Pretty Sure I'm Done

I've been blogging for a few years now, and lately there really isn't anything that I want to blog about.  Things are going good, nothing worrisome.  I just don't seem inclined to blog lately.  So, I may occasionally post.  But for the most part, I'm probably done.

It's been fun!  But I think it's time to quit.  At least for a while.

#METOO

I can't find the original source for this and it is not my quote, but it is what I want to say:

"If you've been sexually harassed, assaulted or raped, write "Me Too."  Maybe folks will realize the magnitude of the problem and stop telling us we're "overreacting."

This part is me:  #METOO.

Pray for Texas

My beautiful TEXAS is hurting.

So are we, even if we are 500 miles away - we are still and will always be TEXAN.  It's in our dna.  It's in our blood.  It's in our hearts and souls.

Now, TEXAS needs help.

Salvation Army

United Methodist Church Relief (UMCOR)

End of Summer, Sort-Of

I know I said I would try to blog more often.  But it just hasn't happened!

It's been a busy summer.  July was really busy.  We had been looking at options since Bill has not been able to find a job.  There are a few jobs out there, but not really what his degree is for.  He has been looking, but what we discovered is that his degree in Electronics Engineering is not going to amount for much, if there are no jobs in that field.  When he got his degree, electronics was projected to be the up and coming field and the job outlook was very good.  It didn't turn out that way.  Computers were supposed to also be a very good field, and they were for a while.  But then as things evolved, the computers and electronics devices became cheaper to replace than to repair.  Which really limited any employment futures.  We didn't realize that until Bill started putting out feelers to look for another job, which he started doing when we realized that things were going bad as his then-job.

After his job was eliminated, which was a blessing from God considering the really bad situation it had become, he qualified for the buy-out they were offering and we also were able to access the teacher's retirement which he had been part of because he worked for a school district.  We have our own retirement program set up, we had gotten out of the teacher's program several years ago because it was not well administered and it looked for a while like it might actually disappear.  It did not disappear, but our plan was/is much better so we stayed with ours.  What we had put in to the teacher's plan sat there for years and it drew some interest.

We have spent the last several months building up the pachinko repair/restoration business and using the retirement funds as a supplement.  We were thinking he would be able to find a job before this, but as I mentioned - the jobs just are not there.  Unless he wants to work for minimum wage in an electronics assembly job, for literally not enough $ to pay for the gasoline to get there and back.  So, we decided to look at our options.  We talked about selling the house, but we decided we don't want to do that.

What we have done is to refinance our house instead.  We refinanced about 9 years ago, with a 15 year mortgage. The idea was that it would be paid off about the time we hit retirement age. But the payments were pretty high.  We talked to the bank and they said that we would have no problem refinancing, even though Bill has been out of work for 16 months.  He's been able to bring in some $ with the pachinko business, and I am in a job I have held for 23 years.  We have not been late on anything and we have a good credit rating.  So, we decided to go for it.  We had a couple of other things we paid down/off and the upshot is that yes, we have a 30 year mortgage but we have a much lower payment.  Which means that with what Bill is bringing in with the business, he can stay self-employed and continue to concentrate of building our business.  We don't intend to let the mortgage go 30 years, we can (and will) pay extra towards the principal.

This is another instance of what we see very strongly as God's hand.

That's the leap of faith we took.  It's been a series of leaps and we've taken them.

Jumping in with both feet

leap of faith

noun

1. an act of believing in or attempting something whose existence or outcome cannot be proved.

   
   

   "anyone investing in new media today has to make a leap of faith"

Friday. Finally.

Hard week, glad it's over.  It's finally Friday.

Not a moment too soon.

Maggie agrees.  She made a new friend today.  There is a cat in the neighborhood that may be a pet, or more likely, is a barn cat that one of the neighbors brought to control the "pests" in the neighborhood.  Yeah, like squirrels and birds!  We've actually been considering trapping it and giving it to the city, they have a program where they provide traps and then the cats are taken to the shelter - our shelter is pretty good and tries to find homes.  But this morning, I let Magsters out in the back yard for a few minutes and when I went out to get her she was interested in something under the tree.  Which I could not see, but she was locked in on.  That can mean snake or something unpleasant.  So I went over to the tree and she was nose to nose with the cat.  The cat was happy to see her and they seemed to be getting along.  I called her (a few times) and finally grabbed her collar and aimed her to the door.  She went willingly, but slowly.  The cat followed her for a few steps.  I guess we'll see over the next few days if there are any issues with the cat, but we have already wondered if it might be coming in Maggie flap door.

June Already

I'm not sure where May went.  It's June 3 already!!

I'm making an effort to blog more often.  Or at least I will when I remember! :)

The most exciting thing lately is that Maggie Moo had to get her annual shots and since the vet said he has to give her an exam with one of the shots, we took her to a shot clinic at a local agricultural/farm/pet store chain.  She's seen the vet a lot and had several exams, so he was fine with us taking her to the shot clinic.  We probably would have anyway, since it is cheaper and this year that matters.  I took a copy of the shot record to the vet and they will add it to her file so that she stays current.  She's fine, she was not happy with the shots but she did enjoy the fact that there were a lot of other dogs there.  She usually says "hi" to a couple of them and then she's quite content to wait in line.  As Maggie gets older, she's 13 now, she is still playful but not as much as she used to be.  She seems to enjoy seeing other dogs occasionally but she actually does a lot better as an only dog than we thought she would.

Wow

I have not posted since January!  5 months, nearly.

I forgot my password and had to get blogger to send me a new one.  That's not why I haven't blogged in so long, that just happened today when I tried to sign in.

I am still here, Otter is still here (25 now!), Bill is still here and Maggie Moo the Wonder Beagle is still here.  Otter is still dating J, I think she said they are going on 4 years now?  I'm not sure if it is 3 or 4.  She still works for the same hardware store and has consistently moved up.

Maggie Moo has had a few health issues, but she is 13 now.  She had what was basically a skin tag on her left front "elbow" and the vet was watching it.  He did not want to operate because of her age.  He tried a couple of things including a steroid shot which did shrink it quite a bit.  But then she started licking it again and it started to grow, so he decided to go ahead and remove it.  He tried a different anesthesia that was safer for older dogs and she did great.  She had to wear a Cone of Shame for a few days,which she did not like!  But she's recovered very well and she's also lost some weight.  We had been feeding her Iams brand and we noticed that a) her weight ballooned up, b) she was pooping larger amounts than she was eating and also the vet was concerned that c) her liver enzymes were up.  We took her off the Iams brand, put her back on Pedigree and she's lost several pounds, does not poop mountains anymore and her liven enzymes are dropping a lot although they are not quite back to normal.  But they are getting there.  She's more playful also.

I have toyed with the idea of quitting blogging altogether and I've also thought about just creating a new one.  At this point, I am just going to continue this one although maybe not posting that often.  I'll try not to wait 5 months, though. :)

What have I been doing?  Lots of crochet and quite a bit of crafting.  We've been enlarging the pachinko business and it's going strong.  I've found more time to go to the library, something I try to do on a regular basis.

Normal stuff, in other words.

But I have made a change in a lot of my opinions.  I am still (and will remain) Christian.  But I am trying very hard not to be a judgemental one.  We were sort (ok, not just sort of) of heading in the direction of fundamentalism.  One of the things we were doing was observing Saturday Sabbath.  That's not the only thing but it was one of the bigger changes we made.  Was, not is.  It was something we tried for several years, the fundamental route and not just the Saturdays.  For various reasons, I realized that was one route I did NOT want to go down and so did Otter.  Bill took a little longer, but we all realized that it was a mistake and was potentially a HUGE mistake.  Most of those mistakes have been rectified, and one of them included changing churches.  We are still Southern Baptist, but not fundamental.  The church we belonged to was not officially fundy, but it had a lot of things in common with fundies.  But there were a lot of things that happened, which I have documented, and it started with the minister seeming to "check out" of doing anything beyond practically phoning in the sermons.  That was what got me thinking and since Otter was really unhappy with the church, I started observing things there a lot deeper.

After Otter moved out, I basically just said that I was quitting a lot of things we were doing and the Saturday observance was the first "casualty."  All the Saturday observance was doing was to make me (and Otter) miserable.  It caused more problems than it fixed, and it really did not do much of anything constructive.  A few Saturdays after I quit it, Bill said he realized that I was making sense and he quit observing it as well.

We were already looking for a new church and I really did NOT want to stay Baptist.  We visited a few Methodist churches but we really did not find "the one" so we quit going at all for a while.  We did not quit our faith, just attending the church.  We decided to visit a small-ish Baptist church that is a couple of miles from home and were very pleasantly surprised.  The first thing we noticed is that they observe Advent - something almost no Baptist churches actually do.  There was a Christmas Eve candlelight service.  There are a lot of other rituals and observances that have always been very meaningful to me/us.  We met with the pastor, he came over to our house, and we had a very nice talk with him.  We decided to join and we did, on January 1st of this year.  So yes, we are still Baptist.  But not fundamental and not stuck in what felt like a dead or dying church.

Among other things, while I am still and will always be pro-life, I'm not going to be militant about it.  I believe strongly that life begins at conception.  But it's between each person and God how they feel, and what they do.  I do not have an issue with birth control, at all.  I don't consider abortion to be birth control.  And I do as much as I can to donate to and assist groups such as the local ones that help teen girls who are pregnant.  But I'm not the type to picket the clinics, etc., I never really have been.  But I will continue to pray for all concerned in that situation.

I'm also basically going back to beliefs that I have held for years.  We can all love who we want and it's nobody else's business what anybody does in the privacy of their own lives.  That is something that I never really had an issue with.  I think a lot of the reason I ever changed my mind on that issue to start with is when I lost a very good friend to AIDS.  He was in his early 20's when he died.  It was a few years before I decided that his lifestyle was wrong.  But recently I have realized a few things, and one of those things is that it was his life and he had the right to live it as he wanted.  And that goes for everyone.  I have a very good gay friend and I told him (on inauguration day) that I supported him 100% and I meant that.  He's not the only one I support in that sense.  So, the basic thing I saying (or trying to) is that we all have to live our lives in the way that works for us.  And that I am not here to judge anyone.  What really matters is how we treat each other, that is the basic truth that a lot of people miss.  I missed it for years.  I'm not missing it any longer.

And I am sincerely sorry to anyone who I may have hurt.

Politics

I haven't posted much lately and I have not been political when I did post.  It was a really bad political season and it seemed to go on forever.  It should be over today, but I don't think it is. Not by a long shot.

I did the one thing I said I would never do.  I voted for Hilary Clinton.  I absolutely can not stand her and there is very little that she stood for that I agreed with.  But I dislike and distrust Trump even more.

I was surprised when he won and not surprised at the same time.  I'm not quite sure where to go from here, I guess we'll have to figure that out as we go along.

GOOD BYE 2016!!

Dear 2016,

You have been a rough year.

Obviously, there have been some bright spots.  Such as Bill's job being phased out and the buy-out he qualified for.

But there have been a lot of dark spots as well.

I'm glad you are just about over, 2016.

2017 - It's your turn.  Please be better!

I will see about a year in review post, probably tomorrow.

In the meantime:  Happy New Year, everyone.

Christmas Eve 2016

Yes, I know it's been just over two months.  I'm still here!  There just hasn't been anything spectacular to blog about.

Billyboy is still working on the pachinko machines, our side business is doing very well.  At some point, he will most likely need to get a "regular" job - but that might be problematic in this area and in his area of expertise.  But we are still chugging along, trusting God to get us to where we need to be.

Over the last few months, we've been attending a different church.  We have been unhappy with our church for a very long time, and we have not attended it in over 2 years now.  And in those two years, we have heard from them exactly once - and then only because I made a mistake on a tithe check we mailed them!  We have discussed going back to the Methodist church and attended one for a few weeks before we realized we did not like that particular church that much.  We've visited a few others and one Sunday we decided to visit a Baptist church that we visited years ago.  We were there on a day when another smaller church was visiting with the idea of combining the two churches, and they would be meeting at the sanctuary close to us.  We really enjoyed it and decided to continue to visit.  And then we realized that we were attending a Baptist church but it's actually a lot closer to some of the things that we enjoyed in the Methodist services.  For one thing, they observe Advent.  I don't know of any other Baptist church that does that.  Some of the prayers are occasionally given by women - which never happens in the Baptist church!  We met with the pastor and really liked him.  Tonight, there was a Christmas Eve service - candle light, and with the final observance of Advent - and Communion/Lord's Supper.  We are either joining it tomorrow or next Sunday (New Year's Day.)

Otter is doing very well.  She's gotten a couple of raises at work and her reviews have been very good.  She's basically been told that she's being groomed for management at some point.  She is a very hard worker and has been full-time for a few months.

Maggie is at my feet at the moment - hogging the blanket I have on my legs.  She's been very playful lately, we switched her back to the Pedigree food because the Iams did not seem to be satisfying her, and I think she likes the Pedigree better.

Froggy's middle kid got married in November.  Otter and I were able to go, it was in McKinney Texas which is a really neat little town.  We finally got to meet Froggy's grandbaby, who is absolutely precious, and he was really cute during his parent's wedding.

OK, that's about it.  Sort of caught up but there really has just been "normal life" going on and that is fine with us.  Especially considering that this time last year, we were expecting Bill to be out of a job at any time.  But we didn't anticipate it being like it was, and that is just one more example of God taking care of us.

Sunday Oct. 23, 2016

If I can't think of a title, I'll just use the day and date.  Today, obviously, I can't think of a title!

I also can't think of a whole lot to say, but Froggy will get after me if I don't at least post something.  Can't upset Froggy, now, can we?  :)

It has been very nice weather lately, cool at night and in the early morning then nice during the day.  We have had 40's overnight a few times, which is actually late.  It will eventually be winter, but it's been a warm fall so far.

We normally have already gotten firewood by this time but we aren't getting any this year.  Yet.  We have quite a bit left from last year, since the winter was so mild.  We may not actually need to by any at all for the coming winter.  We will if we need to, but we have a lot still.

I've been busy with crochet the last several days.  I'm working on scarf/hat combos for specific people and I also made a bunch of cotton wash cloths.  I finished the blanket for J that I started a while back, Otter has ordered another scarf for him (which meant that we had to go shopping for yarn!) and then I am thinking I might make a poncho or another shawl for myself.

Maggie Moo seems to have lost a little weight.  We stopped using the feeder system we had and went back to a regular dog food bowl and a regular amount for her.  She's also been getting a few less treats and more exercise.  I had to tighten her harness a little bit, and she seems more energetic.  We also stopped using the watering system because there is a specific bacteria that can cause uti and bladder infections in dogs; it grows in water that is left to sit for days.  Like the watering system.  So, she has a good sized plastic bowl for her water and I wash it often.  It's large enough that it lasts her a day and usually the night, then it gets washed and refilled the next day.  She is still supplementing her diet with grubs that she finds in the yard!  But she's a little less rounded - just a little bit!

It's been a nice weekend, I did a little thrift shopping yesterday (didn't find anything), saw Otter for a little while and then today I have cooked several things for the freezer and I've crocheted a lot both days.  But it's back to work tomorrow, Monday's on it's way!

OK So it's Tuesday

And I don't really have a lot to talk about, but I am going to try to get back into the blogging thing!

I don't want to upset Froggy, after all!  :)

I was looking back over some of the stuff I posted in the past.  This year has not been very busy at all, especially compared to last year.  The last 3 or 4 years, we were dealing with Bill's job/hell-on-Earth situation and then last year had a lot of car/Otter/Otter's roommate/Otter's multiple moves happening.  But this year has been fairly calm.  Which is a Very Good Thing.

The Presidential election is in a very short few weeks.  I will be so glad when it's over!  It's one of the dirtiest I can recall.  I'm not impressed with either of them.  I'm not normally quiet about who I vote for, but this year I may be.  It's just not a good choice, either way!

I like this one:

And this one:

But I think I have a better choice:

Maggie Moo & Babbicat!  (Babbiecat is J's cat).

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun?

Or when you just get busy and forget about blogging.

It's been over a month since I last even thought about blogging and that was on Star Trek Day.  Guess I'd better get caught up.

Well, for starters Maggie Moo has spent a lot of time visiting the vet.  Her ears were still bothering her so she had to spend more time on the abtibiotic and steroid plus the vet injected the ointment into both ears again.  She finally got over that and then she had a spot come up on the top of one of her toes on her right foot.  We thought it was a tick at first, it was not noticeable on a Thursday but on a Friday it was there.  But it was too late to call the vet so we had to wait until Monday morning.  By Monday morning, it was obviously a cyst and was much larger.  The vet saw her that evening and told me to bring her back the next morning because he was afraid to leave it on any longer since it was growing so fast.  Because of her age, 12 years, he didn't want to put her completely under so she got a little stronger than a local but not quite anesthestized.  He said it came off easily and while she was groggy he also got a few of the skin tags she's developed over the years.  The cyst that was removed from the top of her head a few years ago acted like it was trying to come back, it was a little larger, so he hit it again too.  She was in a cone for a few days and was not happy!  I don't blame her, but that was the only way we could keep her from chewing on her foot.  She got pretty good with that cone, she was very proficient at running into my legs.  She figured out how to eat and get water with it.  But she was glad when it came off and stayed off.

I took Otter and her best friend to see the 30th Anniversary special showing of the movie Labrynth.  It was a lot of fun, we had pizza for lunch and went to a book store since we had plenty of time before the movie.  The movie was very good, it has always been one of my favorites.  But it was also very emotional, for all three of us.  I had plenty of kleenex on hand and we needed them!  I'm glad that Otter was finally able to see it on the big screen, she had only seen it on dvd.  The movie was re-released on blu-ray for the 30th anniversary and I bought it as soon as I saw it.  We had a copy, but it moved out with Otter 2 years ago!  It was released in two versions, one is just the movie but I bought the special one which is neat.  The case looks like a book.  It has a special "Remembering the Goblin King" but I have not watched it yet - too emotional!

We tried a new recipe.  We made pizzas on frozen garlic bread.  We used the sliced Texas Toast version.  It was actually pretty good, but they were not very filling.  We will probably make it again, but we will use more sauce than we did the first time.

Texas played ou and it was not our year.  Since I never got around to getting a Longhorn sticker on my newish car, we didn't have to deal with any of the idiots this year.

Speaking of the newish car, it did have a problem.  After I got my oil changed, the "check engine" light came on and the oil change place checked it for me (it was a couple of days later.)  It was the vent valve to the gas tank and was covered by Chevy's warranty so it didn't cost us anything.  Which is good, but I must admit that when I saw the "check engine" light my first thought was the 2002 impala and all the trouble we had with it!

Otter and I went thrfting one day and we both found several things.  I found a couple of skirts, a nice cardigan sweater and I found this:

It's probably not handmade, but it is also not new.  It's at the very least vintage.  It has a Made in Japan tag, and it was made back when that actually meant something special.  I handwashed it, but I didn't have any place to lay it flat to dry so I had to hang it over the shower curtain rod.  It stretched out a lot more than I wanted it to, so I hung it back over the rod but sideways this time.  Then I sprayed it with water until it was between damp and soaking, and it stretched out sideways.  As it did, it pulled the length back up a bit which is what I was hoping it would do.  It's still longer than it was when I bought it, but it's not too long to wear.  And I will find an occasion to wear it!  It's hanging over the shower curtain in this picture.  It's very delicate and was $2.00 or possibly less.

October 1st was two years since this:

That's Bill's car (the el camino) with nearly everything Otter owned at that point.  She has more furniture, etc. now than she did then so it would take more than one truck load to move her.  Not that she's in any hurry.  The two moves in the same complex last year were enough for her for a long time.  She did consider moving last summer, but that would also have involved a job transfer to another location her employer opened in a near by town but she decided against it.  She's been in her current apartment for nearly a year now and she's going to see about renewing her lease when it expire at the end of November.  She would like a 6 month lease but is probably going to have to sign for another year.  She likes her apartment, it's not too far from work or us and it's close to a lot of things.  But she would like a slightly cheaper rent and that would probably mean a little farther from work. She is thinking that IF she did decide to move to a cheaper apartment, it would be easier to do that in the summer as opposed to the Fall/Winter since her lease runs to the end of November.  Either way, she likes being on her own with no romemate to worry about!

September 8, 1966

 The world as we knew it changed forever.

And it changed for the better.

No, it's not just around the corner.  It's already here.  Use a cell phone lately?

All because of the extraordinary vision of one extraordinary man.

I can't even imagine, and don't want to, where we would be without it.

LLAP

5.6

When we moved to Oklahoma in 1993, we knew that bad weather was part of the deal.  But we never expected earthquakes!

In November of 2011, there were a few small ones and then one very big one that hit in the middle of the night.  It was interesting, to say the least.  At the time, it was the highest on record for this area.

Until yesterday morning, that is.  We were sitting on the couch enjoying coffee and discussing out plans for the day at about 7:00.  Maggie Moo was acting really weird.  She's an affectionate little fluff most of the time and likes to be with us.  But she was acting like she wanted to glue herself to me, she was leaning on my leg and acted like she was surgically attached to me.  We also noticed at about the same time that the morning bird chorus was suddenly silenced.  At 7:03, we heard a very strange sound almost like a sander or grinder and it was coming from the direction of the outer kitchen wall which is the west side of the house.  We looked at each other, Bill said "what is that?"  Then the couch started shaking and the floor rippled - we figured out that it was an earthquake at that point, obviously.  We got up and went very quickly to the door frame and Maggie Moo went right with us - I called her name but she was going anyway.  We had the tv on and I must have turned it to one of the local stations because the channel changed and the weatherman was on.  He was in the midst of a forecast when he suddenly started saying things along the line of "OK folks, we seem to be having an earthquake."  It seemed to last for a long time, the hardest part of the shaking was probably about a minute but the actual quake was a few minutes long in duration and we felt most of it.  Once we could tell that it was over, the tv was still moving slightly and we could hear what was probably everything in the china cabinet vibrating still.

It took a little while, but the strength was revealed to be a 5.6 which is a pretty big quake.  It was centered in Pawnee, which is about 50 miles west/northwest of Tulsa.  It was shallow, just a few miles deep, which is why we could feel it so strongly.  It was huge and was felt as far as Memphis, Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, parts of north TEXAS.  There was quite a bit of damage at the epicenter, no deaths but one injury and at least one fire caused by either the gas lines being ruptured or the electric lines.

There have been several aftershocks, although we haven't felt any.  According to the news this morning, there were at least ten.  It also appears that it was a previously unknown fault.

Maggie Moo was a goosey girl for a while, but she got back to normal after a couple of hours.  The birds did start singing again, but we didn't hear them for several hours.  There was a weather radar picture released that was taken at the time of the earthquake hit - all the birds took off and there were so many of them and so fast that it appeared on radar!

We didn't have a lot planned for this weekend, I got my flu shot Friday afternoon and I can never tell how much of a reaction I will have.  Otter went with me, we decided to get them at the same time.  She got hers first and then I got mine.  It was 5:39 when I got mine.  About 3 minutes later, I felt cold - not like a severe chill but definitely cold.  By the time we got to the front of the store and got cokes out of the fridge section, I was feeling warm. Not hot flash warm, but warmer than normal.  I dropped her and J off (he was visiting and went along with us) and headed on home.  I felt ok then, but in the 15-ish minutes it took us us to get home I started to crater.  We had Digorno's pizza for dinner, I had a drink and went to bed early. I felt like I had a low grade fever and was slightly achy, I didn't sleep too well and woke up with a headache yesterday morning.  I didn't feel as bad as the night before but I did not feel too good.  Bill had a couple of errands and I decided to ride along with him.  Obviously, that was after the shaky start to the morning!  But mostly I spent the day parked on the couch, with a crochet hook in my hand part of the day and the tv remote as well. I didn't actually nap, but I did rest and stayed on the couch.  I went to bed somewhat early last night and slept better.  I woke up this morning with a slight headache and didn't feel 100% but I was still better.  I've been taking it easy for the most part today, although I did ride along when Bill went to the booth.  It's been a much lighter reaction this year than last year.  I am not complaining at all about that!

OK, Froggy. I blogged.  I told you I would, and I did!  :)

Late August 2016

I can't come up with an interesting title.

I don't mean to neglect this blog.  But there just isn't anything exciting going on.

I'm pretty much over the sinus infection, which is a good thing.  I'm hoping that I have at least 2 1/2 years before the next one - or longer!!!

It's still warm, it is Summer after all.  But it is cooler than it was and the signs are there that Fall is on the way.  I think we are going to start getting our firewood pretty soon.  We didn't get the full amount last Fall that we normally get, but then it was such a mild winter that we hardly used any of what we had on hand.  We're not going to take the chance of a mild winter and not have enough firewood.  Bill is probably going to get the first truck load in the next week or so and then I think probably a couple more loads.

At the moment, there are 7 pachinko machines in the living room.  All of them are restoration jobs for customers.  He has two that he's almost done with, one of them is his machine that is destined for the booth and the other one is a customer's machine.  He's keeping pretty busy with them.

Maggie Moo has been her usual silly beagle self.  I took her out in the back yard this afternoon, she has not had much interest in tracking lately.  Until today.

She was extremely interested in something and she followed her beagle nose all over the side of the back yard close to the shed.  We have not seen raccoons lately or any sign of them, but I'm thinking that they may be back.  I don't think she was tracking a cat's scent.  She had that nose to the ground and she was sniffing deeply.  She went from the back of the yard to the front of the back yard and then to the corner of the house where the fence attaches.

She went to the corner of the house/fence and then along the house back the direction she'd started from but in a different spot.

She was concentrating very intensely.  I can see why beagles are used to hunt with, just from the way she was tracking whatever it was.

Then she went back to the rain barrel.  She had started for it when she was walking towards the front but I called her away and that's when she went on to the front of the back yard.  But on her way back, she zeroed in on something and it was apparently very strong and possibly very fresh.  She stuck her entire head under the stand the rain barrel is on and she did not want to come out.  Whatever has been underneath it was probably pretty recently.  I will not be surprised if it does turn out to be raccoons.

I just hope it's not skunks!