I read a post at Is Ray Wrong Ray asked what your mailbox says about you. I said that mine says I'm sick and tired of the punks messing with it.

Last winter our mailbox needed replacement 3 times. The neighbors had to replace theirs 5. Plastic ones hold up better. So my husband and the neighbor decided to create a holder for our boxes. Here they are working on it. If you look closely you will see that the white metal one has been shot. Luckily mine was furthest from the shooter so I only had one pellet go through mine.



Here is the finished product. Put up in January. Neither of us has had to replace our box since. Although the game of hit the mailbox with a baseball bat still goes on.

Sounds of Spring

Frog choruses remind me of my childhood.
My grandparents moved from WI to AR in the mid 60’s after raising their family and welcoming many grandchildren to the world.
One spring Grandma said she missed the sounds of spring, the frogs waking up and singing in the swamp outside my mother’s front door, and the robins coming to wake us up in the morning. So I decided to go and make a recording of the frogs for her. We were trading tapes as letters around that time anyway. So I took my cassette recorder out to the swamp and recorded my letter to Grandma. Talking to her over the sounds of spring. I wanted to be sure it was getting everything so I played it back. I could hear nothing more than my voice talking. I was so disappointed that my grand idea had failed that I took the tape back into the house and finished the letter in there. I mailed it off.
When Grandma got the tape she called to ask me why I had stopped recording outside as it was the best tape she’d had in quite some time. I said that she couldn’t hear the frogs anyway so why bother, plus if I took it in the house I wouldn’t have to worry about if the batteries were dying. She assured me that yes she could hear the frogs and proceeded to play it for me over the phone. It was then that I realized I just couldn’t tell the taped frogs from the real ones.

Country life

I love living the in “boondocks.” I see things like the Eagles that I’ve shared here. One night when I came home from work there was a Bobcat standing on the hill. It ran when I drove in. But I did get to see him. I saw a barred owl another night when I drove in at dusk. It was sitting on the perimeter fence. I drove past it and it never moved. It only flew off after I had gone into the house to get my camera.

One evening when D and I were first working on the property we had set up a boom box while we were cleaning up around the pond. I believe we were still picking up irrigation hose from the grove at the time. We stopped to take a break and listen to the wildlife. We were talking about all the frogs and critters that were singing so nicely and that we really didn’t need the boom box. When we shut it off…everything went silent. Apparently the frogs and critters were just singing along.

Another time I had been working later than usual so I came in around 2 or 3 am. When I got out of the car I stopped to take the time to listen to the night. First the turtles would sound off. Their deep bass a rhythm for the melody. Then the bull frogs would sing the Tenor chorus. Next the Frog choir would sound in, singing the melody so sweetly and finally the peepers would sing the aria. Next they would all play their parts together until one or the other would make a mistake and practice would start all over again. I stood outside that night for almost an hour listening to the choir practice. I felt as though I were listening to their rehearsal for the big concert coming up. It took me back to the days that I was in the band. First the Tubas and the drums play the rhythm to get the beat. Next the Brass play the melody and finally the woodwinds fill in the sound. Each practicing their own part separately then all together as a group. Wonderful memories all.