Mom's Macaroni Salad

Yes, I'm catching some baby bass again.  This little one surprised me because I got it while fishing the creek.  Usually those biters are fairly good size.

I think this may be the smallest, large mouth bass I've ever caught:

Gladdie helped me remove the fly from a hungry creek chub.  That day, I wasn't fishing for bass or chubs.  I was fishing for, (Do I dare say?), carp! 

It began to rain, and everyone left the park except my birdie fishing buddy, the kids and me.  I had three HUGE carp on my TFO rod!!!  The bad news is, I needed my net cause two of three still have my fly's in there lips.  The other one was foul hooked and didn't hang on very long.  It was a fun time though, and good practice for when I get to have a big ole muskie on the fly rod!

This visitor was spying on me while I was at home in my back yard:

Apparently, the snake was camera shy, because it slithered away after I started taking pics.

I was told that it is a rat snake in a transitional period from adolescence to adulthood.

The big rat snakes I've seen in the past all have had solid black backs.

At least this one was nice and shy.  Although, given the opportunity, it might have tried to eat little Sophie.

I took the kiddies to Saxony for some fishing.

It's a good place to let kids fish, as there are not many trees or shrubs to get hooked up in.

We all caught a bunch of small bass and some gills.

Gladys told me the next time she fishes there, she will use her fly rod.  This time she did her usual method of using live bait.  BLAH. 

 

Dustball got to go for a walk around the yard the other day.  He is so cute, as he goes over and smells all the flowers.  

 

 
Glenn grilled out burgers for supper and I made Mom's Macaroni Salad.

Growing up, this was my favorite pasta salad.  Mom, my Mom, would usually use the shell pasta instead of macaroni.  She would add celery seed, garlic powder, plus a little salt and pepper. 

In my version, I omit the salt altogether, as I am trying to watch my sodium intake.  Salt and steroid injections (for my healing foot) are not a good mix as I already notice a puffiness in my face. Anyhow, I also replaced regular Miracle Whip for the light version.
 

To begin with, boil four eggs and dice them into pieces.

Mix eggs, seasonings and Miracle Whip light until you have a very creamy egg salad.

Next, add tomatoes and peas.  Mom likes the canned peas for this the best, but I sometimes use frozen.  It's a very yummy salad to accompany a grilled turkey burger.  Well, any picnic foods actually. 

 

When Grandma used to make this salad, it was like an entree in and of itself.  She used to add radishes, cubed Velveeta cheese and diced ham.  I was never a fan of radishes, but they weren't too bad in this salad.  The ham and cheese are really good add ins.  Although, I became more used to Mom's version, and it is my favorite.

Mom's Macaroni Salad

2 cups dry pasta shells
4 hard boiled eggs, diced
1 15oz. can of peas, drained
1 quart ripe grape tomatoes, halved
1 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups Miracle Whip light

Cook pasta according to directions.  Drain and rinse in cool water.  Add pasta to eggs mixed with seasonings and Miracle Whip light.  Carefully fold in peas and tomatoes.  Serve chilled.

Hungry Bass

Fish are going absolute nuts over the little white spider fly I've been using for the past few days!

I went out to Saxony Lake, had the place all to myself, and the fish were hitting hard!

The spider floats on the surface and fish strike it with serious-- I mean business, attitudes.

Surprisingly, to my delight, I had just as many bass strikes as I did gills.

Although, the bass were all babies, or at best, adolescents.

Still, they were fun to catch and it was non-stop action the entire time.

Even though they were small, they bit like mad.  I kept holding out hope for a big mama or papa bass to strike.

A few of them had rather oddly shaped dorsal fins; not sure what that is all about.

Some were so little n cute. 

The water was fairly clear which allowed me to see the fish approach.

Many times, a bass would just come out of nowhere and strike it while a following gill would still be contemplating what to do.

I don't think I can recall another time when I've seen bass this aggressive hungry.

Yet, to my novice eyes,  none of them looked obviously underfed.

Did I mention, that it was my LAST DAY of freedom?  I mean, the school year has now ended and the kiddies will be attached to my apron strings 24/7.  Yikes! 

Gladys had her bridging ceremony for Girlscouts after school ended on the last day.

I did some fishing at Fall's park and the bass went nuts over the little white spider there as well!!!

 

I caught me a pretty green sunfish!  I didn't even know what type of fish this was until I posted it on the My Fish Finder forum.

 

Then I got me another one.  Apparently they like spiders too.

Some of the bass had very sore bottom lips.  I posted an inquiry about that as well.  The consensus was that the bass are feeding on crayfish in the rocks, which is hard on the bottom lip. 



These creek basses may be in need of some chapstick, but at least they were bigger than the Saxony basses.



What I found to be boggling, was that only some of the creek bass had a sore bottom lip. 



Perhaps, the basses with non-sore or less sore lips were new to the area.

 

After all, that's one of the perks of creek fishing, is that their seems to be new fish coming in on a daily basis, at least in this section with a rather swift current.

  

Fun, fun, fun!

Jean's Graduation

Oh my, what a busy weekend it has been!  Throughout the past few days, I've had a song stuck in my head.  Aaron Shust has such a soft, soothing voice, and the beginning of this song is what repeats in my mind.

 

 

Saturday, as I'm singing away, I set up a Graduation Party for Jean at Fall's Park.

I made her cake myself.  The diploma is two Swiss rolls.  The peonies are from the back yard of the house.

Every year Grandma Miller used to cut peonies in June and place them on Grandpa's grave. 

The Arabian school colors are white and green, so they fit well into the color scheme.  

Troy wasn't feeling very well that day and slept right through it.

Jean's Graduation Party was nice and relaxed; a picnic at the park with friends.

Jean had a great time.

She is excited about her future plans to attend Purdue.

Sunday afternoon was Jean's official graduation ceremony.  I braided her hair.

Then waited patiently for things to get rolling.  :)

And we all waited and waited, as Jean's senior class consisted of over 300 grads.

The commencement exercises were actually done very well, and time quickly passed.

I especially enjoyed the part where they showed snapshots of the kids on the big screen.

My high school Graduate, seams like just the other day she was my little baby!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now, she's grown.  Sigh.  I do miss her as a baby, but I am very proud and happy for her.

Oh Happy Day, the future is bright, a change in my life, Oh Happy Day!  Now, I have yet another Gospel song stuck in my head.  :)