Nita's Week

It was a fine Thanksgiving. mil has her ways of letting me know that I don't make gravy like she does, etc. But that's okay. We made it through the day and had a fine meal.

We'd recently heard the warnings that we should use caution as to where we bought Gift Cards for Christmas presents. CLICK HERE to see a long list of the current store and company closings and cut backs. If they won't honor the cards, you've lost all of your money. We always use Wal-Mart anyway.

I can now use my photos and it is easier than ever. I had to set up Paint which is part of Vista but with it open, the system will allow me to go directly to PhotoDraw which wouldn't work before. I can use the "slide show" and move from one photo in the gallery to the next. Easy to preview and gives me a crisp photo even from a page dump. I am happy. The Garden of 2008, CLICK HERE. The Fluffy Cats, CLICK HERE.  The Zinnias, Willows and Pampas Grass CLICK HERE.

I melted a hole in one of Randy's good shirts so I made him an offer. My birthday gift to be 2 shirts for him and an iron for me with settings I can see so I can press with a cool iron and new so it will have the non-stick surface that the old one used to have. Sigh. I don't really want to turn the big 0 this time. He did pick out cotton shirts and there are now only 2 left of the polyester stuff. If we had a dryer, I wouldn't need to iron much at all.

Quick, before we have to give him a name. Help me discourage this skunk from moving in under our house. He seems to love cat food and is making a move on the chicken coop. CLICK HERE I am still working on a way to move the cat's food where it won't attract stray critters.

BUT now I have discovered that what I wrote about outsmarting a skunk won't work on the new visitor. A possum chased me back to the house last night as I was trying to get out to the chicken coop to close up the hens. I shrieked and ran inside. White Fluff was doing a "point" to where the critter had gone since he stopped chasing me when I screamed and it ran under the house instead. As I was on the porch this evening going out to close up the hens, I hear loud crunch, crunch of the dry cat food. Sure enough, a possum and probably the same one. He scurries under the house and I go on out into the yard. As I finish my rounds and am bringing in the laundry, I hear him to the east of the house making his noisy way off and about to other places. We have LOTS of dry leaves covering the ground now and they make lots of noise as they move along.

The following was my encounter with a big bad skunk. Four nights later, he decided to spray something outside around the house and for hours we were gasping in disgust. But it did fade away. I have a difficult time going outside at all after dark. This was November 2nd:  It's a few minutes shy of being midnight, Saturday night and I just came running back inside. I was within 5 feet of a big fluffy old skunk. He was helping himself to the cat's food. I'd gone out to get a bucket of black sunflower seeds to feed the cockatiels. Wow, I was quiet and just went on inside the house. Sure didn't want to chase him and only asked Randy if he wanted to shoot it. He said no. The skunk didn't spray the house or me or fluffy orange cat who was sitting about 10 feet away. It will be a priority tomorrow to move their food to a spot where they can climb to but the skunk cannot reach. Wow, am I a lucky person or what. And with the time change, I will now get that hour back. But I will not go back outside tonight. Whew.

New Homesteading Notes, CLICK HERE and click on the Summer/Fall page for the latest.

Updates are in place for Tip of the Week, CLICK HERE. It's been a month but hey. The What's Cooking page is also updated, CLICK HERE.

I now have a new page in the Homespun Creations Section for finding ideas with instructions to make gifts for any holiday or occasion. CLICK HERE and see what you think. If you can add any, send me an email. Kathy E. in New York State has started our page with her homemade hand creams. Thank you Kathy. I have almost everything I need to make the snow globes and want to get the materials for making the oven mitts.

My latest Birdwatching Notes are in the Sights, Sounds and Happenings. The geese are back for the winter. The last notes are in the From My Window section. I had to include the fall since I had so few notes for the spring and summer. Ah well. But we've had so many birds moving in lately and I was needing to write about them.  CLICK HERE. I have just added an article by BestNest. They often have some valuable tips and directions.

My Vista Computer does not like my photo program but I am still working on it. Okay, I took a few photos and was all set to give it a go. But the adapter wire I thought was the right one, would not plug into my camera so I got no further. I will get Randy to help me figure it out. Sigh. With the shorter days, the trees have started to turn yellow/brown with a tiny bit of red color. Now, we've had cold but not freezing or frost.

I went into the greenhouse and picked a bowl full of the tiny sized tomatoes. Then I picked some of the lettuce leaves and we had a fine topping to Randy's wonderful chili. It was so good. Those tiny tomatoes are about the size of a raisin or small grape. But oh so good. A very mild flavor but distinctly tomato.

I must apologize for My Stay at Home Vacation, these are a few of my favorite places. I discovered that Wikipedia was not such a good place for information. Not at all. They allow anyone to edit, take out or add, information. I reached the point where I was seeing conflicting information. Waymaking was also the same. I looked to find that there was a new listing that posting "closest river" as being the same name for 5 different places. And not all in the same country. Imagine that. I will take the time to go back and take out all of their info. I will with time rearrange and confirm anything and everything from Wikipedia. Discouraging to say the least. Since I don't travel well and don't travel at all anymore, I sure have enjoyed putting together these pages. They are the best sites of many searches for fine and beautiful places, sometimes unusual. I hope you enjoy visiting. Let me know when any link does not work or if you know of sights we'd enjoy sharing. CLICK HERE (I have other interesting places yet to add but have finished the United States and there are now three pages Around the World.)

Randy spent all last weekend trying to recover from lifting some heavy computers at work. He will go back to the surgeon this week to be sure he didn't do some damage. CLICK HERE and enjoy the progress on the house. I didn't take photos today but the outside is painted now and looks so nice. I will be getting out to the house a bit every day and cleaning outside and sweeping up inside. With the leaves falling and the wind blowing, there are drifts inside. Randy moved the work table into the house for me to use and must find a place for using the table saw.

Past weeks:

I have been updating my notes. The Gardening Notes, CLICK HERE. The Weather, CLICK HERE.  I did go out and dumped over 3 inches of rain out of the gauge. Homesteading Notes, CLICK HERE. Wildbird Watching Notes, CLICK HERE. From My Window birdwatching CLICK HERE. Tip of the Week, CLICK HERE.

In our driveway we now have a good sized part of the Wall of China tree which has split and is falling. It is on top of the oak tree beside it but as it begins to dry and die, it is slowly getting closer to the ground. Randy can't drive the truck up the driveway and soon we will not be able to walk through to the house. What a mess and we didn't hear it split. It happened during some fierce winds. CLICK HERE to see photos. Update, it's weird but the broken limb is making new leaves on the ends of the branches. I can touch those branches they are now so near the ground. So, it is not drying and dying.

Walking around the yard, CLICK HERE...

Perhaps I will call it my stay at home vacation but I am still working on the new section of Caves and Interesting Pages. Our friend Deborah sent me info about the Caverns of Tennessee. I so enjoy the time online searching and have way too much fun. Some very beautiful photos to be seen. I will do more work every week. This is the only way I will ever see more caves and it's my cheap vacation. CLICK HERE and enjoy. Do you have a suggestion for a catchy name for the no cost vacations? I have even found some castles but sure love the rivers & waterfalls. 

Photos of the week: Willow blossoms, Trumpet Vines, the Zinnia bed and a couple of the kittens. CLICK HERE. 

I was out this morning hanging wet clothes on the lines when movement caught my eye. I stopped and looked to see 3 hummingbirds making the rounds of the Desert Willow blooms. Such a sweet sight. Made me smile and the chore easier to finish. 

We'd bought Randy new socks on the last trip to town and my plan was to throw away the ones with holes. They had formed a mound on the floor and my next step was the trash can. But Sly had other plans. We looked to see that he had taken the nice clean socks as his own special pillows. Sprawled out on his newspapers with his head on his new pillows. Such sweet sleep.

When Randy went out this morning, Wednesday, he found Beau's face full of quills. I don't think there is any critter except a porcupine that has such quills. But they are not indigenous to this area and we'd never heard of having them around. I did some research and know more now but sure hope it doesn't come back. Beau was so good to hold still for his gPOP. He was brave and didn't try to bite or snap at the helping hands. He did enjoy the sympathy.

CLICK HERE to see garden photos taken on June 1st. Grow you sweet goodies.

CLICK HERE to meet Anna Joyce, my first ever and only great grandchild. She is such a baby doll. Just added her "3-month old" photo. She's such a cutie. (Amazing, my ?dil sent me an email after no contact for years saying that I had a lot more great grand kids. I just had not been told yet. Whatever.)

Newest Homesteading Notes, CLICK HERE.

Find an excellent article from BestNest. com about Container Gardening. CLICK HERE and enjoy. They have plenty of wildbird items and containers for gardening.

I have several contributors I cannot find now and all my emails are coming back to me. If you read this, please send me an email. Keep in touch. Sherri, Cherry and Bambie. Thank you.

The Current Project:  I finished this week and am so glad to have it done and stored for the first brisk cold day that it is needed. Perhaps by then, Randy will have another dog or two to take for walks down the road. October 1st makes it about a year to finish but it is perfect. I will get a photo and put it in my Homespun Creations section.  I am knitting a scarf for Randy. I had asked him to get me skeins of yarn to make some heavy socks several years ago. I had some instructions and tips for knitting them but got stuck when it came to finding a set of circular needles. What was available in the Wal-Mart was not what I wanted and what they had in the craft store was way out of my budget especially when I looked online and found they even more expensive. Someday perhaps. But for now, I can make a scarf from what I have on hand and it will be something that Randy needs. This he can pull up over his face to keep the wind out. He has a hoodie now and that will help so much. I started it this evening, 12-16-07 and put about 2 inches on it. A nice start but to finish in time for Christmas, I must do about 5 inches a day at least. Okay, it's February 17th now and I am still not finished with the scarf. It measures about 4 foot now and I found a pattern that called for making a scarf 60 inches long. I have a long ways to go. Randy thought 3 foot was long enough but I don't. He'll just have to wait, perhaps for next winter. NOTE: I am sick of knitting. The yarn must be coated with formaldehyde since it makes my fingernails grow 3 times normal. There is no way to wash it before using but I am still a foot away from being finished. There is little cold weather left. Come on Hot Weather.  It's May 4th today and the weather has gone from cool to hot again. I got the scarf out and put on another 6 inches but it's still not finished. It is in my way so I do want it done.

Gardening, (I have new photos of the greenhouse and will update more sections next week.)