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 |  What's new on Pleasant Hill |
 This Blog contains day-to-day thoughts and other nonsense.  {c} ![Merit Badge in Community
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I'm starting to see your name everywhere I go *^*Bigsmile*^*. Thank you so very much for all you do around WDC! It is people like you, who make WDC such the awesome place we call our second home *^*Heart*^*
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Tracey](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Community-210.gif) Thanks to intuey  for the MB![Merit Badge in Cheerleading
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I wanted to give you a badge you didn't have yet, and this cheerleading badge suits you. You are such an encouragement to many members of this site, including me, and I wouldn't know what Writing.Com would do without you. *^*Smile*^* You're a gem, Barbs. Thank you for your friendship and everything that you do. Love, Me *^*Smile*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Cheerleading-210.gif) Thanks to pencilsoverpens  for the MB![Merit Badge in Funny
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I've never laughed more, thanks Barbs](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Funny-200.gif) Thanks Wolfdale  for the MBThanks to pencilsoverpens  for the awardicon for this blogThanks to Equilibrium for the pretty green ribbon she pinned on my poetry folder. Thanks to Alfred Booth for the Awardicon for Happy Book and for my wonderful, vibrant sig. |
| I got up and went to the Clearwaters Inn at 7AM yesterday for my weekly, Wednesday morning breakfast with the girls. We are all retired nurses/hospital women and we've been meeting like this for years. I call it the sisterhood. We've buoyed one another thru loss of spouse, illness and death, new grandbabies, and new boyfriends. It's a fabulous group, this. I'm lucky to be a part of it. Today, conversation focused on Bernice's first grandchild to get married. The wedding is to be at The Landmark in St. Paul. She wondered if any of us knew where it's located there. No luck but Jan suggested she google it. Betsy shared a little about her recent trip to Las Vegas. She and her daughters had a wonderful time together. They attended a taping of The View. That prompted another to mention how several locals made an appearance on the Good Morning America show recently. And that's how our gatherings go. |
| Avid birders gather in mid to late April at 4:30am in reserved blinds over in the Mead Wildlife area. This is the time of year when, at dawn, prairie chickens can be seen exhibiting their mating ritual. The early riser can observe the bird's dance accompanied by it's reverberating calls. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has thoughtfully set up blinds to allow for the convenient observation of this display. Every-day folks come from some distances to witness it. A new occurrence this winter has been the sightings of two, hibernating, adult black bear in our neighborhood. The land in central Wisconsin is largely utilized for dairy farming and has been cleared for 150 years. Farmers plant hay, corn, oats, and soybeans and turn their cattle out to graze on grassland between milkings. Numerous small, forested patches remain, however, and many are connected by small waterways and wetlands that are unarable. It is common, then, to see the occasional Red Fox. Four years ago, we had an adult Fisher making nocturnal visits to our yard, so larger predators do exist in this area, but black bear are not customarily thought to be living among us. Farmers discovered one only a half mile from our home and the other, less than five miles away. We are being very careful not to provide anything outside our house that might attract closer inspection by our hungry, new neighbor as he emerges from his long sleep. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Barbs10 |
| I do not own a cell phone! Moreover, my husband does not own one either! We are in a miniscule demographic here. I am pretty sure that we are the last and only living, breathing persons left on Mother Earth without one. Just between us, I am wondering what is wrong with me, in that I actually feel no need to have one! Is my life so mundane that I do not have A SINGLE THING to talk about while I'm picking up the dry cleaning? Are my friends so uninteresting that I feel no urge to ring them up while I'm doing my grocery shopping or standing in line at the theater? Do I have no one who needs to see a picture of the menu at HoJo's? I believe that I'm failing at one of life's crucial social skills and neglecting my pals in the bargain. Cell phone? I don't think so. It's just who I am not. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Barbs10 |
| This is our thirtieth spring on Pleasant Hill. Our home overlooks an eighty-acre pasture/wetland below and to the west. Squaw Creek runs through it and, after a heavy rain, it swells to form Squaw Lake. A year ago, the entire farm surrounding our little acre and a half was sold to the Leddens. Shortly after the change took place, Mr. Ledden moved a string of horses onto the pastureland. There are eighteen animals there by my count, including several young colts, one contentious, dapple-grey pony, and a variety of buckskin, paints, and roans. They are lookin' a little rough at the moment. A good going over with a currycomb and brush would do wonders to improve their appearance. At least one seems to be enceinte so I am on the lookout for additions to the herd. Those trees that we worked so hard to get started thirty years ago are now forty feet tall. With them, we are finally able to entertain birds in our yard. I have my sack of oranges ready for the orioles when they arrive which should be just about any day, now. The sand hill cranes are back and nesting somewhere in the lowland area again this year. Their noisy clatter serves as an unwanted alarm clock at sunup. Herons and egrets join them to wade in Squaw Creek and feed on frogs and other wiggly things. The belted kingfisher will soon be taking his place on the power line above the bridge where he has a good view of the water and any potential meal in it. It's all part of the quiet rhythm of life here on Pleasant Hill. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Barbs10 |
HAPPY EASTER TO ALL YOU WRITERS AND READERS! Our home is situated on a gravel, secondary town road to nowhere. Every spring, we have the same problem. The frost that is in the ground boils up through the gravel surface leaving soft, wet areas that grab and hold a passing car tire like quicksand. Locals know enough to steer along either side of these pitfalls and, soon the road resembles wide-wale corduroy. Periodically the town chair makes a pass down Pleasant Hill with the new Allis Chalmers grader to level the playing field again, at least for a few days. Temporary weight limits are placed on all town roads every spring to minimize such wear and tear. Street restorations are in full sway in town, too. The city employs four lads to effect street repairs plus one to drive the truck and a sixth to supervise. This is one reason why we enjoy full employment here. The newest technique for mending cracks in the macadam involves the use of a roll of white plastic toilet paper. Worker number one applies a large, menacing, gas-powered saw to each surface disturbance he finds on the street. With it, he creates a wide gash out of each former hairline crack. The next fellow, stepping carefully so as not to fall into the newly created cleft, drools molten asphalt into the channel. Immediately on his heels, a third lad wields a golf club thingy with the end fashioned into a toilet paper roll holder. It dispenses thin, white plastic and with it, he rolls out a four-inch wide strip of this material atop the fresh line of hot pitch. Then, a fourth man drizzles more soupy tar along the surface of the strip to keep it from blowing away. This technique may work to seal the cracks, but it leaves the street permanently festooned with multiple strips of unsightly, highly visible, white plastic, applied willy-nilly and left to flutter in the breeze. From a woman's perspective, the result is most untidy. I wonder why the plastic couldn't, at the very least, be black to color coordinate with the street? ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Barbs10 |
| TAX DAY. Uuugh. Our accountant is a wonderful fellow and well worth his fee, but we are definately on his "small fish" list so our work takes a back seat to his large corporate clients. Can't blame him for that. We are in line for a sizable refund this year! That's pleasant news. I have never been able to guess what our tax status would be in any given year so we always hold our breath (and our pennies) until we get the definitive answer. Today was that day. This year we are filing electronically. How great is that? No standing in the line at the post office with the return receipt forms filled out. The weather in central Wisconsin is extrordinary today which make two reasons to celebrate. Mid seventies and full sun here. The neighbor disked the fields around our house last fall and they await the Spring planting ritual. The daffodils are up around the foundation and the flowerbeds are waiting for a cleanup. Tree buds are swelling and a good rain would do alot to encourage them. The grass turned green overnight two days ago. That's a sure sign of better times ahead. Happy Easter to anyone who reads this. Barbs |
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Thanks for these Barbs, we really miss you around here! Update us on everything some time alright! 