AT THE RISK OF BEING REPETITIVE

At the risk of being repetitive let’s just say Sunday morning was a shorter version of Saturday morning & how about we just leave it at that for today.  Maybe some interesting new thoughts my way will come this week…………………………….

  

OUR RURAL LANDSCAPE IS RAPIDLY BEING TRANSFORMED

NOW HOW’S THIS FOR A SURE SIGN OF OUR APPROACHING AUTUMN

 

BEAN FIELDS AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE

 

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A middle-aged man wasn't feeling well, so he went to the doctor for a check-up.  After a thorough examination, the doctor said, "Well, based on my examination, the best thing for you is to cut out all sweets and fatty foods, give up alcohol, and stop smoking."  The man said, "Well, to be honest with you, Doc, I don't deserve the best. What's the second best option?"

ANOTHER ONE OF NATURE’S FEELING GOOD MORNINGS

Deer Park Lodge was short a staff member this week-end so Kelly stepped in to fill the slot for Saturday & Sunday.  She headed over to Deer Park about 9:20.  Pheebs & I were on the road 10 minutes later.  It was another one of natures feeling good mornings.  A warming breeze rustled late August leaves under a lumbering cloud cover.  Filtered sunlight cast a calm ethereal light over the oh so peaceful rural landscape.  No traffic on the quiet country roads & everywhere Pheebs & stopped we were serenaded by a chorus of late Summer Crickets.  Autumn wildflowers are blooming with purple & gold flowers growing freely alongside gravelled roadsides.  Fields of tasselled corn & ripening beans as far as one's eye can see.  And I'm guessing a bumper crop this year too.  We are indeed fortunate to live where we do surrounded by this tranquil countryside of rural farm lands & pastoral beauty.

 

  

 

ARCHIVE MEMORY::  From June 2009.  Ever wonder about dreams? I am a lite sleeper so frequently wake up 3 or 4 times during the night. Not very restful but I do dream a lot & I figure the reason I remember them is simply due to the fact that I don't slip into that deep heavy sleep for the entire night. I have also learned that as I am waking up from a dream I can remember it better if I don't open my eyes. I can liken it to opening the back of a camera with a roll of unexposed film in it. As soon as the light hits the film the images are erased. Same thing with the brain so if I'm coming out of a dream I resist the urge to open my eyes & look at the clock. Well, as long as it was a good dream anyway. I try to go back into the dream sometimes but it usually begins to fade quickly & I'm only able to retrieve bits & pieces most of the time. I like the flying dreams best as I float over trees & people on the ground. I have never remembered a landing but my take off is always the same. I take about 4 quick steps forward & very carefully step up into the air & begin to float skyward. Sometimes I fly very fast but most times I just kind of move along slowly hovering over things here & there. And sometimes there are others in the air with me but they don't seem to fly quite as well. Meeting old friends is another part of the dream process I enjoy. People from 50 & 60 years ago drift in & out. No rhyme or reason but all of a sudden there they are & I'm talking to them. Could be someone I only met once or twice decades ago or it could be a current friend. The people who have the most impact & leave the longest lasting memories for me are the ones who have passed away. In any dream sequence a departed friend or relative may appear & it is always such a good feeling inside to once again see & talk to them. And then they drift away & a sadness fills the void. It's those dreams that I try to hang onto as I'm waking up. I try to re-enter the dream & run after my old friend or family member to see them just one more time but they are gone.   I always hope they will re-appear again to once more put a smile on my sleeping face..................

GROANER’S CORNER:(( I'm Older Than Dirt::  Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?' 'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.  'All the food was slow.'  Seriously, Where did you eat?'  'It was a place called 'at home,' I explained. !  'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'  By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer some serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. Here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it :

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card.  My parents never drove me to school. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow).  We didn't have a television in our house until I was 19.  It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God.  It came back on the air at about 6 a.m. And there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people….I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone was on a party line.  Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.  Pizzas were not delivered to our home... But milk was.  All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers –my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week.  He had to get up at 6AM every morning.  Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies.  There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.  If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing………..Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it:((

PHEEBE OUT-MUFFINED ME & WE HAD THE BIG WHEELS ROLLING THIS MORNING

Was feeling a need to take the 'big wheels' for a drive this morning so loaded up the gang & we headed off to Goderich.  Topped off our propane tank & stopped in across the road at a windshield repair place to get an opinion on a small stone chip in the passenger side.  Fellow says the chip has already been repaired once & not to worry about it.  The windshield place just happened to be right next door to McDonalds so grabbed a muffin & coffee to go while there.

CONVENIENTLY PARKED NEXT TO A McDONALDS

 

WAITING, WAITING, WAITING & THEN A PHOTO OF 2 VERY McHAPPY CHARACTERS
Want to see a couple really cute pictures of Hailey??  Be sure to drop by & see what Ivan is up to over at ROADTRIP 2014.  He's managed to win himself a couple local photo contests & he's still at his fire base camp taking care of business. Ivan’s looking forward to heading out in a month or two for the great South-West.

I walk outside & go over to the Motorhome.  Open up a couple bins with the intentions of loading up some stuff.  It gives me a psychological boost when I do that but there's a problem.  I walk through the carport, sheds, & house trying to think of things to load up.  Seems I mostly end up going back to the rig & closing the bin doors again having not come up with anything to load.  Guess I will have to be patient & wait until the day before we leave to get all that done in one big excited & frantic blast.

NOTICED ANOTHER EDIBLE PUFFBALL GROWING IN THE FOREST THIS AFTERNOON
Kelly questioned our departure date a couple days ago expressing an interest in the possibility of Utah & Arizona being to hot if we get there too early.  I was quickly on the computer checking out average temperatures for our areas of travel in both States for October.  Looks Okay but hard to tell.  Temperatures in the South-West depend more on altitude than area.  If it's too hot one just looks for a higher altitude near by & that usually solves the problem.  And higher altitudes are readily available in the South-West:))

It seems I got an Alpha mixed up with an Alfa & it is important to keep one's Alfa/Alphas straight.  I did miss-spell the name of MERIKAY & Craig's Motorhome a few posts ago.  I'm a bit surprised nobody else noticed this but I saw in a comment from Craig that indeed their rig is an Alfa & not an Alpha.  Craig went on to say,  "according to people who have been involved with them since the start, Alfa stood for "A Loving Family Affair".  Now, there Alfa Motorhome does have a TPO roof from a company named Alpha. (don’t ask me what TPO stands for)  Craig said,  "Alfa Leisure went out of business in 2008, at the height (depth) of the recession. Their assets, parts, and many of their people survive as the service company Alfateers in Fontana, CA”.  I have since gone back & made the corrections to my posts.

Ed from THE PEREGRINATING GRAYBEARD had mentioned a few posts back that when he looked at my posts the smaller photos were not always side by side as I had configured them to be.  Thursday I headed into the scary area of my blog's template & found the section where I could either stretch or de-stretch the widths of my 2 columns.  I lessened the width of my right hand column & that seems to have fixed the problem.  Ed left a comment this morning saying the photos are now side by side as I had hoped they would be.  Thanks for pointing that out Ed.  Wondering who Ed is??  Check out the day we met Ed back in late December of 2010.  THE DAY WE MET ED FREY:))

Have you ever spent sleepless nights lying awake wondering what a Haboob is.  I know I haven't but I am only one out of countless millions.  Cheryl Ann over at DEEP CANYON knows what a Haboob is & she certainly doesn't go outside when a Haboob is overhead!!

Cut our grass today.  First time we've had grass to cut in years.  That sod I put down last week is really growing.  I had hoped it was that 'self cutting' kind of grass but alas it is not.  Tried our green push mower on it.  Not so good so finished cutting it with the weed  whacker.  That was more gooder but maybe the most goodest would have been to not have any grass to cut at all:))  Oh well at least I don't have to spend endless hours riding around on a lawnmower although having never done that, who knows I might like it:))

Oh yes, about being out-muffined.  After picking up a muffin & coffee I decided to throw a little extra gas in the rig.  Pulled up to the Solo gas pump eating my McDonald’s carrot muffin.  Exited the rig with muffin in hand.  New girl at the pump was having a problem with the nozzle so I offered to do it for her.  Problem was I had two thirds of a carrot muffin in my hand.  Walked over to my drivers door, opened it & set my muffin inside with the words to Kelly, “ don’t let Pheebs over here to grab my muffin”.  I distinctly heard an affirmative OK from the security department in the passenger seat.  Finished the fuelling & a few minutes later I am back in the drivers seat & reach down for my muffin.  It’s gone!!!!  Nothing, not even a smattering of crumbs left.  Due to a lapse in security I was definitely out-muffined by a 4 legged furry Muffinator:((

AND SPEAKING OF THE LITTLE MUFFINATOR, HERE SHE IS NOW:))

 

SHE CAN EVEN FALL ASLEEP WITH HER HEAD RESTING ON A FAVORITE BONE

 

SHE JUST LOVES HER COUCH

AND SHE ALWAYS LOVES SNOOZING ON DAD’S LAP:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A young man was walking through a supermarket to pick up a few things when he noticed an old lady following him around. Thinking nothing of it, he ignored her and continued on. Finally he went to the checkout line, but she got in front of him.  "Pardon me," she said, "I'm sorry if my staring at you has made you feel uncomfortable. It's just that you look just like my son, who just died recently."  "I'm very sorry," replied the young man, "is there anything I can do for you?"  "Yes," she said, "As I'm leaving, can you say 'Good bye, Mother'? It would make me feel so much better."  "Sure," answered the young man.  s the old woman was leaving, he called out, "Goodbye, Mother!"  As he stepped up to the checkout counter, he saw that his total was $127.50.  "How can that be?" He asked, "I only purchased a few things!"  "Your mother said that you would pay for her," said the clerk.

---

As I was driving home from work one day, I stopped to watch a local Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-base line, I asked one of the boys what the score was. "We're behind 14 to nothing," he answered with a smile.  "Really," I said. "I have to say you don't look very discouraged."  "Discouraged?" the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face. "Why should we be discouraged? We haven't even been up to bat yet."

VACUUMED ENOUGH DOGGY FUR OUT OF THE JEEP TODAY TO MAKE ANOTHER WHOLE DOGGY

TONIGHT’S PHOTOS ARE FROM WEDNESDAYS JEEP DRIVE…WE NEVER TIRE OF WANDERING THE BACK ROADS

Figured I had better get that clay based mud off our Jeep this morning before an afternoon sun swung round through the Pines & baked it on.  Out with the power washer & off the mud.  Out with the Power Vac for a clean-up of the interior as well.  I sucked up enough doggy fur for us to make another whole doggy.  And we had us enough mud on the floor mats to make a couple mud pies.....had we been so inclined to do so.

 

NOT EVERY FARMER HAS A SAILBOAT IN HIS YARD OR A NICE TRACTOR FOR MOWING GRASS ALONG THE DITCHES

Was feeling the need for a Tuna Sub so just before noon Pheebs & I headed ourselves on down to 'Subway' & shared a Sub.  Oh oh, tuna fish between the seats again.  And just after I cleaned all the muffin crumbs out too.   Oh well better get me some more air fresheners.

THOUGHT THIS WAS ANOTHER MARSHMALLOW FARM UNTIL I SAW THE DARK ROUND CENTERS WHICH MAKES IT A ‘SMORES’ FARM:))

 

WRAPPING THE BALES BY HAND AT LEFT OR WRAPPING THE BALES WITH A MACHINE AT RIGHT

Hauled out my old dog eared & worn RV checklist this morning.  This is the list I typed up about 7 years ago.  We use this list for packing the RV, & checking off the multitude of things one has to do when planning to be away from home for 6 months.  Yes it's a bit early but the list needed updating so figured I might as well get after that right now while I'm thinking about it.

 

 

WANDERING RIVERS & ROADS MAKE UP OUR COUNTRY NEIGHBORHOOD

 

PHEEBS & I ALWAYS ENJOY OUR MANY DRIVES THROUGH SOUTH-WESTERN ONTARIO’S RURAL FARM LANDS

We are still walking neighbor Gerald's dog Dexter twice a day.  Pheebs & I head over to the Park while Kelly walks over to Dexter's house then meets us in the Park across the road.  After spotting each other it is always so great to watch Pheebs & Dexter excitedly rush towards each other at top speed with tails wagging & happy doggy smiles bursting from their faces.  Gerald's eye is still healing from surgery & he has had to keep his head tilted down 24 hours a day for the past week.  Doctor gave him the OKay today to look up so he will be back out walking Dexter again.

 

THESE GUYS ARE ALWAYS SO HAPPY TO SEE EACH OTHER

Noticed today TDHOMESTEAD has just joined us on our Blog Followers list.  Thanks for dropping by folks & nice to have you aboard.  Looks like you are full-timers doing a bit of Workamping.  Also noticed RV SUE & HER CANINE CREW dropped in to see you so I suspect you folks must be somewhere around where RV Sue is at the moment which is in an area near the Gros Ventre Range in Grand Teton National Park Wyoming.  And speaking of RV Sue she just marked THREE YEARS FULL-TIME ON THE ROAD:))

THREE HAY BALES HOLDING UP A TREE
GROANER'S CORNER:(( Early in the Civil War, when the Union armies were suffering repeated defeats, Abraham Lincoln was discussing the war situation with his cabinet.
"How many men do you estimate are in the Confederate army?" a cabinet member asked. "About a million and a half," said Lincoln.  "That many?" said another member. "I thought the number was considerably less."  "So did I," said Lincoln, "but every time one of our generals loses a battle, he insists that he was outnumbered three to one - and we have about 500,000 men."