The Cat

Our one cat likes to hide on us.  She has a better spot than we know.  I hadn't seen the cat since the night before and was starting to get worried.  I looked in all the closets first as she likes to hide in them.  She waits till your not looking and jumps in.   Not in the closets or under the beds.  One room is closed off with a five foot gate.  She can't get in there without the gate making noise so there is no sense in going in there to look.  I had just finished cleaning that room the day before and want it to stay that way for just a little bit.  Next comes the basement.  She loves the chair.  Not there.  I can't find her in any of the cats hiding spots.  I know she didn't get out.  How am I going to tell everyone the cat disappeared?  I stopped looking for a while but stayed on alert for her.  By 7:00 that night I gave up.  She didn't even come up for the rattling of the food container.  This isn't good.  I put food in all the cat's dishes and when I turned around she was there.  She actually scared me.  Oh good, now I can stop worrying.  I did ask her where she was hiding and the only way she would answer my question was by saying, "Meow!"  

Spiders

Like many other people, I have a slight dislike of bees and spiders.  All I can think of is this creepy thing crawling up my leg.  Living in the country we have our share of them.  Big, small, and in between.  The littlest spider can create havoc in my house.  When the girls are here it is even worse.  Bob thinks we are sissies!  Yes, we are and proud of it. 

Last night he came upstairs with a butter container that he saved and in it was a large creepy wolf spider.  It was as big as the bottom of the container!  UGH!  Quite proud of his specimen, he had to show it off.  At least he had a lid on it.  It was a female and had an egg sac under it.  Good thing the girls aren't here to see this.  Finally he told me where he found it.  I did expect him to say near the woodpile but no, it was in my basement.  My basement had this huge spider and not one cat was brave enough to go and kill it like they do with all other spiders.  I told them all I was disappointed in them for not hunting this spider.  Maybe they didn't like the size of it either......It was released in the woods.  Please don't come back in.....   

Update on those tadpoles

I can't believe the tadpoles are still with us.  Really, they should have been gone long time already.  Bob tried to tell me it would only be 4 weeks.  I am really glad we got them their own pool.  Now I really think that the frogs just kept laying eggs every few nights.  Lots of frogs have left and now another batch finally have legs.  There are also little ones in there.  I will have frogs till October frost.  I believe that now and no one needs to tell me.  There would have been no pool if I listened to Bob. 

Next year will be very well planned, before the frogs lay eggs!.....

Blueberries anyone?

After having so much fun picking strawberries, blueberries would be the next thing.  Bobby was in for the weekend and wanted to go see Grampa's cabin.  Mckee was all for it and was ready to go!  There were blueberry bushes up there maybe we can get some.  After seeing the Loc Ness Monster and now it's young, we soon arrived at the camp.  There were cries from the back seat, "Stop Grandpa, look at the berries."  Wait till we get to the cabin.  Oh no, we have no bag but there was one at the cabin. 

We started up  the trail and there were lots of bushes loaded with berries.  We should go home with plenty, if they stop eating them.  I got to hold the bag open for the ones they decided to give me.  I helped at times.  Then we went near the stream and wow there were a lot but on the top of the bushes.  The bears ate the lower ones.  Bobby being the tallest, was able to get a lot.  I started calling them my migrant workers because they were following my directions - yea right.  Just walking the path we got a lot of berries.  Should have enough to make jam.  We packed up and went home.  Suddenly we changed from jam to pie.  Of course my little chef helped make the pie. 

And a fun time was had by all.

Tadpoles by the Thousand!

By now I figured all of the tadpoles would be gone from the pool I provided for them.  Was it because I wanted to open my own pool?  Yes!  If I left them on the cover, they would still be there.  Ten to fifteen leave every night but it doesn't seem to be making a dent in the amount I still see.  Bob has taken to feeding them.  They eat two slices of bread on a daily basis.  He breaks it up and throws it in the water.  We both watch as they attach themselves to the bread and eat.  It is all gone in a few hours.  When will they all be gone?  Or will they be like the kids and stay forever?....  Stay tuned.

How Do I Do It?

Yes, here we go again.  It's not easy trying to figure out how to fix a blog and make it more user friendly.  My other blog needed some tweaking.  I looked on every thing they had posted and then went to help.  It had everything on it but what I wanted.  Then I found out I needed to be in the newer mode to do anything.  Okay, I can do this.  With printed directions I proceeded and got no where.  So then I went to see if I could add pictures where I wanted them.  This was easier.  I got all but a few done.  Now I will return to see if I can do what I was trying before.  After 20 minutes I admitted to default and quit.  Maybe tomorrow it will work.  For now, I deserve a pat on the back for what I did.  At least I learned something new.

Waxing

I have short hair and it is dark.  At least once a week I wax the facial areas and trim the sideburns.  The last two weeks I have had a problem with the razor not cutting close enough so I have been using his beard trimmer.  A little frustrated with this yesterday made me look a little closer.  This was a brand new razor I had gotten out of the package.  Why won't it shave.  Upon looking and feeling a little closer, I finally found the problem.  Would you believe the head of the razor was on upside down.  After putting it back together the right way it worked much better.  I will check the rest of the package for the same problem......

First Tomato

Summertime - garden - tomatoes.  Yes, this is what summer is all about.  Every winter we pick what will be in in it.  Bob puts it all in.  He loves his tiller.  Only problem is it makes the garden bigger.  Soon it will be half the yard.  Since we have chickens that have the run of the yard, they love the garden too.  All of the red beets have no leaves.  There are dust bowls in every row.  Flowers were eaten off pumpkin plants and they dug up the roots.  They have also taken to laying their eggs all over.  We find a new pile every day.  Bob found a nest in my tomato garden.  There were two green tomatoes on the one plant.  I told Bob to look and see if they were ripe.  When he said oh no, I knew something was wrong.  He pulled out a beautiful ripe tomato.  I went to grab it and he turned it around.  Those chickens ate it!  I was furious!  This means war.  Most of the plants now have some sort of netting around them.  Next thing that happens is there will be a big pot of soup, chicken soup!....

Thunder!

With the three dogs in the house it's always fun when we get a thunder storm.  They all hate thunder.  They hear it before we do.  Their tongues come out to the floor, they drool and walk constantly, and the little one shakes like she has been in a freezer.  They stay that way until after it stops.  Someone has come out with a shirt that you velcro on the dog.  It is suppose to make them more secure.  Bella and Sally have them.  As soon as we see the clouds turn black we put the shirts on.  Now we have two dogs that you can literally pick up and move like they are statues.  I can't help but laugh.  Tongues are not out as far, and they don't drool.  Amazing!  Guess the shirts do work.  Okay bring on the storms, we can handle it now!

Frogs

The frogs seem to be enjoying their new home.  I can't believe the amount of them.  Not many died on the transfer.  Last night when we looked at them after dark, there were about 20 getting ready for the escape into the real world.  They are so tiny, but once they are on the rim they are green like frogs and look like frogs.  Quite a few in the pool have legs so I know in a few days all will have left home.  Then I will have "Empty Nest Syndrome."  Bob did remark that I was worse with the frogs than he ever was.  Guess it did keep me sane for the month.  I know it kept me out of trouble.  Now I have to watch if it rains too much it will overflow and the tadpoles that aren't ready will flow out.  What's a Mother to do?....

Frogs!

Well, today is the day the frogs are leaving the pool to go into their own pool.  I served them with an eviction notice yesterday.   I told my husband after getting the water running in the hose to suck the water out, that if I get pneumonia it is because I sucked enough water in my lungs that I could drown.  Who leaves me alone?  It isn't safe.  With each scoop of the net I would get about 30 tadpoles.  The more I drained, the more I realized I needed a bigger pool for the frogs.  Not many were sucked through the hoses.  I scooped every last one!  It seemed like there were thousands, or close to it!  It took hours, but the last one was transfered into the smaller pool. 

Next year as soon as I hear the spring peepers I will open the pool so I don't have a repeat of this year.  It was educational to watch these things grow into frogs and leave home.  But I don't want a repeat......