I Did It Again!

          And I did it again!

         "Did what again?" you ask — although I bet some of you can guess.

          I missed writing a Sunday blog — again! Not only that, but I missed telling a story on Mike. And that's what happens when I wait too long to tell my stories!

          So before I move on with the new, let's finish up with the old.

          I've heard from a couple of you thanking me for my last story; the story about the fair. "I never get to the fair anymore and your story was so vivid that I felt like I was there," Linda, my best girl told me.

          And my Miss Rosie said, "Your story was good and all the closer to the fair that I want to get these days. I enjoy reading about it more than I enjoy going."

          And I ended the story on the bottom of page sixteen, which means the one little detail I forgot and left out would have started a new page and that doesn't work very well for me, so it's just as well that I did forget.

          Let me refresh your memory...

          Mike and I go to the county fair on the first and last days because they're senior days and Mike gets in free. On the first day, I took my glasses off, set them down, walked off, and left them. I called the fair office and told them what I did.

          "If they get turned in, we'll call you," the nice lady told me and a few hours later she did. She called me. Someone found my glasses and turned them in.

          "I'll be going right past there on Monday," I told her, "I'll stop and pick them up then." I was trying to save us from making a special trip because, you know, nothing in this neck of the woods is close!

          The last day of the fair we rented the scooter for Mike, ate our favorite foods, watched a couple of shows and went home. We pull in the driveway and it hits Mike. "Where's my sunglasses?" he asked, checking the pocket of the Jeep where he usually puts them.

          "I don't know," I replied. "I'm not in charge of your sunglasses." Sometimes I can be a smartass.

          "Oh no," he says and I can see regret on his face.

          "What?"

          "I left them in the basket of the scooter."

          "Those were pretty old and almost worn out, we'll get you a new pair," says me looking on the bright side. An excuse to buy something new is always the bright side for me.

          "I paid a lot of money for those glasses!"

          "Okay, but remember that report on sunglasses we saw on one of those news magazines? It said that cheap sunglasses protect your eyes just as well as the expensive ones."

          "But I love those glasses!" he bemoaned.

          It didn't look like I was going to have any luck in talking him into forgetting about those old-almost-worn-out sunglasses so I faced the inevitable head-on. "Well, just turn around and let's go back and get them. You can drop me at the gate and I'll run in and get them."

          And that's what we did.

          "You two and leaving your glasses at the fair!" Miss Rosie exclaimed.

          "I know, right!"

          That little story would just have put the finishing touch on the fair story and I regret that I didn't remember to include it.

                   

          I love when I can get a picture of a Green Heron. Even though they are pretty common, I'd never seen one before this year and I'm quite enamored with them.

          And speaking of birds, I love the raptors; the eagles and hawks. But again, they are not birds I often get pictures of. I was fast enough on this day to snap two pictures of this hawk as he left one branch in favor of another.

          The rain is never ending here in Pennsylvania, or so it seems. The creeks are out of their beds again but not as bad as last time.

          One bright note about all the rain, it gives me cover to get frog photos!

          Mike worked on the banks of our pond, building it up so it wouldn't overflow so quickly and so far, it's working.

          The pond is defiantly fuller but it doesn't take long for it to go down.

          Our neighbor is talking about getting a load of bentonite clay to seal his pond and he offered to let Mike go in on it with him.

          "No more has been said about it," Mike said when I asked what he decided. "I don't know if the pond has to be empty or how you go about using it."

          "In other words, it sounds like you need to research it."

          "Yeah, or somebody does."

          It's always easier for Mike when I do all the work.

          Speaking of Mike, he wasn't going to let one bad pedicure put him off pedicures. "But I don't want that same gal," he told me as we walked in the door for his second pedicure.

          "Can I help you?" a man calls from across the room where he sat working on a lady's nails.

          "Can we get a pedicure?" I ask.

          "Two?"

          "No. Just one." I pointed at Mike. "For him."

          A lot of chatting in a foreign language goes on a gal comes from the back and waves at us to come. "Is that the same girl?" Mike asked.

          "Yeah, I think it is."

          "I don't want a pedicure from her."

          I put my hand up and waved her away. "We'll come back," I said and we walked out. That wasn't a lie. It was my intention at the time to go back but on the way home I said, "Mike, why don't you try a different place?"

          "Where?"

          "How about Genesis right in Wyalusing?" He was quiet which is almost the same as okay. "I'll call," I volunteered.

          The pedicures at Genesis were five dollars more and Mike didn't like to spend the first twenty-five let alone five more! "Five dollars isn't a big deal if it's a good pedicure," I told him. "And it's closer to home." I seed planted. "And you'll never have to risk getting that woman you don't like." I was coming up with all kinds of reasons to try a new place. "Plus they speak English!" Another good reason.

          A few days later, when his toenails really needed cut, and my seeds had sprouted, he relented. He got a really fabulous pedicure and he loved it!

            And he asked to have his toenails painted pink.

          "Are you serious?" the gal asked.

            He was and he let her pick the shade of pink. 

            It was fun for him for a couple of weeks, then he asked me to take the polish off.

          "Heck no!" I told him. "They can do that when you get your next pedicure." So he's still looking at pink toenails whenever he takes his socks off — and don't think he hasn't had any fun with them either, because he has. He's shown them off to a few people. "I can't wait to hear the story behind that," one of his cronies said.

          We are moving into fall and asters are blooming all over the place! These are little Calico Asters along with the distinctive leaf shape of the Creeping Charlie.

          The Calico Aster is a small flower, less than half an inch across.

          There are lots of varieties of asters and these guys grew up under the protection of a bush where Mike couldn't mow them down. I believe this is a Smooth Aster.

          I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of aster photos in my letter blog in the weeks to come because there isn't a lot else blooming out there right now.

         

          Mike has been keeping an eye out for a bigger, cheap tractor. His mid-size Kubota just doesn't have quite enough oomph for some of the jobs he wants to do. He's been looking at the Ford 5000 but they're expensive.

          While sitting in the Jeep one afternoon, I was reading the local news rag and saw an ad for a John Deere tractor for sale. It comes with a sickle bar, plow, and drag. It sounded cheap to me. Should I show it to Mike? I wondered. Nah! He doesn't want a John Deere. But it is cheap...

          When Mike came out from the store, I showed it to him.

          He called the number and we decided to go look at it. I took road pictures for you.

          We found the place without too much trouble and Marge met us. 

           Her husband died several years ago, she's looking to get rid of some of his equipment that she'll never use, and the kids don't need. She opened the shed door and showed us the tractor.

          "Does it run?" Mike asked.

          "My nephew had it running not too long ago. All he did was charge the battery and it fired right up."

          Mike walked around and looked at it, trying to figure out what horsepower it was but there wasn't anything on the tractor to indicate that and Marge didn't know.

          "Where's the sickle bar, drag, and plow that go with it?" I asked.

          "Up on the hill."

          "Can we see it?"

          "Sure. Just let me lock up the house."

          What's that all about, I wondered. We're out in the middle of nowhere.

          When Marge left, Mike asked, "What do you think?"

          "Well, it's bigger than your tractor."

          We walked up on the hill, chatting with Marge the whole way. I took pictures along the way. Her garden shed...

...and pond. She has a beautiful piece of property.

           Up on the hill, the drag and single bottom plow were almost lost in the weeds.

          "I don't see the sickle," I commented.

          "Oh, that's in the other shed."

          On the way back down the hill, Marge pointed out some mushrooms growing on the side of a tree.

          Mike and I had just seen a show on TV where a couple of guys cut a whole bunch of mushrooms from a tree and prepared them.

          "I wonder if they're edible."

          No one knew.

          "I think I want it," Mike told Marge, "but we're getting ready to head out on vacation and we won't be back for two weeks."

          "That's alright. I'll keep it for you. Besides, it's too wet to get the stuff down off the hill right now anyway. I'll have my nephew bring it down when it dries out."

          So we made a deal.

          Getting back in the Jeep, I look across the road at the spectacular view Marge sees from her front windows every day.

           Another barn picture.

          Heading for home, just before we cross the bridge to go up our mountain, a truck was on the shoulder, almost off the road. Why's he hunkered down there like that, I wondered. Mike slowed, then we get closer and I see a curly blond head just barely visible above the guide rail.

          "He's making sure that baby is safe," I said out loud.

          Over the next few days, Mike talked to several people about the John Deere we bought.

          "Pfft," says our neighbor. "It's a narrow front end. I'd never buy a narrow front end."

          "Narrow front ends are all I've ever owned," another friend tells him.

          "What's the horsepower on it," Mike asked.

          "Right around 22," Jonah told him.

          Mike looked at me and I looked at Mike. "Wait a minute! It's a bigger tractor than the one Mike has and it has less horsepower?"

          "Bigger doesn't equate with more horsepower," I was told.

          "So, what if we decide to sell it," I asked Jonah. "Can we get our money back out of it?"

          "I think so. The tractor alone is worth more than you paid and you got three pieces of equipment with it."

          That was good news.

          "Is there such a thing as it having more pulling power because of the way it's made?" I asked Mike later.

          "Maybe. It's bigger and has bigger tires." Then he thought about it. "I doubt it though. The Kubota's four-wheel drive." 

          Look what I found outside my kitchen door. Don't you just love when the cats bring you presents?

          "What is it?" those of you who are brave enough to look, ask.

          I don't know — but it has the longest tail I've ever seen!

          "Rats have long tails," Lamar told me. "And I know they have rats across the road from you."

          Well, I don't know what it is and there isn't any head or feet on it to give me a clue. What do you think? Mob hit?

         

          All of that and more, my loves, took place during the week before we left for vacation — three weeks ago now! And life keeps happening around me every day! Oy! How will I ever catch up!

          "More, Peg? There's even more?" you wonder.

          Yes, even more. Besides all of that, I cleaned and packed the RV, and found time to put some finishing touches on gifts I wanted to take to our grandson.

          I recorded a bunch of classic movies for Andrew and had to make covers for them. Movies like Pocahontas, Oliver and Company, The Prince of Egypt, Babe, Toy Story, The Land Before Time, and more. Movies my kids watched over and over again when they were little.

           I even had the characters from The Land Before Time so I dug them out, gave them a bath, and let them hang out in the dish drainer to dry. These guys even have the year 1988 stamped on the bottom.

          I Googled them. It was a Pizza Hut promotion, which I'd forgotten, and you can still get these guys on eBay.

          Then I went through and picked out some of the things that I wanted Kevin and Kandyce to have. A bread machine that makes one loaf, ice cream maker, pans, Grandma's old jars, Pap-pap's old toolbox, old windows for Pinterest projects...

          I just love what Kevin and Kandyce did with an old door...

          ...so when I came across some old windows (thank you Joanie!), I offered them to Kandyce for some other project.

          I can't wait to see what beautiful thing she turns these into!

          So!

          Mike and I knew we wanted to take a trip to visit the kids and take them some things...

          Oh! Gosh. So many things happened all at once it's hard to keep them in order. That and it all happened weeks ago! That doesn't help. So here's what else was going on.

          I told you a month ago about losing Grandma's china. I told you how Kat's fiancé lost the house and left the china behind and it was all sold at auction. Kevin, bless his heart, Kevin made a few phone calls and tracked down the lady who bought the house. He told her the circumstances surrounding his sister's death and Jesse losing the house. He told her we were looking to see if she could give us a line on what may have happened to some of the stuff, specifically some family photos, some Brownware,

            ...and his Grandmother's china.

          "No, there were no pictures that I remember," she told him. "And no Brownware. But I did keep a set of dishes. We bought another house about the same time and I don't remember which house they came out of. If you can tell me what they look like, and these are them, you can have them back."

          You guys, I'll tell you what. God is so good to me. I thought the china was gone for good, had accepted that even, and was ready to move on and forget about it, then here it was. This lady did keep Kat's china!

          Along the same timeline...

          Mike was talking to his brother Cork and told him we were going to Missouri to see the kids and we'd probably go see cousin Suzy in Iola, Kansas while we were that close.

          "We're going to be in Iola September 21st and 22nd," Cork told him.

          Although we had no plans on when we were going to see the kids, our plans were just made for us. How could we pass up a chance to see his brother and sister-in-law? We couldn't. We'd be in Iola on the 21st and 22nd.

          Along the same timeline...

          My beautiful, wonderful sister in Minnesota made the trip to pick up Kat's china.

          "Mike, I don't want to lose it again. Can we run up to Phyllis' and get it and bring it back down for Kevin and Kandyce?"

          "Sure. Yeah. Okay. We can go get it."

          What a wonderful adventure we had ahead of us. I so was looking forward to seeing everyone and at the same time, I hated to leave my house. Not so much the house itself, I do love my house, but our critters. I hated to leave them. Although I knew the Kipps would take good care of them, I was worried they'd miss us and run away and find new homes. I know, I'm silly.

          We were gone for eighteen days. And traveling is the reason I missed writing two letter blogs. During those eighteen days, I took 7,481 pictures! What am I going to do!

          Next time, we'll start the adventure and hope this old lady brain of mine hasn't forgotten too many details.

          Let's call this one done!