A fun night ahead if my torch cooperates. I got a new shipment of glass in, with some new colors. I’m done getting them entered into inventory, now I have to label the new rods so I can make some test beads.

We also got our first load of hay in today. He bought a round bale, so when I get my tractor back I’m going to put the bale spear on it to see if my old 8N is got enough horsepower to lift it. If it does, we’ll get the next load in round bales, because then we’ll use the tractor to carry hay as long as we can get to the feeder with it. Once we get decent snow, we have to switch to the snowmobile and sleds to haul flakes out.

I don’t remember such a bee/wasp-busy year before. Christian took down my Baltimore Oriole feeder because there were so many bumblebees and wasps on it, the orioles wouldn’t even come near it. Here’s some bumblebees busy on a flower,

And next year I have to remember to plant more of the four o’clocks and nicotiana up closer to the house. They smell so, so lovely!

And finally, a hummer visiting some of my glads,

.08” of rain this morning, the most rain we’ve have in more than a month. We need rain!!
Jim, my neighbor’s son, is just tooling along on his bike ride to raise money for the Randy Shaver Cancer fund. He’s into day 22 on his ride to the tip of South America, and he’s in one of my most favorite states, Wyoming. Here’s a photo off of his website, Pedaling For Pennies,

Next year I really need to get back out there!

It’s been quite a busy couple of weeks. We bought a new van!! Technology sure has changed vehicles in the last 13 years. The new van has a backup camera, a side camera for changing lanes, and it pairs with my iPhone so I can listen to the music on it, and hands free talking on the phone. LOL, I can answer the phone with a button on the steering wheel, and if I want to call home, all I do is touch a button and say who I want to call, it pauses the music and places the call, and when I’m done, it resumes the music. Really neat. And the last row of seats fold down into a trunk area, so we don’t have to take out the seat to make room for hauling feed. Just so cool!

My nephews were up to work on my greenhouse yesterday, but they didn’t get much done, it was way too hot to be working outside. Hopefully they’ll be back up this weekend to get the plastic on, because I’ve got a bumper crop of tomatoes, three rows, 30’ long. Next year, LESS tomato plants and further apart!!!


Here’s a batch that I stewed down and froze,

I went down and picked up my nephew last week and had to take a picture of his granddaughter. Oh, what a cutie pie!

And a picture of Pip sucking up to James, one of Mark’s boys,

I’ve found out that Pyr is a cat magnet. If he’s in the studio and Suka is not, she comes out and does some serious snuggling,

I need to get some beads listed tomorrow,




And here’s a couple of funny internet photos:


I can certainly relate to the last one!!!

Oh, this is just brutal! 98° on the north side of the house, and it’s going to be hot, hot, hot for the the rest of the week. Everything is just burnt dry because we haven’t had any rain all month. No, I take that back! We had .04” last week.

Just got to love Pinterest,

I am SOOOOO glad I decided to replace our central air unit now instead of next spring! Hot and humid weather on the way, but I’m trying really hard not to complain, since it’s the end of August, and there’s not too much warm weather left for us.

Life is good right now, the boys are fed and watching wrestling, I just finished listing on Etsy, and I’m listening to an Alan Jackson show. Just love his songs…

Some of my latest creations:

“The project required 6 miles of fencing, at a cost of $10,000 a mile. A Legacy Amendment grant paid for 4 miles; revenue from the grazier offset staff costs to fence 2 miles.”

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/08/03/environment/sherburne-refuge-herefords-help-with-upkeep

$10,000 a mile?!?!? Last year I had to fence in all of my land because of changes in the Green Acres tax laws, so I have an idea how much it costs. What did they use to fence it in, gold plated barbed wire?!?

Just HAVE to laugh at this one... On the news tonight was a story about Zygi Wilf, the owner of the Minnesota Vikings football team, who has been pushing for the state to build him a new stadium to play in. The financing was going to come, in part, from an electronic gambling deal that was touted as a wonderful source of revenue, except it didn't turn out to be the golden goose that was promised. Then it comes out that some had tried to warn that the figures presented were really hinky, but the powers that be just didn't want to hear any naysaying, and pushed it through anyway.

So now comes this story about our football team's owner: "Superior Court Judge Deanne Wilson ruled in a 21-year legal battle Monday that brothers Zygi and Mark Wilf and their cousin Leonard committed fraud and breach of contract and fiduciary duty and had violated New Jersey's civil racketeering law."

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9550527/gov-mark-dayton-alarmed-vikings-owner-zygi-wilf-legal-woes

What is so funny is that our governor, according to the news tonight, wants to make sure that the state  examines the fine print of the contract for the new stadium before it is signed. OK, it's scheduled to be signed in two weeks! Wouldn't you think the fine print would have been gone over by now, by a whole team of lawyers?!? Or were they going to wait until they got to the table to read it over? I would think a contract for $477 million would be more than a couple of pages long.

Just shaking my head in disbelief...

Our central air is on the blitz, and I sure hope that the repair man coming tomorrow morning can get it fixed. Every degree it goes over 70, I lose my energy accordingly. Thank goodness I have window air conditioners in my studio and bedroom, so I can retreat to cool down. And no snide remarks from family about being a woose.

My amaryllis are really confused this year, I’ve got another one blooming! Not that I’m complaining…
I’m still working on earrings, here’s some of my latest,



and some new beads,

Meanderings tonight…

A story in Health news about mothers who can’t afford diapers, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57596030/affording-diapers-a-problem-for-30-percent-of-moms-study-suggests/

I wonder if they know that disposable diapers are a fairly recent development, and I wonder if there are any store that even sell cloth diapers any more. But then, when my kids were babies, I bought yards of flannel and made my own cloth diapers. 

My Peruvian daffodils were blooming, and they make for such a pretty striking flower,

I’ve had a pair of Sandhill cranes in my pasture for the past week, and they’ve been upsetting the dogs with their calls. I love to listen to them.

I’ve been getting the jewelry bug lately. It’s been years since I made jewelry, and I have bins and bins of supplies, so I thought I would get everything out and give it a try again. My wire wrapping skills have suffered, but I’m getting the hang of it again. Here are some pairs that I have in my Etsy shop,

and some of my latest beads too,

I had to place an order with Double Helix, since they just released a bunch of new test batches of silver glass. I’m going to have fun playing with them!

Laying in bed watching Letterman, and one of his topics was Nik Wallenda walking the tightrope over the Grand Canyon. There was video of Wallenda on the tightrope and praying while he was walking, praying to Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit. I wonder if he thought he was going to be protected by all that praying, and I wonder if he has read the Bible, especially the verses about the stupid and foolish facing disaster, or maybe the ones about life being a precious gift.

Just my thoughts...

Almost a month since I posted?!? Just nothing to write about, I suppose. I’ve been busy getting pasture mowed and the garden mulched. The weeds have been outpacing me, as usual. The heat has moved in this week, in the 90s. Yuck!!

Just flower photos today, I’ve got amaryllis bulbs blooming,

I made a mad dash outside to get photos, and was attacked by mosquitoes. Here’s some lilies blooming,

and my grapefruit tree has blossoms like crazy, and they smell sooooooo nice!

I thought this was an orange tree, and had one single fruit growing on it through the whole winter, and about a month ago, decided it was ripe enough to pick, and was quite surprised to find it was a grapefruit! Oh, it was so juicy and sweet-tart. Hopefully it’ll have more than one this year. I’ve got a lime tree that is getting big enough to get some blossoms on it this year, I hope.

We’re jumping from mid-April (last week my furnace was still going) to mid-June, hot and humid. I don’t remember ever having such a cold, cloudy spring before. Last week I was shocked to see a huge flock of geese heading north. Usually I see flocks that big only in the fall when they’re heading south. The grass is certainly liking this weather though.

My orchids are loving this weather too, they’re still blooming like crazy, and here’s a new one that I got as a baby last year,

and I’ve got a pretty amaryllis bulb blooming,

and the birds continue to entertain me, here’s two of the dark boys fighting,

and last but not least, a very scraggly Indigo Bunting,