Rock Fishing...Kinda Sorta

If You Can't Go To The Lake....

Go fishin' in your driveway!

Armed with the knowledge that our weather was soon going to be changing, the kids decided to make the most of what sun they had left and have a good ol' time outside.

Lindsay had fishing on her mind, so Pa helped her get the rod and reel out, and she set out to do some serious fishing.


She tried cat fishing, but the catfish weren't biting.

So she decided to try rock fishing.

She cast out as far as she could. There were some pretty impressive casts.

It looked like she might have caught a big one at one point. But, alas, it was the one that got away.

Ah well. No fish for dinner, rock or otherwise, but both our children had a fine time in the sun before we headed into town where they both scored some great books for their weeks reading.

Hopefully the weather will clear, and the wind will die down a bit before the end of the weekend.

Hope you all are having a fantastic Fun Friday!

Note: As always, you may click on photos for full size versions ;)

Bookin'

IMG_0406
Originally uploaded by boondockma

Today is library day, so I thought it fitting to feature a photo of the kids doing one of their most favorite things.

On any given morning, with the exception of Saturdays, you will find my children sitting by a window, or on the couch, under the Ott Lite, reading. Once breakfast is consumed, and morning chores taken care of, they usually spend some time outside, running off some energy before school begins.

School out of the way, weather permitting, they're back outside, making the most of all our property offers. By late afternoon, it's time to slow down and recharge the batteries. That's when the books come out once again.

During late fall, winter and early spring, that usually means we'll find them in pretty much the same position we found them first thing in the morning. This time of year though, things change.

Yesterday afternoon, as they settled down in their usual spots, Nathan glanced up and realized there was a much better booklight available, and with it, fresh air, not to mention the always welcome kitty visitors. As he announced, "I'm going outside!" both he and Lindsay grabbed their books and headed out.

By the end of the afternoon, they had followed the suns lead and changed position 3 times. In the final location, as the shadows were taking over, and the cooler air was replacing the sun's warm rays, the aroma from the kettle grill reached them. Pa was preparing the grill for dinner. Between that and the cats' not so subtle requests for attention, the afternoon's reading session came to an end.

Hope your midweek day was as pleasant as ours was!

Damsel In Blue

Damsel In Blue
Originally uploaded by boondockma

Now that's what I was lookin' for!


If you get a chance, stop by my daughter, Kimmi's blog. She posted some great photos of some cakes! *

Bugs 'N Bumps

Be Ye Dragon Or Damsel?
Originally uploaded by boondockma

Yesterday, I had more fun with my camera. The birds weren't cooperating, and none of our plants or flowers were speaking to me, so I wandered around until this little fellow caught my eye. He was on the move, and I can't catch and snap so fast as he was moving through the air, so I chased him around the yard for awhile, until he finally decided to pose for me.

Unfortunately, by the time he decided to cut me a break, I had managed to stir up quite the coalition of mosquitoes! I waved them off as best I could while attempting to shoot this fellow's profile. I was just getting ready to snap what I'm sure would've been the perfect prize winning shot when a rather large mosquito landed on my arm.

I briefly considered going for a shot of the mosquito as she dug in, but my aversion to big red itchy blotches took over and I gave her a well placed swat. I watched as she tumbled off my arm, then glanced back to my original prey. Naturally he had taken off at the sound of flesh slapping flesh and so my photo shoot was done for the day.

It didn't take long for me to realize the mosquito I had managed to beat to the punch wasn't the only one who had managed to land on my body during my pursuit of the lovely blue fellow. I began to itch, and when I looked it came as no surprise to note the red bumps emerging from the itchy areas.

Fortunately, in my 50+ years on this planet I've managed to learn a couple tricks to deal with these sorts of incidents. The first I learned long ago, when my now adult children were young. That would be an ordinary tube of toothpaste! While I suppose it's possible the gel would work, I've never tried it, opting instead for the regular, good old fashioned paste. As it dries it takes the itch away and, as a bonus, if you catch it early enough, and let it dry completely, it even takes the bump away! The only drawback to this method is it can get a bit messy, depending on where and when you need to apply it. A well placed band-aide can help you out here, but, naturally this slows the drying process down. I've also found toothpaste is good for other insect bites.

Then there's the second option, which is even more fun than the first! This one I learned from my Stepmother several years ago, and has turned out to be not only an excellent, immediate source of relief for the itching, but a fun application for the kiddos! This would be good old fashioned Mrs Stewart's Bluing. Yup! You read that right. Just head to your laundry aisle at your friendly local grocers and grab a little blue bottle. When the beastly mosquitoes attack your little darlings, squeeze a bit on your applicator of choice (I ball up a square of toilet paper for this), being careful not to allow it to spill on your carpet, clothing, etc. Dab it on the bite and your young'un will be proudly sporting their itch free, blue polka dot until you wash it off.

Hope you're all having a wonderful itch free Monday!

Slugs, Copper, And A Lion Named Elsa!

My apologies for leaving you in the dark in yesterday's post regarding slugs. The two things we are planning to try this year in our attempts to keep the rather prolific beings at bay are egg shells, and hopefully copper wire.

We've used eggshells combined with slug bait with limited success in the past. This year I plan to grind them much finer before applying. For those who may not have heard of this option, the crushed eggshells act like glass for bugs and slugs. Since it is applied on the ground it doesn't affect the beneficial bees, but the slugs tend to turn the other direction when they encounter it. I've actually seen ants making a beeline for a plant and do an about face when running into the eggshell barrier!

The copper wire is an idea I came up with after Nathan informed me that slugs don't like copper. Evidently, according to a gardening book he read, it acts rather like an electrical current, giving them a shock and sending them on their way.

A while back the kids informed me they had found some copper wire, and I was thinking that would make for a fine gardening experiment, perhaps making a line around sections of garden plants, but when I inquired as to it's whereabouts yesterday, I was told they had decided it wasn't good for anything so they had tossed it. *sigh*. Now I'm daring to hope that if there was some in one place, perhaps I will find more elsewhere on the property. I'll keep you posted!

In the meantime, It is Sunday once again, which means Saturday has come and gone and it is time for my weekly....

Saturday Night At The Movies!

This week the kids were all excited to see Born Free as an option at Netflix. Last night we all sat down and enjoyed it together. What a fun blast to the past (all the way back to 1966!) for me, and I think the kids enjoyed it even more than I did! That in itself was thrilling for me, as the older films don't always appeal to them so much. This one, like the book it was based on definitely stood the test of time! Odds are you've already seen this film, and like me, more than a couple years have passed since you saw it or, unless you happened to hear the title song played on an oldies station, even thought about it. In my opinion, this is a film worthy of resurrecting for family viewing. After discussing it last night we all agreed it was a 4.5 star event (out of 5 possible). A pretty high rating for our family!

Happy Sunday! Hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods!

Sunshine Days

Yesterday was such a beautiful day! The sun was shining bright, and the thermometer was climbing, yet it never managed to climb quite to the point it was uncomfortable. The kids celebrated by spending plenty of time outside, running from one section of the property to the next, hunting for slugs,

climbing on whatever they could find to climb, soaking in the suns rays, even stopping to pose for the occasional picture.

Naturally, all that beautiful sunshine, along with my smiling children caused me to grab my camera and make the most of the situation.

That took up a couple hours. Then came the photo uploads. First I had to go through the numerous shots, choosing the best of the best, then it was off to flickr for safe keeping. Since we're on dial-up, that took several hours. 2 photos at a time, then going off line so my ISP wouldn't get cranky. Back to load 2 more and repeat.... Amazingly, I managed to get them all loaded by 7:50 PM. Just enough time to get the kids all snuggered in bed and hand the keyboard over to Pa at 8.

Things did warm up quite a bit in the early afternoon, so we waited until things started to cool down just a bit, and the shade began taking over before planting our tomatoes. We didn't want them to get stressed out from too much heat.

In years past we've had some major problems with slugs. Today we plan to try some different techniques for dealing with them, in hopes that our garden will stand a better chance of actually making it to a reasonable harvest condition.

Normally we like to get an earlier start on our gardening. Last year was so disappointing though. Folks around here called it the Summer that wasn't. I think we may have managed a week's worth of summery days, and those days were not consecutive. Those days were also quite late in making their appearance, which resulted in some real sorry garden yields. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this year will be different. At least we seem to be off to a good start!

Happy weekend!

Note: Click on photos for full size

Singin' For His Supper

Once again, I'm havin' some fun with my newest toy. This morning, after Pa refilled the bird feeder, we had some feathered visitors, including 2 of my favorites, a pair of Towhees.

After carefully sliding the dining room window open, as quietly as possible, I had a fine time photographing these two as they sang their sweet little songs. They're quite fond of the sunflower seeds in the mix we provide.


Shortly after the first bird left, his partner stopped by.


In addition to regaling us with their song, and being kind enough to pose for the camera, these two feathered fellows also provided me with the opportunity to get to know my camera just a bit better. As I suspected, an additional feature (or 2) allowed me to better utilize my zoom. Still need to play with it a bit though, as well as figure out how to control my tendency to "shake".

Hope you all are having a great Thursday!