Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Coffee For Friday. #10
Good morning and Happy Friday everyone! Time for a coffee and some time in the sun. It is a bit cool again this morning, though it is warming up slowly. But the sky is such a vivid blue today and the sun is shining so nicely. It is a nice break from the clouds and rain. And those clouds and rain will be back again on Sunday and most of next week too. Seems like it is just one of those summers, kind of a continuation of last winter.
We had clouds, snow and wind nearly every day and this summer we are getting clouds, rain and wind nearly every day. Plus, it is a rather cool summer as well. But the forecast for August is for warmer than usual temperatures. That will be nice, if we get it. Somehow I have my doubts. They are putting new shingles on the roof today. They began at exactly 7am, very punctual. It is rather noisy.
They have begun putting the new shingles on the main house, but they just started removing the old shingles from the apartment roof. It is rather noisy. I think I may have mentioned that already. Muffin is hiding under the bed. She did okay until they started on the apartment roof. That was just too much noise for her. It is for me too, but there is really nothing I can do about it.
They are dropping all the old shingles on my walkway, so I am sort of trapped in here for now. I am certainly not going to try walking over that mound of old shingles. They tend to move when stepped on. I speak from experience, but I did not have to worry about falling back then. I do now. Hmm, it is getting cloudy again, so much for our sunny day. That will also spoil any thoughts about walking to the river today. I guess there is always tomorrow.
I was out taking pics of insects again yesterday, mainly insects anyway. But I found a little friend again sitting on a leaf of a daylily. It was a “gray tree frog”. I had found one last year too, but that one was a bit unusual in that it was gray. This “gray tree frog” was green, the color it is mostly found in around here it seems. So now I have pictures both color forms, which is great. I hope you do not mind looking at frogs.
They can climb up trees, plants, walls, windows, due to their interesting feet, with ‘suction cups’, or toe pads, on their toes. Those ‘suction cups’ help them to climb up vertical surfaces easily. It is actually a bit more complicated than just the suction cups, or toe pads. We actually have three of them in our area, two of them are identical, except for their calls.
But I did not hear this one calling, though there was another one in the area that was calling, the “Cope’s Gray Tree Frog”, so perhaps this one was also that species. Or it could be the “Gray Tree Frog”, but since it was silent there is no way to know for sure. They can change color quite quickly to blend in with their surroundings, from gray to green to brown. They are a fun type of frog. I hope you have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. Mountain Cabin Mystery. Chapter 19. The End.
“Finally you hired a PI to follow Hermit Pete to find out where he hid his treasure,” I continued, “but that did not work either. But it was not Hermit Pete’s treasure anyway, it was his brother who had stolen all of this gold and jewels and hid it with Hermit Pete. Why Pete agreed to that is a mystery, but he never touched the stolen goods.
Finally you hired Svala to help, but she turned on you wanting the treasure for herself. It was one of your sons who shot a small bomb that day to kill your son in law and Jazzy. I have the unique homemade rifle he used for the job.” “Hey, you cannot search our place without a warrant, so that will not be admissible evidence,” he yelled.
“I did not need a search warrant,” I said, “you hid your rifle in the cold storage shed out back and Paul gave me permission to search it.” “Well, it was not just me, those 3 were in on it too!,” he yelled again pointing to his brother and cousins, “if I get arrested they will too, I can tell a lot about what is going…” At that point his father quickly wrapped something around his neck and choked him.
Rock ran over to intervene but it was too late. “Well, we certainly have you for murder,” I said, “and I imagine your wife was behind this somehow.” “Prove it!”, she yelled. “Gramma give grampa rope from her purse,” said their grandson. “Yes, I saw it too,” said the son in law. She then took out scissors and tried to stab him but Rock stopped her.
“This is quite amazing,” I said, “now for the cook and her husband.” I turned to them but they had guns pointed at me. “You are not getting us in this,” she said. “That is right,” he added, “we are leaving now.” “You really should learn to count,” I said, “that way you would see that 2 of my girls are missing, and are right behind you.”
At that moment they put their guns to the heads of our would be escapees. I took their guns and put them on the table. At that point the 3 remaining young men pulled out guns. “Now we are leaving,” they said, “and you are coming with for security.” “I do not think so,” I said to them. Sigurbjorn put herself in front of me while the rest of the team pulled their guns. Amazingly the 3 young men decided on shooting their way out.
Rock stopped 2 of them and Jenny shot the other one. “I will testify against the others,” said the brother in law, “even though it will put me in jail too.” I had Galyna and Mriya bring him and all the children over to our cabin for now. I sure never thought things would erupt so violently in here. We did check everyone for weapons but the young men had taped guns under their table days ago, just in case.
No wonder they always sat at the same table. “Hard to believe you would kill your own daughter because you were afraid she would talk and talk she did, which we have recorded.” Her eyes went wide at this news. “Now, apparently Jazzy fell and hit her head on a rock which killed her,” I continued, “but that is not true.” “HA!,” said Jazzy’s mom, “it is my story and I am sticking with it, I have nothing to worry about.”
Then I played a video of her hitting Jazzy with a rock. “We set up camera’s all around this place,” I said, “to keep an eye on things while we were gone.” “That will not be admissible evidence!,” she yelled. “We also have your brother in law who saw you do it,” I said. “I always knew my sister married a no good coward,” she said. “Oh shut up!”, said her sister.
We kept them all under arrest in their cabins until the police arrived 2 days later. Paul and Beth were not working with these people, they were trying to find the treasure on their own. Hermit Pete’s brother, Jim, hit his head at age 50 which caused him to lose his memory and so forgot all about his treasure. He died a few years later. Hermit Pete died at the age of 88 and according to the note he left behind, he was too afraid to tell the authorities of the treasure because he thought they would arrest him for stealing it.
He died one rainy day by slipping on some rocks and falling over the edge of a cliff. He was found by some hikers only a few days later. Baldwin had his lawyers checking on that gold mine and the court upheld the will, giving us ownership of the mine. Unfortunately the mine was not worth anything, the gold was basically all gone.
The jewels and jewelry were stolen from a jewelers shop which was still in business so everything was returned to them. However they insisted on giving us one jewel each, even the cats got one each. They are still trying to find out what to do with all the gold since the mining company it was stolen from is long gone out of business. Well, we never seem to have a normal vacation, maybe next time.
The End. Join us for a whole new adventure on Monday!
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 