Monthly Archives: August 2014

Road Trip

Before I tell you about the road trip David and I took yesterday, I have a few things to show you that are going on around our house.

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Molly is holding her own with the big dogs. As you can see here, she is not at all intimidated by Belle, even when Belle barks right in her face.  She hangs out with Bonnie and Belle pretty much all day now.  She doesn’t like being in the shop.  She wants to be where the action is.   I love her little tail that curls over her back.  This is her, “you’re not scaring me,” stance.

We are training Molly to walk around the pool, not get in it.  So far, so good. She walks right up to the edge and then walks away.  I still cage her at night as I am afraid she will fall in the pool and get drowned.

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The birds are busy eating sunflowers. I am going to plant more next year.  We have had dozens of birds including several pairs of goldfinches eating on the sunflowers.

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See the chickadee at the bottom of the picture?   It’s hard to get their picture as they grab a seed and fly off to peck it to get the good insides.

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I believe this is a female goldfinch as she is not as bright yellow.

While sitting at my sewing machine in my girly room I saw a lot of action on the top of my shop.  Cardinals were going in and out of the  gutter getting seeds or bugs or something.  Then I saw this one.

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A rather henpecked orange cardinal.  Yes, it was orange against the reds of the other cardinals.  I think this may be a young one. He looked kind of sad.

Then another critter came to eat.

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There must have been something really good in the gutter to make all these birds and squirrels come to dine.

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“You lookin’ at me?”

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Chomp, chomp, chomp.

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David and I took a road trip.  We headed to Danville to eat at a special restaurant I had read about.

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We landed in Mayberry at the Mayberry Cafe.

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Barney’s police cruiser sat outside ready for him to jump in to catch another criminal.

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All the televisions inside the cafe ran Andy Griffith shows continuously.  The food was good too.

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We sat at Opie’s booth.

We walked around the town square and saw this little guy.

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While driving to Danville we went through Bargersville and Mooresville.  We found a couple of really good antique stores. Did I buy anything?    What do you think?

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I found this cute chalkware chick and a child’s old watering can.  I  will use these for Easter decorations next Spring.  Never too early to plan, you know.

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We stopped at this antique store and it was full of treasures.

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I got two yards of this beautiful fabric for four dollars.  A good deal.  It’s already hanging out on the line drying after I rinsed it to get the dyes set.

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I collect American flags and found this 48 star flag at a very good price.  I have several 48 star flags and one 49 star flag which is kind of hard to find as the 49 star flag wasn’t around very long.  Some day I am going to hang all my flags all around my house outside just to see how many I have.

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I have never been in Avon and we were passing through and I saw this quilt shop and we had to stop.

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I just got a few pieces for a quilt I am working on right now.

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We so enjoyed our drive on the back roads of Indiana. My state is so beautiful in the summer even though it is so hot.  Everything looks lush and green.

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The fields are getting ripe for harvest.  It is said our corn crop is great this year.  I am glad for the farmers and I hope they fill their barns and silos and make a good profit on their crops because some years can be very poor for farmers.  We have had just enough rain to make everything grow well.

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It saddens me that the old wooden barns are disappearing from the landscape.  Someone said once that most children don’t even know what a haymow is.  It’s to store the hay.  It was a great place to play when I was a girl.  It’s where mother cats hid their kittens among the hay bales.  It’s where you swung from the hay hook suspended high above. The hay hook that would hook the bails of hay and then they would be swung into the haymow.  I have so many happy memories of the haymow on my daddy’s farm.  We played basketball up there also when there wasn’t hay in the way.

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I will leave you with a picture of the calendar I bought the other day.   Everyone should keep chickens.  I highly recommend it.  Bye.

 

HOT!!!!

Okay, it’s almost the end of August here in Indiana and it is hot!  We had the coolest July on record and now Summer is coming back with a vengeance.

I use to love hot weather.  I would lay out by our pool for hours baking in the sun.  The hotter, the better.  I am sure I did some real damage to my skin, but I did use Oil of Olay on my face all those years and still do and it has helped keep some of the wrinkles at bay. But I loved the hot weather and dreaded the winters.  Now I am exactly the opposite.  I dread the hot weather.  I feel like all the strength is sucked right out of me.  I don’t feel like doing anything outside except water and feed the animals and then it’s straight back into the air conditioning.  Just a few years ago, we didn’t even have air conditioning and I remember the last Summer we didn’t have it was miserable. We spent most of the time in the pool. Now it’s too hot to even go out in the middle of the day to the pool.

Now I know I could live in Alaska gladly.  Even the winters don’t daunt me anymore.  At least when I don’t have to drive on the icy, snowy roads.  I told David we could move up there and get our food stored up for the Winter and never have to go out and in the Summers we wouldn’t be so hot all the time.  If I could get my family to move up there, I would sincerely think about moving.  There are no swimming pools up there except at motels though, so we would have to give up that.  I could, gladly, for glimpses of the mountains and the water and all the wildlife.

Today it was so hot at church.  The air conditioning was going, but I felt hot and tired and wanted to get home and get in front of a fan with a cold glass of water.  But I didn’t do that.  After David and I ate a quick lunch, I took Belle for a one mile walk and it just about killed me. Even Belle kept looking at me like, “Are you crazy trying to walk in this weather?”    I haven’t walked five miles in so long because it’s been too hot for me and I really miss it.  I am so looking forward to cooler temperatures.

Okay, I have whined enough and got it out of my system.  Sorry I subjected you, my dear readers, to that.  But you just have to whine and let off steam once in a while.  I am not the stoic kind. But I will change the subject.

Have you read any good books lately?  I am finishing up “The Swordsman,” by my sister-in-law, Terry Craig.  It’s really good.  It’s one of a trilogy about what could happen if there was a plague and wars and other catastrophes all around the world and what happens to Christians during this time.   Terry is very imaginative and writes a really good story.  I am so attached to the main characters right now and hope she will write another book about them some day.  I read it a little each night before I go to bed which might not be a good thing because there are some troubling things she writes about that could happen and I see happening now.  But I don’t want it to end.  Have you ever read a book like that?  One you hate to finish?   I get so engrossed in the characters in some books I almost feel like I have lost a friend after I finish the book.  Terry’s previous book that I read, The Sojourner,” was one of those that I didn’t want to put down, but I didn’t want it to end either.  You can get her books on Amazon if you are interested.  Terry did not pay me to write this!!

Fall is fast approaching and we have plans to do some fun things when the weather cools down and we feel like we can leave the puppy for a day with the other dogs.  Molly has been staying out most of the day with the big dogs and they have pretty much accepted that she is not going anywhere so they might as well like her.  She has almost doubled in size just since we got her.  She eats all the time.  Today she tasted mashed potatoes for the first time and almost ate the bowl.  She is so sweet and I have been slowly teaching her about the leash though she doesn’t like it very well. I want her to be a good walking companion like Belle is.  When the weather cools down I am going to take up walking and get back to at least five miles a day again.

Hope you are having a great weekend.  We are just being lazy today and that is fine with me.  Bye.

How to Bathe a Baby

Today I will give you instructions on how to bathe a baby. It’s really very easy.

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First you get the shampoo, a towel and a bowl for rinsing.  A Cool Whip bowl is the best to use.  It reminds you of delicious desserts you ate while you are bathing the baby.

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Oh, did I neglect to tell you the baby was a puppy?  Yes, Molly is getting her first bath.  We didn’t bathe our other two dogs when they were pups and therefore it is impossible to bathe them now. It is dangerous to even try.  So, Molly will get regular baths so she won’t be afraid when she gets too big to handle.   First you get the puppy wet.  Keep the water and shampoo away from her eyes.  This also works with human babies.

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Then with very rapid motions you put shampoo on the puppy and rub it all over her until she is a bubbly little furball.

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Continuing to wash the puppy until your hands almost disappear, you get her nice and clean.  So far the puppy does not know what is happening to her.  She only tried climbing out of the tub once.  But, as you can see, I can move fast and kept her in.

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Then you gently rinse the puppy under the faucet because it is faster that way and gets the soap off her really well.

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By this time the puppy is resigned to the fact she is going to have to endure this just a little longer.

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Then you take a clean towel and begin drying her.  She loves this and makes moaning sounds as I rub her.

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Here she is.  A nice clean puppy who smells like baby powder.  Or as David says, “She smells like a baby’s butt.”   Then you sniff her for about a half hour and rub her dry and think how adorable she is.

Molly has made herself right at home here at the Craig house.

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She sleeps among the shoes.

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She and I both slept on the couch the other day.

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She sleeps with the chickens.  See the black Australorp?  She cosied as close as she felt safe by Molly and laid there for a while.  I am trying to get both chickens and puppy used to each other so Molly won’t want to eat them later.

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The chickens were very curious about her, but didn’t allow her near.

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She sleeps with Bonnie.  I’m rethinking that extension cord right there where she can reach it.  She hasn’t found it yet, but I’m not taking any chances. I have puppy proofed my shop as well as I can, but I am sure she will find something I never thought of to chew one day.

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Yes, she sleeps a lot and I have a hundred or so pictures of her doing so.  I just can’t resist.

Lest you think all I have done since we got Molly is watch her, play with her and walk her, I have done other things.

I picked our first pumpkin out of our garden this week.

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This is one of twelve or thirteen we have seen in the garden.  This is one of the small ones.

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I tea dyed some lace for a project and hung it out to dry in the wind.

I also finished my Christmas sheep quilt top.  I really love it and can’t wait to show it to you.  I finished knitting another hat.  I finished a book and began another.  I did laundry.  I started a new quilt.  I fed and watered the chickens.  I gathered eggs.  I went to church.  I took a walk.  I baked an apple crunch and a rhubarb crunch, both of which have been eaten in a matter of days.  I would say I dusted the house, but I would be lying.  I cleaned up after the pup.  My shop floor looks like I have a real baby with all the toys scattered all over.  I cooked lasagna.  I baked a chocolate chip applesauce cake that I forgot to put vanilla in, but it still tastes pretty good. I made three trips to the vet with three dogs.  I had to hold Bonnie down while they trimmed her nails.   I sat in the air condition because it has been so hot and humid.  I would rather be outside, but I am getting a lot of hand quilting done on a quilt that I hope to have finished next week.  I did a few other things, but the pup has had a lot of my attention this week.

Here’s to bathing babies(human or canine.)  Bye.

 

 

Bringing Up Baby

If you have ever adopted a new puppy, you know it is almost as hard as bringing home a new human baby.   I decided I could raise another puppy.  Friday we picked up our new baby and brought her home.  I thought maybe I had bitten off more than I could chew.   Just like a human baby you have to keep her fed and watered,  clean up her messes and make sure she doesn’t hurt herself.   And give her lots and lots of love.

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Meet Molly Marshmallow.  She is one part registered Boxer and one part registered Lab and so adorable.  She is also very energetic.  We named her Molly just because I like the name and Marshmallow because that is what the children who owned her had named her.  She is like a little squishy marshmallow.

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We got Molly from this young lady.  She ran around with my daughter in high school and was in the youth group at church.  Now she is grown up and has four kids and had eight puppies until we took Molly.   It was nice seeing her again.  I hadn’t seen her in years.  She advertised her puppies on Facebook and that is how we got connected.  I’m so glad we did.

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Here’s Bonnie and her new baby.

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Molly thinks Bonnie is her mother.  She keeps trying to suckle on her.  Poor Bonnie.

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Any part of Bonnie that Molly can chew, she will chew.

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She especially likes Bonnie’s tail.  Sometimes she is holding on to her tail when Bonnie decides to walk off and she just hangs  on it.  So funny.

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I don’t know what she is trying to do here.  She tries to go under things where she doesn’t fit or go over things that are too high for her.

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“I’m still your favorite, right?’

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I go into my shop to cut quilt pieces and Molly lays here.

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Right between my feet.

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By the way, I’m working on this quilt.  I am using pastels in it however.

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It’s called “Pressed Flowers.”  Most of the fabrics I am using are floral.

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Back to Molly and Belle. Belle isn’t quite sure what to think about this new creature that has come into her life.  I think she is deciding she will be fun to play with.   Molly jumps at her and barks and Belle barks back.  Belle isn’t use to Molly ignoring her and tries continuously to get her attention.

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When Belle and Molly are side by side, they look alike.  Both have their bright pink collars on.  Molly still isn’t sure she likes hers.

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Don’t they look like mother and daughter?

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I know this sweet little puppy won’t stay little long.  Just like human babies.  So I will enjoy her puppyhood.

Here’s to puppies and the joy they bring.  Bye.

 

 

 

 

I See the Moon. Oh, No I Didn’t.

The other night we had one of the biggest, brightest moons of the year.  On my Susan Branch calender it is called the Green Corn Moon.   I had every intention of staying up and looking at it and looking for the meteor showers we were suppose to be getting that night also.

Sadly, sleepiness overcame my desire to stay up and look at the moon.  So, while I snoozed upstairs, David got the tripod out and took some spectacular pictures of it for me.

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This is our front garden at night.  It looks magical, doesn’t it?

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There were some clouds that night.  David wasn’t sure he would get a good shot of the old man in the moon.

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But then, there he appeared.  A glorious, shining orb in the sky.

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Just absolutely gorgeous.  To think, men have walked upon the face of the moon.

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If you look at these  quickly, it looks like the moon is bouncing in the air.  To think, God formed this with his own hand and placed it in the sky for us to dream upon, wish upon, and kiss under.  How many romantic stories have the moon as a backdrop?  Ancient men looked at this very moon and probably wondered about it.  We are looking at the very moon Jesus looked upon while he was living on this earth.  Galileo looked at this moon.  Michelangelo and every human who has ever lived has looked at this moon.  It’s nice to know we do share things in common with people all around the world.

Some people said the moon was made of cheese.  That would be enough cheese to feed people for thousands of years I expect.

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I don’t know when the next big, bright moon will be, but I hope I won’t sleep through it.

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In other news, I gave this quilt to a newly married couple this week.  People had signed blocks.

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It originally started as a twin bed and grew like Topsy until it became a king size quilt.  I quilted it all on my sewing machine.  I think they were happy to get it.

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Here is the birdhouse my sister-in-law Terry painted for me.  This is a picture of a hibiscus from our garden.

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A sunflower on one side.

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A coneflower on the other.  She didn’t get to finish it, but I still think it’s beautiful and it will make some bird very happy.

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Since I have been talking about the moon, here is some material with the stars and galaxies on it.  I am going to make someone something with this.

And now for some pink.  It seems pink is the ever present color in my garden.

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I hope you saw the moon this week.  It’s been a busy one with a revival going on at our church, the garden bursting at the seams with vegetables, finishing a quilt,  and Friday, a new puppy is coming to live with us.  What more could one ask for?  Bye.

 

 

It’s a Jungle

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We went to Cincinnati this week to visit our oldest son.  We also went  to Jungle Jim’s.  Jungle Jim’s is a grocery store, but not just any grocery store.  It has so much more than your average grocery store.  Come along with me and I’ll show you.

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Does your grocery store sell Hookahs?

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Or have rickshaws on the shelves?

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Jungle Jim’s has themed areas.  Guess why they have a USN fire truck on the shelves?

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Because it’s the Fiery Foods area.  Hot sauces, hot mustards hot condiments, hot everything.   I have never seen so many different hot sauces.

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And I loved their names.  Beast Killer.

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Ouch.

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Never slap your mother.  No matter how hot the seasoning is.

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I’m whistling now.  Just move along.

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Think this might be just a tad hot???

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This hot stuff cost this much.  You got to really want to burn your mouth to pay this much.

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David found a hat to wear in this section.  I think it suits him.

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We saw Sonny and Cher hanging out.

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Fresh fish.  So many kinds.  Octopus even.

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Large tanks full of these.  I’m not a Peta person, but I still feel a little sad to see these waiting for their destinies crammed in tanks.   I don’t think I could put one in boiling water, but I have eaten them and they are tasty.

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All kinds of sodas.  Would you like a peanut butter and jelly soda?   I’ll have mine on bread, thank you.

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All kinds of coffees.  I loved the colorful packaging.

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This sign does not refer to David or Jason.

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It refers to the wall of jerky in all flavors.  I never liked jerky except when I worked at a Stuckeys when I had just graduated from high school and they sold beef jerky there.  I ate it occasionally, but haven’t eaten any since.

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That’s a lot of cheese.

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This looked very strange and was all prickly.

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I think this may be an acquired taste.  At almost sixteen dollars each I don’t think you’d be buying them often either.

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Remember the movie, Aliens?   I think I know where they are keeping them.  Is Sigourney Weaver anywhere close?

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If you’re this kind of person you can drink this…..

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Something to look at everywhere.

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Cheese!

We spent a couple of hours walking around and looking at things and I purchased a few things.  I can never find Adobo here so I got a big jar of it that should last us a while.

Now for some absolute cuteness.  We were going to try to find another registered Labrador Retriever next Spring.   They are hard to come by.  I wanted a brown female.  Then a girl I know put this on Facebook.

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A Boxador.  A cross between a Boxer and a Lab.  I fell in love.  I told David I had found our next dog.  She has seven brothers and sisters.

Through the years, my daughter would peruse the newspaper and show me new puppies for sale or to be given away.  She talked me into a couple of dogs.  I even found one myself years ago.  There was an ad in the paper and I drove out to the country where a whole slew of children and puppies came running out the door.   The puppy who didn’t run from me came home with me.  We named her Samantha.  She was a sweet dog, but she was a very nervous dog.  I always wondered if she had eye problems because when I would take her for a walk, she would jump at garbage cans sitting by the side of the road and even mail boxes.  One time I was getting ready to walk her and had to go inside for a second so I looped the leash around the wheel of a brand new grill David had just gotten.  It sat on our back deck.  While I was inside, Samantha must have moved the grill a little and gotten frightened because the next thing I heard was a crashing and a bumping outside as Samantha dragged the grill behind her down the steps of the deck.  I finally got her captured and the grill nor Samantha was hurt, but I never did that again.    Samantha lived for a long time, but she never got over her nervousness.

But back to the Boxador.  David and I drove over to see her and she is so adorable.  She has both brown and black fur and a cute little black face.  I held her and she went to sleep in my arms.  I couldn’t bring her home yet as she was still too young.

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She wobbles when she walks.  I could call her Weebles, but I already have a name picked out.

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Who wouldn’t love this face?

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She was yawning here.

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She is going to be so much fun and such a good friend.  I can’t wait to bring her home.

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Bonnie and Belle haven’t a clue what’s coming.  Bye.

 

Wild, Wonderful, Wacky Weekend

David’s brother and sister-in-law visited us this weekend.  They brought their four grandchildren too.  We had two of our grandsons with us so we had a full house.  People were sleeping everywhere.

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I love these two people.  We laughed a lot.  I had to leave the table one time after something Terry said because I was laughing so hard.  I love people who can make me laugh.

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The gang of six.  The four on the left are Bill and Terry’s grandchildren.  The two boys on the right are ours.  They got along really well.  They are second cousins, I think.  This will probably be the only time they will ever all be together as we live so far apart.

 

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We tried to pack a week’s worth of fun in two days.  We had a cookout and we had sweet corn, so David put the kids to work shucking corn.  They did a great job.

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“I came all the way to Indiana just to do this?”

We didn’t make them do child labor all weekend.  There were fun times.

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Swimming and getting dunked in the pool.

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Hot tubbing.  Funny how much kids like to get in the hot tub.  Especially that bald headed kid there in the corner.  We had to keep him under control at all times.

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David had built everyone a birdhouse and the kids painted theirs.  Well, some did.

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I did no painting and still managed to get paint all over my hands.

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Terry is a good artist and I asked her if she would paint a birdhouse for me and she did.  I will show it to you on the next blog.  It’s really pretty.  She didn’t get  to do all she wanted because of time constraints, but I love it.

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There was chicken holding.  The girls behaved very well with all the handling.  Penninah likes it.

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I fell in love with this sweet girl.  I could have kept her, but her parents want her back, so that won’t happen.

We went to Zaharako’s, a local old fashion ice cream parlor and ate ice cream.  We took the kids to an inside playground we have in our city and they played there for a while.  We blew up balloons with lights in them and they waved them at cars at night as they passed.  We played Dizzios.  We had a birthday party for the twin boys who turned eight.  Yes, we tried to do it all.

They all went to church with us Sunday morning and we filled one and a half pews.  Then we ate dinner and went swimming again and then they all packed up and left and our house felt so quiet.

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This picture kind of sums up what two pair of grandparents feel like after a full weekend of fun times.  Bill and Terry still had to go visit some more relatives for a couple of days and then drive back to North Carolina.

We still had our two grandsons for a little while and I took one on a walk with me and Belle.  The other one wanted to watch television.

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So we walked about a mile.

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My grandson took this picture of Belle.  Turned out pretty good I would say.  They went home, but we will be spending time with them again next weekend.  Our son also came over from Cincinnati for an afternoon, so we got to visit with a lot of family which is what I love.

I will leave you with two beautiful pictures of insects I took with my new little camera.

 

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This butterfly matches the flower it’s on.  Hope your weekend was wonderful too. Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kidnap Babysitting

I have some of the weirdest dreams.  Last night was a dream bonanza.  I rode a roller coaster through the mountains, I chased baby chicks and tried to keep them in a barn, but the craziest one is this….

I was in a crowd of people.   There was a celebration or something and there was a young woman with a young child sitting behind me.  She asked me if I would take her child to the restroom and I said, “Sure,” not thinking it was weird at all that a strange woman would ask me to do this.  When I got back, a person sitting next to me said, “You are so stupid to do kidnap babysitting.”  I said, “What’s kidnap babysitting?”   “It’s when someone tricks you into taking care of their child.  “Well,”  I said, “I didn’t mind taking that little girl to the restroom. ” and I left in a huff.  Later I was sitting at a table.  Our preacher was sitting to my left and a person from our church came and sat across from us.  I will not say who it is.  Anyway, this person said to me, “You were so stupid for doing kidnap babysitting.”  I looked at my preacher and said, “I don’t like him/her,” in a matter of fact manner.  My preacher said, “Oh, that’s too bad.”

Then I chased chickens for a while and woke up.  I think I have coined a new phrase.  Kidnap babysitting.  Don’t get caught doing it.  Bye.