Journal - Visitors

Well, here I am back again! It’s about 3pm now and I just wanted to update what I started earlier. I got my potato salad finished and Joni and I think it turned out pretty good. The potatoes may have been a little bit overcooked but not too bad. At least they didn’t completely go to mush when I mixed everything together. Also the eggs I boiled this morning were undercooked and the yolks didn’t look right to me. So I gave the yolks to Sassie, which made her very happy, and I just used the whites in the potato salad. It’s in the fridge chilling right now and should be ready for supper. We’re going to have hamburgers and potato salad. Sounds good! Also, while I was waiting for the potatoes to cook I decided to whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, something I’ve been wanting to do for a few days now. I usually take the easy way and instead of making a bunch of cookies I just throw the dough into a glass dish and make cookie bars or whatever you want to call them. So we’ll have something for dessert too.

While I was working away in the kitchen we noticed that we had some very pretty visitors out on the front lawn. Take a look at these!

This is actually the second time we’ve seen these colorful fellows in the yard. I snapped a few pics of them the other day but didn’t really get any good ones. Instead of trying to sneak up on them this time I decided to snap a few pics through the kitchen window and they turned out pretty good. When we saw these guys the other day Joni looked them up in her bird book and discovered that they are American Goldfinches. They’re very pretty aren’t they?

And both times that the Goldfinches have come around, there’s been 1 or 2 of these bright fellows with them. Joni couldn’t find this one in her bird book the other day but today found out that they are Indigo Buntings. These are much brighter and prettier than the typical bluejays or bluebirds that we usually get around here. Today we counted seven of the Goldfinches and two of the Buntings. As we watched them we discovered that the Indigo Bunting is a bit of a bully, often chasing the Goldfinches away as they found something to eat.

But all in all, they commingled reasonably well. Here’s a nice little group of them. The American Goldfinch is the state bird of New Jersey, Iowa, and Washington. They typically winter in the south from southern California down to Texas and Mexico, and even as far east as Florida. In the summer they head up to the northern Midwest and Canada to breed, but can be found throughout much of the US all year round. They also have a very pretty song. After listening to it from the internet we could easily identify their call in the yard.

The Indigo Bunting spends the winter all the way down in Central America but in the summer they can be found just about anywhere in the US with the exception of the Rocky Mountains and anywhere north and west of them. They are commonly referred to as “blue canaries” and I think that’s a fitting name as they are a small and brightly colored bird.

Matthew 6:25-26 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ESV

Genesis 1:20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” ESV

Journal - Preparing for Summer

Well summer is very nearly upon us. In fact, we’ve already had one day at or near 100 degrees and a couple of other days that were very warm as well so you might say that summer is already here. With the change of seasons it seems like there are always plenty of projects to do around the house. This week I had Tuesday and Thursday off so those were my days to get some of those projects done.

On Tuesday I did a little more work in the garden. Last week we got tomatoes and peppers and strawberries in. We had already decided not to have a large pumpkin patch like we did last year, but I still wanted at least a few. So I got out the rake and cleared the winter leavings from another section of the garden. Then I got out the shovel and dug the soil in a plot about 6 by 8 feet or so. In there I planted six mounds of pumpkins. Actually I’m not sure if pumpkins are supposed to be in mounds but it seemed like the right thing to do. I put 3 or 4 seeds in each mound, the seeds having come from some of the pumpkins we had last year. We actually still have 3 of our good sized pumpkins from last year sitting around the house. I don’t think they’ll last much longer; they’re all getting soft spots on them now. Anyway, the pumpkins are in and hopefully they’ll come up again.

Thursday I had several items on my to-do list. I took the humidifier apart and cleaned it up and set it aside to dry. Then I gave the kitchen window a thorough cleaning. Our house is moldy and during the winter, where the moisture condenses on the window frames and glass, the mold grows. During the winter we wipe it down from time to time but don’t really give it a thorough cleaning. I had already done one of the kitchen windows a couple of weeks ago so today I got the other one.

After that I went outside to see if the mower would start this year. Last year it was very hard to start every time we used it, and even after it started we would have to nurse it along for a few minutes before it finally decided it was ready to work. I had been thinking about it earlier this week and thought the carb was probably pretty dirty and that’s what was causing it to run so poorly. I wanted to pull the carb off and clean it up but after watching a couple of videos online showing how to do that I decided it was probably not something I should mess with. Instead I just pulled off the cowling and the fuel tank and cleaned as much of the gunk out from under there as I could. There was quite a lot of gunk that has probably been building for years. Also the mice like to nest up under the cowling so I cleaned all of that out. I sprayed some carb cleaner around the carb and the throttle, drained out the last few drips of last year’s gas and put everything back together. After filling up with fresh gas and topping off the oil I gave the rope a few experimental tugs. It didn’t sound like it was trying to fire at all but after 10 or 12 pulls it started up. That was much easier than last year and more importantly it stayed running without having to be nursed. All in all maybe the cleaning did it some good but I guess time will tell.

So while Joni was doing a little mowing I came back in found that the humidifier was dry so I put that back together and took it downstairs for the summer. Then I sat down at the computer to do some typing.

I still have a couple more windows that I would like to clean up today and I also thought I might try making some potato salad today, something I’ve never made before. And that’s everything I had on my to-do list. It’s only noon now so that’s not too bad. I’ll still have to relax this afternoon which is good because I have a full shift at work tomorrow.

Today is Brad and Cindy’s 27’s anniversary! Happy Anniversary guys!

Mark 10:6-9 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ESV

Ecclesiastes 3:22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? ESV

Garden Gatherings Day 2

So this is my first post about our adventures in gardening this season. Even though it’s my first post, this is day 2 because we really got started yesterday. At any rate, these are the things we bought at the mall’s garden center yesterday. I think we got about 10 things in all, some flowers, some vegetables, and a strawberry plant. As I mentioned before, the mall had a great selection and it was hard to only pick out a few, so we kind of stuck to the basics.

When we got home from Kearney yesterday, we took a few minutes to eat lunch and change clothes, then we headed straight out to the garden. Joni got to work on her flowerbeds around the house, while I started in on the garden. First I had to rake the leaves and branches off. It was a still day so I was able to go ahead and get that stuff burned. Then I got out my shovel and dug up the area I would need. Then I started planting. Here you see the finished product. The tomatoes, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, and strawberries are all in and getting their first drink.

And here’s the back side of the house. That big purple thing is one that Joni got at Walmart last week, and the two bushy green things are holly-hocks that we planted last year. Those hollyhocks never made any flowers last year. They stayed there all winter and now they are coming back strong. Hopefully they’ll flower this year.





And these are my favorites! These are a couple of different varieties of pansies that Joni put on the front side of the house. Okay, I admit it, I actually picked these out myself. Our foundation could really use some paint couldn’t it?







Here’s a close-up of one of the pansies, a Matrix Midnight Glow. Isn’t that the most beautiful thing?















And here is Joni’s favorite. This is a lily that Adam bought her for Mother’s Day. It’s called a Star-Gazer. Joni found a nice spot for it on the front side of the house, on the other side of the front steps from the pansies. Those gray weeds are called Dusty Millers apparently and Joni planted those there too.

So there it is. We have a pretty good start on our garden. I’m still debating on whether I want to do pumpkins again. Those were a lot of fun but it might be fun to try something else too. We still have some seeds that we want to plant, green peppers and hot peppers and sunflowers. We never had much luck with seeds last year but Joni thought we should try starting them in the little starter things that our plants came in. She got a bag of good potting mix so maybe that will do the trick. More later!

Journal - Starting the Garden

So today we had a pretty good day. I had the day off so we decided to run a few errands and it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day for it.

First we had to go to the bank in Gibbon to take care of a little business. While we were in there, Mom just happened to stop in on some business as well. She was working so she couldn’t stay long and we had more stops to make as well so we only had a brief visit.

From there we headed to Kearney. First we needed to drop off our aluminum cans at the scrap-yard. Aluminum is going for sixty cents a pound right now, which is a pretty decent price. We always save ours up and had about 8 large garbage bags full so it was definitely time to get those up there.

After the scrap-yard, we stopped at the post office to mail off a package to Joni’s mom. Just a little something Joni wanted to send her for Mother’s Day.

Then it was off to Hastings. No, not the town of Hastings, the store in Kearney that sells books, music, movies, games, electronics, and other neat stuff. Hastings not only sells stuff, but they also buy used items so I’ve been taking up some of my old books and CD’s and movies and also some of those audiobooks that have been piling up in the basement and trading them in for store credit. When I have enough credit I’m finally going to get a new TV. Hastings has exactly the one I want, a 32-inch LG widescreen. I’ve been making several trips to Hastings and after my visit today I only need another $40 of credit to get that TV. And I’ll have it in plenty of time for football season!

From Hastings we went on up to the mall where Joni wanted to look around the garden center they’ve set up out in the parking lot. We had already gone to Walmart’s garden center last week and got a few things to start our garden with, but we had both been wanting to check out the mall to see what they had. Well, let me tell you, the garden center at the mall beat Walmart’s garden section hands down. The mall has a huge selection of everything you could want: every kind of flower I’ve ever heard of and many that I hadn’t, more varieties of tomatoes and pepper than I knew existed, and all kinds of herbs. They even had eggplant! Who eats eggplant? Well, we had a lot of fun looking around and picked out several items. Joni got some flowers including some really beautiful pansies, and we picked out two different kinds of tomatoes, and we got some green pepper and jalapeno pepper plants. Everything came in little trays of four plants each and were $2.19. Not bad at all. I think we spent about $28.00 or thereabouts. Oh, I almost forgot, I got a strawberry plant! Can’t wait for those to grow! So Joni used her garden money left over from last week and we put in a little of our aluminum money.

By then we were both ready to head home. We stopped by Long John Silver’s to pick up some lunch, using more of our aluminum money, and went on home and ate. We love Long John’s but don’t eat there very often as it’s a little more pricey than other fast food places. Kind of a rare treat.

After we ate we changed clothes and headed out to the garden to do some planting. But I’ll have more about that later.

Isaiah 58:11 And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. ESV

Island Earth Audio - The Studio

So I got to work on my “studio.” I put studio in quotes because what I have in my basement is about as close to a studio as a Schwinn is to a Harley-Davidson. Anyway this is the empty spot in one of the downstairs rooms that Joni and Adam cleared out for me. I should have taken a pic before they worked down there so you could how much stuff they had to clear away. Good job guys!


And here is the desk and chair I’ll be using. That little desk has been in the family for a long time. Mom had it in her basement and she was nice enough to let me use it. It was made from an old console television, isn’t that cool? Nothing fancy, but it will suit my purposes perfectly: it’s just the right size. Oh, and the chair is from Grandma Howard’s dining set. We’ve had Grandma’s dining table in the basement for a couple of years now and got the chairs from Uncle Butch last year. They actually match pretty well don’t they? That long white thing sitting on the desk is a light that I still need to attach to the wall above the desk.


This is just a small clip suspended from a hank of clotheline rope. My plan is to hang the microphone from this and sit in front of it. I’m not sure how well that will work but it’s the best I’ve come up with so far. After I actually give this a try I may be able to come up with something better but we’ll see.


This is the surrounding wall to my studio. Isn’t it pretty? This is a quilt that Mom made many many years ago and kept me warm at night when I was just a lad. I’m hoping that the quilt will dampen some of the echo and background noises while I’m recording. It doesn’t quite go all the way to the floor, there’s about a 12 inch gap, but it should help.


The quilt is suspended from these hooks. I screwed some plain old hooks into the ceiling and then hung those little clamp things from them. The clamp things are what you might use to wear a name badge or ID tag on your shirt if you work in a place that uses them. We use them at Walmart. The clamp parts hangs onto the quilt nice and tight so it won’t fall, but it also won’t damage the quilt, an important consideration.


And here’s a not-so-good view of the inside of the studio. It looks small, yes, but that’s to my advantage since big open areas are kind of noisy. And it’s dark in there right now because I don’t have my light put up yet. I don’t actually think I’ll need a lot of light since all the work will be done on the laptop anyway.


So that’s my fancy new studio! Okay, it’s not so fancy but it only cost me about 12 bucks including the light. I’ll give it a try and see how it goes.

Journal - A Couple of Things

A couple of weeks ago at work the topic of peacocks came up. An odd subject yes, but when you spend many many hours with the same people a pretty wide variety of discussions can arise. One of my fellow cart-pushers is Lyle and, like me, Lyle grew up on a farm. We had actually been talking about snakes when he mentioned that his folks had kept peacocks and guineas on their farm. This piqued my interest because Grandpa Pete and Grandma Gladys had peacocks on their place when I was a young boy, and while I never thought much about it back then, I have since wondered why they had them. I asked Lyle if peacocks ate snakes and he said he wasn’t sure but he thought that snakes didn’t like the sound peacocks make and thus stayed away.

From there, the conversation turned to other topics but the peacocks have been in the back of my mind ever since and today I finally got around to doing a little reading up on them. Peacocks, or Peafowl, are the largest members of the pheasant and turkey family. They originally came from the middle-east, primarily India where they are the national bird. They were brought to this part of the world and were something of a status symbol for the wealthy but eventually became more commonplace. According to what I read, they do indeed eat snakes as well as many types of bugs and are often kept on farms or ranches for that very purpose. Isn’t it interest that 30 years after the peacocks disappeared I finally found out why Grandma and Grandpa had them. I say “disappeared” because I don’t really remember what happened to them. It seems like after Grandma died in ’82 I just don’t remember them being around anymore. It just goes to show, you learn something every day.

In other news, I finally made an appointment to go to Omaha and get my fake eye. That will be on April 2. I had assumed this would take at least two trips to Omaha, one to get measured or whatever it is they do, and then another to have the finished eye inserted. However, I found out that this guy does it all in one day. I’ll see the doctor in the morning, he’ll make the eye right there that day in about 3 hours, then we’ll go back later on so he can put it in. I’m sure we can find something to do in Omaha for 3 hours while we wait. I keep calling this an eye but, as I may have mentioned before, it’s really no more than a lens or a covering. I have an eye-shaped implant in right now and that will stay. Since my surgery the implant has been covered by a clear lens, something like a very thick and hard contact lens. That lens will be removed, it just pops out like a contact, and will be replaced by a similar lens that will painted to match my good eye. Since the implant is attached to my own muscles, it moves with my good eye and so the prosthesis will move with it giving it what I am told will be a very natural look. Anyway it will be good to finally have that done.

Habakkuk 3:17-18 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. ESV

Isaiah 25:1 O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. ESV

Island Earth Audio - The Logo

Today I found myself with a little extra time on my hands due to the blizzard that’s going on right now. I was supposed to work from 10am to 3pm today but ended up leaving work at noon. Walmart was pretty slow because of the snow and there just wasn’t anything to do. So I decided to set to work on my logo for Island Earth Audio.

When I first decided to give this a try more than a year ago, I kind of had a picture in my head of what I wanted the logo to look like and I had gone to the internet to find some clipart images to work from. These are the three images I decided to start with. With the basic elements on hand I set to work.

What I was going for were the basic letters I, E, and A. The palm tree worked pretty well as a letter “I” and didn’t need any work. This would represent the Island. For the Earth, I took the planet earth clipart image and basically just cut some shapes out of it to make it look like a letter “E”. I used a program that I’ve had for many years called Corell Photo Paint. I don’t have much experience with this type of thing so I just started playing around with it. After a little while I started getting the hang of it and was reasonably satisfied with the result. For my letter “A” I had decided to use a clipart image of the microphone sitting on top of an actual letter “A” so that the “A” kind of looked like a stand for the microphone. That was simple enough, I just typed a letter “A” and put the microphone image on top of it. After completing the three elements of my logo, I simply put them together into one image and it came out like this:



The finished product looks quite a bit like the original image I had in my head so I was pleased with that. It took me about an hour to put the whole thing together. A perfect snowy day project!