Bubbie and Yellowstone

Last night our local PBS station aired a show about Yellowstone National Park in the winter. I missed the first part of it, and was actually thinking about turning it off to go to bed early when something about it caught Bubbie's attention. He sat spellbound for about 15-20 minutes. He looked away for a second or two a couple times, but the rest was spent just as you see him here. When the show was finished, he got down.

The one picture bottom-center is just one of him on the back of my chair. Look at his poor little nose. It is gradually looking just a tad bit better and he is back to his normal self of just looking for something to get into part of the time. Last night he was tackling Shelby, trying to hide under a box--one of those folded ones you get for an item of clothing. You know the size--about 10 inches by 12 or 14 inches. He thinks if his head is hid, that you cannot see him.

It is sure good to see him acting normal...I told Roger and Rachel that it is going to be a desperate situation before I leave an animal overnight at the vets. The vet is a good vet, but it took Bubbie so long to trust us again. He has just the past week or so started coming and getting in bed with us. He still doesn't sit beside us as much as he used to, but he does occasionally.

Speaking of bed, remember Puss Puss aka The Princess and Cougar. The little one is the Princess. She now has the habit of waiting for me to come to bed, and then she has to get under the covers between Roger and me for 30 - 45 minutes, sometimes more than once a night, but always when I first go to bed. And she purrs so contentedly.
And Cougar has the habit of wanting out about 5:00 in the morning...he won't leave the mini-blinds alone in our room. Just anything to wake me up.

Through the windshield again

This is from the skim of snow we had a couple weekends ago. I know and have read that the Amish do not like to be photographed...I have never talked to any of them about it person to person. But I could not resist snapping this picture. There is no face showing...even if he wasn't behind the horse, you could not have seen his face if you tried he was so bundled up against the cold.

And I have read of others talking to them and them not minding. I think it probably has to do with the attitude...or maybe what the pictures are for. But I so would like to document some of the stuff they do. For Neal and I grew up, he more than me, doing farm work the way the Amish do it. We all the time talk about wishing we had pictures of this and that from our childhood. But that time is past, and there is no going back to take pictures. So, I want to record it while it is still there to record.

Some of the Amish used to come to the orchard where I worked...and one of them told my boss that he would love to be a gourmet cook, but he couldn't do that and be Amish too. And he chose to be Amish. He and the other Amish man with him had a twinkle in their eye and you could tell he enjoyed joking and teasing. I was starting to go on with some sort of foolishness, and stopped because I wondered what he was going to think...then I saw that gleam in his eyes and knew he enjoyed it as much as the rest of us.

We had this big pole barn there...and the cooler was in part of it. As more of the trees in the orchard got more mature and started producing, we started using bins instead of crates to store the apples in. Using bins required using the forklift...remind me later to tell you about that forklift. Anyway, using the forklift required concrete since ours had pneumatic tires.

So, we were clearing out an area to the side of the cooler and putting in a big pad of concrete that went around the front, one side and back of the cooler just to have a place to stack the bins and move the bins of apples around when having to get in the cooler. Well, we worked and worked, but the boss just could not get the ground around the cooler/pole barn graded right.

So, he was having some of the Amish actually pour and finish this concrete....one of those guys got on the tractor and had the ground prepared in no time at all. I did not get to watch them do the concrete, but let me tell you it was a job well done.

Now to Bessie, the forklift...actually, I called it Nellie and I think it was Sandy that called it Bessie. It was old--I mean really old. It has bit the dust since I left there. But the last few years of its life, it did not have brakes...talk about a fun job. You just always had to be aware of where you were...the concrete was not finished perfectly flat...you wouldn't know it to look at it. But you knew it when you were on the forklift. You just always had to keep in mind that there was no stopping unless you dropped your load real quick...I think more than me forgot and got the front wheels off the concrete, but it was always out front where it was not serious. And the tractor could pull it back on.

Out behind would have been a serious matter because the land fell away from the back....John would go just zooming around there but I always half way just crept along. Now when I got to Menard's and see the boys flying around on the forklifts, I wonder what it would be like to drive one with brakes. And wonder if I had had brakes, would I ever have became comfortable enough to zoom around like that.

Remember what blue skies look like???

Notice the date on the photo above. I have taken pictures most days since then and not a one has had the really blue skies like this. There were a couple times when the sky was clearing...but it was not this color blue at all. And I am not sure it ever got all the way clear.

And seems like towards evening some of the time it tries to clear. There have been sooo many beautiful sunsets.

Though I would like to see sunshine, I am still wanting a good snow. There is a chance for snow again Saturday night/Sunday, but again they are not talking any accumulation. I guess I will just have to be happy with the skims we have been getting.

We went shopping today...I got just a few more things for Christmas and got them wrapped when we got home. I still have to wrap for Kay and her little brothers.

While out we ran by Kmart...I picked up Christmas cards for next year....actually enough for the next couple of years. I liked them so well, I didn't even know if they were on sale and I was still bringing home 7 boxes....it was a nice surprise to discover they were on sale for half the price.

I did get a little bit more of a start on a quilting project...I cannot tell about it or show it for a while yet. But it feels good to get a start on it. It has been weighing on my mind. If nothing happens, I am going to spend quite a bit of time on it tomorrow. I guess if I want to get up and work any at all, I better think about going to sleep.