Stop 12- David, and Koteewi

  Here I am back in Indiana. I'm spending the night with another of the blogger friends, David aka Vanilla.

He often visits people in the local nursing home, and he particularly spends time with this lady, Heide, who is a shirttail relative of his. She followed my blog during the hike, and hoped to meet me. I found her own story fascinating. I do not have permission to share details, but she grew up in Germany before and during WWII. It would make a fantastic book! She is in her 90s.

My hike for the day was at the Koteewi (say ko-TAY-wee) Park in Strawtown, Indiana. This is a huge park with miles of trails, a Nature Center, and museum. (Also many other activities that I didn't pursue today). I did a 3-mile hike. Pictures from the trail mostly look brown and blah because of the season, but there are some views of the White River. The trail goes through woods and prairie. In the other three seasons, I'm sure it's lovely.

There is a large room for nature activities with turtles, snakes, frogs, etc in aquariums, skulls, skins, posters, things to explore. I liked this set up... it looks like it belongs in a fantasy adventure game.

I thought this was fun. It's a stuffed beaver posed as if it's chewing a tree. I haven't seen one displayed that way before.

The museum included Native artifacts found on the site of the nature center grounds. There were three Native American cultures represented there. This dugout (actually burned out) canoe was found.

Remains of at least two villages were found on the site. Some examples of parts of them have been recreated. Here is a bark house.

The inside has low bunks/benches.

If you live anywhere near Indianapolis, IN, this is a wonderful resource. You can play, learn, probably volunteer... there was even a book trail for kids (where pages of a book are displayed along a pathway and kids can walk and read). There are 9 miles of trails. I only did one loop. From the looks of the facility, I'm sure that the nature activities for kids are outstanding.

There were some other trails closer to the middle of my drive, but I turned them down because I prefer a loop to an out-and-back, so I chose this. What a great find!

Total miles hiked in 2024: 64.7 of which 1.2 is North Country Trail.

Koteewi Park, IN. North Loop and spurs, 3.0 miles

See Jim and JoAnne See Koteewi Park

Bloggy Doggy Buddies

Tonight's post will be rather light-hearted. I worked hard at editing today, and except for shopping, that's really all I did, so there's nothing very photogenic to show you.

However, two weeks ago, when I was at Ann's house on my way home, she took a nice picture of me with her current pup, Gibbs.

Today, she posted that Gibbs had been to the groomer. What a difference!

Stories like this remind me of several good friends I've made because of the hey-day of blogging. Ann likes crafting, and back then she also blogged about the dog she had whose name was Duke. Duke was a character!

Back then, I had Maggie. Remember her?



She was half Vizsla, and so I became blog friends with James, the owner of two rescue Vizslas, the funniest (most neurotic) of which was Dennis.

Tucker was a dead ringer for Maggie.

I've yet to meet James (Jim), who now has different dogs and kitties, but he remains on my list of blog friends I'd like to meet. However, he lives in California- not such a likely happening.

If I'm going to mention dogs with blogger humans, I shouldn't leave out John, who rescues Dalmatians. Back then, he had Dash and Dot. Here's Dot.

John only lives in Texas, so it's not out of the question I'd meet him some time, but he finished his quest to do 5000 blog posts, so I don't see what he's up to every day, now.

Back to the editing. I need to make some additional serious progress tonight.

See Blog Buddy Blast

Tea with Two Friends

  There may be two posts today. I'm working like crazy on the trailer, and may do another post later, but I hit a snafu (of course) on the last major project.

Anyway, when I finally got to meet blogger buddy Ann this summer, she gave me a mug she decorated with her Cricut. It's got the Pennsylvania state Motto, "Pursue your happiness," on it. The other side has her hometown, and the date of my visit.

My secret pal for bell choir (the person I gave gifts to) was Polly. One of the things she said she liked was Matcha Green Tea. I'd never heard of it, and so I had to keep one packet out of what I gave her to try.

And here you are: Matcha Green Tea in a happy green mug, with Ann and Polly (in my imagination).

Polly also gave me a pair of acryilic tights to try on the hike. She asked me if I was allergic to acrylic- because I am allergic to polyester. The answer is, "I really don't know." I think the only clothing I've ever had in acrylic is socks, and they were all right. OK, these are socks- really long socks. More skin is involved. More skin with fewer calluses.

In other news: I shopped; I did laundry; I slept outside last night. That did not go well. It was not a very cold night, and even with my adaptations to the bag, and the new liner, I was very cold. Working on the solution to that too.

I did a whole bunch of final details on the trailer. You'll get to see them, but not in this post. So far, all I've actually finished today is 12 small things. Just in case I don't post again tonight, I'll give you the stats, but I'm not done working. 15 BIG ITEMS to complete or drop (47 done). Tons of small ones to do (58 done). 6 days to go.

See Blog Buddy Blast

Blog Buddy Blast

  At long last I get to real-life meet another friend I met through blogging. This is Ann of Ann's Snap Edit Scrap. We first got acquainted about 12 or 13 years ago at the height of the blogging craze. She was unable to attend the get-together several of us bloggers had (see link below), where Chuck and Sylvia (where I stayed last night), and David and JoAnn, and, Lin and Joe, and I all got together for a picnic. I finally worked up the courage to ask if I could stop for the night at her house with Sunny. She's located in a critically good place for me on my trips east. She said yes!

So, at long last, Ann and me in the same space.

And the adorable Gibbs, who is currently sleeping at my feet.

We've always thought it was a real blessing that this group of bloggers with much in common all lived within a few hours of each other. We'll have to do another get-together where Ann can come this time.

The day started off with an adventure. I discovered (thankfully before I left Michigan) that the license plate on my trailer had fallen off. It seems the plastic bracket on the tail light had broken off completely. Sigh... that took two hours of time to deal with. But at last I was on the road again. It didn't cost much, but what a hassle. Here's the joke of that experience. When one of the service people at the DMV was trying to find me an open appointment, she offered me 11:50 (more than an hour wait). When I looked unhappy, she said, "I can give you a later time." Um... no. This sort of felt like the parent telling the kid, "If you're going to cry, I can give you something to really cry about."

Then just south of Toledo, my oil light came on. What the heck? The newer Suburus eat oil, but I had just topped it off before I left the house. What I didn't do was go buy more before I left, since I was already running very late. Hmmm. So now I'm stopped at a corner with two gas stations. One is closed for renovations, and the other one does not carry the weight of oil this car takes. So... I saw a police car and chased it down on foot. Good thing he saw me before I ran out of steam! He directed me to a Menards that was only a mile away. So now I have lots of extra oil. But I seriously think that 2 quarts of oil in fewer than 500 miles is too much. This may be my last Suburu.

But at last I arrived at Ann's. She fed me a wonderful dinner of ribs cooked in a crock pot, potato salad (a favorite of mine), and green beans, with ice cream for dessert. Then we spent the evening talking in real life. What fun!

Just a heads up. I think there is a very high probablity that I will not have any internet service for the next 5 days, so if you don't hear anything from me, everything is fine. Sunny is doing great, and I got lots of rest last night, so today was pretty easy. Longer drive day tomorrow. I'm headed for the Adirondacks!

See Blog Posting Murderers Fest

Shapes of Trees- the Mystery Cherry

 
Continuing the series of winter tree shapes, I bring you the mystery tree that has been determined to be some sort of cherry. Probably an agricultural cherry gone wild. Past posts listed at the end follow the clues if you are interested.

In any case, it's a really handsome tree in any season, even winter.



I love looking across my back field to see what it looks like. Here's the summer version


And in fall it's usually a beautiful flaming orange.



It's even served as the avatar for this blog when Entrecard was alive and kicking.



Which brings me to an interesting coincidence. A blog I followed back then by Jerry Beuterbaugh would feature other blogs that had family-friendly content every Sunday. Jerry has taken this a step farther, and now has a site called Site Hound Sniffs that is a compilation, by category, of blogs you don't need to be wary to visit. He let me know yesterday about his new site, and I've provided a graphic... using this tree, and done in the style of the old avatar. If you're looking for some other interesting blogs to visit, check out his lists.

	See Left and Right Brain See Mystery Tree- It's No Ash See Robert Tackles the Mystery Tree
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Happy New Year 2015

 
I spent the day at Halls Crossing, and can wish you a Happy New Year 2015 from there.



I seem to have had a visitor from sumwayar mae-bee Kali4nya. You'll have to biggify the pic to read it, I suspect.



If you do not understand this visit, see Dennis' Diary of Destruction

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String Too Short to Be Saved

 

Today is a shout out to my good blogging (and real life) buddy, Vanilla. His blog is String Too Short to Tie, and he often spins well-told tales from his rich family history. Imagine my surprise when I had an hour to kill last week, not at home, and pulled from a bookshelf a small volume, entitled String Too Short to Be Saved, by Donald Hall. He returns home to a New England farm, and finds in the attic of a relative's house a box filled with tiny scraps of string. The lid was neatly labeled "string too short to be saved." The book is a wonderful collection of essays of life in the early 20th Century on hardscrabble farms, and tales of the ofttimes strange, and always frugal people he remembers from his childhood. I highly recommend this book. I also HIGHLY recommend to Vanilla (David) that he collect his own tales into a volume. They are at least as good. Excellent reading, both.

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For Lin (and some Snow)

 
For my blogger buddy, Lin. I could not provide a duck, but we have a wheel with fat string. OK, it's rope. Picky, picky. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, go visit her at Duck and Wheel with String



Winter returned, but not too bad, except that there's ice under the snow. These are all textures near my house.







I made a couple more levels in my game. The town doesn't look much different because I spent my "money" to get a second International Line. However, I won a Christmas log carrier. Every time I load it the tree appears and it makes me smile. Seriously. I guess I'm easily entertained, but I haven't smiled so many times in one day in a while.

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Bounty and Generosity

 
I am home from Pennsylvania, and spent the night last night with two of my favorite people, Chuck and Sylvia of Secondary Roads.

One of their favorite things to do is manage a garden each summer, and the amount of produce they produce (nice heteronyms) is amazing.



I love Swiss chard- to eat, to smell, to look at. My contribution to the day was to help pick some of the bounty and provide directions (via friend Irene) for the best way to blanch and freeze the chard.



You don't need to plant a lot of cabbages when they grow to this size! You can see more about the cabbage at House Guest (which beats the heck out of being a barn guest- just kidding, Chuck). By the way, if you go there, look carefully at the second picture and you will discover that this was indeed the 2013 meeting of the Blog-Posting Murderers Fest, as Sylvia is slinking in from the right with a sharp knife.



The edge of the garden has to have marigolds to help hold the insects and the bunnies at bay. It's not shabby that they look great, too.



After Sylvia and I picked a number of things, we divided them up, and look at all the goodness they sent home with me. I won't have to buy food for a week or more.



Thank you, Chuck and Sylvia. You are some of my favorite people, and I would say that whether you give me veggies or not!

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Top Commenters for April 2013

 

Comments were down in April. I can understand that. Spring is a really busy time! And I haven't been as faithful to read and comment on some other people's blogs either. I've figured out a way to help fix that. The problem was an artifact of the way I used to visit blogs when Adgitize and Entrecard were still viable. I had a long list of blogs I checked every day, whether there was a new post or not. That just wasn't practical any more, and I didn't like any of the blog feed programs I'd found.

But Chuck clued me in to feedly.com. It's simple and doesn't have a thousand bells and whistles I don't need or want. I've been working on getting the blogs I really want to follow and comment on added to it. Seems like about every other day I find one that was important to me that I had missed. This lets me visit only when there is a new post. It's working very well, and hopefully you've noticed me leaving comments regularly. If I'm not, and you are a regular visitor here, feel free to remind me about YOU.

Anyway... there were 120 comments (not mine) on My Quality Day in April.

The top five are the usual suspects. However, places 6,7, and 8 were not far behind place 5. And, Ratty is back on line, so next month is anyone's guess. Your blog could be linked next month with a 125x125 image.

Ann's Snap & Edit (Ann- 28 comments)- Ann stays on top. Her usual spot! She and Duke will make you smile.
Secondary Roads (Chuck- 23 comments)- Chuck and Sylvia have become real-life friends- I've met several blogger buds, but they are close enough in miles to see them occasionally.
String Too Short to Tie (David (vanilla)- 14 comments)- Back in Indiana, and sharing springtime.
Duck & Wheel with String (Lin- 11 comments)- Lin is becoming an empty-nester, with mixed feelings.
Carmen's Chronicles (Carmen- 9 comments)- Carmen's first grandchild is the beautiful Harper.

The banner in the sidebar for a month is a way I can say thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I'm now writing for a site that seems to be paying fairly well. You can check out my stuff at Bubblews. If you like what you see and want to sign up, please use my Bubblews referral.

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