Scarlett and the Rock

This is our friend Scarlett. She is a bit of a bad-tempered diva. Lately, Scarlett 's favorite toy is her lava rock. This may be lava but it is heavy. The game is to detach the snap and then wildly swing the rock in any direction and let her rip. Below are pictures of the process.



This is Scarlett unhooking the rock.

Safely in her grasp she moves to the hurling platform.



She checks for proper balance.


Woops! She drops it.

Good recovery!

Whew!

And the wind up!



As Scarlett says "WOW"!

Want to see that again? We do it about 20 times anyway.






Yep, this time it's really gone!

Zoo Day!

Thursday we went to the zoo. It was such a great day!


We started out with tons of energy! Lots of interesting things to see...





Some of us weren't overly impressed!

We found these cute little goats at the petting zoo.


These great zebras were in the Safari section.

This guy and his amazing tongue was also in the safari section.




But, after a long day we were ready to go home.

All of us!

Grrrrrrrr- New Computer

I was gonna wow you with pictures of my daylillies and star-gazer lillies. No cigar.
My old laptop (3 years old or less) gave up the ghost- taking with it all my photos on the hard drive! I guess if I can't convince my son to do it, I will have to have the overpriced Geek Squad take them off for me. Heather was shocked that I don't back up my pictures onto a disk - hey she's seen my housekeeping - why would my computer keeping be any better? So since I'm feeling whiney anyway I post about my farmhouse.

Crazy

This is how the farmhouse looked shortly after we bought it.
Below is a list of the work we have done on the farmhouse over the last 3 plus years
in no particular order.

Replaced door to basement
Replaced pantry door
Added porch and stair rails
Replaced stairs to three porches
Removed and shored up ceiling in livingroom
Removed carpet and refinished existing pine floors
Added two upstairs bathrooms in one of the bedrooms
Replaced toilet in downstairs bathroom
Painted interior of house
Fenced area for dogs
New wood floor in master bedroom
Built arbor over gate
Built arbor with swing
New wood floors downstairs
Rebuilt chimney
Repointed stone foundation
Replaced faucets in downstairs bathroom
New countertops in kitchen
New sink and faucets in kitchen
Moved stove and added fan and pot filler
New exterior door in livingroom
New exterior door in familyroom
Hung pot rack in kitchen
Shored up doorways in livingroom and entry hall by adding headerboards
Planted fruit trees, roses and hedges
Planted hosta bed behind garage
Relandscaped circle near garage
Added upstairs laundry room
New mantle over fireplace
Added R.O. water system
Covered dry well in basement and added moisture barrier
Removed and pruned black walnut trees
Added warming drawer in kitchen
Added garage shelving
Relocated bats and red squirrels from attic
Added locks to windows
Changed hardware and painted kitchen cupboards
Added battons to plywood siding on garage
Painted garage
Replaced side door to garage
Added locks to front and side doors
Added curtains throughout
Added drip irrigarion system
Changed address on house from one city to one I liked better (that was a trick!)
Changed garage from one big door to two smaller ones
Added fire alarm system throughout house
Upgraded electrical system - grounded outlets
Added cupola and weathervane to garage
Supported floor in livingroom, kitchen and other downstairs rooms
New appliances except dishwasher
New furnace
Added airconditioning and removed window units
New light fixtures throughout
Constructed walkways and patio
Insulated attic and basement
Rebuilt porches (3)
Screened in one porch
Painted exterior with special paint which is now coming off in sheets
Replaced missing corbels and woodwork on exterior

Still to be done.
Repaint one upstairs bedroom
Renovate closets in two bedrooms
Reglaze and repaint windows

All this and the house still looks about the same. There are still draughts in the winter. Basically, I bought the house twice with the cost of repairs but could only sell it for a lot less. Would I do it again? I don't think so. Next time I would like to build a reproduction house and have some idea of what the costs and problems would be.

The Strong Survive

Earlier this week I went to see a garden belonging to one of the Garden Club ladies. I had been grousing about the fact that nothing was blooming in my garden right now. Here with the long winter and short growing season- you just don't want to waste any "green" time. I went out to see her garden on the lake and was blown away by it's beauty. She had hundreds and hundreds of daylilies and some basic perennials. I came home inspired and immediately ordered a hundred daylilies. For now though, here's what's happening in the garden.

One Down, Eight to Go

Today Fradie Cat used up one of his nine lives. He was diagnozed with lymphoma and hadn't eaten in two or three days. I tearfully accepted that this was the end of the line and drove him to the vet this morning to be "put down". He had an ugly growth on the right side of this face and I'm nor sure that he could have eaten even if he'd have wanted to. For the last couple of weeks he was getting IV fluids under the skin and I promised him yesterday that it was the last time I would poke the little guy. After a sad arrival at the vet we prepared to have him put to sleep and the young vet came in. She took one look an said-- you know this looks like an abscess! Would it be ok to try to clean this out and put him on antibiotics? And so Fradie missed the bullet. We're holding good thoughts for him and we'll know if he'll make it in a couple of days. Good luck Fradie!

Brody

Brody has been transformed from that annoying stray dog to the much admired new kid on the block. Sad to think of all the dogs who don't get to go down that road. Our guy is settling in and becoming more comfortable with his new life every day. We brushed enough hair off him to cover several dogs amd he really seemed to enjoy it. Adam and Violet, two of our other three dogs, still don't play well with him so we may have to let them out separately. From these pictures it's easy to see why we've fallen in love with him.