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Willoughby Farms Waggin' dog walk

Ferdie and I took advantage of a warm day (without rain) to take a walk through the Willoughby Heritage Farm in Collinsville.  Today was a special day at the farm just for dogs to walk through the trails, meet other dogs, and do a little canine shopping. 

The Willoughby Farm has been rather smack dab in the middle of Collinsville since the early 1900's, family owned.  When the last member of the family to live on the farm passed away sometime around 2000, the Collinsville Area Recreation District took ownership and has turned it into a farm as you would have seen in the 1930's. 

Walking onto the grounds we first saw the entrance to a children's area.

Cool St. Louis Arch made out of vines.

Then came the ancient tractor frame.

Could be in a sculpture park, I've seen rustier art in those places.  This is very neat to see.

Then an old hay rake.

Ok, when we got into the farm itself Ferdie had to sign in.

Ferdie's pretty smart about knowing his own name.

Then we headed out for our walk around.

The barns have all been painted the traditional red which I really like.  There are several gardens, flowers, herbs, vegetables. 

Seating areas are placed here and there so you can just sit and enjoy.

But Ferdie had enough of the flowers and vegetables, he wanted to hit the trails.

I don't know if the sign was people or dogs.

Here and there are sign explaining what there is to see in the form of plant life etc.  This was a spot over looking native prairie and it's restoration. 

Down below comes a couple of other dogs and their owners.

We went down and around as well.  But by that time Ferdie was beginning to pant, it was warm in the sun.  He wanted a snack.

Come on already, he hollared over to me.  There's homemade treats here. 

The man selling the treats felt sorry for Ferdie and came out and gave him some sympathy.  So I ended up buying two bags of treats. 

We made a stop inside the main barn before we left, many events are held in this place and it's rather a wonder to walk around and look at everything.

 


Lots of historical items which are fun to look at.  There is always someone else looking who mentions that they or their mother or grandparents"had one just like that".  Then they wonder what happened to it. 

We finally headed down the road to the car, gave one look back at the barns and some of the other dogs who were still there, and headed home.

Well, we didn't exactly head home, we did a few other things.  It was an interesting day.

 

There's always something else you can do with chicken

Chicken is cheap relatively speaking which is why chicken shows up at so many events.  Plus, like fish chicken takes on whatever seasonings you add to it which makes it taste less like chicken.  That has always struck me as the point of adding all kinds of things to a piece of fish  before cooking it, who really wants fish to taste like fish?

Chicken is palatable to most people, but it can get boring fixing it the same way over and over. 

So here is a wow! inducing recipe for chicken salad I found stole from the Pioneer Woman.  Gosh this looks fantastic and it will show up on our dinner plates very soon.

This is grilled chicken salad with feta, fresh corn and blueberries.  And some other stuff.  Not hard.  How perfect for the coming sunny/warm days. 

Recipe at the link.

Drew is 6 weeks old

And smiling and bright eyed.  And still wearing a full head of hair.

We'll be seeing him soon.

Garbage can surprise

Just a bit ago I walked out to put a bag of trash in the outside can.  Lifted off the lid to drop the bag in and Yikes!

On top of the previous bag was a splayed out dead squirrel.

Now I have to figure out a way to get that darn thing into a bag for pickup and I do not want to handle a dead squirrel

We just cannot get away from squirrels, either running free in our house or dead in our trash can.

Shocker

East St. Louis has more registered voters than it has voting age population.

Yesterday Chris Matthews and a guest were arguing that anyone should be allowed to vote even if they weren't registered on election day or had followed any of the local election rules for voting eligibility.  They claimed anyone who tried to stop this sort of "walk up" voting were right wing crazies who just wanted to stifle the democratic vote.  NO voter ID!

Interesting eh?  The obvious question is why he'd think people who just walked up and wanted to vote with no questions asked would necessarily be wanting to vote democratic.

I guess the East St. Louis story answers that one.  In part at least.

No kidding

According to the Nielsen Co., the US media have given the wedding more than twice as much attention as the Brits.

The historic Blum House

Had a meeting of Collinsville Progress today and it was held at the Blum House.  The Blum family manufactured the only cow bells made in the United States and was owned by the Blum family for generations. 

If you ever come across one of these bells, let me know.  They are distinguished by the metal lapel type things across their shoulders.

Something over ten years ago the house was given to the Collinsville library which sits next door.  It is now used for meetings, wedding/baby showers and other events.

It's a beauty.

With a wrap around porch.

Put that iPhone camera to better use

iPhone camera apps to take better and more interesting photos.

There are 6500 photo apps for the iPhone.  Which should you choose? 

The New York Times tech writer, David Pogue, gives some advice.  I have some of these already but am excited to try some of the others. 

Don't settle for the slow to load, slow to focus and slow to save built in camera.  Try some of these. 

Journalism is dead

I may have turned off the news for the last time this morning.  Nothing but birthers, British Royals.  All this in the midst of one of the worst weather devastation we've seen in a long time. 

I went from channel to channel hoping to see some news from Alabama.  Nothing but birther talk or royal wedding talk. 

178 people dead and counting.  Tuscaloosa nearly gone.  If this had happened in New York would we still be hearing about birthers?   All day and all night?

JIM TREACHER ON FACEBOOK: “So now the MSM will spend a whole week scolding everybody ELSE for not having better things to talk about than Birtherism.”

Collinsville's going to the dogs on Saturday

2 events for dogs and dog owners:

Willoughby Farm is holding a Willoughby Waggin' Dog Walk from 10 until 2.  You can walk your dog over the farm's trails, buy dog stuff from dog vendors (Ferdie will have his own booth selling treats-not really), see a police K-9 presentation.   If you haven't been to Willoughby Farm and have a dog, this is a great way to see it. 

The Mutts on Main dog park will be the scene of a dog adoption from 1 until 5 sponsored by the Animal Relief and Rescue Foundation.  (ARRF)