It IS Late April, isn't it???

It's beginning to look a lot like...

hehehe

~

Good Afternoon!

Yes. OK, it really is not snowing.
Not yet anyway.
They might have it predicted for tomorrow or Monday.
(Not sure, I didn't care to see that far into the future).
But it is SO windy today, (hence my new blast for you)!

The blast has the link to Baby Mariahs Caring Bridge website. (or CLICK here on the red)...
Her mama has posted their address so we can all send Miss Mariah a birthday card. (I shall also get her big sisters birthday so she doesn't feel left out).
Please lets make these birthdays perfect for them...

Due to the shot I received for my head yesterday morning, I got to sleep throughout all the bad weather last night.
~~Happy, happy; ~~joy, joy!!!
Having minor recollections of things that may/may not have happened too.
I think at one point that Casey was asking me for a shopping list. And I believe that Randy bought the wrong furnace filter too. No big deal, really; until you take into consideration that the wind gusts are sucking the heat right out of my house... I have turned the heat up twice today. No more though. It is already 67 in the house, and that should be nice enough for anyone.

Back to the above picture.
A bluebird house.
And usually we have either bluebirds or tree swallows in it. (Sometimes a "mowiss" family in winter too)!

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The other day I was out walking...

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And got chattered at and chirped at by Mr. Bluebird himself!

("Scolded" is probably a more accurate word).

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Isn't he gorgeous???

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And I could get fairly close to him
because he was keeping vigil over his Missus...

...she was quite busy herself,
picking out the perfect decor for their new home!

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They paid no attention to the darned chipmunk/gopher either...

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She was just headed toward my garden
and looking tired from being ever so pregnant!

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Damnable varmints...
And she will probably give birth to 1000 or so next week.
OK not that many,
but then THEY give birth to their thousand or so.

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But it's Punks job,
(and she well knows it too),
to keep those varmints at bay for me.

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She found a hole out in the field...

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And began to dig...

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Bad angle for her so she changed her strategy...

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She dug some more, before sniffing the hole out...

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"Hello"???
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"Anybody home"???

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I said "HELLO?"

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Nothing doing with a hole the skunk had dug last year before relocating.

So we went back to the woods to catch up with Mama Milly,
who was already doing her own detective work...

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Having found her own hole to invade down by the river!

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Both dogs came up empty handed...
(But it's so much fun to watch)!

Besides, KC always needs target practice!

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A few irises up by the house have dared to come up...

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With Mamas Wire Chicken Basket in the background.

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My chives, (regular and garlic),
are ready and waiting to become taste on my taters!

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Speaking of food...
It is high time for me to be chowing down here.
SO hungry!

Have a wunnaful weekend! (And don't forget Baby Mariah)!

XOXO
Anne

PS
I am attaching the pic I received in an email from my sister~
~~~for those of you that couldn't read the Sarcasma note...

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HAHAHA!!!

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Oroginally posted to my Y! 360, Saturday April 26, 2008 - 12:05pm (CDT)

What Do They Expect?

What Do They Expect?

Reader beware, it's a RANT can~of~worms today...

~

Good Morning;

I have had the TV on low all morning...
Most prominently in the news is the fiasco down in Texas with the one sect of Mormons, the FDLS.

Shown are the women that are crying for their children as they are taken away from them to be placed in ??? (wherever)...

Touching as this is to see, it makes me mad that the threat of separation hadn't been foremost in their minds since they joined, and ultimately gave birth to their 400+ babies. And exactly where their priorities were BEFORE the state had to step in?

Having raised 4 daughters, the thought, (not only) of (having them taken away; but) allowing them to lose their innocence to a decades older man, simply disgusts me. And under the subterfuge or cover of religion...

Note: The FLDS practice polygamy in arranged marriages, sometimes between underage girls and older men. The group has thousands of followers in two side-by-side towns in Arizona and Utah.

How many times we have been taught that "ignorance of the law is no excuse" ?
The United States of America has long passed laws regarding the safety and sanctity of children.

Pretending those laws are for someone else is an idiotic way to live.

I am thinking that these people would be in the same league as the man from Green Bay...

...Shortly before his 20th birthday, he had sex with a 15 year old girl. For this, he went to prison for however long, (I really don't remember what they reported, and I really don't care how long he was there- It wasn't long enough).

Out of prison now, he has lived with his now girlfriend in Green Bay.
That relationship has since terminated, Boo~Hoo, and he must find new housing. .

But hey, Green Bay has already passed its laws regarding housing for any sexual predators.
hehehe There isn't any room.

Newsflash for ya Buddy is that you can't live there!

(The poor damn sod has now contacted the ACLU because nobody will rent to him).

If you ask me, he violated his own civil rights LONG ago. Surely by the time a man is 19 he knew full well that what he was doing is statutory rape.

In my little opinion, both of these instances are due to knowing the law, breaking it, and then trying to pass the buck off on someone/something else.

When they have done it to themselves!!!

What DO they expect?

By any stretch of the imagination I am no angel; but I do not believe I have selfishly and ignorantly harmed other people either.

I feel worse for the babies that may never know their roots, or their mothers and fathers.

And I feel so damn sad for even knowing that this crap continues to happen.
It is simply the difference between right and wrong.
And yes, it IS that simple!

"Free Will" comes to mind...
You have made your choices. Your children will make their own choices.
But know this, you do the crime, you do the time.
And you suffer any ramifications thereof.

God Bless America, and may He doubly bless the children.

Have a "F" Friday!
hehehe
I can't think of a single decent adjective... (Can you)?

XOXO,
Anne

PS
Casey will be bringing me in shortly to fix my head...
If it works I won't be on too much...
Pray for the coma...

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Oroginally posted to Y! 360- Friday April 25, 2008 - 08:29am (CDT)

Sarcasma

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Other

Do you suffer from VHS???
(or do you enjoy it)?
hehehe

Two Bumps On a Log...

Two Bumps On a Log...

Mister Greg with Master Gabriel...

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Good Morning All;
The sun is up and out, for now.
Forecast calls for showers and thunderstorms later this afternoon.
Am happy it is rain instead of the snow... Even a flurry now makes my tummy upset to even think about snow. And yes, it will be cooling down in a day or two, but we have had a few really nice days.

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To think we have gone from this...

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(Check out that poor little trike)...
No snow tires on it I guess.

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To this...

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In such a short while...

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And for the smile that says,
"Thank you God, for making my legs long enough over winter!"

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We spent Sunday cleaning up the yard too.
Lots of tufts, and tons of gravel that got (re)moved to places that they don't belong when the snowplow went through. (Unavoidable, if you want a safe driveway).

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Master Gabriel was the foreman!
hehehe

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But before we got rocks, and tufts,
(and the random doggie~doo~doo) in the trailer,
we had to take a little ride!

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"ARF" ?!?
"What'd'ya mean there's NO ROOM FOR ME?"

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They made room!!!

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And then back to the grindstone...

Did I say "back"?
(I probably shouldn't have driven that l'il tractor back to the woods)...

So time to change drivers, and to start hauling the pollution from my lawns.

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And soon I will be mowing those lawns!

Casey says she will do it because of my back.
Not sure if I like that offer or not;
because I am such a mowing~addict in summertime...

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Casey found an old mushroom,
still full of spores from last year...

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(Which she promptly threw in the garbage for the landfill to deal with)!

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Yesterday was a take-it-easy day for her,
after CaseyFace wound up at the ER on Sunday night.

(NO, it was NOT my lasagna)!
Yes, the lasagna turned out wonderfully!
(Well, at least I didn't kill anyone).

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We walked to the woods with Mama Milly and Miss Punk
And of course Mama Milly went missing for a little while.

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The Punk, and The Pneumo-Pancreatosis-Kid...
hehehe
Talk about two bumps on a log!

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Back up at the house, the first colors of Spring!

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See the little flowers??

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I took a decent nap then. (She is STILL alseep)!

And of course I could not fall back to sleep til after 2 or so.

So Punk and I went outside and enjoyed the moon...

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And I am still not sleepy!

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So that leaves me wide eyed and bushy tailed for the laundry, and the dishes, and, and, and...

Time for me to get busy!

Hope you are all having a great week!

Love to all!

XOXO,
Anne

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Originally posted to my Y360, Tuesday April 22, 2008 - 08:56am (CDT)

Barrel Rolls and Muddy Paws

Barrel Rolls and Muddy Paws

I have one lonely lilac bush left.
But am ever SO happy that this one has lived!

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Good Morning All;
A busy day yesterday for almost everyone... (I mostly just watched)!
hehehe
But yes, my back is being very belligerent and uncooperative today.
Must have done a little more yesterday than I did the day before...

Randy came to help "find" the lawns ~and to trim a few trees too...
All I had to do was point to those branches!
(And yes, that's about the ONLY perk to this back of mine)...

The pear tree, ready to split, topple and die, needed much trimming. But I want to preserve a lot of ot too, until the young tree that came up next to it starts to produce.

First you climb the tree and start to saw...

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Then you saw from another angle...
or risk leaving too much of your DNA on the tree...

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Almost all the way through ~and the branch still won't budge.

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What would YOU do ???

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How about a couple of karate chops???

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Careful now.

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Don't laugh...

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It worked!!!
hehehe

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After realizing the my old burn barrel was stuffed to the brim, I had to get the replacement one out...
(OK, OK, so Randy dug it out of the shed, and Casey rolled it down the hill).

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Dogs?
NO help there...
Like me, they just watched!

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Methinks she was having way too much fun!!!

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Done with the barrel, she became "SPEARCHUCKER"!!!!

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Now that's a nasty game of "Fetch"
!!!

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But NO problem for The Punkmeister either!
(Yes, her paw/leg/shoulder is much better)...

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But not even a great tug~of~war,
~nor fetch,
~nor playing with her ball
~nor wrestling with Mama Milly, etc
was enough for her...

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Or maybe she was just overheated???

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She found the big puddle while we were busy elsewhere.

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And was MORE than pleased with herself...

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Darn good thing I have the hose hooked up already...
(And a bit of Dawn detergent too)...

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Casey does keep reminding her that she is NOT a Black Lab!
hehehe

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Time for me to fly.
I have taken my Xanax and am going to try to get to the store by myself.
(I got away with making a pot of soup yesterday, but am setting my sights for a bit of lasagna today).
Mmm!

I hope you all have a 'wunnaful' Sunday!

Love to all!

XOXO,
Anne

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Originally posted to my Y!360, Sunday April 20, 2008 - 07:18am (CDT) 25

Lazy Me. ~Corncribs and Rats...

Lazy Me. ~Corncribs and Rats...

This teeny tiny pizzaburger at Planeview Restaurant in Oshkosh was almost $7.00-
An extra .49 for the fried onions I'd asked for too...
And I think it is still sitting hard in my tummy...

Good Afternoon All;
My apologies for being near to invisible lately. Between the computer (and its dragbutt persona), and my silly inability to find a comfortable position; it is proving a bit hard to stay focused.

How about that earthquake? The New Madrid Fault is generally so inactive for so long that we have a tendency to forget that it is even there.
Did I feel it?
No.
But I do believe that this is what woke my dogs.
Punk, asleep on the couch, awoke with a start ...and began to growl.
A few seconds later, I heard Mama Milly bark a bit too.
Quickly then, Punkin found herself comfortably insinuated down by my feet. Snuggled down for the count.
I figured there might have been a thunderstorm somewhere; not giving it another thought, until the news came across my homepage.
I am happy that we were nowhere south of here when it happened.

A picture of Casey and Punk when we arrived in Milwaukee...
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Both are pretty much tuckered out...

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On the way down...

to have traffic come to a standstill near the Slinger exit

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A straight truck flipped, twisted...

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The front end almost nonexistent anymore.
There were probably about 10 firetrucks too.

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I tried to watch the Milwaukee news then on Tuesday night. But saw nothing on there about it.
The photos do not do it justice either. I would be amazed to hear that the driver lived through it too. Miracles do happen everyday though.
It was windy... Perhaps he was caught in those high winds.
Perhaps he was cut off.
Whatever the reason, I am thinking that there is one person who went to work that morning that didn't make it home at night.
The kind of accident you come upon that makes you say a prayer for the family too.

Uncomfortable as it was to drive with my back, I saw a scene that reminded me of "home" too.
As most of you know, I bought the homeplace from Mama's estate when she passed. And even though it is my home now, back then it took on a different feel of "home".

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Two old corncribs...

The one on the right the oldest- wood.

The one on the left, metal, concrete base, with aerating, drying core....

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Back when, we had both types of corn cribs too. Just not at the same time.
We also had a part collie, part golden, and mostly lover of a dog, name of Teddy.
(Actually his full name was Theodore Scotland Octavian Murphy)...
Teddy was our protector.
Teddy was our herder.
Teddy was even kind to the cats too.
All that, and he didn't chase cars or dig up mama's flowers either!
We had gotten him from the pound. ... $5.00 in those days.

Back to the corn crib(s)...

One year Pa had taken down the wooden bracketed corn crib.
Not being able to burn it as it stood, (too close to the old garage), it had to be moved before being torched.
In order to move it, he had simply attached it by chain to the old Oliver tractor we had, and let the clutch out. The rickety old crib groaned a bit and left its concrete block base.
Pulling it off its base, there were literally 100's of displaced rats!
They ran everywhere! Mostly towards the woods, and their water supply in the river...

Teddy thought his job for the day was to catch every one of these monsters.
Overwhelmed at first, he began to grab them.
The first few, ("beginners luck" I believe), he simply caught in his teeth, crunched their backs and dropped.
About the third one he bit wrong, grabbing it by its rear end. This rat turned on him, swiftly removing a chunk of his nose. Until the day he died, Teddy was missing this aspirin~sized piece of his nose.
After that single yelp~and~release, he grabbed those vermin by their heads. A few swift tosses of his neck, then to drop them and let them die where they fell. This scene went on and on as those rats made tracks straight back to the woods... (Not a short race when your legs are so short)!
...But a scene that I haven't forgotten either.

About a week later, our new corncrib had arrived. Daddy had already poured the cement foundation. Pa, Bob Hamilton, and Pepper Martin put it up.
By using the front end bucket on the old WD Allis Chalmers (and the grain elevator) for height, slowly but surely we had our new corn crib. It was the last one we ever had too. Daddy retired while I was a junior in high school.

So enough of memory lane for today.

I have a bezillion and 40 things that need to be done. (And with my fractured back these things are NOT getting done any time soon either).

BethieBaby sent me a quote from Erma Bombeck this morning. I believe I shall have to LIVE by this creed for now:

" My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you? "

Great thought right?
(Rest in peace Sweet Erma... You are still very much missed)!

And with that, I believe it is high time for me to get in the shower and try to find something that is easy(er) on my back than sitting, or standing, or laying down, or breathing...

Love to all!

XOXO,
Anne

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Originally posted to my Y!360, Friday April 18, 2008 - 01:11pm (CDT) 3

The Turkeys Are Back!

The Turkeys Are Back!

And we ALL know people that would fit that description...
hehehe

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Good Morning All...
The picture above, taken from the backyard, of the turkeys that have somehow eluded us all winter long. I really don't know where they have been. And I am even not that thrilled to see them because they play havoc with my garden.
But then again, with my st00pid back, I don't believe I will even have a garden this year.

Back to the turkeys of our world...
Casey's EUS revealed NOTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY?
I am so upset, as she is also. And I know too that the EUS (endoscopic ultrasound) is more of a device to diagnose cancer, so we should be very happy about that.
It just means that whatever is triggering her pancreas to virtually digest itself is still an "unknown" factor. And that is MORE than frustrating to say the very least.
As you well know she has lost her last job, and another, while missing work for her hospitalizations.
She has even lost her ability to attend college, as UWGB has told her that unless she can guarantee a semester of attendance with NO hospitalizations that she gets NO financial aid.
CLICK HERE FOR THAT bs STORY. (And then please send an attorney)...

If it's not one thing it's another for her.
To write her emotional pain off as simple frustration is not enough either. It really goes way past her feelings being hurt.
And her college education was always so important to her. From the time she was 4, she has wanted to be a veterinarian. My other kids had no such goals. They did have few little shots of "I wish I could" things, but they never did materialize. Or they quit before they finished.

Life.

Speaking of frustration, (forgive me here, I simply cannot resist)....

Punk has had a little limp going on for the past week. Nothing really bad as she still gets around, plays etc...
After checking her out, paws to shoulder, and finding nothing that even made her wince, we thought it might be that her paws get so chapped. We put liniment on them and covered them so it had a chance to soak in.

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(I don't think she was too impressed by our natural brilliance)...

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And it didn't work either. Am thinking that maybe it could be a pulled muscle or something to do with her shoulder now. Again, she favors it, but it is not truly debilitating. i will bring her in if it is still the same way on Monday.

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A bit more "frustration" to see.
But this time it's the cat...
hehehe

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After Punks 'socks' had come off,
what better to do than to tease Mr Sputnik?

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First, Sputty had to assess the situation...

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Then he had a dickens of a time to unwind it all...

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hehehe!
We laughed SO hard!!!

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But I do believe the last laugh was on us too.

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Bravely close to the camera that had kept going off, I got such a look from him.

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His "MEOW" must have meant "so there!"
I don't think he was amused either!

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On the "outside" front, I am very happy to report that my baby pussywillow bush has also made it through winter!

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If you look closely at the middle of the top quarter,
you will see a newborn pussywillow.

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When we lived on Jaworski Road, I had planted three bushes. One in white. One in pink, and one in black. I was so happy that they had all lived too! Oh so pretty in springtime!

As you all know, I was raised on a dairy farm.
When we were younger we had fresh milk, cheese and butter.
(If we wanted to be churning it in a bottle anyway).
... And so we generally 'store bought' our butter.
But the milk came in every other day or so straight from the bulk tank.
Mom would pasteurize it herself.

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Having bought an old home pasteurizer, we used it always.
And it probably STILL works...

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I have just read a story of the number of people around here that are in search of the real thing, being FRESH milk from good cows.
And it doesn't surprise me; (only that it took then so long to realize what is best for them).
After Pa retired and sold the cows, we still got our milk from a farmer down the road. And after he passed was the 1st time in my life that I can recall buying milk. And no, it didn't even come close to tasting the same!

Now, in one of my groups on 360, I see a lady that wants free range eggs. There was a time, not so very long ago, that free range is all we ever had. My Aunt Lu and Uncle Clem had chickens, and we would get eggs from them.
I did not respond to that ladys request though. My friend Brandy has chickens, but I don't think she is even able to keep up with the orders she now has for those eggs.
Who knew all this would come around again??? (And yes, IT'S ABOUT TIME)!

I'd better close. It is to be near to 70 today, so no time to lollygaggle and waste.

I hope you are all having a 'wunnaful' Wednesday!

Love to all.

XOXO
Anne

 

Originally posted at my Y! 360, Wednesday April 16, 2008 - 08:20am (CDT)