The Squirrel War

Annie the dog, after a hard day of chasing squirrels.

Annie the dog and I are having a war with the backyard squirrels. I did not so much mind the squirrels until two years ago when they got greedy. Before that they would eat some of my birds' seed. Now the bushy tailed rodents want it all. They have broken bird feeders to assure they have all the seed out, they have chased off even the blue jays, and started gulping my hummingbird nectar. Enough! I declared it was combat time and Annie the dog agreed.

I have tried running at them while screaming nasty remarks, and I have thrown water on those beady eyed thieves. The squirrels laugh, tell jokes about me and come back time after time. Then Annie joined the hunt. She will sit at the back door watching, then she will stand up to allert me that the hated beasts are present. I open the door and the dog launches out like a torpedo. The squirrels, usually at least four, literally fly off the deck in every direction. Annie, realizing she has missed an opportunity at the short capture, races down the stairs barking as she runs. So the squirrels are chattering to each other, the dog is barking, fur is flying, and I am yelling, " Go Annie!" Once the dog is on the ground she heads to the nearest tree and makes a credible effort at climbing the tree to get the now hysterical squirrel. Annie the dog continues for several minutes to race around the yard trying to jump into many trees. She finally returns to the kitchen door to start the process over again.

These episodes are great fun. At least Annie and I think so. I am fairly positive the squirrels hate it, as their visits are definitely decreasing in number. Meanwhile the birds are sitting around looking on this whole exhibition wondering when in the world they can get some food.

Kiersten's fair news

Hi. I'm Peggie's grandaughter Kiersten. Right now in Knob Noster our yearly fair is here. I was also having a sleep over with my friend last night because I was in the parade with them. Her mom was helping with the eating contest, so she got one of her friends to come and watch us. Sarah (our nanny of the night) wanted to ride some of the rides with us, so she went and got a wrist band.

We wanted to take a break on the rides and play some games. At first I played a fishing game, I won a prize, but I didn't want it so I gave it to one of my friends. Then Sarah, Macy, Madison, and I played a game where you role a ball and a horse up at the top moves. I won that game, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't. I could have gotten anything I wanted from that stand, so I got a white tiger.

Then we got on some more rides. Then after one more game of the horse game it was almost time to go. We were starving so we got the biggest corn dog of all corn dogs. Then we started walking back to Macy's house. Macy's mom had gotten 2 funnel cakes. When we got home we had the funnel cake. We had about 2 bites left and we could not finish it.

We stayed up till probably 4:30 a.m. Tonight Madison is coming over to play.

Well thats all. Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kids now

The Hang-Glider ride with Kiersten, Macy and Madison

Come be a Kid Again

Bryce and Kellen---the ultimate of "kids".

Come be a kid again is the theme of our Knob Fair this year. The parade had some imaginative floats, the t-shirts were cute, and there was the usual extreme amount of candy thrown. Everyone was happy. Then, the carnival. We have a great carnival. We waited on a list, many years ago, to get this carnival. We have even moved the dates of the fair to accommodate this carnival. It has fun rides, winnable games, ok carnival food, and a slide. I love the slide. For me, the slide is like the Viking Voyager at World's of Fun-----just thrilling enough. After the advent of wrist bands, my children, and now my grandchildren have gone down the slide 30 times a fair. I have often gone down 4 or 5 times a fair.

Alas, my days of slide thrills may have come to an end. I went to "to be a kid again" last night and nearly broke my back. I should have heeded the warnings. Several people had said the slide was faster this year. I, however, thinking I was a slide veteran, ignored, what I considered, the amateurs and ascended the stairs. After all climbing those many stairs has always been the hard part-----going down was easy. I reached the top, the view was inspiring. I saw carnival lights, lots of people,and heard screams of ecstasy from the more challenging rides. I WAS a kid again. I put my feet in the offered sack, sat down and I was free-sliding. The first bump was fine, the second I briefly lost contact with the surface, on the third hump I was traveling 180 miles an hour and was truly airborne. As with all things up----I came down. I landed and felt as if my every vertebrae had been smashed together. I, of course, still slid to the bottom, where I immediately reclined. I could do nothing else. Lauren stood over me concerned. The carnival guy stood over me, mainly wishing I would move so the next hapless slider could descend. (He did ask me if I could move my toes.) Also, a young man I have know since his childhood was standing above me continuously asking, "Are you alright? Can I help you? Should I call an ambulance?" My back hurt---- I was thinking an ambulance might be necessary. (The shock and pain were enough I was not even embarrassed.) Finally, I got up, walked over to lie flat on the grass. Eventually that did help. I was beginning to have hope then of recovery.

Within minutes almost everyone I saw knew of my idiocy. They were also telling me ways to heal and of many children complaining about the slide's fastness this year. It seems the carnival got new sacks with "almost" magic carpet power. Great, but the landing needs some work!

I think I will be fine. But when I go tonight "to be a kid again" I will not ride the slide. I am, sadly, done with the slide. There are, after all, limits to my youth and I think that limit is being 61 years old.

Stuff moves

Some of the sun glasses found in the search.

We were together one rainy afternoon, when I reached for a bowl and noticed the shelf was tilting. One of the plastic holders had fallen and disappeared. It would be reasonable to assume the plastic thing would be somewhere near. It was not. No problem, I thought, I have a sack of those doo-dahs which have been in the same place for 30 years. Naturally I went right to that sack and repaired the tilting shelf. Ok, so actually in my search I found 50 or so partly burned candles, 4 bouncy balls, a yo-yo, an old calculator, 2,440 crayons, old phone books, two holders for plastic bags, gum, lemon Halls, balloons, a Manor Bread fruit cake tin, 5 pairs of sun glasses, 6 pairs of reading glasses, a compass, a hole punch and then I found some real junk. However, no plastic shelf holders. I know they are around here, but right now the shelf still tilts.

How can these things happen all the time. I really do not believe someone sneaks into my house to confound me by moving my possessions, that would just be too silly to contemplate. Therefore my conclusion is that stuff moves on its own. Gloves, glasses, ear-ring backs, phones, finger-nail clippers, keys---all hide when you need them. Then they sneak back into place so you will find the former needed item sometime when you are looking for something quite different. So my shelf will remain tilted until a future date when I am desparately needing a comb or paperclip, and instead I will find the sack of plastic shelf doo-hickeys right where they should have been all along. As I said, "stuff moves".

Bringing Mickey is Good

It took me five minutes to figure out how to do this much. I think it may take a year to add pictures and a profile. I just wanted "you children" to know I appreciate this encouragement, but I think all my creativity left with your adulthood. I will try to add a few observations from time to time for your eyes only probably. My first is VBS is still worthwhile. It may take a lot of adults, and there may be some very onery children who do not seem to listen. But they did all get the message "God is with you where ever you go." Maybe someday, somewhere, that will pop into their heads when they need it the most---and that is all we can hope for. I still love the songs, the games, and the silly crafts. One child took the bring a visitor so seriously his mother says he went back into the house to get his Mickey Mouse doll to bring. VBS may seem old stuff to us, but it is new and exciting to every child there. Life is still worth living and dance while you can.