Random 5 Friday

 How's this for Oyster Mushrooms...we always called them tree mushrooms.  My husband spotted this growing on a tree stump on his way home from work.  We have gathered/picked them every since we got married;  Roger has actually been eating them all his life, but these are the first we have ever seen that were this big...

I just thought I would share these pics today till a few might see them that did not see the original post about them.

We had mushrooms to fry that night, plus froze several bags.
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It is time for Random 5 Friday

1.  It bugs me to no end when I email a business to ask a question and they do not reply.  I often wonder why even have an address if they are not going to handle the email responsibly.

2.  I have got to say it again:  I am ready for summer.  Or spring at least.  I can not wait to be able to sit on the front porch and to have ripe tomatoes from our garden.   We at least got above freezing today!

3.  I am almost through reading Hiking Through:  One Man's Journey to Peace and Freedom on the Appalachian Trail by Paul Stutzman....I always enjoy reading personal accounts of through hikers.  When I am done with it, I have about decided to start Grass of the Earth by Aagot Raaen.  It is the biography of Norwegian homesteaders in North Dakota.  I have read it before and will probably read it again.  It just sort of suits this time of year.

When it is this time of year, I wonder how our ancestors survived the winters.  It was a lot of work just to keep warm.  Much less do the work they had to do.  They didn't have heat and light and water at the flip of a switch.  And think of the clothing we have now.  All the special blends and fibers just to help stay warm.  

4.  I am the most indecisive person there ever was or will be.  Just ask my husband.  Most times I know what I DON'T want...just hard to decide what I do want.  He can ask me where I want to eat...I may not know where I want to eat, but I know I don't want to eat at McDonald's.  (Don't mind breakfast there...and I like their french fries)  We will decide to get out and go somewhere just to get out...I may not know where I want to go, but I know I don't want to go shopping.

5.  With the amount of money we spend paying taxes, our streets should be paved with gold.  Here in Indiana we pay federal taxes, State Taxes, property taxes, and we pay taxes on our vehicles each year when we get our license plates.  Say we have to pay $350 sales tax when we buy a car, we pay that when we go get our license plate.  Next year,  we pay say $325 when we get our license plates renewed...and it just gradually decreases.  The tenth year I think it is $49, and that is what we pay each year thereafter.  Of course a trailer is another $35 or more...and I think when we had a dog, it was 3 or 4 dollars for each dog.

So, I was wondering, what all kind of taxes does your state have?

To read more random thoughts, please check in at A Rural Journal.

Have you seen this commercial?

My niece posted this on facebook, and my daughter seen it and reposted it to call it to my attention.



Don't you just love it!!!!

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Not much going on here....supposed to have some more bad weather moving in which is forcing me to go shopping.  I told Roger I am ready to do something besides go shopping.  If I had been in my right mind I would have got it done yesterday, and then we could have taken off today for parts unknown.

Bit of sewing...

Would you believe this is a potholder...saw some when fooling around on the internet so sat down and tried making my own pattern and this  is what I came up with.  I would not mind if it was a little bigger but it is still plenty big to use to get a hot pan out of the oven.

The one above and the one below are about the size of a sheet of paper...(Ignor the thread stuck the the front)

and the last one might be a bit wider than one...I started them to make a bigger crumb block, then decided to make potholders of them.  Not real happy with the binding...I did not do a continuous binder where I mitered the corners and I hate the job I did the other way.  The mitered corners are much easier in my book...I don't know what I was thinking.

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It is still bitter cold...I just don't even want to get out and go anywhere in it.  But sooner or later I am going to have to get out and go to Walmart and the grocery.  Just not looking forward to it.

I do want to get back to sewing again, but another puzzle is calling my name.  I keep trying to forget about it but not sure how strong my will is in that dept.

Fishing

Roger

I don't know if there is a single person that reads my blog that likes to fish...well, other than some family members.  When the kids were young, we started wading the creeks and fishing with our ultra-light rod & reels...Roger and I would fish and the kids would fish and/or play.  There is not much that is more exciting than have a small mouth hit your lure...they jump out of the water and fight like crazy.  But as far as fight, if a blue gill got as big as a bass, they would be hard to land.  Some of them really fight.

This is Sarah and one of her friends...

But what I am leading to is, I want to go back and visit childhood.   Reading that exerpt from Where the Red Fern Grows the other night made me remember days gone by.  Especially fishing and how much fun we had.

When we were kids and wanted to go fishing, we never even thought about fishing lures.  I don't even remember how old I was before I fished with a Zebco rod and reel.  Over by the creek that ran along the edge of our property, reeds grew.  We called them reeds, anyway.  They were like regular bamboo...only grew 8 or 10 feet tall and grew there wild.

Whenever we wanted to go fishing, either we had one already cut, or if needed would go cut one and bring it home.  We would tie our fishing string to the little end and wind a few yards around the end, and tie a hook  and sinker to the other end.  I don't remember if we used a bobbin or not...I think we did.

Then for bait, we would find some kind of can, put a couple inches of damp dirt in the bottom, and dig our own redworms.  (You night call them earthworms) I don't know why, but sometimes mom threw some water off the back porch...I don't recall why or if it was just something that happened every now and then.  I am almost positive our kitchen sink had a separate drain...rather than draining into our septic tank.  It drained out and went out under the porch and on down to a ditch.  It was buried, of course, but there was an access outside, out far enough not to be under the kitchen porch.  And when mom threw water out the back, it would be by that access...

Well, right around that area, we could usually dig and find worms because of the dampness.  And another favorite place to look was under anything that had been laying in contact with the ground for a while.  We had clay ground, so it did not dry up quick, and usually if we could find a chunk of wood or board laying like that, we could find a few worms under it.

We would find as many as we could in a short amount of time, and then go fishing.  Usually to this little tiny pond...

Those days were such fun...we never caught anything big enough to eat...we didn't care.  It was fun way to spend a summer afternoon...and fishing just sounds like so much fun right now.  I guess in this bitter cold weather, even mowing the yard has some appeal value.

Do you remember how Where The Red Fern Grows starts out?  I had totally forgotten.  In case you are wondering...Billy is a grown man and is walking along when he hears a dogfight.  A pack of dogs are attacking an old redbone hound.  The redbone sends some of the dogs away injured, and Billy swings his jacket and scares the rest of them away.

Of course the redbone brings back memories of Dan and Little Ann...anyway, he takes the him home and baths him and feeds him.  And by the looks of his feet, Billy thinks he is hunting for his master. The redbone has a homemade collar on, and scratched on it is the name Buddie.  He feeds Buddie and when night comes, Buddy becomes restless, so Billy lets him out the back gate to continue on his journey.

My question is, wonder what happened to Buddy?  Did Wilson Rawls ever write Buddie's story?  I think it would have been every bit as good as the story of Old Dan and Little Ann.
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And has anyone read The Last of the Breed by Louis L'Amour?  Everyone always thinks he wrote only westerns, and maybe most were but this one isn't.  And it is one I have always thought he planned to write a follow up book. This is one of my favorite books.

More snow on the way

This is one of the goldfinches that visit our feeders.  We don't have many of them.  I have more in the summer when I have actual sunflowers growing.

Has anyone ever grown thistles on purpose?  Sometimes I am tempted to.  I love their flowers--they are so pretty.  I think people would probably think I need my head examined if I did.
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Believe it or not, more snow is headed our way.  Not much according to the weatherman.  2 or 3 inches.  We were in the 20's today.  It felt like a heat wave.  Even my kitties do not like this weather.  Bubbie goes out one door, and usually goes around to the other door and wants in.  And once today he wanted out, Roger opened the door and he turned around and ran away from the door.

Random 5 Friday...

Just something brighten your day.

It's time for Random 5 Friday again and I have only got a couple ahead of time.

1.  I love the way the words circadian rhythm falls off the tongue.  I think Circadian Rhythm would make a wonderful title for a book.
    ****I can never just spell rhythem.  Not any more.  Just in the past year or two I have noticed any      time I spell it, I usually spell it wrong the first time around

2.  I LOVE google earth.  I just have to say that every now and then.  I can spend hours on there looking at other places....but sometimes in just looking at the area around here.  Sometimes trying to find a certain place to place a few of my photos.  (You can see the few I have on there HERE.)

3. Sometimes for a late night snack, I bake a small pan of cornbread...sometimes I will have something with it and sometimes I just have it hot and fresh from the oven.

4.  I am loving our new Roku 3....it is faster than trying to watch Netflix or Youtube through the Blu-ray player.  I never had any problems with Netflix on the Blu-ray player other than it was a slow process to get it started and to search for something, but Youtube videos were most often hanging up, not loading, etc.

5. I am really wanting to see the second season of Bletchley Circle....I don't care if it is on PBS or if Netflix would get the DVDs.  I just really am anxious to see it. 

 That is my Random 5...now what are yours. 

edited to add:  I think I have the words spelled right now!  LOL  I guess it was too late at night for me to be typing this.   I guess I had stayed up too late the night before to be thinking straight last night.!

Highland Lawn Chapel

We were at the Highland Lawn Cemetery in Terre Haute back in early November...I love the looks of this little chapel.  I have been meaning to post this pic of it and am just now getting around to it.
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We made it to our meeting spot yesterday with Lorelei.  She was actually ready to go...but I think she had a good time.  I forgot to tell that the first night she was here, she was wanting a snack.  I told her I had ice cream, and ask her if she wanted some.

Her reaction was, "OH, Mamaw!   I LOOVEEE ice cream!"  Notice the emphasis on the Oh and then the LOVE...

And one evening, I was in the kitchen and she says, "Mamaw!  Are you listening...Bubbie is talking to me!  I'll say something and he'll say Meow back!" and proceeded to show me...she would speak to him and he would meow back to her.  What is so funny, they were laying side by side one night and he is close to being as big as her.  Well....ALMOST Close.

Then today when Sarah picked her up from school, she was informed by Lorelei that Max had told her he was going to marry her, and he was going to be a doctor and a dad!

Are you smiling?  I am.

Cold critters

Though these were taken January 8th, everything is facing cold temps again.  It is 13ºF as I type this and part of the time the wind is just whistling.  I was up at 4:00ish this morn and it was howling then.  The snow we got has been blown and drifted till it is impossible to tell how much we actually got.  Bubby was just dying to be let out this morn....he was not out 5 minutes till he was demanding to be let in again.  And he came flying in....none of that sauntering in so slowly that he does a lot of times.

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The toot is still here....our plans are to meet today.  I guess we will wait till up in the day a bit to see.  With the warm temps of the past two days our roads had melted, but were still wet so they will probably be a sheet of ice here in town.

It is sure going to be quiet when she leaves...she has giggled and giggled.  When there is nothing to laugh about, she makes up something.  And has such a deep belly laugh.  One night she discovered how it sounds different in the bathroom if you yell in there, so was in there yelling first Papaw and then Mamaw, and after each yell, she would just scream with laughter.  Roger was outside and said it sounded like we were torturing a child inside.  

Then we have a couple mystery games on our computers....the kind where you are to hunt for objects.  Wow, does she ever love them.  And some of them you have to figure out how things work and she is doing that.  Just growing so much.

Lorelei is here

 Picture of Lorelei taken in January of 2010

The trip to meet Jeremy and pick up Lorelei was uneventful...we did stick to the main roads, but soon as we got out of our little town, the roads were clear.  Not a problem anywhere at all.  Roads were clear in Terre Haute.  I don't think other places got as much as we did of that snow.  But I think most other places got more than we did in what we got yesterday and last night.  We might have gotten another inch but that was it.

I have to tell this while it is fresh on my mind....

Last night Papaw was pretending with Lorelei while playing with one of her little houses she has here.  I did not catch the beginning of the conversation but heard Papaw say that maybe Cinderella went hunting.

Lorelei says, "No, she didn't!"

Papaw says, "Girls can hunt..."

Lorelei says, "No, Cinderella doesn't hunt.  I watched a movie about her and she didn't hunt!"

And all the time she is telling him this, she is wagging her finger back and fourth in a negative fashion.  I about cracked up.  Papaw just doesn't watch the right movies, I guess.

Just a little post

We will be passing by this barn after while...on our way to meet Sarah and Lorelei. I took this the last time we went that way.  It is not as close to the road as it appears to be in the photo.  We are going to wait a little bit and let the sun be out a while before heading that way.  But not waiting too late because we are supposed to get 2-3 inches of snow this evening.

Not sure how much time I will have on here...I am sure I will be coloring and who knows what else.  I am sure Lorelei will come with plans of her own.  Right now going outside will not be one of them, though it is supposed to warm up.  As I type this the weather place I go to says it is 12ºF right now.

I need to finish getting dressed and throw some clothes in the dryer....so best be getting off here and getting busy.

A Random 5 post

A random photo for a random post....

It is Random 5 time...I do love this meme.  I don't get everyone visited but I do make a good stab at it.  The only thing is I cannot comment on some Google+ entries.  I don't know why, but I have to set up an account if I want to comment on them, but I don't want an account.

Now for my Random 5.....

1.  I am really, really ready to sit on in the swing and read...wish I had room to move it inside.

2.  It is going to be a while before I can do that...we got more snow.  At least 3 inches...and we are supposed to get more, though how much I don't know.

3.  Does anyone besides me patch jeans?  I do it with a sewing machine for the most part.  I used to always do it by hand.  I can remember my mom patching them and them looking so neat.  I think that is why I patch them....just remember her sitting patiently stitching away.

4. Lorelei is supposed to come this weekend...she wants to come tomorrow but the roads are so slick we don't want to risk getting in a wreck.

5.  I have a few posts that I go back and read every so often.  Most recently were this one and this one from Sandra.  I had Roger read them because I was laughing so hard I couldn't.  Add to that some of the actions he did and it was comedy at its best. 

Linking to Nancy's Random 5

The day just past

The day just past has been a roller coaster ride for me with emotions...oh, not a bad one but just one of those days...we had had to have the trucked worked on and they called that it was ready.  So ran and got it, then ran to Walmart.

As some of you might remember, I love to watch youtube videos late at night...I have been watching them by streaming them through our Blu-ray player, but apparently that part of the player became corrupted.  So, I have been limited to Netflix on TV.

I had looked at the Roku players before we got it, but decided on the player.  So I had gone back to looking at the Roku but did not do any in depth comparisons between the models.  Well, I wanted to glance at them at Walmart...and ended up getting one.  I had a bad feeling about it...I got the middle of the road model.  The players did not have the chart on the back that allows you to look at what each model offers side by side.

Got home and got it hooked up....no Youtube.  I get on-line and that only comes with the top of the line model.  I didn't think Walmart would take it back but they did and I got the other model and got it hooked up.  And everything worked...so much easier than through the Blu-ray player.

I came in here to write a quick email and had a note from my brother asking me if I had listened to this video in a while:

For awhile it would not play on Youtube....too long of a story to go into. Anyway, it just seemed like my cup was too full of blessings.  I have the song and can play it any time but it is not the same as sitting and watching a slide show from home.

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Now I have just watched the move The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn.  I had read about it at A Joyful Cottage....I am so thankful she mentioned it.  It will be a favorite--one I remember and will
probably watch again.

So overall it has been a good day...I do have other concerns but won't bore you with them.  Just wanted to share the good things that have happened today. 

Windows....

I had to search to find this photo...I wanted a pic of a window that I had not shown before...just to have something new.  This is from Nashville, Indiana.  I have taken pics of this window before..you can see it here...it is the one on the left side.  This place has such unusal stuff.
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I was reading a little today and in it the character mentioned remembering her mom opening the window.  And just that phrase 'opening the window' ...it brought back memories.  I remember mom always having me open the kitchen windows.  We didn't have AC so it got quite hot in there in the summer with all the canning and cooking going on.  Sometimes if they were stuck, we had to wait for one of my brothers.

I had a corner bedroom and could open up the windows in there and I would get a cross breeze.  Back then, heat didn't bother me near as bad as it does now.  I think I have become 'soft.'

I also remember when I was really young, I slept with my pillow on the window seal and laid there and listened to the whippoorwills.  And I could hear the traffic down on the highway...but there was not the traffic that there is now.  I also remember my brothers setting listening to vehicles and saying what kind of car it was...and maybe even saying what kind of motor.  I don't know if they really knew what they were talking about or if they were just guessing...the highway was about a mile away....so there was no way to see what cars really were.

Then when Roger and I lived in Tennessee, we opened the back door, then opened the window to the bedroom and our little house cooled out real quick.  But it was where the sun didn't really shine on the house till up in the morn...probably 9:00 or 10:00 of the morn and then it was back in the shade early in the evening.
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It has gotten colder....it was shirtsleeve weather yesterday.  Tomorrow the high is supposed to be in the 20's.  With some snow tonight, but they are still talking like it will be more like flurries.

Down a snowy road....

This is from a couple years ago...though we may get a little bit more snow later in the week.  It is not supposed to amount to much.  I sure hope it doesn't...

Lorelei let her mom know she has really been missing us.   And wants to come down next weekend, but wants her mom to stay home.  That is a sure sign she has recovered fully from her surgery...she hasn't wanted to be ten feet from her mom in a long while.  With her being sick off and on and other things happening, it has been ages since she has been here.

Though she did tell me over the holidays that she is going to come when it is summer and spend four days with us.  Of course she told me what we were going to do those days...go to the park one day, go fishing at the creek another day, etc.  I told her so long as it don't rain.  She said we could change our mind then...

I can't wait for the weekend now....

An Eagle day!

We went for a little drive...up to Mansfield, Indiana...to throw our line in the water.  I spotted an eagle in the distance.  I pointed it out to Roger and we both seen it land in the tree.  The tree was across a field, and even with my camera lens extended I did not see the adult eagle on past the juvenile.  But Roger spotted it with his spotting scope.

We went on to Mansfield, which is just a few miles on down the road.  I was casting around, not getting any hits at all.  I thought to myself I best be watching for an eagle...they fly down the creek and fly up in this tree, and if you are not watching...you miss it and never know they are there.

Instead of that happening, I saw one up in the air...not this fellow.  The first one I saw was still too far for my feeble lens but was an adult...I whistled to get Roger's attention...we both headed to the truck and the adult landed in the tree. I could see it...and I thought I saw another one.  But could not be sure.

Roger got out his spotting scope and was looking...and he spotted another adult flying plus the one in the tree...and along in there here came this one flying over us!

Roger thinks we saw 5, well, he saw five if that is indeed the truth   (In all of this I only saw the one adult.)...I myself think it was the same juvenile and parent we saw earlier.  We had just missed seeing the other adult in the first sighting.

Kind of conflicting...

I think it is kind of strange...I really, really love B&W photography, so why don't I love the drab, dreary days of winter?  Instead, long before winter is over, I am longing for bright sun and vibrant colors.

I still enjoy snow...love the quite hush it puts on our world when it hits like it did last weekend.  I love how clean and fresh everything looks.

Yet when I ran across this picture, it just sang to me of shirtsleeve weather and fishing and eating breakfast outside on the porch and sitting in the swing to read....

It sang to me of garden fresh tomatoes and watching the flowers bloom....notes of Lorelei coming to visit slipped in there...how she likes to walk out to see the flowers in the summer and picks up pretty leaves in the fall.

It's a song I am ready to experience....

It's Friday....time for Random 5

Before we get down to business, I was looking back through my blog looking for something else and came across this video.  Does anyone else remember the show Taxi?  This cracks me up any time I watch it.  I have shown it some of my daughters' friends and they have thought it funny, too, so I think that it is sort of timeless.

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Now that I am back to blogging, it is that time of week again...time to share 5 random things.  This is becoming one of my favorite memes...I love reading everyone else's Random 5....and love that it gives me permission to jump around in my thoughts if I want.  Anyway, here they are....the first one I wrote down a month or so ago...

1.  Some of the best conversations in life are held around the kitchen table.  The others are sitting on the front porch. 

2. Other than the scheduled days off, Sundays and holidays...this is the first time we have ever went without receiving our mail.  We have not had mail since Saturday.  And I am not complaining...I don't know if others in town received mail or not, but it was simply too cold for them to be out on Monday and Tuesday...Wednesday and Thursday were not terrible temp wise, but I have no idea how they would have gotten around on these slick, messy roads.

3.  I have worked three puzzles since Christmas...one of them I was tempted to send to a friend and tell him he could work or burn it, whichever he liked.  It was that hard.

4.  I love my kindle...I love being able to go to Amazon and read a few pages from most books.  I also love being able to log in to Indiana Digital through my library, and borrow books all from the comfort of my home.  I can also check out audio books.

5.  It is supposed to get up into the 40's tomorrow...that is in Fahrenheit.  And it is supposed to rain.  AND, it is supposed to get up into the 40's for the next few days. Keep your fingers crossed that they are right.  

Now if you are inclined to join, or if you just want to read some random thoughts, please visit A Rural Journal.

A pheasant post....

These are not the greatest pics...the pheasants were moving and I was excited...

You would not believe how many there were...

Heck I was there, and I only half believe it.

 They were spread out, some running in all directions...others tried to kind of settle into the snow and hide but when I tried to get closer they would take off, too.

These are all different birds...except for this last shot and I know it is a repeat of one.

If I told you how many Roger counted you wouldn't believe it, and I know he did not count all in the two of the groups.  They were right close to the road...in little willow bushes that grow along the ditch.  We saw all of these within about half a mile.

Remember you can click to expand the view.

Summer revisited....

I am ready for spring....or wish I could go back to autumn...anyone else fell like that?
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I have a scratchy throat but don't feel too bad.  I think it might be the dry air.  I forgot to turn the humidifier on till yesterday up in the day.

I have not done anything at all today worth mentioning.  I finally got that puzzle worked...it was hard even after it was down to the last few pieces.  Maybe now I can do something different.  I have not been sewing, I have not been reading very much.  Just a few lines here and there.

Lame bird...

This little junco was here both yesterday and today.

Notice it's little leg that it drags along behind.  Yesterday it did not seem to bother it but it struggled today.

It is has been in the negative numbers all day, just as predicted.  I saw it as low as -12ºF this morn, it got up to -7ºF and I thought I saw it a degree warmer than that but not sure.  And it sits back down at the -12ºF again as I type this.

I have felt so sorry for the birds...they have really suffered today.  They would gather on my front porch and in the bushes out there.  I could actually see them shiver.  I could figure no way to make them a warm place to stay that they would use.

And Roger put out some more food, and one of the deep footprints he left served the birds as a shelter.  I don't know why, but I only saw them use the one.  This one dove sat in it about to go to sleep.  I thought it might be dying and pecked on the window....it roused and went back to eating.

The little junco above had to use its wings to balance itself.  Or at least I think that is what it was doing.
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I am working on puzzle...this is my third one since Christmas.  It does not want to got together good.  It is hard to explain...the pieces that actually fit together don't go together good.  So is a pain to work....

A friend of my husband that lives south of Terre Haute had a big limb break out of one of their big old pine trees and just missed really damaging their house.  How it didn't knock out windows is more than I know.  He sent pictures and it could not have been any closer.  It did tear up their deck.
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It feels so good to be blogging again.  I am slowly trying to touch base with everyone.  

Snow, snowing, snowing

I went to bed at 3:00 a.m. and it was not snowing...got up a few minutes past 7:00 and we had two or three inches of snow then.  It has not quit snowing this entire day.   I thought it was going to stop at one point a short while ago but I was wrong.

The birds have been at the feeders all day long...house sparrows, cardinals, juncos, starlings, tufted titmice, house finch and gold finches, some kind of woodpecker which I think was a downy....oh, and a nuthatch or two.  And doves.It is grand central station out there.
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Lorelei made it through her surgery and it has done made a difference in her life.  She always had a runny nose going and usually had a slight cough.  Not like a cold exactly but she would cough a couple times every so often.  We were constantly at her to blow her nose, or to wipe it...she does not have that problem at all now.

She had tubes put in her ears, and her hearing seems back to normal. She did get a stomach flu over New Years but is past it now.

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I am going to try to get back to blogging...now that the holidays are past.  Will be gradually getting back in the swing of things I hope.