Start.
I just need to start.
"Peg! What are you going on about
now!" you ask.
Okay. Here's the deal. I don't have
any idea what I'm going to talk about and I don't really like that. Writing is
a whole lot easier when I have a story to tell. Despite that, I have 70 some
pictures in a file to show you this week. So with no clear plan in place, let's
just take a bite.
I'm sad.
"Why are you sad?" you ask.
I'm sad because the one and only wild
chrysalis that I've ever found is gone. The deer had run through there and
knocked down all the Goldenrod. I picked it up as carefully as I could and
despite searching every leaf, I couldn't find it. I've looked at least twice
and I'll probably look again, just in case, you know. Now I'm on a mission to
save as many caterpillars and chrysalises as I can find.
While
out looking, I spot this colorful guy hiding in a Goldenrod.
He's an immature
Green Stink Bug. As his name implies, when he's fully grown, he'll lose all his
pretty yellow's and orange's and be just green. I guess losing our colors is
sometimes the price we pay for growing up.
I found this guy too.
Is it just me or
does it look like he's got a whole lower jaw full of teeth? Maybe they are
teeth! I don't know that much about grasshoppers.
Once it was all
bunched up there, his wiggles become more furious until the old skin fell off.
He quieted down and hung there as his chrysalis hardened around him.
Saturday morning I noticed one of the
chrysalises had a dark spot on it. Oh no,
I thought. I bet he died. I
thought the black spot might be rot or something. It was a while later that I
realized I could see the pattern of his wings through the chrysalis. Now I'm on
birth watch. I'd love to catch him emerging.
I've
got seven chrysalises and thought I had my little family raised. No more
caterpillars waiting to make the Great Climb.
Then we went to town. A couple of
things happened here but for right now just let me say that we stopped at a
garage sale. We didn't buy anything but Mike spent a while chatting with the couple that lived
there. On the way back to the Jeep, I spotted this guy. I brought him home. I
just felt like he'd be happier (and certainly have a better chance of making it
to adulthood) living in my butterfly house than there beside the road. So now
I've got one more youngin' to feed.
The
other part of going to town is this. Middleswarth Potato Chips.
Mike and I
rarely buy chips. We both like chips, but with no off switch, I wouldn't stop
until I was scraping the bottom of the bag. They are a single serving, right?
And I'd be sick. Silly, right! I know! When you know this about yourself, you
just avoid buying them.
So this week our local news station
did a story on Middleswarth because they ran out of Bar-B-Q flavoring for their
chips and didn't have it for like a month. The man they were interviewing said
all the stores had empty shelves where the Bar-B-Q would normally be and they
were getting all kinds of calls about it. "Bar-B-Q is by far our biggest
seller," he said. "It outsells the other flavors by..." I don't
remember by how much.
"If they're that good," I
said to Mike, "maybe we should try them."
We
were in town getting a few things and saw Middleswarth were on sale, two for
five dollars. If you buy one you pay the three ninety-nine so we got two. Honestly,
I didn't grow up on this brand of chip and thought they were way too salty and
the Bar-B-Q had a little burn to them. Mike didn't like either flavor.
"Peg, did you and Mike go to the
fair on the last day?" you ask.
We sure did! On the way there, I saw
what looked like a big bomb being toted behind an SUV. I was so busy gawking
that I didn't think to take a picture till he was past, then I had to turn
around to get it.
If
I crop the picture this is the best I get. What do you think it is?
Mike and I got our favorite foods then
walked around a little. I was captivated by all the color. Like this wagon full
of mums.
And
tub full of toys for the kids to win.
The teacup ride.
And
the carousel critters.
Then
we decided to just sit and do a little people watching.
"I can't decide if his shorts are
long or if his pants are short."
I'm
not making fun of him, truly I'm not. And I'm not making fun of this guy
either. I just can't decide if he's wearing Capri's (which I think look odd on
a man) or if his pants are just short and he don't care. Then I remember I'm
guilty of the not caring thing too. I'm at an age where I choose comfort over
style. Besides, I don't need to impress anyone.
Then I saw this.
I'm
pretty sure if I ever wore anything like this to school in my day, the kids
would die laughing at me, and I'd die from the humiliation. Now it's a fashion
trend.
Sitting there, watching the ladies, I
learned a lesson. I learned our loose tee shirts don't hide what we want them
to.
Of course, there were plenty of guys
with lots to hide too.
On the way home, Mike stopped at where
they're building the new LNG plant. That's Liquid Natural Gas. It was Labor Day
and no one was working but Mike was awed by the equipment lined up.
This is an aerial view taken earlier
in the week by our local newspaper. The huge pieces of equipment look tiny. So
much land, they have cleared.
On
a recent ride-about, we ran into one of our neighbors as he was mowing his
yard. He bought an old church/school and rehabbed it into a vacation place.
"Would you like to see the
inside?" Kevin invited.
"Sure!"
Inside was one big room and I only
took this one picture not wanting to be too invasive.
"We
left the original chalkboards," Kevin told us. "When we got this
place all the desks were still here, lined up in two rows. We kept one of the
desks and got rid of the rest."
Kevin
and Mike talked about the particulars of building and I zoned out, not all that
interested in it.
Outside I took a few more pictures.
"That
shed right there is where the old school teacher kept her horse. I wanted to
move it but when we tried to pick it up the walls separated from the
floor," Kevin told us. "So I thought it better to leave it right
there."
"I found a picture I took of this
place a long time ago," I told him.
"Really! Can you send it to
me?"
"I
bet she'd even print it for you," Mike said. And I was happy to. When I
checked the date, a long time ago turned out to be 2011. So not all that long
ago but still before Kevin owned it. I probably have older shots of it but I
knew where this one was — and I probably have a newer shot of the place too,
after Kevin's remodel, but I'm not going to look for it. My filing system for
pictures is by date only so I'd have to know about when I took it to find it.
We knocked out a few jobs we wanted to
get done before winter.
"We need to get the batten strips
on," Mike said. "It'll help keep the cold winter air out."
Even though we had new board siding
over the old, and even though we put in good insulation, Mike thought it still
prudent. And that meant a trip to the lumberyard. Road pictures, anyone?
Mike called the day before to make
sure they had plenty of batten strips and they did. However, when we got there
the yardman only counted 62 in stock. We ordered and paid for 100. We'd have to
get credit and go back when they had more cut.
As
Mike and the yardman loaded the truck, I watched another truck being loaded
with sawdust.
On
the way home I see something sitting in a field. "What's that?" I
asked pointing and snapping away.
"Just
a tree stump," Mike said.
His eyes are better than mine. I
thought it was a piece of farm machinery sitting abandoned in the field.
Mike
used his lawnmower to pull the wagon that held the batten strips and the saw.
"That way the golf cart is free if we need to go see what's happening at
the bridge," Mike said.
It went up pretty fast especially since Mike
used the air-nailer to attach them rather than using screws like we did the
first time. And that's why it looks like we missed some spots. We didn't. Those
places already had batten strips.
Mike
didn't measure every board. He'd measure one and cut six battens. It kinda
sucks when you have a length change.
"I gotta cut those off."
"Why?"
"They're too close to the ground
and they'll rot out."
"How you gonna do that?" I
asked, not always using correct English. "Reciprocal saw?"
"I'll just use the circular
saw."
Mike had to lay down on the ground to
be able to see what he was doing. "Don't be taking pictures of this,"
he said when he heard the click of the camera. "This is a one-of-those-things-not-to-do."
"Then why are you doing it?!"
"It'll
be all right," he assured me.
Men!
We worked for as long as Mike's back
held up then we called it a day. The next day, before we even started, we heard
back-up beepers and other activity noises coming from the bridge. It was a good
thing Mike left the golf cart free because we didn't have to fool with
unhooking it. We jumped on and went to see what was going on.
A landscaping company was delivering
something that looked like mulch.
A guy was feeding it into a machine that blew
it into tubes that were staked down.
"They're silt barriers,"
Mike said, "to keep stuff from going into the creek."
We talked with one guy who said the
bridge'll be shut down on Monday and work begins.
"What kind of bridge are you
getting?" you wonder.
I
believe it'll be two-lane with concrete sides. Ugly. No character. But semis
won't get stuck anymore and people won't have to slow down as much. All kinda
sad really, but since our old bridge is becoming unsafe, necessary.
When we put up all the batten we had
we moved over to the other side of the house and built an L-shaped entryway for
the cats this winter. That way the wind can't blow directly on the flap and
hopefully the cat room will stay warmer. In years past, this entryway was
closed off but since we closed off the garage to them this is their only entry
into the cat room so we had to improve it.
Then
we moved on to the eave where the mama Starling makes her nest every spring. I
haven't made it an issue the last couple of years because the only issue was
once one of the babies jumped from the wrong side and landed in the breezeway.
We weren't there and eventually the poor creature died. It made me sad to think
of anything dying that way. Then this past spring they knocked down all the
insulation and pooed all over the inside so they gotta go.
Mike cut the rotted board off, cleaned
the nest out, and measured twice to cut the right length board.
"Son
of a bleep!" Mike exclaimed.
"What?!" I exclaimed.
"I cut it too short."
"How did you do that? You
measured it twice."
"I don't know but it's too
short." Mike puzzled over where he went wrong then he switched gears and
figured out how to fix it.
"Put a splice on top," I
suggested. "Like our batten."
"No. They'll be a hole
underneath. I know what I'll do."
And he fixed it.
"It looks okay, doesn't it?"
he asked.
"Good enough for me and the guys
I go with!"
I
went out early one morning and was rewarded with web pictures.
I
thought this guy used a unique design.
I was a little ways off when I saw
this web still had a spider in the center. Through my zoom I could tell it was
the underside of a Black and Yellow Garden Spider. I thought I'd get around to
the other side and take a picture of her pretty colors. Remember, it's just the
girls that make webs like this.
But this little lady saw me coming and surprised
me. Normally they'll drop to the ground and hide but she didn't. In a bold act
of defiance, she climbed to the top and I was able to get this picture.
I
don't know what kind of spider this one is. I did look but didn't spend a great
amount of time trying to identify it.
When
I got back to the house Mike was waiting for me. "Let's go for a ride. I
heard a back-up beeper at the bridge." There wasn't anyone around when we
got there but they had been there and dropped off more stuff.
Look! A spooky Halloween tree!
We had a whole bunch of turkeys come
up our driveway. We watched from inside because
we knew they'd take off if we opened the door.
"There's Sugar," Mike said.
I
don't know if she was going to take them on or what, but one of the turkeys
walked toward her and she opted to go into the weeds instead. Then the turkeys
went on up to the field.
A
Crane Fly. These guys just look like giant mosquitoes, they're harmless. As I
walk along the edge of the weeds, they come fluttering up in droves like
balloons that've been untethered.
Mike pulled the climbing Bur Cucumber
from our pine trees. He's afraid it'll kill the tree.
I
tried not to laugh as the evil Muliflora Rose was exacting revenge.
I
arrived at the church early for my Thursday night Bible Study. I walked around
and found a couple of wildflowers I hadn't seen before.
I was close. When I looked it up I found out
it's Sweet Everlasting also called Sweet White Balsam and Rabbit Tobacco. It's
been widely used by Indian Tribes and the early settlers to relieve cold
symptoms, like cough and sore throat, and when smoked to help relieve asthma.
The
other one I found was Snakeroot.
This
is kind of a bad bad plant. In the early 19th century, European settlers
allowed cows and other animals to feed on it. It contains a toxin that's passed
on in the milk causing sickness and death to those who drank it, calves as well
as humans. Milk sickness, as it was called, claimed the lives of thousands of
people, including, in 1818, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the mother of Abraham Lincoln.
"Peg, are there no redeeming
qualities to this plant?" you ask.
There
are. Root tea has been used to treat diarrhea, kidney stones, and fever. A root
poultice was used to treat snakebite.
Besides the wildflowers, I found this
lying in a pile of garbage behind a shed at my church.
It looks to me like a
board they posted song numbers on. I picked it out of the garbage and stood it
against the building.
The next night, when Miss Rosie and I
showed up for exercise class, I asked if she thought I could have it.
"I don't see why not. If anyone
else cared about it it wouldn't be left in the garbage."
I brought it home. Maybe I'll give him
a drink of oil and see if we can restore a little life and color back into him.
A
couple of random pictures (since I have the space).
These busy beetles are Pennsylvania
Leatherwings also called Goldenrod Soldier Beetles. These guys have a
voracious appetite for aphids which means free organic pest control. As a bonus, these guys roam around the flowers looking for aphids so they act as
pollinators as well.
Butter and Eggs. I love Butter and Eggs
even though it's an escapee from gardens and is considered invasive. Another
name for this plant is Yellow Toadflax.
In
folk medicine the leaves are used in tea as a strong laxative and diuretic for
treatment of jaundice, dropsy, and skin diseases. The flowers, made into an
ointment, can treat skin diseases.
This is the flower and seed pod of
Velvetleaf. The unripe seeds can be eaten as a snack. Once ripened they have to
be leached until not bitter, then usually ground into flour. The Velvetleaf was
introduced before 1750 in North America to make rope but it flopped and became
invasive instead. Hundreds of years ago, this was an important plant for its
fiber. It was used to make clothes and ropes.
The
Milkweed is ripe! The pods are starting to split and the seeds'll take flight
on their silky parachutes. This year I'm going to try to plant Milkweed in the
upper field where the only thing that's growing now is Goldenrod.
The little Calico Aster is blooming.
Bradford
Pear Trees are ornamental. They don't produce pears. But they do have a fruit
and ours are setting their fruits. The birds will eat them in the winter and
poop out the seeds someplace else. That's why it's becoming increasingly more
invasive.
The Pokeweed berries are getting ripe.
Up on the bank by the barn where the Pokeweed is protected by a barrier of
weeds the deer don't bother it. But look at this one that grows — grew at the
edge of where Mike mows. The deer (I assume it was deer) have eaten it down to
nothing. I'm surprised because I didn't think deer would eat Pokeweed unless
there wasn't anything else to eat. I guess I was wrong.
Sometimes
Mike and I like to ride out to Vernon's pond. It's just a nice little ride
without having cars pass and dust us on our dirt road. Even though you've heard
me talk about all the rain we've had, it's been dry lately. Our little creek is
low and our pond is getting smaller and smaller. But anyway, when we got back
to Vernon's Ginger jumped off the cart. I thought she had to do her business,
and that may have been what she did do. She was getting kind of far away from
us so we called her back. Ginger takes off and it was then that we spotted the
turkeys. Yeah. She's a terrier and terriers terry... just kidding. Terriers are
hunters and chase things that run. Luckily, she stopped at the edge of the
weeds.
My
beautiful friend Jody gave me some Chinese Lanterns. Since I spend more time on
my kitchen patio looking after my Monarchs, I've taken two pictures of the
Chinese Lanterns that I really like. I can't decide which one I like best, and
since I have the room, you get to see them both.
In Asian medicine, the Golden Flower, as the dried fruit is
called, was used as a diuretic, antiseptic, liver corrective, and sedative. We
use the dried lanterns in flower arrangements and that's what mine are going to
be.
Let's end with a sunset picture I took
coming out of exercise class one night and call this one done!
No comments:
Post a Comment