Time for a post....

The other day I was hanging out clothes, and looked up and there was the little wren staring at me. I hurried inside to get my camera, and snapped the above picture before she flew.
Late in the evening, I sat out there an hour or so trying to get a better photo...but both were a tad bit shy. This one above is a cropped version of one I took. They were just singing and singing...sometimes I really wish I had their attitude.

I left my chair sitting out there, hoping they would get used to it. And every time I am out and they are out there, I talk to them. I know they are the House Wren, and not the Carolina--at least I have never heard them sing like the Carolina Wren. I am so used to Carolina Wrens...all I have ever dealt with were very, very friendly.

There was a pair at home that always built somewhere on one of the porches...we would be sitting on the swing, and they would perch on the chain to the swing right above our head. And my dad, sat out there with his feet up and they would land on his foot.
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I have not seen Mama Squirrel in soooo long...I would say it has been at least two months. I keep looking and hoping she will show up. But we have been working outside a lot and have not seen hide nor hair of her. Lots of times when I have not seen her for a long time, she will end up just showing up when we are outside for any length of time talking. So this really makes me think she is gone for sure this time.

1837

On the way to Green Valley the other day, we took a slightly different route, and passed by this church. We were totally surprised. We have passed so close to it all these years, but had never taken that particular road...it is a real little beauty. And that date of 1837 caught both our eyes.
Truth be told, it is not far from Saint Marys-of-the-Woods College...but other than that, I don't know if there are two dozen houses there.
Just look at the windows...I would love to be there some night when the windows are lit from within.
This is the best I could do with in just passing by...Roger did stop but I didn't get out. To have gotten any farther away, I would have been in some one's yard....
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Tomorrow I am going to be at Sarah's watching the toot while her mom goes to Indianapolis for the home inspection of the house they are planning to buy. I just hope I can get a good night's they sleep tonight. It is highly unlikely unless some of the cats go outside before I head to bed. Just a few minutes ago, the boys came in. Mama Cat and Puss Puss came in earlier...so probably about the time I go to bed, one will start something.

You just about have to wonder about my sanity...why put up with them. They are worth it all, though. All except Mama Cat provides us with comic relief at some time or other every day. And she sort of provides us with wonder in that she has come so far since coming here to live.

Mama Cat was born at a federal prison. After hearing about her, my oldest daughter wanted her. She was just a doll baby....I had not seen her and was still recovering from losing my first Cougar or she would have ended up here. Anyway, Mama was just the perfect little kitty...but the guy my daughter was married to did not like cats, and his boys were not good with animals. By the time she lived there just a short while, no one could pet her except my daughter. She had forgotten Roger by then, and neither he nor I could pet her without her hissing and trying to bite.

It has been almost 3 years ago now that she came, and you would never ever guess her background. Lorelei can step all over her and half the time she doesn't move. And so far I have never seen Mama get mad at Lo...if she doesn't want to be wallered around by Lo she just gets up and leaves.

Sometimes Roger or I can hardly walk for her rubbing against our ankles and running in between out feet as we walk....she occasionally comes and gets in bed with us. But usually she just likes to be near us...though every now and then she will come get on our chair arm for petting.

As for Mama Cat's mama, Roger and the guys he worked with all pitched in and got her spayed...so in the end it is a fairly happy ending. The other three cats I have are from Mama Cat's one and only litter...another one went to a friend of Roger's and I am not sure what happened with it. And the other one went to one of their co-workers and I think it rules the roost at that house.

Over in Illinois

I was running down a good sunset when I passed this place. I put on the brakes, took a couple minutes and shot these images.
I really would like to know the history of this place...it has been empty a long time, by the looks of it. It kind of makes one sick at heart...it looks like it was well built.
There is still a grain bin that looks like it might possibly still being used. Other than that, the weeds seem to be taking over.
I even wondered had it been on fire on the backside, or is it full of asbestos...I don't think there is a single window left in it.

A couple beauties

This is from yesterday....Lorelei wanted in her crib. Then she would stick her feet or hands out and Sarah would grab them...and Lorelei would laugh so hard. She just screams with laughter and she still laughs so hard she has tears in her eyes at times. It is the simple things she thinks funny...like making faces at her....or if I jump like shes frightened me....

Later after we had eaten lunch...Lorelei was out of her high chair running around while we sat and talked. Well, she had on a little outfit and the bottoms kept falling down. She stopped all of a sudden and pulled them all the way down and stepped out of them...then she sat down and tried to pull of her top. Sarah had to help her with that, and then she ran through with such joy.
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I have been very on and off with my blogging the past week or two. Well, after being away from bogging for two or three or four days, I came back to find I had missed this post by Betsy....it was almost like a visit home. In fact it made me pretty homesick...

I visit several blogs and even if I am away for two or three days, the ones I comment on regular, I always go back and see what I have missed, though I might not always comment on those missed. So, I leave Betsy's blog and go over to Carletta's Round the Bend blog...and that first glance lead me to this post that I had missed. Carletta talked about the cow bell in the photo, and that made me even more homesick...and led me to thinking about home.

We at one time had a milk cow, a jersey named Patsy. She always had a cowbell on....though why I am not sure. Patsy was almost always at the gate waiting when it was time for milking. And if she wasn't there, we just had to call for her to come..

Anyway, she always wore the cowbell...but every now and then it lost the clapper--you know the thing that clangs against the bell to make the noise. So, whenever we noticed it was missing, the bell would be taken off her and brought to the house to fix. I don't remember if she bawled when we left with it, but I do know that when it was fixed, all we had to do was take it to the pasture and ring the bell and she came flying...at least for a cow she was moving fast.

This is also the cow that was best friends with our horse, Old Bob...she bawled if we took him out of the pasture, and again if we brought him back, she would come to him. I think they were almost always in the close vicinity of each other, and you would see her 'washing' him...I never seen any other cow do that...so I always took it as a sign of her affection for him. Some might think that is childhood fantasy, but I still think it to this day.

The skies around here

Almost every evening I look to the west and wish I was out at the strip pits, so last night I went in the hopes of a nice sunset...I was hoping for a big sun, but instead I got clouds. Not that I mind. I thought if someone didn't know better and only glanced at the photo above, they might for second think those clouds were snow capped mountains...
Looking one direction, you see the above sky. Notice the streaks...those were really there. Nothing to do with my camera or altering the photo in anyway except a reduction in size.

Then looking to the west, this is the scene as the sun slipped behind that could....I really hope you will enlarge this one, if not any of the others. It was just glorious.
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We went down to see the Toot today...she is so funny. Roger will stretch out in the floor or on the couch and pretend to be asleep--sometimes not pretending...and Lorelei's eyes just light up. She heads right to him and will climb all over him or beat on him...along with laying down beside him and pretending to be asleep. She will do that for a few minutes, then get up and go on about her business of playing.

In a little while, if he is actually asleep, she will go over close to him and either lean on him, or on the couch, or whatever and stare at his face. Next, she will start beating on him, or go get something to beat on him with. Sarah and I sit and laugh till we cry...
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You will never guess what I fixed tonight, considering the temperature was in the 90's, but felt near 100º....I came home and fixed vegetable soup. And it was GOOD! Even Roger liked it, and he doesn't usually care much for soup in the heat of summer.

A run through the strip pits....

I made a run through the strip pits...or maybe I should call it a crawl...because that is what I did. Everywhere I went, there were herds and herds of these little white butterflies. I think they are called cabbage whites. I don't know what groups of butterflies are called, so I called it a herd.
At this one puddle/pond I saw this muskrat above...along with the 'ducks' below...
I'm not sure what they are called.

This body of water is maybe 20 ft. in length and probably 10-12 ft. wide at the most, and there is almost always something there. I saw frogs, but didn't try to take any photos...and sometimes I see turtles. I doubt the water is over two ft. in depth anywhere...and it is right beside the road. It is amazing the amount of life it supports.

Beautiful....

You just have to click the photo above and enlarge it to get the full effect of those blue eyes! I forget what Lorelei was 'talking' about, but I do know I was not succeeding at what I wanted to capture...I am not going to tell any more and just hope I can capture the facial expressions that I want some time soon.
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Above is Shelby and Keesha...when they were young....oh, so long ago. Shelby was such a tease...she would aggravate Keesha to death. Shelby was the bigger of the two, and with that she was extra long legged, and taller than Keesha. Shelby would get a stick, get right in front of Keesha and the minute Keesha would reach for it, she would whirl away....Keesha would end up so mad.

Now, Keesha, when we were potty training her, had this thing of when we would take her out to do her business, she would not want to come in when she was done. Or probably more to the point, she considered it a prime time to play...we would start to pick her and she would run...run behind a tree, to the other side of the car, to the other side of a flowerbed...just anything to go between us. It was just like a cartoon....you go one way and she would keep herself just opposite of you. Then, it would be us that ended up mad and aggravated...just imagine going through that when trying to leave for school, or work...or just wanting to go to bed.

One time when both she and Sarah were young, she led Sarah all around the neighbors house...we still laugh about that. The neighbors were sitting outside, and here Sarah and Keesha go by on the side walk, then in just a second here they come around their house....thank goodness for good neighbors.

We got Keesha from a humane shelter...she was so small she could easily sleep on a pillow. Sarah started teaching her to jump from the couch into her lap. As she got older, Sarah would sit out in the yard about 6 or 8 feet from the edge of the porch, usually she would get an old pillow and put it in her lap...and she would call Keesha and she would make a big leap into her lap.
She and Shelby were pups together...only where Shelby could not have chosen which of us she loved best...Keesha was a one woman dog. Oh, she liked the rest of us, but she really only had eyes for Sarah. Consequently, it was hard for Sarah to make the same decision we had to make for Shelby just a few weeks ago---she had to have her put down.
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Do any of you know that this is an okra blossom? Don't you think it is a really nice flower? I think the plant itself is pretty....but didn't take a photo of it.
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I was actually home for most of the day today, for the first time in ages. I am a home body, but been having things to do lately and just not taking the time to blog...and I am not sure when I will get back on track...

Somebody likes techno

Sarah sent this little video of the Toot...your sound needs to be turned way up to hear the techno music in the background. I thought seeing this might make you smile:-)
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We had Lorelei Thursday because Sarah had an appointment, then we had her Friday while Sarah and Jeremy looked at houses in Indianapolis...15 houses if you want to know. That makes me tired just thinking about it.

We had Lorelei from sometime around 11:00--give or take a few minutes--till around 7:00 and that little girl did not stop the entire time. She might set a few minutes playing with something, but she would be doing something. Then she would think of Bubbie and run to the bed to see him. It is so cute to see her think of him and run flying in there.

I would put her on the bed and she would pet him a time or two then sit there and play with things we had sitting there. And she always has to turn the bedside lamp off and on before we leave.....we just don't leave the room without her doing that.

I have a couple different step stools in my kitchen...one step stool just that--a step stool. And Lorelei loves to stand on it beside me and look on the counter to see what she can see. The other step stool is one of these....you can sit on it or raise the seat and use it as a step stool. And when Lorelei is here, I take the seat part off. She usually likes to sit in front of the door and watch her papaw do things outside. Just completely content to do that if he is out there doing something.

But Friday, she scooted it over to the fridge, climbed up and stood on the top step to reach magnets on the fridge! And she did not want to sit down like a big girl; I had to physically get her down and move the stool.

Her little mind is done trying to figure things out...when she is able to use tools, it will be watch out world. I have a feeling she will want to take things apart to figure how they work...she will stand for minutes at a time trying to figure the relation between the doorknob and the latch part. We have a little cheap plastic wagon for her and she turns it upside down to check how the wheels work...
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We are starting to have regular tomatoes, but some are also practically cooking on the vine with the heat we have had. I would love to know if a shade cloth would help that....I sliced two today and even Roger could tell that the one did not taste quite right. It was inedible for both of us.
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I am not sure how much blogging I will be doing for the next little bit...I hope to get back on some sort of schedule, but not sure when it will be. We are going with Sarah and Jeremy tomorrow to look at a couple more houses, and I think Sarah wants us to see one that she liked the other day.

Maybe I will get caught up with everyone in the next day or two....

The garden report....

I was hanging out a couple loads of clothes this morn and thought of doing a gardening post.
For those of you not familiar with it, that is okra above. I planted a few hills this year, but have not managed to capture a bloom yet. I will probably have to mix what I do get with green tomatoes to have enough to fry. That is okay....it is good that way, too. I can remember we were kids, mom would just throw everything together and fry it...green tomatoes, okra, hot pepper, and maybe even cucumber. She would just cut/chop it in small chunks, mix with mainly meal with a little flour mixed it, and fry till browned. Talk about yummy! That was just so good with soup beans, or anything else for that matter.
Remember last year we had an abundance of bell peppers...well, for some reason they are scarcer this year...I am not sure what the problem is. But we have plenty frozen from last year, so it is no big deal. We use them in chili, spaghetti sauce sometimes, and I make a bell pepper casserole that my kids just love.
And look here....we have regular tomatoes getting ripe...
And just look at the photo below....
I had enough of these little cherry tomatoes to get my fill...and so did Roger. Plus we saved a few for my next door little neighbor's little girl. She absolutely loves fresh garden stuff...she will pick a bell pepper off the plant and eat it as if it is an apple.

the toot at the fair

Yesterday morn was slightly, and I do mean slightly cooler than it has been, so we took Lorelei to the fair to see the animals.
We visited all the animals except the bunnies, but the petting zoo had bunnies...she did not want to pet one. Believe that or not, it is the truth.
Her favorite thing was the sheep and they were the most responsive to us. She just wondered all around the barn they were in.
I would never have picked the sheep to be the one she really liked...
every time we have ever been to a fair, the goats have been extremely friendly. So friendly, I have wished I could bring one home. But not yesterday. Not a single one wanted to be petted...
some of the girls got out this young one for her to see, but it was not enthusiastic and Lorelei didn't quite know what to think.

The cattle were tied with their heads to the inside of the stalls so there was no petting them, except this one that was at the end and she was asleep. In the chicken barn it was so noisy with the roosters crowing, that part of the time I think she actually got afraid, still she was interested in them.

From the roadside

I was so excited to see this Tiger Swallowtail, I did not even notice the tattered wings...not even on the right. S/he is still a beauty in my book.

I tried to capture several butterflies, but this is the only one that was still enough for me to have any luck...and even with it I snapped two photos and it was gone.

Never still

I made a mad dash to the strip pits after Lorelei and her mom went home tonight. I have other photos I will show later next week on my other blog...but for now I thought I would show this dragonfly...notice the wings. The wind was blowing till it was hard for them to stay put part of the time. It just blew their wings ever which way...and let me tell you there was a lot of them out there.
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The toot had her mom and I in tears...she is just so funny. It is impossible to describe some of her antics...but will tell you she had her doll and was waving its arm and saying bye-bye to her papaw and me. And she had her dancing feet with her a big part of the time...they were climbing feet as well. When she gets a bit older, she will be climbing everything in sight.

I had a regular little step stool in the kitchen, and she climbed up on it first thing, and was looking for something to get into...and helping me cook! Then she wanted a banana...she would take a bite of it and go off and play a minute, then come back to me and tell me 'nana.'

But the funniest thing of all was late when Sarah was about to get ready to leave, I was playing with her...she went to the kitchen door and sort of pounded on it with her hand...and told me "Gotta go! Bye-bye!!"

Fishing for camels....

I have planned to do a post about fishing for camels for well over a year now...I wanted to take pictures to go along with it but have not seen any camel holes to even attempt it. So, I thought I would show you one of the scenes where fishing for camels took place....hours and hours of it over the years...this is the elementary school I attended for 8 years.

When we were in grade school, we always seemed to all do things in spurts...we might play basketball every day for a month, or softball, or playing hide and seek, and other things. And then there was fishing for camels...

A camel in this case is a grub much like some of those pictured here...if you are at all squeamish, you might not like to look at these. I always thought the ones we caught were skinnier and had more of an actual hump...but maybe I am remembering wrong. I do know they had that brown head.

Anyway, I don't know who would start it, but fishing for camels would come to be the thing to do at recess. Someone would ask what somebody else was going to do and the answer would be Fish for Camels...and suddenly we would all be fishing for camels. We always hunted for a stem of grass....the part that holds the seed...minus the seed was a favorite. And I think we preferred them dry.

Of course it being a school yard and trampled daily by kids playing, there were lots of bare spots of ground. We looked for holes about a quarter inch in diameter. Getting down on our hands and knees, poking the straw down in the hole 6 or 8 inches till it stops and then wait. In short order it would start to move slightly...you grab that straw and jerk and you feel this very slight resistance...and out plops a camel. A grub in other words.

I guess the straw invaded its home and it is holding on to it trying to push it out...that is when we would see the stem/straw move and that is when we would grab it and jerk it out of the hole, bringing the camel/grub with it.

I know I often caught more than one but don't really recall how many. And we didn't do anything with them...though I think they were good fishing bait. I think we just left them laying when the bell rang to call us in from recess.

But I can see us all now, plain as day. Kids hunkered down all over the school yard a couple kids here, three more there, another over there...hands at the ready to grab that straw and catch a camel. Sometimes, I think kids just do not know what real fun is any more.

When I started to do this post, I wondered if any other soul had heard of this or if it was just something done in our area...so I googled the exact term 'fishing for camels' and found this little story. He mentions doing it in the spring, but I don't recall it only being in the spring...but I could be wrong.

Thoughts and questions

When I see roadside stands, I automatically want to stop. We were not headed home when we passed this one in southern Indiana, so we did not stop. We didn't return the same route, so had no chance to stop on the way back home. (This is a drive by shot, and it is poor quality--but I was grasping at straws to have a photo to post.)

There is a 'Y' in the road we pass on our way to our local Walmart that people often stop at and sell stuff direct from their truck. We get some really good corn and cantaloupes from various people at the 'y' as we call it. I think whoever gets there first claims the space.
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We went to Indianapolis with Sarah and the toot yesterday to look at houses. Sarah did see a couple that she liked....Lorelei had a really good time till the last little bit. She almost fell asleep the first few minutes in the car after the last house, then she woke up. She cried a little bit, then she was just happy....talked and jabbered. Then started her 'yelling', where she goes ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh for as long as she can. Loud. Over and over.

Sarah kept telling me she was about to fall asleep, and that is what she did....she was doing that and just stopped.....Roger said it was like turning off a light switch. She woke up right before home, and was just so happy to be in her own environment...
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Now, to the questions. It is about how you handle comments and followers. I always try to visit whoever leaves a comment...I know I miss a few every now and then when I have joined a meme, but I even try to do return visits for them.

I have blocked a follower or two just because I felt like their sights were just spam sights...I guess that is what you would call them. Just trying to sell stuff with nothing else.

My question is, do you block some followers just cause you don't want to be associated with their type of blog? And do you block comments from places like that, even though the comment doesn't contain any links other than the name. I have wanted to ask these questions for a long time. I got a comment on my other blog....just a generic comment. I checked the commenter out...there were 3 blogs I think, and one of them the first thing I read was a poem with inappropriate language in it...so I am going to delete that comment in a few minutes...the other blogs seemed more about selling things...so can't imagine him coming back to my blog.

Best buddies

Sarah sent me this snapshot of the toot and Diesel...he probably weighs more than her. Sarah said Lorelei was on a mission today...for one thing she had all her books out. I ask Sarah if she 'read' them or just tossed them over her shoulder...she actually will sit and look at the books and tell her own little story as she turns the pages. We just cannot tell what she says. She sure gets intent when she reads though.

But today Sarah said she would read part of them then toss them over her shoulder. Others, she just pulled out and tossed.

The other day Sarah was either putting Lorelei's outside toys in the garage, or was getting them out. She went in and turned around to come back out and there was Otto standing looking towards her and Lorelei was standing at his back end beating on him like he was a drum, both just happy as a lark.

Hard work

Every where we went, we seen the familiar scene of hay bales and men hard at work. It is one hot and sweaty job, if you don't believe me ask my brother Neal. I would like to know how many bales of hay he and my other brothers handled in their lifetime. It would be way up in the thousands. They traded their muscle power for the use of of equipment....most of the time with either of one or two friends/neighbors.
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I am having major issues with blogger/commenting. There are three comments that I have checked to publish, blogger says they are published, and they will be there for just a short while, only for me to go back in just a bit and they are not longer there. I go back to comment moderation, and there they are again. I have went through this over and over, I don't know how many times. I don't know if it is cause I have the moderation on without word verification, or what. And there is a comment from George....I got the notice in my email, but it does not show at all in comment moderation section as waiting to be moderated. I get an error code with it. I have filed a report, but still no help. So, I once again changed my settings...comment moderation is still on, but only on older posts. So, if spam appears, I will eventually see it and remove it.

Just in time for the 4th of July

We were getting ready to go to Sarah's yesterday afternoon, and I happened to walk out to the garden. It is such a jungle that I have not been keeping close tabs on anything. But even in walking out there, I saw all these little cherry tomatoes just waiting for me to come get them. They were emmm-mmmm good!
I just had to show these of Lorelei and her daddy....they spent the night in Indianapolis Thursday night, and we stayed with Lorelei at their house. She was perfectly fine with us...had not been upset at all when it was just us there...
but I happened to see them when they got back and held the curtain back for Lorelei to see them walking in. Oh, the excitement! Mama....mama....DA-DA! Oh, was that girl every happy to see them.

Then our other daughter came home this weekend...and she spent a lot of time there. Yesterday eve when R. was leaving, Lorelei almost started crying...she loves her auntie.

Roger also makes this cheesecake pie...it is real simple. An 8 oz thing of creme cheese softened, a big bowl of cool whip, a big spoonful of sour cream, a tablespoon or so of real lemon flavoring, and some splenda...whip together and have a graham crust ready. Lorelei really loved that! Any of us that she seen eating it, she had to share.
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Some of you may have noticed that I turned off word verification...I also had turned off the moderation. Well, I have only had that all turned off a week or two, and already got spam. So, I am going back to moderating the comments, though I did not turn on the word verification. Just wanted you to know that your comment won't publish until I have had a chance to view it.