What To Do If An Ootheca Hatches In Your House

I don't know the answer.

I went upstairs for my nightly brown recluse trap check/hunt. Little shadows lined the baseboard and it took a little while to figure it out. They were newly hatched praying mantises!

We have kept egg cases several time in hopes of seeing the babies pop out and haven't gotten to see it.

So now...we have hundreds/thousands of praying mantis babies on the third floor. I am excited to see how cute they are running around. I am also pretty scared since we have kept them as pets before. They are terribly vicious.

Then there is the Brown Recluse problem. Who would win?

Delmar Line

We live north of Delmar and the difference is substantial.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17361995

Blue Ball Jar

I found this in the creek and just think it is so beautiful.

Battle Of Athens

Thome-Benning (Cannonball) House

Built in 1853, this home has entrance and exit holes of a cannonball in the walls of the kitchen.

Colton Mill

Built in 1858, this building was built to withstand ice and flooding. It has thirty feet of stone foundation topped with four floors, plus attic. The top floor contained the textile manufacturing producing cloth, yarn, and custom rolls of fabric. The lower floors ground grain and the basement held the current driven water wheel.

Union Line Of Defense

This is the site of the northernmost Civil War battle fought west of the Mississippi River.

The land and buildings were part of the once-thriving town of Athens, Missouri. Located on the Des Moines River, Athens had nearly 50 businesses before the Civil War, including a large mill that produced flour, cornmeal, lumber, cotton, and woolen goods. Today, only a few structures remain.

Col. David Moore occupied the town with his pro-Union forces from July to Oct. 1861. Early on the morning of Aug. 5, pro-southern States Guardsmen, surrounded the town of Athens from the west.

Athens saw a rapid decline after the war, caused by many factors, the greatest being the routing of the railroad. The railroad bridge was constructed several miles down the Des Moines River instead of being built at Athens.

I saw a shooting star tonight in the city. And since i usually only see 3 stars on a clear night, i think it is a beautiful gift. I made a wish.

We weren't planning to move

It has taken me so long to sit down and write this. Things have been kind of wild.

We moved but didn't go far, just a couple miles north to the West End. Our street is located in the National Register of Historic Places.

http://www.stlouiscitytalk.com/2010/05/west-end-neighborhood.html

This is taken from the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service website:

"Soon after the Civil War, the nominated acreage (part of a 2,720-acre Spanish land grant

in St. Louis County owned by the James Clemens, Jr., estate) was penetrated by railroad

tracks for a predecessor of the Wabash line. In 1868, the land was divided into three

large tracts for Clemens' widow Eliza and her two daughters, Catherine Clemens Gates

and Alice Clemens Von Versen. In 1871, a railroad bridge across the Missouri River

was completed at St. Charles, providing a continuous line from Toledo into St. Louis.

This was four years before the completion of Eads Bridge enabled trains to cross the

Mississippi River into downtown St. Louis.

The Wabash thus provided the first link in what would become an unparalleled network

of neighborhood transportation options for Hamilton Place and environs. In 1876, the

City Limits were expanded from just west of Grand Avenue to Skinker Boulevard (figure

1). With that expansion and the completion in 1878 of the steam-driven West End

Narrow Gauge commuter railroad (dubbed "The Sardine Box and Cattle Pen Line"3)

from midtown St. Louis to Florissant, rural land in the West End seemed poised for

"suburban" development. The first subdivision to open was Clemens Place (located just

east of Hamilton Avenue and now mostly demolished) in 1885."

We weren't planning to move.

The International Institute places refugees in housing just north of here. Going home from visiting our Afghan friends, we oftentimes cut through the neighborhood. (I don't like to go the same way twice.)

Things went from there and when we realized we could increase space inside our home, outside our home and in our budget, we decided it was time to consider moving.

We love our Dogtown home and neighbors, so this has been bittersweet. It helps that things have been so quickly chaotic because otherwise i would be too sentimental.

We don't have the normal 2012 comforts of home, so the kids and i have been on the road quite a bit. But it is becoming "home" and I am looking forward to settling in with Spring.

Old Coal Mine Exploration

Cattail Swirl

Entrance to Our Museum

Gravel Road Red-Tail

Thorny Blue

Cattail Sword Fight

After our picnic, we explored my Uncle's farm, where my Dad also lived at some point along the way. Most land around here was mined for coal, and if the land isn't put back together properly, it doesn't support much more than thorns and cattails.

We collected many items and made a museum of our found items. Bones, feathers, metal, glass, pottery, rocks, and a wonderful afternoon.

Spring Creek Cemetery

Mary wife of W.H. Comstock

Died May 9, 1865

Aged 23 years 3 months 10 days

Ida Isabell

Died August 9, 1866

Aged 2 months 5 days

Dayton son of J.W. & E. Coffen

Died May 14, 1865

Aged 5 years 10 months 5 days

John M.

died 1848

aged 19 years, 22 days

Eliza wife of W. Stafford

Died Feb. 25, 1853

Age 26 years

Died April 9, 1856

Aged 13 years

Mary I.

Infant of N. & M.A. Elliott

Departed this life the 20th of the 7th month

1856

My Uncle John's farm was on one side and Uncle Calvin's was on the other. My cousin Laura did a good job of supplying me with scary stories that were accentuated by the creepy trees surrounding it.Unfortunately, all the trees have been cut down and it is quite barren. We had a January picnic in Iowa at an old cemetery. I haven't done that before.

Angie's Mini Cow Farm

My Dad and I were discussing the difference between miniature horses, regular horses, and ponies. And after we solved that problem, he mentioned mini cows. That lead to an internet search and soon after discovered a mini cow farm nearby. So we went to visit and the cows are as cute as they might seem.

Look at her hairdo!

http://www.minicowfarm.com/

Eddyville Dunes Sand Prairie

This is one of the few remaining sand prairies left in Iowa. It is a wonderful place to walk and in warmer weather race runner lizards may be seen.










We found 2 1930's GM automobiles along a prickly fence line.

Cedar Bluffs

My Grandparents farmed this spot of land when my Dad was growing up. They called it the island because it juts out between the Des Moines River and Cedar Creek. There are Indian mounds on the nearby bluff and carvings in the cliff. Apparently Grandpa's name is also carved there.

Jasper near the burial mounds.

Dover School

This one-room schoolhouse is located behind Apple Tree Antiques off highway 27 in Lee County. We pass here on the way up to the farm.

Dover started when the Bonnell brothers, wealthy apple growers out of New Jersey, bought 880 acres of land in the northwest Franklin Township area in 1843. Although never officially platted or even surveyed for a town site, Dover nevertheless became an important trading center which boasted a schoolhouse, a couple of blacksmith shops, the general store, two or three other small businesses and a post office.

The one-room school faces south with a double-door entry with a transom window above and a window on either side. Three windows are on each side of the school to the east and west; the blackboard was on the north wall and measured 18’ by 2 ½’ by 2”, there are decorative wrought iron stars on each corner and above the door. The school yard was surrounded with a post and wire fence, had an 8’ by 8’ coal shed in the southeast corner, and two outhouses toward the northeast corner.

Apple Tree antique owners, Kevin and Cindy Frueh, are working to restore the the old limestone school.

Trapping

Jasper was able to set traps with Grandpa with the hopes that he could make a coonskin cap. The next rainy, muddy, and cold day yielded 3 coon. They were skinned and now someone needs to tan them. Supposedly it takes a very patient person.

Prine One-Room School House

"Prine School was a one-room school house situated just west of Oskaloosa. It opened in 1861 and was named after Henry H. Prine, who donated the property for which the school was to be built. As Oskaloosa began consolidating its one-room school houses around its area in the 1950's and 1960's. The school was officially closed on May 20, 1966. About a year later, the school was moved to the Nelson Pioneer Farm, present site of the Mahaska Historical Society. The school was moved here to preserve the heritage and attitude of school during the middle and late 19th Century and into the 20th Century as well."
-Mahaska County Historical Society

Daniel Nelson Barn

In 1856, Daniel hired A.J. Jewell to construct his barn. The whole barn went up without a nail, each piece locking into place with wooden pegs. A.J. Jewell also the man is the man that homesteaded the farm i grew up in. I hope to write more about him later.

Nelson Pioneer Farm

Three more children were born while they lived in the log cabin, James, John and Martha. In 1852, huge stones were brought up for the foundation. They were quarried from the nearby Skunk River, pulled by wagon ice and snow. The bricks were kilned on the farm, made from native clay from the creek. Most of the wood was cut from timber on the home land and prepared by the Nelson's own saw mill.
After moving into the brick home, another child was born, Sarah. At the age of seven, Sarah came down with chicken pox. Some of the pox settled in her eyes and she was blind for the rest of her life. She attended Vinton School for the Blind, the same school that Mary Ingalls attended.

Littler Log Cabin

Daniel and Margaret Nelson moved from Ohio to Iowa in 1841. They settled in Fairfield and had their first child William. In 1844, they decided to follow Daniels's Uncle to Oskaloosa, but they lost their way and wintered in an abandoned wickiup near Eddyville. It is here that their daughter Barbara was born. She is thought to be the first white child born in Mahaska county. When weather allowed, they homesteaded 230 acres outside of Oskaloosa and promptly built a log cabin. Eventually, this cabin was replaced with a cabin built by Benjamin Littler, which was moved from Bussey.

Bloomfield Cemetery

In this period of transition and travel, the kids and I have explored many cemeteries. This is the one by my parents' farm and where my Mom wants to be buried (under a tree, of course). After a nice afternoon hike, we stopped by for the incredible sunset.