Co-Winky-Dink

I get a email today with an alert of a special event! Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream was having a Free Cone Day to celebrate their 30th birthday. Knowing that I was a least 75 miles away from the closest Ben & Jerry's, I clicked on the Tennessee link to see the stores there.

400 Main Street ~ Franklin, TN

That's got to be just down the street from Sherry's office.

So, I dial the number...

"______ Mortgage. This is Stephanie, may I help you?"

Me - "May I speak with Sherry?"

Stephanie - "May I tell her who's calling?"

Me - "This is her brother."

Stephanie - "Oh, OK. Hold, please."

Holding....

Stephanie - "She has stepped out of the office at the moment."

Me - "OK, You can actually pass a message to her. Would you mind telling her that Ben & Jerry's is having Free Cone Day?"

*Sound of Jaw Dropping*

Stephanie - "Huh, that is actually where she has gone!!!"

Me -

Really I shouldn't be surprised... Sherry and I often think alike. Saying something to the other and hearing the reply, "That's what I think also."

A three hundred and fifty mile OBMB - One Big Mushy Brain!!!

Metro Monday

Metro gets his Boat Ride!!!

"Dinner's Ready!!!"

When the clock strikes twelve, the dinner bell would ring them all in for dinner. In the traditional south, the noon time meal is dinner - not lunch.

And you have supper in the evening, not dinner.

The old bell has stood in the same spot as long as any one can remember. When Mama married Daddy (75 years ago - May 20, 1933), the old bell was old even then. The children, as they grew up in the late thirties and forties, were warned not to pull on the rope for fear that the bell pole would break and fall. And yet, it still stands proudly on the south side of the house. Flanked by Pecan and Dogwoods, its silence speaks volumes. The witness the old bell could toil out if it had voice. The history of the farm recorded in the rusty patina.

Metro Monday

A Romp in the Grass!

Metro loves the notion of going... It does not matter if he walks or rides on the golf cart or in one of our vehicles, he can not wait to GO.

For things have got to be better, other than where he is at the moment. And I believe he would follow or ride with us, no matter how long the journey.




A Ride in the Boat?


With all the construction going on at the fish pond, things have become even more adventurous for Metro. Each new thing gathers his attention, as he tries to understand their meaning. When I was decking the dock over the weekend, he would run to the edge of the most recently positioned board and peer into the water. As if to say, "Wow, this is neat! I'm walking over the water!!!"

Today, Boo launched the small boat that has been unused for years and tied it to the small tree beside the cabin. Metro doesn't know what to think of this strange craft.

Metro Monday

"I got them all cut!!!"



Metro was needing a bath every time we went to the pond to work on the Pond Cabin. He would play around the muddy banks, trying to see the fish as they swim along the edge. Even walking in the grass was soiling his hair with bits of dried grass and other debris. So a summer hair cut was in order.

Happy "Hatch" Day

We checked on the four Killdeer eggs yesterday, all was well!

And today:

The adult birds incubate the eggs for 24 to 26 days before they are ready to hatch (our took 25 days). A chick takes 18 to 36 hours to break out of the shell, and the parents will removed every piece from the vicinity of the nest within shorty after hatching.

When the young are first hatched, they are completely covered in thick down and resemble their parents, except that they have only one band, not two, across the chest. At first this down is wet, but it dries within an hour or so, and the young birds look like fluffy balls with rather long legs. Unlike the young of songbirds, shorebird young leave the nest as soon as their down has dried, they are able to feed themselves within a day, running about quickly, jabbing at the ground for small insects. The downy plumage is lost rapidly as they grow, and by midsummer they are almost indistinguishable from adults. However, head patterns are less distinct, and all browns are paler.

The adults do not have to feed the young. However, they do watch them constantly and do a thorough job of brooding, guarding against enemies, and warning of danger. At the first sign of danger, the parent will give an alarm note that alerts the chicks to freeze. The young will squat motionless until the parent gives an all-clear signal. Soft calls will bring the chicks running to nestle under the parent's warm feathers for a short nap or for the night. For the first few days, the chicks are brooded often to protect them from the sun or from the cold and wet. The parents cease to brood them at all after about 24 days and after 40 days the young birds are ready to fly.

WiFi at the Surgery Center

As I post this, Sarah is having the C4 and C5 fused and the the spurs around those neck vertebrates removed.

Pine Trees

From an email we received last March:

Pine trees know when it's Easter...
Begin watching in the tops of the trees about two weeks before Easter. Usually about the first week of April, depending on the weather and the spring growth as to when the little yellow shoots will begin to sprout and then branch off and form a cross as shown in the photo.

When Easter Sunday arrives you should be able to see the little crosses on top of the pine trees.

As literally millions have seen the little crosses on top of the Pine Trees about 2 weeks before Easter....being another witness of HIS AMAZING GRACE to the human race!

Pass this on to your little children and teach them that the Pine Trees know when it's Easter!

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me. JOHN 12:32

Well, most years!!!

About two-thirds of the time with phases of the moon and the first day of spring, we celebrate Easter in April. We watched our pine trees all last spring for the new growth to form the little crosses. But in vain. This year we were fixing dinner on the last day of March - something caught my eye outside the kitchen window...

Metro Monday

Puppy in the sunshine.

"Mommie... Daddy has got the camera again."

"He's going to do another Metro Monday post with these, isn't he?"

"Phfffffft...."

"I need a nap!!!"

Prooomph!!!

Well, maybe they do bloom!!!

Below are photos of the Cedar-Apple Rust galls that have spewed their spores. They always bloom after a rain, which we had yesterday.

Photo of the gall pre-prooomphing can be seen in last Sunday's post .