Party At My House

Today's party menu is cat food and walnuts. I put food out for my feral, Smudgey, she is a kin to my 2.  She is the only one I should be feeding but I have some really crappy neighbors. 

 You can see her head over the brick ledge. She is mostly black, a tuxedo cat. She is a sweet one, I would love to bring her in but I don't think my 2 would like that.

 This is Big Boy, isn't he gorgeous?  He used to live across the street with Orange Marmalade below and Crazy Girl who is a calico long hair. He got out one day and they never bothered to try and get him back in, so they have left him out to become a feral.

 Orange Marmalade lives across the street and he and crazy girl roam my yard looking for food.  The neighbors need to keep them inside.

Smokey used to live at the end of the block. They got evicted and now he is roaming and has become feral as well.  He is blind in one eye.

There is also a smaller black cat roaming that is not very old.

If you are gonna have a pet, keep it inside and fix it. If you can no longer keep it there are organizations that will take the pet and find them a good  home. 

My fear is one of the neighbors will tire of seeing all the cats and call Animal control and I will lose Smudgey. 

And there must still be walnuts to be had as he found one. I wish they would not leave the hulls on my deck.  We did have a ton of walnuts this year.

Deep Fried PEEPS

Those who know me well know I have been known to eat an entire 12 pack of PEEPS in one setting. Yes I know they are bad for me, but they are PEEPS.  Now some wonderful person has combined peeps and cinnamon rolls and deep fried them.  How can it be I have not tried these?  Maybe someday next time I make cinn rolls I will get some PEEPS and try this.  Better call 911 for me as I OD on the sugar rush.

http://www.ohbiteit.com/2014/04/cinnamon-roll-fried-peeps.html

Tajari 9 months old

Today we celebrate the 9 month birthday of Tajiri!
Already standing shy of 10 feet tall; he is a smart, and at times stubborn, calf that has brightened our world!
Inquisitive like his mother and courageous like his father, he is the mix of two great giraffes; Oliver & April.

1 year old is not far away 4/15/18 !

 

UGH! Winter

Yesterday it was almost 60 and the sunrise was gorgeous, once again looking like a sunset.  This morning about 3am the rain started turning to ice and now snow.  It is 21 now and heading down down down with the wind howling making it so bitter cold. I saw a Robin out front this morning.  Crazy bird needs to head south pronto, or maybe it should just stay because Spring is 2 months away.

D24 Sightings

As we are all aware by now, since June 2017, D24’s satellite transmitter has not fully recharged as it should due to an unexplainable glitch in the transmitter. This has resulted in intermittent data since then, with a few “hits” in July (when we had our last visual of him), September, November, December, and the most recent, January 3 and 4, 2018. All of these points have come from an area 5-10 miles south of Decorah. Even though we did not have data for the last several days, I decided my technician, Bob, and I would take some time and drive to that area and search for a VHF signal from D24’s backpack transmitter. Conditions were favorable: it was early enough and cloudy enough that D24 would likely not be soaring, which makes tracking difficult. Even if the satellite transmitter is not sending data, if we could get within approximately two miles of D24, we should hear the constant VHF signal with the hand held receiver and antenna set to its frequency.

Once we got to Ossian, Iowa, we were on the eastern edge of his recent locations. We stopped a couple of times to check for a signal, but heard nothing. By the third stop we had a strong signal. We were able to quickly determine D24’s current location, east of Calmar, Iowa. He was with several other Bald Eagles, both adults and immatures, and was only 25 yards from the road in a wooded swale. D24 looks great. He has a dark chest patch and his belly is much lighter. His eye and beak are still brown, but the horn color is beginning to show on his beak. When he flew across the road to another perch his plumage appeared complete (i.e. we did not observe gaps in the wing or tail feathers). We received satellite data this morning (Wednesday) that showed he spent the rest of the day and night within two miles of where we spotted him late Tuesday morning.
It was a successful and gratifying trip, seeing D24 looking good and hanging out with other eagles not far from his natal area."

59 C

First Project of the Year

I love pink and purple together.  Several of my friends and I have been talking about making snowflake hats.  Anyway I decided to squeeze in a small project yesterday afternoon and with 3 rows left the power went out. So this morning I finished my hat. The project is called Snowbunny and I did not do the pompom as I just think they only belong on a small child's hat.  I did 4 repeats and used size 5 needles.  It does fit just to the bottom of the ear lobe. 

RIP Sue Grafton

If you are not familiar with Sue Grafton she wrote the alphabet books, starting with A is for Alibi. I have read up to S and have the rest I think, if not I will get them. Kinsey Millhone is her main character who is a private investigator.  See if you can find her books you will like them and then try to read them all.  Y was just released and there probably won't be a Z to finish the alphabet.

 https://media.bookbub.com/blog/2017/12/29/mystery-author-sue-grafton-death/

Deja Vue

We had snow again this morning, the last bit from Sunday morning was not all gone. However today was bitter cold and tonight will be close to zero or below.

Many have asked why I hate winter so much.  I was born in LA and then we moved to southern New Mexico.  We had snow once for half a day and it was all melted the next day.  When I was entering Junior High we moved to Des Moines, egads my first experience of winter.  One day mom and I were going somewhere in our  Falcon station wagon. Mom could not stop at the bottom of the hill and we slid out into traffic on a busy street.  When I opened my eyes I looked at a telephone pole.  It scared my mom so bad she has never driven in weather.  It took me until a couple of years ago to ever feel somewhat comfortable driving in weather. 

I don't like the cold, I much prefer the warmer weather being inside and outside and being able to do all I want to like have flowers and leaves on the trees, etc. 

Anyway we had another inch of snow this morning.

Merry Christmas

When I was  a kid Christmas was a yuge deal.  The tree, the cookies, the food, the festivities, the church programs, and then the gifts.  We made lots of cookies and apple santas and we cooked and ate and it was great. We would drive around town and look at the Christmas lights.   Now I go to the Assisted Living Facility where my parents live and we did have a great meal.  I do miss cooking and baking, all the festivities, the game playing, etc.  I hope families today understand how much it means to spend the time together and create memories. Although the activities are gone, the memories are still there.  Maybe someday when we have all gone up yonder we can have that Christmas again.  

First Snow

We had our first snow early this morning. I don't do winter and I don't do snow.  Having been born in  LA and then living in southern NM until I entered Junior High I just don't like it.  There are always lots of wrecks the first snow because somehow people forget in a just a few short months how to drive in it.

I think it is a good day for vegging the Netflix and knitting and let the idiots have at it.

Have You Noticed?

The past few years I have hardly seen Christmas lights on the outside of houses, not many decorations and even the amount of cards I receive have been far and few between.  This year so many of my neighbors have decorated the outside of their houses.  There are lots of lights, blow up ornaments, and those lights that shine on houses with the glitter like look.  I have a large stack of cards I have received as well this year.  Could it be that people feel like celebrating Christmas again?  We don't feel there is such a war on Christmas as in the past?  Are people feeling better about things?  I'm not sure why but there is a feeling of Christmas in the air this year and it feels good. 

An Advent of Gratitude, Who is Joining Me?

Cookies

Today is National Cookie Day.  Who doesn't like cookies?  I am not talking about the computer cookies, but the kind you eat.  We are having our Cookie and Candy sale at church this weekend and I am been on Pinterest trying to find some easy Christmas cookies. I found several recipes and some candy ones as well, so this week my house will smell wonderful.  Good thing too because this morning it is 66 and the rest of the week it will be in the 40's during the day and 20's and below at night. A great chance to warm up the house.  I have 40 pounds of flour, 15 of sugar and 10 of butter and other goodies.  I think I am ready. 

When I was a child on Black Friday mom and I would drag out all the cookie making stuff, get our cookbooks out and the cookie cutters.  We spent the entire day making cookies.  We would get a box and decorate it and fill it with cookies. My dad would then take them to work and the guys would have cookies until the box was empty.  It was a lot of work and a lot of fun.  We had so many decorated sugar cookies.  A couple of years before I retired I did the same thing.  Cookies are always appreciated no matter who they are made for.

So will you join me this week in making some cookies. Perhaps give some away. I always make a treat bag for my trash and recycle guys, and postman.  My neighbors get a tray as well.  Make some cookies, warm up the house and then sit with a cup of coffee and have one or two.