Have you seen these?

Have you ever seen Silly Bands bracelets? Here are three that Courtney wore on Tuesday. Umm... that's the crown, star and dolphin shapes... not the blobs in the centers of them. The blobs are yogurt cranberries. Just ignore those.

Silly Bands are like rubber bands, but they come in all sorts of fun shapes and colors, and they retain their shapes even after being all stretched out. Apparently they're all the rage for kids.

Courtney loves hers (one of them belongs to a friend, I was told). She even enjoys looking at them while eating a snack.

Peeping tom

A couple evenings ago I was very surprised to find my youngest babies (Blackie's) out in front of the house. They were cowering in a corner when I first stepped out, but as soon as I spoke to them, they relaxed and started off to play. After I had been back in the house for a while, I looked out the window and saw them having fun on the deck. Of course it was the tom who was peeking in the window.

As I watched, suddenly all three of them took off flying toward the steps! I looked out the other window, and as I suspected, there was their mama. Soon the scene looked like this:

Awwww! Check 'em out in action!

That minor "earthquake" in the middle of the video was caused by Josie landing on my shoulders. And from there on, it was a bit harder holding the camera steady for some reason. I guess she wanted to see the action, too. :-)

Child labor - a year later

Remember this post where I had my little "pin helper" on the job? (Oh, how I love that video!) She carefully placed the pins into the cushion 'just so'. Well, I hired her again when I was cutting out the pieces for our kitty puppet. She handed me the pins as I needed them, and she removed them afterwards. When we were finished, I just put things away, not really looking at anything very closely.

A few days ago I got out my sewing equipment again to make another puppet (I'll show it to you when it's done). As I went to grab a pin from the pincushion, this is what I found:

Precious! I love it!

Minnesota - Land of 10,000 new lakes

Rain, rain... go away! And don't come back till next summer!!

It rained. Man, did it rain! Since noon yesterday, we got 4.72 inches. That was actually one of the lesser amounts recorded in the area. Some places got around 8-10+ inches! Incredible!!

I heard a first this morning. On the radio they announced a couple of schools in the area starting late because of too much rain, and buses were going to run "on passable roads only". There were many roads under water, some roads washed out. Crazy!

I took this pic first thing this morning. The puddle by the tree got much larger before the rain was through.

Everything is more than saturated. With all the rains we've had in the last 3 months, the ground was still overly wet before this even started.

I took the pics below from the end of our driveway. The water standing there is a sight we normally only see in the springtime when the snow is melting and the ground is still frozen so the water can't get away.

It'll be awhile before those beans can get combined!

At least in the field below, the corn was already chopped for silage.

I like how our road looks in that picture (looks better if you click on it to enlarge it). It doesn't feel that wavy when you drive on it!

Guess what? We have more rain in the forecast for tomorrow (Friday) night and Saturday. Aargh. At least the next few days after that are looking drier (so far).

Note: The photos above show only minor results of all that rain. There has been serious flooding in other areas near rivers, creeks, etc.

Mmmmm....

"Dead skunk in the middle of the road... stinkin' to high heaven!" (I think my kids will appreciate that.) Yup, roadkill. And buzzards. Eatin' up the roadkill. Yum. At least those ugly birds are good for something.

It was right near the end of our driveway. And the breeze was blowing directly toward me while I was taking the pics. Not yum. I didn't hang around long for better shots.

There was a dead 'coon just a little farther up the road, too.

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Actually, around here, we love roadkill potatoes. Another one my kids'll appreciate. ;-)

Hmmm.....

I guess it's time for the new kittens to learn how to walk. (?)

Quite patient, wasn't he? ;-)

Just pretty

All better now

As I mentioned in an update to this post, I had to start Josie on an antibiotic after her spay surgery, due to a rattle in her lungs. Unfortunately, the med. didn't help. It only made her throw up. By Friday afternoon, she wasn't eating and had no energy, so I decided to take her in to the vet for an exam. She had a fever and very congested lungs. So she got a shot and a new antibiotic. (It's a pill, BTW. Ever try to give a cat a pill? Heheh. But I usually get it down on the second try. Only 5 days to go.) By the time I went to bed that night, her appetite was coming back, and she's been steadily improving ever since. As I type this, she's full o' the dickens and getting into everything she can. Hurray!

Here are a couple pics I took this morning:

"I'm NOT on the table!"

Chillin' with her now-good-friend, Wispy.

All is well.

It's almost time!

Here's Farmer Courtney checking the soybeans. Looks like they've come a long way since she last checked them exactly a month ago.

Lookin' like a good crop!

I sewed AGAIN!

Hey, two completed sewing projects in less than a week! WOOHOO! Okay, so this next one wasn't a very big project, but it was fun. What took the longest was cutting out all the little pieces. The actual sewing was very quick.

Anyway, it's a hand puppet, made from felt. Courtney wanted a pink kitty, so that's what we did (she was "helping" me cut it out last week), and she even chose the purple nose. :-) Isn't our kitty cute?

Here's a shot of it in action. She was being a bit goofy and started out making silly noises, which is why I asked her what a kitty says. And I hope you don't notice that she's missing her pants. ;-)

I got the free pattern and instructions from the Just Another Day in Paradise blog. Look at the other puppet patterns that are also available... Old MacDonald (pic of him on that blog) and his whole crew! Aren't they adorable?! Thanks Larissa!

(Photo by Just Another Day in Paradise.)

Poor baby

She was spayed today. Poor little thing. And look at that bare tummy.

She did well, though... was a very good kitty. She'll be feeling much perkier tomorrow.

And I'm just glad it's all over with. I always hate putting them through that.

Update: This morning (Thursday) she woke up with very rattley breathing, so I had to go in and get her an antibiotic. For some reason, all of my cats that I've had spayed (4) in the last 7 years have had that happen. At least I was expecting it, so it didn't rattle me!

Full house

Well, not the 'house', really.... but the feeder. The hummingbirds have been really thick lately. I think this is the first time I've ever seen all 4 "slots" full on the feeder at the same time, with more hummers waiting in line!

Not a very good photo, really, as it was shot from across a room and a half in my house. Didn't want to scare them away. However, they've been so busy feeding the last couple days that they didn't worry about people around... or cats. Last evening Courtney and I were out on the deck steps, and the hummers were busy flying around and at the feeder... with 2 cats sitting directly below the feeder, staring up longingly. :-)

Hope I'm not boring you with the hummingbird stuff. It's just that this was a quick post to do. I have lots more stuff to show you, but today is a very busy one, so I'm outta time. Josie's at the vet getting spayed (poor baby), and I have a couple other things going on today. So catcha later....... !

I am embarrassed to say....

.... that I started this little sewing project way back in July. (My excuse is "too many extra hours on the lawn mower this summer". Will that work?) Anybody remember trying to guess what this was going to be? Well, here... finally... is the answer:

It's a pair of oven mitts, requested by Jess for her personal use. Made out of fabric she designed by her very own self. Sewn by her very own mommy.

They weren't too bad to make, even though it involved sewing through 8 layers of fabric at times. My trusty 40-year-old Kenmore was up to the job with no problems, though. For more details and where to get a free pattern and instructions, see Jess's blog post.

I discovered it's pretty hard to take a picture of one of the mitts on my own hand. I could barely get it far enough away from the camera to get the whole thing in the pic! But I did it!

On the other hand, it helps if someone has an iPhone that send pics (albeit often sideways) of one of the mitts in action! Below is Chef Alex, making one of his famous coffee drinks. Mmmmm!

Yep, it even fits a real man's hand.

Delightful surprise

Remember the hibiscus cuttings I was starting back in June? They had nothing but stubby little beginnings of roots at that time, and I thought it might be as long as a couple years before they bloomed. Well, it's been less than 3 months, and look at them now!

Yep, 2 plants... a peachy-coral one and a red one.

I couldn't be more pleased! And now I won't feel nearly as bad throwing out the old plants when the time comes this fall.

Grandma's little farm girl

Courtney came in this adorable little bib overall on Tuesday. She calls it her "bibs", because that's what Daddy calls his. Below she's rearranging her artwork on the fridge, with the... ahem.... "help" of her assistant, Josie, who looks ready to jump up and do her part.

Her baby, Molly, was well-dressed, too... in Courtney's vest. Hey, it was cold that morning... only about 50°!

Look how long that hair is!

Molly had a new 'do... 3 ponytails!

I love this pic below. I don't remember what she was doing at the time, but this is definitely a look of teasing mischief! See that twinkle?

Unfortunately, Courtney started not feeling so well right after lunch, so the rest of our day wasn't quite so fun. But I think she's all better now - yay!

Fly zone

A couple evenings ago, the hummers were so hungry that they didn't even seem to mind that I was standing right out there with them. They were zooming around my head and all over the place. They actually weren't doing much eating, though, because they were too busy fighting over whose feeder it was. You can even hear their wings clashing a few times as they flew into each other. Here's a little of the action:

(I wish the microphone didn't pick up the sound of my breathing so clearly. Sorry about that, but hey, I had to breathe!)

Shhhhh!

Last Tuesday I'd gone downstairs to the computer to check for email, and since Courtney was playing so nicely by herself upstairs, I did a few other things while I was down there. Then I noticed it had gotten pretty quiet upstairs, so I figured I'd better go check and see what was going on. I went up quietly, and when I got to the living room, this is what I found:

At first I thought it looked like just a pile of blankets, but then I noticed it actually looked kind of curled-up-little-girl-shaped. I thought maybe she'd fallen asleep waiting for me to come back upstairs, but then the pile seemed to be lying not quite still.

So I tiptoed back and grabbed the camera and got it focused and ready. Then I said, "I wonder where Courtney went!"

Surprise! Wouldn't you know it, she popped right out from under that blanket!

"What's for dinner, Mom?"

Josie, the little stinker, is right there whenever I open the fridge door. And if there is a spot big enough, she'll crawl immediately into it if I don't grab her! She's even worse about trying to get out the entry door and into the garage. She can be clear across the room, but if I head toward that door, she can be under my feet and out the door in a split second! She has made it past me quite a few times. She's usually waiting right inside the door when I come back, too, to try it again. I'm catching onto her tricks, but she does keep me on my toes! And I love her spirit! ;-)

Hmmm..hmmm..hmmm.....

The hummers are back, both ruby-throated males:

And females:

Here we go again!

Remember last May when Blackie had her first babies and ended up not taking care of them? Well, she had another batch about a month ago, and this time she figured out what she was supposed to do with them.

Here's where Blackie and her new babies live. How many can you see? Click to enlarge for a better look.

There are three. Can you pick them out? Blackie's face is above the little gray one, and there is one kitten on either side of the gray one... a calico right up against him on the left, and a little off to the right you can see the white tips of paws on a mostly black one.

Here they are, fairly tame already, and getting lots of lovin' as we brought them into the machine shed to play with where it was dryer than in the wet grass.

(Click to see the lovin' much bigger!)

We even have them named already! Clockwise from the top in the bottom center pic (confused yet?) are Whiskers, Boots (you can see his boots in the bottom right pic of Courtney holding him), and Tippy, the calico who has an orange tip on the end of each ear!

The older "babies" seem pretty huge alongside the new ones! Here's Tuffy the Mouse Eater:

And Courtney's favorite Scoot(y):

As well as Patches and Miss Purrkins:

Who definitely make a bigger armful than those new little ones!

See the size contrast below?

So we have lotsa fun days ahead!