Rain!!!

Let the rain kiss you.  Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.  Let the rain sing you a lullaby.  ~Langston Hughes

I woke at 5 to the wonderful sound of raindrops and they did quickly lull me back to sleep with a smile on my face, until the alarm went off.  It is a wonderful 62 degrees right now.  What a wonderful way to start the weekend.

I took #2 daughter on a start school shopping spree while the rain gave my garden its life saving transfusion!  The rain had s topped by the time we got back but we received 1.25 inches!  

Tomorrow is suppose to be below 80 so I took the last turkey out of the freezer to make room for anything the garden wants to produce!  The whole week looks awesome with high 70’s to low 80’s. and more rain due next weekend.  I am crossing my fingers the weatherman isn’t messing with me and pinching myself to make sure I am not dreaming!  


And from the sounds of it I am going to go to sleep tonight to the sound of a gentle rainfall!  


I will leave you with some photo's since I have very lax posting any. 

Random flower pictures

Saw this guy and that song started running through my head.  The littlest worm, the littlest worm, you ever saw, you ever saw was stuck inside,  was stuck inside, my soda straw.  Yeah you sang it!  Now it will be stuck inside your head because it was mine!

We have two buck that visit every day.  The man calls this four pointer Bullwinkle after the show because his antlers go straight out to the side.  

This eight pointer he just calls Dinner...we will see come December.

Now I am going to go listen to the rain.

Low profile

Predators make it much more difficult to find consensus. It's a lot easier to agree about birds and plants than about animals that endanger people and livestock. ~ Gale Norton

Rooster ... "Shhhhhhhhhhh  I have been keeping a low profile.  Saving my neck is what I've been doing.  I will let my scratch dealer tell you our story."

Farmer....Earlier in the summer we bought some baby turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens.  They got big but not big enough to go in the coop and pasture with the adults.  We made a temporary shelter for them using a dog crate with a sheet of plywood thrown over the top and their own fenced yard inside the fenced pasture.  They were locked in the dog crate every night which was in a 6 foot locked fenced area.   But something came and killed 3 turkeys and 4 chickens, by grabbing threw the openings and decapitating them.  Then it completely gutted one.   

So we put the crate into the coop, letting the remaining small ones into their own area during the day and putting them safely away in the pen inside the coop at night.  And we put up the trail cam to see what our problem was.  We didn't have long to wait.

It was a raccoon.  Now the coop has a full size front door and a small door on the side that slides up.  Part of our barn was an old school house and the coal shed is what my parents converted into a chicken coop.  A week later the raccoon slid the wooden side door up, got inside the coop and killed a baby duckling that my larger duck hatched and killed four of my larger chickens which were roosting in the rafters.  Again only one was gutted the rest were left with their heads bit off.  I probably would not be as upset if they were all eaten.  

Needless to say Mrs. Raccoon has now gone on to that happy hunting ground in the sky.  Add to this a fox which has been picking off the adult ducks and I was almost out of the chicken/egg business.  My animals are free range within a couple of acres of fenced pasture.  At first it was the sheep/goat fencing the fox could slip through.  When smaller fencing was added around the bottom they dug under and if a trap was set there they dug somewhere else.  The fox will soon go visit the raccoon, it is just a matter of time. I grew up on a dairy farm and while young my parents raised several fawns.  I have a great appreciation for wildlife but when no deterrent works than it is me/mine or them.  Luckily for Rooster I like him.

Rooster... "And now that I can stick my head up again with out fear of getting it bit off I will let them continue to crow about their other doings...."

Farmer... In other farm news, we used hog panels and sectioned off a 1/4 acre of additional pasture for the pigs.  We have everything needed to build a new chicken coop…now we just need the time.  You know that old saying "be careful what you wish for"?  Well the man may have extra time as his job is thinking of laying off workers and cutting hours of others.  A decision was suppose to be made today but nothing was said so we wait and worry.

It has just been disgustingly hot and we are in desperate need of rain.  Last night it rained  1/4 inch...not much but I am not complaining.  Some rain is better than none.  I have resorted to watering my garden to the risk of my well.  But the heat and lack of rain is taking a toll.  After a late start my tomatoes are just getting tomatoes.  My beans have yet to flower but I have been harvesting broccoli.  The blackberries are ripening so I have been picking and freezing until I feel like making jam.

The knitting bug has bit me again.  I finished the Afternoon Tea shawl.  I also finished four hats and a fifth is on the needles.  And I finished off a bobbin of the cotswold.  Hey if the winter is as cold as the summer is hot we will need all this!

They are growing up

“Summer will end soon enough, and childhood as well.” ― George R.R. Martin

#2 son is 16.  Having just received his learner’s permit he is more than willing to go anywhere with me now!  Grocery shopping is no longer mundane, it is an adventure. 

Before school let out for the summer he signed up for the Army  (I haven’t signed yet but this is what he wants).  If all goes as planned, next summer he will do his basic training and then his advanced training right after graduation.  So this is his last summer of “childhood.”  He says he wants to really enjoy this summer. 

He was talking to a friend’s husband about gardening/beekeeping.  Tobacco was mentioned so he researched different kinds, their uses and curing process needed.  He finally settled on an heirloom variety, bought it, sowed them, transplanted them into larger pots and has now transplanted them into the garden.  Not wild about his choice of what to grow since we can’t eat it.   I am glad that it has sparked and interest in gardening and that he is out there with me a lot more so I can’t complain.  He has been helping more at the barn and the house (dormers are finally being added) along with working his summer job.   I am hoping to bribe him and his friends into painting the milk house this summer! 

#2 daughter is starting her senior year of high school in September.  She babysits several days/nights per week.  Her one customer is taking her along on their summer vacation to North Carolina.  She is going to Florida on her class trip in November.  When not working she has been helping control the weeds.  Of course she is the first to suggest taking a break and going for a swim too!  

But lest you say all work and no play…we have been fishing/swimming.  Jake Owens is playing at the fair in the next county so the kids have tickets for that.  And Jason Aldean with Luke Bryan are playing at the old Woodstock site.  Plans are being discussed for another charter fishing trip…salmon would be nice, just in case they want some input!  One of the man’s co workers went clamming and brought us home some which turned into New England clam chowder. I could get into some clam digging and I want to go to the Corning Museum but scheduling everyone to have the same day off is getting crazy.  For the first time in the twelve years the man and I have been together we have been eating dinner alone!  I am going to have to learn to cook smaller portions or eat the same thing for a couple of days!

So we are only 1 ½ weeks out of the school year.  The garden after a late start has taken off, unfortunately the weeds have too.  Blackberries look abundant if I can keep the birds from them.  #2 son’s boss has property with blueberries which he said we can pick so we are waiting on them.

The weather continues its erratic behavior.  It was in the 90’s last week, 70 yesterday and will be 90 before Friday.  It was 49 this morning.  Some knitting (in front of the fan) is being done when it is too hot to do anything else.  It is the Afternoon Tea shawl.  I have also been carding and spinning some Cotswold.  I have a ton of roving so why am I working on something that needs more work?  I have no clue.

The animals are getting bigger.  I let the duck hatch out some eggs so we have four little ducklings running around.  I truly love this time of year regardless of the weather.  I love the new animals, eating out of the garden, eating outside, fireflies, curtains blowing in the breeze…not so much love going out to the mosquito’s, ticks and snakes. 

So time is wasting so I better go do the barn chores.  Hope everyone is enjoying their summer...before it's gone.

IMHO

"This too shall pass."

Usually I am mild mannered and while something might bother me today it won’t tomorrow so I tend not to give it much attention....this too shall pass.  However, once in a while things tend to stick in my craw.  To some it might be mundane but this time it is the definition of farmer. 

 

Last Wednesday, I was reading an article which stated that they (writer and family) could not afford to eat their lamb or eggs as doing so meant less to sell which took monies away from the hay and feed bill.  I guess the farm was for production and not consumption.  The writer spoke in a tone of disgust on the very nerve of  just anyone with a garden and a couple of chickens thinking of themselves as a farmer.  Nose in the air about the whole “know your farmer and where your food comes from” movement with stupid questions, and hobby farmers who don’t require a profit to stay in business and even worse are those whom buy starter flocks from them only to become competitors.

Well damn where to start…

Wikipedia  defines a farmer as a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including including livestock, husbandry, and growing crops, such as produce and grain.  But some will argue that Wikipedia is not a reliable source so moving on....

Merriam Webster defines a farmer as a person who cultivates land or crops or raises animals (as livestock or fish)

Business Dictionany defines a farmer as an individual whose primary job function involves livestock and/or agriculture.

Not one single definition mentions how much land has to be cultivated or how many animals one has to raise in order to have this esteemed title.  And I didn’t see a thing where it said you weren’t a farmer unless you made a profit.

So far as the “know your farmer”, “know where your food comes from”, locavore movement, it has saved many a farm.  Instead of condemning the very people they market too they should pull the pitchfork out of their sanctimonious ass and find out exactly what those annoying buyers want to buy and then they might be able to eat one of their own eggs.  Many businesses have gone south not because of a poor product but because of the owner’s themselves being small minded and arrogant.  Being bitchy about people coming to your farm and asking “stupid questions” is not a marketing technique I ever heard of.  I was always told there was no stupid question and it was better to ask than be ignorant.

If Mr. Lives down the road wants to buy a starter flock, the writer does not need to sell to them but can market the lambs for meat.  Mr. Lives down the road will buy from someone else and will still be their competitor.  If their product is as good as they think it is than it will speak for its self and any customer lost will return. However, if Mr. Lives down the road makes their flock/product better, markets it the right way and doesn’t talk about their clients like dirt bags than they will eventually shut the writer down.  The writer forgets that they became a competitor to whomever they bought their starter flock from also.

My family is a bunch of farmers.  We lay new/mend/replace fence lines, haul grain/hay/water, are there when lambs are born/chicks & ducks hatch, we give shots, shear, trim hooves, shovel shit, collect eggs, kill, pluck, skin and eviscerate animals.  We till, plant, weed, harvest and can/dehydrate/freeze a large garden.  The man works “off the farm” to provide the insurance and monies needed to operate the farm. There are very few farms around here on which both the husband and wife are able to stay home.  My farm is not profitable because I don’t choose to make it so.  My farm is for my consumption.  If I have extra I sell it.  However I think it is asinine to have chickens that lay eggs only to sell them and then take that money and go buy an inferior product. 

IMHO a farmer was just someone who raised animals/food for their own consumption and sold the extra.  I guess while I was busy shoveling shit I missed the post it that said one had to be self sacrificing in order to be a “farmer”.  

Busy as a bee

"Steady as a clock, busy as a bee and cheerful as a cricket" ~Martha Washington

The past couple of days have been noisy and busy with the house full to capacity.  The kids came home from school last Thursday and didn’t return until Wednesday.  #1, Sir T and Baby O (love being a Grandma!)  arrived Friday evening and didn’t leave until Wednesday night and the man had a three day weekend.

The weather was disgustingly hot and humid but thankfully is back to normal.

A couple of things got checked off the To Do List… The lawn was mowed, a shed came down and was hauled to the burn pile, about 1/3 of the garden was weeded and tilled and a storage trailer completely cleaned out.  But since all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, there were three separate fishing trips to the river, some swimming, some gallivanting with friends, and a family baseball game.

And if that wasn’t enough to tuck into one weekend there was some other excitement.  In the wizard of Oz it goes, lions and tigers and bears Oh My!  Well around these parts it has been… turtles, snakes and bears Oh My!

A box turtle seems to have made my lawn his/her home.  We have carried it up into the woods and yet it returns each time.  So we have to be careful when mowing so as not to run him over.  Snakes on the other hand I don’t mind running over.  And snake skins abounded this weekend, several in the yards and a big one by the river.  But I would prefer to see the skins instead of the live water snakes while fishing or the rattle snake on the road below the barn.

And yet all of these are tame compared to the bear.  #1 daughter was outside with Baby O on her hip when she saw our cat scrunched down as if stalking something.  She walked over to see what he was getting ready to pounce on and less than 100 feet away was a bear.  She came running in and we went to make sure the bear would

leave the baby chicks, ducks, turkeys and geese alone and not make a meal of them.  

WHAT?!?!?

Mr. Bear calmly walked up the hill into the woods behind the house.  He was a big bear, on all fours he would have measured hip high on me.   

So things are slowly returning to as “normal” as things can be around here.  #2 son starts his new job tonight, #2 daughter is continuing to babysit several days/nights each week.  They only have eight days left before summer vacation and “normal” will take on a whole new meaning.

But it is 45 degrees now and rain is due so I am heading to the garden to get something constructive done.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Caveat Emptor

Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. ~Will Rogers

#1 daughter always tells me to read the reviews.  For the most I have been following her advice.  But on occasion I just plow ahead.  Recently I used bad judgment and had a bad experience.

My son recently celebrated his 27^th birthday.  As him and A are landscaping their yard I decided to buy a $100 gift certificate from Jackson & Perkins.  They have some amazing roses.  My mother had bought plants from them once and I had used them once before for a gift certificate. 

So I ordered an email gift certificate to be emailed to me to put in the birthday card.  I printed off the receipt and I waited for the certificate to come in the mail.  We had plans for dinner at their house on the 5/9 but thankfully they were cancelled because by this time all I had received was an email that day stating the order was being processed. 

On Mother’s Day I was forced to give him his card with the receipt/email and a promise to call the company to straighten it out. 

So Monday finds me on the phone explaining I haven’t received the gift certificate and was told they had done a   “huge computer change over and we are finding not everything went through”.  I asked if my order was lost for good and should I reorder.  I was told that was a good question and one she couldn’t answer but she would have a manager contact me.  I waited because I am a very patient person.

I waited until Thursday and then I called back.  I explained I had been waiting on a manager to call and explained why.  Jennifer transferred me to Alicia, the manager.  After explaining everything she asked for my order number and put me on hold to check.  While on hold I checked to see of the monies had been taken from my account.  Alicia came back on to say the order had gone through so there was no need to re-order.  I said the money hadn’t been taken from my account and was told that it would be and to expect the email gift certificate within 24-48 hours.  So I waited because I am a very patient person.

 I waited until Tuesday at which time the money had not been taken and no gift certificate received.   I called and spoke to Alfia.  After explaining everything (again) and asking same question I was told that Alicia was not in but she would have her call me.  I asked to speak to another manager but was told there is no other manager, nobody above her!?!!?!?!?!?  I told her that I would not hold my breath waiting on a call because I had waited days for a manager to call me back before.  And don’t ya know I am lucky I didn’t because I had to call them back at 5:09 PM. 

April answered the phone and I asked to speak to Alicia.  April asked for my name, which I only gave it to her.  She then asked if Alicia was expecting my call.  I must say that by this time I was no longer patient.  This company was reminding me of an ex-boyfriend and his excuse du jour(s).  So I told April that no she was not expecting my call but I had been expecting a call from her and explained the whole episode again.  She said “well let me see if she is still here” which made me say that she better be because otherwise she worked better hours than bankers.

So I was put on hold to listen to sounds of nature purportedly used to calm one’s nerves.  Wasn’t working! 

Alicia, unlike Elvis, had not left the building and finally picked up the phone.  I explained who I was and her part in this whole scheme.  I told her I need to know if the order went through, was still lost in their computer somewhere with access to my monies, or if I should order another gift certificate thereby giving them access to $200 of mine.  She said “Would you like to cancel the order” upon which I replied “Woman that is the most intelligent thing your company has said to me.  Yes cancel the order”

So Alicia, Alfia, April, Jennifer and Jackson & Perkins are now gone never to return again just like the ex-boyfriend!

I called son, apologized and explained everything.  Him and the man work together so I just wrote out a check, sent it into work with the man and he can go to a local garden center.

But this got me thinking that I can’t be the only idiot that this happened to and decided to check reviews.  I can hear #1 daughter in my ear “You should have done it to begin with.”  Here is what I found…

http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/33/#b

and you can read some of their experiences here http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/comments.php?compid=33&type=3#b

http://www.yelp.com/biz/jackson-and-perkins-company-greenwood

And then I checked the Better Business Bureau because after reading this I knew they had to have heard of them and they did!  They have an F rating.

http://www.bbb.org/nw-south-carolina/business-reviews/plants-retail/jackson-perkins-in-hodges-sc-11005417/

So I am putting this out there so that maybe someone else will benefit from it.  Also know that the conglomerate includes

Park Seed Company

Wayside Gardens

Harry & David

This is why they say shop local.  You know them, they know you.  And it proves that you are never too old to learn some very valuable lessons.   Caveat Emptor and check reviews!

A little land & sea

“ In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove; In the Spring a  young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love” ~ Lord Alfred Tennyson

It is 55 degree’s and showery.   Knowing that it is going to be the norm for the next couple of days I spent a few minutes yesterday taking pictures of the iris that were blooming.  

Pale yellow ones that my grandmother planted  40+ years ago 

Huge ones from my mom

and some my friend gave me that her mom had planted years ago.

And to my surprise I am finally going to be rewarded for my patience by blooming wisteria.  

Several  year’s ago I realized that what I thought were grape vines climbing through the trees on my grandmothers neglected property was wisteria!  I transplanted a small vine in my yard and waited…and waited …and waited but now I just have to wait for the flower to open.

The man, #1 son, #2 son and Sir T went out on a charter boat this weekend.  The man didn’t catch a thing but #1 son caught one bluefish and #2 son caught four and got bit!  Sir T never even baited a hook as he spent eight hours bowing to the stainless steel head after succumbing to the urge to purge seasickness.  And I am sure while in the midst of it he had to be thinking….”I paid for this for this agony?!”   If anyone would have thought beforehand they would have had some Dramamine but even the captain of the ship doesn’t keep it on hand.  They intend to go back out another time, maybe a shorter trip to see how Sir T does while on the meds.  They are also thinking of doing a salmon fishing charter.

While they took the weekend off #2 daughter babysat both days and I mowed several acres, repotted about 40 tomato plants, sorted through some fleece that was given to me and roto-tilled a friend’s garden.  Saturday evening #2 daughter and I picked up our Chinese dinner, came home to catch up on a show we have been missing and enjoyed a man-free house. 

After  running around all weekend  I am enjoying the more mundane moments spent cleaning and doing laundry today.  I gleaned some rhubarb from my friend and made rhubarb lemonade concentrate.  I had pinned this recipe a while ago and was waiting for the rhubarb.  I mixed a glass from some that wouldn’t fit in a jar and I will be making more of this....after I try canning the rhubarb pie filling that I pinned.

And I have been knitting...nothing big just garter stitch  but it feels good to have the needles back in my hands, so I am heading toward my chair now.

Springs Meanderings

Spring is not the best of seasons.

Cold and flu are two good reasons;

wind and rain and other sorrow,

warm today and cold tomorrow.

~Author Unknown

The past month has seen windy….to the point that I was starting to hate my wind chimes!  I have several and they had been going non-stop during the day.  I was surprised they didn’t blow away, like the trash cans or the tarp covering the wood pile.

It has seen rain… to the point that my garden has yet to be tilled.  At first I didn’t till because it was sooo dry and windy I was afraid my topsoil would end up in a neighboring state.  Then it rained.  Before the ground got dry enough to till, it rained again.  And this morning we woke to 34 degrees.

In March when we had such unseasonably warm temperatures I thought Spring would rush in with wild abandonment.  But we had some frost and freeze in April and Spring decided to slowly meandered in as if it was testing the waters.  The apple and quince normally bloom all at once but this year the blooms came in dribs and drabs.  And when plants like the lilac blossom the blooms are here for only a day or two, hardly enough time to enjoy them.

Even the trees are slow to leaf out.  On April 26 the woods near the kitchen door looked like this, with only a thorn apple really showing leaves.

Today we have greened up some but the hickory and black walnuts are still just buds.

It has greened up enough that can no longer watch the animals walk down from the ridge.  You have to wait to they are just on the edge.  Mr. Gobbler is sticking close to the house so a hunter doesn't make a dinner out of him.

The buck is coming down to eat enough to make a large rack so he will look good for the does.

He is a regular along with about 5 does.  Some of them look like they have fawned already.  All of them still have some winter fun to shed.  So long as they stay out of my garden I love having them around.

But regardless of the weather, it has been a busy couple of weeks with Easter, Baby O’s first birthday on the 5^th  and #1 son’s on the 7^th.  Add to that #2 son’s track meets, #2 daughters babysitting, the man taking a trip to Richmond for the Nascar race, sheep shearing, tending all the seedlings and repotting them, canning, fence repair, trying to reclaim old pasture, #2 son getting his permit, work and school and we are ready for a vacation. 


 Another item of distraction was a gift from an old friend...a Case tractor.  We had to go get it and the man has been working on it, something with the generator.  I am so excited.  I had most of the farm implements except a sickle bar mower and now I have the tractor to put them to use.

 So it will be a while before we are able to sit back.  Yesterday my 10 chicks, 2 ducks, 2 geese and 2 turkeys arrived. Tonight we have ten 2 month old poults to go pick up that somebody didn’t want, tomorrow we have to go pick up our piglets, Sunday is Mother’s Day and Thursday is the man’s birthday.

I usually have my garden started by now and I was getting nervous that I would end up with nothing but remembered my mom saying that the old timers said not to plant until after Memorial Day.  If the weather behaves I should be able to meet that date.  Now to go transplant tomatoes in bigger pots.

Please Mr. Postman

We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverable for ourselves and for others.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My mother and I were into genealogy.  We spent many hours in county offices lifting huge dusty books full of birth, marriage, and death certificates, wills and real estate information and even more hours walking old forgotten cemeteries.

This Saturday one of the chores that took us away from the opening day of fishing was #2 daughter and I sanding down a dresser we bought at the thrift store.  Hidden behind the one drawer was a letter.  

The letter is dated April 27, 1982.   Twenty cents was the cost of a stamp back then that carried this letter from a daughter to her mother.   It was full of information on the daughter, her husband and their two children….asking about siblings that had recently moved away from home…discussing the weather…and oddly enough the first day of trout season.

For a genealogist this has a bunch of clues...where the daughter was living, where the parents were living, the names of the children so you knew their sex and clues to their ages, siblings names – one of which was going into the Army.

Most of our present day correspondence is done on line via email, social media sites or cell phone text messages.  There will be no letters to make the ancestors that the future genealogists is searching for more personable or to maybe see a side of a relative you didn’t know was there.  Instead of a love letter one’s great grandfather wrote to his future bride, they might find a place on line with ” I heart U”.  Somehow it doesn’t have the same ambiance.   

 Amazingly enough this mother and daughter lived less than three hours apart.  I remember instate calls use to cost more than interstate which is what probably prompted the letter...frugality something else long lost.  


On April 27, 1982 I was getting on my first plane for my senior class trip to Florida.  I remember buying post cards and mailing them knowing I would be home before they were!   I have sent cards but the last letter I wrote was to my uncle sending him new genealogical information and asking him more questions.  I wrote that letter over a year ago.  

There are days when I believe that as much as we have gained with modern technology we have left something so much bigger and more substantial behind.


When was the last time you wrote a letter?

Watch out Fish

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.  ~John Buchan

Saturday was the first day of trout season.  Because of the lack of winter weather,  there had been no ice fishing so the menfolk were raring to go.  Out of staters arrive the night before and camp beside the river so they can stake their claim as soon as the sun rises, even though you can’t cast until 8 AM.  We are lucky to own land on the river so we don’t have to fight for prime fishing real estate.

The sons went to a lake fishing but the man, #2 daughter and I went to the river.  We had frost

and it was still only 33 degrees when we left but the sun was shining and expectations were high.

We go down to the river’s edge and begin to fish. 

I am an impatient fishing person.  If I don’t catch something within an hour I start to wander.  I found myself walking.  Most of the shoreline is rocky but there is a small sandy beach off to the left. 

Growing in the sand is horsetail

 and the dreaded Japanese knotweed. 

I found a blog with recipes for this.  If the zombie apocalypse ever happens and we need food at least I know where to find some.  For right now it an obnoxious weed over taking the native plants.  I do see some water iris 

and hopefully the cardinal flower that use to bloom down here will still show it’s self in the coming months.  Here is another weed, 

the dandelion growing out of the stone way.  Definite sign of tenacity!

I find evidence that others had been near the shore for one reason or another, leaving tracks to mark their presence…

Time passes, the son’s appear with two trout and my nephew gave us one.  We call it a morning as we have work that needs doing. 

After shopping and working in the fields trying to reclaim old pasture #2 son cooked the trout for dinner.  We returned to the river that evening to test our wits against the fish  and come back empty handed again.

Sunday dawns, the man and I sneak out of the house to fish alone, thinking maybe the kids are giving us bad luck.  After two hours of casting and reeling we leave skunked again!  

Back to the fields we go returning to the house for dinner.  My brother stops by with two more trout for the freezer.  It must be us!  After dinner they all leave to go fishing but I had enough humiliation and stayed at home to visit with a friend. 

There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to outwit an organism with a brain no bigger than a breadcrumb, and getting licked in the process.  ~Paul O'Neil, 1965

Regardless of the humiliation, it was a great weekend.   Sitting by the river with eagles, ducks and geese flying over and turkeys calling in the woods, the warmth of the sun to keep you warm a slight breeze to keep the bugs at bay and spending time with family, what more can someone ask for.