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.

 

Don't play with your food...

I can do all sorts of things. Baking is not my forte. On occasion, I do make an attempt at some simple homemade cookies.

Hubby spoke up Sunday morning after his breakfast.

You know, you said you'd make some cookies.

"Um. Yeah. I did." I made a face and it wasn't a pleasant face. "I have to see if I have the ingredients."

Come on, we haven't had home made cookies in ages.

I made another face. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. But I went to check on what I needed. It seemed as if I had everything including the chocolate chips. However the box of Baking Soda was nearly empty but I could squeeze out 1 TBSP.

I laid everything out on the counter and stared at it. Then I walked away.

Hubby looked at me. What's wrong? Do you have what you need?

"Yup, I seem to. Now I just need my helpers."

I returned with two skid steers, a Mime, a Witch, and a Construction Worker.

Hubby shook his head when he saw my Lego People. I'm going to lay down. Didn't your mom ever tell you not to play with your food?

I gave him an evil grin. "My Legos help me or I don't make cookies. And...I never listened to mom anyway."

You are not right in the head! And they say I am crazy!

Making chocolate chips cookies is supposed to be easy. Most people probably don't even have to follow the directions on the package or study the measurements and ingredients. I do. 

And I was going to enjoy the torture of baking anyway.

The Mime gave hand signals to Grandpa and his pet chicken in the skid steer. The construction guy walked around back. He said it was break time.

The Witch on the edge of the pan must have put a spell on the whole works...

The Mime obviously didn't know how dangerous it was to get in front of this skid steer to direct the measuring of the flour. 

What? 142 scoops of flour??? Are you serious? We'll be here all day!

Next, clean up the egg shells...

Put everything in the oven and....

Ewww, these cookies turned out strange! They spread all over the place and fell apart when we got them out of the pan!

I admit, they turned out horrible. I had to let them bake a bit extra in order to get them out of the pan after they cooled. They spread out weirdly. So I went to a baking site and looked up what may have gone so wrong.

Old Baking Soda. Yeah, as if I'd ever would have noticed. I use baking soda and vinegar to clean in the sink and refresh the drains. Huh.

Hubby came into the kitchen.

What the heck happened here!

"Um...SEE I baked! Um...It was the witch's fault, she put a spell on the cookies so they wouldn't turn out! SEE???"

I just need a dragon to finish hardening them...

Hubby picked one crumbly cookie and munched on it.

Well, at least they are eatable. 

...and it wasn't a total waste. I had a little bit of fun doing it too.

A fun snow day ~ Great neighbors

Text: Hey, that snow looks awesome. Wish we could hike today but I'm afraid of widowmaker trees falling down on us in the woods. [because so many trees and branches had fallen down]

My reply: Why don't we walk around the field then? 

Her reply: Okay, meet me at noon on the dot!

My reply: 👍😁

As the noon whistle blew in Readstown over 3 miles away, I stepped into her mud room.

She opened the door and we decided to walk up the road and then come back through the fields. The air was fresh and cold and we headed out.

This is a view across the cropland on the ridge looking west from the cropland we were going to walk on next to the woods.

Charlie wasn't with us. When we walk from her house, we take her husband's dog Barnes, when we hike from my house, we take Charlie. We hope eventually that we can have both dogs with us but Charlie is a bit intimidated by the big brawny cattle dog mix at this time.

The view along our road. When it is cold and windy, this is not the place to be! I prefer the valleys and the deep woods. But this will give you an idea of what our roads look like. Anything that isn't dark brown, is pretty much compacted snow and under that, Ice.

We entered the fields and started to wade through the fresh wet snow and of course it was just two women walking and talking. Yak, Yak, Yak about nothing in particular. Kids, eyes, cross country skis, the snow, and the amazing views.

Over the past week, my new neighbors have walked down twice to say hello and once delivered a plate of cookies! Olive brought cookies too! Talk about a nice place to live with new folks on our ridge.

We are spread out, but our mixed age of folks are all super nice folks.

I was lucky enough to catch this shot of Barnes as he ran towards us through a small trail in the tree line....

Right after I took this photo, he stopped and rolled in something divinely nasty. I guess he was getting a bath after our walk!

My cell phone rang and it was Rich. He was in a snit. Frank was at our place plowing the driveway, WHERE was I? And I needed to be there right now.

I was 1 mile away in a field next to the woods. I just told Rich that I'd text or call Frank and deal with paying him for plowing, not to worry.

As it happened, when we came back up by Olive's house, Frank was coming from our place and I ran out on the road and flagged him down. Frank said our place would be about 11 or noon on his schedule when plowing needed to be done and we worked out pricing and payment. We are sort of neighbors as the crow flies. Another great neighbor.

I got my fresh eggs, and headed home to a nicely plowed hill driveway and Frank also did the turn arounds!

I thought about how living in the city would compare to what I'd just experienced in the past year. And since I haven't lived in a city or town in since 1996, it was hard to imagine.

This morning's text was: 
Hey, hubby is away for 2 days. You want to make a trail for cross country skiing? We can pull Aiden in a sled! 

If nothing else, my younger and very adventurous neighbors will help keep me active won't they?

Todays jobs? Check out the newly fallen snow and hopefully get to town for my gym session and old mule feed. Start a pot of chicken soup, and by late afternoon, go snowshoeing. That sounds okay in my book.

Life in the Slow Lane.

I like it.

Snow mules:

Life ~ By Charlie

Charlie! Do you want to go for a Walk???

Hmmm. Hmmm. I'm currently holding down the couch and thinking about my camouflaged look. Don't bother me.

Aww come on, it is your Birthday!

As if I would recall that! Still, not impressed lady human. Go away.

I have cookies AND it is SNOWING!

Cookies? Snowing? COOOKIES??? Hmmmm. Hmmmm. Cookies. Yes! Let's go you fool!

It is simply amazing the amount of stuff that a people has to put on for a simple walk in the woods. It would be so much easier if humans just had fur like me and could go right out. 

However I imagine her feet would get cold while crossing the creek and walking in snow and ice.

She is always stopping to look at things. Always. I sniff around to find what is so interesting and she will tell me things like: Look at that ice forming!

And I am like. Hmmmm, no mice and no vole in the ice. I don't care. Let's keep moving!

Can we GO now???

Can we keep moving please?

There are deer carcasses to be sniffed and mice to be found. Let's go!

OH Wait. Um. Hmmm. Well, Okay, NOW I will be carried. I smell a kitty that is bigger than I am. 
Nope. Not afraid. Um, well. I think my feet are getting cold.

Perhaps if I shiver and look pitiful, she will pick me up and carry me through all this dangerous stuff. I smell cat. So I shiver and shake and look up at her ...I put my paws on her snowpants and implore with big Googly Eyes.

Oh goody. Coyote ~ Big Wild Dog too!

Sweet! I got a mini cookie and a lift! Phew, sometimes she can be awesome for a human person.

In fact she gave me a lift out of the scary place where the coyote and kitty have trails. Finally when we reached a 'good' place, she set me back down and off I ran. I can pounce and it makes her laugh. When she is so good to me, I like to make her laugh.

If I get too far ahead, she beeps me and I return. 

I don't know, but I kinda like these birthday walks, maybe I can have a lot more. 

Best part of these walks? SHE takes me home and I can resume my duties as a lap/couch/supervisor dog with the Him Human.

Life is good when you rule the house. Even better if you have Big Googly Eyes!

One of Those Few Days

Hubby had his second shot and he felt crappy for a few days so I had to make cookies. I knew he wasn't feeling up to par as he didn't snarf all the cookies down in one day.

He said we had a cookie thief and I said I'd get right on it.

Snow is forecast for Sunday night through Monday with up to 6 inches of wet heavy snow for our area with some hard winds. 
Winter keeps knocking at the door reminding as if to tell us ... it isn't over until ... what? The Fat Lady Sings? 

My week included appointments with the dentist [all good there...NO cavities!] The hygenist was a different one and she touched me deeply with her compassion. As I left the office she gently touched the small of my back and said, "See you! Take care!" That touch and comment meant so much more to me than it might have a year ago.

The eye doctor was Friday. I loved this young guy! What a hoot! I went to a new optometrist in town at the clinic. I am SO glad I did. I was told to go and buy my glasses on line...so much cheaper. The doc and tech were awesome. When I went to look at glasses I was even surprised more. 

I told the gal that I needed glasses that FIT my face. We ended up with child frames. Yeah, I am a little person. When she asked me what I thought, I asked her what SHE thought. How did they look? She pointed out that I'd have to be satisfied and I pointed out that she saw faces with glasses more than I did.

I said that the only time I would LOOK at the glasses was when I was in the bathroom. Otherwise the only important thing was to make sure I could see with them.

My old glasses were off for my distance vision. I could see better in the distance without the old glasses!

Enough of that.

Hubby has recovered from his vaccination. 

His mind or memory or perception of things this week has changed so much. I'd told him Monday that I ordered new hiking boots to replace the ones that were falling apart. He freaked out when UPS dropped them off and proceeded to yell at me for ordering unnecessary footwear.

He forgot about it overnight. 

Question or food for thought: Other issues? Or did the vaccine cause issues? Hmm.

Last night I said something about Daylight Savings Time and he told me I was wrong about spring forward. According to him I should move the clocks back so we get more daylight. Back.
Back.

Back.

I even showed him my cell phone clock this morning and he got irate. Everyone was wrong. Wrong. 

He has aphasia so sometimes the language is reversed. So I usually just ignore it and other times it causes real problems in our communications. He is She, Up is Down, and I think you get it.

I know that I will just adjust the clocks when he naps today on the stove and microwave and when he wakes up things will be just fine. Because I relented and just let the subject drop.

I keep forgetting my lessons regarding stroke and communications. And everything I learned while dealing with MIL and her dementia. 

Go with the flow.

I want a stuffed Llama so I can beat it up when I get frustrated. Drama Llama.

The memory and mind are interesting things. It sort of reminds me of a road that you've never taken ... you don't know where you will end up.

Don't play with your food

I think every child has heard that from their mom. However. While making cookies I thought this would be fun.
I made a diorama out of an old wooden box and used ambient light from the kitchen window as my light source.

I did some more reading and read about a do it yourself softbox for lighting. Controlling the lighting is pretty fun. I'd tried that a week or so ago with the Dinosaurs, Dragons, and a lamp.

Two years ago I'd created a similar light box and photographed an apple. That experiment was just to do a product type of photo.
It sort of worked, but I still had a shadow on the lower part of the photo. 

I had a big cardboard box sitting next to the back door and I needed to do something with it. I remembered the softbox I'd made and thought I'd try another one. I got out the box knife and made a new lightbox. I cut out two sides and the top. 

Getting a light to shine down was difficult since I only had two lamps.

But it might work for diffused light from above the object I would be photographing.

I added scrapbook paper as a backround and then scrounged around for some items that might look neat.

I used rocks and 1931 Singer sewing parts. I found the tiny needles folded up cardboard labeled London 1851. I used a tiny Halo figurine.

The scrapbook paper provided a 'grunge' looking backdrop.

I looked around for something like a circuit board for a backdrop for the tiny soldiers.
The best I could come up with was more discarded Singer parts. These parts came from my Aunt's sewing machine she purchased in 1931.

I had a bit of fun with it too. 

Beam me UP!

And then I switched things up a bit.

This would have worked better if you couldn't see where I joined two white pieces of paper together. Uffdah! 

My little Not - Fairy Garden Dragons. 

Cute Dragon and Forest Dragon.

I really like Dragons!

This I lit up from the top by putting the camera on a timer and then grabbing the lamp and shining it down from the top of the box without knocking stuff over.

And for a bit of silliness.

I have no idea why I selected this, maybe because it amused me. I think cute hearts would have been funnier as a backdrop.

Giddyup!

Then this afternoon after a friend saw the dinosaur eating the cookie ... she texted me that it was so UNFAIR that her Zoo Crew she'd sent me didn't get any goodies!

I had made a cake [and believe me...that is a big effort!]. So after Rich had a piece, I ...

well

I...

played with the food...

The Zoo Crew !