The Lucky Dog Blog

RAZING THROUGH THE TOWN

Marilyn was very upset the other day when she came home. She saw another house in her home town of Pineville had been torn down. Granted the house was not in the best repair, but it was also one of the oldest houses in town. 

     

She found out that the house was removed to make room for a parking lot. In the past 10 years four homes have been torn down for parking lots. Pineville was once a walkable and vibrant community, but apparently the leadership has never heard of “best use” concepts.

Just what a town of 768 people needs  –  another parking lot.

Lucky

SUN DOG

Marilyn and Al were gone most of yesterday to a doctor appointment in Springfield, MO. While they were there they got their seasonal flu shots.

Also, while they were in town they did some shopping at their favorite Health Food store, MaMa Jean’s.

On their was home to the Lucky Dog cabins they saw a Sun Dog up in the sky.

      

Neither Al or this reporter knew what a Sun Dog was. Marilyn said that Sun Dogs, also called mock suns, are colored, luminous spots caused by the refraction of light by six-sided ice crystals in the atmosphere. (As the article below says, it was at the same height above the horizon as the sun.) She also said that her cousin Billy Ray sent her more information about temperature & other conditions necessary, but it is on her old computer. Perhaps he can comment more about them for my readers as  he is a pilot who was once a “hurricane hunter”.

Being a dog myself I was curious about this kind of dog. I found on the Internet more information on Sun Dog

Very Interesting!

Lucky

FINISHED ROOF

Yesterday, Builder Bob and his crew finished with the new roof on our Main Cabin. We were so lucky (so to speak) to have two weekends in a row with excellent weather.

     

It was great to have this big job finished. They will come back another time to put a new roof on our Shed.

           

All I can do now is to give them my new Lucky Dog bark – Roof, Roof!

Lucky

POSSIBLE THONG TREE

On a recent trip Marilyn saw what she thought was a Thong Tree. (The sharply bent tree in the photo below.) She couldn’t get very close to the tree, so she isn’t sure, but it appears to have the “button” where the original top was cut off and the sapling bent. It is located near the Salt Peter Cave and river crossing at Crag-O-Lee that might have been pointed out by the “message tree”.

         

As a reminder to my readers about Thong Trees, the early Native Americans marked trails and other items of significance with trees bent to grow in an unusual fashion. These were called Thong Trees, and they are found throughout the southeastern part of the U.S. There were many in this area and some apparently remain. They should be identified and preserved. They were created to mark trails, springs, herbs used for medicinal purposes, salt supplies, and caves, etc. Marilyn thinks they might be an attraction for “green” tourism, but there seems to be very little interest in that in this area.

I have written about Thong Trees several times in my Lucky Dog Blog: See April 08, 2007, December 01, 2008 and February 24, 2009.

Lucky

WILD FUNGI

Yesterday Marilyn came home from a trip to town with some pictures she took of some unusual stuff on the side of the road.

          

Al said that he thought they were wild mushrooms. Marilyn didn’t know what they were, but thought they were interesting and strangely pretty. It doesn’t take much to get her attention.

         

At any rate, Al thinks that these are the kind you should not eat.

As if I would be consider such a thing. Good old dog food for me.

Lucky

SNAP

Marilyn was gone yesterday to the church for a SNAP activity. SNAP stands for “Shared Network Access Point” and it is not easy to remember that for some reason. Anyway… the purpose of SNAP is to provide computer access to data bases listing jobs available throughout the state and even in nearby places in Arkansas & Oklahoma. It also provides opportunities for job seekers to improve their skills by using computer based learning programs and gain certification of achievement levels in basic areas like math.

     

The opening was well attended. The photos caught only a few of them. Marilyn was busy helping some job seekers and neglected her roving reporter role for me. That’s ok as she is doing something useful and it keeps her out of my fur a couple of days a week. Of the three young men who came to check it out yesterday, two found jobs. That is a pretty good start.     

Lucky

INTERNET DOWN

Our Internet connection here at the Lucky Dog cabin went off line last night about 5:00 PM. Al finally got it going this morning about 10:30 AM.

Since I have not had any time on the computer this morning the only think I could think of for a quick blog post is my photo. One of my faithful readers, Kathee, requested a look at a recent photo. I wish Marilyn & Al would get me a harness that fits. This one is way too big!

                                  

You can see that I need some new things to wear.

Lucky

CHRISTMAS CACTUS

Last year Marilyn and Al received a very nice Christmas Cactus in the mail from our east coast family.

                                        

After the flowers were gone, Al repotted the plant, fed and babied it and this October it started to flower again. This year it looks like a shower of fireworks.

                           

The plant really looks nice but I think it should have been called a Halloween Cactus.

Lucky

EAST COAST FAMILY ON HALLOWEEN

Eric getting ready for a hockey game. (His team won.)

  

Katie getting ready for Halloween.

  

I hope they get another chance to visit us soon.  I have big teeth, too, but no one ever takes a picture of them because I am too speedy to capture on film. (Hmm. Maybe I can go trick or treating as a ghost.)

Lucky

HOTEL

In early August I wrote a Lucky Dog Blog post called City Improvements. The story was about the City of Pineville buying some old eyesore properties in order to tear them down. On the right is one of the property, an old hotel that was being used as a rental.

Mary DeLand a blog reader from Arizona sent me the following about the hotel:

Hey Lucky,
My heart skipped a beat when I heard "old hotel" mentioned. When I saw the photo I recognized it as my birthplace. I was born there Nov. 29, 1939. My folks ran the hotel during the making of the Jesse James movie and had many stories to tell. Sorry to see it go...

 

David Sparlin another blog reader just sent me some photos. of the property coming down:

       

          

Based on the last photo. I would say that the hotel is gone. Marilyn is very sad that no effort was made to save it. It was part of our history, but that isn’t a very high value these days.

Lucky

RURAL LIFE DECLINE

As my Lucky Dog Blog readers know we live in a very rural area. The picture shows some of the natural beauty that we live in.

Marilyn read a article in Newsweek about Rural Brain Drain that she found interesting. It was a review of a new book called, “Hollowing Out the Middle” and in the article, the authors expressed some of the concerns that Marilyn has had for many years.

“The future of rural America looks increasingly bleak: fueled by the rise of agribusiness and the corresponding decline of family farms, the loss of manufacturing jobs, and the flight of young people to urban centers…” Although McDonald County has not lost population, but has gained a bit, the rest of the scenario fits its plight fairly well. The book divides residents into four categories – the Achievers (those who leave), Stayers (those who remain), Seekers (those who leave to travel or join the military), and Returners (those who leave and come back). (Marilyn is one of the Returners, as you know).

The authors’s research led them to conclude that small towns must adopt a new way of thinking and change their attitudes toward their high school graduates. Instead of focusing on the Achievers, they should provide more support for the Stayers who need better training in computer technology, health care, sustainable agriculture and green energy – areas of future growth in the global economy. This is the time for rural communities to capitalize on the federal stimulus package by investing in green agriculture and energy. These are areas that Crowder College, our local community college has encouraged for years. It is to be commended for that, but the local school system should be carefully evaluated and is in much need of improvement.

Easily said, says Marilyn, but much harder to accomplish without a significant change in attitude. Too many say ”we don’t want things to change” while turning a blind eye to the negative changes happening before them. She hopes that her readers who live in rural areas – not just the Ozarks –  will take the time to read the article given in the link above.

Lucky

ROOFING MATERIAL ARRIVES

Yesterday my afternoon puppy nap was disturbed when a big truck arrived and a couple of men started to unloading stuff.

    

The “stuff” was the material that Builder Bob needs to install a new roof on the cabin.

        

The new roof will be started today and Al will take some pictures. I don’t think Marilyn or Al will be on the roof, but will be spectators.

I will be cheering them on with my new bark –  ROOF, ROOF.

Lucky

AFGHANISTAN

The news we have been hearing coming out of Afghanistan has not been good.

Al’s son David is keeping us up to date about his time in the country.

We heard from him this Monday that his job there is going good and he is OK.

We are looking forward to his E-Mail messages.

Lucky

DINNER AT CHEZ MARILYN

Last night Marilyn and Al went to the York’s cabin next door to have a taco salad dinner. My Marilyn made the “fixin’s” and she & Al took them to Marilyn Y’s house for assembly. They prefer a more critter-free zone when dining with friends.

            

There was good food on the table. Lots of items from which to choose – lettuce, onions, cheese, guacamole, taco “meat” (yes, they are still not eating real meat), ripe olives, corn chips, sour cream and salsa. Yum.

   

But there was not much food left. Al must like yucky photos.

   

Do my readers think that they brought any thing back to my cabin for me? Not a chance!

Lucky

A FAMILY PICTURE

Below is a photo of Marilyn’s father & his siblings. Clockwise– starting with the boy in the center front– Hiram (Uncle Shorty); Florence, Hazel and Thomas Alton, Marilyn’s father (self named “Bill”). Marilyn remembers them all except for Aunt Hazel, who died very young of heart disease, also leaving 4 small children – 2 boys and 2 girls (Bill, Bob, Helen and Jane Embry.)

The photo was taken in 1910 when Bill was 6 years old. It was quite a year. Their mother died from complications of a miscarriage. She was always called “Grandma Babe” and the family talked about her as if she had just stepped into another room. That same year,  Halley’s (rhymes with Valley) Comet passed by. Bill described seeing the comet vividly as looking like a “washtub of fire”. He said no one knew it was coming and the women ran to gather up their children, thinking the world was coming to an end. It was a day of panic.

             

In looking up when Halley’s Comet was seen, Marilyn learned something interesting. Halley’s Comet was expected in late April, but before that, in January, probably the brightest comet of the 20th Century (simply called the “January Comet” )was seen in North America in the late afternoon. Halley’s Comet was visible at night, but much dimmer than the January Comet that was easily seen in daylight.  Now, Marilyn thinks that perhaps 6 year old Bill was mistaken about which comet he actually saw. A lot of people apparently confused the two.

Lucky

KITTEN ON TV

Last week Saffron (aka: Little Yellow Kitten) found that sitting on Al’s laptop computer was a nice place to be.

After Al moved Saffron several times the kitten kept coming  back to the computer.

The only way Al could discourage the cat was to shut down the laptop and close the lid.

That worked, but it meant that Al could not use computer so he went into the other room to watch TV.

           

It is interesting that Saffron is getting the best of the cabin humans.

Lucky

ZELLA'S NEW ROCK GARDEN

Marilyn and Al were gone yesterday to visit Marilyn’s sister Zella and to see Zella’s new rock garden. The first picture was from last December before her new rock garden. The new garden has lots of plants and a special path to her bird feeders and bird bath. The rocks are Arkansas stone, a favorite of Zella’s.

  

     

It look very nice but I am not sure why anyone needs more rocks around here, especially imported ones.

Lucky

HALLOWHATSIT PET PARADE

Saturday a group of people? got dressed up for a pet parade. It was an event sponsored by the Back 2 Basics group to celebrate the end of the first season of the Farmer’s Market. The photo is courtesy of Peggy W. My roving reporters were too lazy to get to Anderson for the event. I wanted to go and was working on a costume, but sometimes you just can’t motivate humans. Maybe next year. They were a little sorry they missed it, and I don’t think Al needs a costume. He is pretty funny looking as it is.

          

I am not sure I know any of the people, but for sure the pets were better looking.

Lucky

KITTEN ON THE KEYS

Yesterday when Al got ready to work on his laptop computer he had a surprise.

            

Saffron had some bills to pay.

Lucky

Marilyn Joins an Exercise Class

Marilyn joined an “Arthritis” exercise class this week. It is, as you can see (top left), a pretty sedentary exercise class. The goal is to become stronger, improve balance and reduce the pain of movement. Marilyn needs to do all of those things after a couple of years  of not feeling very good. She reports that it is an excellent experience and that there still time to join if some of her local readers are interested. They meet on Tuesday & Thursday from 9–10 am.

    

    

After class yesterday, some of the people gathered for lunch. (I’m not sure if that is counterproductive or not, but Marilyn swears she had a lo-cal lunch.) They met at the Subway shop at Stang’s that has a great view of the fall color of the trees.

It looks like they had a nice time.

Lucky

GOING TO TOWN

On the way to and from Pineville, Marilyn stopped to take pictures. She thinks the bluffs are pretty, especially with the early fall flowers and leaves changing colors.

She hopes that I will use some of them on my blog. Since I have nothing else, here are a few.

    

    

These are nice and they will keep Marilyn happy and out of my hair – at least for today.

Lucky

SAFFRON

I have found that when I don’t have any thing to write in my Lucky Dog Blog it is always nice to have a picture of Oliver Saffron (aka: Little Yellow Kitten).

                                     

Or maybe pictures of Saffron and his big cousin CC Cat.

           

Every body likes that Saffron, even me.

Lucky

NEW ROOF

On Sunday Builder Bob came by the measure the roofs on our main cabin and shed.

    

He will be installing new roofs in a few weeks. Notice the cute little dog he has with him. His name is Shorty.  He is a “something” and Blue Heeler mix and is as cuddly as a stuffed animal. Marilyn & Al were silly about him. I hope they realize where their true feelings lie. I was an adorable puppy once myself. We more mature dogs have more to offer in good sense and writing skills.

              

Even though that dog is cute, we don’t need any more animals around here. I have to keep saying that, my humans just don’t understand that there are limits.

Lucky

CHURCH BELL

Last Saturday the church bell was being reinstalled.

             

On Sunday Marilyn took a picture of the completed new bell placement. The bell used to be in a small steeple on top of the church, but it caused leaking when it rained, so it was decided to replace the steeple in a different way in order to retain the old traditional bell. Marilyn remembers that (as a child) what a privilege it was to be permitted to ring the bell to summon the congregation to the church service.

             

It looks nice. Of course, I will never be allowed to go to church, buy I am a very spiritual dog.

Lucky

ROCKET STOVE DEMONSTRATION

Marilyn and Al were gone yesterday morning to see a demonstration of how to make a rocket stove at the Farmers’s Market in Anderson. The rocket stove was invented in 1980 as a high efficiency heating and cooking system for third world countries. (There are times when we feel like that describes us here in McDonald County.) Anyway… It is a pretty slick (though messy initially) way to have a low cost (less than $100) way to heat a space like a garage or to heat water if you are not into having a large installation in your house. The corrugated tin sheets in the middle of the device hide an old 30 gallon hot water heater.  Basic components are a 55 gallon drum, some six inch pipe and “cob” which is a sand, clay, water and straw mixture. Comrade Simba, who is behind the flue, is skilled at making rocket stoves and was generous enough to demonstrate how to make one. In fact, he has done the demonstration twice. It is a lot of work and he is to be commended for sharing his expertise.

           

When the contraption is completely surrounded by cob (mud) it supposed to be a very low cost way to heat your house. Because of its design, it burns wood more efficiently than a normal wood stove and it beats the cob outer layer (eventually all of the parts are coated with 3–4” of cob) which gradually releases heat primarily by convection and conduction into the room. The cob mixture ingredients are shown below. The red clay was Dug from the hillside behind the Market (there is lots of clay in McDonald County.)

          

I am not sure that I would want one of these in my cabin, but come to think of it, our wood stove isn’t all that attractive either. I have tried to find why it is named “rocket stove” but have failed to find a definition; maybe one of my readers can tell me.

Lucky

CLEMONS BARN

This is about the only remaining evidence of the original Clemons farm. It is located on Big Sugar Creek Road, just before the Crag-O-Lea low water bridge. It is about 4 miles down stream from our cabin. The farm was a land grant to Lewis Clemons and his wife, Edna Augusta Southard Clemons. They were born in Licking Co. OH and migrated to Missouri for the free land. They had four children, Belle (who died young) Laura, Tom and Marilyn’s grandmother, Florence Mahala, who was called Babe.  Babe married Thomas Jefferson Carnell and they also had four children – Hazel (m. W.Embry), Florence (m. Otis Laughlin) Hiram (m. Pauline Blankenship) and Thomas Alton, known as Bill, who married Thelma Marie Bunch. Bill and Thelma were Marilyn’s parents.

The Clemons farm once included Salt Petre Cave, but has shrunk considerably to its current size. The original house burned long ago and the land has been divided among several current owners.

    

Even though the barn has fallen on hard times, it still has a certain charm and Marilyn wanted a picture of it put on my blog.

Lucky

OUR NEIGHBOR'S HORSES

Marilyn was out and about yesterday and she stopped to take some pictures. She thought I could use them for my Lucky Dog Blog.

There were two big animals just down the road from our cabin.

    

I would have to say that those are some good looking animals. They seemed to be friendly and curious.

    

I am here to tell you that there is no more room at our cabin in case she was thinking of bringing them home.

Lucky

TOKYO RESTAURANT

Yesterday Marilyn and Al took their Prius to the Joplin for its service (to have an oil change & tires rotated – not its funeral).

While the car was being serviced they went to lunch at a Japanese Restaurant just north of the Mall on Range Line.

They have eaten there before, but this time, they decided to try the Hibachi part of the restaurant. It was fun to have the chef prepare the food as they watched.

There was a lot of showmanship in the food preparation. The picture in the center below is a volcano made from sliced onions. It was clever and dramatic. He was quite a showman.

  

 

   

They had salad with a ginger dressing and miso soup along with a sushi appetizer. Their main entree was rice, noodles and vegetables.

   

It looks like they had a nice time and they said the food was delicious. I’m not a big vegetable eater, myself, but I’ll take their word for it.

Lucky

FALL COLORS

Not much to report this morning. Here are some pictures of the fall color. It looks like this year is going to be very colorful. Apparently, it has something to do with rain.

In the first picture Al got up early to take some picture in the rain. No shortage of rain this week, it is supposed to clear off tomorrow and about time! I’m beginning to think about taking swimming lessons.

The second picture is off our back deck this morning. It is a sugar maple (the kind for which the creek was named) and turns yellow rather than the reds and oranges of regular maple trees.

The last picture is a tree in town.

    

It is not easy for me to be a Lucky Dog Blog reporter when there is nothing going on around here. Al and Marilyn had better get busy and find some stories for me to write.

Lucky

LITTLE YELLOW & BRUTUS GO TO THE VET

Little Yellow Kitten and Brutus went to the Vet. yesterday for check ups and shots.

While they were there, Little Yellow received his real name which is Oliver Saffron.

For sure Saffron is a boy according to the vet., Marilyn and Al were never sure. They peered at his nether regions, but apparently cats are very discrete about gender. It is only apparent to those who really know the score. Dr. Adair thinks that Saffron is about 12 weeks old
 

    

Saffron  had his teeth checked along with other things. Then it was Brutus’ turn, he was not happy.

    

Later this month I, Lucky and the rest of the cats will get our trip to the Vet. I don’t think it is going to be much fun, but at least I will get out of this cabin for a while.

Lucky