Friday, June 26, 2015

A Day Out

I had a lunch date with a friend that I haven’t seen in person since 2002!!! I would have to say he is one of my oldest friends, that I stay in contact with, (I forgot to take a picture, actually we both did!!!). Since we last saw each other, he moved to Tennessee and now I am about 2 hours away… so we made a lunch date and met up in Bowling Green KY.

I left early, since I have not driven down that way… and didn’t want to discover a road mess… we hear about an accident nearly everyday…and  I know why now.The interstate is under construction for most of the drive  I also didn’t need to leave early, because some where between home and Bowling Green, there is a time zone change, (I am on Eastern time and Bowling Green is on Central time) so I got down there about an hour early!

I am so glad I took my camera along! I did what I usually do, kill time by driving around on roads I’ve never been on, and spied a field full of wildflowers.

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One day last week in my own backyard… I spotted this little guy… it is a hairstreak or elfin. The wingspan is between 7/8 to about 1 1/4 of an inch when open, and when folded like this barely large enough to cover a thumb nail. As you can see a common clover flower is large enough… I should have millions of these little guys in my mostly clover lawn!!!

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One day while sitting out back with the dogs, watching the clouds try and build up to thunderheads, I noticed that some of the clouds would get this hazy top… I’ve not noticed this phenomenon before.

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How about that blue sky?

More Later!

Monday, June 15, 2015

A Little Local Flavor

I took a little break from harvesting the box farm… and took a History Walk in town. It is free and includes many of the famous folks that lived or spent time in the town, some historical buildings and events that shaped the town. This tour is in its 28th year and is free.

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While waiting… I liked the way the lights on the building… lined up.

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Local innkeeper, that hosted General Custer, PT Barnum and Jenny Lind.

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Custer

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Jenny Lind- this young lady sang ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ for us.

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PT Barnum

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Carrie Nation

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First Free Black (my memory fails me on the rest of his history)

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President Lincolns stepmother, Sarah Johnson

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Tour Guide, Haycraft, son of a founding father.

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Stained glass on 2 different churches in the downtown area. 

It was a fun hour, and since they do this free… I think I will go again… when the temps are not quite so warm!!!

Next tour… some distilleries, and there are lots of those nearby!!!

More Later- Beth

 

Sunday, June 7, 2015

The new place

All the issues with buying this house…. and all the issues for selling the other houses are hopefully also complete and behind us forever and ever!!! Lets just talk about stress for a moment… It is bad enough when you have to coordinate the departure of the house you reside in to purchase a home in the same vicinity, but when you add in a terrible experience looking for a home… in a different state…  and have to make a second visit to find a home. A car that needs attention and a dog that needs to see the vet in between and a house that still needs to be packed. While doing all of the above, I also had to come up with a contingency plan of where and how to live if we did not find a house or a delay between closings. Fortunately everything worked out and pretty much on time, but not without lots of prayers and hard work by our Real Estate agents!!!

There was a slight delay between the two houses… so the dogs got to visit the kennel and plants had a short and dark stay at climate controlled storage locker (along with a trailer full of other stuff), while we made a short visit to South Bend, IN. I have not visited with my in-laws since November of 2011.  So it was nice to visit and catch up, (and a bonus laundry!!!!)

The new house is bigger and more functional, as we do not loose several hundred square feet to staircases. BIG BONUS! It has a Creative Shop for the DH too! There are only 2 staircases compared to the 4 of the townhouse, a more normal number of bathrooms (2.5 compared to the 4.5 of the townhouse), 1 wood fireplace compared to the 3 gas ones in the townhouse and a fenced yard that is about a 100 times bigger! The dogs enjoy running from side to side and chasing the ball again. Well, Linzi does, Axel is nearly 12 and showing some real signs of age. Sad part is, that dogs of his size have a relatively short life span, (12-14 years).

The furniture was delivered. A quick shout out to Campbell Moving!!! After my last experience with United, (I DO NOT recommend Untied as a mover), I was a bit apprehensive using a mover. But they treated our belongings with care and concern and so far I  have only found one item that was damaged and quite frankly glad to see it go! I did all of my own packing, because I am conservative and prefer to unpack boxes of stuff not just air filled with paper!!! This is a picture of the Creative Space on June 3.

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We had our first visitor the following morning!

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He was crossing the driveway, just before I snapped a picture. It was a big guy…. about 9 inches across and about 12 inches long. We have been so lucky that nature has been welcoming us daily. It is amazing the green of trees and grass. Lush is probably the best word. I cannot wait to start planting shrubs, flowers and more trees.

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The robins are fat and happy, full of song, and are currently fledging their young. There are several other birds… that are familiar, house finches, cardinals, sparrows, and a mockingbird that copies all the other birds… it needs to work on the cardinal calls  though. There is a resident bunny that lives under the deck. We will have to remedy that …. so the dogs don’t have a rabbit meal, and so far the dogs are not aware of the squirrels… I have also viewed a raccoon, running though the yards, (it was well after sunup, so need to keep and eye on the dogs… Don’t need a rabies scare too.

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The resident bunny and a fledged robin.

I am still unpacking and waiting for the dryer delivery… This will be the 3rd dryer for this washing machine. Every time we move, it seems the dryer connection… is opposite of what we have. I am also waiting for the delivery of a new kitchen range and having a gas line installed in the kitchen.

This is the living room now

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and soon there will be blinds on the windows too!

More Later! Beth