Leftovers

I really wasn't looking for a project today but the weather was just so beautiful I kind of just had to be out doing something.  January 12th and it's 73 degrees!  We'll probably have snow and an ice storm to rival January of 2011 next week. 

Last spring I put in 5 little knockout roses off the grass in the backyard.  I watered them and fertilized them and talked to them and they just tried and tried to grow.  Everytime there was an open flower the thing disappeared by next day.  New stem growth was gone as well.  I figured deer which come through the yard from time to time so I sprayed garlic and dropped some mothballs and for a while it looked like the little suckers would have a chance.  Last week while wandering around I noticed that again the new stem growth was all gone.  I figured I could fence them or put some chicken wire over them or something but all the ideas I was coming up with, or reading about, seemed kind of stupid.  Today I decided to get them out of the ground and into pots to at least stop them from being dinner.  While digging them out I noticed a nice little pile of animal poop inside the rock circle that surrounds one of the plants.  It was obvious that something was just sitting there eating and pooping and having a wonderful time.  I finished potting the plants and then did some web searching to see just what kind of poop it is.  Rabbit poop!  Stinkin' rabbit poop!  Potting them and putting them out behind the garage wasn't going to cut it because the rabbits just sit across the driveway and now I was moving the food closer.  I had to get them off the ground and that was project #2 for the day... a potted plant bench or whatever it should be called.  I had some leftover wood that I had already stained and then didn't use so I cut it up and made the bench.  I think it turned out rather nice :)

Ta da!  My nice new potted plant holding bench.

  

And from another angle, just so it's simplistic beauty can be appreciated.

And here it is in use.  I'm rather happy with it and considering I didn't have to go out to get any supplies and it only took a few hours to do, it's all the better :)

First Finds of 2013

Yesterday I went out geocaching with the specific intent of finding a couple of items known as 'trackables' in the geocaching world that I could move over to NC and put into the cache just hidden by my granddaughter.  I pulled that off without a lot of trouble at the first cache I went to and then headed out to a new park to wander in the boonies for a while to track down a couple more.  It's was a very nice location and one I've not been to before or even knew existed actually.  This geocaching is certainly getting me to identify a lot of interesting places to visit!  The place I went to was the Clinton Nature Preserve and it was very nice, and big.  Some photos and info about the place at:

http://www.celebratedouglascounty.com/view/departments/view_dept/&cdept=211&department=Clinton%20Nature%20Preserve

The park was empty on a 'winter' week day, of course, quite pretty and very quiet.  I took off and found the first cache pretty directly.  The coordinates for the second one, starting where I now was, had me off the trails and pretty much blazing a trail where none existed.  It was kind of fun and I came across some rock formations and the like that always intrigue me.  I'm always wondering just how these rocks came to be where they are.  Such as this one:

This thing is big, I'd say about 7 feet tall.  I found this particularly interesting because of the tree next to it.  The tree had to have started growing, and been pretty good size and strong, before this rock broke apart else the smaller piece would have fallen flat to the ground.  That means it broke apart not that long ago... much less than the age of the tree -- and then I just stood there wondering when and why it broke apart.  Wacky perhaps, but that's what I think about when I see things like this.   A long time ago, fall of 1970 I believe, I took a course in geology.  I remember that the course was most interesting and I enjoyed it but I can't remember anything I learned taking it.  Go figure.  Perhaps taking another geology class is in order so I can understand the things I am seeing.

These rocks are surrounding where the cache was. Again, I find it interesting that they're where they are in the first place!  I was walking down a pretty good hill to get to this location but it wasn't as though there was a massive mountain higher up where these would have come from.

 

Lastly, the walk took me across this stone 'face' or whatever the official description of something like this is.  This might have been the biggest section of this type of terrain I've ever seen although there is a smaller, although large, version of it walking out my front door and crossing the driveway.  It was obvious that water cascades over this from rain and such and I'm very glad I didn't have to walk on it when it was wet.  Thank God for small favors and another day of wandering in places I've never been to before :)

Late Year Happenings

It has definitely been a while since I put some news on this page so here's a bit of what has been going on as 2012 draws to a close.

My son David and his family -- Samantha, Hannah, and Riley -- have relocated back to the Fayetteville, NC area after spending about 10 months up in the Chicago area.  I went over to help them unload the truck and it was certainly good to see them all.  It's not a quick drive over but it's certainly shorter than driving up to Chicago.  They've gotten themselves a nice rental house as they all begin their own version of 'This Stage in Life' with David starting a new job and all of them renewing NC friendships and enjoying the closeness of family members.  I got over there before David arrived with the truck and was able to provide a few things one needs immediately.  David and I got to unloading some things from the truck and Samantha and the girls arrived perhaps an hour or two later.  The next day is was serious unloading and unpacking and Samantha's dad and friend came over to help out.  It all went well and in a short while the truck was empty and the garage and house was full of boxes.  I spent the rest of the day and evening with them and then left them alone the following day for what was their first evening alone and together in their own place in quite a while.

For Christmas I headed back over to NC to spend the holiday there.  On the way I decided to do a bit of state park geocaching at a couple of sites along the way.  It's the first time I've been out in a while and it was a beautiful day weather-wise.  I got the caches at a historical site and picked up two state park caches... not bad.  No bears but I did encounter a few snakes sunning themselves on a large rock right where I figured the cache to be.  I was very surprised to see them... warm weather must have brought them out.  They were so lethargic it took me a while to get them to move but after a bit of beating on the rock with a stick they sloooooooooooooowly moved away.  As I was beating on the rock my stick broke and when I looked down to where the piece landed I noticed another snake not far from where my foot was.  As these were all copperheads I was glad they weren't very active.  After this little diversion the caches were found without event.

Christmas Eve was spent at Samantha's mom's house which was decorated beautifully and she cooked up a fantastic meal with enough leftovers to provide great eating for days afterwards.  It's the first time I'd seen Sam's mom in a number of years.  Little Riley wasn't herself and later during the night the reason presented itself... she was running a temperature pushing 105.  Christmas morning was a lot of fun for everyone made better by Samantha's dad coming over to join in.  Riley woke up feeling a little better but still running a good fever which, happily, went down later in the day.  Plenty of toys to play with and David proved himself to be the better remote-controlled helicopter pilot between the two of us.  Samantha had the same idea for him so he's got two of them now!  I'll practice more with the one Santa brought to me for being good.  David grilled a pork roast and Samantha cooked up some wonderful side dishes for a great dinner.  Afterwards we just sat and talked over coffee and a bit of warming liquid.  It was a very, very nice evening.  The following morning David was back at work and I headed back to GA. 

That's it... the latest happenings.  2012 has been a year that saw great changes for just about everyone in the family and the year is ending with brighter happenings and good prospects for a very good coming year!