KATY AND HER BLANKIE

Several days ago Jen and the kids were at the house for awhile – we were up in the bonus room amongst boxes as they were working on putting down laminate in the den.  Anyway, the girls were watching a “show” as we were visiting and Katy was wanting her blanket.  Her mom told her that she had to leave it where it was on top of a box until she was ready to take her nap.  She said okay.  Over the next couple of minutes she maneuvered her way over close to the box and I was able to catch her doing this.  BUT … the blanket never left the box :))

That’s our Kates!

A LITTLE CATCH UP

I like to call this picture “Moon over Ridgemeade” (that’s the name of our family farm)

Why? You might ask …. well, every time Toby went outside at mother’s or got out of the car, he would hold his nose up, sniff the air to the left and to the right and then head straight down the hill to the pond.  He would almost always go to the same spot and drink like he was sitting at the local soda fountain and all we would see for that minute or two was his rear end barely showing above the bank of the pond.  (Just so you know, there was always a big bowl of water sitting on the kitchen floor but he hardly ever touched that). 

This is Frieda .  She is two or there abouts.  She is a very sweet Doberman.

   

Just as I hoped to capture her most charming regalness, she did this ……

Guess she was getting tired of posing :)

When growing up I can remember how some summers the Japanese Beetles were everywhere – kind of like this

Thar’s good eatin in them thar flowers.

And this guy was sitting on a pitchfork on the back porch

He’s kind of cute in a scary sort of way.

You may remember these guys

Well, for a while this guy was close by on shore

Don’t know if he was watching the dead fish or his reflection but once the fish were removed he didn’t hang around.

I thought I knew how to set my camera so I could take a picture using the timer  but I left out a step apparently and so before my sister left I got a really good picture of her and mom sans me.

and then before I left a couple of days later I managed to figure out what I did wrong setting the timer and got one of mom and me and our two  pups

D

Doesn’t she look great for being almost 90!

It’s been nice to be able to go visit twice within a couple of months.  I’m looking forward to visiting family more now that I’m retired.

Tomorrow Jennifer and I are going to find some appliances for my kitchen.  Probably stainless but maybe not.  I’m excited.

I plan on sharing pictures of the house once the floors and painting are finished but here’s a tease for you.

I just love the flooring I picked out.  It’s all the same but the light makes it look different in the different pictures.

NEWS …….NO PICS

I’ve crashed in my bed with my laptop and I’m too tired lazy to get up and get the card out of my camera because it’s at least 20 steps away.  So pictures will be forthcoming at a later date.

I’m home after taking an unexpected but nice trip up to see my mother again.  Stayed about a week, came home for two nights and then have been babysitting Vail and Katy since noon yesterday (Thurs).  I went off duty tonight and will be here at home til Sunday night when I will either have them over here for the night or go back to their house.  It will depend on what I accomplish between now and then.

I love my newly painted walls.  They are not totally finished but what’s been done looks great.  I’m a Porter Paint convert.  It really looks nice on the wall and my painter says it is really easy to apply.  As much as I like the colors of my walls, I looooooove the laminate floor that is in the den and will be continued in the kitchen, hall and SEWING ROOM (that seems like it will never happen).  The only downside is the sudden echoing of little kids feet and voices.  Oh wait – those are MY grands feet and their sweet voices so I loooove that too :)  I’m going to do some hard work in the kitchen and den tomorrow and hopefully will have something to show for it when I’m finished.  We shall see.

EEEEEWWWW!

Upon first glance you have this serene scene …

Makes you want to take a little canoe ride.  Then as your eye is drawn further out and over the pond

eeeeeww!!!

Horrors – its dead carp (the kind that can’t reproduce) –8 or 9 to be exact (sort of).  They are in the pond to feed on the algae and keep the water looking nice.  All of a sudden they are belly-up .  Mother is waiting for the fish and game people to maybe tell her what’s causing it.  In the meantime, we are watching them float around until the farm guys come and get them out.

There’s always something going on in the country and it ain’t always purty.

BACKYARD TWISTERS

ON THE ROAD AGAIN --- AGAIN!

I’m off tomorrow to go see  my mom.  And my sister since she is already there.  She’ll leave Friday to go back home and I’ll stay the weekend and head back here next Monday.  May or may not post while I’m gone.   

When I get back I hope to see some of this

on some of my walls.  No more RED wall. 

These are samples I painted on a piece of cardboard. HD had the Behr samples on sale for 2.94  (don’t know what they are usually).  I got seven and these are what I decided on.  You’ll definitely see the finished products over time. The thin wide bar is supposed to be a pale buttery yellow but it doesn’t even look close on my monitor.  The two blues and the two browns are different too – supposed to be anyway.

Hope I like what I find when I get back.

Have a great week.

I HAVE A WORKING POND

Woo Hoo – my pond is working again!

Water was escaping and then the pump quit but all is well. It’s gone from this:

to THIS:

The very nice young man who came by and looked at it pulled out the pump – it was totally covered with the roots (?) and stringy stuff hanging off the water lillys. He took it apart, cleaned it out with the hose and and put it back in and it worked great. Then he explained how the upper part of the pond was too full of plants and proceeded to clean out enough of them so the water could flow better. The boys are going to pull out some more (about half of what you can see in the picture) this evening when they come over. I took all the water lillys from the bottom part of the pond out since they’ve finished blooming anyway and are in the process of dying. Next spring I’m going to try water lettuce instead because it won’t have all the under water stuff that will clog the pump AND the fish like to eat water lettuce. Here are some more pics of what the pond looks like now.

The plants kind of make a mat and there are too many of them for the water to flow freely. Hopefully taking out the front half will totally solve the problem.

TOBY HAS A SLEEPOVER

Last night Toby talked me into letting Jed sleep over and this is what happened. During the party this went on

Then when I was ready to go to bed I found this – I can’t stand begging and pleading can you?

Of course they both joined me on the bed and we snuggled in for a good night’s sleep.

Needless to say a very fun time was had by all ---- if you enjoy laying around and sleeping :))