What Up...?

You may have noticed that blogging has taken a back seat in my retirement life. I think I need to develop some retirement discipline. Get some structure. Maybe plan out the next day before I go to bed at night.  So far it's been a day by day, completely spontaneous event. I seem to do what I want when I want to. It is an addictive habit and one that seems to suit me. It's like permanent recess. It will be interesting to see what happens next fall and winter. I may find myself in the truck going south or in a plane going to Aruba. Why do winter if you don't have too right? I will have to be careful though. I am on a fixed income.

So anyway....last week was uneventful. I managed to get the lawn mowed, some flower seeds planted and a garden bed weeded, but there was much goofing off in between and also some 'man shopping'. As a general rule, I hate shopping, but last week I went to Menard's (where real men go to get wood...sorry...I apologize...that's the Lumber Yard) and I looked at weed trimmers and chain saws...yes chain saws. Manly yes, but I like them too. Anyhow, I did not like the selection so I went over to Lowe's and found the trimmer I wanted and then to Walmart for the chain saw I wanted.

Now that I am fully armed for yard work, I can hack and destroy at will. And I have been doing that. However...I am easily distracted. I went out to get some coffee at Caribou last week. I hit the drive thru and as I was pulling on to the street I realized I did not want to do yard work. I wanted to go fishing. And I did. I've been fishing three times since that day. It seems to be impulse driven. I got a walleye yesterday at Big Creek. See..

He did not survive the day. He ended up in my deep fryer with some French fries. I washed him down stream with some Coors Light. Delicious.

Then there is this...

Bird watching has been good here at the Compound. I have yet to see any Orioles, but a Rose Breasted Grossbeak and a Wild Turkey made appearances.

  

When I sent the turkey pic to my friend Steve, the hunter, I got a two word response...."shoot it". You may note that this particular Tom has quite the long beard. This would indicate age and possibly some substantial meat to be had. Even so, If I shot him, I'm not sure I would know how to dress him...or undress him as it were. Steve's answer to this was to call him.

I have also seen hummingbirds about the yard, so I put out the hummingbird feeder today. We will see what happens.

I have another developing problem. There is a rather intelligent squirrel trying to work out the engineering required to get at my bird feeders. I have some unexpected allies in this guerrilla war. A pair of robins dive bomb him when he gets close. They have a nest in the tree next to the house and they are quite fearless in their fight. I have also taken on some advanced weaponry to sting the buttocks of this clever rodent.

Behold the Gamo Big Cat Whisper pellet gun. 1300 FPS muzzle velocity. Between me and the robins, I think we have this rodent invasion handled.

He may even perish in this righteous suburban battle to subdue nature and drive back the squirrelish hordes to the trees of my neighbors!