Tuesday. Day 2 of Stay at Home Vacation

Not a staycation!  I dislike that word intently.

Anyway.  Yesterday was a lot of fun, we went to Bill's dad & stepmom's for the 4th.  Bill's niece, her husband and kids were here to visit and it was nice to get to see them.  Otter had to work, but she came over to join everyone when she got off work.  Bill and I both try to stay out of the sun, redhead complexion and sunlight don't mix very well.  He was not really in the sun very long but his face is pretty red.  I was not in it at all, but I was sitting close enough to the pool that the reflected light got me a little pink as well.  Just on my right side.  Bill said I have one raccoon eye (because of my glasses) and I have a patchy sunburn on my right shoulder because of my shirt strap plus my upper right arm.  Not a bad sunburn for either of us and we've been using a lot of aloe vera gel but Bill has to be very careful because he tends to get skin cancers.

We slept in a little bit this morning, we both woke up around 7:00.  After breakfast, Bill got the back yard mowed and I did a little work on the honeysuckle bed/trellis.  Yes, he wore his hat with the flap covering his neck.  And he also hollered at me because I forgot my hat - I'm always getting on him about his, so he wasted no time in returning the favor!  :)

I had to run to wallyworld for carpet cleaner, since we're going to clean the carpet on Thursday.  Possibly Friday.  Anyway, since I was there I went ahead and got the few grocery items I needed.  Walmart is already clearing out the summer stuff - pool toys, sun block, etc., and stocking school supplies.  It's only July 5!  But I did discover half-price chocolate candy, since the holiday was yesterday and the packages were decorated with the American flag.  I grabbed several bags, I don't have a deep freeze any longer but it WILL last us a while.  Yes, Bill.  IT WILL.

Tomorrow is my play day.  The only day I actually planned an activity during my vacation week.  I'm going shopping with Otter!  Bill is going to stay home, he's not into the shopping thing.  I don't think it's going to be an all day event, but we are going to one of the not exactly next door but close (sort of) small towns because they have a couple of antique stores I've been wanting to check out.  We may go to a book store in Tulsa and we may go to a thrift store or two.  We'll figure that out tomorrow.

And now I'm going to go back to my crochet.  Then I might just follow Maggie Moo's example and take a nap!

Sleet, Freezing Rain, Flurries or Nothing at All

That, in a nutshell, is our weather forecast for tonight and early tomorrow morning.

 

I guess that the forecasters think that if they say everything is possible, they will get it right.  Makes sense?  No, but apparently it does to the forecasters.

 

It has been very dry lately, we really do need some rain.  Just not the frozen variety.  There have been several grass fires in the area.  I watered the crepe myrtles Monday evening and I soaked the honeysuckle tonight.  And maybe the clematis, I'm not really sure if it's still there or not!  If it doesn't come back, I'll put a rosebush in where it was.  If it does come back, I'll still put a rose somewhere but maybe not this year.

 

Tomorrow, if it's not frozen (it shouldn't be in the afternoon), I'm going to water the tulip bed.

 

Blogger has made a few changes lately.  So far, I'm not impressed.  My blog looks different, but that wasn't my doing.

 

I haven't been able to crochet for several days.  Winter skin is back!  I had a split on my right thumb, it actually woke me up the other night when it split.  Hurt like the dickens!  It was just about healed, but yesterday the steering wheel slipped a little bit and it just about tore that same thumbnail off.  So, now I have an even bigger ouchie spot on my right thumb and this time it's under the nail a bit.  The nail is split at the edge, but I don't want to cut it off because it would have to go so far back into the quick.  It better heal quickly, I get very cranky when I don't get to crochet!

 

Michaels stores must really hate me.  They had all their yarn on sale again this week.  I pretty much have everything non-wool that they sell but this time I did find a few things I needed.  Need, not want!  I got 6 skeins of a smaller gauge, soft & silky yarn by Caron.  I've used it before, I made my turquoise shawl out of it and also Otter's rust colored scarf & hat.  It's really soft and I enjoy working with it.  I had a little bit of that type already but not much.  Otter wanted to go with me so I waited until she came over to do laundry after work yesterday.

 

Yesterday was also 50-cent corndog day at Sonic.  Otter must know her dad pretty well, because she texted me a picture of the Sonic sign the other day with instructions to let him know about it.  So, I did.  And he asked me every day if it was corndog day!  Boy likes his corndogs, a lot.  Anyway, I got his corndogs and also got dinner for myself and Otter was willing to let me buy her dinner as well.

 

My feet are nice & toasty.  I have a beagle in a blanket!  Kind of like a pig in a blanket.  She's just about that round!  Actually, she has lost a little bit of weight.  Frasier is snoozing at my feet also, but he's not a fan of blankets.  Also, he isn't snoring as loud as the beaglebrat is.

 

Guess that's it for tonight.

Myrtle!

My friend Shara has a post on her blog where she references "old lady" names, but not in a bad way.  She mentions that she likes them.  So do I.  One of the names is Opal, which is my favorite stone.  I didn't see the name Myrtle, but it seemed like a good name to use for today's title. We just bought ten Crepe Myrtle plants and planted them along the back fence.  Hence the name Myrtle!

 

5 are a deep reddish color, 5 are pink.  They are planted in alternating colors - red, pink, red, pink, etc. and are about 3' off the fence.  They are between the trellis pieces attached to the fence that the honeysuckle might eventually reach to grow on, now that all but one have come back from being mowed down by Doofus and Doofus!  The Crepe Myrtle varieties we bought are going to be 10 - 12' tall.  We hope they grow fast!  Besides the fact that they will attract hummingbirds and butterflies, as well as honeybees (we hope), they will also make it a little more private in our back yard.  Neighbors behind us seems to think that it's ok for them to stand on their back porch and obviously attempt to look in my dining room and living room windows.  We haven't seen either of them do it lately, but we're taking matters into our own hands.  We had looked into ordering crepe myrtles from the Audobon society last year or thereabout, I don't remember why we decided against it at the time.  But Atwood's had the plants on sale so we went up there and filled up the trunk of my car.  We got a pretty good rain this morning so the ground was very soft, we got them planted pretty quickly.  Fall is the best time to plant things like that, tall bushes and trees, because they spend the winter growing their root systems which will help them to withstand spring storms and wind.  They are cold-tolerant to 0 degrees.

 

Otter is at J's house today.  J's mom gave her and Roomie a small kitchen table and 4 small bench-style seats that go with it.  I took her out there early this afternoon and the 4 chairs fit in my car so they came home with me.  I think the table is square, maybe about 3' x 3" so it will be big enough for the two girls and small enough to fit in the dining room at their apartment.  If it fits in my car, I'll bring it home with me when I get Otter in a couple of hours.  She was going to take my car and take herself, but I needed the car this afternoon so I took her out there.  J lives in a small town that is not exactly next door, but it's not too far.

 

Yesterday, Bill and I got the tape measure and measured her room.  I got a pad of paper and a pen, and we drew out how I think it's going to be arranged when it become "my" room.  "My" room as opposed to "Bill's" room which is the pachinko workroom.  So if I refer to it as my room, I don't mean that I'm moving out of our bedroom.  Anyway, there was a point to this ramble.  I was going to the library yesterday and to check our booth.  I did manage to get to the booth store, but I never made it to the library.  I got sidetracked by a yard sale sign.  There were a bunch of signs, but this one particular one just caught my attention.  It was just a posterboard sign and not any different than any other signs, but I just had the feeling that I should go check it out.  I'm glad I did.  When Bill and I were planning out My room, we included the fact that I desperately need more yarn storage space and I was going to head to Big Lots or another store in Tulsa which is nationwide but I'm not sure how far - Old Time Pottery, for another plastic drawer set.  The first ones we got were around $20 on sale, the last one I got was $25 regular price.  The yard sale was an older couple and it was a fun sale, they were just trying to get rid of stuff and not "just make a lot of money" so their prices were pretty much almost free.  I spent $13.00 total, plus $1.00 I paid the young gentleman-in-training who was shopping with his mom for watching my stuff so I could get my car - I think he was maybe 6 or 7 years old and absolutely adorable.  For $3.00, I got a 3-drawer plastic set just like the 5-drawer style AND IT WAS FULL OF YARN.  For $5.00, I got a wider and deeper drawer size 3-drawer set and IT HAD QUITE A BIT OF ALREADY CROCHETED ITEMS INCLUDING SEVERAL DOILIES.  (Capitals is not yelling, it's just for emphasis).  For $5.00, I got a wicker sewing basket WHICH WAS ALSO FULL OF YARN.  The sewing basket is in the donate pile, but the yarn was worth easily 5 or 6 times what I paid for it.  Similar deals with the other two drawer sets.  The already crocheted items are granny squares and similar items.  I might find a use for them, some of them may be donated and there are a few that are partially made but not completed and they might be frogged out.  One of the drawer on the smaller size unit was full of wool yarn, which I didn't realize until after I got it home but I should have figured out because my hands were itching pretty fiercely after I had opened the drawers to look at it.  The wool yarn will be donated, but even with that I still got a huge amount of yarn for very little so I'm not complaining.  I'm going to empty my tote bags of yarn into the larger-sized drawers and probably put some of the yarn I got yesterday into it as well.  I think (maybe anyway) that the smaller drawer unit will solve my overcrowded stash drawers.

 

At Church this morning, it was announced that the 9:00 a.m. service is being discontinued.  Next Sunday will be the last one for the early service, after that it will be back to the 10:30 only service on Sunday mornings.  We liked the 9:00 a.m. service, but there were never very many people.  The 10:30 service is always full, but the most people we've ever seen at 9:00 is about 15.  Usually, it's 10 or less so we're not surprised.  We actually expected this a while back, I think it's been about 4 years or so and the attendance at the early service has never increased.  We're thinking about looking for a different church anyway, we were waiting until after Otter's move to worry about that and now we're really thinking it might be time to move on.

 

The first day of Fall is this Tuesday.  It seems like it's still late Spring, there has been so much going on that I'm running behind!  We've seen a few people having firewood delivered or hauling it home themselves.  So I guess we're actually ahead of the curve this time.  At least as far as firewood goes, I still need to re-stock the Winter Storm/Housebound supplies but I think I can cut down the amount a little since it's just for two people and not three.  Not that we have a huge stock, just a few canned items and water for a couple of days in case we get iced in.  Which does happen here sometimes!

Rain Barrels & Bat Houses

OK, Froggy.  Pay Attention!  There may be a test later.  :)

Rain Barrels. I strongly recommend them.  You need to have rain gutters, as the rain is collected from the roof and needs a way to flow down into the barrel.  For some reason, I can't get the pictures to load so here's the original post where I have the pictures:

Rain Barrel Pictures

You can reroute one of the down spouts to the barrel.  Bill cut a hole in the top of my barrel, then he pushed the end of the downspout into it.  There is a filter at the top of the downspout - a knee-high hose works really well and is easily replaced because it will get dirty.  The filter is to keep leaves and debris out.  The hole the downspout goes into is also a possibly entry place for mosquitos, so you can see if you can rig up some type of a filter at that point as well - again, knee-high hose work great.

Rain barrels can be made out of a couple of different kinds of barrels, but a big 55 gallon one works well.  You can probably find a supplier of barrels just by looking on the internet or possibly in the phone book.  He also installed a twist spigot.  You can have the barrel sitting on the ground, and it can be sitting up or laying on it's side.  It's going to depend on where you want to put it and how much room you have.  Mine is on it's side.  You'll want to have the spigot towards the bottom, since gravity will be how the water will leave it.  The spigot is sealed around the edges, Bill might have used silicon caulk.  It's pretty much a necessity to seal it, otherwise it will probably leak.

My barrel was originally white, the "natural" color the plastic was that it was made from.  I painted it a dark green because I was having a problem with mold caused by the sun/warmth and dark colors will block a little of the sun's light.  At times, the water will still develop a smell and discoloration.  When that happens, I usually drain it then it gets rinshed out.  To rinse it, it just has to be moved away from the downspout and then Bill sticks the garden hose in the hole where the downspout goes.  You can use things like bleach, but that pretty much defeats the purpose of having natural rain water to water your plants with.  The best place for one is probably a shady area, since the sunlight will help mold/mildew grow but I didn't have a spot that was shady enough.

Bill built a wooden frame for my barrel, but they aren't necessary.  We didn't want it sitting on the ground so he built the frame/stand out of some scrap wood he had.

I strongly, strongly suggest a product called Mosquito Dunk.

You can get it at any hardware store and possibly also at places like Walmart.  Put one in as often as the directions say to - I think it's 3 months for the type I use.  It will dissolve and the water will still be healthy for plants, but it will kill any mosquito larvae that hatch from any eggs that survive.

You can also buy a pre-made rain barrel, I've seen them at Lowe's and places like that.  But they might be pricey.  I don't remembe what my barrel cost but I'm thinking it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 or thereabouts.

As of this morning, my rain barrel is pretty much empty.  We've been using it to soak the morning glories since the summer heat is here already.  But I think it's down to the last few drops so Bill's going to take it off the downspout this weekend and we're going to rinse it out.  It needs to be rinsed out periodically.

Also, if you ever do get a hard freeze (yeah, I do know where you live!), they can freeze.  Mine is usually dry by the time winter gets here, but any rain in the winter will flow right into it.  I don't usually worry about it in freezing weather, but I would imagine that if it were 100% full it could be a problem if it were to freeze because the plastic could split.  But it would be easy to replace.

Bat Houses:

Contrary to popular belief, bats are not evil!  The are actually very good animals to have around.  They eat all sorts of unpleasant bugs, but they seem to really enjoy snacking on mosquitos.  This is not my bat house, I couldn't find a picture of it.  They are available at a lot of hardware stores, and they can also be ordered online.  They come in a couple of different styles, but this one is a lot like mine.  They have to be put in an area that the bats llike - they prefer eastern/morning sun and shady afternoon/evenings.  They have to be put fairly high up, I think it's somewhere around 12 feet but you can look that up on the internet and there will probably be directions with anyone you buy.

It can take the bats a few years to find the house.  They are natural survivors and they have places to roost, but they will eventually move into the bat house.  You may not ever know that they are there.  Sometimes, birds will build nests in them but not if there's a bat in it.

Yes We Have No Bananas!

Yeah, I know. It's a bad pun. But I like bad puns.

We do have bananas as it turns out - but they are still in the form of trees. Actually, banana trees aren't really trees but I'm not going to get into the plant lesson at the moment. :)

Someone Bill works with gave us some banana sprouts last fall. They are temperamental, but they will grow up here with the right kind of care. Each fall, the plants start making little sprouts at the bottom and those need to be cut off and planted in a pot full of dirt, and brought inside to survive the winter. We get too much cold weather to just leave them outside. We had 6, we are now down to three because three of them didn't get brought inside in time and they froze - it wasn't even below freezing but right at 32 degrees, but they keep water inside and it doesn't take much for it to be too cold for them.

There are two in this picture, one is small and is behind the tall one.


This is the third one. It's next to the pink pot that holds my prickly pear - which is also coming out of winter dormancy. The person we got them from said that he always plants his on April 15 and not before. They need lots of water, even in winter dormancy. They will produce bananas, and then at the end of the summer they will make more little sprouts and then these will die. We'll see how it turns out. Basically, they just need to be planted and then watered frequently. They have a habit that I've discovered - all that water is drawn up into the leaves like most plants, but then they leak. I keep having to clean up small puddles, which are NOT dog related for a change.



My redbud tree. This is the 3rd year for it, it has gotten taller but this variety won't be a huge tree. But it survived the winter just fine, and it started budding out this week. Leaves will be showing up soon.

A closer shot.

The new fence that the neighbor installed. You can see a ladder on the side of the picture, it's been there for over a week now. I think that her fence is through, the fence installers must have forgotten about it. If they don't remember, it probably won't stay there long with all the traffic we now get behind us because of the housing being built.

We actually preferred the view before the house construction - the cow pasture was much quieter and more private. Just the occasional moo!

Monday's Weather, Tulips & Doggies

The pictures are in no particular order today.

Sorry this is blurry, the old camera has good moments and then it has not-so-good moments. Guess which kind it was having today! Anyway, these are the daffys I planted a couple of years ago. I had forgotten that I had planted any daffodils, I was thinking that they were all the ones that Sweetie planted but those are the standard yellow and I planted a different kind for variety. I just forgot about it. There are a few of the yellow ones in the tulip bed, but so far the only ones blooming are these.

Heavy Duty Grooming Session In Progress. Disturb at your peril.

Spooky dog!

Begging is so much more effective when your ear is folded! This is her attempt at sad puppy eyes. And it's much more effective when that fat belly isn't visible! I was surprised she sat still for so long, she was in this pose while I took Frasier's picture and then she stayed sitting like that until I was finished taking hers.

This one is a little blurry as well, but mostly because I was just too close as is indicated by the sharp focus behind the blossom!

The majority of the tulips that are already blooming are this type. But there are still several yet to bloom, lots of buds just forming.

Standing in front of the tulip bed.

Standing at the side, facing the gate to the back yard. The daffodils are all clumped in the middle this year, which was not deliberate.

For years, probably ever since we moved here 4 years ago, the violets have refused to bloom and I usually get disgusted with not having any blossoms, which results in all of them being ripped out of the bed. But this year, they have decided to cooperate. I guess they got smart this year, otherwise it would be curtains for them! There are actually a lot of them blooming. I love violets, I always have. Mom and Aunt Jessie had them planted, either in the flower bed outside of Aunt Jessie's apartment or beside the garage outside the gate to Aunt Jessie's apartment.

OK, that's dogs & tulips taken care of. Now I guess it's time to discuss weather. We might get the noisy kind tonight, probably after midnight. The bullseye of the firing line is well north of us (Froggy, think north of Hominy), but we could still get thunderstorms. Have I mentioned how much I don't like spring weather? Just in case you haven't figured that out yet, I DON'T LIKE SPRING STORMS. I like thunderstorms. I like rain. I just don't like what are referred to as spring storms in this part of the country!

Regarding that spectacular news I mentioned a couple of days ago, it's probably going to be about 2 weeks before I'm able to discuss it. But it's really good. Froggy, you already know about it.

Otter went back to school today, after a week off for spring break. She seems to have survived.

The other thing I realized today is tomorrow is 2 years to the day since I got sick - the time that put me in the hospital. I'm just happy that it is behind me now, it was not a fun experience and it was scary at times.

Still nearly 3 weeks until Easter. I've been resisting chocolate, except on Sundays and then I've tried to show restraint. But it's been hard at times, especially while I had Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies calling my name from the freezer! They are gone now, they were my chocolate indulgence yesterday. But the end of Lent is in sight. Lent is meant to be a time of self-denial, a chance to let go of some of the things that weigh us down and keep our focus off of where it really should be, which is on God. By letting go of whatever it is, a habit - good or bad, a particular food, whatever it is, we can grow closer to God and learn a lot about ourselves in the process. It is only as difficult as we chose to make it. I think that we bring a lot of our problems on ourselves sometimes. Observing Lent is not "just" for one particular brand of Christianity, it is for all of us and so are the lessons we can learn as we experience self-denial by letting go of our own selfish desires. It can be an amazing experience. And one I look forward to every year, as strange as that sounds to look forward to a time of denial. Because waiting at the end of the long, dark days of Lent is the most special Reward we could ever hope for, the One that makes it all worth it.

Some More Senseless Ramblings

I'm wondering if maybe Summer is over but nobody told the calender yet. It's been pretty cool for this time of year, it should only be in the mid-70's tomorrow. It's nice, I'm not really complaining. But we have not been able to swim for over a week because it's just too cold. The water doesn't get warm enough at these temperatures. We might go ahead and take the pool down this coming weekend. We talked about it last weekend but decided to wait until Labor Day. However, we might not wait that long. We have really enjoyed having it up this year.

I'm also beginning to think about the tulip bed. Otter wants tulips again, which is fine with me! We'll probably always have a tulip bed. I haven't seen any bulbs in the stores yet, but they will probably arrive in the next few weeks. I got the weed-eater out the other day and hit the tulip bed, and it will need someone to go after it with the shovel for the actual weed removal. But that can wait until a few weeks before we plant it, since we'll still need to treat the dirt for moles & gophers. I'm also going to plant a few bluebonnet seeds in the whiskey barrel, but that won't be done until it's much colder. I've never had much luck with growing them from seeds, but I think that might be because I was planting them at the wrong time of the year.

I think that this weekend will be when I have time to get the cactus plants organized inside. I have to figure out just how I'm going to arrange all my plant stands and what will go where. The cactus have usually been on my corner plant stand, but it's been taken over with Texas stuff. I'll figure something out. Getting rid of any of the cactus is NOT an option.

Otter said that they still don't have lockers. Some kids do, but there are a lot that had mixed up locks. She'd really like to get her locker tomorrow since some of the teachers have already started assigning books. She is enjoying taking her lunch in her Bento box. But she'd like to be able to leave it in her locker before & after lunch!

Froggy, I think you are right. I do need to keep my Fenton basket. I sold some Fenton pieces a couple of years ago and regretted it immediately. I'm still unhappy about it. So I'm not even going to consider selling any more of it.

The area behind our house has been mowed. Sometimes that means that a new home is about to be started. But it's not just behind us, it looks like the rest of the area is being mowed as well. Since there were ragweed popping up in there, we aren't complaining. But we did enjoy the privacy and not having neighbors back there.

Bill is playing a game on his computer, the Sims. It has realistic sound effects. Sometimes I hear whistling, sometimes it's music. And sometimes it's a toilet being flushed! Really a strange sound to hear from the other side of the office.

There is a very large, brown, furry object in the floor in the middle of the office. He's so perfectly still that I had to look to be sure he's breathing! He's also taking up just about all the available space. The smaller unidentfied furry object is nowhere in sight, which means that she's probably curled up in one of her two favorite sleeping spots: Otter's bed or my closet. For some strange reason, Maggie has suddenly started sleeping in my closet. She gets completely up underneath the hanging clothes and sleeps. I've been finding beagle hair on my shirts on the right side.

Otter was unhappy to learn that the next Harry Potter movie won't be coming out this winter after all. It's been moved from November until sometime next year, summer I think. She was not pleased!

Before I forget - I added a new blog to my list of blogs I read. It's called cakewrecks. It's really funny, go check it out.

Day One is Over!

Otter survived the first day of 10th grade. She said she actually enjoyed it and thinks she's going to have a good year. She has the first lunch period and so do all of her friends. She took her lunch in her Bento box today, but tomorrow she'll probably buy hot lunch. Thursday's lunch is her favorite, chicken patty on a bun. So that will probably be the day she generally buys her lunch.

No homework yet, but it'll start soon enough. She said the bus ride was uneventful, but she still has the same bus driver as she's always had. We were hoping that this woman would retire, Otter says she's always grouchy and I have seen her drive enough to know that she should probably be in another line of work! Otter also has a few supplies that we need to get, which we will probably do tomorrow after school. Most of the stuff she needs is stuff that we already have.

Since I've been home, I got out my trusty weed-eater and went after the tulip bed. It's been overgrown with weeds for quite a while, we never did anything with it after the tulips finished up. Otter said it looked like I'd given it a haircut, but scalped is probably a more appropriate word! I also hit the whiskey barrel planter that had my bluebonnets. Then I had to go get gas for the lawn mower, which Bill is going to use in the front yard tonight. He managed to mow the back yard last night, before he ran out of gas. While he was mowing last night, I was using the weed eater around the rock garden and a few other spots. I really enjoy working outside, lawn and garden chores are fun.

But before he mows the lawn, he's going to get up on the roof to seal a couple of cracked spots on the rock that they chimney is made of. Otter thinks that she should dial 9 and 1 on her phone, and be ready to dial the other one and press send! Might not be a bad idea, since this is Bill we are dealing with after all.

Ok, the pool is calling me now!

Froggy Friday

I took off the ticker about Froggy's arrival, since she arrives today and the counter went back to zero days. She'll be here in a few hours. I am now dealing badly with anticipation. I woke up before the alarm this morning.

I had some flowering plants I wanted to plant in the whiskey barrel but was holding off since the bluebonnets were blooming again. I just came back in from planting them. The bluebonnets are fading anyway. Instead of spreading the new plants out, I planted them in two clumps. Since there are still bluebonnet blooms, even if they are fading, I didn't want to dig them up. They are making more seeds so I'm leaving them there until the seeds have fallen. I also bought a small cactus a week or so ago, it is now replanted into a ceramic pot I had. The cactus is the kind I'm not crazy about - one type with another type grafted on the top of it. The only reason I bought it is because the top piece is a prickly pear and being a Texan, I like pears a lot. I'm hoping that the pear will be the part to take over and grow, but if not I still have a cactus. It's not an ugly cactus, I'll still enjoy it if the base piece is the dominant one to grow.

I've done all my normal morning stuff, the dogs are fed and the trash is out. I have a load of laundry in the dryer and the dishwasher is running. I was going to sit out on the deck with my coffee but we could be about to get some rain, so my coffee and I are going to stay inside this morning. I'm going to move to the living room in a few minutes and read the paper. I told Bill I'd make the eBay post office run for him, since I'm at home this morning so I'll head out in an hour or so for that. I'm also going to stop at the gas station, a trip I am NOT looking forward to! But I have to do that one.

Both doggies are parked in the floor beside me. Frasier is yawning and probably about to take (another) nap. Maggie is grooming her feet. And probably has a nap on her schedule next. Maggie has been sleeping on Otter's bed this week, but last night I heard her come into our room several times. I think she was missing her Otter! She'll be very excited tomorrow when Otter gets home. So will Frasier, Maggie is just very much Otter's dog.

Ok, now I've managed to kill a little more time! I'm going to go find something else to do now. Involving a book, coffee and the couch.

We Were Treed!

Actually, we just went and bought three trees. One elm, one oak and one redbud. The lacebark elm is in the middle of the front yard, as a replacement for the two trees that we had to cut down. The red oak is on the side of the driveway and is just a tree we wanted to plant there. We'd been talking about an oak for a while, they get big but they are deep rooted so it shouldn't cause a problem with the driveway or street. But it could be a very big tree, 50' is a possibility.

The redbud is because I miss my old one so much. It's in the back yard, where I will be able to see it any time I look out the window or sit on the deck. They are small, but they won't be for long. I'm just glad I have a redbud again! I've wanted another one ever since we had to cut down the one at the old house, and that was probably about 6 or 7 years ago. The new one is an Eastern Redbud, which is more of a pink color than the standard redbud but I like them because they are a little different. The common one here is the Oklahoma Redbud, which is what I had before and is a very pretty tree. But I wanted the pinker one this time.

One yellow tulip is blooming, it has reddish streaks inside of it and it's pretty. There are a couple of others that look like they'll be yellow as well. No sign of the dark colored ones yet, but there are still plenty that aren't quite to the bud or bloom stage.

Bill's mom got here Friday evening, her plane was only about 45 minutes late! But the important thing is that she made it safely. We've had a great visit. We went shopping yesterday - yes on Sabbath! She went to church with us this morning, we had lunch at our favorite Chinese buffet and we've been visiting a lot. She is heading back home Tuesday morning, wish she could stay longer. We made divinity yesterday, ice cream and pizza Friday night, and we also had Mexican food for lunch yesterday. I'm so off of my dietary plan! But I was very good last week and will be very good this week - at least as much as I can, considering the Jury Duty.

I'm off to jury duty tomorrow morning. I am caught up at work, I usually am anyway, but there is a lot going on that I really need to be there for - taxes are only part of it. But it's not something that can be helped.

Movie recommendation: 13 Days. It's about the Cuban missile crisis and it is a really good movie. It doesn't go into the political side too much, it's about the incident itself and it is very intense. Some language, but not too much considering the circumstances. Anyone who is a history buff, like we are, should really see it. In fact, everyone should see it because it is a history lesson in itself. Just a very good movie. Kevin Costner is in it, he's a pretty good actor. The ending is very poignant, it ends with President Kennedy and his brother Robert walking away and it fades to their shadows, then just JFK's shadow. Considering what happened to them both but especially to JFK, it's a very emotional way to end an intense movie. (I'm not even discussing politics here, just my thoughts about a person who was killed brutally but was a very important person in our history no matter of individual opinions).

Oh, before I forget - Bill's had a new experience. Nana bought Otter a birthday present - it's a bikini. Yes, the real thing. It's cute, it's camo pattern and she looks good in it. But I don't think that Bill has recovered from her style show yesterday! He tried really had not to explode, but I think his jaw is still clenched. However, his color is back to normal now - I was kind of worried about him yesterday, but I think he's ok now. At least until she actually wears it to a pool!

Bloom Where You're Planted

These are some shots of the tulip bed. Otter's very happy that so many are coming up this year, and they are blooming prettily. But we bought an assortment of colors and mixed the bulbs up, however you can't tell by looking at the bed!

I love daffodils, so they are usually planted along with the tulips. Daffys come back each year, and they spread so I'm happy. They have been blooming for a while, they are beginning to fade but they are still nice. Otter said that these three grouped together look like back-up dancers to the tulip in front of them.

I'm ready for my close-up!

They look taller than they actually are. But we don't care if they are short plants!

As you can see, they are all red! There are a few that have buds that might be yellow and several that haven't quite gotten to the bud stage so we might still have other colors.

This is the first naturalized bluebonnet that I discovered, it's in the half barrel planter and has a nice bud starting in the middle.

This is the second one I found, it has a good bud on it also. There is a third bluebonnet, but it's smaller and doesn't have a bud yet.

I looked at Lowe's last night and they don't have a lot yet. They have more than they had a couple of weeks ago, but no bluebonnets or hostas yet. My hostas in the front aren't up yet, I hope that they survived the winter. I'd like to add a few more to fill out that area a bit, assuming that they come up this year!

We went to Lowe's to look at trees and nearly bought one but decided to wait until we've checked at a few other places. We want to be sure we get healthy trees, when we do buy them. We are looking for two for the front - one will be beside the driveway and one will be in about the middle of the front yard. We aren't sure yet about the back, but we'll probably put a tree out there somewhere.

More pictures will be posted as things bloom, especially my bluebonnets!

Doggie Jail!

Bill brought home 22' of 4' tall chain link fence on Monday. And we promptly attached it to the posts we installed several days ago. We only had to go to Lowe's once yesterday, for the special U-shaped nails Bill needed to attach the fence to the posts. He made a top rail of round wooden posts and we also made a partial bottom rail out of the same round posts, to hold the bottom of the fence down since Frasier is smart enough to try to get out underneath the fence. The entire time, Frasier parked himself out in the yard and watched us. Intently. He knew exactly what we were doing and he was not happy about it. Unlike the Magginator, who thinks that everything is fun. She ran in and out of the gate while we were working, and she frequently had her head between Bill's hammer and the nails! After we got finished, I called them to me and Frasier took his sweet time. But once we got them in, I shut the gate and we went inside. Frasier followed us, but he ignored us for a couple of hours - even when we had a snack of peanuts (which he loves). Not Maggie, she was right there begging for peanuts while her big brother was pouting. We will start opening up the gate and giving them access to the entire yard at night, but we left the gate shut last night. Eventually, we also might have to electrify the new fence. It depends entirely on Fraiser!

Today when we get home from work, we're going to see about dirt to fill in at least some of those holes. Some of them are pretty deep. Bill's going to get the wheelbarrow and a shovel, and head outside of the yard to the field area behind us that will eventually be built up with houses. I told him I'd help him with the dirt work, I might regret saying that later on! The back yard needs to be mowed already, but until we get it smoothed out some it's not a good idea. There are so many holes and they are so deep, plus a lot of them are actually trenches because the dogs were following mole trails. It would probably be impossible to mow the yard like it is. But we are getting it back into shape. The area where the dog run is has not had much mole activity, or at least we haven't seen any evidence there. But I'm sure that they'll dig some, they are dogs and digging comes naturally. But I'm not too concerned about it, they have plenty of toys to play with and all the firewood they want to eat! Not really, but Frasier does like to drag the logs around and sometimes chew on them.

(OK, it's later now!)

I first started this post in the morning before work. But now it's early evening and we've just come in from getting dirty. Playing in the dirt so the doggies won't have to! We filled in a few holes, we've started with the really big ones and the first thing I actually did was repair my rock garden. It's probably a good thing that I don't know for sure which dog was digging over there, because I would have had sudden need for a taxidermist! But the rock garden is repaired, although there are a few spots outside of it that we'll get to soon. Otter's trellis where she always plants climbing Black-eyed Susans needs a little attention, and it will be the first thing we work on the next time we get out there. Which might be tomorrow, but it might not actually be until Sunday. She needs to get her seeds planted soon.

This is what the Black-eyed Susan vine looks like. Otter really likes it, she's had it on her trellis ever since Bill built it for her.

I think I've changed my mind about moving my fountain and using it as a planter. I think I'm just going to leave it where it is, in the middle of the rock garden. It might still become a planter, though. That is to be determined later! It suddenly seems like too much work to move it.

Bill's baptism went well on Sunday, he was the last of three that were dunked, as Mom used to call it. I told him that now he has no excuses left, he has to be a good boy! But I don't think he listened very well...

We had a nice Easter, we spent the day with Don and Darlene and it was a lot of fun. Otter enjoyed playing the Wii. Imagine that, a teenager that enjoyed a video game! We had a nice visit and the meal was wonderful, although we did eat too much. We brought leftovers home so I didn't have to cook last night. The ham bone is in the freezer, I'll use it the next time I make beans. Which probably won't be right away, but I'll be sure to send you some, Don!