Quick post

The day is about to start full speed again, so thought I would knock out a quick post of what it going on. 16 days to closing now. We had an inspection and now have to hammer out problems with the seller. I have to get my house packed up, line up a mover, and iron out the tons of things that have to be taken care of when you move 3 hours away after living in one area for 20 years. Oh, and I am doing this house buying detail all by myself. There is a lot on my plate because hubby is about 5 hours away working. I think if there is just one more glitch, I will start tearing my hair out. The immature jackass neighbor's are a mere laugh now.
So, a few little peaks at the house.

Pleasant Lane....so charming!
Cubedog: that front fence is DIEING for your vintage roses!

A gazebo out the back door, there's a mug next to the coffeepot, grab a cup and join me.
Cubedog: wisteria-'nuff said.

The living room, looking into the dining area. Not crazy about the green walls, but easily fixed.
Cubedog: you need Grandma's big cast iron kettle on that stove.

Very lovely dining area....and real wood cladding on the ceiling. The door just out of sight on the left leads to the gazebo.

Do a half turn from the previous picture and there is a nice sized kitchen. That door at the end leads to the very large butlers pantry, then turn right in there to the laundry room. At the other end of the laundry room is the entrance to the Master suite that will house my father in law. Private, with it's own kitchenette.

At the end of the day, it will be wonderful to soothe my aches and nerves by spending time in the hot tub, listening to the frogs living in the little pond that is in front of the swing. Ahhhhhhh
Cubedog: you might want a screen on the house side of that hottub. Its kinda in your FIL's front yard.

Yard Happenings

Life has been going at a fast clip since I got home from the wedding. I am trying to organize pictures to post later of the fun on the lake.

One thing I have been doing is digging out the area to put the pool on. I didn't last year and the pool could never be completely filled because a barely perceptable slant. I got my son to dig a part of it, but the rest is up to me. Nobody will help.

Yesterday I dug for about an hour, with frequent breaks because it is hotter than Hades out there. I did it in the morning when it was cooler. Sunglasses, do-rag, wipe rag, gloves (after rubbing a blister on the palm of my hand). To my delight, this morning I weighed 2 pounds lighter.....so went back at it. Being a 20ft square, it doesn't seem that I have gone far when I get a shovel and half width dug. The dirt is loose.....and am thinking it would have been a great place for a veggie garden (rats), but the hard part is the gagillion fist sized rocks.

This is the area to be dug...not all in the picture, but 20 ft x20 ft.

And this shows how much I got done yesterday. This morning it is a shovel and half wider. Great exercise.....wrangle the shovel as far down as possible by wriggling it between rocks, turn the dirt, bend down, lift rocks, toss aside....rinse, repeat. You can see the pile of rocks growing along the fenceline. I think this evening I will get out the level and see how much I have to go yet. May not be a whole lot as it slopes from the fence to the truck farm..that being the lowest part. I need to pick up some landscape cloth to put over the area before I set up the pool.

Ahhh....the pool. Looking at pictures of it makes me want to dig till I drop in order to get it up. This is where I want to be right now......

Cubedog: Me too. The advanced weather prediction is for a heat index of 126 on July 1. Man is my elec. bill gonna suck.....

Fun week so far

The fever I ran monday, accompanied by joint aches, had me a little nervous. But I recovered without oinking by evening, so all is well. I think it was just a reaction from the allergy meds getting out of my system.

Yesterday afternoon I took a short nap and was sitting outside drinking some coffee and having a smoke, never knowing until I went in to cool off, that the power was out. The humidity has been in the 80% range the past week, so temps in the upper 80's has been very uncomfortable. I don't know how you get the "feels like" temp from that. The power was out for over half an hour and with a breeze blowing, it was nicer outside. They said a breaker had thrown and didn't know why. For us, that means this will keep on happening until the breaker breaks. That day will probably be on the hottest day of the year and will take a couple of hours to get it going. I think on that day I will just get dressed and go somewhere....shopping in the city or something.

For Bev.....my camera will not capture the intense blue of bluebonnets. I have rarely seen a photograph taken of them that actually captures the color. It is something that can only be painted or seen in person. And the smell....whoa....like lilacs in the air.

Today's picture is of one batch of iris that are blooming. I will have to post a pic of the yellow ones later. They don't stay with the plant long. I snip the stalks and bring them in the house to enjoy. I love it when a dark purple one and a yellow one are blooming at the same time. So pretty together in a vase.

San Juan Sonora?

The buzzards have returned. There are 4 of them at my place, soaring like eagles in the heavy winds. It is always fascinating to watch them when there is wind turbulence, such as a thunderstorm brewing. They take to the skies and glide fearlessly higher and higher. I love seeing them revel in their flying and gliding abilities.

Hello Spring

I have bluebonnets blooming in my yard! The first harbinger of spring in Texas. Well, besides for the buzzards returning....like the swallows of Capistrano. Sorry for the poor focus. The dog wouldn't get out of the picture, so the camera focused on his neck hair and t he rocks.
Welcome spring....sure wish you lasted longer than a couple of weeks around here.

ps....just made a run into town and discovered that the mesquite trees are leafing out. That is the definative sign down here. They only get caught in a freeze about once every 50 years or so and that happened last year.

Vanity, thy name is Tom

Yesterday morning I was sitting outside drinking my coffee. I kept hearing a sound of something hitting heavy metal. It took me a while to find what was making the noise. Two turkey toms had discovered the bumper of hubby's pickup. They were enchanted with the toms looking back at them, or they were trying to intimidate them. They never gobbled or made any other noise...just pecking at the turkey in the bumper. I ran inside to show hubby and get my camera. Just as I got the camera on and ready, one of the toms shot off a display at the bumper. The flocks of turkey that practically live at my house are an endless source of amusement.

A tweek

I thought I would share that I am sitting outside on my laptop. It is cloudy with a nice cool breeze. I just ran the pump on my pool to clean it up after the rain which makes it green, and thought I might get in for a while and work on my tan.
Just wanted to share. Only thing is....the laptop is getting a bit warm in my lap...ugh.

Blowing my ears back

OMG......I just upgraded from 28kbps dial up......to 1000mb satellite internet. Can you say night and day?
Okay...gotta go surf. I can watch video's and tutorials now.....WooHoo!!!
Cubedog: Welcome to the 21st century.....

Old Girl's Birthday

Today was Missy's birthday. She turned 15 years old. With my record, she has 1 - 3 years to go. Anymore than that would be a record. This year she got terribly thin. She spends most of her time outside where it is hot enough to keep her warm. I try to feed her treats and good food...especially old kitty food. She has gotten very sweet...which is highly unusual. She hasn't tried to slash Kim in quite a while, so he has been very sweet to her.
Missy has always been my "chemo kitty". I got her nearly a year before I had to do chemo and lost my hair. She took up the large job of keeping me warm by sleeping on my pillow around my bare head. She never gave up that job except in the summer lately. She is still the queen of the house and I love her dearly.
CubeDog: MA_WAHHH!

The Dangers of Living on Interstates

So I was sitting outside last night, enjoying the cool evening...knowing a hot day would follow...and it did....when I noticed a copter in the night sky, oddly quiet but well lit. I found it strange because we never see helicopters at night.
This evenings news brings the answer (and yes it was pretty darn close to 100 degrees). Seems there was this fugitive from Florida that had a little accident "a few miles west of town" and took off across ranchland with a shotgun. That copter flying over my house with lights on was a night vision bird looking for the bad guy running from the law with a shotgun. Hello! This is the second time in the past couple of months that there have been creeps setting off major manhunts around my tight section of the interstate!
Seriously considering a police scanner radio. I want to at least know when to load the gun and not leisurely lounge outside in the evenings like a sitting duck!!

ps. we need to discuss how you put cool pictures in. I need the picture of a maddog.

CubeDog: this is how I do it:1)search engine "maddog", click on IMAGE tab, choose your image, save to your 'puter. 2)when creating a post, click on the picture next to the checkmark(spell check), browse to your image, load 3)move image to where you want it within your post

Seriously scary stuff out in BFE, but then, that's just another "day in the life" over here.

All Quiet on the Western Prairie

Thank goodness for quiet days in the country. I am sore all over from a busy day yesterday. I helped set up and clean up after a Christmas party with my study group, then a couple of hours after that was kids church. I am really trying to learn all the kid's names but I am horrible with names and it has only been a couple of months.
Today the dogs and I piled into the SUV and headed into town for errands. Most important was dog food. We got up to the gate and had to wait on turkeys to get out of the road. It was a batch of hens with this spring's chicks who are almost as big as their mommas. Jack hung his head out the window with intensity as we drove past them. I thought he was going to jump out of the vehicle when we passed a squirrel in town. Then the same batch of turkey were close to the road when we came home, only they were intently scratching through some hay leftover from horse feeding at the neighbors. There was another flock (?) of them in my pasture when we got close to the house. I am trying to get the dogs not to chase them but it's difficult when they are such fun. The cats don't bother. I will have to dig up a picture of what happens when the birds spot a cat. Hmmm....maybe another time. Apparently that was so long ago that the cats were interested that the pictures are now on floppies. Don't want to dig out my player right now.
Just got through spilling Pepsi on my computer desk. Don't know why I can't just pick up a glass and drink it like other people. No, I have to fling it hither and yon and only drink half of it. It has been a clumsy week. Maybe I should just go lie down on the sofa and knit.
Cubedog: Interesting, I typically suffer that same malady, but with coffee and my office computer. Big Dog usually tags the home 'puter. And speaking of Big Dog tagging something; bet this pic would make him salivate. Kinda the Pavlovian/dog theme.
Oh, and the turkey pic is from a couple of years ago in my backyard. Quite a spectacle that I got lots of shots of. This one is labeled Tom Gentlemen.