It's My Birthday

It's my birthday...so I'm giving myself a little break from the stuff I have to get done to catch up with my blog.  I had plans to be all caught up with my housework last week.  The more plans I make, the higher the odds that graphic design work will come in.  It was a busy week.

And since I'm not caught up with my housework yet and we are having Thanksgiving here, I'll keep this one to mostly photos.  The cardinal above was taken through my office window with a 2x converter to increase the reach of my lens.  It's a little fuzzier than I realized, but it was the best I had from that day.

The picture below is the fall garland I have on my stairs.  I don't like Christmas lights before Thanksgiving, but I do like the little bit of light this Fall garland adds to our early evenings!

I'm glad that the horses started getting fuzzy before the winter came.  I think that they knew what was coming before we did!

The neighbors tree was full of Cedar Waxwings last week.  Again, photos taken through the office window.  I tried some with the window open, but as the heat from the house rolls out it creates crazy waves in the air that distorts the picture.  So, I take the pictures with the window closed, dirty glass and all.

I thought that this pair in the pine tree was pretty cute.

They sure loved those frozen berries!

Cardinal in the front yard.  They come to the feeder at dusk and dawn.  So pretty.

I bought some stargazer lilies at the grocery store, they smell really nice.

Our high school football team won the state tournament on Friday night.

It's not the same without Billy playing, but still fun to see the kids succeed. They've had a long string of wins.

Some days the most entertaining thing around here are the cats.

And I'm ok with that!

I probably won't be back here until after Thanksgiving.  I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family or friends.  Thanks for stopping by!

A Cat in a Bowl

I have a really cool decorative bowl on my dining room table.  Our cat, Greta, has decided that it is the very best place in the house for her to sleep.  I put her in it once when she was a lot smaller, she curled up and took a nap.  She doesn't fit in it quite as well anymore, but that doesn't stop her.  She rests in it, watching for any activity out the window.

She bathes in it, makes sense to me.  I had the nerve to have touched her tail...immediate cleaning was required!

She doesn't like to look at the camera, this was as close as she got.

Ignore the human.  Sit in the bowl and ignore the human.

She's a funny cat.  I'm glad that she puts up with us!  Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day!

Our Sweet Penny

A few blog posts ago I mentioned that we were going to have to make a tough decision regarding our old dog.  Well, that day came a week ago.  My good friend told me that we would know when it was time, that Penny would tell us.  She pretty much did.  She wasn't eating much.  She was falling a lot. She was confused when she went outside. She was suffering. When you adopt a pet into your family you owe it to them to love them enough to let them go.

We loved her enough to make that call and to let her say goodbye with dignity.  Sweet Penny, lover of swimming, pickup rides, jumping in the stock tank, running in the woods, rolling in gross stuff and playing with dog friends.  You were loved, you are missed.  Thanks for being the sweetest dog a family could ever hope for.

Winter Has Come

We had a brutal winter last year.  Colder, snowier, longer than most.  Spring was cold, wet, but mostly cold.  Summer was cooler than normal.  Then Autumn arrived, and it was beautiful!  Sunny, above average warm days.  Could it be possible that we were coming out of the colder than average polar vortex?  Nope.  Winter has come.  Snow and days that are more than 20 degrees below average. REALLY?  I guess it's time to find the long underwear.  Time to focus on the beauty around us.  This tree is in the neighbors backyard, I love the sunshine on the berries.

Our High School football team is playing in the State tournament.  We went to the quarter final play-off game last Friday.  It's strange to watch football now that we only know a couple of the players names.  Things have changed a lot since Billy played two years ago!  I'd see a familiar number and think...nice hit Alex!  Way to go Tyler!  And then I'd remember that the jersey's were the same but the players aren't.  A stark reminder that no matter how good you were, there is always someone else ready to step up and fill your shoes.  Or your jersey. Gotta keep moving forward!

We spent some time on the farm on Saturday, mowing and raking and getting my mom's place ready for winter.  Good thing we got there when we did, they got over a foot of snow a few days later!  I'm glad that the horses winter coats have come in!

I took this picture the day before it snowed.  A few maple leaves hanging on.

We knew that the snow was coming, they were predicting a huge amount of snow for our area, so we took a trip to the grocery store.  Along with everyone else in the town!  It wasn't super crowded when we went, it was later in the day, but man things were picked over!  The check out guy told Eric that at one point, all of the shopping carts were in use.  I think that he said they have 250 carts.  Yikes, that's a lot of shoppers.

We were able to get everything we needed, including some pink Gerbera daisies.  Yes, a person "needs" pretty flowers when a storm is coming!  They give me something to look at so I can ignore what's going on outside!

Well, the snow did come, but not nearly as much as was predicted.  Apparently it took a more northerly trek.  We got a few inches, my mom got over a foot.  Funny what a difference 70 miles can make where the weather is concerned.  Our neighbors house always looks pretty, no matter what the weather.

But I prefer to look at the flowers....and ignore the weather. Winter is here, before Thanksgiving.  I'm going to focus on being grateful.  I'm thankful for a warm house and pretty flowers to look at.

I hope that it's warmer in your neck of the woods.  And if it's not, I hope you have some pretty flowers near by so you can ignore the cold!  Thanks for stopping by!

This, That and a Cat

It was a scary weekend with Halloween and the hateful political ads running overtime.  Ugh. More on the ads later.  I've always liked the fun parts of Halloween.  The dressing up.  The pumpkin carving. The candy...oh especially the candy...I like that a little too much!  The bloody Zombies and other ghoulish stuff, not so much.  Anyway, I hope you had a Happy Halloween.  Here's my happy cat pumpkin. 

Now, about those ads.  Ugh.   I won't go into my political beliefs here....well actually...yes, I will.  I am pretty much in the middle.  I don't have much time for zealots in either party.   The attack ads are SO offensive to me.  They twist the facts, they spew hate.

We live in what should be a wonderful country, but all of the nastiness in politics is bringing it down.  Both parties do it.  Both are sickening.  All of the money spent on ads is so insane.  Have ads that tell us what they've done or what they're trying to do.  Stop spewing hate about the other guy. Limit the ads to a week or two before elections...not months before.

Was it all of the hate spewing ads over the years that have caused so much hate between the parties?  Seems like that's what all of the focus has been on.  It's easy to find bad if that's all we look for.  Funny thing is, it's just as easy to find good if that is what we are looking for.  Respect of one another can go a long ways.  Ok. Rant over.  Back to the photos.  It's harvest time on the farm.  A few weeks ago it was the beans, last week it was corn.

The weather has been good for harvesting.  I'm not sure how much there is left to do, but farming progress was being made last weekend....in spite of all the scariness.  :-)

We got all of our raking done on Sunday.  Even our old dog got in on the raking and plopped herself down in a pile of leaves.  Her hips are shot, she's deaf, she's congested...but she sure likes to be where ever the action is.  We have some tough decisions to make fairly soon I'm afraid.

On a lighter note, here's a shot of my scary Halloween bouquet.  Ooohhh....spiders!

And a black cat.  She wasn't happy about having to stay inside on Halloween.  Letting her out on the prowl wouldn't have been a good idea though.

This old cat doesn't have any trouble at all staying inside on a nice sunny warm bed.  She's not very interested in politics either.  I'm pretty sure that she'll vote for anyone that will keep catnip as a legal substance.

Halloween and the elections are over.  Time to move from scary to Thankful....except for the ads that are pushing Christmas already.  That's a whole different rant that I think I'll spare you from.  Thanksgiving is coming....I hope we can all enjoy the season that we're in.  Thanks for stopping by!