Monday, September 12, 2011

Random pix

Some random pix from the last few days.

Older Daughter reads the comics...


...with faithful Lydia lying beside her.


For last week's potluck, I made lasagna.


This year Older Daughter is making a special study of literature. I found these books on the floor of her bedroom: Gone With the Wind, Twice Told Tales by Nathanial Hawthorne, and some selected writings of Edgar Allen Poe.


Meanwhile, Younger Daughter had been doing some schoolwork on her bed: math, and reviewing the state capitals.


Bumper sticker, typical of Idaho:


Some pretty early fall color out the back door of the barn. Click to enlarge, this one's pretty.


Don is on his way home from the Shrewsbury Renaissance Faire in Philomath, Oregon (roasting hot, lousy weekend of sales). Prior to going to the fair, he spent weeks working on a push cart so he wouldn't have to use a booth. (A cart can be pushed into the shade, you see.) Here the wheels are drying after a coat of paint.


Here's the cart, more or less finished:


He took it on a brief tour around the driveway with some tankards on the shelves, to see if anything rattled loose. Nope, solid and secure.


Lydia sound asleep...


...with her legs a tangled-up puzzle.


"What??"


Chickens on a lumber pile.


Our one healthy fruit tree (a pear) is producing well this season.


We had such a cold wet late spring that I don't know if the pears will have time to mature before the frost hits. The race is on!


I liked the way the evening sun shone through this little oil lamp.


The morning sun lights up the hay bales, all those beautiful beautiful hay bales.


Snap, our one remaining rooster, in all his manly arrogance. Our other rooster, Red, broke his leg a few weeks ago, and we had to put him down.


Time to take the hummingbird feeders down for the season. The hummers are gone, and the feeders are doing nothing but servicing some angry and aggressive bald-faced hornets and yellow jackets.


Snoring in the yard.


Snoring on grandma's lap in church.


The T-shirt of a southern friend.


Oh, so that's where they've been hiding their eggs.


I heard a lot of squawking and cackling in the yard today, and stepped outside to see a merlin(?) attacking one of the young hens. I shouted and ran toward it. It flew up into a tree and looked at me arrogantly. After a few minutes it flew away. The little hen was crouched, terrified, by a wheel of the tractor. I picked her up and smoothed her feathers, and put her in the coop.


A pretty sunset, a few days ago.


Last night's blood-red sunset, appropriate for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

12 comments:

  1. Cooper hawk maybe. We had a family of four here in August and spent days chasing them off. One of the juveniles kept getting "stuck" in our barn. I am glad they are gone, now it is just the coyotes and the lone wolf. I have not seen the wolf in a while, thank goodness.
    Paintedmoose

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  2. Oh, I clicked on your link to the Renaissance Faire. No wonder you the sales were lousy. By the time you paid to get in, how could you afford to buy anything from the vendors! It always gets me when the admission is so high that a family really cannot afford to go and them to buy anything. I know of the places were trying to keep out the rif-raff (you the kind I am talking about), but they price out the common people, too.
    Paintedmoose

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  3. patrice, i absolutely adore the push cart..just what i and my partner need for those hot hot festivals here in mississippi. sorry sales were so poor at the faire...it is the same everywhere this year for us and we sell bird houses and quilts/quilted items for the home/kitchen. if our business slows any more i am thinking of just posting a sign at the mailbox.

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  4. We have those awful yellow jackets, too. I call them "Labor Day Bees" because around here, that's when they turn ornery.

    Only got stung once this year so far. I felt a tickle on my neck, investigated and discovered the intruder. I threw him on the floor and then I felt the the sting rise up. That little so-and-so had already gotten me! STOMP!

    Great photos.

    Just Me

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  5. You truly are blessed to love in a place of such beauty!
    (Though I count my own blessings also, for I get to see East Grand Traverse Bay from my front porch!)

    ...And by the way, Lydia is way too cute.

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  6. OH, and I almost forgot...Awesome cart!

    Just me

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  7. Very nice cart. Did Don work from plans or did he create it on his own? It would be interesting to know what kind of wood he used for the various parts.

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  8. Hi Patrice! Great pictures. I love the annoyed look on Lydia's face when something woke her up. My dogs give that look, too!

    That cart is too awesome! I saw one like that on the side of the street a few weeks ago selling produce and I fell in love with it. I kept looking online for pictures of one like it, so thanks! lol.

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  9. Patrice, it's fine to pick pears before they are fully ripe. In fact, it's often better to pick them and ripen them in a paper bag in a cool house or in the frig.

    Cut and paste this into your browser to read the details.
    http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/node/413

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

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  10. Looked like a chicken hawk to me, also known as a Cooper's Hawk...

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  11. You have such an artistic eye, Patrice. Your pictures are always wonderful!

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  12. .



    What, exactly, is Lydia's Job Description?



    .

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