2023 - End of the Year Events

I had a Moon Dog off my back deck in December!  It only lasted a few seconds but occurred just as I opened the dining room curtain early in the day with my iPhone13 in hand. What a great gift at the end of the year!

"A moon dog (or moondog) or mock moon, also called a paraselene...in meteorology, is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to one or both sides of the Moon. They are exactly analogous to sun dogs...Moon dogs are rarer than sun dogs because the Moon must be bright, about quarter moon or more, for the moon dogs to be observed. Moon dogs show little color to the unaided human eye because their light is not bright enough to activate the eye's cone cells." ~Wikipedia

Moon Dog

Chris, Sarah, Kayleen, Keith, Beti, Jacob, Cora, missing was

Lilly who was at her mother's.

This was a special Thanksgiving with Family at our home and I cooked enough for the whole family(17) that included my daughter's in-laws who couldn't make it so I sent a big sack home with her and Keith and I had leftovers to freeze for a week!  I was so happy that Jacob and Cora drove to Missouri from South Carolina! They had a week off and they drove two days each way.  Wished they could have stayed longer but both have demanding jobs and they just bought a new home this year.

The winter months are the time for personal projects that I enjoy doing when I stay inside from the cold weather.  This year I have completed digitizing old photos up to 1990 so far. I had completed up to 1989 from last winter.  I also make a slideshow of each year.  I hope to have up to 2006 digitized in 2024 as all the photos after 2006 were originally taken digitally.  I just have to put them in the same format.  

So much fun seeing all the old photos again and I stay motivated to do all this work in case my memory leaves me someday then I will have all this to enjoy!

1989 daughter Sarah (age 7) with Santa and her Sears Christmas Catalog marked up with all her Christmas wishes.

2023 Granddaughter Kayleen (age 6) with Santa and her Amazon Christmas Catalog marked up with all her Christmas wishes.

Gizmo and Kayleen at the Mills Ranch near Buffalo, Missouri

When Gizmo was born he had a twin.  The mother only wanted his brother so Gizmo came to live in their Springfield backyard where he was bottle-fed and raised for a couple months before taken back to the ranch.  Kayleen helped out with the bottle feeding every day and now Gizmo will come to her when she calls.

It has almost been a year that my daughter and her husband bought 40 acres from Chris's grandfather about halfway between where they live in Springfield and where we live in Hermitage, Missouri.  They have developed it to raise cattle and now have a box-beef business to sell variety boxes of beef cuts to local customers.  They have worked very hard and will profit from it soon.  Check out their website for more info and pictures.  Mills Ranch.

 Maybe in the future they will have their products available by mail.  Right now they deliver to customers in several counties and have a new truck with their logo.

Early in December we have an evening Christmas Parade in Hermitage.  I don't think I have missed one since we moved here in 1978!  I especially like it because the floats are lit up and decorated as the days become shorter.  This is about 5:30 pm on the Hickory County Square.

Another Christmas Parade we enjoy is in the next town of Urbana, MO.  It is a smaller town but has a bigger parade and wonderfully organized events inside the local church.  I liked this float because it has a Kansas City Chiefs football team theme and I caught the excitement just right!  The blond in the middle was dressed up like Taylor Swift (singer/songwriter) who has a "thing" with Travis Kelsey (tight end) and everyone loves the romantic drama!

Inside the nearby church after the parade was a nice dinner of chili or bean soup with desserts all by donation.  Santa and Mrs. Claus were there for the kids.  There were crafts for sale and free raffles that gave away many bicycles, scooters, toys, and hams.  I think about everyone gets something. Last year when Kayleen was with us, she won a scooter and Keith and I each got a ham!  The year before Kayleen got a toy and I got a turkey!  We didn't have her with us this year and Keith and I didn't win anything as she must have brought all the luck!

There was awesome live music played in the church by servicemen from the nearby military base.  They were also in the parade.

Even though Keith and I didn't have Kayleen with us this year, we enjoyed all the many children around us!  Louie is the St. Louis Cardinal mascot which is a local baseball team everyone loves.

December 17th was the dawn of a new decade for me as I turned 70 years old! This is the view from our front yard.  It was a Sunday and what better way to celebrate than attending Mass with our new Church Family at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bolivar, MO.

It was time to bring out and wear my mother's rosary that I had safely tucked away since she passed 30 years ago at age 75.  It must be at least 100 years old!  I was so proud to wear it as Father Scott gave me a special Birthday Blessing.  I said the rosary for the first time with it all alone in the church while Keith attended his RCIA class after Mass.

This is a year that I especially appreciate Old World sculptures and art.  Keith and I will be celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2024 and have made plans and booked a trip to Rome and Florence, Italy.  There is so much art to see and I am learning something new each day in preparation for the trip. I am two months into an online Babbel course to learn Italian.  More on that trip later so check back on this blog by summer.  For now I see and enjoy the art around me.

The Sacred Heart Church was founded around 1900 by Bohemian immigrants.  My parents came from Czechoslovakia in the 1930s.  It feels like home.

The patron saint is St. Wenceslaus.

This is St. Michael the Archangel.  The church I grew up in and went to 8 years of parochial school in Annandale, Virginia was named after St. Michael so this prayer is very familiar. 

The Infant Jesus of Prague

This statue of St. Wenceslaus is from the original Catholic Church that burned down years ago and I think was from the original members about 1900.  How appropriate for me to pose in front of on my 70th birthday wearing my mother's 100 year old rosary! 

This sculpture is now out of a dark garage attic after 30 years and in my home with an interesting history to tell. It is a bronze work of art by Faure De Brousse (1876-1908) named Raffaella.  My mother inherited it from her uncle when he died in Washington, DC in the 1950s.  I have just begun restoring it.  When I am done, I will write a blog post about it.  I hope to have it done in 2024.  

My 70th birthday ended with an enhanced drive through Damsite Park on Pomme de Terre Lake.  I think this is the third year that local businesses put together this event and it has really grown!  It has about all the campsites on this peninsula full of Christmas lights and it can be seen from the top of the dam.  Awesome!

Our house was decorated for Christmas and Keith and I had a quiet week alone the week before with Bobi Kitty.  I made my first batch of Kolachy  keeping half for us and the rest to be taken to dinner with our Church Family on Christmas Day.  We had plenty of goodies at home and great weather to find time to walk the river trail below the dam most days. 

On the 26th we were expecting to have our granddaughter stay overnight until the 30th.  At 6 years old, she still believes in Santa Clause so I texted her mother on Christmas Day that a large bag with a red bow that looked like a present was left outside under Bobi Kitty's window with Kayleen's name on it and that it said it was from Santa. It would be inside for her to open when she got here the day after Christmas.

One of the presents Kayleen had asked Santa for was a gum ball machine and she did not get one at her house in Springfield.  Guess what she found in the bag?  The gum ball machine and a box of candy canes!  Of course, she had a bunch of presents from her Babi and Grandpa! She wasted no time to open them all as soon as she got to our house.

So for the next few days, she stayed in her pajamas all day at her request as the weather got really cold outside...so why not?  She did want a nice hot shower or tub each night before bedtime.  Breakfast in the morning included her favorite shows on Netflix and also her Wizard of Oz movie she enjoys anytime as I purchased it a couple years ago.  She stayed up past her 8 pm bedtime to watch her favorite Christmas movies including Polar Express, The Santa Chronicles 1&2, and some of the classic animations.  I think routines and schedules became very relaxed.

I made a second batch of Kolachy with her help.  The plan was to send what was left home to her family when we took her back on Saturday.  This year I made both the traditional Slovak walnut filled crescents and the round Czech ones I call 'thumbprints' filled with homemade wild plum preserves.  There are many versions of the recipe and spellings of the name!  This is my family tradition.

I was told repeatedly "No Pictures!" so I told her I was only taking pictures of things we were doing and she was just in them.  I couldn't take as many as I wanted or she would be upset.

So many games were played throughout the day including a new card game called "Red Light Green Light 1 2 3," a couple board games - "Sorry" and kid's "Monopoly" and last year's gift of "Mouse Trap."  She lets her imagination go with "Pineapple Polly Pocket" and several other character toys.  Of course, we always have a new puzzle or two that we all work on together or alone now and then.  This year the big hit was a 500 piece puzzle called "Butts on Things" that Keith found.

Butts on Things Puzzle

As it got colder every day, we were hoping the messy rain would turn to snow.  On Friday it did if only for a couple hours first thing in the morning!  Kayleen ran out and made her first snowball and snowman this season and I got her sled and pulled her around the front and back yard...then it melted.  She was glad I took pictures then!

Saturday came soon enough and we met her mom and dad in Buffalo as they were spending the rest of the day at the ranch.  It was an opportunity for Keith and I to see their new truck which is big enough to pull their trailer with tractor easily.  

Back to a much quieter house...but then it was time to take Keith out for a nice 75th Birthday dinner at Pomme De Rita's Tex-Mex Restaurant at Carsons Corner a few miles from our home.  It was great that Keith got a special birthday phone call from our son, Jacob!

The late afternoon was spent by both of us taking advantage of the quiet house and a full stomach by taking a nap.  Then in the evening we took turns enjoying our Hydro-Spa Tub before bedtime.  What a great way to end the day!

The last day of the year - 123123 - was a Sunday Church Day celebrating The Family.  Perfect.  At home Keith cooked a good pasta & crab with wine sauce meal using one of the crab seafood items our son and daughter-in-law recently gave us for Christmas.  Finishing up the afternoon writing this last blog post of the year while watching the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals football game.  Chiefs win 25 to 17!!!! What a rough month for them!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and this simple prayer....

2023 Autumn - Bikeing & Events

 I don't know if any year can be called a "normal" or "average" year as it relates to weather anymore with gloral warming and climate change being the "thing" now that is no longer in doubt as it had been the past decade or so.  2023 has been one of the hoteset and dryest on record so far.  I do know that I have been watering plants more often and even then sometimes they just get too much sun.  Everything seems to be affected one way or another and we adapt best we can.  Maybe it does average out eventually.  It certainly doesn't keep me from doing all the things that I enjoy!

The end of August showed 108 degrees inside my carport!

When the temperatures were under 90 degrees, I went biking on the Katy Trail.  Gas prices were high most of the spring and summer so I stayed close to home where the time I drove by car was no more than the time I rode my bike on the trail.  The drive to Sedalia is less than an hour and I like to bike about two hours.  So this was my guide to choose my ride.  I have done this many times over the past 25 years!

I found that the trail through Sedalia had been upgraded since the last time I was here a few years ago.  The path was made alongside the streets in most places by widening the sidewalks and/or adding a new path alongside the streets which makes it so much safer.

I parked my car at the Depot Trailhead  this trip. They have one of the best shops here for historical displays and souvenirs.   Last time I rode to the Missouri State Fairground Trailhead at the edge of the city. This day I planned to ride through town to Clifton City and return for about 24 miles roundtrip.  Every trip is familiar as I've done the whole 240+ miles several times since 1994 from Clinton to St. Charles along the Missouri River and countless day trips on various segments.  Always changing as there's always something new!

DIY Creativity

Views over old bridges are a good reason to stop.

Rock cliffs are interesting but sometimes break off a piece.

Trail maintenance by state park workers creat delays and obstacles.

The workers are always looking out and even take time to visit a little.

Crossing the borderline between the Ozarks and Osage Plains.

Time to turn around and head back to the Sedalia Depot.

This is a good example of some of the new improvements made on the trail close to the city limits on the north side.  It is alongside the paved street that can be seen on the right.

I believe this shady old goat enjoys people watching!

I can see my car in the parking lot on the left as I complete my ride and return to the Sedalia Depot Trailhead.

My next bike ride was from Clinton to Calhoun and return which is the part of the trail I do the most as it is closest to my home.  It has a couple prairie restoration areas that I like to stop and see wildflowers which are always different every trip.  

The first wooly bear worm I saw this year was all one light color.  Typically, there's a black or brown band on it.  The longer the black band, the longer, colder, snowier, and severe the upcoming winter will be. Similarly, the wider the middle brown band is associated with a milder upcoming winter.  The position of the longest dark bands supposedly indicates which part of winter will be the coldest or most severe.  I think climate changes have this little wooly bugger as mixed up as the rest of us!

The Calhoun Trailhead is where I turn back to Clinton after a light lunch; about 20 miles roundtrip. 

When the weather was too hot for me to bike, there were other events that went on in September and October.  

St. Bernadette's Catholic Church had a 50th Anniversary Celebration that was a big deal close to home in Hermitage.  My contribution was digitizing 50 years of photographs and documents that had been kept in five large albums.  I did this at the beginning of 2023.  Other committee members put together a slideshow from the 845 photos to be viewed at the formal dinner after Mass.  It was a good turnout with the bishop from Jefferson City there as well as past priests and members.

Beth was the head of the committee and did a great job putting it all together.  I think she and I were part of the less than a dozen original members in attendance.  

The annual Settlers Village Harvest Festival at Wheatland took place early in September which included a parade and vendors along with live music and games for children.  My husband and I see this as the end of the season each year for our Master Gardener Service Project.  We are the only ones that care for the gardens here and this is the peak event we make sure everything is at its best.  There was more than usual waterering all summer and now we are done.  It is my 11th year as I reached Emeritus status last year and am not required to put in minimal hours anymore; just whatever I want to do.  Keith will do one more year before he will be the same status and I will help him.  We will be done with Settlers Village.  The log cabins are cared for by a different committee and it is questionable how much longer they will last as interest decreases from younger people.  They all need much repair and serious restoration!  Nothing lasts forever.

Crowds  viewing the parade seems to get smaller each year.  To see all the gardens Keith and I maintain, see the previous post on this blog or type "Settlers Village" in the Seach tool for previous posts.

Something old is now new to me as Keith as I discover another Catholic Church in Polk County.  The church is the Sacred Heart Catholic Church  which was built in several stages after the original church building burned down.  This is the Catholic Cemetery since 1901 when the first Bohemian settlers arrived and it was named St. Wensceslaus.  It is located about a mile off Highway 13 south of Bolivar and borders the La Patite Gemme along the Frisco Highline Trail.  Our favorite Smith's Restaurant is located where we turn off Highway 13 to get to these places that are most familiar to me and I had visited countess times over the past 25 years!    I just never knew  a cemetery was there but now I do!  St. Bernadetee's in Hermitage never had a cemetery and since the pandemic in 2020, had changed Mass from Sundays to Saturdays which I just can't seem to get used too.  Sacred Heart has so much more to offer beginning with more service choices.  We are currently exploring this option.

Now that we know about this cemetery, it seems like a natural choice to consider as a final resting place.  In recent weeks, we have taken steps to join this Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Keith is in the process of becoming a Catholic.  Both churches are in different dioceses and I'm considering the possibility of a dual membership.  Much of this depends on our interest progress over the next couple years.

It's all about family.  Looking forward to having a full house at Thanksgiving again which will include our son and his wife driving here from the east coast and our daughter's family who live about an hour away.  Invitation went out to extended family members but not confirmed yet.  More about all that on the next blog post!

The weather continued to have some very hot, dry days into the Fall.  Finding activities both inside and outside was a challenge but we managed to keep it interesting.  This included a day roller skating with my daughter and granddaughter.  I had not done anything like this in at least 20 years!  I probably was the oldest person there but I had so much fun and didn't break anything!

My granddaughter started first grade and is six years old now.  We had her overnight at our home in Hermitage since she was four years old for 4-5 days every ten days.  Now that has changed with school and we get her on long weekends only which is about once a month. She is old enough to have a say most of the time about some things and she definitely voices her opinions!  For example, I have taken many more photos of her than never get published as she gets to have a decision about what I keep or delete now.  She also gets to decide if she prefers to stay with us on school holidays or go to daycare with her friends. She is getting more and more social but she still likes all the attention she gets when she is with her grandparents.  We are flexible to her needs and wants.  We are always happy to have her with us!

On this school clothes shopping trip, she had just lost another tooth!

Keith and I still love to kayak on our Pomme de Terre Lake close to home.  The hot weather kept the water warm.  He likes to fish...

...and I mostly enjoy the paddling exercise and sunshine when it is just right.  I have turned into more of a fair-weather kayaker in recent years.  

I just love the magic hour at sunset as this is when the fish are most active.  I am usually close enough to Keith to watch him catch the fish along the shores.  Sometimes I just like to paddle long and fast for fun in my 12' Wilderness Tarpon lake kayak which I have had since 2014.

Autumn is time for apples!

I always make applesauce from Johnathon apples I get locally grown.

Black Walnut Festival in Stockton, Missouri is an annual event Keith and I attend each year not far from home.  Last year we were joined by my Czech cousins Paul and his daughter Lucie.  This year we were joined by Keith's cousins Chuck and Kevin from Iowa.

We love a parade and again this year it was very hot weather!

We grow a lot of native plants at home and at the Settlers Village project.  We attract a variety of butterflies, bees, and pollonators.  In the Fall, the honeyvine milkweed is the best host plant for the monarch caterpillars.   

In our yard, the Missouri native New England aster is the biggest and most attractive native plant for the monarchs to enjoy as well as a variety of other pollonators.  We can view this plant from our back deck and it is very busy with at least a dozen large monarchs this time of year!

There are still many blooms in our yard this late in the growing season which typically has a hard freeze about mid-October.  With the weather not appearing typical anymore, we didn't get a hard freeze until about three weeks later.

View of our gardens from our back deck the first week of October.

Granddaughter found a new sport close to her home in Springfield.  Wall climbing is what she likes to do now and her mother takes her to once a week classes.  She does enjoy her picture taken now!

I think this may have been the last hummingbird of the year as they fly to warmer weather as the north winds increase to help them along the way.  I keep the feeders out until I don't see one for a week which seems to be just before Halloween.  

Another good thing about the warm weather continuing into he Fall is that we sometimes get a second bloom of spring lilacs in our yard!  

I was very happy to get one more bike ride for the year as the weather was just right in addition to the gas prices being under $3/gallon.  This means I can travel about two hours north by car to the Missouri River town of Booneville and enjoy a great change of scenery on the Katy Trail.  I really enjoyed this ride as I hadn't done this trail segment in several years.

Boonville Trailhead is where I began going southwest towards Pilot Grove.

The Boonville Depot is a good place to visit; a lot like the depot at Sedalia but with its own history displayed.

Access to this restored old bridge was new to me since I had been here last.  It spans about halfway across the Missouri River and ends.  It has a great view!  There was a campaign for many years to restore it completely and it looks like this is what progressed.  Halfway across the river is better than completely demolishing the structure which was the original plan.

You can see the main bridge that fully crosses the Missouri River here.   I had rode my bike alongside the traffic on this bridge many times in past years and it is still part of the Katy Trail today where all traffic crosses.  Maybe I will do it again next year.

Isle of Capri Casino is located in Boonville along the Katy Trail.

I am very happy that there was some effort to include the old bridge as part of the Katy Trail even if it doesn't cross the river.  It is right next to the Boonville Trailhead.

I enjoy going through tunnels along the trail where I can ring my bell!

It's that time of year to be aware off walnuts under fallen leaves on the trail although I'm pretty good at staying on the right path for the most past and experienced enough to recover as I ride over them.  Just have to slow it down some.

This was my turn around point this trip just 3 miles short of the Pilot Grove trailhead.  The wind from the SE picked up that I was heading SW into it and was increasing the past few miles.  I think it got to about 14mph which is more than my comfort zone of speed in the single digits.  Much better to have that wind at my back!  Good to turn around now.  At least that cold north wind has not come yet but will dominate any day now.  That's why this is the final trip for me this year!

Wide open fields and I'm stopping to take time to enjoy the views on the return trip.  

Back to the Boonville trailhead after riding about 20 miles roundtrip and got my photo taken by a friendly hiker.  My 20 mile rides usually last a couple hours but with the headwind and spending more time enjoying the old bridge and scenery, it took over 3 hours. Took time to walk around and enjoy the museum and store before driving home in my car 3 hours.   

Back in Springfield, our granddaughter had a bigger crowd of family members to watch her climb this week and was challenged to try the adult wall which she successfully mastered.  After this day she was enrolled in the next level class where the kids are all older.  

Heritage Days at Truman Dam in Warsaw, MO was taking place the last weekend in October our granddaughter was staying at our home in Hermitage.  This annual event is our favorite fall event each year and we were very happy our granddaughter joined us!

Making a jump rope

Old school house was interesting to our granddaughter who was excited to know more about cursive writing.

Kayleen asked me to teach her to write in cursive since they don't teach it anymore in school.  Hopefully, it will be something she wants to do when she visits us from now on!

The Truman Dam Visitor's Center at Warsaw is a great place to visit!  It was built about the time we moved to Hermitage from Iowa in 1978.

It is the go-to place we always took our children as they grew up and most every visitor that comes to see us as it explains a lot of why we chose this area to live.  It is about 30 minutes away.  Kind of looks like the Starship Enterprise, doesn't it?  Keith and I had always been fans of Star Trek back in the day.

Just lost tooth #5 (age 6 years 4 months)

Enjoying her bicycle but no desire to take off the training wheels this year.  It's all about taking her girls (Barbie dolls) for a ride and visiting the neighborhood cats.  Maybe next summer the training wheels will come off when she will likly need a bigger bike!

It is finally fullrime fall weather now with the changing leaf colors and cooler weather the last week of October.  Our regular 3-mile hikes below the Pomme de Terre Dam on the Running River Trail are enjoyed just a few miles from home.  The river runs just below our house.

Last weekend of October is colder and rainier.  Time to visit Seven Springs Winery in nearby Lynn Creek at Lake of the Ozarks.

I was very fortunate to be invited by my daughter to join her family and friends for Trick or Treating near her home in Springfield.   Of course, she knew the best neighborhoods!  We went as three kittens.

Finally, I end this blog post and this Autumn Season with a look at what is still in bloom in my yard in spite of the hard freeze as we still get a warm day or two.  The critters still come out to play now and then.  There's no place like home!

Coral Honeysuckle

Newly Planted Saffron Crocus

Groundhog (aka woodchuck or whistle pig) is a sweet and very gentle vegetarian that we would love to continue having in our yard as we have had for many years.  But this was the 4th one we trapped and relocated to a lakefront home this season because there were too many eating our garden produce and digging damaging tunnels in our terraced gardens.  We think we got them all before they reproduced.  we will see what comes around next spring.

Friendly Bunny had been coming around the front yard during my morning coffee on the patio all season as I was feeding it.  Hope to see you again next spring?

I also marked and fed 3 box turtles that came around regularly since spring.  Bobi Kitty just gets along with everybody in his kingdom!

Actually had a 3rd lilac bloom the day before the hard freeze which had more blooms that the first two!  I was happy to give a surprise large bouquet to my daughter.  I had originally planted  20 small slips for a hedge the year my daughter graduated high school in  2000.  It was her favorite flower and keeps her close to my heart.