Big and Cute

I found this big onion and just had to buy it. It cost me 85 cents. I wish I could say that I grew it but that would certainly be a lie. I have never grown an onion this big. I put it beside this bottle of wine so you can get an idea of the size. It weighs 1.15 lbs.

It is hot today and going to be that way over the next several days, with the highs being in the 90's and the humidity high. I took the dog for a walk this morning and I was dripping with sweat by the time we got home. I was just thinking about my nephew's new pool and that I really need to make use of it this week......yes, definitely the weather for being in the pool.

This next picture isn't very good but it shows a baby raccoon in a pan of water. I was at my neighbor's and there are 3 baby raccoons that are just now coming out and letting themselves be seen. They came out while I was there. She has this pan on her deck and it only had about an inch and a half of water but this little guy got in there and had a good time washing his paws and getting cooled off a bit! They are so cute! I'll try to get better pictures another time of these little ones.

Sunday Church Sign

Rainy Days and Quilting

Yesterday was a rainy day and so I spent some time making some quilt blocks. Oh, you want to see one? Maybe two? Okay. These have not been pressed yet. The star one is harder than the simple 9 patch you see behind it! I do love quilts!

I saw this guy/gal in front of Hardee's a while back. It was super hot that day too. I'll bet he/she was really sweating in that outfit! I actually think this would be a fun job though. Stand out there and look silly and wave to folks passing by and no one knows who you are!! When I pass by I always wave!! He/she knows I'm taking their picture too! I'll bet they got so excited they laid an egg, which probably fried immediately!!

Ramblings

A couple of weeks ago I fed the neighbor's cat while they went to TN to get married. This is Blue and he is a pretty fellow and really sweet. He is an Angora. The biggest surprise you get is when you pick this cat up and find out how heavy he is. He weighs more than he appears to. He must be all muscle!

I saw this on Britmum's Blog and thought I'd give it a try. You are supposed to write the first thing you think of when you see each of these words.

1. Deputy :: Police
   
2. Name :: Rachel
   
3. Arrested :: Yikes, No!!!
   
4. Trade :: swap
   
5. Old :: relic
   
6. Fingerprint :: mark
   
7. Dwarf :: midget
   
8. Newspaper :: read
   
9. Gabriel :: horn
   
10. Certificate :: document

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A man boarded an airplane in Sydney, Australia, with a box of crabs.A female crew member took it and promised to put it in the crew's refrigerator, which she did. The man advised her that he was holding her personally responsible for the crabs staying frozen, and proceeded to rant and rave about what would happen if she let them thaw out. 'Shortly before landing, she announced to the entire cabin, "Would the gentleman who gave me the crabs in Sydney, please raise your hand?"Not one hand went up. So she took them home and ate them herself.

Cornfields, Soybeans, & Sunday Sign

Today was so pretty and the humidity was not so high. It was cooler than it has been and felt great. I took a little drive. I took this first picture today. The second picture is one I took of the same spot last year. This year it looks like they planted soybeans and last year it was corn. When it was all corn I wondered what was at the end of the lane. As you can see part of it in this first picture, there is a white ranch style home sitting there on top of the hill. You can just see the garage part between the trees. They have a nice view in all directions from up on that hill.

This next picture is one I took today. I saw lots of corn fields and it looks really pretty this year.

Sunday Sign

WAS THAT YOUR BUBBLEGUM?????

Most folks have been having hot weather. Do you know how bubblegum becomes once it hits the asphalt after being spit out by someone who was tired of chewing it, especially in this 90+ degree heat? I found out when I went to the post office. When I got back in my car and started to shut the door, there was several long strings of pink goo going from the spit out gum on the asphalt to the bottom of my sandal that was already in the car. Well CRAP and double CRAP!!

WHAT A MESS!!! Needless to say I had some not so nice thoughts about whoever spit the gum out there. I had some thoughts about where that gum really ought to be instead of on the bottom of my foot! Then I gave myself a going over for not watching where I was stepping. Of course you don't expect something nasty like that to be right there in the parking lot. I got out and walked in the grass and wiped my sandal as clean as I could. Then I had to pick the bits off that were draped over the floorboard.

Well, things like that happen. I just hate it when they do though. It was almost hitonious!!!

Sunday Church Sign

Last night my great niece had a belated birthday party so I went to that. The kids were having a great time in the pool. My nephew cooked hamburgers, bratwurst, and hotdogs on the grill. Of course my nephew's wife had prepared a whole array of goodies to go along with it. She had prepared potato salad, a Chinese slaw, a spinach/apple salad, plus all the things you'd ever want to put on your sandwiches was sliced and ready. The dessert table was yummy too, with 3 kinds of homemade ice cream to put on the strawberry rhubarb pie (which was sooooo good and I hadn't any of that in ages), blackberry cobbler, brownies, and cookies.

Have a wonderful Sunday!!!!

HITONIOUS DOODLE BUGS

It's so hot outside and humid. Sweat is what you do when you go out. Am I complaining? No, I don't mean to complain when I say it, just making a comment! Some people like it hot like this and others don't. Before we know it the cooler winds will be blowing and the snow as well, at least for some of us. I know Ralph is looking forward to snow since this past winter he just didn't get enough!! (HA HA. Sorry Ralph, I couln't resist!). Actually he got his fair share and then some out there in CO.

I mentioned doodle bugs in my post about my childhood. Day asked me what a doodle bug is. I don't really know. They were bugs that dug a hole in the ground and they had a little mound around the top of their hole. There would be several of these in our shed dirt floor. We used to say, "Doodle bug, doodle bug, come out your hole, your house is on fire, your house is on fire." Then we ran our finger around in a circle over the hole while we said this. Sounds like putting a hex on the poor things doesn't it? But you could see the dirt moving when you did that. Probably the fact that they saw the motion. I don't really think they understood us and thought their house was on fire!!! If you took a long straw and put down in their hole they would get hold of the straw and it'd start moving around. Sometimes my brother could give the straw a quick jerk and yank the doodle bug out of the hole that way. I never stayed around to see after that because I was terrified of bugs and he loved putting bugs on me. So I do not know what a doodle bug is and I'm sure that's probably not the correct name. If my brother had put a doodle bug on me back then it would have been very hitonious!!!

Part 2 of my Going Back Home Visit

Here are some more pictures I took while we were out Monday. This first one with the verses was posted at a locked gate. This used to be an open road when we were kids. Now they are locked to keep 4 wheelers and such out. There were two men on a tractor and they made their way to us while we were taking these pictures. They looked kind of strange so we got in the car and left before they got over there. They had these same verses posted on both sides of the gates with lots of posted signs as well. It makes one think that they have encountered trespassers before!
This little church is where I went to when I was a child. It was right down the hill from our house and this is where we spent the night back on April 3, 1974 after the horrible tornados had come through. It was never locked back in those days.

We saw these cute ducks by the road and had to take a picture!

Next were these cows taking a rest from the heat under these trees.

We saw this one new little strange looking house. This country here is so lovely and the KY River is back along the bottom of the tree line from the hill behind. This had a deck on the back and it sits on a little knoll with a lovely view of the fields and the hills.

There was another house that I wanted to go to. You have to go back a lane and over a hill to get to the house. I visited this place so often as a child. The lady that lived there then was our closest neighbor and she and I used to ride horses together as well. She had a black and white spotted horse named Prince. This lane was also posted with signs on both sides of the lane with NO TRESPASSING. I tried to get my cousin to ignore those signs and drive on back in there. She said, "Rachel, did you ever see that movie 'Deliverance?'" I got tickled then and said, "Oh well, never mind. I guess we won't go back there then!!"

Part I of My Going Back Home Visit

Monday I met up with my cousin and we had a day trip going back to the places we grew up at. We weren't able to see everything or spend as much time as I would have liked, but it was a wonderful day and brought back so many memories for both of us. We also had some good laughs! She is so funny and she had me laughing until my side hurt and the tears were running down my cheeks from laughing!! It doesn't get any better than that. I was amazed that things had changed so much. Really I was glad that the place had not become subdivision havens, but then this is WAY out in the country, about 20-25 miles from town. The places that we went to as kids had all grown up with brush and trees. Our swimming holes were no longer used. Houses were gone and nothing left. Oh, there might have been but we were not willing to brave the brush to get in to see. We plan to go back when the leaves have died back and maybe then we can find other things to bring back more memories. This picture used to be the driveway to where we lived at one time. We saw a deer rush off through the jungle it has become.

This used to be the old corncrib.

This was the old shed and I remember a man coming to shear the sheep right in front of it. I remember looking for doodle bugs in there. It was a great place to play as a child.

This is a field that has corn growing in it now but my cousin and I used to gallop our horses at full speed along these fields. When the river flooded the back waters come up and I have seen this field flooded many times.

This picture is one that had us laughing until our sides split. This is right by the road. There is a basketball hoop up in the tree as well. My cousin got so tickled and we got out to take pictures. I know that there is very little traffic here, probably maybe 3-4 cars a day?? You can also see it's not used at all, but someone did take the time to put it up at some point. If anyone were swinging from this tire swing they would swing right out in the road, plus they'd be playing basketball in the road. She said what kind of parents would set their kids up like this? She went on and on and she is so funny!!



We went as far as the road goes in one place. We knew who used to live in all the houses along the way. Some were empty, others had been remodeled. Back then there was a place by the river (Kentucky River) where everyone swam. There was a big rope and they would swing out and drop into the water. There was ample parking for cars. Some folks drove all the way from town to come to this spot. But now the weeds were high and we could only glimpse the river through the weeds and from higher places. No one comes there anymore to swim or to do anything. My cousin said she had swam across the river when she was a kid. Now if her grandchild did that she said she'd give it a proper spanking and that she should have had one back then, but her parents never knew about it.

The scenery is so pretty there. Truly beautiful country.

More to come..........

Post July 4th, and Sunday Sign

Finally getting around to posting. I have wanted to and I have thought about all of you but.........this week has been so busy and I must apologize if I have not gotten around to commenting on your blogs. I am in the process of catching up. Slow but sure!

I do hope everyone had a good 4th of July. Things were booming around here. I am always hoping that folks will soon run out of things that go boom and all those other noises. It scares my dog and cats half to death. Actually I think the dog is getting a little more used to it after all these years. Poor thing shakes in fear like he does when he goes to the groomer or the vet when things get REALLY loud. They do tend to get really loud as we live near a couple of places that had fireworks. One of my neighbors had some loud ones too. I've never bought fireworks before other than firecrackers. I had a few firecrackers that I had had since the 70's and I gave them to him. He said he had bought some dynamite, but I don't know if he really did or if he was kidding. I mean you can't really buy dynamite can you?? He blew up a guitar and the pieces are still laying over there by his front porch. Don't ask me why he blew up a guitar. As Ralph would say, "Adult beverages were involved." Guess we're lucky that was all he blew up. I picked up all kinds of cardboard bits and those long red wires off my lawn the next day. His lawn remains covered. He and his girlfriend went to TN to get married and should have gotten married today. I have been feeding their animals for them. (dog and cat). They have a beautiful Angora cat. I must get a picture of that darling thing! He is so pretty and sweet and fat! Pretty, sweet, and fat!! Does that fit any of you all out there?? I fit the last one for sure!!!

They always had a big fireworks show on the lake at the boat club, but with the lake down that is no more. I'll be really surprised if the boat club lasts. So many people have taken their boats out. Another neighbor was down from Dayton and she said there was no room down there now and it was so hard to get your boat out. She said her depth finder only listed it as being 6 feet deep and she said, "When it's only 6 feet you KNOW your propeller is so close to the bottom!!" They just eased it out and then once you get out to the main lake you are fine. There's lots of water there. She sold her boat while she was here. She is doubting the club will last too. If it were only going to be for a year or two they'd probably be okay but they are saying it'll be 7 years before the dam is fixed. Time will tell if they make it or not.

While she was in this past week we managed to get out and do some fun things. We went to Cumberland Falls one day and ate at the Lure Lodge there. We went to Monticello and ate at a restaurant that had a buffet with the BEST fried catfish ever!! It was just perfect! Very lightly breaded, fried just right, and not one bit greasy, and delicious!! Another place I'll have to go back to!! We also did some driving on the back roads and enjoyed the scenery. We really had a lot of fun.

I'm hoping I'll get to have another adventure on Monday if it all works out. My cousin and I are planning to go back to the places we lived when we were growing up. I do hope it works out! If it does (everybody CROSS THOSE FINGERS NOW) I'll have LOTS of pictures to share.

SUNDAY SIGN

HAPPY 4TH!!!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful 4th!!! Enjoy and don't eat too much BBQ!!!!

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The Farmer and Dept of Highway

A cocky Department of Highways employee stopped at a farm and talked with an old farmer. He told the farmer, "I need to inspect your farm for a possible new road."

The old farmer said, "OK, but don't go in that field."

The Highways employee said, "I have the authority of the State Department of Highways to go where I want. See this card? I am allowed to go wherever I wish on your land."

The old farmer rolled his eyes and went about his chores.

Later, he heard loud screams and saw the man running for the fence with the farmer's prize bull close behind him. The bull was madder than a nest full of hornets and he was gaining on the employee at every step.

The old farmer called out, "Show him your card!"