A Doozie Of A Sin

 Forgive me Father, for I have sinned!

I’ve been unfaithful to New England Patriots nation and have strayed <sniff>

I used a Philadelphia Eagles coozie the other afternoon to keep my beers cold -

However, desperate times call for desperate measures, am I right?!

After all, you wouldn’t have wanted me to drink warm beers, especially since they were Michelob Ultras…

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Make It A Combo

I took a drive to Midway, TN this past weekend to visit, “DMD Family Farm” -

I’ve had a craving for a good smash burger and happened upon this place on FB. It looked interesting, so a leisurely drive was in order!

The general store resides in a restored 1897 farmhouse that is very much country. It’s also where the line queues up to order food. It’s a small menu that offers breakfast all day and several different burger variations, plus some delicious looking milkshakes!

I ordered myself a sweet tea -

And the “Chef Kirk’s Smashburger”, which has American cheese, Arugula, tomato and garlic aioli, and a small order of tallow fries -

The food was delicious 🤤! The burger was cooked perfectly, nice and juicy and the topping were fresh. The fries were similar to McDonald’s, piping hot and not a soggy one in the bunch! Cooking them in the beef tallow makes a big difference.

My smashburger cravings were met and exceeded, delicious 😋  I regretted not getting a milkshake, next visit!

Eating outside under the covered porch was a plus. I was able to people watch while waiting for my food, which was brought out to me when it was ready.

Too bad it’s not closer to Limestone, it was a bit of a drive, but I’ll certainly be going back, as it’s well worth the drive 👍👍

Lady Bug Lov’n

A bit of insect fornication.

Guessing it was satisfying, for the male anyway, since their little tryst seems to have removed every spot from him entirely 🤣 -

 

Turtleday

Yesterday was “Turtleday”!

I was fortunate to rescue two turtle 🐢 from a potentially sad ending, as they were attempting to cross the road.

The first one, and my most favoritest type, a male Eastern Box turtle! He was a little shy at first and completely closed himself up in his shell -

But eventually he worked up the courage to open up and poke his head out -

I took him down the embankment, in the direction he was headed, and safely away from the road!

What you looking at -

The second was a male Painted turtle 🐢, still a tad wet and sporting a of bit of duckweed on its shell -

This dude was attempting to cross Pritchard, not far from my driveway. So instead of helping him cross where he was, I opted to relocate him in the pond on my property.

“Catch and Release”

All’s well that ends well!

A Famous Insect Visitor

First Monarch caterpillar at the ole homestead!

Being aware of milkweed plants and mowing around them instead of cutting them down has paid off for this on-the-cusp of being endangered beauty, and hoping future caterpillars -

Although, I was only able to locate this one, I’m hoping there’s more that I either missed or perhaps eggs yet to have hatched -

I opted to take this dude to the local

JC Monarch butterfly guru, my cousin PJ, to ensure its safety and successful metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly and release -

Although, sadly, there was only this lonely single Monarch caterpillar, there are oodles of Milkweed Tussock caterpillars -

And I mean oodles of them -

Like the monarchs, they eat milkweed, and also dogbane. What has me worried, since there are SO many of these dudes, is that they’ll take over, eat up and skeletonize the milkweed, leaving little food for future monarch caterpillars.

I’ll need to keep an eye on this. I would hate to intervene but will jump in if other monarch caterpillars appear and the milkweed plants are dwindling.

Special Delivery

Here’s another interesting East Tennessee mailbox I came across the other day, a go-cart -

Some folks really “deliver” on creativity 🤣

Warning Toad Crossing

Well, there was a back up on the ole walking path this morning. Brought everyone and everything to a standstill too until it was cleared.

Yup, that’s it! You see it, right there in the center of that first picture -

An American Toad, but not just any American Toad, an American Toad carrying a juvenile stinkbug on its back -

Well, with that kinda clout, the toad crossing took precedence 🤣

He was a nice BIG fat toad too. Been eating well. Wonder if he has a handicapped license tag too??

Don’t Mind Me

This portly pig 🐖 was a visiting and milling about the backyard yesterday afternoon -

I wasn’t too surprised to see it, as a neighbor called me Friday afternoon to ask if we had a pig, because if we did it was loose and down by the gate.

What surprised me was how handsome this porker was! Although, it wouldn’t come to me, it wasn’t bothered by me either nor did it seem scared or skittish. Was more matter-of-fact, acknowledged my presence, then continued waddling on its merry way off towards the pond and front gate.

Here’s a short video I took - “Visiting Potbellied Pig”

I posted “Lost Pig” entry to a local Greeneville FB group I belong to in the hope of locating its owner but nothing yet. Only folks commenting on how cute.

Not sure where it’s moved on to but hopeful it’ll find its way back home.

The BIG 1 5

 A BIG Happy Birthday to my best ever four-legged friend; my BFF -

She turns 15 today on the 15th -

She has no idea how important she’s been to me these last several years and means the world to me!

Showing her age a bit but she’s entitled to at her age.

A “Senior” Moment

Look at how meticulous these three trees are pruned -

I’ve been walking by this house for weeks now and noticed early on how meticulous the yard is maintained. A big fenced in veggie garden, well manicured lawn, nice shrubs and flower beds and oodles of bird houses and other lawn decorations carefully placed throughout, not gaudy looking. 

So, I was not surprised to see an elderly man atop a step ladder trimming these trees the other morning. He certainly has an eye for details, as the three trees look identical, evenly trimmed without a branch out of place -

I was further convinced of his meticulous eye yesterday, when I watched him fetch his trash barrel from the curb and proceed to wash and rinse out the inside. I mean c’mon, NOT many people do this, there’s just a handful of US 😉

He could very well be my doppelgänger!

I asked if he needed any help but he politely declined but I made sure to compliment his work…

My Memorial Plant

The Peace Lily in the below pictures was given to me back in 2018 by my close friends and neighbors, as a living gesture for the passing of my dad.

It’s a special plant, that has special meaning to me and I’ve tried my best to care for it. It’s the only house plant that made the move to Tennessee with Ms Trixie and I. 

However, as you can see in the first pic below it was looking a bit queasy. Now I typically let it get to this stage where it droops and sags before watering it. Then in the sink it goes for a deep, deep soaking, and it pops right back up -

The other day, however, I first took it outside, removed it from its pot and removed most of the old soil from the pot itself, as well as banged much off its roots, then replaced it with brandy new Miracle Gro indoor potting soil!

It was long overdue for a make over with newer fertilized soil and a good soaking.

Just look how it’s responded -

As happy as a pig in 💩 

Or in this case, fresh potting soil!

A Good Bug Family Gathering

An update to a previous posting of mine titled, “A Good Bug”, - seems the family is growing by leafs and bounds -

These are Assassin Bug Nymphs or more specifically Wheel Bug Nymphs, which are in the Assassin bug family.

Quite the enormous cluster! Guessing they likely hatched recently and getting some alone time with mum 🤣

Wheel bugs are beneficial to have around and help control other insects. However, be forewarned, do NOT pick one up, as they can deliver a painful bite with their mouth parts!

But honestly, not sure who would look at this or any other similar gathering and think 🤔, hey let’s pick them up, geesh.

However, there’s a reason why we have SO many cover your ass warning labels these day…

Aww Nuts

I’m not sure if there’s a way to determine the sex of Black Walnut trees, if that’s even a thing.

From what I can see, and I’m assuming here, but seems most of the walnut trees I’ve seen are male by virtue of their pair of “nuts” -

This one even did a bit of down under “manscaping” -

This male seems to have the rare anomaly polyorchidism (a third nut) -

Well, I did a bit of AI research after writing the above and it turns out the female trees are in fact the one that produce the actual walnuts.

You know what they say about assuming…

The more you know 🌈 

Lazy Or Opportunistic

Hard to believe times are tough for these carrion eating scavengers, as route 11e, sadly, is littered with unfortunate roadkill.

However, this Black Vulture was scavenging cat food from a frying pan instead of doing its intended job -

There are several homes that abut the trail where this handsome orange tabby is always at.

I’ve seen him every day, always sleeping under some pine trees next to the walking trail -

Seems he’s fed using the frying pan but on this day this black vulture was in the midst of dinning and dashing.

A Morning Greeting

If you get up and out early enough, you can take in and enjoy the open Morning Glory flowers in all their amazing colors!

We’re talking around sunrise otherwise you’ll miss out, as they start closing in late morning when the sun is up and it starts to heat up.

Here’s a variety of the colors I’ve seen along the Tusculum trailer the last several mornings -

 Morning glory are notorious for reseeding themselves, which I’m guessing why I see them all over around here.

Just Plain Wrong!

Some POS couldn’t help their bigoted self and thought writing a racial slur in chalk on the Tusculum walking trail yesterday was appropriate -

I’ve been walking this trail for almost two months now, and although I’ve passed by some odd “ducks”, most everyone has been friendly and respectful, so not sure where this hatred came from.

The placement of where this was done is odd to me too. About a quarter mile in from the parking lot, with a corn field on one side and a soybean field on the other.

WTF is wrong with people?! Flipp’n POS coward!

Hoping that yesterdays rain has washed this away. I’ll know shortly, as I’m headed there now…

Eye Hope You Have A Nice Sunday

 Rise and shine humans!

It’s gonna be another hot 🥵 and humid day.

I “Spot” Them Often

Mommas and their littles!

It’s that time of the year, as I’m seeing them all over - out the back kitchen window, on my daily walks and when driving -

Seems you can’t swing a dead cat here in East Tennessee without hitting a deer 🦌…

Cigs, Butts, Coffin Nails, etc…

So it seems my two previous posts; Put Me In Coach & Put Me In Coach II, were unknowingly at the time incorrect, alas.

I assumed, and you know what they say when you assume something about asses…, that the bundles of stakes I took pictures of were tomato stakes. However, I now realize that those stakes are for a different product completely - ole tobacky-

Two flat bed carts fully loaded with freshly picked tobacco!

It looks like this tobacco farmer harvested the entire plants and pierced the wooden stakes through each of the stems.

They then have hung them up to dry in this curing barn -

I remember back in the day when growing up, we would often travel by station wagon from Massachusetts to Tennessee to visit family, and back then tobacco fields were so much more common. Once we’d hit the south seems many a farmer was growing tobacco to make a living.

Sadly, not so much anymore, or at least I’ve not seen any since arriving here in East Tennessee, well except for this ole farmer here in Tusculum.