HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Watch out for the spooks and goblins and all those other creepy things tonight!!!

I spotted Elvis yesterday. The picture didn't turn out so well since I was too far away. I thought it would be okay to post this for Halloween since it looks like he has no head! Believe me he did or I certainly wouldn't have been calmly taking a photo!

I took this picture today. I love the fence!!

Dumb Stuff

I was reading about some dumb state laws and looked some up and decided to share them with you.

Kentucky
Throwing eggs at a public speaker could result in up to one year in prison. (Yeah, I'll bet!!)
In Fort Thomas, KY dogs may not molest cars. (I wonder if the dogs are aware of this law?)
In Owensboro, KY a woman may not buy a hat without her husband's permission. (bet they don't enforce this one!)

Nebraska
It is illegal to go whale fishing. (Yeah, all kinds of whales there!)
If a child burps during church, his parent may be arrested. (Cliff, did you ever get arrested over this one?)
In Omaha a man is not allowed to run around with a shaved chest. (Jerry, take heed!)

California
Animals are banned from mating publicly within 1500 feet of a tavern, school, or place of worship. (Sounds reasonable to me. Tell the animals!)

Arkansas
Alligators may not be kept in bathtubs. (Jamie Dawn, put your pet back in the swamp where he belongs!)

Ohio
It is illegal to get a fish drunk. (I sure hope so!)

Tennessee
Driving is not to be done while sleeping. (Duh!)
More than 8 women may not live in a house because that would constitute a brothel. (Maybe. Maybe not.)
You can't shoot any game other than whales from a moving vehicle. (What is it with whales?)

You can go to http://www.dumblaws.com to read these laws, if you like, and then click on your state.

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We are having a blast of colder air. I wonder how many calories you burn a day from shivering? It's really not that cold but when it's been warm and then it drops quite a bit like that it just seems so much colder than it is.

Election day draws nearer and remember folks:

Politicians and diapers should be changed regularly and for the same reason.

Sunday Sign

Here's Scarlett and Jamie Dawn. Aren't they adorable!!

Sunday Sign

LATE SUNDAY SIGN & MORE

I'm so sorry my Sunday sign is late. This is one I made myself. The churches around here have had revivals and homecomings and fall festivals, etc., and I haven't been able to get any new pictures. I hope everyone did have a very blessed Sunday.

This is a raccoon cake I made for my neighbor's birthday! I was so nervous trying to make this but I thought it turned out pretty well considering who was doing it!! The only part I did not do was the writing. I had worked too hard getting it all ready and I certainly DID NOT want to mess it up. The space was very small so I decided to go the way of caution and have her (my nephew's wife) do that for me, just this once!! My neighbor was thrilled with it! I must say that I was quite proud considering this was my third cake. I had made two in the classes I took, but this one was all on my own. Scary!!! I can see all the things I did wrong, but I learned quite a bit doing it!

My husband has been, and still is, confused. This is why I did not get my Sunday sign out on Sunday. He wants me to call people on the phone that are dead. There is no convincing him that they are not alive, especially when he says he just saw them and talked with them recently. I expect this will last through the day and hopefully tonight he'll tire himself out and go to sleep, since there was no sleeping last night. Meanwhile.....ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!! Ah, now I feel better!

Now I hope everyone's week is off to a great start!! I'm so enjoying my new kittens Sir Scarlet (since he's a male) and Jamie Dawn. They are just so cute! I love watching them play and they bring me much joy!

PLEASE MAKE WELCOME

I have two new kittens! These two were dropped off at the farm where I feed the strays every day. There was several new kittens down there and I was trying to tame them. Then they all disappeared. I guess coyotes or foxes get them. Something sure does. Then I go down there and find these two and they are so gentle and tame. Someone has just dropped them off. I decided not to leave them there one night for fear something would get them, so I brought them home with me. A quick check and I decided they were both females, so I was mulling over names. I took them to the vet to be checked out and I had to fill out papers before they were seen. It asked for the names of the pets being seen. I wanted to name them after blogging friends, but which ones???? What to do? What to do? So I wrote down Jamie Dawn and Scarlet. Once I got back in the room and the vet was checking them out he looked at their names and said that the black one was Jamie Dawn and the yellow/white one was Scarlet. I hadn't decided which was which but he said I had written them down that way, so that's how they got their names. Poor things did some yowling as he was examining them, especially JD! Not that I blame them having a thermometer stuck up your behind and all. He did a very through exam I must say. Scarlet has longer hair and he called in an assistant to help him and then he informed me that Scarlet was a male. Oops!! Oh well, I decided not to change the name, so it stands. They are so cute. You know the only thing cuter than a kitten? The answer is two kittens!! I just love to watch them playing. At first they were scared of Pup and would fuzz up and spit at him every time he got within sight. Now they have figured out he is quite harmless and loves them.

Here's Jamie Dawn. Ain't she cute!!!



Here you see Jamie Dawn with her paw around Scarlet. Right after I took this picture Jamie Dawn fell backwards off the porch. It's only about a foot high there so she was fine!!

This is Scarlet! So cute too!!!

Now please make welcome Nate!!!

He is my great nephew and he is a little over a month old. That's his Mom (my niece) with him there. In the second picture where he's smiling I love how you can see her holding his little hands! We had our family reunion last Saturday and this was the first time I had seen him. He slept a lot but she had him grinning when he was awake!! It was great to visit and see everyone and how much the kids had grown.

Have Cake? Beware the Lure. Sunday Sign

Does this cake look good enough to eat? I certainly hope so. I have been taking a cake decorating class and this was my first attempt at decorating a cake. This is after my third class. I have one more class to take in this series. On this cake I had just learned how to make those little flowers so I put a bunch in the middle. Then I decided to try some roses and added them on. I think the hardest part of cake decorating is the icing. With that I mean mixing it up and then getting the right consistency. I do not own a big mixer, only a small hand held one, and the big ones are definitely better. You have to be careful with the hand held ones to not burn them up. I always end up with icing all over everything in the kitchen. The first two times I did not mix my icing enough. The third week I mixed it too much. To make the decorations you need a stiff icing that will hold its shape and not fall down. Then you need medium consistency. For writing you need thin. I'm sure the more you do it and the more you make the better you get at figuring it all out and how to get it just right for the project you are doing. Cleaning up the mess is hard too; washing decorating bags and different tips, using lots and lots of very hot water and dishwashing liquid to get them all clean. But even with all that it's still a fun thing and I am enjoying the classes. I'm always interested in learning new things.

This week there was a raccoon (one of several that come around to forage for handouts), and it had a big fishing lure hung in its jaw/lip area. It had 3 hooks (in a cluster) that were in his jaw and three hooks on the other end hanging out of its mouth. It was able to eat but I was so afraid that it would get those other hooks caught in its feet or legs as it was eating and I knew those hooks got caught on other things and had been pulling on his jaw. The next day I was sitting on my neighbor's deck with her and that raccoon came up to eat. It was so pitiful seeing it like that. He ate some and then just laid down for awhile. We wanted to help the poor thing. There is a man that lives out in the county who helps animals like this. We were able to find out who he is and we called him. He came the next day and left a live trap and showed me how to set it. He put a honey bun in it. It was a little early for the raccoons to come out so I was going to set it a little later and try to get it in the trap. Later when I went out to set the trap the raccoon was already there, and the first thing I saw on top of the wire cage/trap was that fishing lure. He had gotten up there after smelling the honey bun and the hooks hanging out of his mouth had got caught in the wire. He had then pulled and pulled until the hooks came out of his jaw. I think with all the things they had gotten caught on before that it probably didn't take much and they were not in too deep. The hooks were all intact. I had some food for him in a bag which he smelled and grabbed onto right away. I got a good look at his mouth then. It didn't look very bad at all. He ate and ate! My neighbor was here and we were both so happy that it came out intact and he seemed okay and free of that nasty fishing lure. She said that she didn't think it was wrong to pray for little animals and she had been praying for that raccoon every night since we had seen him with that thing caught in his jaw. I agreed that I didn't think it was wrong and her prayers were certainly answered in a good way.

Here's a picture of him after he had ate like a pig!! He then laid down and let his right leg hang down between that post and the deck! I'm sure he was VERY happy to be rid of that fishing lure! You can see the place on the side of his jaw where the hooks were, that red torn place. We have seen him daily after this and he seems fine and is eating great.
I would like to go out to the farm where the man lives that takes care of animals, the one that brought the trap. He does this with no financial help and uses his own money. He said right now he has about 30 deer he is caring for. He said the 911 folks know his phone number by heart and call him often when there is an animal that has been injured. He said he has taken fishing lures out of raccoons, ducks, and other animals many times before. I hope to go out there sometime, and of course my neighbor wants to go too, and that will be another blog story!

SUNDAY SIGN

Ramblings and Sunday Sign

Okay, it's almost 8 p.m. on Sunday night and I'm just now posting my Sunday sign!! Sorry I'm late.

I took this picture last week. This lady is in my Sunday School class. I told her that her feet looked so pretty. She thought I was totally insane to want to take a picture of her feet. But they are pretty, don't you think? You can also see our pretty new red carpet that was just put down at church in the whole auditorium. It's quite bright and matches our pews.

I went back to the apple orchard this week to pick my own apples. I really enjoy that. Those apples are so good. Nothing like you buy at the store. I have no trouble eating an apple a day (usually two or three!) with these apples!

We had frost on the 3rd, so my neighbor obviously though Laya needed a t-shirt on!! It was a bit baggy on her, but cute nonetheless!! She looks a little fierce but is quite sweet and gentle. He normally keeps her inside but lets her out during the day some.

I like the signs that this church has out. They often put up ones that relate to what is going on in the country or locally. Of course we all know what this relates to.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful blessed Sunday!

SUNDAY SIGN

Ecological Day

Sonia at Leaves of Grass has started a monthly event called Ecological Day where you can post anything relating to the ecology.

Today I wanted to show the cleanup of a cave in our county. This is probably about 15 miles from where I live. This is a picture of all the trash that has been thrown in this cave over the years.

It took three years and more than 60 volunteers from seven states to rid Saltpeter Pit of 200 tons of garbage, which created a 45-foot pile of trash affectionately coined “Mount Trashmore” by local cave explorers. The project began after a research team from Bat Conservation International discovered in 2005 that Saltpeter Pit – named so because it was mined for saltpeter, an ingredient in gunpowder, during the War of 1812 – serves as a hibernation site for a colony of more than 500 Rafinesque’s big-eared bats. Rafinesque’s big-eared bats is a rare species, and the Saltpeter Pit colony is thought to be the fourth-largest colony in the world. The massive cleanup project may have been started because of the bats, but other issues – such as clean water came to light. Pulaski County is well known as an area with extensive cave systems and underground networks, which act like a network of pipes, carrying water without giving it a chance to filter through soil. When it rains and water goes in this cave, it is affecting someone’s drinking water, and they may not even know it, so another reason this clean up was so important. The cave also serves as an important archeological site, because remnants of the mine’s heyday still exist within its three passages, one of which was clogged completely by the trash. Now that the trash is gone, the site will be monitored to ensure that no more dumping occurs.

Here is the after picture! What a difference!! For other participants in Ecological Day, you may go here.