Revenge Of The Critters/ Day Trip To Ft. Cobb

The weather has been so hot here that we usually cannot ride unless we do it early in the morning before 9:00 or in the evening after 7:00pm.  We managed to get out of the house today by about 9:15 and head out to a town that we had never been to.  This time, we had company  with us....:-). Helen has been a part of our  ministry and family for years and keeps up with our property whenever we are not around.  It was time to take her for a spin on the Majesty.....:-)

After making sure all systems were go, we hit the road and headed for breakfast at a place we stopped at before....

after a light breakfast (for me anyway), we were ready to hit the road....

Suddenly the wind was absolutely brutal and just about pushed me into a truck carrying cement.  I was NOT having a good time.....:-(  We still had a long way to go before getting to Ft. Cobb and I was concerned that the wind would make this trip very difficult for me.  Scootard had the advantage of skill, extra weight and and heavier bike than mine.  He was not having the same experience I was having in regard to the wind...:-(.

We had passed this place once before but didn't stop to get pictures of it.  It is a peanut processing plant.  I have no idea why Scootard wanted pictures of a peanut processing plant, but here it is folks! ha...  I DO NOT like peanuts.....haha.

after another 45 minutes or so of riding and quite a few dragonfly carcuses hitting me in the chest, we made it to our destination of Ft. Cobb state park.  We were quickly swarmed by wasp which seemed to be after MY bike for whatever reason!.  We quickly dismounted our bikes and headed "inland" away from the festivities!.  All the while, I was wondering how I was ever going to get back on the bike with those things swarming  like they were.  And then there was the wind......:-(.
 

 Here is a picture of the park with a beautiful lilac (or maybe lavender) bush??  No idea, but with the wasp swarming like there were, i was not about to find out....

We went to the nearest picnic bench to have some much needed water as the temperature was in the 90's.

 And Helen took a little trip down to the shore line to sit by the water and take in the moment.....:-).  I was still trying to take in all of the dragon flies that kept attacking me during our trip out there and the wasp that tried to sting me when I got there!

After nearly choking to death on my much needed water, I was able to take a picture of the shoreline.

I was exhausted and ready to start the trip back home after psyching myself up about getting through all of the bugs that were probably lined up waiting to smack me in the chest .

 Needless to say at one point a huge bug (yep, dragon fly),  got inside my helmet through a small opening that I had left for ventilation and I had to pull over.  What a nightmare!  I managed to get it out, took a breath and told myself I only had a few more mile to get home and by golly I made it.  haha  sheesh!!

I was glad to see my front porch.  What a day!  That had to be the longest 100 + miles of my life.

Bugs In My Gear!

For the last 3 weeks, we have been working away in our "garden" and trying to make it an oasis for our time away from Canada.  All is done with the exception of the big gaping brown patch that used to house a brick oven type thingee for several years.  We (actually he) raked the soil and added 14 bags of topsoil and some cow manure to help amend the soil and added some Bermuda grass seed.  We have our fingers crossed that "something" will actually grow there...

 Now, it was time to relax a bit and think of the next adventure.The temperature has been in the 90's and sometimes over 100 degrees.  Since the back of my property faces the West, it is difficult to enjoy the backyard unless we use the blue chair sitting area or the chaise lounges that we recently purchased.  Even then it is best to go early in  the morning or when the sun is going down in the late afternoon.  We do both.

Somebody is having a really good time chillin out here....ha

I guess the good thing is that Scootard built this "thing" in the corner and we have Honeysuckle growing up onto it.  He used the sticks that we salvaged from the cuttings off of our Crepe Myrtle trees last year when we trimmed it. We call it "the grand construction".

We waited for a spectacular sunset, but it never really happened....:-(.

After our "rest and recovery" from all of the hard work, it was time to get "Maj" and "Ms Vickey" ready for the road.....:-)

Scootard was getting things ready while I wrestled with my gear in the house.  Ms Vickey acted like she didn't know me and didn't want to start when I sat on her.  Also, my seat had gone back to it's original condition which made the airhawk that I had purchased last year impossible to use.  It had me too high off the ground even after letting most of the air out.  "Monkey Butt" here I come!

We hit the road and headed out of town toward a little town called Carnegie.  The road was flat and uneventful as always in these parts.  But I like that....:-).  I don't like blind hills, pin hair curves and nasty surprises!  I like to actually see where I'm going....haha.

We stopped at a little cafe called Ann's Kitchen where we have stopped a few times before in our travels.  I was in need of coffee and some breakfast....

I chose a table by the door and window so that I could keep an eye on the bikes.  The  tables are covered in business cards and little brochures with laminate on top to protect them.  Cool.....:-)

 The waitress was very friendly and of course the first thing I ordered was some coffee and breakfast.

 Scootard looked as if he was about to fall asleep while reading through it....haha
It had been so long since I rode that I was a bit tired too and we had only gone 25 miles or so from the house.  I think it was the heat though too.

We drink our coffee from a French Press, so it is difficult to please us with restuarant coffee anymore.  It usually taste too weak.  This was one of those time.....:-(.

After breakfast, we hit the road and headed toward our destination again. We passed through Windmill country for a few minutes....

 And after another 20 something miles we made it to our destination.  I had been here before several years ago (almost 15 now), but Scootard had never been here and was anxious to see it.

What I like about a lot of these small towns is that they always seem to put some part of their history in a mural.

This is a shot of the main street.....

It took a grand total of 7 minutes to "see" the town center before we were on the road again headed back toward home.

We passed an old homestead on the way there that Scootard wanted to get pictures of.

I was amazed at this flower that was growing straight up out of the asphalt in 90 degree heat.  I don't know what kind of flower it was, but after giving it a few tugs, it was evident that it was thoroughly rooted into the ground and was not going to budge.  Pitty....:-(.  I knew just where I would have put it since one side of my yard gets sun all day.

The first place we ventured into was the garage.  Wow....it's amazing what animals can do once people vacate a place.  It's equally amazing what humans can do once a place is vacated.....

This was taken in one of the rooms that I think was a bedroom of some sort.  There was stuff everywhere in this place as if whoever used to live here just up and left without taking anything with them.

This was taken in the living room area.  I kept thinking the whole while that we were there; "there might be snakes in her under all of this stuff trying to get away  from the heat".......

This is another shot from the living room door.  There were a lot of children's clothes and toys laying around. I wondered what there story was.  Why would a person just leave everything behind like this?  Were they on the run from someone? Did they die in an accident and didn't have any heirs?  Did they simply give up on life and walk away from everything?

After taking our time and looking around a bit more, it was time to hit the road again.

When you are on the road whether in a car with all of the windows down or on two wheels, there is always that moment when "something" flies into your eyes, hits you in the face or just takes your by surprise.  I had one of those moments when something that appeared to be a bug the size of a small bird flew UP MY SLEEVE!!!  I spent the next several minutes shaking my arm and shaking my hand and having a few interesting vocal challenges in my helmet!  I shook and shook my arm until I thought i was going to lose my balance.  The power of the wind was not helping either!

After returning back home and stripping off my gear, we found this thing which had a wing span of about 4 inches. It had come apart in "transport" inside my gear......

 

I, on the other hand came apart when I saw it!  hahaha......I promptly headed for the shower and washed off the grossness of the whole incident, settled into a chair with the Gatorade and thanked God that the thing did not bite or sting me!

Here's to keeping the shiny side up!

To Build Or Not To Build...And How??

The days are starting to get easier since we have put so much work into the garden.  We just have a few things left to do and hope for the best at the end of all of it.  So, today was a day to put out the rest of the furniture and try to enjoy what we had done so far. The next task is to rake up the dead spots on the lawn and fill in the large patch where the grill used to sit with grass seed.  Maybe tomorrow..?

I had an old table from several years ago that Chris cleaned up for me a few days ago. We had to purchase new chairs and an umbrella though as the others had either been sold or deteriorated over the years. I threw this together and thought...."not too bad".

Chris made breakfast and was quite pleased with the spread that he presented to me outside. This would be our first meal dining outdoors since we had been here.

And of course he had to take a picture of me in my little oasis.....:-)

We had done a lot of reading about compost bins; the rolling kind, the spinning kind, the "turn it yourself" kindand the build it yourself kind.  The later of which we decided on.  Scootard had already scored some pallets from a local home improvement store for free.
 

I, on the other hand decided to just chill for a while....:-)....

So, he got to work on the design we thought would work for us.

My daughter decided after peeking into my oasis from the back door that she wanted to come and fill the yard with her music....:-).

Meanwhile, after a short break, Chris decided that he would get back to the business at hand......

It was coming together nicely....:-).  We saw a design (a few) that suggested covering the bin with some kind of mesh or fabric to keep critter out.  We had a large roll of landscape fabric left over and decided to use that since it was breathable.  I knew that air circulation was essential to the process of breaking things down.

After having secured the sides and bottom with the fabric we started to gather our contents.  We had some flowers that had been uprooted during our demolition project, some food compost and some manure to help kick start the process.  We only used about two shovel fulls of it and put the rest away.

I knew there was suppose to be a balance of carbon (brown stuff) and nitrogen (the green stuff).  Or maybe I have that backward.  Anyway, we needed the brown stuff and knew that newspaper was a good source.  After adding the green, and the food, we added a couple of shovels of the manure and then shredded  some newspaper and wet it down really well.  No meat or dairy products are to go in.

and presto!  We have started composting with worms inside the house and a bin (without worms) outside the  house.....:-).  We have a make a minor adjustment to the bottom of the bin so that it opens.  The top slides off and it will be easy to get stuff in through the door.  But getting it out might be a challenge.  We will be putting a hinge on the bottom section as well for that purpose.

So, there you have it folks.... I am officially a ....."something"  in regard to the eco-friendly crowd. hahaha..........:-)