Nick Russell

Saturday Q&A

 Posted by at 12:45 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 022023
 

I’m back with more questions from blog readers about RVing, my writing activities, what’s happening in our lives since we hung up the keys, and all kinds of other things. While I try to answer all questions individually, I also share some here occasionally.

Q. In a blog last week you talked about carrying a gun to kill snakes on your property and I was sick to hear that. I always thought you were a good guy until then. Why would you want to kill an innocent animal that God put on this earth with a purpose? What’s wrong with live and let live?

A. As I wrote in that blog, I encountered two black snakes while mowing and let them go away. But yes, I will kill any venomous snakes I come across on our property. I don’t want one of us or any of our pets to get bitten. They are trespassers until they start paying their share of the mortgage and taxes.

Q. Are you going to stain your new deck to protect it from the weather? If so, what are you going to use and what color? I’m asking because we want to have a deck built at our place here in Arkansas.

A. Yes, getting the deck stained is on our to do list. I’m not sure what brand we will use. Our son-in-law recommended one he is familiar with, but I need to have him tell me again because I can’t find my note about it. We want to go with a natural color.

Q. You mentioned that you both got COVID booster shots and then Terry got sick. You don’t see any connection there? Do you not know how many people have died from that vaccine the liberals brainwashed you into taking?

A. Normally I don’t respond to comments with conspiracy theories, but just to let you know, Terry was sick before we got our booster shots. And while I don’t know what kind of wacko numbers of people were “killed” by the vaccine you believe, I do know that we lost several friends and family members to COVID, and I have friends and family members who worked in the medical field during the worst days of the pandemic. I have heard their horror stories of the thousands who died because they did not get the vaccine.

A. Why didn’t you have them spread the gravel when it was delivered instead of piling it up and then using your tractor? They could have done in minutes what took you two days.

A. It was leftover gravel from when we had the backyard re-sloped and French drains installed to help with drainage problems. The company that did that work ordered it delivered and piled so they could use it as they needed it. When I do order more, I will definitely have the driver spread it for me.

Q. I know some former RVers moved to Ecuador when they hung up the keys, and it seemed like they enjoyed living there. I am wondering if they are all still there, given the chaos and political violence going on there these days?

A. All of the people we know who moved to Ecuador have long since moved back to the United States.

Q. Nick, just wondered what your opinion is on regular people owning AK-47 like weapons?

A. An AK-47 or an AR-15 is just like an automobile or a chainsaw. It is not dangerous in and of itself. In responsible hands it is harmless, but in the hands of a fool or a madman it can cause havoc. I have had two AR-15s for many years and neither one has ever hurt anyone. They are semiautomatic rifles that can accept high-capacity magazines. A Ruger Mini-14 uses the same ammunition as an AR-15 and can also accept a 30-round magazine. But because it has a wooden stock instead of plastic, nobody talks about them. I have always said any law-abiding citizen should have the right to own any kind of firearm they want. I have also said that there are a hell of a lot of them that have no business with one.

Q. At one time when you were living in Florida you and Miss Terry talked about taking a cruise. Did you ever do that, and if so, where did you go and what cruise line did you use? It’s on my bucket list.

A. No, we never got around to taking a cruise. The high numbers of cruise ship passengers getting sick during the pandemic changed our minds about it back then, and now with pets it makes it hard to go away for very long.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Big Lake Honeymoon, the seventh book in my Big Lake mystery series. The story begins as the busy summer season is drawing to a close in the little mountain town of Big Lake, Arizona and the locals are looking forward to a relaxing interlude before the first snowfall brings carloads of skiers to the high country. That all changes when a nearly nude woman rushes into a convenience store in the middle of the night begging for help. She tells Sheriff Jim Weber that her new husband has been murdered and she was taken captive by the mysterious killer, who seems to have disappeared into the thick forests of the White Mountains, touching off a manhunt for a phantom that cannot be found.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Smile today, tomorrow could be worse.

All Clear

 Posted by at 1:24 am  Nick's Blog
Sep 012023
 

Anybody who’s ever had a colonoscopy knows that the prep is so much worse than the actual procedure. Terry had already been sick for a week, and going through that sure didn’t add to her comfort level. But she’s a trooper and she got through it yesterday morning, getting a report including photos that all was well, and during the afternoon we got a phone call from her doctor to confirm that they had read the results and everything looks good. That’s always good news. 😊

Because she hadn’t had anything to eat the day before, and it was almost noon by the time we left North River Surgical Center after her procedure, the first order of business was getting lunch. We have driven a by a restaurant called The Blue Plate in Northport many times and I had heard some good things about it so we decided to stop there.

They were busy with the lunch crowd and we had to wait about five minutes for a table, but that’s okay. They serve typical Southern comfort food; dishes like fried chicken, meatloaf, fried catfish, country fried steak, and pork chops. You can definitely tell you’re in the South because the sides included fried okra, purple hull peas, turnip greens, and butter beans. The specials yesterday included fried chicken, which I had, and beef tips in gravy. Terry chose meatloaf, and it was good. Even as busy as they were, the service was fast and friendly.

When we left there, we stopped at Publix to pick up a few things, and then made one final stop at Lowe’s so I could buy a couple of 20 inch high velocity fans. I want them to use in the barn while I’m gutting the interior and in the garage if I’m doing something out there.

We were both worn out from little sleep and getting up early, so at home I napped in my recliner while Terry unwound from her procedure. It’s always fun to have critters. Mai Lin , one of Terry’s kittens, was having a good time with the paper towels in the kitchen that BeeBee, her partner in crime had batted down for her, without us keeping an eye on them.

Later on we went out to her raised garden beds, where Terry harvested three kinds of peppers (anaheim, serrano, and jalapenos), along with some cucumbers and basil. There’s not a lot left out there, she may probably get a few more peppers and herbs before it’s all said and done.

When we were done with that we sat on the back deck relaxing for a while and throwing the occasional ball for Alli to retrieve. I brought one of the new fans out onto the deck to see how it worked, and even on low it moves a tremendous amount of air. Definitely a good investment!

We’ve got a few more days of relatively cool weather, or at least cooler than it has been, before the heat kicks in again next week. I hope to take advantage of that time to get some more chores done outside while I can.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Big Lake Honeymoon, the seventh book in my Big Lake mystery series. The story begins as the busy summer season is drawing to a close in the little mountain town of Big Lake, Arizona and the locals are looking forward to a relaxing interlude before the first snowfall brings carloads of skiers to the high country. That all changes when a nearly nude woman rushes into a convenience store in the middle of the night begging for help. She tells Sheriff Jim Weber that her new husband has been murdered and she was taken captive by the mysterious killer, who seems to have disappeared into the thick forests of the White Mountains, touching off a manhunt for a phantom that cannot be found.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – I think I’m approaching my “BEST IF USED BY” date.

Another Project Done

 Posted by at 12:57 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 312023
 

I was back at it yesterday, using my Kubota tractor to spread gravel on our driveway and then smooth it out with the tractor’s back blade and the bottom side of the bucket loader. It’s all done, and while it’s not as neat and tidy as somebody with more experience could do, a guy’s got to start someplace, right? This was my first experience with a project like this, and hopefully as I spend more time using the tractor and its various implements, I will get better.  As for the distortion in the picture of the garage, I have no idea what caused that.

Remember that big pile of gravel I showed you that I started with yesterday? Here’s a picture to refresh your memory.

It’s all gone now. I will rake the remaining stones out onto the barn road. The way the grass grows around here, within a couple of months you won’t know the gravel was ever there.

After reading yesterday’s blog, several people suggested that the next time I get gravel I have the truck driver spread it for me instead of piling it up like it was and making all of that extra work with the tractor. This was leftover gravel from when we had the backyard re-sloped and French drains installed to help with drainage problems. The company that did that work ordered it delivered and piled so they could use it as they needed it. When I do order more, I will definitely have the driver spread it for me. I’m a lazy man by nature and avoid work at every opportunity.

The fever seems to have abated, but Terry is still not feeling good. She is still fatigued and her body and joints feel sore. To add to her misery, today she has to have a colonoscopy. You can imagine what the prep must have been like, feeling as crappy (no pun intended) as she was already. We talked about rescheduling the procedure, but since it took a couple of months to get this appointment, and because of her cancer history, it’s not something we want to put off. When she’s hurting this bad and feels so miserable, I feel absolutely helpless to be able to do anything to help make it better for her.

In other news, the paperback edition of Big Lake Assault is now out and available on Amazon. Sales of the new book have been amazing. It’s received 322 ratings on Amazon with a 4.6 star out of five ranking, it is #943 in the Kindle Store out of all of the millions of ebooks on Amazon, and #20 in its category. Thank you everybody for your support, your reviews and Amazon rankings, and telling your friends and family members about the book. It is very much appreciated.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Big Lake Honeymoon, the seventh book in my Big Lake mystery series. The story begins as the busy summer season is drawing to a close in the little mountain town of Big Lake, Arizona and the locals are looking forward to a relaxing interlude before the first snowfall brings carloads of skiers to the high country. That all changes when a nearly nude woman rushes into a convenience store in the middle of the night begging for help. She tells Sheriff Jim Weber that her new husband has been murdered and she was taken captive by the mysterious killer, who seems to have disappeared into the thick forests of the White Mountains, touching off a manhunt for a phantom that cannot be found.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. This is why it’s so important to always read the label.

Thought For The Day – Be careful when you follow the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.

Tractor Time

 Posted by at 1:32 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 302023
 

Before I do anything else today, I want to thank everybody who posted messages, made blog comments, or sent me emails wishing Miss Terry a speedy recovery. I’d like to say that she’s feeling much better today, but I would be lying to you. She still has the severe headache and the body aches and pains, and her lymph glands are still sore and swollen, but at least she is not feverish like she had been. We are still waiting for the results of all of the labs and tests they ran on Monday afternoon, and hopefully we’ll know something today.

Our gravel driveway and the gravel road going back to the barn have become very overgrown with grass over the summer. In some places it’s hard to tell where you’re even supposed to be driving because the gravel had become buried under all of the grass growing up through it. I’ve been waiting for a break in the weather to tackle that project, and yesterday was finally the day.

The first thing I did was extend the scarifiers on my Kabuta tractor’s box blade all the way down, and then I spent some time going back and forth up and down the road and the driveway, ripping away a lot of the grass and loosening the gravel underneath.

This is a slow and bumpy process, and I was going no more than two or three miles per hour. But when I was done the driveway was properly prepped for the next step.

I decided to focus on the driveway first, because I knew I didn’t have nearly enough gravel to do everything. Retracting the scarifiers, I then lowered the box blade down so the wide, flat blade across the bottom was making contact and made several passes up and down the driveway. This did two things; it pulled the loosened gravel and grass up, and then once I got most of the grass out I repeated the process in the opposite direction with just the gravel, and it helped to smooth out any small ruts in the driveway.

Then I tackled the pile of gravel that has been sitting since we had the yard regraded, moving it one bucketload at a time up to the driveway, starting at the garage and dumping it. That was another very long process, but by the end of the day the pile was much smaller than when I started.

As you can see, the gravel is just dumped and somewhat spread and not smoothed out yet. I will finish bringing the rest of the gravel up today, and then use the box blade to smooth things out.

I’m sure that someone with more experience than I have on a tractor could have done the job quicker and made it look a lot better than I have, and I’m sure the finished job would also be a lot neater. But I’m learning as I go on, relying on the YouTube College of Tractorology.

I’m definitely going to have to get a lot more gravel delivered before this job is done. When and how much will depend on the weather and our budget. The first priority will be to finish the driveway itself, and then I will concentrate on the barn road.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Revenge sounds so mean. That’s why I prefer to call it “Returning the favor.”

At Least It’s Not COVID

 Posted by at 1:10 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 292023
 

On Wednesday night of last week Terry started feeling bad, with body aches and pains, and she wasn’t able to sleep well. By Thursday night it hit her pretty hard, and ever since then the poor lady has been miserable. She’s had a temperature of as much as 102o, says she feels like she is freezing, has a terrible headache and swollen lymph glands, and she said even her hair and skin hurt. On Sunday she slept for several hours during the day. In the 27 years we have been together I could count on one hand the number of times she has slept during the day and still have fingers left over. Acetaminophen and ibuprofen have helped the worst of the symptoms, but not by much.

I think right now we’ve all been conditioned to fear that whenever something out of the ordinary happens healthwise it might be COVID. Whatever it was, I know she needed some help, and when I called Pickens County Primary Care yesterday they said to bring her in.

Even though we had just been there on Thursday of last week and had blood work done as part of our regular checkups, they ran more blood work and other labs yesterday. We still don’t know what is wrong with her, but the test results show it’s not COVID or the flu. At least that’s a relief. We should know more later this afternoon when the results of the labs come back.

Back at home, I wanted to take advantage of the break in the weather, so I used the mid-mount mower on my Kabuta tractor to mow the steep hill next to the garage, and also most of Terry’s garden, which had gotten away from us and was terribly overgrown.

In the process of mowing the garden I scared up two very large black snakes, who went slithering away. There are two kinds of people in the world, those who can tolerate snakes and those who want nothing to do with them. I fall into the latter category and make no apologies for it. I let these guys go because they looked to be just harmless snakes, if there is such a thing.

But we also have a lot of rattlesnakes, cottonmouth moccasins, and copperheads around here. One gentleman walks down the road every day with a long stick, and usually manages to kill one or two on his walk. I don’t want to get close enough to a snake to kill it with a stick. I’ll rely on my little Rossi revolver and CCI snake loads if I encounter one, which I’m sure is only a matter of time. I’m always worried about Alli getting tangled up with one and try to keep an eye on her when she’s out with me.

I wanted to pull out the metal fence T-posts that were around the garden, so I tried to do it using a chain and the tractor’s bucket loader. When Travis helped me do this it was easy because he would wrap the chain around the post and guide it while I lifted the bucket. It turns out it is a two-man job, and every time I tried it alone the chain just slipped off. But I found this nifty T-post puller plate on Amazon and ordered it. From what I’ve read of the reviews it should make it a lot easier to get those darn posts out of the ground.

Giving up on the fence posts for now, I spent another hour or so using the tractor’s bucket to move some of the railroad ties I had bought a while back from where they were dumped at the end of the barn road to where I want them to be to build my shooting backstop. That’s another job that would be easier with two people, but I managed to get 14 of them relocated, working on my own. A long-time reader wrote to ask me if I would be in violation of any local regulations setting up a shooting range on my property. No, I checked that out ahead of time. We are in the county, and it is allowed. Several of our neighbors also like to shoot and we hear them on a regular basis.

Even though Terry was feeling crappy, she still insisted on making dinner last night, and it was another outstanding meal. Seared and roasted pork loin chops, along with corn cut off the cob and fried with bacon bits for me. She had a salad with sliced pork on it, although her lack of appetite did not let her enjoy all that much of it. Hopefully she will start to feel better soon.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – People who tolerate me on a daily basis, those are the real heroes.

A Break In The Weather?

 Posted by at 12:57 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 282023
 

After what seems like weeks of absolutely brutal heat, it looks like we’re in for a break in the weather at least for a little while. Instead of being in the high 90s to the triple digits, we’re supposed to see the upper 80s this week. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but every little bit helps, and I’ll take it.

I have so much to get done outside that I really hope the weatherman is right and I can get something accomplished, because starting a week from now we are supposed to be back in the 90s again. Hopefully not for too long. It’s got to start cooling off a bit and stay that way sometime, doesn’t it? No, seriously, doesn’t it?

Actually, it wasn’t too bad late yesterday afternoon. Terry and I spent some time sitting out on the back deck in the shade of the house, and while it was warm it was not uncomfortable.

Of course Alli loved it because I was throwing a ball for her to chase, which is her favorite activity. She’s getting bigger all the time but she’s still definitely a puppy. She would rather play than eat any day of the week.

Speaking of dogs, once we came inside we watched a movie called Rescued by Ruby on Netflix. It’s based on the true story of a Rhode Island State Trooper who teamed up with a misfit rescue dog to become an award-winning K9 team. It’s definitely worth watching if you have the time.

Congratulations Kathy Baldwin, winner of our drawing for an audiobook of my friend Suzie O’Connell’s Starlight Magic, from her popular Northstar romance series. Can the magic of the stars heal a tormented soul? Single father Brodie Dunn aims to find out by putting his heart on the line. Recently widowed artist Celeste Dawson desperately needs a tranquil place where she can rebuild herself. Two months after her husband’s violent death her career is in jeopardy and she can’t engage in the art that was once her escape from the world. She hopes a trip to Northstar will help her find peace. There’s no place better for healing, especially after she meets her charming new neighbor, ski hill owner Brodie. He suspects Celeste is going to be trouble right from the start, but he can’t ignore the pain in her eyes. On the saddest night of his life, he made a promise under the stars to laugh instead of cry and to help any wounded heart he comes across. He’s sure that philosophy and maybe a little starlight magic will do wonders for Celeste…if his apparent inability to take anything seriously doesn’t drive her mad first. A tale of forgiveness and hope, Starlight Magic will grab you by the heart.

We had 32 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – When I was three my family moved. But I found them again.

Queen Of The Kitchen

 Posted by at 12:10 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 272023
 

There’s an old saying that a man is king of his castle, and while that may be true for some men, I’ve always kind of thought of myself as the court jester more than anything else. But there’s definitely a queen in my house, and we all know that’s Miss Terry, Queen of the Kitchen. And while everything she cooks is awesome, lately she’s been putting some extra delicious food on the table.

A week or so ago she made sesame tuna steaks with homemade wasabi sauce for dinner, along with wedge potatoes, and wild rice. I’ll tell you right now, I’ve eaten seafood from coast to coast and there’s not a dish anywhere that compares to this. One bite and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

A while back I told you about the delicious blueberry galette she made for dessert one night, along with some amazing blueberry muffins.

Then she decided to shake things up a bit and made a strawberry blackberry galette this week. If you think it looks good, trust me, it tasted even better.

We all know I love pizza, and we all know nobody makes pizza like Terry does. A few days ago she made-up some pizza dough, intending to cook it outside in her Ooni multi-fuel pizza oven. But it’s been so darned hot that she could have probably put it in there and cooked it without using charcoal or wood or anything else. Eventually she gave up on that idea for now, and last night she used the dough to make pizzas in the oven in the kitchen. Hers had pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, and olives.

I have more plebian tastes so mine was just pepperoni, which was wonderful. I know I shouldn’t have, but I ate the whole damn thing in one sitting. Don’t judge me.

So like I said there may be no king in our house but there’s definitely a queen. Long live the queen!

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of my friend Suzie O’Connell’s Starlight Magic, from her popular Northstar romance series. Can the magic of the stars heal a tormented soul? Single father Brodie Dunn aims to find out by putting his heart on the line. Recently widowed artist Celeste Dawson desperately needs a tranquil place where she can rebuild herself. Two months after her husband’s violent death her career is in jeopardy and she can’t engage in the art that was once her escape from the world. She hopes a trip to Northstar will help her find peace. There’s no place better for healing, especially after she meets her charming new neighbor, ski hill owner Brodie. He suspects Celeste is going to be trouble right from the start, but he can’t ignore the pain in her eyes. On the saddest night of his life, he made a promise under the stars to laugh instead of cry and to help any wounded heart he comes across. He’s sure that philosophy and maybe a little starlight magic will do wonders for Celeste…if his apparent inability to take anything seriously doesn’t drive her mad first. A tale of forgiveness and hope, Starlight Magic will grab you by the heart.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Someone asked me if I had plans for the fall and it took me a moment to realize they meant autumn, not the collapse of civilization.

Discover History And Mystery In Point Pleasant

 Posted by at 12:52 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 262023
 

Located along the bank of the majestic Ohio River in the foothills of the rugged Appalachian Mountains, Point Pleasant, West Virginia is a charming little community with a lot to offer visitors.

The county seat of Mason County, Point Pleasant has been the scene of violent Indian conflict, an important riverboat stop, and is even the reputed home of a strange creature known as Mothman, whom many believe lurks in the treetops and watches over the community to foretell disaster.

The area around Point Pleasant is a paradise for outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy camping, hiking, kayaking, fishing, bird watching, or cycling. Fans of history will enjoy the Point Pleasant River Museum, which focuses on river life and commercial enterprise on the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers. Displays and video demonstrations highlight such topics as great floods, boat construction, sternwheeler steamers, river disasters and the local river industry’s contribution to World War II. The museum also offers a working pilot house and a research library.

A block from the museum, Point Pleasant Battle Monument is a small park that commemorates the frontiersmen who fought and died at the Battle of Point Pleasant. The battle between Virginia militiamen, commanded by Lord Dunmore, and Shawnee and Mingo Indians, led by Chief Cornstalk, took place on October 10, 1774 when a force of militiamen was attacked by the Indians on the bank of the Ohio River. After hours of bloody fighting, the Indians withdrew, leaving behind the dead and dying on both sides. Among the dead was Pucksinwah, the father of the great Shawnee chief Tecumseh. The militiamen lost 75 men and had another 150 wounded. The Shawnee are estimated to have suffered over 30 killed. The Shawnee threw many of the bodies of their dead into the river to prevent them from being mutilated by the vengeful Virginians. Following his defeat at the Battle of Point Pleasant, Cornstalk was forced to agree to the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, ceding all Shawnee lands south of the Ohio River to Virginia.

The American Revolution had begun by the time the Virginia militiamen returned home from their campaign against the Shawnee, and ironically soon found themselves fighting against Lord Dunmore, their former commander. Dunmore urged the same Indians he had defeated at Point Pleasant to take up arms against the revolutionaries. This led many to believe that he had actually orchestrated the attack at Point Pleasant to eliminate the Virginia militia before they could fight the British. Because of this belief, some historians consider the Battle of Point Pleasant to be the first engagement of the Revolutionary War.

Also located at the park is the Mansion House, built as a tavern in 1796, by Walter Newman. It is the oldest hewn log house in the Kanawha Valley and is a museum with displays of antiques and heirlooms of the pioneer era, including a large square piano believed to be one of the first brought over the Alleghenies. The cabin’s bedrooms are furnished with authentic four-poster beds that are more than 150 years old.

Another interesting museum in Point Pleasant is the West Virginia State Farm Museum, which is dedicated to preserving the heritage of farm life. Here you will find exhibits that include log cabins, an early day farmhouse, a blacksmith shop, and early day agricultural equipment.

Perhaps the strangest story to come out of Point Pleasant is that of Mothman, a mythical winged creature that is supposed to flit through the treetops warning people of disaster and terrifying the community. Today there is a Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, and a statue of the mysterious creature on Main Street.

A short drive from town, restored Fort Randolph re-creates the fort that protected settlers here during the Indian Wars. A city-owned campground next to the fort has RV sites and a dump station.

As you can see, for such a small community, Point Pleasant has a lot to offer. Be sure to include it in your travel plans the next time you explore the Ohio River valley!

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of my friend Suzie O’Connell’s Starlight Magic, from her popular Northstar romance series. Can the magic of the stars heal a tormented soul? Single father Brodie Dunn aims to find out by putting his heart on the line. Recently widowed artist Celeste Dawson desperately needs a tranquil place where she can rebuild herself. Two months after her husband’s violent death her career is in jeopardy and she can’t engage in the art that was once her escape from the world. She hopes a trip to Northstar will help her find peace. There’s no place better for healing, especially after she meets her charming new neighbor, ski hill owner Brodie. He suspects Celeste is going to be trouble right from the start, but he can’t ignore the pain in her eyes. On the saddest night of his life, he made a promise under the stars to laugh instead of cry and to help any wounded heart he comes across. He’s sure that philosophy and maybe a little starlight magic will do wonders for Celeste…if his apparent inability to take anything seriously doesn’t drive her mad first. A tale of forgiveness and hope, Starlight Magic will grab you by the heart.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. But, they’re toys!

Thought For The Day – I’d take a nerf bullet for you.

Old And On The Go

 Posted by at 1:18 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 252023
 

We hit the ground running yesterday morning and it felt like we didn’t stop all day long. I guess that’s because we didn’t stop all day long.

Our day started with a visit from Scott and Alan from Banks Construction, the father and son team that built our deck last month. This time they were here for a couple of much smaller projects, installing a second all-weather outlet on the outside of the house on the deck, and then replacing the ceiling fan in our office. The fan that was here when we moved in was ancient and used a dim halogen light that made it hard to see. We had picked up a newer, larger fan that came with an LED light, which is much brighter and also cooler. We visited with them while they were doing the job and told them about a couple of other projects we want to do down the road.

When they left we drove twelve miles to Pickens County Primary Care in Reform for our regular three month check up and to get all of our prescriptions changed to the CVS in Gordo so we don’t have to drive all the way to the Walgreens in Northport.

I guess we must be officially old now, because there’s some kind of Medicare thing they wanted to have us do, that included filling out forms asking if we had trouble with everyday tasks like dressing ourselves, bathing, and such, and if we felt like we needed help with anything like that. Other questions were about things like have we been falling, our emotional state, and if we ever felt helpless.

We answered in the negative to all of those questions, and then they had us do a memory test, where they told us three words each and asked us to remember them, then had us draw a clock face on a circle and put the hands at a certain time. With that out of the way they then asked us to write down the three words we had each been given in order. I guess we did okay because I didn’t have anybody with white uniforms and big nets coming to take us away. We got some blood work and our COVID booster shots and they sent us on our way.

Our next stop was in Carrollton, the county seat, which was another ten miles or so. We renewed the license plates on our three vehicles and two trailers, and then I went next door to the post office to send off a book order. I love dealing with the folks in the small town government offices here because they are all friendly and you’re in and out in a hurry.

With that out of the way, we drove back to Gordo to pick up our prescriptions at CVS. We had to wait a while for those, but not too long. We hadn’t eaten all day and we were very hungry by then so we went to Tasty Wraps, one of the few restaurants in Gordo. My bacon cheeseburger was delicious and Terry had a Mexican plate that she said was also good.

By the time we got home we were both pretty well worn out and didn’t do much except watch a little bit of television and the news. Then I took the trash cans out to the street to be picked up this morning, wrote the blog and Terry proofread it. Once that was posted we were more than ready for bed.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of my friend Suzie O’Connell’s Starlight Magic, from her popular Northstar romance series. Can the magic of the stars heal a tormented soul? Single father Brodie Dunn aims to find out by putting his heart on the line. Recently widowed artist Celeste Dawson desperately needs a tranquil place where she can rebuild herself. Two months after her husband’s violent death her career is in jeopardy and she can’t engage in the art that was once her escape from the world. She hopes a trip to Northstar will help her find peace. There’s no place better for healing, especially after she meets her charming new neighbor, ski hill owner Brodie. He suspects Celeste is going to be trouble right from the start, but he can’t ignore the pain in her eyes. On the saddest night of his life, he made a promise under the stars to laugh instead of cry and to help any wounded heart he comes across. He’s sure that philosophy and maybe a little starlight magic will do wonders for Celeste…if his apparent inability to take anything seriously doesn’t drive her mad first. A tale of forgiveness and hope, Starlight Magic will grab you by the heart.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Normal is whatever we grew up with.

A Few More Days

 Posted by at 1:20 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 242023
 

If the weatherman is to be believed, we should have a few more days of this blistering hot weather with triple-digit temperatures and high humidity before things start to break on Monday or Tuesday. He says that early next week we will see the 80s again, and possibly some rain. I can’t wait. I am so over this hot weather.

Of course I know it’s the same just about everywhere right now. Friends from Florida to Michigan to the Pacific Northwest are telling me how miserable it is where they are, too. Anybody who doesn’t believe in global warming must have their head in the sand, or stuck someplace else, if you get my drift.

The only time it has been comfortable outside is early in the morning, and we all know that I’m not a morning person. However, my dog is, and every morning she needs to go out between 6 and 6:30. She does her thing and comes back inside, and I go back to bed for a while. I will admit that the sunrises can be pretty that early in the morning. I caught this one a couple of days ago, with a wisp of fog still hanging in the air.

The good news is that I’ve been getting a lot of work done in my next John Lee Quarrels book, knocking out a chapter a day. Terry has been proofreading chapters for me as I go and she says it’s going to be another winner. I sure hope so.

Somebody else who is working, no matter how hot it is, is a gentleman named Lamar, who runs a company called Pest Mans Pest and Lawn Service. Lamar was referred to me by my friend Donald Hann, and this is the second time he has sprayed our house and property for creepy crawlies. The fact that he’s 75 years old doesn’t slow Lamar down a bit, and he has loyal customers from north of here all the way south to Gulf Shores. He told us he doesn’t do any advertising, it’s all word of mouth. That’s the best kind of advertising you can get.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of my friend Suzie O’Connell’s Starlight Magic, from her popular Northstar Holidays romance series. Can the magic of the stars heal a tormented soul? Single father Brodie Dunn aims to find out by putting his heart on the line. Recently widowed artist Celeste Dawson desperately needs a tranquil place where she can rebuild herself. Two months after her husband’s violent death her career is in jeopardy and she can’t engage in the art that was once her escape from the world. She hopes a trip to Northstar will help her find peace. There’s no place better for healing, especially after she meets her charming new neighbor, ski hill owner Brodie. He suspects Celeste is going to be trouble right from the start, but he can’t ignore the pain in her eyes. On the saddest night of his life, he made a promise under the stars to laugh instead of cry and to help any wounded heart he comes across. He’s sure that philosophy and maybe a little starlight magic will do wonders for Celeste…if his apparent inability to take anything seriously doesn’t drive her mad first. A tale of forgiveness and hope, Starlight Magic will grab you by the heart.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Jim Harper sent this one to me, and if you’ve ever seen National Lampoon’s Vacation, you will get it.

Thought For The Day – Happiness is a direction, not a place.

National Balloon Museum

 Posted by at 12:50 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 232023
 

We’ve all marveled at their beauty and grace as they float through the air. Airplanes will get you to your destination quicker, helicopters may get you into places where no roads go, but for the ultimate flying experience, nothing compares to a balloon lazily drifting on the air currents. At the National Balloon Museum in Indianola, Iowa, over 200 years of ballooning history is chronicled, from the first lighter than air flight in 1783 to present day sport ballooning. Here you will find displays of balloon gondolas, flight equipment, historic artifacts, and the U.S. Ballooning Hall of Fame, which honors the greatest names in American ballooning.

The first free flight carrying a human passenger took place on November 21, 1783 in Paris, France in a hot air balloon made of paper and silk made by the Montgolfier brothers. The balloon carried two men, Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Francois Laurent, Marquis of d’ Arlanders. They stood on a circular platform attached to the bottom of the balloon. The fire was hand-fed through openings on either side of the balloon’s skirt.  The balloon reached an altitude of at least 500 feet and traveled about 5½ miles before landing safely 25 minutes later.

On December 1, 1783, just ten days after the first hot air balloon ride, the first gas balloon was launched by physicists Jacques Alexander Charles and Nicholas Louis Robert. This flight also started in Paris, France and lasted 2½ hours, covering a distance of 25 miles. The balloon used hydrogen gas, which is lighter than air.

The first manned flight of a balloon in America was on January 9, 1793, when Jean-Pierre Blanchard, who was the first to cross the English Channel in a balloon, lifted off from a prison yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He ascended to about 5,800 feet and made a successful landing in Gloucester County in New Jersey. George Washington observed the launch.

Modern hot-air ballooning was born on October 22, 1960, when Paul E. (Ed) Yost piloted the maiden flight of a balloon employing a new envelope and a new propane burner system which he had developed. The flight lasted 25 minutes and traveled 3 miles. Yost’s balloon was 40 feet in diameter, with a volume of 30,000 cubic feet. Yost is known as the father of modern hot-air ballooning. Soon, Yost’s company, Raven Industries, was making balloons for sale, and by the mid-1960s there were three balloon makers in the United States.

By 1963, sport ballooning had grown in popularity, and the first U. S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship event was held in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 1971 the National Championship event moved to Indianola, Iowa, where it remained for 18 years. Since that time, the Nationals have moved around to various parts of the country. Many local ballooning clubs now hold events all over the United States. As the technology of burners and balloon envelope construction improved, ballooning continued to grow in popularity. Most sport ballooning today is done with hot air balloons. Gas ballooning has its followers, but inflating a gas balloon takes much longer, and the price of helium continues to make gas ballooning more expensive than hot air.

The National Balloon Museum’s location in Indianola came about because of the community’s association with the early days of the National Hot Air Balloon Championships, beginning in 1970. By 1972, exhibits of ballooning history were set up in temporary displays in various locations in the city each year during the U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championships. The materials then had to be stored until the next year. The building was designed to resemble two inverted balloons. Indianola is the home of the National Balloon Classic, a nine-day premier ballooning event that attracts balloonists from all over the country.

Visitors to the National Balloon Museum have the opportunity to see many historic balloon gondolas, including the Channel Champ, the first hot air balloon to be flown across the English Channel, and arguably the single most important historical artifact of the sport of ballooning. On April 13, 1963, pilot Ed Yost and photographer Don Piccard launched the 60,000 cubic foot hot air balloon from the village of Rye, England. Just over three hours later, Yost landed the aircraft near Gravelines, France, completing the historic voyage.

Several unique designs of gondolas displayed include a bullet-shaped metal gondola made in Italy for Link Baum, who became the youngest pilot to cross the English Channel, at age 22, in the early 1970s, and the Body Basket, a gondola that resembles a telephone booth and was used in a 64-hour gas balloon flight.

The museum’s displays include odd items such as a smoke balloon cannon used by seventeen-year-old daredevil Florence Allen, a member of the famous Flying Allens. The smoke balloon was inflated in typical fashion, with the cannon harnessed alongside. Rising two to three thousand feet, Florence would “fire” herself from the cannon and plunge toward the ground, attached to the balloon by a single suspension rope. Within a few hundred feet of the ground, she would deploy her parachute and glide gracefully back to earth, thrilling crowds of spectators across the nation in over a hundred performances.

One scrap of fabric on display at the National Balloon Museum is a remnant from a World War II Japanese Fugo balloon. Launched from Japan, the 19,000 cubic foot balloons carried bombs and were designed to float across the Pacific Ocean and detonate in the United States. The Japanese hoped that in addition to causing casualties, the balloon bombs would start massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest, diverting manpower and equipment away from the war effort. One such bomb did succeed in killing six people on a picnic in Oregon on May 5, 1945, but the rest failed to perform. The Fugo (Holy Wind) fabric on display at the museum came from a balloon that landed in Flint, Michigan in February, 1945, but did not explode.

The museum honors women balloonists with special exhibits chronicling the achievements of women pilots, crew members, crew chiefs, observers, and the balloons they work with and details of some of their accomplishments and awards. One such woman honored is pioneer hot air balloon pilot Nikki Caplan, who set many records in the sport, including making an amazing flight from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Duncombe, Iowa, in 1982 in a gas balloon.

The museum’s Learning Center provides a learning environment for children and adults. It includes a “Book Basket” filled with cushions covered with balloon fabric where children can sit and read a book about ballooning. It also has places to color balloon pictures. A special feature is a video game called Hot Air Pilot, which allows older children and adults to fly a virtual hot air balloon.

It is amazing what you can learn at the National Balloon Museum. Did you know that Wonder Bread was named for hot air balloons? When bakery manager Elmer Kline witnessed the wonder of a hot air balloon festival at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he was inspired to name his bread Wonder Bread. The red, yellow, and blue balloons on Wonder Bread’s packaging represent the balloons Kline saw that inspired the bread’s name. Wonder Bread still recognizes its balloon heritage. In recognition of Wonder Bread’s 80th birthday in 2001, Interstate Bakeries Corporation began touring the Wonder Bread hot air balloon. Every summer, the Wonder Balloon travels across the country to balloon festivals.

Whether you dream of someday floating above the ground in a hot air balloon or prefer to keep your feet planted on terra firma but still appreciate balloons for their silent majesty as they ride the air currents, a visit to the National Balloon Museum is sure to delight you.

The National Balloon Museum is located at 1601 North Jefferson (US Highway 65/69) on Indianola’s north side. The museum is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Winter hours are shorter. The museum closes for the month of January and on all major holidays. Admission to the museum is free, though donations are welcomed to help support its operation. Parking at the museum is limited to passenger-sized vehicles, but a nearby WalMart Super Center has room to park an RV while you visit the museum. For more information on the museum, call (515) 961-3714, or visit their website at www.nationalballoonmuseum.com.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Done is better than perfect.

Crunching Words

 Posted by at 12:25 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 222023
 

We are still dealing with oppressive heat here in west central Alabama, and with temperatures predicted to be in the triple digits most of this week, it’s a good time to stay inside as much as possible, which is exactly what we are doing.

There’s only so much goofing off I can do, especially when I’m confined to the house like this, so I decided it was time to start on my next book, Jackpot. This will be the 12th  book in my John Lee Quarrels series about a sheriff’s deputy in rural North Florida. I’ve written a chapter a day in the last three days and hope to get a few more chapters knocked out by the end of the week. So far it’s off to a good start and I’m looking forward to seeing how the story develops.

Speaking of books, on Sunday, one week after Big Lake Assault, the 22nd book in that small town mystery series came out, it was ranked at #745 in Amazon’s Kindle Store out of all the millions of e-books available on Amazon, and #11 in the Police Procedurals category. Scarlett is working on formatting the print copy of the book, and once she gets that back to me in a few days, my cover artist, Elizabeth Mackey, will get the print cover ready for me and I will get it uploaded to Amazon.

In a blog a couple of days ago I talked about the delicious hammered chicken that Terry made for dinner. Several readers messaged me asking for the recipe. Terry told me that she takes boneless chicken breasts and splits them in half parallel, or uses chicken tenders, flattens them and then rolls them in flour seasoned with salt, pepper, and Konriko Greek seasoning and sautées them a couple tablespoons each of olive oil and butter. Trust me, try this recipe at home and you’re going to have some smiling faces around your table. 😊

As nasty as the heat is right now, the good news is that the weatherman says this is the hottest week of the year and probably the last blast of summer. Temperatures next week are supposed to be in the mid-80s, and not a moment too soon! We’re supposed to have some rain and occasional thunderstorms but that’s fine with me. The grass needs it, and I’m more than ready to spend some time outside.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. All I can say is this must have been one hell of a honeymoon!

Thought For The Day – My body is a temple. Ancient, crumbling, cursed, and probably haunted.

Number Challenged

 Posted by at 12:25 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 212023
 

Somewhere back in my formative years when you were supposed to learn such things, I apparently skipped school on the day boys were taught about numbers. I don’t mean math, though I was never good at that either, but rather how to recognize the sizes of things. Okay, ladies, stop it. That’s not what I mean, even if all men are challenged that way.

No, I’m talking about numbers when it comes to tools. Tape measures, for example. If you want me to measure something, the best I can do is tell you that it’s two or three lines under ½ inch. If I really concentrate on a good day I can even find 1/4 inch on a tape measure. Beyond that, I’m lost. Somebody recently told me that they actually make digital tape measures, and now I know what I want for my birthday.

It’s the same way with wrench sizes. Terry or my son-in-law Ken Conrad, who is a mechanic, can look at a nut or bolt and tell you that it’s 1/2 inch or 7/16 or whatever, and immediately reach for the right tool. Not me. I grab every wrench in the toolbox that’s even close, and more times than not, I still don’t find the right one. And then some fool introduced metrics. Give me a break!

But I did find something handy on Amazon a while back, a universal socket that is supposed to fit every size from 1/4 to 3/4 inch, and 7 to 19 millimeter. As soon as I saw it I ordered it. I have no idea how well it will stand up, but if it works, it’s going to save me a lot of time.

Speaking of sizes, look at the size of this cicada I found dead on our deck yesterday morning. The other day I got bitten on my back several times by horseflies, and I’m sure glad they weren’t this big! I’m pretty sure I’ve flown on airplanes that were smaller than this critter. And if you think he’s big you don’t even want to know about the mosquitoes we have here!

Congratulations Lois Thurston, winner of our drawing for an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

We had 27 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – It’s better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way. – Alan Watts

Saturday In Town

 Posted by at 1:05 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 202023
 

We haven’t been away from the property much since we got home from our trip to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida last week, but we had some errands to run and decided that yesterday would be a good day to get them done.

After a brief respite in the middle of the week, the heat is back and it’s going to continue to get hotter all through the next week. In fact, the weatherman said it’s going to be the hottest few days this year. It was definitely too hot to leave Alli in her outside kennel, even with it in the shade and with her swimming pool of water.

Since we’re not sure how she would do left being left in the house unsupervised or if she and the cats would get into some mischief, until now when we have left her in the house we have put her in the big crate that came with her. There’s room for her to stretch out, or to stand up and turn around in it, but not much more than that. So we decided to try an experiment and leave her in our large bedroom with the door closed and the television on for company. Her doggy bed is in there next to our bed so it’s a familiar place for her, and the air conditioning keeps it nice and cool. I was able to use the Blink camera in our bedroom to check in on her, and she did pretty good. Several times when I logged in, she was playing with her toys, and when we got home the only thing out of place was that she had taken Terry’s pillow off the bed. That’s not a problem and it will be much easier for all of us the next time we have to leave her while we are out running around.

Our first stop was in the charming old downtown area of Northport, to check out Ander’s Hardware Store. The business opened in 1909 and still uses some of the original fixtures. We spent an hour or so browsing around, admiring some old timey things that you don’t find it places like Lowe’s or Home Depot, like wooden bushel baskets, heavy crockery urns, mixing bowls, and water jugs, and galvanized buckets and pails. It reminded me of a hardware store from back in the 60s, before the big box stores took over the world. There are some other interesting shops along the main street there that we want to go back and visit one of these days.

From there we drove into the main shopping district in Northport and stopped at Harbor Freight, which was having a big tool sale. I picked up a few items I needed, including  a toolbox and some wrenches and screwdrivers to keep handy in the barn. By then we were getting hungry, so we  went to the Shrimp Basket for dinner. The service is always excellent there and the food is pretty darn good.

With our tummies full, we went to Publix and stocked up on groceries for the next couple of weeks. Since it’s about 25 miles from our house to the grocery store, we try to buy enough that we don’t have to go back very often.

By the time we were done there it was getting late in the day, and since my night vision is not very good, Terry drove home. Our final stop along the way was to top off the pickup’s tank, fill up two 5-gallon cans of gas, and another of diesel for the riding lawn mower, Mule, and tractor.

Alli and the kittens were very happy to see us come home, and by the time we got the groceries put away and spent some time reassuring them that we had not disappeared from their lives forever, there was just enough time left to watch a little bit of TV and the news before it was time to write the blog and call it a day.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Misery is not a pre-requisite for change.

Protecting Her Human

 Posted by at 1:09 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 192023
 

They call German Shepherds Velcro dogs for a reason. Once they find their person, they stick to them like Velcro. Alli was about a year old when we rescued her and she quickly became my Velcro dog. If I so much as get up and walk from one room to the other, she’s right beside me, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve gone to the bathroom by myself. When I take my shower at night, she insists on lying on the rug right in front of the tub. I guess she thinks it’s her job to watch over me when I’m most vulnerable.

In the almost three months that we have had Alli, I have only heard her bark a couple of times, and it was just one bark and that was it. But yesterday afternoon I saw another side of her.

Our Ram pickup and Chrysler Pacifica were both filthy, and I decided to take a hose to them and at least try to get some of the crud off. I was washing the back of the pickup, with my back toward the road, and Alli was lying nearby in the shade of the carport next to the Kawasaki Mule. I did not hear one of the neighbors, who I had not met before, stop his car out front and walk down the driveway to talk to me, and with my back turned I didn’t see him.

But suddenly Alli was beside me barking viciously, with her ears laid back, doing a good imitation of Cujo. Once I turned and saw the person, who had stopped some distance away when Alli went off, I told her to be quiet and put my hand on her color to restrain her if necessary. She calmed down somewhat but stayed vigilant, putting herself between the two of us, her ears still laid back and her body tense.

Once he saw I had hold of her he approached slowly and introduced himself, and we shook hands. I told Alli he was all right and that seemed to be all she needed. She relaxed and stepped forward to smell his legs and he put down his hand and she nuzzled it.

I apologized for the way she had behaved, but he said, “No need to apologize. She’s just protecting her human. That’s her job.” We visited for a few minutes and then he left. I went back to washing the truck while Alli went back to the shade of the carport. When you hear that someone’s got your back, that’s what it’s all about.

Here she is later in the evening, taking a snooze after a hard day of protecting her person.

Of course, Alli isn’t the only lady in my life who takes care of me. Look at these delicious blueberry muffins and blueberry galette Miss Terry made.

A perfect dessert to go with the hammered chicken, baked potato, and fresh steamed broccoli (for her) dinner we had last night.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Is this some form of subliminal advertising?

Thought For The Day – I am so broke, I can’t even afford to fill up my bicycle.

Big Boy Toys

 Posted by at 1:14 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 182023
 

You know the old saying that the only difference between men and boys is the cost of their toys. I guess that’s true, and I recently got a couple of new toys to help me out here on the property.

Tractors like my Kubota come with what’s called a three-point hitch for attaching implements on the rear of the tractor. This means that when you want to connect an implement you have to line up three different horizontal arms to holes on the implement and put locking pins through them to keep them in place. Depending on the size and weight of the implement and how stiff my back and hands are at the time, this can be easy or problematic.

So I picked up an item called a quick hitch at Tuscaloosa Tractor Compan. This attaches to the three-point hitch arms that I told you about and stays in place, and then when you want to connect an implement you simply back up to it with everything lined up to hooks on the quick hitch and it all clicks into place and you’re ready to go. When you want to remove the implement you just move two levers on the quick hitch and you’re done. It saves a lot of time.

Once I had the hitch on I connected the back blade that came with the tractor, just to see how easy it really was. It took me less than three minutes. That’s a lot better than the 15 minutes to half an hour I was dealing with before.

The back blade has four adjustable tines that can be extended down and used to rip up surfaces of rutted driveways and gravel roads and such. Then the tines can be retracted and the thick rubber skirting at the back of it smooths everything down. I plan to put it to use as soon as the weather cooperates a little bit, because our driveway and the road back to the barn are overgrown and need a lot of attention.

Another new toy was acquired to help with that project. It’s a 15-gallon sprayer with a 12-volt motor. Of course it came unassembled, which meant that I had to call on Terry to put it together for me. Where would I be without her?

The instructions could have been a little clearer, but she has a mechanical mind that I don’t and it didn’t take her long to figure things out and then get it all assembled.

And here it is in the back of the Mule, plugged in and spraying. Once it was ready to go, I added some heavy-duty weed killer and drove up and down the driveway and the barn road spraying all of the grass and weeds that have grown up through the gravel. As it turned out, the 15-gallon sprayer was just about the perfect size because I ran out just as I finished.

Now it will take a week or two for the chemical to do its job on the vegetation. Once it dies off, I will use the tines on the back blade to rip it all out, revealing the gravel underneath, add more gravel that is sitting in a pile, and then use the back blade to hopefully give me a smoother surface.

It’s nice when your toys have a useful purpose, isn’t it?

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. I would definitely be shopping here!

Thought For The Day – If at first you don’t succeed, order pizza.

Loofah Lore

 Posted by at 1:51 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 172023
 

You’re never too old to learn something new. I know this is true because I’m two weeks past ancient, and I’m still learning new things all of the time. Just this week I learned a whole bunch of things about loofahs.

The only thing I knew about loofahs was that they were some kind of Foo Foo sponge thing that ladies used in baths. But as it turns out, the loofah is not actually a sponge at all. Loofahs grow on vines and are related to pumpkins, squash, and gourds.

And its technical name is luffa, though the more common term loofah is used by most people in the Western world.

I know all of this because our son Travis and his wife Geli have grown a ton of them this year. The other day they brought a couple over to Terry.

It was interesting watching her pull them apart, taking off the outer shell and getting to the membrane inside.

She was able to get a bunch of seeds from them, which she will be planting next year to grow her own loofahs.

Once that was done, she soaked them in soapy water, and then thoroughly rinsed them and dried them, and they’re ready to use. How cool is that?

Travis and Geli plan on making goat milk soap with loofah in it and offering it for sale. Geli works at a hospital and she said nurses love things like that, so I think they will do well.

Something else I learned about loofahs is that in some parts of the world, including India, China, and Vietnam, they are a popular food staple, along with other vegetables. Since Geli is a vegan and a lot of their food comes from their gardens, I will have to ask if she knows that.

See, maybe you learned something new today, too!

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for campground reviews, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – A happy marriage is a long conversation that always seems too short.

Rest In Peace, Mac

 Posted by at 1:31 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 162023
 

My world is emptier today because I got news that our dear friend Mac McCoy has passed away. Legions of RVers knew him as Mac the Fire Guy from the fire safety classes he taught at RV rallies and at Life on Wheels from coast to coast for so many years.

It is hard to imagine how many lives were saved with the lessons people learned at his seminars. I know that we had our own RV fire, and Terry was able to quickly put it out using one of the fire extinguishers we got from Mac and by using the skills she learned from him.

We met Mac during our first weeks on the road when we were students at Life on Wheels in Moscow, Idaho in 1999, and a close friendship grew from there. I can’t begin to tell you how many wonderful times we had and how many laughs we shared as vendors at RV rallies, teaching at Life on Wheels ourselves, having Mac as a featured speaker at our own Gypsy Journal rallies, or just hanging out at campgrounds between events all over the country.

Mac and I always referred to ourselves as brothers from another mother, and whenever we were parked near each other in a campground, he came over every morning for coffee. He loved Terry’s cooking and always made a habit of stopping in at dinnertime. And she always made sure that there was plenty to go around.

I remember one time at Elkhart Campground in Elkhart, Indiana when Terry made her wonderful Mexican food that included roasted beef tacos, refried beans, homemade salsa, and a lot of other goodies all from scratch. We were sitting outside with some other people enjoying the great food, and I asked Mac what he thought of the tacos. He moaned with pleasure and told me he thought his taste buds had just had an orgasm as he continued to chow down. 😊

Another time we were headed to someplace in Pennsylvania to teach at Life on Wheels, and we planned to park at a Walmart overnight. Mac got there ahead of us and called me to say he was in trouble and to hurry up. We were just a few minutes away, and when we got there we found that he had somehow managed to get his motorhome and the van he towed, full of his merchandise, jackknifed right in front of the busy store’s entrance. I parked our bus and ran over to see what I could do to help, and Mac asked me to get inside the van and get the steering wheel turned in the right direction because the wheels kept going sideways. I started the van and got the wheels turned and then honked the horn to let him know we were good to go, and Mac drove away. I guess once he got moving he didn’t want to stop, because he drove all around the large parking lot looking for someplace to park on the far edge. He didn’t like the first place so he kept on driving next door to another shopping center, and all I could do was sit behind the wheel of the van and wave at people as we went by. When he finally got stopped, I asked him why we had taken such a circuitous route, and Mac just said that he was so flustered that he completely forgot I was back there! That was his story and he was sticking to it, but I think he was just taking the scenic route and having fun at my expense. 😊

We were together for an FMCA rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and several of us went out to dinner at a Golden Corral buffet. Mac was expecting an important phone call and he left his cell phone on the table while he went to fill his plate, and told me to be sure nobody touched his phone while he was gone. I told him I would be sure that didn’t happen, and he said it was important that whoever was calling him could leave a message, so please be sure no one touched it. So I picked up his phone and stuck one end and then the other in my mouth, and then licked every bit of it and sit it down and promised him nobody was going to touch his phone. And nobody did!

Mac had some funny quirks, as we all do. One was that he never liked to drink out of a glass at a restaurant, he always wanted a straw. I asked him why, and he said because people he didn’t know had had their mouths on that same glass, and even though he knew it had been washed, it just made him uncomfortable to drink from a glass that somebody else had used. He got a funny look on his face when he took a bite of whatever it was he was eating, and I mentioned that that fork had probably been in somebody else’s mouth not too long ago. I think he bought his own chopsticks after that.

Rest in peace, Mac. Thank you for your friendship, your encouragement when we were new vendors and seminar speakers, and thank you for all the laughs over all the miles and all the years. We love you.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – There are some who bring a light so great to the world that even after they have gone the light remains.

Time To Breathe

 Posted by at 12:59 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 152023
 

The first thing I want to do today is thank Miss Terry, Judy Rinehimer, and Roberta Jensen for all of their hours of hard work editing and proofreading my newest book, Big Lake Assault. Without you dedicated ladies, no book project would ever get done. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all three of you.

I also want to thank all of you readers who waited patiently for the book, and then have been downloading and reading it, either through a purchase on Amazon or through Kindle Unlimited.

It’s already off to a very good start. In just over 24 hours, it is ranked #5,956 in the Amazon Kindle Store and #35 in its category of Amazon Hot New Releases. When you think of the millions of books available on Amazon, that’s quite enough achievement. And it’s thanks to all of you who read my books, tell your friends about them, share links to them on social media, and leave reviews.

Much of yesterday was spent promoting the new book online, getting my free author’s newsletter ready to send out and then mailing it out to the subscribers, and a lot of other little details connected to a new book release. I always tell new or wannabe authors that writing a book is the easy part; the real work begins once it’s published.

But now it’s time to breathe and relax just a little bit before I jump into my next book project. That doesn’t mean I’ll be slacking much, because for the next three days we are having some cooler temperatures. Cooler meaning being down into the 80s instead of the mid-to-upper 90s with a triple-digit heat index.

We’ve got a lot of work to do outside, mowing the pastures, raking up all the cut grass and piling it to be mulched, and putting some grass and weed killer down on the driveway, which is getting overgrown. If there’s any time left after that, there are downed limbs to be cut and run through the woodchipper. Buy a place in the country, they said. It’ll be fun, they said! 😊

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. This one is courtesy of my friend DW Stultz.

Thought For The Day – My cell phone is acting up, I keep pressing the home button but when I look around, I’m still at work.

It’s Alive!

 Posted by at 12:30 am  Nick's Blog
Aug 142023
 

Terry worked feverishly all through the day yesterday doing the final edits and suggesting corrections to my latest book, Big Lake Assault, and I was making the changes as she handed them to me. After so many delays, there was no way I was going to let it go another day before the e-book went live on Amazon. At 7:51 PM I had it completely formatted and uploaded it, and it was live exactly one hour later. You can download it at this link.

The book came in at 87,725 words, not counting front matter (title page, copyright notice, a list of my other books and such) and the teaser chapter of the next book in the series, which was included at the back. That makes it the fourth longest of all of the books in the series. It’s the 23rd book in the Big Lake series and my 53rd book overall.

It’s quite a twisted tale and I wasn’t sure where it was going even as I was writing it. What started out as a simple assault on Big Lake’s former mayor, Chet Wingate, which at first looked like road rage, evolved into a story that included everything from a possible contract killing, the murder of a retired couple who everyone claimed didn’t have an enemy in the world, and a confusing list of suspects that had me wondering who did it right until the very end. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

It’s still too hot to do much outdoors right now, but I will take a couple of days to gather my thoughts before I launch into my next book, Jackpot, which will be the 12th book in the John Lee Quarrels series. I’ll tell you more about that as the project moves along.

Congratulations Chris LaClaire, winner of our drawing for an audiobook of THE CHESAPEAKE: A Man Born to Hang, Can Never Drown by Ken Rossignol, a collection of adventures in prose from around the Chesapeake tidewater region told by an erstwhile and eclectic collection of writers. Ringmaster Ken Rossignol gathered together many of the best and brightest of bards, poets, and tale-tellers to give their views, experiences, and fabrications in an entertaining way. Fans of short stories will enjoy this fourth in THE CHESAPEAKE series and the valuable history told here of the Chesapeake region – with a few excursions led by the writers to other lands.

We had 33 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Whenever I’m sad, you’re there. Whenever I have problems, you’re there. Whenever I lose control, you’re there. Let’s face it, you’re bad luck.

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