But which trickster?

Not long after I got a new purse - a bright red organizer big enough for legal files and a laptop, I lost my keys.

I 'd paid my dues making due with our son's messenger bag/pack he'd cast-off five years ago never intending to sponsor his mom as a what not to wear poster child. When I found the RED BAG at Sam's marked down "the last one!" I was willing to trade cash for this fashion accessory (organize me!) It even has a matching keychain that snaps inside.

By the end of the first week I could not find my keys. Had to use the other mail keys, leave the front door unlocked (Bart the dog would protect it ) depend on employees and husband to open and lock my studio/office. For weeks I looked in all the safe places we keep keys. Turned my car and the truck inside out. Cleaned out drawers. And cleared off the diningroom table. Need I mention I turned out the RED BAG? At least four times? Gave it a good shake but did not hear them. Emptied all ten cubbies in four zippered compartments and pulled out the files. The third time I asked myself "Don't you know this is a waste of time, you've looked in here before?" The fourth time I scolded: "You expect them to show up by magic, don't you?"

Three days later, this afternoon, I opened the red bag to fish out the car keys and voila! they were there where I'd seen them last, (looked first, duh) plus the other two sets of car keys. All MY keys. All 20, in four bundles.

Recipe for Primordial Soup
Leave 20 lbs of sunflower seeds in a clear storage container (with sliding locks on the lid) on the patio so you won't forget to dole them out to the birds...for a year...in the wind and the sun and the rain.

Do you know ?

Pieface the dog will tag a box of maggots every day.

Flies can keep breeding in water...layer after layer...

Packing tape around the edges and over the latches keeps some smells in but NOT some flies out.

Pallet wrap keeps more smells in but lets some fluids out.

One garbage bag is not big enough.

Two garbage bags are no better.

Two people can put a stinkin' box on a pallet and only have to wash their hands.

We will drive the forklift four blocks from downtown Parrott to our home, but not to our woods to take a pallet OFF the pickup bed.

We'd really like to go back to 1979 to thank the prison-laborer at the Terrell County dump for telling Bond how to unload a pickup with a tire, rope and a tree, even if we didn't need the tire this time.

P.S. The jury's still out which smelled worse, the turtle or the box.
The turtle only smelled bad when INSIDE the car and left no scent trail. However even the EMPTIED truck bed reeked like the waste transfer station, on a bad day.

Raccoon in the crown

The furry lump on the crown of the oak turned out to be a racoon.
Is it habitual to stay tucked in 30 feet high, waiting for dusk before traveling?
Or self-preservation? The oak commands the view of the kingdom of Pieface, who may be part coonhound; but attentive only to food and all things that are moving.

Today I learned that big old pond turtles smell really bad and it is harder to get one out of the cubby behind the last seat of my Odyssey than it is to put one in there.

We went back to our new pond three hours later to check up on the turtle because, when I found it, it seemed dazed, just sitting in the middle of the lane on a paved country road between wet newly plowed fields of fluffy, soggy, impassable ridges.    After I stopped to be sure it wasn't a snapper and too dangerous for an intervention, it didn't even try to retreat in to it's shell.  It did put up a quick show snapping at me and puffing to scare me as I woman handled the animal in to my car (and held onto the plastic trim with turtle claws to stay in).  

To my delight, Bond spotted a path of smashed down grass that eventually led to the shore.
 Add these turtle tracks to my list of graffiti.

More Abundance

When we asked Grandmama why she wanted to live in Parrott, GA, she would hold her palms up and say "Abundance, abundance." This winter I decided to switch my morning wake up routine from coffee to tea. I'd take my little teapot of Constant Comment with honey and cream on a tray with toast and a tablespoon of deli ground nothin' but peanuts peanut butter plus jam in to the lower bedroom in 'the tower.' Kept the pot hot on the oil filled electric heater. Quiet time with my mac and photos or words (all before I got DSL at home). One sleepy morning I took the pot off the kitchen shelf, took off the lid, looked in and wondered: "Who the hell left these tea leaves in my teapot? "

I'm the only one to make tea. I use a tea bag...THESE ARE ANTS! IN THE TEA POT!"