Spiders Everywhere!

I really don't have much to say today. I took this picture yesterday. Cute little critter! After last week's big blog this has been a relatively slow week. Nice weekend though. Joseph spent Friday night with Memaw, and Christina is on a canoe trip. It has been nice being either alone, just the two of us, or with one child, all weekend.

Anyway! Back to the picture. Since the flood, we have been blessed...or cursed, depending on the day, with a larger number of little critters than usual. Out here in the country, we always have a pretty good variety of six and eight legged friends, but this spring and summer seems to be extra plentiful.This fellow was hanging around the steps to the back deck. He was really only half an inch across at best. Just imagine the monsters I will be able to discover if I ever get a true macro lens.

Much to do in May

Wow! May has been one heckuva busy month.It has really been the last few weeks that have been going at a super revved up pace.

It all started On May 21. That was both Joseph's birthday and graduation from 5th Grade. I no longer have children in elementary school. That thought certainly does not make the knees and other joints feel any better. Fortunately, I'm not suffering too much...since the brain went a long time ago. The picture above is Joseph with the Rivercrest Elementary principal, Portia Tate. If there is ever a person who deserves teacher of the decade, it is Mrs. Tate. She has been a constant solid rock through many ups and downs during Joseph's schooling.

That's Joseph at Stevi B's pizza, getting ready to blow out his candles. A bunch of family got together to stuff our faces with pizza and cake, and help Joseph celebrate his birthday. Special Warning! Do not walk up and give a big smile to some poor little kid after eating a cake with blue icing. Blue teeth and big smiles do not provide a very comforting feeling to small children. It does provide a great laugh for the rest of the birthday party, though.

The next big event was this past Saturday, May 29. For the past 27 years, thousands of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts from the Memphis area have gathered on the Saturday prior to Memorial Day to place American Flags at the foot of each grave at the Memphis National Cemetery.

This tradition started in Memphis, and has now spread to 75 other National Cemeteries. The Memphis National Cemetery was established during the Civil War and is home to the second largest number of unknown soldiers in the US. Memphis National Cemetery is also the burial place for the victims of one of the worst maritime disasters in US history, the explosion of the USS Sultana in 1865.

Over 40,000 graves are decorated in about 30 minutes by this massive wave of scouts and family members. Once the entire cemetery is decorated, it is a truly magnificent site. If you have a National Cemetery close by that holds one of these events, I highly encourage you to go participate one year. It is definitely a life changing experience.

On Sunday, we picked up one of Joseph's friends and the whole family went to the Memphis Zoo. We have a membership to this zoo, and during the spring, summer, and fall, we definitely get our money's worth. By the late 80s the Memphis Zoo was very forgettable. Over the past couple of decades millions of dollars have been pumped into improvements, and now it consistently ranks as one of the top zoos in the country. It is one of the few to be honored with a Panda exhibit.

Let's be clear about one thing. While I have often been accused of having the manners of an ape, the picture above is not me. It does look like this fellow has been receiving lessons in transcendental meditation.

This still is not me. However, I wouldn't have minded an invitation to this critter's swim party. It was a tad bit warm that day.

One of the newest exhibits at the Memphis Zoo, is the Birds & The Bees. This exhibit just reopened for the summer, and gives people a chance to feed and interact with a plethora of parakeets. Even with food, it takes a special person to attract these birds. Some people couldn't get one to land, even with a full stick of food.

This picture of the two blue lovebirds is NOT the picture I intended to take. It is just one of those moments that turned out much better than what I could have planned.

It is hot already in Memphis. Thankfully, our Old Faithful is much more refreshing than the real one. Momma wasn't too happy about having a wet little boy though. I tried to stop him...Honestly! I did!...sorta...kinda.

 I had to throw this one in. What can I say? I am an Eagle Scout, and a member of the Eagle Patrol in Wood Badge. I like Eagles.

My busy May finally started to wind down. I'm sure you're really hoping this blog post is about to wind down as well. I just thought you might like to see an example of the terrible suffering I had to endure on Monday. Man! Those were good. I might just have to end this post and go downstairs and suffer some more.

Finally! Some of you might be wondering what I look like. You've seen pictures of my family, but not me. Here I am. The camera really makes my eyes look big, though.

;-)

Flowers & strings and other things (Ha! I made an utterly useless rhyme!)

It's actually been a couple weeks since the flood. There was a lot of damage in Shelby County, but we certainly faired better than Nashville in the human suffering category. My heart and prayers go out to all the residents of Davidson County.

We were worried about damage to our AC units. Fortunately, both units avoided getting any circuitry wet, and survived the flood with flying colors. Woohoo!!

There's my lovely lady as she poses with her Mother's Day bouquet. I think she liked it. You look at that face and tell me. I know if Frances Reese sees this picture she'll probably pick up her Zimmer frame (that's fancy English speak for a walker.) and whack me upside the shin for not sending her a bouquet of purple flowers.

I wanted to try out the Sports setting on the new camera. None of my previous digital cameras would have been fast enough to catch that Yo-Yo in mid-flight. The gentleman in the picture is my son, Yo-Yo Joe. The boy collects Yo-Yo's like Imelda Marcos collects shoes. Unfortunately, this boy also likes to take things apart and try to figure out their mechanics. That means he really has the world's largest collection of nonworking Yo-Yo's with a few operational ones thrown in. Of course, the ones that no longer work are the ones people spent $10 and $15 dollars on, while the one above is a Duncan that only cost a couple of bucks. Go figure!

Looking at the picture above, you might be asking yourself, "Self! Why is that crazy man purposely growing grass in a flower box!?!" Self would answer, "I don't know. Why don't you ask him?"

It's not grass. Joseph and I were inspired by Aunt Marcia and Uncle Jim (Those are the two people we go to visit when we want to get away from the world!) to plant garlic. We visited them last summer. They had fresh garlic from their own garden available for salads everyday. Joseph could not get enough of the stuff. In fact, he still just pops a clove of fresh garlic in his mouth any chance he gets. (He won't have to worry about attracting vampires. Girls might be a challenge though.) Aunt Marcia sent Joseph a few different varieties of Garlic from her 2008/2009 garden. We ate a clove or two from each head, and planted the rest. What you see above is the current state of those cloves of garlic we planted. We also planted some garlic bought from the grocery store. Between those and what Aunt Marcia gave Joseph we planted 26 cloves. Last count, we had about 20 plants. All the garlic Aunt Marcia sent is looking very healthy (as can be seen above). The grocery store garlic is having the difficulties. I could be the growth inhibitor put on them to prevent sprouting in the store...Or, it could be that Boots thinks that corner of the garlic bed is a frigging litter box. Oh well! 20 of 26 is still quite the success for a first time effort. Joseph and I are already looking forward to expanding next year's crop. I don't think we'll quite try the 600 cloves Aunt Marcia and Uncle Jim planted though. Who knows, though...

More garlic planting pictures at: Garlic Adventure 2009-2010

Cedar Apple Rust...hmm!

I finally found out what that orange muppet head thingy was we found last weekend.

It is called Cedar Apple Rust. It is a fungus that attacks fir trees. The muppet is actually a gall form of the fungus.Wow! You learn something new every day. Yesterday, we noticed several spruce trees with these suckers on them.

The Lord said to Noah, "There's gonna be a floody floody..."

I rechecked the forecast. There is no mention of a special 40 day outlook, and the National Weather Service still isn't telling everybody that if they don't have an ark they're screwed. I was starting to wonder though. We woke up this morning to Grandma calling and telling us to turn the air conditioning units off immediately. Geez! I wonder why?

Okay! Okay! Maybe...just maybe, she had a valid request. Yep, Folks! It started looking like God really wanted to see if our Ark floats. I just hope we used the right type of wood. Anybody know what Gopher wood is? I really don't think gophers had anything to do with the trees that became this house. Oh well, maybe God won't be too picky.

That's right, Folks. We have a beautiful house on lakefront property. You are looking at the spectacular Lake Loosahatchie, from our back deck.

You can go fishing...or watch the world float by, without ever leaving the comfort of your home.

As you can see by the pictures above, the water started to wrap around the front of the house. The last major flood in this area was in 1987. All of those stories will now be replaced by the Great Flood of 2010. This one makes '87 almost seem like a little mud puddle. I am definitely counting my blessings. It looks like we will only have to suffer the lack of air conditioning tonight. Sadly, elsewhere in the county the loss of property and life were much higher.

On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened...

...Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.

I know that is getting pretty dramatic, but I just couldn't miss the chance. Whew! We thought last weekend was bad. Since about 4am, our area has been under numerous flash flood warnings, river flood warnings, four tornado warnings, and a tornado watch through the rest of the day. The good news (Ha!) is that we are supposed to be getting this through tomorrow. I'm glad God made a promise to Noah. Otherwise, I'd be searching long and hard for a 40 day forecast.

Our property is over 4.5 acres, and a long narrow strip. We have a pond at the back of the property, which is probably a quarter mile back. About half a mile from the back of the property is the Loosahatchie river. This ought to give you some indication of the flooding when you consider the above pictures are taken with a 200mm lens from my back porch.

This picture shows the water reaching the pond. The treeline on the left of the picture is the front of our pond. You can see in the center, the water from the river mixing with the pond.

Here are a couple of pictures taken with my iPhone of a creek that isn't usually there. I think we have a ways to go to match Aunt Marcia's creek and flooding though.

The weather has made me postpone an Arrow of Light and Tiger Cub ceremony for my Cub Scouts. I hate it, as I know there is a good chance they would be perfectly safe. However, I just couldn't take the risk. I would much rather look back at it and ask why I cancelled it, than have to look back and ask why I didn't.

Just so you won't think all is doom and gloom. Joseph still managed to have a little fun.

Softly falls the light of day as our campfire fades away...

Don't worry, folks. I'm not going to be blogging every single day. After this initial setup, it'll probably be once a week at the most. Otherwise, somebody might start thinking I have too much time on my hands. I certainly wouldn't want anyone thinking that...even if it is true.

The folks who rent the pasture across the street lit a fire...and then promptly left. I wasn't too happy about that. I don't care if it was raining a little. You just don't leave an uncontained fire unattended. The picture above isn't the best, but I thought it was pretty good for shooting what was probably easily between 75 and 100 yards away. Despite the circumstances, it was kinda nice to sit out on the front porch and enjoy a pretty campfire...until the howling started. I'm not sure if it was neighborhood dogs or the local coyotes. Either way, the lovely wife decided it was time to go in. I'm not sure why, but she just doesn't seem fond of the idea of meeting a coyote face to face. Go figure!

Speaking of my lovely wife, here she is. This, folks is Neva Jane. She captured my heart, and threw away the key, over eighteen years ago. Poor thing has been regretting it ever since. I'm sure I've driven her plum crazy. I'm going to sign off for now. I'll be taking bets on if she is sprawled out on the love seat sawing logs. You'd think our firewood rack would be overflowing, as much sawing as she does. I love you, Dear.