One of my chief delights in the warm months is watching the hummingbirds that flock to our feeder. They cluster around the feeder, competing for the nectar it provides, swapping out places at the feeding stations. They're always pretty competitive, even if there are only two at the feeder at the time. I wonder that they don't get hurt as they dive down at each other. The competitiveness rivals that of ten year old boys on the playground, only the hummers are in a fight for life-sustaining resources instead of the top of the climbing bars. Sometimes I count as many as ten or fifte ...continued...

I had a best friend while we were living in Gold Hill. Her name was Gail Stevens. We were really close. She's part Native American. She told she was part Cherokee. One day while we were at recess, we decided to sneak off and go across the road over to the cemetary. To this day I'm stillnot sure why we did it, I guess we were just curios. Well we were walking around and came up to a shed. All of a sudden we heard a noise, it sounded like a ghost, being only 6 years old you would think that we were scared, well we weren't. Next thing we know the grounds keeper jumped out ...continued...

Our story Our family is a small and new family, whom has been thru a lot. Mother: Kelly, Son: Tony, and Father: Val. Family's Past history. Kelly and Val meet years ago. And moved onto a Tiny boat together 50sq ft trimaran. As time went on they lived on a number of small boats trying to find something that fit them. Presented with a job offer and good life in HI they moved onto a 75' yatch, that was well equipped for the trip to HI. Then Kelly got pregnant, when she was about 6 months along during the move, About 150 miles out to sea the frame of the boat started to brake due to poor ...continued...

We generally spend 10 hours (give or take a few hours) on the move each day. This means we spend the rest of the day in camp. Now when I say this I don't mean that we are sitting around a warm fire having drinks and kicking our feet up. We are generally unpacking the sled, taking the dogs off the lead, setting up tents, setting up the stove, or making water while huddled around a tiny blue flame that makes a shred of warmth that ekes around the edges of the tea kettle full of melting snow. We do have some downtime, such as now, where the tent is reasonably warm, meaning we can take our ...continued...

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Another thing I used to do quite often was to get a can of beans, some crackers and hike out to Julien Dubuque's grave. When there was a slow moving freight train going by, we would hop on and get off at Catfish Creek or town, depending which way we were going. I don't recall Mary ever doing this, but she could have. At Catfish, there is a small cave where we would warm up our beans and with the crackers have our lunch. We would always go up the path alongside the cliff to the grave. Now they have it blocked off because it is so dangerous which is OK a ...continued...

Blue Hole By Rolland Love The following are a couple chapters from my mystery suspense novels "Blue Hole" and a sequel "River's Edge" which have received over (300) four and five star reviews. ☂ In River's Edge I aged Dub (12) and brother Tommy (15) by 50 years and made them Grandfathers who take their Grandsons to Blue Hole where a murder occurred the last time they were there in 1949. They become a family of cold case detectives. It's not easy to solve a (50) year old murder but they prove to be up for t ...continued...

Introduction I set about to clean out Mother’s house. In the spare bedroom, I opened the antique cabinet and drew out a stack of memorabilia. Halfway down the pile of old newspapers, I discovered a speckled brown ledger book with ragged edges. It crackled as I opened the yellowed pages. Each line contained a date and a comment on life in the 1880's. It was my great-grandfather Sanford’s diary. The more I read, the more I wanted to share Sanford’s story, rather than bury it in some safe place for another 119 years. The basic story line is true and the hi ...continued...

Affirmations Morning thoughts are very important because it establishes our attitudes for the day. What do you think about when you first wake up. Are you irritated? Are you unmotivated? Do you hit the snooze over and over. Remember, the top don’t act like this. Neither do you. Nothing changes overnight, and for that matter over a week. Commit to the following exercise. What do you have to loose? The majority of people are not doing mental programming. The majority of people are not successful. As (??) said &ldquo ...continued...

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Because our Mother left when I was 4 and my brother Rich about 18 months old, we were reared primarily by our Father. As a truck driver, Dad was gone 5 to 6 days a week, when we were cared for by a great Aunty who lived downstairs in our duplex home. A true product of the Victorian era, Aunty was born in the 1880's. In her early 40's she had begun to be crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, and by the 1940's was badly incapacitated, hands gnarled, back stooped, knees and hips painful and deformed. She always had someone living with her to help ou ...continued...

The entire team is catching a couple hours of sleep before we make our final push to the pole. I, on the other hand, stupidly volunteered to stay awake so that someone could watch the stove for heat and so someone could wake everyone else up at 4am (it is 3am now). Our goal is to make it to the pole before 12 noon so we can catch a ride back to Barneo with another team on the helicopter. While it is not a major thing if we miss the ride, as we can camp at the pole until we can arrange another ride, but we have made such good time over the last 150+ miles that it is now a point of pride to h ...continued...

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They're making people everyday, but they ain't makin' any more dirt. (Will Rogers) Trespassers will be shot or worse In July 2015 the United Nations estimated a global population of 7.349 billion people. Right now (2016) we are currently at 7.4 billion and increasing. In 1700, only 316 years ago, the human population of the entire planet was approximately 600 million. In what we now call the United States the population (Europeans) was approximately 250,000 people. The industrial revolution in Europe wouldn't begin for another 80 years ...continued...

One day in 41, Pop & Mom bought a house at 683 W 11th which would be my home for the next 15 years. How they moved, I have no idea but I think I was in school at the time and was told to come to the new house when I got through with school. This house had more memories for me than Mt Pleasant and it had 4 bedrooms, but with Pop & Mom in one, girls in another and Bill alone in the small baby one, that left 5 of us sleeping somewhere, and I can't recall, but who cared. Later on, I had my own sleeping area - Mom had a big chest that she kept extra blankets etc. ...continued...