These Last Few Days

I usually go to the Ag after I drop Keith off at dialysis on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. 

Friday morning, the geese were back.  The Renaissance Festival is right next 

door to us, and for six weeks after Labor Day, we have a cannon booming as they 

open and close.  The wild animals don't like it.  I don't like it. 

The geese have been away, so I was glad to see these four on Friday. 

This guy was back at the vet on Friday afternoon.  He has a badly infected ear (his right) and 

eye infection in both eyes, so we are treating both. 

He is doing okay, but we may have to get more ear meds. 

You know I love the Beatles.  I went with a good friend on Saturday night to see the Liverpool Legends at the Topeka Performing Arts Center.  Keith and I have been to several concerts there, it is a wonderful small venue.  Louise Harrison, the 85 year old sister of George Harrison, manages this group, and they have a residency in Branson.  They also sponsor a program to keep music alive in high schools, and they work with master classes with local schools in each town where they sing. 

Hayden High School was the high school for Topeka, and the band played the orchestral parts to numerous Beatle's hits in the second half.  It was wonderful. 

A snippet of "Revolution" without the band, sorry: 

We drove home through a terrible rainstorm, and it was heart-in-the-throat time. 

The jelly feeder had water in it from the rain, but look whom I saw 

drinking from it! 

I actually saw this for two days running, but.... temps are dropping here, 

and today there was a lone hummingbird left. 

On the way to the park Sunday afternoon, we saw this little guy with a big burden. 

Remember our llamas? 

Some new neighbors have moved into the neighborhood, about 12 of them! 

Uh Huh. 

It was raining when I passed the bluffs on Sunday morning on the way to church. 

I missed the most beautiful shot... an egret was winging it's way through the canyon of the creek, and I could not get the camera up before it went around the bend.   

You see the leaves are beginning to change. 

Sunday's sunset almost hurt to watch. 

Yellow and blue always go well together! 

The dogs resign themselves when I jump out of the car.

There goes Big Daddy into the pond. 

And my favorite calf. 

I think this is probably The Last One. 

I'll be surprised if I see him tomorrow. 

This one will be around for a while. 

Mish Mash

Catching up on this week's pictures. 

I did walk every day, except Wednesday, when I just felt too badly. 

I saw my primary care today, and she gave me some medicine to 

help me get over the hump. 

On Tuesday, I walked at Basehor with the dogs, and we ran into an older man who was walking for exercise.  He stopped to ask me something, and before I knew it, the dogs had laid down on the path, and we had a good visit.  He lived about 3/4 of a mile from the park, and has four cows and a bull, and just had two little tiny calves!  I have always admired how he cares for his cattle, he moves them from his home pasture (about six acres) to a place about a half mile way to a pasture with 11 acres during the summer.  He makes sure they have plenty of groceries, and has an automatic waterer. 

The little black baldy calf is a week old. 

There is also a tiny little black calf, born Monday. 

The man was surprised that I watched his cattle so closely. 

The calve's daddy.  

There are two ladies waiting for calves to be born. 

I asked him if he was not scared going in amongst the cattle with the bull loose, 

and he told me he has had to hit him twice with the feed bucket. 

That would make me mighty nervous. 

On Tuesday, three horses broke out of their pasture and came east on Leavenworth Road, and the 

sheriff's deputies herded them into this gentleman's pasture. As of today, they are still there! 

Who would not be looking for three horses????

I noticed he had closed the lot in front of the barn off from the horses... and they are eating only the grass in the pasture. 

I hope their owners come forward soon. 

The dogs and I were on the way home today, and I saw a huge white bird 

in the same pasture where I had seen the coyote the other day.... I stopped and got the camera, but a 

car came roaring down the gravel road behind me, and the bird flew. 

I would have said snow goose, but it was alone, and REALLY big. 

I think pelican, truly. 

They are here in the midwest. 

Here is another picture, like a UFO picture 

I still say pelican.  It flew over the hill, and that was that. 

And that's that for tonight, too... I need to let the medicine 

work. 

Thoughts for Tuesday

I just read all the comments from 

yesterday's Mouse Post. 

I laughed out loud at some of them... 

Yes, Stella Rose Long... I would GLADLY 

take Kevin's 951 cats, I miss having a kitty... but

Lilly. 

She won't tolerate a cat.  She tolerated Nicky and 

Gwen, and ALMOST tolerated Josie and Jenny. 

When we lost Jenny, she ran Josie off when she 

got outside one day, and never let her come back. 

I found two dead half-grown kittens in the yard at the old place... 

not Josie... but my point is, she won't stand it. 

As she is ten this year, I am not going to bedevil her. 

Keith has found these: 

We tried them last night. 

Yes, I had to kill them, or facing driving out in the country 

daily to dump mice from the humane traps. 

It was finding "mouse pills" in the dressers that did it. 

So... we tried these, and they WORK!  They are a 

snap trap, the mouse dies pretty much instantly, 

and you pull back the lever and drop it out into 

your trash bag.  

We got three last night, and I have two 

baited traps up here right now, and 

Keith got me two more today. 

So... we are trying. 

Someone (Jaz?) mentioned the poison... we are 

scared the dogs will get the mice as they die. Three months 

ago I used the poison in the pantry behind everything, and two mice came out and 

died in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. 

I'm hesitant to use it again. 

I also used expanding foam insulation to seal off one wall 

where we had to strip the drywall two months ago.  

I know some were coming through that way.  

We will get nephew Brandon here in a couple of weeks 

to re-drywall that wall for us. 

I can't put that (flammable) foam near the furnace, so I am 

putting chore boys around the pipe run there. 

We are not going to have many new pictures over the next few weeks... tomorrow we are going to have a little snow/rain mix... though we may get to go walking around noon. 

Rain the next 3 days... and then Saturday COLD and rain, and single digits at night. 

I won't walk the dogs in the extreme cold. 

I say this is a Cooper's Hawk, seen on a pole on Leavenworth Road.  What say you, 

Friend Jill? 

Here he is in flight, gorgeous! 

You know my favorite pond, and little herd of Angus cattle... 

I noticed today that 2015's calves are gone. 

However, I drove past all the cows, noted the pond was skimmed over with ice... and then saw Big Daddy in the far corner of the pasture by the road. 

You don't wanna mess with these guys. 

He almost seems to be saying that! 

Now I have a comment to make about our wide world, and 

how fantastic the internet is that has brought us together. 

Saturday night, I was sitting in front of the tv, but 

actually just reading.  

My phone pinged with a message on Facebook Messenger. 

It was my friend Nell, from New Zealand! 

8 years or so ago, Nell and I became friends through 

our love of theater, she is an actress, and I house-managed 

a theater in downtown KCMO.  We have stayed in touch all 

through the years, though on opposite sides of the world.  We 

don't "talk" regularly, but we do stay in touch. 

She knew I used to scrapbook (and am starting again), and 

had questions, so she shot me a message.  I was able to answer

her questions and send her examples. 

My point is.... this would never have happened without the internet, which can 

bring so much happiness into our lives if we use it wisely. 

Another case in point... 

I just read Dean Jensen's "Queen of the Air", about 

Lietzel, the top performer on Ringling Brothers Circus in 

the twenties and thirties.  

She married Alfredo Codona, who himself was a top star, 

and was the first to perform the triple somersault regularly. 

She died in a fall from her apparatus in Copenhagen at a music hall;  back 

then, when the show went into winter quarters, many of the performers went to 

Europe to perform.  One of her swivels crystallized, and came apart. 

She was famous for one armed planges, where she threw her body up and over itself, over and over, 

I think her record was 250 times at one performance. 

Her shoulder would dislocate, and then go back in.  She had NO fear of heights... 

and was an amazing acrobat.  I especially love how she descended on the web, got to the ground, styled... and wripped her wrist wrap off and threw it before she bowed.. Such a performer! 

(Alfredo Codona married again after her death, to Vera Bruce, 

who was in his act with his brother and he... and he 

shot and killed her in an attorney's office when their marriage broke up, and 

committed suicide the same time) 

I am going to TRY to embed a short video featuring her from You Tube... 

because here is my point again... 

I sat down at the computer after reading the biography... just out of curiosity looked to 

see if I could find a video of both the Flying Codonas, and Lietzel. 

Lietzel died in 1931. 

THERE WERE TWO OF LIETZEL.  

Here was this woman who died 88 years ago... and we can watch her, albeit on a scratchy tape... 

but we can SEE her.  

https://youtu.be/kermOBHeGUA

Lietzel tape

If you click on Lietzel tape, it will give you the option to go to the short video clip. Remember, there is another taken during a Ringling performance.  

Incredible. 

There are also several of the Flying Codonas.  The Codonas were in the Wintergarten in Berlin when Lietzel fell in Copenhagen. 

So... a third point, and 

sorry that this is getting to be so long. 

MDH Keith just walked upstairs to tell me he has 

just spent 30 minutes on the phone with a man with whom he served almost 30 years ago in the Army.  They got re-acquainted on the web about 2 weeks ago... and the man, a CEO of a huge major international corporation, just called Keith to yak about old times. 

It turns out the man grew up in KCK, where I did... belonged to a parish where I went to church for a while... so you see, folks, the world is a very small place.  Keith might never again have spoken to his friend , were it not for the web. 

Yes, it can be a wonderful agent for good. 

Another Hot Summer Day

We went over for a swim yesterday morning, first thing. 

All the white things you see on the water are pieces of "cotton" from the cottonwoods 

around Troy's pond. 

She had a good time trying to get the frogs jumping ahead of her in the pond. 

This morning was hot and muggy, and Lilly disappeared for a while again.  Pretty soon I saw her coming... she was wet again... but at least she is coming right back after her dip.  In the old days, she would have taken off. 

The walk gate in the fence is not hooking... it needs to be fixed, so I tied it with bale wrap yesterday, obviously not well enough. 

Jester doesn't want to wade, but he likes to walk in a few inches and get a good drink. 

Hangouts.... vulture style. 

Grandson Jacob had his last baseball game last night, and his mom, and Keith and I were able to go.  Many were rained out and rescheduled this year, and in fact, Jax 

was also scheduled to play and it was cancelled.  It was a strange season. 

Jacob's team won handily, and have been winning all season.  

He looks pretty intent in this picture!  

I saw a scissortail flycatcher again last night... aren't they beautiful? 

These pictures aren't the clearest, because they are cropped way down. 

See it's beautiful tail and red wing patches? 

I love to watch them. 

Today, I did something really stupid. 

We did not go to the old house until 1 PM. 

It was very hot out and humid. 

I decided to walk down to Beau's tree in the pasture to see if there 

were mulberries left. 

I took Jes, but Lilly turned back. 

Do you see what I put him through?  

He had to sit down frequently, and I had the big camera.  I should have carried him. 

I finally had to hold grasses down for him to come through, he was really having a time, and 

when he got out... he was worn out and breathing way too hard. 

No more.  We either go in the early morning, or the dogs don't go. 

The pasture is full of beauty. 

I heard from Troy, our good neighbor out there... he is going to finish cutting the pasture this week. 

God bless him! 

There's a new sheriff in town with the bathing beauties. 

And he did not hesitate to take his place in the bathing line this afternoon in the heat and humidity. 

The ponds still look so beautiful at the foot of the hill... but it's hard to get to them through the tall grass! 

Mama, Don't Let Your Fencelines Grow Up to be Grapevines

To wit: 

Oh, yes. 

That's a fenceline. 

My bad. 

There's a pasture behind there. 

I cut and I cut and I cut. 

That's what some of the grapevine trunks looked like. 

Those are grapevines!  Whew. 

You can see the pasture again!  

That's the brush pile way down there. 

These are mushrooms growing on a dead tree.  I'm going to take a better picture of this tree tomorrow. 

I worked on the pasture side of the fence, too.  This tiny beautiful little red plant 

is a young Virginia Creeper vine. 

Several of these guys were on the house porch (wooly bears). 

I stopped to take this picture on the way home... got out of the car.... The trees are getting so beautiful.  This pond is so peaceful. 

This barn sits above the pond. 

This farm is right across the road from the pond.  There are several barns and a granary. 

But the house is gone... it clearly was in that copse of trees... and the pasture had 

peacefully grazing cows in it.  There was an additional barn, I didn't get it in the pcitre... it is behind the trees, and would have been behind and a little to the west of the house. 

On the way home, I went by my friend Diane's to give her a sack of egg cartons I had found in a storage building at the old house.  This made me laugh out loud.  It's a BIG Angus bull.  

He is standing in between the supports of a sign that says "New Haven Angus", large 

cattle breeders here in Leavenworth County. 

There was a truck behind me and I couldn't stop (see him in the side mirror?) 

Here is what's really funny... he turned around pointing NORTH in the time it took me to deliver the cartons and chat for a minute... so he was facing me again as I came down the road.  This time, I pulled into a driveway, and calmly took the picture as I got the stink eye. Now you can read the sign that says "New Haven Angus". 

He's pretty photogenic. 

Jester likes his daddy a lot. 

Keith is going back into the hospital either today, tomorrow or Monday, he is finding out now. 

This is getting to be part of our lives.  

Please remember him in your prayers if you think of him this weekend. 

And these guys live about a mile from us, right down the road.  How I always would 

have loved to have had some alpacas.  Maybe in my next life.  

 And now I'm going out to cut grass for the last time this year. (I 

HOPE)