License To Drive

City Girl is on the countdown to get her Driver's License.

Two days left of peace.  Friday is the big day.

My neighbor told us that 75% of all teenage drivers get into an accident in the first three months.

I feel so fatalistic.

Please enjoy these pictures of some funny car accidents.

I need to laugh or I'll cry.

Update:  She got it.  Watch yourself out there. 

Business Trip Beauty

I was on a business trip this week and came out of my hotel room to this.

No, it wasn't snow.

It was sunrise at Ft. Walton Beach, Florida.

Today we're going to look at trailers for the Polaris.  Maybe we'll actually get to use it on the Tree Farm soon!

Wordless Wednesday

365 Love

I love you today as much as the last 364 days, 

and will continue to not wait until 

February 14th of each year to tell you.

City Tree Trimming

What's this?

A 60' Washington Palm on the tree lawn of our City House that I was sitting under this afternoon.  It was probably planted around the time this house was built in 1925.  Sometimes the flower stalks or palm fronds from this giant fall near you - and sometimes on you.  You can hear the sound, but you don't know where it's coming from, and then WHUMP!  You look at it and thank your lucky stars you weren't standing in the wrong place.  

Fortunately that didn't happen today.

I was sitting there because RetroMan and I were trimming a Camphor tree in our front yard.  

Rather, I was directing from under the palm tree and he was doing the work.

He used our two chain saws, Mutt and Jeff.

They were bought from Pawn Shops by Dumb and Dumber (I'm Dumber) - the second to be used for parts for the first.  The love/hate relationship with these two things is worthy of a blog all by itself, but I'll spare you.

Being a really cool Tree Farmer and all, I thought I'd figure out how old the branch was.

Ok, never mind.

Then I asked RetroMan what he was going to do with all of the branches.

"Take them up to the Farm and burn them."

"What?  You're going to take these 120 miles just to burn them?"

"Yeah.  We need a lot of wood for the bonfire."

"We have 60 thousand trees on that Tree Farm, and a lot of them are dead.  We can even cut more down if we have to."

"No, we should leave the trees on the Tree Farm alone."

I mean for real.  Is there a Doctor for someone who owns a Tree Farm and doesn't want to cut down trees?

Well, I guess there's hope.  He did trim a tree today.

The Camper's Final Resting Place

For the last 10 years, the Pop-up Camper has waited patiently to be of use.  We soured on public campgrounds long ago, but now that we have our own campground, it was finally time to get it up there.

 

Thankfully the 30 year old tires made it.  We put the Camper near the oak tree in the clearing.

The Shelter will be located to the right of the above photo.

During this trip, RetroMan wanted to mark the four corners of the Shelter using the level we bought ourselves for Christmas.

  

Attaching the plumb bob was kind of challenging because it kept swinging and falling down, but we figured it out.

Essentially, you put two markers along one line of the Shelter.  Then put the plumb bob over the first marker and sight the second marker.  If you did everything right, all you do is subtract 90 degrees on the level and sight the third marker.

 

Did you follow all of that?  Yeah, me neither.  It took us a few hours just to put in 3 markers.  We'll tackle the 4th marker on the next trip.  Something tells me it will take even longer to put that 4th marker in.  I'm not looking forward to it, because I'm thinking there will be much yelling seeing as we really have no idea what we're doing.

It was getting late, so we went for a walk before we had to leave.  

What, you actually thought we were going to camp on this trip?

Our Tree Farm tract used to be part of a large commercial Timber property.  While it has been neglected for many years, you can still distinctly see some of the 7' rows the slash pine are planted in.

We found some pretty moss (or maybe it's lichen) on the ground.

And some tiny flowers.

If anyone knows the names of the things in any of these pictures, please let me know. 

Before we left, RetroMan wrapped the camper in plastic, so the rain won't ruin it.

 

Today I'm supposed to study for an ITIL v3 class I have to take next week.  There's even a test I must pass.

Yawn.

I think I'll go check out some of the recipes at Farmgirl Fare instead.

Update:  I passed!  Whew, it was really hard (for me).

Another Update:  Fred let me know the white flowers above are Houstonia Procumbens - Roundleaf Bluets.  Thank you Fred.

RetroMan Olympics

RetroMan and I saw a commercial for the Winter Olympics the other day.  He said he is bored with the Olympics already.  He would rather see contests that more depict our youth.

Like forget the shot put.  Just give the contestants a pile of rocks and see how many they can throw a certain distance.  When RetroMan was little, he would throw so many rocks at the mailbox, his Dad would have to get more gravel for the driveway at the end of the summer.

And how about Tobogganning?  When RetroMan and I were little, everyone would start out at the same time.  Whoever crossed the finish line first, won - whether you were on your toboggan or not.  We think it would be a lot more entertaining to see the smashups, torn clothing, splintered toboggans, and perhaps cheating, to be the first person across the finish line.  We discussed whether the whole team had to cross to count, but decided there might be casualties, so only one member of a team crossing the finish line is enough to win.

Finally, what about those prissy Marathon, Triathalon, or Bicycle racers?  For Pete's sake, you have to take whatever you need with you:  Your own water, spare tires, whatever.  Now wouldn't that be more entertaining if a Marathon runner had to carry all the water and food he might need?  The Triathalon athlete?  Now that would be hysterical!

If you have any entertaining Retro Olympic ideas, please post them here.  I am thinking some snowed-in, homebound bloggers out there might have some great ideas!