Monday, June 27, 2011

New home for Miss Bandy


I fretted over my Bandy hen & her baby turkeys with the same anxious hand wringing as she herself fretted over her own little family.My concern was, "WHERE do I relocate Little GAL ?" I had a cellar filled with brooder boxes of turkey peeps, pheasant & green egg laying peeps that needed relocation. The only reasonable spot was the nursery shed where my bandy was nurturing her turkey peeps.Every option had threats to her well being."Nope, a rat could get in there. Nope, the cats or a possum will get her in there". Low and behold! The TRAILER!!! YAY!! So now all is well.Evening chicken purrs fill the air. (:>

Good ol' Bandy Hens!!

I had a heck of a time this year getting my broody turkey hens to actually hatch out their eggs. Not that they weren't willing~ they just were in crowded tenement nests of 1 turkey & 2 chicken hens stacked up & bearing down on a multitude of egg combinations! Eventually ,several eggs would break and ooze between the other eggs and the legs of poultry mama 'wanna-be's'. By 1 week's end ,all would be pretty darn stinky ! So, I lifted the hens/turkeys off their nests, pulled out the OLD eggs, some unfertilized specimens exploding with the unexpected 'BANG' of a champagne bottle surprise and cleaned & wiped out their nesting boxes. They scolded me and fussed with restless turkey hissing. They freted over what they should do next.Chickens will peck my hand, but turkey hens only hiss & look disoriented.They have never pecked me.
Knowing what dedicated , die-hard broody mama hens Bandys are, I stuck 5 turkey eggs under her (Little Gal) and 3 hatched out.(:> The peeps LOVE their bandy chicken mama. When I check on her, her wings are spread out over her little babes and always one little head pops through her feathers, looks around at the world while staying warm and toasty from the neck down .

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Trains


What I need is a 150 room farm house mansion to support all my indoor hobbies.I have enough space for the outdoor activities but I love trains, O Guage die cast trains.Lionel,K-Line, RailKing ,etc.WONDERFUL, BEE-YOU-TEE-FULLLL Trains!!I despise dismantling Christmas decorations because it means putting the trains away.I received my first train set when I was 5 weeks old. The perfect age of appreciation for what my father probably spent his entire paycheck on.My Uncle Bob also loved trains and I was the very blessed niece to inherit his collection of his trains that he received as a kid in 1929 & the 30's.The above Lionel steam engine was his and still runs beautifully.It has copper trim .I believe this was his first train set in 1929.It pulled a set of tin plate freight trains & a set of red passenger tinplate cars.
I have added quite a bit to this accumulation that partially fills my attic.I began gathering Ives.Ives was a company from long ago. The cars you see here are 100 years old. They are tinplate.Ives went out of business during the Great Depression 0f 1929 thru the 1930's.It was bought out by Lionel and was renamed Lionel-Ives for a time, but soon disappeared from advertisement & memory.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Wrapping up Spring

This year's Spring will remain a CLASSIC Chapter of Events in my Historical Accounts of "THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED AND HAVE FOREVER CHANGED THE COURSE OF HUMAN HISTORY!" More impressive than Winston Churchill's 4 volume compilation of "A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH SPEAKING PEOPLES".Besides epic flooding, tornadoes,forest fires, droughts,earthquakes,etc,etc,~FIRST: Eddie (Troy, to his friends) graduated from Sussquehanna University with a Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design.Isn't he handsome?? (There are NO ugly people in our family.Anywhere.) SECOND: Emily,my beautiful grandaughter,was transformed into an absolutely beautiful princess on Prom Night and was accompanied by the very handsome Guanbo,the Chinese exchange student in her high school.(She hid her mucking boots under the table for a few hours)

And THIRD, the absolute heart stopper~~~~~ Ed,my sweetie husband,ACTUALLY WORE A TUXEDO !!! HOLY SCHNIEKIES!!! It is one of the SIGNS of the END OF THE WORLD spoken of by Nostradomus in cryptic form "The day will come when Ed the Resister will wear a tuxedo!! You must be ready..... look UP, for the END draweth nigh!! (Or was it Harold Camping that said that?? HMMM! Now I forget.) Anyway,HUH! He was SO handsome that I took 15 pictures. This is the man who refused, absolutely REFUSED to wear a tuxedo for 2 of our daughter's weddings.He wore his favorite suit instead.It took the airline losing our luggage & the cruiselines on our Alaska vacation to lend him a complimentary tux on formal night (otherwise, NO din din for him! (:<) until our luggage caught up with us 2 or 3 days later.Well, I always thought he DROVE a train, but these pictures make me think he actually OWNS the railroad and has been holding out on me.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Alaska

The end of May and the first week of June is the perfect time of year to visit Alaska.Snow is melting from mountain tops creating water falls everywhere.Temps are comfortable (56-72F)and mosquitoes,which grow to mammoth dimensions,have not yet emerged from their prehistoric lairs.We took a cruise from Seattle along that tail of land that dangles below the main body of Alaska and borders British Columbia.We explored fijords, coastal towns and museums and dined every night with the extravagence rivaling King Nebuchadrezzer's table.


While we were sightseeing, we were told that Alaska is only going to allow cruiseline tours 4 more years due to the receding glaciers.I suppose they aggravate the situation.I was very surprised to see how far back they diminished since the 1950's, according to a forest ranger's memories when she was a child.

Monday, June 20, 2011


One of my favorite movies is "GOOD MORNING, MISS DOVE", with Jennifer Jones . One of those wonderful black & white nostalgic movies of the past that made us all remember our 3rd or 4th grade teacher's stern hold on the classroom! I have a mama duck, just like Miss Dove. She puts up with NO NONSENSE from her little brood.Her peeps are only a few days old, yet they fully understand rules & regulations...such as standing on line in a perfect row."No talking on line" and ..."Follow me".

How is it that a baby duckling, only a few days old , can grasp complicated concepts? They have a brain the size of my pinky fingernail, yet they grasp the concept to forage for food at only a few days old. Hummpf! Amazing!