'CAPTAIN BIG BOOTS' CLIMBS INTO THE FROG POND

 OUR FRONT YARD FROG POND FROGS WERE DOING THEIR BEST T TO STAY OUT OF SIGHT TODAY

An overcast day but that's okay because they say 'variety is the spice of life'.  Too many sunny days in a row can get a little boring.  We need these cloudy days in our lives to really appreciate those sunny days when they do come along.

It wasn't much of a car ride this morning as Pheebs and I slipped around our Park and came home.  Kelly had some errands to run in Goderich and I was anxious to get started on my front yard frog pond project.  And, speaking of frogs, my annual frog round-up began this morning as well.   I had hoped to at least catch half a dozen frogs but it began raining around 11 so I quickly hustled the two frogs I already had in the pail over to Park's pond and eased the little guys into the water.  Half an hour later the rain stopped so out I went again and rounded me up 8 more frogs.  Draining about two-thirds of the water out of the pond made it easier to catch the little fellows with my fisherman's net.  I also pulled on my rubber boots and climbed myself into the shallow end of the pond and was able to lift out a number of rocks that had tumbled into the pond over the past couple of years.  And, I was easily able to get the plastic at the pond's end pulled up.  The next phase of the project is to now rebuild that end of the pond.  Maybe tomorrow, depending on the weather.

 WITH THE WHITE PAIL A THIRD FULL OF WATER I DROP THE FROGS IN AND THEN WHEELBARROW THEM OVER TO THE PARK'S POND AND GENTLY SLIP THEM INTO THE WATER....I USE THAT BLUE FISH NET TO CATCH THE LITTLE FELLAS

 TWO OF THE TEN FROGS I TRANSPORTED TO THE PARK'S POND TODAY

Of course, if this whole idea goes sideways I may go to plan B and pull all the liner out, fill in the hole, plant some flowers, and call it a day.   

 IN THE PROCESS OF PULLING THE SHALLOW END PERIMETER APART

MY SUPER ENGINEERED POND WATER DRAINAGE IDEA

 I MADE THE MISTAKE 20 YEARS AGO OF USING BRICKS AROUND THE EDGE OF THE POND TO HOLD THE LINER DOWN....IN THE WINTER THOSE WET BRICKS FROZE AND SHATTERED INTO PIECES....IT WAS HERE THE LEAK OCCURRED

I UNCOVERED A SURPRISE HERE...I HAD TOTALLY FORGOTTEN THAT I HAD ACTUALLY PUT SOME KIND OF A WHITE THICK LINER UNDER THE DARK PLASTIC LINER....NO WONDER THE POND HAS BEEN HOLDING ITS WATER ALL THESE YEARS

OKAY, HERE GOES' CAPTAIN BIG BOOTS' CLIMBING INTO THE FROG POND

Music plays in our house non-stop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  How nice this morning to be brought ever so softly out of my sleep with this tune called Shanghai Super Flight. (wait for the horn)  Oh my, how I love this kind of ambient music and it is the type of music that surrounds me every day including in the car.  And yes, I have a boombox in the washroom with quite a library of favorite music on cassettes too.  About the only times I do not have ambient music in my ears is when I am working around outside or out for a walk somewhere.  At those times it is Mother Nature's music I listen to.  The wind in the trees, the songbirds in the air, the Squirrels and the Chipmunks, the Coyotes, the Crickets, the rumbling thunder of a summer storm, raindrops, and Peeper frogs in the Spring.  Yes, Mother Nature has a whole host of wonderful music for my ears.  And yours too, if you listen:))    

A's Music Box:)) Cowboy Night Herd Song by Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers.  Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998), nicknamed the King of the Cowboys, was an American singer, actor, television host, freemason and rodeo performer.  Following early work under his given name, first as a co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then as an actor, the rebranded Rogers then became one of the most famous and popular Western stars of his era.  Roy was 19 when his sister Mary suggested that he audition for the Midnight Frolic radio program, which was broadcast over KMCS in Inglewood, California. A few nights later, wearing a Western shirt that Mary had made for him, he overcame his shyness and appeared on the program playing guitar, singing, and yodeling.  A few days later, he was asked to join a local country music group, the Rocky Mountaineers.  He accepted the group's offer and became a member in August 1931.  By September 1931, Len hired the Canadian-born Bob Nolan, who answered the group's classified ad in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner that read, "Yodeler for old-time act, to travel. Tenor preferred." Nolan stayed with the group only a short time, but Len and he stayed in touch. Nolan was replaced by Tim Spencer.  In the spring of 1932, Len, Spencer, and another singer, Slumber Nichols, left the Rocky Mountaineers to form a trio, which soon failed. Throughout that year, Len and Spencer moved through a series of short-lived groups, including the International Cowboys and the O-Bar-O Cowboys. When Spencer left the O-Bar-O Cowboys to take a break from music, Len joined Jack LeFevre and His Texas Outlaws, who were a popular act on a local Los Angeles radio station.  In early 1933, Len, Nolan, and Spencer formed the Pioneers Trio, with Slye on guitar, Nolan on string bass, and Spencer as lead vocalist. They rehearsed for weeks refining their vocal harmonies. During this time, Len continued to work with his radio singing group, while Spencer and Nolan began writing songs for the trio.  In early 1934, the fiddle player Hugh Farr joined the group, adding a bass voice to their vocal arrangements. Later that year, the Pioneers Trio became the Sons of the Pioneers when a radio station announcer changed their name because he felt they were too young to be pioneers. The name was received well and fit the group, which was no longer a trio.  By the summer of 1934, the popularity and fame of the Sons of the Pioneers extended beyond the Los Angeles area and quickly spread across the country through short syndicated radio segments that were later rebroadcast across the United States. The Sons of the Pioneers signed a recording contract with the newly founded Decca label and made their first commercial recording on August 8, 1934.  One of the first songs recorded during that first session was "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", written by Bob Nolan. Over the next two years, the Sons of the Pioneers recorded 32 songs for Decca, including the classic "Cool Water".

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A man enters a craft chocolate shop and asks if they could make a chocolate model car for him.  “Sure, no problem”  “And can it look like the VW Beetle that my dad had?”“Nice idea, no problem at all.”  “And can you make it so that the chocolate doors open and you can see the interior detailed in chocolate, like with a plastic model car?  Same with the bonnet and trunk?” “That will require some planning, but I think I can manage.” “And I would like the wheels to roll, and if I turn the steering wheel then the wheels should turn as well?”  “Mmmh that is fiendishly difficult in chocolate, I will need to carefully plan and experiment…”“And finally, can you make it so that the chocolate windows can move up and down when you turn the handles?”  “Man this is insanely difficult. But give me 3 weeks and I’ll try my best.”  Three weeks later the man returns and indeed there is a lovely chocolate VW Beetle model on display. The chocolatier proudly shows it in all its glorious details: interior, wheels, steering wheel, windows, everything works perfectly, and after the demo he asks, “Shall I put it in a nice gift box?” “No need, I will just eat it here.”

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How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

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The United States is the only country where a housewife hires a woman to do her cleaning, so she can do volunteer work at the daycare, where the cleaning woman leaves her child.
Go figure.
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