happy new year

K

Hello Readers!
we are almost half way through 2017 already and I am just now getting around to my first post. There is a good reason for this. My computer died early December and today I buckled down with the determination to get a post done.
Let's try some pictures.

I somehow succeeded in publishing this post from my phone on the 2nd of april this year. Today is 29 May 17.
I have a computer but have yet to figure out where the hell I can find the pictures I think I downloaded earlier this afternoon from my phone.

Lets see if we will have any pictures today or not.  Cause you all know pictures are essential. They cut down on my useless rambling somewhat and as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

This appears to be the only picture downloaded on the new pc as it is the only picture that showed up in the pictures file.  I will have to figure this picture business out soon as I have to get busy with the etsy store again.

This picture was taken this afternoon, shortly after that crop duster scared the bejesus out of Mo Cat. We were dead asleep in the bed, Me, Mo and Lola. I heard that airplane buzzing over the house. When I first heard I thought, "Oh man, the Russians are invading!~" and then just as quickly I thought, "Don't be stupid. That's a cropduster." As I was having these thoughts Mo was patting me on my closed eyes to let me know there was something big going outside and I better get up and figure out what it is. 

He was flying low!  He was spraying the field just west of Ma's house. Bout a 1/4 mile from my house. Moses and Lola both ignored that plane after I got up from my nap. He buzzed the house a dozen times or so.

Ma and I went to Plainville around 5 this evening and saw two more crop dusters out spraying the fields.

OK. I figured out the picture business, I think...I found them once, but the true test is can I find them again! lol

I got a new cat since the last post back in December. He's quite the hunter! He's cleared the house of mice...thank you, Moses! He's trying real hard to clear the yard of skinks aka little striped lizards.

two in one day, about an hour apart/

This is the last known picture of my Murray cat who keeled over dead sometime back in March. Never lost any animal the way Murray went. She followed me to the bathroom, like she always did, cause everyone needs an audience to do their business. She sat on the little cabinet and meowed at me and followed me into the bedroom. I kept going and when I got a few steps to the coffee pot in the kitchen, she let out a horrible yowl and by the time I got back to the bedroom, she was dead on the floor at the foot of my bed. RIP sweet Murray.

You all will meet Moses in this post. I got him a few days after Murray died.

The crop dusters were out hot and heavy today. This one came buzzing the house about 1 o'clock this afternoon, waking me from a deep sleep. That Moses cat helped the buzz of the little plane to wake me. He was patting me on my closed eyelids when it came buzzing over the second time. I wasn't quite enough awake yet to realize what it was. He buzzed the house a dozen or so times. I just like this picture. I'm not sure why that blob of light is in this picture. The sun was already high in the sky and shouldn't have been where that blob is at 1 in the afternoon. I shouldn't have been able to even see it out the front door. It's a cool looking picture. I like it.

And then there is this one, taken on a different buzz by than the one above. It is even stranger than the first one. I've no clue what the streak to the left of the plane is. No other pictures show that streak. I haven't edited these pictures in anyway. 

Miss Lola, looking pretty

drawings in marker on book pages

practice makes perfect, or so they say...I think I need more practice.

One of the MANY bags I've made since last I was here. This one is about 10 inches tall, 11 across and probably 3 inches front to back. It's crocheted out of quarter inch satin ribbon.

Son called me one day end of March and said Annie had requested I make her a book with lined pages. This one is made from a cake box, notebook paper and whole lot of different tapes. The closure is a braided string of embroidery threads, a pink button and a plastic rock. The inside is covered with the pink tape, closest to the spine with kitties on it. 

This book is the reason I have a new computer. In a round about way at least. I hand delivered this book about a month ago. A kidnapping that was supposed to last 4 days (cause that's all I packed for) ended up turning into 11 days. I am not complaining! I like kidnappings!

I've been back to son's house since the book was delivered. Another kidnapping that lasted a few days longer than I had planned.

I have no clue what the name of this plant is. It's a ground cover that grows nicely around the propane tank.

dandelion flower

The garden spider egg cases have me perplexed. They haven't changed a lick since the spider constructed them back in September. I thought they would have hatched by now. I'm still keeping an eye on them, hoping to be in the right place at the right time to witness the birthing of a herd little spiders!

I tried to find the picture I took of the babies emerging from the egg sacks but for some reason it is not in the file with the rest of the pictures downloaded off the phone a few days ago. So I guess there won't be a picture of the babies. There were hundreds of the little guys! Pin head sized little yellow spiders. I hope the bulk of them survived.

A little bag I made. I don't have a finished picture version, but its done now.

Loom flowers

I've made quite a few loom flowers since December.

New chickens, I think the red one out front is Henrietta, she's not a new chicken. The new chickens came from youngest son, RW. He's moving to the city and can't have his menagerie where he's going. He gave Sammy all but 4 of his chickens and a black duck, I think RW gave Sam 3 or 4 ducks too. Sammy didn't want the black duck cause it"s a boy.We already have a  boy duck. RW's chickens were truly free range, they either come home at night to the coop or they slept in the trees in the woods. Four chickens were missing the evening they gathered them all up to come home with Sammy. Not to worry though. All chickens and ducks have a found a home!

Leading edge of a thunderstorm

making crazy birds with Annie

I'm not sure where this picture was taken. I like the scene though. Must of been dusk, but where? Your guess is probably as good as mine. Somewhere in Kansas. 

I'm sorry there is no rhyme or reason to the order of these pictures.

I found some tulle on clearance at Wally World after Easter. I bought quite a few rolls of it and made this basket and started another one while at my son's house last month. Yes, that is the Christmas Tree still standing in the playroom at son's house in the middle of April. It was still there the second week in May too. DIL says she's not going to take it down this year.  I told her she should decorate it for each successive holiday. That hasn't happened so far though. It was naked through Easter.

Watching the Junior Varsity Baseball team play a game in Nickerson back in April. 

Cottonwood tree seeds on the tree at my son's house. I don't have a cottonwood tree in my yard but there are tens of thousands of them along the riverbank less than a quarter mile from my house so there will be days where it looks like it is snowing once the seeds pods pop open and release the cottony seeds within. I'll try to get a picture when that happens.

Prairie dogs at the mall in Hutchinson. The mall sits in the middle of town but all around it is open ground where the prairie dogs live. Thousands of vehicles enter and leave that mall on a daily basis but very seldom does a prairie dog become a victim to a vehicle. They are pretty good about staying off the roadways. Right now is baby season and there were tons of little ones but I didn't get a picture of any babies.

No clue what this is either. It's a pretty cool picture though so I thought I'd show it off. Says AIR on that right lower corner. Might of been taken in a car? I really don't know what it is.

Rain at my son's house.

Fluffy Frank! 

Still working on the Granny Square project.

I have somewhere around 120 of them completed at the moment.

One of Moses' gifts to me sometime in April. Don't know what species this little fella is. He's not a six lined skink like the other lizard in this post.

Lola showing off her belly.

Another photograph with an annomoly. There was smoke in the air the day this one was taken but the smoke was not thick in my back yard. You can see the column of smoke in the distance but the blob of smoke over the tree wasn't there when I took the picture.

We had wildfires in my neck of the woods back in early April. This is out by the State Lake. That's a homestead on fire. Every building on that place burnt to the ground. Thankfully there were no injuries to the folks who lived there.

A longer view of the same fire as in the previous photo.

I don't remember how many acres burned then, but the fires burned for a few days before they got them all extinguished.

Sitting at the only stoplight in Stockton, Kansas.

They closed Hwy 183 heading south out of town during the wildfires.  You can see the hills just south of town ablaze. 

Here's Moses. Or Mo, which is what he's  called more often than not. 

Large market bag crochected with vinyl tablecloth yarn. The handles are made from the sleeve seams of a fleece jacket over crocheted with acrylic sock yarn..

this picture was taken the end of January on my way home from a Dr.'s appt in Wakeeney. My youngest son, RW, was driving. We counted 16 deer crossing the highway right in front of us. The herds of deer aren't usually quite so many individuals. It isn't uncommon to see 8 or 9 in a herd, but 16 is a lot. Though I have seen a herd of 22 in the past. This was on Hwy 24 out by Webster Lake.

This one was taken the same day as the deer herd above. The big tree in the middle of the photo is a cottonwood tree with a band gnawed around the bark. That band of missing bark killed the tree. That's the work of a beaver. Beavers usually go for much smaller trees than this huge cottonwood. I couldn't put my arms all the way around this tree, it's that big. I didn't actually try to put my arms around it, I didn't even get out of the car to take the picture....but it's a huge tree for a beaver to try to fell. Just out of view to the right of the photo is a branch of the Solomon River. It was a cool find and not something you see everyday so I shared it.

Another failed picture that I think looks pretty cool. It's a picture of a crocheted plarn bag that did not turn out as expected. I've no clue what the red thing in the bottom of the bag is. 

this is part of a farm implement. Someone took it off the wall above the old sofa it's sitting on. The wall behind is the west side of the burnt house. It has hung there for several years. It's a pretty cool piece of iron. I got it at a junk yard on a foray into mischief some years ago. I wish I'd of taken more than one. They've all been shredded and turned into something new by now. 

It's been quite some time since I've shown the field out north. This one was taken way back in late March. It's planted to wheat this year. 

I made some CD weavings. There are probably this many and more in the paper sack by my chair where I put them when I finish one. Something will happen with these eventually. I've been rather remiss in keeping up with the creative endeavors thus far this year. I hope to change that.

Ralph. The jumping spider who over-wintered in my livingroom. He's about a half inch long. He earns his keep by killing flies and other undesirables. 

Lulu, one of the mama cats at son's house.

And here's Lulu again with the kittens. Not sure where Midge was, shes' the other mama. There are 8 little kittens. Cute little buggers! I can't have another cat though....

I got a new one yesterday. Late in the evening, Dennis came to live with us. He's a cool cat. My youngest son is moving to the big city of Hays and Dennis has always lived out in the country so RW figured he'd do much better at my house than in the city. He's a big ol' lover boy of a cat! Lola hates him, but that, I expected. Moses doesn't like him either but that, I too expected. There was a lot of yelling and hissing and general 'stay the hell away from me' noise throughout the night, but there were no spats that turned into fisticuffs so I think the three of them will figure out the hierarchy and all will end peacefully.

I will get a picture of Dennis up the next time I make a post. 

There has been much that has happened in the first six months of the year, but we'll just visit those if the need arises and go from here....my brain aint up to telling you about it all and you probably are not up to reading it either. 

I hope my rambling didn't hurt your brain too much while reading this mish mash of words. I really don't have the energy to go back and take the parts where I'm repeating myself.

Thanks for hanging in there till the end of this one....you deserve a medal!

Remember,

be kind to one another

it matters!

Peace

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