Bird Houses Of The Estate

When Senior and I were dating and I first began what would be many trips over the past 20 years to the Carolina Estate, my in-laws were heavily devoted to the wild bird population that made its home in the trees.
My Father in Law , a contractor by trade constructed many houses for the local winged ones to reside in.You stroll about the hill top and you see the fruits of his labor everywhere. A simple walk down to his old work shop, and you see an unlimited supply of plastic ones still on the top of his work bench where he last put them.

A funny story about it was after Senior and I were first married, we were up for a visit, I went into one storage building and found hundreds of pounds of bird seed. I inquired with Senior, who got a big smile and told me that the Estate was deemed a wild bird refuge by the state, and monthly they got sent bags of the seed to feed the population. I was amazed.
Later that evening at dinner, with every one around the table I congratulated my in laws on the honor of being named a state refuge, and how great it was they would save money by having the state pay for the bird seed.
My step mother in law looked at me strangely, Senior began laughing. She said they were not a refuge, and made me feel about an inch big. I wanted to slap Senior then crawl under the table.
That story has lived on in our family's folklore and the subject of numerous dinner time discussions.

Today, the boys and I cleaned out some old hummingbird feeders, and filled them with red nector. I was reminded of another moment  during another visit, I went to the fridge for something to drink and found what I thought was fruit punch. It was in a regular pitcher.. I poured a large glass full and proceeded to refresh myself.
My Step Mother in Law once again gave me that strange look, and told me I was drinking the Hummingbird Nector.  Good Lord! I thought to myself, she must think  I am the ultimate twit...
I had never seen the stuff before, my parents never placed out feeders...Well she should have labled the pitcher !  lol   I can look back on both these situations as a good sport and laugh.

After my father in laws death, the bird population suffered a bit, no one was here on a regular basis to fill the feeders. I am happy that the boys and I have taken on the task during this summer. We have cleaned out feeders, and hung them through out the trees, the feathered population is once again returning to the trees they once called home, and to the feeders they always relied on.

-JUGM

Still Here...

Hello everyone. My buddy Harry sent me a comment via one of my other posts, and I guess it has been a bit since I last posted. Harry to answer your question, yes we are still here..  Thank you so much for your concern.
Things have just been busy: kids out school, going back and forth to our Carolina property..and my mother. She was officially diagnosed with Dementia/Alzheimers. And the past month has not been easy. My mother is so fixated on all her OTC vitamins, laxatives and etc. The doctor asked us to clean everything out and destroy it. We tried, but did not realize the scope of her fixation, or the levels she would go through to protect them.  She has stuff hidden quite well throughout their house. Even stashing bottles in with my dads diabetes medication. We also found a hoard of pain killers she had in the very back of her kitchen cabinets, the expiration dates were several years ago. We thought that maybe she forgot there were there, but no. That is not the case, she became quite agitated when we tried to destroy them, and openly acknowledged that she still takes them..
She will then regress backwards in her mind to almost a childlike demeanor, beginning us not to take them away or judge her.

It is heart breaking for me to see my mom like this. One minute she is engaged in a conversation with you, and the next she has no recollection of every thing that was just said. She refers to the men in her life as "mister" because she can not remember their names.

So with all this going on the last thing on my mind has been writing up a post. But, I will say that maybe I need to do this, writing about it, and talking about it is therapy. It helps ease my heart ache because I know I have all you good folks out there who are concerned and  care.

-JUGM

The End of The Day

The day ended with a peaceful time on the archery range

 But then that peaceful time ended by killing     zombies with BB guns...and suddenly killing a zombie gopher and masked zombie makes every thing right in the world    

Border Children

As a mother of two boys I am speechless over the disregard for human life that this administration is allowing to let happen along our border.

What kind of parent in any counry could send thier children to a foreign place with no family supervision? And what kind of country allows it? We put parents in jail every day for child abuse and neglect...Who is going to throw those accountable for this in jail? And what message is this sending to the rest of the world?

 It just boggles my mind. I can't stand for my two to be at school all day...I could NEVER EVER do this to my children. And to think of the attrocities that will happen to these kids makes me shutter. All these kids need to be divided by country and put on military transport planes and sent back to where they came from. Because, by God if we have money for Michelles vacations then we got money for that.

Tbe President is silent, the DHS leader has
said this was not Obamas fault. Not properly enforcing border security IS HIS FAULT !

At a 2008 campaign stop Obama said he would like to create a nationalized civilain police force..This could be the start of that.  He and his administration has systymatically taken power away from all these different agencies So that he can create his own army of "Federales" like Mexico has.

This whole mess is going to get ugly...

- JUGM

Quiet Times....

It was early evening up on the hilltop at the Estate. The sun was going down behind the trees and was casting long shadows. The boys were patiently awaiting the arrival of the lightning bugs. Catching them is a right of passage, and a nightly ritual while we are up there.

Senior had strung up his hammock and was relaxing in it.  Birds flew about, and the squirrel population played in the trees. Occasionally on this particular evening, a car passing on the highway would break the peace. But other then that..all was quiet.

 

 

Today in History

Today June 4th.  is the 72nd anniversary of the "Battle of Midway" 

The Americans and other allies decoded Japanese messages and were able to stop an ambush they were planning on the remaining American aircraft carriers that were not sunk at Pearl Harbor. They had hoped to take Midway Island so they could use it as a future launching area for attacks on the west coast of the United States.
 Only we stopped them and inflicted permanent damage upon the Japanese fleet that they never recovered from.

 The end result was 4 Japanese aircraft carriers sunk, the same ones used to launch planes for the Pearl attack. They also lost 322 planes, and a heavy cruiser, and over 5000 sailors.
For the United States we lost 147 aircraft and 300 sailors.
The Battle of Midway was a turning point in the pacific theatre for the allies, thus allowing our fleet to become the hunter instead of the hunted...

Lets Go Fly A Kite....

Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!
Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let's go fly a kite! 

Don't you just love "Mary Poppins" ?  Every time the boys go out to fly their kits, I can't help but think of that song.

We had the perfect weather today to fly our kites..not to hot, breezy. Blue, blue skies...

The one that is high up on the right side is NWs "Transformers"kite. he it fixed on the breeze and was able to lay down in the grass while it flew. The closer one is NDs "Power Ranger" kite.
But then as easy as they go up, the breeze stopped and NWs came crashing down...then another breeze caught it and blew it right into the tops of that tree.

We yanked and yanked until it broke free...and break it did. He is devastated.

Senior and I have raised little ND so well, that he rolled his in and offered it to his big brother.

He is such a sweet kid.
NW declined the offer...... 

-JUGM