Look who is ATOP THE LEADERBOARD of the local sports radio station bracket in Austin! Not to brag or anything lol. RCJH

I didn't know that DP wasn't playing until right before tip off and honestly thought we were just going to be over powered, but for the final 6+ minutes I was standing in front of my tv and seeing how wrong I had been. I thought our HEART, more than anything, was going to be the deciding factor and boy did they show it. What a memorable game, intense feeling, so much pride and giddy happiness all rolled up in one! So proud of the team. I haven't see Coach that happy since Muck Fizzou! We deserve all of these emotions considering what we saw the last few years. The chip is back @drgnslayr !!! #RockChalkJayhawk

Now I know why our band was wearing his Jersey!!

KU's Samis Calderon is not here for the first round game. His dad passed away and he traveled back to be with his family. Dad's name was Luis Calderon and he lived in El Paso.

My shirt today and my #Jayhawks quilt.

Did you ever ponder how one miniscule aspect of life has such a great impact on our planet? I have and still do.Thought of what Jaybate would have added to the conversation. I love, love, love Sir David Attenborough and what he has done for our planet...making us aware that all life is connected and we have to care for it. I used to watch a PBS show with Marty Stouffer called Wild America back in the early 80's as well as Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler on Wild Kingdom. Mike situated the string lines for our house 3 different ways in order to sit the house between the trees so that we only had to take one out when we built the house. He had a wide knowledge for outdoor living and so we camped out a lot here and made our plans. We bought our first 2 lots on a contract for deed basis and paid $75 a month for each lot beginning in 1981 and saved our money while living in a dump $150 duplex in Central Austin. We started the house in Sept. of 84 and moved in 4 months and 2 days later, on our wedding anniversary. He put up the 40' x 60' metal building all by himself (with the help of a crane) in 2009. All the other outbuildings he would draw out, we'd go over it, and then one day I would come home from work and it would be done!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!! I was a sophomore in high school in Leavenworth in 1970 when the first Earth Day was celebrated. I remember Robert Redford being a big part of this endeavor to wake people up about the connection we all have to making sure our planet is happy, healthy and keeping the environment rather than paving everything with asphalt and concrete. Robert used to vacation in Austin as a young boy and was in awe of the Barton Springs pool, which is fed by a natural spring. He narrated a documentary on it and the activists that were demanding construction be limited at the Spring's beginning started a years long fight by the Citizens of Austin to protest the development upstream by a "less than caring individual", Jim Bob Moffat, who with all his money thought he could rape the land to gain a profit. At a City Hall hearing that went on for over 24 hours, the City of Austin denied his development permit and the Springs were saved. From time to time they have to close it due to runoff from the other developments that were allowed upstream and it is a never ending fight to keep the Springs healthy. It's a constant 68 degrees and people swim in it year round, even in winter, and it is a shock to your system when you jump in on a 100 degree day! There is a salamander that is on the threatened species list and a cave cricket that was also found and were able to declare it a federally protected habitat. One of our clients owned a 2,700 acre ranch where the headwaters for Barton Springs began and I got to help the ranch owners protect their land with conservation easements with the City of Austin and The Nature Conservancy, whereby their land will never be sold for commercial development and is monitored yearly for control burns, hunting, grazing and wildflower restoration. Each year this family had an open house and Mike and I went to several, which included hiking to the beginning of the Springs and seeing the flora and fauna. Just breathtaking. We all can do our part to keep what we have before it is too late. That's why I plant so many polinator flowers. My wild sunflowers are a haven for the migrating Monarchs and this year I didn't even pull up the dandelions because before all the spring flowers have bloomed, the dandelion is one of the few plants out there when the bees need it the most.

@approxinfinity Glad to hear!!!! I have been battling a tough cold and just now feel better. Missed all of you.
MERRY CHRISTMAS KUBUCKETS!

Today's photo is a varigated form of the Helianthus annuus "Ring of Fire" (Common Sunflower). It's a striking sunflower variety, with large flowers, 5 inches across, boasting a unique pattern of fiery red and gold petals surrounding a dark center. Ideal for adding bold contrast to gardens, it reaches maturity in about 70-80 days and is a magnet for pollinators. They grow in a raised bed in the corner of my garden.

This caught my eye!

I am getting ready to savor the great taste of home grown green beans that I picked yesterday off of the 8 plants that have survived this very wet spring. There is nothing better than eating something you grew and nurtured. They, along with sweet corn we are having, are my most favorite thing to eat and brings back memories of picking my grandmother's in her garden on their farm in South Dakota. I believe my love for gardening stems from the summers I spent at their farm when we lived in Bloomington, MN and our parents would drop off my 4 older brothers and me. They had a well and you would drop the bucket down and pull it up and drink from a ladle. No indoor plumbing. No AC. My four older brothers locked me in the barn loft one day and on another escapade they left me atop a hay bale when the cows came into the pasture. They were brutal but, don't worry, I got them back when they were in junior high and high school. I could earn a couple dollars not telling on them. Worked many times. LOL
I can almost taste them now.

From Gary Bedore Banners going up! #RockChalk

@bskeet Please know that we all on this board care enough for one another and have this board to share in the crazy, good times as well as the sad imes. You're in my thoughts.

UPDATE! Offspring of my banana spider spotted this morning. @nuleafjhawk be aware!

Today's photo is of our Brittany Spaniel, Jasper, that Mike found at a pet store (with papers back then) when he was a puppy and it was just a couple of months after we had moved to Austin in the heart of old Hype Park neighborhood. We rented a duplex on a side street that was a dead end and had a fenced in back yard for $150 per month. He got some quail and began training him in the back yard. Just the best dog ever. Mike would take him to southeastern Kansas to a farm our friends had and could out hunt any other dog. I saw him once catch a pheasant in the air after he had pointed it. We got a female and they had 6 litters. All of the pups went to his hunting buddies up in Kansas and Michigan. Mike would take him to work on the various job sites and when he would be missing, we found him one time in the community swimming pool, he had a girlfriend and he would visit her house and be inside the ac while Mike would be out in 100 degree weather working, and many nights after he couldn't be found, Mike would come and get me and we would be out searching the neighborhood for him. When he was just 6 months old, he fell out of the back of Mike's truck and broke his left hip. He would sleep in the only chair we had when we first moved all that time he was healing. He lived to be 15. We kept one of the males from his last litter, but he didn't get the same genes. The female was bitten by a copperhead in the throat and Mike put Adolph's meat tenderizer on the bite and although she swelled up a lot, she survived.
Who is your favorite pet?

Today's photo is of a beautiful amaryllis bloom from a potted plant I received from work when I had the girls in December 1987. I've kept this photo sealed and in a frame all these 35+ years it was so beautiful. It took years to finally get this bloom. I read that the amaryllis flower has a fascinating and dramatic origin story that dates back to Antiquity. According to a Greek myth, Amaryllis is a beautiful young maiden who is deeply in love with Alteo, a local shepherd and gardener. Strong and handsome, Alteo has a passion for flowers and claimed he could only fall in love with a maiden who brought him a flower so unique that it never existed before. Unsure of how to gain his affections, Amaryllis sought guidance from the Oracle of Delphi, who told her she must sacrifice her blood for him to win his love. For a month, Amaryllis stood upon Alteo's doorstep, piercing her heart with a golden arrow each night in hopes he would notice her, but he did not. On the 30th day, Alteo opened the door and, in her place, saw an extraordinary and beautiful dark red flower that had blossomed from the blood of Amaryllis' heart. A sad tale, for sure, but from this myth, the amaryllis flower has become a profound symbol of love, commitment, and determination. During the Victorian era, the amaryllis flower took on the meaning of pride, strength, and confidence due to its sturdiness and towering height over other winter flowers. Gentlemen would give the amaryllis flower to women they respected and thought were strong and very beautiful.

Today we honor all those that gave the ultimate gift so that we can have the liberties I cherish. I fly my flag in their memory.

Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.
— Unknown
The ultimate sacrifice for freedom deserves our highest honor.

@nuleafjhawk Bet you they still have the same menu that you last saw! They added on a back room. How 'bout them pies when you first come in!!! I go to do my lab work in Marble Falls just so I can eat there after.

@BShark Yup. When we lived in Leavenworth, our best friends bought 50 acres outside of Winchester off 134th Street and are still there. They have horses. It seemed like another world from Leavenworth in 1975 and lots of parties at the pond, fishing and his brother had another plot off of 92 by Springdale. Mike would go every winter to hunt with the two of them.

He shot that deer in Winchester, Kansas at our oldest friends' place.
This is the evolution of the She Shed: