Happy Halloween!

In death there is life

War dVerse~Poets Pub

War isn't something
you can sweep
out the door
and declare it done
it stays
to eat your soul

War never leaves
the dark nights
of sleep
it plays over
and over
and over

Soldiers return in pieces
dead and alive
they weep
silently
for friends
and enemies

The best they can do
is gather the parts
misplaced by orders
glue them together
and pray that soon
they might forget

With honor and gratitude to those who have served and are serving...thank you.
War Poetry for dVerse~Poets Pub

Things I Thought I Would Never Confess...

I used to bite my toe nails!  That's right, don't have to read it again. As a younger more nimble me I was the Toe Nail Biter of the family. Bit my fingernails too but that didn't seem to get as much attention.

We traveled a lot with Dad's job.  I went missing one time.  Mom panicked but soon found me with a pack of dogs in the nearby park.  The family joke after that was, Need Gail? Call the dogs.

We once lived in a two story house.  I had an inflatable toy horse.  I spent hours throwing it over the balcony and racing downstairs and outside to see if I could catch it!  I don't know why no one stopped me.  I guessed they thought I would figure it out soon enough.  I kept thinking if I just run a little faster...guys, I was only three!

I got a whipping from Mom when she found out I knew how to read.  I didn't know I could read!  I had two older sisters and I guess I just picked it up at the young age of four.  I remember going to the post office and thinking why does that say "off ice"?  It was warm weather.

Our Christmas rule was even if you knew what the gift was, you never told.  One gift for my sister was wrapped in thin tissue paper.  I'm holding it, pressing the paper, sounding the words out loud....Bugs Bunny Cartoon...Wham!!! I was getting a whipping before I knew it.  I had broken the rule!!!!

I would hide in the closet and eat clear nail polish. Dip the brush and let it slide between my closed teeth getting every drop.  No one knew. I just ate a little at a time.  I finally confessed to Mom about forty years after the fact.

I got a paddling in second grade for talking in class...not me!!!  Yes, it was and the teacher missed breaking the paddle on the desk.  Lucky me.

My second paddling was not a miss.  A specially chosen child each day got to carry the milk for our break to the class room.  I had never been chosen.  We all knew the first one in from recess got to carry the milk.  I got there early because I wanted to carry milk so badly...and that's when my third grade teacher paddled me for coming in too early.  I'm getting mixed messages here, lady!

I had snakes for pets but could only keep them if they were confined and that confinement stayed at the barn.  One rule right at the top of THE RULES was no snakes in the house.  Mom wasn't home.
What harm was there in that?  I had it in a jar...welllllllllllll, the jar tipped over.  Never caught the snake and never confessed that one...Sorry, Mom!

I have a male cousin my age...nope, don't even go to the dirty thoughts!  He was always trying to out climb, out run, out play, out wrestle me.  He was such a weak child.  I put one of my dresses on him. He fought pretty good that time but I still won.  We had an old Kodak box camera, yep, took his picture.

After his parents divorced I did not see him for years.  He, then in the military service, showed up where I worked. He mentioned the dress and how he tried so long to overcome that humiliation as a child.  I said, I was sorry.  We laughed.  I think I could still out wrestle him!

The Widow Maker

The wind was blowing the trees.  Hubby was awfully nervous because close to us was a dead tree that had lodged in the the limb of another tree.

 He moved the Gator and asked me to stand somewhere else.

Of course I asked why.

He answered, Because that's a widow maker!

Through the years this name was assigned to a tree lodged in another. It was very dangerous to attempt a cut because you could not judge the fall line thus the name...widow maker.

Crazy...

and trying a new idea.  If you want to go to a taxidermist and pay an arm and a leg, go ahead.  We've done that once.  The other times we just keep the horns.  This year Hubby is trying a skull mount. 

First you have to remove all the meat and I mean ALL THE MEAT. Hubby offered me brain soup for supper but I declined.  When the meat is removed, peroxide is applied to bleach the skull.  After drying, the entire skull with antlers will be mounted on wood for display. 

How sick is that, you say??

Here's the perfect music from the movie, Deliverance.

Open in a separate window 

to enjoy the music with my movie

for your continued viewing pleasure...

The dogs found an armadillo den.  Squiggs crawled completely under and you could hear his teeth slipping off the shell.  This is our farm team, Lil, JR, Ki-Anne, and Squiggy with Bonnie in training.

What do you think of me now?!!!

Making Summer Sausage

Twenty-five pounds of fresh deer meat

with cure mix and spices

became many tubes of summer sausage.

We are grateful for the deer's gift.

I Debated

riding a different horse today but I still have pictures of two amazing days with nephew, Toni.  He is an easy person with which to travel.  I just mention something and he wants to turn around and go back.  

On the court square in Murfeesboro, Arkansas

history on the square

the courthouse

and more history.

Checked the horse races outside

and inside.

With all my posts and pictures it seems like we were gone a long time but it was only two nights.

We enjoyed our time out, tickled our taste buds by trying different foods, and just had a good time looking.

And you ask where are the diamonds?  In the ground, I suppose, but I did find rocks and that makes me a happy camper.

We may return after the next good rain!

We Walked...

through history.  We crawled in dirt.  We laughed, explored and came home again.

This trip was just me and my nephew, Toni.  No one has a bad time with Toni.  From Iraq to Alaska and an experienced traveler to most states Toni makes traveling an adventure. We always try something new, in meals and in places we see because life should be an adventure.

This is a replica of the old shaft shack.  It went down sixty feet deep here.  I don't believe the mining operations was extremely successful or they would still be operating.  I would say by the number of people there they have no trouble maintaining this as a state park.

Toni in the distance

They had a few "shade islands" no digging allowed here.  This island featured a Osage Orange tree.

We both got down and dirty.  I packed hand tools and empty jars to hold all our diamonds.  They left full but not with diamonds.  We had MREs, Vienna Sausage and Oreo cookies with drinks packed so we were prepared and made a day of it.

We examined the old mining equipment.

Nine diamonds were found while we were there.  It was not our day for diamonds.  When the rains come, we may return.  It's just four and a half hours away.  Toni is young and as long as he's driving I will welcome the adventure.

Diamond Failure!

but I got rocks and you KNOW I am happy with any rocks!!!!  We've had hours of digging, we've eaten out way too often, and I argued with the rock identifier of the park.  It has been GREAT.

"Signs, signs

every where signs..

do this, don't do that...

Can't you read the signs?"

Okay, a first...SHOES and SOCKS!

These are the rocks

I could not 

take with me.

We found a wonderful variety of rocks including jasper, mica, crystals, lamproite, banded agate, quartz, calcite, barite and hematite and one special sample Toni named the Arkansas Guinea stone. 

We may not be the front page news of the next record diamond finders but we had fun.  After all, that is what's important.

Diamond Hunting

at Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas.  Be back soon with tall tales and lots of pictures.

Find The Hidden Object...

I always loved those puzzles in Highlights Magazine and other places. Sometimes I would go cross eyed trying to see a picture.  Here's the farm version of Find the Hidden Object.  Actually bad photos that I wish were good ones.  Some are from the afternoon sun, others are hidden by reeds.  You may have to guess what it's SUPPOSED to be instead of finding the Dog...there's your hint.

Lil and Bonnie

Bonnie and Ki-Anne

Bonnie, Ki-Anne and Lil

Now wasn't that fun?

The dogs thought so.

Hubby!

 Chevrolet,

Kubota,

Kel Tec

Hubby, my hero, can leap fences with a single bound (on a good day), can fuel a tractor from a jug (if he parks the truck close), can give you a ride in his Chevrolet and wears a gun on his hip.  Yep, my kind of man!

Shush, don't tell him I took his picture.  God love him...he has to put up with me!!!!

A Grain of Sand

A grain of sand

is such a bother

scratching 

between my shells 

like a wayward child

you are coated with love

and 

mother-of-pearl

You leave

crafted with layers

of beauty

knowing 

underneath 

it all

is just

a grain of sand

For Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

How Oysters Make Pearls

Mother for Magpie Tales

For Magpie Tales

with Tess Kincaid

Mother knew 

she would never see

the twenty-first century  

she stated the fact 

and made it so

Take care of things

she said

her last wish 

tethered me

to her dreams

not mine

Riding A Gator!

Never thought I would be saying that 

but it's the gospel truth.

Here's the proof.

Wait, I have shoes on!!!

That may not be me.

Down a hill

riding in the fields

driving by a horse drawn mower

I know what this means:

When you ain't the lead dog

the view never changes.

Surprise!  I found rocks.

Progress

is sometimes slow

when you're old.

I've picked up fallen limbs.

Old wallpaper still clings

but some ancient sheet rock has fallen

in the old house.

I see floor!!!!

I fill the room I just cleaned as I empty the room with the falling floor.  The wooden cook stove is almost hidden again along with the cream separator.  We are a bookish family.  I just hope this floor doesn't drop from the weight before I get the other fixed.

My sister always says, Gotta muddy the water before the stream runs clear.  Well, I am muddying the water and it's not clear yet.

I'm closer to finished than I was and look forward to making this a tiny cozy place for hard times. 

Caninese...

They talk if you will listen.

I think there's something in that tree.

What do you think?

Yep, you're right.

Right here!!!!

It went this way!

Come on, Bonnie!

What do we do now?

Maybe if we watch closely it will come down.

It's squirrel!  It's squirrel!

I can taste it!

How long do we have to watch?

I'm ready to go.

Good things come to those who watch, uh, wait.

Where did everyone go??

Bonnie, come back.

It's a squirrel!

I saw it.

I'd rather swim.

Good luck with the squirrel.

Ohhh, this water is nice.