My daughter, Laura, has a big-time case of fly-fishing fever. My oldest daughter, Angelin, loves to dunk squid in saltwater and my son, Jimmie, enjoys tormenting largemouth bass with a buzz bait, but Laura is drawn to the gurgling creeks and the trout lurking within. Creeks like Mossy Creek in Augusta County. Mossy Creek is hallowed ground for Virginia fly fishermen. It was here that I landed … [Read more...]
Soapy Water
One drawback to a vacation stay on the Middle Peninsula is dealing with the water. First, it tastes bad – it sorta’ smells. It most definitely alters the taste of coffee, and you really have to be thirsty to drink a glass straight from the tap. The second problem is taking a bath. If you hop in the shower and put soap on your hair or body, it stays there. The water does not rinse away the … [Read more...]
Hot Sauce for Birdseed
Bird lovers: Brace yourself for an amazing product. This is a real game changer in the war against squirrels. The mortal enemy of every bird lover, that group which spends millions of dollars each year on bird seed, is the lowly squirrel. Squirrels will find a way to steal the seed from its intended beneficiaries; they will gnaw through expensive feeders, and they will foul even the … [Read more...]
Golf Course Milkweed
Milkweed is rapidly disappearing from our landscapes primarily because homeowners consider it an ugly, invasive weed and VDOT poisons it regularly alongside the roads. There is one place, however, where milkweed is flourishing, and that’s on golf courses. Well, not on the fairways and short grass, but in places where a golfer really shouldn’t be – like the rough and the edge of the … [Read more...]
Quiet! Bats Sleeping
We have a table umbrella on our patio that we usually keep rolled up, so the wind doesn’t scoop down and blow it away. That happens. The other day, Nancy decided to crank the handle and spread the umbrella for company and her first guest was none other than a sleeping bat, and he was most upset. He had worked his way up into the nice, dark folds of the umbrella and had been sound … [Read more...]
Creating the Creation Museum
Ken Ham was a high school science teacher in Australia, but in his teachings and studies, he had a problem with the theory of evolution. Rather, Ham believed the biblical account was more accurate and even more in line with science. He gave up teaching and went into the ministry, then became haunted with building a Creation Museum to visually display the biblical account of … [Read more...]
Hunting Mushrooms
A Typical Oyster Mushroom I remember as a boy going with Daddy to take our bird dogs for a walk in late August and September. It gave the dogs much needed exercise and allowed us to take inventory of any new quail coveys. What I most remember about those walks is mushrooms. We would often happen upon a stand of spores and Daddy put many of them in a sack he carried just for that … [Read more...]
Tick-Tock
The clock is ticking. It’s the time of the year for Lyme disease and it’s nasty. Some sturdies report close to 300,000 new cases of the disease each year and many cases go unreported because they were not properly diagnosed. Lyme disease is transmitted from infected ticks. Deer are most responsible as carrying hosts, but other mammals such as bears, mice and other small animals may … [Read more...]
Mountain Mint: A Honeybee Heaven
“There are bees on our new plants,” Nancy said. “That’s good,” I responded, thinking she may have seen a couple of honeybees. But there weren’t just a couple, there were dozens and dozens of honeybees dipping in and among the tiny white blossoms of our two Mountain Mint plants. I often go an entire summer and don’t see that many. These lovely plants are amazing bee attractors. Last fall, … [Read more...]
Coneflowers: Add a Bed of Beauty
My wife Nancy has spent a lot of time working in our yard and it really shows. She has watered and weeded regularly and keeps things trim with her edging and weed eaters. Throughout the yard, her flowers and shrubs are lovely. But the ones I believe both of us are proudest of are the wildflowers she planted around our birdbath. They were perennials and are flowers like you would … [Read more...]
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