Memorial Day Tribute

Memorial Day 2017

This is the day we honor our war dead.  In last year's Memorial Day blog I wrote how we had many service members in our family and none had died during service. They all came back battered and bruised emotionally and physically but we were extremely lucky that we didn't lose anyone.

My dad lost a friend thought during World War II.  Dad signed up for the Navy when he was 17. When he first boarded the LST 734, someone asked him if he knew what LST stood for.  "Of course", my dad replied "landing ship tank".  Nope, he was told it really meant "large slow target!".  Someone trying to obviously mess with the baby faced teenager.  Many on the ship were years older than he was as the military were taking men into their early 40s.  So he was happy when the first group of Marines they were to transport to their destination including another 17 year old.  Dad made fast friends when him and they enjoyed what little time they had together.  When the Marine was leaving he asked dad to look after his knife as he didn't want to take it with him and maybe lose it.  So dad said he would take good care of it.

Dad took great care of the fancy knife and was so happy when they went back to the beach to pick up the Marines. He thoroughly scanned the crowd of Marines but his friend was no where to be seen.  Finally someone broke the news to him that his friend was dead.  He never even made it off the boat being shot in the neck when he tried to exit.  Dad was heart broken and kept that knife for decades till it was eventually stolen in a home robbery.  I wished he still had it and would have loved to pass it on to that boy's relatives.  So as we remember today, may we honor the ones who gave all in service to their country.

Raccoon Wars

When I was younger I used to collect Raccoon statues, I still have a few of them.  Who couldn't resist those adorable masked faces?  They are CUTE!

  There are also a nuisance.  Especially when you have a decorative pond you would like to keep that way!  Jim is beside himself thinking of new ways to keep them from enjoying our raccoon "waterpark"just shy of barbed wire and a machine gun nest!  He wants to electrify the outer edges which makes me worry that critters that we want to use the pond like owls and rabbits will also get shocked in the process!  I don't want to wake to a war zone of dead bodies.  Thanks to the raccoons and their nimble fingers our pond is down 6 inches of water every day and needs constant re-filling.  We know there is a leak -somewhere thanks to the masked wrecking crew,  and it will be a pain to try and find it.  

There was a rock in the pond that had a perfectly round hole in it, we love unique rocks so we had it in a special place right under the waterfall and was thinking of putting a pretty tea light in it.   The raccoons also liked it and thought how nice, "they've installed a porta potty for us and would fill the hole with poop! If it wasn't so disgusting it would be hilarious.  Jim got sick of cleaning poop out of it every day and moved it to the bottom of the creek bed and they are still using it! Little hellions! They have over 4 acres of bathroom and they have to poop on our pond? Monsters! 👿

Partially screened pond

Poop rock

But I guess that is life in the woods.  Never a dull moment like yesterday when I turned our bedroom AC unit on and it made a weird cracking noise like something was stuck in it. Then all of a sudden a big scorpion came flying out of it like a bullet, thoroughly pissed off with tail curled and narrowly missing me!  Thankfully Jim's shoe was nearby I squished it and flushed it.  Sometimes we would like less adventure than dodging flying scorpions and cleaning raccoon poop. And rural Florida is one of the few places where you might hear a phrase like ,"honey could you please remove the wolf spider from the dishwasher?  That has happened more than once.  But this is our life for now till we say -ENOUGH! Time to move on and let young people buy our wonderland.  And that day may be coming soon.

happy Mother's Day to Moms everywhere!

Sunday is a special day for us moms, who have succeeded with what has been called the toughest job in the world.  You never stop being a mom, you are one till the day you die.  Like a quote from the movie parenthood" it never ends, you never spike the ball and do a touchdown dance, it's like your aunt Edna's ass it goes on forever and it's twice as scary".  Too true.  My mom turns 92 in a few weeks, none of us know how she made it that advanced age. She did everything wrong, she ate junk food, never exercised a day in her life, drank champagne and had a high profile stress filled career that caused heart and stomach issues. Yet she still made it!  But I know the day is coming where she will no longer be here, I can no longer call or visit, she'll be gone forever.  So I hope everyone out there really appreciates their mom today.  Here's to all us moms even the animal ones who many times shame us humans with their incredible love, devotion and bravery!   HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

The neverending story

There is always something to do at the domes. In fact there is usually too much to do.  We could be outside every day 24/7 and never run out of things to fix, repair, replace, etc. It can be and often is overwhelming. And I feel bad that I am not able to be a bigger help than I am. But there are always small things to do too.

My latest little job was cementing tiny stones into the empty spaces around our Swiss Sparkle slate walk.  I'm hardly a qualified stone mason but I think I did an okay job and it kept me out of trouble for a few days.

Up close

Down and dirty and loving it

The finished job

Our next BIG project will be having the domes painted. We are dreading it, big time.  Not only will be probably get sticker shock but the workers will be here for days as it will most likely take two days just to wash and prep it.  Who ever we get for this project will have to rent a cherry picker to reach the top of the center dome.  Of course the manufacturer of the domes (American Ingenuity Domes) says to attach yourself to the pinnacle hook on top and repel down the sides painting. Yeah, no, I can't imagine anyone sane having to or wanting to do that.  

And we even have to use a special paint called elastomeric.  It is supposed to shrink and expand with the domes as they adjust to Florida temperatures. And of course it ain't cheap.  A few companies make this type of paint, one is Benjamin Moore which I would prefer to use, but then again you pay for the best. So the paint alone could be over $2000.  We really need to have them done, pronto but are dragging our heels due to expense and fear of the unknown.  The neatness freak in me isn't helping either when I look at the domes and want them done -yesterday.  Patience is a virtue I never possessed.  And the artist in me wants to do something weird like paint them as mountain peaks! Gee, I wonder what that would cost?  If I have to ask I can forget it!  So for now my domes are a little grungy but still cool till we get off our butts and make it happen!  

Dome sweet dome