MAY - JUNE HAPPENINGS

 Hello everyone,

Can't believe it's been over a month since I last blogged, so I have quite a bit to cover this month.

Since my last post on May 6th, we've been busy around the house and just enjoying some really nice, warm weather.

On May 13th, we took a drive over to Geneva OH.  We happened upon Harpersfield Covered Bridge.  We stopped to take a look and take a few pictures.  Here are a few of what we encountered:

Entrance to little park

Standing at trees

Bernie took my photo

The bridge was spectacular!

In looking up more information on these covered bridges, we found out that there are actually 135 covered bridges in Ohio, with 19 of them in the nearest county to us, Ashtabula OH.  I'm thinking maybe we should make it a goal to find all 19 of them since we've stumbled on to two already.  The last one we found was the Smolen-Gulf Covered Bridge a while ago and I think I may have blogged about that one as well.

Also, in May we have a lot of wildlife coming around.  We've seen turkeys, deer, squirrels by the dozens, as well as chipmunks who choose to dig in my flowers on the deck and make a mess each night.  I've been putting Cayenne Pepper on the dirt to try to deter them little buggers!  Most recently we had a baby bunny living under our deck.  He was by himself, so I'm not sure where his Momma was, although there is a big bunny hanging out over in our neighbors yard in the evenings.  So, I just named this little guy (or gal) Bunny!  Original, I know!!  I fed him lots of cabbage and he seemed to like that.  

Bunny content with his cabbage.

Most recently he has moved from the deck and is now living elsewhere.  Guess the digs were a little too small for him since he has grown quite a bit, but he's living nearby as we see him most mornings and evenings eating blades of dandelion greens twice the size of him.

I was walking everyday down our dirt road beside the house, but NOT anymore.  If you're squeamish of snakes, you might want to buzz by this next photo.  I'll give you some space to bypass it.  I'm not a lover of snakes, heck, I don't even like them.  I dream of them after I see them, I can't watch "Raiders of the Lost Ark" because of them, but I actually took a zoomed photo of not one, but two of them.  One was large and one much smaller, probably a baby.  The large one was about 2' long and the baby maybe 10" or so.  I looked them up afterwards and they were garter snakes.  I know they aren't harmful, but I DON'T CARE!   I now ride the exercise bike in the comfort of the theater room.  NO FEAR!

Safe to look again and continue reading blog.  Unless,......  one more reptile type photo and explanation.....

While weeding out the front of house rocks and flowers of old leaves, weeds, etc.  Using of course, my trusty claw weeder, I ran across this............  

What is it?  I asked Bernie.....

I immediately stopped what I was doing and ran for Bernie.  I told him before I began that if I saw a snake the weeds could grow feet high or more because I wasn't touching them.  He took a look and although it had a head like a snake, it had FEET!!  Yes, Whew!!  It wasn't a sneaky snake, but a salamander.  I believe it is an Eastern Redback Salamander.  They like living in damp conditions and under wet leaves.  So that's what he was doing there.  I continued with my weeding, but very hesitantly!!

NO More Critters now............  must continue on................

From ground to air is the next happening in May.................. we've been hearing the buzzing of an engine several times over a period of a few days.  We sometimes hear the faint roar of engines, and have seen small private planes flying way above us, but this one particular day we heard the sound and we saw this big private plane doing daredevil type flying.  He would dip low and then go high in the sky.  I captured him as he rose from the ground right past the tree line.  I ran down the road to get this picture.  I got a few similar shots before he left, probably to find a gas station!  Ha Ha!!!

Daredevil Stunt Pilot

Now the end of May and yes, our temps have dipped after being in the 80's for a while.  I mean really dipped.  On my birthday, May 29th, it was down right bone-chilling cold.  My nephews were at their camp for the Memorial Day Weekend only to have any type of picnic dowsed by the cold and rain that day.  So, we opened up our barn and gave them and our neighbors a yell and voila!  Instant Birthday Party! It was nice just sitting around talking for a few hours.

Here is photo of us taken by my nephew's wife, Stella, of us all huddled around a kerosene heater.  Yep, it was that cold, 49 degrees was our high that day.  Bernie ordered a cake and sandwich ring and we enjoyed ourselves.  

Billy, Bernie, Me, Sam, Jason and George

One days planning and Voila!!

A beautiful cake too!

I actually got to celebrate my birthday twice, once at 49 degrees and the second at 84 degrees exactly a week later with Bryan and Jess.  It was a beautiful day, we were able to cook some steaks on the grill and eat at the picnic table outside.  I have no pics to show though.  Bryan took many, so I'll have to get a few from him and post next month.

Now into June, the beginning had Macy going to her vet for her teeth cleaning.  They actually put her out to do this.  She had 4 teeth pulled before, but this time she had to have 6 more pulled.  Gosh!  That is 10 teeth, we wondered if she had enough left in there to eat.  I looked it up and Yorkies, I guess most dogs, have 42 teeth in their mouths.  Her mouth isn't that big, I thought.  Here teeth are so clean now.  Anyway, she is fine now after a few pain pills and antibiotic, she's back to her old self.  Here she is with her "Lion" leg.  They had to shave it to put in the intravenous.  

Macy;s Lion Leg

Phew!  this is a lengthy post, so I'll finish up with quilting happenings.

I showed you last blog the patriotic wall hanging and small quilt hanger on our mantle, but I also completed a coffee table runner, doing the Patriotic Star Pattern.  Also, you will see in this photo the beautiful Anniversary flowers from Bernie.  I love those peachy, orange colored roses.  I carried roses, Matador Red Roses, 44 years ago on June 9. 

Table runner and Anniversary Flowers

And last, but not least,

I participated at Kimberly's Fabric Stash in a Dinner Mystery Quilt project.

We had no idea what we were making.  We were given clues as to what amount of fabric we needed, and how to cut and assemble the blocks over a period of a week or so.  I decided to do whatever it was in a Halloween theme from Moda's "Spooky Night" fabric line.  It consisted of three blocks, none of which were hard, but none that I had ever done before.  We did a nine-patch, a nine-patch with fan blade, and another with small squares in a diagonal pattern.  We had to send her the photo via her email and she will be displaying them on her Facebook page, beginning June 24, and it will be participant voting and she will be awarding store credit to two winners who receive the most votes.  I believe they are only going to be displayed on June 24th and she is awarding on her live show on June 25th.    

So, click on the link above in orange on June 24th, that says Facebook page and vote for your favorite or vote for this one:

Deb's Mystery Quilt

So, that's it for this post.  I hope you enjoyed reading about our happenings here around the homestead.  I'll be back again next month for our June Wrap-up and start of July.

In case it's after the fourth of July, have a very happy, healthy and safe 4th of July.  Independence Day!!!

Please pray for yours and our families, pray for health and healing, pray for America!

Hugs,

Debbie