Today

* * chirp * *  * * chirp * * * * chirp * *

That sound of crickets means only one thing...

It has been very quiet on the Dotopotamus for awhile.

A time of change and challenges, saying goodbye and saying hello.

But today? 

Today is about new beginnings.

And new stories.

But first?

A hello from Dot and Randy.

Dot's first visit to the ocean about one month ago.

Trying again.

"Life is no straight and easy corridor along

which we travel free and unhampered,

but a maze of passages,

through which we must seek our way,

lost and confused, now and again

checked in a blind alley.

But always, if we have faith,

a door will open for us,

not perhaps one that we ourselves

would ever have thought of,

but one that will ultimately

prove good for us."

A.J. Cronin

To new beginnings!

Burn Baby Burn

What do you do when you have huge felled trees?

You cut them up into huge logs!

And why would you do that?

Because you are tired of being cold and you want some heat!

So you do this.

You start with an empty space in your den and you ask Dot if she could move it for a minute.  

Then you get started.

You get some instructions.

And with a single click of your barbecue lighter that looks like a shotgun, you get FIRE!

 

And at long last, you are warm.

 

The end. 

Of outrageous electric bills, that is.  Yee haw!

The Greatest American Export

Randy brings back interesting things when he flies overseas missions.  Some of the simplest things fascinate me the most.

Similar...

Yet different...

Hey wait a minute...

I haven't seen these things in a few decades! Didn't these kill fish, or cause mountains of litter in landfills, or something like that?

When I saw this, I admit heaving a sigh of relief knowing that one can order the elixir of the gods in all parts of the world!

The Art of Foraging

If you saw this growing in the darkness on moss laden ground under a huge fir tree in the deep woods would you think, "Hey...now there's some good eats!"?

Not me.  I would think about that awful scene from the book/movie Into the Wild where the guy eats the wrong root and goes crazy and dies a slow, painful death!  (Spoiler, much?  Even though I just told you how it ends you should read that book.  I'm haunted by that book.  And the movie, too.  Really.  It's a true story.  I find the guy fascinating.)

Then again, I wasn't raised in the woods and haven't spent the better part of my free time from birth until now learning all there is to know about the forest and its many inhabitants, like Randy has done.

He loves it and every year during the right season he can't wait to go hunting for Chantrelle mushrooms that grow in this part of the world.  They are a  creepy looking things but are considered a delicacy and they aren't that easy to find in the wild anymore.  Randy said that when he was growing up he would pick buckets and buckets full and sell them for spending money, but he has a harder and harder time finding them now because of over harvesting.

Here is this year's yield.

The mighty hunter.

Yum!

The Shadow Knows

Do you ever get that eerie feeling that you are being followed?  Jack told me that he does.

 

But stalker Dot needs to be careful because she doesn't yet fully understand the universal law that what goes around comes around and her actions may come back to haunt her.

Oh dear....

The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of Defeat

Well, we were certainly hoping for a different outcome in tonight's National Championship game.  We rooted hard for the Ducks but they just couldn't get 'er done.

 

But how about this interesting little development?

In celebration of the Seahawks amazing victory, Randy now has the best reason to show his TRUE BLUE Seahawk pride this Sunday with this little gift I got for him.

We have touchdown fever!

Get Along Little Doggies

I visited beautiful Meeker, Colorado recently.

Where I got to visit this little turkey and pilgrim.

And let me just say that if you are headed off to kindergarten and the second grade in beautiful Meeker, Colorado and you have to be at school at 7:30 a.m. you had better give yourself plenty of time because you never know what kind of delay you might encounter.  And don't kid yourself into thinking that you have the right-away because in this neck of the woods?  You don't!

And let me spare you a hard lesson learned by letting you know that you should never, ever pump your fists in triumph as you make your way through the cow herd and begin to leave those bovines in your dust.  Don't do it.  Because if you do?  The next day the ranching gods will punish you with even longer delays.

With sheep.

Can you spot the black sheep of the family? That guys is trouble.

Thanks goodness for sheep dogs! They help clear the way.

By the way, did you know that you can visit beautiful Meeker, Colorado in September and attend the annual Sheepdog Championship Trials?  How cool is that?

But back to the road to school.  It's quite a trek!  My sister in law says that driving that road is like playing real life Frogger....you're always swerving to avoid some creature, or another.

However, if you can make it through the day without getting side swiped by some big animal you can pick up your little turkey and pilgrim from school and head over to the cute little local historical museum where they are dieing for you to see one thing, and one thing only...

THE TWO-HEADED CALF!

Because it is almost as freaky cool as the Three-Headed Holliday.