Snow this AM

The Past Weekend

It Just Won't Be the Same!!

Our mostest favorite Christmas ornament has died! The Grandkids loved pushing his belly and he would sing - We Wish You a Merry Christmas in "meows." Genny didn't want me to cut him open to see if the battery could be replaced so he'll still be around but without the audio enjoyment. We can't even remember where we got him from, but I'm sure he was a gift. And of course - we still have the cat head ornament from my sister to keep him company - GRIN.

Important Public Service Announcement

Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil.......and the despair with the stock market.... the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.


We apologize for the inconvenience.

Thanksgiving Trivia

Follow this link for some interesting information that I didn't know about the date of Thanksgiving:

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/thanksg.html

Sorry I don't know how to put it into a "clickable" link.

Will Rogers Quotes

Nothing you can't spell will ever work.

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.

Everything is funny as long as it is happening to Somebody Else.

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.

The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best.

Three Quotes

First, reportly by Alexander Tytler (1780):

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."

Second, Benjaim Franklin:

"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."

Third, Chuck:

"I think we're in trouble!"

Discovery Place

Happy Birthday DJ! All the Kirkman kids (and Mom and Grandma) went ot Discovery Place in Greensboro
This young man has NOT learned how to make pizza!!! More lessons are required.
The gang taking a break.
They WOV each other - at least when this photo was taken!
Kaira & Grandma
Now, this girl has learned what to do with a pizza oven.

Working in Rhode Island

Bogue Sound Drum

18-inch Red Drum - One proud Noni!

ROD - Rant Of the Day

You know those signs along the interstates that have FOOD and GAS on them? Have you noticed the quality is in a serious decline in the past several years?

PART #1 - Is it a joke that you get off to get gas and the little sign at the bottom of the ramp has an arrow and 5.6 miles??? What's the deal with 5.6 miles!! That is NOT gas at this exit - that is gas available in this county. Do they really think I will drive 11.2 miles up and back for gas, when the entrance ramp to get back on the highway is straight ahead?

PART #2 - So I'm tooling along the highway, and after several hours I need a cup of coffee to keep awake. Oh look, there's a sign that means the exit has a Dunkin Donuts shop. So I get off thinking of a fresh cup of Joe and what do I find? A Texaco gas station that looks third-world with a little box in the corner with two day-old donuts inside and a pot of coffee that was fresh two weeks ago Thursday. That is NOT a Dunkin Donuts Shop!!!! It SHOULD NOT have a interstate sign for this level of service!

These must be signs of the times! On second thought - this sounds like something that Becky would write - now that is a scary sign!!

Corrosion Testing - Success!!

Sandpiper at Fort Macon.
Genny with 18-inch Red Drum
Too small flounder - had to throw it back!

22-bluefish & the drum - wonderful time fishing around the rain.

Lots of FIGS this year!

#10 & #38

Well, her name is Kaira Jean Kirkman. Grandbaby #10 -whew! Corina & Kaira are doing well. It's Casey with all the other ones that we worry about!!
45 minutes old.
Big sister's got her already!!
The girls of the family.































Oh yeah!! Here's number 38 of my Alamance County Turtle Relocation Program. In the seven years since we've lived here I keep all the turtles I see along the road and relocate them to my backyard. This is number 38. All those turtles and we've only ever seen one - on a Sunday morning it was walking across the lawn.

Labor Day Pizza!

Here's some photos from the Pizza Party this evening. As you can tell Kayla didn't want her picture taken and neither did her Mom!! And then there's people who don't know how to act when a picture is being taken - like the guy in the back of the first one.

A River Runs Thru It!!

First - here's some bread my wife made last weekend. Delicious!!
I always wished the deck & hut were on the sound.
Water running acrossed the street.
The backyard looks like the Okefenokee Swamp - well, without the alligators.

PHOTOS FROM ELIAS B'DAY & CEDAR ROCK PARK

Election Season

Now that we're bombarded with constant sound bites from the far-left (Obama) and the Not-So-Far-Away-From-the-Left (McCain) I've posted a couple quotes to think about.

Benjamin Franklin: "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."

Thomas Jefferson: "We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers... And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for[ another]... till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery... And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."

Orsen Scot Card (who ever he is, but I liked the quote): "If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side."

Woody Allen (have to include him for sanity): "We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other leads to total extinction. Let us hope we have the wisdom to make the right choice."

This is Chuck and I approve this post!!

Garden Update

Getting lots of stuff from the garden right now. More figs yesterday, picked a bunch of grapes (no pun intended), tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplant. This is the first year for so many grapes - planted the vines about 6 years ago.

Stretching Rope!

Some photos of the testing we did this morning to take the construction stretch out of 2,000 feet of rope. Pulled with a bulldozer against a dump truck at the other end. Weather was beautiful, test went fine, played with big toys and a good time was had by all.