“Squirreling” As An Art Form

Jeff’s Wildlife Photography – @sykesjeff on X

We are starting to stock up for the winter. Arkansas isn’t terrible in the winter, but it doesn’t do winter well. We almost never have just really pretty snows that cover everything with a beautiful white blanket and then melt away. We have ice, THEN snow, which makes it almost impossible to drive or walk or….

Lisa Wellwood – @studio22artz on X

Compounding that, we have a 650+ foot driveway on the north side of our property – long and steep and just perfect as a ski slope, if you were wanting one. Any snow or ice storm causes the trees on either side of the driveway to droop down or break off into the driveway, forcing us to chainsaw our way out.

I once sledded down our driveway with our son, pushing off at the top and ending up across the street that runs in front of our house, in the ditch, against the barbed wire fence, with my jeans jammed full of the snow I had gathered on the way down. Once was entirely enough, though our son thought it was wonderful and wanted to do it again…

G H Holt Photography – @ghholt on X

As a result, we already have our snow tires on our truck – just in case. We will stock up on food and supplies so that we can ‘hole up’ up here on top of our ridge line if we get snowed or iced in. The worst time ever was when we lost access to both public power and public water for 14 days. Thankfully, we have a generator powered by propane, and a well we can switch to, if needed.

Squirreling away things that will help us through the winter has begun.

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The Art of James McGairy 2

First Frost

Water Falls

A Frosty Morning, River Esk

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Beautiful Fall Wednesday 11-15-2023

Gregorio Catarino – @gregcatarino1 on X

We’re having a glorious fall day here in Arkansas. It’s 54 degrees F. now, and it’s supposed to get to 73 this afternoon. The sun is shining, our dog is smiling and trying to climb up into my lap as I type. (She forgets that she weighs 97 pounds and thinks she’s a lap dog.) Things are good and I have absolutely no complaints. :0) The weather folks are saying cooler weather is coming, so I’ll enjoy today with even more awareness and appreciation.

Better Homes & Gardens

I’ve been flapping my mouth about weed whacking, but haven’t actually DONE more than flap. Laziness and other priorities have been sucking up my time and energy, but I’m going to force myself to get outside and start neatening up around the house – the first session this morning. I’m feeling especially guilty because my husband got out yesterday, mowed the grass in front of the garden, and then ran the gas out of the mower to store it for the winter. He also changed another of the 8 foot fluorescent light fixtures in the shop to the new LED bulb configuration. I feel like a slug. :0( I’ll try to make up for that today.

Freepik

I told you that I’m thinking of changing the name and look of my Etsy shop. You would be surprised how difficult it is to (1) think of a name that is no more than 20 characters – no punctuation allowed – that hasn’t been used on Etsy before. And then, if you finally figure one out, ideas for banners to go across the top of the site and a logo that shows the idea of the shop, catches the eye, etc. I may die of old age before all of that comes together.

SO – I’ll share a few more things with you here on the blog and then get outside. :0)

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Wildlife Art of Greg Beecham

Greg Beecham Studio – @gregbeechamart on X

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Tuesday Thoughts 11-14-2023

NBC News

Faster than the movement of a glacier, but I have a small grin on my face this morning, with the poundage loss at 15.6. Onward to 20!

My husband has a haircut this morning. As we leave, we are hoping to see that the trash can has been emptied. We’ll get our mail, get the haircut, shop for groceries, then drag the trash can back up where it lives when we get back.

Other excitement for the day is continuing the weedwhacking, glassware project, and reworking my Etsy site.

I hope you have a very pleasant Tuesday.

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More Mr. Barghest Art

Mr. Barghest Art – @Mr_barghest_ on X

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G H Holt Photography

G H Holt Photography – @ghholt on X

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New Week, New Start

Freepik

I’ve decided that my Etsy site needs a total makeover. I’m going to do it a bit at a time, trying to learn as much as I can about WHAT I can do, HOW to do it, and then, once that is done, making new things to add to it. This will be a long term project, but I’m feeling excited just thinking about it. I’m hoping my friends will help me, allowing me to bounce ideas off of them to get their opinions. My good friend Marsha already pointed me to a YouTube video on the subject. I’ll look at that first. :0)

The People’s Therapist

It looks like we have a whole week of good weather here! I KNOW! Hard to believe. I’m not sure if Mother Nature is feeling bad about her extreme behavior lately or if this is a test – where she dangles the good weather in front of us and then snatches it away, like Lucy and Charlie Brown…

This is probably the last of the flowers for us this season. This is a twice-blooming iris, which USUALLY blooms for the second time in October. It reinforces my opinion that Mother Nature is really enjoying messing with us this year. I’ll surely ‘accept’ it any time we get a pretty bloom, though.

UPDATE – It’s been about 45 minutes since I was working on this post. My husband came in, wanting to gather the trash and take it down to the bottom of our driveway. On the way down the driveway we saw 3 MORE purple iris!

TangledTulip on Etsy –

My husband is feeling of two minds about his birthday which we’ll be celebrating Saturday, Nov. 18th. He’ll be 80. On one hand, he has never wanted to do anything “public” concerning a birthday (he once almost decked a nice man who was playing “Happy Birthday” on his accordion right next to his chair in a restaurant). On the other hand, he privately thought he would never live to see 30 – so 80 is quite an achievement, plus he thinks it has a certain amount of cache’ – where being 79 is simply, ‘old.’ I just asked him if I could take him to dinner or celebrate in some way. This was quickly squashed. He finally said he wants me to fix his favorite meal – chicken chunks and soup over rice. I’ll do that, plus see if there is a way to make another favorite – pineapple upside down cake – with as little sugar as possible – that will still taste good. I’ll research that.

Have a wonderful day!

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More Mark Gray Photos

Mark Gray Photography – @GrayMarker99 on X

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42

Gregorio Catarino – @gregcatarino on X

I have preordered the paperback version of J.D. Robb’s (Nora Roberts) “Payback in Death” that will be released December 26th.

To celebrate, I’m rereading the In Death series, totally enjoying being immersed again in LT. Eve Dallas’ world in about 2060 for book #42, “Brotherhood in Death.”

“Payback in Death” is #57 in the series, and #58 – “Random In Death” – is due out in hardback at the end of January 2024.”

Even though Eve Dallas is a murder cop and has to deal with the worst that humans can do to one another, the whole series is about grabbing what’s true, what’s good in life, trying to absorb as much of what’s right in the world as you can, treasuring the people who make our world special.

Eve has made it a point to be strong and independent, self-sufficient, almost impenetrable, and yet in each book in the series, she opens up a bit more, lets more in, cares more, understands what is important more. She prides herself on her objectivity and can-do attitude, but what makes her the best at her job is her humanity and caring.

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Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews, Favorite Authors & Books, Hobbies, Reading is FUNdamental

Sunday Sunshine 11-12-2023

Depositphotos

It’s supposed to get to 70 this afternoon. I’m hoping to get outside and neaten things up around the house with the weed whacker – sidewalk edges, planter edges, under the deck, etc. I find that if I make it a point to neaten things up for the winter, my disposition stays much nicer than my normal, “meaner than a snake” demeanor (according to my husband :0))

My glassware etching project is progressing. I’ve found that really short sessions work best for me. I’m enjoying the challenge of this. The jury is still out on whether the finished product will go to friends or into the trash. :0)

My good friend, Nora, bought an Advent Calendar from JacquieLawson.com for me. If you’ve never seen these, it’s an online calendar you enjoy day by day, personalizing as you go. They are truly wonderful and bring a lot of joy to the Christmas season.

I hope the weather is such where you are that you can enjoy some fresh air and sunshine, the beautiful fall season, some good exercise, and lots of fun.

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Hahahahahaha

Vince_Rozmiark_thesignguy

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Saturday Flower Fix

We had several freezes in a row here, and they took care of most of the flowers we had left. I have ONE twice-blooming purple iris right now that I’m going to bring inside so we can enjoy it.

That makes the beautiful paintings I’m finding of flowers all the more essential for a really nice day –

ArtLoveLife-@art_lovelife23-“Dreams of Spring” -Sabantha

Beth Charles-Pinterest

delphiniums-marymaxam.net

Pinterest – (sorry, I can’t read the signature)

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Comfort

A-Z Animals – iStock

I’ve been finding some new recipes lately.

I told you about our regular chicken-soup-over-rice dish I made recently where Amber (our 97 lb yellow lab) showed her approval by stealing the containers off the counter that were supposed to go into the freezer for future dinners. I’ve learned my lesson on that one now.

Two nights ago I made a new-to-us ham and cheesy noodle casserole that really hit the spot.

Tonight I’m trying a new slow cooker cheesy chicken and rice recipe. This really appeals to me today because I’m planning to spend several sessions outside this afternoon working in the yard and won’t be interested in cooking after that.

cutigers – @cutigs1 on X

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Fall Saturday 11-11-2023

Jessica Myers – @JMyers_Photos on X

Isn’t this gorgeous?

I was noticing on the way home yesterday that our trip from town was ‘pretty,’ with a good amount of fall color along the curvy road. The turn onto our road was almost picturesque and our driveway even looked homey to me.

It’s 39 right now, so a bit cool for working outside yet. I’m hoping to get some good time to work on neatening things up outside later today.

Veterans Day -Remembrance – Guardians of the National Cemetery

Sharla Derry, Greenwood AR

This is a nice picture taken by our City Clerk/Treasurer. It shows the outer circle of the memorial stones placed by families in Greenwood. It doesn’t show that there are now ‘spokes’ in the wheel going to the center, honoring more veterans. Memorial Park is FILLED with flags right now remembering the price so many people have paid to keep us free.

Yesterday we put up the decoration we made, the caterpillar from Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland on our mailbox. I like the actual tubing we used for the hookah pipe making a nice 3-D aspect we hadn’t tried before.

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Stood Up

Freepik

We’re home again after leaving to meet our friends for Lunch Bunch. Sadly, when we got to the restaurant, no one else was in the parking lot. We’re usually the last ones there, so….

We ended up going to another of our favorite restaurants, The Dari, instead. We had a nice lunch and I brought home a doggie bag of French fries, since I splurged, not having eaten any for over two years now. I’ll eat some more mid afternoon since the time for Lunch Bunch is at least an hour before our usual lunch time and I get hungry.

If things dry out a bit more, I’ll see what I can do with the push weed whacker behind the shop – beside the garden. My husband is saying he’ll start the mower and do the area in front of the garden. We’ll see if Mother Nature will cooperate.

Tenor

I’m beginning to think our days of “Lunch Bunch” are coming to an end after 20+ years. Linda is dependent on her daughter, Patty, to bring her from the retirement place, and many times her health is such that she doesn’t feel good enough to come. Kay and Bud get distracted, or forget to call us to let us know they’re not coming. We’ll keep going for now, but it looks like we need to make some decisions sometime in the future.

I hope you’re having a terrific day.

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Stunning Embroidery

amzn.to

instagram.com

mungfaili.com

mungfali.com

needlework.craftgossip.com

Pinterest

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We Made it to Friday! 11-10-2023

I think the artist says, “Jodi Hills” – Pinterest

We’re having a really nice day here. It’s supposed to get to 67 this afternoon with lots of sun. Soooo nice after all the rain we got yesterday.

We leave for Lunch Bunch in about 20 minutes. It would be good if some of our friends are there.

I’m planning to work outside some this afternoon, plus work on my glassware project some, plus cook breakfast for dinner tonight.

A whole weekend of really nice, fall weather is forecast – all stretching out before us to do with it what we will. I wish you a happy, productive time. :0)

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Breathe

Pinterest

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Angie Wallace Fine Art

Hector

Angie Wallace Fine Art – @AngieWithLove on X

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Andrii Frolov 5

Street Cafe

Andrii Frolov – @kznsq on X

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Thursday Thoughts 11-9-2023

Kairn Savage – @SavageKairn on X

5News

We’re due for a LOT of rain today. (We’re beneath the yellow and orange blobs on the map above, just to the northeast of Poteau and to the southeast of Fort Smith.) My SIL in Charlotte and my good friend in The Villages have both asked me to send some rain their way, so I’m trying not to hog it all. We’ll take a bit and try to send the rest on.

When I was cooking the other day, I opened two cans of what I thought was cream of chicken/mushroom soup. It turned out it was cheddar cheese soup! I don’t even remember buying or having it, but now I have two opened cans. I searched and found a couple of recipes that sound good to try to use up the soup. I’ll try one of them tonight. I’m hoping to have some leftovers, and hoping I can get them in containers and in the freezer this time before Amber decides she should ‘clean up’ …

Depositphotos

I got lazy yesterday and didn’t start weed whacking in the garden. I get a reprieve on starting it today, since we’re having the rain (started about 2 minutes ago), so I’ll switch to inside projects for the day.

Women’s Health.org

Shout-out to Cathy! She went for a biopsy yesterday. They did a scan to pinpoint the area before doing the procedure, and the ‘spot’ had resolved itself. She didn’t need to have the biopsy. WOO HOOOOOOOO! This wonderful news couldn’t happen to a nicer person. :0)

I wish you a terrific Thursday.

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Spirit-Lifter for the Day

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Filed under Blog Repost - Wonderful Posts, video

Mr. Barghest Art 2

Mr.Barghest – @Mr_barghest_ on X

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Amber is in the Dog House

It may be hard to look at this face and see a ‘maniac,’ but beware. Looks are definitely deceiving in this case.

I told you that we took ‘Sweet Amber’ to the vet when we discovered she had several scary problems recently. I can happily report she has almost completely healed from all of them. She has regained her normal manic activity level and love of life, back to all her old good (and bad) ways.

She is in the proverbial dog house now, due to a combination of my stupidity and her greed.

I cooked a dinner of chicken chunks and soup over rice last night. I cleaned up the kitchen quickly after, wanting to get back to the living room where we were watching a movie on TV.

I put the leftovers in three plastic containers, then put the skillet on the floor so that Amber could ‘clean it up’ (one of her favorite activities) and turned on the dishwasher.

The next thing I saw was three plastic containers on her bed in the utility room. I had forgotten to put the lids on the containers and put them in the freezer. I left them uncovered on the kitchen counter. Amber had taken full advantage of the situation and ‘cleaned house,’ eating every bit in the three containers.

I put her outside, thinking she might “bring all this extra food up for a vote,” but she didn’t. We left her in her bed on the tiles as we usually do last night, but she still wasn’t ill overnight. I put her out this morning as usual.

As of this typing, she still hasn’t been sick. She is in my dog house, though, because she took advantage of my distraction and stupidity. I’m still looking at her as though she might be a time bomb…

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Delightful ‘Finds’

As I travel around on the net, I gather things I love. Sometimes I end up with enough from one artist to feature him or her in a post. Other times I only find one thing and just enjoy them awhile and then share them with you.

David Salter – @Daviidjsalter on X

dekor-salon.ru

Design7777-Pinterest

Dory R-Belted Kingfisher-ink and wc-Dory R Artified

dragonfly-fabricsquare-Saphies Paws-Etsy

Pinterest

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Exercise

Spice of Life – Deborah Ann – Pinterest

I had a rough night of sleep last night. I’m not sure why. I certainly did my share of exercise yesterday.

I’m happy to tell you that I finished the ‘weeding-and-covering-the-4-garden-planters’ project in my square foot garden. (We’ve decided to wait on trying to take down and rebuild the remaining two planters that finally fell apart due to the stress and strain of being outside in the sun/wind/rain/temperature differences. The angle iron supports are fine, but the wooden ‘boxes’ will have to be completely rebuilt.)

To be honest, I’m not sure I’ll replant the 4 boxes in the spring that I just weeded. I did the work to protect the boxes from further stress over the winter. I’ll make the final decision in the spring. I have three brick planters on the far side of the house that I could use instead, since the main things I plant are lettuce, spinach, and tomatoes.

The next project I’ll start today is ‘weed-whacking-the-whole-garden-area‘ – (inside the garden, in front of the garden outside the fence, and then the area beside the garden/behind the shop and the perimeter of the garden around the outside of the fence.) This whole area is really badly overgrown with high, dense, hard-to-cut weeds – a big job needing multiple sessions. I will try to get that started today.

The weather people are saying a strong cold front is coming through tonight, bringing cooler temperatures and a good amount of rain starting about noon tomorrow and lasting the rest of the day and then overnight. Just in case they’re correct, we’ll do our grocery shopping today and I’ll plan to work on my glassware project tomorrow afternoon.

I wish you a stellar day.

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Megan Elizabeth Art

Marco

Nellie

Pedro-Portia-Pablo

Teddy

Tiana

Millie

Megan Elizabeth – Artist @MeganArtUK on X

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Flower ‘Fix’

Many times I just need to see some beautiful flowers to lift my spirits and remind me there are still wonderful things in our world. I hope these photos and paintings help YOU, too –

Pinterest

Pinterest

Tatsiana_Kashtalyan-via Oksana Ivanik Art-@ivanik_oksana on X

Pinterest

Pinterest

Malgorzaty Kruk

Malgorzaty Kruk-kruckart.com

winterberryirises.com

“Happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower.” ~ John Harrigan – Bloomaker.com

Ahhhhhhhhh!

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Tuesday 11-7-2023

There is nothing to vote for or against in my county today, so I won’t be collecting and wearing a sticker such as the one above today. My SIL, who lives in Charlotte NC, is not only voting today, she is a poll worker for the first time! I applaud her motivation and energy to do this. I am always thankful to the volunteers who help with our elections here, and I always thank everyone who isn’t actively helping someone at the time I’m there. If you have an opportunity to vote today, I hope you take advantage of it.

Kelley Blue Book

Our 2006 Honda Ridgeline Truck looks mostly like this one, but we changed out the grill my husband didn’t like and ours is not nearly as shiny as this one after 17 years.

For the first time in that time, we put our mounted snow tires in the back of the truck and I drove it to the tire place in town to have THEM take the regular tires off, put the snow tires on, and air them up. It was two hours or so very well spent, in my opinion. We had trouble just heaving the tires into the back of the truck and rolling them from and to the place we store them in the shop. I’m really glad my husband honored his agreement to let the experts do the job this time.

I particularly noticed that the tire guy just picked up each tire and put it in the back of the truck like it was no big thing. I had to stop and tell him that I resented that a bit, but was grateful for his strength and expertise. We laughed together over it. The whole job was $32, so that was certainly a win/win as far as I’m concerned. Now we will be as able as possible to get down our driveway – and up again – if we have to – when it gets slippery this winter.

Navien Tankless Hot Water Heater

My husband stayed at the house while I went to get the tires changed, waiting in case the people who might deliver the tankless hot water heater our plumber ordered for us came. They called right before I left, so I was able to leave a check for the unit. The tankless is expensive, but we’ve learned the hard way that it’s no fun to run out of hot water when you’re in desperate need of a nice hot shower after working. We spent more on the installation of the current heater than we did on the unit itself, with a lot of expensive rules about venting and the use exclusively of stainless steel on the pipes. We’ve had the current unit, a Rheem, since July of 2014, so it has lasted almost 10 years with only one problem for which we had to call our plumber.

123RF.com

Since the new unit is about $1,000 more than the previous one, I’m HOPING that the installation will cost a lot less.

Ildar Abulkhanov-Getty Images-istockphoto

Today I’m hoping to weed the last 2 planter boxes in my square foot garden and cover them with tarps for the winter.

I wish you a very nice Tuesday.

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Filed under Challenges, Changes, Gardening, Housekeeping - Maintenance, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Thoughts on a ________

Need a Smirk?

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Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, Indian Hills Signs, punny