Rain!

Hooray for rain! It didn't last long yesterday but we'll take whatever we can get these days.

It's dark out now and thundering. Somebody is getting a storm but not me.

A New Trailer and Kitties

A few weeks ago when my daughter and son-in-law visited, Aaron was telling me that I needed a pickup truck.  "Yes", I told him, "but I can't afford two vehicles".  Then he told me I needed a utility trailer.  "Yes", I said, "it's on my wish list but I've done without this long, it can wait".   Well the next thing I knew, I was informed that I was the owner of a pull behind utility trailer and I would get a call when they were ready to install the trailer hitch on my little car. 
 

 

Was I ever surprised.  I'll get a lot of use out of this little thing and now I won't have to beg neighbors to borrow their trucks!  I'm not used to pulling it yet though, and don't even ask me about backing up with this thing.  I need to practice!

Now jumping subjects...here is Topaz acting like a vulture like Snoopy does on the Charlie Brown specials.

Here's a picture of Topaz and Smudge all cozy under the mattress I still haven't put away since I had company!

Speaking of matresses...I'm exhausted and ready to hit mine.  Poor Princess had me up at about 3:00 a.m. this morning.  Bless her little heart.  She's getting so old and crotchedy and can't make it through the night without going outside once or twice.  It's like having a newborn baby all over again!

You Really Shouldnt' Be Doing That

This is Blanche.  She is a gold laced wyandotte hen.

Blanche is roosting for the night but not where she should be roosting.  You see, this is the nesting box and hens should be discouraged from roosting on or near the nesting boxes.  Why you ask?

Because they poop all night long and the nesting boxes turn into a toilet!  Every morning I have to scoop poop out of the boxes so they can lay their eggs.  That's after I've already scooped litter boxes in the house and scooping poop from under the "real" perching place.

I wonder how you toilet train a chicken?

A Little Finish

I've missed sewing.  I've had the urge to get back to making things for a while now but I've been spending a lot of time watering plants and animals or doing not much of anything.  I'm not a hot weather gal and prefer gray, cloudy days - especially if it's cool outside.  But after having a couple of weeks of 100+ temps, 95 seems more bearable to me now.

We've had a few showers and that's perked up the plants...and my poor chickens,  so I've uncovered my little sewing machine and started playing again.

The first thing I did was finish a little doll quilt for Alissa.  It's nothing fancy at all, but she was so pleased with it when she opened it.  And it felt really good to actually complete a project, no matter how small it was.

A few weeks ago I was in a little shop in town and saw some gorgeous hand painted pillows that a talented woman had made.  I loved all of them and was so inspired by her work that I attempted to make one for myself.  It isn't nearly as good as hers but it's good enough for me.  Mine is slightly different though.  After it was finished, I somehow got paint in one corner so I covered it up with a doily.

I'd like to make some more of these...maybe to give as Christmas gifts.

Speaking of Christmas gifts....I started work on something for my sister yesterday.  I can't show pictures of it but I'm really happy with the way it's coming along.  It sure feels good to be doing something fun again.

I hope you're all getting rain if you need it, and sun if you don't!

Wordless Wednesday

Silent Sunday - 3 of 6

Weekend!

Oh I'm so happy the weekend is here!  Not that this week has been difficult, but I'm excited because the weather will be NORMAL!

It's been too hot and dry for too long.  This week we've had rain almost every day and what a difference it has made in my attitude.  I feel good again and actually interested in doing something.  Not to mention I have a little more time now that I don't have to stand with a hose and sprinkler in my hands filling up birdbaths, buckets and bowls!

After I do some major mowing (the weeds are knee high now), I am planning to get back to some fun things in life.  My sewing machine has been calling me and I'm beginning to think about what I'm going to make for my friends and family for Christmas.

Last weekend my #1 daughter, son-in-law and #2 granddaughter paid a quick visit.  It was so nice to have them, even for only 24 hours. I managed to cook a nice dinner for them and breakfast the next morning.  Even when it's hot, people gotta' eat!  Here are some random photos from the weekend.

Little girls dressed up like Princesses

 Crazy cat, Smudge trying to get into a tiny box

Silly granddog, Daisy, stuck under the couch

 
 

All the "kids" in the back seat headed for home.

I hear there's a blog party this weekend - where bloggers create.  I might have to visit some of them to get inspired!  I hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday, USA!

God Bless America and all those who have fought for our freedom!

Pete's First Adoptathon

Remember Pete - the dog I agreed to foster last fall? He was in a high kill facility in Henderson, NC where they use the gas chamber to kill the animals there. I told a gal that pulls animals from that facility that I would foster a senior dog and that's how I ended up with Pete. Pete was headed for that inhumane fate when the angel, Angie, pulled him.

Anyway, Pete looked horrible - skin and bones - and another owner surrender. It has taken months for him to put weight on and look presentable for adoptathons. Today was his first.

It was a miserably hot day. I don't know what the official temperature was but I know it was over 100 degrees. We stayed outside the store in the shade for a couple of hours but then went inside. He had some stiff competition in the form of adorable kittens - all also pulled from kill facilities. Pete did great, as I knew he would. He got lots of love and attention and was ready to walk away with every single person that stopped to pet him.

While we were inside sitting near the windows, I saw a bird suddenly appear outside on the cement.   I thought the dog trainer that was outside was giving a demo on how well his dog would stay and had tossed a stuffed bird to test the dog. Well, it was a baby dove that had literally collapsed from the heat!  It had been setting on top of the store roof with its parents (in the blazing sun) and fell off and landed on the hot cement right in front of a woman.  It was fully feathered and capable of flying but it could barely move.  I took a small saucer of water out to it and it was so afraid that it managed to run into some bushes in the shade.  I hope the little baby survived and stayed in the shade where nobody could see it. Unfortunately, it was a small patch of bushes right next to a busy parking lot.  I think if he stayed put, he would have recuperated. How distressing to see this.

 The temps here are so bad and will stay this way till Wednesday. I haven't been able to do a thing but stay inside and watch TV.   The a/c is running non stop and the house is almost 80 degrees inside, but I don't want to turn the thermostat down and make the unit work even harder.  I'd rather be hot than break the a/c altogether and be without any.  That happened to me many years ago and it was a miserable experience to go through.

Here's another picture of happy Pete. He really enjoyed being out in public today. I wonder why his previous owner threw him away? Well, he's safe now but there are so many others. Please consider saving a life the next time you look for a pet.

Time to get ready for bed. Tomorrow morning I'll head out to WalMart to do my weekly grocery shopping before the heat gets too unbearable.  Then I want to try to accomplish something.   Goodness knows, I sure didn't today!  I hope you're all surviving the heat wherever you are. Don't forget to keep the bird baths filled!

Adjusting To Change

Helloooo out there! I wonder if anybody will even notice that I'm posting.

So much time slipped by since my trip with Alissa that I didn't think I'd post again. Then I quit visiting other blogs and just stopped thinking about it altogether. I've made another trip to Maryland - this time to visit with my mom. I promised her I'd get up there before Mother's Day and I just did keep that promise. She told me that she still checks my blog from time to time to see if I've updated it so that got me thinking about it again. Now that I've adjusted to my job (just passed my one year anniversary!) and settling into more of a "normal" routine, I've been lurking on several of my favorite blogs and felt that I should start posting again.

 So this is for you, mom!

But now Blogger has changed and I've spent quite a bit of time today trying to figure out how to change my background and post something. Yikes how different everything is to use now! I don't particularly care for the way my blog looks right now but at least I've figured out some of it.

Another change that's happened is that my faithful 2000 Honda CRV finally bit the dust. It's been limping along for the last couple of years and held on long enough for me to get current with finances. Now I have a car payment and a "new" 2004 Honda CRV; this one is silver. My old one was black. I love my new little car. It's an automatic and positively purrs compared to my old car, which was a standard transmission.

It has a sun roof...I've never had one of those before.

Well, this is enough for one evening. It's past my bed time and I haven't even finished eating my nutritious dinner of Cheerios yet so will leave you with a few pictures of my gardens. They look pretty right now but will fry in the upcoming 100+ temps coming our way in 24 hours. Oh how I hate heat and humidity!

My favorite flower - Alissa Rose...

An Unexpected Road Trip

Hi Bloggie friends,

I took an unplanned road trip to Alexandria, VA to visit my daughter and son-in-law (Erin and Aaron) due to his mother's passing. I got to meet all of Aaron's family - people I've heard about for years now.

My purpose for the trip was to take care of little Ginny, who is just three years old. Since Alissa was out of school for President's Day and a teacher work day, I took her with me. She's a super babysitter and loves her little cousin and did a terrific job of taking care of Ginny which made things so much easier for the family.

On the way, we needed to stop so I pulled into a Cracker Barrell for a drink. As we were parking, I saw a couple loading some dogs into the back of their car. Now you know I had to go see them so Alissa and I approached the nice couple and asked if we could pet their dogs. They had one old Pekingnese named Asia, who they had found abandoned and covered with ice and no hair some years ago. The little dog was very old. They also had a big Golden they called Cowboy who was a year old. Not visible were two little white dogs - one in diapers because she was so old.

I have no idea who these people were but had to take a picture of Alissa with them. I asked them if they were involved in rescue and the woman replied - "no, we're just stupid". I cracked up laughing! Turns out they have almost as many cats as I do and at one time had even more.

I thanked them for letting us visit their dogs and told them to have a safe trip and off we all went.

Aaron has a niece that is one year younger than Alissa, and they get to see each other about once a year. It was the first time I've met Miranda. Alissa has deemed Miranda her cousin-in-law! For a while, they were watching TV by themselves taking a break from babysitting and I joined them. What I saw was so adorable to me that I got my camera and took a few pictures of them - they were so engrossed watching Sponge Bob Square Pants that they didn't realize what I was doing.




I am just sick that this picture is out of focus but it's still worth its weight in gold to me.


Look - always in the same position while watching TV.




Two little girls who love each other and only get to see each other about once a year. So sweet and innocent.


I hope your week has been a good one.

Saturday Is Wash Day

I got some much needed washing done today. It's very cold and windy and if I had hung clothes outside, I'm sure they would have blown away. But that isn't the kind of washing I did.

I've tried to get Princess to the groomer for the last three weekends but it just hasn't worked out. She isn't difficult to bathe...it just makes such a mess of the bathroom. And as hard as I try not to let a bunch of dog hair go down the drain, I'm usually not very successful.

I couldn't get a picture of her in the tub and she would barely hold still once out. She couldn't get out of the bathroom fast enough!





Mommy, please stop torturing me and let me outta here!



Then it was Zoe's turn. Does she look pitiful or what?







Now at least I have two shiny and clean pooches. Blair will have to wait for her turn at the groomer b/c she has a thick coat. I'd never got the drain unclogged from her.



I hope you have a good week :)

Just Incredible!

I've been so excited about this for almost two weeks now and thought others might like to know.

While listening to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio one Saturday night, they were talking to a wildlife researcher on the radio about a black bear who is expecting her first cubs to be born this winter...and very soon.

Well, being the nature lover I am, I paid close attention to the conversation! Turns out there is a web site www.bear.org that has web cams right in the bears' dens. I've been keeping an eye on her and Monday Jewel had her first babies.

If you want to get goose bumps, visit this site and you can hear everything. The microphones are incredibly sensitive and you can even hear other animals in the far-off distance. One of the babies 'screams' a lot and it's very distressing to hear both to mama bear and me, but she seems to be a good mother and responds immediately.

I have mixed feelings about the researchers working so closely with the bears (or any wild animals) because it conditions them to not be as afraid of humans as they should be but that's my own opinion. It certainly provides much needed education to others though, so I guess it's a mixed bag. Anything that helps humans understand that the creatures we share this planet with have feelings and should be respected and valued! has my support though.

Check it out - see what you think!

A Beautiful Quilt

Hi fellow bloggers!

Thank you all so much for the kind words about Tinkerbell. It appears there are lots of people who get attached to their farm critters as much as I do and I am very glad for that.

This is a quick post to share a gorgeous quilt that my sister made for me many years ago. I don't think I've ever posted about it so this is way overdue.

She made a log cabin quilt and used very bright colors with black as the binding. I've always loved bright colors on black and one of my most favored dresses that my grandmother made when I was little was a solid black dress with every color of rick rack sewn around the bottom of it. Wish I still had that as a keepsake.


So my sister, Susan, is very detail oriented and is blessed with an abundance of patience (evidently it was all given to her because I have very little myself). Notice in the close up picture that she even changed her thread color to match the portion of the quilt she was working on.


Boy not me! I would have used neutral thread and kept right on sewing! I really appreciate the effort and love that was put into this beautiful quilt and I know you quilters out there can too.

Have a good week folks. I have today off as a holiday and will be making cookies with Alissa. It's the first time I've seen her since Christmas so we're having a fun day together :)

A Tribute to Tinkerbell

The weather was beautiful today and I worked outside all day for the first time in a couple of months.

My day started by burying my special hen, Tinkerbell. She was born here over six years ago and was the only black hen I had. Like several of my chickens, she was named after a Disney character by Alissa.

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that Tinkerbell wasn't roosting at night and chose to sleep on the barn floor. Some of the other hens do that from time to time, so I didn't think much of it at first. But then I noticed some other symptoms and brought her into the garage. She wouldn't eat or drink so I did a Google search and learned that it was probably bacterial in nature. I started administering antibiotics by a syringe orally but she continued to go downhill. I brought her into the bathroom Tuesday night since it was bitterly cold. She was warm and comfortable and lasted till about 7 p.m. Wednesday evening.



She was a friendly chicken
and always close by whenever I was working near the barn.


She got along with all the other chickens very well


I know she was "just" a chicken, but it's so sad to see a pet of any kind die. I prayed that she would go quickly but it was kind of long and drawn out. Because it's still dark when I get home from work, I couldn't bury her till this morning. I had already cried Wednesday so there were no tears this morning, although going through some pictures, it's hard not to cry looking at her.

RIP little black hen.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy New Year!

Here's a toast that 2012 is better for those of us struggling and just as good for those who aren't!

My DS is visiting and we'll be going to the best little quilt shop on the east coast - Thimble Pleasures. They're having a New Years Day sale and it should be lots of fun to go see all the beautiful fabrics they have.

I am still focused entirely on my job but hope I can find a little balance in the near future. That's the closest thing to a resultion that I'm making this year.

Bring it on, 2012!

Making Time To Blog

I have never been so married to a job in my entire life as I am with this one. That's why I've been MIA. But tonight I am making time for my blog because I have something special to share with you.

Have you ever visited Vicki from 2 Bags Full? She is the nicest woman and I'm very glad I stumbled onto her blog a while back. She makes incredible knitted bird nests that are specatular works of art. She has a beautiful blog, so please stop by and pay her a nice visit.

When I first saw her nests, I inquired about them. I've been waiting for months for mine to come; I've actually ordered two. I received my Christmas nest a couple of weeks ago and finally finished putting my Christmas decorations out today and can share some pictures (but these pictures were actually taken before I put my bird table runner out).

These nests are loaded with embellishments and are so beaufitul. Vicki even tucked in a couple of surprises. Inside the nest was a pretty clay pear made by a friend of hers. The same friend also made a sweet partridge ornament which I have hanging on my bird Christmas tree - a really nice addition to my collection of bird ornaments.

Here's my little partridge ornament temprarily hanging from a little decorative chandelier. It's since been moved to a place of honor on my bird tree.


My beautiful Christmas nest...



A side view...



Last weekend I went to Home Goods and happened across this cool bird made from wool felt and it was the perfect size and weight to add to my special nest.


How perfect is that?

I haven't made the first gift for anybody yet and am not sure what I'm going to do about gift giving this year. I can't buy anything due to a tight budget and a monster car repair. I'll probably get a few things made but I know they will be late.

On top of all that, I've got two sick cats. Long story and I may share at some point but tomorrow I'll be taking Smudge back to the vet again as he is no better and hasn't eaten since last week. Right now I've got to clean up my kitchen and get ready for my new favorite show, Once Upon a Time. I love that show and hope it lasts forever!