Enduro Racing

G1 and G2 raced a 100-lap Enduro race on Sunday afternoon. Their dad helped G2 get a car ready to race and AD helped G1 get one ready.

The car had to be gutted. With the exception of the front seat, the interior had to be free of anything that would burn.

It took a few weeks to get everything done.

Bars needed to be welded where the windshield had been.

Yesterday we rushed home after church to load the car up and go to the track.

Both boys were ready to race. 

The drivers could take along a passenger (or two). G1 took his girlfriend  

and G2's girlfriend rode with him.

Daughter counted laps for G2. I counted laps for G1.

G2's car didn't finish the race. G1 completed 98 laps in 33 minutes. He would have finished all 100 but he was a couple laps down when someone else took the checkered flag.

The weather was perfect and it was a fun time.

The cars need some work done to them. There's a 200-lap Enduro race coming up a few weeks.

And Number 7 Is . . .

So #7 of my truths about me is that today is my 60th birthday. Yep, that's right. 60! So how come I only feel like I'm maybe 50 at the most?

Son baked my birthday cake last weekend along with Girlie, then he iced it and helped Girlie with the tie-dye frosting effect. G3 and G4 helped put Skittles around the bottom border. The inside of the cake was tie-dyed too. What a fun cake! Thanks to all of them for making it a fun celebration.

And the 7 bloggers I'm passing the award onto are (in no particular order):

1. Miss Paula at Gathering of Friends

2. Nancy at Jessie and Sophia's Grandma

3. Angela at Pickles on Pizza

4. Christine at Faded Roses

5. Christine's sister Ninny at Ninny's Notes

6. Joycee at Granny Mountain

7. Darlene at Consider the Lillies

Award Recipients, I attempted to make sure that each of you do not have an Award and Tag-free Blog. If I overlooked that notation, please forgive me.

7 Things About Me - Well, Almost

Yogi from Yogi's Den gifted me (and 6 others) yesterday with "The Versatile Blogger" award.

Thank you, Yogi!

What comes with this little jewel is the instructions to reveal 7 truths about myself and then pass the award on to 7 others.

My 7 truths include (sorry, no photos for these):

1. My 2 favorite required reading books in high school were Scarlett Letter and A Tale of Two Cities. My least favorite book was Bridge of San Luis Rey.

2. Back in the day, high school seniors enrolled in Home Economics were given an exam with the possibility of receiving the "Betty Crocker Award" and then go on to compete on a higher level for a college scholarship. The year I was a junior in high school, we had no senior class. (It was a new high school and the seniors in our district were allowed to remain at the other high school in town.) My Home Ec teacher required the juniors to take the exam. I'm still not sure how it happened but I won the award for my high school. Seriosly, there was another girl in my class that really should have received the award. I've always felt bad about that.

3. Cooking is something I truly enjoy (well, most of you probably knew that) but what you may not know is that my favorite time and place to cook is when we're camping.

4. A lot of people have asked me what kind of camera I have. I actually have 2 that I use all the time. The first one is a small, point-and-shoot Sony Cyber-shot that I like to have with me all the time "just in case." Because it's small I can carry it in my pocket or purse. My other camera is a Nikon D80. I manage some fairly decent photos with it but I wish I knew someone who could give me some instruction on all it's capable of. I do have an excellent reference book for the camera but I'm more of a learn-by-watching type of person.

5. I have this ability to be able to tell when something isn't level. It comes in really handy when I'm scrapbooking or when AD and I are trying to hang pictures. Years ago I was sitting on the couch in the home we owned then and I noticed that the door jam was lower on one side than the other. I made a comment to AD and he said I was wrong. "Go get a ruler and we'll see." It turned out that I was right (I never doubted I wasn't) because there was an eighth of an inch difference.

6. I didn't learn to drive a standard-shift automobile until my daughter was in the 1st grade.

Okay, so that's 6. I know I need 7 and I do know what it is but you'll have to come back on Saturday to find out what it is and who I've passed the award on to.

Yogi, Thanks again for this challenge. It was a good one. Not that anything I passed on here is of much importance but tt really caused me to think about what I might want to pass on.

On the Trail

Yesterday I told you that Son and his kiddos walked some of the trails at Woolaroc over the weekend. He used my camera to capture some of the things they saw.





They told me that the name of this place is "Princess Falls". Girlie loved that!




Okay, so I just had to throw this photo of Girlie in too.




Much to Son's delight (yeah -right!) they saw this little snake slithering across the ground.

G3 spied something in a pool of water.

Can you tell what he saw?

Here - let me help you.

Frog eggs. How cool is that!

Judging by the way the kids and Son were sweating when they finished their walk on Saturday, I made the right decision by enjoying the exhibits in the air-conditioned museum.

Maybe when it gets cooler AD and I will take a drive to Woolaroc and walk some trails.

Another Trip to Woolaroc

I've posted before about visits to one of our local attractions - Woolaroc. Last September I posted here about taking Son's kiddos to the museum.

This past weekend they were here for another visit and we took the 3 oldest again. As it happened, Woolaroc was hosting an annual trail ride. There were lots of folks there with their horses. This photo was taken through the windshield of Son's car.

We didn't see any buffalo roaming around this time. I imagine they had been moved to another part of the ranch because of the trail riders.

But we did see some other animals on our drive to the museum. This llama seemed to be enjoying his lunch.

Normally we see the water buffalo in or near a large pond on the acreage. There were 3 behind a fence on Saturday.

This ostrich was certainly curious about all the visitors.

This deer was enjoying the day roaming about with some of his/her friends.

Later this week I'll show you some photos Son took. He and his kiddos went on some of the walking trails while I chose to visit the air-conditioned museum. Son took some wonderful photos of "treasures" they found.

Stay tuned. . . .

Gourds, Pumpkins and Toadstools

Last Fall we made a trip to Oklahoma City to see Son's family. While we were there we took G3, G4, G5 and Girlie to a "pumpkin patch." It wasn't actually a pumpkin patch though. It was in a church parking lot and a fund raiser for the youth of the church.

All of the kids picked out pumpkins and I brought home some bumpy gourds to use in some Fall decorations. If you've been stopping by for awhile you may remember I put some on the porch and Mikey thought we'd brought him some new toys.

After the gourds were just about gone I cut them open, took out the seeds, cleaned the stringy stuff off and dried them.

I put the dried seeds in envelopes, sealed them and stored them away in the refrigerator. In early June AD planted some of them for me. We've never done anything like this before so it was kind of an experiment.

The patch in the picture at the top of this post is the result. I'm thinking the big orange thing behind this green and orange gourd is a REALLY ripe left over cucumber. I didn't bother it since it's propping the gourd up so nicely.

Yesterday evening I went out to see how everything was progressing. I've been out there many times but this time I took my camera.

Son's kiddos brought me some of their pumpkin seeds after their pumpkins were all used up last year. This is the only pumpkin I've seen in the patch so far but maybe there are others.

I'm kind of excited that the experiment worked and we'll have ugly gourds and a pumpkin or two for the Fall.


It's been really wet here the past several days and while I was out by the patch I noticed a lot of toadstools growing out in the pasture. Here are a couple of little ones



and here's one of the bigger ones.

The weather is a bit cooler now and I can definitely smell Fall in the air. Yea!

Will the Family of Pepe Le Pew Please Go Home

Yesterday the groomer came for our kids' appointment.

When they were done each one was wearing a flag bandanna.

I'm thinking she did that because yesterday was September 11. I thought that was nice.

So all the kids had baths yesterday morning. And then Smoke had 4 more baths EARLY this morning.

Background: A week or so ago Mikey started raising a fuss outside. AD thought it was coyotes howling and he let Elliott, Smoke and Dani out. They like to help Mikey bark at coyotes.

Um - no. It wasn't a coyote this time. There was a skunk INSIDE the fence. How did that happen? AD said it was a little skunk. A little skunk with a BIG smell.

Mikey got the worst of it because AD quickly retrieved the other 3 and put them back in the house. That was Mikey's second run-in with a skunk. His previous encounter was out in the pasture.

Anyway, the skunk escaped from the yard, the smell eventually went away and all was right with the world.

What happened: Yesterday evening we went to G1's and G2's mini-sprint races. Regular sprint car racing was also on the schedule. When that happens it's sure to be a late night. And it was.

AD put the golf cart away when we got home. I went in the house and let the dogs out. WRONG move! The skunk had returned. Or one of it's siblings/cousins. I hadn't detected skunk odor when I opened the back door and AD didn't until it was too late. Not sure exactly what happened while the dogs were in the yard but AD found a dead skunk inside the yard. Mikey wasn't affected this time. Neither were Elliott or Dani.

Smoke, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. This time he REEKED! My question is - was the skunk already dead and Smoke went to investigate or did he maybe kill it. I did check him all over to make sure he didn't have any wounds. In case of rabies, you know.

Lucky for Smoke I'd talked to the groomer yesterday - for future reference although I didn't know it was going to be that close into the future - about ridding the dogs of "parfum d' skunk". She said she could order me some de-skunking shampoo to have for occasions like this. But in the meantime she gave me a recipe for a substitute. (She said the old "tomato juice" remedy doesn't work too well.)

So early this morning I mixed some up and AD bathed and rinsed Smoke four times - OUTSIDE. I can say that it really did take most of the odor off of him although he probably needs bathed and rinsed 2 or 3 more times and that will be done sometime today.

I haven't broke the news to him yet though. Given the looks he was sending me when we finally got to bed last night (early this morning) he's not going to take it very well.

Here's the solution our groomer gave me:
1 gallon water
1 (16 ounce) bottle peroxide
1/2 cup baking soda
enough dish washing liquid to make bubbles

Mix altogether and bath the dog(s) affected by skunk odor several times, rinsing them well between soapings.

Nine Eleven

As I understand it this Budweiser commercial was only aired once to honor the victims of 9/11. The company did not want to profit from the commercial, only acknowledge the tragedy.

May those who lost their lives that day never be forgotten.

The 100 Mile Garage Sale

Around here the second weekend in September means that it's time for the "100 Mile Garage Sale." It runs through towns in southeast Kansas down into northeast Oklahoma and kind of loops around in a big circle - well maybe not a really round circle but I think you get the picture.

AD and I have never gone before. He wanted to this year and this morning we got up and around to go. We didn't get an early start but we weren't really looking for anything in particular, mostly just piddling around. It was about 9:00 when we left the house. Hindsight is always 20/20 and now I wish we would have left at about 8:30.

When we got out at the first house we stopped at a lady had just bought a good-sized box of glass door knobs! She was telling the lady of the house that her day had just been made. I know it would have been for me because I love glass door knobs! Just to sit around. I guess I kind of identify with Bewitched's Aunt Clara in that way.

But that was ok. It was only our first stop and we anticipated finding other treasures. After several more stops it seemed like we might be wasting our time but we continued on.

I might say here that I can't believe how people were parking today! At one house AD pulled off a one lane driveway as best he could so others could get in and get out easily. He got out and headed over to yard sale while I chose to stay in the truck. My thought was I could move the truck if need be. Just about that time, 2 women pull into the driveway (mind you people were trying to drive in and drive out) and they just stopped and straddled the whole drive way! Their front bumper was up against our truck bumper so I couldn't have moved if I'd wanted to and the rest of their car was clear across the driveway totally blocking traffic. In order to get out people had to drive clear around the car and into the yard of the home. I should have taken a picture. Incredible!

On down the road we were just about to turn a corner when I caught sight of this sign but not before AD had turned in the opposite direction. I told him about the sign and he found a place to turn around. I just had a feeling about this barn sale.

We followed some more signs before we got to the barn. I don't know if you can see it very well or not but it's in amongst the trees there.

This lady had BUNCHES of stuff. Among the things for sale were 2 old Singer treadle sewing machines. She said the one with the more ornate carved cabinet was a 1909 model. Oh, my how I would have loved to have bought it but I just flat didn't know where I'd put it. It was in really good condition, so pretty and it was only $75. And it had all the attachments too. I thought that was a really good price but, like I said, I just don't know where I would have put it.

But I did buy this. This wonderful old trunk. I've always wanted one. There was no price on it and the lady told me to make her an offer. I told her I'd rather she give me a price. She said $15! Ok, so now I was interested but I had to make sure the bottom was still good. It was. The top drawer is missing, one of the locks is broke and there's a really worn leather strap but hey, for $15, I went for it.

I know I didn't have room for the sewing machine but I bought the trunk. I hope to get it all cleaned up, put a glass top on it and either use it for a table or maybe in one of our extra bedrooms for extra storage.

Does anyone have any tips to cleaning the trunk up? If so, I'd love to hear from you.

Continuing on our way we came across this flea market. You can't tell it from the photo but there were several tents. Some had really nice things with nice prices, some had junk pretty much. It was probably the best stop of the day but we came away with nothing. Not. One. Thing.

After that it was pretty downhill but we were getting tired and didn't stop at very many more places. Maybe we'll get out again tomorrow morning. It's supposed to be cooler. Surely there's more treasures out there to be found.

Make it a great weekend whatever you do!

10 Years Equals a Decade

G3 is 10 years old today. Ten years - a whole decade!

In those ten years, G3 has become a pretty avid reader like his dad. According to Son, lately he has been reading The Last Dragon Chronicles. I've never heard of that series before now.

At any rate, G3 has requested a birthday cake that looks like a stack of books and Son is more than willing to oblige. I'm excited to see the cake although it might be in pictures instead of in real life. I'm sure it will be perfect.

Yesterday G1 and I were at the mall so he could get a haircut - not that he didn't need one or anything - and while he was off doing that I took a walk down the mall to the bookstore. I wanted to see what other kinds of books they had for boys about G3's age.

I came across some of the Hardy Boys' mysteries. Son had mentioned G3 has recently read one of them. Now I, myself, was more of a Nancy Drew person back in the day, but I have read a few of the Hardy Boys' mysteries but it has been sometime ago - like maybe 5 decades or so ago.

The first in the series was The Tower Treasure and the bookstore had it on the shelf. I thought I remembered that one as being one of my favorites and bought it. (Shh - don't tell G3!) So I get home and very gently open the book so as not to crack the spine - that pleasure should be reserved for the owner after all.

I see the name "Applegate" and I'm sure I've got the right one but then I start reading about the story line and it doesn't say anything at all about "gold doubloons and pieces of eight". What?

So then I did a little 'googling' and found that the story I remember was actually Disney's adaptation of the The Tower Treasure. Oh well, so much for my memory. (But wasn't that Tim Consedine just the cutest!)

I hope G3 will enjoy the book even if it doesn't have pirate's treasure in it!

Happy 10th Birthday, G3! Enjoy all the books you read. The love of reading can take you anywhere you want to go.

PS. And for those who can remember back to the Mickey Mouse Club, here's the words to the song that went with the story I remember.

Gold doubloons and pieces of eight,

all belong to Applegate,

from buccaneers,

who fought for years,

for gold doubloons, and pieces of eight.

Handed down in a pirate's chest,

the gold they sailed for east and west,

the treasure bright,

that made men fight,

til none were left

to bury the chest.

So now the gold and pieces of eight,

all belong to Applegate,

the chest is here,

but, wait,

where are all the gold doubloons

and pieces of eight, pieces of eight, pieces of eight.

Enjoying the Weather and More

The weather has been beautiful here the last couple of days. I am so enjoying the cooler weather!

A couple of days ago AD and I were headed into town. As we were pulling out of the driveway I wished I had my camera with me because the sun behind the fog was gorgeous. I didn't say anything though. Then when we were about out the gate AD remembered he'd left his cell phone laying in the house.

Since he was going back to get it I told him to grab my camera too. I'm glad he forgot to pick up his phone or I wouldn't have this photo.


One of the reasons he needed his phone was because our contract was up and we'd decided when that happened we'd get with technology and add texting and the internet to our plan. We were going to get new phones while we were in town. This is my new phone.

With the new phone in hand I sent a text to Son, Daughter and G1 just saying, "What do you think?" It only took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to do that. LOL!

Within a couple of minutes I was at the dentist's office when my phone rang. I was there to get a temporary crown put on. Daughter had called to say she'd just got a text from me. I laughed and told her we'd gotten new phones and a package with texting. She was relieved because she thought G1 might have gotten ahold of my phone somehow and texted her with it.

By then the hygienist had her hands in my mouth and my phone was going off like crazy with text messages coming in. One came from G1 saying something like, "So you're getting with technology now!" and a couple from Son, one warning G1 and/or G2 that if they were playing with Granny's cell phone she was not going to be happy.

I really never thought I needed text messaging or the internet but in the few days I've had my new phone I've found that it's pretty convenient.

And I promise not to text and try to drive at the same time.