ago...over in Illinois. I thought it appropriate since we are traveling for a couple or three days. We are going to see our older daughter graduate from her training on Tuesday. Then she will be home with us for a few days before heading out for her new position.

Traffic was not bad, yet we were both very tired when we checked into the hotel. We took a nap before going to find a bite to eat. Since eating, I have been playing with how this blog looks...not sure I am happy with it, but going to let it stay the way it is for a few days.
I got this pic from Sarah tonight...Lorelei and her friend Emily kicked back and relaxing for just a few minutes. According to Sarah, they had a blast.

I best get off here...too tired to have much to say.

Once when we were children...

I got these pictures in an email from Glen, my nephew that gave me the tool tips in the post below...he thought you might like to see a picture of us when we were young. Above is my mom, with her hand on his back...and that is me sitting there.
That is taken up at our old home place...I don't know what year it was taken. Probably around 1957-58...

(Just think back then...diapers were the norm...pampers had not been invented quite yet. Here is wikipedia's article on Pampers...they were made at a much earlier date than I would have thought. According to the article, 1961 was the date they were introduced.)

Of course I don't remember this being taken...but there are lots of memories of Glen...he spent two or three summers with us. None of us can remember how many...we all are positive he spent at least two summers with us, but other than that none of us know for sure if he spent any more.

It makes no difference how many he spent...we have a lifetime of memories.

There was Gap Creek that bordered our pasture and hayfield...I think we waded it every day of the week. Unless it stormed and the creek got too high. People up the road a few miles had thrown a tire in it every now and then, and when it flooded, it would wash them on down the creek. One would get partially buried in the creekbed. We would catch all the crawdads we could fine and put them 'in the tire,' as if that would actually corral them.

And we were mussel farmers of a sort...you go along and watch for their mouth to be open...all it looks like is just a small dark slit in the sand on the bottom. We would also gather all of those we could and have an area of the creek we would stick them in. Of course they didn't stay...but it was fun to do.

Not to mention skipping rocks, and occasionally actually fishing...nothing big to fish for, except there was supposed to be a big turtle down by the railroad trestle. No one ever caught it that I am aware of so it might have been a figment of someone's imagination.

And I cannot walk where there are a lot of pine/cedar trees without the smell takes me instantly back to our childhood.

I think we spent a third of the day in the creek, and a third in the cedar thicket, and a third in this basement that had been dug for a house....it filled with 2 or 3 feet of water and a house was never built. It was more or less a big mudhole. Actually, there was another pond just a couple hundred yards from the one--I really think they started to dig the basement there, only to have water start filling it right away. It really wasn't much more than a mudhole.

We (actually, my brothers I think) had put sungrannies in it, and I think catfish. Sungrannies were some kind of fish...I don't know what their real name was and cannot remember them too clearly. I just know sometimes we could hold a worm down to the water with our bare hands and they would take it...other times they wouldn't bite anything. We caught and released them because they were to little for eating.

I don't remember being inside, during the summer except at night...and for meals. And I think I probably had to wash dishes at night...I can't remember real clear when that started. Otherwise, we were outside doing something.

With thanks to my nephew, here you have Tool Tips

I don't know about everyone else, but normally I check my email several times a day...though I may not do anything else on here...I usually check it. Yesterday I came in and found an email from my nephew...in it was these tool tips. I sat there and laughed till I cried over several of them...I don't know if they were that funny or if it was just the mood I was in.....nahhh, I just started reading them again and they are still just as funny. Oh, and by the way, the photo has nothing to do with the writing...I just thought the color was gorgeous.

For those of you who might not be very familiar with some tools, this might help.

DRILL PRESS:

A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted vertical stabilizer which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

WIRE WHEEL:

Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, ' Oh sh--.... '

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL:

Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.

SKILL SAW:

A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS:

Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER:

An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW:

One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS:

Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

WELDING GLOVES:

Heavy duty leather gloves used to prolong the conduction of intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH:

Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW:

A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK:

Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG YELLOW PINE 2X4:

Used for levering an automobile upward off of a trapped hydraulic jack handle.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR:

A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps neatly off in bolt holes thereby ending any possible future use.

BAND SAW:

A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST:

A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 24-INCH SCREWDRIVER:

A very large pry bar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS:

See hacksaw.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER:

Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER:

A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws.

PRY BAR:

A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER:

A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER:

Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

MECHANIC ' S KNIFE:

Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines , refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

DAMMIT TOOL:

Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling ' DAMMIT ' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

Autumn closing in....

Roger went fishing with one of his buddies yesterday, so I took a short drive...over into Illinois. The harvest is underway....empty fields dotted the countryside. Grain trucks traveled the roads, and tractors dotted the landscape. I do not know why it is, but when the fields are empty the sky just seems so much bigger. I can just look and look and never seem to drink in the scene enough to get my fill.

One day I want to get the tripod out and take a series of photos and stitch them together....the photo above does not quite do justice to the feel of the area. Did anyone else see the show PBS had about the photographer, Art Sinsabaugh? Sometimes I question why I feel the need to take so many photographs, but then I find someone like him whose photographs really captured moments in time and I realize I hope some of mine might mean something, someday, to someone.

I will spend hours looking at photographs...sometimes I look for digital libraries of old photographs, and others I just find web albums or blogs that have really good images. I think the only other person I know that likes to look at photography as much as me is my brother, Neal. We both go through spells of sending each other links to photographs we like....

Who's in the curtains

Here is a little short video of the toot...one taken today. Bet you can't help but smile!

A trip to the zoo in photos

Jeremy had the day off yesterday, so we decided to take the toot to the zoo....above she is pointing at seals.

And above she is looking at her Pappaw who is taking the photo!

Mammaw had the camera in the following shots....she was very interested in these 'lizard' type of animals. I am sorry I don't have the names of the animals...yesterday my interest was mainly in Lorelei's reaction to things.

She wanted to get close to the 'lizards'...as you can see in the above two photos.

She loves chickens!

And just a couple with mom and dad...
She was looking at ducks with her mommy in the photo above....

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I just got to tell this little funny thing that happened. I was sitting in the floor playing with Lorelei Thursday evening. She was kind of in front of me on one side, and Otto was laying just inches from her. He was just looking at her, watching her face intently. I have no idea what he was thinking...

In seconds, Lorelei looked up and her eyes locked on him. She just stared at his face...she was almost nose to nose with him...then quick as a wink her tongue came out to give him a lick...but I got my hand in between. Otherwise she would have given his nose a big old lick! I guess she figured it was her turn to try to do the licking.

Wishes....

If wishes were horse, beggars would ride...or so they say. Well, we spotted this caterpillar yesterday and I told Roger I was tempted to get a jar or something to put him in, but since I didn't know what he was...didn't know what to feed him, I didn't. And the fact is, I am not sure he was even hungry....he seemed to be on a hunt.
Finally late yesterday evening I googled 'bright green caterpillar', seen a photo that matched this one right away, and it led me to finding that it is a Polyphemus Moth...take a look at what he becomes. So I have been wishing I had captured it; but in ways I am glad I didn't cause I think it was on the hunt to find a place to spin its cocoon...so I might have really interfered with its life cycle.

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Now, for something I cannot quite believe myself. I don't suppose any of you have noticed that I have not mentioned Mama Squirrel in quite a while. I have not seen her in at least two months....I really had given up on her still being alive. Or maybe not totally, because I sure have been looking for her....even if she had been in the cottonwoods across the street she is hard to see in them.

But with us being outside and talking almost everyday, it has been very odd for her to not come. Used to be I would set outside to talk on the phone, or just Roger and I sitting out back and we would look up and there she would be. So with him being outside working on the old garage almost every day, it was really starting to hit home that this time she was really gone.

Lo and behold, this afternoon a buddy of Roger's was over and we were sitting on the front porch talking, and I glanced towards the street and there ran a squirrel...I yelled, "Mama Squirrel, is that you?" never really expecting a reaction. It put on the brakes, stopped, and I think I yelled 'Mama' again and it gave me that look...

I ran inside to get nuts, and Roger kept talking to her...I came outside, all the time thinking it doesn't even look like her...it can't be her...but as I got closer I could see that it was her...I walked right up to her and bent down and gave her a nut, and then told her to come on and I went to the back...she followed along behind and I put her 'lunch' on Roger's trailer...and I got her a bowl of water. She used to all the time drink from Shelby's water dish out back so I though she might appreciate some fresh water.

Every time I think about it, I just cannot believe it was her...she is SO skinny...I have never seen her so little. She was/is almost skin and bones. I know summers have really bothered her the past two summers, but she never looked near like this.

But back to me yelling at her, Roger's friend is a new friend and has never seen her and even though I think we told him about her, I don't think it sunk in...most of Roger's buddies have either seen her or at least seen her pictures. But today when I yelled, I felt like his friend about jumped out of his skin....then proceeded to think we were both probably a little bit crazy. Now he didn't say anything, but I just got that feeling..till he seen her and her reaction.

And you know, I told Roger we should have known it was her...what other squirrel stops and looks at us when we yell 'Mama Squirrel!'

And I do wish I had a picture of her, but if you compared it to the others, you wouldn't believe it was her anyway.

Warning ahead

We went for a little drive yesterday...actually wanted to go down this road that we have passed numerous times in over the years and always wondered what was down it. Well, there wasn't anything real special about the road, but at last we know. And that road led us down other roads...and one we started down warned of a height restriction ahead. We wondered what in the world was ahead...and came down around a little bend and here was what awaited us. I will have another view on Time Stand Still...

This is interesting to me by itself...but I went to Mike and D's Life in the Hoosier State and Beyond post of something I have passed at least a hundred times, and probably more. Another railroad trestle. It is one I have always meant to take a photo of, but just never been there at the right time with my camera.
But what got me was the date of it...it is the same date as this one. Enlarge the picture and look at how the numbers are made and then go look at her post. It makes me wonder if they were made by the same people. We even came to another trestle/bridge or what ever you want to call it similar to the one above, with the same date, but I did not take a photo of it.

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It is taking some time to get used to not seeing Lorelei two or three times a week. She is liking the new house--seems to have settled in really nice. One day when Sarah was trying to get her settled for her nap, she had to have her Elmo, her bee pillow which is a big fuzzy yellow pillow about 15 inches square, with markings like a bee and her cow. Now her cow is just a hard plastic cow and this is not the first time she has had to have it to go to sleep....

She is also really enjoying getting to see her daddy every day...

She ended up sick at the end of last week...one doctor said it was a double ear infection...and gave her an antibiotic. The next day she had a rash, which they were afraid was an allergic reaction so they took her to another doctor, who said that he thought it was a heat rash from such high temperatures, and said that if it was an allergic reaction it would be more splotchy. He also said her ears looked fine, but her throat was red and that it might have been strep but the antibiotic the other doctor had prescribed would take care of it.

Then yesterday she fell and hit her head on the TV stand and got a goose egg..I have picture but not going to show it. It makes me hurt just to look at it. So, it has been somewhat of a rough start over there...but things will settle down.

Treasured clutter

We went for a little drive today, passing this house during our travels. There is just so much on this porch and in the yard it is hard to see it all. I wondered to myself if it was all treasures, or if it was just stuff. I have not doubt that at least at one time it was all treasures, and may still be.

I also got to thinking about old houses down home...a lot of women had flowers on the front porch. Back when I was a child it was not uncommon to have a 'shelf' spanning the space between two support posts of the porch. The only ones I ever saw were just boards...no paint or stain of any sort. And potted plants and flowers were set on the board.

I have not seen a house like this in years and years. And this in turn led me to thinking about other things that have come and gone. Remember when plant stands similar to the one shown here was the thing to have. Almost everyone I knew, and granted I didn't know that many people, but I think every neighbor we had at one time had one of these.

Another thing that everyone seemed to buy during the early years of our marriage was the hall tree. Granted, people still buy them but not near as much.

Oh, and remember when ashtrays and ashtray stands were a common gift...no home was without ashtrays. Even if you did not smoke, you almost always had people coming that did. I still do have a couple of ashtrays, but my friends that do smoke usually smoke outside because they know smoke really bothers us.

Then there were all the gadgets for the kitchen...I cannot even remember all the different things that came out. I think there was one for making grilled cheese. Then there was this 'thing' to do hot dogs on. The hot dogs were more or less electrocuted. I know there were others, but I am having trouble remembering them. Those were the two things that were given to me...other than them I cannot remember any of the others. I just know at one time I thought it was possible to buy a gadget geared to every job.

An accident waiting to happen....

I could not decide what I wanted to write about...actually, it was more I couldn't find what I originally wanted to write about. Then I got detoured looking at Red Green videos. I would have liked to show a video of him, but decided that he is someone that has to grow on a person....except maybe for some of his monologues.

Anyway, I will save him for another time. Instead I chose to introduce Bill Dance. He is an angler and had his own TV show at one time....I don't know if it is still on TV.


Anyway, after watching this video, you will see why I called this post ' An accident waiting to happen.' This is compilation of some of his 'accidents.' I hope you enjoy it.

From Sarah's cell phone

At first glance, you may think Lorelei is asleep, but glance at the hand against the door..it is just a blur of motion. This is taken in what we call the sun room of Sarah's house...the door goes out on to the deck...Sarah put this little throw rug there and the toot just loves to play with it. She uses it as a quilt to cover up her toys, etc. Today she was playing with Otto there.

I cannot seem to settle down into blogging at all...yet I don't do much else either. I guess I will eventually get back to normal, or at least what is normal for me.
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We just got a little bit of rain for the first time in ages. I cannot remember the last time we had rain. I think there has been a time or two when we got a few drops, but not enough to even make the pavement and sidewalks wet. So far, that is all this rain had done....just enough to get them damp. We have some patches in the yard that are turning brown.

That is typical of the summers here, though. I remember more summers where we would go a month with hardly needing to mow. I can probably count on one hand the number of summers where we have had to mow every week.

I see more leaves falling every day...
When the leaves start to turn, my mind automatically turns to the woods. And ginseng....pictured above for those of you who don't know what it is. It turns this golden glow in the fall...even before fall became the legal time to dig it, fall was the favorite time. It was easier to spot.

Usually on a Sunday, my mom and I would decide to head for the woods...sometimes just to be going, but more often it was to dig ginseng. If we were lucky, we got to go for 3 or 4 or 5 hours. I had this old black purse.....I used it as a pack. It had belonged to an older sister, was round like a log....probably about 6 inches in diameter and 12 or 15 inches long with a zipper across the top and a shoulder strap.

I didn't take it to put the ginseng in...ginseng went in our pockets. I used that old purse to carry our dinner in...a slice of home cured pork shoulder or sometimes plain old home cured bacon, cornbread, and an onion. I always carried some matches, but I don't remember if I carried them in that old purse or in something in my pocket. We would work our way back to this one creek, usually ending up there about half way through our hunt.

We would get out on a little gravel bar, I would hunt dried twigs and little limbs that I could break, and we would start a little fire. While the fire got going good and got hot, we would each hunt a small sapling or a tree to break a limb/twig from...you know how you do to cook marshmellow.... we would peel back the bark, sharpen an end, and spear our slice of meat on it. We would slowly turn it over the fire, till it was sizzling hot, and grease dripping from it. I can almost smell it now!

We would find a rock or something to sit and get comfortable on while we ate meat and onion and cornbread! Talk about delicious....there isn't anything better than that.