Battleship North Carolina

So we head off to USMC Base Camp Geiger at 0600 to see the boy for the day. Plan was to go down to the Battleship North Carolina which is down in Wilmington, NC. You just don't realize how big these things are until you are actually on them. It's about 730 foot long. It's main armament are three 16" guns on the front, capable of sending projectiles 21 to 23 miles! Some pictures from the day.....

Someone is tired from their weekend liberties.

I was hesitant to stop to let the wife take this picture. I could see Gibbs coming outside to shoot me, as they shoot everyone as you know. 

All in all a good day. Had a nice picnic lunch at the battleship grounds. Too bad we couldn't have done more but there just isn't time when you have to drive some distance to do anything. 

On the garden front we went out Saturday and I got some New York ferns to plant, a herb garden/pot setup so I can grow some herbs over the winter. I'll have a picture of it for you next time. Also got a few flower packs as I want to try to grow some indoors this winter but I don't know how successful I will be. Also planted some Simpson Elite lettuce in the garden. I should probably get some carrots in the ground as well. Also hoping that we'll get green beans before the first frost, which isn't too far away!

We have an old metal computer desk that i used as my desktop for planting this year that I am considering turning in to a light stand for when I start my seed next year. I think that if I add some wood members, cheap casters, and modify the shelves I can have a pretty good stand for cheap. I have two (2) bulb lights but would like to have two (4) bulb lights for it. Keeping my eye out for those. Once I get the design on paper I'll do a build here and let you witness the catastrophe. 

I do have a good WOF of the Week picture but that will have to wait until later this week.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year....

My favorite season has arrived. If it could be like this year- round, I'd be in heaven. Cool, crisp mornings, mild afternoons, and cool evenings. Perfect! Oldest boy has to like it as he's now not baking in the heat, youngest boy definitely likes it. I've even got him talked into moving out to northern California but the wife is still being a....

It's happening all over! Leaves are coming down and covering the ground. Driving around I see all kinds of displays! I need to pull over more and get some good shots before they are gone for the winter.

Grabbed the youngest boy and we took off for a state park somewhat near us this past Sunday. Below are some of the pictures I took. He took some as well and I believe his are better. He really likes the outdoors. The park's name is Medoc Mountain, and no, there's no real mountain here. No cell coverage either. 

Thought this was a neat passageway. Reminded us when we went to Cranberry Glades last year.

There is a very large picnic area and open fields as well.

On our return trips for Almost Heaven, we usually go off the mountain at Fancy Gap, VA down Route 52, maybe hitting the farmer stands at the bottom. This time we went down I-77 and I was able to get this shot with the overhanging clouds.

Pretty Cool.

Now, I get emails all the time from all kinds of sites (not those:). Most people do. Now, I got one from one of the job listing sites and it had a job working in Prudhoe Bay, AK, North Slope. I know where Prudhoe Bay is at but curiosity got the best of me so I went to city data.com and looked up the statistics on this place. I had to take a pictures with my phone of what I saw at the top. 

At this time four (4) people live there with an average age of 11.5 years. 2 males and 2 females, but the difference is 60% males and 40% females, so instead of going by actually numbers they must go by weight.

Household income is off the scale! These kids do well working in the oil fields. 

No Way!!!!!!!

I stole this off of Facebook. My brother In Law had it posted on his wall and I thought it was funny. Thing is, we've been mocking Star Wars as of late anyway so this just fits right in. 

You've got to have a sarcastic, dry sense of humor around me. I find the ordinary funny I guess. 

No WOF of the Week this time. Sorry. I promise another update this weekend.

What in the ......., Really?

My job requires traveling to different project sites from time to time and here lately it seems all I have been doing is driving.  I bet I probably have about 3,000 miles under my butt from the month of September alone. And I have to say I'm not like most people when it comes to driving. First, I really don't speed over the limit. I see no sense in getting someplace 10 minutes sooner by speeding. After you get the ticket you'll see that it is not worth it. Secondly, I don't listen to the radio unless it's NPR (news) or I may throw in a CD (which I have been buying lately.) Other than that, it's silence. Oh, if I can  find a ball game or talk radio on the AM dial, I go there. But most of the time it is silence. It gives me time to think and I also like to look around, especially this time of year. Leaves will be changing real soon and I'm not going to miss this! I also people watch, seeing the different types of drivers that usually go past me, or on the rare occurrence I pass them. Case in point.......

Honestly my first though was "Circus around here?" But as I passed it was an older couple on their way somewhere. And this fellow was traveling a good highway speed. I don't know if it was their stuff that they had, just bought, or were getting rid of. I make it a point of not joking about people's situation in life but the load did catch me off guard. 

Got a phone pic from the oldest boy this past weekend I wanted to share with you. He says he looks good in this and I suppose in a way he does. 

If he gets shipped overseas, I want to see this stuff from head to toe!

Getting something out of my truck a few nights back.

Now this is what I call determination or a bad GPS system. Must be the same type we have as it couldn't find it's way out of a bag. You can see on the left where he (she?) climbed up the side of the mailbox, cruised around the top, then decided that there wasn't much to see.

Seriously???!!!!! This picture was taken Friday, SEPTEMBER 30TH!!!!! And so it $&^**@#@ starts. There needs to be a statute on the books of every town across the USA stating that no Christmas decorations, displays, and/or selling of merchandise shall take place until the weekend after Thanksgiving, period. Give me a break. I might as well go ahead and wish you Happy Holidays now!

Garden- wise, I think I'll start on some carrots and onions for spring picking and try (this time successfully) to get some cabbage to come in. More on this later though. 

Talk at you soon.

Back and Forth, and Back Again

Well, the oldest boy got out of Parris Island, spent about 10 days with us and processed in at Camp Geiger, Jacksonville, NC. Had some time for him here and spent a weekend in WV with family.

Taken at the House.

 

Upper pictures are from the WV trip. One at the table is from an established restaurant in our hometown. The bottom one is with both Grandfathers. Says he likes what he's doing now (gets to shoot) so hopefully it will be more than what he expected!

The youngest boy just turned 13 a few days ago (that's him 4 pictures up) and a new game system was in the works. He had a few friends come and they played all night. Looked like a bomb went off in the living room but that's all right. You got to party sometimes. Hard to believe he's 13! And as tall as me.

Got some gardening work done around the house this past Friday afternoon/evening. Picked up some pansies and a few mums at the store and cleaned up the front of the house. My Morning Glories are doing great too and I love looking at them every morning when I leave for work.

As you can see, things are really looking good. I love to see things grow I suppose. Makes the event feel special at times knowing that you did what you could but nature really knows it's stuff.

The garden (or what there is of one) seems to be plodding along right now. With the groundhog affair past us now (meaning he must be done eating my tomatoes) everything else seems to be doing well. I have peppers out the ying yang right now. And the Tomatilos have really taken over too. I still don't know what I'm going to do with these things. The green beans have sprouted up pretty good and I have been thinking of getting some lettuce started for this fall. I will say that the seeds I got from Gurneys are fantastic. I plan on getting most of my stuff for next year from them. I am looking for some flowers I can grow over the winter just to keep busy. Also have some Hollyhocks that I need to get started.

What did I say about the peppers! Hopefully we can freeze a lot this year.

Green Beans are doing as good as I said. Hope to get some off the plants before the first freeze. 

Banana peppers (sweet) are overloaded on the vines. I actually picked some off after taking the picture.

More of the green beans in the corner. This is where the corn was until the storm blew them down!

Speaking of storms, this is the aftermath of a storm a few evenings ago. I just thought the sky looked suspiciously ominous so I snapped it. 

WOF of the Week.

Well, to say she's been screwed up lately is an understatement. With us in and out of the house and our great neighbors watching her, she has been out of it. It took me a while to find a good picture to show her mood as of late but here it is.....

Showing "mean teeth." 

That's it for now but I will do one tomorrow night with some more info.