Trick or Treat

The candy is packaged and ready. 

Yes we got our second snow.  It was really cold yesterday …the North wind doth blow.  The first day of Winter is still 50 some days away.  Enough already!

The old Border Collie loves to eat lick snow.

Oh well at least it is a calorie free treat.

I am off on an adventure by myself today, I will be back before the Trick or Treaters are out.  Far Guy and Chance will have a quiet day.  Licking snow and doing who knows what whilst I am gone.

Today I am thankful that Far Guy is feeling a bit better, the antibiotics have begun to work their magic.

October is almost over

It seems like October began just a few days ago and now there are only a couple of days left. Where does time go anyways.  Sometime I just want to holler STOP…I need more time to catch up!

The scarecrow flag is up.  Most of the snow has melted.

It was a dreary day, no sunshine, but at least there were no gale force winds. We went for a ride in the late afternoon…it is dark after supper…Chance misses his evening drives…so we have to take him for a ride during the day.

I am thankful that we got our yard work done and for a warm and cozy home.

Weekend

Pansies must be tough…

They were blooming under the snow…hardy little things.

I worked on packaging up the woodcarved Christmas Ornaments so they will be ready to deliver in person or by mail sometime in November/ December. Far Guy made custom cardboard protectors for the ones that will be mailed.

I lost my mojo on the making of the Christmas Cards.  I want to veer off into other areas…very tempting….oh look I could make that…isn’t that cute?  I should make more photo cards…not…I have an idea for stitch marker do dads…I gathered the supplies for that project….and they are on my desk right next to the cards.  Will that be my reward AFTER the cards are done…or will I weaken.  Time will tell.

 

First Snow

Well we have our first snow.  It turned really cold.  I had to get out a heavy Fall coat, my snow boots, a hat and gloves.

I think the little pansies that have been so cheerful all week might have died.

I had a list of “stuff” I needed so we waited until afternoon to go to town, the roads were good by then.

No sitting in the chairs for a few days.

This snow will melt.

We made comfort food for supper…a pork roast with roasted carrots mashed potatoes and gravy.

Far Guy is still struggling with his bronchial infection, the Pulmonary Doctor has been advised and says if there is no improvement by Monday a different antibiotic will be started.

Ready or not

It is snowing here and the ground is white, of course it is late at night on Thursday so I will have a photo or two tomorrow. The wind is howling…snow is blowing around. It is officially our first snow….usually we can get by with a few snowfalls that melt before winter settles in.

We worked on a few Fall Projects this week.  All the lawn furniture is put away except for two chairs which were kept out in the hopes that it will be warm enough one day soon to sit outside again.

We found a spot for the snow stick….just in time.  Trust is when one person holds the stick while another hits it with a big flat rock cause someone (me) is too lazy to go get the hammer.

Far Guy moved my small flag holder.  It looks good near the old wagon wheels.

I decorated the wreath by the door.

I vacuumed out one of the vehicles…one was all my hand/wrist/arm could take. I sure do like those custom floor liners…easy peasy ...well worth the $ spent on them.

Jody’s Birthday

Today my other baby brother is older than he was yesterday.

I was nine years old when he was born.

50 years ago he posed for some photographs for me.  I was doing a photography project for 4 H.

I was supposed to be capturing Action Shots. That Spruce tree in the background was planted by my baby brother (Carey) when he was little.  That patch of flowers is where the outhouse used to be.  The swing set had a glider and two swings.  On top of that pole on the left was a big old birdhouse with lots of rooms for birds.  In the background was the pasture….where beef cattle (Herefords) grazed.

A nice shot of the lilacs and a blurry other baby brother on his bike.

Since I was older my other baby brother listened to me really well.  He talked non stop and asked why why why and I tried to answer as best I could…he was a curious kid.

Now he lives next door to us and plows snow for us in the winter.  He still talks a lot but it is good for his business and he knows more people than you can shake a stick at.

If you want something done right…a road built, a basement dug or a building site prepared or a brand new septic system then my other baby brother is the fellow to call.  That is him in the white hat.  They were working down on a local corner one day…here they are setting a culvert.

Happy Birthday Jody!

Chance: Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my birthday, I am thirteen years old today.  In eight weeks I will have lived with Far Side and Far Guy for 13 years.

I am getting old, feeling my age a bit but I still go for walks and I can play ball as long as I don’t jump in the air…Far Side just rolls the ball for me now a days. I take pills that make my arthritis better and I can go up and down the stairs most days.  I need help to get in and out of the vehicle.  I still like to go for rides.

Far Side says I am a little spoiled.  Now who really knows for sure.  I have plenty of food and special treats and a warm place to sleep and good company.

December 26 2004

This was back when I was so lonely at night that Far Side laid on the couch all night with one hand inside the laundry basket where I slept.

Someone put me in an airplane March 2005

Driving a boat  in 2006 probably on Lake Kabetogama

In a snowbank December 2008

Among the daisies 2009

Chasing water drops 2010

My magestic on a rock photo in 2010

 

2012 on a foggy October morning in Indiana

October 2013

October 2014

October 2015

October 2016

Happy Birthday to me!  This is my official 13th birthday photo. Not sure how many more birthdays I will have.  Far Side says everyday is a gift….hope my gift is a little bit of cheese …or some spaghetti squash…or peanut butter!

Seasonal

As I picked up a bag of Halloween candy for the hoards of ghosts and goblins that will come our way I wondered how quickly Halloween will be replaced by Christmas…or will the aisles ajoin each other like at Menards where they have full Christmas aisles right next to the Halloween decorations.  I haven’t even had a Turkey Dinner yet! (Truth be told I did wander down that aisle and checked out the Shiny Brites but they had no new/old designs.)

Far Guy has a bad cold…seasonal maybe.  But I think it has morphed into a bacterial infection so he has started on antibiotics.  With Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency every lung infection is a big deal.  I watch him carefully and boss him around.  Drink more water…then he acusses me of wanting him to drink so much water he vomits…argumentative is a good sign.

On my desk it is Christmas as the making of the Christmas Cards continue on and on and on.  I need about 120 cards each one a work of art with lots of sparkle.

The watercolor paper is stamped with a design and then colored with Prismacolor pencils and various colored markers and then embellished with glitter glue. I work on them in the evenings while watching TV. 

Hopeless Garden

I have a hopeless garden out in front of the patio.  It was a miserable failure this past summer.  Years ago it was a Daylily Garden and then believe it or not one year they froze out.

This was it on its best day this summer. PATHETIC  The bird feeders hang directly above this garden.

The last day of August it should have looked better than this. I know I have lots of junk in there…solar lights are my weakness.   I love seeing all the lights at night. This garden did not lack for water or fertilizer.  The Pansies are the only flowers that looked good and the tree rats cute little squirrels ate some of them.

I have slowly moved a few decorations out. Yesterday after a shopping trip for a few more solar lights I cleaned and repaired the ones that worked and cleaned up this garden for winter. Most of the lights will get covered with snow but sunny days the snow will melt and the lights will shine again.

After

Next year I may change my flower shopping list to : Impatiens, Coleus and Pansies.

If I couldn’t control my OCD this garden would have the same kind of solar lights evenly spaced…instead it is just a mishmash of lights styles and colors placed haphazardly throughout….perhaps I should call it a colorful patchwork!

I have enough solar lights purchased for next spring…hard to pass up a sale. For now I tucked them and extra parts that are still good in a file cabinet in my garage.

I could not bring myself to uproot the Pansies.  They will bloom a few more days until a really hard frost.

Laughter

I saw something interesting the other day on Facebook. It made me laugh out loud.

“You own everything that happened to you.  Tell your stories.  If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have treated you better.”

Sometimes certain things just strike me funny… and I laugh right out loud uncontrollably…like Adam being a pill during a photography session.  His Mother didn’t think it was funny at all, possibly that made it all the funnier for me.  He was ordered to “stop before your Grandmother keels over.” ( Can you see the obit…old cranky woman dies from laughing too much! )

We all need a little more laughter, this world is way too serious.

 

Yard Work

Fall yard work is nearing an end.

The Purple Leaf Sandcherry at the edge of the patio is looking more bare.

Most of the trees in the yard are bare, just a few trees in the woods left to complete the fall.

Yesterday I cleaned up some of my glass flowers and hauled away my gardening bucket. Lawn furniture is making it’s way to my garage piece by piece.

Some of the glass flowers will spend their winter outside to add some color to the snow.

The lawn is nicely green this time of year. 

Buggy

We are not alone.  It seems that most of our area is being attacked by the Asian Lady Beetles.

They don’t care… they will fly right in your mouth.  It sounds like rain drops as they splatter to their deaths on your windshield…they have orange colored innards.

They line up on the door to get in the house to vacation for the winter where it is warm.

Even Chance has had it with them flying around hitting him in the nose.  They have sharp mouth parts and if they bite you it hurts.

They have delayed window washing for a while.

I enjoyed the warm unseasonable October weather except for these bugs.