Beaver Town

What can I say about this? Well let me tell you, this girl born and raised in the concrete jungle of Dallas, Tx. never saw nature like I see nature now. I take every opportunity I can to stop and admire wildlife around me. I taught it for 30 years from a book but never got to actually see the real thing up close and personal. As we drove into Wellsville for the trout derby I noticed these trees off the exit ramp of I86 in N.Y. It wasn't until the next day that we were able to stop and check out all the work these little guys did to these trees. The beavers had a lodge in the back behind a chain link fence and then 3 different levels of water caused by two different log dams. Amazing

Derby Weekend

You can swim but you cannot hide. This past weekend Michael and I went to Wellsville N.Y. for a trout derby. 450 tagged brown trout were released into the Genessee River. Each one was worth anywhere from $7,000 to $25.00. If you catch a "tagged" fish, it must be taken to the registration booth live. They remove the tag, read the number and find the amount that you win on a wall chart. You are given a check and then you can go back and fish for more. The event took place on Sat. and Sun. It was HOT! Michael fished with his buddy Jim and Jim's wife and I did the lounge chair nap waiting for the cash to roll in. Those N.Y. fish don't know how to eat. Well maybe one did. Jim caught a $25.00 fish around 2pm Sat. After a long day and some rest at the hotel, we all decided to do dinner and the Salamanca casino. I found a few quarter slot machines then a nickel machine but not the right one until I nested in the non smoking section of the casino. I found a blazing 7's quarter machine and after spending about $12.00 of my $20.00 I get a ring, ring, and 1000 credits on my machine. I look up thinking that's quite a few credits. Wonder what I did. I see 3 blazing 7's in front of my eyes, take a look at the top at what that reward is, and sure enough it says 1000 credits. Teaching Kindergarten for all those years didn't increase my math IQ so I figured I'd cash out and see how much that was. The ticket came out of the machine with $ 258.25!! HOLY MOLY. I won some money. From then on, whenever I had more than my 80 credits ($20.00) in the machine I would cash out. I turned in 5 tickets at the end of the night totaling $370.00. I profited $170.00. Michael didn't catch any fish but I made up for it at the casino.

More Spring Blooms

I can't believe I have spent the morning on Facebook (I joined yesterday). How in the world does that work? And I'm on Twitter and I have this blog. How do people get anything done? Am I being sucked into this stuff? We'll see how long it takes me to give up on that and get back to the real world, if ever. But now for the latest...

We spent Saturday on a drive east. We drove east to Coudersport and south to Wharton and then back home. It took most of the day but we saw a lot of fishermen (first day of trout season). We also saw a lot of beautiful scenery even though it was brown. We did take a back road through the mountains and happened upon some vistas. It's amazing I think I saw NYC. :>)

The bloomers I saw this week were hyacinth and dogwood. Hopefully the spring rain we are getting will make lots of blooms for the next week.

Sunday was spent at the Garland Community Center volunteering. We put in the wiring and two ceiling fans. We were unable to finish the third fan because of a scheduled baby shower so that will get done later this week. See the man's great work above!

Spring Blooms

I have plans to post our weekly blooms. I better hurry up and post last weeks. Crocus, Daffodil, and Forsythia (sp?). Here it is Tuesday and I will post this week's blooms later on in the week. It seems something is blooming every week right up until Fall. Still brown in our yard although I have seen about two inches of stems from my Daylilies. The red squirrel keeps sitting in the bowl that St. Francis holds eating all the sunflower seeds. I saw him try to jump from the birdbath to the birdfeeder in the yard earlier. He missed and landed on a bush under the feeder. He leaves the scraps on the ground for the Junco (our snowbirds). No one's told them it's time to fly North. Guess that means we might have another snowfall. I saw a male cardinal taking a bath in the pooled water of our tarp that is covering our hottub. And so what's wrong with the birdbath in the yard? Oh, sorry, I forgot I emptied out the water (and poop) yesterday thinking the rain would have been here by now. Still no baby groundhogs and only one calf at the farm next door. And the swan? She's still sitting on her nest.

Michael and I go on little drives sometimes and we love following the rivers and creeks near us. The Allegheny River just happens to be the big one going through our town. Sunday we happened upon two swans. One was on her nest. The other was floating with some mallards. We didn't have the camera then, but last night we did go back with the camera to get a picture of mama on her nest. She was asleep. We found the other swan floating alone and then as I was taking the picture of the mama, two other swans flew downstream and landed. I got them also. How gorgeous. Michael asked why I was so amazed by these birds. Now where would I see swans in their natural habitat in TEXAS? This wasn't the first time I saw swans here. I did see a flock of about 20 Trumpeter Swans on the Allegheny about 3 years ago. They even made the front page of our newspaper.

ATTACK!

We've been attacked. Look what happened to my brand new Christmas present. Everything was destroyed...the shepherd's hook, the suet cage and my metal bird feeder! My birdfeeder! The birds hadn't even had a chance to try it out. Get the shotgun.

I'm sitting here trying to start this blog and thinking how eloquent and dutiful John Adams was in his writings. I've just spent the morning reading about our country's history of all things. Somehow my maturity, plus my recent change of residence, has spiked my interest in how our great United States began. It's a shame how those college professors bored me to sleep in history class. I wonder if I could stay awake today or if it's best that I study on my own turf and in my own time. Anyway, just a thought, wish I could write like John Adams.

Speaking of reading, I wish I could take my book outside but the temps won't allow it. Still in the 20's at 11:00am but you wouldn't know it by looking. It's just gorgeous outside. The chickadees keep swooping down to the feeder and back to the pine tree. A red squirrel has been on the deck looking for breakfast and of course those pesky crows keep calling each other thru our backyard. Seems to me they are saying VAAALL, VAAALL, VAAALL, instead of CAWWW CAWWW CAAW.

I'm "stuck" at the house today. It's not all that bad. I love my sanctuary. Michael had to take his truck in to the truck hospital last night. He has been hesitant to repair a (uv)???? joint, so he thought. I think that's what he called it. But yesterday, (really I heard it this weekend) this horrible cranking, creaking noise continued all the way to his workplace and home again and he thought it best to get that checked out and fixed. He now thinks it's something to do with bearings (????). What do I know? But the truck is being fixed and he took my car to work. It's just as well because I'm having an urge to visit a new quilt shop in Pittsfield. I really don't need anything more than a thimble but can't resist all the pretty fabric.

One more funny thing before I close for today. Last night, while I was fixing dinner, Michael was reading the paper and asked me , "Do you ever listen to me?" I thought that was a funny thing to ask. I responded with a humorous, "sometimes". He then pointed to a plumbing thingy you have in the tank of the toilet and asked me "where's the floater on that?" I pointed to it and he responded with, "by golly, you do listen to me. You are so smart!" You see we had to, oops, I should say, he had to repair the toilet a week or so ago. I had the sense to turn the water off at the back of the toilet in the morning when it wouldn't stop running. I knew we didn't want the pump for our well to break. He came home that night and taught me all the names of the stuff inside the tank. I'm used to the floater being a large ball on the right side of the tank but he had a different contraption with the floater all together with the rest of the stuff on the left. You can see by this how much info I retained. I just remembered where the floater was, not what any of that stuff was called. It doesn't really matter, just that he thinks I listen and that I'm smart. And what really matters is that he is so loving and encouraging.