a new visitor...

We had a visitor a couple of days ago... He came in unannounced, stayed a few minutes and promptly took off...  We were very excited to get a photo of him....

Rich was pretty sure that this is a Bobcat...  He sent a photo off to our local conservation agent and sure enough..

Yes, I do think it's a bobcat.  It appears to have the distinctive color 

pattern of a bobcat.  You would need to go out to the site and measure the 

salt block to compare measurements.  Bobcats are larger than domestic cats,\

 have proportionately longer legs, and a much shorter tail. 

 The total length of a bobcat ranges from

 22 1/2 inches to 50 inches and weight is 10-40 lbs.

 Males are somewhat larger than females.


Jeff XXXXXX
Wildlife Management Biologist
Missouri Department of Conservation
Prairie Fork Conservation Area

We also had three deer visit us yesterday...They walked in and laid down in the trees behind the pond and stayed for quite a while...  Three ducks landed on the pond....and there are carp coming to the surface to feed...

Spring is definitely here...

Nancy

new friends...

see that little deer peeking in from the right?

He was just checking things out before his friends got there...

overnight....

Nancy

making our guests happy...

It took at least 12 trips to Lowe's before I was satisfied with the layout of the new kitchen and what cabinets we were purchasing and where they would go and what I would use them for and how many drawers I wanted...and then at the very end...I talked to the designer over the phone and changed one cabinet around and lost the cabinet I really needed... 

There is no where to set a trash can in the kitchen.  There are no niches, no end of the cabinet available, no pantry closet to stick it in...  Since October I have put a plastic bag in the kitchen sink for all the trash acquired during cooking and then just tied it up and tossed it into the trash can...which sat in the laundry room...behind an always closed door...   It drove my girls crazy...it drove my sister crazy....it drove everyone (but me) crazy...

 TA DA!!!

This morning before I got up Rich put together two more chairs for the dining room...

we retired the bench that sat on the other side..

And today is Spaghetti Sauce day....

with meat

without meat

And the meatballs are ready to fry...  so that's all for today...

Did you notice the new blog header?  We are on the Missouri flyway for Canada Geese and every few days we get a flock of them landing in the pond...

Nancy

"under protest"

This is how the weekend has gone so far...


Saturday
8am - I leave home to drive to St Louis and attend my meeting of the St Louis Modern Quilt Guild.
12:30pm- meeting over
1:30pm - pick up BBQ at a "wish it was more local" BBQ place..
2:30- arrive home and clean two bathrooms (did all the other cleaning Friday, but refuse to clean the bathrooms for company until the son and girlfriend have left)
3:30pm- first guests arrive (early) while Rich is still in the shower.
5-6pm - Rest of guests arrive for Rich's 60th birthday and Abbie's fourth birthday Party! Dinner, cake and presents for all!
They all leave and we start the clean up...
10pm- bedtime

Sunday

6:30am - Rich wakes up and takes coffee to the sewing room (because we have a teenager sleeping on the couch) and watches the news.
7:30am - I wake up and finish cleaning up
9am - we leave three teenagers sleeping and head for the local hardware store to get hinges and pulls for the doors of the cabinet in my sewing room..
 10am - Start making home made waffles with the new waffle iron Rich got for his birthday.  Rich cooks bacon while I use the giant mixmaster, some flour, eggs and a stick of butter for the waffle batter...
11am - teenagers want to know how soon breakfast will be ready
 Noon - all the waffles are finished, bacon done... let's eat! 
 Clean up breakfast and start putting cabinet doors up...

This is what I bought for the cabinets...

bright shiny hinges..

U-Bolts..

yep...i wanted an industrial look and these are U-Bolts

the "drunk" guy made the doors...he did such a bad job, but they work...

I think it looks so nice now...I just need a little bit of organization on those shelves to get it to look perfect..

Rich would like you all to know he did not like it when I picked out the shiny hinges and the U-Bolts.. He really wanted me to get some black regular hinges and knobs...of some kind... 

He did this "Under Protest"....


Nancy

closet...

We have two closets in the back hallway.  One is all shelves and I use it for food storage.  The kitchen doesn't have enough cabinets to keep dishes AND food... the other closet had shelves on either side and then a hanging rod. We thought we would use the hanging rod for coats, but we each keep our current coat in our own bedroom closet with extras in the guest room...  What I really needed was more shelves..

Friday night we headed to our local Menards and picked up some pre-finished white shelves..  Rich tore out the shelves on the right side of the closet and removed the closet rod.  Ripping out the shelves created a big mess in the wall, so I did a little taping and mudding yesterday.. 

He added the cleats and I sanded and painted this morning...

and shelves were added...

So much more storage now...

Yesterday Kristin called and asked her daddy out on a date.  They both love horror films and so they took off and saw "The Lady in Black"...  Owen and Ava and I watched "Rio" and had popcorn and then Ava and I played Sorry and Phase 10... She's getting really good at Phase 10... 

Rich is already thinking about the project for next weekend..

There will be NO project next weekend.  We have 20 people coming for a combined 60th birthday party for Rich and a certain little granddaughter turns four!!   

Nancy

weekend projects...

We are still in the midst of little projects here and there...   What is wrong with this picture?  Well, apparently the previous owner needed some electricity somewhere else and decided to cut the insulation off of these wires and just wind the new wire around it... brilliant? or stupid?  Code says STUPID!!

 

Let's take a closer look...

uh huh....

We really needed to fix a problem in the living room.  We both have laptops...Mine sits on the cedar chest when plugged in...Rich was sitting his on an end table across the room from the couch (where he typically uses it) and using a long white double ended extension cord...which dragged under the table, under a chair and across the room to the couch.  I hated it...I was always tripping over it.  There is no other plug nearer so we decided to add one in the floor underneath the end table between our couches..  Luckily we have an open basement so it's very easy to get electric from one place to another.

First you buy this...and even though it says all instructions are inside..they aren't...

and then you measure once..measure twice...and cut a hole in the floor

and we now have a little less mess..  That white cord hanging down from the top of the table is my camera cord. I didn't notice it was hanging there until I uploaded the photo...And I moved the table back to get the photo...when the table is in the right place you can't even see the plug.  And we are in the middle of finding a small brown extension cord to use.  These outlets only come with one outlet so to plug in a lamp AND the computer we need it.   We looked three places yesterday and can't find one..  OH...he also fixed the mess of the electric before..but I am just too tired to go down there and take a photo..Trust me it's up to code now..

This is the before view from my sewing room..

and the AFTER view...  Do you see anything different?

Rich hung my bird feeder...He got it for me for Christmas and I hope to attract all kinds of birds to watch while I sew...

He made a little pulley system so I can go let it down, fill it up and pull it back up again... He's so smart!!

This is why the bird feeder is a good idea...  Cat hiding behind cat feeder on left...bird feasting on bird feed on right...  No birds (or cats) have been harmed yet...but it was only a matter of time..

Nancy