Animals vs people

Well, you know I have to say something about this. You've heard about the Cincinnati Zoo, shooting the gorilla? In case you haven't, a 4 yr old boy managed to wriggle through all the fencing/barricades, at the gorilla enclosure and fall in, about 10 feet. A male gorilla grabbed him and dragged him around the enclosure. The zoo's emergency team, shot and killed the gorilla. They did this to save the little boys life. I have a love for animals. It's tragic that a critically endangered animal was killed. It would have been more tragic if a 4 year old boy had been killed. All this uproar is so ridiculous. Yes, the little boys parents should have been watching him more closely, but if you're a parent, you KNOW, a child only needs about 2 seconds to get into trouble. Yes, the zoo needs to take another look at the safety, but if this is the first time something like this has happened in 38 years, I wouldn't bust their chops over it. More children die from bicycle accidents. Good grief. What's happened to our sensibility??
Geesh! 

Vacations rock!

A couple weeks ago, my fella and I went out to Utah to visit family. We spent a few days in southern Utah and a few days in Salt Lake City.

I am NOT a fan of the desert. But southern Utah has some beautiful vistas. 

I guess it's all that red rock :-) But in another month when it's 110 in the shade, it won't matter. Boooo. 
This is what I'm familiar with, as far as the desert goes;

This is yuca tree. You know why they call it that? Because it's yucky.

While we were there though, we had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect and after a long Midwestern winter, it was sure nice to be outside in the sunshine where there is no humidity!

In Salt lake City, we got to have a day to ourselves, so we went up to the mountains;

It's been a LONG time since we've been in the mountains. Wow. It was AWESOME. I remember when we lived in SLC, I used to think, Utah is why the phrase "God's country" was coined. I still believe that is true. Sure, the beach is great but give me the mountains any day!!

See this little girl;

This is Buttons. We found her after the highway traffic came to a standstill because she was roaming around! So, I jumped out of the car and called to her. She came right to me!!! Thankfully, she had a tag with her mommy's phone number on it and we were able to drive her home. Her owner was a sweet little old lady who didn't realize she had gotten out of the yard. She was very happy we brought her home!

We even had a chance to drive around the old neighborhood, which is even older now, and stop by THE BEST SHAKE PLACE EVER!!! they've been around since the 60's and STILL, it's cram packed every Friday and Saturday night. Of course, we bought shakes :-) 

And NO trip back west would be complete without...

There's just something so right about a place that only does one thing, and does it well :-) Ahhhhhhh

Salt Lake City was my favorite place, of all the places I've lived. It's a tough community to live in though, if you're not a Mormon. 

the death of a tree

Of all the trees we've had to have removed, I was most sad about the GIANT Ash tree in our backyard.When we bought our home, it was a beautiful tree and provided a lot of shade over our house. Then a couple years later, when we had to have someone come out to quote taking down a couple trees, he told me that our Ash tree had been attacked by the infamous Emerald Ash Borer Beetle; 

It's hard to believe that this little sucker can kill a 60 foot tree! Well, it looked ok to me so I ignored him. During the next couple years, less of it grew back in the Spring and I was sad. So, last year we had it cut off. Not down to the ground though, because CHA CHING! So now we have 30 foot stump in our back yard. Anyway, I've been watching it die for the last year. It grew a lot of weird fungus/mushrooms at the bottom of the trunk;

That was after the bark started to split. Then, over the weekend, a big piece of the bark came off and I could see all the little beetle holes;

So far, it's estimated that Indiana has lost 6 million Ash trees!!! Little bastards.

I want a Sycamore tree! They're so cool looking! Maybe you've seen them;

My guy frowns when I say I want more trees. He would hate a Sycamore too - it sheds these funny things;

I won't tell him :-) There's a chance he would be ok with another new tree though...we found this tiny little spruce sprig last summer in our yard. We left it. It's still alive and it's bigger this year! He even stuck a marker in the ground next to it, so we wouldn't accidentally step on it!

Aaaand, on Arbor Day, the city was giving away FREE trees!!! You know I got one :-)

It's our state tree, a Tulip tree. When it's a little bigger, I'll plant in the ground;

Right now, I'm just happy it's still alive too.

The Weirdest ads of the 70's

There were a lot more but these made me laugh right out loud!