Opa's place -Where an old rooster visits with friends

[Opa]

Todd, when David makes pickled eggs he uses 18 bantam eggs and neatly places them in a quart jar with a jalapeno pepper between each egg. Once the jar is filled he adds the brine.

 

[theotherranch]

Thanks. Hope your day was good.

 

[gritsar]

Todd, I hope you are doing well

 

[Opa]

From time to time I get confirmation that I somehow managed to raise three wonderful sons. Tonight was one of those times. Scott, the youngest, called Granny and talked for quite awhile. As the conversation came to an end she asked if he now wanted to speak with me. "No", he told her. "I called to talk to you". While not an earth shaking occurance, it did do wonders for her ego and self esteem. From time to time she will get depressed. She misses my father, misses being in her own home, and misses the self reliance she once had.

A fifteen minute call does wonders in helping her to get off the pity pot. She sees David almost every day, and Joe, the oldest, calls her at least once a week. She has six other grandchildren and in the four years she has lived with us, two have never called and the other four may have called a total of six times. I wish they would take it upon themselves to call her from time to time. Three of the grandchildren have children of their own. Even when she has worked her heart out making something for the great grandchildren they never even bother to acknowledge the gift. I have mentioned it to their fathers and it's not had the slightest effect.

My sons, without prompting, always try to stay in close contact. Just a simple phone call and the old lady shines. If they knew how much easier it makes my life when I not having to reassure her that she still has value and is loved. If you are fortunate enough to still have a grandparent, cherish them. Even though they are oft times difficult to deal with it takes so little to improve their lives.

 

[Opa]

Sorry if that last post sounded like a soapbox rant.

Tomorrow I will be heading out the the woods where I've deer hunted for the last thirty years. I have been fortunate to have had a piece of property from which my family over the years has taken over 300 deer. David, my best friend Bob and his son, and I are going out to work on our blinds.

My stand is a 5x5 house standing 8' in the air. The woods had been predominately ash trees and with so many of them being killed off by the emerald ash borer the absence of large trees has made the ground wetter. The changing water table allowed two of the legs to settle causing a slight lean to the house. Last hunting season, due to the sloping floor the wheeled chair I have in the house would roll to one side if I didn't sit with my legs braced. At the end of the season we decided that as soon as the snow left in the spring we would repair it.

Well evidently I've been suffering from a lack of round toits, because the gun deer season opens on Tuesday and the stand hasn't been repaired. There probably won't be time to fix it tomorrow so I will spend another hunting season sitting in a runaway chair.

 

[theotherranch]

Opa, this speaks wonders to the way you raised your young ones. And you are right about the next ( or next ) generation talking to family. Growing up, my father could never talk about work. It was classified at the time ( not a spy, but in defense ) but now the stories are wonderful. As long as you have a parent, grandparent, or greatparent, talk to them. They remember things we have never known!

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Opa, you have good reason to be proud of your sons. Really glad Granny got that call. I remember when I was a young mother. I used to write letters to my grandmother. She said so many of the same things, and it seemed like she repeated herself. At one point, I got started asking her about her childhood, and boy, did that start the stories! She was surprised I wanted to know. But, I got a treasure in each letter.

I try to encourage my own sons to call their grandparents. They are very attached to the internet, and want to email. But, hearing a familiar voice is priceless.

Have a great day. I'm off to work....

 

[Opa]

Some days it's harder to maintain a good attitude than others. Today was one of those hard days. We went out to our woods for the first time since last spring. We've gone out to visit the old farmer who owns it but haven't gone to the woods because the guy who leased it had corn planted so closely that we couldn't get to it. Today the corn was all down and the field replanted in winter wheat.

While we can get to the woods it is going to be difficult because he didn't allow us much roadway between the planted wheat and the drainage ditches. I can envision it being very difficult once it is snow covered and slippery.

When we finally got to the woods a disaster scene awaited us. Back in July a severe storm came through and destroyed the woods. I would estimate that over 80% of the trees are now down. They are all twisted and turned and I had to climb up and over at least a dozen downed trees to get to my stand. A limb had punctured the roof of the blind and popped a window open allowing all kinds of critters access. Over the course of the summer they shredded the cloth seat on my swivel chair, ripped the carpeting loose from the walls, and fouled the floor carpet. Then to add icing to that cake, hornets have a still active nest larger than a basketball attached in one corner, at about the same heighth my face would be if I were sitting in it.

As bad as I thought my was, it was nothing compare to the damage to Bob's blind. It took us several minutes to even find his stand as we clawed our way through the tangle of fallen trees. Finding it should have been so difficult since the blinds are 5'x5' houses on stilts that place them 8' in the air and are visible for quite some distance. The reason his was so difficult to find is that the wind had blown it over, exploding it into a mass of jumbled wood augmented with fallen trees.

After picking up and salvaging what we could we left and went to get something to eat. Lunch was a rather somber affair as we discussed our options or rather our lack of options. We've hunted that property for over 30 years. Our sons learned how to hunt in what we considered our own little private sanctuary. No one else was allowed access and we could place the boys in their stands and not have to worry about them much. Collectively our two families have taken over 500 deer from there. Today's discovery seems to herald an end to an era.

Dave, John, Bob, and I decided that we couldn't return the property to a huntable condition even if we work every day for an entire summer. Even Dave and John felt if you did shoot a deer back where our stands are located it would require quartering the deer in order to carry in out. Plus unless the deer was located in the proper spot and you were able to drop it in its track we would stand a high probability of losing it.

Given the fact that opening day is supposed to be raining and 55 degrees, plus the condition of our hunting spot, this is shaping up to be the worst deer season I have ever had.

As if the deer hunting situation wasn't enough to make this a less than great day, when Dave and I got home we decided to set up the ice shanty to make sure that it is ready to go and that all of the equipment is where it should be. The shanty is two 4x6 plastic boxes hinged together with aluminum collapsable poles for the framework, and covered with a black water repellant canvas. It all folds up for neat compact storage and wasn't an inexpensive item. Unfortunately mice decided that it would be an ideal place to live and they have gnawed a half dozen holes in the canvas. Needlyess to say I wasn't pleased with their choice of residence.

On a bright note I still have a pulse so life is still good.

 

[chickflick]

Not a good day for you, Sam. Sorry about all that bad luck. But, like you said, you still have a pulse, so all is good.

 

[EweSheep]

Wished you had a better blind shed but is there a way you men can make another one? Or recycle the ones you had?