lot of when

Last year at this time we were all talking about the Harold Camping’s doomsday prophesy. Now we have the end of the days of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012 too deal with. From trying to predict the weather to what is for supper, we all try to tell the future. The stars, tea leaves, historical data all have been used to try to predict what is next. If we know what will happen next, what do you do about it? If you are going to go to the concert next week you buy tickets, you decide what to wear, you comb your hair. Then you find the concert will not happen what do you do? Making plans for some future event is something we do everyday. Prophesy of a doomsday how do they change your life? Can we change the future if we know what will happen?

Here is something to give some thought; how many of the doomsday prophesies have really happen. There are clams that Nostradamus foretold the future, but that is really up to interruption. Our lives are set with making choices of what will happen next, the future. The best we can do is to prepare our selves to make good choices.


Thank you for your comments and stopping by have a great day and God Bless

Blogging and Friends' blog hop

Blogging and Friends' blog hop

Welcome to the 'Blogging and Friends' blog hop.  We are happy to see you here and look forward to reading your thoughts and ideas.  We would like to take a moment to thank you for participating and share with you a few simple rules:

1.  Write a post about Blogging and Friends.  You can write about yourself or you can compare and contrast to another friend's blog.  Include the following intro to your post:

Linking into the 'Blogging and Friends' blog hop at

 Bongo Is Me 

And 

Living with Food Allergies and Celiac Disease

2.  Follow the instructions and leave your link to your blog post (please do not submit the link to your blog) at the linky available at co-hosts sites.

3.  Blog hops are a great way to meet new bloggers and read new material, so don't forget to visit other participant's entries and show them some love.

4. This linky will remain open until midnight, May 31st, 2012.

Read more: http://allergiesandceliac.blogspot.com/2012/05/blogging-and-friends-blog-hop.html#ixzz1uH5oFl9L 
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Blab, Blab, Blab, Blogging what is blogging?  What is a friend?  When I was a young man I dreamed of seeing the world, meeting people and making friends. There was a story I was told as a young man about a time and place of long ago, where people talked the same language. I am sure most people have heard the story of the tower of babel. Those people must have had a good understanding of each other. Today in the world I grew up in there many people who don’t speak the same language, but with blogging people are learning to share ideas and to become friends.  Over the past year and a half that I have been blogging I have met people I now call friends.  A lemma is an assumption for the sake of argument, logic a proposition that is assumed to be true in order to test the validity of another proposition. In language it is the moment of thought the idea forms, in blogging the blog. A friend as defined as somebody who trusts and is fond of another. I have learned to trust many I have met on line thru blogging and am fond of them all. One thing I have found is that god is present in the lives of all of us and love is the fountain of youth.  So friends have you blogged today? Who will you meet today? Will you find something to love today? Will you see god at work? To do these things read some blogs, write a blog post, leave a comment. Explore the blogs in this hop.

Thank you for taking the time you have spent here and god bless

lot of payday bill paying

Well payday or bill paying put a hiccup in my time to write and getting online. Here is my latest writing project. It is a work of fiction, a murder mystery if you will.  This is the first draft of the first chapter. Your comments will be of great help in getting this novel moving to the finish line.

Please note this is the rough draft and subject to rewrite.

Jane Doe

Chapter 1

It was a warm, quite evening at Baker Meadows reservoir. The moon was full and bathy the lake and surrounding in its slivery glow. A group of collage coeds were partying around a camp fire on the south shore. Tom the oldest was telling a ghastly tale of murder, claming this was the very spot where it all took place, just as he was positioning himself behind Jill, who was set to be scared out of her wits. A screamed cry for help “Help me he is going to kill me”, bust the moment into a terror, three shots rang the night, a bullet wiz passed Jenny’s head hitting the fire causing it to flare; then they saw the nude body of a young woman fall at the edge of the light of the camp fire, her screams sending the group of six into a panicked fear for their lives. A moment of dismay passed as Tom ran over to the girl’s body and started to take control of the mounting surreal circumstances, giving orders like a drill sergeant “Bob get the first aide kit and a sleeping bag out of the truck”, “Jill call 911.” 

Jill quickly dialed 911. Her cell phone was never out of her hand it was if it was part of her, she texted a lot.

 A voice burst from the phone “911 what is your emergence?”

Jill screaming at the phone “someone is shooting at us, a girl has been shot.”

 The voice on the phone calmly asked “What is your location?”

 Jill replied “we are at the lake  a half mile from the boat ramp, please hurry”, “The police and fire are on the way do not hang up stay on the line till the police get there, Do you know who is shooting at you?”

 “No” Jill still screaming.

 “What is the name of the person who was shot?”

 “I don’t know we have never seen her before.”

Jill was starting to calm down as she joins Tom at the girls side.  She knelt with Tom looking her over finding the girl had been shot in the back just below the left shoulder blade and there was a wound on the left side of her head.

Jill reports “she has been shot in the back and the left side of the head, she is still breathing but uncurious. There is a lot of blood.”  

“Do you have anything to put on the wound? You will need to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding.”

“We have a first aide kit”

“How old is the victim?”

“She is in her twenties. I guess, I don’t know.”

“Is the person still shooting?

“No, we think he left, we heard a car speed off”

“The girl is necked.”

“You will need to cover her with a blanket.”

“I can hear the sirens coming I see the red light”

“Stay on the line till the police talk to you. Help is on the way.”

We need to stop the bleeding and cover her up to prevent shock. Tom felt embarrass to be handling the nude body of the girl, she was a pretty brunette about five foot four, she looked like she could grace the pages of playboy. He was unsure of just what to do for her. Jill on the other hand was a third year nursing student but this was her first hands on experience.  

Jimmy ran to the truck a got out a deer rifle and promptly jacked a round into the chamber. With a flashlight in hand he scanned the night looking for the person who shot at them. He spotted the shadowy figure of a man running to a vehicle and then hearing the door slam shut and the vehicle speeding away.  He tried to get off a shot but he had not taken off the safety.  

Boulder county sheriff Deputy Evans seeing Jimmy standing in the road with the rifle came to a sliding stop open his door and aimed his pistol at Jimmy.  “Put the weapon on the ground and back away.” braked from the PA system of Evans patrol car.  Jimmy just stood there like a deer in the head lights. The deputy repeated his demands for jimmy to put down the weapon.

Thank you for stopping by and god bless 

lot a spring morning

Have you ever seen something that cost a nickel?

It was in a barrel crisp and green it has been seen.

Long ago it stood there, causing joy from its lair.

A spring day I will pay a nickel for the pickle.

Feather or a hair flowing on the air

Nose, nap of the neck what to pick?

Foot or calf might do the trick

What a pickle, what to tickle

Laugh and giggle just a little wiggle

Spice with dill what a thrill

Under the chin a sunny grin

Under the nose will your toes crinkle?

In the middle under a rib

Do you need a bib?

A fox tail will do

It just might get you

Crinkled, giggle and wiggle

Pickle and tickle all for just a nickel

Sand and sea between your toes

A feather tackled your nose

A flower peddle that of a rose

Wrinkled your nose to meet your eyes

Bless you is my surprised reply

Tickling fun a spring morning giggle

Thank you and god bless

lot of bully

There is an old question; I have not been able to get a handle on. Why would one individual pick on or beat up another? If you look in the bible and other historical text you will find stories of these battles. Form Kane and Able to Christ and a bully.  So the problem is not a new one, we see it in the animal kingdom as well.   In my years dealing with cows I never saw a bull bully any of the other cows, yes I have seen a bull fight to retain his status as the head bull, but not bully or badger the others.  The question is “Why”?

When I was about 6, 7, or maybe 8 well some sixty years ago give or take a year or two, I was picked on or bullied by a neighborhood kid the same age or there about.  As I would go to school he would beat me up and sometimes on my way home. I would run home crying. My dad took me over to the kid house and he and the boy’s dad talk.  The beatings stopped for a week or so then he started doing it again. My dad told me I would have to fight him and stand up for myself. My mom told if I could not beat him, go after him with a stick or she would take a stick to me.  Well the next day I saw him coming for me. I saw a baseball bat lying on the lawn of a friend. I pick it up and chased the boy almost to his home. For about a week I carried a bat or a big stick and would run after him every time I saw him. His bulling came to a stop, He never brother me again. The thing that scares me is, at the time I would have killed or at least did some real bodily harm to him if I had caught him.

Sometime years later a friend of mine, his name was Dennis, he and I would hold mock fight, and when we got an audience we would stop and laugh at the on looker. Over the years I have run into bullies and found ways to disarm them with verbal assaults somewhat less painful then a black eye or broken bones.  

  

You may ask why I am writing about this. Well it is this way. My grandson, who is five years old, was beaten up by three boys, four to five years older than him, last week.  Any one of them could have whipped the tar out of him without any help, why then did it take three.  What threat does a five year old pose to a ten year old? The police were call and the boys were not charged. It seems that a law was passed that children under 12 could not be charged with assault and battery. The old axiom “boys will be boys” is behind this.  It can also be said that girls will be boys also.  

Years ago the spinach powered superhero “Popeye the sailor” was band from TV and theaters because it was said to promote violence and bullying.  Here is a Popeye cartoon; I think you will find the he won the battles with the bully Bluto. Note: in today’s rating system this is rated R for valance and adult content.

Now I have teased and made fun of people in jest, just for the fun of it, but never with malicious. I don’t see this as bulling but I could be wrong. There is a fine line between bulling and play. I don’t understand the motivation of a bully, the why of it. I would like to hear your thoughts on this subject. Here is one of mine; could it be that a bully is just acting out what he or she think is adult behavior. The adults order them to go to school, to go to bed, to do this or that and they feel powerless to live their life the way they want. So when they find someone they can force to do their will, they bully.

Thank you for your comments and stopping by God bless

moment remembered

This Moment

"A single photo – no words – capturing a simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

“This Moment” is a ritual found on Life inspired by the Wee Man adopted fromSouleMama which was introduced to me by Sarah-Jane. If you find yourself touched by a Moment and would like to participate, post your picture on a Friday and leave your link in the comments section.

Thank you for sharing this moment God Bless

lot of tomatoes

Life happens, we have made a recovery from the wind damage to our home, it’s like new, but our daily live are still having trouble getting back to normal.  The old lawn mower, well it died, and the wife needs my help to get around with her broken ankle. There is a lot of house and yard work to be done, which leaves little time to write. Just when I thought I could get back to writing my laptop took a header off the table, so I have it to fix, I think that the hard drive is done. The computer room i.e. my office still looks like ground zero with all the boxes of paper and things that need to find a place. Last Friday I was all set to work on the blog here, but the internet went down, they are running fiber optic cable in our neighborhood, just got it back last night. Some year ago I rode a wild pony name Whirl Wind, made the whole eight second, out there in the Wells Nevada rodeo.  I even got a buckle for my efforts. You know this seems like more than an eight second ride.

Here is an old story I heard some time back, well quite a while back, I don’t know the truth of it but it a fun story.

There was this fellar who was hiking across country. It was about noon and he was a might hungry. Just the other side of the fence was a tomato patch. He looked around and could not see anyone. So he helped himself to some bright red tomatoes. He was enjoying himself when the owner of the patch showed up. It was the widow Johnson. She was fit to be tied with the fellar eating her tomatoes he had ate all the ripe ones.  She let into him saying “You’re going to have to pay for this, or I will call the sheriff”.   He said “Ma I am sorry but I don’t have any money, Can I do some work to pay for them?” She said “ok you give me a half a day of work and I will forget the whole thing.”  She set him to chopping wood and pulling weed from her yard and garden. It was late and supper time. She feed him a fair supper and told him he could sleep under the clothes line.

Well he settled in to get some sleep as it was a hard day. Just as he was falling to sleep the wind started to blow the clothes on the line.  He rolled over to get out of the way of the wet slapping garments hanging on the line. But the wind found a way to slap him again.  In a fit of rage he pulled them off the line and gave them a toss.  The next morning the widow Johnson being an early riser went out to check on her new boarder expecting him to be long gone. When she saw her clean laundry thrown all over the yard, she took after the fellar with a broom.  You are going to pay for this or I will call the sheriff.  Again he pleaded for his life and said I will work off the debt.

She set him to doing all sort of work, cleaning the barn and bringing in the hay, washing the clothes he had soiled, then hanging them out to dry. She set him up a place to sleep on the porch swing, feed him a good supper, then said “you be gone in the morning.”

Well he was very tired after all the chores she had him do. He washed up a bit and shaved. Then he settled in to sleep on the porch swing. Just as he was falling to sleep this cat started to rub him all over his face, again in a fit of rage he grabbed the cat and gave it a clean shave as clean as a billiard ball. Well when old widow Johnson saw the pile of fur on the porch and her cat shaved with cuts and nicks here and there, she grabbed the shotgun.  He again found himself pleading for his life. She fired a shot off in the air then said “you are going to pay for this or I will call the sheriff.  He said I will do anything to make up for this.  She said alright you paint the barn and clean up this mess you can sleep in the barn when you are done, but you be gone in the morning.

He painted the barn inside and out, it was getting late and he was worn out from climbing all over the barn and painting.  He set the pail of paint down and started to make a bed in the straw, when the mule kicked the pail covering him and his bed in paint. So without thinking he proceeded to paint the mule.

The next morning the widow Johnson saw the mess and called the sheriff.  When the sheriff showed up she told him to arrest the fellar. The sheriff asks “what do I charge him with?” She said stealing tomatoes. The fellar replied I pay her back for the tomatoes by chopping wood.  The sheriff said that was not a reason to arrest him. Then the widow Johnson said, “Well he ripped of her pants then he shaved her pussy an then he painted her ass red.”  The fellar said please take me to jail. LOL!

I hope you liked this old story. It is my hope to get back to writing on a more regular basis. For now, I have to get back to the things that life demands.  

Thank you for stopping by and god bless.

This Friday moment

This Moment

"A single photo – no words – capturing a simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

my flower garden beauty contest

contestant 1

contestant 2

contestant 3

contestant 4

Vote on your favorite in the comments 

“This Moment” is a ritual found on Life inspired by the Wee Man adopted fromSouleMama which was introduced to me by Sarah-Jane. If you find yourself touched by a Moment and would like to participate, post your picture on a Friday and leave your link in the comments section.

Thank you for sharing this moment God Bless

lot of mess

I'm dad kitty

I had just started work at OEA “Ordnance Engineering Associates” in Fairfield California. We found us an apartment in Suisun the other side of the tracks form Fairfield. It struck me funny that here I am 1500 miles and fifty five years later from my birth place in Nebraska and only a half a block from the same Railroad tracks. Over the years it seem as I have lived within a mile of the same set tracks all my life. Even today I am just a mile as the crow flies from the same tracks.

This tale is not about railroad tracks or where I lived but about some animals that came to live with us. Shortly after we move in an alley cat move in on us, it was a large tabby tom cat. We ask around and no one knew who the cat belong to. It was warm and we had the window and door open to stay cool. That cat came in and made himself at home.  After a week or so we gave him a name of sorts, we started to calling him dad kitty. Every day at 9 O’clock he start meowing at us to get our attention and then head to the bed room, if we did not follow he would come back out and encourage us, by getting in our lap and sinking in his claws in, it’s time to go to bed. It reminded me of my dad sending us kids to bed when I was a little.

We live on the edge of the Suisun marsh a wildlife preserve, about 200 feet from the fence that bordered the preserve, where Canada geese and other water fowl wintered and dad kitty hunted. He would bring home rats, gofer snakes, and ducks, many as big as he was.  We never knew just what he would bring home.

I am a big dog

The people that lived above us had a little Chihuahua mix of some kind and it had pups with a poodle. Well there was one the runt of the litter that we just had to have. It was small about the size of a coffee cup, and was a curly black as coal, poodle hair, ball of energy. We were afraid that dad kitty would harm the pup that we named bingo, but much to our surprise he took care of it. Dad kitty would bring in mice, lol, for the pup most every day. Dad kitty even taught bingo to use the litter box. I would come home from work and find dad kitty and the pup curled up in my chair. I ask my wife if she had put bingo in my chair, she said no dad kitty had.  At 9 he would take bingo in to and up on our bed every night. Bingo was too small to get up there without help. Now I have seen mama cats nurse pups and take on squirrels and hamster as kittens. But a feral tom cat, that takes the cake.

I'm a lover

It was about a year later that an apartment opened up across the street, in the senior’s only complex with lower rent.  The land lady had a miniature Pomeranian that was six week old and my wife just had to have it. Now we had three pet the pom we named taffy, and dad kitty took her on as his own.

I came home from work one evening, my wife was out taking care of one of her lady’s she work for as a chore provider, as I open the door the three met me looking up at me as if they were perfect little angle and there was feathers floating it the air. As I looked around there were feathers all over the place. On further investigation I found that dad kitty had brought in a pigeon and the three of them had the fun taking it apart, what a mess. We had been empty nesters for eight years but I don’t remember our kids making any bigger mess.

Thank you for coming by god bless

lot of Dee

Dee die doe

Die doe Dee

Die Dee doe

What on my pole

Fly in the sky

Don’t be shy

There is mud in your eye

Cries little fly

Miss and toss

Wish I had a hoss

Is that the boss?

Better get lost

You know what I missed

It’s not Die

It’s not doe or even a toe

It’s Dee kiss form you my miss

THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS

lot of discovery

Lake  Camanche

When I was a little fellow I dream of making a scientific discovery, like Newton, or Einstein, or maybe Edison.  As I grew up in school I found that it was hard to make such discovery. Someone else had not already made them. All the mountains had been climb and named, rivers had been crossed, and someone did it before I could.  The years have gone by like the melting snows of my childhood, and I have not made a historic discovery.  I have done many things of historic note like working on the first space shuttle, and the development or the air bag for cars.  Being part of a team is one thing, but being the first to do something, to make the discovery is another.

1987 October 1 was my wife and I’s twenty wedding anniversary, to celebrate we went on a second honeymoon, of sorts, at lake Camanche in California.  We got a cabin with meals and a patio boat for fishing, for a weekend of romance and fishing. We arrived there Friday around 6 o’clock in the evening check in and had a champagne and steak dinner with all the trimming at the lodge, then retired to our cabin and shared a Jacuzzi hot tub.  We had a sunrise call for breakfast and the patio boat was waiting for a day on the lake fishing, the lodge had packed us a lunch. Being October is not the prime time for camping at the lake we had the lake to ourselves.  On the boat we head up the north arm of the lake to a spot that we had been to before and the fishing was good. The early morning air was crisp, a little fog layer hovered over the water giving a spooky passage up the inlet of the lake.  I threw out the anchor and we settled in to fishing. My wife poured us a cup of coffee the lodge gave us, there we sat huddle together drinking coffee and fishing.  

As we fished we saw deer come and go from the water edge, raccoon fishing for crayfish, and even a skunk along the shore. The fishing was every slow we had not had a bite by lunch time.  Looking at the fish finder we should be catching fish as there was a large school showing on the finder.  Looking over the side of the boat we could see hundred of fish. They were feeding on something in the water. What we could see was a quarter sizes round objects floating in the water. In my backpack was a quart plastic bottle that contained the last of the beef jerky we brought along to snack on. I empty the bottle out and started to try to catch the thing the fish were feeding on. After four of five attempts I managed to catch a pair in the bottle

  At first I thought I had not got anything but then I saw something moving in the jar. It looked like a jellyfish, but this is fresh water and we are a hundred mile from the any salt water.  The excitement started to come over me, had I made that big discovery.  I had never heard of fresh water jellyfish; never saw one in any book on fish. My wife and I started to catch them using our coffee cups.  We had about twenty or so in the jar, so I pulled in the anchor and we head back to the lodge.

When we got back to the dock we show the unusual catch to the attendant and he said he had never seen then before or ever heard of freshwater jellyfish.  He said we should take them to the rangers at the forestry office.  So we drove to the forestry office and showed them to the ranger. They made a full report and had us show them where we found them.  They had never heard or seen them before either. They took about half of the ones we had and I told them I was going to that them to the researcher at mount Diablo marine studies in Pittsburg where we lived, down in the bay area. We had an exciting two day but it was time to head home. On Monday morning I took the jellyfish to the researchers and they said that these were the first they had ever seen or heard of.  It was about a month before they reported back on their finding.  Well guess what? Yep someone had found them before, and wouldn’t you know it I am possibly related to the first person to report them. His name was John Durham a professor of biology who reported them some fifty year before. 

 If you would like to know more about the freshwater jellyfish  go here http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=1068

Oh well I am not dead yet, maybe I will write a great novel.

Thank you for stopping by and god bless.

lot of a short tail of short tail

I guess I let the cat out of the bag.

The spring of 65 was different as I was nineteen out of school and as they say foot loose and fancy free, whatever that means. There was a bunch of us that kind of hang out together trying our best to see just how much trouble we could get into.  We all had jobs, mostly part time, so we had a lot of time to run around chasing girls, fishing , hunting, racing and some time chasing each other. We all had pet name or nick names. Cliff short for Clifford was called the nose. He had a nose on him that some years later he would get surgery shorten. Then there was john he was called doggie, he drove an old dodge truck that someone “I won’t mention any names” had replaced the necessary letters on the hood of the truck to spell dogge thus doggie. There was the chief, Ed chow a full bold Ute and he would let you know about it. One other was Nathan Gore but I will let you guess his nick name.

It was the first week in June we found some girls to go camping with us and we all headed up to the porcupine dam. It was remote and secluded, a place where you could go skinny dipping, get drunk, and have fun, kick up our heels a bit. John worked a Safeway store and got hold of a keg of beer.  There is a ravine on the north side of the dam that opens up to a sandy beach and is about the only place you can camp at the dam.  Cliff had brought a couple of the big buckets of Kentucky fried chicken and all the trimmings, the leftovers from work. He worked at KFC. So he would load us up with chicken.  We built a big bone fire and were having a big time goading the girls to going swimming in the buff, we all had fun.  The girls were a little worried about the cries of a cougar up the ravine from camp and I was put to the task of taking care of it.  The cries of a cougar in the dark can unsettle you a bit.

I was known for my way with wild animals, so with a lot of encouragement form my buddies I hike up the ravine to the spot where I could see the cougar in the mouth of the old mine that had been dynamited back when they built the dam. I could see it was a young cougar it had not lost its spots, and it looked to be about four months old.  I look around for the mama, but it was not to be seen. I was about to shoot it, when I had the wild idea of catching it.  I ran back down to the camp and got a rope, and the bag of chicken gizzards, that we were going to use for bait the Kokanee salmon love them. I went back up to the mine and sat down and started to talk to the cat that was just inside the opening. I threw some gizzards to him and he came out to eat. I could see he was very thin and had not eaten in a while.  I feed him some more and he came closer. I reach out and touch him expecting to lose my hand but it did not attack or shy away. So I pick him up and continued to feed him gizzards.  I took him back to camp where he and I was the hero’s of the evening. When thing settled down in camp the kitten was a sleep on my sleeping bag. We spent four day and night up there at the dam fishing and hunting for rabbits which I feed to the kitten.  It followed me everywhere and it was hard to leave him up at the dam. Every time we went to the dam that summer he would come into camp and we would feed him.

Things change the next summer  about the last or July we had gone up to the dam and found a bounty poster on the cougar that the ranchers had seen up there, some said that it was killing cattle. There was a five hundred dollar bounty on the big cat.  We all knew where to find one and it would be an easy five hundred buck. We were on the hunt for the cat. When we got site of him we could see he was coming to meet us at camp. I knew it would be his end so I shot toward him off.  My buddies would shoot to kill, at least that what I believed. My aim was not that good, and I hit him about the middle of the tail.  He ran off to hide and nurse his tail which is now about a foot shorter. We recovered the piece of his tail and the fellows were all sorry that we would betray the friendship of the cat.  But he now has a name Short tail. For year after he would still come to camp to be feed, and would stay about twenty feet away. He is gone now they don’t live but ten to twelve years in the wild. I never heard of him being killed.

  

 Thank you for coming by god bless

lot of Saturday

Saturday, what a day. I have been looking forward to Saturday from the beginning.  It is the day of fun, to run and play. When I was little it was the day that dad was home and the day we went out and had fun. Saturday is the day to loaf in the sun of a summer day. Go fishing, ride a horse for fun, and have an adventure. Yup Saturday is the day.

porcupine dam looking out from camp

Now I have seen a Saturday or two about 24,012 counting this one; but who is counting.  There was one I think it was 7,637 or there about.  I got off work about 5:30 on Friday evening and the wife and I loaded up our ford station wagon we had at the time and head out for a weekend of fishing.  We headed up and over the mountain road from Eden to Avon then up the porcupine road to the scare canyon area and the porcupine dam.  As we got there it was dark and my wife did not want to ride in the car over the winding dirty rocky mountain road. There was a big drop off on her side of the car. she had been over the road in the day light  and did not like the road.  So I let her walk with our little dog peewee and I drove real slow so as to keep from running them over as they walk on the road in front. She and peewee made it clear that there was something out there following us. It was only about a quarter mile to the camp site, and it was pitch-dark, after stopping  a dozen times to reassure her that all is well and trying to get her to get back in the car; we made it to the camp site.

 They don’t call it scare canyon for nothing.  The hair on the back of your neck will give rise to the a occasion.

We got to the camp site and unloaded the car putting all our supplies and fishing gear under the car. Then we made our bed in the back of it.  As we were putting things under the car my wife shown the flashlight around the area and found old short tail peering around an old fifty-five gallon barrel what was used as a garbage can and target. Short tail is a mountain lion that inhabit the area and that another story.  Anyway I tried to reassure my wife she had nothing to fear from short tail.  She was a little unhinged playing peek-a-boo around the garbage can with a 130 pound mountain lion,she was sure it was what was following her.  It was after midnight and now Saturday. So it was off to bed and to an early rise to catch fish.  

Peewee could not be assured that all was ok he kept barking and running around the car as we tried to settle in and get some sleep.  I was about ready to put him outside the car so we could get to sleep when there was a flash of lighting and a loud clap of thunder, it was raining hard. You are not going to get out of the canyon after a heavy rain for a week and I had to be back to work Monday. The soil in the canyon is that red clay, and so is the road out of there, that turns into a sticky muddy bog that will hold you there till it dries out. So much for fishing, we need to get the well, you know make like a tree and leave.  We got up and run around the car putting our stuff back in the car.  When I stared up the car and turned on the head lights, there not fifteen feet in front of the car was a big black bear.

   Dog barking, wife screaming and tires spinning we were out of there for a dryer and less primitive place to camp and fish.

Yup Saturday is the day for adventure.  

What is your Saturday adventure?

Thank you for coming by and god bless.

Friday moment 4/13/12

This Moment

"A single photo – no words – capturing a simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

at 4am in the rain

spring shower this day

“This Moment” is a ritual found on Life inspired by the Wee Man adopted fromSouleMama which was introduced to me by Sarah-Jane. If you find yourself touched by a Moment and would like to participate, post your picture on a Friday and leave your link in the comments section.

Thank you for sharing this moment God Bless

lot of spring tonic

Yup it was about this time ever year when my Grandpa was alive; he would start making that awful stuff. He called it spring tonic. Now I never wrote down his recipe and thank the good lord that no one did. What I can remember is that he gathered up a number of leaves, bark and roots, one of which was dandelions. There was licorice, or black root, wild onions and a number of other plants.  Then there was coal oil and black strap molasses, sulfur and home made corn whiskey, he said it would make you fill your lungs. Grandpa would say if it tasted good it was not good for you. He would start cooking that stuff up and the smell, well the barn yard and out house smelt better.   

He would fill a pint whiskey bottle with the stuff, it was thick and black, kind of like pine tar, and it may have had some of that in it as well.

When you got your spoon full of it, it would make you sweat and run for the outhouse. It made you feel like you were on fire and that your insides would explode. When it finished  running its coercion on you, you felt pretty good. Believe me it would clean you out.The last time I remember him making it was in 1958, and my dad said he was not going to take any of it. It took a week but grandpa got him down on the front lawn and grandpa gave him a double dose. Grandma would make it better for us kids with a tablespoon of honey. You could run and hide, but grandpa would get you when you thought you were safe. It was fun playing the game of hide and seek with grandpa and he always won.

There is a lot to be said about the old time spring tonic most of it is how awful it tasted and how it make you go for three days. But in the end you felt better for it. Today if grandpa was around I would be in line to partake in the game maybe not the first, a little hide and seek makes it fun.

If you would like to try a spring tonic that is not so hard to take but is pretty good; go out and pull up some of the dandelions form your lawn, get some fresh onions, some new potatoes, and some good sage sausage.  Cut the flower and stem out of the dandelions and wash the root and leaves good in cold water. Then cut them up in 1 and ½ inch pieces boil till tender like spinach. Caramelizes the onions in a frying pan, brown the sausage, then put it all together. Mix up two table spoons of wild honey and a ¼ cup of apple or balsamic vinegar pour over the dandelions and onions. Sever with the new potatoes and sausage; this all taste good and who knows it may be good for you.

Fix some of this up and enjoy the old days. If you have memories of spring tonic I would like to here about them. Thank you for coming by and God bless

Lot of Never

         The end of never cannot be as never, never had a beginning. You have to have a beginning to have an end. Now I have heard of Never Never Land, but I have never been there so I don’t know if it has a beginning. There is a canyon of Never it is called Never Canyon but you can never go there. It is some place the other side of the twelfth of Never. Now that is a good song. 

Down deep in the canyon there is a mine its call never mind I guess it was never mind and never will. I think that a bird that never was. Had you ever been there, never was, so how could have been there.   Well I never or did I. have you ever never? This is beginning to sound like a never ending story.

Mouse what the heck have you been drinking?  “Never touched a drop, It’s that darn Leprechaun Canyon it will mess with your mine.” Did you find the leprechaun?  “Nope never saw one, but I thought I roped him, But I never miss.”  Well did you rope him?  “Well I guess I never.”  Mouse we got cattle to take care of. Get your head on straight and get to work.

I"m off to mow the lawn. thank you for stopping by God Bless

lot of wind

They call the wind Mariah. The title to a song back in the fifties from the musical Paint your wagon sung by many but the first to record it was the Kingston trio, another song about the wind is the Wayward Wind sung by Gogi Grant.  I have both here for you to take a listen to.

As you may know the wind paid me a visit on December 1 and I found out firsthand just how destructive the wind can be. My life has been turn upside down and backwards. Most of the recovery of my home is done, the house is in like new condition; but our daily lives are still in turmoil putting thing back where they belong, repairing something’s that were broke that cannot be replaced. There is a lot of thing to do in the backyard mostly clean up. I save the timbers from the old roof to build a deck on the back of the house. The timbers need to be clean up the nails pulled and inspected for damage, 

if that were not enough the grass need to be mowed.  Finding time to write and keep up with all on the net is a task that has had to take the backseat.

Last Wednesday night as my wife was getting ready for bed she got caught up in her pants and lost her balance and fell catching her foot in the toe kick of the drier breaking her ankle.  She will be laid up for six weeks.

Well the flowers are blooming and spring is getting a head start on me all the spring clean up is taking time away from my writing. 

And now it time to go and pick our meds, grocery, pay some more bills, get my taxes done, and smell the flowers.

Thank you for coming by and God Bless.

Friday moment

This Moment

"A single photo – no words – capturing a simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

“This Moment” is a ritual found on Life inspired by the Wee Man adopted fromSouleMama which was introduced to me by Sarah-Jane. If you find yourself touched by a Moment and would like to participate, post your picture on a Friday and leave your link in the comments section.

The Moment

I had the vocation to do a little trip down memory lane. The two block area of town where I grew up has been raised as part of the city revitalization program. Now it is one big empty lot, the houses are all gone, and it will become a park. This old weeping willow still stands and I and it have some stories to tell. It was in a neighbors yard and next door to my buddy's house. the old tree seem to be remembering and morning the good old days of my youth.

My buddy back there in the spring of 1957 had got a fledgling Peregrine falcon, from where I don't know. and we were going to train it to hunt. Well maybe. Somewhere in the training the falcon flew away and landed in the top of this old weeping willow. we could see it but it would not come back to its perch when we call it. Guess what its still in the the top of the old willow tree.

I really don't Think it the same bird, but here we are some 55 years later and there is a Peregrine in the tree.
Wow what a trip.

Thank you for coming by and God bless