Monday musings -- could be disturbing to some

Found in the garden.

A 1919 Lincoln wheat penny. Sorry for the quality of the pictures. It was completely blue when I found it outdoors, and I only cleaned it up enough to figure out what it was. The garden is where the old chicken coop used to be.

Middle boy is cleaning out the outbuilding. He wants to fix it up for a shop or something. Most of the hay that was in there (don't know why it was there) had to be tossed because of too much broken glass and other stuff. But some we were able to put out in the garden. I was raking it out, and found this in it.

Hubby of course was curious and started an internet search. He decided it most resembles the skull of a Collared Peccary.
Strange thing to find, as we have never seen them around here, to my knowledge.

It got up to almost 80 today!

Have a blessed week all. ♥

Has it really been two years?

Since we retired I mean. It really doesn't feel like it. But I just realized today that it has been.

This is not what you want to see when you look out the kitchen window while making breakfast.



When I first looked out the window, there were just a couple. I thought they were fighting over territory. When I looked out the window again, this is what I saw. I thought it was the smell of the bacon drawing them; but I made the video and showed hubby. He immediately got up to look and said they were swarming.

I immediately asked him if they were killer bees. :-|

But he said no, they were swarming, as in they thought they had found a new nesting place! We went through two cans of wasp spray real quick. It made a bit of a dent. After breakfast we went in town and got three more cans of spray. (We found another can of wasp spray buried under several cans of Stuff It.) The first two cans, I think, helped to break the... pheromone trail? that was telling the bees where the new hive would be.

Anyway, I can definitely recommend Black Flag Wasp spray, however it is named. When hubby took that out to spray the bees, he said it killed them immediately. (Yes, I know bees are necessary, but not when they have decided your house is to be their new hive!)

There is was a circular hole on the outside wall of the kitchen. Now this hole, I am pretty sure, has been there for decades. I'm sure it was there when we were here in 1994. I know it has been there since we started coming down in 2008. Anyway, it has now been sealed off with Stuff It. Spray in foam insulation.

I should mention that the noise you hear is actually the exhaust fan, not really the bees...

Hubby said the few bees remaining did not bother him when he was mowing. It will still be a few days before I am brave enough to use the utility room door to go out and hang laundry.

I think there was going to be more, but I've forgotten what it was, so. Oh! I know. Hubby gets his first back procedure next Thursday. They will shoot cortisone into his spine. It should, hopefully, keep him pain free for about three months and then he will have to have the procedure again.
There. I think that is all. Ha.

Take care all and God bless. ♥

P.S. I am having a terrible time trying to post the video. If you don't see it here, maybe I can get it to google +.

So hubby told me today

That one of the kids that came to the reunion had problems in the bathroom because he didn't know how to use a bar of soap.
You read that right.
He didn't know how to use a bar of soap. He's ten.

His mother told us he only uses soap in a squirt bottle, implying that we were remiss by not having any.

Hah!

He should know how to use a bar of soap as far as I'm concerned.

Hubby thinks there is a deer in the neighborhood.

Any of you seen anything like this before?



This is one of the pecan trees we planted a couple years ago. We are hoping it will survive. The damage is pretty bad.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

What we found today

While clearing a tree from the 'pig pen'.
There's tons of junk out in that area. We've taken several thousand pounds to the recycle.
But these are unusual keepers.





Cast iron sash weights.

Two 8 pound and one 6 pound weight.

Not sure why the pictures are upside down. I flipped them, but they're still upside down. Curious, isn't it?

Have a blessed week! ♥

Why is the theme song to Captain Kangaroo in my head?

Anyway, I wanted to talk more about plants.

We have this in the pasture growing around a fence post.

To see it bigger, go here: Pic 1 Or this one?

Hubby says it's a holly. Note that this picture was taken on our trip in December. December 27th. I don't think I've ever seen red berries on it.

However, there are a lot of... bush trees lining the front yard fence. Well, the part of it that passes the two main front oak trees.

They had plenty of berries.

To see it bigger, but not a lot clearer, click here: Pic 2 Or maybe this one will work?

They make me think of cedar waxwings, though I don't believe I've ever seen any on the farm.

This bush by the house also had red berries.

Again, you can see it bigger, here: Pic 3 Another possibility for this one, too.

Just curious, don't you think?

Is anyone else having trouble with the links? I've tried changing them to see if that works...

---

And another update. The bush by the house has been identified! Thanks to a photo posted by Janie, over at Southern Lagniappe, I have been able to identify the bush, and berries, as a Nandina. For reference, here is some web info; and here is a link to an earlier photo I took in May of 2010, showing the flowers that match the internet link. Never heard of it, but glad to have another mystery identified. :)

One more post

Before the end of the year.
Thought I should talk just a little about our trip to the farm again.
Just a short post.
One day when my hubby was out mowing, he saw a snowy owl! Now this is not my picture, I borrowed it from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology .

And while they do not say it on their web site, I did a google search while we were headed in town and found an article that said the owls do sometimes come as far south as Louisiana and Georgia (so we didn't call any local bird groups about our sighting. Don't want people coming around when we're not there, after all).
I was in the house doing something or other so I didn't see it, and it happened so quick he didn't take a picture with his phone.
It flew out of the old barn when he was mowing, he said, so we definitely won't be tearing down that barn until we know for sure that the owl isn't coming around any more.
I know they are bad if you have animals, but all we have right now are mice and rats and they are more than welcome to them. ;-)

The other thing is that more than a few times, sometimes at night and sometimes in the early morning, in addition to the trains passing in the distance; we hear this really low "hoo-h'HOO--hoo-hoo."
I used the Cornell site to identify the sound. A Great Horned Owl.

This picture is also theirs, as we have yet to actually see the owls; I think it's neat. Might not think so when we have chickens, but right now, I think it's neat.
I have seen a fox around, too, so if an owl decides to eat a baby fox, I'd probably be okay with that, too. Don't know which might be worse when we have chickens. The fox or the owl.
I think we'll need a couple of roosters....

If I don't get on again to post before the New Year, I hope you all have a safe New Year's Eve; and may God Bless you all with a healthy and prosperous New Year. ♥

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

I take Metoprolol for my blood pressure and it gives me really vivid dreams. I often wake more tired than when I went to bed.
Anyway, hubby and I worked at a place that made pictures by hand. Can't say as they were paintings, we would simply brush our hand over the canvas and the picture would appear. Then we delivered them. At one point we realized that by using some *thing* that I never saw, we could deliver them around the world and suddenly we were delivering them back in time too. (Yes, dreams don't make sense. ;)  )
At some point, Gil Grissom appeared and tossed an empty cracker box and changed history. You'd think he'd know better, haha.

But I woke up then, thinking about my strange dream, and suddenly The Kingston Trio, my first favorite music, was in my head singing the song which is the title of my post.
I always wanted to learn the 5 string banjo. I loved their banjo playing, and their songs.
Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds and Dave Guard. Great music and a great group.
I understand Johnny Cash did a really haunting version of the song on his final album American IV. I really need to get that, I think, as the only song I can recall them playing on the radio from that album, is Hurt.

But here are the words to the song, since I can't find the music online.


Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream by Ed McCurdy

Last night I had the strangest dream
I’d ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war

I dreamed I saw a mighty room
The room was filled with men
And the paper they were signing said
They’d never fight again

And when the papers were all signed
And a million copies made
They all joined hands and bowed their heads
And grateful prayers were prayed

And the people in the streets below
Were dancing ’round and ’round
While swords and guns and uniforms
Were scattered on the ground

Last night I had the strangest dream
I’d never dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.