August 28th, 2005 -Sunday morning, early.

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Hard to believe fall is fast approaching. It seems as soon as my birthday rolls around, (first part of Aug.) summer is almost over. Did it fly by or what? I have noticed the "birds gathering" on the wires near our home and also in my travels to and from town.

The pond looks great now that it is more organized and cleaned out to some degree. The fish are still abundant and I will more than likely be removing a number of the smaller ones for the neighbor's pond. The little turtle is growing fast, and he shows up now mainly in the evenings when I feed the fish and helps himself to a morsel or two. His little body/shell is about two inches in diameter.

Certainly glad that the very hot, humid weather has passed. We did get some rain a couple weeks ago and a light drizzle yesterday, but the ground is still so dry.

Some of my tomatoes were between a small basketball and a baseball. I have no idea how they even grew to this dimension as I only watered them occasionally. But they are delicious and I have been sharing them. I found out last year that I am now allergic to tomatoes, and just about anything acidic in nature. I can eat a little, but then I start the itching. Bummer. I grew some Romas for my father-in-law and they are delicious too.

The peach trees in our orchard have lost a lot of peaches. I picked one yesterday and ate it. It was still firm, but the taste was great. I started itching about an hour later.

I have been working diligently on my sequel, trying to get it done. I have been up early (4-5 a.m.) with my mind running on overtime. I typed for nine hours yesterday and probably will do more of the same today.

We will visit a friend of ours today and take her a birthday bag full of goodies. She was my matron-of-honor at our wedding, and we have remained friends for all of these year. She brought me the neatest birthday presents on my birthday. Three little figurines that sit on a shelf. One is a blue/green peacock, a pink flamingo, and a duck (wearing boots) that I have set on rocks at the edge of the pond. Then she gave me a beautiful Indian doll, dressed in full Indian attire. I have it sitting on the back of my couch below the Indian picture I purchased out in Bellingham, Washington at a Goodwill store. The picture is really neat. It shows an Indian woman astride an Appaloosa horse, holding a child. Attached and dragging behind the horse is a litter, with various colored blankets on it. (My friend knew I have Indian in me.)

I have yet to discover what my Indian (Great-Grandmother's) history is. According to my Uncle, she was killed by a streetcar in Maine, after my Grandfather was born.

I did a Genealogy search two summers in a row (2003 & 2004) and covered a lot of territory, especially in PA. Found a lot of information, (some I wanted to know and some I didn't!) and was able to go back seven generations.

My hubby is gearing up to start teaching again on this coming Tuesday. He has a lot of kids between his two subjects. The most he has had in many years. (Freshmen & Seniors-night & day.)

I read a book this week which is very uplifting and interesting. It is called: 90 Minutes In Heaven-by Don Piper w/Cecil Murphey. Wow! What an experience! Great read!

Hope you have a great day, and a great week.
Until next time: 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow. '

Becky

Thursday, August 18, 2005
Greetings folks,

Well the pond is finished and looks so much better. The fish have more room to swim around and do whatever fish do. I have decided in the spring to dig out another pond over by the large Maple tree. Because the ground is so hard due to lack of rain this summer, spring would be the best time. I certainly have plenty of plants and fish to stock it when it is completed.
The little turtle, Herman, is doing well to. He was no bigger than my thumbnail when I found him in the gravel next to the marigold tray in early summer. Now he is about the size of a siver dollar and seems to be thriving. I catch him sometimes sunning himself on the large lily pads in the pond. Last week, while I was feeding the fish, he swam over and helped himself to a piece or two of fish food. Now when I feed the fish, morning and evening, he appears and dines on fish food morsals. Hmm.
The baby frogs are so cute! So far my husband and I have found two of them. While I was down in the pond cutting out roots, I glanced over at the edge under a rock and saw one of them. I gently picked him up and he was resting in the palm of my hand. I hollered at hubby to come and take a look at him. But, alas, when hubby was partway across the yard, the little fellow jumped out of my hand and into the water. Oh well.
My sister came up from Georgia on Tuesday evening. Her husband has company meetings and she drove up to see family. She came down early yesterday morning and we took off for the Sugarcreek-Amish communities.
When we got there, we found the restuarant we visited about four years ago when a lot of the family got together to eat there. The Der Duchman restuarant is fabulous! We both ordered the creamed chicken over a biscuit with mashed potatoes. When the waiter brought us our plates, we just stared at the size of the portion! The hunks of chicken were so huge! What a delicious meal! Then, of course, we had to get dessert. My sister got a piece of coconut cream pie, and I opted for the special, "Fresh peach pie." Yum, Yum...how wonderful!
We finished our lunch, and went into some of the shops across the street. Very nice.
We saw a sign out front of the restuarant for "Buggy rides" and checked it out. The cost was $4.00 a piece, so we decided to take the ride.
The girl at the desk at the hotel said the ride was about twenty minutes long. We waited a little bit, then the single horse-drawn covered buggy showed up and the passengers exited the buggy. I suppose you could compare it to a small SUV, as it could accomodate at least six passengers squeezed together in the three compartments of seats. I got in the seat behind the driver and my sister got in the seat behind me. We started down the road and I started asking the driver (Lester) about his horse. He said the horse's name was "Josie" and it was of the Standardbred breed. He stated the horse was 15 years old and had been pulling the buggy for quite some time. I asked him if he ever had her bred and had any colts out of her. Then he said, "It's a male horse."
I said, "Oh, I didn't check the parts to determine that, I just figured with a name like "Josie" it was a mare." He laughed and said, "I probably should call him "Joe" instead."
After about a twenty minute ride, (not really exciting or anything to write home about), we were on our way back when this huge horse fly attached itself to the horse's neck. I was having a small fit about this as I could tell it was upsetting the horse. Lester did stop the buggy, got out and swatted at the horse fly on the horses neck, then stepped on it when it fell to the ground. Thank you, Lester.
We continued the rest of the short trip and got back to where we started. I asked Lester if he was going to give "Josie-Joe" a drink of water as the horse was puffing and lathered. He said he was going to hose her down to cool her off. He got the hose that was lying near where he tied her and started to do this. Then he said, "The water is a little warm." How cooling was that?
We left and and drove to other shops in the area down the road. My sister bought a really cute tea kettle and I got some trail bologne and swiss cheese for hubby.
While we were on our way home, sister and I were discussing the delicious lunch we had. The subject of "instant potatoes" came up and how much we both detest them. She was telling me one time she was at a restuarant and ordered her dinner. She asked the waiter if they served instant mashed potatoes or the :real things." The waiter said he would check with the chef. When he returned he said, "They're real mashed potatoes, ma'am." So she ordered her dinner. When she started eating her meal, she tasted the mashed potatoes. She said they had an odd taste to them and determined they were instant. She called the waiter over and said, "I thought you told me the mashed potatoes were real pototoes, these taste like instant." He said to her, "Yes, ma'am, they are genuine mashed pototoes. When I went back to the kitchen I saw the chef pouring the mixture out of the bag that said, "Real Idaho mashed potatoes."

Until next time,

Enjoy life...it is a gift!

Becky

Thanks for visiting!

Hi there and thanks so much for visiting my website. Tell others. Thank you.
This past week was a reprieve (kind of) from the previous two weeks. We had a big family reunion of my husband’s side on Saturday, August 6th at our place. Lots of people, kids, food, and chatter. The weather was perfect and all went well. None of the children fell into the pond! (I am still recovering. Even though my body says it is getting older, my mind still wants to think it is young.)
On Tuesday I decided the small pond we have out back (about 2500 gallons) needed thinned of many pond plants. When I was down in the pond earlier in the spring, I noticed a lot of the plants that had grown outside of their pots had numerous, huge, and very thick roots clear down to the liner. Some of the root systems of these plants, especially the cattails, were at least six inches thick. Not a lot of space for the fish!!!
So, I got my trusty small pruning shears and started at it.
Wow! What a back-breaking job that turned out to be! I had to feel my way along and snip, snip, snip a little at a time until I could get some sections loose and throw them out of the pond. Once in a while I felt something (fish, turtle,??) nibbling at my toes. Hmm. (We have never seen any snakes in the pond.)
Tuesday I did the east end, Wednesday and Thursday I did the west end, (bog end), now I have to do the sides, plus the middle. What to do with the middle plant (something like a spiral plant), that has grown so much and covers the entire middle of the pond, is another matter. I may have to wait until late fall to do that one. The spatter dock, (pond lilies), are huge and about the size of a small dinner plate. They are very prolific. Even though they provide good cover and shade for the pond, they too may have to be thinned. The flowers they produce are awesome!
We have approximately 60-70 fish (Goldfish, Koi, and a few minnows-hard to count when they are moving all about) in our small pond. I did remove twenty earlier in the summer (some small and six larger, more aggressive goldfish), and took them down to the neighbors very large pond. I believe I will be removing more of the smaller ones this fall. Overcrowding and the spawning each spring, has resulted in far to many fish for the size of our pond. Just last week I noticed very small Koi that had to have been born this spring. They are about an inch long.
If you think fish are dumb, they are not. When I try to start netting some of them, they disappear quickly and stay away. It is a test of wills and requires a lot of patience.
My sequel is moving along slow but sure. With so much to take care of around here, it has been hard to concentrate on writing. Besides that, my proofreader is very busy also with summer things. I am hoping to have it completed by fall, and released before the end of the year. That is my goal! Please be patient. Thank you.
My husband is attending college up north for his Masters in Biology. He is traveling about 96 miles a day, Monday-Friday. He has a lot of studying to do daily. As soon as he is done with this last class, he will have about a week to get his room ready for the school year to begin. He teaches Physical Science and Physics at a local high school.
I attended a Writer’s Conference in Cincinnati in July. It was very informative and helpful.
I will be attending and participating in the 2005 Midwest Book Fest in Bellevue, Ohio, September 17th, 2005. It is being held at the school. This conference will be open to the public. There will be lots of authors there to promote, sell, sign, and discuss their books. I am looking forward to this event with great enthusiasm. Visit their website at: http://hometown.aol.com/MidwestBookFest/ for more information.
I start back to work September 12th, at the Victim Assistance office. I am looking forward to it.
Until next time,
Peace, Love, and Laughter to you.
Becky :)