I was gonna...

I was gonna...to catch up on some toy photos I've had fun taking every once in a while.

So last night I started putting this together...

Dinos getting read to dine on a 
Stink Bug?

I found Mary out in the garden
looking to pick some Fungi!

My Garden Supervisors

Lego Chess for an incredibly hot humid day...

It ended in a melee of sorts....

the antique board is warped so the pieces kept falling over anyway....

But then I took some time to sit with Charlie and Hannah and read a book. No I read to myself while we listened to 'Dog Music' on Pandora. So the Dog Music Station is similar to listening to ... mmm, elevator music? It is mostly popular and classic music done in a soft soothing genre. The dogs don't really care much about music, they don't react much.

It was just nice background noise. I use it to drown out the very loud silence of our house. For years I had the constant repetitive hum from Rich's O2 Concentrator.

I was checking Hannah's mouth to see if all of her baby teeth were gone and it does look like it. I then turned to Charlie and checked his teeth. He had some build up on two teeth this spring and I asked the Vet if we should clean them. She decided it could wait.

Uh. Oh. Those two teeth are wobbly now and the gum surrounding those teeth look nasty. Time to call the Vet and get Charlie in. This morning I did a double check and he flinched. Definitely have to get him in for tooth surgery.

Now. I do not blame the Vet, she is good. It is up to us owners to either push for a procedure [I didn't] and to keep track of our pet's health.

~~~~~

Charlie will go in for Dental Surgery on Thursday to have the teeth removed. $$$$

Well, this is my life and it is a big deal to me personally. Most people think dogs are just dogs. They are, but this guy spent a huge part of his life comforting my husband when he didn't feel well. He has taken me through loss and helped me find the meaning of life afterwards.

So. 

He is my pet and my confidant who will never tell my secrets to anyone else. [Hannah would tell everyone my secrets!]

Keeping his mouth in good condition is essential for his well being [and in case no one knew this, it is essential to human life also]. Bad teeth can lead to kidney and heart failure, and inflammation in the rest of the body. 

My Jack Russell [soul dog] suffered from dental issues later in life and I lost him due to kidney failure. I didn't know much about dental health for dogs so I assumed bad breath and bad teeth were just a thing to do with age. 

Morris and me, Self Portrait in 2017.

Hot Weather and building stick houses

The weather for this Sunday is going to be very steamy and dangerously hot again through Monday.  

I've scrubbed water tanks and refilled them along with making sure the mules and pony have access to good shade already along with an area where they can stand under trees and catch any breeze that might come through.

I'm bummed. I was hoping to go camping in our woods for the weekend.

I got all my work done by 10am yesterday and then worked in the gardens. 

I decided to return to the stick house and see what I could come up with.

My helpers were all ready and raring to go.

The roofing is supposed to look haphazard and rough with bits of bark and moss. 

The next part was to paint and decorate the cardboard it is on. I'll 'make' it into a diorama I can use indoors or outdoors. [Not weather proof!]

This is my version of 'Free' building. Otherwise I'd want to purchase a set of Legos to build. If I had room, I'd build a whole set of these 'forest' huts and lay it out on my 5 foot craft table as a tiny forest town.

So as it turned steamy in the afternoon, I decided to finish my project.

I painted the cardboard to look like dirt.

Then I added chunks of decorated bark and roots that I had made last year. 

The bark chunks came from a downed tree and the pine cones came from our pine trees.

I don't glue down the other bits of roots and bark I am using so I can change the look as I need to. 

I also don't draw out plans or think much of what I am doing. I just punt it because that's how my creative juices flow.

If I add something and it looks neat, I keep it. If it doesn't, I toss it.

Cardboard. Moss. Bark. Glue. Craft Paint. Fake Mushrooms. Some fake moss.

Railroad model flowers. 

Imagination.

I added two of my favorite minifigures who are very much at home in the their magical forest.

...and then,

I set up my first scene to photograph.

I can use this stick building for so many things. The structure will fit a number of toys I have. The sides of the building can provide an interesting back drop for all sorts of scenes.

The best part about the whole thing is that it was built mostly from things I picked up in the yard at no cost!

Other Stick houses I've made:

Here is an old stick village I made and used for some scenes out in the woods. It was fun and when I left parts of it out in the forest to use again, some wild animal thought it would be great to pull it apart.

No harm done, I can always find more sticks to build with!

Today looks like a good day to beat the heat and enjoy some time reading and doing some Still Life Photography.

Hot Summer Daze

But first!

Not long ago, I got a surprise package delivered. Mary came to visit me and go on adventures. Immediately I had to follow her around to see what she would be up to.

She seems quite comfortable going on adventures and exploring. I even found her holding 'court' with my dinosaurs.

Mary doesn't look perturbed at all. She looks as though she has everything under control. It must be her sunny attitude they admire. One dino even brought her Forget-me-nots!

In 'other' non important news:

The heat has been exceptional. The dew point and humidity are some of the factors that make it feel so unbearable.

Of course the dogs wanted to be outside for a while. I was with them to make sure Charlie didn't overheat. He has a hard time with intense heat because of his Dachshund and Pekinese background.

Hannah isn't quite as bothered by the heat, she often goes out to lay on the gravel driveway in the sunshine.

I put my shallow stock tank out the day before and put water in it so it wouldn't be super cold for them. The water was actually warm, but it seems that they didn't mind. Hannah jumped in and out of the water while Charlie just stood there quietly.

I thought I'd do a little bit of 'work' with Hannah. She, like Charlie, is food driven. Unlike Charlie, she is extremely brave and curious. It took only a second for her to notice I put a dog treat in the Lego Robot's hand. 

We worked on 'wait' so I could try to get a photo of her taking the cookie from the Robot. Anything more than a two second 'wait' is a bit beyond her at this point, so I had to work fast.

Charlie wanted a treat too but he wasn't willing to push Hannah to the side to get it. He waited patiently. He was still soaking wet from his time in the stock tank.

I didn't know that Wednesday could get that much worse but it did. The humidity is worse and the breezes we had the past two days stopped. With that wonderful combination, the smoke from the Minnesota and  Canadian wildfires have descended on our area.

Just a couple of hours ago my son in Wausau sent me a photo looking down his street. It looked as if brown fog had descended down his street. It is about a 3 hr drive northeastward to where he lives. 

No wind. Smoke, humidity, and heat. Looks like another good day to read a book and work on crafty things. 

Sticks, glue, moss, and cardboard. Maybe a new 'forest house' for my Lego Minifigures. Hey the stuff is free out in the yard and forest, I just have to build it!

No night shots right now unless the mosquitoes let up a bit. Right after dark and just before dawn they are murderous. 

It isn't worth going out and trying to shoot stars when I'd get carried off by monster Skeeters.

Stay cool if you can. Doing chores this evening is going to be a soaker.

 

Wet Weather

3:30 am on Wednesday...

Hannah started to growl and do some quiet 'woofing'. She was standing at the foot of the bed looking out the window.

I woke up and was surprised to see lightening and heard thunder. I grabbed my cell phone and checked the radar and the weather.

Thunderstorm warning with hail was expected shortly. I ran outside and moved my car into the machine shed.

After day break, I moved the car back out. The weather seemed to have passed over.

Two hours later? I moved the car back into the shed. Another line of heavy storms were on the way.

The dogs and I enjoyed some time on the porch with the cooler temps that the storms temporarily brought.

I had to deal with some little dog that once again tried to lick open her incision. She went out to go do her morning business and ended up chasing a rabbit through the mud with her pink shirt on. 

I grabbed Charlie's Hawaiian shirt [he used to wear that shirt when visiting nursing homes]. 

Charlie didn't care as he is not a dog who likes dog clothes.

She is darned cute with it on and doesn't seem to mind it at all.

I just want her to heal up and we can get back to our normal exciting life.

It was still muggy and humid, but I went to Kristi's. I wore shorts and decided to ride bareback. I found a blanket in my totes of horse blankets that Kristi really liked. Since I had one for Rich and one for me, I gave her this flag blanket. It looks amazing on her Black Bay horse.

Since we'd had so much rain we decided to ride along the dead end road to one of her pastures. I don't often try to take any photos while riding unless I have my point and shoot camera along. I don't like messing with the cell phone while riding. Especially bareback.

Halfway around the field Johnny was surprised by something and leapt sideways in a spook. Sunshine jumped to her left to avoid being bumped into. I caught some air over her back and amazingly settled where I was supposed to be.

The incident lasted less than a second and we humans looked at each other with surprise while our mounts just moseyed along as if nothing had occurred. What caused his momentary spook? We won't know but we were down in a field next to the forest.

I laughed and told Kristi that the ground there was soft anyway and I was riding a short mule. 

Despite the glitch, we had a nice quiet ride that felt so good. 

When I got home I found that I'd gotten a surprise package.....

How lucky can I be that I got a visit from a very good blogging friend!

Say hello to my friend Mary. She even brought a bench along so we could visit in comfort.

Thursday:

Overnight we had some rain. Okay, that is an understatement. By 6am we had 4 inches of rain, by 8am we had 5 inches.

The Sheriff just announced that there are roads that have had mudslides on them and that another local highway will be closed soon for water over the road.

Thursday seems to be a good day to stay home and go see what happened in the valley if the rain ever stops today. However, the forecast says that it will rain until some time on Friday.

If this keeps up, I will have to go empty the rain gauge. We are creeping above 5 inches and it is only 9am.