VBS

          Another week has come and gone; it's Saturday and I find myself in front of my puter. I'm not sure what I'm going to write about this week, but that's not unusual. Lots of times I don't know what I'm going to write about when I start.

          "Boy, Peg. You sure do write long letter blogs for not knowing what you're going to write about," you say.

          I know, right! Without the pictures, my stories wouldn't be nearly as long. I'm told, though, that my pictures are loved so I won't leave them out. Lots of times stories occur to me as I run through the pictures. So, let's get on with it, shall we?

          Spitfire, our mighty hunter, got not one but two baby rabbits this past week and ate them both on the back patio.

          "He ate it all!" I told Momma on the phone. "Ears and feet and toenails and teeth and... and... everything! There wasn't anything left but a spot of blood and a few tufts of fur!"

          "Good," Momma said. "It didn't go to waste."

          The one little bunny was still alive when he brought it in and it cried. I was in the kitchen and heard him. Have you ever heard a bunny cry? It's a sound you won't soon forget. But I knew better than to try to save the bunny. They're too fragile and he'd just die anyway. I'm sure the fresh meat is a nice change of pace from the commercial cat food that I feed them.

          Tracy, our church secretary, organized a one-day vacation Bible school. On Sunday, when we arrived for service, we had our minds blown by the creative and awesome talents of the decorating team. The theme of VBS was God's Galaxy. They'd made a black tunnel for the kids to walk through that represented outer space with lights for distant stars. Hanging stars, planets, and lights decorated the classrooms and everyplace you looked.

          The front of the church featured the sun and moon, Adam and Eve, critters and a waterfall. I love the waterfall! Someone put lights in the bottom. If you squint your eyes you can almost see the sun reflecting off the myriad of splashes at the bottom of the falls. Tilt your head a little and you can almost hear the water rushing over and hitting the rocks below!

          Shawn, a cartoonist in our church, did the wonderful hand drawings of Adam and Eve, the critters, and the fish in the pond.

          "Except the bear," Tracy tells me. "Carl drew the bear and my mom finished it. Shawn drew the sun and I finished it; the same with the moon. Lydia drew the cloud and I finished that. I drew the rocket ship and Karis and Sue painted it, then I decorated it."

          The rocket ship is so clever. Tracy used it to "fly" to heaven during a skit and used large party poppers to make it seem like the rocket backfired! I bet the kids loved that!

          On display were two Bible verses. Genesis 1:1 which says: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

          The second verse speaks of God's great love for us. John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

          All of these people, the ones I've named and those I haven't, everyone who volunteered their time and talents deserves a great big thank you. Everyone on the team was invaluable and brought an important aspect to making this a fun and exciting day for 18 little ones to learn about our Lord.

          Thank you all, for your service.

          In my file, I have three Clearwing Hummingbird photos to show you. That was pared down from the 50 million or so that I took over the course of the week. Once my Bergamot is gone I won't see these guys anymore this year.

          I could stand there for hours watching all the critters this flower attracts.

          This is a Silver-spotted Skipper.

  

           A Great Spangled Fritillary.

          I went out early for wet spider web photos. I wasn't lucky enough to see any of the beauties who spin these webs. I did, however, see them drop to the grass to hide because they saw me coming.

          The blackberries are getting ripe. I'll pick three or four and eat them whenever I pass by. Ginger likes raspberries but she doesn't want anything to do with blackberries. 

          Mike had a flat on his mower. He pumped the tire up and a couple of hours later when he went out it was flat again.

          "I guess I'd better take it off and go get it fixed," he said.

          We went to the garage in Wyalusing but they didn't have a tube for it. Mike would have to go to the auto parts store, get the tube and take it back to the garage and the guy would see what he could do.

          "We could just go down to the mower place," I told Mike. "They'd have the tube to fix it."

          Mike isn't in love with this mower place but he wanted his tire fixed so we drove to Laceyville.

          "I'll stay in the Jeep and read my Bible while you're gone." It's what I always tell him when I don't want to go into the boy stores with him. I have the Bible on my cell phone, which makes it so easy to pull up and continue reading from where I left off from the last time I opened it.

          Mike had been gone for quite a while. When he came back, he opened the back of the Jeep to get the tire out.

          "Can he fix it for you?" I asked.

          "Yep. Peg, you gotta see this. Come on in."

          "I don't want to," I said as I unlatched my seatbelt and got out.

          Inside, I looked all around and only saw boy stuff. What could he possibly think I'd be interested in? "What?" I asked a little testily.

          "Look at that mower!" He was all grin from ear to ear.

          I didn't see what all the excitement was about. "Yeah? So?"

          "It's got a Caterpillar diesel engine and it's water cooled," Mike says like that's going to impress me.

          "I had one guy who mounted a Go Pro on the roll bar of his. He went over a rock and broke all three spindles. The engine didn't even bog down, that's how powerful it is." Trace, the employee said, laughed a little, and shook his head. "He didn't even seem to care that he had to have it fixed now. He was just so proud — he made me watch his video when he brought his mower in."

          Mike was looking the mower over as he listened to Trace's story. "Peg, it's got dashboards on both sides with water temperature and oil gauges. Mine doesn't have all that."

          "Yeah? Pretty cool!" I'm trying to feign a little enthusiasm here.

          "Plus it sits higher," Mike states with obvious glee. In a vehicle, he likes to sit higher so he can see over guide rails and smaller cars, so why wouldn't he like to sit higher in his mower?

          "That's not always a good thing," Trace says. "Like when you're mowing under trees."

          Mike stood back admiring this beast. 

            I was done. "Okay then, I'm going back out to the Jeep while you finish up in here."

          I know Miss Rosie was sad when her Crane got washed away in the flood. "Lamar and I stopped at the place where we bought him, looking for another, and they didn't have one. They had Pink Flamingos and Purple Roosters but no Cranes."

          I picked Miss Rosie up for our exercise class on Monday night.

          "Guess what?" Rosie asked.

          "What?"

          "Our Crane's back."

          "No way!"

          "Yep. Lamar found him tangled up in the Lemon Lilies."

          "Where is he?" I asked.

          "Lamar stood him back up in the yard."

          I stopped on our single-lane open-grate bridge and took his picture.

          "He's all muddy," Rosie explains. "So he looks more like a Heron than a Crane. Lamar hasn't given him a bath yet."

          I worked on a project this past week, a project I've been wanting to try but didn't have a reason to yet. It all started when I was at the thrift store. I was buying something, I don't remember what anymore and it's not important enough for me to try to remember. One lady worker asked another lady worker how much to charge.

          "Fifty cents," she answers and looks at the other stuff I had piled on the counter for checkout. "She's got a couple of VCR tapes — just give her those, in fact, why don't you get some more?"

          "I would if there were any more there I wanted," I told her. "I get them for my grandson and copy them over to a disc."

          "You can do that?" she was immediately interested.

          "Yeah."

          "Can you tell me how to do it?"

          "Well, you have to buy a video capture card, write it to your computer and burn it to a disc."

          "That's way too complicated for me. I've got some old tapes and can't find anyone to put them on a disc for me."

          "I'll do it for you," I volunteered. "As long as we're not talking about a bunch of tapes."

          "I have some too," the first lady spoke up. "They're old Boy Scout tapes. Five of them I think."

          "I'll do them for you too. Just bring me the tapes and discs, maybe a couple of extra for my trouble, and I'll do 'em for you." I left my name, number, and directions to my house for the ladies.

          A few days later Irene stops by with the tapes. "I don't know what's on them. I don't have a VCR."

          As we were chatting I pulled the tapes from the cases, one by one, looking them over. "This one has mold on it," I told Irene and pointed to the white stuff growing on the tape. She just looked at me not knowing what that implies. I went on. "Even if you had a VCR you wouldn't want to run a moldy tape through it, it'll gum up the heads. I'll have to take the case apart and clean the tape before I can run it through the VCR."

          "Okay?"

          "You understand there's a chance I could ruin the tapes?"

          "That's okay. They don't do me any good this way anyway."

          I took an afternoon when it wasn't raining — oh my gosh! We've had so much rain again this week, but more on that later. I picked a day where I could work outside because you need to be a little careful when working with mold. I opened up an old VCR...

...and popped the tape in. It came right back out. I put it in, it came out. I must of had my finger on the eject button, I think, rearrange my hold on the machine and put the tape back in. It came right back out. I put it in, it came out. I put it in, it came out. Hmmmm. This was getting me nowhere. I know the player works because I had been using it. Maybe there's a button or switch or something telling the VCR the top is off and it won't play that way, I think. I place the metal cover back in place, pop the tape in, and boy was I surprised when it started to play! Now I looked it all over and couldn't find a button or switch anywhere. I let the tape play as I slid the cover back. About half-way the tape ejects. That's not enough room for me to work. What if I put the cover under the VCR? I was thinking something magnetic since I couldn't see a button or switch. But it didn't work. I experimented with the lid discovering I could stand it up behind the VCR and have the top open giving me all the room I needed to clean the tape. A light sensor maybe? There was a learning curve here, a few glitches, but I cleaned all five tapes thinking if three of them had mold, the other two might also, even though I couldn't see it.

          Ginger stayed in the yard with me while I worked. Then I became aware that she was standing guard over something. "What's there?" I asked as I got up and went around the table. Ginger looked at me, then back at a baby snapper. I reached down and touched him. He didn't move. Uh-oh, he's dead, I thought. "Leave it alone!" I told her. Ginger backed off a few paces, sat down, and resumed her watch. I went back to work cleaning tapes. After a while, I hear her scratching at the snappers shell. Well, I guess I gotta take care of him now. I got up, got the shovel and rake and went back to where I left him. He wasn't there! He wasn't dead after all and had traveled a few feet. I scooped him up and carried him out of the dog run to the weeds and give him a gentle heave-ho.

          Tapes all cleaned and put back together, I picked up my tools and got to work on the next phase of this project; copying the tapes to my computer. These tapes were almost 30 years old and the sound would drop out for a second or two, then resume. It was annoying but still watchable. I did my best to keep the tracking adjusted but there are times she's just gonna have to wait until it clears up on its own.

          One of the tapes was of a pinewood derby and either during the recording process or some post-processing, someone tried to get fancy with instant replay and slow motion. Annoying.

          The tape I like best was of a day camp. This tape highlighted activities like gun and bow shooting. Do they still teach them how to use a gun today? I don't know.

          They showed a couple of games the boys got to play and my favorite one was a Trip Around the World.

          The counselor held a globe as she stood in front of a group of boys. "Today we're going to take a trip around the world. We're going to start right here in Pennsylvania and we're going to work our way down. About half-way across the United States, we're going to come to a biiiig river." And she had the boys guess the river and how to cross it. For every stop along the route, she encouraged guesses and gave hints, not only to what the country was but also what it was known for.

           Then she demonstrated an obstacle course. Over the Mississippi she went, running down a board laid on the ground. Then climbed a stack of hay bales to represent the Rockies. To cross the Pacific Ocean you had to pick up a life vest, put it on, sit on a deflated rubber boat, pick up the oars and row "...three times!" She told them. "Because we're strong we can get across in just three rows!"

          Austraila was the next stop and you had to hop like a kangaroo to China, where you had to weave your way through a bamboo forest made of posts. The Himalayan Mountains were represented with a little two-rung step ladder. The boys went up to the top and jumped. India is known for snakes so they had a rope coiled for a snake pit and you had to jump over it. Arabia has deserts, which are hot, so you have to hot-foot it through a tire obstacle. When she came to Africa the boys guessed all kind of animals before someone finally said monkeys. They had a rope hanging from a tree with a loop for your foot so you could swing through the trees.

          Italy was next. They had a bean bag toss to represent meatballs and everyone got to throw three 'meatballs'. To cross the Alps they had two stands the boys had to leap-frog over. The next ocean they crossed by going under it, through a 'secret' tunnel. Then they were home.

          The boys had such a good time running the obstacle course that they wanted to go more than the two times time allowed. And I thought it was a fun game to encourage exercise.

         

          The Elderberries are getting ripe and the birds get them as soon as they are.

          This little guy was hiding in my recipes that sit behind my canisters on my kitchen counter.

          "What is it?" you may ask.

          This guy is an Earwig. They're found on all continents except Antarctica. These guys feed on a wide variety of insects and plants. They're mostly nocturnal which is why I didn't know he was hiding among my papers. The thing that I found most fascinating about these critters is that the females show maternal care. She will stay and defend her eggs from predators. She'll continuously clean the eggs to protect them from fungi. Once the eggs start hatching she may assist them. The nymphs look similar to their parents, only smaller, and will nest under their mother and she'll continue to protect them until their second molt. They go through four to six molts before reaching adulthood. The babies feed on food regurgitated by the mother and on their own molts. If the mother dies before the babies are ready to leave, they may eat her!

           "Peg, why are they called 'earwigs'?" you ask.

          It's derived from Old English. Eare means ear and wicga means beetle. They have wings and when unfolded their hindwing resembles a human ear.

          The Virgin's Bower is blooming. This plant has many other names including Devil's Darning Needles, Love Vine, Traveller's Joy, Virginia Virgin's Bower, Wild Hops, and Woodbine. It's in the Buttercup family and is faintly sweet smelling. It's an aggressively growing vine that can climb to 20 feet so if you plant it in your garden, be prepared to do a lot of pruning. Once it goes to seed it won't look anything like this.

          This is a Southern Corn Rootworm.

          "Peg, that's not a worm! It's a beetle!" you say.

          I know, right! He's also known as a Spotted Cucumber Beetle and he's on Goldenrod.

          This is a small butterfly called a Pearl Crescent. You can find them all over the United States except the west coast. They can even be found in Mexico and southern Canada.

          Despite all of the rain, we've had a little sun. I spent a sunny afternoon watching the dragonflies at the pond.

          This almost black looking dragonfly is a Slaty Skimmer.

          I watched these two doing an aerial dance around each other. These are both Meadowhawk dragonflies. The female is yellow...

...and the male is red. 

           You may notice you can't see the legs of the female. Do you know why? It's because she's not landed. She's hovering. I got a lot of blurry shots before I got this one.

          I like this shot. It isn't often that a dragonfly lets me get in front of him and take his picture.

           There's a lot of hanky-panky going on at my pond!

          Ginger was with me and decided to go for a swim. Then she had to dry off in the grass.

          How about a few pictures from a recent ride-about.

          There were a couple of old train cars off to the side, down here in Wyalusing. Mike often wondered why they were sitting there and what would become of them. And now we know. They are cutting them up for scrap.

          Towanda is getting a parking garage.

            Old gas station.

          Earlier, I alluded to more rain and said I'd talk about it later. Really, there isn't much to talk about. It rained and rained and rained. At least a little every day this past week.

          One day we had rain and sunshine together. "You know what that means, don't you, Peg?" Mike asked.

          I got up from my desk and grabbed my camera. "A rainbow?" It was, in fact, a double rainbow right over our house. 

           After I'd gotten all the pictures of that that I thought I wanted, I walked on down to the pond. I've been so enjoying walking along the edge of the pond where the water is over the grass because the water is cool and the grass soft under my bare feet. I waded in up to mid-calf, turned and saw the rainbow reflected in the pond. I had to wait for the ripples I'd created to settle down, hoping the rainbow wouldn't be gone so I could take a picture for you.

          Early Saturday morning, like 3 in the a.m., I woke up to the rain just pounding on the roof. It quit for a while, then resumed with a vengeance. It just poured! Around 5 in the afternoon, it stopped and we took the golf cart down to check on the creek. It looked higher than ever!

          It's a good thing Lamar had rescued the Crane before he could get swept away again!

          Well, my loves, I do have more pictures and more stories but nothing that won't keep.

          Let's call this one done!