Black Coal and Oval Stony Beach

Don't know what the name of this beach was, but it washed up several oddities that were intriguing to one living in the middle of the U.S. What appeared to be magenta/vivid pink plastic was really a type of seaweed, as was the tough hollow green onion bulby thingy. It was LLLOOOOONNNG like a whip and measured about 33', enough to wrap around ones body and drag you under. (If it was alive. Like a horror show monster.)
Nate pointed out beguiling pieces of 'brain' lying here and there and I eventually found a whole one--baseball size. I still don't know if it was a plant or animal. Bailey found a tiny dead starfish, and we all watched the eagles swooping around and disdainfully observing us from above. Daphne tried her darndest to catch one...
Enjoy the bizarre collection that I smuggled through customs in a cottage cheese container, then forgot about for a week in my fridge. Phew. Barf.

Inadequate...

ALAS. While walking in a pasture this weekend, I found some puffball? mushrooms, but they are defeatist size. Miniscule in proportion, some were smaller than a Q-tip tip; incomparable to Bailey's. However, I did find the most incredible brilliant blue-violet flower at the same time! and yes, that is a sadly misshapen dung-beetle ball. Slacker.

Another Woodland Find.

Sounds like many mushrooms and some bear poop have been sited in the woods across the street from the kid's home. These are edible. (The mushroom!)

Babies. Reason to Smile!

Beautiful!



There's an extra room in the cabin!

Wild Plums=Wild Woman.

Sunday morning I promised Skinny Farmer Guy that I'd take his 'ol pickup out to a far pasture while following him in his tractor. I'd done this before, so I knew it was a ssssslow ride. I didn't mind the hour trip it took to get about 8 miles, because we took the backroads and I contemplated how very many different types of sunflowers overwhelmed the ditches along the way to Belvue...I nearly drove off the road gawking more than once (realize that I can't reach the clutch with my toes, so I shoved an old '70's radio behind my spine to push myself forward!)

I must also move aside numerous cig packs, skoal cans, tools, little notebooks and other debris in order to see above the dash, + watch out for any falling obstacles that could roll under the gas pedal or brake--its a hazardous job! Skinny Farmer Guy bought me a beer last night for this previous favor, so now he owes me another. [Since I was busy talking to him downtown, this saved me from the youngster "BeBe" trying to pick me up. BeBe may not mind that he is 11 years younger, but I do!]
We traveled through a few gates and across a couple narrowly-petrifying low-water crossings, before arriving at the spot with the disc. A really weird vine had tried to pull the tractor off the road like a devious sinuous anaconda and we yanked it away--bizarre prickly seed pods I wouldn't want to step on barefoot! Then we drove out to a field overtaken by lespedeza-- a terrible plant that is actually pretty. We looked at cut corn, (I observed flowering weeds!), pokeberries, elderberries ripening, and then at a major plum thicket still loaded with 2 different types; the purple ones were already over. I got back home 3 1/2 hours later!

Back at the plum thicket after lunch, I took a huge canning kettle and some smaller buckets but decided it was horrific to push one's way through the brush (I really tried) and didn't want to look like I'd been hit by shrapnel later with nasty scratches and gouges. Sniper-crawling UNDER the brush amongst the poison ivy was much easier (please don't let a vehicle drive by right now, please!) so I lay underneath and reached up to shake the trees. Wow! So ripe they fell like rain! Much easier and faster-- I think I got 9 small pails of ripe, wormless, pretty red/yellow plums. Looks like the yellow ones will be ready next week! I still felt like all my hair was ripped off my head in a frizzy aura, and tore the sleeves and back of an old flannel shirt...not a crazy bag-lady-- a crazy bucket-lady!

Check out the home--made plum jam and the "Skinny Farmer Guy Pott County Sand-hill Plum/Pepper Jam" I made that evening. No wonder I'm not getting much else done!

The New Hobbit House

Nate and Bailey moved into town (Homer) yesterday and now have running water AND electricity. It does not appear to be an in-town dwelling although it is close to a school--here they are exploring the place with its little outbuildings and awesome plants.
Plus, Bailey "can waddle to the hospital in a blizzard"!Here is another humorous tidbit I received in an email:
Daphne is just the best little beast ever, ornery and playful as ever but listening; she learned really fast with a little help from the zapper. She likes the new house and has been sleeping by us on the floor without disturbing in the night, unless you get up to pee and you'll find she has just slipped up into your place in bed and is resting peacefully when you return.

That part about peeing? No longer will they be trapped inside the A-Frame with a mother moose and baby keeping them at bay from the outhouse--they also have indoor plumbing and a real shower!

Almost Rednecks.

Bathing in the street gutter.
Bathing in the creek.

Embarrassment abounds.
All I can say is..."Thank God none of them ever wear WRANGLERS".
Those couches were actually on main street. sigh.

(Hmmm. Bring on the McCoys!)

It’s a Dog, a doodle, a horse, a bear!

Didn't realize I hadn't been online in this many weeks, so my news is all old news!

I woke up in the loft on a summer morning of ‘my princess in a castle house’, looking out the surrounding windows of a Flint Hill’s dawn.

It’s just lovely.

I’ve been here babysitting Fergus this July, a Labradoodle Clydesdalegrizzly mix. He’s a dog! A large, exuberant puppy of 5 months. Just picture one of those diminutive playful lapdogs that play keep-away and run and circle and excitedly shake a toy with their head…Fergus is exactly like a baby dog-child, but on elephant scale. He enjoys sprints and we have many (short) races! He gallops! A tail swings can knock everything off a coffee table in one fatal swoop.

He likes to chew anything! Yesterday he brought me a nice packrat which lay entirely in his mouth, only the tail hanging out like a nice piece of wet gray spaghetti (which I pull to see what he has—eek!). Despite his size, he can quickly catch locusts (cicadas) with his large head and eat them in a quick gulp, perhaps solving the upset stomach problem. He seemed very disappointed when the inch-long grasshopper he delicately caught finally escaped.

Shoes. I discovered immediately that you cannot leave them outside the door—nor inside the house down low. Several times I’ve found Fergus with someone’s sandals or my old Adidas; he prefers the left one, and sometimes he tries to remove it while I am still wearing it!

Fergus has a clever ability--while playing 'fetch', he will quickly place his huge salad-plate paw on your foot--a deliberate attempt for him to 'get there first' and detain/refrain your grabbing-at-a-toy skill. Funny dog--it took me a couple days to realize he was not clumsy.

I have some pics of Fergus...we visited the cow pond on one of our many walks-- after a curious bovine moved towards us, brave puppy turned tail and ran--straight into me in an attempt to hide behind my back-- we both tumbled down an embankment! But I really had been looking for a pokeberry plant, so he was forgiven, tee hee! Just like a little kid!

Wild Blue Lettuce

I have 2 of these growing in the shade of my apricot tree--one is 7 feet tall! Luckily, KSU identified it for me and I will let it produce it's blue flowers...and NOT cut it down!

Update in August: Let's try 11 feet tall!

White Prickly Poppy

'Bout got in a fight over this lovely one:
I brought in a section of this plant to show Skinny Farmer Guy, as it was growing beside his gooseberry bushes 3' high, fallen over. (and because our County noxious weed man has retired as of last week-drats!)
I believed it to be related to a poppy because of the leaves and flower formation and not a thistle or burr as some of the old-timers predicted.
I was correct; thank you Google!

Pottawatomi County Berries and Jam

No time to write; been making jam for days: raspberry, gooseberry, blackberry, rasp-goose, black-goose, rasp-black-goose.
To be honest, I've never had blackberries before and the mashed juice isn't the same brilliant purples of my own black raspberries....more lilacgraypurpleblack. GOTH Purple!
and my freaking fingers are SORE!
All of these berries have radical thorns, but my expression must of been dumbfounded when a friend told me to use a stick--'to lift the branch while you pluck'!
All I can say is 'for cryinoutloud, I must be an idiot'--even chimpanzees used a stick as a tool. I am sheepishly ashamed!
However, despite covering my legs, the thorns still draw blood, but its worth the taste of all the jars of jam cooling on my counter (and the pies)!