http://www.blogger.com/html?blogID=4316350785635987648 Cave Dwellings: Had breakfast at the firehouse, followed by a nice ride.
Cave Dwellings

Buckhorn Creek, Lake O' The Pines, Jefferson, TX

Monday, June 10, 2013

Had breakfast at the firehouse, followed by a nice ride.

  Not much new and exciting here…MacGyver has been busy working on our screened front porch.  Neither one of us can remember the last time we painted it, and we knew that we needed to put new screens on (those mosquitos now know where every hole is and they are lurking behind the bushes, watching and waiting.)

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I keep forgetting that right now,we don’t have screens on one side, so Dennis can paint and rescreen them.  We keep leaving the front door wide open, which is how we usually do it…I kept wondering why we had so many flies in the house…Luckily, no birds took that open door as an invitation!

We sooooo love our screen porch.  No matter where we live, some kind of screen room is a must for us..We spend many a morning having our coffee on this porch, not to mention breakfast and dinner. This porch was originally just wood posts, floor, wooden steps and had a railing of wood around entire porch…It wasn’t screened in, either.  My hard working Dennis laid every brick on this porch, and that brick wall of the house too. We used the same brick we used on our fireplace inside. He also made the screen frames.  This is the only part of our house that doesn’t have siding on it…Sometimes I wish it did, especially when it come time to painting.  Did someone say PAINT??? ME, PAINT???  I have an owie!!!  Actually, I did a lot of the painting the last time we did this…But this time I have a good excuse.   (I suppose I could paint with my good arm , my right arm)…I am, after all, right handed…So far, I haven’t been “in the line up”, but I have a feeling this will change soon.

 

While basking in the sun the other day (HEY! CUT ME SOME SLACK, I HAVE AN INJURY!)  As I was saying, while letting the healing sun act as therapy to my injured arm, I was determined to find a way to keep the birds from using my fountain as a bird bath..First of all, I HAVE an actual birdbath in the front yard, h…e…l…l…o!  Secondly, I always add a little bleach to the water to keep the rocks from growing green fuzzies.  This would be just fine, except that when the big fat Robins take their bath there, they throw water EVERYWHERE, and especially on the plants I have next to the fountain.  Did I mention I put bleach in the fountain???..Oh, yeah, ..anyway, we all know how much plants cannot tolerate bleach water thrown over them on a daily basis!! They tend to get crispy. Back to my story, I had a brain spasm while contemplating the fat bathing birds.  I remembered that I have a TON of neat rocks from all over the Southwest, and very pretty ones at that…AND..very much BIGGER than the small ones in the fountain. So, I dug them out and placed them all over on the top of the fountain, hence making it almost impossible for any bird to “wallow” in the water and throw it all over.101_3875

Now all I had to do was sit and wait…wait for those dirty birds to show up…And, it didn’t take them long…Sarcastic smile

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GOTCHA!!! (insert evil laugh here) I WIN, I WIN, I WIN!!!…..YES!! (As you can see, I was a little excited here.) OK, I got it together now.Nyah-Nyah

  Sunday morning Dennis and I went down to a breakfast they were having at the Sandwich Fire Dept.  It was being put on to make money for the Renegade Regiment (the school band) and I was really hungry for some good ‘ol scrambled eggs, pancakes and sausage…I am an eggaholic. The flaggers (I have no idea what they call these ladies) did a routine for we who were there…

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MacGyver has toothpicks for legs…..My legs are bigger around than his…and I have “kankles” (fat ankles)..As you can see by the photo on the right,we were some of the first ones there…and I was sooo hungry..

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When I went through the line I only took one pancake and 2 sausages.  I am an egg girl and I fully intended to load up on scrambled eggs…Alas, I had misread the ad in the paper..It was just a pancake and sausage breakfast Baring teeth smile..not an egg in sight.  SAY WHAT?????   I don’t mind a pancake, but GIVE ME A PLATE OF EGGS, AN OMELET, ANYTHING THAT CAME FROM A CHICKEN..FRY IT UP ANY OL’ WAY….BOO HOO HOO!!Crying face …That pancake and sausage was really VERY good, though.  Guess I”ll  have to get my egg fix by making me some deviled eggs to have with our dinner.

  After our breakfast, Dennis decided we should go for a ride..So, I sucked it up, dried my tears, shook off my nasty eggless mood, put on my “big girl panties” and agreed.  We drove about 15 miles West of Sandwich, where MacGyver and I are land barons…Rolling on the floor laughing..The year Dennis retired from Cat, (1994), we were seriously thinking of building a  house somewhere in the country.  We purchased 6.1 acres South of a little town called Paw Paw (or, 2 paws, as we locals like to call it). 

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There is our land.  Those trees at the back are around a little creek…We own a little slice of  heaven on Honeysuckle Lane.  Honeysuckle Lane is a dead end road and there are about 6 lots on it, all of them are about 6 acres or so.  Some are vacant like ours, and a few have homes on them.  We have a local farmer who farms our land every year…This year is corn…Yep, got us a farm, by golly!! (just use your imagination and picture Barney Fife pullin’ up his pants by his belt and saying that)Winking smile

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Above, left, is the house next door to our lot…and on the right is the one across from our lot.  Well, things have changed as often happens , and we will never build anything there…Illinois is NOT where we want to build.  We have been approached by a few people who wanted to buy this property, but “Baron Dennis” won’t sell.  He’s one tough cookie…He says it may just be the best investment we ever made!! I concur. And you know what they say, “There’s one thing about land..they aren’t making any more of it!”

OK, I intended to make this short and sweet, and it turned out neither. This week, our Zionsville, Indiana kids come in Wednesday night and stay until Sunday..We are all going to the Heiser’s  house in Sugar Grove for our granddaughter, Taylor’s, graduation party…HEY!..I JUST MIGHT POST SOME PHOTOS, IF Y’ALL TWIST MY ARM!!!Thumbs up

19 comments:

  1. If I were that robin, I would find a way to get even with you. You're mean. Some of us prefer showers to baths. :P


    ;)

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    1. Maybe I should supply towels so they don't shake themselves dry.

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  2. That poor, poor Robin. He must go dirty cause ole meany will not let him have a bath in moving water.... poor thing...so sad...

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    1. Bathtub is in the front...drinking fountain in the back..You have wings, for God's sake, it's not like I'm asking you to walk!

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  3. do we twist your sore arm or the other one?

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  4. You had every right to put those stones in. Afterall isnt the saying bed and bath? not bed and shower.
    You have provided the bed and bath, if they don't like the accomodations then I say they check out and go to other lodging. Myabe some of them aspire to be blondes so they prefer the bleach water

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    Replies
    1. Hey, you're right..I was not only supplying bath water, but a free bleach job...That should have cost them!

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  5. That bird is going to poop all over those rocks!...just saying!

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    1. Hembree, they poop all over my deck and fountain, rocks or no rocks..Our feeders are very near, so I get it that they do kamikaze poop flights over my deck.

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  6. Send those Robins over to our place. We have two bird baths & a small pond for them to do their spiffing up. The welcome mat it out.......

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    1. The welcome mat is out here..but out front...This is MY fountain..They are welcome to drink....Like I said, maybe I should have supplied towels so they didn't shake!

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  7. I love your fountain and the way you made it welcoming for small birds. I have a little collection of gargoyles (and like the one at the base of your fountain.) I find the history interesting:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargoyle

    At my house, I had a problem with doves/pigeons. My neighbors (with whom I share a common rock wall) feed them! :-( I bought a "fake owl" and it's helped a lot. The last straw was when the terracotta angel sitting along the fence had "poo" all over her face! :-(

    http://www.desertdiva.net/2013/05/sad-angel-best-twenty-bucks-and-clean-girl/

    I don't think my neighbors like the owl, but as you can see the angel had major poo and my solar panel for string lights had poo all over them.

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    1. Believe it or not, I do have a big owl filled with sand that holds the cover to our gas grill on..Maybe I should turn it so he is looking with an evil eye towards the fountain!!! ...I LOVE Gargoyles..I think this began with the movie Ghostbusters!!! I want more and bigger ones!!!

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  8. To heck with the Robin - let him build his own bath or shower or start paying rent, right?

    Dennis did a great job on that brickwork and the porch. My grandparents had an old screened in porch very similar to yours and I used to sleep out on it at night during the summer.

    Since there were no eggs, I hope you went back for more pancakes!

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    1. I agree with you, Rick, but I feel I opened a whole can of worms when banning the bathing in my fountain. I now have a reputation as a bird hater, which I am NOT!! I love the birds, and now I enjoy them just drinking from the fountain, not using it as a Roman Bath!! Nope, only had one pancake..I was P.O.'d

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  9. We loved our screened in porch when we lived in Illinois....that porch was about the only thing we missed when we put IL in the rear view mirror.

    So not building on that land??? Then where? Some place fun and exciting, I hope. BTW...representing the birds, I did not notice a "no bathing" sign in your photo or a directional sign to bath in the fountain in the front yard.....lol.

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  10. Dennis is waiting on you hand and foot, right? Hope you feel better soon. Maybe you should stay seated when you drink!!!!!!!!

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  11. A screened in porch and honeysuckle nearby … nice!

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    I created it yesterday and your opinion would help me move forward with it.

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    ReplyDelete