Persistant Guest

Scavenger Hunt : Sweet

Observing

On-The-Go

In A Haze

I guess I've followed in the footsteps of many bloggers in that I just don't have much to say lately. Summer is definitely here, and I really have a lot to do, but I just can't seem to motivate myself.
I have a kadjillion strawberries to pick right now, but I just feel like I'm in some fog, haze. It's yucky.
I did see my first fawn this morning, but wasn't quite in time to take a photo. I love seeing that first baby running around :)

I've been trying to figure out RAW photography lately. I like it, but it has a lot of bells & whistles to play with. It takes time, and of course takes my time away from other things I should be doing. I just can't help it though, the camera goes with me and so many things just jump out at me and say, "photograph me".

I haven't even named the kitten if that tells you anything. He's learned to just grab on to my jeans and climb up, OR.. he just hangs on and walks around the house with me. I bet that will be fun with shorts on.
He's adjusted just fine and thinks he owns the place. I only have one cat that seems to not like him, but that will end in time.

The bear still come daily, but really haven't been a problem. Tom did put his footprints all over the truck one night. Luckily there's no damage, I guess he was just looking in the windows.

Well anyway, that's my exciting update. I really really should go get something done :)

Pals

Shake, Shake, Shake

Not a whole lot exciting around here today.

This one above woke me a few times last night. Actually a couple of things did.
Around 2:30 or so, I heard a beeping. Sounded like a smoke detector notifying me of a low battery. So, of course, I get up to find it, since it will continue to remind me.
I went to all of them and could not find the source of the beeping. I was also a little dazed and confused so that didn't help. Eventually, after much walking around the dark house like a dork, I found it. It was the carbon monoxide detector. So, I just unplugged it and decided I'd deal with it in the morning.
I crawled back into bed and fell to sleep quickly.

It started beeping again. Seems, even unplugged, it wants to remind me.
I got up, took the battery out. Went back to bed.

Little while later, I heard what sounded like the largest maracas I'd ever heard in my life. It jolted me and Taylor right out of bed. Took me a few minutes to realize it was coming from outside.
I finally hushed Taylor up and went to see what this was. I realized quickly that it was the bear, but for the life of me I could not figure out what he had. I
scared him, so he was running around the yard with this "new toy".
Besides that fact that it was like 4am, it was actually funny. He ran off into the woods and I could still hear him rattling, or breaking this toy.

As I crawled back into bed, I couldn't get it out of my mind trying to figure out what he had. I knew I didn't leave any feeders out. It bugged me for a while.
Until...
I remembered....
I had left on the porch, a big plastic jar of peanuts that I had filled a feeder up with earlier. That was the rattling. And the cracking.
You have to laugh, right?

I finally went back to sleep, only to be awoken around 6am when Trout (after escaping again) decided to sit in the window sill and scream at me until I let him in. Sigh.

Life with animals :)

Boy On The Loose

*Click em' to Big em'

Garden Work (w/help)

Fr3aky Kitty

Half Cat/Half Bag.

Little Things

It was a beautiful day here today. Cool, Sunny, Breezy. Really nice.
I got several things accomplished outside today, and took a few photos too.













The dog cats and I sat out at the pond for awhile. The daisies are so high now that you can almost be hidden by them if sitting on the ground.
After awhile I got a little nervous. If I can't see the bear, the bear can't see me. So, we didn't sit on the ground for very long.

















I love that the pond is getting so much life. A neighbor came by today to help me move the horse troughs, and took a look at the fish in the pond. Looks like we have Bass, Trout and Perch. Lots and lots of baby perch. Add in turtles, ducks, and frogs and it's a cool spot. I hope to attract Heron.














Got some weeding done, cleaned off the deck, rehung a couple of bird feeders that were torn down by Ol'Winnie, and tried to find the hole in the pen that Trout is escaping out of. No such luck.
Everytime I would find a 'possible' place he might be getting out, I would repair it.. just to see him out again. Sigh. I give up.

I'm now sitting comfy in bed, with sweats (it's pretty cool out tonight), a beer, candles going, and food network on.

All is good.

Bathtime Sucks

Gee...

...your hair smells terrific :)

Scavenger Hunt : Shiny

Chillin'

Name Game

"I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone..." ~CATS

Wow.. Kinda Boring, eh?

Mingle² -

It's Friday

Put your feet up :)

After The Fury

So after the excitement this morning, I have spent most of the day outside. Coincidentally, Trout has NOT. He has slept most of the day and has shown NO desire to sneak out again. Dork.

I've tried three times to upload the video and no such luck. Have I ever mentioned I hate YouTube? Why does a ONE minute video take so long to upload and why do I always have problems?
I also tried google video and no luck there either. If I ever do get this video loaded, I think it will be the last.

Anyway, I remember now how busy summer is. I gardened, I weeded, I'm now watering everything (we have a broken sprinkler, and I have to water by hand), and I spent some time down by the pond.
We have a lot of new life down at the pond :).. we still have the trout and bass, but I even saw at least three schools of little fish.
I hung out trying to get dragonfly photos, which is not easy. I have to lean way over the water, very still, holding my camera mere feet from the water. I need to put on some waders I think and just step right into the water. I may try that :)

I still need to move the horse troughs.. just can't get it on my own. The electric drill didn't even help me.
They also drug their water tank out into the field, so I got to drag that back. I should have major muscles by the end of summer :)

Anyway, I still have animals to feed and flowers to water. Here's a few shots from today.

Call 911

So I had an eventful morning.

I wake up to Sinclair just hollering about something. I finally get up to see why.
She's looking out the window as she's doing this.
So, naturally, I go outside. Trout, who escaped the house, is hollering also. From WAY WAY up in the tree. And boy, is he mad.

There's no way for me to get to him without possibly injuring myself, especially being home alone, so I just wait him out. I brought the laptop outside and sat on the porch, so he could see me and want to come down.















I finally gave up (after video of course:) and came inside for a bit. He's a cat, he'll get out of the tree, right?
When all of a sudden I heard this huge THUD on the roof. He had jumped from the tree to the roof. Oh, yay.
So after a lot of hollerin' on the roof, I went and hauled the HUGE ladder over to the house, climbed up and rescued this little dork.
















This is the second time this has happened to me. The first time I had two goofballs up in the tree at the same time, middle of August, and just about the same situation.
Only difference is I did brave the ladder alone and got the two out. After much kitty suffering of course. I didn't want them doing this again.

And they didn't :)

Video coming soon.

Wild Horses

I pass The Wild Horse Monument every time I drive to Seattle. The photo doesn't do it justice since I took it from a moving car while driving, but I'm just in love with this spot.
Actually that entire area is just beautiful and I try to get 'driving' shots each time, but I just can't accept the quality of them once I get home.

It's just too pretty there.

I think my sis and I are driving together next time, and this trip I plan on stopping and getting photos.

Like Nothing Happened

Remember this little fawn, with the injured leg?
I'm pretty sure this is him, by the pattern of the leg and the healing.

Pretty cool, eh?

It's On

So, even though, obviously I've been procrastinating a lot, I have lots to do around here.
The gardens are in full force, which of course includes weeds. And NO, I didn't get much weeding done yesterday :P I have become addicted to my new lens and can't seem to put it down. Kinda sad isn't it? Nawwwww.

I stocked up on feed etc today, which of course means I get to unload it. I seriously need a cabana boy, or a farm boy.. you know.. one that only says "As You Wish" :)

I've had some problems with the recent rains, which has caused some flooding in the horse feeding area. Now when they eat, they are standing in about 6inches of gook and muck. So.. of course I decide that maybe moving their feeding bins would be the right thing to do. Move them to drier ground.

He-Man must have screwed these things in, because even with an electric drill, I can't get them undone. Frustration builds up. Where's farmboy?
Hubs isn't home until the 1st..so I guess the horses will have to make do. Doesn't seem to bother them anyway, they only seem to care about the food.

So ok.. I need to put the camera and the laptop away and get to work.

OH and BTW.. have any of you ever lifted a salt block before??? Good grief.
And wouldn't you know it, the wheelbarrow has a flat :)

I think it's beer-thirty.

Caption Me

I Should Know Better

..then to take the camera out gardening with me.

Gotta Move On.. Gotta Get Goin'...

It's the first sunny day in awhile today.
Which means I need to get my butt outside and get some things done. I get to head into the big city and stock up on supplies again. Yay.. more heavy lifting.
I also need to weed the gardens. Yay again.

Yesterday for most of the day this area lost phone and internet. Even 911 was down..wild eh? So I took advantage of that time to play with a new lens I hadn't given much attention too. The Sigma 105mm.
It's a macro, but different. It's harder to work with and focus, definitely requires patience. But I slowly started liking it a lot. I'm now mildly addicted to getting macros with it.
You can see some of my progress over at my Flickr page :)

No real bear activity since I've been home. When the berries start really growing up high we won't see them for awhile. This might be that time.
But.. it is fawn time.. I so hope to see some soon :)

Anyway.. that's it for now. Send me strength for lifting feed today.

It's That Time :)

I'm Guessing....

..they got bored with bats.

I'm Home.. Sort Of

You look across the dinner table at "Life" and think to yourself, "What in the world are you up to?"
Life, just looks back grinning at you, saying, "Can you pass the butter"?
~Jann Arden


Just as I thought, the drive today was not fun.
I don't sleep well in hotels, so I was pretty sleepy. Add to that heavy rain for awhile, moving onto sunny and 70's, which actually made the truck kind of warm, and then back to rain. I had several moments of sleepiness and stopped to get something to drink or snack on. Also, seems my left wiperblade is being funky, of course right in my line of sight.

It's interesting so far my feeling on both places. I didn't want to leave the new place. I just had gotten furniture, and added my own small touches to make it "me". But when I drove into my driveway here, I was home too. Everything was so green, my gardens are doing really well, and I had animals everywhere happy to see me.

Sitting in my bed with my laptop and several animals snoozing around me, this is comfy too. They are happy I'm home, and of course it's "home" with them in it. But... I could head back tomorrow and be happy too :)
I guess it just boils down to the fact that I'm extremely lucky to be able to do both.

I sat online today with Comcast trying to set up my internet/cable/phone. These have to be the times when I feel most stupid. I always get questions I don't know and it's frustrating. I've lived many places and set up many services and this was the hardest to set up. Is it me, or are there just too many options?
Or, am I just tired and crabby from my drive? I dunno. Could be.

Anyway, it should be up and running soon, and then with a few odds and ends, a couple of plants, a few photos here and there, it will be ready to live in.

Oh and cats... it will need cats :)

Freeze

Sprinkly

I don't have much to say today.. but I felt compelled to come here and tell you that.

Rained part of the day, sunny part day too.
As hubs was buying a bed in the store, I was outside with my camera in the rain.
I got the shot above :)

Condo is slowly coming together. The TV is waiting there to be set up.
I started the day with Starbucks, lunched at Panera Bread, wandered around Pier One (where I got my table) and ended it at Bed,Bath and Beyond and Target. It was great. It's been so long since I've been to any of these places.
I almost felt like I had come down from some mountain as a foreigner.

Oh wait... I did :)