[ponyakr]

roxie went on many trail rides with roscoe & little red. she also trained roscoe 2 scracth her itches. he never complained. it seems that critters are unique & each has their own personality just like folks.

[Greg Reid]

Yeah, I'm out in the woods myself. This time of year, I have a real problem discouraging the birds from building nests on anything that looks suitable to them. I just cleaned one out of the gas bbq grill this morning. Hated to do it 'cause it was just about complete... but I wanted her to find a new spot before she drops dem eggs. I don't have the heart to toss one out then...

[ponyakr]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Yeah, I'm out in the woods myself. This time of year, I have a real problem discouraging the birds from building nests on anything that looks suitable to them. I just cleaned one out of the gas bbq grill this morning. Hated to do it 'cause it was just about complete... but I wanted her to find a new spot before she drops dem eggs. I don't have the heart to toss one out then...

there's always birds that buid nests in TJ's horse barn every spring. she keeps an eye on em & gives me a progress report when there is some new developement.

[Stuckinda60s]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Yeah, I'm out in the woods myself. This time of year, I have a real problem discouraging the birds from building nests on anything that looks suitable to them. I just cleaned one out of the gas bbq grill this morning. Hated to do it 'cause it was just about complete... but I wanted her to find a new spot before she drops dem eggs. I don't have the heart to toss one out then...

Put a rubber snake where the birds can see it somewhere close to where they're building the nest. They'll find someplace else, in a jiffy. Owls in the vicinity also work.

[ponyakr]

thought i'd let ya'll cruise down the trail along with TJ & her 1hp/4wd wonderhorse. the 1st shot is on what she calls the "catheral trail" because of this tree arch. here's evidence of the thunderstorm that came thru--lightning hit this tree. next is called deep creek trail. the trail crosses here, where the banks are not so steep. the last 1 is down in the deep woods where the light only shines thru when the sun is almost directly overhead like in this shot.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by Stuckinda60s

Put a rubber snake where the birds can see it somewhere close to where they're building the nest. They'll find someplace else, in a jiffy. Owls in the vicinity also work.

These birds are too unpredictable and persistent for me to keep rubber snakes in all the possible locations. I've had them build a nest inside my garage between three cans of primer and paint on top of a cabinet because I left the garage door up. They've frequently built nests in potted houseplants we put out on the front porch in the spring. Like I mentioned, I just cleaned one out of my gas grill yesterday before she could lay eggs in it.
The photo below is a gas weedeater that was leaning against the house near the basement door. That's a nest (with eggs) sitting right on top...lol That's just to name a few places they've targeted.
I'm thinking competition must be tough for prime nesting with the number of birds in the area. They are absolutely frantic this time of year.
By the way, I've had my share or REAL snakes in several of those areas as well.

[ponyakr]

just heard an old country song today on a local country station which plays nothin but the old country, some call it real country--you know--when the country band still had a steel guitar & a fiddle--not this new stuff where all the dudes have an electric guitar & try 2 look & act like heavy metal rockers. i been listenin 2 country for a long time & i can tell ya fur shore that new stuff AIN'T country! anyhow i think the name of this song was "daddy let me drive". he described the truck as an old short bed ford, with 3 on the tree. said his daddy would let him drive & would encourage him by sayin somethin like " thats allrite son, your doin just fine. so that took me imediately back 2 my grammar school days when my daddy would let me drive all our trucks, tractors & cars. & although my 1st pickup was a stude, we did have a short bed ford in the '50's & both trucks had a 3 on the tree. & my dad was always there 2 help & encourage me & tell me what i was doin wrong & how 2 correct it. i reckin young folks take a lot of things for granted. i just thought all the kids were learnin how 2 drive. obviously that wasn't true. so as i look back on my life, i can see how special my dad was & can now more appreciate all the things he did for me. he wasn't perfect & neither am i, but i know he loved me & always did everything he could 2 help me along through life. & i now realize that many people did not have a "cool" dad like mine. some were mistreated by there dad or had dads that didn't really care much about them. & of course some never even knew who their dad was. so, i'll have 2 say that i feel truely blessed 2 have had a dad who loved me, took time 2 show me & help me learn things, & promise 2 always be there 2 help if i ever needed him. i believe that some day i'll see him again & i can tell him then how much i appreciated what he meant 2 me while he was on this earth.

[ponyakr]

sometimes ya half 2 cross a hiway or 2 before ya can get 2 the next trail. we got a lota wild hogs in our neck of the woods. when ya cross the ark state line, then they're called razorbacks. there's always several homade hog traps similar 2 this 1 along TJ's deep woods horse trails. looks like they used some public property 2 help construct this trap. she ran across 1 that had captured 7 young-uns. sometimes in the spring & winter we get lots of rain. here's a shot of rainwater runnin down both ruts of a horse trail road. she usually needs her 4wd for several days after a big rain. then back at the old ponderosa, pokey can relax while i knock the weeds down on our little clearing. this little kioti is hi tech & very efficient compared 2 that 1st long-nosed case i drove into the side of our house back in the '50's. its lots of fun--sorta like a big boy toy.

[Engine-Ear]

That reads like clean living, if you asked me. Thanks for sharing today's memories, ponyakr. Happy mother's day to your mom from me. Be well.

[ponyakr]

TJ got her degree in commercial art & was workin in an ad design studio long before graduation. as students, they were told 2 keep records of their work 2 use in case they ever needed them for a job interview or just 2 give prospective clients ideas 2 help in the design of something for themselves. she was lookin thru 1 of her albums of old art work & found these that she thought mite be of interest 2 some. of course, with the popularity of the duck dynasty tv show, her most famous creation is the duck commander logo & decal which she said she thought was 1st used on the early duck calls in the mid 1970's, maybe around '75. by the way, her brother sees the boys on a regular basis, as they live in the same town & they catch charter flights out of the co where he instructs & does some of the charter flying. the car with the "good grief" tires & "lunatic" cams decal was for a brochure, printed for the JK on the license plate, who was the minister at our wedding. TJ's neighbor from childhood started our local car club. so he ask TJ 2 design a logo for them. here's what she came up with in 1996 & they still use it today. by the way, this man was a die hard ford man. if you go 2 the cemetary where he's buried you won't have any trouble spotting his tombstone--its got the unmistakable figure of an early mustang on it! that imediately made me want a BIG pontiac arrowhead on mine--when that time comes(if it does--i may fly instead of die--the Bible promises that many will!) nowdays this guys son & grandson are carrying on the ford tradition--they buy, restore, show & sell early mustangs.

[ponyakr]

pokey has a loyal following of feathered friends. at least 2 of the small ones are by his side(or rather, around his mouth) just about every day. sometimes they are so close it looks like he could chomp down on 1 if he wanted 2. the larger white birds, i thank, are called cattle egrets, tho that may not be their proper name. we call em cow birds. they tend 2 congregate wherever there are cows. many times you can see em actually sittin on a cows back & pickin off the flys & other insects that may lite on the cow. they also love 2 follow tractors & hay baling equipment around & pounce on the crickets & grasshoppers they stir up. crows also like 2 hang around cows & tractors. they are frequent visitors 2 our horse lot, they love 2 peck around thru the horse pill piles 2 see what tasty treats they can dig up, but they are a lot more cautious than some birds, so its hard 2 get close up pics of them. as i was mowing with the tractor a couple of days ago, i had 3 cow birds & 1 crow follerin me around, harvesting the tasty morsels.

[ponyakr]

she found this 1 in the newspaper office where she worked. it had managed 2 get in thru the attic somehow. they had squirrels get in occasionally 2. you think this little feller is smiling for the camera or wanting 2 bite somebody?

[ponyakr]

I recently got a real nice PM from a member who shall remain anonymous. He said that he had enjoyed following my story, but also had some good suggestions. The main thing was the abbreviations, especially the number 2, instead of the word to. He said that it sounded like teenagers texting each other. Everyone who has followed my story, knows, by now, that i'm a country boy who was raised on a farm. If you had a conversation with me, you would never hear me say the word "think". Instead, i would use the word "thank". Well, you get the idea. If you want to hear how i talk, just tune in to "Duck Dynasty" and listen to "Uncle Si". That reminds me. If you don't already have a copy, go to Wal-Mart or Amazon or somewhere and buy a copy of the "Duck Dynasty" book entitled "Happy Happy Happy" TJ is reading it now and says she gives it two redneck "Thumbs Up"! Now concerning the abbreviations, when i first started using the computer, some three years or so back, i started seeing all the abbreviations like TMI, FYI, LOL, IMO, FWIW, etc. I didn't have a clue what any of these meant. I had to ask TJ. So i thought you were supposed to abbreviate. I also noticed that there is no capitalization in any website address. So, i suppose thats where i got the idea to use mostly lower case letters. Also, i had a severe round of arthritis a few years back. My typing is reduced to no more than two finger "hunt and peck", with the index fingers. It's a slow process and abbreviations just seem to speed the process along.
However, i have now been shocked into reality! I now realize that i am not sharing my story for my benefit, but for the enjoyment of others. So, anything i can do to make it more enjoyable or easier to read will make it better for all who read it.
So first, please accept my sincere apology for anything & everything i've said & the way i've said it, that may have been distasteful to anyone. If i could go back and make corrections, i would begin tonight. But i was told that i have only about an hour to edit or make corrections to a post. After that, it's history.
So, what i CAN do is promise to try and correct all these things, in order to make my posts more presentable and easier to read and understand.
Again i say "THANKS" to all those who have given me encouragement and kind words since i have been a member here.
PS: I may have to get TJ to proofread my posts and correct my errors. I've been talking this way for so long, it's hard to remember what i learned in my high school english classes.

[Greg Reid]

Don, the abbreviations and the 'thank' instead of 'think' don't bother me....If I have any criticism at all...and this is not just for you....any post that's more than 15 or 20 lines long needs a paragraph break in the text. It's hard to keep up with what line you're on and you wind up reading the same line over or holding a straightedge up against the screen.. Yours are not too bad as you at least are a good speller and you use punctuation and that helps.
But since your posts are kind of long, I'd just say skip a line and start a new paragraph every 10 or 12 lines and it's much easier to read.
Post # 412 and #413 above are a good examples of what I'm talking about. Just makes it a bit easier to read with some spaces every so often.
Keep it up though...I do enjoy reading your stories and looking at the old pics.

[ponyakr]

I ask TJ last night how to indent & start new paragraphs. She said just hit the "enter" button, then the spacer button a couple of times and that should do it. So, i did that and sure enough it worked. But when i clicked on the post sign, it posted, but removed all the new paragraphs that were showing in what i originally typed. In other words, it just undid the changes i had made & bunched all the sentences back up together, just as if thats the way i typed them. So obviously, I don't know how to start a new paragraph with a computer keyboard. Believe it or not, i typed the most correct words per minute in my high school typing class. I beat all the girls. But that was on an old manual typewriter. You could just hit the return bar and skip all the lines you wanted to. So, obviously, the old computer dummy needs a little more typing info here. You got any? I just looked at #418. It started a new paragraph at some of the places I intended, but even then, didn't have the indentions that i added at the beginning of the next paragraph. HELP!!!

[Greg Reid]

Yeah, the computer it different. I basically do it the way TJ said...Just hit enter a couple of times to open up a space.


Like this. I don't worry about the 'indent' with the space bar..Just hit 'enter' a couple of times after I end a sentence.

[ponyakr]

Now don't that just beat all! Just hit enter twice & skip a line whenever you want to.

What could be any easier than that? I've always said "Most anything is easy if you

know how". I think i can do that. Thanks a lot! By the way, just to let everybody know

i wasn't lying about the typing deal, i got TJ to get a shot out of my high school

yearbook. I'm not really a dummy. I just look and sound that way! Hee-Haw

[ponyakr]

I just saw this for the first time. A member calls himself "FARBURD". Now there is some spelling i can relate to!!!

[Stuckinda60s]

I was tempted to mention using 2 instead of to, myself. Using 2 really slows down the reading, particularly for those who've had any speed-reading. It's out of context and makes one pause every time they see it. I'm glad you can accept things in the way they're meant.

Read back over your past posts, I think you'll see what I mean about using 2.

[Engine-Ear]

Don (glad to learn your name), your style is your style. I agree that using numerals for words is verboten but by all means, keep the diary-of-the-past going.

Maybe sometime we will cross paths. My dad was class of '66 - you're way farther along than he would have been.

Are you anywhere near Alexandria, LA?