Hit By Drunk Driver, and turkeys.

I wasn't going to post today but then I thought I should so you would know what happened. I went to Lindsay's house to pick up Hannah and Savannah (her Great Dane). We left Lindsay's around 12 and was expecting to be back to Hardin Ridge by about 3. Well we didn't make it. Approximately 3 miles from Hardin Ridge we were hit by a drunk driver. We are all ok just, but were extremely shook up. I was coming up a hill and getting ready to go around a curve and this black car came barreling up the hill on my side of the road, I tried to swerve to the right as much as possible to keep from hitting her head on. Well I achieved that but she hit the side of our truck and completely totaled it. Yes, the one we have only had for about one week. :( The drive shaft was ripped from the truck the rear tires were under the bumper, and the front steering was completely destroyed. Not to mention what it did to the side of the truck. You have to know how fast she was going to do that much damage to a truck from a car. She was very drunk and as soon as I got down to her car to see if she was ok she took off running into the woods. After the police arrived they put out an APB for her after my description and they finally 2 hours later found her. They called me on my cell phone and I had to go identify her, and then fill out a report for the courts what she did at the scene. The Sheriff that was there said to make sure I put in my report that I could identify her 100%, because she tried to kill you. I felt like someone hit me in the stomach when he said that. I was already shook up enough, with Hannah and the dogs in there with me, I started to think what would have happened if she had hit us head on. She more than likely would have been killed with a car vs a truck, and not to mention what would have happened to the dogs or us. She had to of been traveling around 80 mph to do the damage she did to our truck. You never know what a day is going to hold do you when you wake up? All I can say is I am so thankful to God that we all walked away with only our nerves shaken up. The people in the house where the accident happened were so nice they come out and offered us water and to go into their house to cool off as it was so unbearably hot! Al and Kevin came down and got Hannah and the dogs for us to bring them back to the trailer, as we had groceries and it was so hot for the dogs. Thank you so much guys were getting there so fast and helping us out! We really appreciated it!!! Thank goodness Art got to the scene about 10 minutes after it happened as like I said we were almost to the gate to Hardin Ridge. When I went down to identify her she was screaming at the officers, kicking at them, cussing at them, and asking why they were arresting her she did nothing wrong. Well her car was full of beer cans, she left the scene of an accident, she resisted arrest..... I am sure she is in jail tonight. But on a good note I finally got my turkeys, they were waiting at the gate when we pulled back in from identifying her. It is not a great picture but it is turkeys.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. As of now we have no rain. So from Hardin Ridge we are so thankful and send our hugs and best wishes.

Cancellations and Relaxing

Well the rain from Issac is starting to cause cancellations. Terry and I went around this morning pulling cards off of camp posts that had reservations. I think we pulled around 20. The potential rain fall of 5-7" is scaring people off. I don't blame them especially if in a tent. That is miserable I know. Art and I started our camping in a 2 man tent, then we moved up to a 4 man tent. When the girls got older we bought a 4 person pop up, but that didn't last long before we wanted a port a pottie "inside" not "out!" Getting up in the middle of the night to go outside with little ones....no fun. So we bought a larger pop up with an itsy bitsy bathroom. Does only a toilet count as a bathroom? Then we bought a small travel trailer, a larger travel trailer, and now the fiver. Guess for 31 yrs of camping that isn't too bad. Now I enjoy it when it rains in the trailer it is so relaxing the rain hitting the roof. Hail...NO not so relaxing! Limbs...totally SCARY! So we'll just take rain, thank you. Art blew off the rest of the sites that needed it so we are all ready for campers to pull in tomorrow night. We have 2 on our loop so far. We now have all of Southern Loop because the other host had to leave due to family obligations. We have plenty of help so no big deal. I wanted to show you the "official" sign into Hardin Ridge. Wouldn't want anyone thinking we are making all this up. :)

The relaxing came as we drove around on the golf cart getting pictures. I am trying honestly to get other animal pictures other than deer. A lady went through the gate yesterday and said she moved a turtle out of the road so it wouldn't get run over. Ok I am happy for the turtle.......but AHHHHHHH why can't they cross when I am driving on the road. Ok I feel better, got that out of my system. Well not really because still no turkeys. They will probably be far off in the forest this weekend because of the cars. So.....here are more deer. This one is right off to the right of our trailer passed the bathroom area. She is pretty so I am happy to get her. Her babies must have been in the woods or starting to venture off with out her.

I LOVE the next three, and I HATE the next three. The series, I could not have planned better myself, but I had the flash on urrrr so she has flash eyes. You'll see what I mean when you scroll down. "Bambi are you there?"

Yes, I'm here what do you want???

"Can I see all of you for my picture?" "Sure, since you don't have a gun :)"

The we drove on down the road towards the beach and took a picture of Lake Monroe. It is not a sunset but love the shot through the trees.

This tree must be hundreds of years old. The limbs look so big and strong. I had a swing in a big Hickory tree when I was a little girl and would spend hours swinging. So when I see big old tress they remind me of my childhood and that swing. I think this is an Oak. I didn't check closely just took the photo.

Tomorrow we go get Hannah to spend the weekend with us, then we work the gate tomorrow night. Hope I have photos of campers lined up out into the road. :)) So until tomorrow... We send hugs and best wishes from Hardin Ridge.

31 Yrs. Married to the Same Guy....

Today is our 31st anniversary. That is so hard to believe. Where does the time go? I sure wish we knew then what we do now. We would do some things differently but then probably not the mistakes we make are called life. We have had a wonderful marriage and I have been so blessed to have a husband treat me like Art does. I told people at his retirement party that he treats me like a queen and has for 31 yrs. We are so blessed and have 2 beautiful daughters that God blessed us with. And now a granddaughter to carry on our family. I know some people would think us crazy to spend our anniversary the way we are out in the middle of the forest but we are so happy to do just that. No cards, no gifts, just being together doing what we have always dreamed of doing. THIS is our anniversary gift. Funny when we were first married and after the girls were born my Mom and Dad would watch the girls so we could go out for dinner. Couldn't wait to get away and have a quiet meal just the two of us. Almost without fail we would be seated beside a couple with small children and would miss ours and end up talking about them the whole time. Then couldn't wait to get back home to them. We still love to be around them!!! We started the day working at the gate from 9-1. We didn't have them lined to the road but we had a few come in. At least it made the time go faster. Answered several phone calls regarding if we have sites for this weekend or cabins. No, on the cabins but yes we have sites, all the walk in sites are available right now but most of the reserved sites look like this.

This weekend they opened up the sites on Eads. Do you remember the post where Art and Karl were blowing leaves? I took a picture of 2 sites in that loop. This is a primitive loop. This one is number 21 it is very nice, if we had a tent this would be one we would consider.

Then from the parking area for your car this is where you would put your tent and you can see your fire ring. Love the view. The sites are larger than they look in a photo. Wonder why they don't gain 10 lbs like we do? :)

I love love love this one. This is site 23. We are still in Eads.

I know what you are thinking where do we put the tent? Well you walk down a path to the tent area. Cool huh?

I turned around once in the tent area and looked back up towards the parking area. So you can see it is not a long walk. This just gives you more privacy with going down into a little valley.

This is what you would be looking at if you were sitting on your picnic table. Hard to get used to wouldn't it be? ha ha....almost looks fake. This particular loop I see lots of hen turkeys eating in the grass. I know I know what turkeys? One day you just wait I will get them. Good thing I am not a hunter and need to get one to eat. No couldn't do that, I would just have to eat beans.

This is the price sign at the gate. This is better than me trying to tell you all the prices. Should have done this in the beginning of my blog. Oh well better late than never.

Can't say we didn't get any gifts for our anniversary, this mother deer was so kind to be eating with her twins by the road so I could get these photos today. They are smaller than the ones I have photographed before. So cute! This one picture is the only one I could get with her and both babies then they split up and I could only get the one baby the other one was eating too far away from me.

One of the twins eating.

Still eating.....Look at those big brown eyes, so precious.

Oh this one.......ahhhhhhhhh Wouldn't you just love to be to pet and love on this one. If it had been a tiny bit clearer it would be just perfect.

Then they moved off unto a trail. So I thought I would walk up to them and get closer. Nope! They like you better on the golf cart, guess they are more used to seeing people that way. Look at that white tall starting to come up and those ears. Seconds later they were bounding down the hills into the woods and safety. They sure were sweet to let me get the photos I did.

The mosquitoes and bugs were eating me up on the trail. Can you say bug spray? Yikes! Effie says all this camp hosting is wearing her out. This is after we came back to the camper after the gate. She is used to sleeping most of the day at home, so she is not used to all this socializing and work. What work, this is fun. Shhh don't tell. We want to come back next year.

We had beef n barley with onions and carrots for our anniversary dinner and rolls. The dogs had Little Cesar Flavored Filet Minon (ya right). They scarfed it down faster than I could get a photo. Effie is getting smart when she see me coming with the camera she either turns her head or shuts her eyes. Cute isn't she? Cooper is doing dishes, just like Art is doing right now so I can finish this blog. Sweet huh?

Oh wait before I go I had a thought, since I do all the writing on this blog I thought gee Art didn't get to say anything for our anniversary so I asked him, "honey, what would you like to say to me for our anniversary?" He said, "you have been the best wife and mother in the whole wide world. And I love you very very much!" Just kidding he actually said, "Happy Anniversary Honey." Not really can't tell you what he said because I didn't ask him. hee hee me bad! Better go now before I get into more trouble. From Hardin Ridge we send our hugs and best wishes. Now off for our anniversary walk in the night. Boy it is dark out there.

Comments...We Figured Out the PROBLEM......

OK, now let me see if I can explain this. Some people have been sending me comments and I have not been receiving them. I know this because I talk to them or they email me "personally"and tell me. I was talking to Lindsay, my daughter who put this blog together for me to do, and with the help of my brother, Mike we got it! What people are doing is responding to the emails that Blogspot sends out to tell you that I have posted a new blog. If you signed up your email to get these and you reply to that email it "doesn't" come back to me, it goes into Cyber Space I guess. You need to comment in the box on the ACTUAL BLOG PAGE. That comment then comes to my email account or I can read it on the blog like you all can. Also, if you just read the blog that comes through the email (from Blogspot) you will not get the pictures. You can click on the title of the blog at the top and that will take you to the blog page that has the COMMENT box at the bottom. Just type your comment, and hit publish and that should be all there is to it. Thank you to those who did the comment test for me. Now I need more of you to comment. We LOVE to hear your comments. It is like talking on the phone but no one responds if you don't comment once in a while. :)) If you have any questions or still have problems here is my email address, write to me here. atfletcher@frontier.com Thanks for your patience. I couldn't do a post without a photo....who can get enough of our adorable granddaughter. Here she is making sand box soup :)

Turkeys, Finally got Turkeys!!!!

Ok here they are and aren't they beautiful.....worth waiting for. This one is Dolly. Yes, named after Dolly Parton, and I'm not going to tell you why :))

This one is Easy, because she lets you pet her anytime and is "SO" friendly. She is sooo sweet, and yes turkeys have different personalities.

This beautiful couple is Belle, (because she is a blue color) and Jeb our handsome, barn yard police officer. Or so he thinks!

Notice his poor "little" tail feathers. He has molted them all off. He usually has the biggest most beautiful tail. When he struts his stuff he has it all feathered out. By now I'm sure you are figuring out that these are not turkeys at Hardin Ridge. Yes, these are our turkeys at home. The big white ones came from Purdue University in Lafayette, IN. A local girl in our area was taking a vet tech course there and they were studying the behavior of the turkey. Why? I have no idea, guess to see if they get nervous around Thanksgiving. Anyway, her mom and dad were driving by our farm one day and saw our THREE turkeys we had. They wanted to know if we would be interested in taking these white ones because they were going to euthanize them. We said sure we would take them, thinking there was only 2 or 3. Nope there were SEVENTEEN! Look at those faces how could we say no. We now have 4 left out of the original 17. They are meat birds and are not intended to live long lives. These 4 we have left are now 2 yrs old. That is a long time for them to live. Two of them are having trouble walking so they have been retired to the retirement/hospital pen. Jeb and Belle were bought at a sale barn. Jeb is so funny he is so protective of the barn yard and all the things in it. Ask Hannah and Art hee hee....he has never come after me :) Moving on from turkeys to geese....

We only have two of them named...the one at the bottom left is BG (baby goose), and the white one is Jeffrey, oops she is girl. Didn't know that until she grew up, but she knows her name so we left it. BG came to us with a baby duck and so we called him BG to tell them apart. Like we couldn't anyway. The other geese in the picture are descendents of a goose we had for 23 yrs. She just died this summer. We got her when Lindsay was 2 yrs old and Lindsay is now 25. I had no idea they lived that long. This little cutie is Socks. He is the only goat we have left out of 16 or so. He is a little Pygmy. The girls used to have so much fun with the goats. They played better than the dogs. They would run and jump and when the kids were born they were the cutest things ever. And we all know how to milk by hand thanks to the goats. And no, we didn't milk the Pygmys just the Nubians. Since this is my blog I can brag and tell you I was the fastest! :)

He is like "wathcha doin'?" "Got any bread?"

Art just had to start working on cutting up the tree that fell a month ago. Was going to wait until we got home for good in Oct, but he didn't want it killing the grass.

The main reason we came home was so I could go to the dentist. I lost a filling in one of my teeth and didn't want to take the chance of breaking it off. I'm so sorry Dr. Walker that you ended up in the post called Turkeys. He is such a sweet guy. If anyone got a joke out of being in this blog it would be him. He has his practice in Crawfordsville In, and he is one of the most generous men I have ever met. He was really bummed today to learn that I won't be making any more of my Black Raspberry Jelly to take to him. The trailer is a little small for that job, plus, the berries are more expensive than gold. Gee, just wanna eat it not wear it. So here is Dr. John Walker, he was so kind to poss for my blog. Thank you Dr. Walker for the toothpaste too. We promise to use it.

Notice the Colts' room? He is an avid sports fan and has his rooms decorated in all kinds of sports memorabilia. Very neat! Well I have to put at least one thing from Hardin Ridge, so here is a little toad that was sitting outside our trailer last night when Art took the dogs out. I just love little toads. Don't know if boy or girl, married or not, but he is posing quite well wouldn't you say?

So from Thorntown we send hugs and best wishes.

Working the Gate and Messy Sites :(

Today we slept in a little bit. Since we get up so early almost everyday it is hard to sleep late. Art checked the bathrooms for toilet paper before we went to the gate. He ran into Wayne and Trenna who clean the bathrooms here. That is a paid position. We had some rowdy people on our loop last night, and they left a little present this morning. They crapped all down the outside wall of the bathroom and then they vomited beside that! They were obviously drunk. How do we know? Because they left not one, not two, not three, but FIVE trash bags full of beer cans,beer bottles, wine bottles, all over the sites they were in. And we picked up at least 200 or more cigarette butts and bottle caps, and toilet paper. Aren't people lovely when they drink. These were the walk in sites and so they feel like they can do what they want to that far back in the forest. I didn't have my camera but I am not sure I would have wanted some of that on the blog. DISGUSTING! But yet when these people check in they expect a site that is perfectly picked up for them. I wish there was some way the forest could fine them but there isn't. You just have to vent and go on I guess. So we ate supper really late, and I am so tired. We are going home tomorrow as I have to get a new filling in my tooth. We are going to stay the night at our house and spend some time with Hannah. Lindsay and Meredith are coming too. I do have a deer picture. When we came back to the trailer from the gate there she stood. Wish she would have been closer but I was happy with this one. She just stood there and let me talk to her.

Since I don't have any more pictures of animals from the park I thought I would amuse you by showing you this picture of our daughter Hannah and her Great Dane, Savannah. This was taken in Holmes County, Ohio in June of this year. She is one big dog!

She looks so abused doesn't she? Made to sit on a picnic table who ever heard of such a thing.

OK since we are on dog photos here is a big favorite of mine. Same place Ohio but with the two dachshunds Effie and Cooper. Guess someone was walking by and they all looked at the same time. Doesn't Effie look small between Savannah's big legs :)

Ok just one more.....

Are they adorable or what? Well that will do it for tonight. Not much is going on here except all the Loops are getting ready for Labor Day weekend. I will probably have 3 pages of posts after that weekend is over. The park is almost full. Oh my! So from Hardin Ridge we send hugs and best wishes.

Blowing Leaves on Eads, Dan and Hannah visit

****For some reason some of the pictures I downloaded as large came out with double exposure. So I downloaded them as medium and they came out ok. You should be able to click on them to enlarge them. What caused this, the stars weren't out! Just kidding who knows. **** Here is a good picture of my baby Cooper. He looks so innocent sitting here. Hard to believe he can be the little pistol he is at times. But I still love him :)

We had kind of a relaxing day. Well I did ha ha.... Art went with some of the other guys and blew off the roads in Eads. That is another primitive loop in the park that has not been open because they did not have a host for it. But they have reservations for it for Labor Day weekend so they started cleaning it up to get ready for the last big weekend. Here is Art and Karl blowing leaves, branches, nuts, squirrels (kidding) etc.

In this picture you can see the difference in the road where it has been blown. They wear back pack blowers and boy did they do a great job. Where were they when we were blowing our leaves last Fall?

After Art finished with blowing leaves he came back and showered and I fixed a fast and gooey grilled cheese sandwich for our lunches.

Hannah and her boyfriend Dan were coming down to spend the day here. Hannah has been here many times but Dan has not. This is a picture of them in my new swing and Art and Effie Mae enjoying the outdoors too. Isn't she a cutie? OK Art you're cute too. You just don't have the little Mohawk going on :)

This is Terry she makes magnetic bracelets. They are sooooo pretty. She used to get migraine headaches really bad until she started to wear these and now she has not had one for years. She made the girls each one and Hannah's was a tiny bit too little so we went down to the beach for her to resize it. When she finished with Hannah's I "casually" asked her about yellow beads as our anniversary is next week and I had daisies as flowers. So yellow and white is what I was wanting. I thought hmmmmm that would make a pretty bracelet so here is Terry making it for me. Here is a picture of the three she has done for me. Believe me the picture does NOT do them justice. If I put the flash on it made the beads a different color. They are gorgeous and guess what you can put them on by yourself! They just ''poof'' fasten themselves. She sells them at festivals and to other camp hosts who go down and bug her. hee hee....

I wanted to show you my new bird feeder. Art and I went to the National Forest Office in Bedford to look around and they had these bottoms to bird feeders you attach to empty pop bottles. Isn't that clever? Seems great to be recycling in nature.

We grilled hamburgers for dinner and then, even though it was humid outside we just had to have fire. I LOVE fire pictures, and this one really captured the spikes in the flames. Almost looks fake.

This was the view from my chair as the fire was getting started. The sun was coming through the trees and was so pretty. Was happy with the way it turned out.

Then we had to say good bye to Dan and Hannah. Sniff sniff, but we will see her Monday as I lost part of a filling in a tooth and have to go to the dentist. Fun fun! (Gonna sue McDonalds, I was eating their yogurt with Granola) Not really, just kidding. Cooper pooped out on my lap.

Before I sign off I wanted to tell you some people have informed me they are leaving comments and I am not getting them. If you have left a comment and I have not replied I am sorry.... Lindsay HELP! If you are wanting to leave a comment do so at the bottom of the blog entry by my name that says posted by Tammy Fletcher. It is set up to go to my email account and I should get it that way. I would love to hear from you who are reading this. Any suggestions I would love to have them and maybe I can accomplish them. So comment away all :)) So from Hardin Ridge we send hugs and best wishes.