News about Mr.Owl photo

Remember the picture I posted up here in June of Mr.Owl, well I had submitted it to www.pictures.com and I recieved a letter today from them, that they have picked my photo to put in there book of photos. They call it Endless Journeys. I thought it was so neat to get the pix but to have it put in a book that is so exciting.

A few interesting pix

I forgot to put a shot of Jessica at her prom. I rag set her hair the old fashion way, with rag wraps.

It took hours to put roll it and then to unroll it and put her hair up. I think she looked just so pretty with her this way with the dress.The guy she with is Tony a really good friend. I think they make a nice couple. We dried the flowers they were just so pretty.

The next pix up is falcor doing a balancing act on the side of his tank, when the top is off Jessica cant keep him in his tank he likes to explore her room, brave lizard i'd say.

And the next pix up is well, I guess I dont have to say much, this snake was in the middle of the road sunning him self, we wanted to move him so Sean got his attention and I came up from behind and gently tailed him and moved him to the side of the road, he was really grumpy!

We have been seeing alot of this kind of snake, the bull snake. And yellow bellyed racers.

Sean wants to see a rattlesnake but so far we have only seen one and it was dead on the road.

Im sure one of these days we will see one sunning or well I hope its not out in the yard or close to us.

new quilty fabs

We have been working on 2 small camper trailers, getting them ready to sell. The one was not bad just needed some cleaning, but the other is needing TLC. We dont use them so we decited to get sell them and get a boat we hope.

We went to McCook today for other things and we stopped in at one of the quilting shopes while waiting for an other place to get back from lunch.

As you can see by the pix a few things had to come home with me. I really need to find a better way to keep my fabs, I have them in tomany different places and have to dig threw to see what I have. Im hoping to find and old wardrobe with shelves that I could put it all in.

Nebraska is having their quilt shop hop in July, there will be 13 shops to go to and they will give out a pattern for a block at each store that put togeather will make a Chirstmas quilt.

I found the mini iron at walmart a few night ago on discount, Clover brand is like 60.00 and this one was 19.00, I really dont care if its not a name brand like clover just as long as it works. This was a great find for me.

We are an other day closer to having air conditioning, I cant wait! Next week we are suppost to have days of 100 so we cant get it soon enought. After we get the air in and cool the house we have to start working on the bedroom again, its been sitting for the last month and half cause we needed to work outside and get the garden in then it got to hot to work on it. So it will be back to dust and wall rebuilding. Im hoping we have this done before it gets to be fall. Then we have to work the room that will be the bathroom. And of course still have to have time for quilting to.

SO many things so little time.............

The farmers here are harvesting the wheat and its looking really good for them, the prices is way up and the fields are full. The damage that kansas had to their wheat really made it better for the Nebraska farmers, It sad for the farmers down there tho.

I ate the first thing out of my garden tonight, swiss chard cooked with portabella mushrooms ( wish i could grow the mushrooms), anyway it was really good can make a meal of just that.

Guess that is it for now ...until the next time

My troll for the swap

Baby birds are here

Lets see what have I been doing the last few days besides being just plain out hot. I have been working on my block for the appy swap, finished a block for a love quilt. Worked in the garden, have tomatoes set right now that made me happy. Every thing is growing good even the weeds.

The air conditioning guys were here thursday and friday, Im thinking its going to be a long prossess to get the duct work up to the second floor and into the rooms, the down stairs wasnt to much of a problem so far. They started knocking a hole in the wall going up the stairs to remove a set of boards 5 1/2 inches deep from one of the stud areas they need to feed the duct work up. Made me a little nervious to see a big hole going in the wall being its slat and plaster still. We arnt going to update the walls in the stair well for a while its pretty much last on the list.
Oh well we will see what happens. The big thing is we will have air conditioning and heating this winter. The big ugly older than me space propane space heaters can be taken out leaving me with more space in the front room to move the furniture around. And I wont have to worry about them blowing out and having propane in the air.

It seems the heat has moved in to stay, we have been really lucky up to this point that we havent had the high heat like we had last summer. But the humdity has been up there so its not really very nice.

We went to a Goodwill that just opened not to far from us, about 45 min from here, and wow there was bags and bags of fabric and a huge table of yardage. I got some Moda brand fabric which was a huge find, and a big bag of lace, glitz, and misc stuff. Lots and lots of fabric.
So now I have to be good and not spend anymore on fabs for a while.
Remember those eggs in one of my post before, these are the babys that have hatched. I still don't know which baby is not the same as all the others. The tiny one in the middle of the pix below had just hatched yesterday. So much more tiny than the others. Its being so hot the babys were venting to cool down. Its such a wonderious thing.

Well im off to sew for awhile maybe I'll get the troll done tonight, and I can put of pix of it.

Sugar giving a hint

This is Little Sugar trying to give me a hint, This is the indoor water bowl, when its empty she barks at me from inside the bowl (not really a bowl but a tub). She is so smart, she makes me laugh. Shes not much a puppy anymore but she is chewing everything in sight. My pillow, stuffed animals have the Mark Of Sugar. Well im off to do something quilty.......

after the yard sale marathon

We servived the yard sale marathon, barely. Friday and Saturday we went on a 5 county wide yard sale hunt that the citys were all putting on here in Nebraska. I raked in lots of fabric, kitchen items, Sean got a computer that has not hardly been used and all it needs is a hard drive, and I got this wonderful old sewing machine with table for 10.00, with the book and all the attachements ever made I think even the huge button holer..

I was worried that it may not work or it would have to go to a shop. But after oiling all the places it describes to and adjusting the tensions, and getting it treaded right, It sews like a dream. All I could say was wow. It is a straight stitch only machine but I think I found my new quilting machine. In testing it I folded up some fabric so it was really thick and it sewed threw it like a dream. Id say this machine sews better than my brother im on now. My brother does do all the neat stitches and all but I think this newhome is a lot stronger. Plus I love the 1960s cabinet it was in. Im so happy about finding it. I'll test it out for quilting on a little piece I have later but im confident it will do the job. I can turn the fabric so smoothly and it has a bit more sewing room.

Any way im glad the sales are over and I really dont want to see an other yard sale for a while. We probably hit over 100 sales in the 2 days. It was fun and I met some interesting people along the way. And it was a good cheep weekend. But wow am I worn out from getting in and out of the care over and over.

Days of rain......

Well we had quite a bit of rain yesterday, and its still cloudy and a threat of more rain today.

I'm sure the farmers that are planting the december corn right now are not so happy, but for those that had there corn in are happy. The water stores are looking pretty full and the Republican river is running real full from all the rain they have had up stream. Nebraska has been in drought for about 12 years now to some degree. Most of the farmers around here havent seen this much rain for alot of years.

I was out walking and found the nest totally by accident, the strange things there are the little blue eggs and then there is one larger egg that looks totally different, Ive heard of birds leaving a egg for other birds to care for. I feel sorry for the little mommy bird that has the little blue eggs, Im sure the visitor is going to bigger than her and her babys.

The white material you see is from my big dog millie when she tore up a pillow I left on the porch. There was fiber stuffing all over the yard, the birds use everything they can find.

I love finds of nature like this, I watch as a baby magpie grew up back behind the garden and the baby has flown the coop now as you might say. This is one of the reasons I love living out here in the country away from traffic and people in general.

I did a little hand sewing yesterday, working on pattern I saw in one of the magazines and just loved it, I know I know, I have so many other things to be working on....I felt like doing something new for a bit. Plus the pratice on my hand stitching, I admit im a bit rusty. I started relying on the sewing machine for everything it seems. Its kinda soothing to hand sew till I make a mistake or the thread gets a tangled. All the time im sewing im thinking about what background fabs to use for the swap, I thought I had it all worked out what I wanted to do then, being female, I changed my mind. Its really not the size in question its the colors maybe Ill mix it up with some dark and some light. Light backgrounds seem to end up in the washer so much more. Its nice we have 12 people for the swap now, that will make for a really nice quilt in the end.

Well I guess I had better get something done today, being cool and all. Ive so had the lazy humdrums....

To hot to do anything

The last few days have been really warm and humid. We have had storms to the west of us and south and north, but we have not had a drop of rain. Ive worked in the garden, doing week control. Most of the seeds I planted have sprouted and are doing pretty good. I just dont want to see any hail please. The sweet corn is up about 4 inches or more, looks like its almost 100% popage on them. Ok it just started raining all the sudden really hard and the wind blowing like crazy just now. It didnt last long tho maybe 2 min.

I was out walking last evening and found we have a full family of owls. I saw 4 last night but there may be more. Today we were coming home from town and there was a little Pairie dog running up the road way from us, Im not sure where he is from tho. Maybe the pasture across the road from us. Any way he kept running up the road, I dont think they could get lost I hope.

Our jack russell just got back from his afternoon run, and of course he found a fresh cow pie to roll in, uck! and of course he hates water. Its not even funny when he goes to jump up on you and hes all green from rolling.

I havent sewn a thing in a few days, it just been to warm to even move to much in the house.
I've joined an online applique' swap with 9 other ladys from the quilters chat I chat in. I think its going to be alot of fun. My theme is anything fantisy, like unicorns and dragons and so on.
It will be a challange for sure. So I have put togeather a pattern for my block "a Troll" now I just need to decide what background to use and what to send on when we get started. Im somewhat trying to think out side the box for this. I think I have figured out somewhat, what ill do for the others in the swap that know what theme they are wanting.

We heard from the heating and cooling guy about putting in the air and heat unit, hes ordering it ! So its jsut a matter of time now. It cant be to soon for me, Hot flashes and summer heat dont work for me. We are having to do this in stages becasue he is really really busy right now, so the electric will be updated some time later before winter. The current service will run the air cool but not the heating in the winter. The working on the bedroom will continue after the air is in, its just to hot to work in the dust and plaster. As long as we have it done by winter Im not worried. These old house are hard to get all the duct work to all the rooms, we need to figure out how were going to get it up stairs to Jessicas room and the spare room. The other room up there isnt finished more storage than anything kind of room but it could be made into a nice room also.
We will need to get the walls in there insulated being there is very little in that room, but it all takes time. We have had a mouse visiting the bedroom everynight now for the last few nights.Hes pretty wise the cats cant seem to catch him. I dont like having mice in the house being they chew on everything, wood and wires and whatever they find to use as bedding.

Well I guess I'll get something done now that is cooling off a bit down to 84 in the house now.

Oh yea I found some really cute watermellon fabric today would make a cute table runner for summer. Or maybe pot holders.
Any way off I go.......

whoot?

This little guy was watching me pull weeds in the garden today. He was making very strange sound and I had no clue what it was. Then all the sudden he moved and I caught sight of him. The owl sat long enought for me to get the camera and take a few pictures. Then off he went.

Cat up a tree

If you click on the pix you will get a bigger view.

Yesterday we hear the dogs barking like crazy, which usally doesnt happen until night when the wild critters come out, So Jessica runs out to investigate, I hear her laughing like crazy and go see whats up.

Its Butterscotch up a tree, now a tcat up a trees really isnt funny but seeing this cat up a small tree when he weights over 20lbs and the dogs sitting below mocking him was funny. You have to understand Butterscotch tho, he doesnt know hes that big I dont believe. Hes a "I dont care cat" when it comes to the dogs, the dogs try to get him to do the chase thing and Butterscotch just ignores them.

What I think happened was he was feeling frisky and climbed the tree and got stuck and of course one of the dogs saw this and wanted to join in on the action and tease the cat. Now that Butterscotch was up this tree that really was not a good climbing for cat of his size,he realizes this and gets scared. He was some what stuck between the 2 branches. So then he starts crying for help to get down. and all this time the wind is blowing a bit and the tree is swaying.
Finally with lots of talking to him, and him doing alot of crying, he finally trys to turn around, I really didnt think he was going to beable to do it. It was funny just watching him try to turn his big body in this very small space. At one point he was partally upside down on his back turning around but he did it but then was scared to come the rest of the way down for it was a straight down for him. His crying even got more expressive at this point, and Id sware he was telling me NO. He finally got low enought that I could reach up and grab his front paws and sorta pull him down to me. He was a very thankfull cat at the point. And as for the dogs they didnt get what they wanted and went on to doing other dog things. Hopefully next time Butterbutt as we nick name him will pick a better more fitting tree to climb.

More trip continued.......

On the second full day at the Black hills we went into the Black hills national park and took the Wildlife drive. That was the best and most relaxing part of the trip. We spent most of the day driving threw that part of the national part, we stopped and saw the wolf people with the 2 wolfs, very impressive, its a must see. They are part of an organization that works on preserving the artic wolf and timber wolf. We sat and talke to the owner for along time, the wolfs really dont like new people coming in and were a bit nervious at start but settled down after we sat down. They raised the two wolves from pups and have a pix record of them growing up, that was a lot of fun.

As we went threw the park we saw buffalo, pronghorn deer, and praire dog. Of course the p.dogs were my favorites. We had beautiful weather for the ride the whole day. We stoped at stream and a small lake to walk around and stretch. It was just so relaxing of a day. On our way back to the campsite we stopped at a yard sale, yep cant pass them by. We also stopped and got some fire wood from where the forestry had cleared out dead wood and piled it up, we got some strange looks but I figured it was helping them get rid of unwanted wood.They have had a few nasty fires there and you can still see the after math of the fires years later. There was alot of new baby trees only about 3 foot tall but the forest is making a come back.

We had a nice camp fire and nice cooked meal and turn in for the night, it was much warmer that night and was going to be a warmer day for our drive home.

On our way home we went threw part of the badlands, it was very green, greener than I had remembered it, we saw a few animals but not like when we went threw the black hill park.

It was such a lovly few days but it was nice to get home to my own bed, sleeping on the ground is for the younger people for sure.

We have had over 2 inches of rain since we have been home so for the last 2 weeks we have had like 4 1/2 inches of rain. Its time to mow again and very thing here is so very green. The garden is sprouted up like crazy and the corn is like 2 inches tall already. The weather has been a bit chilly here also which is nice because I know it going to get hot before we know it.

I am glad to be back to sew also, Im working on a cat quilt, and the around the world quilt for the couch.

We are needing to get working back on the bedroom again, we were sidetracked with the outside work that stilll so much needs to be done. Im sure it will still be there when we get around to cutting the trees and such.

Well I will write more later ...........I have many pix to add from the trip but I will wate to get the film devoloped to add those pix.