Saturday, January 30, 2010

Church Is Cancelled Tomorrow…

And when the Southern  Baptists cancel a church service you know the roads are not so good.  I decided that I’d take a walk and get some images to post for your visual enjoyment and perusal of awesome beauty.  It’s been gray the last couple of days but the trade-off has been beauty that stops me in my tracks and I have to be thankful for the things I am fortunate enough to see and appreciate.

That being said… here are some images from my world today.

cardinal on icy branch

ice on tree branch

icy grass 2 

lacy snow 2

snow 1.30.2010 024

snow 1.30.2010 016

snow 1.30.2010 028

mail boxes

snow 1.30.2010 025

fir tree with snow lacy snow 2 snow, ice and grass

Pine tree with snow

wagon wheel

Back at the house now.  Are you all getting a little chilly just looking at these photos?  I’ve got some more but I’ll save them for another day.  I hope you all are staying warm this weekend and enjoying your world as much as I’ve been enjoying mine.

Friday, January 29, 2010

When Were We Annexed By Vermont?

fir trees in snow 

This was the color of my world today…

out towards the road

snowy tree 

 

this is not a black and white

These photos have not been retouched or worked over or made to look like black and whites.  This was the color of my world today.

ice and snow on grass  This is in the front yard, a flower bed with grasses, beige from the fall dying back and this was taken in the same stroll as the above photos.

Buckles and ice 047 As was this woodpile.  So there was some color outdoors.

tree and icicles

This is the branches of a mimosa tree off the back porch. I like the icicles straightness and yet the ice on the branches twists and turns and caught my eye… It’s like my brain on some days, orderly as all get out and then I’m off on a tangent that twists and turns with various threads of thoughts that sometimes brings me back to the orderliness and sometimes I don’t get back to the orderly place at all for a day or two…

Yes, I am that twisted with curiosity about my world.  But I still haven’t figured out when we were annexed by Vermont.  How about it Bonzer… have you heard anything about us being annexed?  ‘Cause if you think that’s what happened I’m going to have to learn how to ski.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Redneck Crown Molding…

I’m in the middle of trying to redo my bedroom.  I took a day off from helping Bro up at his cabin to try to get molding around the top of the bedroom.  I thought I could do anything as far as simple remodeling was concerned… I found out I was wrong.

redneck crown molding 002

Cuz had put up some decorative border several years ago and I tried everything to get that stuff off the wall.  After trying home methods, i.e. vinegar and hot water, getting some wallpaper remover from Cuz’s son that he said would, according to his better half, take any wallpaper off the wall, using a heat gun (that worked but it also took several layers of paint meaning more repair work), making a thirty mile round trip to the nearest Lowe’s to get the newest wallpaper remover they had that was supposed to be great… and muttering more than one unChristian ‘set’ of words I said piss on this shit  forget it.   I was just a bit hot.

west wall

So I went and got some  ten foot 1x8 boards, mitered one end and then cut the short pieces to fit with a miter on one end of it.  I put a base coat of Kilz on it.  All of this I did up at the cabin to minimize the mess at Cuz’s home.  I painted the walls up into the border and I started putting it up  the ‘molding’ today.  The first wall was the one over the closet because there was less crap to move out of the way. 

redneck crown molding 003 First long piece went up pretty easy… don’t look at the junk on my closet shelf.  It will be different before I’m through.  But I digress. Time for the short piece at the other end.

redneck crown molding 001

being kissed while sawing.

That gap is what happens when you are trying to keep from being kissed while trimming the short board to make it fit.  I was about 1/4 of an inch off on my measurement so I made a nice straight line where I needed to trim the board with my trim saw. I didn’t want to do that in the house so I went out on the front porch and Lucky was real glad to see me.

Lucky Dawg But it sure made me mess up on my trimming.

Why redneck molding?  These warped boards have more gaps than Bubba’s teeth when he smiles…

 more gaps redneck crown molding 008

I took these shots from standing on the floor.  The photo on the left has screws on top and bottom of the board.  I haven’t put the screws along the bottom of the board on the right so I’m hoping that it will do better than the one over the closet.

So what are you doing with your weekend?

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Just A Bunch Of KeRap…

That’s an Okie way of drawling out crap. I’ve been trying to get a good picture of a little black and white calf…

cows and calves 001 He’s such a cutie.  He’s about three weeks old now and he and another one of the calves run and romp and play together. 

cows 001 Here they are scratching their heads on a salt block.

cows 002 Mom is keeping an eye on him because he is an adventurous little guy.  There are five babies in this pasture right out the back yard and they were closer to the house today than they have been since I got here. cows 008He is curious about everything.  He’s checking out the electric pole here.

cows 010 He’s taking it on now.  He knows with momma watching he can whip anything in the pasture.

I’m telling my baby brother that I want a camera that I can put a telephoto lens on for my 65th birthday next month.  Doubt that I will get one, but a gal can still wish.

Chloe watching the cows I just happened to look for the girls in the back yard before I went back inside and caught Chloe frog-dogging watching the cows.  She loves being in the country, too.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

A Little Of This And A Little Of That…

I have been trying since I’ve been here to get a picture of the guineas.  These three are called “The Survivors”.  They are the only ones out of fourteen that survived an attack by dogs that were running in the area.  They are pretty shy of anything and anybody which is probably why they are the Survivors.survivors a marchin This morning as I was leaving to go help Bro get his place cleaned up so we can start moving things from storage, the guineas were marchin’… see how they are all in step? The left foot on the ground and all three have the right foot steppin’ out across the drive.

guinea at work They have a little route that they follow every day.  They peck around the back yard then they go around to the front, then across the road to the neighbors and wander around there for a bit then make their way back to the home place.

Flamingos and trees 025      They are never very far from each other as they trek around.  And after their day is done I think they roost in the hay barn just a couple of hundred feet south of the house.  They are fascinating to watch because they are flat intent on their mission unless interrupted by people or dogs that get too close… then they are off and going until they feel safe then it’s back to work.

Today has been just one of those gray, misty rainy days that you get tired of in the winter.  The temperature has been mild this last couple of days, in the mid forties, but there is just enough moisture in the air to make you want to stay inside.  Unless you are like me and something catches your eye and out you go into it in a tee shirt and jeans without a coat.  I thought these would be interesting pictures to share with you all on this gray day…

quiet reflections on pond  Quiet reflections on the pond just northeast of the house…

just a ripple This one there was just the slightest breeze to soften the sharpness around the edges a bit.

tree with textureThis was what I spotted that made me grab my camera in the first place.  This mimosa tree is just about ten feet from the back deck.  I loved the textures and the colors and on a gray misty day they seem to be so much brighter.

tree with moss

Flamingos and trees 004

Flamingos and trees 003 Flamingos and trees 006 So this is the entertainment in my world.  And I love it.  Makes me want to get my paints out again and I haven’t wanted to do that in a long time.

On another note I would like to ask all of you for prayers for my sister and her husband.  Bill has been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and he has elected to buy a little more time to be with his family by taking chemo.  They switched to a new chemo this week because the tumors had grown even while taking the first rounds of chemo.  Anyway, they have been married for 48 years and he and Sue have four boys that live close enough to help out but it looks like it’s going to be a hard fight.  Sue is a nurse practitioner so she totally understands what’s going on, but your husband is different from your patients.  You can’t separate your emotions from your husband as you must do with your patients. So I just thought I’d ask you to keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Enjoy your weekend and be sure to tell someone you love that you do love them.  You never know how long you will have them around. 

Thursday, January 7, 2010

What Do I Want…

when it’s 12 degrees F. (11 C.) outside with a chill factor of  -12 F. (-25 C.) for a bedtime snack?

BlueBell and Hershey Syrup

Blue Bell ice cream with Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup.

Go figure…

I’ve Lost My Mind…

Dogs woke me up with rousing barking this morning at 7:30 a.m. You all know how I am, I walk into walls at that time of the morning… I stumbled to the back door to let them out and saw this:

brrrr 002

So naturally I had to go get my camera and walk outside to take a photo to share with you all.  I came back in, turned on the computer went to check the weather and this is what I saw:

1.7.2010 004 This is just so not right.  And I not only went out in this to take a picture to share with you all, I went out in a pair of sweatpants, my house shoes and a sweatshirt I threw on so’s not to scare the cows  into early labor, I am trying to type this with this:

brrrr 005

That is not my ash cup nor my cigarettes but was not awake enough to crop them out but, yep, those are my fingers taped together.  I smashed them day before yesterday, went to the doc yesterday and nothing is broken but they taped them this way because they weren’t sure until they got the x-ray report yesterday.  I can go to bandaids instead of this bulky bandage when I clean them later but let me tell you it is a bitch trying to type like this.  Talk about being a hunt and pecker…

Just wanted to let you all know how much I loved you… and I will really show you how much I love you by taking pictures of my fingers when I re-dress  them later… after I get up again…

I’ve fed the critters, brought in a load of wood, stoked the fire and now I’m going back to bed.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Couldn’t Stand It…

I received this in an e-mail today and decided, after I got up off the floor laughing that I had to share with you all… I have had days where I have felt this way….   And today was one, how about you?

I changed the channel