A day by the river

A few weeks ago we went RVing with some friends and family. With gas prices the way they are, we didn't want to drive far. Luckily we live close to some beautiful places. We spent one afternoon next to the river. Bug and his cousin practiced their casting.



Bug got his stuck on a rock in the river.


Oh daddy! Daddy save the line please!




But by the time dad got it unstuck, Bug was busy doing other things and didn't feel like casting any more.

Any day by the river, casting, throwing, swimming and playing, is a good day.

Adventures in gardening ~ Part 2

It finally occurred to me that I haven't been blogging about gardening. It seems silly, since it is on the top of my hobby list. I put more energy into planting a garden this year than any year before. Perhaps the reason I don't talk about it is that most of my garden has been eaten, by rabbits and deer.

I don't have a fence around my garden so I have tried many natural deterrents. Automated sprinklers to scare them, some super stinky concoctions that are guaranteed to work and not be toxic. They didn't work.

So my only option was to build cages around everything I possibly could.

Here are my caged Zucchini and Pumpkin plants.

Without the cage, these plants would look like their uncaged neighbors.

Pitiful site isn't it. They could also end up looking like the uncaged lettuce.

They attacked the tomatoes too, so they also got caged in.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the beans caged well enough, something got in and at them to the point they wouldn't grow back. There are a few things they don't eat, like the corn.

And they don't touch the sunflowers. At least not this batch, they pulled the first ones out of the ground.

The flowers in my yard are not exempt from the midnight grazing either. My rose bushes sport long poky stems with no leaves let alone any flowers. There are however some lovely flowers in bloom that they don't find tasty. Like these lovely orange marigolds, even the bugs don't like to eat these.

Or this very invasive butterfly bush, nope no nibbles on it's leaves. No butterflies either.

Or this purple petunia.

Pretty purple fuzzy grass.

Pretty pink Penstamin that once bloomed in February, what a lovely surprise.

Bachelor buttons that come back every year wherever they feel like it.

The annual perennial purple daisy.

Pink Zinnias, one of six that didn't get eaten by bugs this spring.

Pretty purple cosmos, the package said it was multiple colors but only purple came up!

Pink ivy geraniums that almost died from over watering.

Purple verbena that replaced the other purple verbena I killed earlier this year.

And last but not least, red gladiolas. Some of the few that survived the move here six years ago.

I can show my Alstermaria, the rabbits clip that back to nothing. Or my Asian Lilly, the deer ate all of the buds off of that. I have twice as many eaten flowers as I do not eaten. I guess I need to go through the yard and plant only those the animals don't like to eat. Or get a really big outside dog or just maybe someone will build me a fence.

A day on Safari... sort of

A few weeks ago Bug and I drove down to my dads house and the three of us went to a wild animal park. It isn't like a zoo where all the animals are locked in small cages. It's hundreds of acres where the animals roam free. The lions, cheetahs and bears are separated from the zebra and giraffe of course! You drive your car along a gravel road and can stop and look at the animals from a distance. Occasionally you get a close encounter from an Emu wanting a closer look.

I hadn't been in years, but this was Bugs second trip with grandpa. A couple years ago while he was staying with Grandma and Grandpa they watched the movie Madagascar and decided to take Bug to the animal park the next day.

On that trip the Rhino's were a little too close for Bugs comfort. Unfortunately on this trip they were sleeping in the shade a long way from our vehicle so I couldn't get a good shot.

There were however many other animals to look at and take pictures of. First up, the lions, they were behind a fence this time, when I was younger there was no fence, just a guard telling you to keep your windows rolled up!

The Bears put on a "show". It was awesome to watch them play in the water.

I didn't get a nice close picture of the Giraffe, there was a young one eating on tree branches.

We almost missed these little guys as we drove past. They were perfectly still as they sunned themselves on logs.

The Elk and deer were resting in the shade.

My picture doesn't do this pretty guy justice. He was really gorgeous.

Unfortunately the Cheetahs were not in good photography range. The Hippos were under water, but we did get to see their heads for just a minute as they popped up to take a breath. It was interesting how many people didn't have patients to wait and watch the animals. They would drive around us, hurrying to the next animal. In doing so they missed some pretty cool sights.

When we were done with the driving tour we stopped at the "village". They have some Flamingos there, Bug was in awe of their color and the way they with their heads hidden on their backs.

They have a Koi pond with Monkeys on an Island in the middle. Bug was able to feed the fish and some pushy geese.

They also have an area where they show off the elephants. As we fed the fish, we heard the elephants coming and were lucky enough to have them walk right past us.

Three of them walked trunk to tail. They were so impressive. There is something about their eyes..... with all of those wrinkles.

It was a really fun day, we stopped for bagel sandwiches on the way home and then Grandpa filled our Jeep with plants.