G’Day everyone, Dutch here! Welcome to my little place in the Universe! Got lots accomplished this morning, taking a long lunch break and going to do a short blog…. starting to slow down for the rest of the afternoon so letting Andre Rieu furnish the start and end for the music…

Sooooooooooo put your troubles aside, pull up a chair and visit a spell…….

With a number of activities going on and reporting the weather was a bit busy the last few days…. this video so give you some idea of what it was like….

I guess some of my friends over in the UK had experience a earthquake, around a 5. something, yesterday or day before.. I think they are a lot like here in Central USA, something that is uncommon although we live in a fault line, called the New Madrid and do have tremors (unfelt) from time to time … I remember a couple of occasion of having some tremors, but they were relatively minor, just a vibration mainly….

But the first time I encountered a good building shaker was when I was in the USMC and stationed in San Diego, Calif….. I was going to communications school at the time… of course, the first thing they told us when we arrived there was if a earthquake should happen, try to get out of the building as rapidly as possible to avoid falling debris and the like… Well, we were going on lunch break during a session in July and I decided to stop by the Men’s Restroom before going to the mess hall to get some food….. the Men’s room was on the second floor...I set down to contemplate my future in the Marine Corps among other things, when I felt the building start to vibrate, then start to shake and I could hear and FEEL the water sloshing around in the toilet bowl I was sitting on…. Well, because this is a family blog site, I’m not going to elaborate on the chain of events of me trying to get out of the building that followed the meeting of this ole country boy from the prairies of Illinois and a 4.4 magnitude California quake in the 2nd floor Men’s room of Marine Barracks 203C … I will leave that to your imagination.. enjoy… I know the folks that lived there did….

In spite of the weather going to start the seeds of my tomato plants this weekend…..

should plant them about 8 weeks before setting them out… these are heirloom plant seeds and you can’t purchase them.. You have to know someone like me who saves the seeds.. Will start green peppers a little later… green beans, cucumbers and onion sets I’ll start from seed outdoors… didn’t have very much luck trying to start them indoors and transplanting them...… but we’re getting ready for spring no matter what… from the sounds of the weather it could come in like a lion….

Going to have chili and hot dogs for supper again, just sounds good on a day like today, cloudy, flurries, cold… got a gumbo of sorts that I came up with for my lunches.. Kathy is not too keen on them so I played around with different recipes, mixed and matched and came up with this one that isn’t too bad, at least for me, and if you interested I’m posting it and if you wish to tweak it to your satisfaction, give it a go…. it makes enough for 2 people, maybe 3, depending on how hungry one is...enjoy…..

Well, better scoot, need to get the chili started and finish up the day, sooooooooooooooooooo everyone have a smilin’ gooooooooooooooood day full of Peace Love and Happiness and I’ll see you next time if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creeks don’t rise…..