Night of the Shrew

Two cats guarding the fireplace can only mean one thing.

There's a mouse in the house again, and it's hiding under the fireplace.

Thanks a lot, Weeners.  That's just what I needed.

It was a nice day, so I took my quilting fabrics outside and utilized my picnic table for cutting out some fabric squares for my next quilting project, while at the same time amusing myself with the antics of Weeners, obviously playing with a mouse way out there by the weeds.

I subconsciously tried to keep an eye on her because I knew she liked to carry her "toys" into the house and play with them.  But I got too focused on my cutting, and I was caught unawares by the blur running into my house - with "something" in her mouth.

I followed her into the house and reached her just in time to see her drop the critter in the middle of my living room, and off it scampered under the fire place.

This got Bossy's attention, so they both sat there by the fireplace waiting for it to come out.

Chuck was there watching the whole incident, so I left him in charge to make sure that mouse gets caught, and I went back outside to do more cutting before the breeze blew away all my fabric squares.  Before long, Chuck yelled, "Bossy caught it!"  So I went in the house and coaxed Bossy to take it outside.

She dropped it on the deck and she proceeded to eat it.  

Gross.

I've never seen her eat a mouse before, so I didn't think she'd actually do it.

But the whole thing disappeared and there wasn't a trace of it left.

(Actually, it was probably a vole or a shrew.)

When I went back in the house, Weeners was still sitting by the fireplace and I thought she was silly because - didn't she see that Bossy already caught it and took care of it?

But we soon found out there was another one in there! 

Oh, so THAT's why Weeners was still sitting there! 

Now where in the world did the second one come from?

Did Weeners sneak it in?

Anyhoo, Bossy caught that one too, took it outside, and she ATE IT!

EEEWWWWWWWWWW!!

Two of those things in her stomach!

That.  Is.  So.  Gross.

Two days later, I found a smelly "funny looking" turd deposited on top of my ironing board, of all places.  Why there?!?  She's never made a deposit on my ironing board before!  I didn't want to get a close look at it.  All I know is that was smelly, and it looked like it had a tail in it, encased in a turd shell.  Thanks a lot, Bossy.

So why is Bossy the one that has to clean up after Weeners?  Weeners catches them, brings them in the house to play with them, lets them go, and it's up to Bossy to catch them.

Nice little game Weeners has going there.

Every day Weeners goes out in the weeds and chases the voles, or shrews, or whatever they are.

Here she is with her latest catch:

That one looks like a mouse.  Thankfully, it was dead already when she brought it in, so we didn't have to try to catch it, or wait for Bossy to take care of it.  But I wouldn't want Bossy to eat that thing.  Especially not if she's gonna leave it half-digested on my ironing board encased in a turd shell.

Ahh, the joys of having a cat that loves to hunt!

So this week, we got our driveway repaved.  Or at least half of it.  The guy with the long sweet beard didn't wanna do the other half until we got more sunshine cuz it's in the shade and he was concerned about it not drying fast enough.  So, while we couldn't drive on our driveway (we had to park our cars on the road), Steph came down to visit from Fairbanks for a couple days.  On Monday we went to Anchorage and did some shopping at the 5th Ave. Mall.  Tuesday, we wanted to climb Lazy Mountain, but the weather got "iffy", so we changed our plan to climb the Butte instead.  But the weather got worse than "iffy", so we didn't do any hiking at all.  Instead, we waited for Chuck to come home, and after supper, we went to the shooting range.

PW never shot a gun before, so Chuck was teaching her the basics.  I'm surprised she came with us.  Normally she doesn't want to do anything outdoorsy, but I think the only reason she came was because her boyfriend wanted to.  PW said she kinda enjoyed it, but she and her boyfriend came in their own car, and ended up leaving early (probably PW got bored).

After we got done there, we went to the V-HO (pronounced "vee-ho"), short for "Valley Hotel".

(All the locals calls it "the V-HO".)

It's a quaint little hotel in Palmer that Steph always likes to go to.  They are "famous" for their pies, but they have good food too.  Normally, I don't eat restaurant pies but I ordered a slice of lemon meringue anyway, just to be social.  Frankly, I don't know why people rant and rave about their pies.  I don't think they're very good.  My lemon meringue pie was WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY too sweet!!  It just tasted like a sugar bomb with a hint of lemon.  It was not anything like the typical kind of lemon meringue that you'd make at home.  Steph ordered a slice of rhubarb-strawberry, and I tried a bite of hers.  It had NO flavor whatsover.  Steph thinks it did, and it's true that maybe hers tasted "naked"  to me because my palate was expecting more sugar (after eating my sugar bomb pie).  But I could taste absolutely nothing in her pie, not even any trace rhubarb tartness.  It was a tasteless red goo that looked like it came out of a can.  Chuck had Rocky Road pie, and I didn't taste his because it looked like it had dairy in it.  He said it was good (a little too sweet), but somehow I doubt that I would've liked that one either.  So, when I hear anyone boast about their pies, I would beg to differ.

So, Steph left already this morning.  Sorry I didn't get any pictures of her, but I just didn't really see any opportunities for any good ones.  If we had gone hiking, I could've had some good pictures, but that didn't happen.  Anyway, her visit was super short, but we had a good time.

So that is all that's going on here.

Mostly just trying to keep my house mouse-free.

I'm Back ! (again...)

Hello everyone!

How is your summer going?  I'll answer that for you.  It's going FAST.

Every time a new season starts, I somehow get an idea in my head that things are going to get more relaxed for me, but I am realizing now that that is nothing more than wishful thinking cuz every season has it's own..........what do I wanna say?..................busy-ness.

After the first trip to Wisconsin, things were starting to calm down a little bit for me (after I got caught up on things).  Then I got interrupted with VBS.  It was a sacrifice of my time, but I don't regret it; it was actually quite fun.  I helped with the snacks and got to know some of the kids better.  Now this little girl who I didn't know before VBS waves and says "hi" to me whenever she sees me, which is a little reward in itself.  It's a special kind of feeling when a little kid is happy to see me.

So right after VBS was over, I thought things were about to get back to normal, but we ended up having to take an emergency trip back to WI on account of my mom-in-law passing away.  Even though we knew her time was coming, I'm not sure if a person can really be fully prepared for this kind of news.  

So we flew home on Monday and came back on Saturday.  The funeral was on Wednesday, so that gave us a couple days to hang out and goof around, so despite the circumstances, we made the most of it and tried to have fun.

Here is a picture of Chuck and his siblings at the funeral reception.

(They are such a nice family, and of course Chuck wants SO BAD to move back to Wisconsin and be with them.  He would move tomorrow if he could.)

Jim, Dean, Karen, Joyce, Chuck, Judy

On Tuesday, the 4th of July, Joyce and her daughter invited us to go to a cabin on a lake (near Waupaca, I think), and they took us out on their boat.

Their dog Cooper had a really good time with this.

Thursday and Friday, Chuck was busy helping his sister move, so I hung out with my brother Jerry and my mom.  Jerry was kind enough to drive us around wherever we wanted to go; he even patiently waited while me and Ma browsed in the "old lady" shops.  I have no idea what was going on in his mind, but he never complained.

Jerry and I seem to share an interest in family history, so we took my mom out driving and asked her to show us the places where she used to live.  One of the houses was torn down and is now a small parking lot, but it was still interesting to see the exact spot where her house stood when she was a little girl.  The house where she lived in as a teenager was still there, but remodeled.

This next picture was actually taken during our first trip to WI this year, but I didn't post it cuz it was taken from Chuck's phone (not my camera) and he just recently uploaded it.  Anyhoo, this was where my mom and dad lived for a little time.

According to the newspaper birth announcements of me and my siblings, we moved out of that house after the 7th baby was born.  I'm #6, so that means I was still a toddler when we moved out, so obviously I don't remember it; but Jerry said he remembers living there.  So that was really neat to see the house where I first lived.  (Of course it's been remodeled since then...)  

I'm gonna have to get Jerry to find more houses for me cuz, according to the birth announcements of my older siblings, there were two OTHER houses that they lived in before I was born.  I don't know why mom didn't mention this when we were driving around.  So, Jerry, if you're reading this, you can find them and show them to me next time!                                        

So of course, while were in Marshfield, I had to see my bears.

I feel like I have sort of a personal connection with them since they came from Alaska to my HOME TOWN!  What are the odds?

Also, while were there, we got to experience a really cool thunderstorm!  

Ya don't see this every day in Alaska!

Me and Chuck sat outside and watched the rain pour down.

(No, this was not a funnel cloud......)

Another night, me and Chuck were driving around in the country, and we were keeping our eyes on this awesome cloud.

It was just SO AWESOME!!

At dusk it began to turn pink and orange.

So anyhoo, those were the highlights of this quick trip.

On the way home, we were able to get this picture of Mt. Ranier when we were flying over Washington.

So now that I'm home again, I'm trying to get caught up to normalcy.  I can't even describe how difficult it is stay caught up on my Greek this summer.  Since I have a "timed" system, I get so behind when I miss, and I have to do double time to get caught up on it.  Between two trips and VBS week, it's been a real challenge.

Here are some photos I took between our two trips to Wisconsin.  We went to the cabin a couple weeks ago and I was pleased to see that my blueberries are coming along nicely!

Traipsing through the woods there, I love all the wildflowers that grow there.  I picked a few of them because I was thinking about making some bookmarks out of them.  So I have them flattened under a stack of books right now, but I really don't have a clue how to make bookmarks out of them.  But, that is what Google is for, right?

Here is an old bicycle that was half buried in the woods there.

There is also an old ripped up Army tent from the 50's that we found in the woods, and also an abandoned car that doesn't look very old.  We can't figure out why someone would drive their car through the woods and just leave it like that.  They even left some papers and other stuff in there.

Oh well, whatever......

We went for a ride on our "side by side" and took a different path this time.

We ran into this river, but I can't remember the name of it.

So here back at home, my strawberry patch is still not protected!  And this is what's happening!

Argh!

Most of the berries are still small and white, but if Chuck knows what's good for him, he will get a net over that berry patch before it's too late!

Here is a birthday card I made for my sister.  Unfortunately, I can't claim that it was my own design; I copied it off of Pinterest.  I thought it turned out cute.

Speaking of cats, Weeners was outside one day, and all of a sudden I heard her make a yelping noise, so I went to the door to see what was going on.  She was running towards the house really fast, and a second later I realized why.  She was being chased by this tom cat.

Weeners ran into the house, and this tom cat was bold enough to run into my house right after her!  Once inside, Weeners found a place to hide and "Tom" was walking around in my house looking for her.  After he couldn't find her, he went back outside, but he didn't look too happy that she got away.

Very interesting looking cat.  The fur almost looks like wool and the tail has kind of a lion's pom pom on the end. I haven't seen him since, so I guess Weeners must've really deflated his ego in a big way.  (It would be interesting to see what their kittens would like if they got together - if Weeners could have any)

Lastly, I had to show you my ice cream that I made!  Mint Chocolate Chip!  YUM.

And so healthy!  You would never guess that the green color comes from spinach!

I think I finally perfected this recipe to my liking, and it is SO good!  I am pretty much the only one that eats it so I get to eat the whole batch!  Apparently, no one else cares for this flavor, but it has always been one of my favorite flavors.  To make Chuck happy, I guess my next batch will be chocolate.   Or maybe I'll tell him that I'll make him something chocolate when he gets my strawberry patch protected.  That should speed things up a bit.

That's about all for now.

Happy Summer Days To You!

Ho. Hum.

Apparently, I have a little spare time on my hands, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here writing a post about nothing.

When I am feeling bored, it's really just me being lazy.

There is always ALWAYS always something I can and should be doing, and I often complain about never having enough time to do everything.

So, I admit that I am just feeling lazy right now.

Boredom = Laziness

Last night was rather exciting.  Some dark clouds rolled in and gave us some rain.  Not just the usual sprinkling that we normally get - this was a REAL HARD RAIN.  I even observed some little balls bouncing off the picnic table, indicating HAIL.  

No thunder though.

Today brings bright warm sunshine and blue skies.  Of course Weeners wanted to go outside right away this morning after I got up.

She was up to her usual activities, as you can see.

I wasn't around when she tried to bring it into the house, so she left it there by the door and walked off.  I wonder if she has some secret place in this house where keeps all those trophies of hers.

She is a hard-core hunter and LOVES to be out there killing anything that moves.

My deck is littered with dead dragonflies.

Question:  How come she can catch them outside with no problem, but can't catch them when they're in the house?

I took a stroll through my veggie garden to see if they survived last night's storm.

Everything looks okay.

I was pleased to see that my celery is still looking vibrant.  I've never grown celery before, and from what I've read about it, it can be tricky to grow, so this is kind of an experiment for me.

But then again, every year is a trial-and-error experiment with everything I try to grow.

Yesterday, I picked some leaves off and used them as a garnish in my soup.

Yum.

I'll be surprised if I get any tomatoes this year.

Here are examples of my best and worst.

best

worst

How pathetic!

The best one is less than a foot high. They really should be a whole lot bigger and possibly growing flowers by now, but my seeds took forever to sprout (I think it's because I sorta drowned them at first). Anyway, they got a really late start, and our summers up here are so short, I don't think they're gonna have time to produce anything worth eating.

My strawberry patch is flowering very nicely and is getting quite lush.  I have to make it a priority to protect it with chicken wire or something so I don't lose all the berries to another berry thief, like last year.  It's really annoying though, when the hubby says I have to wait for him to pick out some chicken wire for me.  That means it won't get done in time and the berry thief will get them first.

Rhubarb is doing good.  I already got to harvest some.

I see some kind of rhubarb dessert in our near future.

Do you see something wrong with this picture?

We bought this little wagon when our kids were toddlers.  I'd say it's probably about 25 years old.  After the kids outgrew it, it remained in the shed forgotten and unused.  Then I got interested in gardening, and it became very useful for lots of things, especially hauling potted plants from one place to another, moving rocks, and throwing weeds in it and transporting them back to our brush pile for burning.  Anyhoo, I was hauling some heavy pots in it the other day and the front wheel broke off. That was my fault; I had too much weight in it.  So, now it's kinda like shooting a crippled horse.

(this is where you're supposed to hear the tune of "Taps" in the background)

 It's kind of sad to let go of this old friend that has hauled everything from kids to weeds, but on the good side, I knew it wasn't quite adequate for the job of gardening anyway, and therefore Chuck said that he would get me a REAL gardening wagon.

Woo-HOO!

Okay.......when????

Before, or after we buy the chicken wire?

(no pressure.....)

So I suppose I better shake off this laziness now and get motivated.

I have a rhubarb dessert to make, a house to clean, and bright sunshine to absorb, and a dead mouse to discard.  I think I'll let Chuck take care of the mouse.  Surely, he won't put it off until after he buys the chicken wire.

I'm Back! (Wisconsin Trip, 2017)

Okay, so in my last post, I left you hanging with my narrative about the mouse in the house.

I never got the chance to let it be known that the mouse is now only a memory.

We found it really pathetic that our two cats weren't skilled enough to catch it, or maybe they just weren't hungry enough; I suppose they would've gotten it eventually, but we couldn't wait that long.  We bought a mouse trap and set it under the fireplace where the mouse liked to hang out.  It took three tries, but we finally heard the snap of execution.

Poor thing!

Saga over.

Remember that trail I told you about in one of my other past posts?  We decided to take a walk on that trail before we flew home.  It turned out to be shorter than we expected, but it really is a nice walk.  So peaceful.

All right, so those were the pictures that were on my camera before the trip.

Now for the report of my trip.

I didn't take very many pictures this time because our trip turned out to be very different from our previous visits.  We usually try to take a "mini vacation" somewhere, and this year we wanted to visit the UP in Michigan, but on account Dad's passing, it wasn't gonna happen.

We spent the first 2-1/2 days sitting in hospice with Dad.  A person can sit and watch someone suffer for only so long, so on Thursday afternoon, we headed east to Plover to visit Chuck's mom.  She has Alzheimer's, so it meant we were going from hospice to a nursing home.  What a fun vacation this was turning out to be! 

After visiting her for awhile, we spent the rest of the day with Chuck's sisters, which was a nice change of atmosphere.

Unfortunately, we left their house too late.  It was getting dark on our drive back to Marshfield.

The deer like to come out at dawn and at dusk.

We hit a deer on the highway, but luckily Chuck was paying attention and swerved the car.

We heard a big thud on the back of the car and worried about the damage it caused on our rental car.  We stopped at a gas station to assess the damage, and guess what?  There wasn't any!

There was no evidence at all that we hit a deer except for some little tufts of hair wedged in the mudflap.  We lucked out.  If Chuck hadn't swerved when he did, we're pretty sure the car would've been banged up.

Can't say for sure what happened to the deer though.  We didn't see it laying on the side of the road, so we don't know if we killed it, or injured it.

Friday morning, we went the funeral home and talked to someone there about preliminary funeral arrangements because we knew his time was near.

What a fun vacation this was turning out to be!

Friday afternoon we drove up to Ladysmith to visit Chuck's sister, and when we got close to their house, we had to stop because this doe crossed the road in front of us.

And this is what followed her:

It had to be brand new cuz it was pretty wobbly, like it was just learning how to walk.

It was SO cute!

Mama and baby made it safely to the other side.

I was designated to write Dad's obituary, so while were at JudyBug's house, I got to work on her computer, typing out my first draft.  He was getting weaker by the day, so we knew we needed to get things ready.  

What a fun vacation this was turning out to be!

(did I already mention that?)

JudyBug wanted us to spend another night with her, but we wanted to get back to Marshfield so we could go to church the next morning.

Sunday morning, we take my mom to church.  Halfway through Bible class, Chuck gets a call on his cell phone.  It's my sister.  "Dad passed away 10 minutes ago".

So we leave and go straight to hospice and see him lying there, finally looking peaceful.

His suffering was finally over.

When we were ready for them to take him away, we couldn't go home and just sit there.  Instead, we took my mom to the park and made a lot of phone calls.

Then she wanted to take a nap, so we took her home and me and Chuck went for a long walk.

Later, we took my mom back to church for Sunday evening services.  They had a singing devo that night, so it was nice and uplifting.

We needed to make final plans for the funeral, but Monday was a holiday so we couldn't do anything until Tuesday.  I don't remember what we did on Monday.

On Tuesday morning, we went to the library so I could finalize the obituary.  We went back to the funeral home and spent the whole afternoon there and made plans for a Thursday funeral.

Me and Chuck were originally scheduled to come back home on Wednesday, so we had to extend our stay there until Friday.

On Wednesday, there was nothing more we could do, so we took my mom out for awhile.  We did a little shopping, and then we drove through Milladore and my mom showed us where her grandmother lived, and where her mother probably went to school.

Thursday.  Funeral day.  Ma wanted to keep the funeral real simple, with just a visitation and graveside services, so that's what we did.  The visitation was in the morning, and that was actually kinda fun because there were a lot of relatives there that we hadn't seen in a long long long time.

The graveside service was an hour and a half away, so mostly it was just the immediate family that made the drive.  It was kept very simple.

Afterwards, we all went to Chuck's house for a BBQ.

We had a really fun time there.  It's been 27 years since we were all together in one place, so despite the funeral, it was a really fun day.

And now I am back at home trying to recover from a sore throat.

I don't eat right when I'm away from home, so I suppose that makes me vulnerable to virus exposure.

It's so nice to be back at home again, in my own bed, with my warm fuzzy puddy tat, and eating healthier. 

AND!

I got my garden all planted!  Yay!

Well, except for the peas, but I can't plant those until Chuck finishes making the last garden bed.

Last year, I didn't use all my garden space, but this year I'm using up all of it.

Plus, I've been reading about how you can (and should) plant flowers in with your veggies to help ward off unwanted pests.  So I am researching and working on a list of different varieties of flowers that I need to buy.

But I will bore you with that in another post.