31 May, 2008 Digging, digging

Planted some black cherry trees (oh, those rocks) down at the pond. Aaachooo, the grass & pollen covered my car! Had to order a new pump for the windshield washer fluid, and changed the wipers, as it sprinkled a little off and on all day. Pretty color, that corrosion!

Lloyd located another batch of baby birds. Don't know what breed. They're in the bluebird house, so do you suppose...

Jody finally got to dig with his handy-dandy track-hoe. Jamie came along to supervise.

Jamie photographed the rainbow. Nice, Jamie!

Breakfast at Willow this Saturday morning, John braved a little early fog. Thunderstorms in the distance tonight. Rain again.

G'ma Airplane

30 May, 2008 Flowers, Trees & Tech

Finally planted some flower seeds today. Sort of late in the season.
They might still make flowers, if the trumpet vine doesn't overpower them.

Walked down one side of the runway and sawed down sprouts that were
getting too big for comfort.

And I finally experimented with the vhs to hard drive to dvd
recording machine. It belongs to the EAA Chapter 1218. The
instruction manual is 104 pages long. I only need two functions, Come
ON. I copied two vhs tapes from Ted Businger's aviation library
collection and burned two dvds. Hooray! There are 10 more tapes in
this stack, then there are more at the EAA hangar waiting to
transfer. It's really easier than the translated manual tries to
explain (Chinese to Japanese to Russian to Swahili to Swedish to
English, or thereabouts, incomprehensible). Of course, it's not
hooked to live tv for recording. That's a whole 'nother ball game.

Another day. Wind blew. G'ma Airplane

29 May, 2008 Had to fly today

Had to fly. Just had to. Had a job. All the way to Willow Springs, maybe twenty miles? The newly installed monitor worked properly, and both cameras fired perfectly. Ready for the summer corn!

There's the EAA Chapter 1218 hangar.

Right rudder! Right rudder! Check.

Now line up on the runway, easy, easy... TOUCHdown. Check. That was easy, huh? Check.

Miniature rose, that's the wrinkliest flower. Needs to be planted, still in its pot from Valentine's Day.

G'ma Airplane, out.

28 May, 2008 Cat attack

Somebody asked for thump bump video of the cats, so here are a couple.








The boys came home today, well one of them. The other went home to Iowa for a few days. I mowed around the runway this afternoon, and Lloyd had slipped in while I wasn't looking. So he decided to mow some, too, before it rains again.









Happy Birthday, finally, Joyce! Around the World in 80 Days??? From Texas, to Kansas, back to Texas, back to Kansas, finally to Mtn. Grove... or something like that. (What can Brown do.... )




















Sunset photo, two cars in the driveway.

27 May, 2008 Not much airport stuff today

Not much happening today, although the wind was down and it didn't rain (after overnight rain, yes, it rained again.) I finished working on the monitor in the 180, after a couple of trips to Radio
Shack, and now it's ready for the summer "shoot the corn" season. If it ever gets to growing and shoosting for the sunshine! (No, there really wasn't a tractor under the airplane.)

The cats were tearing up the office again this morning, so I encouraged them to go on a "tire hunt". Smudge watched Briggs dive enthusiastically under a tire, for nothing, then Briggs found a terrapin. Those turtles must put out an aura or something, because the cats don't attack or make any playful advances.

Now, lizards are another story!

Blueberries are getting a little bit blue-er. Well, what did you expect...

Mowed again at home, man it was humid. At the speed that fescue is growing this spring, in two weeks, it has shoosted up about two inches a day. If it was really quiet, could you hear it grow?.

Enough from G'ma Airplane. Sorry John, no airplanes

26 May, 2008 Memorial Day

Quiet day at the airport. This morning the slick Cessna 140 that stayed overnight in the hangar (severe storms predicted and it was empty going to waste), departed for Kansas (it was raining out there, but not severely). Ben came out, we sat and contemplated how wonderful airplanes are, and a train whistled north of the airport. We made a bet on whether it was east- or west-bound. We watched the cats play follow the leader out to the tiedowns on a mouse hunt. We made a bet about which one would high-tail-it back to the hangar first when it started to sprinkle. We were awfully busy this morning. (Never did resolve either bet.)

I was working on the camera mount in my darkroom/office, and I heard
a strange thump clunk thump clunk, and I turned toward the open door
to find a terrapin ambling indoors, thunking on the concrete with its
shell. I took it back outside, fed it some catfood, and Bitty tried
to play with it. It wouldn't cooperate and flew off at a dead run for
parts yonder. Bitty had to settle for spazzing out in the tall grass
by the hangar door.

Jan and Jody shot these pictures of their tulip tree.. what a beauty!
We got through spring without a late frost, so the flowering trees
and fruiting vines are doing well this year.

The cats insisted on a late afternoon mouse hunt, so I went along
turning up the tires guarding the tiedown ropes. I found this tiny
snake coiled around and trying to swallow a mouse. The snake had the
whole mouse face in its mouth! I covered it back up and got the
camera ready, turned over the tire again, and startled the snake into
letting go of the mouse. So Bitty got the mouse and I got the snake.
I flipped it way out in the tall grass so the cats wouldn't find it.
I wonder what a sight that would have been if the snake had swallowed
the whole thing! I looked it up in the Amphibians and Reptiles of
Missouri book, and determined that it is a young Prairie Kingsnake,
common to Missouri (non-venomous, of course). So the cats have competition for their mice!

Memorial Day post by G'ma Airplane

Fonda's 25 pictures on the 25th

It just worked out that I picked 25 to post!
9:23, I think this may be the latest I've gotten out of bed in 2 1/2
years. However, please note, I was actually up at 6:30 when LAD got
up, got him situated, then went back to bed.

LAD was full of energy this morning and we piddled around inside for a while, then had a
picnic in the living room. It was too windy outside. Then we finally went OUTSIDE.

LAD drug every toy out that he has on the patio, we
explored the flowers out front, went to the neighbors and tried out
their swing set. The stawberry plants are still surviving, as well as
the weeds and grass...Zoe was hiding from LAD under the slide thing,
she was probably trying to stalk birds, but we messed up her plan.
Give a boy a water hose and he's good for the afternoon. I can't
imagine what our water bill will be this month! This poor little worm
was just trying not to drown.

This is what happens you you don't take a nap at noon, play out side all afternoon, then sit down
and get still at 4:00. He slept for a couple hours, not in that
position though!

We had big storms roll thru Iowa, the town of Parkersburg got hit
hard at about 5:00, that's north and east of us about 70 or 80 miles.
Later in the evening we had thunder, lightning and rain, but no damage.

Needless to say we didn't go to be until late last night. I was in
the other room at one point and LAD had gotten suspiciously quiet,
when I went to check, this is where I found him!