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.

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!

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.

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!

My Biscuits Are Burnin'!

NOT.  It's been an interesting day, to say the least.

We tossed around a couple of ideas for breakfast this morning, seeing as how we're almost out of cereal, we're out of syrup and don't like plain pancakes (and I think I'm about of pancake mix) and we are down to just have two eggs.  I'll get to the grocery store soon, I promise!  Anyway, we came up with biscuits and I did have baking mix at least, so I got a batch of biscuit dough ready to go and was about to start cutting them out when I realized that the oven I'd turned on over 15 minutes before was ice cold because it had never come on.  Bill looked at it and decided that the "igniter" (not sure of the actual term) was bad.  It's not a particularly old oven, we bought it a couple of years at least after we moved here in 2004.  I've had no problems with it, when it comes to appliances we tend to get the biggest and best ones we can afford with an eye to not having to replace it again anytime soon.  Bill eventually found the model number (down near the floor, inside the door) and then he had me check it to make sure he'd read it right which means that we both had to get down in the floor!  Harder getting up than getting down there, let me tell you!!  He found the part online and it will be here sometime this week.  It won't be too difficult for him to replace the part.  It's a gas oven because I don't like electric to cook on.

 

But it might not be here in time to use the oven on Thursday.  We had plans to make homemade pizza for Thanksgiving, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.  I can still use the stove (top burners) but Bill's thinking he'll probably be grilling something for Thanksgiving.  Not sure what it's going to be, Otter still has the temp crown and has to be careful about what she eats, she could have managed our thin-crust pizza though.  We have discussed burgers and also steak.  Otter voted for steak, but she'll have to cut hers into tiny pieces if that is what we go with.  I am not getting anything for the meal until Wednesday, if we do go with steak I'm going to get it at an actual butcher shop and see if some of it can be tenderized for her.

 

We did eventually get breakfast and it did include biscuits!  It's just that Braums baked them. :)  I looked online and biscuit dough can be frozen, so I cut the biscuits out and they are in my freezer.  Hopefully, next weekend we'll be able to actually cook them!

 

I just took a rock out of Maggie Moo's mouth.  She was trying to eat it.  Nutball dog!  I was concerned about Frasier earlier today.  He has a tendency to curl around me when he wants to lean on me and sometimes he stands that way on his own, curved.  He came in from the back yard walking curved and it looked like maybe he couldn't uncurve his body.  Also, his right rear leg looked stiff and like maybe he couldn't really use it.  He came to me when I called him, he leaned on me much harder than he normally does and I ran my hand down the right side of his body with just a little pressure.  It felt like his muscles were stiff but theyrelaxed underneath my hand and he straightened out.  He seemed to be walking better after that and he seems fine this evening but we are keeping an eye on him.  He's an older dog and could have a little arthritis.  Bill thought that maybe he'd been snoozing on the hard ground and was just stiff.  He does like to be inside, but he seems to be just as happy to be left outside and will stay outside for hours on end by his own choice.  That may be because of his coyote heritage?

 

I got two rows on Otter's blanket yesterday and one more today.  I've got about half of the skein I'm using now (# 5) and then one more skein after that.  The end is in sight!  The blanket is big enough to be a lap blanket for me now but I want it to be bigger.  Otter isn't picky, she's just glad I'm making it for her.

 

Speaking of Otter, she brought the car and her laundry this afternoon.  She works tomorrow but I'm going to pick her up and get her to work, then I'll get her after work and drop her back at her apartment.  Bill wants to work on her car tomorrow, the part was in the mail Friday.  Yesterday was cool and slightly rainy, today was supposed to be very rainy (but never was) so he never was able to get the part replaced this weekend.  Tomorrow is supposed to be decent weather for car repair.  I'm going to take it for the oil change it needs on Tuesday, then I'll get Otter after (my) work on Tuesday and she'll bring me home.  Then she'll have the car the rest of the week.  While her laundry was in the washing machine, we went to Goodwill but didn't find anything.  While her laundry was in the dryer, we cleaned out the rest of the pile in her old room.  There is still just a little bit to go through, that will be done on Thursday.

 

Also on Thursday, the tulips will be planted.  The plan was to do them last Sunday but that was the day it snowed.  Then we planned on Tuesday or Wednesday but I was sick.  Then we planned on today and I am better, but I haven't quite gotten back up to 100% yet and was tired out just from doing my own laundry, dishes and vacuuming the living room so the planting day has been rescheduled.  I don't have a problem with planting them on Thanksgiving.  It just needs to be done and done soon.

 

Now I just hope that the microwave holds out!  It first acted up about a year ago, then it started acting right so we never actually replaced it.  But it's starting to act up again.  It is definitely going to be replaced this year, I'm just hoping to wait until slightly closer to Christmas because there are generally pretty good deals on that sort of appliance then.  Just in case, I'm not planning a whole lot of meals that have to be microwaved this week since the oven is out of commission.

Dark Early!

I don't particularly like the time change, I believe I "may" have mentioned that a time or two.  Or a few dozen times!  I just couldn't think of a good title today, and it works...

I spent a few hours running around Tulsa today, looking in various stores for bathroom stuff.  And finding almost nothing, mostly.  I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond - they have some Bed stuff, very little Bath stuff and not much variety in what they do have - and a whole lot of Beyond which seems to mostly consist of make-up!  Looks like the same stuff that wallyworld carries, too.  I looked at Burlington which used to have a lot of household and some clothes - and now has almost entirely clothes with 2 small aisles of household stuff.  And it was messy, it looks like the employees don't bother to keep things neat or follow up after customers.  I don't think I'll be going back there anytime soon.  I looked at Target, which did have a few possibilities but not exactly what I wanted.  I did buy a soft pretzel at Target's snack bar, but that was the only thing I did buy there.  I hit a few other stores, too.  I finally decided to just to go Tuesday Morning in my small town but didn't think I'd find anything there since I had been striking out everywhere else.

I should have gone to Tuesday Morning first.  Because I found just about everything I wanted/needed for the guest bath.  I didn't find a bathmat, they did have some but not in a good color to go with the towels because I'm not even going to attempt to match the shower curtain.  I found a sort-of dark goldish color trash can, matching soap/lotion pump, matching small container that I'll figure out a use for and a burgundy plastic drinking glass.  I noticed that I'd been calling the shower curtain ruby, but burgundy is a better word for the color.  The gold I was finding today was mostly bright and I wanted a darker, almost antique gold color.  I found a decorative towel and washcloth, I would like a hand towel in the same pattern but they didn't have one.  I'm going to look at the Tuesday Morning close to where I work and see if they have one, if not I'm going to get another bath towel and get busy with needle and thread to make it a little smaller.  The towels are a cream color with a gold ribbon decoration, it's a little brighter gold but it works.  I am probably going to get a cream color bathmat, they did have some but not a lot.  I had a small plastic and metal basket that I use to keep things like small soap, toothpaste, stuff that a guest might want.  It doesn't really go anymore, Otter had a small woven basket that works better, she doesn't have any use for it so she gave it to me.  It had a green ribbon wrapped around it, I took the green off and am going to use some burgundy ribbon I got at Hobby Lobby today.

Otter has had a rough few days.  Monday was the root canal and her tooth is fairly sensitive still, then she woke up Friday with a very severe migraine.  She was off Thursday and supposed to work Friday morning, but there was no way she could go in.  She was taking the strong motrin the dentist gave her so she took some on Friday to see if it would help the headache - it didn't even touch it, I'd forgotten that she used motrin before and it never worked for her.  I was going to pick her up and take her to work Friday morning, then pick her up when she got off and either take her home to her apartment or drop her off at the library and then she was going to come home with me to get the car for the weekend.  Since none of those things happened, Bill drove to her apartment after work and I met him there.  I took her some rice I made Thursday evening and Bill met me at the door of her apartment.  She was in bed, she got up and let him in and went back to bed.  She was feeling really bad, she wanted to take a night-time allergy pill to at least get a little sleep but it has Tylenol in it so I called the pharmacist to ask about it.  He said that after Motrin, as long as you wait 2 or 3 hours then you can take Tylenol and that she should be fine - I read him the ingredients in the allergy pill and he ok'd it since it has other stuff in it as well.  She was going to take the allergy med and hopefully get some sleep, so we left.  I guess it's just as well that she did not go to Wizard World this weekend after all.

This morning, she texted me that she was going in to work and that she did feel better but her head still hurt some.  I stopped and left her a surprise snack in her car, then when she texted me later she said that she really felt bad.  She was scheduled to work until 4:00 and they were short-handed, so she knew she wouldn't be able to leave early.  I told her I'd bring her some Gatorade, so I stopped at the convenience store near her store and got three bottles.  I left them in the car for her, then I went inside to see her.  She was checking out a customer so I waited until she was through.  She did not feel feverish but he said she felt fairly awful and she was pale - which is saying a lot, she's got the typical Irish Redhead coloration.  She thinks that she might have actually had a bug that was aggravated by a migraine, but I really think it was "just" a migraine.  I headed on home at that point, she texted me about 2:30 that the next cashier had arrived and her boss told her to go on home.  She texted me later on that she'd had some soup broth (with chopped onions added to it) and that she was feeling better because she'd had some rest.  She is going to take an allergy pill tonight and should be able to get some sleep tonight.  She works tomorrow but not as early, she gets off at 3:00 but then they have a mandatory employee meeting at 6:30.  I told her to put her laundry in the car then she can come over here and get it done before she goes to the meeting.  I don't know if I'm taking her to the meeting or not, but she will bring the car back tomorrow at some point.  She's off Monday and Tuesday, so Bill will have the car and she will also have some downtime in case it is a bug.  The dentist appointment is Monday, it was scheduled for 4:00 but the dentist changed it to 10:00 in the morning and I'm glad of that since her tooth is tender.  She thinks it's just because the spot the dentist worked on is on the back of the tooth and it's kind of hard to keep from bumping it with the bottom teeth.

 

I'm hopefully going to get started on the tulip bed tomorrow.  The dirt work, anyway.  The ground is probably going to be cool enough to plant the bulbs very soon.  Possibly extremely soon, we have a cold week ahead of us and may get a "wintery mix" next Saturday morning!  So, I'm going to get the soap/oil/water mix on the bed tomorrow but I still have to get the weeds out of the way first and start loosening the dirt.  I might treat it again in about a week or so, but I might just go ahead and plant the bulbs then.  Either way, this is probably the last time I'll plant tulip bulbs there.  We may extend the back fence and the tulip bed area will not get enough sunlight if we do.  I may plant them somewhere else at a later time, though.

Now it's Thursday

Much better/different than last Thursday!

 

Bill got another load of firewood today.  He thinks we're where we were last year in terms of the amount of firewood we have.  I'd like to get 2 more loads, Bill wants to get at least one more but we'll see.  Today's was free, when the temperature gets to 50 degrees is when they start charging.  I don't mind if we have to pay for it.  Today was in the low 70's, tonight will be cooler and tomorrow our high is 68 degrees!  I'm thinking that we might have to pay for the next load of two of firewood.

 

The promised rain never did develop, although it was noisy in the early evening last night.  It was misty this morning, cloudy and overcast pretty much all day.

 

Otter's jalepeno plants still have blooms and small fruit.  She'll probably be making her final harvest in the very near future.  I'm thinking the mint and rosemary will be moved inside within the next few weeks.  I'll also need to bring my begonia back inside, which means I'm probably going to have to rearrange my plant stands.  Again!

 

We're going to get started on the tulip bed soon.  It needs to be weeded, then the dirt needs to be turned and it needs to be treated.  Then it might get another treatment a couple of weeks later.

 

I weeded the rock garden a bit this afternoon.  Mostly, I pulled grass that was encroaching from the sand stone edges.  There are a few little "false morning glory" vines popping up again, they get yanked as soon as I see them.  Wish we'd known that it wasn't actually morning glory and we would have pulled it out as soon as it came up through the dirt.

 

Well, they were pretty at least.

September Already?!

This has been a fast summer.  I know, it's still the summer season and will be for a few weeks yet, but the summer "break" is over.  We have actually been making Fall/Winter preparation for a few weeks already - as I've mentioned already, Bill's been getting firewood.  We still need more and he'll probably get another truck load this week if the weather cooperates.

 

We enjoyed the Monday day off from work today.  Otter had to work, poor girl!  We still had a bigger than normal breakfast, biscuits & gravy so she at least got to enjoy that!  Bill and I had a few errands to run, including going to Otter's store to get a tarp for Bill to use to cover the grill with.  The grill has been stored under the lean-to but the lean-to is rapidly filling with firewood.  We went to several other stores, including two hardware stores and another tool store (besides Otter's) but Bill was unable to find the item he was looking for.  He needs a specific type of rubber pad to put underneath the feet of the compressor - one of the specific "will void the warranty" if he uses anything other than the specific type!  One of the stores was Ace Hardware, where I discovered that they had tulip bulbs in stock already.  I grabbed several different varieties of bulbs but we might get a few more.

 

We went to Best Buy because we needed a new digital camera.  Bill has an ancient one he still uses with the pachinko business, but we've been borrowing Otter's digital camera for misc. stuff.  However, when she moves out she is taking her camera with her!  I just don't think that's fair at all, Otter!  Anyway, I found one that I really liked.  It's got a very high resolution quality, and it was also on sale.  $179 is what I paid today, it was $80 off the regular price.  We got the wrong kind of SD card though, I'll take it back and exchange it tomorrow.

 

I did manage to get some laundry done today.  Not all of it, but enough.  I also need to do dishes, but I'm not in a hurry!

 

Bill grilled steaks for our Labor Day dinner.  We also had baked potatoes and ranch style beans.  We are stuffed!  The dogs are happy, they each got a tiny bite of steak and a little bit of potato that Otter had left - she prefers her baked potato without anything on it beyond a small shake of salt.

 

Speaking of Fall/Winter and getting ready, it's time to start rotating out my Spring Storm/Loss of Power canned food items and replacing them.  There are also a few things such as canned fruit and crackers, it'll all get rotated out and replaced.

 

I guess that's the extent of our day.  Very exciting, huh!  (Yeah, I know - boring but we enjoyed the day!)

I Don't Know

What to title this.  It's just Wednesday.

 

The freeze happened, it was hard but not as hard as the forecast.  It did ZIP to the pollen, we're still having just as much to deal with as before.  Well, actually, we have to deal with more because now the tree pollen is beginning to make it's appearance.

 

The tulip bed is exploding with color.  It is absolutely gorgeous, all that work we did last Fall was so worth it.

 

I had something planned in mid-May.  For various reasons, I decided to change it to early June.  (Froggy, you know what I mean).  Lately, I've been having the strangest feeling that I would be getting a jury duty notice in the mail and that it would be on the dates of what I have planned.  Well, I was half right.  I got the notice in the mail yesterday, and it covers the original dates I had planned.  Of course, it's the absolute worst time for me to have to be off work.  The middle of the month is not good to take off, which is why I changed my original planned thing to early June.  I checked with the jury duty clerk - crochet hooks are not allowed in the courthouse.  I guess I'll load my purse/tote bag up with books and hope that I a) don't get picked and b) get released early.  I guess I'll find out next month.

 

I went to the booth today.  I cleaned out my jewelry the other day and took several necklaces and bracelets up there.  I think one of my necklaces has sold.  I'm not positive about that though.  I rearranged a bit and put another glass piece up for sale - it's the Fenton piece I've been thinking about selling.  Attempting to sell, anyway!  It's the fan-shaped tray which is actually a plate.  It's part of a snack set, which is a glass plate with a small tea cup.  The tea cup never survives, they are almost always found without the cup.  They were originally sold in sets of 4, most of the time they are found as singles.  Mine was probably made for Anchor Hocking, Fenton made things for many other companies.  If it sells, fine.  If not, fine also.

 

There was probably more, but it's been a looooooooooooooooong day and I am tired.  But at least Froggy will not be able to gripe about me not posting lately!  (Yes, I know you will still gripe.  But not about blogging!)  (Ducking and running now).  :)

Reprieve?

Maybe.

 

We are supposed to get a hard freeze tonight.  Well, technically it will be at 2:00 in the morning.  Yes, it is April.

 

First order of business is to hunt down that dang groundhog!  Then we're going to eat him.  I have an industrial-sized container of picante sauce and several shish-ka-bob sticks ready to be deployed at a moment's notice.  It snowed today!  I saw it and so did a lot of other people.  It was rainy and misty, in the 30's most of the day and then the flurries around noon.

 

The benefit to the unusual cold and the freeze is that we will have at least 24 hours, possibly as long as 48 hours, WITH NO POLLEN.  Because it will all be deaddeaddead.  Nobody is going to complain about that, I hope.  Otter certainly won't be griping.

 

Of course, the first bluebonnet bud picked Saturday to start developing.  But they are hardier than we thought, so maybe it will make it.  The plants have frozen before and have come through unscathed so I'm hopeful.  The tulips will be fine - they are absolutely gorgeous this year.  All our hard work in bed prep and digging to bury the bulbs has paid off.  They are spectacular.  We have pictures, but I keep forgetting to get them from Otter's camera to post.

 

We're going to be on our own for Easter this year.  We're going to have the "traditional" meal **fixins:  ham, Bill's world-famous mashed potatoes, brown gravy (yes, I use Pioneer brand instant - I didn't get the gravy making gene from Mom), green bean casserole, rolls or possibly I might make bread, and apple pie (Mrs. Smith's brand frozen but it's one of the good ones and I bought cool whip!)**

 

Texan language translation:  Cool Whip is what it's all called, no matter the brand. Just like all tissues are Kleenex, all sodas are Coke, and we should all know by now what Fixins means!

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!

More Stuff I Didn't Get to Blog About

Last Sunday, Bill got out into the shed.  He took every single pachinko and aripachi machine out, put them on a large tarp that was on the grass and then he put them all back in the shed again.  This time, they are organized.  Sort-of, this is Bill we are talking about here!  I was going to help him, but the wind was blowing hard and just going outside was enough to send me into an immediate & severe allergy spell.

 

The mouse tally is now 6.  Otter got one today, it was in the trap behind the chest of drawers in her room.  It was another young female.  She needs to put another trap in there, but she hasn't had time yet.  The trap behind the toilet in our bathroom was still there, but the bait wasn't.  Otter re-baited it and put it back, the one behind the door to our bathroom was still baited so it was left alone.  We haven't had them this bad in years, I think the building going on behind us probably has a lot to do with it.

 

We checked the tulip bed this afternoon.  No sign of tulips yet, it's still a bit early.  But the confused daffodils are coming up in one spot.  They never seem to know what season it actually is, they just come up when they feel like it I guess!

 

The news has been talking about the fact that it's peak flu season right now.  It's also RSV season, it usually peaks in December but it's later this year.  RSV is very dangerous, I'm sure Froggy agrees with me on that.  It can be very serious.  I'm less "worried" about the flu this year, the cdc announced that they got the mix right on the flu shots.

 

Bill and the neighbor (he's a mechanic) are going to attempt to replace the fuel level sensor in his Impala tomorrow afternoon.  It's got less than 1/2 a gallon of gas in it.  Otter is very anxious for the repair to be finished, I don't blame her.  It's not any fun driving a car when you don't really know how much gas it has - if any!

92!

Otter and I planted 92 tulip bulbs this afternoon.  She put some of the colors in patterns and some are just planted.  There are several rows, either 5 or 6 in each row.  We treated the bed a couple of times, stirred the dirt around a few times and got all the bulbs planted today.  We both have sore backs, but it's done and we don't have to do anything else now.  We found several earth worms and the dirt looked good, nice & rich.

 

It might be winter this weekend.  At least, it will be cold and possibly wet.  The type of wetness will be determined by how cold it actually gets, we have a chance of wintery precipitation - in other words, we have a chance of flurries.  But since the forecasters can't predict a hole if they dig it themselves, we are prepared for all contingencies.  Even if we don't get anything!  Bill's been cutting some of the firewood to size to fit the fireplace.  We hope to be able to use it Saturday.  Guess I'd better get more chocolate tomorrow, you can't make 'smores without it!

Dirty Jobs

Or job singular, to be exact.  Otter and I got out to the tulip bed and basically stirred the dirt.  There is some evidence of a mole trail, after we treated it.  We're probably going to plant the tulip bulbs next week and we will treat it then.  Then, we'll leave it to sit and hopefully we'll see tulips next spring.

 

I also came across my bluebonnet seeds, the ones I harvested from this year's crop.  I'm going to see about planting a few of them in the whiskey barrel - although I have a baby blue already sprouting.

 

The humming bird feeders came in yesterday and I washed them this morning.  They are now put away until next spring.  I need to get my seed feeders ready, I don't think I need to replace any of them this year.

 

We have a good chance of rain, it's expected to start after midnight.  It could continue through Thursday morning.

 

Real exciting, huh!?

Rearranged

We've been busy today.  Otter hasn't been busy today.  Otter has spent most of the day in bed.  I woke her up about 8:00 as she requested.  At that time, she said that she had a headache and wasn't feeling too good.  Almost immediately after that, she ran to the bathroom to throw up and has made a few more trips throughout the day.  Her headache has gotten worse, but she thinks it's probably more decaffeination at this point.  She still feels cruddy and felt feverish earlier, but didn't have fever when I took her temperature a little while ago.  However, it was just after she'd thrown up again so I'm not sure it was an accurate reading.  No achies, so I don't think it's flu.  I think she has the bug that Bill and I both had earlier in the week but I don't think she got it from us since it's been several days.  But it seems to be going around the Tulsa area, a lot of people have had this one.  She was already off work today, her D & D group was going to meet but they had to reschedule so she had made plans with J and some of their friends to go to a town near Oklahoma City for something they wanted to go to.  Obviously, Otter didn't go anywhere!  She's pretty disappointed, but she really is too sick to go anywhere.  She's off tomorrow as well, but this bug seems to have a fairly short span and she's actually feeling a little better this afternoon - not best, just better.

 

I've been looking for a coffee table for a while.  We had one, but then when we moved in 2004 we bought two sofa tables (narrow and tall, they fit behind couches) and donated the coffee table.  When the sofa tables were delivered, one was damaged and the delivery guys were very unconcerned - until RHTW* made her appearance.  Upshot is that they took the damaged table back and we kept the remaining one.  And realized very shortly that it was just too wide to use behind the sofa like we wanted to.  It gets used, it's been in a couple of places in the living room and is currently in front of the window to the back.  Bill uses it for pachinko repair and it works fine for what he needs.  I finally got tired of not having a coffee table and decided to buy one.  I've been looking on craigslist and at thrift stores, I don't like any of the newer made pieces because they are generally pretty flimsy.  I saw one listed this morning at a local "garage sale" store and it's now sitting in the middle of the living room.  With a very large, furry dog parked beside it!  We had a tall bar stool that we use as a table, it was in Otter's room for a while and then it migrated to beside the couch.  It's probably going to go back to Otter's room, she needs something to hold her phone and/or alarm clock where she can actually reach them.

 

Froggy, you probably remember the magazine stand that Uncle Aleck made - it's also in my living room and is now beside the couch where the bar stool used to be.  We had two tall lamps that we bought when we moved in, we used them for a while but then one day I realized that they hadn't been turned on in months.  They were behind the couch, the couch was off the wall just far enough that a certain beagle could get her behind back there.  Literally only her behind, it would just fit!  I took the lamps out from behind the couch, they will probably be donated somewhere.  We really don't have any more room, but it works better.  And I have a place to put my coffee!

 

I was going to work on the tulip bed today, but that hasn't happened yet and probably won't.  One day this week I'll get out there.

 

One thing that was on my list which did get done is that I dusted the living room.  That includes all the Fenton!  I had several other housecleaning chores that I managed to get done.

 

I had crochet on my list, but that hasn't happened yet either.  Hopefully, I'll get some time tonight!

 

Maggie Moo is in a little disgrace today.  Someone that Bill knows came by, he had a two pachinko machines for Bill (in payment of a repair job Bill did on one for him) and while we were standing out in the driveway talking a certain little beagle came slinking out of the garage and down the driveway to the street.  She ignored me, but she did hear me calling her name.  Because she slunk even lower to the ground!  And kept walking towards the street.  Little brat finally came back to me, she didn't like being picked up and held but I wasn't about to let her back down again.  After a little while, I put her in the back of the El Camino and she seemed to enjoy it.  New places to sniff!  When I carried her back in, I took her straight to the back yard and let her run for a while.  Frasier came out to play at that point, they were out for a while and seemed to enjoy it.

 

It's 5:00, I think I'm going to go check on Otter (she's awake I think but still in bed) and then I think I'll get my last load of laundry transferred from the washer to the dryer.  And then maybe I'll have time to crochet!

**RHTW:  RedHeadedTexanWoman.  She can be your worst nightmare. :)

(No idea why the text color is changed.)

Lasagne is in the Oven!

And we will eat in about an hour and a half.  More or less, we're also having garlic toast with it.  Texas Toast Garlic Toast made by New York company.  Anybody else having a TEXAN moment?  (New York City!?)

 

It's rainy.  It's cold.  It could well freeze tonight in areas to the north of us.  I have 3 baby blues coming up in the whiskey barrel, so it's about time for a freeze. :(  Although they might be able to handle it, they have come up in December before and then hung on until April or May and then still managed to bloom.  The cold weather means that the tulips will be planted soon.  We're going to get out and work on the bed again Sunday, turn the dirt and treat it again.  Then about a week later, more or less, the bulbs will be planted.  Then, it will be ignored again and left on it's own.  Until Spring!

 

Froggy, I don't usually feed the birds in the spring and summer and not always early Fall.  If I can see bugs, the birds can too.  Except for hummers, they get fed early spring until their migration in the Fall.  Which I think has already happened, I'll probably take my feeders down next week.  Then they'll get washed and put away for the winter.

 

Found out a new way to freak out the Otter today!  I ran several errands at lunch and I had to drive by her store.  I left her a package of peanut butter cookies in the car she drove, on the cup holder between the front seats.  With a note from me.  I get this slightly panicked phone call from her because she has gotten to the car (but not in it yet, smart girl) and she sees that there is something in the car that wasn't there when she got out of it when she got to work!  Geesh.  I had to explain to her that I knew about it already, eventually she figured it out but it took her a couple of minutes to re-adjust her thinking.  :)  She was not amused that I thought her unexpected reaction was funny, but she was thankful for the cookies.  Guess it's my fault that she's a tad bit on the paranoid side, but I have valid reasons for being that way myself and by association, so does she.  (My reasons are by necessity kept private but just accept that I have reasons and they are very good ones).  I guess she forgave me, because she called me from Wally to see if I needed her to pick anything up for me so I wouldn't have to stop on the way home myself.  But it was funny!  However, I'm also glad that she was aware of her surroundings and that she realized something was different - even though that was not my intention.

 

Tomorrow won't really be "cold" but it will be cool.  The morning might be cold.  I've got blankets ready to grab, I love to camp out on the couch on cold mornings with a blanket (and coffee!), and it's pretty much 100% guaranteed that I'll also have a foot warmer in the shape of a beagle.  And maybe even a chupacabra for company!  Dogs got their priorities straight, that's for sure.

Playing in the Dirt

(Play on the phrase Digging in the Dirt, which is from the fantastic Monty Python movie Monty Python's Holy Grail!)

It's kind of been a Derpy Day today, mostly due to whatever allergen is in the air.  I've been tired for a few days, which is an allergy symptom and also I've been sneezing.  A lot!

 

Which probably wasn't helped by the fact that Otter and I got out and did some Digging in the Dirt.  But the tulip bed won't get itself ready, unfortunately.  Bill mowed the weeds the other day, then I got out with the hoe and got as much of the roots & stems out of it as I could.  Today, we got the shovels out and "stirred" the dirt around.  Then I treated it with rain water which had a full bottle of baby oil and quite a bit of dishwashing liquid in it.  The water helps it all soak in,  The moles don't like the oily dirt, the gophers don't like it either but the soap kills any grubs that the gophers might want to eat, because they also destroy the roots of the plants when they are going after the grubs.  We'll hit it again in a week or so, the general idea is to plant the bulbs around Nov. 1 but it depends on the weather and the ground temperature.  We use baby oil which is essentially mineral oil with scent, buying mineral oil by itself is expensive and it also only comes in small bottles.

 

My favorite Teenager is turning 97 tomorrow!  I'm going to get cupcakes or something similar to take in to the office tomorrow.  We spoil him as much as he'll let us.

Otter managed to get a picture of the elusive Chupacabra!  She had to essentially stalk him around the yard, but she got the picture.  Frasier does not like to pose!  He's a lot more tolerant of the vacuum, but not the camera.  We were trying to figure out his age last night, we knows he's at least 11 but he's probably a year or two past that.  Which is a very good life span for a big dog, and we hope he hangs in there for a long while longer.

This is what we see anytime the back door is opened - the Magginator wanting to go out!  She did get to, as soon as Otter took the picture the door was opened and the beaglebrat shot out the door as fast as she would got.

 

This is what is known as "Deploying the Ears" and is usually employed when the dog wants something she's not getting.  Snack, a trip to the yard, my blanket, whatever it is that she doesn't have.  Dog might not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but she does know when to turn on the Cute!  Usually, she sticks both ears straight out and they stay that way.

Little Stinky Bugs

You know that Spring has arrived when you spot the first stink bug of the season!  Yesterday's discovery, actually.  Yes, I know that Spring won't be here for a few more weeks "officially" and that we could still have winter weather.  But along with little stinky bugs, pollen is suddenly making it's appearance known.  My allergy symptoms can attest to that!  By the way, the stink bug was gently coerced into leaving the door frame and heading off in another direction on the porch.

I don't think what I had a few weeks back was actually the flu.  I think I had something else.  RSV, respiratory synctal (not the right word but I can't remember!) virus.  Which is making it's annual rounds lately, as it does this time of year.  It can be bad, it can be fatal if a young infant or older person gets is.  For most adults, it's "just" a flu-type but without serious side effects but it's still a hard one to deal with and get over.  I've had it before, when Otter was less than a year old.  She was exposed to it but we didn't realize that the child she'd been around had something serious.  Until the doctor sent us to the ER!  We had just been to Tulsa on our "do we want to move to OK" trip and inadvertantly exposed Otter's grandparents to it.  After we got home is when Otter got really sick.  She was pretty sick, but she was lucky - some kids wind up in the hospital.  I think one of the nephews on Bill's side did wind up hospitalized with it.  It's also a contributing factor to asthma developing.  Otter already had it, asthma is something that you are more or less born with if you did have it, but it might have remained dormant longer than it did.  It can cause asthma to be a lot worse than it would have been otherwise, as Froggy can probably attest!  I did get it at that point, but I didn't have a bad illness.  However, I think that it's what I had recently.  I fit the symptoms.  Especially the way that it came on so fast.  And took so long to get over.

I started the 2nd police officer donation scarf today.  I got the base chain done and two or three stitches on the first row.  I didn't have much time on my lunch hour today, I might get back on it tonight but I'm not sure.

I made another discovery today, it was a nicer one than a stink bug trying to get in the door!  Last fall, Otter decided against planting anything in the tulip bed.  She wanted to give the bed time to rest and recoup.  The last tulips we planted were mostly regular bulbs, but there were some that were 2-year bulbs.  This is the 2nd year and they are coming up.  Along with a boatload of daffodils!  It was a nice surprise, we didn't expect the 2-year bulbs to come up although we probably shouldn't be surprised.

I had another discovery, but it's from several days ago.  Remember those confused bluebonnets?  The ones that don't know what season it is?  Well, they are still there.  They've survived several very hard freezes and they are STILL ALIVE.  They look to be very healthy.  I'm hopeful that they'll actually get to the blooming stage, but there's no way to know yet if they have been too damaged by the freezes.  But I'm just glad that they are even still there!  Bluebonnets are very special.

It's Amazing What a Good Night's Sleep Does!

We drugged the dog last night.  And will again tonight.  And probably for a while.  I gave him the dose the vet recommended, 2 adult dose pills although the vet did say that I could go to three pills if I thought he needed it.  I gave him the benadryl about 9:00, and he was groggy about 20 minutes later.  I went to bed at that point, and slept all night long.  Without any barking or dog noises!  (Of course, it took me a while to fall asleep but that was due to Bill apparently running a marathon or something in his sleep).  I woke up around 4:00, because I hadn't woken up any time in the night and nature was screeching!  I heard the dog bark once about 4:15, but that's about the normal time that somebody (usually Bill) wakes up and lets the dogs out.  Tonight, I think I'm going to wait until about 9:30 or so and then medicate Frasier.  9:00 was probably a little early, but it was a struggle for me to even stay awake that long.

I answered Froggy's comment on my last post with another comment, but basically Frasier's quality of life is the issue.  Right now, he's pretty good and generally happy.  As long as he is doing well, he's just going to be spoiled as normal.  If he loses his vision, that is not necessarily going to be the determining factor of when it's time to let him go.  But it will depend on the whole picture, and I've decided to look on this as having the gift of knowing that our time with him might not be too much longer so we're going to enjoy what time we do have.  He's old, but we've never really known how old he is.  The rescue group we got him from said 2 - 3 years old, but we (and the vet) have always thought that he was older than that.  The vet's official records say 10, but we're really thinking it's more like 12ish.  Dogs age and they get grey, which he's got and it seems like he's aging more rapidly the last few months.  Right now, he's pretty good and we're hoping that it stays that way for a long time but we are realistic.

We're not ignoring Maggie Moo, it's just that Fraiser has been the main issue lately.  The Magginator is fine, still silly and still lazy.  And still round!  Last night, I was scratching Frasier's ears and he was parked on the floor.  He put his head down on the floor and sighed happily - and then Maggie came over and sat on his head!  He was not amused, by the way.

A couple of years ago, we bought 3 tree saplings.  One was a redbud, it's in the back yard and is doing great.  One was an oak tree and it didn't survive the hot/dry summer, but that might have been partially because we bought & planted them in the spring instead of the fall.  The third tree was a lacebark elm and it's done amazingly well.  It's in the front tree, it was to replace one of the two maple trees that were victims of the 2007 ice storm.  It's grown very well and it's getting fairly tall.  This spring, a seed must have dropped in just the right place because a sapling suddenly sprouted.  Bill's been babying it along, and he transplanted it tonight.  It's on the opposite side of the driveway from the parent tree, and is about halfway between the mimosa he transplanted there last year (also a sprout from a seed off of the tree that used to be on the edge of Lovely Neighbor's fence line with ours in the back), and the stree.  He thinks he dug deep enough to get the main bulk of the roots.  We'll see how it does.  I'm hoping that it makes it, the fact that it's between our driveway and Lovely Neighbor's is really just coincidental - but I wouldn't mind a bit if there was another big tree between her and us!  I think that there used to be a tree there, it was gone before we bought this house from G & S but I don't remember much about it.

Otter's decided against planting any tulip bulbs this year.  She wants to give the tulip bed a year to rest.  However, there might still be tulips that come up next spring because some of the ones she planted last fall (that came us this year) might have been two-year bulbs.

I brought all my cactus plants in yesterday.  They are in the dining room and it's a little crowded, but they all fit in front of the window.  We repotted her bamboo plant this week, it was extremely root-bound but it seems to like it because it's gotten a little greener since the transplant.  It's in our bedroom, at least for now.  Also, we tossed the venus fly-trap plant.  It was several years old and lasted a lot longer than we expected it to.  When they are planted in pots and not in their natural environment, they sometimes only live a couple of years.  This one probably made it to about 5 or 6 years.  I'll most likely replace it, but maybe not until next Spring.  Until then, Maggie Moo the bug hunter is on the job!

And so's the wolf spider that Bill discovered this morning - it was running around on the ceiling of our bedroom.  It's more than welcome, by the way.  It was a good sized one, and we hope that it stays around for a while.

Some Miscellaneous Monday Stuff

Before I forget, Froggy - you are working too hard!  Don't over do it, it won't do anyone any good if you exhaust yourself or make yourself sick.  Like I said before, it's time for a Guilt Trip - you need to send both of those strong sons of yours on one and the road they follow on the Guilt Trip needs to lead them straight to your house.  Yes, I know that # 2 was there over the weekend, which was good.  But # 1 needs to help!

We found one of these lovelies building a nest on the overhang on our front porch yesterday.  We forgot about it, so it's still there.  It's right over the front door and there might have been two of them on it - I was in a hurry to get in before I dropped what I was carrying and Otter was just in a hurry to get in because she hates those things!  She's very much her mother's daughter and bugs are no problem for her, but aggressive ones with stingers are not anything we want to mess with.  The nest won't be there long, Bill's going to take care of it after he mows the front yard this evening.  Most bugs, we leave alone.  But not yellow jackets.  We get the occasional hornet as well, they usually get a fast meeting with something such as the bottom of a shoe.

We've seen a few honey bees lately and a couple of bumble bees.  I leave those alone!  They were all over the redbud tree while it was blooming.

We found a total of 7 naturalized Bluebonnets in the front yard.  Seven!  That includes the one that Bill mowed the other day, and one that came up in the whiskey barrel.  We transplanted three into the whiskey barrel, but I think only one has survived.  The other two were small and one of them had probably been trampled a few times.  The remaining two are left alone, they are outside of the whiskey barrel but are close to it and I've got some plastic edging around them.  Bill's been warned within an inch or his life!  He normally won't mess with them, seeing how he is a TEXAN.  But the ones we transplanted were actually several feet from the whiskey barrel.  I'm not surprised that two of them died, since they were really a little big to transplant.  We'll start looking earlier next year.  Otter did get some pictures for me, but I haven't gotten them uploaded yet.

She also got a few pictures of the tulip bed, it's doing wonderfully.  We planted three or four different kinds, with different bloom times so we've had tulips for a lot longer than normal.  I think the original daffodils are probably at the end of their life span, they came up but didn't even put on buds.  The frilly daffys we planted last fall are happily blooming.

Tulips & daffodils do make us happy.  But not as much as bluebonnets!