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Turtle, Possum, & Me !

Posted by Rick c on Friday, July 29, 2011,


Things show up in our yard and gardens, all kinds of things. Some of what shows up are appreciated, some are not. We generally like the various animals that come around. Frogs and toads, baby rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks, these are things that we enjoy seeing in the gardens. A few weeks ago a small turtle found it’s way to our small garden pond and made it his home.

“Oh, it’s so cute,” Marilyn said when she saw the baby turtle swimming in the goldfish pond. “I hope the littl...


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That's Me, in the Middle ! (Of the last century)

Posted by Rick C. on Sunday, June 12, 2011,


My Grandfather was the kind of man that you don't hear about anymore. He built
and repaired furniture in a building out back that he built himself, in fact he made some of his own tools.  All my life, as far back as I can remember, I have loved gardening, nature, and the outdoors. Today I was looking at an old photo (see the photo above).  It was a picture of my parents and me in my grandparents yard. In the photo I am just a baby. I hate to give away my age but the photo was from the very ear...

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Red-tail Hawk

Posted by Rick c on Sunday, May 29, 2011,

The large Hawk flew in a straight line about thirty feet in front of us, flying no more than five feet off the ground. The bird glided over a split-rail fence, then over a slight hill, and was quickly out of our sight, heading for a clearing in the woods. “Wow, that was neat,” Marilyn said. I had to agree. With a wing span of over fifty inches, a Red-tail hawk is an impressive sight to see, and this one was quite large.

We’ve seen many interesting sights over the years on our freque...


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You Can't Get There From Here

Posted by Rick C on Saturday, February 19, 2011,
 

“Where’re you goin’ Old Man?” That’s what the kid called me, ‘Old Man’, I didn’t like it but I let it go, he was just a dumb kid, maybe seventeen or eighteen years old. He came walking up behind me on the wooded trail, he and the girl. I assumed she was his girlfriend. She had long dark hair, and it hung down in her face. In her face I could see her youth and her innocence, she had a classic face. She had the kind of face that will still be pretty in thirty, maybe even fif...


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The Mouse on the Red Brick Wall.

Posted by Rick C. on Saturday, December 4, 2010,

The little mouse darted across the top of the three and a half foot high red brick wall which borders our back patio. I had seen the rodent the night before, and the night before that, scurrying across the top of that wall. I believe it was in July, or maybe early August, when I first encountered the small mammal. I knew I had to get rid of it before it found its way into the house.

I like to step out onto the back patio during the night in the Summer months. Sometimes you can see a lot a...


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The Old Lady at the River

Posted by Rick c on Tuesday, November 9, 2010,

 

“It’s an amazing sight, that’s all I’ve got to say, a sight for sore eyes, yes sir it is. It's an amazing sight.”

“What’s an amazing sight?” I asked the old lady. I didn’t know who she was, she was just sitting there on that fallen log, holding an old bamboo cane fishing pole. I was working my way up the small river, trying out several spots, hoping to catch some small mouth bass or maybe some catfish. I didn’t notice the old lady until I was nearly upon her.

...


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Today in the Alphabet News

Posted by Rick c on Saturday, October 30, 2010,

TODAY IN I.T.C.O.W.A.S. NEWS - (“It‘s To Cold Outside Without A Shirt“ News) I brought the last of the house plants in for the winter. I went outside without a shirt on, it was cold. I had goose bumps on top of goose bumps. The plants were fine, not one goose bump.

TODAY IN Y.D.C NEWS- (“You Darned Cat“ News) The neighbors stupid cat was hiding under the bushes next to the birdfeeder, just waiting for an unsuspecting bird to land. I hope it taught him a lesson when the walnut I t...


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'Bargain Bin' Plant

Posted by Rick c on Monday, October 25, 2010,

  

The year was 1978. If you are young, that was a long time ago. If you are old, that was yesterday. I was at the local nursery searching for a plant to set by my balcony window. An apartment was my home then, and I wanted to spruce it up. A nice tall plant would do the trick, but there was one small problem. I didn’t have much money back then, but I wanted a tall plant by the balcony window. The other apartments had one, why shouldn’t I have one?

At the nursery I saw beautiful plant...


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Black Bear Sighting

Posted by Rick c on Saturday, October 2, 2010,

We had a Black Bear sighted in the area a few days ago. A bear sighting here in south-west Ohio is very unusual. Only once every couple of years do we hear of a sighting. I wonder how many other creatures that “aren’t supposed to be here” may be living near us. I caught a glimpse of a large cat one evening about five years ago near the local soccer fields. I believe that it was a bobcat. Bobcats are not normally seen around here.

The timber rattlesnake is another animal that very ra...


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They Don't Answer.

Posted by Rick c on Friday, September 3, 2010,

“Hi fishies, are you hungry?” I ask the goldfish in the garden pond as I sprinkle their food onto the waters surface. We have so many critters in the garden. They are just as much a part of the garden as the plants are. Most days as I stroll the gardens I can see frogs, toads, squirrels, chipmunks, many kinds of birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and who knows what. I usually have something to say to all of them.

Yes, I talk to the animals, and I bet you do too. “Here’s some sunflowe...


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The Waterfall

Posted by Rick C on Saturday, August 14, 2010,

“Let’s go to the waterfall,” one of us would say when we were out of things to do. The waterfall was a special destination when we would get together as kids. That was back in the early 1960’s, when I was ten or twelve years old.

My friends and I spent most of our summers back then wandering the creeks, fields, ponds, and woods. There was a small creek across the street from where I lived as a child. I enjoyed searching for crawdads, frogs, snakes, and other creatures at that cre...


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Two Hours in the Life...

Posted by Rick c on Friday, August 13, 2010,


“Man, it’s hot,” I said to Marilyn, as I wiped the sweat from my forehead.

“It sure is,” she replied. Marilyn dislikes the extreme hot weather as much as I.

It has been in the mid to upper 90’s for about two weeks now, with less than a quarter of an inch of rain. We were walking through our gardens examining the effects that the hot dry weather has had on the plants. I have been watering most of the plants every other day for the past week, but this weather was taking it’s t...


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Ulitmate Optimist !

Posted by Rick c on Friday, August 6, 2010,



Below is a blog that I wrote a few months ago. I do not know why I didn't post it then, but here it is.

“How are they doing, have they grown any yet?” Marilyn asked about the pepper plants.

“We just planted them yesterday.” I replied. “How much could they have grown in 24 hours?” She is so impatient when it comes to the garden. Well, I say she‘s impatient, she says she‘s optimistic. Maybe she is right. Anyway, all the plants are looking good.

The tomato plants are looking ...


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The Ol' Snake Catcher.

Posted by Rick, the ol' snake catcher. on Friday, July 30, 2010,

I had already taken the trash can to the curb, it was Tuesday evening. Trash was picked up early Wednesday morning. “Would you run this bag out to the trash, please?” Marilyn asked. “It has all of my poison ivy paper towels in it”

A couple of days earlier Marilyn realized that the rash on her arms was probably poison ivy. It itched, it was painful, and it left small blisters on her skin. She had put various potions, creams, salves, and medications on the rash. In the process she ha...


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The Little Red Light.

Posted by Rick C on Friday, July 23, 2010,

Marilyn and I stepped out of the car, with the new camera we had just bought. I was glad to get it home so I could try it out. I wanted to document our gardens with photos from Spring thru Fall this year. There are so many buttons and knobs and doodads on these new cameras. I was trying to get the batteries in when our neighbo, Mr. Know-It-All (not his real name), came running up to us.

“What have ya got there, a new camera?” he inquired, as he grabbed it from my hands. “You’ve go...


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LIZARD - "I saw a human!"

Posted by Rick C on Sunday, July 18, 2010,

Here where I live near Cincinnati we don’t have many lizards. We have snakes, frogs, toads, but rarely do we see a lizard. The other day I looked out from the sunroom and saw a sight that was quite unusual. A little green lizard was sunning himself near our goldfish pond. “Marilyn, come here. Look at this.” I said.

“What is that?” she said.

“It looks like some kind of lizard,” was my reply.

Sure enough it was a lizard, the first one I have ever seen in the yard. And I have...


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Medieval Torture Device??

Posted by Rick C on Friday, July 9, 2010,
     

I’ve never had much trouble with moles in the garden and lawn until this year. Last week I saw several hills and raised tunnels in the yard, evidence of moles. As I walked through the yard I could feel some of the tunnels collapsing under my feet. “You got any idea how I could take care of this mole problem over here?” I yelled across the fence to my next-door neighbor, who was filling a small child’s swimming pool with water.

“Just make sure they stay on your side of the f...


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The Hummingbird and the Red Barron

Posted by Rick C. on Sunday, June 27, 2010,

The Hummingbird watched from his perch in the nearby willow tree. He didn’t dare wander too far away for fear of another Hummer entering his territory. What is his territory, you asked? Well, as far as I can tell his territory is a large area of our backyard with the sugar-water feeder right in the center. If a rival Hummingbird is fifty feet away from the feeder it is safe. If forty feet, maybe not so safe. The Hummer must protect the sweet nectar in the feeder. After all, he was the fi...


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HOT, HOT, HOT !!!

Posted by Rick c on Friday, June 25, 2010,

It’s HOT! Not “warm,” not “uncomfortable,” not “I wish it would cool off,” not "I need a drink of water.” I’m talking HOT, HOT, HOT! I’m talking “I can’t breathe” hot. “The A.C. is going to explode” hot. “Fry an egg on your forehead” hot. Do you get my point? It’s HOT. I need to cut the grass. But it’s too hot. I need to weed the garden, it’s too hot. Will I get the weeds around the fence cut down? I’m not really lazy. No, it’s too HOT! At least tha...

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A Garden Conversation

Posted by Rick C on Saturday, June 12, 2010,


“Hey, Big Boy“, I heard the Pepper plant say to the Tomato, “you look like this hot, humid weather is getting to you.”

“Of course it is!” said the Tomato, “I’m sooo hot, I can’t take it.”

“How do you think I feel?” said the Pepper. “I’m a Jalapeño, I’m always hot!”

“Hey Lettuce all get along,” a voice from the romaine row said. “we can’t all be as cool as a Cucumber.”

“Cool? What makes you think we are always cool?” said one of the Cucumber...


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Of Roses and Stars.

Posted by Rick C. on Saturday, May 15, 2010,


“Hey look!” I said to Marilyn a couple of weeks ago. “One of the rose buds has opened.” Yes I had been waiting for the first rose for a while, our bushes had hundreds of buds and finally one of them was open. As the sun made its way higher in the sky and the temperature worked its way into the seventies, several more rose buds opened. It was like in the early evening sky when you first see only one star, then a few minutes later several more. Then a while later you see hundreds of s...


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Garden Walk (Changes)

Posted by Rick C on Monday, April 19, 2010,


Everything changes so fast this time of year. Last month where there was bare soil, now there are tulips. Where there were bare branches, now there are leaves of every shape and size. I see colorful blooms and hear singing birds where last month there were only hopes and dreams. Marilyn and I walked our gardens today and took notice of all the changes. Everything was so fresh and new. “Wow, look at this.” she said as we examined our lilac bush. We just planted it last year, it’s only ...


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Our Redbud Tree

Posted by Rick C. on Friday, April 9, 2010,
                                                                           

Each Spring I enjoy seeing the Eastern Redbud trees blooming. They produce many thousands of pinkish-purple flowers along their stems. Redbuds seem to prefer to grow at the edges of the woods, we see hundreds of them along the interstate where the road cuts through the trees. I always wanted one in our yard, so about three years ago Marilyn bought me one as a surprise gift. It was less than three feet tall and quite...


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Babies in the Attic !

Posted by Rick C. on Sunday, April 4, 2010,
                                                                                                       

The masked intruder broke into our house, and wanted to stay here. She wanted to raise her babies here, in the attic! I had seen her around here before, in the garden, under the bird feeder, just hanging around. I knew she was bad news from the first night that I saw her. That darn raccoon was a pest. She knocked over flower pots, tried to catch the goldfish in our garden pond, and now t...


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The Honey-Do List

Posted by Rick c on Tuesday, March 23, 2010,

The weather has finally improved enough to get some yard work done, so Marilyn put that on the honey-do list. In fact it is #458 on the list. The temperature was in the 60’s today so I made an executive decision to skip #1 thru #457 and get right to #458, work in the yard. I scrounged around in the garage trying to find the pruning shears. It took a while but I finally found them, under my work bench. Right next to an empty beer can and two Big Mac Wrappers. I oiled them up and was ready...


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Daylight Stupid Time

Posted by Rick C on Saturday, March 6, 2010,


Spring forward, Fall back. Fall forward, Spring back. Daylight Savings Time. What the heck is going on here? I’m going nuts! Why can’t it just be 2:00 AM? But no, we can’t have it that simple. When it’s 2:00 am we have to change it to 3:00 AM. Or do we change it to 1:00 AM? I can’t keep it straight. “You will lose an hour,” the man on TV said. How do you lose an hour? Where did that hour go? I’m in bed sleeping and the next thing I know I have lost an hour. As hard as I try ...


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The Dandelion - And The Crocus.

Posted by Rick C. on Sunday, February 21, 2010,
         
Crocus                       Dandelion

There it was, the first one of the year, a darn dandelion. As I looked out from our sunroom, which overlooks the backyard, I saw the distinctive bright yellow invader. It spoiled the look of the yard, that darn dandelion. I went outside to rid the yard of the unwanted weed. As I approached the yellow spot in the lawn I suddenly realized something, it was not a dandelion. Not a hated dandelion at all, but a crocus, a bright yellow crocus was flo...


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Rooster-One, Me-Zero

Posted by Rick C. on Sunday, February 14, 2010,


I have done battle with many creatures over the contents of my vegetable garden. Raccoons, possums, birds, caterpillars and insects, I had fought them all. I can’t say that I ever won a battle but I have fought them all to a draw. The first ripe, juicy tomato of the season is mine some years, and some other creatures the next year. I had not only fought animals but also fungi, viruses, plant diseases of all sorts. I had fought against drought, heat, cold, storms, you name it and it has a...


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Dog? What Dog??

Posted by Rick c on Sunday, February 14, 2010,
 



The phone rang, I got up from the dinner table and answered it.

“Keep your dog out of my rose garden.” a ladies voice screamed, then hung up. “Who was that?” Marilyn asked.

“I don’t know, some woman said to keep our dog out of her roses.” I said.

“What dog? We don’t have a dog.” Marilyn replied.

“I know we don’t have a dog, the lady’s nuts.”

We finished our dinner.

Two or three days later I was out back planting some Petunias in a small garden next to th...


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I KNOW THAT LOOK... (Dirt-y Looks)

Posted by Rick C on Saturday, January 16, 2010,

    ""
It was our first vegetable garden together and, hopefully, it was going to be a good one. Marilyn and I just wanted to grow a few tomato, pepper, and cucumber plants. We picked a sunny location in the back yard, then measured out a plot about fifteen feet by six feet.

“Hand me the shovel” I said, as if those words were the official proclamation to begin the project. Marilyn handed me the shovel while giving me that “I-hope-he-doesn’t-think-he’s-going-to-tell-me-what-to-do-a...


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THE MOCKINGBIRD (Who Trained Whom?)

Posted by Rick C. on Saturday, January 9, 2010,

       
     He would hang around the backyard whenever we were out there. Whether we were cutting the grass, planting something, or just walking around, - he was there. Filling the bird feeders, watering the plants - he was there. Every time we were in the yard there he was. Watching us.

     “There’s Mocky.” or “There’s the Mock.” Marilyn would say. Those were our pet names for the Mockingbird. We enjoyed watching him chase other birds out of his territory. He would claim a ...


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My Wish Came True, "Bear-ly"

Posted by Rick c on Friday, December 25, 2009,

    I was thinking today about the first time Marilyn and I visited the Smokey Mountains. I remember that I was excited because I had never been there before. Marilyn said that she had visited there as a youngster with her parents.  As we headed south-east down the highway, with the radio playing the oldies station, I was wondering what kind of birds and other animals we might see in the mountains.   I turned the radio up.
     "Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' on the river"  we sang along as the old...


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Heading into Winter, Reluctantly. ..Time....

Posted by Rick C on Friday, November 13, 2009,
     Where does the time go?  Just two weeks ago the leaves on the trees were as pretty as a babys smile.  Now they are brown, blowing all over the yard, and as ugly as the wart on the end of a witches nose.    It seems like one day you are working up a sweat tending to the summer garden, and the next you are scrapeing frost off the cars windshield.  Time.  Time waits for no one, as they say.
     But Time better wait for me. I've got things to do and places to go that I have never been. Hey ...

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Our Overnite Trip to a State Park.

Posted by Rick C. on Saturday, October 17, 2009,

     We just got back from our trip to Hocking Hills State Park, about three hours N.E. of our home in Cincinnati, Ohio. The trees are near their peak Fall colors so the entire trip was a kaleidoscope of colors. Reds, yellows, golds, greens, browns, it was all so beautiful.  Marilyn and I stayed in a cozy little chalet on a hill overlooking the woods. With the fireplace burning and the comfortable furnishings we felt right at home. After we unpacked our "Stuff" we headed out to see what we co...


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The Sad Tale of a Little Duckling.

Posted by Rick C on Friday, October 2, 2009,
     I like to walk. Walk along the rivers, streams. through the woods and fields, maybe just around the block. But there was one walk a few years ago I should not have taken. That was the walk around the beaver pond in Fairfield, Ohio,   
     I had visited the pond many times. Sometimes after a heavy rain the dam would be damaged but the beavers would quickly get to work repairing it. They turned a small stream into a large pond by building that dam.
     Well, back to that fateful walk. As I...
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Autumn Is In The Air.

Posted by Rick c on Saturday, September 19, 2009,

     We still have a few peppers in the vegetable garden, a few tomatoes, and a whole lot of weeds!  Summer is gone , it's getting cooler at night.  It's time to think over or review what we did in the garden this year.  
     Several kinds of leaf lettuce were planted in late March, they did very well and we had quite a few "free" salads.  Well, let's see, with fertilizer, water, various sprays, and a lot of hours spent, I think each "free" salad cost about $16.99.   At least it was fun.  Nex...


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Our Search for the Pileated Woodpecker

Posted by Rick C on Friday, September 18, 2009,
     Marilyn and I set out this morning on one of our favorite local adventures, a trip to the Cincinnati Nature Center. The C.N.C. is about a thousand acres of woods, ponds, fields, streams, trails, and quite a bit of wildlife. As always, we were hopeing to spot a Pileated woodpecker, a bird that we do not often see. 
     Heading out on a trail that we have only hiked a few times, we were soon deep into the woods. We talked softly and walked slowly, scaning the woods with our eyes and ears. ...

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About Me


Hello, I hope you enjoy my website. Marilyn and I enjoy the outdoors, nature, gardening, hikeing, walking, and many other things. I think she would rather go dancing, but I'll stick with the outdoors. We feed the birds in the backyard, and love watching them raise their young. We put in a gold fish pond several years ago which attracts a lot of small animals. Frogs, toads, turtles, and other creatures call our backyard home. Thanks and please visit often as the site changes regularly. Rick

CLICK BUTTON BELOW TO ADD THIS SITE TO YOUR FAVORITES.  THANKS. 

 Click on article titles on this page to leave a comment at bottom of page.  Thanks,  RICK   

      Nature is my medicine.  ~Sara Moss-Wolfe

 

 

 

THIS DUCKLING DIDN'T MAKE IT.  SEE STORY. 

            FOREVER YOUNG

May God bless and keep you always

  may your wishes all come true.

May you always do for others

  and let others do for you.

May you build a ladder to the stars

   and climb on every rung.

And may you stay ... Forever Young.

                      - BOB DYLAN 

 

 Below is  "The Pill"  as mentioned in the story on this page.

 

 

 

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.

    Mohandas K. Gandhi

 

 

all original material © 2009-2010

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