Our New Favorite Book! (and other stuff, too)

This has now become our favorite book:

 

Way to Go, Ted!

Here's a few pictures of things that have been going on lately.  Captions are underneath the picture they describe.

A few weeks back, before Bill's surgery, he found something he knew we'd find interesting when he was mowing the lawn.  He brought it in for us.  It's obviously something left behind when the occupant outgrew it, most likely a grass or garter snake.

What looks like a leg is actually a piece of grass that was stuck to the skin.

The textures are really neat, the scales are in such a pretty pattern.  We tossed it back out in the yard when we got through looking at it, Maggie Moo & Frasier were very interested in it and I think they rolled on it a few times.

I don't think I got these posted before, but they may be a rerun.  These are the support for the trellises.

This is the one right outside of our bedroom window.

 

This was taken today, a certain little beagle was looking for Rose of Sharon blooms.  To eat.  Both dogs love them, but we try to keep them away from them.  I have heard that they are poisonous for dogs, but they don't seem to have suffered any ill effects.  They don't eat too many, but they would like to!

Sorry this is sideways!  This is the new rain barrel and also visible is one of the three completed trellises.

Bill made a stand for the barrel, it's upright.  The other one is horizontal and Bill had to install a spigot in it but this one came with one already.

Again, sorry it's sideways.  I can't get it rotated.  The top lid screws on and off.  It's a flat piece of plastic, Bill drilled a series of holes in it and then placed a piece of window-ish (metal) screen on top of it.  The outer ring isn't attached to the top piece, it sits on top of it and holds it down when it (the ring) screws on.  By doing it this way, it has a screen to keep leaves & crud out of it.  The rain gutter isn't actually attached, but it is just barely above the now holey lid.

This is the spigot.  The barrel sits on a stand that is tall enough to get my watering can underneath it and is far enough towards the front of the stand so that a hose can be attached easily.  It's not shown, but the stand is on bricks that are on sand and is level.  We are supposed to get a good rain this weekend, hopefully the forecaster got it right this time!

 

There was one other picture I wanted to post, but it's on my phone and even though I've downloaded the software I can't figure out how to upload it.  Last night, Otter saw something really cool on the front porch side wall up near the top.  It was a bat!  It was hanging out close to the porch light, which was on at the time.  It was a smart bat, it apparently figured out where all the bugs were collecting and then it had it's own all-a-bat-can-eat-buffet!  It was gone this morning, but there was a considerable amount of bat droppings on the front porch and I'm kind of thinking that it might have had a few friends join it for dinner.  We hope it comes back.

 

Tomorrow, I'm going to go buy more mosquito dunks.  If I'm feeling better, that is.  I gave in to my sore throat and called in today - Bill more or less told me I had to but I would have anyway.  I sound better this evening, but I'm still not feeling 100%.  I made very hot chili for dinner tonight, it did help a bit.

 

Also, we're pretty sure that the State Fair is going to happen without us this year.  Otter has to work both days this weekend, the store actually has it's soft opening this Sunday and then the Grand Opening is probably next weekend and she'll probably have to work both days.  We've gone the last two years, so I'm not too upset if we have to miss it.

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?

Of Snakes & Stores (and Whatever Else I Think Of)

Remember this post?  From a couple of weeks back:

Snakes & Elevators

I saw a story on the news last night that really got my attention.  Seems a guy went to Wallyworld to buy a bag of mulch.  Which is kept in the outdoor area, along with all the other garden/yard-ish things.  He goes to pick up the top bag but there's a stick on top of the bag.  So, he picks up the stick to move it off of the bag.  And then the stick turns into a rattlesnake!  The snake did what they do, which is to stretch out a little longer and then flip itself back and bite.  OK, so that's not a good thing to have happen.  But then I read the rest of the story on a news website today -and this is the "interesting" part.  I don't wish ill on anyone and don't take pleasure in someone else's misfortune.  But this guy?  He is a licensed grower of marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, and that's why he needed the mulch.  But, he must have had a dose of his own "medicine" because I don't have a clue as to how he could miss a foot-long rattlesnake!  The other part of the story is Walmart seeming unconcerned about it.  It was in an outdoor area and the store is next to a field, they don't necessarily have any blame in the snake's presence.  But their own employees didn't even make sure he was ok, it was another shopper who was totally unrelated to the man that put him in her car and drove him to the ER.  He's going to be ok, but the ER also screwed up - the doctor just said that it was a dry bite (no venom) and sent him home with instructions to put ice on his hand.  OK, dry bites do happen.  But shouldn't they have watched him for a while to be sure?  Yes, they should have - because his hand was swelled up (proper grammer for a TEXAN) to grapefruit size by the time he got home so he went back and then the ER had to use 6 doses of anti-venin (that's a lot) (also - it is anti-venin, not anti-venom).

So, next time you go to Wallyworld or anywhere else with an outdoor garden section - watch for sticks.  Especially the kind with fangs!

Otter's rearranging her summer college plans.  She's still going to go, but she's taking two classes and putting the math off until the fall term.  I took her to the college this morning since she had to go talk to the enrollment office about something and then I picked her up at lunch.  We had a picnic in the car, sitting in the parking lot of the library and had a really nice time.  Then, I left her at the library and went back to work.  I picked her up after I got off work and since I had my helper with me, we went to the grocery store.  Yes, it was Wallyworld!

But we stayed inside the store and didn't have to buy mulch.  So, no sticks with teeth.

But honestly, how could he NOT see what it was?

Sunday Elevators

(Garter snake, also known as a grass snake.  Harmless and very pretty.)

Today's kind of a slow day.  We went to church, and were late.  We made it, just a little late is all.  But we weren't the last people to walk in at least!  I hate to be late anywhere, but especially to church.

Otter and I ran a couple of errands.  She needed a new swim suit this year, so we went to Target.  We didn't find anything there but I don't know why we actually thought that we would since we haven't found anything there in months.  Except dog food, which was on sale so we got it there instead of at Wally.  So we headed up the street to the mall and she found a cute suit at Sears.  Which was also on sale, so that was an unexpected bonus.

We did have a Wally trip in there, but it was just to get Tide and a couple of things that I needed.  I am not a Walmart fan, but I do have to shop there at times.  It's just cheaper, but sometimes you get what you pay for.  But I needed Ridex (septic treatment) and it's cheaper enough at Wally (along with the Tide) that it was worth it to put up with Wally's usual ridiculousness.

Otter's down to 2 days left, then she's no longer a college freshman.  Her sophmore year won't start until mid-August, but as I've already mentioned she decided to take her math courses in the summer term so that she won't have a huge course load and can concentrate on math.  Math is not her strong suit!  She's obviously her mother's daughter...

It's been cool the last couple of days, after a few warm days.  It was trying to rain earlier, the rain followed us home from the mall but it meandered off somewhere else and didn't quite get this far.  It wasn't a hard rain anyway.  We've had the house open with the fan in the window, we decided the fact that the house was humid and stuffy was worse than the potential allergy issues that may be caused by the house being open.  But when you break into a sweat just walking in the door, it's time to open up!

When  we were leaving Sears, we decided to take the elevator down instead of the escalator.  My stupidleftknee was starting to hurt and the elevator was closer.  It was also dirty, I don't think that the cleaning crew had been in it for days.  It smelled really bad and there was trash all over it.  Otter commented about how bad it was and I reminded her about my family history with elevators at Sears.  But it turned out that she didn't know the story.

(Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake - the kind we were always on the watch for.  Gorgeous!)

Froggy, you might remember this although you weren't with us at the time.  When I was about 15 or so, Mom and I went to Sears.  There had been a few incidents involving people getting bitten by snakes at stores, one of them was a place similar to Lowe's and was probably just coincidence that a snake happened to be there, but there was another place which might have been Dillard's where someone was bitten by a rattlesnake and he was hurt badly.  He sued the store, but then it turned out that he actually brought the snake in and let it bite him with the intention of suing.  He wasn't very smart!  So, this day in Sears, Mom and I got in the elevator (which was dirty then too) and noticed a small paper bag sitting on the ash tray that was attached to the wall - remember how everyone used to smoke and it wasn't an issue for anybody?  Mom was thinking that someone must have bought something and then left it behind, so she looked in the bag to see if it was actually trash or maybe something that she needed to turn in as lost. 

Mom was part Cherokee, she had naturaly "tan" skin - but she turned as white as a sheet in an instant.  I'm not sure what I thought was wrong with her, but she did not look very good.  In a voice I could just barely hear, she told me to hurry and go get someone who worked at the store and she was going to stay to keep anyone else from getting on the elevator - because there was a snake in the bag.  I did as she told me to, but it took me a few minutes to convince the first clerk that I found that I was really telling the truth and that there really was a snake in a bag in the elevator!  Well, I can understand why they thought I was joking.  So, we go back to the elevator and Mom is still standing in the doorway so nobody else can get in and the bag is back on the ashtray.  And that's when I saw the second snake - the one that had been behind us in the elevator the entire time.  Since we could see the second one easily, it was obvious that it was just a grass snake but the one in the bag wasn't visible enough to see that it was also a harmless grass (garter) snake.  Mom was never afraid of snakes or just about any other animal although she wasn't a fan of alligators (another mom encounter story for another time).

As I recall, it was a very looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time before she would get back in that particular elevator.