Sunday Critters

We have a couple of critters around our house.  Furry, 4-footed with cold noses and they go by the names of Frasier and Maggie.  But sometimes we have other critters that come to visit.  Sometimes, we see them.  Other times, we see evidence of their presence.  Like this morning.  Judging by the paw prints on the El Camino hood.  The latest visitor was one of these:

We've also had a few of the next one to deal with, they tend to get underneath the windows in the front of the house and relieve themselves:  We've tried moth balls, which do help to a point, but orange scented cleaning spray works the best.  I happen to be out of it, and I've noticed that the neighborhood cats have been back in our yard again lately (and on top of my car, Bill gets fun animals but I just get cats!) so I think I'd better get some more soon.  We just spray it where we don't want cats and it keeps them away.  They don't like the scent.  I usually get whatever brand the dollar store has, it doesn't matter if it's a good cleaner or not because I'm just going to spray it on the ground in front of the house, underneath the windows.

But this next one is the one we really REALLY don't want to deal with:

We've seen a few, but not for a while.  Although Thursday morning, it was pretty obvious that there was one somewhere in the vicinity.  We could smell it when we went out the front door, although I don't think it was too close.  We just don't want Frasier to find a black & white kitty to play with!  I think I'd just go get a tranquilzer gun to use on the dog, then I'd shave him and see about dunking him in something.  He might not be allowed back in the house for months!

We get the occasional coyote as well, but since we already have one of those living with us, we don't worry too much about them.  We hear them more often than actually see them.  I think we might need to replace Frasier's collar soon, the color is fading quite a bit.  He hasn't gotten out since the privacy fence went up, but he is smart and I really don't want to take a chance of him being shot by someone who thinks he's a (full) coyote.

We also have moles, voles and gophers.  Although Frasier and Maggie do their best to keep them under control.  Haven't seen any snakes lately, nor any frogs.  Usually, lots of frogs are around OR lots of snakes.  We seldom see much in the way of frogs if we have snakes.  But the snakes are happy, because they get to eat!

Otter and I went to a cactus sale this afternoon.  We got a couple of smaller ones, nothing spectacular this year.  It was at a local park that has a garden center, and there were billions of honeybees all over the place.  And millions of squirrels - Froggy, remember feeding them?  That's where we were today.

Bill transplanted a small mimosa tree that sprung up in the back yard spontaneously.  It's now in the front yard.  He's not sure if it is going to make it or not, he tried not to cut the roots too much but he's afraid that he might have.  We'll watch it and see what happens.  If it doesn't make it, we'll probably see about buying a small tree.  This is the time of year to plant them, you can plant trees anytime of the year but Fall is the best time because they will spend the next few months growing a strong root system and that will make it easier for them to survive the spring storms & wind we get.

Although we got some of that wind last night!  We don't watch tv before sunset, just a movie (we take turns picking a movie to watch) and a couple of religous shows we tape during the week but not actual tv watching.  I was thinking about heading for bed about 9:30 last night, I turned on the tv to see if the news was on the local Fox channel yet and it was on, but it was also weather warnings.  We had the potential for a really Bad Thing, but fortunately that disolved and we "just" had lots of wind and a thunder storm.  I'm not sure what the official measurement of rain is, but my empty buckets on the deck both had about 2" of water in them this morning.  My rain barrel is happy again!

I'm going to make a pot of pinto beans shortly.  And a pan of cornbread.  Except that I'm out of jalepenos, so my cornbread will have to be plain.  Oh well, it will still be good and we'll eat it.

I got some crochet done yesterday.  I got out the afghan and put a couple of rows on it, but it's still a little warm to work on it.  It's big enough now that it covers my legs up when I'm working on it and it is warm!  I made a few squares for a project I've been working on for myself, and I looked through some of my patterns but haven't found quite what I want yet.  Froggy, I'm going to make you a few more pot holders but I'm trying to find different ones.  I had been thinking about socks and have a pattern book, but after I looked at it yesterday I think I've decided against socks.  At least for now.  For one thing, most of the patterns I can find are for smaller socks.  Bill wears size 12 or 13 shoes, so small socks just are not going to work for him!  Also, most socks need to be stretchy, and the only yarn that really is stretchy enough for socks is wool or a wool blend.  And that won't work for me.  Although, if I can find a good pattern that is the right size for Billyboy, I'll probably buy sock yarn and attempt it using my gloves.  But that mostly depends on finding patterns that are big enough, and the only ones I've seen that would work for him sizewise are not anything I really think he'd wear.  I have cotton yarn that I was originally going to use, but it's not stretchy enough.

It's clouding up again, we might be in for more rain.  It's cool enough that we have the house open.  It's really nice, although the humidity is beginning to bother me.

But it could always be worse: