Rambling

Just normal stuff going on around here. Mostly.

Today is National Puppy Day.  That means Maggie Moo pictures!

And, since he will always be my puppy:

Can't believe it's been nearly a year already.  Miss this boy!

It's been extremely windy the last few days, but that is normal for this time of year.  So far, the broken limbs are still in the tree but at least one of them has moved a little.  It's not a huge limb, but there is one piece in particular that is very big although it's not broken off completely.

I put my yarn pieces out for the birds last weekend.  I also discovered a nest being built inside Otter's trellis.  Not sure what kind of birds though.  We are trying to avoid getting anywhere near the trellis.

And, since it's spring and the bugs are out:

I saw the first one at work yesterday!  INSIDE THE OFFICE.  I was standing in the kitchen area when it came from somewhere behind me (which means from inside.  Again) and crashed into the kitchen window.  It was probably trying to get out.  I eventually got it on the end of the broom, then I slowly and carefully took it outside.  And then I crushed it into a million billion pieces.

Hate those things!

Honeybees, now they are welcome.  They have plenty of bluebonnet blossoms to visit!  The redbud has lot of blooms left although some are beginning to blow off and I've seen a few leaves on the tree.  But I did see at least one honeybee on it as well.

Otter goes back to the dentist tomorrow for the 2nd of 4 visits.  I'll bring her back home afterwards, she'll probably get as far as my couch and then she'll sleep for a couple of hours.  She asked me if I would make potato soup tomorrow, of course I said yes.

More later!

First Day of Spring 2016

Today is the first day of Spring.  Of course, I'm still waiting on it to actually be winter!!  We didn't have much of one, so I guess the fact that we didn't have as much firewood as we usually do (and need) didn't really matter all that much.  I think we maybe only used the fireplace twice.

While I don't mind at all not having to deal with icy road conditions, and I'm not at all upset that Bill and the Otter didn't have to deal with them either, the lack of cold weather means that it's going to be a bad bug year.  I've been seeing flying things for a few weeks now, which is way early.  We may have to deal with worse ticks and fleas this year, thanks to the warm winter.

And the allergy situation will be bad this year as well, it's already started for most of us.  Part of the reason for the allergy forecast being so bad is because things are blooming way early as well as being staggered.

I'm not trying to gripe, I know it sounds like it.  I'm actually enjoying seeing the trees bloom and the birds are already starting nesting.  I'm just also already having allergy issues is all.

There really isn't a lot going on around here to blog about.

I'm not complaining about that, either! :)

Fall Means...

Allergies!

I have them for each season, but Fall is pretty bad.  It used to be Otter's worst season, then her worst season switched to Spring but Fall was still a rough one for her.  Over the years, her allergies have gotten a lot better but mine seem to be getting worse.

I have not slept too well the last few nights, mostly due to allergy issues.  I gave in to them today and called in.  I did take the Magster for a walk, that's kind of a non-negotiable thing with her.  But that's about it.  I pretty much spent the day parked on the couch.  With crochet in hand frequently!

Since I was home, I made a pot of pinto beans this morning.  I made rice as well, combined with the beans and a little cut-up sausage turned it into a pretty good meal. And very filling.

Bill got a load of firewood.  The place he gets it from has raised their prices and although it was still a good price, it wasn't all that much cheaper than if we had it delivered.  So, if we get more (which will probably will) I'm thinking we'll just call someone that delivers and order it.  But we do at least have a good start, in case that early & wet winter that we're forecast for gets here.  I still need to get the new box of filters for the humidifiers cut.  Eventually.  When I get around to it!

Froggy - in case the email still doesn't include the picture:

It's an American Dagger Moth caterpillar.  The caterpillar was crawling around outside my house the other day.  This is what it will eventually turn into:

We were kind of thinking that last summer's visitor, the raccoon, had moved on.  But when I took Maggie out in the back yard while ago I saw a few new footprints in the dirt.  I guess he's still there, or at least there has been one out there since it rained the other day.  She's been showing more interest in the shed again the last couple of days, so I guess I'm not surprised.  I was hoping it had moved on, but since Frasier went to the Rainbow Bridge we've noticed more squirrels and cats in the back yard.  Guess they have figured out that they are safe back there, because the beagle is hardly ever out there alone.  We don't trust her not to get under the shed, so we take her out instead of just letting her out.

No tulips were planted this year.  They were Otter's and she has an apartment now; I wasn't inclined to clear the weeds, prep the tulip bed two times, buy bulbs and then get busy with the shovel.  I'll probably have them again but not right away. We've also discussed extending the back yard fence a little bit and that would mean that the tulip bed won't be getting enough light.  I'm not sure exactly where it will be moved to, I probably won't figure that out until we're done with the rock garden relocation.

I've also put off the rock garden relocation until next Spring.  I'm pretty sure what I want to do but I want to be absolutely sure before we start a chore that involves heavy lifting and physical labor!  It will be moved from the back yard by the deck to the front yard along the front of the house.

Now, I'm going in search of chocolate.

Last Day of August 2015

I'm still a little title-challenged, but it works.

I am feeling better today.  I went to work.  I got a lot done.  And about 11:00, it felt like the sky fell on me and I suddenly had zero energy.  So, back home I went.  With a stop on the way home for dog food, because that was something I had to do today - the beagle likes it when we feed her!  :)

This is what said beagle did most of the afternoon:

I washed her blankets and bedding today, I didn't really have much choice because they were beginning to smell.  After the dryer is done, she always loves to curl up on her warm blankets.  Today, she was acting antsy and digging around on her blankets.  Which means that she wants to be covered.  I obliged and she was out for hours.

These are a few other pictures from this summer.

This is one of the 18-year black cicadas that emerged this year.  One showed up on the back window. They were predicted to be heavy and very loud, and they were both.

This is my 2nd volunteer sunflower of the summer.  This is the trellis that formerly held the clematis that never did anything.  It's had one bloom already complete it's cycle and there are two or three buds yet to open.

I tried to get a close-up, but of course that means that it immediately got breezy!  Bill has been absolutely forbidden from even coming near it, he says that sunflowers are weeds and pulls them if he sees them before I do.  I may actually plant some next year - he will be well threatened beforehand, if I do! 

We had this ivy suddenly show up in the backyard.  It might be something that grew from birdseed, judging on where it suddenly started growing.  Bill mowed it several times and it kept coming back.  Finally, he dug it up and we transplanted it.  It nearly died at first, but then it came back to life and is growing very well.  When he dug it up, he didn't get all the plant because it's still growing like crazy in the yard.  I don't know what the name of it is, it's just an ivy.

It has berries or seeds on it, and one of these days I'll actually find out what it is.  It may be a weed, but it's pretty and we like it.

The next two pictures are of a visitor that showed up on the cherry tomato plants we have at work.

Isn't she gorgeous?  I haven't seen one quite this big in a very long time.  Younger Boss usually will kill spiders, unless I get to them first and I do try to.  I pointed this one out to him and told him that he is forbidden from even thinking about getting rid of her, but he surprised me and said that he knew it's a good one and that he will leave her alone.  She's been there for several days and I checked on her this morning.  She's still at it and she is still alive, she moved when I was taking pictures.  These are from today.  We always called them zig-zag spiders.  Froggy calls them zipper spiders.

She's happy there and we hope she stays around.  She can eat all the little buggies she can catch!

Warm Spell

The title refers to the fact that I woke up feeling cruddy and also had a slight fever.  I didn't feel too good over the weekend and I was thinking allergy but now I think it is probably a garden-variety bug.  I'm tired this evening but feeling better and I don't have fever anymore.  It wasn't much, just a degree more or less.  It has aggravated my asthma slightly.

I've been parked on the couch for the most part today, I did take the bratdog for a short walk this morning but that was partially self-defense so she would be calmed down and let me rest!  Bill took my car today.  Maggie Moo wanted to go back outside while ago, we went out in the back yard so she could visit the grass there and the mosquitos were out in full force.  I squashed two, one on each arm, and evaded a few more.  But I think that there may have been a few that I was unaware or - but they were aware of me!

I did get a loaf of banana bread made, the bread machine has a recipe for it but it's not really my favorite.  No secret that bananas are my favorite fruit and probably one of my top favorite foods in general.  I do like banana bread, but the recipe the bread machine makes just doesn't have enough banana taste or sweet flavor for me.

I started the 2nd half of Otter's poncho.  The first half is lavender and the 2nd half is light blue.  We bought all the yarn at the same time at Hobby Lobby, two skeins of each color.  We made sure that the labels matched and the yarn looked like they matched.  I made the first half and had almost enough yarn in one skein to finish but not quite.  So, I attached the 2nd lavender skein on and did 4 or 5 row sets until it was long enough.  I finished it up at work on my lunch hour one day.  And that's when I discovered under the stronger office lights that the two lavender skeins don't match!  They looked the same in the store and the labels matched.  But the yarns are not the same color.  When Otter was over here yesterday to do her laundry, she looked at the poncho half and I held it up to her like it will fit on her when it's assembled.  The part that is different will be in the back and it will probably look ok, but I'm still very annoyed about it.

I'm taking my car in to get new tires on it tomorrow.  It's due for an oil change, so that will be done at the same time.  I'm taking it to the place in the same shopping center that Otter works in, we've used this place for a few months now and they re the place that put the tires on Otter's car a few months back.  They said that it will only take a couple of hours, so I'm going to drop my car off with them and then walk across the parking lot and borrow Otter's car so I can get to work.  I'll bring her car back at lunch and pick my car with it's new shoes up.  I told Otter that I'd buy her lunch, so I'm going to leave her some lunch money for letting me borrow her car - she agreed to that!

Maggie Moo is now curled up at my feet.  Snoring loudly!

Still Looking (Edited)

We met with the associate pastor at the church we've been attending.  We had a few questions and she was very willing to answer them.  After the visit, we've decided that we need to keep looking.  We are going to visit one of the other United Methodist churches in the area and see what we think.  There are a few big issues and we agreed on most of them, but there was one in particular - does the specific church view the Bible as literal?  It was the first question and nearly the last one, because the answer was no.  It's a big one as far as we are concerned, there were a few other things we didn't really like so we are not going to continue visiting this particular church.  (EDIT:  I think the work"real" would be better than literal to describe the Bible.  And if the pastor doesn't think it's real, then why is he/she even in that position?)

Since it's Tuesday, it's fajita night at El Chico so we stopped for dinner on the way home.  We got there at the perfect time, they weren't crowded at all but they were getting that way fast by the time we finished our meal.

I've been wondering if I might be on the verge of a sinus infection the last day or so.  I'm at that point where it might be, but it might not be and I won't know for a day or so.  Or a few days.  It's at the point where if it is, it will continue to develop.  But if not, then I don't want to go to the doctor for antibiotics that I don't need.  But there were two yogurt coupons in the paper the other day...

Froggy, I knew you would like the TEXAS clock.  The bluebonnets are hand painted.  It was special from the moment the Teenager gave it to me, but now it means even more to us.

Cue Twilight Zone music:  Yesterday, Maggie literally herded a cricket to me.  As in she chased it but wasn't trying to eat it - however she was very obvious that her intent was to bring it to me.  Then, she turned around and walked over to where the bug jar is kept and stared at it very intently.  Then she turned around and stared at me intently, then back to the jar and then back at the bug.  At that point, I realized that she had made the connection with bugs in the house being caught in the bug jar and put out.  She was quite happy when I picked up the bug jar and caught the cricket and then she walked to the back door and waited for me.  She walked out on the deck with me and watched me dump the bug out, then she turned around and came back in.  It's a scary moment when the beagle does something smart!  :)

Tomorrow's high temperature is in the low 70's!   Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Don't Have to go to Work Tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you can't tell, I am really glad that my vacation has arrived.  Took long enough!  I wish that Bill was able to take the week off like we originally planned, but he can't take any time off at the moment unfortunately.  He is off Friday for the holiday, but that's also the day that Otter has off this week and we had already planned a shopping ramble.  I don't think he really cares, he wants to spend the day working on pachinko machines.  However, there is a chance of icky weather on Friday so we might stay in the Tulsa-ish area and not go as far as we have planned.  We'll still shop, thrift and possibly yard sale shop.  Froggy, we're also going to the steakhouse for lunch.

It's been a fairly busy, productive weekend.  Yesterday, Bill mowed the front yard and I got the limblets that had started up again on the trees in front.  Today he got the back yard.  We went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and Cici's Pizza for dinner.  We went to Ace Hardware today, I also went to Joann's Fabrics and Walmart this morning.  I got a lot of crafting and crochet done, Bill has been working on pachinko machines for a few hours.  He moved the freezer out to the driveway so it could be defrosted, then he moved it back in place.  It's plugged in again although there's nothing in it - we gave it to our (nice) next door neighbor and he'll get it sometime this week.  If he and Bill are able to move it to his house without laying it down then it can be plugged in again right away and he can start using it.  There was a big, blue dragonfly that kept zipping into the freezer and then zipping back out.  I think it was after the water from the thawing frost.  Maggie Moo got several walks, and she got to see her best canine friend this morning - Luna the wolf.

Maggie and Luna seem to be smitten with each other.  As soon as Maggie saw her down the street this morning she just about pulled my arm out of it's socket in her haste to go see her friend!  Maggie is not normally like that, she's fairly easy-going and walks well.  But as soon as she sees Luna, she's going to do everything in her power to get to her.  Luna is the same way about Maggie, although Luna is still very skittish about just about every other dog.  I got a picture of Luna with my cell phone this morning, I keep forgetting to take my camera with me when we walk in case we see her.  She's absolutely gorgeous.  Her owner said that she's not sure how Luna will do with fireworks, but her two others (one is part wolf) don't like them so she's already going to be staying home Friday and Saturday evenings.  Maggie Moo is totally unconcerned about them, Frasier never cared about them either.  Maggie is a very low-maintenance dog, Frasier was about as high-maintenance as it got.  I do miss him and I always will, he was one of those extra-special dogs.  But I have to admit that Maggie Moo is a much easier dog.  She is also smitten with her new bed.  When she's in the living room, she often is curled up in it or laying across it.  She sometimes sleeps next to it, but she usually has at least one and usually two paws/legs stretched out over it.  At the moment, she's napping and has her head on it like a pillow.

The electrical contractor is supposed to come out tomorrow to repair the damage to my yard from 2 months ago.  I would love for them to be able to bury the line that was put in place on Friday but the marking crew would need to come out first.  I'm very tempted to stand out on my deck with my leather whip at the ready, just in case they might need a little encouragement to do their job and do it correctly!  (Not seriously!  Just kidding.  Sort of.  Maybe.)

Froggy, I finally got around to getting a hair dryer.  My blow dryer went to Otter's apartment.  KN#3 was amazed that I didn't have one when y'all were here a couple of weeks back.  I also bought a full-size ironing board.  I've been using a table top size for years and it worked fine, I didn't have a lot of room at the old house so I used the small one and it was fine.  Then we moved here and even though the house is bigger and I have an actual laundry room, I didn't really have a place for a full-sized one.  So, I used the tabletop one on top of the dryer.  Also, I was hanging Bill's work shirts and jeans in the laundry room behind the door and then Otter's work clothing when she worked at the party store - Party City, in case anybody is interested in it (I didn't mention the actual name at the time for safety reasons.)  When she changed jobs, the uniform is one of their t-shirts and jeans so her clothing didn't really need to be ironed.  I just never changed my system, for some reason.  I took the iron holder/clothes hanger off the back of the laundry room door when we put Maggie Moo's pillow/bed in there and I decided to just go ahead and get a bigger ironing board.  It's now in my closet, it's collapsed and leaning up against the back of the closet.  Bill's work clothes are now going to be put in the front of his part of the closet.  I might eventually move it to the front/craft/guest/YARN room.

I might be done with my mink yarn scarf soon.  It's about 2 rows to an inch, and it is measuring about 56 or 57 inches.  My standard scarf size is about 60" in length.  I'll know "when I get there" if it's done or not, but it might be.  I'm going to get back on Otter's slant stitch poncho as soon as the mink scarf is done.  Then my UFO's will be done, with the exception of my scrap yarn lap blanket because I'm out of scrap end pieces for the moment and that's what I'm making it with, and Bill's quilt because I still need a little more fabric but I'm looking for things that fit his personality and interests.  I do have projects lined up, however!  Two scarf/hat sets for Otter and one for Froggy.  I also have a couple of non-crochet related craft projects. I'm finished with the tray I was working on and am nearly finished with the shadow box I'm making with Mom and AJ's stuff.  Next up is a mouse pad that I'm going to cover with the crochet pattern fabric that is on the bottom of the tray, and I may start on the Christmas ornament wreath soon.  I have a few small craft projects I'll probably work on soon, but they aren't anything major and can wait until "whenever" if they need to.

It's Summer Alright

(Froggy, this is just for you.)

And the skeeters are out!

The recent wet weather just keeps giving ad giving.

Apparently, mosquito dunks are becoming the hot, gotta have item in parts of TEXAS and Oklahoma.

Can't say I'm surprised!

At Least Monday is Over

But it's not Friday yet.  Unfortunately.

Bill sanded the switc hplate down to the wood, the one I threw out and then rescued from the trash.  I painted it again, with the white basecoat and when the paint is dry I'll cover it with modge-podge glue and put the scrapbook paper on it that I found.  It's supposed to be small doily-ish patterns and I like it.  After the modge-podge is dry, then I'll apply a sheet of clear mylar.  Then the fun begins!  The part where I kept messing up.  Cutting the holes out and cutting it around the edges!  After all that's done, I'm going to hit the painted (but unpapered) sides with clear sealer and then they just have to dry.  Then I can actually put them on the wall.

I'm not as tired today, but I do still have Redhead Anemia issues.  Not as bad, it's just "there."

I'm also having more allergy issues this afternoon, but that generally happens after I pull weeds in the rock garden.  Literally, IN the rock garden for part of it.  And around the edges.  I found a frog in the rock garden.  Actually, I almost picked "him" up with a bunch of weeds!  Did you know that frogs can give dirty looks?  This one did, anyway!  :)  He was not a huge frog, but I think he was still fairly young.  He hopped away from me, to the other side of the rock garden and probably is happily hiding in the honeysuckle now.  He might be the one I've been hearing the last few nights.

I've also heard tree frogs lately.  Especially when it rains.  I haven't seen them yet this spring, but they are obviously here already.

No sign of hummingbirds yet, but I put out two feeders Sunday.  I thought I might have seen one zipping by but it was hard to tell.  It's still a little early though.  But sometimes they arrive early, and just because I haven't seen them does not mean that they aren't here yet.

Fraiser is a little creaky today.  He and Maggie Moo were happy to go out in the back yard with me.  While I was pulling weeds, Maggie Moo was sitting on her behind and staring at the ground.  After a minutes, she reached down and pulled a large beetle grub out of the dirt.  Then she ate it!  Frasier was walking around like he does, looking for spots to water.  But then I noticed he was laying down in a grassy spot and when I called him to come in, he didn't want to get up at first.  He seemed to be more than a little stiff, but he did get up and came inside.  Then he went out the dog doors and to their yard.  He laid down in his usual spot, and I took an anti-inflammatory to him.  He hasn't needed them lately, but it's been cool and damp which seems to affect him  I called the vet and ordered a refill.  I still had one pill left for him, but I also had some from Maggie Moo's bladder infection she had last fall and the vet said that I can use them.  They are still within a safe date, they are the same dose but were cut in half for her.  I was going to take the brush to Frasier while we were outside, but that will wait a day or two.  Mostly because of my allergies, I didn't want to stay outside any longer than I had to.  He love the brushing, and so does Maggie Moo but she's not long haired so it's just a fun experience for her.  At the moment, they are both in the living room and both of them are snoozing.  Frasier is probably snoozing because of the medication, but Maggie Moo is just napping because it's what beagles do best, after all!

After 22 Years...

You would think I would have learned by now.

As soon as I declare a season change, especially if it's changing from Winter to Spring, it gets cold again!  And wet, it's been raining since sometime last night and we turned the heater back on.

I'm not switching quilts again, however!

The benefit to the cooler weather is that all the wicked little stingy-ended bugs are staying on their nests and it's easier to spray them.  Bill killed three nests tonight, all on the house and all near doors.  Two were yellow jackets and one was a wasp.  Indications are that it's going to be a bad year for the evil things.

(This one is borderline on what I usually post as far as language goes, but the one non-family friendly word is actually slang and is not quite impolite enough to worry about it.  Besides, it pretty much all true!)

Two of my favorites, pitties and blues!  And Bruno has good taste, bluebonnets smell heavenly.  He's a pretty smart puppy, obviously.

This little goofball, on the other hand...  When I got home, she was out in the garage.  Behind the tall boxes that block them off from parts of the garage we don't want them in.  And she was stuck!  Stuck as in lost, because she couldn't figure out how to get out - by going back the way she came!  As in back around the end of the shelf and back up to the front of the garage where she'd pushed a box out of the way.  Goofy little thing, that's for sure.  Sweet but still a goofball!

Winter is On It's Way! Again. Stupid Groundhog.

(For the record, I did clean first.  But it wasn't my first choice).

Looks like the groundhog is still mad at us.  And he's going to take it out on us starting sometime Sunday.  Afternoon or evening, or thereabouts.  Winter Mix is the correct term.  Monday is supposed to be brutally cold, with the high temps being in the 30's for the afternoon.  Tuesday morning is also supposed to be pretty cold.  It's still "up in the air" if we'll get any actual sleet, which is the most likely.  Or snow.  Or if it'll just be very cold and raining.  We'll probably get something, cold is pretty much guaranteed.  We just don't know what it will contain!

Otter is coming over Saturday with her laundry when she gets off work.  We're going to take one of the two remaining loads to the used bookstore to turn in and I think we'll probably hit the library as well.  I'll get her to work in the morning and pick her up when she gets off, then she'll come home with me and get the car.  Bill's off Monday for President's Day then he's taking Tuesday and Wednesday as vacation days, so she'll have the car through Wednesday at least.  She's had very little experience driving in winter conditions, she's had the lessons/lectures/passenger experience many times but she hasn't really driving in anything other than a small snowfall.  Mom's nervous at the thought, but she's gotta learn sometime!

This is my back fence.  Bill noticed something parked on it one day a couple of months back.  He noticed it for a couple of reasons:  it was suddenly very quiet, no bird noises at all.  And there were suddenly no birds in sight, anywhere, they were there and then they were gone.  He discovered the reason, a hawk sitting on the back fence.  We see them pretty often, but they don't usually park on the fence like that.  One time, we watched a squirrel running along the top of the fence.  Until it nearly ran right into a hawk that was sitting on the fence!  I had no idea that squirrels could put the brakes on and back up at warp speed!  I don't think that hawks are normally squirrel predators, but if it was hungry enough it might have gone after the fluffy tailed critter.

This is the tulip bed last Fall when we were planting.  We cleaned the ground off, stirred the dirt up with a shovel and treated it with oil/soap/water and then left it to sit for several days.  When it was time to plant, Otter mixed up the bulbs and tossed them all around the bed.  Last time, she had them in patterns.  This time, she decided to mix them up randomly.  They are just now beginning to poke up through the dirt and it looks like there will be a lot of them that will come up.  This will probably be the last time we'll have tulips for a couple of years.  We might expand the back fence to the side/corner of the garage, which will mean that this area will not get the sun it needs.  We'll probably have them again in the future, we're just not sure where they'll be.

This is also from last fall, it's the crepe myrtles.  They are not right up against the fence, it just looks like that in the picture.  They are planted between the trellis pieces which have honeysuckle planted against them.  It looks like at least some of the honeysuckle has survived both the mowers last year and the winter.  I can't tell for certain, but the crepe myrtles look like most of them have made it as well.

Hopefully, we'll have all of them come back and they will grow fast this year.  Same thing for the honeysuckle.  They'll all bring butterflies and hummingbirds, probably honeybees as well (but wasps and yellow jackets are not invited or welcome).  Most importantly, they will block the view of the neighbors behind us into our back yard and dining room windows!

End of the Season

Apparently, we are in the beginning of the end of mountain cedar pollen season.  Or at least that is what the weatherman on the news just said.  Of course, the mountain cedar might not know that - from what I can tell, it blooms 24/7/365!

Last Fall, we had one of the many 8-legged visitors we get.  This particular one was hanging out between the corner of the house and the honeysuckle trellis.

The web was hard to see, unless I happened to be at just the right angle.  It helped that the spider was actually on the web, he'd been hanging out up on the rain gutter and not actually on the web.

Here's a close-up.  I know some people don't like spiders, but they are actually pretty neat.  They are very important insects and play a major part in the ecosystem.  This particular type pulls it's legs up close to the body and gets very still.  They essentially play dead, until an unsuspecting bug flies into the web.  Then, they use all 8 of those legs and they are FAST.

When he wasn't on the web, this is where he was hanging out at.  The web was attached at the corner of the rain gutter.  Technically, it was probably a she and not a he - I think the majority of spiders that make webs are actually the females.

This is the toy we bought Bill last fall at his favorite tool store.

The firewood we got was from a lumber yard, it's pieces of wood that was originally used to hold things like pipe stacks together when they are delivered.  It's untreated so it is safe to burn, but some of the pieces are pretty big.  They are generally rectangular and some of them are pretty thick.  Which is when the wood splitter comes in handy.

They are pretty easy to use, it's all hydrolic and it does require a little upper body strength but it's not hard in the sense of swinging an ax would be.  The wood is placed in between the moving part and the stationary end, then there are two long arms that are swung which causes the spring to move.

The spring moves the flat piece which forces the wood against the stationary end which has a pointed wedge.  As the wood is forced against the wedge, it splits.

(Bill was being a good boy and wearing his sun hat!)  He's holding on to the two arms, they are swung one at a time and it's a pretty good workout for the arms and upper body.

This is actually the start of the process.

This is the woodpile before he'd done a lot of splitting.  Some of the wood was small enough that we didn't need to split it, but a lot of it was too big.

This was something else from last Fall.  It was originally part of the maple tree right outside of my dining room window.  That tree was pretty badly damaged several years back when we had the big ice storm.  It's still hanging in there, but is lost a big limb in a storm last Fall.  This piece of the limb was on the ground, the hole is a woodpecker nest.  It probably didn't help the tree's integrity, woodpeckers can be very damaging in their hunt for insects and also they nest by burrowing into the tree itself.

Frasier seems to be back to normal today.  I was really afraid that we'd have a bad surprise this morning, but he was fine.  A little groggy because I gave him a tranquilizer after all last night because he was a little restless, but happy to see me.  When Bill got home today,someone was coming over to see him so he put the dogs out in the back yard.  I picked up Otter and J so that she could get the car tonight, and when we got here I could see Frasier wandering around the back yard.  I let the dogs in and Frasier was just overjoyed to see J, which is unusual.  He likes people, but he is a very protective dog and especially if Bill is not in the same room I am.  He's met J before and likes him, but today he was just super affectionate.  Later on I was out in the back yard watering the crepe myrtles and honeysuckle, and the dogs came back out with me.  Frasier spent most of his time running around the back yard repeatedly.  He was having a great time and was like a puppy.  At the moment, he's grooming Maggie.  He woke her up to groom her!

Fiddling Around

Just had one of these nasty little beasties run across the kitchen floor:

It was about the size of a dime and it was running fast, like they do.  I noticed it out of the corner of my eye and what actually caught my attention is the way it was running, they have a particular way they move.  I had to move Maggie Moo's food bowl to get to it, which brought her running immediately.  She listened to me, for once, and didn't try to eat it (she seems to like to eat spiders).  I put the bug jar down and it immediately ran into it.  I was pretty sure what it was but I could look at it better in the bug jar and it was very clearly a fiddleback.  Brown Recluse is their actual name, but we've always just called them fiddlebacks.  It's gone for a very long swim now!  Most of the time, we leave spiders alone or relocate them, but not those.  They either get squashed (if we have shoes on) or flushed.

 

We got the carpet cleaning finished up Friday night.  I eventually got to run the vacuum.  It looks a lot cleaner and smells better.  Although we still get a whiff of the smell every so often, but now we think it's the dogs themselves so a bath is on order soon.  But not tonight, and not tomorrow because it's going to be very cold tomorrow.

 

We might get ice tonight.  It has been in the 70's the last couple of days and was really nice today, so it's going to feel even colder.  The ice chances are not high, but the chance is still there.

 

I found something today:

Except that mine is olive green, not blue.  But my camera is charging so I can't take a picture of it.  I think it's the 8" bowl, I haven't measured it but it is big.  And heavy.  And did I mention that it was only $6.50?  Talk about a steal!  It was at an antique-ish mall that we haven't been into in a while.  It was next to Goldie's, where we had lunch, and we've been talking about moving our booth so we wanted to look at the two close by stores.  We went to the first of two next-door stores and I just happened to see the edges of it peeking out from underneath the stuffed bunny that was sitting in top of it. I "may" have also said something to Otter about hoping the seller didn't know what they have!  The obviously didn't.  It's perfect and it's now holding court on the side top shelf of the entertainment center.  We watched Dirty Jobs reruns this morning and one of the episodes was the one where he went to the Fenton company, deja vu!  The pattern name is Thumbprint and it was made in the l960's.

 

Anyway.  Otter brought her laundry over, and we all went to lunch at Goldie's.  They have the best burgers!  We stopped at Wallyworld on the way home for baby oil, which we then used on the tulip bed.  We planted 56 bulbs today, and we've got pretty good timing because they need the cold ground.  They are fixin to get plenty of cold!  This is probably the last year for the tulip bed, at least in that spot.  We have been talking about extending the back side fence and it will block the sun from the tulip bed if we do.  They will be back, probably not for a couple of years and in a different spot, but I think we'll have them again.

 

Otter was going to have the car all next week, but with the weather chances we decided to keep it for the next two days.  Bill does not really want to drive the El Camino if the weather forecasters do manage to get it right.  Her hours for Monday and Tuesday work for me to get her to and from work, although Tuesday I'll bring her back home with me and she'll take the car then.  Her Wednesday shift is a possible all-nighter, this is the first late shift she's had in a couple of months.

 

I'm also going to change Otter's dentist appointment.  I really can not get off in the morning to take her, she doesn't want to drive if there is a) ice or b) the slightest chance of needing the anesthesia gas and c) her boss forgot what day she needed off so he scheduled her to start her shift tomorrow at 10:00 - the time of the appointment.  He told her that she could just come in afterwards, but I'm going to reschedule it for her.  I'll call them the second they open and they'd better not give me any grief about short notice because I originally started calling them on Friday which was before we knew what her schedule is.  Thursday, I called them and thought that they might have an answering service but they actually had a message on their voice mail saying that they were closed.  On Friday, the message stated that they were busy with other clients and told me to leave a message - and I left two.  I think that they were probably closed, but they didn't have anything like that on the voice mail message on Friday - but they did on Thursday.

 

When she was over here today, we finished going through the stuff in her room.  It was mostly the stuff from her bathroom, and most of it went in the trash.  Which is what I thought was going to happen.  Some has been added to the donate pile, but the majority of it was make up, cosplay make up and thinks like broken earrings, etc.  She took some stuff with her also.  As of this afternoon, she is officially and 100% completely moved out of her parent's home!  There are still a few boxes of her stuff but it's destined for the attic for us to store for her.  But for all intents and purposes, she's out of our house.

Bill moved the sofa table to My Room when we were getting ready to clean the carpets.  It's still there.  It's going to be moved to Bill's Room, also known as the Pachinko workroom/hoard.  I moved the dogs blankets to the spot where the sofa table was originally and also have two plants on stands there.  They're right in front of the window and will get a good amount of light.  I also tossed a cactus that was dead and rearranged my plants in the dining room.  Maggie seems to like the blankets, she more or less flew onto them and sprawled out on top of them.  When she's not actually awake, she's on her blankets.  Frasier hasn't really gone back to them, I think because he liked the spot he always snoozed in and didn't care one way or the other about the blankets.  He would frequently move them, we thought he was playing with them but now I realized that he was moving them out of his way.  Maggie Moo is quite happy, and she'll be even happier when she realizes that she'll be getting more warmth because of the fireplace.  The blankets are not in an area where there is a fire danger, but they are in a spot that will be very warm.  She spends quite a bit of her time in the winter snoozing in front of the fireplace anyway!

Sunday. Still Waving.

Yes, I am still riding the Wave.  But yesterday was worse than today.  Yesterday, I spent most of the day being lazy because I felt cruddy.  Just bad enough to know I felt bad but not as horrible as I've sometimes had with the flu shot reaction.  I never actually had fever, but it felt like it a couple of times.  I had a mild headache most of the day and occasional achiness.  I felt much better today, but this afternoon I'm back to feeling tired.  We went out to lunch at a Mexican place we had a gift card for, but that's about it.  I did mange to get one load of laundry done but it's not put up yet.  I don't know if I'm going to get anymore done today or not, but everybody's got enough clean clothes for the next couple of days!

 

Thunderstorms yesterday mid-morning.  They were loud and there was a lot of rain.  Then it cleared up and got humid!  We had a small thunderstorm this morning.  Now, it's back to sunny and humid.  We're probably still under the rain amount average, though.

 

There was another wasp starting a nest right outside the back door.  Bill went out the back door yesterday and I saw it dive at him but it didn't quite connect.  He knocked the small nest down but the evilness came back later.  He hit it with the spray just now.  Hate those things!  But, we think we now know why Maggie Moo is so skittish of flying bugs that make buzzing noises.  She's probably been tagged by bees or wasps in the past and associates flying buzzing things with pain.  She's ok if she can see the fly or moth, but if they are not visible to her she will hide.  Don't think I blame her!

 

I did manage to get some crochet done yesterday.  I made a couple of face scrubbies, they are supposed to be made out of cotton yarn but I think the cotton yarn is a little to hard on the skin.  Otter uses hers frequently, but mine is a different brand of cotton yarn and that may be why they feel different.  Anyway, hers was starting to show wear.  When we were in Hobby Lobby the other day, I found a new yarn.  It's bamboo with silk, and it is very soft.  It's also fairly strong, silk is stronger than people realize.  The skeins are small.  They are also $5.99.  Otter absolutely fell in love with it, and started talking about needing a new scrubbie.  But then she said that $5.99 was too much to pay for a small skein - guess she's forgotten about the mink yarn!  I let her think that I wouldn't buy it, but then I went back when she wasn't with me and got one that has a lot of purples in it.  I made her new scrubbie yesterday morning, she pretty much immediately ran to take a shower so she could try it out.  She said it works great and felt much softer than the cotton one did.  I'll probably make one for myself eventually.  I have a new de-stash project, I'm making scarves to donate.  I've done that before.  I still want to make chemo caps, but I'm not happy with any of my cap patterns for that at the moment.

 

Bill cleaned out the outside air conditioner unit.  For some reason, it gets full of tan dog fur on a regular basis.  Can't imagine why!

I Guess it's Just Tuesday

Can't think of a title today! :)

 

Day 2 of being back at work.  I was caught up about 30 minutes after I got there, yesterday.  I didn't particularly want to get up at 5:00 yesterday morning, which is maybe why I woke up at 4:30!!

 

Otter's been working feverishly to get her cosplay ready for TNT.  She's just about through, she still has to actually sew the blouse together but that won't take too long.  She's been working on the felt items that will be attached to the skirt, she's been painting and gluing them and that means drying time so the sewing isn't quite as critical.  But she's going to get that done tomorrow when she gets home from work.

 

The most exciting part of my week so far is buying a new kitchen trash can, the old one dates to 1994 (when we moved into our old house).  Bill needed a bigger trash can for the pachinko workroom, so I gave him the old one from the kitchen about bought a new one that is slightly larger.  Really exciting, huh!?!

 

There was another wasp nest starting in the front.  Actually, I think it was smaller hornets but I didn't get close enough to find out for sure.  Bill wanted me to hose out the old trash can, but the nest was in the window right over the faucet so I told him he had to kill it if he wanted his trash can cleaned.  There were two on it yesterday when we first noticed it, today it was actually quite a bit bigger and there were 3 of the little demons.  He sprayed them, one died immediately (I squashed the body into about a billion flat pieces with my shoe) and the other two flew off but not were not flying very well, since they were sprayed pretty good.  Otter found two freshly dead demon bugs when she was outside while ago, so I think he got all 3.  Hopefully, there won't be any more!

 

We bought miniblinds to put in the living room window, pachinko room window and our bed room window.  The living room and bed room are in back of the house, but we've seen our neighbors behind us peeking over the fence but pretending not to.  So, miniblinds it is.  The pachinko room is in the front of the house so it's just a good idea to put one there as well.  I think Bill's going to put them in the windows in the next couple of days.

 

Yes, Froggy.  S.A.B.L.E. is the only way to go!

Signs of Spring

OK, so it's not officially Spring for a few more days.  But today was a beautiful day and very much "Spring."

 

The birds seem to agree.  I saw robins gathering nesting material.  Time to get my yarn scraps out!  I have a Ziploc sandwich bag full of bits and pieces of yarn from assorted projects from the Fall and Winter.  It's short pieces, but some of them may need to be cut shorter.  Also, some of them may be pulled apart into several strands.  Then it gets spread out all over the yard and the birds grab it for nesting material.  I also head several mockingbirds.

 

The tulips are coming up!  There are a bunch of them, I forget how many we planted but Otter thinks it was over 100.  It's on the blog somewhere, it would be in an entry from last Fall.

 

We watered the tulip bed, the baby blue in the whiskey barrel, both elm trees and the mimosa tree.  We're using water from the 2nd rain barrel.  When that barrel froze (several times) it bulged out on the sides and bottom which made it heavy.  The ground was soft and the weight of a frozen rain barrel made the stand it was on settle a bit, but it settled unevenly and the rain barrel is not level anymore.  It's also just barely underneath the drain spout.  It's going to have to be taken down from the stand and then the ground underneath where it sits will need to be re-leveled.  The rain barrel needs to be empty or close to empty to be able to take it off the stand.  We really don't want to waste the water, so we've been using it when we need to water anything. Otter saw a tiny spider climbing up the side of the stand the rain barrel sits on.  I've seen a few other misc. bugs.

 

I think the dogsters are also enjoying the nice weather.  They've been very playful, especially Magginator.  Frasier is very happy and bouncy, and very affectionate.  They both got some outside time in the back yard this afternoon when we were getting the water.  Maggie did NOT get under the shed this time.  However, she did spend a lot of time tracking something around the area in front of the shed.  Frasier was also tracking something, but he was closer to the fence at the front of the yard and he kept going back and forth.  I'm thinking cat!

 

Dog's Beffday is Wednesday.  In honor of Mom and her love of/for animals, which she taught to her children and grandchildren.  I'm thinking we're going to make homemade ice cream (for us) to remember Mom by.  The dogs will get milkbones!  They probably already think they had their Beffday feast - I made a salad for dinner tonight and they went nutso the second they realized that the lettuce container was out of the fridge.  They got a bite or two each, and they also got a small piece of carrot each.  They were all sorts of happy!

Partied Out

Otter's no longer employed at the party store, as of 4:00 yesterday afternoon.  She's happy about it, by the way.  She has been employed at the hardware/tool store for over a week now and has worked two days at the Tulsa location.  She got a lot of good experience at the party store, but I don't think she's at all upset about not having to fill helium balloons!  She's already put all her khaki pants in the donation pile, she said that they reminded her way too much of school uniforms and she had enough of those when she was in (private) elementary school.  She's going to be very busy in the immediate future, she has the training class tomorrow and I think that she'll be at the new store after that.  The employees at the new store will help with stocking and getting it all organized, which will be a lot of work but she is definitely not afraid of hard work.  It also might make it easier when the store opens, they will be more familiar with what the store sells since they'll have stocked it.  It's going to be a very hands-on training, I think.  I won't miss the late nights at the party store, 10:00 shift ending but not actually getting out until after 11:30 was getting old.  With the party store's busy season being Halloween, that would have just gotten worse and would have stayed that way for a few months.  She bought a lot of stuff on her lunch break yesterday, since she no longer has the 30% employee discount!  She'll probably still shop there, the party store does have a lot of stuff that can't be found in a lot of places.  She'll have a 20% discount at the new job and she will buy stuff there, she's her father's daughter after all and she was already a customer before!!!

 

She's off with J at the moment.  They started out at a mall, they were going to eat lunch and possibly go to a movie.  I think they are also going to the book store across from the mall and there are a few other places they may go.  She's enjoying the first day off she's had in over a week, since she worked at the new job on the days off from the old job.  Her allergies were bad yesterday, last night especially but she is feeling much better today.

 

Bill's also doing better.  He's out of his restricted duty and he got to mow the backyard this morning.  So, he's a happy camper.  He's finally admitted that he is out of room as far as the pachinko machines are concerned.  We looked around in the garage and he's trying to come up with a better system for storage.  Which can be done, but the problem is going to be keeping it organized once he figures it out!  That's going to be the hard part.  :)

 

I've done 3 baby caps for the purple hat donation.  They are easy and quick.  I probably can get two or maybe three more out of the lavender yarn I have.  I'm not sure if I'm going to do anymore after that, I have plenty of purple yarn but none of the soft stuff it needs to be.  But until I run out of the lavender yarn, I'll keep cranking out baby caps.  Then it's back to working on the shawl I am making for Nana and as soon as the weather is consistently cooler, I'm dragging the afghan back out of the stash closet!

 

It has been very nice the last few days.  It was in the low 60's Friday night and last night, the days have been in the high 80's and Fall is very much on the way.  Which will hopefully help with the cricket invasion that the Tulsa area has had to deal with!  Especially since the main cricket predator is brown recluse spiders - we got one in the living room Friday evening.  I like spiders, but I could do without the fiddlebacks!

 

I didn't see it, but Bill said that Maggie was chased out the dog door.  By a fly!  Dog's a goof, that's for sure.  So is Frasier, he's just isn't quite as goosey as the Magginator is.  Except for when he is!

Growing Our Own!

Mosquitos.  We had homegrown ones.  We've been finding them in the house.  Several, and we couldn't figure out how they were getting in.  Some will come in with the dogs and through the dog door.  But 3 or 4 a day was too many for that.  Yesterday, I found where they were coming from.  We had a mosquito farm in one of the two glasses we're rooting honeysuckle in, the glasses are in the kitchen window.  I only saw wrigglers in one of the glasses, but I dumped both out.  I rinsed the plants off and refilled the glasses.  It was water from the rain barrel and I checked it very carefully.  I usually leave the watering can about 1/2 full and there have never been any wrigglers in it.  I'm going to keep a much closer eye on the rooting glasses, as well as the watering can.  I'm not sure why the were incubating in the glasses but not the can since they were both water from the rain barrel and the barrel has mosquito dunks.

 

We've had so much rain lately that there is a pretty big problem with mosquitos in the Tulsa area.  It rained again yesterday, the rain gauge had about 1 3/4" this morning but some of that was yesterday's rain and then we got a lot of rain overnight.  I dumped out before I headed off to work this morning, but we've had rain off and on all day so I'm sure it's got measurable rain in it again.  I just haven't gotten out there to check it again.

 

Bill put in a new ceiling fan in the bedroom a few weeks ago.  It worked but then it started rattling.  Same as the last one we had.  He finally figured out that it was part of the assembly inside the ceiling itself that holds the fan in place.  The old fan was bad, it did need to be replaced.  The new one was actually used when we got it, but it was in good shape.  Bill bought a hanging pole, but he had to get it cut down because the smallest he could find was something like 8" and it needed to be a little smaller.  Unless we wanted the fan just a few inches over us, as it's over the bed.  Since we don't have any desire to be cut up by blades just by sitting up, he needed to get the hanging pole cut down considerably.  He put the fan on the pole and hung it back up this afternoon, it made the difference.  Now we have a working ceiling fan in the bedroom.  We still will use the stand fan at night, we like a lot of air circulating.  Also, the stand fan creates white noise which I'm always thankful for because sometimes Bill snores!  Like a rhinoceros.

 

Froggy, I mailed your stuff to you yesterday.  I think you will probably get it tomorrow but it might be Thursday.  Cut it open carefully, I fact the best thing is to just barely cut through the tape on the top.  It's closely packed.  Everything is inside of the quilted tote bag, which you already know about.  You've seen the frog cap already, but there is something else in the box that is fun.  Or at least it was fun for me to make!

Made it to Friday!

Crazy week.  Glad it's over.  Well, it will be tomorrow.  But for all intents and purposes, the week is done done done.

 

Bill noticed last weekend that our electric meter wasn't working.  We had power, but the meter wasn't moving.  At all.  We were afraid that it might have been damaged in one of the many storms we've had, probably the one a couple of weeks ago where so much of this area was without power.  I called the electric company on Monday and they said they'd send someone out.  I made certain that they were not going to be allowed unless one of us was home, and I told them why - a few years ago, we very nearly lost Maggie when they opened a nearly unopenable gate and left it open.  I think that they may have made a not in our "file" because they usually ask me to be certain that someone is here and that my dogs (and they know how many we have plus other details about them) are up.  Otter was off on Tuesday, so that's when I scheduled the guy to come out.  Monday afternoon, he calls me to tell me he was on the way - I told him that no, he was not on the way and that it would have to be Tuesday.  He was extremely "sheepish" but he did say that he'd be out Tuesday.  Tuesday morning, I was getting ready to go to work when he called and said he'd be here shortly.  So, I just waited for him.  He was right on time.  When he pulled the lid off of the box the meter was in, it was nearly solid bird nesting material.  We had birds build nests in it before, so we have been keeping a piece of duct tape over the opening.  The nests were at least 4 years old, when Bill taped it up he made sure that there were no birdies and that it was well past nesting season so there were no deceased birds in it.  Just lots and lots of dead grass!  The technician said that probably didn't have anything to do with the meter conking out and that the tape was not causing a problem either.  He basically popped the old meter out and popped the new one in.  Took about 3 minutes, start to finish.

 

We've had a lot of rain this week.  The air was clear for a brief moment, but then the sun came out and that means that it got unbearably humid fast.  Also, we are dealing with a lot more mosquitos.  We've been dumping the dog's water dish out and refilling every other day but now I'm thinking that we might need to change it to daily.  The rain barrel is not the source, it's been "dunked" and will be for a while.  The dog's water is being dumped before any wrigglers can actually hatch out - and they like the dog's water dish for egg-laying, apparently.  We have a suspicion that they may be coming from Lovely Neighbor's.  It wouldn't be the first time!  She has a water feature in her front yard, but it's not turned on very often but it does have water in it.  Which means standing water.  Which means skeeters!

 

I've seen several spiders lately.  Mostly outside, but a few inside.  No bad ones lately.  Just the good ones and they are more than welcome.  We just need to keep them out of the beagle's reach!

 

Tulsa is apparently having a problem with snakes this year.  Mostly copperheads but there have been a few rattlers.  The problem is that it seems nobody actually knows what to do with one!  What do they do?  Well, apparently people think that snakes are either play toys or that it's safe to pick one up to relocate it.  You can probably guess what happens next!  The number of people being treated for bites by either rattles or copperheads is pretty high this year.

 

Can we say gene pool in serious need of a flush?

Out on a Limb

(The pictures loaded out of order, for some reason.)

 

Anyway.  This is what we've been doing today:

Piling limbs!

The city finally announced that they will be picking up limbs.  We still have to call them and let them know, which makes no sense whatsoever.  The limbs have to be 8' or shorter and piled by the street.  But not in the street (obviously), not too close to mailboxes or street signs, etc.  The limb piles are bigger than they look.

 

We've been piling limbs in a corner of the back yard for a while, mostly it is storm damage.  Just not from one storm!  (The City doesn't care, they just want it to be tree debris and not trash.)  There are a few limblets that got trimmed and placed in the pile, but they were pretty small.  We're still not through, there are a few more.  Maybe one more pile or two, in the size we've put them in at the street.  They are bigger than they look in the pictures.

 

I'll call the city tomorrow.  Our neighbors all seem to be doing the same thing we are, there are more chainsaw sounds than anything else!

 

We found this in the back yard as well.  Spiderweb!

 

A really big one.
S

It was hanging between one of the trees in the back yard and one of the shepherd's hooks that I hang birdfeeders on.

It was taken yesterday morning, it was getting foggy and the web picked up any available light and reflected it.

Woodpile from today.  This is probably about 1/2 a rick, but it is maple so it will burn fairly quickly.  It's got a few months to age still.  The larger pieces came from the neighbor - he cut down an entire tree and put it in one of his limb piles but he gave us the big pieces.  There are a couple more pieces but I'm not sure if we'll get them or not.

 

No injuries!  And Bill even operated the chainsaw most of the day.  However, I do have billions of scrapes on my arms from dragging the limbs out to the curb.  Also, we have a few mosquito bites but some of them are from yesterday.  But we are going to be hurting tomorrow!  There were about a billion grasshoppers in the yard.  I saw one tiny frog.  Bill saw one mouse, it was running under the old limb pile.  And one dead spider, which I think had been there for a while.  No rats, which we thought might be in the woodpile.  And, probably more important - no snakes with rattlebutts!  We're still going to be cautious when we finish moving the old limb pile to the curb, which we'll probably do tomorrow after work.  That is, assuming that we can actually move.

 

Bill said that he felt like rigor mortis was setting in, he was beginning to be stiff.  I'm not looking forward to getting out of bed tomorrow.  You'll probably hear us screeching!