Catching up on a few things

Happy 14th Birthday, Aaron. 

Last week, long time friends, Sue, Jeanne and I had a leisurely lunch at the Yard House at the Legends near Cabala's in Kansas City KS.  These wheat heads at one of the entrances at the Legends shopping center caught my eye.  They look so much like heads of wheat in a field swaying in the wind.

Several weeks ago, our crazy cat brought a bunny into the basement through the kitty door.  She didn’t kill it, though.  So, Dan has been feeding the little one.  I think the weather is warm enough to put him back out into the field. 

Phoebe is creative

We were loading straw today when Dan spotted a most unlikely place for a Phoebe nest.

At the time we saw it, there were three babies.  The momma was off to the side chirping but didn’t seem alarmed.  I didn’t have my camera so we went back this evening.   There was one baby on the ground, no others. 

We picked up the baby and put it back in the nest.  I’m not sure the momma will accept it since we touched it.  We’ll see tomorrow.

Floor project

I mentioned several days ago we were busy with a floor project. 

When Dan taught junior high woodworking in the early 70’s, he started collecting pieces of walnut.  Then several years ago, we found  a large sell off of walnut lumber in Kansas City.  After that, his collection of walnut became unmanageable.  It was time to do something with it. 

I saw this star somewhere and asked if he could duplicate it.  I think he did a beautiful job using different woods for the color.  He has spent a good deal of the winter running the wood through the planer, sanding and cutting tongue and groove edges as well as making the star.  Then we laid it, sanded and finished.  It is hard to capture a good picture of the color.   The first picture makes it look too red.  The second is closer to the overall color.  Looking closely in the first picture, you will see it has random widths. 

I’m excited to have the floor complete and I think Dan did a wonderful job.

Imagine the worst

All of us here in Kansas and the Midwest, expect tornadoes and severe weather.  Most of the time, it blows over with little or no damage or in an open field.

There’s always the thought of, “What if that huge storm would hit a stadium full of people, or like my brother and his wife, in an auditorium listening to a graduation speech.

This time it fulfilled the nightmare in Oklahoma City.

May–one crazy month

Where do I start?

Since I last wrote, there is Aaron’s orchestra concert, garden, floor, reunions.  Other than the floor, the biggest time consumption in May—and part of April—was research concerning this.

We love our pickup camper.  I can prove it by how many pictures I have taken of it, this one is from the Alaska trip.

So, if we love it so much, why are we looking like Cheshire cats in front of the Pleasure Way Class B motor home. 

Probably the most important reason was that I was becoming increasingly concerned that one of us might take a dive coming out the back door.  The steps could be fairly steep depending on where we park.  There is no railing.  It has been a delight to have the camper on the back of a 4-wheel drive pickup.  We have stayed in beautiful, remote places.  We will miss that aspect of it. 

About two months ago, I started looking at what was available in older van conversion RVs.  (Many will remember we have previously owned a Roadtrek).  This one showed up several weeks ago.  One owner, always stored inside, right at 30,000 miles and it is a 2003.  Thus, our flying trip to Boulder.  It is in beautiful shape for a ten-year-old vehicle. 

Sadly, our pickup camper is going up for sale as soon as we upgrade the little countertop in it—hopefully in the next two weeks.  I’ll post pictures.

The picture of us was taken in Boulder Colorado at 1:30pm last Monday, after we drove since 5:15 am to get there.  Then Dan drove the RV and I followed in the car back to Burlington, Colorado—over 12 hours of driving.  We’re getting too old for this crazy stuff.  But, we slept wonderfully at the Colorado Welcome Center at Burlington and arrived home around 4:30 pm—enough time to clean up and make it to Aaron’s orchestra concert. 

Wax Museum

Yes, there was a wax museum visiting in nearby Tecumseh, Kansas. It was presented by the fifth grade classes at Tecumseh North elementary school. Adam is in 5th grade and he was Neil Armstrong. Also represented were Madame Curry, Sacagawea, Chief Tecumseh, Eldridge Cleaver, Booker T. Washington among others.

Here’s how it works. The students are seated around the room quiet and dressed like their character. They have a dot on their hand. We push the dot and the character comes alive and gives an animated presentation.

Here is Adam and his presentation.  Be sure to listen to the end.  I am sure there is something there you didn't know about Neil Armstrong--other than he got car sick as a child.

Catching Up….Mushrooms and a long-forgotten bridge

As I said earlier, this has been a banner year for morels.  I thought they were finished, then we did a little trek tonight and found a bunch more—along with a bunch of ticks.  I’m done searching because of the ticks.  (I've said that before though) Tonight’s finds were especially big. 

There is an abandoned bridge down in the valley.  We haven’t looked at it for years and didn't know if it was still there.   This year the wildlife people have burned and cleared some down in the area so we were able to get to the location, found with some tromping around through brush and thickets.  It is such a surprise when it first comes into view—almost ghost like. 

We think it was build by local farmers to access fields on both sides of a very deep ravine.   There have been  several big rains/floods since it was built and it still stands—although it would be difficult to actually walk across it without climbing a tree and balancing across on one of the beams.  No thanks! The supports are posts--probably hedge. We're not sure why it is so high other than to keep it out of high water.  If you look closely, there is a nice waterside home on the other side.

Here’s another picture

Here’s a blast from the past laying near the bridge.  A feral hog jaw bone.

Aaron’s down but not for long, I’m sure

Aaron had surgery on his knee this morning—fixed his ACL.    I stayed all night at their house because they had to be at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City early.  He was in surgery by 7:00 am.  It went well.  He was nervous about the anesthetic but looks like he came through it fine. 

As always, amazed at SHHS elementary schools concert

Adam is in the 5th grade this year and in his second year of orchestra. He is interested in his instrument and has a gift in playing it. All our grandkids do well with their music, which pleases Dan and I a great deal. As I have said many times here, learning to play  music as a young person has so many benefits for life. If nothing else, just to appreciate and understand it.

Here is a sound bite of Adam's concert. Unfortunately, I didn't get the very beginning of the first song played by just the fifth and sixth grade. The second song was performed by the entire group.

Snow with Freezing Temperature in Forecast

This picture is part of a weather app and is very cool to use in unusual weather circumstances.  Today would qualify.

I just about planted my tomatoes earlier in the week.  Sure glad they are still here in the warm house.  The only thing up in the garden are onions.  I hope the wheat can withstand these temperatures.

Most of our birds are back.  The barn swallows are not finding many mosquitoes, although we did encounter a few tramping around for mushrooms—mosquitoes AND ticks. 

This Oriole was taking refuge from the cold, wet weather under our overhang, helping itself to the hummingbird juice.  We need to get some grape jelly for it.  The boys say the Orioles are making quick work of any they put out. 

We continually watch the pond, willing it to fill.  It is getting there, slowly.

Coffee

Recently, NPR had what they called a coffee week, which has inspired me to spend a little time on coffee.

Both Dan and I agree, morning coffee is a must start to each day.  Our routine is to set the coffee maker to automatically perk each morning at 6:15 am.  When we get up usually between 6:30 and 7:00 am, the coffee awaits.  We drink strong coffee.  If we are camping or we have company, I serve Dunkn’ Donuts coffee.  Our usual coffee, though, is (gasp) plain ole Folgers—or even Maxwell House.

We always enjoy visiting Doug & Drue.  They have a coffee machine that makes a delightful drink just like the corner coffee barista.  Of course, they use good ground beans. 

Tom, my former co-worker, has a son who, along with his wife, own a coffee business in Lawrence.  They even have their own roaster.  Fresh roasted beans make delicious coffee. And, the shop smells wonderful.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many places to purchase coffee as there were in Alaska.  Maybe it’s the odd daylight hours, but even in the smallest towns there were coffee huts on the corner.  I wrote about it here.  This is one of the more creative ones.  Most were just little drive-up huts.

Back to the NPR coffee week.  It was particularly interesting to hear this segment about the coffee plants in Central and South America and Africa.  It is disturbing to hear there is a disease called leaf wilt causing plants to die.  Research is being done to find varieties resistant to the wilt and to taste good.  It’s an ongoing process.  It may involve going back to the rain forests to find wild coffee plants that have a natural resistance.  You can listen to it here.

Finally, count on Seinfeld to have thoughts about coffee.  He used to not drink coffee, but has decided it not only tastes good, makes him feel good but also is a much more universal and agreeable to meet for coffee rather than eat a meal.  Here is his take on coffee.

Well, I’m off to bed because I can’t wait until morning and my cup of coffee!

Mushrooms!

Yesterday was a banner day for finding moral mushrooms.  Take a look at this…

It must have been a perfect day because just about every place we looked, we found one or two.  Secret location #1 was definitely the best, though.  The weather is not cooperating right now (snow!) but, hopefully, when it warms up again we will get another batch.  Not one stock of asparagus has peeped above its lovely straw blanket—a good thing if we get the freezing temperatures in the forecast.  Maybe we’ll get more and bigger mushrooms later when the ground warms enough for the asparagus to start it’s spring growing cycle.  We’ve actually never figured out exactly when or what conditions creates mushrooms.  Just when we think we have it figured out, they surprise us.

Here are two very unusual mushrooms.  So far I’ve not had much luck identifying them.  Any help is appreciated.

 

The two pictures below are two different mushrooms, but I think they are the same species.

Weston Missouri Laurel Hill Cemetery Stroll

Click here for the rest of the pictures and descriptions of the “ghosts” who came out to talk to us.   The three young girls above all died at 10 or 11 years old.

Thanks to Christi, Sue, Dan and I have had this date on our calendar for a long time.    Christi and Tom learned about it when they stayed in a Weston bed and breakfast several years ago.  The tour is held every other year so we were looking forward to the event.  The Weston Community Theatre produces the four hour walk about with actors and traveling musicians.  Barely visible is a dark clothed lady softly singing down in the valley in the picture above.  It was interesting to hear the stories of loving devotion, marital affairs and murder. It was all very well done and a lot of fun.

The Laurel Hill Cemetery is unique in that there are slaves, Union soldiers and Confederate soldiers all buried within its fences.  The valley in the picture above is said to have 50 slaves buried.  Later records indicate that over 400 African-Americans are buried in the area.  Most of the markers are gone.

After the cemetery tour we ate at O’Malley’s and then listened to some good ole Irish music.  We enjoyed the same fun as last year at St. Patrick's Day

Tom Turkey & Friends

We noticed the tom turkey around 8:30 am today down by the fence.  They circled up right in our back yard with the tom flaring on and off.  They gradually moved east back out into the pasture, still with the same dancing.

We had to leave for about two hours.  When we got home, Tom and his girls were still in the pasture, but nearly up to the road, dancing away.

Tonight, around 5:30 pm, we looked out the back window.  There was the tom turkey and the five hens near where we first spotted them this morning.  What a ritual.