What's in a name?

What's in a name?

I forgot all about this beautiful guy . . .

Taken in April 2012

Trip to bountiful (harvest)

Last night found us having time to go by grandma's and checking on the garden. . ..

Pumpkins are doing great and should be ready for Halloween.

Okra is doing way to well (darn), but my wife loves it so I am happy.

Tomatoes are finally producing and doing well.

We don't have any big ones this year, but what we have are good.

Lots of greens of summer and not a lot of color at this point, except for the tomatoes.

Pumpkins will add color soon.

Cucumbers have also done well, but are almost done.

Green beans are still doing well and producing lots.

Going to the birds - part two - Vultures in the Barn

As if an omen. . . these big buzzards were feeding on our street.

Three on the ground, a couple in the air. . . .

Although packed and loaded, our 'Operation Clean Stream' float never happened. Daughter had been sick during the night, so we had to bag it.

So I took the canoe back down to the cabin (you can see it hanging far right) and spent a couple hours cleaning up leaves and such. I want to be able to get to. . . .

. . . the old Ford tractor to see if I can get it running again.

At one time I used it to move logs around and it helped get the logs up high when working on the main building.

I discovered that I do not have just one vulture living in the barn, but two.

Dark spot, just left of center, is one of them.
The other went into hiding.

Spider by the latrine . . . . .

. . . has a cousin living by the sail boat.

But what the heck, everyone is welcome.

This is what your 'Local" should look like. . .

It is in trouble and here is what CAMRA has to say about it.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE, Five Mile House, Duntisbourne Abbots. Terrible news ? recently closed. New lessees have, sadly, been unable to make a go of it, despite making efforts on the food front in this affluent part of England. If you haven?t been there, look at the opening page of the England section of Britain?s Best Real Heritage Pubs which shows one of the truly great historic rural pub rooms. May there be a future for this great pub. See the entry on the Heritage Pubs web site.

What's it mean when a vulture lives in your barn?

But I digress.
This past weekend was our towns festival to celebrate it's history. 'The Festival of the Little Hills'.

That's what St Charles use to be called. But it was in french. 'Les Petites Côtes'.
Then it got call, 'San Carlos del Misuri:'
But then English speakers got this part of the world and it became St Charles.

But anyway, we had our festival this past weekend. Daughter and I met up with a couple of her friends.

But before we met them we had a little time to look around.

Here hunting for babbles while holding a balloon.

.

Once the friends showed up, the fun started.

First the craft tent.

Then past some of the old machines on display.

This one the girls loved.

One grinder took the kernels off of the husks and the other ground it into meal.

I'm sure it could make quick work of fingers also.
But we were lucky.

Then they saw how we (my aunt had one of these) use to do laundry.

"Hey!. Did one of you girls forget your shorts/"

How grandma use to get her water.

And if she was lucky, it was in the kitchen.

"My turn!"

"Hey! The bucket never gets empty!"

 "Oh, I like this one better."

Oh course there were games and rides and things to climb, bounce and slide on.

We met another of daughters friends, and after the climbing and sliding, we headed back to the old time stuff.

This will be the last time the girls want to do laundry till at least after college.

You just have to love the dedication to keeping these old machines running.

Then hit the craft booths.

Doll clothes!

One doll size girl scout uniform for daughter, and one doll size gymnastic outfit for friend.


We went home and cooled off in the pool.

 Last night, I got out to the cabin to. . . .

 . . . pick up the canoe for this weekends, "Operation Clean Stream" which we will be helping at on Sat.











Now this is where the vulture comes in.

While checking on the buildings and looking around at projects I want to do this winter, I heard a noise in the barn/workshop/junk collection building. On the left side.
Went to look and low-and-behold (do they say that anymore?), there sat a turkey vulture.
And by the looks of his droppings, he had been there a while, and had no intention of moving anytime soon.

And with this big spider living in the out house, I guess I should start charging rent.

 We still use these to light the outhouse path at night.

On the way home I stopped to check on mom and the garden and found that one of the neighbors pumpkins couldn't make up it's mind which yard it wanted to be in.

Sad state of affairs - average age of farmers is now almost 60!

With the high price of land, and the number of hours farmers have to work, fewer young people are staying on the farm or are able to buy farm land.
Much of this effects my wife's family and is not news to them.

NPR

Huffington Post

Do you remember any of these?

Things you no longer see. . .

Another milestone. . . sort of.

I have been the proud owner of a Kegarator

for about eight years now. And although I have used it a bit, it has usually been used more often by friends for various functions at their homes or barns.
It has attend many Super Bowl parties and kayak functions, and just loves making road trips.

Needless to say, I am the least experienced in taking care of it out of everyone who has used it.

So it has usually fallen upon them to clean the lines and maintain it.

It has finally come home for a while now.

And since it is taking up space, I thought I would use it and keep a better beer on tap, and reduce our (my) use of bottles.

It is a two tap type, so by rights I could have two different beers on tap at any given time.

Now, if we ever have a large pool party or somethin' (or my brother comes over), I may do that.

But for now, one small barrel will last me long enough.

Well last night I finally had time to really sit down with the book and my IPAD and really get into learning how to clean the lines and take care of it. I am not one to start something when I am afraid I don't have enough time to follow the whole project through, allowing time for my learning curve and mistakes.

The book (pamphlet) was not of much use, not offering enough details or pictures, plus, I am not the best at learning by reading. Just ask all my teachers.

So out comes the IPAD.
I typed in 'Cleaning Beer lines' and came up with several hits.

The one I used was a link to a You Tube video by Kegworks. It was just what I was needing.

Short, simple and to the point.

It turns out it wasn't so difficult, and it also turns out this small pile of stuff is all you need.

What really helped me was taking the whole system apart and learning how it all works, while also learning I had been missing a few pieces whenever I would connect the lines between tapper and faucet, which sometimes caused small drips and leaks I could not fathom. My bad.

So, now I know how it all works.

So if any of you guys are in the area after the Festival of the Little Hills this weekend, come on by and try a 

on tap.

Finally . . . . Produce!

After a very strange, so far, growing season, the garden has finally started to produce.
Mom picked her first tomatoes on the 13th of this month. Five weeks later than last year.

They are not going crazy yet, but at least they have started.

Cool and wet spring, and cool summer has really made for a strange season.

So far we have had six.

Hey! Where did the other two go?

Mom and daughter scouting for Okra.


And look at the pumpkin plants go to town.

Here comes the boss.


After all, it is her yard.

Threesome picking cucumbers.

We have a bumper crop of those.

And only one sad cauliflower after a whole summer of flowering.

No green beans last week.
We get a little rain, . . . and pounds of them this week.














Cornucopia of produce. Finally. We expect to be picking tomatoes in Nov.

This seems to express it pretty well . . . .