Waterlogue and Dogs

I finally downloaded the Waterlogue App on my Ipad. 

I had seen it used on several blogs... and thought it was nice. 

The trees in their finery last October, with Spehar's pond in the middle. 

And leaves on a tree in Troy and Kathy's yard.  

Gorgeous, huh???

I ran to Valerie's this afternoon to let the puppies out for a while... and 

Mama Uno came out with them.  I did not know that Uno LOVES to chase frisbies. 

I know now. 

Here's our own red girl... and five seconds later.. she had a great big vole out of the ground and dead. 

Yes, it hurts me to see them... but she is so good at it!  

Next week, we hope to have some really good news about a project we are 

going to undertake here at the new house, in the yard. 

For the time being, I am trying to get hummingbird pictures on the game cam, to 

no avail... so far. 

I did get to see Brother Pete at his new nursing home... I was very impressed with it... kind employees and 

clean... though he is wheelchair bound now, he seemed... okay with everything. 

My heart goes out to him every time I see him. 

Too soon ... too soon. 

Running out to the Old Place

More pee mail today. 

And then we saw a squirrel!  There are no squirrels around our new yard.  I have only seen ONE in this whole neighborhood since we moved. 

We went out to the old house to put some things in the compost heap this afternoon.

Even though it's very dry here now, it's a beautiful drive. 

But this, my friends, is the goat yard.  Unreal what has happened in four months. 

You cannot even see the barn from this angle. 

I dragged some deadfall down to the brush pile in the pasture.  I have to tell you... you can't tell from this picture, but the middle of the pasture that was almost destroyed when we tried to put a pond in three years ago... has grown back into grass and clover.  This is the last spot that needs to be repaired.  I am not saying there are no weeds... but I worked so hard last year and spread seed... and it looks much 

better down there. 

Don't look now... Troy's tractor is still down there!

There are still critters coming through the hole in the east fenceline.  Can you see their little path in the middle of the picture? 

This guy was laying in the grass near the gate, inside the yard, when I got there. 

He ran when I came back to go out and close the gate.  Lilly was with me, and Lilly HATES cats and has killed several.  (I love them).  I looked to see if there were kittens somewhere, because he/she came back to the exact same spot.  

I threw three chicken carcasses (from chicken we got at the store) into the pasture for the wild things, and I wish that I had left them near this cat. 

Lilly never did see it. 

We are starting to get some birds at our new feeding station. 

Here's a purple (red) finch. 

The female is in this picture. 

The white bucket has holes in it, I have been pouring water in it for three days to seep out 

and make the hard ground soft.  I put another feeder there tonight, for the hummers. 

Tomorrow I'll try to point the camera towards the niger seed feeder... there are goldfinches coming now. 

No blue jays.... no starlings, so far. 

Here's something unusual.  When we moved here at the end of  

March, there were robins EVERYWHERE.  We saw them everyday, 

and huge numbers of them. 

We are seeing very few now.  

We did see one hummingbird today, which is why I moved their feeder... they don't like to be around a crowd of other birds. 

Here's one of the two planters in front of the house.  This is the second year I have planted 

red, white and blue petunias from Walmart in them.  Not only do they spill beautifully... they smell so sweet you just want to stand there and soak them in! 

Maybe I'll get a hummer on camera tomorrow! 

A Walk in the Park

Our girl Lil got to do something today that she had never done before. 

You see... Lilly rarely left Calamity Acres in the old days.  The only time she ever ventured outside the gates (besides being naughty four or five times and getting loose)... was to go to the vet's office. 

She hated riding in the car. 

Now that we have moved, she has gotten used to hopping in the car and riding around with me, but we usually go to the old place, or do errands, where she waits for me. 

So... Saturday, I walked the puppies with Valerie.  I decided to take 

Lilly to the same park. 

When we got out of the car... she checked out the pee mail. 

At the back of the park is the Basehor Community garden... it's wonderful. 

Pumpkins ripe in July... too soon. 

The rules for the plots were posted... and each person responsible for a plot is given a key to the water pipe for watering their plots.  The bed just to the left of this was mulched with a thick covering of straw. 

We made a circuit of the entire park once... and we will go back again this week.  2 1/2 times around the path is a mile... it will be good exercise for us.  

There were kids playing in the park... and that's good for Lil, too.  

There was also another big dog there, but his owner had him well under control. Lil has to get used to things like that. 

I thought you might all like to see Lil as she was 8 years ago this September: 

She was a naughty puppy, but a beautiful girl already! 

I passed this on the way to the park... sumac, already changing colors along the road.  Too soon! 

My Ear of Corn

Eat your hearts out, people.  I have ONE EAR of corn growing.  (laugh)

This is the volunteer by the deck at the old place. 

I stopped by after church today... I had not been there since we left so 

fast to get Keith to the hospital last Saturday. 

I have a mess to clean up inside... paint cans, drywall scraps, insulation, etc. etc. 

We still need to get staples out of the floor and then paint it with Kilz. 

I have one room left to paint over again.  

Odds and ends. 

We have found someone to do the carpentry because Keith is not 

going to be able to do it. 

As soon as this baby is ripe, it's going into the boiling pot. 

This is the south flower bed.  You can no longer see the flowers in it, the weeds went nuts this last week.  Neighbor Troy is going to cut the weeds down in the bed behind it... and I am going to get busy this week once I know what the schedule is for the reconstruction repairs at our new house (from the water leak). 

There were still a few daylillies blooming in the weed cover. 

The pear tree is not only ripening, but the leaves are beginning to change color.  It's a little too early. 

The apple tree is groaning under it's burden, too... I did not get a picture of it. 

This little guy watched me go into the hospital to help my brother Pete at lunch today. 

And when I came out an hour and fifteen minutes later... he was almost in the same spot! 

Hopefully, Pete will be released from the hospital tomorrow. 

I have destroyed my phone this weekend... don't ask... and am awaiting the delivery of a new one.  All those pictures lost.  

Our area is predicted to have cooler temperatures this week... I'm hoping the construction guys get in here and get the work done at this house so I can concentrate on the old one for a while! 

Oh... one more picture... 

These were volunteer plants, remember... and I suspect they are Gypsy, from Baker Creek, which I planted last year.  The tomatoes are sweet and good, and I brought a bunch home for dinner tonight. 

The plant in the flower bed has lots of tomatoes on it... but none is ripe yet.  Our plant 

in the pot at home, has MANY nice sized tomatoes on it, but the four I have picked have had blossom end rot on them.  

An Afternoon at the Fair

I made a quick visit to our favorite feed store this morning, 

Valley Feeds in Bonner Springs, Kansas.  I have not been 

seeing my friends at Valley much, since we no longer have farm animals. 

Yes, I miss them.  

Valley makes a wonderful birdseed mix called "Back Yard Blend"... and 

I love it.  I decided it was time to start buying the good stuff for my new 

bird friends here ... so I went over to Valley to get 

some. 

Here is Marcia, longtime clerk at Valley, with her new little friend, Roscoe. 

Marcia recently lost her 15 year old Jack Russell, Rusty, who came to work with her 

daily.  Her heart was empty, and Roscoe has filled it.  He is a ten week old Cairn terrier. 

He was a DOLL, I began to pet him and he rolled over and let me scratch his tummy. 

As I left Valley to stop at Walmart for something... I got a phone call. 

I was so glad to get it, because look what I got to do! 

Yep, I forgot all about Walmart, and went walking with Sandy and Shandy at Basehor City Park. 

And here's their real "mom", my friend Valerie, their breeder.  She has had a show kennel 

of champion English Pointers for many years. 

Sandy, Shandy and big boy Billy are all destined for the show ring. 

Little Austin will be going to a pet home. 

I walked Shandy, and Valerie, Sandy... and we had such a good time getting the puppies used to being out on their leads. 

Then we dropped the puppies off, and went across the highway to the Wyandotte County Fair, which is ending tonight. 

We had had clouds all day, and a few droplets of rain... of course, the clouds dissipated and it got up to 96 degrees while we were there. 

We saw some great vegetables. 

Some preserves. 

Gorgeous honey! 

I thought the market baskets were cool! 

Valerie and I fell in love with this beautiful, beautiful quilt... and we each bought raffle tickets for it. 

I have never seen anything like this play area before.  It consisted of three huge plastic balls in this pool of 

water.  The kids step into the ball through the zipper openings... are zipped in, and can 

make the balls roll across the pool.  It looked like fun! 

This mini was in a little tent by himself next to the petting zoo... advertised as the smallest horse in the world.  Valerie bit, and took a picture for me.  She came out laughing. 

He looks like he's in decent shape, though, doesn't he? 

Because it was the last day of the fair, there were almost no livestock left. 

There were a few chickens. 

(like this Turken) 

When I was a little girl, Wyandotte County still had a huge agrarian base, and the fair was huge. 

Now... not so much. 

Western Wyandotte County has become very developed, with the NASCAR track, the 

Legends shopping center, a huge string of restaurants and adjacent strip malls... the 

Schlitterbahn Water Park (home of the Veruckt water slide)... and 

now, announced this week... a huge soccer complex that will house the Soccer National Team. 

Valerie did not know about Polish chickens (there are three in the cage) and was amazed at them. 

And you knew I was going to be looking at the goats. 

We ended the visit by sitting in the gospel tent for a few minutes and listening to this excellent band. 

I bought a gyro on the way out, so Valerie took me to her house, and I got into the car and came home... 

and had to admit to Keith that I had had a mishap with my Galaxy S4 phone he gave me for my birthday last summer... and had dropped it in ... er... water.  Even though it was immersed for only 3 or 4 seconds... I could not get the back off to take the battery out... and it is dead now.  

We have insurance on it, and I can replace it... but I had precious memories in there in my picture gallery. 

I had sent some pictures over to email just this week, thank heavens. 

I hope we go to walk Austin and Billy tomorrow... it was a lot of fun, and gives me puppy time, which I always like!  

When we left, lots of cars were coming into the fair for the carnival, and for the car races that 

will run tonight.  The fair no longer presents a rodeo... they fell out of popularity some years ago, 

but, in the old days, I saw Garth Brooks twice at the fair!  A little county fair!  

Hot Hot Hot

I'm sure the heat is no news to many of you. 

As I type this, it's 100 degrees out, and I am not sure what the 

heat index is. 

This is not a good picture of my new bird feeding station... I actually bought another shepherd's hook today, to move the hummingbird feeder away from the other birds. 

However... this morning... I was so happy to see a bluebird eating the feed on the 

trough... and bathing in the water bowl!  

The bird leaned it's head and neck down, and caused the water to 

spatter onto it's back, and had a good little bath as several sparrows waited to drink. 

I'm going to try to put the game camera down there in a patio chair and get pictures. 

I saw one hummingbird, but it was wary of going to the hummingbird feeder with the other birds around. 

Oddly enough... I looked out to see starlings out in the yard, and they never 

came to the feeding station.  Purple finches and sparrows found it, though, but I have seen 

no goldfinches on the nyger seed feeder yet. 

I'm picking tomatoes now. 

Wednesday night, I stole away (with Keith's blessing) to the T Bones game... we have missed many this season because of illness... so, while Keith languished in his hospital bed (!) I went to watch for five innings.  The parking lot is safe (and free) and the stadium eminently safe for a lady by herself... so 

I treated myself to a cherry lemonade and a 50 cent hot dog. 

We lost. 

This is our dinner tonight, and we are waiting for it to all meld together with the dressing... it's Greek panzanella, with feta cheese, peppers, bread cubes, red onion, cucumber, and peppers... oh... and some kalamata olives.  

It smells heavenly.  

We are trying to eat a bit healthier, and a little less meat. 

Brother Pete is still in the hospital, though Keith finally got to come home last night. 

We hope Pete will be able to go back to his nursing home on Monday, but we'll see. 

100 degree temps are expected here tomorrow, and then a break with some lighter temperatures next week. 

I'm going to get some dirt and mulch, and go out and work in the flower beds at the old place... where I was not able to do anything this week. 

Everyone stay cool!