Goodbye Summer

We had a mild Summer, never got to 100 and had a few days in the 90's. The grass never turned brown, we had plenty of rain, and now it is gone. I am not a Fall person. It is my worst allergy season with ragweed and mold being the two toppers for me.  I don't like the leaves falling and everything dying and then comes Winter.  I am not a Winter person at all.  Once it gets below 55 I am done.  I can't go outside and do yard work and you have to wear layers and fight the cold and ice and snow.  We go for days or weeks without sun and it is very depressing.  I like the long days of daylight and it is dark before 8 now and not light until around 7am.  So now I wait for Spring and enjoy the last days of my flowers while I can.

Week 24 Sharing

What skills do you have which can be passed along to family, neighbours and friends?

* What new skill have you learned in the past year? Who taught you?

* What skill would you like to learn?

 

 

I have taught many people how to knit and crochet.  How to cook, bake, and other things.  I believe if God gave you a talent you are to use it to teach others and help them learn new things.

 

I would like to learn to can. I remember in High School I helped my mom but she never really taught me how to do it. I bought some books and got some jars and want to make apple butter this Fall.  I want to learn to tat, and knit the brioche stitch, and the double knit stitch, and tunisian crochet.  

 

The author's daughter who loves to bake calls cupcakes fairy cups.  I like cupcakes because it is like you get a piece of cake all by itself.  

 

So many parents today just do it themselves instead of teaching their children how to do things. Those kids go into the world without any skills and mom and dad still have to take care of them.  I saw so many of my co-workers who had 30 year old kids who could not even do laundry or cook a meal.  That does not do them any good at all.  I was fortunate that my mom taught me how to cook, do laundry, clean the house and my dad taught me to hang sheetrock and wire the house.  I can change a tire and do lots of things that kids can't do nor do they want to cos they can either call mom or dad or pay to have it done.  It is very sad that kids today are not self sufficient.  

 

Share a skill you have with someone, you both will be happy and have a good time.  

Week 23 Luxury Part 2

* How do you make personal time amidst the busyness of domestic life?

* What do you serve for afternoon teas?

* How long since you've sat around the table with family or friends and enjoyed a morning or afternoon tea feast? Is it time you did?

* What do you keep handy to pick up and relax with when short periods of rest fall in your lap?

 

 

Although I am retired I still don't have a lot of free time. Seems if I have one free day with nothing on my calendar during the week my mother somehow knows and finds a way to use it up.  I have got to the point where I tell her no more often because I need my time to de-stress from dealing with elderly parents. 

 

I am not a hot tea person, i was raised on coffee. I do like iced tea but it is not an event but a drink for those hot summer days.  I do love a good scone though.  I have often though of making a scone cookbook for me with all my fav recipes.  I even took a class on making them.  That butter needs to be cold to pop in that hot oven to give the scone the flakiness and don't over bake them so they are hard as rocks.  

I have a leather chair in my living room that has a good light behind it and has wide arms.  There are always a couple projects either on the left arm or around the chair.  My mood depends on which project I pick up to work.  I always tell people just knit one row a day or 10 minutes.  Knitting calms me I don't care how easy or difficult the project, I get in my zone and the whole world goes away. 

 

 

 

 

Eagle Release

SOAR released D33 and the others today.  I hope they will be ok.  They are sporting tags in hopes that if they are ever caught again we will know who they are.

Yes, D33, DN9, Allamakee, and Calmar have taken their “wild maiden flight.” If you watched the video with the post titled “Gaining flight strength” you saw much improvement in flight skills in each of these young eagles. These eagles showed Kay they were ready… so back to the 20 x 60’ flight pen with the soft-release window. Now that you’ve watched the video a time or three, raise your hand if you noticed that each is sporting new jewelry? Yes, these four bald eagles have an official USGS band. Years ago, Kay was a sub-permittee on a banding permit, so she and her husband have the experience of banding bald eagles. Kay talked with Brett Mandernack of Eagle Valley Nature Preserve as he has banded young bald eagles (including from the Decorah nest) as part of his research project looking at juvenile dispersal and travel behavior. Would Brett consider banding these four?

 So, your next burning questions are about D32. Will D32 be banded? The plan is to NOT band D32. Will D32 be released? That is our hope. But first, not only does D32 need time in the 100’ flight pen, the 20 x 60’ pen will be used to soft release some red-tailed hawks and then peregrine falcons (or vice versa). When D32 moves to a larger flight pen, we’ll try to get video then.

Hypocrites

So the climate change people are out protesting today.  I can't even take you seriously when you travel to these events by something other than walking or bicycling.  Did you have an electronic device today, did you charge it? 
I do believe the climate changes, it is called WEATHER.  Read the Farmer's Almanac, we go in 10 year cycles with the weather.  And oh by the way God is in charge of the weather, not me flying on jets, driving my SUV, and eating hamburgers. 
Climate change, like Obamacare, is another way for the elites to take more of my money and throw it at themselves all the while we walk and they take their limos everywhere.  Stop brainwashing children and focus on something worthwhile like slamming the border shut.  Meanwhile I think I will go turn all the lights on in my house.

Thank You Budweiser Never Forget

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyP0JsyvYnA&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2xwK0r1Ls3xdh7d3Z0g259Ksg5DQHb2DX66Lu6_7y0bUz3fkdHNkIviAg&app=desktop

D27 Back Home

If you remember D27 was the last Decorah Eagle fitted with a transmitter.  She has been quite busy coming home for the winter.  She is quite the flier and her wings must be worn out with the miles she travels per hour. 

Anyway this a great article about her return home for the winter and what life is like for her up North in Canada.

https://www.raptorresource.org/2019/08/28/22210/?fbclid=IwAR31WWeCeDubZ9V6tT9J6ilcw8rNAfHcA-mzzlH6wy43HlwRDKqFiSGvDB4

Department of Energy

Stay out of my house.  First the government changes the light bulbs and that is crap cos I used to get 4 to a box for a little over a dollar and they lasted forever, now they are $8 each and don't last as long and oh I can't just throw them in the trash.  Not buying them now or ever.  Then you changed my toilet to low water, you do realize I have to flush more cos you can't put as much in the toilet as you used to.  Now they want us to melt.

I keep my temp at 73 24/7 365/366 days a year.  It is my right to do that, I pay my bill and yes they are high at various times of the year.  But I prefer to be comfortable.  I have to wonder how many of you at the DOE have a 2 story house, cos we all know the upstairs where the bedrooms are is a higher degree or cooler depending on what time of year it is.  Because the idiots who built my house did not do the vents right it can be as much as 10 degrees warmer in the summer. So if I am to keep my house at 85 during the day i may as well just open the windows and turn off the a/c cos that upstairs is gonna be an oven.  Since I am retired I stay home and expect that I can be comfortable. What about pets, do I let them sweat like a fat pig in the mid-day sun? 

Tell you what stay out of my life, let the market decide what light bulbs and toilets we use.  Let us decide if we want to pay high utility bills and you find a way to keep that electricity coming to my house.  And if you want to regulate utilities how about you look into what they pay for that we pay for that are not necessary such as paying for bigwigs to go golfing on my dime, now that is something you can mess in. 

Week 22 Luxury Part 1

1. What would you read with chocolate?

2. What are the luxuries in your life?

3. Are you adventurous enough to sew from a foreign book you cannot read?

 

Luxury:  conjures all kind of things to me:  but it is one of those words that means something different to every one of us.  For me there is a city about half an hour away that makes wine from honey. Yes it is very sweet and oh so good. They have a raspberry wine that is the perfect companion to a rich piece of chocolate cake.  The sugar is so sweet your teeth ache but it is oh so good and a little goes a long way. 

I would like to have a skein of quiviut someday but at $95/ounce that is one yarn that I have to save up for. It is so soft.  I can only imagine a cowl around my neck not only for the warmth but the feel.

Magnum ice cream bars:  the chocolate caramel almond ones. When you take that first bite the chocolate cover cracks and out runs all the wonderful flavors inside.  They are not cheap but I consider them a splurge (a luxury).  

A rich cup of coffee especially on a cold day. It tastes so good and warms you up, is there anything better on a snowy cold winter day?

A skein of cashmere yarn, flannel sheets, a good book, a cup of cocoa, a rich red wine, champagne, chocolate and more chocolate, a cup of coffee, scones, fig newtons, are just some of my luxuries. I dont have them very often but to me they are a treat, a luxury I allow myself from time to time. I don't need or want a fur coat, lots of jewelry, a huge house or many houses, etc.     

What book goes with chocolate, all of them.  Chocolate goes with everything, doesn't it?  

Finally

I normally have 2 hummingbirds who nest in my yard but they have been evasive for me getting a picture. Finally yesterday he held long enough for my picture now that they will be leaving soon.  I miss them in the winter but then I get to have my Juncos so it is an even trade.

The chickadees were out in full force yesterday afternoon especially after I filled the feeder that hangs on the deck light.  I love when they start in with their chick a dee dee dee talk. ONe of my fav birds and they stay all year.  The babies are so small and cute.

Sunrise, Sunset

One of the reasons I like living in the middle of the country is we have breathtaking sunrises and sunsets.  They have been particularly gorgeous this past week.  Pink clouds in the morning followed by orange/yellow/purple in the evening.

Visitor to the Meadow Sage

I look out my windows a lot because there is always something going on in the yard.  Birds, possums, racoons, feral cats, butterflies, hummingbirds, Japanese beetles, lizards, an occasional snake, fox, deer, etc.  I have my own zoo.

The other day I found this beauty.

Birthday Gifts

Every year I splurge and buy myself a birthday gift, something I really want.  So this year I got 2, why not.  A friend posted this kit on FB and I just had to have it. I really only wanted the pattern and now you can get it over there, so it came.  I had an orange cat as my first and so this will be perfect.  You kind of make it like a sock, so perfect for my obsession of knitting socks.  How cute is this?

I have wanted to learn to spin. I took a class and it was a disaster, the teacher was awful. I bought a wheel as my retirement gift and it has sat because family issues came up and I have never got back to learning how.  So another friend posted this on FB and I thought maybe if I could skip the part of the feet and hand coordination and just concentrate on my hand work I can learn how to spin.  And of course they had purple, so my second gift came on the same day as my sock cat kit.  Yes it is small but I need to simplify my learning to someday get all the parts working to make my own yarn.  One of the things on my bucket list.