PEE-YEW! What's that smell???

Spring must be getting close. I woke this morning to the wonderful smell of skunks. NOT! Did you know that the biggest predator of skunks is cars?  By the number of skunk road kill I saw this weekend, they must be coming out of hibernation. Good sign of spring coming, but not a good sign for us. Living out here in the country is great. Wide open spaces, wonderful fresh air. That is till the skunks show up. My hubby has a live trap behind our storage shed. He usually catches 3-5 skunks a year. He takes them for a ride to see the country side and then lets them go .Friends think he is re-trapping the same skunk again and again. I don't think so. I have read skunks do not have a homing instinct. I know they are good at keeping rodents and snakes down. But I don’t like them in my yard. Did you know a lot of people keep skunks as pets? Can’t image that. And did you know that there are four different types of skunks in North America? We have the common type in our area, the striped skunk.

You can read more about skunks here. Very interesting reading.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2307/

Have a good Monday,

Rose

Lady Luck was on our side.

We lucked out. The snowstorm that hit Kansas City lost some of its punch before it got to us. We only got about 4 inches of snow. Thirty miles away in Council Bluffs, they got 9. And the best part, the winds weren't even close to the speed that was predicted. I have a feeling this fellow would agree with me. He spent a good part of the morning coming and going from this feeder.

Northern Flicker

Another snow storm is possible on Sunday evening. Hope they are wrong on it, too

Stay warm and have a safe weekend

Rose

More on our very old house.

My blog on houses on the Underground Railroad has some of you wondering about my house. It was built in the 1880’s like a lot of homes in our town. From what I could find on line, this house is one of the oldest, if not the oldest. It started out as a two room house, with additional rooms added as time went on. There is a step up, about 2 inches, to the kitchen and about a 2 inch step down to the toy room/laundry room. Off this room there it a pantry with the door to the basement. The pantry had, at one time, a door to the outside, which we called the sandbox door. I had a giant tractor tire sandbox right out it, which, also, made it right under our kitchen window. Very convenient to keep an eye on four rambunctious girls. An upstairs was added around 1895, going right over the existing window in the dining room, not bothering to change it. Strange.

Stairs to 4 bedrooms

The glass in one of the bedroom  window upstairs, there are four, had 1895 etched in it.B. When we replaced those windows, I had the installer save that piece of glass and I have it framed, along with an picture of the original front of the house.

House with original porch.

We had to replace  the original porch in the 1984 after a tree fell on it. We later converted that into a sunroom.

House with sunroom.

Inside our favorite room, the sunroom.

 The house, at one time, was a duplex with each side having two bedrooms upstairs and sharing a bathroom upstairs. Can you image? No thank you. Because it was a duplex there are  four outside doors. It was a one family home when we purchased it in 1965. Over the years we have done a lot to this house. But nothing to the basement. We never felt like we needed the extra space to warrant the cost. Thus the basement is just like it was years ago. Cleaner now than in the past. Hubby does a better job of that now. Just ask any of my girls. Back then, we had a huge garden that included potatoes. We used the basement as a root cellar. The girls would argue who was going to go down and get potatoes when the potato bin was empty. Too many cobwebs for any of us. Now those are gone, but I still don’t go down if I can help it. Only if it sounds like a tornado is taking aim at my house.

If only this old house could talk, it would have a lot to say, I’m sure.

Rose

House on the unground railroad??????

I was reading an article yesterday on President Lincoln. It was a brief summary of the hardships he suffered through his life, the dead of a wife, a child, the civil war and slavery. Got me thinking about the slaves and their hardships. Not far from us in the town of Lewis, is a house confirmed to be on the Underground Railroad. I have always found this fascinating since we have always wondered if our house was safe haven for the slave and possibly one on the chain.  Our basement looks like it could have been a place to hide slaves. It has your normal steps going down but, at one time there was a brick wall closing off and hiding and underground passage. It was removed when a new furnace was added many years ago.

Remains of original wall

 Behind that once present wall, is a dirt tunnel leading to a ladder.

original ladder leading to closet

 If you climb up that ladder you would come out in a closet that is in the dining room. 

looking into basement from closet

trap door in closet

We always have wondered if this dirt area was a place to hide slaves when needed. They would have been hidden behind the brick wall and out of sight. Over the years, we have had school kids call and ask if they could see our basement and take pictures of it for a school project on slaves. 

Definitely food for thought.

Rose

Even in the fowl world-Friday Funnies

Notice that one seems to being saying," I told you, Martha, it was too early to come back." Took this picture when we out looking for the Eagles at Lake Manawa, Iowa.

Have a fun, relaxing weekend.

Rose

Lemonade Girl Scout cookies, Oh My.

 You know, every January I decide to lose some weight. Not just to look better, but to feel better. I figure, maybe, I wouldn't have has many aches and pains if I did. But boy, it is not the time of year for that decision. Okay, maybe there isn't a really good time of the year for that decision. Anyway, it really isn't. First there is my birthday in January. Always more eating events going on. Then follow that with Super Sunday. Now we have Valentine’s Day. Hubby always gives me a box of chocolates. You can't let them go to waste. Plus, I wouldn't want to hurt his feelings, right? So I eat. And who thought this was a good time of the year for Girl Scout cookies. The Girl Scout cookies we ordered came last night. Hubby ordered his usual, Peanut Butter patties and I love lemon anything. So I ordered the new Lemonade cookies. Let me tell you, are they delicious. I could eat the whole box in one sitting. But I am settling for two at a time. And, boy, that isn't an easy feat for me. 

I don't know if there is a good time to think of losing some weight but I think ,maybe, March first would be better then January first. We'll see.

Rose

Bald eagles everywhere.

It was a beautiful day here in Iowa. The sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing too strong this morning.  Perfect day to go to Lake Manawa State Park in Council Bluffs, to see if we could spot some Bald Eagles. Lake Manawa is located very close to the Missouri river. Hubby needed some new jeans, so we figured we could take care of that, too.

There were eagles everywhere.

I was so excited to see so many at one time. It was great.

And more. Glad it was so nice out. I had hubby stopping the car a lot to take pictures.

We spotted these two as we were leaving the park. Beautiful sight.

We saw over a dozen eagles on our drive. Very large, beautiful birds.

Oh, and hubby was only able to find one pair of jeans he liked. He buys by feel. If they don't feel soft he won't even try them on. Can't convince him that they will soften up with washing.


 All and all it was a great day.

Rose