Knocking At The Door

Last night Keith left for work a little after midnight and after he was gone Millie and I went to bed. I was soundly sleeping until about 3am when Millie started barking. I patted her and told her everything was okay but then I heard the screen door bang and now I'm awake because it sounds like someone is breaking into my house! I looked out the window and didn't see anything so then cautiously went to peek out the front door window. Where I didn't see anything. I was going to head back to bed when the screen door banged again and I heard a meow.

It was Buddy, who had run out the front door hours before and we had completely forgotten about. He knows how to hook the screen with his claw and make it bang when he gets stuck out front so that is what he was doing that woke Millie up. None of our cats are climbers, which is a good thing because they stay in the back yard, but at 3am you kind of wish your cat knew how to climb over the fence and come in through the doggy door instead of banging on the screen!

I felt kind of bad that we forgot about him but I'm so used to cats sleeping in corners or being out in the  yard that I don't do a head count before going to bed.

It's still hot here, what else is new. It will be hot here for a couple more months to come and you'd think I'd be used to it by now but NO, I don't  think I will ever get used to it!

I've had a pretty busy week Etsy shop wise with quite a few small orders and two big ones. It seems like every time I start to lose interest in the shop and don't really feel like making things for it someone comes along and makes it all worth while with some extra cash coming my way. I've been wanting to add some crocheted coasters to the shop but am still experimenting with different yarns and figuring out the best size hooks to go with the  yarns that I don't have enough 'good' coasters to get posted just yet. I have found some really nice cotton yarns, some fine and some heavier so am trying to decide which brand I like best. Daughter Jennifer told me about the "I Love This Yarn' brand that Hobby Lobby carries so I finally made it over there, which is difficult sometimes since it's a bit of a drive, and I was amazed at how soft it is and how many colors it comes in. They have it all arranged by color group too so it's easy to mix and match. They have a cotton yarn in that brand that is so soft and comes in some really beautiful colors. I'm getting a little obsessed with buying yarn, though!

Buddy The Bird Killer

Maybe putting in that doggy door wasn't such a great idea. Buddy brought his second kill into the house this morning, freaking me and everyone else out a bit. I heard commotion out by the bird feeder which is actually a bird bath up on some cement paving stones that was supposed to be high enough to keep the cats from catching the birds. After hearing the commotion here comes Buddy with a bird in his mouth down the hallway into the bedroom. I chased him out into the living room, bird still in his mouth but instead of him going out the now open back door, he went through the doggy/cat door into the garage. I shut that door and opened up the big garage door hoping the bird could get away and fly out.

Nope, after a while Buddy was trying to come back in the house, looking at me from the small hole in the wooden slide thing that we put down in front of the doggy/cat door, hey let me in! I went out the front door and into the garage and picked him up to come back in the house which he was not very happy about. I found the now dead bird laying inside the garage right by the doggy/cat door, so I'm sure if I'd opened that doggy/cat door, dead bird would have come with Buddy into the house.

I've vacuumed up the bird feathers and have moved the bird feeder to the front yard so that Buddy will be thwarted in his future efforts to catch birds. Hopefully the birds will figure it out and come around front.

We are supposed to get some much needed rain today but so far there are just blue skies and rather chilly wind. We got a little spoiled with such summery weather the past few weeks that it seems strange to want to put on a sweater again.

Joe had to go back out onto the road yesterday since someone with more seniority bumped him off of his yard job. He has to do a couple of familiarization rides with another engineer in the cab since he's been off for over 6 months. As it happened, Keith got his call to go out last evening, called Joe to ask him a question and then they realized that they were both on the same train! They had a good ride and are now in Barstow and will come back tonight.

Hunks of Meat and Flowers Blooming

The other day Keith got home from work early in the morning and decided to go do some shopping, then decided he wanted to invite Joe and Elizabeth over for some barbecue dinner. He spent a bunch of money on pork tri-tips and whole chickens then had to do more shopping to get the things you stick the chicken on to roast them in the barbecue, then spent the afternoon in the back yard drinking beer and cooking meat. He thought everything was cooked, the outsides of the chickens and pork tri-tips (which I didn't even know there was such a cut of pork) were crispy and delicious looking but when he started cutting into it all, blood blood and more blood. Gag.

So, as the kids got here for dinner, the chicken and pork got cut up and put in the oven to finish cooking.

When we finally sat down to eat, Keith gave Millie some big chunks of pork, which she grabbed up in her little mouth and then took to the flower bed to bury. I checked Keith's work lineup after we finished eating and it looked like he'd be going out in the middle of the night, so he went to bed early and the kids went on home. Then later as I was watching TV Millie wanted to go outside and I let her, thinking she needed to do her business.

Her business was digging up the previously buried pork meat rather than taking a tinkle, which I found out when she came to the door to be let back in and she had a big chunk of it in her mouth. Before I could grab her to get it out of her mouth, she was running down the hall with it, presumably to re-bury it in some bed pillows or a laundry basket. I did catch up with her and took the meat away, much to her dismay.

Then later we repeated the whole digging up the meat thing with the second piece being brought into the house, but this time I caught her at the door.

She wasn't real happy with me taking the meat away so I made her a plate of some of the chicken and some cottage cheese which seemed to appease her.

She has gone back to one of the burying spots a few times, looking for more treasure.

As we were sitting in the backyard waiting for food to cook, I noticed that our non-flowering plum tree is flowering. Yeah, that doesn't make sense, it flowers but no fruit so I guess that's the non-flowering part. Just a few blooms so far, but give it a few days and it will be covered in flowers.

We've been letting the cats go out and enjoy the weather quite a bit these past few weeks, Buddy has really been enjoying it to the point where he was outside almost all day yesterday and well into the evening. He was laying in wait under the bird feeder hoping for a fat juicy bird which I'm sure he wouldn't know what to do with if he caught one, other than play with it.

Totally Annoyed

This is what drives Buddy crazy when he's not allowed into the garage. The fact that he can see out of this 2" hole in the wood that we slide over the cat door to keep them inside when the big garage door is open.

I can see you out there if I turn my head just the right way and put my eyeball up against the hole in the wood.

He will wander around the house the entire day being a total pest and making his annoyed meows and going back and forth to peek out the door because he just knows something really fun is going on out there and he is not invited.