Happy 4th of July

um,,,,watermelon feast!

Sassy in the Clouds....

One day recently the best show in town was in the sky.......one cloud gradually turned into the image of Sassy, our furry friend, dog-person.

Raising the Roof!

Oh my what a sight! Work for the night is coming.....

Father's Day

Dad,
The older I get, the more I realize how much I love you. Thank you for being so strong, so independent, and so protective. Thank you for being there for me and only wanting the best for me and my family. Your advice is priceless. When I am 80 and you are 106, I will continue to learn from you. I will help you , only when you ask, your " I can do it" attitude keeps you young.

I want to say that I love you.
Happy Father's Day
from your favorite Daughter

Oh Yes, the truth is out

baby brother

Isn't he cute

Workers!

The rent is due so our renters have decided to work off their debts. This is a wonderful plan as I have all the money I could ever want and too much yardwork. Paul has been working on a landscape design that will conceal our new neighborhood subdivision. These shrubs will grow to the height of fifty feet at a rate of five feet a year. We shall have our own forest. The fence has changed to look of the backyard so much. I sometimes feel like we have moved. The birds, having lost forty acres of trees, use the fence for conversations and perching. That has been the only good part of losing the backyard. More pics later......

A Beautiful day in the Neighborhood

Andrew

Andrew has graduated and we are so proud. He studied stuff that only he and his Dad understand. Go ahead, ask him a computer question, I dare you !

Dogwood days

Meet our newest addition to the front yard. The Pink Dogwood! We are so happy this tree survived last years drought. I spent many days hauling dishwashing water out to many plants. I could not stand the idea of tossing out the water and the plants were thirsty. I have a dripping kitchen faucet and I keep a large watering can in place to catch the drips. The water conservation has now become a part of my daily routine. The plants enjoy the attention

Grandma Rose

Teddy needed reasurrance that Grandma Rose will always love him.

Spring Beauty

Oh, I got to take a rare picture of a Spring Beauty in my front yard!

Snowball

Snowball has gone home to her family. She had been missing from home over a month. She lives over 10 miles away and we can not figure out how she arrived at my door. There are three major roads and an interstate between our houses. After having her live on my front porch for a week, I discovered that she had a tatoo on her belly. Todd helped hold her and we were able to write down the numbers.....02-.... The next day I called the Knox County Animal shelter. They encouraged me to bring in the cat and they would scan her to determine if the cat had a "chip." The cat did not enjoy the car trip across town nor did she enjoy the wait in the shelter office. It was very small and busy. A lady was there turning in her two labadors, saying she did not want them anymore. She was told by the shelter lady that because this was an owner surrender that the dogs could be killed that day if there was no room. She was also informed that between 40 to 50 animals A DAY were brought into the shelter. She let them go anyway.
The cat was scanned and we heard a BEEP! What great news. A phone call was made and it was discovered that the cat's registration was in a box somewhere and not in the computer. I was told I could leave the cat and they would take care of contacting the owner. The registration was from 2002 and there was a chance the cat's owners might not be found. I said, I will take her home, you call me later. Several hours later I received a phone call and was given two numbers. The shelter lady said a strange thing happened. She opened the box for the 2002 cards and this cat's card was the first one in the box! On the second phone call I made, Lisa answered and was amazed to hear the story. She at first could not believe me because she had almost given up hope. Lisa then told how she was moved by the Easter service at her church and had prayed that her cat would come home. She then told me that cat's name was Snowball.
A wonderful reunion happened a few hours later. Her son said that Snowball had lost a tremendous amount of weight. He also said that maybe Snowball had left home because he had paid more attention to the other cat in the family.
I hope they send a picture someday, I miss Snowball. Cherry does not.

Oh, ahhhhh

Sometimes you just have to stop working on something. Have you ever noticed the how many times " It is finished" is said in the Bible? Moses said it, Jesus said it, God said it. There is something very satisfying about that word. Looking toward completion with eager anticipation... not of having nothing to do but of being able to start something new. Completion...new concept for me.
I discoved that I could remove and rearrange the granny squares and I did so to correct some obvious only to me, errors in the color pattern of this afgan. It calmed down quite a bit, isn,t perfect, but it is finished.

One of those days

Well, it just seemed like one of those days today. I had to go get me some doctoring today after my dag burn cat chewed on my finger like it was a tasty chicken bone. Now I hollared, it did, real loud and serious like. Why you go and do that for, cat, I said, I did. Well that cat up and sashed out of the room, totally satisified that it had done runned off the invader, not noticing that I was the one skiddadling, not the new cat in the window. Well I got me a shot, some funny looking blue pills, and a Taz bandaid. Well my Mom used to say that I would get hurt , just to get a pretty bandaid. Now I remember what happened this morning....."hummm, cat is looking crazed, great time to get a bandaid!!!"

I took my finger, and "Porch" for a walk and discovered these flowers in my yard. Amazing. I never knew there were so many different kinds.

Whos your Momma

Someone has lost their way and has ended up on my front porch. This is a very sweet, lost kitty kat that just wants to either go home or come inside my house. Gma has named the cat Lucky, but we shall see. Cherry is not pleased with the stranger outside and becomes a screaming banshee whenever Lucky looks into the house. I went to move Cherry from the windowsill so I could close the curtain. I was also afraid Cherry was going to give herself a heartattack. She attacks the window, flails about until she falls off the windowsill and starts again. I was in the wrong place and received several deep bites on my finger. Now I have had cats in my life, forever. Never have I been bitten like this. So, after the cable guys show up, I am off to the doctors for a tetnus shot.
Oh the joy of pet ownership.

Rainbow Afgan

Mom and I started this Granny Square Afgan last year but never did we expect it to grow so large. There are 120 squares! First we put together an afgan for Mom. We had rejected a pile of squares because of bad color combinations. These became the core of my afgan. Mom and I worked on the squares while she was recovering from her fall. We wanted each one to be different so we had to get creative with color "themes". So,there are Holiday themes, High School and Collage themes,and some matched our favorite Cold Water Creek advertisements! Needing more ideas we would chose three random colors each other. We asked Gpa to go chose three for each of us. We even spread them out on the couch and closed our eyes and chose three. We always had to use the three and we came up with some unexpected squares.
The rainbow theme finally gave us plenty of ideas to finish the squares. Tell me what your think about the afgan!

...A writer needs three qualities; creativity, originality, clarity, and good short-term memory

Drought

Paul and I attended a program put on by the UT Tree Arboridum Club, which we are members, about the affects of last years drought on our trees. The speaker was a professor from UT who specializes in researching how stress affects hardwood plants and trees. She showed charts depicting the rain amounts over the past 100 years. The last low percipitation date was during the Dust Bowl years of the 1920-30s. She then drew our attention the last years drought mark. It was off the chart. Last year's drought was the worse it has ever been since weather tracking began. The big surprise of the evening was that the Easter severe Freeze did more damage to our trees then the drought. She said three events could give many trees the "strike your out" blow. The drought, the freeze, and deer and bug populations. These populations were desperate for food and dined heavily on any available green. To check for freeze damage on your tree, look at the bark near the base of the tree. If it is soft, falling off, or can be peeled back, your tree is in danger or is dead.....
sigh