The various grandkids get to go shopping with me on a somewhat rotational basis.  This past week it was Adeline's turn to go.  She is very much her own little person, and that came through loud and clear in our several conversations throughout the day.

Some years ago I had Kathleen with me and we drove past the purple castle that Doniphan is graced with.  As we gazed at it, I said to Kathleen, "When my ship comes in, how about if we go to Europe and explore all the castles we can find?"  She was thrilled with the idea and our imaginations ran wild.

As Adeline and I drove past the Doniphan Purple Castle yesterday, I tried that same tack with her.  "Adeline, when my ship comes in, wouldn't it be fun to go to England and Ireland and Scotland and Germany and see all the castles that we can!"

Dead silence for about 5 seconds (and 5 seconds can be a lot of silence from a 6 year old).  Then, "Do you mean you and me, Grandma?"  "Yes," I replied.  More seconds of silence followed that little exchange.  Then came this from her, "Well, could you just go and take a lot of pictures?  I don't want to go without dad and mom.  And, I already decided I never want to fly in an airplane."

A bit later we were in the parking lot at Menard's and saw a person with a handicap working there.  I pointed them out to her so that we could talk about how we treat people, no matter who they are.  After about my first or second sentence she said, "Grandma, please stop, I never want to talk about this again."  

Finally, I was putting on a Fernando Ortega CD to listen to, but before the music started, I began singing the first song.  "Grandma, please stop, if I listen to you sing it first, it will ruin it for me."

In a world of innuendos and indirect statments, such honesty is refreshing!

 

Confession--I love a real tree for Christmas.  But, I also love a fake tree that looks really fake.  Fake trees that try to look real are just a little too cheesy for me.  A nice silver tree, especially one that is well-loved and shows it here and there, is just the ticket to brighten up my home for the holidays.

Besides, a silver tree reminds me of my Grandma Lil.  She and Grandpa Ben had one in their apartment on 13th Street in St. Louis.  I don't remember a lot about Grandma Lil and Grandpa Ben, but I remember the silver tree.  I also remember the smell of the shaving soap that Grandpa used, the tile in the bathroom, and the nicely shaped wooden posts of the beds.

Several years ago, I thought of Mom's silver tree that she used to put up in her sunroom, and I dug it out of dad's basement and set it up.  It was an instant hit with the grandkids.  It is different than any they have, plus what isn't cool about a turning color wheel?  Which reminds me of how nice it is NOT to have to put lights on a cedar tree every year.  Taking them off is even worse than putting them on because by the time you take them off the tree is especially prickly.  

Now, I also have another confession.  I don't like to decorate early.  I do like Christmas decorations, but they make me feel a little claustrophobic.  It is always with a sign of relief that I take down the decorations and pack them away.  It is probably partly because we are always having to fit people into our house with a shoehorn anyway, and the tree just eats up quite a large amount of room that could be used for seating at the family dinners.

Anyway, I put decorating off as long as I could this year, but today was the day.  So I rounded up 11 of our 17 grandkids, gave them the box with the tree, and set them to it.  They did a nice job.  The Biggles and Middles helped the Littles as needed.  They always do.  I love them for it.

Afterward, Colyn found some lights and the kids decided to try to brighten up our porch.  That didn't quite work, so they decided to decorate the playhouse.  Not only did they decorate it, but they cleaned the playhouse, and then they cut a little tree down and decorated it too.

Fernnook has gotten quite festive this year with a lighted outdoor tree and gnomes at the boy's place (Ken and KJ's), and a lighted outdoor tree at the Joel Harding home.  Of course dad's house has outside lights, but it faces Highway K, not K-2.  I don't know about further down the road past us, because I haven't been down after dark lately, but now we can add our own dazzle with our lighted tree and playhouse.  

We celebrated the lovely tree and playhouse decorations with cups of hot toto (as Toliver calls it) and marshmallows.  

What would family life be without all the conversations?  The last couple of weeks, since we are in December and Christmas is soon to be upon us, the Middles and the Littles have been having some interesting debates over some of the finer points of Christmas.

The first was between two of the Middles (both 5). (And, I admit, because I have slept multiple times since I heard this one, it may be off in the exact wording, though not in the ideas expressed.)

Adeline:  I can't wait until Santa comes.

Andrew: You know Santa is just pretend.

Adeline:  No he isn't!

Andrew:  Yes he is!

Adeline:  Well, I've seen him.  I saw him at Silver Dollar City.

Andrew: That was just a person dressed up in a Santa suit.

Adeline: Haven't you ever woke up on Christmas morning and there were a lot of presents under the tree that weren't there the night before?  See, he is real.

Andrew: That's just your parents that put them there.

Adeline and Andrew together: Grandma????

Grandma:  This is something you need to ask your parents, not me! (I am not chicken or anything....)

The second conversation was more recent and was between two of the Littles (both 2).

Toliver: Santa is coming to my house.

Linus: Santa is coming to my house.

Toliver: No, he is coming to my house!

Linus: He is too coming to my house!

Linus: (Turning to look at me with a big grin) Grandma, I bewieve in Santa!

Caveat: The next evening as we were driving home from church, Linus' older brother Chappell said, "Linus doesn't believe in Santa anymore."

I am curious how that came about.

(To see a post about a different girl in our family that believed in Santa for ever-so-long go to https://fernnookfarmgirl.blogspot.com/2006/11/mayberry-meanderings-in-august-we-have.html) 

The Imps

 Andrew to me the other day, "Grandma, I just spit on your shoe." (And yes, sure enough, he did.  A nice little pool of spit was just sitting there on my shoe.)

Adeline to Grandpa Kent as he was carrying her on a hike through the woods, "Where we are, Grandpa?"

Andrew and Adeline tonight at our New Year's Eve get-together...dancing on the table, uprooting the aloe plant, dis-leafing the parsley, in the tub washing their feet together...regular little imps.  Just missing their third partner in crime, Chappell.  

Oliver M. Chappell

 Oliver M. Chappell

Toliver Chappell and Mary Mink’s boy

Born in 1872/3 date unknown

Died aged 11 years old

Cause and date unknown

Records lost in courthouse fire

He was Hattie Chappell Simon's brother 

In 1880 he was eight and Hattie was six

(Amazing how much Peter Harding looks like him.)

Opa and Oma Tidbits

The above pictures of Opa and Oma are from quite a few years ago.  They are both 90 now, and Oma has been in rehab with a broken femur while various family members have been staying with Opa.  I am with him this week, and I have been asking him some questions.  I do not doubt that most of the older Hardings know these stories, but I wanted to get them down as best I could.  He struggled a little in telling them, so forgive me (you who know the stories best) if I have told them wrong.

I asked Opa about what Christmas was like when he was growing up.  He said that his dad, Papa, would go out Christmas Eve to get the tree and then DeeDee and Papa would decorate it.  If Papa did not come home with a really nice tree, DeeDee was not happy.  Sometimes some of the gifts would be tied to the tree as part of the decorations.  

There are two gifts that really stick out in Opa's memory.  One was an electric car that he could ride in.  The other is part of a sad memory for him.  His dad gave him a really nice, rather expensive watch, and that was the only gift he received that year.  The girls though (Opa's 3 sisters), received several gifts each...toys, clothes, and various other things.  Opa feels bad because he hurt his dad's feelings over not appreciating his watch.  He was upset that he only received one gift.  He came to understand, though, the value of that gift in later days.

Opa's mom had a temper, but his dad was usually pretty easy going.  There is one time, though, that Opa remembers Papa being very angry with him.  When Opa was 17, the family moved off of Humphry Street where they had rented for years to a house that was outside of the city.  It took a ride on two different buses for Opa to get to his old friends.  One Saturday, Opa rode back into the city to hang out with his friends at The Pool, a pool hall they frequented.  Because it was a Saturday, when Opa headed home, there weren't as many buses running as there were during the week. This meant he had to wait extra long times to catch the two buses he needed to get home, and the outcome was that he arrived at the house past his curfew.  To top it off, he had forgotten his keys.  So, he knocked on the door.  Usually, when one of the kids was late, it was DeeDee who would answer the door and give the miscreant a piece of her mind.  This time, though, Papa answered the door.  He was so angry at having to get up in the middle of the night to let Opa in that he just hauled off and hit him in the face.  Opa said that was the only time that Papa ever struck him.

But, then Opa turned his mind to one of his favorite memories.  He was leaving for the army during the Korean War.  Oma was going to stay with Papa and DeeDee, and Papa drove Opa to the place where he was meeting all the other recruits to ship out.  Papa put his hand on Opa's shoulder and asked him if he was really sure this was what he wanted to do.  He told Opa that if he was not sure, he knew some people that would be able to work towards getting him out of leaving.  It was a very tender moment for Opa, and it made him feel very loved by Papa.  Opa, of course, chose to stay enlisted.  He felt that Papa was sensitive about the military because he hadn't served in WWII since he had a family.  Instead, his war effort was put in here in the States producing food.

And...just so they don't get lost somewhere, here are a few tidbits I learned today.

Papa and DeeDee met at work.  They both worked for a place that made car parts.  The business is no longer there, but the building is.  Opa said that DeeDee would come in late so often that she was fired.

His favorite cousin was Ardell Jr.  He could walk to Ardell's house from Humphry Street.

DeeDee really spent a lot of time and effort to make sure the girls were dressed nicely.

Then, a bit of a zag here, Oma has been talking with her half-sister, Bobbie, a lot since being in rehab.  Oma was an only child (we thought), and her dad, Addison, left her mother (Honey) and her when Oma was a baby.  She never saw him after that.  (He did come to Honey once and ask to see Oma.  Honey let him look at her across a school playground.  Then Addison left and was never heard of by the two of them again.)   Just recently, through some research on Ancestry, Bill connected with a half-sister of Oma's that we knew nothing about.  That is Bobbie.  They haven't met, but they do talk, and recently quite a bit.  Bobbie told her that some years ago, Addison's wife (who was from Ohio) and Addison were driving in Colorado when he had a heart attack and died in the car.  She drove him to a funeral home there in Colorado and left him.  

Nothing big or exciting or earth-shattering...just some family lore I would like to save for future generations.

  

Between babies, (like Chappell Monroe born to Bill and Stacey) last week,

and Cousin Camp, things have been busy.

Add to that a birthday party for Kent and Natalie and a visit to Jonesboro
for Hattie's grad school orientation, visits with friends, Becky and Derrill
in Doniphan for the weekend, and just regular family things, and life
is full.

Oh, and the plants are growing like crazy.  The peonies are reaching the end
of their furious and marvelous blooming, the irises are beginning to fade,
the lightning bugs are just beginning to be glorious, and the frogs are as
maniacal as they have ever been.

We learned last weekend that Kent's mother, Oma, has a half-sister named
Barbara who is 83 and lives in Chicago.  Oma and her sister are planning on
meeting somewhere in between Chicago and St. Louis in the not-too-distant
future.

Ancestry.com did it again!  Bill posted a picture of Oma's father, Addison, who
deserted Oma and her mother when she was a young child.  Oma never saw him
again.  He then had a daughter (born in St. Louis) by a young teenage girl.  That
daughter was left in an orphanage in Indiana.  Unlike Oma, that daughter did see
her dad from time to time, and her 6 children remember him visiting once a year
and giving each of them a dollar bill and a box of whatever he was selling at the
time.

One of the grandchildren recognized the picture that Bill had posted and she
contacted Bill, and now Kent has a half-aunt and six half-cousins that we never
knew about.

Mike and Deb are headed to Florida in a couple of days to get their furniture.
Fernnook Lodge is not really move-in ready yet, but they are bringing their
things up here anyway.

And, dad's AC went out tonight.  We were all sitting around the deck when it
began to make some very suspicious noises and went a bit beserk.  Dad has
the emergency guys coming soon (hopefully at least).

Kathleen was here the other day and it was hot and she wanted to play outside
in the sprinkler.

K--Grandma, can we play in the sprinkler?

G--No, I don't have extra clothes for you.

K--You could take us to get some clothes.

G--No, I am too busy now.

K--Grandpa could take us to get clothes while you stay  here and work.

G--No, Grandpa is too busy.

K--Hattie could take us to get clothes while you and Grandpa stay here
and work.

G--Kathleen, you sure have a lot of ideas.

K--I have to have a lot of ideas; you keep saying, "No!"

No excuses...just very busy and so sleepy!

I'll toss out a few snapshots of what we've been up to here at Fernnook Farm.

First, the kids came running in with this one evening.  I had no idea what it
was, so we put it in a bug cage and watched it for a week or two.  After a few
days it began to wiggle around, if it was disturbed at all.

I researched it, and came to the conclusion that it was a luna moth chrysalis,
and I kept hoping that it wasn't dying.

Then one day, while Kent and I were sitting at the table we heard an odd noise,
and turned around to see that Mr. Moth was emerging.  I tried to get the kids
down before it came all the way out, but that Moth was too fast for me.

Anyway, they did get to see its wings get bigger and stronger.

Here it is fully developed.  Unfortunately one of its wings didn't fill all the way out.
So, I am afraid that it might have become a meal for the cat or a bird.  Luna moths
only live one week after emerging and do not eat or drink during that week.  They
only mate and (if they are female) lay eggs.  One of their preferred trees is sweet
gum and I have a lovely one (under which the chrysalis was found by the kids), so
I will look for more of these next year.

One day Colyn spent the day with me and he wanted to cook bread.  We needed
more Lord's Supper bread at church so we made some.

Colyn enjoyed the whole process, even the kneading.

So did I.

The eight loaves we made for church.

And, the one we kept for supper.

We birthday partied with Peeta tonight.  Our sweet guy turned 3 a few
weeks ago, and we are sometimes slow to arrange the celebration.

He wanted macaroni and french fries.  So Natalie made macaroni and
I made jojos.  We also added brisket and roast, stir-fry zucchini and
mushrooms, green beans, cantaloupe, bread, salad, chow-chow, and the
cutest cake.  Natalie baked a chocolate cake with chocolate whipped-
cream icing.  Then she took a toy scoop truck and placed it on top
with a hunk dug out of the cake for effect.

Peeta had no problem blowing out his three candles.  He was so
sweet opening his gifts and so careful to look at his cards and tell
everyone, "Thank you."

Last week I was visiting Uncle Jim and I mentioned that I needed to
get some kitchen chairs.  A few of mine fell apart and needed
to be replaced.  He suggested I take Grandma Opal's chairs.  So today
Kent and I and Uncle Jim went in and got the 4 kitchen chairs.

They needed to be bleached and cleaned and I did that and we used
them at the party tonight.  We also found an old cookbook that belonged
to Grandma Hattie Simon.  She has several old handwritten recipes in
the book.  It is a treasure for sure!  Maybe Uncle Jim will post some
of the recipes on his Facebook page.

The whole storytelling the other night started because we had

a pig picking and some friends of Tyler's were here and wanted

to hear stories of what it was like in the Ozarks.

The story Papa told of Shadrack Cora and the wood stove made

Joel remember a story of our own inside wood stove.

We haven't had it for years.  I loved that stove, but it did make

the house dirty, and it took up a lot of room.  For a long time now,

we have had an outdoor wood stove instead.

I don't even remember this story from Joel.  But he is pretty good

about remembering things, so I believe it happened.  We started a fire

one time, and I am guessing it was the first fire of the season.  On

top of the stove there was a glass vase and some flowers.  The

stove got so hot that the flowers caught on fire, and Kent grabbed

a blanket and threw it over the fire to put it out.  

That is not the last fire we had in that room.

The night of Tyler and Jen's wedding rehearsal, Kent and I returned

home later than the rest of the folks staying here.  It was cold in the

house, so I started the two gas wall heaters.

After a few seconds, flames began to shoot out of the heater in the

new room.  I began trying to turn the gas off to the stove, but Billy

yelled for me to get the fire extinguisher.  I grabbed it for him and

he put the fire out.  

One of his little people (Elsie or Opal) had put a piece of plastic in

the grate of the heater and that was what caught on fire.   When the

soot all settled, it covered almost every surface in the house.  It was

a mess!

There were several other crazy things that made that wedding weekend

memorable.  We had unexpected company (who were visiting other

company that we had) and when they came in (we had never met them

before) they came in carrying dozens of toilet paper rolls as a gift

for us.  The man was a toilet paper salesman (I think).  It seemed so

very funny to me.

Then we had a flat tire on the way to the wedding and had to abandon

our car because fixing it would have made us late for the ceremony.

But everything came off and it was a beautiful wedding!  

Last night we played the Dictionary Game.  It is one of our favorites.
The game-that is.  Well the dictionary is too.  You can tell that the
one I got as a gift from Tyler many years ago is well used, and I
will add, it is also well loved.

I look forward to the grandies being old enough to read and write
because I think it will be a blast to play the game with them.  Their
fertile imaginations should shine.

The word I chose, when it was my turn to have the dictionary was
"mingy" which means mean and stingy.  I just love that word and
can't wait to use it in conversation.

The other words were: silurid (a catfish with anal and caudal fins fused),
hicjacet (an inscription on a gravestone), mittimus (a writ to put someone in
jail), ulu (a knife used by Eskimos), and vernissage (a type of italian tile).

So, what do you think of this sentence that uses all the words.  It wasn't
made up by me, but by someone who shall not be named.

It was a mingy, vernissage hicjacet showing a silurid being cut by a ulu
while someone was being served a mittimus.  Put that in your pipe and
smoke it.

Oh, Jennifer won.  She so often does!

Kathleen, Colyn, and Peeta are staying the week with us because Natalie

is in Georgia for her brother's kidney transplant.  We have been having

a rip-roaring time, and after they are in bed, we get to sharing the

different things they have said and done, and it is pretty amusing.

The kids were apparently given strict instructions about what to say 

and not to say while they are here.  I know this, because Kathleen 

keeps telling people what they are not supposed to say.  The other 

day she went up to Hattie and whispered in her ear, "Mom told us 

not to say the word 'fart' when we are here because Grandma Laurie 

doesn't like it.  We are supposed to say, 'toot,' instead. 

It is true, I have a thing about certain words.  I always had my kids say

"toot" because "fart" sounds so very crude.  My boys, when they want

to tease me, remind me that they were the only kids in Mayberry who

said, "toot".

Yesterday they were in the haybarn with Grandpa Kent.  This is what he

overheard Kathleen reminding her brothers, "Remember, don't say words 

like 'buttcrack' because Grandma Laurie doesn't like it."  Well, "butt"

is a crude word (in my dictionary).  I much prefer "bottom" or "bum"

or "rear end".  Just humor me, okay!

Kent told me this, and we laughed, but the real funny came at dinner time

yesterday.  It was just the kids and me and we were talking about manners.

Kathleen (yes she loves to talk) was getting onto Colyn for not saying,

"Excuse me," when he burped.

Here is what she said.  "Well, I have manners.  Well, I have one manner that

is.  I say, 'Excuse me,' when I burp.  Well, I do have one other manner.   I say,

'Excuse me,' when I (hesitation clearly visible on her face) toot."

Her dad used to be the policeman of his brothers also.  They were on a trip

with Opa & Oma one time when he was about 9.  They were all watching

something on TV and there was kissing.  So Joel ordered, "Cover your eyes,

boys."  And to this day, Oma hoots over the way they all instantly obeyed,

and the three boys all turned their heads and covered their eyes.

Today is Mama's birthday.  What a companion and friend she was to Papa,
her children, and her grandchildren.  Just yesterday I was at a friend's house
and she had Osage Oranges on display.  I told her the story of when dad
tricked mom by putting an Osage Orange in the toilet and then staying
in the bathroom moaning and groaning while mom was worrying like
crazy listening to him.  Finally he let her in and showed her the thing
he had "passed".  She about fainted.  Then she about killed him.  She
was so delightfully gullible!  I miss her every day.

My mother-in-law, Oma, had a birthday a few weeks ago.  At 87 she is still a
hoot.  She was dusting up high in the apartment she and Opa have at the Senior
Citizen Complex they live in.  Somehow either the dust she stirred up or the
duster itself set off the sprinkler in the kitchen area.  It didn't sprinkle.  It
absolutely poured out.  And it kept pouring for 18 minutes.  Opa was playing
volleyball in the pool downstairs and was blissfully unaware of what was
transpiring up in his apartment.  Maintenance raced up but couldn't figure out
how to shut off the sprinkler.  They finally had to call the fire department for help.

Now Opa and Oma have to stay in a little room in the assisted living section
while their apartment is repaired.  And...the lady downstairs had to be moved
out also while hers is repaired.

As my new friend Tatyana says, "You know, Laurie, life is life!"

Uncle Bill died yesterday morning.  He was next younger to Papa Bob (my dad).
We had many great vacations with Uncle Bill and Aunt Wanda and our cousins
to the Lake of the Ozarks, New Jersey, and Fernnook (of course) during my
growing-up years.

We also had fall picnics to Babler State Park where we would cook chili and
deer meat and run through the woods and fields.  It didn't matter how cold
it was...a fall picnic was tradition.

Weekends weren't complete without a trip between our two families.  We lived
in the city (of Florissant) and Uncle Bill and family lived in the country (of
Harvester).  Harvester is more city than Florissant now, I think.

The picture above was taken in July of 2008.  It was the day we moved The Bathroom
from Papa's house to G'ma Opal's house.

Uncle Bill was greatly loved and will be greatly missed.

We birthday partied yesterday again. This time for Kent.
Cousin Mary, who was promised a game of High Five for coming,
came in the morning to give her regrets. She found out that
Blue had a dr. appointment at the same time as the party, but
she was kind enough to drop off lettuce and onions from her
garden. Everyone else was there. Uncle Jim, Aunt Jenny,
Papa, Tandy, and Stacey and the kids.

Kent, of course, requested quiche.

The Menu:

Quiche Lorraine (but with ham instead of bacon, and with
mushrooms added in)
Crustless Spinach Quiche
Roasted Veggies (a hodge podge)
Green Beans
Hot Dogs (for the kids who might not like quiche)
Campbell Peaches (from the freezer)
Salad (from Cousin Mary)
Hot Bread
Three Layer Cherry Cobbler (really a glorified pie, with
cherries from Aunt Jenny's tree)
Vanilla Ice Cream

It took me from lunch to dinner to cook it all, but it was
delicioso.

Last Saturday, when the Martins were down, we spent the day at
Cave Springs. We have been going there all our lives.
G'ma Opal loved Cave Springs. She wanted to go every spring
to collect watercress from the fresh, cold water.

Dad gathered some cress, and he cut a few wild onions, and we
added them to our hotdogs. Hotdogs are good with watercress
and wild onion. I was reminded of the year I borrowed an
Irish Cookbook from the library and read about the Irish adding
anything green they could to their diet. They (at a certain
point in history) were short of veggies and would add cress
to their potato soup when they could. Aha, thought I, I can
do that. So I gathered the greens, went home, and made the soup.
The watercress really didn't affect the flavor much at all, but
all the kids turned up their noses at the green color.

This last Saturday turned out to be a sparkly day. The sun was
warm and bright, there was just a hint of a breeze, the fire
added to the fun, the water was cold (just ask Kinsey who went
all the way in...yes in the spring water and yes in April). The
cave was damp and echoey, just as a cave should be, the hiking was
fun, and the napping in the sun and getting a wee bit of a tan
was delightful. A good day.

January is creeping to an end. I like January, but I anticipate
getting a lot more sleep in February. More sleep is good.

For those who think it is only the parents of babies and small
children who lose sleep, you have interesting days ahead.

Last night (as has happened once or twice or more times a week
since the guys got the boat rigged for gigging season)the guys
were out gigging. It was after 3:00 am before the fish were all
safely gigged, cleaned, scored, and stored in the freezer.
They have all the fun, and they do all the work. I just stay awake
until everyone is safely tucked in bed.

I'll get more sleep in February because the season ends January 31st.
Don't tell them I'm throwing a party. It'll be a sleepover.
















Look at Joel's beautiful giant.

I am not gone forever, just for a season.

To paraphrase Solomon in Ecclesiastes:

There is a time for writing and a time for silence;
there is a time for sorrow and a time for rejoicing.

Meanwhile know that there are few fireflies this year but
many ticks and very loud frogs.

Yesterday we hosted our annual church BBQ at our home. In
the middle of the night, before the BBQ, storms began rolling
through the area and Hattie came into the bedroom worrying
because she was afraid we would cancel the shindig. We assured
her that we try to never cancel.

It cleared up and though, just as people started arriving, a
large storm went just to the North of us, it avoided our place.

We had a hot and lovely time. There was an amazing amount of
food. If we had any more food I'd have to enlarge my kitchen
and build longer counters. It took awhile to get the 100 people
through the food line, but nobody went hungry.

But, shame on me, I forgot something important. Hattie had made
a surprise forme a few days before. I knew she was closeted with
her Grandma working on a project, but I didn't know what it was.
She gave it to me on Saturday and I used it to cook the food for
the picnic, but I forgot to wear it yesterday at the BBQ. I wanted
to show it off for everyone...so I'll just do that here instead.
She made one for herself as well. Aren't we just duckie?

Bits and Pieces

Two days ago there were only two of them. We were wondering
if they would all come back, but they have. There are a dozen
or more hummingbirds happily buzzing around my porch. At least
two of them are major bullies, and it provides us never-ending
entertainment to watch them. It also keeps Tyler quite busy
filling the three feeders.

Overheard at Kent's birthday party was this statement by Uncle
Weatherman Jim, "Last year we had May in March and this year
we have March in May."

Billy, Kent, Dad, Hattie, and Tyler took the boat out for the
first time this afternoon to see if it was in working order.
Either it is and they are having a grand time, or it isn't and
they are desperately trying to paddle the river.

Billy starts his internship at CMS Monday. He has had a good
rest.

Joel is loving being in the junk business. He is cleaning up
Ripley County and putting a few dollars in his pocket at the
same time.

I've wanted Crepe Myrtle bushes for at least 16 years, but we
never got around to getting any. This year we got some with
a vengeance. We bought 10 of them and Kent has been planting
them for me.

We're enjoying fresh lettuce and onions from Dad and Mom's
garden. Tonight they are bring a wilted lettuce salad to
our house for dinner. Yes!