A Lot of Nothing...

It's pretty quiet these days...  Celeste went to Albuquerque to her maternal grandfather's funeral (I'm stepmom), Natalie's been working a lot of hours at Lowe's.  (this is the busy season here... gardens, yardwork, landscaping...  all that).

We had a little excitement last night...  we've been letting the dogs in and out while everyone is away.  Jack is a well-behaved Boston terrier....  Rylee...  well, he looks like a Benjy-type dog, and he's a little ball of mischief! 

They ran off....  there's really not much out here anyway, this is a dead-end road...  but still...  Finally Jack came back... alone.  This is really unusual as they travel together.  After a while I got out and wander through the "neighborhood".  No Dog....  and hour or so later I go out again, towards the back of the property...  hmmmm... I smell skunk....  but...  no dog.  It's getting dark...  Bill goes out to look..  after a while he sees a (somewhat) nearby neighbor in our driveway.  He tells Bill there's a dog trapped underneath his shed.  Bill goes to look...  yep!  there's Rylee's little nose poking out.  Bill had to get a shovel and dig the entryway big enough for him to get Rylee out.  And he carried him home. 

After he'd put him back in his crate, Bill came home...  and...  uh-oh.....  he reeked of eau de skunk.  And all he'd done was carry the dog home!

Celeste got home a few minutes ago...  I think she knew what happened the minute she came in the door.  It's not as bad as what I expected....  but, nevertheless....  I think I see a tomato juice bath in the near future. (for Rylee...  not Bill)

I drove into Glen Rose to the PO and library yesterday.  The bluebonnets are just outstanding.  I pulled over at this historic church site just to feast my eyes on these....

This entire area was just covered with bluebonnets.  There were some violets blooming in among them and they were more purple than blue.  I was truly awestruck by the whole scene!

There are all kinds of wildflowers blooming now.  About the time I get all excited over one species and try to identify it, 2 more species start blooming.

I believe the yellow is a coreopsis...  the bottom is, as nearly as I can tell, a Blue Trumpet.... which is in the Phlox family.  Don't hesitate to correct me, I'm having a heck of a time figuring out some of these flowers!

I've been working some on my photos...  trying to make a better presentation....  I kind of like the different picture frames ..... 

This is a post oak....  which seems to be the dominant tree around here...  with cedars (or junipers) following close behind.

This morning there were 7 deer at the feeder.... the sun was just coming up and cast a bit of a glow on them....

This doe was on alert...  but still went to the feeder.  Isn't she beautiful?

As I've written in the past, I'm an avid geocacher.  There have been several new caches hidden in this area lately, and I thought it was time we contributed to the fun.  I like the ones a little harder to find than a camo-ed pill bottle and here's some of the things we've come up with....

 I went to a sign company and they gave me some left over scraps of magnetic sign material.  It is just plain, shiny white on one side, and black magnetic on the back.  I covered the back with some duct tape and made that the "log".  The front side I used some press-on letters and numbers (they don't mean a thing) and put some "caution" tape to make it look "official".  I can put these on those metal cable boxes along the roads...  or really, anything magnetic. 

This one is a "rain bird" lawn sprinkler...  On the left is one we bought and "remodeled".  From just below the screw on top, it will be buried in the ground.  Bill put the other stuff on it as an anchor so it won't be easily pulled out of the ground.  The log book fits in the black tube (which will be buried).  Now...  wouldn't you know it!  Today, when we went to Home Depot, we saw fake lawn sprinklers (on the right) that are to hide your keys.  Of course I had to buy one ($2.69)...  I just know I can use it somewhere.

Since we do not live in this area and are here only a few times a year, I contacted a local geocacher who will maintain any caches we hide if they need maintenance while we're gone.

Okay...  last of my Lot of Nothings is....

Of course there's a story behind this...

I had one of those water resistant disposable cameras... used some of the pictures... it still had some remaining.... we got home from wherever... I put it away thinking we'd need it again...

Time went on.... and on..... and on....

I found the camera last week and took it to Wal-Mart to have it developed.... didn't even know if it would still be good...

Today we picked up the photos...

I had to ask Bill where we were... I knew we were in either Belize or Aruba or....????  He looked at the pictures and said...  "Lake of Seven Colors"...  which is in the Yucatan in Mexico. 

Really, I DO remember the boat ride...  and the monkeys...  and the lunch...  even the different colors of the water...  I just didn't remember where the heck it was....

That's All For Today....