Repurposed Blinds:

We had wooden bifold slatted doors, but they kept falling down so we took them out. We wanted the laundry room hidden and out of sight and we remembered that we had taken these shades down from the sliding doors we recently had replaced with French doors. 

Homesteading in the mountains of Colorado you have to be self-reliant and learn how to repurpose. It is a hard habit to replace and since we had not thrown the blinds away, so we put them across the laundry room opening. I think, they look nice and better than just having the laundry room open. 

Remember:

 

Memorial Day.

Frogs:

 There is an old metaphor That says if you put a frog in a pot with hot water that it will jump out but if you put a frog in a pot of cold water and then slowly increase the temperature it will stay in the pot until it dies.   

That metaphor may or may not work I have never tested it but it makes sense and as I look around I can see it applied in numerous areas' yet today. Particularly in the decline in morals in society today. The decline actually started years ago and is just not being more apparent. I write this so those who are disturbed with the things going on now, if you but think back it started long ago. 

People didn't say anything then and now it seems so out of control that people are afraid to say anything now fearing they will be labeled or cancelled. Now is the time that we must stand up and speak out or soon we will be denied the opportunity.

Stress:

 Today people seen to be stressed out from numerous sources.  Stuck in heavy traffic, the cost of rent, gas, rude people, inflation, war and threats of war, the list goes on and on. I see people racing through life and seeking peace and happiness. Doctors tell people they need less stress in their life and prescribe Rx to help them achieve it. It seems everyone has stress of one kind or another. Maybe an answer is not the stress but how it is handled. 

Did you know that a piano mother board has 40,000 pounds of stress on it from the tension of all the strings? Yet out of all this stress comes some of the most beautiful music known to mankind. Maybe relieving the stress isn't as important as how we manage the stress. Finding a quiet place where you can go and have a talk with God is a way to transfer the stress you experience to Him providing that you leave it with Him and don't carry it away yourself.

Maybe then you can be at a place where you can help others who are also stressed out. In my many years I have never turned a stressful situation over to God that he couldn't handle. As I look back on those stressful times, I'm still amazed at not only the solution but the outcome. Things I found impossible were not impossible for God.

Talk to God about your situation, tie a knot in the end of your rope and hang on.

Tine For a Laugh:

 

Politics:

 I don't want to post political issues on this blog site but I just asked Alexa what the current rating approval of congress is. She said that their approval rating is 10%. Alexa reported that 86% of people disapproved of congress.   Our Echo Dot has been wonderful source of entertainment for us. The $30.00 we spent for the Echo Dot has been one of the best investments we have made.

The AI aspect that has been added or updated is super. Alexa went on for over 5 minutes citing statistics and facts about congress. She had many funny things to say about the issue. We like Alexa for playing music and questions on gardening and cooking. This question was especially entertaining.

Hummingbirds:

 When we lived in S. Colorado, we had a particular hummingbird that we called Henretta, and she was always the first to arrive each year. We knew it was Henretta because she had been chased into a window and I carried her around for a long time waiting for her to recover. When she did recover, she ended up with a palsy which made her stand out from the other hummingbirds.  She was the first to arrive and the last to leave. 

This year she arrived just as we received 30" of heavy wet snow. She would feed and then perch on a shelf under the eve's where she could enjoy the sun and was protected from the elements. Homesteading remotely like we did we were able to better connect with the birds and animals. 

. 

Henretta lived a very long life for a hummingbird and one day I noticed she didn't look very good and she perched on her normal place at the feeder. I stood there with her as she took her last breath. I talked to her as she died and then gently took her down and buried her in a place that was special. Even something as small as a tiny hummingbird can hold a very special place in your heart.

Feast Or Famine:

 We live in an area that is a temperate rain forest - rated such due to the amount of rainfall we receive each year. This year has been unusual so far. We have had minimal rain and in fact have been in a drought zone for several weeks. That ended yesterday as we received 6" of rain in the last 24 hours. That much rain on dry ground tends to create issues as it washes out places as it finds its way down the hill. We are forecast to receive more in the next several days. 

I have a pile of limbs to burn and have my permit but up until yesterday we were in a red zone and could not have outdoor burning. Now it is too wet to burn, and my permit is only good for two weeks. Also the grass and weeds are now growing so fast we can almost see them shoot up. Not complaining as it is so green outside that I spend too much time admiring the freshly rinsed trees and bushes. My garden is also growing in leaps and bounds.   

Interesting Tradition:

 We received notice that our bank has a customer appreciation day.  We were not able to go last year but this year we did attend. We didn't know what it entailed but since we had some banking to do anyway, we went to see what it was all about. The tradition is that they hand out tomato plants. We ended up coming home with 6 plants to go with the 6 we already have. It is a different tradition but typical of small town in the south's way of life. 

Love being back in the south where people are real, friendly, polite and down-to-earth folks that our country was built on. It was the same way when we first moved to S. Colorado but then we got an influx of people moving in from Texas and California and attitudes changed. People came for the simple neighborly life and unfortunately brought their attitudes and demands along with them. I sincerely hope that does not repeat itself here.   

Mistakes In Life:

 Mistakes - we all make them as we go through life. I have made more than my share. Some I manage to regret and some I just laugh off. As an example: My ex-mother-in-law had knit me a beautiful cardigan sweater like the photo above. I really liked that sweater and one day I wore it to play golf. As sometimes happens in Florida I was caught in a small gentle rainstorm. We were used to getting a little wet occasionally when we played golf, but we usually kept playing as long as it wasn't a downpour or lightning was involved. 

We usually dried out as the game progressed. As we played one of our group mentioned that I was pulling my sleeves up frequently and I suddenly realized my cardigan was stretching out. It was down to my knees, and the arms were about a foot longer than my hands. I should have been more aware and taken it off to protect it. I really miss that sweater, and it was never restored to where I could wear it again. That was a big mistake which I really regret.

Other examples where I laughed it off are less serious and both related to a department store next to where I worked. The store had a bargain basement where I used to go to occasionally. A buyer had to be acutely aware of what they were buying as some of the clothes had defects. One day I bought some seriously marked down 'hang ten' shirts. I had worn them several times when a friend asked why the little feet symbol was inside out. I had not noticed they were sewed on backwards. Big laugh. 

Or the time I bought a very nice pair of dress slacks. I was with my co-workers at a restaurant paying my bill when someone ask why I had to dig so deep into my pocket to get my change. I realized that one side pocket actually ended at my knee. I had to lean sideways to get to the bottom of my pocket. It never occurred to me that my keys and change was rubbing against my knee when I walked. We all had a good laugh at that. I stopped shopping at the store next to our office building as I just wasn't smart enough to find these flaws.  

Dan and Bruce's Great Fishing Adventure:

I was working in Jacksonville, Fla. and stopped at a small fishing shack along a creek. I was looking for directions to a witness I had been looking for. It was early morning and as the man was giving me directions a boat pulled up and had us come over to look at the fish he had caught. He had half a dozen largemouth bass in his live well and all were 4-5 pounds or more. I ask him what he was using for bait and he said dry ice. 

 He used a small tobacco sack, and he run his line through it with a little weight on it and tied a treble hook on it and said he put a piece of dry ice in the sack and just threw it out and let it sit on the bottom. He said the bubbles drove the fish crazy and they would pick it up to move it. When he felt it move he would set the hook. He told me it seemed to work best at night. 

Those sure were a good-looking bunch of bass and his technique sounded just crazy enough to possibly work. Besides I had just read an article in an outdoor magazine about using Alka Seltzer in a similar way. 

I gave my fishing buddy Dan a call and told him about it and he said he had some little bags at work, and he would grab a couple. I told him I would buy some dry ice. He would hook up his aluminum flat bottom boat and pick me up just before dark. We launched after dark and drifted down the creek tossing the unusual rig into every good-looking spot we saw. 

When I would chip the dry ice small chunks would fly off and hit the bottom of his boat and make a zinging sound as they skipped around the boat. We fished for about 5 hours with nothing resembling a bite but cooled the water temperature with 5 pounds of dry ice considerably.  Sometime around 2 AM, after several hours of silence I said, "I think we have been fooled like a fishing type of snipe hunt", and Dan agreed so we headed back to the launch ramp before the shack owner came in. 

Now it is funny but back then it wasn't that funny as we both had to go to work with only a couple hours of sleep. That trip was about as funny as the time we ran up on an underwater stump and stuck the boat right in middle. All we could do is go in circles around that stump trying to get free, - in a snake infested creek. But that is another story for another time. 

Two of My Favorite Pic's From Facebook:

 

Springtime Flowers:

 

We know it is truly spring when the iris are in full bloom. Small patch of iris and there are more buds yet to open. 

Peace And Quiet:

 The renowned Samual Clemments (Mark Twain) had a habit of going fishing with his pole but no hook on the end of his line. That was the only way he could get any uninterrupted time to himself. It is a long-standing tradition that when you are fishing that it is impolite to disturb the fisherman. Sitting along a riverbank with a fishing pole is not only calming but restful.  The famous Mark Twain did not put a hook on his fishing line to not catch any fish and not to be disturbed. 

Sometimes just being out in the fresh air and sitting along a riverbank or a lake or stream without the matter of catching fish is just pure relaxing. 

It's a Puzzle:

 

Some things just do not make sense to me. One such incident happened recently.  I ordered some tarter cleaner for the dog's teeth, and I got an acknowledgement promptly from the manufacturer which I found out came from China. I was able to track my order as it left the factory, went to a distribution center, where it was put on a transport and arrived in California. Then I was able to track it across the U.S., and we received it promptly and in good condition.  

At the same time, I ordered a hose from the local Walmart store to replace our leaky one. It took a few days to get my order acknowledged and a tracking number. The tracking indicated we should receive the hose tomorrow and now it says maybe by Friday. 

It is all here in the U.S., and it has been at the same location for several days. So, my puzzle is how can I order two items - one from the U.S., and one from China and the one from China comes halfway around the world in half the time and the one in the U.S., comes from within our country and the vast difference between the two. The one from Walmart takes twice as long and we still do not have it. 

Remote Homesteading:

As I have posted before, we moved to N. Carolina from 9,800' elevation in S. Colorado. We received (according to HUD) 264" of snow each year, fortunately not all at the same time. Our winters were sometimes 6-7 months long. Our nearest neighbor was one mile down the road. We lived there for over 26 years full time and heated our cabin with a woodstove. We burned anywhere between 9-12 cords of firewood each winter. 

That being said we worked hard all year long and while it was stuck in the back of our mind that someday we might have to move somewhere else, that was less strenuous. It always remained hidden in the back of our minds none the less. We had seen others move to our community and not be able to handle the weather conditions or the strain of that type of life. Few made it as long as we did. 

Two and a half years ago we came to the conclusion that we couldn't continue with that type of lifestyle any longer. It was necessitated by medical reasons. Prior knee injuries made it so mobility was more and more severe coupled with other unrelated issues. It was hard to leave our homestead that we had put so much labor into, but it was also evident that medical treatment was over a one-hour drive away and we were not getting any younger. 

One had to be self-sufficient to live our chosen lifestyle and there were not adequate services around to take over the responsibility of things we were used to doing ourselves. So now we need to sit by, and watch others do what we are used to doing ourselves.  It was hard to leave our mountain homestead, but I think it is even harder to have others do what we were used to doing ourselves. 

Klaus - 11 Yrs Old:

 Klauss is 11 years old and still gets around well but his back legs tend to tire sometimes, and this was one of those times. Usually when he gets tired, he just sits down but this time he was exploring in the back yard and sat down in a depression and was up against the fence. When that happens, he needs help getting back up. If he had been headed in the other direction, he could have gotten himself up. It is his right rear leg that sometimes gives him trouble like in this case.

Thankful Times - Sad Times:

 This photo was taken after the Spring wildfire of 2018. We were thankful that our property and us survived the horrible wildfire, but it was sad to the snow full of ash. When the sun hit the grey infused snow it would get so hard that you could walk across it without leaving a footprint. The wind would blow the ash off trees that were dead and turn the snow grey. 

We were thankful that no human lives were lost and ours was one a very few homes survived. A total of 124 structures in our community were not so fortunate. Friends and acquaintances moved and left the ashes of their dream behind and those of us remaining had to deal with the mud slides, ashes on everything and a subtle loneliness coupled with many dead trees and the hazard they presented.  

Spring In The Smokey Mountains:

 Dogwoods are in bloom along with the redbud trees. 

Ants:

 I ran across this on Facebook and thought it was very interesting.  I have known of humans that were not this smart. 

What an amazing discovery! Scientists have discovered that ants, after collecting the grains and seeds that they need for winter break those seeds down into halves before storing in their nests because breaking them in half keeps them from germinating even through rain and the most perfect germinating conditions. But scientists were stunned when they discovered that coriander seeds stored in the ant nest were broken down into 4 pieces instead of 2 pieces. After lab research, scientists discovered that a coriander seed will still germinate after being divided into two, but it won’t germinate after it’s divided into four parts. So how do these tiny creatures know all this? Humans know very little, there's a lot to learn from other creatures.