Butch and Chuck

OK
It's been a while since we had a really good WhateverEarl.
I don't mean just the everyday roll your eyes and mutter WhateverEarl under your breath.
I mean a full fledged
WHATEVER EARL!
followed by a "I am not taking you to the hospital!"

Here we go~

When we built the house, there was a groundhog living under a big pine tree by where our mailbox would be. With all the building and grading that went on, he moved across the road and under a shed. We'd see him from time to time and he'd give us the finger and turn his back on us.

Tonight butch was sitting at the kitchen table and looks out the french doors and sees the groundhog running as bold as you can be, across the back yard. I'll tell you what, that groundhog is now the size of a medium sized dog. As the chuck runs around the back of the house and up along the garages, butch jumps up and runs after it. I then hear him calling me, and I'm thinking, this ain't going to be good for one of us. me, him or the chuck.
So I go out to the garage and he's (butch, not the chuck) standing in the door looking out toward the big pine tree. Seems the groundhog ran under it, and down into the big hole that he'd dug there years ago. I'm thinking, this still isn't looking good for one of us.
I said, why don't you pour bleach down the hole. (I knew it was dumb when I said it) butch says to me, what the hell is that going to accomplish, and I thought that it would make it easy for us to identify him if we saw him again, cause he'd be the only bleached blonde groundhog in PA. This was actually an attempt to get him (again, butch not the chuck) from doing what I figured would be a whole lot worse than a bleached blonde chuck.
butch says, I'm going to get the 1/4 stick (of dynamite!) that Daren gave me and I'm going to throw it down the groundhog hole.

blink............blink.............blink
OMG!
(Remind me to beat the snot out of Daren!)

All I can think of is, there are several things that could happen if this actually occurs:
1. The tree will fall over and across the road.
2. The groundhog will be really pissed off.
3. The groundhog will be deaf.
4. The groundhog will become a flaming ball of fur flying out of the hole at the speed of sound and head right toward us and be really pissed off.
or
5. All the above

This had all the making of a Chevy Chase moment.

This was a Carl Spackler moment from Caddyshack.

So he says watch the hole.
Like I'm going to shoo the groundhog back in if he tries to come out?
He runs up into the garage and I hear him running around and he comes back out with the 1/4 stick and a lighter. He climbs in under the tree and proceeds to try to get the lighter to work. It finally catches and he throws the 1/4 stick down the hole and runs like hell to get out from in the tree.

Okay, for those of you who actually know butch, I'll just take a second here to let you get a picture him running like hell, out from inside the tree.......

You'll understand why I wish I had a camera......with audio. I'm standing there with my fingers in my ears, and the damn thing only went.....ka pouf!
Well, the crap went flying up and smoke started billowing out of the hole, and the tree didn't fall over, and the flaming ball o'groundhog didn't come flying out.

I figure if we see the groundhog walking across the road with the little stars flying around his head, we should just hit him with the car, since he'll be deaf and never hear the car coming.

So, butch, consults with Daren, and they figure that he (the chuck) has to be a goner. Because of the sound that the 1/4 stick made, it had to have dropped really far down the hole, otherwise it would have been really loud. I guess now in a week or so, we'll get the pleasant odor of char-broiled groundhog rotting.

OMG

WHATEVER EARL!!!!!

Daren & Wanda get Married!

Daren and Wanda got married at the JP's the end of May. They went to Williamsburg for their honeymoon and had a blast. When they got back, they had a pig roast to celebrate. Butch thought it was a great idea to take the motorhome over to their house and just stay there the weekend. It actually was a really good idea, cause that way we could be there to help with anything they needed to get done, and we'd have our own bed and not be in their way. Oh, stop, they've been living together for years now, so it's not like that!

Daren had been building a hell of a bonfire for about a month. While Wanda and I were in the house, and unknown to us, the son, with the father watching, lit that sucker. They told us that he'd put about a gallon of gasoline on it, and then trailed it down and away for saftey. That way, he'd just light the trail like a fuse. Great theory, until the matches were damp and wouldn't light. So Daren runs to the shed and grabs another pack and runs back up the hill and lights it. You do know about gasoline fumes....right? Well, Wanda and I are in the kitchen, and we hear the first whooomp, followed by a huge KAAAWHHHOOMP. I turned to her and said, do you think they have any eyebrows left? Let me just say, it wasn't the eyebrows Daren had to worry about. The fumes caused the flames to go toward the fire, but also backwards, through his legs! Good thing he had long pants on.

Butch had to get up on Saturday morning and go have blood work done. So he took the Subie and left about 7:30. Can't wait till he gets those results. You're supposed to fast for 12 hours before. yeah, right. At 9pm I looked at him with the beer in his hand and said, that's going to have to be your last one. At 11pm when he had a beer in one hand, and a piece of pizza in the other, I figured it was just too damn late to worry about it.

So while he's gone, the boys had gone and picked up the pig. When I walked down the hill this is what greated me.

Which, as I explained to Ryan, @#$@#$$%#$, Ryan, that's a hell of a @#$%#$#^^$# thing for the non meat eater to see first thing in the morning! Started his morning off with a good laugh.

Butch got back and had brought coffee for the fire keepers.

Hoover boys!

I believe this one is after butch and Daren had gone on the 8:30 am beer run.

Ryan and Terry did a spectacular job cooking "Ziffle" and the pig was dubed by Ryan. It finished up looking something like this.

Way too many things happened to try to write about, it'd take me way too long. Much was eaten, horseshoes thrown, kegs drained, beautiful wedding cake, very happy couple. There were mules to brag about, drunks to take home, lies to be told and men shot down. Wanda's son and his friends hauled in the second keg. Kids played, old people watched, everyone laughed.

It was a really beautiful day.

Spring

We've been extremely busy. Spring, planting all our goodies. Going to races. You know, the every May and June with butch and drafter. So, now, you have to indulge me and look at my pictures.

The Ruby Rhododendrum

One of the darker Iris's (or as butch calls them-flags)

This was a couple of weeks ago, the ferns are getting huge. A long way from the "bareroot" they were when I opened up and envelope and they fell out.

The dune grass is going even more nuts now, they have dozens and dozens of tassles on them. And, I don't know if you can make it out, but i endulged myself and got an upside down goldfinch feeder. butch and i have had a ball watching those little suckers flip themselves upside down to feed. (upside down prevents the bigger finches from hogging all the thistle up-they can't hang like that)

butch will kill me for this one

he planted the extremely aggressive dune grass around the mailbox. he said at the time that it could fill it all in there. until the shit started coming up through the driveway and the road. so we've been spraying kill it all on it, and digging it up, and it still is coming up.

"If I can ever straighten up, I'm going to break that damn camera!"

Guess who's pit stall was right across from us at dover last weekend?