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