Cousins 8-12

Baked a chocolate zucchini cake and zucchini bread for company.  Andrea and Connor showed up just minutes before cousin Stephanie and her kids Anthony and Mara arrived...chaos until all the little angels fell asleep.....ahhhhhhh  Everyone ran around scoping out the territory and then we had spaghetti for dinner, yum.

The box Ian built with Grampas help and then he painted.

Connor

Anthony

Anthony & his bear

moss rose 8-11

I am uninspired tonight.  One of those if I can't say anything nice don't say nothing nights.  Wonderful weather and will continue that way for the next 10 days with it dropping into the mid 80's and staying there...weird summer weather...following weird spring weather.

My portulaca is finally getting with the program...I fell in love with these a few decades ago...easy to grow and the prettiest, brightest little flowers.

Hive of Activity 8-10

Who knew two acres could be such a hive of natural activity!

The "girls" in the front yard this morning.

I don't know if it means anything, but the ponderosa pines on our hill were loaded with green pinecones this spring.  This summer every day the gray squirrels have been up there gnawing their way through the ends of each one and dropping them to the ground.  They are green and heavy and not open, but once on the ground they dry out and open and I'm guessing the squirrels are harvesting...a sign of what I don't know.  It is dangerous to be under the trees because you never know when one of those heavy pinecones will come crashing down.  Every once in awhile the woodpeckers attack the squirrels and they run down the trees really fast, its amazing to see. 

The woodpeckers are setting up housekeeping again in the oak tree...it appears they may be hatching another batch of babes.

The cantaloupes are doing well.

The turkeys are through every day again.  There is a flock of robins that has taken to hanging out around here and taking baths every morning in the bird baths.  This morning it was like a bird sanctuary with all the little birds singing and flying around.  The quail have reappeared with their little ones today, they are so cute but really cautious and shy.  I slipped out the sliding door onto the back deck to get a picture of the quail when from under my feet the twin fawns slipped out from under the deck.  They had been hanging out there all afternoon I guess, if they hadn't moved I would never had known they were there.

The baby praying mantis' have been spreading out all over the yard...they were so teeny tiny but are all growing fast.  I spot them pretty easily and caught one on the hunt on one of the dahlias and thought I might get some good pics of the attack, but the prey took off, darn it.

So that was today's highlights and there is even a bee hive in one of the oaks below the house.  The tomatoes are starting to ripen.

The other day Larry cut pieces of wood so Ian could build a box.  They built the box yesterday and today Ian sanded it and put a coat of paint on it.

cucumbers

baby praying mantis

Ian painting his box

Wild Kingdom 8-8

Last night after I posted the blog I was sitting in my chair by the open windows reading when I heard leaves crunching outside.  It is usually the turkeys, or the deer and I almost didn't get up to go see if I could see anything, but something about the crunching sounded too loud and different.  I wasn't really expecting to see much, it is really really dark out here and you can't see past the area of the porch light.  I looked really hard where the noise was coming from and I thought I saw a black bear shaped blob in the dark...I was pretty sure I was seeing what I wanted to see when I saw the head shape of the blob turn which told me my blob wasn't a blob it was a B E A R!!!!  BEAR I hollered, get the flashlight....hurry up!  Larry shined the light and sure enough a black bear...we hollered for Mom and Ian and they came out on the back deck with us and the bear just kept on moving.  He stopped behind a bush for a bit but then he just continued on, deciding he would go on up around the house....so we all ran through the house and out the front door onto the deck and there the bear was coming around the end of the house.  It stopped and looked at us...had its mouth open and then went up the hill and then turned and went over into the meadow.  It was unexpected in that the bear didn't just take off running when it saw us.  I didn't take the time to figure out camera settings because I didn't figure I would have the time and I was watching the bear.

Ian sawing logs this morning.

Of course it was take the garbage out to the corner night...too much to ask that the bear would not notice.  Larry got up early this morning before the garbage men arrived to go see what the situation was and sure enough our can and the neighbors can was dumped over and garbage was spread all over hell and gone.  Lucky for Larry Connor had been visiting so he had the pleasure of also picking up poopy diapers.  Why a bear needs to tear into the bags of soiled diapers...ew.  Only our garbages were touched....the six up the hill and the others at the next corner were fine.  Now we just hope the bear doesn't carry a calendar and come through on garbage day again.

I just never expected to have so much wildlife here on a daily basis.  I have days when I hardly get much done because every time I look out the window I see something that I have to watch or get a picture of.  Almost as soon as I was up and about I looked out the slider and there were both deer families...the single baby...Lumpy I call it, it has a bad lump under its jaw, abcess or something and the twins.  The Mom's are letting the babies mingle now.  As the babies were grazing and nibbling along came the five turkey girls.  The fawns are so curious, especially Lumpy and it started up the hill after the turkeys and looked like it wanted to play with them.  The turkey just fluffed and ran off.

Later I was at the kitchen sink and I looked out the window and there right below me were the twins, so close I could count their spots and they were right alongside the back deck.  I snuck out carefully and snagged a few pictures...which I just remembered are still in the camera...oh well.

Mom headed home today...I guess she couldn't stand all this excitement...kidding.  She was hoping to hook up with her friend.  It was about the same temp today as it has been but it felt hotter, it must have been more humid.

I finished my lovely garden table last week so I just remembered to put the pictures on here.  It turned out fun...the top I had planned to tile and I may still get around to it but I didn't want to look at a white top that I would see the dirt on so I drizzled the four colors all over the top and was thinking what to use to spread the paint around when my inner child rose up and I decided to finger paint.  It was fun and I had to be careful to not make mud colors, then I thought my hearts looked empty and I added my hand prints.  I told Larry I would be happy to give his boring work table a Val paint treatment...he wasn't interested.

The top...kind of hard to see with the tree shadows.

I don't know how I have missed these bad boys...the one on the
right is 14 inches long...too big for cucumbers.

New guest 8-7

Today Andrea and Connor headed home.  Connor had fun running around checking out things while his Mom was loading up the car.  Larry, Mom and I drove up to Grass Valley to pick up Ian.  He will be spending a week with us.  Ian had fun this evening watching the wildlife.  The five turkeys roamed around not caring that they were being observed and then later two deer were out here and Ian spent a lot of time taking their pictures and shooting video of them.  He was so worried about snakes when he first got here, but put a camera in his hands and next thing he's out the door barefooted trekking across the yard.

Nice day 8-6

The weather has just been so very nice, about 90 with a nice breeze and cools down in the evening.

Our cousin Helen left this morning and we spent the rest of the day just hanging and visiting with Andrea, Connor and Mom. 

We had a tomato emergency, one of the plants fell over....it didn't break but we spent awhile schemeing on how better to do the supporting next year.  Those wire baskets, even the jumbo size just don't hold up to these large tomato varieties.  Larry jammed some more stakes under it and hopefully that lasts for awhile.

Larry's Mom made stuffed cabbage for dinner today...yummy, a break from zucchini :)

Fun, fun 8-5

A room with a view...looks quite comfy.

Connor has arrived!



Four generations!  Carol, Larry, Andrea and Connor



Cheese!

Baked zucchini bread this morning after picking only two...the plants are in a lull...now when we have company...figures.

Cooler Day 8-4

It was a lovely pleasant day...cooler than normal, breezy.  Visiting with our company.

Larry, Helen and Mom

Another nice day 8-3

Eight cucumbers today...good thing our cousin Helen likes them.  She is up for a few days from Southern California...she and Larry's Mom are first cousins.  Larry, Mom and Helen have been pouring over pictures Helen has and Larry is working on rounding out the family history.  I have been cooking....you guessed it...zucchini.... a lovely dinner with it and another yummy chocolate zucchini cake.