A patch of blue in the sunrise this morning! 

 

 

 

Decided to start posting on my blog again. Social media has become to invasive and crowded with advertisements. I will be migrating off of all of it as soon as I gather the data I want to keep.

Decided to start posting on my blog again. Social media has become to invasive and crowded with advertisements. I will be migrating off of all of it as soon as I gather the data I want to keep. 

 

The irises are blooming! Richard, Ramsey, and I saw our first Monarch butterfly this year on our walk to the bridge with Beth & Sneakers today.  Jennifer and Dream are visiting, and came on our walk, too. We had Mom and Pa over for dinner for Mother's Day yesterday, and video-chatted with some of the siblings.

 

Starting The New Year Right...

We've had an eventful 2016 summer, autumn, and winter - family came to visit from Germany, we made trips to Branson, Washington DC (twice) and Oklahoma (twice), got a new roof on the house (hail damage), finally moved into the 21rst century by getting a cell phone, bought a new truck, and continued our day-to-day lives.  Pa and Richard did spend a few days in the hospital in November, but all is well now with both of them. One kid was able to come for Christmas, but the other got snowed in, so we'll visit later this year.

For those of you who sent Christmas cards, but didn't get one from us in return, I thank you all.  I will do my best to get them out next year!

Today Richard, Mom, Pa and I did our annual trip to the Dam Visitor Center to see the eagle show.  After the show we went to the local Mexican restaurant and then came home to putter about doing other things. 

 Phoenix, the Bald Eagle.

Aquila, the Golden Eagle.

The New Cabin Room

So, Richard and I both have some hobbies that require lots of stuff...mine is sewing/quilting and he is digitizing all of our slides, negatives, and photos of our years of travel with some specialized equipment. He's creating albums on the computer, on thumb drives, and in print. Our living room looks like a fabric and photo shop blew up. 

So, we got this wild idea...why not enclose part of our barely used, roofed back deck and make a bonus room to do our hobbies in, and reclaim our living room as a pretty place that accommodates guests again?

And of course, in our infinite wisdom, we decided to do this just before the family arrived for our mini-reunion (which means only 16 people came this time).  We finished it the DAY before everyone arrived - delayed by rain, and by Richard developing a neck spasm that took him out for a few days.

We brought the roof and the room all the way to the outside kitchen wall and decided NOT to remove the siding, but instead, paint it. We did a light green with a contrast trim of darker green.

The beam across the edge of the covered porch was simply covered in cedar, as was the ceiling and walls of the room. We put windows all over so we'd not lose the view from the kitchen window in the house.

The floor is OSB. Our contractor suggested using Bondo Glas in the cracks, so we caulked first and he put the Bondo in - it turned a dark, olive green. He sanded everything down and we polyurethaned it all. It looks pretty cool, although you really can't see it in the photos.

 

We moved our 12 foot sofa table out to the place under the kitchen windows.  The windows act as a pass through and we keep them open so we can talk to anyone inside the house. I re-covered the seat of the chair with the serape on it, in a cotton serape fabric. My computer set-up is on the left. A coffee bar is on the right side. The oil lantern above the coffee bar is for power outages. 

 

 A closeup of the coffee bar. The stack of mugs is from World Market, I got them at a yard sale. The bigger mug rack also came from a yard sale. The oil lantern came from the Amish store, and the cast iron holder it is in came from a yard sale!

This is the view from the door. Richard chose the star rugs, so I followed a Western star theme in the whole room. The beam divides the room a little, and makes it feel more spacious. The windows on the right of the kitchen windows are made into a box, so there is room to put some potted herbs on the sill to catch the eastern sun. These windows have faux wood blinds, I've not decided what kind of valance I want to make.

There are two outer doors - one from the deck to the room, the other is pictured and goes out onto the landing of the stairs to the back yard. If we ever have to split the room up, each section will have it's own door. The horseshoes on the wall were found by my Dad when he hiked the area when he first got here. Some were dug up on his property. There's a mule shoe, a draft horse shoe, and 2 regular horse shoes. The valances and the pillowcover are made from the same serape fabric as the chair in the other photo. Faux wood blinds are hidden behind the valances, so we can close the windows in the evening.

This is the main room that is under the original covered deck. The walls and ceiling are clad  in non-uniform cedar planks. Our contractor planed and cut each plank, leaving knotholes and flaws in some of the wood for a rustic feel.  The wall hanging is a woven scene I bought at the San Antonio, Texas mercado several years ago. The pottery on the shelf above the couches is Native American - from Mexico, some Navajo, some Hopi, and I think, a Zuni piece. The lamp is a little Waterford crystal light I picked up in the Navy Exchange in the Philippines many years ago.

The picture frames a Bedouin bride necklace of lapis lazuli and silver, something Richard picked up in Saudi Arabia.

Later, when he has time, Richard plans to build a corner desk to go on the wall with the weaving scene. We'll move one of the couches to that wall. The couches unfold into twin-sized beds, a bonus when family was here.  We also put 2 cots and a toddler bed in this room when the family was here. 5 girls loved having a private space of their own while visiting.

As a final touch, Dave Geisert, https://www.facebook.com/davegeisertconstrustionartistryinwood/

our contractor, also turns wood, blending two or more types of wood together and making one-of-a-kind urns, vases, and bowls. The pieces are gorgeous works of art, and we are privileged to have one of his vases on display in our little cabin room.

The Deer Appear...

I'm testing a new camera today so the pictures aren't as clear as usual while I get used to using the zoom lens. Sammy and Buddy wouldn't hardly be still enough for me to get good shots! As we walked back from the bridge today, a herd of deer appeared in Sammy's yard. The does have been scarce lately, they've been having their babies and laying low. I got one good photo. I also got plenty of photos of the birds at the feeders at Mom's and Pa's back porch.

Sammy and Buddy share a moment at the bridge.

As we turned up the road to Sammy's house, the deer wandered across her yard.

The turkeys are back.

The cardinal took over the South Pole feeder while a turkey wandered across the meadow. 

This little hummer fluttered so fast, the camera couldn't capture her wings!

This little guy is the male of the species - a ruby-throated hummingbird.

The red-wing blackbird was shaking his feathers, I had the camera propped on the rail.

This is a woodpecker...I think it's a hairy woodpecker? Or pileated. I get them confused.

The wild daisies growing by Mom's and Pa's driveway.

A couple deer wandered right across our front lawn and I was able to snap a couple quick pictures.

 

  

A closer photo of the second deer. Not sure if that's a shadow of the trees on her belly or if she's losing her winter coat.

Hail, Hail, The Gang's All Here...

The early morning walks have been chilly the past few days. Yesterday was a little warmer and as we walked dew touched everything. Today we had a hail storm! Hail the size of a half dollar rained down for about five minutes. The vehicles got a good cleaning and the Honda has some dents in the roof and the hood.

A spiderweb draped in dew.

This armadillo made little huffing noises as the dogs tried to nose in and see what it was up to. Not sure if it was warning them off or was afraid. We keep them on the leash, so were able to amble on our way once we let them have a quick, curious sniff.

Two deer bounded out of the field on the right, and this deer stopped and danced a little in the road as she spotted us. Sammy alerted, but Buddy was too far behind. I cropped the photo to bring her in closer, we were actually a good football-field length away. Once her curiosity was satisfied, she bounded into the woods on the left and disappeared.

Every morning, after we drop Sammy off at her home, we meander down the road with Buddy to porch sit with Mom and Pa. Buddy gets a drink of water and a piece of cheese from Pa, and we watch the wildlife feed at the benches and the bird feeders that Mom and Pa have out. Today, these two turkey hens were in charge of the corn bench. 

When we work outside, we generally let Buddy run around the yard for a bit. We have to keep an eye on him as he loves to run off to splash in the creek. Usually he finds a good spot in the yard and settles in.  Occasionally, he likes a good roll in the grass. :)

The white bits on the ground are not rocks, they are hail. The translucent orbs are water droplets and the white orbs are hail coming down. It was hailing so hard the hail was bouncing six steps up on the covered porch. I was afraid the sun roof on the car would be broken, but it survived intact. The wind whipped leaves all over the yard, so we have a bit of a mess to clean up in the next few days. 

Dinah the black cat was under the porch and got scared from the pounding hail, so she took off running to hide under the car...and when that got hammered, she took off for the back deck, trying to find a place to hide. I called to her, but she was so frightened she couldn't figure out what to do. When the hail stopped, she streaked inside and hid behind my pillow on our bed.

Around The Countryside...

On May 20th, I took this picture of the phoebes in the rafters, and discovered not four, but five of the little birds! The next day, I went out to capture more photos, expecting them to be exploring a little and perhaps catching them in the act of learning to fly. They were gone. The nest was empty.  This was the last shot, before they left the nest for good. 

Five little phoebes.

 

The off and on again rain has made for some pretty cloud cover. Sometimes we only have a little, other times fluffy puffs float across the sky. Sunrise as we head to the bridge.

A puffy cloud is outlined by the sun.

A closer shot of the puffy cloud.

Buddy surveys the kingdom while Sammy gets a back scratch from Richard. 

This little guy tucked in as soon as the dogs got curious!

Porch sitting at Mom's and Pa's.  The little yellow finches are dominating the South Pole feeder.

Went to The Cook Shack (https://www.facebook.com/TheCookShack/) for dinner and a Luna moth had parked on the window screen all day.  Thanks to proprietor, Pam, for taking the picture for me!

We had to run an errand in a nearby town and took the scenic route home.  The cows in the pasture and the clouds in the sky made for a pastoral scene.

This old barn holds the timbers of its former glory, faded with time. 

The peach tree is fruiting out and is growing tall, too.

The raised beds - left is the potatoes and right is the lettuce, radishes and green beans. We hope to enclose the entire garden area, including the fruit trees and bushes, in a covered cage to keep the wild critters from eating our food!

First harvest of the strawberries. There was only one, the others are still ripening.