Lazy, Hazy August Sunday

Bill trying to make out the writing on an old tombstone near Milton,, DE 

Just another quiet day here on the eastern shore of coastal southern Delaware. Today sure is a lot different from last Sunday, the Day After hurricane Irene.  I'll take days like this anytime.

I feel confident that the thousands of tourists who descended on our little peninsula here on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean for the Labor Day weekend are happy that we have had beautiful, sunny days this weekend for their Last Fling of Summer.  Of course I stayed away from the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach this weekend.  I know it is just lovely down there and I would like to hear the waves rolling in on the beach and the sea gulls screaming for more french fries but I'm just not in the mood to fight all that traffic, bicyclists, and people this delightful late summer day.

Bill and I took a ride to the other resort town (our little secret) of Milton this morning.  While Milton doesn't have the Atlantic Ocean it does have Wagamon's Pond.  What?  You've never heard of Wagamon's pond? Well count yourself among the million or so folks who never have heard of this pond in the center of downtown Milton.  Next time you're in the area you'll have to visit Wagamon's Pond and see what all the fuss it about.

On the way into Milton on Cave Neck Road Bill and I stopped at an old family cemetery.  This one was call the "The Weigands Cemetery."  There must be hundreds of these old family cemeteries along the roads crisscrossing southern Delaware. One wonders what has happened to these old family cemeteries in the north of the state of Delaware, where it is much heavier populated.

Some of the headstones were so old we couldn't read them.  We're going to stop back tomorrow with a little Fantastick and an old toothbrush to clean away the mold and funk of a hundred years or more to identify some of these headstones.  If we don't do it now the information on these headstones will be forever lost to history.  That's why I like roaming graveyards and recording the information and photos on Find a Grave.com.  Long after I'm gone the history will be there for future generations. That gives me a senses of purpose.

Yesterday my blogger friend Dr. Spo called me on FaceTime and we discussed that to live the healthiest life one should have a sense of purpose.  I have several, one of which is my genealogy research.  The second being my Find a Grave projects.  And of course another one is what I am doing right now, writing this blog that gives me a sense of purpose and perhaps some who read it, an insight into someone else's life which they may find interesting.  I know that I find those blogs that are personal the most interesting blogs to read.

Have a great day everyone!

The Sun is Out!

Glory be, the sun is out!  Just as I had hoped for, after the long, dark, windy, voice, fear filled night that was Hurricane Irene passing though here; the day after is a whole new day.  I know, a long sentence but you get the idea of what I'm trying to say.

What a wonderful feeling to feel the warmth of the sun's rays after last night.  I can hear the vehicles steaming again down Route 1 to Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach, and Ocean City, Maryland.  Now that is a sound I am glad to hear again, life getting back to normal here on the Delmarva peninsula.

In fact, I am so enthused I'm going to go outside right now and do some yard work!

Preparing for Irene

Just got a call from my neighbor Barb.  She said that Ocean City, MD turned off their water treatment plant.  You know what that means, fill up the bathtubs!  I don't want to be stuck not being able to flush the toilet.

The rain has been coming down for about five hours now.  I just got up from my afternoon nap (a very nice nap by the way with the rain falling outside).  We're expecting the full brunt of Irene in about eight hour or 2 a.m. this morning.  I wonder if I'll be able to sleep tonight as well as I did this afternoon.

We have a lot of water outside but I've seen worse during several nor'easters that have blown through here since we moved here in November of 2006.  The wind is buffeting the side of the house now.  If I told you I wasn't afraid I would be lying.  This is NO FUN, believe me.  Thank God I haven't heard anything more about a tornado for our area.

An Evening With John Milton

Me, Bob, John Milton, and Ted (my Spo Shirt made its debut last night). Yes, Ted is sitting in John Milton's lap.  

Yesterday evening, The Old Geezer's Dining Club met again.  This time the Restaurant de jour was the Broadkill Boathouse restaurant in Milton, Delaware.  The Broadkill Boathouse was formerly the Iguana Grill.  I ate there once a few years ago with my good friend Bob Mc.  It was not a pleasant experience.
Which was a shame because the location of the restaurant is ideal.  It is right on the Broadkill River (thus the name) with a beautiful view of Wagamon's Pond in the center to downtown Milton.

The Broadkill River, Milton, DE

Well, I'm glad to say that last night's dining experience was a whole different story.  The Old Geezer's Dining Club (me, Bob C., Don V. and Teddy W.) came away from our summer evening dining repast with  satisfied appetites and happy memories.

Don, Bob and Ted (aka "The Old Geezers) looking at the Broadkill

Don, Bob and I had the prime rib sandwich special at $10.00.  Superb!  And you all know how fussy I am with food, especially prime rib.  Not for me a pink, soggy, pulsating slab (or two) of meat on a bun.  I need it cooked.  My prime rib sandwich was perfect.  With the prime rib sandwich I had steak fries.  The best steak fries I've ever had.  I can say that without qualification.

Teddy had a hamburger with sweet potato fries.  Teddy, who is about as fussy as I am, had no complaints about his food.  The hamburger tasted like hamburger (chargrilled - both of us love that flavor) and he especially liked the sweet potato fries which had some kind of special coating on it that he couldn't determine.  He asked the waitress but she didn't know either.  Thus that will remain a mystery.

Me, Ted, Bob and Don at the Broadkill Boathouse Restaurant on the deck on this beautiful summer evening in Milton, DE - check out my Spo Shirt - I was the envy of the Old Geezers! Is it me or does Don seem to have the spotlight on him while the rest of us are in the shadows?

Don had some kind of salad that looked like it had goose poop on it but he also pronounced it an unqualified success.  Maybe the goose poop dressing was in memory of the former geese population that took up residence at the Broadkill River last year until someone from the state park snuck in the dark lonely hours of the early morning hours before and did away with the year round resident geese.

Don and his great new haircut!

After dining at the Broadkill we all returned to Ted's house for his homemade peach pie with ice cream. Delicious!  Thank you Ted.

A delightful summer evening with friends in the cozy little town of Milton on the Broadkill River.  It doesn't get much better than this folks.  We'll have to do it again.

As darkness fell on the deck, Ted goes in to pay the bill for our evening repast

Five More on the Fifth

Waiting for the light to change at Rt. 1 and 16 - uh oh, what's that up there?

I know, I know...I've already posted my "Five on the Fifth" today but events demand that I post another "Five on the Fifth."  


I asked Bill to take me to the Post Office in Milton to mail a iPhone dock charger to my brother John in Greenville, South Carolina.  While in Milton I wanted to stop by my main supermarket, Food Lion, to pick up a rotisserie chicken.  I use rotisserie chickens in my broccoli cheese recipe and I was feeling some of that this afternoon.  Well, you know how the best laid planes of mice and men and something like that goes don't you?


As we arrived at the intersection of Routes 1 and Routes 16 to make the left turn to the town of Milton we see an accident that just happened.  It didn't appear that anyone was hurt but both cars were pretty well damaged.  They would probably have to be towed away.  Just think, a few minutes earlier we could have been that car making a left hand turn on Rt.  16 and get plowed into by that idiot in the 'other' car.  Could've been us!

Somebody was driving where they shouldn't be

Next stop Food Lion.  I zip into the store to pick up a $5.99 , $6.99, er...$7.88 rotisserie chicken.  Uh, that's how much the price has gone up this month.  The best rotisserie chickens are at Sam's Club in Dover.  They only cost $4.99 and they are big, juicy, tasty birds with just the right seasoning.  The Food Lion chickens are alright but not as tasty.  I could stop in Rehoboth at Super Fresh or Giant and get one of their puny $8.49 oven roasted chickens (have to pay for that union overhead).  The price of Food Lion's rotisserie chickens have gone up almost $2.00 in ONE MONTH.  No thank you.  Good old Slower Lower never disappoints.  One would think the chicken prices would be about 3 bucks a chicken down here since this is where they raise the poor fowl who are trucked daily to Auschwitz the processing plants. I put the still warm plastic container of $7.88 rotisserie chicken back in its case and zipped on out of the store.

The Milton, DE Food Lion where the price of rotisserie chicken goes up faster than the price of gas

Next stop, the Milton Post Office.  A visit to the Milton Post Office is always the highlight of my day.  Today was no exception.  A typical, slow-ass local post office.  I gave the zombie like lady postal clerk my small bubble envelope contain the aforementioned iPhone docking device and got the postage ($1.79).


Back to Bill and his antique (1991) Jeep Laredo waiting for me outside.  We left Milton by way of Atlantic Avenue because I was sure the POO - LEASE would have the accident scene blocked for at least an hour while they 'investigated' the scene of the accident.  Hey, the one lady plowed into the other lady.  What's to investigate?  They'll make big deal out of it anyway.  I always feel sorry for people in accidents (which can happen to anybody).  All the aggravation that they have to go through now with the police, insurance, etc.  As I said before, THANK GOODNESS no one was hurt.

Downtown Milton Delaware - yes, the DO roll up the streets at night

Bill and I got back home.  I decided not to take a walk this afternoon because the cold and wind are back.  Yesterday's 87 degree temperatures (even with the wind) were an anomaly.  We're back to our balmy 45 degrees.  Down to 38 degrees tonight.  


Spring, where art thou?

Back home again, Bill soaking up the latest issue of Globe magazine (Kirstie is fat!)

Murder in Milton

My backyard with its perimiter of birdbaths, raised flower beds and bird houses

Every year at this time in early spring migratory birds arrive in my back yard to begin their nesting. This year was no exception as the bluebirds, swallows, starlings and the sparrows swooped down and around, checking out the housing accommodations on the verdant green acre of lawn that is our backyard.

Two years ago I placed three blue bird boxes on the perimeter of the Back Forty. I also had a purple martin house installed by the Frank the Birdman of Milton. I’ve always wanted one of those multiple apartment purple martin birdhouses. Now that I had an open clear field of almost an acre I could do this. I also wanted to have those fence post bluebird houses like my dad used to have surrounding his three acres of land he used to lovingly farm his crop of corn, tomatoes and string beans.

My dad's garden in Pennsylvania

I couldn’t have those types of birdhouses at our home in Pennsylvania because we lived in the middle of the woods. The only kind of birdhouses that we had success with in Pennsylvania was the Jenny Wren birdhouses which my dad built for me. Here at our home in Delaware I only have one tree, an ornamental prune tree in the front of the house. Here in Delaware we no longer lived in home that attracted woodland birds.

My house in Delaware with its lone tree - no room for woodland birds

So I had had the bluebird and purple martin birdhouses installed. However I soon discovered my first visitors were the common house sparrow. I didn’t think too much about it at first. But then one day, Frank the Birdman was over adjusting my purple martin house and he happened to take a peek in one of the bluebird houses. Immediately after swinging open the door he discovered the sloppy bird nest of a house sparrow! Much to my shock he put his calloused hand in the bird box and scooped out the nest, eggs included, and tossed it into a nearby cornfield.

Swallow checking recently emptied birdhouse of sparrow nesting and eggs last summer

After tossing that sparrow nest in the cornfield he turned to me with a look of surprise and anger and said “That’s a damn sparrow nest! You don’t want that!” Well, excuse me but…….. Then he explained to me the trouble with sparrows. They are a very aggressive bird. They are not native to this country. The sparrow and the starling are the two species of birds mainly responsible for the decimation of the blue bird and other song bird population of the continental United States. If I permitted the house sparrows to nest on my property I was contributing to the extinction of the bluebirds. Frank’s comments caused me serious concern.

The Determined House Sparrow

Well, I did some research and he was absolutely right. In fact the sparrow and starling are so aggressive that they will kill any other bird that is in a nest they want. They will even build their nest over the dead birds and sometimes, the dead baby birds. I found this hard to believe until I witnessed it myself. Last year when I fought a six week battle to remove a sparrow from one of the purple martin apartment I found one nest of three baby purple martins that had been pecked to death by the sparrow. I wrote several blog postings last year about my frustrating battle with the Determined House Sparrow.

Baby purple martins last year - the type that were pecked to death by the house sparrow

So this year I was ready for their invasion. The house sparrows didn’t disappoint. This week they arrived. I was ready for them. I had taped the entrances to the six purple martin apartments. They couldn’t get in there. The purple martins don’t arrive until May 1st, so I had plenty of time to discourage the Determined House Sparrow.

My purple martin house

Of my three bluebird houses, there is only one in which the bluebirds nest. It is the one near the white fence of my neighbor Tom. For the past two years a bluebird couple has raised two batches of four baby bluebirds each summer. Early last week I saw the bluebirds checking out their house from their perch in one of Tom’s pine trees.

Baby blue birds in their nest last year

Then on Thursday I saw my worst fear. The Determined House Sparrow was on top on the bluebird house! Oh no! I have three other bluebird houses. I’m willing to let the sparrows in those houses but no, the Determined House Sparrow wants THAT bluebird house next to Tom’s fence. It ain’t going to happen.

Blue bird house next to my neighbor Tom's fence

At first I chased it away every time I saw it land on the bluebird house. But that was futile. Then I put a bucket over the house to discourage the damn sparrow. But that was only a temporary measure plus it prevented the bluebirds from using the house too.

The Determined Sparrow atop the blue bird house last year

So, I decided to do what I did last year. I would let them sort it out themselves. That’s what they did last year. I know the sparrow has a reputation for being the more aggressive the species but they did work it out last year. I think the reason the bluebirds won out because on of the bluebirds was pretty big. That one bluebird was like the Hulk Hogan of bluebirds.

The "Hulk Hogan" of blue birds guarding his blue bird nest last year

So yesterday, I took off to the 42nd Annual Kite Festival at Cape Henlopen. It was a beautiful, sunny day with lots of wind for all those colorful kites. After a morning of kite festival (and enough of the crowds) I came back home for lunch. But, before lunch I thought I would check the bluebird box to see if anyone had built a nest. As I put my forefinger in the bird box opening to bring the front down, a bird made quick exit from the hole, surprised by my invasion. As I lowered the front of the bird box I was shocked and saddened to see this: (WARNING – DO NOT LOOK IF YOU ARE SQUEMISH)

Dead swallow (pecked to death by the sparrow) in blue bird box yesterday

It was the body of a swallow that had been just pecked to death by that damn sparrow. I lifted it still warm body out of the bird box and took it to show to Bill, who was mowing the lawn on his riding mower. I wanted to show him what his “cute sparrow” had done. Bill is always sticking up for the sparrows, putting guilt trip on me every time I threw out one of their nests. Here was proof positive that this was a bird we do not want in our backyard.

With a sad heart I gently placed the limp body of the dead swallow in an empty planter on my back deck and went inside my house to have lunch.

After lunch I decided to take a trip to Milton to visit Frank the Birdman and ask him his advice.

He wasn’t at home. His wife told me he was out on a job. I told her my problem with the sparrows and asked her what Frank does to discourage the house sparrows. Frank has several purple martin houses in his yard which are always populated by a very noisy colony of purple martins throughout the spring and summer.

She went to a shed and opened the door and pulled out a cartridge of gold colored copper tipped bullets neatly arranged in a even row. She told me he shoots them with a 22! She assured me that shooting the 22 “didn’t make much noise.” Oh, well…..okay. Well, now let’s see. First I don’t have a gun. I told her that I didn’t have one which surprised her. Uh……okay. Another thing, I will never have a gun. The last time I fired a bullet was when I was in the Army during my annual qualification at the rifle range in 1962. My father was a lifelong hunter. None of his three sons were hunters. My brothers were also in the Army and fired rifles but none of us ever possessed the desire or need to have a gun. And I wasn’t about to start. Running through my mind at this time was a visual of me firing a Twenty-two from my back deck at my bluebird house. I’m sure my neighbor Tom and his wife Shannon would appreciate that especially since they have a couple of dogs who use their back yard and a two year old daughter. Talk about your Neighbor From Hell. I told Frank’s wife I would seek another solution to my sparrow problem.

This is NOT a picture of me firing a gun

Now what was really unusual about yesterday was the location where I was talking to the Birdman’s wife was only one road away from an actual murder that took place this past winter. The body was just discovered last week in the backyard of a singlewide trailer. It was under a blue tarp. Police suspect the badly decomposed remains were the son of the man who lived in the singlewide, his father. The police arrested the father on suspicion of shooting his son. So here I am yesterday, being given advice to use a Twenty-Two to get rid of a murderous sparrow. Do you not see the irony?

Michael Hudson, the arrested father suspected of shooting his son

Spencer Ashing, the suspected deceased son who decompsing remains were found under a tarp in the back yard of Michael Hudson

I taped the entrance to the bluebird box closed. The murdering sparrow was out there today pecking away at the blue painter’s masking tape. I went out and taped it about six more times. I think they gave up (they never actually give up) and began building their nest in one of the other bluebird boxes.

The taped entrance to the blue bird box this morning

My plan now is to let them build that nest. That should keep they occupied. Once they’re well on their way to building their nest I’ll take the blue tape off of the entrance to the prime blue bird box so the returning blue birds can use it to start their family.

Four blue bird eggs June 17, 2009 (the second batch)

The sparrows will never raise their family in my backyard in my bird houses. Once they build that nest and lay their eggs I will take that nest (and eggs) out. There were no sparrows raised on my property last year and there won’t be this year either. I don’t care how “cute” they are. There was nothing “cute” about that dead swallow.

A lone swallow from last summer keeping watch over my back yard

The Milton, DE House and Garden Tour Part II

The humidity is back. We had about a week of low humidity, warm summer temperatures here on the eastern coast of the Delmarva peninsula near Cape Henlopen. This morning I did some yard work but I had to come in after a couple of hours because the humidity and heat drained the energy out of me. I am so thankful that the gods yesterday bestowed upon us such a wonderful summer day of warm temperatures, mild breezes and low humidity. It was ideal for the Milton Garden Tour, which I'm still relishing in my mind. This is the first garden tour I've ever done in my life and I loved it.

I'm a naturally nosy person anyway so I like to see other people's homes and gardens and see what their creative minds come up with. Yesterday was not a disappointment. Even though there were only twelve houses and gardens on the tour, most of the house were very different. The houses varied from one built in 1750 to more recent houses built in developments. From cozy enclosed backyards to open area backyards (like mine.) A few of the houses permitted us to also tour their houses which was a special treat for me, an inveterate open house type of person. I always get new ideas from seeing how other people decorate their houses. For relaxation some people go golfing, some go fishing. I love to see other people's houses and gardens.

A pleasant surprise yesterday was the way the Milton Garden Tour was organized. From purchasing my ticket at a table in front of the Milton Historical Society building to the numbered flowered markers of each building; one could quickly tell the people who organized this tour love what they are doing. At each stop we were greeted and offered refreshments and information about the property. As we left, we were thanked for visiting the property. How pleasant to be treated with such dignity and respect and friendliness in this world when such attributes are too often in short supply. Already I am eagerly anticipating next year's house and garden tour.