The Lucky Dog Blog

Dogwood

Quite a while back, April 04, 2007, I wrote a Lucky Dog Blog post about my favorite tree, the Dogwood. 

As Missouri’s official state tree, the flowering dogwood is very pretty. There are lots of them along the roadsides in the Ozarks, but you only notice them in the spring and in the fall. The rest of the time, they just blend into the forest.

 

At this time of year the flowers are gone, but the fruit berries are quite evident and beautiful in their own way.

It must be a slow day if all I can write about is a tree.

Lucky

Obama

Marilyn has been spending a lot of time in town volunteering at the Democrat Headquarters.

She even got a tee shirt to wear. She says there is no point in complaining about things if you aren’t willing to help no matter which side you favor.

I am glad that Marilyn has found something to do with herself, she was getting under my paws.

I also heard that she will be a volunteer pole watcher at the up-coming election. I hope we will hear more about that activity, but I am not sure how difficult watching a pole could be. (Er, Marilyn says it is spelled poll.)

Speaking about Obama, the picture below is a pumpkin carving that Marilyn’s son Ben did for Halloween.

                      

Ben, the Obam-A-Lantern is really neat! I am sure that Al is not up something that difficult.

Lucky

Frost Flowers

Yesterday morning was the first heavy frost of the season , with the temperature getting down to 28 degrees Fahrenheit.

Marilyn and Al were on their way to some errands when they saw some frost flowers beside the road.

    

Frost flowers were new to me and I had to go to the Internet to learn more. It seems that a frost flower is really neither "frost" nor "flower," but layers of ice squeezed from the stem of a plant. For more information see Frost Flower.

It sounds to me that we are in for a long cold winter. Brrr!

Lucky

Stella

When Marilyn and Al were out on the road the other day they passed through a little town called Stella, MO. On the way, at Longview, they saw some big animals. Marilyn said that she thought that the animals were water buffalo. She said that back in the 1970’s a man named Tony Leonards had cornered the U.S. market on water buffalo. He brought them in from Asia and the Philippines and had a breeding project at the University of Florida.  He also had elk that he raised for the antlers to sell to Asia for aphrodisiacs. (Too much information, Marilyn.)

I think, maybe they were just big cows?

         

Speaking of Stella, that is the town where Marilyn was born. She was born at Cardwell Hospital (now torn down.)

They did not find a Historical Marker regarding the birthplace of Marilyn. (Neither for the hospital or for Marilyn.)

              

It looks to me that the sign installer was a little crooked, or maybe Al’s camera?

Lucky

Magnolia

The other day when Marilyn and Al were out in the yard, they saw something red over on their Magnolia tree. When they got closer the red was unripe Magnolia seedpods and some with the seeds exposed. Apparently this year’s blooms had borne fruit.

In the ten years that Marilyn and Al have lived at the cabin, they have never seen the Magnolia bloom, so they were very surprised to see the seedpods. The seeds look like little red hot candies. They got more pictures and I looked up Magnolia on the Internet.

They went over next door to show the Magnolia find to Marilyn Y. and her cat Lilly

                                      

Lilly the cat looks serious to me and I will stay out of her way.

Again, it is clear to me that it does not take much to entertain Marilyn and Al.

Lucky

Toilets

I am sure that you have read about the toilets on the international space-station being broken and having to be replaced by the astronauts. Not a very glamorous subject, but oh, so necessary.

Well, as it turns out, the toilets at our cabin were not functioning too well and had to be replaced also. Al & Marilyn decided that this was the time to upgrade as well.

Marilyn and Al made a trip to Lowe’s for the new toilets. They are doing their best to help get the U.S. economy moving. Our astronaut (aka, Builder Bob) made the toilet pickup for us. (Since, after all, he has a pickup.)

Here is Bob unloading the new very high tech., water saving, low flushing noise and extra high design toilets. The tall design was very important for aging occupants.

Out with the old and in with the new.

Your reporter still has to go outside to relieve himself. Fortunately, it is very large area and comfortable to use.

Lucky

Fruits and Nuts

In addition to the Black Walnuts and Headgeapples that I have recently written about, there are many other things growing and ripening around the cabins. With the economy in the tank, it may be time to look at ways to live off the land.

For example, there are Pecans (shown in the left picture) and Hickory Nuts (shown on the right).

    

And I should mention the nut-like seeds from the Buckeye Tree that grows next door. You can see that they do have some resemblance to an eye.

I read on the Internet at Ohio State Tree, that the fruit of the Buckeye Tree contains tannic acid and is poisonous to cattle and humans but often eaten by squirrels.

Native Americans would blanch them, extracting the tannic acid for use in tanning leather. Here in the Ozarks some people believe it is good luck to carry a buckeye in your pocket. Marilyn keeps one in her purse. That doesn’t seem to be doing a lot of good, maybe she should put it in her pocket.

We have a lot of squirrels around here, but I see the fruit is not harmful to squirrels. Rats!

Lucky

Spoons

On September 18th I wrote in my Lucky Dog  blog post about the persimmon tree and fruit that Marilyn and Al saw on one of their many trips. On that post I said I was not sure why they thought that the persimmon was so interesting?

Just the other day Builder Bob showed why.

According to old-timers, if you cut open a persimmon seed it can be a clue to the coming winter weather. When sliced into two pieces, the persimmon seed will display one of three symbols: A knife shape will indicate a cold icy winter (where wind will cut through you like a knife). A fork shape will indicate a mild winter. A spoon shape stands for a shovel to dig out the snow.

Bob brought some fruit and cut into them. The persimmons look ripe, but it hasn’t frosted here yet, so they are still to puckery to eat. In the picture below you can see the spoons. No other shapes were found.

            

It seems like we are in for a lot of snow this winter. Good thing I have my fur coat.

Lucky

New Well House

Builder Bob was by last week to put the finishing touches on the new well house behind the cabin. The old well house was in bad shape and had to be taken down.

    

Bob and his helper had worked on the new well house for several days. They picked up all of the debris & hauled it away.

    

When it finally came together the new well house really looks nice. The construction is ingenious. The roof is hinged at the back. You can simply lift the edge of the roof and the front panel slides up and out and is easily removed, thus giving full access to the equipment for any needed repairs.

            

Maybe I can get Bob to build me a nice dog house. Hmmm.

Lucky

Hedgeapples

On Monday while Marilyn was out picking up walnuts, Al was busy picking up hedgeapples. We had a bumper crop this year, even though we have only one tree.

    

You might ask, what are hedgeapples? They are the fruit of the hedge tree, Osage-orange. Early settlers in the midwest planted these hedge plants to fence their fields. The introduction of barbed wire greatly reduced the need for these hedge fences. Today, they are promoted to use to repel insects and spiders. The tree goes by several names including bois d’arc or bodark tree. The wood is very dense and hard. Indians used it to make bows and pioneers found it ideal to make wagon wheel hubs. The fruits are not edible for humans, but because of their many uses, there are trees still to be found in many parts of the midwest.

    

Al picked up a big load in his golf cart. The next day there were many more on the ground.

For more information on the tree check this link Osage-orange.

Later when I looked on the Internet I found you could buy four hedgedapples for $10 plus $8 shipping.

I also saw that someone uses the Osage-orange to make craft flowers.

                                                          

Maybe I can go into business with Al to make a little puppy money.

Lucky