Caves, horseshoes, and target shooting

I haven't posted for a few days because we have been very busy, but now I want to tell you about our weekend. My wife and I got on the motorcycle last Saturday and went to two caves. We went to Cosmic Caverns and also Onyx Cave here in Arkansas. We enjoyed them very much. Cosmic Caverns has a lot of beautiful stalactites hanging from the ceiling and also mineral formations that look like flowing rock. I hope you enjoy the pictures I included. There are two bottomless lakes in Cosmic Caverns and they have huge trout swimming in them. The trout are not native to the lakes and they usually go blind and lose their color in a few years. The ones we seen hadn't lost their color yet, but they were very big. Our tour guide said that the trout actually have a longer life span than normal in the cave. Onyx cave is smaller than Cosmic Caverns but its a very nice cave also. Once again there is a lot of formations and a lot of green in the rock that looks like onyx, but I believe its not really onyx. Its a safer cave to visit than Cosmic Caverns but not quite as interesting. We took a lot of pictures. Sunday my brother and his wife came to visit us and my wife and I played horseshoes with them. It was my wifes first time to play horseshoes, and also she had not visited a cave before, so this weekend was a time of much interest and fun for her. It gives me great joy to see her get to experience new things and have fun. I live through her and her happiness is also my happiness. She did a great job at pitching horseshoes and made some ringers. She even threw the winning point at least once or twice. I was very proud of her. My brother and I also did a lot of target shooting. He had bought some new guns that are very nice and we enjoyed shooting them a lot. We cooked some pork ribs outside on an open fire and ate those with corn on the cob and rice. We had a very good time and I hope we can do it again soon. Ok my wife says that our food is ready now so I have to go. Everyone have a wonderful week!

My wife and I took a nice motorcycle ride to the Golden Museum

Wow we had fun! We decided to go visit a museum that is about 65 miles from where we live and we thought it would be nice to ride our motorcycle. It was beautiful weather, warm but not real hot. This little museum is located in Golden Missouri, which is just about a one hour drive from Branson. Golden is basically just a community, not really a town but there is this museum there that is amazing. You probably wouldn't even notice it when you drive by because it is housed inside a metal building and looks more like a convenience store than a museum. I had been there once many years ago but I wanted to take my wife to see it as she is recently here from the Philippines. I am glad we went because the museum has expanded much larger than it was before. There are many Native American items such as arrowheads and pictures made from arrowheads and lance heads. There are bone tools, hollow rocks used like a motar and pestle to grind grains, headdresses, and many other items. There are also dishes! When I say dishes I don't just mean dishes, I mean DISHES! Literally tens of thousands of them in every shape and color. Many are priceless I am sure. There is crystal, depression glass, slag glass, and so many others that it would take days to really look at each one. I am not usually interested in things like that but they are so beautiful and the displays are so neat that we took many pictures. There is one room that contains some dishes that are a pale green, and you can turn on a black light and they all glow a unearthly green. So lovely and kind of eerie at the same time. The museum also has many other items, such as a real voodoo doll from New Orleans. It is much bigger than I expected and has many huge nails driven in it. I can see why someone would be intimidated by a person that said they knew how to use one. None of that evil eye stuff for me! There are also huge crystal rock displays. Some are the largest in the world. There are many other beautiful rock displays. Some are so heavy that I can't imagine how they got them in the museum. There is even petrified dinosaur dung. From the size of it let me tell you that if a dinosaur ever suffered from irregularity, something would have to give pretty soon, and you wouldn't want to be near! There is also some nice pieces of petrified wood and a huge collection of old lunch boxes, another collection of old dolls and toys, one of beautiful fans and another of ancient artifacts with some dating back as far as 4000 years. There are also guns! Lots and lots of guns. Most of them very old. There is even an old blunderbuss, some civil war muskets, and a palm pistol, cannon balls, you name it, its probably in the museum. Oh I nearly forgot about the animal colletion. There are several mounted animals that are in a display that shows their natural habitat and lifestyle. Everything from a small black bear to raccoons, to foxes, to squirrels, a bobcat, a largemouth bass trying to swallow another one nearly as big. That one includes a picture of the guy that caught them holding them up with one sticking out of the other ones mouth. We had a great time! Now let me tell you one of the best things about this museum, its free! Thats right, I said free. There is a collection box that you can give a donation if you want but nobody asks you too and if you don't want too its fine. The museum belongs to an individual and in my opinion its a great museum with many priceless items inside. My thanks to the nice gentleman that owns it for donating so much of his time, money, and efforts to collecting and displaying so much wonderful history for all to see. I hope all of you will someday go to this museum. If you ever go to Branson Missouri on vacation just look on the map and you will see Golden Missouri nearby. You can't miss the museum if you know about it and look for it. There is only one road through Golden and the museum is right beside it.

Chickens, dogs, and summer heat

My wife and I are still working on building our chicken house. Now we have the walls all built, and next we have to put on the roof and build a door. Then we will put in some roosts for the chickens. We ordered our chickens last night so they should be coming in the mail pretty soon. We got fifty while chickens that will be just for meat, and we got thirty five chickens that are different colors and breeds. Those will be our laying chickens and they were pretty expensive. We are excited to get them. We also have to build our pen to keep them in. The house is just for them to sleep in at night or when the weather is bad. Our chicken house is built from native oak from a local sawmill and it is a very strong house! I think it would stand through more abuse than our house that we live in. We are proud of it and we have worked very hard in the summer heat to build it. Hopefully we can get the wire fence put up this weekend so our pen will be finished. We will have to heat the little house at night, even though it is summer, because the chickens we ordered will only be a few days old when we get them. They won't have any feathers yet and will get cold easily. This is our first venture into raising animals so we are excited. Well we do have one rooster and our little dog Blanche so I guess its not our very first venture. Blanche is so cute. She is half Bassett Hound and half something else. We think Beagle. She is long and low to the ground, not real smart, but she makes up for it with exuberance for life and friendliness. She chases the wildlife here all the time lol. The deer and squirrels fear and dread her mightily! Anyway, I will put in a picture of our new chicken house when we get it finished, and when our chickens get here I will post some pics of them also. Have a great weekend everyone!

Chickens, pens, and houses

My wife and I have decided that we want to have some chickens, so we will have more healthy meat to eat, and also fresh eggs. This weekend we bought stuff to build a chicken house and a pen for them. We worked out in the heat on the chicken house and we got a lot accomplished. Its not going to be a beautiful house but maybe the chickens will think it is. We have found some chickens online and surprisingly they can be mailed to our local post office. Its illegal to ship them right to our door because the postal service are not allowed to leave them without knowing how long it will be before someone gets home and finds them. I read a few years ago that although it has been proven that eggs have high cholesterol, fresh eggs from chickens that eat mostly what nature provides, don't have much cholesterol. Now my wife and I can eat all the eggs and chicken we want and won't have to worry about our health so much. I'll keep you posted on how the pen and house are coming. Still lots of work to do. Then its onward and upward to build a porch for the house, and lots more work we have planned. Everyone have a great week!

Flu, songs, dancing, and guitars

I guess flue season must be here because I just recovered from it. The flu not the season. At least I hope I am recovered from it. I was so sick that I nearly decided to go lie down at the funeral home for awhile, just in case! Anyway I feel better now but I'm starting to think that flue vaccinations may be worthwhile. Now I'm just hoping that my wife doesn't get it too. Maybe we all should get flu shots to make sure that we don't have some miserable days aching and sick. I went to work even though I had the flu and it was pretty much the longest day of my life. I didn't think I could bear to stay but I made it, a minute at at time. When quitting time finally came I staggered to my truck, came home, and went to sleep in my chair. Then it was a little chicken noodle soup, and lots more sleep. Today I felt better. I just downloaded Billy Curringtons song, God is great, beer is good, people are crazy and that pretty much expresses my sentiments sometimes, although I don't drink beer. Its a catchy song and matches his voice. I don't usually like the newer music, no matter what genre it is, but the song took my fancy and I downloaded it. Now my wife and I have been listening to it over and over and she likes it too and can't be still when it plays lol. She loves music and her body moves naturally when an enjoyable song plays. I on the other hand have no coordination below the waist. I like to play music and used to play in bands, even made a couple of records and was on tv, but dance I can't do. If anyone was ever born with thumbs on their feet it must have been me. Someday when I get enough energy to walk to the next room I will take pictures of some of my guitars and post here. I have one that is a 5 string fretless bass guitar, handmade. I don't play very often nowadays but I need to get back into it, at least for fun. Everyone have a great upcoming weekend!

What a mess I made today

My wife and I live in the country and we decided that we want to get some chickens. We need a chicken house of course so they have a place to stay at night so today I had this bright idea that I could move a small old hunting cabin our our property to the site where want out chicken pen to be. I thought it would make a nice chicken house. Well, it probably would have, except that when I hooked the tractor to it and started pulling it, it fell apart a piece at a time lol. I got it to within 50 feet of where we wanted to put it and it just fell to pieces. What a mess and right in the yard too. So we spent half the day cleaning up the mess it made and I got stung 2 times by wasps, and sunburned. I'm going to be glad to go back to work tomorrow because I need some rest! We mowed our lawn today and then I mowed some extra with the tractor and brush cutter. All that before I broke the cabin. Its been a long day, but you know what? Its still been a great day, because I got to spend it with my lovely sweet wife. We enjoy each others company so much and when I told her that I messed up by trying to move the cabin she just said, "no you didn't". I told her that next time I get a bright idea to tell me "nooooooooo don't do that". Anyway, half of today was pretty productive and the other half wasn't. I really thought that old cabin would hold together for the short distance I had to move it. Now I'm inside nursing my wasp stings and having a drink. A shower never felt so good. Yesterday my wife and I cooked outside on an open fire. I have another post below describing how we do it. The food is soooo good. We cooked shish-ka-bobs, shrimp, crawfish, and veggies and it was all good. I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend and hope the coming week is fruitful for you.