NEW BLOGGER CHANGES

Well now, change has come again.I saw the statement that Blogger was changing in April and clicked it.. whoa...... did I get a surprise. Maybe I am a slow one to get on the bandwagon I don't know, but whether good or bad for us bloggers we must go with it . My IE browser is not supported by BLOGGER any more so I can ONLY use CHROME when entering a new post. What a hassle. I don't want to even think about trying to change my background yet. I just touched something and lost a whole paragraph so beware this new blogger set up is very tricky if you haven't changed yours over yet. Will take some time to get used to where everything is. I guess all old things must leave us and we must move with new technology. I will let you know when I find everything and how they work out. Getting to your dashboard is no easy task and so letting them know in the feedback area at the right bottom is a good idea.  

Spring left us and winter is  trying to say hello again. The furnace clicked back on and the frost was heavy this morning. Orchards are very afraid of losing their entire crops. They are going to extreme lengths to keep the trees from freezing up. Something new this year is burning those large rolls of hay along side the orchard rows to keep smoke over the top of the crop. They say that smoke might help keep it warmer. Time will tell I guess. I don't think our nights of cold are over yet. It will be a very tricky Spring here. Getting ready for spring cleaning here and organizing my closets and drawers,something about the warmer weather always makes me want to pick up and throw out the old winter things. Having the windows open last week sure was nice. I look forward to more of that soon.

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE GOOD LUCK WITH THIS NEW BLOGGER SET UP..

AND HAVE A GREAT WEEK AHEAD.

SPRING OR SUMMER??

Well it is hot enough to feel like summer out there. It has been more summer-like than I can ever remember in March. The animals are all making nests and scampering around. I think I am just wondering how long this will last. Well no matter, soon the sound of lawn mowers will be filling the air. The grass is already coming back up. Gas prices continue to be almost $4 or more and so I doubt we will be mowing it as often as we used to though. Many people have been complaining about the prices of gas and groceries and I suspect that there will be more gardeners than ever this summer. I cannot wait to get some tomato plants growing in pots. They aren’t too safe around here in a garden, as the woods have so many critters to eat them before they even get 6 inches high. Having a garden before, as large as the area in the picture below, well, it was a whole lot of hard work. 

 We tried planting more so that there would be enough for us and the critters. Didn’t work. They ate everything despite all the sprays and nets and high fences. Deer, rabbits, raccoons, and skunks are all seen around here too often. I had good luck with container gardening so guess that is what I will do. Hope you all are enjoying this wonderful Spring-Summer weather we are getting. My daily walks are sure wonderful without the heavy coats and boots etc. I saw a glimpse of some kind of animal in the barn where the car is parked today and sure hope it is NOT A SKUNK!! It moved so fast I could not see a white mark on it. Lord help me, I am so nervous going in there to get the car. Hopefully it is a racoon or squirrel.   

Tonight we took a drive to a neighboring town. As we traveled, we noticed the clouds building and beginning to circle us. When we came back home the skies were getting really dark and we heard thunder. I wondered if there had been a watch issued. We were in a hurry to get back home when we ran across this guy and he was NOT going to move no matter what. Drivers on both sides of him had to stop and turn around or just wait him out. Now I think, even out on a country type road, this should not happen. Finally when cars began to mount up on either side he had to stop unloading the corn and pull over.        

                                                      

I guess he was in a hurry to get the corn in the trucks before the rain came, and nothing was going to stop him. There wasn’t a watch for our area but one for east of us near Ann Arbor. Out of this storm system a tornado touched down in a town called Dexter. Much damage has been reported. It looked pretty bad on the news at 10 PM tonight. Here is a LINK to reports about it. Notice the LARGE homes and the damage to them. Some of the homes in that area are old and have been there decades, others not. They are two-story homes and it takes a pretty good tornado to do that kind of damage. I send my prayers to them all.      Hope you all have a wonderful and

AWARD TIME

 I AM SO PROUD TO POST THIS AWARD FROM MY “SISTER” BETH MARIE IN ILLINOIS…
WE ALL HAVE COME A LONG WAY SINCE THE WINDOWS SPACES BLOG DAYS… SO HAPPY WE ALL HAVE STAYED TOGETHER THESE 7 YEARS.   LOVE YA SIS!!

Thanks also to it’s creator! 

SPRING SPRUNG

I'm not ready to open windows yet but.....

Last night the weatherman said.."I don't think there will be any more cold nights like the ones we have, had the rest of this winter."  WHAT!!  Then I guess that old groundhog was WRONG then wasn't he. Six weeks has not passed and our snow is all gone again and we are going to see Spring like temperatures for at least a week. They have pretty sophisticated equipment nowdays and make a lot of predictions and sometimes they are really wrong. I 'm watching, and to me I think he might be right. The trees cannot help but start budding when we have had such a mild winter but birds and animals they somehow know way before we do. I have not seen the nest building yet, but the squirrels here are acting like winter is over. I have seen several flocks of geese flying overhead moving northward. I am looking for the robins here and haven't seen them yet, but expect to any day now. Thinking about those people who lost so much in the tornadoes this past week.  I hope that they can recover as much as possible and the weather will help them be able to clean up and try to get some of their lives back together. It will take a long time. Losing everything is very hard.         

SPRING... the time goes FORWARD an HOUR this coming SUNDAY so remember to set your clocks then...

POSTS here will be more scattered soon due to loss of Wifi connection.

Will try to keep going here the best I can. Hope you all have a great SPRING.

NASCAR CHURCH

I ran across this article at CNN about how Nascar drivers have church service before each race. True, each time they get into a car they put their lives on the line for a sport. It is a dangerous sport. Football is dangerous to some players, baseball not so much.Baseball players are on the road a whole lot more than either. Traveling all over the country. Their lives are lived in planes and hotels for months. They don't take their families with them as a rule. Nascar drivers live in motorhomes at each track,but fly from each place to place mostly. You see their families with them at each race a lot of the time.  
 It's not mandatory that drivers,family and crews show up at church services. It's by choice. They know what they do every Sunday is serious and life threatening. Last week, during the Daytona 500 their "superbowl" race, a fluke happened. A driver, alone on the track, lost control and hit a large dryer/blower type vehicle. The vehicle had 200 gallons of fuel on board.  A miracle both drivers lived to tell the tale. Had me wondering if both men had went to that Nascar Church service that morning?

"It is often the only quiet moment these families get during days at the track.
The chapel services are run by the Motor Racing Outreach, founded in 1988 by legendary NASCAR driver Darrell Waltrip and his wife, Stevie, and a handful of other drivers.
There were chapel services for drivers before Motor Racing Outreach, but they weren’t formally organized. Most times, there wasn’t even a minister present."

Photo courtesy of CNN


At the start of each Nascar race a chaplin gives a blessing over the race and the crews and all those who are attending. I think that is pretty special to set the tone for each race. When lives are on the line, they know who really is in charge. HERE is a link to the article in case you might be interested.