Paw Paws Place

The day is just beginning for grandma to get her grand kids going. As you can see Mr. Luke had a Fort built in his parents bedroom for the night. And of course his Buddie, Bear is right by his side, that will change some day as he gets older. Bear will want his own space and will sleep some where else. As you can see they have a neat collection of Hess Trucks. "Guess what" they discovered they did not have the year 2000 (Fire Trk ) Well, Darenda ordered the 2000 Hess Fire Trk . As you can see Tyler starts his day and ends his day with the electronic world. This seems to be the norm for boys his age, I guess it could be worse. Over the past year he has grown like a weed and will be in HS next year at Manatee (3rd generation) I am not sure I can handle that. he is dressed and ready to go to his golf lesson for the day. It has got to be really hot out there, but kids can handle it a lot better then old folks. As you can see Pat and I receive a Blessing each day with these k...

As you can see by the first picture my Gators won last night. They put the finishing touch on the Miami Hurricanes and are headed for the college world series. They will be in Nebraska for the world series sometime on the 26 I think. Last time they were there I went out for the finals once I knew they were in it. I hope to get tickets and take Pat this time, it will be great. I have seen them win a National Championship in Basketball and Football so this would make my list of greats. This morning prior to church I saw these funny looking birds in my yard. Most of the time there are about ten or so, today just three. As you see they have long beaks and they drive them into the ground. I see that they get long earth worms for their trouble. I was wondering if anyone knows what kind of bird it is. I would love to be able to read a little about them. Next weekend my daughter Sandy and her husband James will visit us. We are really looking forward to it. We hope to go out in the boat for a...

What a great start to a wonderful week end. Thursday was the first day the grand kids were out of school. Pat picked them up a little after 7 AM and met me at the boat launch. We piled in and headed for our favorite fishing spot. Luke asked if he could drive the boat to the location that we were heading to. He did tell me that I could guide him and he would get us there, so off we went. We arrived very shortly at marker #9, this is where we catch our bait. Tyler, Pat and Luke scouted for me as we slowly drifted looking for signs of bait. Tyler spotted a good spot and we anchored. I started to chum and sure enough the bait was there. I handed the chum to Pat and I got out the cast net and started throwing it. It did not take too much time to catch all that we needed. The next stop was where the kids really have a ball. We have this little spot that we let the kids catch sizable Pin Fish for bait. Tyler uses them for bait when he is fishing for sharks, which he loves to do. They ca...

Saturday morning and it is about 8 AM so I decided to get off of my butt and get the yard work done, before it got too hot. In the past I have shown pictures of our yard when we were under construction with the new room. We were paying a man to keep our yard from chinch bugs and fungus. As you remember he was not successful at all, so far Pat and I have been lucky with our treatments. Pat and I always have taken a lot of pride in our yard. We will continue doing it as long as we can, it does give you a lot of self satisfaction when you look at it when your done. The plant you see is a Camellia plant that Darenda bought in Alabama for Pats Birthday. We have had it a couple of years now. We struggle with getting it to grow and blossom out like it should. If anybody out there has any hints on what we can do please let me know. If you can not comment on my Blog please email me at fastgene70@yahoo.com . The Day Lillie's you see are very old, we think they are over 20 years old. Pa...

This morning as I was drinking my coffee I saw this lovely bird outside in our yard. I watched him for a while and then I decided to try and take a picture of him. I was inside the back room and did not think I could take it through the window. But I guess it did not turn out too bad for an amateur. It is times like this that I wish I could sell my camera and buy one a few notches up the ladder. I really enjoy picture taking a lot, I feel as though I am capturing the moment and filing history for some else to enjoy. Any way it gave me a reason to look up some info on the red Bird so I thought I would share it with you, just in case you are interested. And yes his lady friend was around and they flew off together. The Cardinals or Cardinalidae are a family of passerine birds found in North and South America . The South American cardinals in the genus Paroaria are placed in another family, the Thraupidae (previously placed in Emberizidae ). These are robust, seed-eating birds, wi...

In honor of the soldiers who have given their lives for our country Today is Memorial Day and my sister in-law Annie’s visit is winding down. She will leave today from Tampa at about 5 PM. We all hope that she has a safe trip home and we will miss her. While she was here, Pat kept her busy with fun things like fishing, shopping and going out to eat. We have laughed a lot and enjoyed her stay. Friday night we took her to the Manatee – Palm Bay Bayside HS football game. This was a rematch of the playoff game that was played last fall. Manatee has won both of the meetings, this game Manatee won 48 – 41. Manatee’s offense really looks promising with a great QB and running back. Saturday we kind of hung around and watched Gator baseball and Gator softball. Darenda and the boys came by for a visit and had lunch with us. That night I made meatball subs for Annie and myself (yum). The games had rain delays and so it was a waiting game to finish them, but we did! Sunday we went to th...