No, this is not Pettycoat Junction....

We saw this crop duster just a couple or three weeks ago but I didn't have a chance to get a good photo....it did remind me of Petty Coat Junction, the TV show. Does anyone else remember it? The youngest of the three girls, Betty Jo, marries this Steve, and if I remember correctly, he flew a crop duster. If he didn't, why does it pop into my mind every time I see a crop duster?
I posted a couple of good pics over on Time Stand Still, but saved these for here. He was dusting a field and on one end of the field would turn around right over us...or practically over us. Well, we were turning around to leave, and here he came again...
this time he did a pass each way on the field right next to us. I felt sure he was doing it just for me. He was low enough to see me, have no doubt of that. (No, I could not see through his windows because of the glare of the sun!) I wish I could thank him/her for the pass.
I feel like I wasted my opportunity because not a single one of those photos are as good as it should have been! I wish I could thank him/her for at least giving me the chance to try. It was a really nice highlight for the day.

If you haven't seen it done, it is hard to imagine how low they come....it is as close as it looks in these photos! Talk about taking nerve and talent...you would really have to keep your mind on your job!

Early training....

This is my little nephew, Jackson, just a bit over 1 1/2 yrs old. He is reading Field & Stream...we believe in training our children early...he already loves going for rides on the 4-wheeler with his papaw. He will ride with him as long as his papaw will take him. It won't be long until he is fishing and hunting.

I have to tell this cause I thought it was so cute. First I will tell you a little history. Jackson loves Santa Claus. He got all excited over the holidays if he saw him on television...if someone was on television with a white beard, he thought they were Santa Claus. And he would go around all day hollering for Santa Claus. His mom and dad had him out one morn a while back, as they were leaving some place, this guy with a beard got out of his car and went in a restaurant...Jackson looked and said "Santa." Well, here just the other day, he was playing with his little phone, pretending to talk on it, then handed it to his Mamaw and so she ask him who it was, and he said "Santa."
***********This is my juice I made today...I will probably put that pint in the fridge and drink it since it needed just a bit more in it. I didn't notice that when I canned it, but I was sort of hoping to have a reason to sample it.

You might wonder how tomatoes ties in with early training...well, I helped my mom can and freeze stuff as long as I can remember. And she taught me to love putting up food for the family. I think she enjoyed canning and putting stuff in the freezer as much as she enjoyed anything. That is some of my fondest memories from home...

Also, one year my older daughter bought a bunch of sweet corn, and she called me to see if I wanted to help. I forget how many dozen ears she got, but we had a regular assembly line going to get it blanched, cut off the cob, and frozen. I know we stopped sometime during doing it to have big bowls of tomatoes cut up....I cannot remember if we had them salted or with Italian dressing.
**************
When we took Lo to the creek the other day, it was like going down memory lane for Roger and me. We started taking the girls to the creek when they were young. Not quite as young as Lorelei....but still they were not real old. We would fish while they played...and sometimes they might fish a little bit...but most of the time they looked for crawdads, snakes, or anything else that moved...

I watched Lorelei and I just know she is going to love it every bit as much as they did. I am so glad to have been a part of introducing it to her.

Fresh from the garden....

These are sitting in my kitchen...waiting for my attention. I am thinking some tomato juice will be made some time tomorrow. There is nothing better than home canned tomato juice.

They make me think of summer days and coming in with a load of stuff from the garden, and taking time to grab a tomato and a shaker of salt and sitting on the edge of the porch to eat till the juice would not drip all over the place. All winter long I have been waiting for them...we have been having them for a week or two now and I still am not tired of them. And I have not ventured beyond having them with salt or on a sandwich...but look plan to have some soaked in Italian dressing one of these days.

I also love to cut up other vegetables along with the tomateos and pour enough Italian dressing over it all and let it soak...my favorites are cucumbers, bell peppers, cauliflower, onions. I feel like I am forgetting something but can't think what....

Date with Lorelei = photo overload

All the following photos will enlarge if clicked.
For ages and ages we have wanted to take Lorelei to the creek to play...
this afternoon we met our daughter in Bainbridge, put the car seat in our Rav4 and transferred the things they brought...we think it was a big hit....she waded with her mommy and papaw
she threw rocks and splashed.....
she played with her buckets
and sprinkling can
and had the best time.
I bet we will be doing this again...but I hope we can go when it is cooler. There were places to get in the shade but if not in the shade it was just too hot for me.

From last week...

I meant to show these last week...I love the light streaming through. These photos don't do it justice.
Believe it or not, we had a little cooling off here the past couple of days. I have sat on our porch quite a bit today....and I even pulled a few weeds while outside.

Another hot one here in the midwest....

This is from out at the strip pits...I think it is a type of thistle but not positive. I am not wading out in the weeds to find out for sure. I liked the way the evening sun lit it from behind.

I am not positive, but I don't think we hit the three digit area of the thermometer today....the highest I saw was 99.4º. That was hot enough...it felt as if we were walking out into an oven when we went to the library. And let me tell you, it was a busy place. It is always busy, but I did wonder if people had come in there to keep cool.

When I ran out to the strip pits, it felt at least ten degrees cooler, and the thermometer on the car said 88º. It was nice to be out and hear the birds singing...and I saw several deer. I did not see the owl again....next time I will either go a bit later or else stay just a bit later. I had to turn the lights on as I left the place, but I still think it would have been better to be out there a little later.

Rain.....

Over on Time Stand Still, I posted a picture taken the morning we headed to Shipshewana....here is one taken on the way home. One of these days we want to go back up there...but that is not the point of the post.

The rain just looks so appealing...today the temperature finally went up to over a 104º...I don't remember if it was 104.2 or 104.6º, but people that is hot. I sat out in the swing for about 20 minutes this evening and the swing frame was hot to touch and it is in the shade all day. Needless to say...rain sounds good right now.
*********************
A while back it crossed my mind that in Tennessee we could hear the rain coming....do any of you know what I am talking about. It has something to do with being in the mountains....you could look back towards the mountain and tell it was raining and you could also hear it...even though it was mile or more away. I guess the sound sort of echoed....or else it is sort of how you can cup your hand behind your ear and hear better...the mountains was wrapped around the rain and the sound was amplified.

I do get tired of rain when it rains and rains and rains, but as a general rule, I love rain. I loved it as a kid...if someone was available to play with, we would head to the barn to do something. We could always find something to do there. Whether it was swings, play with a calf, play in the hay if there was any--which we were definitely NOT supposed to do...but we did anyway. And it wasn't that we did these only when it rained...

I can remember my niece and I swinging on swings and trying to kick our flip flops high enough to hit the roof....and I can remember us taking grass string and looping it together to make a long line of it, and running it through a crack in the floor of the loft. We would tie the end up there to something to keep it from falling on through....and then on the end hanging down below, we would tie an empty bleach jug or whatever kind of plastic jug we could find but I do believe it was usually a bleach jug....then we would take a baccerstick tobacco stick and bat it back and forth to each other.

But we would hit it as hard as we could...and sometime strike it more in a downward motion which made it jump all crazy. Laughter rang out with each hit....and now I am not even sure why it was so funny. I just remember laughing till we cried sometimes...

If no one was available, and sometimes even if there was, there was always a book calling my name. Sometimes I sat on the porch and read, and sometimes headed to the barn and read. At one time we had an old mattress up there...where it came from is more than I know. And I don't know what ever happened to it.

But my niece and I had it out across a couple of the tier poles we used to hang tobacco on...we would get out on it and read.

I guess this and some of the other childhood posts explains why I love barns so much.

Another finished and mailed....

This is the last knife Roger made....it has been finished quite a while...I just had not felt like taking pictures of it. It is a nice size...fits my hand well.
It is going to our daughter on the west coast.....
I sent it out today....
***************
I set and watched the temperatures steadily climb this evening...the last I noticed it was 99º...I went down in the basement after that and played with fabric. I made a few more crumb blocks....that is where you use up little bits of fabric left over from other projects. Some people seem to go a mile a minute while making them but mine are in such shape that it is slow going for me.

I have also been cutting 2 1/2 inch blocks from pieces that are big enough for that....I am getting quite a few of those but it will take a LOT to make anything at all. But it is still doing something creative. I have so many things in mind to do...but some of it requires actual thinking. I have yet to make the backing for Oldest Daughter's quilt top...I almost started it tonight but wanted to wait till I can stick with it long enough to make it. It sounds simple, but I do have to make sure I make it big enough.

It is so hot that Bubbie has been spending his nights inside, as well as most of the day. (His normal thing to do is stay out all night and come in and sleep all day.) He had went out this morn for a bit, and when I opened the door, he ran in and just flopped down on the tile floor in the kitchen and has not been back out till just now. And I bet he does not stay out long.

The one that got away!

Look what I missed....a Great Horned Owl! A quick run to the strip pits resulted in us spotting a the owl first thing....but the minute I got out of the Rav to take a photo, it took flight.

Big thunderheads rolled in this evening and we ran out there...by the time we got out there it was so dark it felt like almost night. After we drove through the strip pits, the sun was back and it felt like we were waking from a dream.
**************************
Talking about waking, does anyone realize just how good it is to be able to go to bed in your own bed every night....and to go to sleep? I tell you it will be a while before I forget to feel thankful each night I can go to bed and go to sleep....

There are just so many things we all take for granted. With all the heat, I am so thankful to have AC....thinking how awful it would be without it. And knowing that a lot of older people would really have trouble breathing without it. I think about this several times a day now.

It also brings to mind that not all that many years ago, air conditioning was not the norm. When we were kids, we generally slept with the doors open and windows open....I remember laying my pillow in the window sill and sleeping with my head in the window when I was young.

And the year and a half that Roger and I lived in Tennessee, we opened the back door, and had the window open in our bedroom and our little house cooled out just fine. I don't even know if we used a fan.

We never had AC regular till after we had children. And I think our oldest daughter was at least in elementary school before we had a car with air conditioning. Now, I can't stand to drive down the highway with the windows open....

I would miss the air conditioning now, but what I really miss is being able to leave doors open. Locking doors is relatively new to me...I guess I was not living in the real world. But all the years my kids were growing up and in college, the doors were never locked unless we went totally away for over night. Most of the kids that came here knew they were never locked...some of them knew where I kept a few dollars...in case it was needed for paper boy, etc.

I really miss those days...

Another for Barn Charm!

First, let me get the preliminaries over with. This is my entry for Tricia's Barn Charm Meme...click if you want to join or just see the rest of the barns that are entered.

This barn comes from Tennessee....again. But it also has a little story attached. Everyone that knows me, knows how much I love Tennessee and consider it home. Even if I don't go down for years and years it is still home....and I still like the soft southern drawl of the people. I still think they are some of the finest people to be found. I guess everyone thinks that of their hometown or home state.

Imagine my surprise when we stopped for me to take photos of this...I got yelled at for taking pictures! Actually, I didn't know what they said....I was standing in the road on down from a house, and Roger was just pulled over to the side but still in the road. So I walk back to see what the lady said...and it was one lady telling me that another lady said I did not have permission to take photos of the barn!

The other lady came out then, an elderly lady I should add, and asked me why I was taking pictures...I just told her I take pictures of barns where ever I go...and walked away. I was so upset I did not want to talk to her....if I had at that time I would probably have told her if she didn't want pictures of it taken, then she needed to build a privacy fence. I just walked away....I could not believe someone down there would say anything about a picture being taken.

I had to tell this little story.....I have taken a gazillion pictures and some of them right in peoples faces almost and no one has ever gotten upset. It just goes to show there has to be an old grouch wherever you go.

Vanishing act

In case you have wondered I have not vanished from the face of the earth...but might as well have for all that I have done.

I have had some kind of cold/flu thing...and have hardly been on the computer. I haven't left the house in 8 days except to go to the doctor yesterday....I had to get better before I could stand to go down there. No Joke! I had been having a scratchy throat off and on for 3 or 4 weeks, then last Wednesday evening it hit, and did not leave. I cannot sleep for coughing...even the cough syrup with codeine in it did not do the trick last night. I would be so sleepy I could hardly hold my eyes open, but the minute I tried to lay down and sleep, I would start coughing.

I did get a couple naps in last night, but woke each time coughing so hard I could not catch my breath. Hopefully tonight will be better.
**************************************
Added to that, one of my kitties got sick and has passed on...this is by no means the whole story but I don't feel like telling it all. It was Cougar, my own little boy....so Roger and I both hurt over that. At least he was well loved while he lived. Just so many little things we will miss about him.
**************
I have not been visiting any blogs...I may start trying to go through a few...I know i have been missing some good pictures from several of you...so going to take me a while to catch up. We had went to Sarah and Jeremy's the weekend before this started for me, so missed some blogging then I think.

The pictures say it all...

I don't think I need to say much...
Just take a look at the photos.....
She is almost always ready with a smile...
And no matter what she does, Otti still loves her...
He would love to be a lap dog....
but serves as a pillow just as well...
oh, and sometimes he gives her spit baths....

Why stop?

I just cannot seem to stop taking pictures of the goldfinches...how I wish I had taken out that screen long ago.
I told Roger I am going to have to have a feeder right in front of the window once this sunflower is gone.
*********************
It is so hot and humid here...I hung clothes out this morn, the first couple of hours they dried up to a point fairly good, but the last little bit they just hung and didn't seem to do anything. I just brought them in and threw them in the dryer a few minutes....and hung another load out.

Music is blaring....it takes me back to childhood. I have always loved working to music. When I was a kid, I liked to mop...still like to in fact. Sometimes in the summer when we were busy canning and freezing garden stuff, and also picking blackberries and making jams and jellies...I can remember the kitchen floor just getting so dirty we felt like our feet almost stuck to it. I couldn't wait till everyone went to bed....I would turn the music on...not loud of course...but I always got down on my hands and knees to mop back then. And it was pure joy to work and listen to music...uninterrupted.

Preparing food for winter was such fun. We would gather beans and sit on the front porch talking while we broke them...and in between fixing meals...or sometimes after the last meal, we would can them. And we always froze some. Jars had to be filled and the freezer full, or we weren't done.

Or we would be gathering corn to freeze...that is another job we would do that could cause a mess...we would 'shuck' it...not sure if you call it shucking when it is still green, and take the silks off and cut off any end with worms on them...and all that stuff that came off the corn, I would gather and take and throw across the fence to the cows...

Then the corn was washed and then put on the stove on to blanch, and then cut off the cob. We froze very little corn on the cob because it took up too much room in the freezer.

We always bought peaches and canned them, and canned some of the blackberries for pies. And there was an old apple tree we used to gather apples from...we peeled them and I think mom froze some, but we cut a lot and laid them in the sun to dry....
******************************
I am messing around with things here...trying to go through some things and choose what I want to keep and what I want to pass on. Not having a lot of luck. I need to stop with that and do the vacuuming and some cleaning.

It feels so good to be able to reach and do stuff...I think I am much farther along with the therapy than they thought I would be. And it feels wonderful...I just have not felt like myself for the past month or two.