On Her Way to Iraq

We knew this day would come, but it came all too fast. Christine has shipped out to Iraq and we'll all miss her terribly.

Best wishes for fun travel and a safe mission in Iraq! We all love you and keep smiling!

in the garden....

As of this posting date Christine has made it to Kuwait. She'll be there a few days in-processing then head out to Iraq. The above pictured flowers were going away bouquets given to her; which I am now enjoying.

He's Moved Home Again!

This post is long overdue. I am so darned happy to write it finally too. Many of you have wondered how I spend so much time blogging. Well, you are about to find out.

First of all let me say I am a very loyal person and faithful. I work hard to be diligent in all I do. I think blogging is important for not only me but for others I talk to. I remember what it was like just beginning to blog and wondering if anyone was reading or even cared what I thought about gardening. Once the first comments came to this blog I realized, hey, some folks are actually reading!! And that made me happy. It made me feel like all my hard work was worth the time.

The more folks commented, the more I commented and talked and conversations began. From conversations friendships developed. One thing led to another and before I knew it I felt as though I knew the people I spoke to on this blog and on their own blogs.

Personalities DO come out in blogs. I have had the pleasure of meeting several bloggers not only in Tennessee, but from as far away as Florida, Georgia, Maine, and Ohio. Blogging changed a bit further for me because not only did I have relationships with people on this blog, but I also got to know them outside of the blog.

Whenever I speak to someone on here it is as though I speak to them in person. I know it is not always the same on the Internet as in person, but one single point remains-you do develop relationships (and hopefully friendships) with folks on blogs, not all, but some for sure. It takes two way conversation in addition to having common interests. Hence, comments and 'talking' are a big part of this blog.

Once these relationships developed, a commitment came about that I placed upon myself. I really want to talk to all my friends on here and do so by commenting on their blogs as well as this one. More and more folks began commenting and I began knowing more and more people which took more and more time. Wow! Lots of time!

I enjoy the social interaction, the learning, and all the tours to other gardens I may not ever have seen otherwise. I've learned so much and gained so much more than I ever expected when I first began blogging nearly two years ago. But again, anyone who blogs knows blogging takes time and a commitment. I've already explained my commitment thing, now onto the time.

Where do I get the time? I am very efficient and have a system but mainly the big reason I have time to blog is because my husband (Mr. Fix-it, aka Roger) lives in another state! Yes, it is true. He has lived in Indiana since August of 2005, but now his tour of duty in Evansville Indiana has come to an end and he has moved back home!!!

Let me explain lest anyone get the wrong idea-Lola-no panics now:)) Regular readers know my husband is a recruiter. He is an Army recruiter; a very important job as we all know. Without recruiters there might not be an all volunteer Army. As much maligned as recruiters are, I can honestly say from my experience in the Army, recruiters are the hardest working men and women in the Army! My husband would much rather suffer the hardships in Iraq (he's been already) or Afghanistan than serve even one more day in recruiting. Recruiting is tough, but Mr. Fix-it is a professional and had a job to do, so he did it, and did it well.

In November 2004 we were notified by the Department of the Army that Mr. Fix-it was selected for recruiting duty. Normally, recruiters selected for this type of duty are required to serve for three years. Sometimes recruiters don't even make it one year due to the grueling hours and tough sales experience it requires of the men and women. Mr. Fix-it was due to attend recruiting school in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, then he would report to his recruiting station in August 2005. Fine. Fair enough. Three years is not so long really. This is part of Army life and we accepted it completely, all the while hoping his recruiting duty would see him here close to home-preferably in Clarksville.

Alas, it was not to be. Mr. Fix-it was assigned to the Indianapolis Recruiting Battalion, with duty in Evansville, Indiana. His last duty station in this company saw him recruiting soldiers in Jasper, Indiana; while the company headquarters is located in Bloomington. This is a hard tour for regular Army soldiers (think lots of driving and oh yes, let's throw in a time difference because Indiana is one of those states that-well, let's just say there are two time zones!) because of the unavailability of normal Army logistics and because of working totally in the civilian world. Civilians have a totally different mentality than Army folks, or even folks in a city around an Army town. At any rate, Mr. Fix-it has been tremendously successful in his job of recruiting. He earned one of the Army's highest recruiting awards, the gold Recruiter ring. I am SO proud of him and even posted about it here. He may consider it more of a war trophy, but I am ecstatic he earned it!! So he gave it to me. Ha! Funny guy huh?

Recruiting soldiers in a time of war is pretty difficult. While I love the folks in southern Indiana, they are very anti Army when it comes to their kids serving in the Army. I kind of don't blame them. The Army certainly comes with risks, but so does every day life; there are no guarantees. I have two daughters who have served in the Army (one is in right now) so I talk from an experienced point of view. There is nothing wrong with wanting your son or daughter close to home, but if that son or daughter wishes to join the military-then the parent should be supportive and not hate the recruiter. 'Nuff said on this issue. Just know recruiters have a tough job.

Recruiting saw Mr. Fix-it working 60-80 hour workweeks. All hours of every day of the week were fair game. He has received phone calls on his Army issued cell phone at 2 am while on vacation, to 10 am on Christmas day. Yes, such is the life. All part of the job I guess, but not so conducive to family life. As such, we made the difficult decision to maintain two separate households while Mr. Fix-it was a recruiter. Logically, living apart in order to maintain our home and life here in Tennessee made sense to us. Not only were there long hours to contend with (think NO family dinners due to work commitments), there was the issue of Jimmy and his school. Selling or renting our Tennessee home was not an option. Living apart and purchasing a 'temporary' home was the only route we could go. Mr. Fix-it could concentrate on his very important recruiting duties while in Evansville, and then he could focus on family when the time was right-mainly weekends.

Evansville is a short two hour drive from our home in Tennessee. Either the Jimster and I drove up to Evansville (with all dogs in tow) or Mr. Fix-it drove down to Tennessee every single weekend. By the time 2008 came around we were getting excited about Mr. Fix-it's tour of duty coming to an end. It HAD been three years! A quick email to the Department of the Army asking when he would receive his next assignment and could it be Fort Campbell brought us a BIG shock. Mr. Fix-it was extended for an extra nine months. Instead of his tour of duty ending in August 2008 as it should have, it was now scheduled to end the following April (now May).

I must say somewhere along the way the Army Recruiting Command changed its procedures for operations. Instead of working unGodly hours and beating up their 'salesmen' each day, they switched to a 'team concept'. This concept allowed the recruiters some more time off and took off a lot of pressure. Also, about this time the economy began tanking and guess what? The Army began getting lots of men and women who all of a sudden wanted to join the Army. And, the folks who are currently in the Army, want to stay! The Army now found itself in a good position and is actually shortening some recruiter's tours, not Mr. Fix-it's though, but he is done nonetheless!

I started this blog in the fall of 2007; which was about one year prior to Mr. Fix-it being scheduled to come home. I had plenty of time to blog since he lived elsewhere. Jimmy and I do our own thing so I had lots of flexibility (think plenty of frozen dinners whenever I was done gardening or blogging or whatever). We saw hubby on the weekends, vacations, and special occasions such as Army sponsored trips to Great Wolf Lodge and the Sheraton in Indianapolis (boy was that cool!), and we spoke to each other each and every day; without fail. Time moved on and before we knew it the tour of duty ended. Mr. Fix-it has been reassigned to Fort Campbell so he has moved back in!!!

This is such a wonderful thing for us all and we are very happy to have him home. He's been living here now for a few weeks and we have needed no adjustment to our schedules-except one. He goes to sleep with the television on. This is not my thing so he says for me to stay up and blog. Yup! Go figure! By the time I go to bed the television is off and all is well. We've adjusted well and at that is awesome! Jimmy is very happy to have his Dad home now.

What does this mean for my blogging? We shall see. I am going to have to re-prioritize without doubt. I will always blog as I learn so much and enjoy the interaction, but I may not be as diligent as I have always been. I don't think that will be an issue for my blogging friends BUT it is an issue for me. I have to get over it though because things will change for me somewhat. I simply will not want to be on here as much as I was prior to Mr. Fix-it coming home. I have established a pattern and habits that will be hard for me to change, but change they will. There is so much to be done around the house-and I am not even talking the garden. I am not exactly sure how things will pan out with blogging, perhaps I may not post as often. Or perhaps I may not comment as often, I just don't know. I do plan to keep my standard day postings for sure. As far as other posts I have about 50 in the hopper still and more come every single day. Posts that are important for me to share (in my opinion) but maybe not so important at all in the big picture of things may just sit in the hopper and never be posted. Preparing posts takes time, as does visiting and commenting and so on. We shall see how I can balance it all but I can see I will be without a doubt spending less time blogging, though he's been home for two weeks now and I've only slightly slowed down, so we'll see. For now I plan to do like I always try to do and take it one day at a time....

in the garden....

P.S. Mother's Day saw us in Evansville finally moving the last of the furniture down here to Tennessee. Fortunately it didn't rain too hard on our uncovered trailer-so much for weather reports!

I did get in a short garden visit to my friend's house with the lovely irises. She of course, shared some more with me. I will always remember Mr. Fix-it's days in Evansville as days of good shopping, beautiful plants and outdoor things, and nice folks.

I hope we can still visit often and sell our house soon! Wish us luck as the economy is so bad there that we may be lucky to sell our house for what we paid for it four years ago! Not a happy day for us at all.

P.P.S. Sorry such a long post-but you all know me! Feel free to skip over it quickly!! But now you know how I got into blogging and how I have been able to spend so much time on here. It has all been a joy, and good thing Mr. Fix-it is such a good guy to understand.

I made the sign in the picture above back in 2004 when Roger returned from a one year deployment to Iraq. Little did I know I would have a reason to use it again.

in the garden....working very hard lately.

Fort Campbell's Clarksville Base Trail

I have spoken of my walking trail before, and will again as it is the best kept little 'secret' on Fort Campbell. Those of us who live close by have a real gem in this roadmarch/ruck march/walking route at Clarksville Base on Fort Campbell. This is a most treasured spot for me to commune with nature and today I'll take you along.
I was first introduced to this route when having to complete the 12 mile roadmarch as part of the 18th Airborne Corps requirements. Little did I know that despite: the blisters, the pain, and the blur of simply trudging along praying I would make the time and not collapse due to the physical toll this roadmarch took on my body; that this route would become such a favored part of my life. Even the rocks smile when I walk by. Can you see the face in this rock formation? It is clear as mud, look closely and let me know if you can't see it.

In the seven years I have lived here I have endeavored to walk this 4.5 mile route weekly. It has not always worked out this way, but it is an admirable goal is it not? One of my favorite times of year to walk the route is in the winter. I have traversed the paved road when it has been under snow and ice, and when it has been covered with puddles full of beautiful butterflies. I enjoy the artwork at my favorite 'wade in the stream spot', and I enjoy the towering sycamores which help provide food for the numerous deer, turkey and other assorted wildlife that make this sanctuary its home.

Clarksville Base is a historic area of Fort Campbell. Many may know it as the 'Bird Cage'. Its exact original purpose is not known to me, but I have read that nuclear weapons were stored here during the last world war. The walking trail is bordered by cool underground bunkers that are used for storage, not of the nuclear kind.
The building where I worked when I was in the Army used to be the fire station for Clarksville Base. I once tried to upgrade the drafty, leaky windows in our building and was told by the engineers that it was not allowed due to the building being historic. Historic must mean non-energy efficient because the wind sure blew through on cold days.

A favored and truly treasured spot is this stream area. There is a system of several bridges, one of which walkers and roadmarchers will pass over when navigating the trail. I almost always walk down the concrete bank and sit and listen to the water. Many folks do the same. On a sunny day there will be whole families walking the trail and some will even cast a fishing line or two. Look closely in the picture below and you can see tire tracks of some brave soul who decided to spin his car around in the stream. This would have been possible only when the stream was low. Wonder if it was fun to the silly drivers? Beavers, swallows, turtles, deer, wild turkeys, geese, and blue herons are all in abundance in this area. I have seen them all and so enjoy the tranquility of their lives. They coexist peacefully with walkers like me. Whenever the Jimster is with me it is a given he will take off his shoes and socks, roll up his pants and go wading. On a recent trek to the stream around dusk, the Jimster, his friend Christian, and I were enthralled when a 'little bird' helicopter showed up. It was doing night flying above the tree tops. As an air traffic controller we called this type of flying NOE, or nap of the earth flying. This helicopter gave us a show by landing on the bridge above. We were sitting right where I am taking the picture, quite close to the helicopter. Water spray and dust flew everywhere. I still get a tingle being around this type of activity or whenever I hear a helicopter fly overhead or a 'freedom bird' does a low take off just west of my home. It is the air traffic controller part of me coming out. Some of my aviation friends who spent their lives working on helicopters around here HATE the sound of helicopters now. They purposely buy homes far away from flight routes and avoid Fort Campbell altogether. But not me, I love the helicopters and all their noise. Now, the blasting from Fort Campbell I can do without:)

I thank the Army everyday for the wonderful experiences I was able to live during my twenty years of service. To travel to the Middle East, or fly over the Alps in a Huey, to fire a rifle and throw a grenade, to work in a bubble in the sky with air conditioning, to help a pilot land his aircraft in the thickest of fog, to get an education and to meet some really neat folks, to live in Italy and ride a gondola on the canals of Venice, to see King Ludwig's Fairytale Castle Neuschwanstein is something that most people never get to experience in a lifetime. And I was able to do it all and more during my twenty year tour of duty.

This post is really not about the Army, but about a wonderful walking trail on an Army base. This walking trail and walking in general always makes me appreciate the little things in life: like walking on a clear and sunny day and giving myself time to just be me with no pressures, no blogging, no stressors, just life. Walking does this for me. I am going to finish this post with a short video of the stream. You can hear the water running which is such a soothing sound for me. There will be more posts on this super great walking trail. It is filled with wildflowers and noises and vernal ponds full of bullfrogs and fish and geese and life. For now....

I'm in the garden....walking with Bella on the Clarksville Base Trail.

Hi all. I've been contacted by a few folks who are interested in Clarksville Base and from what I understand it was a most special place to be stationed during the Cold War. I am currently working on a post concerning some stories and some information about a few reunions that involve Clarksville Base. The page links are no longer valid for these reunions. Sorry.

Great Wolf Lodge and Recruiter Ring Ceremony

The Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio is definitely great. Mr. Fix-it is an Army Recruiter; the toughest job in the Army because without him and the other recruiters, there would be no Army. Have you ever tried getting folks to join the Armed Forces during times of war? I digress, this posting will be saved for a later date, but the fact Mr. Fix-it's job is so tough entitles him and the other recruiters to many perks. Okay, not many, but a few. Great Wolf Lodge for the recruiters and their families is one of those perks.
Mr. Fix-it's battalion headquarters is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, though the battalion's recruiters are spread out all the way from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Kentucky. It is a very wide area for one command to command. In order to bring the entire battalion together and to enable training and bonding of all assigned soldiers and their family members, an Annual Training Conference (ATC) is held once a year. This year and last year the location chosen was The Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio. What a location!

The lodge has an indoor water park and neat machines all through the hotel where children can become 'Magi' and acquire runes and obtain points. The Jimster spent a good six hours just on this game. His goal was to get the highest points ever, and he has plans to return when he is 16, just so he can still see his score. He also enjoyed the waterpark. His dad worked, and I suffered through a migraine headache in the hotel room, though I did manage to take part in the award ceremonies. This weekend was very special to us because Mr. Fix-it earned his Recruiter's Ring. It is a ring like a class ring and not all recruiters can obtain it. We were so honored Mr. Fix-it earned his and very excited to be there for his award ceremony and induction into an elite group of recruiters who proudly wear the ring. Here we are all standing with the Sergeant Major and the Battalion Colonel after the ring ceremony. We were quite happy the Jimster was able to participate by walking 'the gauntlet' with us. The ring ceremony was a proud day of my husband's long recruiting career; which will come to an end in a few months. Thank goodness!!! Great Wolf Lodge is a real gem and if you are ever in the area and have plans to visit Kings Island, do stay at Great Wolf Lodge and have a super great time. Their service and facilities were great for the large of group of Army recruiters that ascended on the lodge this cold weekend in November.

in the garden....