Ridiculous Post

Here's some pics for a fellow and also errant blogger--such as myself.  He blogs at Birds From Behind since he has such a marvelous collection of bird butz pics, or as we in the biz call it, the tourist end of the critters.

On our way back from YNP this fall, we got to see a couple of huge creatures and just to keep Dave happy, we got some good butz pics.  Enjoy......?

World's Biggest Sandhill Crane, North Dakota!

World's Biggest Sandhill Crane Butt.

Watch where you step.....

World's Biggest Turkey, Minnesota

Watch where you stand.....

Not the World's Biggest Babe the Big Blue Ox, but a darn big butt anyway! Bemidji, MN.

March Madness, Our Way

This has been the weirdest March weather evah.  We're used to up and down, back and forth, never knowing what the next hour will bring weather in March.  But for the past week, it's been June here. I know we'll pay for this, but the payback sure won't be too bad.  The extra upshot for me is that this is the weather I don't get usually, because I leave Ohio before it's usually this warm, and it almost never gets this warm at Madison Junction.  Win-win for me.  I know it's just a teaser and tomorrow is forecast to be only in the 60s.... only in the 60s says she like that's crummy.  "Only the 60s" is still 15 to 20 degrees above normal!!  The only thing that could make this better is if the Whiporwills come back sooner and if the fireflies come out.  That's pretty much the only two things I miss from NW Ohio summers.

This year, I'll also be missing FTD.  It's official, he's staying home this summer. We still don't have a roommate, but if all else fails, I'll impinge upon the goodness and kindness of my nephew Rydie to stay here.  We have AC, his house doesn't.  Pretty easy sell.  And my niece, Sally Seam Rip-Her and her  son, Lil Ripper, have volunteered to come over whenever Rydie or roommate can't stay.  There will also be a trained provider from Lucas DD here, so he'll be fine.  But the best news is that FTD will be working 15 hours per week here in Oak Openings!!  One of the rangers, who was his adviser for his Eagle project, has been working with kids with disabilities from his HS for a couple of years.  She and one of the teachers there set up a summer job program with some grant money.  It almost didn't happen because getting most kids to Oak Opening is tough.  All FTD will have to do is to hop on his bike and ride the mile over to the shop.  Or maybe someone can pick him up, but we'll worry about that later. He doesn't really like being outside that much any more, but for pay he'll learn to be happy.  Awesome.

FTD and Ranger J on "his" boardwalk.

So now there will be three things I will really miss..... and he's number one.

Other news, he's started PT to try to get his posture straightened up... he's getting slouchier and slouchier, and there's no medical reason for it.  Sheesh.  And I'm in PT for my Achilles tendon, which I managed to bugger up last summer. Actually, the working hypothesis is that over the many years, I've had micro-tears in it, and it finally gave up the ghost last summer.  The PTs are really working it over, trying to get me back in shape before May.  Youch.

The arrows in this pic show all the places that hurt on my heel. Well, not all the places.......

The other news is that after 7.5 years, I finally managed to finish my Badlands Quilt!!!!  This is a big deal for me, since it's the first quilt I've ever designed and stuff.  I've done lots of others before I really had any clue at all what I was doing, so this is my first "real" quilt.  Only two or three of the corners actually match up, there's a chunk of one block missing, so I sorta glued some fabric in there, and after I got it all together, I realized that some of the pieces don't really belong where they ended up. Who cares? I took it over to my LAQ last week, and put the binding on all by my little ol' self yesterday.  Ta-daaaa!!!!!

My North Dakota Badlands Quilt!  Finally!!

For those of you from Nort Dakoota, you'll be saying to yourself, "Is that supposed to be the Little Missouri River?  Why is it blue, instead of brown?"  Artistic license, of course. And see the green along the edges of the river?  Pretty artsy-fartsy, eh?

Snazzy new quilt rack in the newly painted bright yellow dining room!

And you'll also be saying to yourself, where did she get that cool quilt rack?  DH and his bro did the oak, and he and I put the curtain rod on it.  Easy peasy, and super quick to change quilts. It does hang out farther from the wall than I had hoped, but it also gives a nice dimensional look to it.  Happy dance.

And here's one of the things I really like about our house.  The shadows.  We get all sorts of interesting things going on, like this one:

Beware the Buzzards of March!

Which comes about from this:  Buzzy the Buzzard.  He's a treasure we picked up at the Dog Bark Park in Cottonwood Idaho, in July 2000, on our Grand Adventure.  And that's General Anthony Wayne standing next to him.  They guard the house pretty well.

Did I ever tell you that we named our house Buzzard Crest?  Not to be confused with Falcon Crest, mind you.

And one last goodie:

This was DH's Father's Day gift last year.  He drove one of the yellow busses in YNP in 1964.  Have I ever written about that?  I'll figure it out eventually.  I'm also hoping to have someone make a similar window of Old Faithful.  Next year, maybe, when I have money again!

Turning 21 and Other Life Passages

My baby, my special delivery,  turned 21 this week.  He ordered himself a video game.  He asked to go to Friendly's for supper.  He asked me to make him cake and get ice cream. 

That's all of his wants.  At least that's all that I can tell he has, or that he can verbalize.

The kids at school all told him happy birthday.  His FB friends and family wished him well. 

FTD sitting on the shore of Lake Eire, enjoying the solitude.

That's all he needs to be content. 

It seems too little somehow.  While I'm glad he didn't get tanked on his 21st, I'm saddened that he has no friends with whom he just hangs out.  He still has 2 good buddies from his academic high school, but they are both in, or trying to earn the money to be in, college.  They still come over and play Pokemon and Zelda and something else.  They still engage in "parallel play," like toddlers do.  I want so much more for him, yet if he's content, what should I be wanting for him?


We've also discussed the concept of leaving him here this summer (but haven't even made a peep about this to DD, who will blow a cork), instead of dragging him to which ever park I land in.  DH and I discussed the pros and cons, and simply put, there are many more pros to him staying here.  My nephew will live here again, and with a certified waiver option provider hanging with him a couple of days a week, he'll be fine.

But will I? 

All moms know that their kids are going to leave the nest some day.  Okay, we're leaving him in the nest while we boogey, but still.  He doesn't get home from school until 4:30 and by 2:30 or so, I'm really missing him. How will I manage for 4 months?

I will be coming home for my BFF's daughter's wedding in mid-July, so FTD and I will have at least a couple of days together.  And DH will likely stay until Memorial Day, since DD says he wants to hang around until the end of school this year, since it's his "Senior" year and last at the academic HS. He'll attend the vocational HS where FTD currently attends next year, as will FTD, who'll only be there for the first semester, as he will age out next February.  So if this plan goes, I'll be driving to my park, and living alone for nearly a month.  Good news, bad news that.

DH was making squawky noises about how since we leave all summer he doesn't get anything done around here.  Um, he doesn't get much done when we are here, so that's a moot point.  I also cannot imagine ever again spending a summer in the heat and humidity and mosquitoes and ticks of NW Ohio.  When I'm too old and decrepit to stand for the 8 hours my job requires, I'll come home and sit in the air conditioning and look out my windows, but until that day, I'm outta here in the summers.  Folks around here who have never been able to escape in the summers don't realize that there's nice weather to be had in other places. 

Speaking of which, one of the other parks at which I applied isn't hiring any new staff this year.  It's a perfect location for a summer gig (even tho they have black flies).  I'm going to screw up my courage and call the other park to see if I've got any chance up there, too.  The calls are hard to make because I don't want to appear to be pushy, but I really need to know sooner rather than later.  And of course, my back up position is Yellowstone.  How blessed am I that that is the case.

If we do in fact leave FTD here, it opens the potential for a move to Old Faithful, if if if the one and apparently only 2 bedroom apartment is available.  I haven't been in it, but I hear it's smaller than our Madison apartment.  But being at OF means DD can actually get a paying job.  And DH can volunteer pretty much when ever he feels like it. He's not so interested in committing to a schedule, and um, well this is embarrassing, but even tho it's a volunteer job, some volunteers get free or reduced housing out of the deal.  We did in North Dakota and it was fabulous!  He was the Campground Host, so we got to live in the little cabin in return for him working at least 32 hours a week, which was a breeze and he loved it. (We'd so do that again, if the cabin were available.) 

Boy Scout Troop from Toledo raising the Flag at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Medora, North Dakota.  Our camp tender's cabin.

Our YNP apartment on a beautiful May day.

The housing situation for volunteers in YNP has been interpreted differently, so it seems that his working wouldn't be compensated.  Yeah, we know it's volunteering but the fact that some volunteers 'get paid' and some don't is kinda tricky.

Well, it's after 1 p.m.. Time to make those phone calls.....