On the road

 Gas Stations of History:

 That last car methinks is a 1941 Hudson and apretty '53 Buick in front of the '49 ford ahead of it.

For Saturday’s stuff:

Like Christmas, it finally came. Day one of our trip. We are leaving in a little while, maybe 9 AM. Jack Jr is taking his big screen TV to his Son Stephen and family in Oak Ridge. We are looking forward to  seeing the family.

Jennifer is a nurse and is back to work after taking a break to get the kids started on life. Jude is about 5 and his sister Kennedy 2. WE hope to have dinner with them this evening and then we will leave for Ypsilanti, Michigan to see Johnny her younger brother. She and Johnny are now the only siblings left of the seven.

When boys in the mid-1950s around home felt adventurous, they either joined the military or went to ‘Detroit’ to build cars and get rich. Hey, they were paying $4 an hour there vs $.75-$1 in the cotton mills of Belmont.

Johnny’s brothers went in the military; Johnny went to Detroit and stayed to retire. The family kept saying come on back home after you retire, but he has lived most of his life there. He has one daughter, Candice (Candy of course) and we look forward to visiting, maybe the last time, who knows?

Johnny has one story he likes to tell. I once got into trouble with Sherry when we were dating, before we started going steady. I took a trip with a former girlfriend. Friend Martha (Who lived on the Chronicle mill village) knew I was in trouble and told me Sherry had left a pair of shoes at her house. I volunteered to return them to get a chance to apologize to Sherry. She lived in the Imperial Mill Village.

I knocked, Johnny came to the door. “Jack, Sherry does not want to talk to you.”  I gave him one shoe and drove around the block, then returned. This time Johnny refused to answer the door telling Sherry, “You go this time.”

She did, I gave her the other shoe and apologized, she forgave me. A year or so later we were married.

Nite Shipslog                        

Feeding and watering Feral kittens long term

Gas Stations of History:

 I liked the '55 Plymouth and 55 Chevy wagon at the pumps.

For Friday’s stuff:

I have tried to designed a feeder that the kittens can enjoy cat food while we are gone (I hope). Using the old cat house I built and it was never used by Stormy, I made the entry and exit only 4 inches using corrugated drainage pipe I had. I tried to gauge how far a coon could reach if it were to try.

The feeder is a 16” column of 4” pipe also with the bottom cut so as the food is eaten it will feed on down. I used the principle Mama’s chicken feeders used that always amazed me why the water did not run out.

Above T & T (Tom & Tiger I) at my beach in the basement. below is the finished feeder. The kittens can crawl thru the 4 inch pipe, but not the coons or the grown ferals still around.

This is Tiger II leaving after eating.

You can see the dry cat food in the column. That is 5 lbs of food. The column is even with the lid so they cannot get into the top of the feeder column. I also added a window on the top after these shots to let some light into the inside. YOu can also see the lever of food without opening it.

I have had four in eating at a time. I have also had two eating and blocking the entry until they were ready to back out. Gotta wait your turn. LOL

 

I also wanted to have water for them so I made a 5 gallon water jug into a chicken water feeder. It works like a charm or at least I will know in the morning. Hahaha.

T&T (Tom & Tiger #1) trying out the water jug.

I have the trail camera on the feeder inside the  storage building where it will stay. I have not seen a coon inside since I limited access To 3 inches wide and 6 inches high.

Tomorrow we are off on a long trip. It is no fun to load and unload that coach, as I have said too many times already. LOL

All the planning is only back up. Michelle, next door has been feeding the kitties back before the birth of Stormy and before I came here to live again.

Nite Shipslog                       

The starting of our cross country trips

Gas Stations of History:

I WOULD BET A DOLLAR THAT THE 123 IS NOT THE PRICE OF GAS!

For Thursday’s stuff:

Was it 1983? Using our ‘POP UP camper’, we made a trip around or across the USA with our traveling buddies, Sonny and Collette. They wanted to keep in contact with family. To do that for both families,  I began the Shipslog as a Journal.

Funny that, We have had two couples as major traveling buddies. Both sisters, one mine and the other Sherry's. Sonny and Collette were Sherry’s side of the family and had never traveled much, maybe  a ride to the Mountains and back or to the beach for a week in the summer.

WE all had wanted to see a real Redwood tree, we got to walk thru one. Sherry had always wanted to drive thru one. She got to do that years later on another trip.

(Our first stop, Graceland. This is  Elvis's jeep, Collette was a #1 fan of his!)

Another stop, St. Louis. Collette was easily scared, but to our surprise she went to the apex to look out.

Looking down on the Mississippi from the Arch!

Pike's peak, the girls stayed down, to our surprise the 'cog train' scared Collette. Sherry made it to the top on two other trips.

Camping at the Grand Canyon.

Walking down just a short walk down, my Sherry was a little scared.

Looking down from that walk, I never expected to be impressed by a hole in the ground!!! That mountain in the foreground is higher than Mt. Mitchel in NC and it rises from the floor of the grand Canyon. The canyon is DEEP! LOL

Yosemite, just after we left we heard of a bear visiting

someone in Pop up.

Our last traveling buddies were Kat & Dick, my sister and her hubby. They were travelers and movers. Unlike Sonny & Collette, they had their own RV and followed us most of the time, even to Alaska.

We enjoyed driving in CAnada proper, it looked like everyone had just painted their homes and cut their grass, But the Yukon, my kind of place, wilderness Loved it.

WE entered Alaska on the Top of the World highway from Dawson City. We drove down thru Chicken Alaska to Valdez where there is a lot of salmon fishermen.

This is Kat and Dick. WE did a lot of Boon docking, that is camping off the roads and by rivers with no camp sights or hook ups. We loved it.

The trip to Alaska is my pick of destinations, but the trips around the lower 48 have been exciting; sweet, along with meeting some wonderful folk.

 

Nite Shipslog                       

Never ending, ...... You Don't?

Gas Stations of History:

 

For Wednesday’s stuff:

Without fail every week some blogger will tweek my interest. Every blog I read at one time or the other has yanked my chain. All of you have your own style. But the last one will effect most who read it and can identify with it.

I haven’t been reading Susan that long but this one:

http://thecontemplativecat.blogspot.com/2020/07/never-ending-will-this-ever-end.html.

Spoke volumes.

If you have not read it I don’t want to cover some of the reality she wrote about.

I call them nuggets, when I find them I like to use them where possible. Another one this week is Jilda.

http://jildawatson.blogspot.com/2020/07/you-dont.html.

I have read Jilda occasionally, now I follow. Yesterday was one of those times She hit the nail on the head with 'YOU DON'T'. It hit me so deeply I stopped and sent an ‘APB’ to my family. She used a quote she liked, “You think you have time, but you don’t”!  It took it awhile to sink in but I used that and another one of her bits of wisdom in my Family e-mail.

Anyway, I don’t always mention the times you  guys say something at just the right time, a time when I needed to rethink a decision or forget one I planned to make.

Anyway, thanks to all you bloggers and commenters associated with the Shipslog. You definitely have a sopt in my life, THANKS.

Nite Shipslog