Great Day for Boating!

The weather has broken from the formidable heat of the spring and summer, and everyone is able to breathe a little easier...as long as the allergies don't have a hold!

As I sit and write, I can hear the squirrels chasing through the trees and up over the roof. The birds are also persistently reminding me that I need to fill their feeder with sunflower seeds. When I went to get some things from my car, two deer trailed along behind me hoping for a hand out of some sort. The hummingbird numbers have dwindled to just a few - must be the hardy ones that don't get too cold with the upper 40s to lower 50s we have had as lows for the last couple of days.

This day is absolutely gorgeous! Temperatures are moderate and the lake is like glass. It would be a perfect day for a ride in the pontoon boat...except for one problem...

Don't think the boats are going anywhere for a while! Even with a very nice shower last Sunday, the results of the drought are certainly evident. They are predicting that this drought may last 5 years. I don't want to imagine what a multi-year drought might look like!

Even if it were possible to get the boat in the water, there is another problem...

The stumps that have been exposed across the entire lake must number in the thousands. I don't think there are many who are brave (or foolhardy) enough to try to navigate this dangerous maze!

We will continue to enjoy the beautiful weather, even though our vantage point won't be from the lake.

The porch works quite well!

More Hummingbirds!

I am in a bit of a rut with the hummingbirds, but there are just so many of them all day long!

You will just have to allow me to indulge one more time! We have a total of 4 feeders at the present time, and all of them are seeing action equivalent to this one. It makes for a lot of activity on the porch!

We have begun to attract some Baltimore Orioles as well. They first showed themselves publicly the day that my mother died. It seemed like more than a coincidence to me since she had been a bird lover for many decades. I was in Iowa at the time, but Terry reported that they had started landing on and drinking from the hummingbird feeders. At first it was one pair, but we are pretty sure there are 2 pairs now. We have added an Oriole feeder filled with the proper ratio of water to sugar for them, but they are not completely convinced to give up the hummingbird food. It may seem like going from 2% milk down to skim. No pictures yet - they are still rather shy.

Hummingbirds

It was a very nice early morning at the lake. The temperatures will be hitting ridiculous highs again today, so the time to enjoy the outdoors was early.The hummingbirds were very busy as we enjoyed some porch time with coffee and the newspaper.

We enjoy all the birds, and they seem to appreciate the food and water we provide.


Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best. -Henry Van Dyke

Hot!

It is 104 at 1:00 PM. The high is predicted to be 107 today. It is hot out there! I watered the grass this morning, but any other chores for the day will be indoors. Vacuuming is done, chicken enchiladas are made, and laundry is in progress.

Terry and the dog's idea looks more appealing...

Flip and Boone are following Terry's lead...as if they didn't already know how to kick back and relax!

Update on Frank

Monday is one of Boone's regular daycare days, so he was excited to go out the front door and head to the car yesterday morning. Frank got to come too. He felt pretty cocky about getting to ride in the front seat and leaving the other two gazing out the window in disappointment.

Little did he know, at the time, that his stop was not doggie daycare but the vet! He didn't get to play all day like Boone. Instead, he was anesthetized, poked, prodded, given a shot, and stitched up. Then he had to sit in a cage until I could come to get him.

He is on an antibiotic and pain meds, but he seems to be doing pretty well considering everything he has been through!

He has 4 sutures on his shoulder wound and one on his back. He is getting a lot of pampering, so I think he will come out of this even more spoiled!

The jury is still out on whether he learned any lessons from all of this....

Close Encounter of the Deer Kind

We have 4 city dogs that think they are pretty tough. Barking at the deer through the fence provides them a buffer that makes them feel more invincible than they really are. They found out today that living in the country and mingling with the wildlife is not always a walk in the park.

Terry has been taking the dogs for a walk in the morning. He takes a leash with him in case he has one that doesn't listen so well, but for the most part they are able to walk without leashes.

The first half of today's walk was uneventful. They ended up at the dam, where there is also a boat ramp and swimming area. Terry was keeping his eye on Boone, who is the one that tends to run off. Frank spotted a young deer and apparently went after it. The young deer started squealing, which brought the mama deer over at a dead run. She hit Frank and sent him rolling, with her hoofs hitting him each time he rolled. Franks's squealing brought our little min pin, Polly over to save him. She distracted the mama deer long enough for Frank to get away and run toward Terry. In the process, Polly got kicked in the head. The two big dogs finally jumped in and chased the mother deer off in one direction while the young deer went the other way - both uninjured.

When Terry got to Polly, she was staggering a bit so he picked her up. She went limp in his arms, and he was afraid that she may have been severely hurt. He started back to the cabin - about a mile and a half away - carrying Polly with Frank walking. Flip came back to join up with them, and Polly was eventually able to walk too. In the meantime, Boone had come back to the house. I had the feeling that something was going on, so I jumped in the car to see where the rest of them were. When I met up with Terry, Flip, Frank, and Polly, he gave me the short version of the story. I took Polly in the car, and the rest of them finished the walk.

Frank ended up with several cuts from the deer hooves. A trip to the vet will be on his agenda tomorrow morning with the possibility of a couple of stitches fairly likely.

After a call to Texas A&M's Small Animal clinic, they confirmed that we could wait and go to our regular vet tomorrow morning. Terry is putting some antibiotic ointment on Frank's cuts.

We are watching Polly closely, but so far she seems to be okay...just a bit of a knot on her head.

We think that Frank owes Polly big time - don't think that the mama deer would have stopped her attack without Polly jumping in. Polly owes a debt of gratitude to Flip and Boone who sent mama running. And I think Boone may have come straight back to the cabin to let me know that something was going on...

A potentially devastating event ended with minimal injury due to the camaraderie of our rag-tag group of rescue dogs. Maybe they will have a greater respect for the deer now, and I hope they will think twice about chasing them from now on!

More Flag Stone! Yay!

Hot, hot and more hot...same to be said for dry. The lake level continues to drop, and the effects of the drought on plant and animal life are severe. The devastation of this drought will be huge and will be felt for years!

Terry finally finished his  out-of-town job and is home after a year and a half! He has only spent a handful of nights here at the new house, so it is not really "home" to him yet. He will have to learn where everything is and what the (my) established routines are.

The main thing is that he will have a break after working 7 days a week 12 hours a day for months and months...and he doesn't have to sleep in his travel  trailer any more!

Nick drove up to Poolville (about 45 miles NW of Fort Worth, between Bridgeport and Mineral Wells) last Thursday to hook up the travel trailer and haul it back. Today, Nick and Terry got some more flag stone so I can finish my walkway!

Yay! I had been missing hauling and laying rock in 100+ degree heat...

Stone and Water

My stone walkway got some attention this weekend thanks to some help from Matt. He did much of the hauling from the pallet to the walkway. All the stones from one pallet are down, and I will need another pallet to finish. It looks pretty good and will look even better when the grass grows in between the stones. It has already begun to do that in the area on the right that has been there for a while.

The lake continues to drop as the drought deepens. It is quite sad, even scary, and one wonders if it will end up just being a mud puddle.

In this picture I am standing on the normal waterline.

 The deer now walk under the dock.

Even if we could get the boat out, the stumps make travel very hazardous.

The color on the map below tells it all. We need rain - lots of rain!

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/tools/edb/sbfinal.gif

Project Progression

The weekly mowing was completed on Friday morning. I had heard that there was a 30% chance of rain, so I wanted to be ready just in case we were in the 30% zone. Thankfully, we did get a nice shower Friday afternoon that lasted about 20 minutes!

The 30% chance for remains for today with a 40% chance tomorrow, so the hope for more rain remains!

Last week's main project was getting more of the main living area painted. I don't work very fast, so everything seems to take forever! The portion that was finished last week enabled me to tackle one of this weekend's projects - hanging window shades!

Shade up                                          Shade down

Top down/bottom up cellular shades should help to keep out  the late afternoon sun and provide privacy at night.

Being an educator made me think about the skills needed to be able to hang these shades. Two primary skills involved reading/following directions and converting decimals to fractions and fractions to decimals. I was able to manage both tasks, but it helped that there were online fraction/decimal conversion sites available for reference. Following instructions required some common sense to fill in the details that were lacking.

I hope this means I am smarter than a 5th grader!

Out On A Limb

As I pulled into the driveway this afternoon, I knew there was a problem!

The neighbors on one side of our cabin are never there...it is a rather sad story and too long for this posting. There was a dead tree on the edge of their lot that I have been watching since we finished our house. I had thought about calling them to ask that they take it down or see if they would reimburse the cost if we arranged to have it removed.

My hesitation to make that call came back to bite me today!

Yes, the tree came down on my new fence!

I don't think the damage is too severe, but I've got to get some someone to remove the tree and then see if the fence guys can come back to repair the fence. It is always a challenge to get repair people to come out of town this far. I think I have managed to get it fixed up well enough so the dogs can't get out until I can get some help.

Speaking of the dogs...the placement of the tree has them stumped. They are used to flying down the ramp and then running down the fence line to the end of the fence. No chance of that - the trunk limb-its their range.

...and Frank is definitely barking up the wrong tree!

Sorry...just couldn't resist!

I'll leaf it at that.