Creepy Crawlies

This summer I have been skulking outside in the yard & garden taking close ups of various insects. Then I try to identify them using the internet. Here are some of the results.

Six-Spotted

Tiger Beetle

Ant

Antlion

Bee on a Lion

Pallid-winged

Grasshopper

(Trimerotropis

pallidipennis)

Photo taken in Arizona

Common Fly

Garden Chafer

Grasshopper

Mayfly

Daddy Longlegs

Another

Mayfly

Stink Bug

aka Shield Bug

Another member

of the Shieldbug

aka Stinkbug

family

(Banasa dimiata)

Inflated Beetle

(Cysteodemus armatus)

Photo taken in Arizona

Japanese Beetle

Stag Beetle

Dining on

a Fly

Cherry Bounce

Teddy's brother, John Schlueter has now started harvesting this years crop of cherries. Teddy and I took the opportunity to produce 10 liters of this years "Cherry Bounce". It is an infusion of vodka, sugar and red tart cherries. We got the original recipe from Teddy's Mother and have tweeked it to our own through the years.



Here is a pict of the bounce aging in gallon jugs.
















Just before we leave here for our winter digs in Arizona we will rebottle the "Bounce" in 750 ml bottles.

Beating the high cost of fuel

With diesel fuel hovering around the $5.00/gallon mark we aren't firing up the truck as often. Traverse City is 20 miles away so we don't go into Traverse unless we have to. We make a list of what we need so that when I have a doctors appointment we also visit Lyle & Kathy (my brother); then go grocery shopping at Sam's & Meijer's, and visit Ace, Lowe's, Staples etc. if necessary. Teddy's mother is homebound and has to have help with meals etc. so Teddy has to visit her daily. Her home is about four miles from here and instead of driving Teddy rides her Greenspeed trike over there.





Here she is all loaded up and ready to go.
















She also rides into the village of Cedar (14 miles round trip) to pick up necessary inci-dentals such as milk, meat, saltpork, bullets and whiskey.

Reflections on turning Seventy One

Yesterday, July 4 I attained the ripe old age of 71. In truth I don't feel much different mentally than when I was 20. It's just that the old body starts to break down like an old Buick.
It brings to mind the old adage, " if I had known that I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."
Here are top 10 good things and the top 10 bad things about being an old guy in the modern world.

GOOD THINGS:

1. Senior coffee at McDonalds.
2. Can flirt with young girls as they just dismiss me as an old coot.
3. Can drive at 55 as have nowhere that I have to be any way.
4. No longer a slave to fashion (i.e., Can wear comfortable shoes & clothes.)
5. Can take a nap whenever I want.
6. Don't understand popular music, nor care to.
7. Food that I used to not care for is now delicious.
8. Get to wear my cap with the bill facing forward.
9. Artificial knee replacements.
10. Don't have to worry about gall stones as have no gall bladder.

BAD THINGS:

1. Decaf coffee.
2. My memory of how much things used to cost goes back further than most people.
3. All your friends are old people too.
4. Have to take a whole lotta' pills every day & I don't know what most of them are for.
5. My feet hurt, my back hurts, my knees hurt...everything hurts.
6. Don't understand popular music, nor care to.
7. Food that I used to like doesn't taste quite so good.
8. Insomnia.
9. Anti-insomnia i.e., fall asleep at inopportune moments during the day. Like in the middle of a movie or when talking to wife. (could be a good thing too)
10. Getting up to pee two or three times in the night.