Oh boy ...

After one hour and forty-five minutes of snowing ...

The snow started at about 8:30 this morning. I'd prepared yesterday by filling the feeders and the heated bird bath for the various critters. Got the kerosene heater ready with an extra few gallons of kerosene in case the electricity fails. I moved the gas grill so I could easily get to it if I wanted something hot to eat while the power was out. I also bought peanut butter and bread for me and tuna for the furry ones. Lastly, swept the porches and covered my car. My cousin gave me a car windshield cover for Christmas. What a great gift. It's got covered magnets in each corner and a little flap at both front windows that I closed the door on. No way it can come off. It even covers the wipers so they won't freeze. This is one of those great gifts that make my life a bit easier.

 

Most of the snow melted yesterday. The sun was so warm I only had to have on sweats and gloves. No coat needed although it was very cold in the shade. The snow was so dry, only a broom was needed for removal. That was wonderful. The snow shovel is too long for me and my shoulders just can't manage the weight of it. 

Mister is much better now that he is taking a glipizide pill every day. He's gained a little weight and his coat seems fuller. He is much more active and as happy as that makes me, it irritates Miss Cleo. He likes to pounce on her when she's sleeping. Just like brother and sister. :-)

Huh? What snow?

I'm in the middle of sorting through an early phase of Spring cleaning. Please excuse the mess in the background. Mister and Miss Cleo love playing in and around piles of "stuff". They're like kids with a fort. 

I've decided I'm going to take a break from sorting and cleaning today and tomorrow and work on some knitting, crocheting and a small sewing project I want to attempt. So, with the blizzard still blizzard-ing out there ... I'm going to prepare a small pot of hot lemony tea and do what I love best ... crafting.

If you're in the blizzard area, I hope you stay warm and have plenty of what you need and the electricity stays on for everyone. 

Just another day ...

The weather here has been unseasonally warm. The mornings are cold with very heavy frosts but the days have warmed to near 60 until today ... 73 degrees! Tomorrow is supposed to be near the same. I feel a bit odd searching for icicle lights to hang outdoors when I feel the need to weed a flower bed or do some sort of outside work.

I purchased my dishwasher last evening. I feel I made a good choice and got a good price. Whirlpool 51-decibel (supposed to be quiet enough to not disturb kitchen conversation); originally $599, on sale for $379. I'm used to the $100 loud one I had so I won't know what to do with a nice one! I'm excited for Thursday's delivery. I gave the old one to my aunt's cleaning lady. Her husband will be here Monday to get it and repair it. I'm told it's just a hose plugged up. I hope that's all it is. I'd rather give it to someone who doesn't have one than let Lowe's take it off and dump it.

Mister, my tabby buddy, has been diagnosed with diabetes. It just broke my heart when the vet told me. I just didn't want to deal with another sick one. He's lost one pound. He has a skin condition that requires steroid shots. The steroid shots have caused diabetes. I can't stop the steroid shots because the skin condition gets quite severe. He loses hair down his spine and raw sores develop. I will wait longer periods of time between the shots. That should help a little. He's shown signs of diabetes with the lethargy and abundance of water intake. He'd gotten to the point where he would just lay by the water fountain because he was too tired to walk to it so often. I just placed his bed by it so he'd be comfortable. The vet started him on glipizide and I get it filled at my pharmacy. I got an odd look when they asked for my date of birth and I said "I have no idea; it's for my cat". ha He's doing better after the medicine. I give him a tablespoon of plain Greek yogurt with a crushed pill in it and he gobbles it down twice a day. Hopefully it will always be this easy.

Thanksgiving has come and gone ...

It was a quiet day for me. My relatives generally gather at a cousin's home but this year everyone decided to fend for their own families. That left me with my cats and parrot and memories of Samson. I prepared a beef roast, mashed potatoes, corn that I froze at summer's end, roasted Brussels sprouts and red onions, and yeast rolls. My aunt stopped by to eat with me. A while after dinner, we had hot chocolate with snickerdoodle liquid creamer and cinnamon chip, raisin, oatmeal cookies.

After auntie left, I cleaned the kitchen and had to stop for a little bit of a cry. Had Samson been here, he'd have loved those leftover roast bits and mashed potatoes and all else. It's odd what will tug at the heart at times. I can get through more than one day at a time without crying then something happens and I just can't help it. I've had more heartache and pain in my life than most but I honestly have most difficulty in dealing with this. I never had to do anything but be who I am for him to love me. I know he's no longer ill wherever he is now. That I do have comfort with.

Samson after Thanksgiving dinner 2014

Miss Cleo after a bit of roast on Thanksgiving 2015

Mister after a bit of roast on Thanksgiving 2015

I certainly took no selfies ... that's just not my thing. haha

The weather is dreary and ominous today. These trees are right beside my house. I'm always concerned with the high winds that blow through here. I hope to not wake up with one on top of me. :-)

Did you get a lot of shopping done on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Lowe's is carrying their Black Friday sales through this week. I'm going to purchase a dishwasher tomorrow. Mine stopped working properly in May. I look forward to having another one. I thought I could live without one but I just don't keep up with the dishes. I hate to have them in the sink and I keep putting it off then I get aggravated at myself. When I saw the sale ad I knew what I would be getting!

I did some Cyber Monday shopping. I made a purchase from knitpicks.com for a mug/teapot/yarn sampler kit with coaster and dishtowel patterns. Someone will get some nice, heavy dishtowels for a Christmas gift. The "dishie" cotton yarn from knitpicks.com is nice.

I hope you've enjoyed the holiday weekend and are now in preparation for the next!

Rain and the stressors of life ...

The colorful leaves have filled the lawn and left the trees bare. I cannot rake the lawn so I cut them up with my lawn mower. Sometimes it takes a few trips around to get them all broken into tiny pieces but I enjoy being out there.

I'm having a wiener roast for the neighborhood children tomorrow evening. It's just hot dogs with sauce, cole slaw, and all the other fixin's; marshmallows, chips and cookies. West Virginia has the best hot dogs in the country as far as I'm concerned. Check out this place not far from my home ... if nothing else, it will give you a giggle. Hillbilly Hot Dogs ... just the best they is. hee-hee I like just a regular slaw dog: bun, wiener, mustard, onions, sauce, and cole slaw. The others are okay if you're hankerin' for somethin' different.

I'm making a cookie recipe my cousin gave me when I was a youngster ... probably some 40 years ago. I think I was about 11 years old. Maybe. Who can remember back that far? ha Although there are many days those memories are far more clear than the ones from a few hours ago. :-) Chocolate chip oatmeal raisin walnut cookies. Simply amazing. I use coconut oil now instead of other oils. It really makes the dough lighter and crispier. I'll share the recipe if anyone wants it. I can type it up in a minute or two.

Samson is still with me. He has good days and bad. His good days consist of eating and sleeping and wanting his belly scratched.  :-) I have a vet check-up scheduled for 12 Nov. I'll know more of what he's dealing with then. Sometimes he seems to have a fever. He'll shake and quiver as though he's freezing. I cover him with an afghan and at times he wants me to sit there with him. Soon, he's snuggled up to me ... along with Miss Cleo and Mister. Then we all take a snooze. It's good I live alone, I guess. I let many indoor chores slide to spend time with my babes while knitting or crocheting.

Miss Cleo likes to hang close when Samson isn't feeling well. It's almost like she knows he's feeling poorly. She is 13 years old. I found her as she popped out from under my car one day in July 2002. She was barely 5 weeks, according to the vet, and on the verge of death with a viral infection and terribly high fever. That was the first time I've seen a cat "pant" like a dog. She's healthy now and very much a diva in this house.

I'm off to bake cookies and wash laundry! I'm happy it's nice enough to hang a few items out. I love the fresh smell of the outdoors.

Blessings ...

The Bandit ... without Smoky

I've been quite busy for the past few weeks. So much so, that I've not been online to read even one blog post.

For the past six months or so, my smoke detector has gone off (mostly in the middle of the night) and scared a few years off my life each time. There is no smoke to cause it, so I'm assuming it's either dust in there setting it off, or it needs replaced. It is, in addition to being powered with a battery, also powered by electricity. I read online that these systems need replaced every 8-10 years. My house is just now 10 years old. Since I cannot get to the detector battery, I called upon a dear friend, who makes my life much easier. He switched the electrical breaker off and removed the batteries; purchased an individual detector and hung it in a proper place. I can again sleep without being on edge. It disturbed Samson as well which bothered me more than anything. Now, he's sleeping soundly too.

That very evening, near dusk, I heard an unusual sound that seemed to be coming from under the house. Suddenly, Samson was in defense mode and headed to the heat register and began barking wildly; cats hissing and sniffing. I'm thinking, "Good grief, all this over a mouse (I'm sure of it!)?" I decided I'd turn the furnace on and that little critter would run back out. So ... turned on the heat ... and instantly knew it was NOT a mouse! It lumbered and galloped and thundered around. I feared it would break the duct work so I turned the furnace off. I listened and gasped! I heard a familiar chatter and a dog-like panting. No way! I'm thinking I've lost my mind and NO ONE will believe this. I went to the kitchen register ... looked into it ... and there ... staring back at me through a black mask was a raccoon!!! How in this world did that happen?! I called my friend, Jamie, to come back. (Fortunately, I've been close with his wife since the day she was born so she doesn't mind to loan him out.) He came back and we waited for it to rear its little head again. Never showed. Jamie sat here with me for almost an hour but the little fellow found his outlet to a cooler spot. I'm sure he was quite warm and thirsty after the heat from the furnace blowing on him.

The next morning I went to my car and saw little muddy 'coon prints on top of the frozen snow, heading from under the back porch to the stream just a few feet away. He needed a drink. :-)

A few days later, I was preparing to crawl under the porch to find out how this chubby little varmint was entering the crawl space. A friend stopped by at that exact time and insisted she do it for me. She said someone had cut one-half of a cinder block out and left a clear opening under the vented block. (I'm assuming the fellow who built the back porch did this when I wasn't looking. Why?) She took a few cinder blocks and blocked for me. I've had no more bandit visits but I fear the bandit left a little destruction behind. I can feel a slight cool breeze at the registers when the heat is not on. I'll have to get someone under the house this summer to check the duct work out. I hate the thoughts of sending someone under there because it's very tight. But, it must be done.

The weather is beginning to feel like Spring. Still a bit nippy but the sun is shining and that makes me joyful.

Wishing you a joyful weekend!

Here we go again ...

It began to snow about 4 AM after a many hours of heavy rain. The snows we've had this season have been very dry and fluffy. This snow, however, is quite heavy and wet. This snow concerns me. It builds up on the power lines and the next thing you know, you're in the dark and cold. So far, we've had about 2" of snow. But the temperatures are in the mid-30s so it should not be too bad. 

I've filled the bird feeders. The cats are sitting by the door watching ... waiting ... hoping to figure out how to get through that clear glass and grab one of our feathered friends. This is a photo from last week when Mister was hiding from the Mourning Dove on the other side of the door. Poor fellow. I've had to close the door when the temptation gets too great and he knocks himself silly trying to jump through the glass.

 

I finished some scarves for Christmas gifts. Here is a picture of one I crocheted for a friend:

 

This one I knitted for a friend. The green is a dark pine green but it didn't photograph well.

 

And one more crocheted Queen Anne's Lace scarf for another friend.

Grow Your Blog Party

I'm participating in the Grow Your Blog Party hosted by Vicki at 2 Bags Full.

My name is LesleyAnn. I've lived in southwestern West Virginia for 51 years ... all my life.  I live with a dog, Samson (10-1/2 years); two cats, Miss Cleo (11 years) and Mister (10 years); and a Quaker parrot (14 years) named Baby. We're all AARP-eligible in this house.

While riding a motorcycle in 1981, I was hit by a drunk driver. I have a traumatic hemipelvectomy amputation. I was comatose and semi-comatose for almost three months in ICU and total hospital stay for ten months. Plus four months in rehab. All before I ever saw 19 years of age. My mother had been killed in an automobile accident in August 1980, buried on her 48th birthday. It's been a stressful life but I've honestly done the best I can. My maternal Granny dedicated the last years of her life to make sure I healed and lead as normal a life as possible. She always said I could do anything anyone else could. I did for the most part. Whitewater rafting. Hiking. I loved the outdoors activities. Still do. I'm just a spectator now for most of it. I use a wheelchair 100% now.

I worked as a cartographic technician for the US Army Corps of Engineers before I took disability retirement in 2001. I loved my job. It was difficult, emotionally, to leave. I was the only person I knew who never wanted to retire. My plan was to work until I died.

I own my home on the property I grew up on in Plum Hollow. I moved back here in 2004. I live independently for the most part. I do have a friend stop by every now and again to replace a ceiling lightbulb or the batteries in the smoke detectors. I like where I live but it's lonely. I rarely see people and in this age of electronics, I only hear the voices of the people on television or radio. Texting is as close as I get to people. Unless, of course, I take a trip to the local Walmart or vets office. It's difficult during winter months when I get snowed in ... like now. But, when the weather is warm ... I'm going to the local lake or friends' houses or just sitting on my porch admiring my flower and vegetable gardens.

Thank you for stopping by. I'll be having a giveaway posted in the next few days. I do hope you stop by again.