Three Days of Rain

This is how the dogs feel. 

Yes, it really is that gloomy. 

The dogs have not been for a walk since Wednesday, and 

you know we walk a mile a day, normally. 

I think Lil and I could have made it, but we

would have had to leave Jester home alone today. 

On my way to church, I saw some mighty frozen weeds. 

There has been freezing, thawing, freezing, thawing, and accidents are everywhere. 

This poor cold hawk was on a pole at a farm where no one lives now (but it is still farmed). 

I felt so sorry for it. 

This past week, Izzie's Pond, a  rescue I follow on FB, attempted their 

first rehab of a red tailed hawk, under the tutelage of a wildlife rescue. 

One of the things Izzie's posted was that the number of hawks coming 

into rescue triples at this time of year.  Many juveniles or injured, cannot feed themselves, especially in the bad weather.  They grow emaciated, and then die.  

Sadly, the hawk in their care was injured too badly to live... but now I can't look 

at a hawk on a pole without worrying. 

Izzie's Pond has a wonderful story, and they have just purchased a larger property 

so they can expand their operation.  

Our skies have been so very leaden. 

Rain is predicted through Monday. 

I stopped at the bluffs... look at Stranger Creek!  

It is predicted to come out of it's banks upstream, at 

Easton. 

Here is the other side of the bridge, you can see that the water is roiling on it's way. 

We were supposed to have Jax over to stay the night tonight, but when I got home 

after church, Jim texted to say they were taking him along to dinner and a movie with 

Mom and Dad, while Paiton had a sleepover at her cousin's.  

As you can see, we are taking it EASY. 

I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow, if the driving is better. 

Geese are beginning to fill the skies here. 

Happy Thanksgiving 2015

Oh, how grateful we must be to be alive and healthy on 

Thanksgiving Day, 2015. 

Brother Pete was not tip-top today when my sister-in-law

Marybeth (left)  and I got there to see him. 

We enjoyed a wonderful lunch with him and those residents 

who were still there at noon; many had gone out with their families. 

Pete is holding his foot pad, if you are wondering.  

Marybeth and I were happy to eat lunch after we fed him... it was 

delicious, too, and if this is how the residents are eating, 

we both approve! 

Keith and I enjoyed dinner together about 5... out.... because he 

had been gone all day.  We met and enjoyed a buffet 

dinner, and I had some of my favorite flan for dessert. 

YUM. 

It has rained all day here in Leavenworth County, 

and we plunged from 64 this morning to 36 right now. 

This was the Kansas City Star this morning. 

In 45 years of subscribing, I don't ever remember a 

Thanksgiving Day with so many ads that it took 

TWO plastic bags to deliver our paper this 

morning. 

Even without doing Black Friday shopping... I LOVE to sit at the 

table and look at the ads!  

I wish I had a nice picture of Keith to show you... but he is 

sound asleep already.  

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and thank 

you all for the nice comments about our pictures this week. 

Thanksgiving Week, Day Three

I think the deer are using this tail at Angel Falls. 

We always look, hoping to see one (we have seen ONE). 

The ground had dried out enough that we went on down to the creekside. 

The creek itself is remarkably clear. 

And someone was eager to get right in it, but I had her on the short lead.  I wish I would have switched leads... because... 

Someone else was super-excited and hopping all around.  The side to his right drops off to a much deeper hole... like, really deep.  

It's not very big. 

There we are, looking towards the bridge.  The parks department has closed off access from 

just at the bridge with deadfall, as you see. 

Pretty soon, we began to head back... we had already walked 3/4 of a mile at that point.  The full trail is a mile, which we did. 

The rocky outcrop by the stream has convenient "steps". 

I took a much different route home, and came across these wonderful old barns.  That's a wooden silo on the right! 

I went by Little Stranger Church, where I attended the Pie Social in June. 

I was surprised to see that there appeared to be damage from storms during the summer. 

There was a Soup Social there at the beginning of the month that I intended to attend, but that night, something else came up. 

This is a very typical Leavenworth County scene, and you see that our weather fell today. 

There is still a Jersey Dairy in our county, aren't they beautiful cows? 

One more day! 

Thanksgiving Week, Day Two

Our last nice day, I'm afraid, for five or six days. 

I have shown you this male alpaca before... he is 

down the road from us.  He is so beautiful in the sun! 

The sun made the grasses glow. 

There is an almost-white squirrel at Basehor City Park... I have tried numerous times to 

get it's picture.  It ran from the sun to a shady spot as I grabbed the camera.  I'll keep trying. 

You know I love old barns.  It hurts me to see people just let them fall apart. 

You can still see the stalls in this one. 

This is Peppa Lass's first birthday.  She posts on the internet almost daily... at 

Denman's Critters, on Facebook. 

She cracks me UP.  I love her, and I don't know how they get her to 

hold still for her costume changes.  Last night, she was enjoying smores. 

She is a Goat with Personality! 

Today, I had lunch with some of my high school classmates.  If any of you 

are reading this... thanks for inviting me, and darned if we don't all 

look GREAT.  

I ran to the grocery after dark tonight, because of this: 

Oh, yes. That was our dinner... chuck steak and potatoes. 

I sat down and started looking at Facebook... thank God I realized it was burning (finally).  No smoke alarm went off, so we will be checking on that. 

I ran and got Chinese, and on the way back, I saw the Christmas lights shown above... the first house in our neighborhood. 

We had a beautiful sunset. 

And a gorgeous full moon.  The weathermen say we will not see the sun 

for at least five days, so the dogs and I will walk early tomorrow, before 

any rain begins to fall. 

Are you all starting your Thanksgiving dinners? 

Thanksgiving Week Day One

63 degrees. and believe me, we appreciated it. 

You see that we had glorious blue skies. 

It is almost impossible to get a good picture of a black bird or animal.  I'm PROUD of this crow!  If you biggify it, you can see his face. 

He had two buddies sitting close to him. 

I saw four hawks in less than a mile, but this was the view I got, mostly.

The south end. 

This guy was high in a tree as we drew closer to home. 

I didn't mean for this to be the All Bird Post, but, so be it. 

We went Christmas shopping today at Oak Park Mall, a very large mall here 

about 30 miles from us.  I'm happy to report we encountered small crowds, and great parking.  

I'm sure that won't be the same by week's end, but we won't be there, then! 

Oh, the joys of being retired, and early shopping is one! 

Love Those Quiet Sundays

Well, we had five of the grands here yesterday to 

decorate little trees for their bedrooms for the holidays. 

Papa 'Oder, Jace's name for Keith, held a very interested Hayden. 

While mother Amber helped two year old Carson choose his decorations. 

 Paiton, Jace and Jax all worked on their own trees. 

Brynn and Hailey were unable to come, as they were sick.  We missed them. 

We had potato soup (well, the adults did), cookies and chocolate milk, and an 

hour flew by. 

Church has changed to 4 PM for the winter, so coming home it is almost dark. 

The little pond filled a bit after the rain this week... it was very, very low. 

The dogs and I took the long way around today to go to the park for a walk. 

It was about 48 degrees as we drove, and the farm animals were loving it. 

Hawks were everywhere, but out of my camera range, mostly. 

That was a big 'un, and the colors on him are beautiful. 

The big ditch has filled up again, but I still don't see any traveling birds in it. 

The squirrels at the City Park in Basehor are busy filling their storerooms; they must know we have 

bad weather coming at the end of the week. 

Let's all have a peaceful Thanksgiving Week! 

A Very Gray Day

The trail was lonely today. 

It was chilly and blustery, and rain threatened. 

The dogs were taking it easy, and we walked 1.2 miles. 

Above us, we heard The Call of the Wild Goose

The possum haw still lights up the woods

Beauty is where you find it. 

I left the grass long in the little side yard pond, and I'll try to get a picture of the reason why in the next few days. 

Lil was on the hunt for mice. 

Angel Falls is really rolling after the rain we had earlier this week. 

As my son said, if you build it, they will come. 

We will be attaching the plant hangers to the poles in the next few days, and hanging the bird feeders (plural) from them for the winter.  The poles have settled into the concrete nicely. Then, the bending and swaying metal pole will be put up for the winter. 

Don't look now!  They're heeerrreeeee. 

And, reasonably priced! 

The Salvation Army bell-ringers are out as well, don't forget them when you are out shopping. 

I still have marigolds blooming. 

And tomatoes, too! 

However, we are expecting temps in the 20's tomorrow night, so 

I'll say bye bye for now. 

Tomorrow, the little grands come to decorate their very own little Christmas trees. 

Pictures tomorrow!