Bees

10,000 Bees

Their New Home

Justin drove 4 hours with 10,000 bees in the car this weekend. They bee-haved themselves.

He managed to get them in the hive without getting stung.

And he didn't get stung after he had to take the queen out the next day and take the tab off of the case she is in. And also when he got back in the following night to fix something. And then again later that night to pick up the queen covered in bees after she dropped to the bottom of the hive and put her back up top. No one has been stung and i am surprised.

Learning curve and the bees have been gracious with all our mistakes.

Knob Lick Lookout Tower

Vulture Print

Glowing Happy Pirate

Jasper And A Friend

Not far from Pickle Springs is an old fire watch tower. It offers excellent views of the St. Francois Mountains. The area below the tower is a glade and lizards are abundant. Broken glass is also plentiful, hinting at this area's life after dark. I cannot imagine the tower being a fun place to go drinking, but teenagers do a lot of dumb things.

Speaking of the tower, Justin and I both had a fair amount of anxiety up there. Not sure if it was the high winds blowing in with the storm or the patchwork of chain link, but it felt very unsafe. Nevertheless, we were glad to see the expansive view. And glad to get down again.

Pickle Springs

Dome Rock Overlook

Tullaia And Double Arch

Pickle Spring (A tiny gurgle underneath the waterfall)

Tuckered Out

Pickle Springs is only 4 miles down the road from Hawn State Park, one of our favorite campgrounds. And that is only an hour and 15 minutes from home. It is a marvelous day trip!

It is a 2 mile loop of fascinating geological features. A 16 page trail guide highlights the rock formations, canyons, waterfalls, caves, arches, bluffs, and hoodoos.

I am envious of William Pickles, the man that settled this land in 1848. Although it is said he was murdered about Sam Hidlebrand and a bunch of renegades during the Civil War. (Justin's former boss' Great Grandfather) Either way, he had a sweet place to live and we are fortunate enough to enjoy it.

Spring Time Blooms

I am amazed at the resilience of all things. These flowers had buds when we received 5 or so inches of snow. They are virtually unscathed.

It is Hope to last for a year to come.

Web Cam

My Mom sent this Eagle web cam link to me.

You can watch the family live or see past videos of various things like the eggs hatching.

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles#utm_campaigne=synclickback&source=http://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/decorah_eagle_xcel.html&medium=3064708

Thanks Mom! Very neat to see...

Short Life Of Pruitt-Igoe

Beginning

Middle

End

I have always been fascinated by this story. Last night we were talking about it and then today it was talked about on St Louis On The Air. Chad Freidrichs, director of Pruitt-Igoe Myth, was on to share his insight. His movie is playing at the History Museum on Saturday at 2. I would love to go but it's $10. It sounds really good. He presents a personal side to the story rather than just the failure of it all.

Pruitt-Igoe was a large federal public housing project completed in 1956. The 33 high-rise buildings were demolished in 1972. It is now a huge forest encircled with tall barbed wire. If i was brave I would love to venture in and take a nature walk.

Minoru Yamasaki was the architect who designed the complex as well as the World Trade Center Towers. Both of these projects have blown up for different reasons. I find that interesting.

The Federal Government helped build it, but did not maintain it. This led to all sorts of problems and decay was rapid.

I don't know if Paul McKee has his futuristic hands on this property, but i would love love love to see it turned into a fabulous park. Or an urban farm. Something green. Nothing else would make sense. It would make that part of the city desirable in a way it isn't right now. No sort of strip mall or casino can do that.

If i had time and money, it would be something i worked toward. But i have neither, so i am hoping that someone else takes it on. (Gateway Greening?) I would help.

March 31

"One of the subtlest burdens God ever puts on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things so that we may take the burden of these souls before Him..."- Oswald Chambers

I feel very hurt by someone. At one point, we were friends.

Even though i don't want to think about this person, they pop into my mind a lot. Instead of thinking bad thoughts or even ignoring their existence, i should be praying for them in specific ways.

Sometimes i do.

But i also think about all the reasons they were wrong. I want to prove my intense hurt is justified.

I want reconciliation. But sometimes this cannot be. I am praying for all the things that need to happen in both of us so true healing can occur.

Confluence 2011

We spent time at Confluence this weekend in order to wrap up our study on Lewis and Clark's expedition. They set off on their journey out west at this location where the Missouri River merges with the Mississippi. (Missouri is on right, Mississippi is on left of the land jutting out behind Tullaia.)

Can you believe they moved against the current all the way?

I Am Irritated

Has it been a bad week?

-I was summoned for jury duty (only the 5th time in 8 years)

-Someone hacked into our bank account and took it all

-Our lateral line is bad

-Our lateral line might not be bad

-Our sinkhole is now 6 feet deep and 4 feet wide

-My period was 15 days (Too much information?)

But in light of other bad weeks, it's OK. My family is alive and well. Nothing washed out to sea.

We are not in quarantine. We have water and it is clean.

St. Patrick's Day 2011

It was hot, hot, hot during the parade. I gave the boys free-reign with my camera and they took 157 pictures in all. Some of them were closeups of indistinguishable items, but most were very good. By the end of the day, everyone appeared as though they had been camping. A lot of dirt, sweat, and sticky. The best part is playing with the neighbors in the street and picking up all the candy that is leftover. Am i a bad parent because i let the kids eat candy off the road?

Pictures courtesy of the boys.

Bellefontaine Cemetery

I had not been here until today. And after we spent a few weeks studying the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark's journey through it, I wanted to see where he was buried. There are 86,000 people buried at Bellefontaine and many have contributed greatly to the growth of our city and country.

This information is taken from the Cemetery Tour Book, which helps navigate the 314 acres.

General William Clark (1770-1838)

They led the expedition that explored the Louisiana Territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean. After 2 years and 4 months Meriwether Lewis and Clark returned to St Louis.

Adolphus Busch (1838-1913)

Forty breweries existed in St Louis when Eberhardt Anheuser bought The Bavarian Brewery before the Civil War. His daughter, Lilly, married Adolphus Busch who sold supplies to the brewery. After the Civil War, Busch joined his father-in -law in the brewing business. Anheuser-Busch is the world's largest brewery. (Inbev)

Captain Isaiah Sellers (1802-1864)

He was the most famous of all steamboat men. He was the first man to use the pseudonym, "Mark Twain", and after his death, Samuel Clemens adopted it because it stood for truthful writing, as Clemens explains in his "Life on the Mississippi."

Hempstead Family/Manuel Lisa (1772-1820)

The former Hempstead family burying ground is the oldest section of the cemetery, which was their farm. Stephen Hempstead, father of the family, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, having served in Nathan Hale's regiment. One of the largest monuments in this section is of Manuel Lisa, a famous fur trader of Spanish descent. He married Mary Hempstead even though he was a Roman Catholic and she was Yankee-born Presbyterian. She was the first white woman to go into the Indian country along the upper Missouri River.

Blog Recommendation

This comes highly recommended!

http://tullaiaspicturesandpoems.blogspot.com/

February Wind Ridge

Silence and solitude were overdue. And the weekend had a fresh layer of snow to tromp in.

Waiting.

I am more apt to act.

Forcing things.

The door,

the drawer,

the vacuum back in the closet.

Reconciliation.

I saw and heard 4 Red-Shouldered Hawks doing crazy acrobats in the air and disturbing all with the sound of it (whatever "it" was). And later in the day, one perched in the tree outside my hermitage. I watched it for quite a while until i embarrassed it by staring.

Others heard/seen:

Red-Tailed Hawk

Pileated Woodpecker

Barred Owl

Eagle

That evening, while i was cozy in bed, i heard coyotes on the prowl. They sounded close. The next morning i followed tracks through the woods and meadows around my hermitage. Because of the fresh snow, i was able to see all the details...snuffling for a treat, scratching for a smell, squatting for a poo. I wandered and ambled wherever they took me. And it was easy because all the trees and bushes were bare. I never knew until recently the difference between coyote and dog tracks. I do now and i am happy about that. (Dog prints are often erratic and more splayed out and coyotes are slender and also more in a straight line.)

I watched drops of water slide slowly down the warmed branches of evergreen trees. I listened to the plip plop trickle sounds.

I sobbed and mourned loss. Losses i have not known for myself. Grief i never want to experience. Sorrow that should never be known.

I am thinking of the

sinking feeling

Pam felt as she realized

her daughter was missing.

And knowing the brutal end

a child suffered at the hands

of an evil man.

I feel sick,

I am angry with God,

that this is allowed.

I read Finding My Way Home by Henri Nouwen

This bit i needed to soak in.

"It is through total and unmitigated powerlessness that God shows us divine mercy. The radical, divine choice is the choice to reveal glory, beauty, truth, peace, joy, and, most of all, love in and through the complete divestment of power. It is very hard-if not impossible-for us to grasp this divine mystery."

I walked all day until my nose turned red. I laid in snow drifts until my ears ached with the beautiful sounds of so much nothing. It is always a gift.

"Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, i love you too."

Elissa

A friend recently witnessed the execution of the man who brutally murdered her daughter. I have mourned the loss of this little girl so many times. And i never even knew her.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_fcb05ab5-596a-59d3-9f49-3ecf8c0393eb.html

Birthing Wood

I am on the verge of a panic attack, but i am the only adult at home so i am putting up my feet and writing. Hoping the salve kicks in and lubricates the lengthy wedge of wood stuck in my foot. Hoping to reminisce and forget about my current pain.

Why does this always happen to me?

I am trying to utilize the techniques i used for natural childbirth in order to help my body expel the foreign object quickly. But for some reason, i cannot handle needles or blood. I can pop 9 pound babies out but not a splinter (to be fair it is more wedge than splinter and at least 3 inches long)?

Perhaps it is because a baby is exciting and you are not only birthing an object, but love that lasts forever. Or maybe I only did natural childbirth to avoid a long needle in my spine?

The day before we were married was stressful in all the normal ways. But in some abnormal ways as well. Including the 4 inch wedge that jammed into my foot as i walked up the steps of my parents house. I thought my head would explode with pain. I was dying to be sure.

My mom thought i was exaggerating until she saw my foot. We went to the ER and after having 5 people hold me down while i cussed and shouted, the Doctor "successfully" cut it out of my sad foot.

I laid on the table and sobbed, "Did you get it all?" He did.

Well, after a torrential rain storm, i did hobble down the outdoor aisle. We were married.

We were supposed to head out west for a few String Cheese shows and back to our old weekend haunt outside of Phoenix. But our Volkswagen had broke down while Justin was on his way up for the wedding. So instead we rode in the back of a friends' mom's van.

The Verde Hot Springs is a rugged 2 hour struggle down a high desert road. When you descend into the valley, the road takes a sharp turn and the scenery turns lush and green.

The hot springs is about 1 1/2 miles down the river from the campsite, and involves crossing the river and a considerable effort.

I made it fine, but was in quite a bit of pain.

Same to be said of all the dancing at SCI. We danced and danced and danced and danced. But it was hard and my foot hurt.

A month later, we are back in Stl and i am still in pain. I wake up early on Saturday morning unable to fall back asleep. I retrieve a razor, knife, bandage, and tweezers and begin the tedious work of cutting open my foot. After some time, out pops another 2 inches of the wedge that was "removed" at the hospital.

I kept it in my jewelry box for a long time. I wanted to find the Doctor's address and send it to him.

That was the first of many items i would cut or pop out of my skin. The rusty razor is ready and i have soaked my foot...

Snow Day

It seems like it has snowed more this year than in other St. Louis years past. It makes winter more exciting though. It helped me get through a difficult day, knowing that snowfall was on it's way.

Owl Saga

Neighbor Mark had an article published in the Post Dispatch recently. We have enjoyed getting to know him and the owl family that we see so frequently.

http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/home-and-garden/home/article_b2a637ab-f66d-5d3d-81c4-50f16fbfc4e4.html

For more on the owl saga, visit his blog

http://forestparkowls.blogspot.com/

Pokey LaFarge

If you live in STL and love good music.

http://www.pokeylafarge.net/

Good times.

(Or even if you aren't in STL, they are going on tour soon.)

Holidays

Iowa Field Walking (Dad, what is this?)

It is a hayrake

I haven't written in a while. This time of year is busy. In a good way.

But in order to enjoy it, i cut all but necessities out.

So, we had a wonderful holiday and i don't have many pictures or thoughts to prove it. Perhaps the best there is.

Enough Time Has Passed

This may or may not happen to your car if you leave it in a St Louis alley.

First Snow

Judy loves the snow. Especially tunneling underneath and coming up with fluff all over.

It was quite cold and slick yesterday. And we had the good fortune of receiving a flat tire while en route to Great Grandma's for lunch. With no place to pull over while on the highway we drove for a while and then opted to change it on the exit ramp itself.