Thanksgiving Holiday

I am taking a break from here due to being too busy with the holiday preperations I have to do. I will be back after the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Photos: White Tail Neighbors

Photos: White Tail Neighbors: White Tail Neighbors , a set on Flickr.

Photos: Season Of Fall

Photos: Season Of Fall: Season Of Fall , a set on Flickr.     

Took the granddaughters to the park today. There is a walking trail there which is where I took most of the pictures in this set. Others were taken in my yard and around the country neighborhood. Hope you enjoy them. :)
My granddaughter thought this drainage pipe was a skunk from where we were standing. I zoomed in on it to find out, lol.

  

Brenda

I didn't have many friends, but one of my very best friends was Brenda. We became best friends after my step dad sold the swap shop/coffee shop/auction barn. We moved into town to a house that my step dad owned and had been renting out. Brenda lived right across the street. Although we were in the same grade in school and knew each other we hadn't been friends, that changed when I moved to town. One summer Brenda was allowed to go camping and fishing with us. We went to Cassville, Wisconsin for 3 weeks. My step brother and his family and my brother also went along. Here is a picture of Brenda, my step brother's 2 boys, and me.

 

 

 

Brenda and I slept in sleeping bags on top of lounge chairs inside of a screened in patio tent. We had a lot of fun and I wasn't bored at all. Here is another picture that was taken on that trip. It is a picture of me holding up a catfish that my step brother's son, Dean had caught.

 

 

In case you are wondering, yes those are the flat bottom boats that we used to go fishing in...little things aren't they...especially on the Mississippi River!!

 

 

Brenda and I did everything together until something happened and all of a sudden we didn't talk to each other. Brenda got mad at me for something that some other girl had told her that wasn't even true. This was very hard on me. Living across the street from her even made it harder. I don't know how I made it thru this time of my life. Then just as sudden as it started it was over. Brenda apoligized to me and we once again became best friends. We stayed friends even after I had to move when my mom and step dad got a divorce. However, our friendship wasn't as close as it had been from then on. Strange how things like that work....

Happy Halloween

My daughter and son in law dressed up to go to work last night for Halloween. A full fledged werewolf and one that is just changing into a werewolf.

 

 

 

 

Tonight they dressed to take my granddaughters out to trick or treat. Sammy Jo dressed as a flapper and Christina as a gangster. Tabitha dressed as a vampiress and Frank as a vampire.

 



Photos: More Breakfast Companions

Photos: More Breakfast Companions: My breakfast companion returned this morning and brought a few friends.     

Ramblings About Childhood Loneliness

Living at the edge of town up above our swap shop and coffee shop, it was lonely for the most part. There were no neighbors, so no children to play with. I had to keep myself entertained. We had a huge gravel parking lot out front but not much grass. There was a narrow strip of grass beside the auction barn. The railroad tracks were right behind us. From my bedroom window I could look out and almost touch the trains as they went by. I had seen many a hobo standing in the open doors of the railroad cars as they went by. I would play on the railroad tracks. This was one of my favorite things to do actually. I would walk on the track putting one foot in front of the other, seeing how long I could stay on the track without falling off. One day I was walking on the tracks and I must have been really deep in my daydreaming, because a train had snuck up behind me and the engineer laid on the train whistle. I jumped straight up in the air and much to my surprise there was this giant train right behind me. I could see the engineer laughing so hard at me. I do not know how this giant train got so close to me without me hearing or feeling it on the track. I was very deep into my daydreams I guess.  Between our buildings and the railroad tracks there was another narrow stretch of grass. Back there is where we planted our garden.  I loved to read.  I read a lot of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys books. Once I started reading I couldn't put the book down. There were times that I read 5 books a day. One day I was in my bedroom laying on my bed reading and my mom asked me to watch the coffeepot she had on the stove. I got so involved in my book I forgot about it and all the water boiled out of it and burned it up. Yup I was in trouble. We had a tree in front of the auction barn that I would climb up and sit in sometimes and read. Here is a picture of the tree, my mom and sister sitting in front of it. It had a nice sitting place not too high off the ground.

 

 

 

I had a bicycle that I would ride in the gravel parking lot. I loved to watch shows that had spies and private detectives in them. I would ride my bicycle around and make up games where I would pretend that I was a spy or a private detective on a big case. In the narrow grassy strip next to the auction barn there was an old picnic table that the top was broken off of. I would jump from bench to bench saying little rhymes, to pass the time. That ended the day I went to jump and missed the other bench and landed on the metal bar that had once been attached to the top. It ripped thru my right leg and blood was everywhere. I ran to my mom and she wanted to take me for stitches because she said it looked deep. I was such a wimp that just the thought of stitches put me in a panic. I begged my mom not to take me for stitches. I begged her to just put some butterfly bandages on it. She didn't want to but she finally gave in and used the butterfly bandages, it took 4 of them. I did heal, but I ended up with a nasty looking scar. I was once a very lucky girl. The front door of our coffee shop was a door that had glass window up top and was wooden at the bottom. Not sure what had happened to the door, but for a while it wouldn't latch and you were able to just push it open from the outside. I got into the habit of doing this without turning the door handle. One day while I was playing outside I went running into the coffee shop and instead of the door opening when I pushed on it, my hands and arms went thru the glass. My step dad had fixed the latch and I didn't know. The glass went everywhere and I scared all the customers and my mom to death. I ended up with some very small scratches, not big enough to call a cut. Like I said I was very lucky...even more so then this, but that story is for another blog some day....

 



Now That's Luck!!

One year while out in our fishing boat on the Wolf River in Fremont Wisconsin, my step dad got a hold of a fish that he just couldn't handle. This fish or whatever it was took the bait on my step dad's hook and ran with it. My step dad who was standing up at the time almost fell out of the boat. He caught his self but the boat was rocking badly and he lost his grip on his fishing rod. I thought we were gonna tip over. The boat settled down and my step dad grabbed for his fishing rod but he was too late it went over the side. He grabbed one of the fishing nets we had and tried to scoop the fishing rod but it didn't work and the fishing rod went under..Found a picture online of a fishing net like what he was using.

 

 

He kept trying for a few more minutes but soon realized it was hopeless, his fishing rod was gone. It had sunk and who knew how far the attached fish had taken it. My step dad was not a happy camper for this fishing rod had been his favorite one. The following year we went back like always. There we were sitting in the fishing boat once again. My mom had made a joke about my step dad losing his fishing rod the year before and to make sure he didn't lose another one. All of a sudden my step dad got a bite on his line and he was saying "Oh boy this must be a big one!". He pulled and reeled and pulled some more. He had changed his mind about it being a fish and was mumbling about it being a tree branch. He was not a happy camper. Finally, he lifted it up out of the water. Much to our surprise, it wasn't a fish or a tree branch. It was the fishing rod he had lost the year before, now covered with river slime! We couldn't believe our eyes! What a fine catch it was!! The best surprise of all was that it still worked!! Made my step dad's day, week, month, year!! It gave him the bragging rights of the best catch ever, lol



Breakfast Companion

Sitting at breakfast table this morning and seen her in the backyard by the woods.

 

 



Help!!! What is It??

Camping and fishing can be boring for a young girl. I had many days when we would go camping and fishing where I was bored to death! I remember one such day, I was 12 years old, we were in Cassville, Wisconsin on the Mississippi River. My step dad had went out fishing in the boat and my mom I had stayed at the campground. I was bored, there wasn't any children around to play with. So I took my fishing pole down to the boat dock. I didn't have any bait for my hook but like I said I was bored. I stood on the boat dock and casted my rod into the river and then I would slowly reel it in, then repeat. I don't know how long it was that I stood there on the boat dock throwing and reeling, but it was for a while. All of a sudden my line caught a snag, as they say. This is what I thought anyway. I tried to get it to come loose but couldn't. I was getting madder and madder. Finally, I pulled with all the might I had and I could feel it loosen a little. So I started reeling it in and it was coming, although it felt like I had a tree limb attached. Then BAM! my line started running out. I had a fish on my line. I thought..how? I had empty hook...I planted my feet firmly and started pulling my rod and reeling the line in. My little arms were getting so tired but I kept it up until I finally could see a fish flopping in the water. I was able to pull it up on the boat dock. It was the biggest fish I had ever seen. I had no clue what kind of fish it even was. It looked mean and it wouldn't stop flopping around. I didn't know how to take a fish off my line. I took off walking with fishing pole in tow with the fish still attached and headed towards our campsite. I passed other campers/fishermen on the way and they were all telling me what a fine catch I had. When I got within yelling distance of our campsite I did just that. I started yelling for my mom. She came running, thinking that I was hurt. She sees the fish flopping all over the place. "Where did you get that?" she asked. I told her the story and I asked her, "What is this thing?" My mom said that she thought it was a northern pike. She had me help her put it in a bucket of water because she didn't want to try and take the hook out, so she just cut the line. When my step dad came in from fishing he told us that it was indeed a northern pike. he wanted to know how I caught it and when I told him he said UNBELIEVABLE! I wish I had a picture of the fish I caught but pictures were a rare thing for me in those days. I did however find this picture of a northern pike online.

 



All Aboard!!

A few times during the summer months, my mom had sent my sister and I to visit our aunts in Indianapolis, Indiana. This happened before my mom married my step dad, I was about 7 years old. The Greyhound bus had a bus stop in my hometown. We would get on the bus there and ride it to Indianapolis, Indiana. Our aunts would pick us up at the bus station upon arrival. Along the way the bus would stop for lunch and a bathroom break. Once when we walked back outside to board our bus, there was 3 Greyhound buses parked, nose to end. My sister starts to get on the wrong bus. I had seen something about our bus that told me that the bus my sister was getting on wasn't the right bus. I yelled and told her it was the wrong bus. My sister being the stubborn person she is wouldn't listen to me. She dragged me on to the wrong bus. I being the stubborn person I am planted my feet and started pulling her off the bus, screaming the whole time that it was the wrong bus!! She just wouldn't believe me and kept pulling me back. Finally I yelled if you don't believe me then ask the bus driver. Did I tell you how stubborn my sister is?? She wouldn't ask, but me being oh so stubborn myself did ask. I yelled hey is this bus going to Indianapolis, Indiana? The bus driver said no it's not. Finally my sister gets it into her head that we are on the wrong bus and we get off and run to the bus that I kept telling her was ours...Of course this time she asked the bus driver if it was going to Indianapolis, Indiana and he said yes. We got on the bus in the nick of time...of course it was years before I let my sister live this one down!!

In Memory

Wrong day

Leave it to me to pick the wrong day. That is exactly what I did today. I decided yesterday that I was going to go to the laundromat this morning to wash all of my heavy comforters and quilts in their big washing machines. I needed change so I stopped at bank first...Oh crap the bank is closed due to Columbus Day!! I didn't even think about today being Columbus Day. So I am like ok now what do I do. There is a tobacco store next to the laundromat and Brian takes a $20 in to get change since the changer in the laundromat takes $10. Well that worked about as good as going to the bank!! The woman in the tobacco store tells Brian that there is a law that when the banks are closed due to a holiday that the stores can't give you change because of "funny money". I think this is the most stupiest thing I have ever heard!! Next to the tobacco store is a Save A Lot store. I tell Brian to go in there and buy a can corn or something just so we can get change, no problem he comes out with a can of corn and the prized change!! Ok so now we go back next door to the laundromat only to find that all of the big washing machines are taken. Drive across town to the other laundromat which I find empty, yay!! Plenty of big washing machines to use. Each machine cost $3 and I had 3 of them. The dryers I had to use $1 in each and 2 had to use .50 cents more. It was cutting it close but I had enough quarters to get them all done. YAY!! Hopefully the next time I have to wash this stuff up I won't choose a holiday to do it on. 

Photos: Hazel Days Car Show

Photos: Hazel Days Car Show: Hazel Days Car Show , a set on Flickr. Today was the annaul Hazel Day's. One of the activities is a car show. I took pictures of wha...

A Pinky

Every year in May, my step dad would say..."If the lilacs are blooming, the white bass are biting"...and off we would go to Fremont Wisconsin to the Wolf River.

 

 

My step dad would carry our 14 foot flat bottom boat on top of our bus camper. He would also use a tow bar to pull our "camping" car behind the bus. It was a Chevy Corvair that he had painted orange to match the orange stripes on the bus camper. Once we arrived to the campgrounds we would have a way to go into town, etc. One year my step brother and his family had followed us up. They were using a tent and had rented a boat from the campgrounds. While on a fishing trip, one must always awake at the crack of dawn. Eat breakfast, pack lunch (if you have plans to stay out on river all day) and head on down to your boat and pull anchor. On this particular day, my step brother and his family followed us in their boat. We set anchor at one of my step dad's favorite fishing "spots". Sometimes I would fish and sometimes I would just play in the water with my hand. There were even times when I would catch baby snapping turtles on the end of one of the boat oars. This day I was fishing with rod and reel. If you have ever went fishing then you know that most of the time is spent waiting for a fish to bite your bait. This day was no different for everyone. No bites and my step dad was about to give it up for the day, when I got a bite and reeled in a very decent sized white bass...My mom took the fish off my hook for me as I didn't know how. I could bait my own hook though... I threw my line back in the water and BAM! I had another bite and reeled in another white bass. Again my mom removed the fish from my hook and back in the water it went. BAM! another bite and we continued the cycle. Everytime I threw my hook into the water I had a bite, just like that!! I was catching fish so fast that everyone else in both boats gave up trying just so they could take the fish off my line. Our boats were close enough together that I could swing the fish into either boat. Thank goodness for that. They were dumbfounded how I was catching so many fish. My step dad asked me.. "What are you using for bait?"..I said.. "I have a pinky on it"..he asked.." You don't even have a minnow on it?"..I said.. "No only the pinky". They could not believe it!! What we called a pinky was this little pink feathery fishing lure. I thought they were cute, lol...I found this picture on the web of them...except the one I was using was completely pink.

So then they all tried to use what I was using but still they didn't get any bites. I kept on throwing my pinky out and the white bass kept biting it, for the next hour...  They were everywhere!! We had 2 metal fish baskets full and 2 fish stringers full and the bottoms of both boats full. So we headed back. I would always help my step dad clean the fish. I would scale them and he would do the rest. This is a very messy smelly job. The fish scales go everywhere and my hair would look like a Christmas tree decorated with fish scales when we were done. This day this job took forever and my step brother was also brought in for reinforcements.  As you see for I and I alone in 1 hour had caught 100 white bass!! I really enjoyed that too..I wasn't bored that was for sure. We had to go into town and buy garbage cans to put the fish in so we could take them home. Garbage cans full of ice and fish..I had caught lots of fish before this, but on this day, for that 1 hour I was a mighty fisherman!!

Half A Million Dollars

Have you ever wondered what a half a million dollars looks like?....Well here is what it looks like to a farmer.

 

 

 

 

This combine with the head on it cost a half of a million dollars. It has GPS, radar, etc. It also has some kind of a leveling thing that moves up and down with the ground, so as you can see, when they are done the field looks like it has been mowed. There is nothing left but smooth ground. Never have seen a field cut this close....



Photos: Corn Harvest 2011

Photos: Corn Harvest 2011

Photos: More of My Favorites

Photos: More of My Favorites

Lady

As I have written in previous blogs, I spent a lot of my childhood camping/fishing. My step dad loved to fish so most of our trips were fishing trips. My brother, who was in the Army had somehow picked up a cat as a hitchhiker on a trip back home once. He gave her to me. Here is a photo of Lady and me.

 

We took her with us in the bus camper every time we went on a trip. Lady was declawed but that didn't stop her from removing the lid off of my step dad's minnow bucket and then preceeding to empty it of all the minnows. Oh how mad he would be to find his bait gone, lol. Of course mom and me thought it oh so funny to watch her catch and then eat the minnows. Lady would stick her paw in the water and smack a minnow up against the side of the bucket. She would then just push it up the side and out of the bucket, where it would fall to the ground and she would then eat it. Lady had this so down pat that she could empty a full minnow bucket in 10 minutes. Lady liked fish for sure. I once won a goldfish at the fair and she ate it the same day. I didn't bring anymore fish home...On one of our fishing trips in the bus Lady managed to get out the door one night. I was a basket case and my mom was so upset. My mom was feeling guilty because she had her declawed. Now here Lady was outside at night with no claws for protection. My mom said I will never forgive myself if anything happens to her. She grabbed the flashlight and off we went to look for her. We heard what sounded like 2 cats fighting and headed in that direction. It was late at night and here we are running around in a campground yelling "LADY, HERE KITTY KITTY" Somehow, someway my mom seen what she was hoping to be Lady and not a raccoon. As you can see in the photo Lady was a gray with black stripes cat and her tail kinda looked like a raccoon. All we could see was the back half of an animal that had it's head stuck under someone's tent. My mom asked me is it Lady? I said it looks like her. Being brave, she reached down and grabbed the animal up. Thankfully it was indeed Lady. I was so very happy that we had found her because she was sometimes the only friend I had and I loved her dearly....I wrote before of a Christmas we spent in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I came across this picture I had taken there.

 

 

The campgrounds where we were staying had a building that they used for card games, pot luck dinners, etc. Since it was holiday time when we were there, they had a little New Year's Eve party. We played games and ate. One of the games was for the wives to make hats for their husbands out of newspaper. The best one won a prize. My mom didn't win but the photo is my step dad (center) and his friend wearing their hats....lol

 



Serial Killer

If you were connected to me on Multiply then you might remember a blog I once wrote about a cousin of mine that was murdered at the age of 11. I was 15 when it happened. I attended her funeral but up until just recently I never knew what I am about to write....I discovered this information, not from my family, but by accident on the internet....I had been doing some ancestry research when I came across this,  click here   It had caught my attention because it had my cousin's name (Cheryl Ann Bolin) in it. So I clicked on it and read what appears to be like a blog of some sort. After reading this I clicked on the Find a Grave link which took me here. After seeing this I went back and did a search for my cousin's name and found her here. Doing all of this is how I found out that there was a suspect in my cousin's murder. All of these years I had thought that the police didn't have any suspects and that they didn't know who had killed her. In reading all of this and doing a bit more research I discovered that a man named John Richard Willoughby was or is a suspect in the murder of Cheryl and of another girl. (Terri Darlington) I also discovered that this man has been convicted of the murder of a woman who was an Indianapolis police officer. (Patricia McCaslin) I read transcripts of an appeal hearing of his conviction that I also came across while searching. Although this man was never arrested or convicted of Cheryl's murder, finding out that there was a suspect and that he is in prison sort of gives me some kind of relief/closure. People think that stuff like this will never happen to them...but it does happen and it doesn't have to be in big cities, it can be anywhere at anytime...if this man was able to kidnap and murder an Indianapolis police officer..Cheryl, Terri and who knows how many more there may have been, never had a chance....Cheryl was just riding her bike home from a sleepover she had at a friend's house... 
R.I.P. Cheryl Ann Bolin.