R.H.Shumway, Burpee, The Rare Seed Catalog, Totally Tomatoes ...

Megan stepped out on the front porch this morning and almost did the splits, something she hasn't done voluntarily in 45 years. We had a dusting of snow last night, on top of a thin layer of ice.
The powers that be said, STAY HOME! And court was cancelled.
So, we had to recalibrate our brains. All the plans Megan had made for today, and all the plans Dwain had made went out the door. You can feel frustrated when you're all dressed up and no place to go.

So, then we got out our stack of 2016 seed catalogs -- that have been arriving in our mailbox since Thanksgiving -- and started dreaming.

It's kind of amazing to see the possibilities of vegetables and fruits -- the kind we never see in a grocery store -- but can grow here. For instance, Fairytale Pumpkin or Moon and Stars Watermelon.
It's amazing what you can learn from seed catalogs - histories, planting tips, books for sale, recipes, kitchen and gardening tools, critter control, how to plant by the signs, pickling mixes, and on and on.

First, we took an inventory of seeds left over from 2015. We found 3 types of cucumbers, parsley, different types of lettuce, two types of kale, zucchini squash, and a dozen others.

Then we have heirloom seed that Megan saved from last year's harvest. She saved seeds from 3 kinds of heirloom tomatoes - Cherokee Purple, Chocolate Stripe and Oxheart. We'll plant those seeds in little pots under a grow light in early March.

The top paper towel holds a variety of jalapeno pepper seeds. The next paper towel has yellow bell pepper seeds. They were lovely in the garden and tasted so good. Then we have seeds for a couple of herbs.

Time for a bird break on this wintry evening. We are equal opportunity birders. This is a female cardinal. Megan liked the picture of this puffed out girl.

The problem with ordering from a dozen seed catalogs is shipping cost. So today, we concentrated on The Rare Seed Catalog 2016 from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
Here are some of the new plants you'll find in our garden this year.

We've never planted this bean before, but it comes with good reviews. If we don't like the beans, apparently, hummingbirds love the flowers. This only comes with 15 seeds, but that should be enough for our plans. We have a grape arbor that we hope its vines cover. We've never been fortunate to grow grapes on it, but maybe this will cover it in vines, give us some shade, attract hummingbirds and hopefully give us a few tasty beans. How can we lose? Don't ask.

We're always excited about something different, and we're going to do better with our tomatoes this year. Evidently, we weren't the only gardeners who struggled with tomatoes. Don't you love that color? How will it look canned?

Margie and Lynn Keener were picking fresh broccoli until this recent freeze, and for all we know, they're still picking broccoli. We'll plant some in the spring and more in the fall. Wouldn't fresh broccoli be great at Christmas? There's so much you can do with broccoli. Look at the reviews.

Size matters with melons, and we're just hoping this can rival the flavor of melons we bought at a roadside fruit stand in Rocky Ford, Colorado.  Dwain still has the T-shirt. And we ate that melon at a picnic table while driving up Pike's Peak. Oh, and color also matters with melons for Dwain. He doesn't want to eat a green cantaloupe. It's a psychological thing.

Time for a squirrel break. We felt like this squirrel today, rubbing our hands together and blowing warm air onto our fingers to stay warm. It was so cold.

The name sold us - Arctic King Lettuce. It will grow in cold conditions, and we're not known for babying our plants. They better be hardy.

Megan wants a tunnel of pole beans across our garden this summer. She may set up camp in the tunnel, that we'll build with an arched wire cattle panel, or two. She also likes purple beans, because they turn green when cooked. Actually, she wishes they would stay purple.

Time for another bird picture.

Are you lookin' at me? Are you lookin' at ME? Well, okay then. It's about time you were lookin' at me.

Glass Gem corn. Isn't this the prettiest? We have to at least try to grow it -- more for decoration and to say that we can, than anything else. In a review someone said that they made a pitiful attempt at popcorn with this stuff. Hey, at least we know what not to try.

This is Mr. Purple Finch. He's not quite as stunning at Mr. Cardinal, but still, isn't he something?

It is amazing to watch how the birds take turns at the feeders; they go grab a sunflower or thistle seed, and then fly back to the Star Magnolia tree so that another bird may have a trip to the food buffet.

Who knew that people with sensitive skin could be allergic to Four-O'Clock seed or flowers?

We learned that fun fact today (see above). Evidently all parts of the plant are toxic.  That means that we should not put the flowers into our soups or salads. Wonder what occurred that made Baker Seed include that statement? We ordered them anyway.

A few years ago, we drove to Mansfield, Missouri, home of Baker Creek Seed Company and home of Little House on the Prairie author, Laura Ingalls Wilder; where she penned the Little House Books. Both give tours. Totally worth it! You should go.
Megan and Dwain

A new National Park hiking challenge on an abandoned M&NA Railway right-of-way.

GILBERT - If you're not familiar with the "coolest little town in Arkansas, " literally, Gilbert is the only town inside the Buffalo National River Park boundaries. It's very small, but it is far from a ghost town.

The late Forrest King rode in on the M&NA Railway with the Incoming Kingdom Missionary Unit, a group hunting a remote area to wait for the end of time. Dwain interviewed him in this yellow house, shortly before he died. He and his son, Rev. Eldon King, sang an original song together. That's what we always think about when we see this house.

Gilbert is so small that we found minor details of this life (Forest was born on August 16, 1901 and passed away on Thursday, January 13, 2000. Forest was a resident of Gilbert, Arkansas.) on a website that only carries the last 20 obituaries for Gilbert.
He was number 19, and number 20 died December 1996.
If you want to see a celebration, it is when someone in Gilbert has a baby. A real population explosion!

Just look at how blue the Buffalo River was today, and the sky was so blue. As you can see, the old Missouri & North Arkansas Railway ran parallel to the Buffalo River as it left Gilbert for Marshall, Arkansas, and every little town between here and Helena, Arkansas.

Remember, this is January, for Pete's sake. We're bundled up. But we're not complaining. It won't be long before we warm up.

This part of the Gilbert trail is so easy to hike, like most abandoned railroad right-of-ways. They are scenic, too. Just look at the rock wall. Megan's mother would like that rock wall. Park Rangers would have had to slap her hands, or she and Clinton would have disassembled the wall, hauled it to Harrison, Arkansas, and reassembled it in their yard.

We argued if these were elk tracks or bear tracks. We finally decided somebody put horse shoes on an elk. Actually, this trail is limited to hikers and horseback riders. We stepped around horse scat further down the trail. Bicycles and motorized dirt bikes and UTVs are forbidden in the park.

As far as we know, Alice Ivy dogs aren't forbidden. She's checking out debris left on the right-of-way after last month's floodwaters rushed up the banks, 40-50 feet above today's waterline and 200 feet from the channel.

Since no one else was on the trail, we took Alice Ivy off her leash, and she ran free. She's well behaved and didn't stray further than 30 feet from us. She was so happy. As we write this, Alice is asleep, exhausted, on the rug in front of our little fireplace.

This trail is like the Wizard of Oz, where it turns into color. Look at that jungle gym of vines reaching, reaching, reaching, high into the trees. Are we following Dorothy into the witchy woods?

The trail goes on and on. It's just hard to know when to stop. We might have gone all the way to Helena, if we hadn't run into a big mud pit where a wooden railroad trestle used to cross a seasonal streambed.

We're literally coming and going. It's hard to resist a 180-degree panorama shot.

We're getting warmer, especially with that bluff knocking off the brisk wind. Perfect.

Time to celebrate, our coats are off. Dwain stored Megan's hat and mittens in his carry-all, and we're heading back to the trailhead.

Wait, what is that sound across the Buffalo River? It doesn't sound like a woodpecker. It sounds like two pieces of wood scraping together ... a turkey! We had to think about it for a bit before we recognized the sound. That call was loud and followed us almost all the way back to our truck!

Those lines of bright canoes say we're almost back to the truck. Today, we didn't see any floaters. Boy, that water would really be cold if you flipped that canoe.

This is the town's main commerce. The Gilbert General Store was built in 1901 by “Uncle” Billy Mays and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Some folks say it is the one of the last of its kind in the Ozarks Mountains. We came here on the 4th of July one summer and Dwain took the most gorgeous pictures of a fireworks display bursting over the general store.

If you want to play a pickup game of basketball, it looks like a basketball is provided with the hoop.
We got about 2 miles roundtrip on this leisurely hike. After repeating the Tyler Bend lookout hike, we're up to 4 miles in the National Park Service's Iron Ranger Challenge.
Only 96 more miles to go in 2016.
Megan and Dwain

Spelling Bee in a small town.

Dwain was asked to be a judge at the Newton County Spelling Bee in Jasper today (Thursday, January 14, 2016). Held in the Carroll Electric Cooperative Building, what an honor.
The meeting room was filled with students from Deer, Jasper, Mt. Judea and Western Grove schools, and their teachers and family members -- supporters all.
The room was buzzing with red-cheeked and chatty children. They were excited.

This pictures shows Kim Mefford (Jasper schools) as the "wrangler" (left, standing), herding the 30 kindergarten - 4th graders who qualified for the county-wide spelling bee. That's Dwain in the inset. Thanks for the photo, Megan. She was sitting in the back of the room. She had never been to a spelling bee.

Donna Braymer (front and center) is laying down the rules. We learned, sanctioned spelling bees follow very specific rules with set words to spell. We see lots of grandparents. These are the same rules for state and national spelling bees. Newton County Times editor Jeff Dezort (left) is guarding the trophies for the top 3 finishers in each age division, and first place spellers get dictionaries.

Dwain is a novice at this judging stuff and is studying the words. No, he's not listening to enunciator Donna Braymer, and it doesn't look as if either Yvonne Cone or David Holsted are listening. Is anyone listening? Evidently some were, because Donna said the state winner gets to go to Washington, D.C., for the national competition, and some of the kids lit up.

No, Dwain did not get a trophy. But one year, he did take a picture of himself with a trophy. He was so jealous. Of more interest, is Donny Braymer talking to our friend Kathy Martin. Kathy's granddaughter won a trophy and is leaning against her grandma. Some of these children were impressive spellers, because not all of the words were on the spelling lists. They were surprise words.

And such good sports, they were.

As the applause ended, they immediately went into cleanup mode. We don't know who told them, but every child in the building started picking up chairs and stacking them.

In 5 minutes, the room was clean. Such teamwork. No wonder Newton County has such good teams. They cooperate and all of the tables and chairs were picked up, stacked and neatly put away.

Tennessee women's basketball coach emeritus Pat Summitt might call this the triangle offense of teamwork.

We left the building first, and Jeff Dezort asked us to save 6 seats at the Blue Mountain Bakery and Café on the square in Jasper.

This isn't us, but this oblong able is where we sat. We arrived first, and sat with our backs to the wall, selfishly, so we would have the best view. We don't know who those people are, but it looks like they are having a good time.

Come hungry, they have huge sandwiches. We had smoked turkey and Swiss cheese, plus a side of pasta salad. We both shared that, plus a small green dinner salad. And look at all those pastries. Yum. We want to go back for breakfast. Omelets with biscuits and gravy? Yes. Or a cinnamon roll.

We were tempted to take some of these items home. They just looked so tasty. Uh-huh.

The woodstove in the Blue Mountain Bakery and Café was still burning today, although the Christmas tree was gone. We could smell fresh creosote as we walked down the sidewalk beside the building.

We think the state spelling bee would be interesting to watch in person.
The parents and teachers at the Newton County Spelling Bee were as good of sports as the children.
We're not sure you'll see people this well behaved in bigger cities and counties. Sometimes competition turns into a status symbol for the parents, status which they garner through their children.
But that's not the way it felt in Jasper. We saw lots of parents, when their child was told they had misspelled a word, reach out and give them a hug.
Only one little girl cried, quietly. She despaired because she wanted to go to Washington.
Megan and Dwain.

First Day Hike 2016 ... and National Park Service flush toilets are closed.

After driving all the way to Tyler Bend with our legs tightly crossed after drinking too much coffee, we discovered that the Visitors Center was closed, and roads to the campgrounds barricaded. So, we turned around and back-tracked a little bit to the privy (one-seat outhouse) at Grinders Ferry. At least it was clean and worked in a pinch. NOTE: The debris on the bottom, marks the high water line from the Christmas-week flood. If you have not idea where we're at, the Buffalo River is probably 40 feet, vertically, below the outhouse.

We feel better and are bundles for temperatures in the 30s, but the sun made it feel warmer. We're both wearing boots, flannel-lined denim pants, lots of "basewear", coats, gloves and Mad Russian (Ukraine) caps. They're really warm.

After a handful of trail snacks to boost our energy, we're off.  Alice Ivy had a snack bone, too.

Look down the trail, another adventurer. She greeted Megan with a: "Good morning. Happy New Year. Have a good day." Who wouldn't have a good day after that smiley greeting? She set the tone, and we followed through, wishing other hikers a Happy New Year.

Collier Homestead is always the first stop. In a few months, daffodils will be blooming. Megan always wonders, what stories that big oak tree could tell. Ages older than us, it's been sheltering that home since it was built. We bet children used to swing from its branches.

Now isn't that a picture? Megan's checking the smokehouse, wondering if she could hang upside down from the rafters. She knows she used to could. "I would have tried."

Who's having more fun in this picture? For Alice Ivy, this is the greatest day ever. She found lots of new smells to explore; branches to leap over; and curiosities to whine about. She's rather timid, and was glad we didn't encounter any other dogs or anything too strange. 

Although the trail goes much, much further, all the way to the Buffalo River, this was our destination, today. We've hiked the loop many times. We marveled at the blue sky reflected off the murky water. We didn't see a single canoe or kayak. Generally, we see floaters from this vantage point.

As the lyrics go: "You can hear from far and near, A world you've never heard before. And on a clear day, On that clear day, You can see forever, and ever, and ever, And ever more." That pretty much sums it up. We couldn't say it better.

  

We like to call this time of year, the season of long shadows. This picture was taken about noon Friday, January 1, 2016, New Year's Day. Look at the shadows.

 Because trees and shrubs are barren, the trail seemed so short. From this particular place on the trail, we could see the cabin and almost the parking lot up the hill, and behind us the overlook.

That's an eagle! We saw the white against the black. It was all by itself. They just fly differently from the buzzards that were circling a mile higher.

"Love lift us up where we belong, up where the eagles cry..."

Happy New Year and may all your dreams come true.
Megan and Dwain.
And may we win the lottery and take lots more excursions with Alice Ivy and our "reluctant" kitty cats.

Package says a straight line isn't easiest, cheapest, fastest ...

I saw these camo boots online, the Sunday before Christmas, at Academy Sports + Outdoors and I wanted them.  I have been hunting a pair of boots like these for months.
The price was right; reviews were positive; I needed the boots to traipse around the barnyard, in the mud.  I'm not a hunter, but I needed them.
But dang, folks, after I got the shipment notice and tracking number, why were they sent to Memphis, Tennessee.  From Fayetteville?
Heck, I could have driven to Fayetteville and picked them up, if I had known this.
What's the gimmick?

How could shipping this package from Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Valley Springs, Arkansas, take 10 days? Let me describe the box's travels.

Sunday night, December 20, 2015, I ordered a pair of boots, online, from Academy Sports + Outdoors.
I received an e-mail the following day - Monday, December, 2015 - that the boots had been shipped from a Fayetteville store.
That made sense to me, send the order to the store closest to the customer.  That would be the Fayetteville store.
But then any sense of logistics vanished.
Google maps shows the distance between the starting point (Academy Sports + Outdoors in Fayetteville, Arkansas) and ending point (Valley Springs, Arkansas, Post Office) is about 85 miles.

But tracking the package shows it went to FedEx in Lowell, Arkansas, on Monday, December 21, 2015, then overnight it was transported to Kansas City, Missouri, arriving just after midnight. The package then left Kansas City on Tuesday morning, December 22, 2015, and 12 hours later was logged into the FedEx facility in Memphis Tennessee. Later, about midnight, it was registered at FedEx Smartpost in Southhaven, Mississippi.

The package was left at that location through the Christmas holiday, not coming to life until Monday, December 28, 2015.

As you can read, shipping information was sent to the US Postal Service about midnight Monday, December 28, 2015, then the package left Tuesday morning, December 29, 2015, for the US Postal Service back in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The package arrived Wednesday morning, December 30, 2015, at my local post office at Valley Springs, Arkansas.

I picked up the package just before the post office closed for lunch at 11 a.m. Wednesday, December 30, 2015.  The only connection to FedEx on the box is the postage stamp that reads - Parcel Select U.S. Postage Paid SmartPost e-VS.

And here are my new boots, delivered with free shipping.

I would think, in this day when all my online movements are tracked, that a computer whiz at FedEx could determine that it would be cheaper to mail the box from Fayetteville to Valley Springs, rather than truck the package around the four-state area, then mail it from Mississippi to Fayetteville and Valley Springs.
And some of our lawmakers apparently think private business could do a better job of handling the mail than the job that U.S. Postal Service is currently doing.
What are your thoughts?
I sent that question to customer service for Academy Sports + Outdoors on Tuesday. Here's the auto reply: Please allow 24 - 48 hours for a response.
OK, I'm waiting, and Megan burst out laughing.
Dwain
RESPONSE:

CC

Today at 5:59 PM

Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support 
center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.
If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it within the next 30 days.
Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.
To access your question from our support site, click https://academy.custhelp.com/app/account/questions/detail/i_id/993706/

---------------------------------------------------------------

Subject
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Order Status -Order# 178515861

Discussion Thread
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Response By Email (Nnaemeka A.) (01/03/2016 05:59 PM)   
Thank you for contacting Academy Sports + Outdoors.  We appreciate your feedback and sincerely apologize for your experience while shopping with us. Our ultimate goal is to provide each of our customers with the utmost quality of both products and service. Your email has been shared with our team responsible and store leadership. However, your package was shared delivered via FedEx  through the smart post /post office option.

FedEx#398192370002349
Smart Post-
Actual delivery:
Wed 12/30/2015 10:59 am
VALLEY SPRINGS, AR US


12/30/2015 - Wednesday
10:59 am  Delivered      VALLEY SPRINGS, AR
Package delivered by U.S. Postal Service to addressee

We look forward to assisting you and value you as a customer.

Please feel free to contact us at 1 888 922 2336 between the hours of 7am and 12am (Central Standard Time). You can also reply to this email or chat with us, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, if you have any further questions. Have a good day.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Associate

Customer Care Center

Academy Sports + Outdoors






Customer By Service Web (Dwain Lair) (12/29/2015 04:40 PM)   
I ordered a pair of boots about 10 days ago. The boots started in Fayetteville, Monday, Dec. 21, they were picked up in Lowell. FedEx transported the boots to Kansas City, then Memphis. This morning, Tuesday, Dec. 29, they were transported to USPS and were in transit to Fayetteville. This is the craziest shipping experience I have ever seen. The boots start in Fayetteville, and more than a week later are back in Fayetteville. Does anyone ever look at logistics?



Question Reference # 151229-004968
      Date Created: 12/29/2015 04:40 PM
  Date Last Updated: 01/03/2016 05:59 PM
            Status: Solved


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