What is a Carnoll?

On October 20, 1982 I watched Bruce Sutter strike out Gorman Thomas of the Milwaukee Brewers in game seven of the '82 World Series and the Cardinals were World Champs - that is - back when we still called them World Champs and not "World Series Champs" as is the case today. From that moment on I was passionate about the Birds on the Bat, a passion that has waned during adult life, but that was rich with enthusiasm during the Whitey-ball era. Everyone in my family has always known it, and back around 1985 my youngest sister Angela, who at the time was seven years old, made a Fredbird button for me at school as the Cardinals pursued another World Championship. She included a note that read, "To the best borther in the whole world. The Carlands are great. Go Carlands!" I've always thought that was funny and sometimes I still make reference to it.

Add a new chapter to ways in which we can butcher the team name in love. Mae, who is only a couple weeks away from her ninth birthday, made something for me. She has also been under a misperception about the proper name of the St. Louis Cardinals. Take a look at what she made. I darkened this and increased the contrast so you can barely see bleeding through the paper what she wrote on the back (To: Dad Love: Mae). What is a Carnoll? Now I know.

Abbey's Gardening Update

Each spring we have huge aspirations with our vegetable garden, but by August we often find the 90 plus degree days and excessive midwestern humidity tame our zeal. Even so, April is a time of excitement around our house. I've been working in a garden since I lived in Overland and was about 14 years old. Aside from a few "odd" years at Alert where I didn't put in a real garden but rather grew corn in the front yard flower beds, I've pretty much always had a garden. Now that we live in Union with a nearly two-acre yard, I'm excited all the more when warmer weather comes around.

Abbey has always been a very good helper when it comes to the garden. She likes to eat almost everything that comes out of it, especially cantaloupe and strawberries. This spring I went to Purina Farms in Gray Summit, Missouri and bought two pickup loads of compost for $17 per pickup load. It's about 10-20% manure and the rest is wood chips, animal bedding, etc. I tilled it in to help our soil this year. If interested, you can get a load year-round by calling ahead of time at 636-742-0103, extension 6122. I also built some raised beds for Annette (and Abbey!) to grow their strawberries in this year, and here you see Abbey filling up one of the beds with compost.

She moved on to planting the tomato plants I bought a few days ago. I got 12 Jet Star and 12 Better Boy plants. Besides tomatoes, we planted green beans, lima beans, okra, corn, green peppers, watermelon, lettuce, cantaloupe, and probably a few other treats Annette snuck in there while I was marking rows for the kids to fill up with seeds. Now it's a matter of waiting until late June or early July and watching the harvest come in. There is nothing quite like that first homegrown tomato around the Fourth of July. As far as this year goes, I doubt any strawberries actually make it from the garden to the kitchen if Abbey is the one picking them.

Mae Goes Crazy - Happy Dance

Here is the video I was hoping to upload. Our family had just played several hands of Uno and Mae was the winner. This video is of her victory dance. She repeatedly says, "Happy Dance" and "Mae's on the roost" which is a term she borrowed from her dear old dad when he won a game.

Is There A Difference Between Hands and Feet?

As many of you know, Mae, our youngest, is our jokester. She has pulled some pretty nutty stunts over her nearly nine years of life. As you can see in this photo, she is very confused about the difference between hands and feet which is why we gave her a book titled Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb to read to help her understand the difference. Still not perceiving the differences yet, she decided to hold the book with her toes instead of her fingers. Notice how she has her arms folded.

Of course I just made most of that up. She certainly understands the difference but I guess she's just experimenting with alternative ways of reading a book. I just read a story in the Wall Street Journal about the growing popularity of the Kindle, which is Amazon.com Inc.'s e-book reader. I wonder if in Mae's lifetime reading paper books that you hold in your hands, or your feet, will be a thing of the past.

Michael's First Deer

Last deer season Michael, who at the time was 12, got his first deer on the youth hunt. We hunt together in northeast Missouri and after only about 15 minutes in our deer stand two bucks came into our area. One slipped away, but one walked right in front of our stand, and Michael took him down. After all the planning and anticipation we had wrapped up the hunt with less than 30 minutes in the stand. Because I was so proud of him that morning I decided to make a photo of his deer the first one I posted on our family blog.

Welcome to the Furey Blog!

This is the first time we've attempted to post anything to this newly created blog. I guess we thought it wouldn't be a bad way to let friends and family keep in touch. Be patient as the quality of this blog should hopefully improve over time!