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Category-Yard and Garden Projects. Remember, I am "having a life" after empty nesting and as I turn 45!!
The above photo is the northern side of the garage, where mostly Lilies of the Valley and one Rhubarb plant grow. I put some hostas there, and a Jacob's ladder. The plan is to put down an edging. Remove most lilies of the valley...and add
perennial and annual shade lovers that provide some food and other useful options.
I have been researching...and will let you know what develops.


Oh. Fun little detail. I had a piece of edging leftover from the front yard bed I edged with black plastic edging. It fit PERFECTLY without measuring. Now that doesn't happen often.
Also, It started to rain, and I begged for enough time to finish it. I got the time, and stayed mostly dry. Garden and yard serendipity.

Isn't this turtle tail amazing? Look at the lines and the shapes. Lots of triangulation going on.

TurtleTurtle -This is a BACK claw.

Recently, it occurred to me that tortoise shells might be an interesting material to use in my jewelry adventures. So, I started thinking along those lines, as I also have been thinking of how one would acquire other natural materials, like bone. There's a BIG couple of concerns though!

If you choose to use natural materials called Roadkill....there's the horrifying, smelly, and maybe even dangerous-germy-death salmonella thing to consider.

I mean, it's not like I can put a pirranha pond in my backyard and toss my freshly and not so freshly acquired nature's goodies into it. Somehow, the young neighbor children, and the city zoning board might freak.
I digress....or wander from the shortness this post COULD be.
Short vcrsion restart.

I started thinking perhaps roadkill, particularly turtle, could be part of my jewelry/art hobby.
I was driving along a nearby road, and spied a dead snapper of considerable size.
I flashed back to my first marriage-where my hunter trapper husband sold certain dead animal bones for profit. (Okay, raccoon penis bones. They're about the size of toothpicks.)
He would see a raccoon dead on the roadside, grab the shovel, and plop it into the back of the pickup, where open air would prevent us from having to smell the works for too long.

Back to the turtle on the side of the road....22 years later.
I had a rubber bin for garage sale purposes.
I spied a dead snapper. I turned around. Parked. Got out.

Went to collect the turtle, and it hissed. Ooops, alive.
Not to lose my bravery, I grabbed it by the base of the tail and hoisted it into the bin.
I later read the turtle's neck can actually go backwards as long as its shell. I think perhaps a healthier turtle could have reached me and bitten me. Not something you want from a snapper.
Especially not a snapper of this large size. Look at the size of the front digging claw.

I have net snappers before. They are primeval monsters from the murky unknown depths whose presence creates fear and relief. Relief it didn't hurt you.
Run in 1-Caught one at a dam somewhere around grade 7-10. Probably 7-8ish. I hauled it up about 15 feet, landed it on the concrete, and squatted down to peer at it. It hissed at me and I was afraid. Instinctively and out of fear, I kicked it-and it plummeted back to the murky depths from whence I had lifted it. My line? Probably had to cut it. Can't recall.
Run in 2-Eating snapper-A friend's family had a yearly snapper turtle feed. About age 19.
Tasty, particularly the pot roast style of cooking and the bbq style. Beer and sneaky peaches helps the appetite there.
Run in 3- Sometime in the early 2000s. Fished all day catching about 4-5 inch panfish. Mostly bluegill, sunnies. I caught fish for about 6 hours. Probably caught a couple hundred. By this time I was whisking my pole around and slapping the fish on the water to remove them from my line. The slap method was efficient. I was waiting for the BIG ones to come in closer, as I was sitting on the dock, toes in the water.
Friend comes down to say, "dinner." I lift my feet, and not too much longer after my feet were out of the water, we see a snapper turtle swimming out from under the dock, about an inch below the surface. We could see it plain as day, and it was about a foot and a half from nose to end of its shell.
Yikes yikes yikes. My toes are pink, and wiggly and they were dangling for hours.
Run in 4-Small one on road, daughter about 10 -11....maybe 12 or 13. Brought it to town, and showed it to a friend's boy of similar age..and we filmed the adventure. I'll see if I can find and post the film.
Run in 5 2008. Dead turtle isn't, and a bit of turtle rehabilitiation research results in me bringing the snapper back to where I found it, and placing it ACROSS the road it was crossing...to let nature take its course.
People here don't seem to understand how a person can think of helping a wounded wild thing...that can bite off huge chunks of your flesh, fingertips included.

This turtle was quite seriously wounded, with a cracked head. When I can, I will get some video up too. I call this turtle Darth...because he wasn't able to hiss that well. Usually a snapper hiss is quite crisp, sharp, and well, HISSSSSY!! I think the crack down the middle of the snapper's head and maybe pain gave this snapper's hiss an airy quality...which was more Darth Vader like than a snapper usually gives.

Me Having a Life

Me Having a Life-
Okay, The focus of the blog is going to be "Me Having a Life..." It will be my "touchstone," my "grounder." It will be that which keeps me moving forward as I reach my 45th birthday, and spend the very first summer as an empty nester with a daughter who is in healthy pursuit of her own life. *She had a summer away before turning 18, but it was less healthy.

I usually ignore my birthday, pretending it doesn't happen.
Not this time.
I am turning 45. To me, this is what I am calling my halfway mark.
AND, as a teacher, summer time is a time where I can do whatever I choose.
Unstructured time can be tough, though.

I have no boyfriend, no husband, no family mostly.
My parents died in 1994, and in 2001. My siblings-not related by blood, haven't kept me in their lives and vice versa since my mother died, with the exception of a sister who lived in China, who DOES keep in touch, and a (blood) brother whom I saw about 3 or four years ago. It ended badly there.
So, as a halfway lifer with little family, and a daughter who needs room to grow her own wings--I need a life. (I left my church denomination about 3 years ago-which means I also left the volunteering I did over the summer)
So, here officially begins my finding a life.

This week is the kick off week.
Instead of a birth DAY...I actually have been making it my BIRTHDAY WEEK..for a couple of years now.
I might make it official. So, in the spirit of my Find a Life Blog--here's where I am so far.

Monday- I got my daughter, brought her to my house, we visited, she rested, I cooked a roast..brought her home. That was my birthday present-TIME with her. I loved it.
Tuesday-I actually can't remember for SURE, but I think this was the day I learned I was not going to have to find a new job. I went out for Chinese food with a friend and saw the movie Baby Mama.
Wednesday. Got daughter, brought birthday and Mother's Day gift to the woman who has been like my mom since my mom died. We spent the day with my daughter's family, helped a little with a rummage sale...did some rummage sales ourselves..then it was home for a margarita at a friend's and the movie, What Happens in Vegas.
Thursday-That's today. I will tell you later. I think I am going to work in the yard. It's a gift to myself...

This is the very first video I ever uploaded to YouTube. It is in three parts because I haven't learned advanced editing. Just basics for now.

Osprey Nest



Update. Here's part two of three.

Here's another very short clip...8 seconds..of an osprey on the nest, scolding because a hay rack full of kids drove by. There I was, with video camera, and they were happily waving. It was a Memorial Day weekend event for them in a rural farming area about half a mile outside of a town of about 3500 people and a couple hundred elk and about the same amount of buffalo.
.

In this third short clip, you can see the wingspan of the osprey on the nest.



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The Way it IS.

Well. Hmm. Er. Um. See, in the Spring and Summer, I usually just go outside. That means my blog gets relegated to the place my winter coat, mittens and hats are....not with me.
So, if you are a regular, and miss me, you know where to find me. Outside.
Meantime, it's a BLUSTERY Memorial Day weekend Saturday, and I have some time to blog.
SO, Catching up.
I've been landscaping. Pictures to come.
I've been driving around. Pictures of a snapper turtle to come.
I've been garage saling. No pictures.
My sister in China was 600 miles from the quake. No pictures.
Life is good, with a touch of a little cruddy. No pictures.
Hmm. Not so hard to get you caught up.
I will get to the picture part later.
Happy Memorial Day weekend.
With the school year ending next Wednesday, maybe I will blog better. We'll know later.

Mother's Day Memory Post-So next year I might remember what I did.
I went to pick up the daughter since her car was being "scary" for her.
Brought her to my house even though when she called I had packed the food for her house. Her house was full of people, so I said, we'll cook outdoors in a park. Actually it was just too cold a day, and with about 3 or more inches of rain, we were not likely to find lots of burnable wood for a fire. I had SNOWED up in Warroad MN on Sat. Those poor fishing opener people.
Meal, broiled salmon steaks, salad with the fat free Italian smash success dressing I made, sweet corn, and cheesecake for dessert.
The salmon was from Coborns and was about 2 inches thick. Lovely. We talked, laughed, and enjoyed, and she slept on the couch for a bit while I held her. What more could a Mother want? My eyes welled up from the card she made just for me.
PS. This is a no make up shot. I think for someone turning 45 in 2 and a half weeks, I can live with this. I am going to the eye doctor today, and if you don't wear eye makeup, things go smoother for the contact lens out and in I say!!

Seeen at the neighbor's feeder lately.
5 orioles yesterday morning aroung 6:30 AM.
I will post pics from online.







I have learned that the Rose Breasted Grosbeak male and female couple I see are actually two males. I have mistakenly thought the female was a really large white crowned sparrow. Again, pictures from the net.

Male

Female