Purely pets today. Honey, my studio cat, likes to sleep on my printer,

My spoiled deva, Pip, found a new spot to take a nap,

Suka is such a goofy, cute dog! Here he is with one of his toys,

and after getting clipped, (the last one is so out of focus! But it just shows his exuberance)

65° lovely cool degrees, and trying to figure out the best use of my time before I fizzle out. Do I get more plants planted (did 5-6 big pots this a.m.), more hay spread (did a truck-load this a.m.), clean my studio floor (haven’t done that for a while), list beads (did that yesterday), go till up some ground (hmmm, maybe I’ll do that)?

Some beads I’ve listed lately:

96° yesterday afternoon, and now it’s a LOVELY COOL 58°! Got to love summer cold fronts. :)

Another hot day here today, up to 90°, but then we have some nice cool weather coming in, so this week I’m aiming at getting all of my seedlings in the ground. All of my vegetable plants are in, so now it’s the flowers’ turn.
My birds appreciate me finally getting some water running for them, they are so funny the way they fluff up and shake themselves off.

If I have have any doubts about who rules this house, all I have to do is look at the way I start my day.

1. Get up and go open the doggie door.
2. Run for the bathroom and get Pip to come in with me so she doesn’t go into Lukas’ room and wake him up.
3. Go to the kitchen after getting Squeak out of Lukas’ bedroom and get the bedroom doors shut up so the boys can sleep a while longer. Feed the dogs their can of dog food, one spoonful at a time, with them taking turns.
4. Head out with all three dogs and try to get Squeak to do all of her business outside. Supervise so Suka doesn’t try playing with either of the little ones while they’re taking care of business.
5. Head on back to the kitchen and divide up a can of cat food into three dishes, one for K.C., one for Honey (my studio cat), and one for the outside cats. Put them in their respective spots.
6. Make my coffee and head to the studio to catch up on my email and the news.

This past week was a long, trying one. Wednesday we had our oldest dog, Chester, put down. He was 14 and couldn’t keep any food down anymore. He wasn’t an in-your-face dog like Suka, he was just always there, looking for a treat or a pat, and I miss him.
Here he is taking a nap with me,

and he was such a cat magnet,



Saturday we went down to the farm to work on getting the trailer house cleaned out. The old house is no more, it’s been bulldozed into a pit and replaced with a pole shed, and as soon as we get the trailer house cleaned out, that will be hauled away. It’s a sad process.
We worked on the middle bedroom, and got it down to bare floor. Towards the end of Mom’s life, she saved so many things, plastic bags, pieces of aluminum foil, magazine offers... and every box had to be gone through. One box had photographs from the 40s and 50s, I felt like I’d hit a jackpot when we found it.

My brother Bob has a tractor there to haul things around, so Scott and Scottie got to drive it. Two little boys in second heaven... :)


Yesterday the boys came up and we worked on fencing in the woods. I was using the tractor to push down saplings and raspberry plants, and this is what happens when you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing,

I was watched over, enough said.

And a saucy Oriole, checking me out through the window,

One of the worst things about getting old is saying more goodbyes than hellos.

The cows are really enjoying the new pasture. It’s such a nice feeling to watch them out there.

The kids were up today, and Dallas found out why he should wear shoes when he’s in my studio,


Stupid pet photos, Squeak getting squished, but at least she’s nice and warm with that fuzzy butt sitting on her,

And my middle bedroom/craft room is progressing, a coat of red stain is going on, and then the poly process gets started.

We’ve been having buckets of rain, since yesterday we’ve gotten over 4 inches of rain, and it’s still going. I don’t think we have to worry about the drought at this time. We live in sand country, so I don’t have to worry about standing water or flooding (other than the basement. Got to get the boys to get some better drainage system going!).

My middle room is progressing, slowly but surely.

The next step is to stain and poly the floor. I can’t wait until it’s done!! I’m going to move a large table into it for my jewelry and sewing, and maybe even some drawing or painting. I thought my studio was going to fulfill that purpose, but it’s too hard to keep the ferrets out of things, so my studio will remain just for my glass work.

An interesting story on The Today Show this morning, http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/47549293#47549293, www.facebook.com/pages/The-Tutu-Project/106996669085

Sigh, summer is here, it was 86° a bit earlier. I hate summer (and winter) as much as I love spring, with its warm days and cool, brisk nights. Heat and I just do not get along any more.
No bead photos today, but lots of everything else. My current blooming flowers,

I’ve been wanting one of the blue orchids since they came out, so when I saw one on sale, I grabbed it. I’m hoping the next time I get down to Bachman’s, they have their orchids on sale. Last time I was in there, I walked in, saw the new orchids, and my mouth dropped and I gasped. They had peachy orange ones, and white with peachy orange. They were drop-dead gorgeous!

This year’s amaryllis have really been spread out, I’m not sure why. I’ve still got amaryllis bulbs that haven’t sprouted, and they usually do that much earlier.

Baltimore orioles, bright, brash, and loud,

And Suka, trying to sleep in the recliner, being such a silly boy!

My morning ritual is to get my coffee, check my email and then read the news on Google News. Every day there’s that headline that just makes you shake your head and wonder about people. This is my sampling from today:
Crackdown On Human Baby Flesh Capsules
Dinosaurs' digestive gases linked to global warming

Saturday's 'Supermoon' Won't Destroy Earth

Two dolphins die from 'heroin' overdose in Swiss zoo after weekend-long rave
Lots of bird photos today. It was really windy, and the Oriole in my tree was really going for a ride,

And it was a busy day at the feeders,

The boys were up to work on the fencing, but it got cut short because of storms moving through again. We’ve had 4” of rain in the past few days, with more coming. It’s disconcerting to look at the radar and see the storms moving east, and look out at the clouds moving west.
I saw a different bird today, a white throated sparrow, but he didn’t stay long enough for me to get a photo, so here’s one from http://wwcbirdcrew.blogspot.com,

I’m still playing with making murrini, up to 117 tests now. Here’s some that came out nice,



And here’s a new bead,

I have a phobia about spiders, especially the ones that don’t stay in their corner catching mosquitoes. Black jumping ones and wolf spiders are an instant ‘YEEEEEK!’

I was cleaning the greenhouse on my deck and walking around in the house this afternoon, and got an apple and went to lay down. Long pants and socks on, laying in my bed, I felt something on the back of my upper leg. Instantly thought, tick! since I had been out working on the fencing, so I got up, took my pants off and was looking inside the leg. Just guess what was in my pants. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!! It was a jumping black spider. Christian so kindly took care of it for me.

The fencing is on the downhill slide. The major parts of the 40 square are done, just a couple of short spots around the house and barn, and then on the 5 acre strip we’ve still got corner posts and wire to lay. Hopefully this weekend the boys will come up and we’ll get a gate hung and then we’ll be able to open one new pasture to the cows. They’ll enjoy exploring.

Oh, crap, tornado sirens are going off.

It’s going to be a long night, there’s a line of storm cells down to Kansas. The sirens were going on and off for a good half hour, but we just had some heavy rain. That little black dot right in the middle of the first photo is an eagle. A downdraft caught him and he came twirling down, then he recovered and flew back up into it.

More photos, we had a downpour, over an inch of rain (which we needed!),

My day has not started out all that well. 6:15 a.m., Suka (the husky) was stuck under my bed, and his thrashing woke everyone up. So up I get, get all of the dogs out to do their business, and then while I’m trying to get S.C. (Scaredy Cat) to come up to me on the sidewalk, Peaches (one of our other cats) tries sneaking out the doggy door, but unfortunately, Suka was standing right there. He grabbed her by the head and ran off with her, with the 2 little dogs running after to join in the fun, and me trying to rescue Peaches. The snot ran all the way to the end of the orchard before he dropped her, and then she swatted any of the dogs trying to get to her until I caught up, then over the fence she went.

Nope, not a good day so far.

Cool!! I saw a new bird today, a yellow-rumped warbler. I wasn’t quick enough to grab my camera, so here’s a photo off of the web.

It’s snowing! Extreme weather, I was almost dying of the heat day before yesterday.