Illinois Tucker/Wittig Family Blog

Dr. Victoria E. Wittig

Tue, 27 May 2008 08:48:29 -0600

On Saturday, May 10, 2008 we attended Vicki's (Bob's daughter) graduation from the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign. She received her PhD in Plant Biology. This particular ceremony was the Integrative Biology Convocation and was not the entire graduating class of 2008, so it was much smaller. Which was great. Vicki also participated in the graduation ceremony the next day that included all graduates from all departments. We were able to see all the graduates attending this ceremony on stage and Vicki was in the middle, first row, right up front. Part of the ceremony was where those receiving their doctorates are hooded. Vicki's advisor, Dr. Stephen Long performed her hooding.

Ginny, Vicki's sister, Ginny's husband Morgan and his parents, Judy and Eric, Mathew the girl's brother and their stepdad, Marty and his sister, Leslie, were there also. We were all so proud of Vicki's accomplishments. Her years of hard work were certainly worth the end result. She received several awards. She was offered and has accepted a post-doc position at the University of Illinois. She begins this new adventure June 16th. The picture with Bob and I and Vicki includes Bob's daughter Ginny, Vicki's sister.

After the graduation ceremony we all went to a Park in Allerton and had a picnic. It was a good day, lots of food, good company and very pretty grounds to explore. Two weddings were going on in the park while we were there. We could see the wedding party going down the paths. We left just as it started to get cooler. There was one more event that we attended with Vicki, Ginny, Morgan and Mathew. It was a party given by Vicki's advisor Steve, and his wife. They have a beautiful home in Champaign and are exceptional hosts. A wonderful way to end the day.

Have had several different birds the past couple of weeks, Summer Tanager, Red Breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting and Baltimore Oriole. Only see these briefly as they fly thru. We had one squirrel in our yard this winter but this week we have two more. They are younger, don't know if they are babies of our one squirrel, they chase each other around the yard, fun to watch.

Bob's carpel tunnel surgery on the left hand is not doing as well as the right. The nerve in his left elbow is causing his little finger and the one next to it to be numb. When he had the stitches out he was told it may take awhile for the nerve to not be irritated. It is probably caused from keeping the elbow bent to elevate the hand.

We are in the process of getting estimates to re-roof Dad's house. He put the last one on in 1975. The old roofing will need to be torn off which gives Dad some concern because he doesn't want nails in the yard. He is getting three different estimates and they all assure him they will do the proper clean up. It's difficult for him to have others do the work, he has always done any repairs himself.

We just purchased another tool to make life a little easier here on the "farm". It is a motorized, 25 gallon, weed sprayer (12 volt ran off the mower battery) that we can tow behind the mower. It has a wide sprayer on the back for the driveway and also a wand sprayer. I think we will do 10 gallons at a time. We are looking for cheap weed spray other than Round Up. If you know of any let us know. We have not done any spraying yet, to cold, wet and windy. It's starting to warm up and it looks like there will be a break in the rain. It was sunny today and I did all of the mowing.

The farmers corn is starting to pop up. It looks like we will have soy around our house but corn across the street. Bob's garden that he started is so wet nothing came up. Don't know if he will try and do any replanting before he leaves for Alaska. And so it goes here on the "farm".

A Wedding

Tue, 20 May 2008 17:17:57 -0600

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Foutch. Our good friends Tom and Claudia decided to become official and were married April 10, 2008. The Sunday before we were at their house and Claudia told me (Kathy) of their plans and ask if we would stand up for them. They had made the arrangements to be married at the court house the following Friday. They decided to keep it simple and uncomplicated and didn't tell folks until the last minute (some before and some after). Claudia and I decided not to tell Bob until we got to the court house. I told Bob we were going to lunch with them and would meet them downtown. Friday morning it was a task convincing Bob that he should not wear his bib overalls and he finely agreed to wear his jeans (he really grumbled when I ask him to wear his dockers so I backed off). We left the house with not to much time to spare. On our way there the traffic was backed up so I decided to go another way only to find the street closed so we had to go back to the original route. By that time I was getting upset and Bob said "it won't matter if we're a little late". I said "but you don't understand Claudia and Tom are getting married and we can't be late". He looked at me and said "REALLY"!

We made it on time. Claudia and Tom were waiting with smiles ready to get on with the show. There are only certain days and times that marriages are performed at the court house so there was a group of folks, couples as well as relatives waiting in line to get the license. When you get the license you are assigned the court room. We waited outside the court room on the benches where this picture was taken. The ceremony was performed by a very nice Judge, I think he was a Circuit Judge. I took some pictures but then realized that I wanted to listen to the ceremony and stopped when the vows began. I really liked the vows that were used.

There were kisses and hugs, congratulations all around, license was signed and we were out the door. We met Claudia and Tom later that evening at the Steak House to celebrate the event. A good time was had by all. We cherish their friendship.

I had a birthday this month and Bob and I bought a birthday present for both of us, a Garmin GPS for the car. I had the opportunity to see one working several months ago on a trip to Ohio. I was really impressed. Although it doesn't do all the things our mapping program does on our lap top that works with a GPS, it is still amazing all the information it contains and how quickly it will recalculate a route if you go a different why than is indicated. You can save your favorites so all you do is go in and select the location already there and it will do a route from wherever you are. It's easy to enter a new destination. It's small and is easy to set up in the car and move from one car to another. It runs on 12 volts and also has battery power so you can take it with you on a walk.

We had an earth quake here in Illinois and it wasn't caused by Claudia and Tom's wedding. It happened about 4:40 a.m. in the morning this month and was centered south of us. I woke up to the house rocking around and creaking. Our bedroom is upstairs so there was a little more action. I thought I was back in California. There was relatively little damage. Bob looked up the history of earthquakes in Illinois and there were five in a three month period all 8.0 or more in 1811-1812. It caused all kinds of shifts and terrain changes. It was said that the Mississippi flowed backwards but actually it was wave action. It was not very populated which was a good thing. Reno has been getting their share recently. One of Bob's sons lives in Reno and he said he only felt one and so far has not experienced any problems.

Bob will be going to Alaska for his granddaughter's (Dorothy) wedding in June. He leaves June 19th for Fairbanks, the wedding is the 21st. After the wedding Bob and his son Michael and family, Sheryl, Becky and Little Michael will head for Sheryl's parents near Anchorage stopping at Denali along the way. They will spend a few days there and Bob hopes to see his granddaughter Amy, her husband and Great Grandson Coby. Michael and Bob will fly to Juneau for several weeks and do some work on their house. Sheryl and the kids will stay with ther parents so the work can get done without little people around. Bob will be flying back July 14th. My son and I will hold down the fort here at the "farm". Bob says he wants me to have something to do so he's trying to get the vegetable garden in before he leaves.

Dad is getting along good. He went for a little check up last week and all things checked out okay. Last week he told me he needed to go to the dentist because of a molar he has had problems with for several year. We went to his regular dentist, Dr. Lewis, yesterday (Monday) and Dr. Lewis said he needed to see an oral surgeon. He referred us to Dr. Anderson. We stopped by his office on our way home and there was an appointment available for this morning. Dad had the tooth pulled without any problems, the tooth was broken and infected and had been for awhile. The Dentist said he is a real trooper. We really liked Dr. Anderson. He was very friendly and concerned and all his staff were great too. Dad will go back next week to be sure all is okay.

The bearded guy goes in to have carpal tunnel surgery done on the other hand (left) May 1st. His right hand is doing well in fact he played the guitar and sang this past two Friday nights at Kickapoo.

Now is the stormy season for us, possible tornadoes and thunder and lightening. Weather spotting activities have started. We had our first storm warning of the season last Friday. We had a little sprinkling of snow today and it sure cooled off. Looks like April showers will bring May flowers.

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 20:07:24 -0600

We had a new visitor here on the "farm", as you can see, a skunk. Last summer Bob caught a skunk in his trap and after calling out the county animal control to help us let it loose we didn't see it again. Don't know if this is the same critter. It surprised us that it came out during the day and feed near the bird feeder right out the kitchen window. We could observe it's movements and take pictures without scaring it away. We would go outside and as long as we didn't make much noise and didn't get to close it just continued what it was doing. The skunk stayed around for several days but we haven't seen it now for a week or so.

We have seen the squirrel frequently this year. He comes to the driveway to get his share of the bird seed. We put special food out for him but if he's not quick enough the black birds take off with the peanuts and sunflower seeds.

It is getting warmer but not quite warm enough to do any real yard stuff yet. Maybe that's a good thing. Bob has been picking up branches and such and getting leaves cleaned up in spots. The crocuses are blooming and the tulips and daffodils are coming up.

We have been doing the usual stuff, music in Urbana, Red Cross. Amateur Radio. We have had kind of a disaster with the radio tower for the 2 meter repeater. This is our main source of local communications. One of the tower legs broke and we had to bring the tower down. Now it's back to the drawing board to decide what to do to get back on the air.

We have been doing doctoring stuff. Bob had carpel tunnel surgery Thursday (4/3). We went in at 10:30 AM, he didn't have the surgery until 12:30 PM, the doctor was behind and then there was a delay getting his prescription for pain pills so we didn't get home until around 5 PM. He seems to be doing just fine. Not to much discomfort and he said he slept okay.

Waiting for spring to really kick in, consistent warmer temperatures and leaves on the trees. The really good news is that Kickapoo Landing opens tonight with a jam. Bob will not be able to do much for awhile but it will be nice to see the summer gang. The Kickapoo folks will be here later today to get some of the canoes. It's kind of a drizzly day and will be this evening but it won't stop the regulars from being at the opening. A happy spring to all of you.

SUMMER 2007 & YES IT'S STILL WINTER

Sun, 2 Mar 2008 10:19:10 -0600

We had intended to include this picture in the blog this past summer but it went away and we couldn't find it in the picture files on the computer. Recently we took pictures with this camera and low and behold when we downloaded the pictures look what we found. The fields all around the house in 2007 were planted in corn, the two years before had been in soy beans. It's like being on an island. You can't see other houses unless you look out from the window upstairs. The conditions were right for the farmers in this area to have bumper crops. They planted a larger percent in corn because of the ethanol production. The farmer who plants around our house had an excellent crop. Bob wanted to take this picture so you could get the prospective of how tall the corn grew. I think he also wanted to show off his hair/beard. He's sure people do not forget him once they have seen him. I do admit he does get allot of greetings from folks when we are out and about. On the other hand there are those instances when he is walking down the street and women and children cross to the other side but then babies seem to be fascinated and smile.

Yes, it is still winter! This was taken this past weekend. It's a beautiful site to wake up and look out the window and see this picture, a winter wonderland. It is not snow on the trees, it had been foggy the night before, no wind, and the moisture from the fog crystallized.

Since Christmas we have been busy with music and volunteer activities. Our area was impacted by the floods in January and February. Watseca, about 50 miles north had allot of people displaced because of the flooding. The Red Cross had a shelter at the Trinity Church, initially there were around 80 people who did not have family or friends where they could stay temporarily. I (Kathy) went up for several days to assist. I was on duty nights, at the church, 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM. I'm not usually a night person but I did okay. It was the quiet time. The church had allot of volunteers who took care of the cooking and cleaning. They are a wonderful group of people. The shelter was open for two weeks or so while they found housing for those affected. The Red Cross went out twice a day with the food trucks (ERV, Emergency Red Cross Vehicle) and distributed meals to those who were cleaning up and those that were house bound. I went out with them to help on several occasions. The news reports indicated that there were around 600 homes that could not be occupied.

Here in the Danville area the rivers were all over their banks. There were several areas around Danville that were flooded later in the month. The Red Cross did open a shelter here but then placed the three families without a place to stay in a motel for several days. We live 15 miles north east of Danville, not close enough to the rivers to have any problems.

Bob has been doing his usual Tuesday night jam session at the music store downtown and we are going over to Champaign weekly to a jam/teaching session that is a little different (Bob plays I go to listen). The music is French Canadian, Irish, New Orleans, kind of stuff, very fast and repetitive. It's fun and a different group of folks. He has also been working on recording his music. He bought a Roland Recorder several years ago when we were in the motor home. It will record several tracks. Trying to get it to interface with the computer has been a challenge. He is waiting for Kickapoo to start their season the first of April.

As mentioned already, I have been doing volunteer work for the Red Cross. The Emergency Management Agency (EMA) has also restarted their volunteer program. The Amateur Radio Club has been busy working with Provina, the local hospital, to get radios in the hospital to provide assistance in emergencies. The equipment has been bought and is in the process of being installed. We also have an area at the EMA building and they may also provide the radios for us. The success of this effort is because of the persistence of a young man named Jim Kiser. He is the coordinator of our Vermilion County ARES group (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) which is an ARRL subgroup of our club. I also passed the test to become a General Class, the next step in classifications for amateur radio operators. This gives me more privileges for using the amateur radio bands. I'm happy about that! I procrastinated about two years before taking this test and now will be taking the classes given by Josh Kittle, the VP of our club, for upgrading to the EXTRA Class.

The snow will probably melt by next week but then who knows we may get snow in April!!! It will start getting warmer which will be a good thing.

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 09:41:31 -0600

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas Day 2007, just about 2008. December brought Christmas parties, visiting, baking and wishing all a Merry Christmas. What you see here is no longer on the ground. We had snow a week or so ago and it was good coverage but since then we have had rain and it is all gone, it doesn't take long! We went over to Great Granddaddies last night, had dinner, and took our yearly drive around town looking at the Christmas lights. Today he will be out to enjoy the Christmas festivities here at our house.

Unfortunately during this Christmas season there have been several fires in our area the last week. Three different fires affecting a total of 22 people. All were displaced from their homes. Thankfully no one was injured and the Red Cross arranged for hotel accommodations for the families, for three days, until they could find housing. Money is also given for clothing and food. You realize once again how quickly things can change as you're standing talking to the folks with fire trucks and lights all around and are grateful that there is help for those less fortunate. We tend to take things for granted.

Thinking of all of you and wishing you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and the best in 2008.

FIRST SNOW ON THE FARM

Fri, 7 Dec 2007 09:37:56 -0600

A couple of weeks ago I bought a used desk from Jennifer who lives in Diona about 75 miles southwest of the "farm". Our pickup truck was not big enough to do the hauling so our friends Claudia and Tom offered their truck for the task.

This turned out to be a girl's day out. Claudia and I left the boys at home and went on our merry way. It was a beautiful day, sunny with fairly mild temperatures. I had never been to this part of Illinois. We went through cities that I had heard of (Homer, Allerton,Greenup) but not visited. Most of the corn and soy fields are plowed now waiting for the planting to begin next spring.

When we arrived at Jennifer's we decided to load the desk after going to lunch and doing a little shopping. So off we went. After lunch we went to a near by winery, shopped antique stores in Greenup and visited this covered bridge near Greenup. As you can see it has been rebuilt. I thought it was interesting that the original bridge built in the 1800's cost around $11,000 and this structure was over $2,000,000. Claudia took this picture as well as others that she may enter in a photo contest.

Our last stop before going back and picking up the desk was an apple farm that usually sells apple juice/cider but this year because of the freeze, that happened in this part of the country in March, the apple crop was really effected and there was none to buy. We did get some apples that were very good.

Our first real snow here on the farm a few days ago and it snowed another inch or so last night. No more mowing grass. Now it's shoveling paths to the horse barn where we park the cars. The car in the picture is Mike's. He is now parking in the horse barn also. The horse barn has two sliding doors, that slide to the right. We keep them closed to keep snow out. It is kind of a hassle because you have to open them to leave and then get out of the car before leaving to slide the doors closed, no automatic garage door opener. They are the original doors that Bob redid this last summer.

One thing about the snow is you can see the foot prints of the animals that cross various parts of the yard. Kind of interesting to see their journey in search of food and shelter. Nothing like the Wittig's in Juneau who have bears wondering around. Just rabbits, possums, mice, birds and maybe a squirrel or two. We don't have the resident squirrel we did a couple of years ago just a visitor now and then. I did hear coyotes near the house (very close) yapping last week. Just heard them didn't see them.

Bob has put the lighted tree up again in the yard. When I took the picture it was snowing and it made kind of an unusual picture. You can see it at night coming around the corner before getting to the driveway.

We have been busy with amateur radio this week. Provina Hospital had a disaster exercise yesterday. They pretended a tornado hit the corner of the hospital. We participated as an alternate means of communications. I was ask by the hospital to be an observer along with Red Cross, Emergency Management and the Fire Department. The club members set up a Net and folks listening checked in on the radio. Bob drove around to various points in town to check transmission. All went okay. As expected the hospital found glitches in their disaster plan but all in all it turned out okay.

We visited with Granddaddy earlier this week. He is doing fine and had gone to Wal Mart earlier in the day so he was stocked up on food for awhile. He and Bob watched a DVD that we got from Netflex called Entertainment. It shows bits and pieces from various musicals through the years. He really enjoyed watching and listening. There are two others that are on their way that we will share with him. The sidewalk also got shoveled but will need it again today. We will stop over later.

We are going to have dinner at Garfield's with our friends the Spanglers tonight. Tomorrow is the Amateur Radio Christmas dinner and Sunday is the Red Cross Christmas celebration.

The Christmas season is upon us.

New Taylor Guitar

Fri, 7 Dec 2007 19:54:26 -0600

November 9th, 10th and 11th we made a trip to Springfield Illinois to the Bluegrass Festival. We stayed in the Royal Crown Plaza Hotel where all the performances and jams were held. Didn't even need to go outside although we did journey out each day for dinner. We were there last year also. Several folks we know go each year so we pal around with them. Last year Bob got up on the stage for the Saturday talent show but this year he didn't show off his talent. He and the others in our group did some jamming until all hours of the morning. We didn't take our cameras with us so I don't have any pictures from the festival but I did want to show you Bob's latest purchase. I took this picture when we got back home. It seems that while Bob was jamming he needed a capo so he went to the instrument vending area and not only did he buy a capo but a new Taylor Guitar. Now, I did remember him saying that he needed another guitar because of a certain playing style he was trying to accomplish. But I have to admit I was a bit surprised when he came back to the room with a guitar case in hand. This makes number nine (9). It does have beautiful tone, Merry Christmas Bob.

One of the very delightful things that I have been doing is getting a massage. I was having trouble with my back and we have friends, Claudia and Tom, who's daughter Raimy is an excellent massage therapest. Claudia bought a table so Raimy comes to their house. An added perk is that Tom has been cooking us great dinner's.

November 16th was the annual Red Cross Dessert Auction, The Radio Club sponsors a dessert. This year I made the dessert for the club. I made oatmeal, lemon butterscotch chip cookies and brownies (two trays). What you see here is the table of desserts waiting to be auctioned. What happens is the WDNL Radio station has someone on the air to describe each dessert. The listeners call in with their bid and all proceeds go to the local Red Cross. I was on the air trying to get folks to call and bid. The radio club got together and pooled money so we would have the money to bid. What we decided to do was see if folks would bid and if so we would donate what we had collected. We managed to get a bid of $25.00 and then we donated the $100.00 we had collected.

Tue, 6 Nov 2007 09:51:32 -0600

The problem with not keeping current on the BLOG is that you have allot of backtracking to do to figure out what has been going on during the time the last post was done. Fortunately we do put most of our activities on the calendar so I will just look all the way back to May. Don't panic I will not put every little detail, just try and do the highlights.

June was spent getting ready for the annual Amateur Radio Field Day held the last weekend of the month where as many contacts are made to other amateurs on the air as possible. This year the club decided to also sponsor the Kids Day event and invited young people to come out to the club and get on the air talking to other young people around the country. We had one Cub Scout troop attend and several members kids. Not many contacts were made, conditions were not that good. We had several other club events the past months. We put on a Central Counties Illinois Hamfest, August 26th. The club used to do this every year but it was last done in 2002. We held it at the Vermilion County Fair Grounds. It went real well for the amount of time we had to put it together. Then October 6th several members participated in the 1st annual Space Jamboree at the Camp Drake Scout Camp, Oakwood IL. The event included contacts made with both NASA and the International Space Station. I gave seven sessions covering some of the information the scouts needed to get their Radio Merit Badge, Other members helped the Scouts get their "hands on" Radio contact experience.

We had several visits from Bob's family this summer. Both Vicki and Ginny (Bob's daughters who live in Illinois) visited with their husbands and we had several other get together's with Vicki and Mark in Urbana. One of the highlights of the summer was our trip to Chicago to see the Blue Man Group. Vickie, Mark, Bob and I stayed with Ginny and Morgan and we all went into Chicago for the production. Really enjoyed the show and dinner after. Just this month we had a real treat with Bob's daughter Robin and her son Jason stopping by on their way from Florida to Colorado. Jason had just graduated from school learning to do stage sound and lighting. It was a great visit. My son Mike is doing well, he lives with us and works at a machine shop in Indiana. The Tucker's are all busy and doing well.

We had the motorhome out for several outings at our friends at Morning Wood (Tom and Claudia). They had parties in June, July and October. Some folks come out and camp at the area that is set aside for this purpose on the property (seventeen acres of woods) and others just come out for the day. We usually take the motorhome out on Friday for the weekend. As usual a good time was had by all.

Speaking of the motorhome it is in the repair shop. You know the saying "if it rains it pours". The refrigerator stopped working and we had to get a new one, the microwave smoked so we are trying to find out if it can be repaired and the TV's are both out. After the new refrigerator is installed we will be taking it to the glass repair place to have the front passenger window replaced, the window was cracked several years ago.

Bob continues to volunteer at the VA every month and I am still volunteering for the Red Cross. Some of our Red Cross members went to Wisconsin for the floods and California for the fires. I continue to be on call, after hours, for part of each month for any emergency calls that come in for Vermilion County. I have given assistance for several house fires this summer.

We are getting ready for the winter. Had the chimney sweep guy out, not to sure how much we will burn in the fireplace because the fire place is in the basement and the wood has to go down the stairs and the ashes up the stairs. Bob finished painting the horse barn doors and has been working on putting plastic framed coverings on the outside of the basement windows. Kickapoo Landing ended for the season this past weekend and brought six trailers of canoes, a bus, and three vans out today and they are in our pole barn for the winter. Dyna likes having company.

As you can see from the picture of the "farm" the leaves are starting to fall and along with that it's getting colder. The time changes this weekend, before you know it the snow will fall.

Indy 500

Fri, 25 May 2007 06:53:27 -0600

The Indy 500 is fast approaching. This is a big event in this area and for all racing enthusiasts who watch the Indy each year. I (Kathy) am fortunate to know folks who have been involved with the various social gatherings that take place during the month of May. For the past two years I have been invited to a couple of radio press conferences that take place at the race track where they interview the drivers. It is held at a motel/restaurant called the Brickhouse. This is a picture of my friend Dwayne and Irene the lady who has given Dwayne tickets each year. Dwayne is an amputee and needs to have somebody drive for him. I made two trips to Indianapolis, last Thursday (5/17) and the Thursday before (5/10). We have dinner and then the interviews begin. There are about twenty folks who sit together at one of the reserved tables who have been involved with the Indianapolis Race Track for many years, either working there or involved with the event one way or another. Irene was the secretary of the owner for many years.

It was Irene's Birthday. Unfortunately she was not able to attend the first press conference, she had some heart problems and had to have a stint inserted but was able to go home from the hospital and attend this conference on the 17th. It was good to see her and I know she enjoyed visiting with her friends who helped celebrate her birthday.

I enjoyed watching and listening to the interviews. Those interviewed on the 10th were from the Team Penski, Sam Hornish, Jr. to name one and another was the President of Team Penski. Just a little trivia, Penski just recently completed a new shop and it is 450,000 Sq. Ft., not to shabby.

On the 17th Marco and Michael Andretti were on the slate. Very interesting to listen to the comments and their view of the race. The Andretti's also have a winery in the Napa Valley in California. I have never been there but if we are ever in that area we will try and stop by.

Yesterday Bob and I went Car hunting. We weren't looking for an Indy 500 car but something to be our main transportation since we discovered that our S10 pickup is developing some type of oil problem. We found something that will do just fine.

A 2000 Toyota Sienna. It has only had one owner and 57,000 miles. We are both pleased with our purchase. Bob is off this evening with the car to the jam session. You won't see this car racing around the track on the 27th!

SPRING TIME

Sun, 13 May 2007 20:51:14 -0600

Is this May already! Nothing entered since March! Things happening all the time and no time to keep you up to date. Today I'm making time, so here goes. In March we did our annual Forest Glenn outing to check out the maple syrup and attend the pancake breakfast.

Tom and Claudia joined us to enjoy the pancakes and the day exploring the replicas of the early days. Here is Tom and Bob sitting on the front porch of the log cabin. Bob looks like he belongs in that era except for the camouflage hat. They are enjoying their conversation and I think talking about what they would have done had they lived in the olden days. We also went to the building where they make maple syrup. They were finished for the season but were demonstrating how it was done.

The biggest event in March was Bob's Dad's 94th Birthday on the 21st. It was kind of a quiet party. We picked up food from Arby's and went to Dad's house where Bob's cousin Tom joined us for the celebration. Bob's Dad is as sharp as a tack, although he says he can't remember like he used to (don't we all suffer from CRS?) and he does have a few of the mature adult health issues, but all and all he is amazing.

We had a new heater and central air installed. Our old heater didn't break but we had someone out to check the air flow. After some conversation we made the decision to have central air installed and to go ahead and have the heater replaced since it was a packaged deal. I guess the saying "don't fix it unless it's broke" went out the window but the central air is definitely a plus.

Kickapoo Landing opened for the season March 30th. Allot of folks were waiting for that day. It's opened Friday -Sunday until the end of May when it will be opened all week. Bob plays and sings a couple of times a month during the break of some bands.

April showers bring May flowers. Taxes due! Ouch! Had Red Cross and Amateur Radio doings going on. The Amateur Radio Emergency Services group participated in a Vermilion County exercise on what activities would take place if the Newport chemical stockpile located in Indiana had an incident. We tested our ability to have radio communications on our frequencies to support the community if that were necessary. All went well. My Red Cross volunteer work included helping a family that had a house fire and doing what was necessary to provide temporary housing, clothes and food.

My birthday was in April and Tom Foutch played a special song at Kickapoo Landing as a belated birthday celebration, Bob even danced with me! The Amateur Radio Spring picnic was on my birthday and I was very busy. I don't feel any older but sometimes my body reminds me that time is marching on---Yard work has been full time. It kind of got put on the back burner when the weather turned cold again but at least the tree piles have been cleared so we can mow and it doesn't seem so over whelming. The weeds are sprouting up in the drive-way and it has been windy so we haven't been able to spray until this week. I've been using the weed eater and spraying the drive way before it begins to look like a field.

Bob went on a camping trip, leaving the 4th of May. He went with six other guys. They do this a couple of times a year. Bob was invited to the one last fall and now seems to be a part of the group. Each of the fellows has a nick name. Bob's is biscuit since he made biscuts in the cast iron skillet the last camp out. Now, I'm not saying they turn out perfect all the time and in fact I don't think he made any this trip.

The plan was to go to Missouri but because it looked like it was going to rain and be hot the group decided to go to Devils Lake in Wisconsen for a week. As it turned out it rained there a day or two and was windy and cold. They only stayed over the weekend and came home on Monday. They still had tales to tell of their fun and games. Usually the group does a couple of jam sessions but from what I hear there was not allot pickin goin on.

Today is Mother's Day. I had breakfast at Kickapoo Landing. We have gone there for a couple of years. I received cards and calls from those I love wishing me a Happy Mother's Day. Wishing all you Mother's a Happy Day.