vultures

The other day I killed a cottontail and threw it out on the road so it would look like road kill. About an hour later Sid and I left to go shopping and no rabbit.

Today we went over to a friend's house to get some black current bushes and there was a dead rabbit in front of our house. When we came back he was still there, but about 15 minutes later I took some mail out and low and behold here were these vultures on the road.Just before I took these pictures a car went by and the vultures wouldn't even move.
The reason three are looking on is because they fight each other for the kill. This is something you don't see in Utah!!!!!

Beet Balls (beet pickles)

This started back in February of this year on Sid's birthday. Tina gave her dad this big giant box of candy for his birthday. He has been thinking mmmmm what do for Tina's birthday.

Today, a day before her birthday we went up to her house for a visit and to give her her birthday card and gift.She had the box on her lap and thought we had filled it up with more candy.

Dad and I went to the Amish market and bought Tina two jars of beet pickles because she likes them so well. We individually wrapped one pint of beets.

When she opened the box she still didn't know what was inside.

She slowly opened the first wrapped goodie and found A BEET PICKLE.

Tina is showing the bottle with the juice in case she decides to unwrap them and put them in the jar.

We gave her a full pint jar also. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

She did eat a few and so did McKay before we left. Now she has

the box. Tagged your it.

Three little fishes

Everyday after Noah gets home from cub scout camp the kids go swimming and I watch them from the deck to make sure everything is okay. Trudy is at class and Steve isn't home yet. They have a lot of fun together.

They like to have jumping contest where they judge each jump with 1-10 points for each.

This is Noah.

Stevie loves it as you can tell.

I cut off Zane's head. He jumped to high.

Drip system

Sid is cutting the older roses off the rose tree he bought this spring. It is so pretty, I would like to get two more. It just keeps blooming.Trudy has always had hanging baskets around the deck, but this year getting her master's and what they did in the front yard she decided not to get baskets this year. So the other day Sid and I went down to Lowe's to get some more drip system hose and we stopped off at Zimmerman's, a Amish store, and bought enough plants to make up our own hanging baskets with the left over baskets from last year.

Here is Sid taking out the dead stuff from a petunia that came up from last fall.
In looking closer I guess he is just reading the label.
It was to hot to work yesterday so Sid got up early this morning and started putting in the drip system and he ran out of hose. We thought we bought enough plants for 7 baskets and had enough plants for 8 more. Those 8 won't be hanging, just placed on the rail or on the deck.

Cute huh he he he

Trench

Dad has been putting in a drip system for our flowers. This a trench he dug and then laid pipe out to the garden so I don't have to deal with dragging 3 hoses out to the garden so I can water. Baxter watered the top half of the garden yesterday using the turn on value at the garden. It works sweet. He also dug a trench over to the swimming pool and it is filling as I type. No hoses, oh my.

Our Garden

I don't think I have lost one sweet potato plant. I can hardly wait until fall to harvest them. I tried planting white and yellow potatoes from my kitchen like I used to in Abraham, but none of them are coming up.

These are green peppers that are starting to bloom. Maybe they will be ready when my tomatoes ripen and then I start bottling Grandma's Shirley Sauce.

These are tomato plants that I planted a few weeks ago. I do have one plant that has tomatoes on it.

These cherry tomatoes are different than usual. Dad and I wanted to try them because you can dry them like raisins. They are called Tomaccio, it says a wonderful crispy-fresh fruit snack with a delightful sweet flavor. They may reach the height of 9 ft. You know me, I always like to try new things.

Here are tomato plants that I planted a month ago. They had blossoms on them already. Now every one of the five plants have these nice tomatoes on them. They are changing to that light green color just before they turn red. Sid and I can hardly wait.

Fresh Limes

Back in Utah long long ago, they had what we called fresh lime drinks. They may have them here in Maryland but I have never seen them here.

A few weeks ago Sid and I bought some limes to make Asian Glazed Salmon. We had some left over and we decided to squeeze them into some Sprite Zero. Wala, Fresh Lime, oh how refreshing. Of course we had to buy more limes and more Sprite Zero and on these hot humid days it hits the spot.

Point Lookout Lighthouse

After we went to see Zane and his 5th grade class in his robotics challenge (after this blog) we decided to go on down to Point Lookout in Scotland, Maryland. This is a picture I found on the Internet, I took all the other pictures.
I didn't realize that you could tour the inside of the lighthouse, but because we were there on the first Saturday of the month we were able to go inside free.
This is one of the many lighthouses built by John Donoho, located at the the confluence of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. The lantern was lit September 20, 1830 and put out on October 14, 1965.

This is the kitchen and the first room of the tour. The man standing there eating his sandwich told Sid and I a little of the history and told us that this is the most haunted lighthouse there is. He told us that people that take pictures often see ghosts in their pictures, but as you will see the ghosts must have been out to lunch while we were there.

Here is Sid going up the stairs to the second story.

I took a picture of Sid going through the hole into the lantern. I tried to go up and only got half through the hole. I just couldn't make it. After falling 5 feet through the floor at a pharmacy I worked at I couldn't make myself go up through that hole.

While Sid was up there I handed him the camera and he took some great pictures. The Potomac River on one side and the Chesapeake Bay on the other side.

After the tour there is always some room with things to buy. The lady was really nice.

This was the last room of the tour and alas no ghosts.

On our way out of the park I saw a sign of a wharf. Sid really didn't want to go over but guess who was driving so in I went and found out you could drive right to the wharf and park and then walk out to the wharf.

Actually we both enjoyed the walk and Sid talked to a lot of the fishermen asking about what they were catching. The fishermen and women were quite friendly and seemed to enjoy talking to us.

Looking out to the end of the wharf and then back at the shore.

This fellow had his wife ( I assume) open up their cooler and let me see the fish they had caught. Now Sid wants to buy some poles and go and fish on the wharf. Take our chairs, lunch, big hats and fish all day. It is only about 40 miles away and a lot closer than the fishing we did in Utah.

We were almost out of the Park when Sid saw this enchanted cottage. He had me turn around and take some pictures of it. I think this is probably the best picture.

Then we stopped and looked at some memorials to the confederate soldiers that had been prisoners on Point Lookout. I have confederate soldiers on my line so I was interested although none of my ancestors names were here.



Sid and I had a wonderful Saturday. We drove down 435 and came home on 5. I liked the drive home better because of no heavy traffic and just the beautiful trees of Maryland.

Zane's "Save the Bay" Robotics Challenge