Vacuum Cleaners

I hate my vacuum cleaner!! It's only a couple years old and worked pretty good when it was new but now I could pick up more dirt with my tongue! Gale told me to buy a new one next time I get to town. I refuse to pay 2, 3, or 4 hundred dollars or more for one of the darn things. I had a Kirby MANY years ago and it didn't do much better besides being so loud you couldn't hear yourself think in the next room!
It would be nice to do some furniture re-arranging but I don't have a lot of heart because the house is 'staged' to show potential buyers. Oh, I'll think of something to do with it.
To be honest, all this constant rain is coming close to getting the best of my normally good nature.
Come one sun!!

Rain, Rain, go Away

I had to re-seed spinach, lettuce, arugula and plant more tomatoes because of the cold weather. The potatoes are up at least.
 Sure tired of the rain. It came down so hard a couple times that is scared poor Cleo. Of course she is afraid of her shadow! Thunder and jet planes don't make her very happy either.
Our oldest granddaughter graduated from 8th grade tonight. Hard to believe!

Work for Beavers

The huge dam at the old culvert washed out and there is a hole in the one nearest the house. The beavers will have their job cut out for them if they plan to rebuild them and of course we hope they will. The water is still high and rushing like a sonofagun and this little Cleo is fascinated by the bubbles. She cavorts and runs and leans so fa over the bank I am terrified she will fall in again. I really have to watch her and keep calling her back.
The bull moose came back and laid down in the meadow as I was making this entry. I called Luke and his tribe to come down and see it. He got some really good pictures of it.
Anadee was up yesterday and kept hoping to see a moose. She should have been here today!

More Moose

We were looking out the kitchen window after coming home from our granddaughter's softball game and low and behold, a cow moose was in the meadow. She walked right over to the end of the farthest bridge and acted like she was going to walk across it before deciding that probably wasn't a great idea and turned around.
Today, we were standing at another window watching the rain come down and four white-tail bucks wandered up from the creek, moseyed along the fence like they were in a parade, across the driveway and back into the woods on the other side.
I had to move Cleo's food dish into the kitchen because the washing machine scared her.We just received a new shipment of books and she nearly turned inside out when she went to go out the front door and saw the boxes stacked outside on the porch.  It was rather comical but sometimes I wonder how many frights her poor little heart can take.
 

Moose on the Loose

I had just crawled in bed and opened my book when Gale called out that there was a moose laying down in the meadow. I scrambled out to take a look and sure enough, you could just make hm out. It was definitely a 'he' because there were two long antlers on the top of his head. Gale said, "It's just a small bull." I grabbed the camera and snuk out the office door to the edge of the house. I tried a couple settings to get a good shot but only one turned out even part way decent. After the second snap, the moose must have seen the flash...or me...and stood up. I thought half the mountain had moved! That bull was absolutely ENORMOUS and crossed the meadow in three strides. He seemed confused about which way he wanted to go and wandered back and forth a couple times before melting into the woods. I sure wouldn't want to meet up with him on one of my meandering through the forest! 

Keeping up with Cleo

    After taking a walk, Gypsy likes to lay in the creek and cool off but this time of year it is more like a raging river than a docile creek! Anyway, Gypsy found a safe little eddy but Cleo wanted a drink and didn't like the spot where Gypsy had stirred up the mud. I mentioned to Gale how cold it would be to jump into that swift water to rescue Cleo and wouldn't you know, she fell in! Naturally I didn't hesitate to go after her. Fortunately she had dropped into a deep hole rather than the horrendous current. Her eyes were quite large but otherwise unscathed.
   Then the little rascal got curious and decided to go out on the middle bridge directly over the worst part of the current! I called her back a couple times but she insisted upon going back out to watch the bubbles so I had to put up a child barrier gate at the entrance to the first bridge to stop her!
   We went to Boise over the weekend and stopped at a service station along the way where we had stopped on a previous trip to let the girls out. However, this time a backhoe came clanging and banging around a corner, scaring Cleo half to death. She jerked the extendo-leash out of my hand and took off across the parking lot with the handle of the leash bouncing along behind her, fueling her terror, and ONTO the main highway. In hot pursuit, I didn't pay any attention to traffic but had eyes only for Cleo. I handed off Gypsy's leash to Gale on my way past him and charged after poor little Cleo. She stopped on the center line. When I had her safely in my arms I looked up and cars were stopped in both lanes waiting for us!
   SO, at Michelle's house is a very large swimming pool. Once again, Cleo is frightened by a man who dropped a box somewhere in her vicinity. It made quite a loud noise and she shot across the patio and ACROSS the pool without even looking where she was going. Thank goodness the pool cover was on or she would have been swimming again!
   Then yesterday, Gypsy and Cleo had their hair appointments. Gypsy is always so calm and sweet...nothing seems to bother her except cows of course. I arrived a bit early to pick them up but peeked in the window first to make sure neither one of them was still on the table. Unfortunately, Cleo was and being the observant little creature she is, she spotted me and put up such a crying, squirming fuss Shirley could do nothing more with her. So, she still has long hairs on her nose...but she's still cute.
   I bought some tomato, pepper, strawberry and squash plants yesterday. Now all we need is some decent weather to be able to plant them. We sure had a storm last night...a real dandy. Then it froze again by morning.

Cold Mornings and Writing

Twenty seven degrees again with heavy frost. The corn plants are totally done for but there is plenty of time to re-seed them. I should have listened to my husband when he told me not to be in too big of a rush to plant. The garlic is thriving though.
It seems like were are rising earlier and earlier not by desire or design but by Cleo! With the days getting lighter at an earlier hour, even though she is buried under the covers, she must sense the the sun is up and therefore she must be, too. I don't really mind but Gale tends to grouse a bit.
He made pancakes for me this morning for Mother's Day. It's funny how much better they taste when he does them!
He is on chapter twenty seven and having a real time trying to decide who is going to do what to whom. It is quite a phenomenon the way our muses will lead us down story lane. Sometimes it gets ahead of us and then it's a matter of going back and inserting a bunch of detail, or even changing a scene or two to make the whole thing work. He doesn't know whether to have the wife ride to the Indian Agency to find her husband or not because her son has disappeared, however her daughter is already out searching for him. I think she should stay home and wait for her husband to return and let him go look.
I am having an equally difficult time deciding if there is something hidden in the root cellar or not and if there is...what it would be!
Ahh, the life of a witter. We have been invited to do another signing at Borders in June!