I have a new career

No, it's probably not what you're thinking .... since retiring from my journalism career (for the most part anyway) I haven't taken a new job.

Although there are many days here in Frog Hollow in scenic Northeast Iowa where I feel like my days ARE a job ... like today.

As I stood in our Great Room debating how I could reach the cobwebs taunting me from eight feet above my head, a loud thud against the window behind me, interrupted my thoughts. As quick as I could get to our large picture window, our Mama Cat, "Lulu" had latched on to the vibrant blue indigo bunting that had  knocked himself silly.

Sans shoes, I ran to the basement and out the door to retrieve the bird from becoming Lulu's lunch. Considering I feed my cats well & just began teaching Lulu's five kittens to join her at the dish, I didn't feel bad about depriving her of what she thought would be a tasty treat.

Dazed and confused, the little bunting's heart beat rapidly against my hand as I carried it to the sunflower feeder – now more than six feet high to keep the cats away. Over the next hour while I made my Aunt Audrey's custard rhubarb pie, I checked on the indigo. Eventually he had regained his senses to the point he was able to fly away.

 Actually, today was pretty much a repeat of last Thursday, when a female woodpecker being pursued by a male, struck the window. In their silliness, the male hit the window too. Trudging to the yard (no cats in sight on this afternoon) I retrieved each of the birds individually, and placed them in our wild plum trees to recover. It was more than three hours later, before the female found the strength to fly away.

For anyone worried I've become lazy ... don't worry that I'm lying on the sofa eating bon bons all day. Between "bird-whispering" and chasing after chickens, I still haven't managed to keep the garden free of weeds. Barring more avian collisons, hopefully I can get to those weeds this week!

Did I really want to know?

I know it's a disappointment to my relatives, but when they ask, I have to say honestly, I don't remember a lot about my childhood.

"What do you remember about living near Eldorado?" they ask. Nothing except maybe playing outside the house. I was only three and a half years old when we moved from there to Hawkeye.

But one of my cousins who with her older sister, often babysat us and entertained us when we visited their parents' home as children, kept all the letters I wrote to her when she was away at college and even when she attended Girls' State as a junior in high school.

Yes, it will date me, but the stamps on the first letters I wrote to her, cost just 8¢. Wow.

Oh, are those letters filled with exciting tidbits!

Perhaps more than anything, the letters revealed a lot about my childhood that I had forgotten. Like finding 31 chicken eggs in a hog feeder. And I thought only my silly hens we keep now, did such crazy things as to lay anywhere but in their coop. It appears it's something that's been going on for decades!

It makes me grimace to read that I thought it newsworthy to tell my older cousin that the family dog would celebrate his birthday that month .... or that I was writing my cousin for the second time in two weeks, because my sister had nothing to say!

Ahh, youth!  Glad to have left it behind!

Bluebirds, deer & cooper's hawks, Oh, My!

Excuses for not blogging lately .... uh, the weather's been too nice? Well on some days anyway!

Although we saw our first robins weeks ago, today there were quite a few in our yard – still migrating birds though, none that have yet decided to stay. I witnessed two male and one female bluebirds as well, today. And that bad girl, "Clucker," has returned to her mischievous ways and laid two pretty blue-green eggs outside the chicken coop – I found them under the front porch.

Spring is definitely in the air in Lima!

I have awakened several mornings the past week to find four to six deer lounging in the pasture just behind our house. The whitetails calmly listen to the bluejays bickering around them as they move their jaws in a rhythm that is reminiscent of our dairy cows chewing their cuds.

Just last week, we saw a buck with the group who had not yet shed its antlers. I haven't seen that particular male this week, unless he's finally left his rack behind somewhere.

Last week, we had a number of unwelcome visitors to our yard. No, there were no skunks. But one of the biggest raccoons I've seen waddled out of the pasture and into our yard to sample sunflower seeds under the feeder. 

It was still daylight, so he/she must have been hungry.  An hour later (it was now dark) a clank on the front porch alerted us to a younger raccoon feasting on cat food, shoveling it in as quickly as it could. The raccoon in the photo is titled, "Did you lose a cat?" and I couldn't resist posting it, even though I'm quite sure it's been altered!

But back to my story. Worse yet, was the day the Cooper's hawk dined at our bird feeder. If you don't already know, these birds are most fond of their own kind. Yes, they eat other birds. I was writing a story on my laptop when I heard a bird clunk hard against our large picture window. Looking up, I saw a few downy red feathers floating to the ground. By the time I got to the window to check on the cardinal's well-being, he was shaking off his concussion. My relief was short-lived. Because in the next moment, the Cooper's Hawk had descended on the cardinal who didn't know up from down due to his collision with my not-so-clean window. I banged both hands on the windows, but the hawk cocked its head my direction, and as I began to crank out the window, he took off, the cardinal in its talons.

Ugly.

While I'm aware coopers need to eat too ... I'd prefer their tastes run more toward poor man's lobster (i.e. sparrows.) We have a lot more of those to spare.

She's driving again! Beware of ice

It will be seven weeks this Thursday since the lung transplant patient's surgery. While Alison continues to heal, she achieved another milestone this last weekend when she drove her car for the first time since last September!!

Driving is something most of us would have to admit we take for granted. We just hop in the seat, turn the keys and go when and where we want to go. The reason Alison had a restriction was mainly because her sternum needed time to heal. To put her new lungs in place, the bone had to be broken, and unlike skin, takes quite a bit longer to heal. 

For Alison, being able to drive her own car again brought huge smiles to her face. Mama Garvin teased that she might need lessons to reacquaint herself, but no worries there.

Because she still needs to have someone with her all hours of the day, Alison enjoyed spending a night out of town, with friends, but returned to her parents' home in West Union before the weekend ice storm.

Now she wonders if that was the best decision considering she has a lovely two-car garage at her home in Cedar Falls.

West Union caught the brunt of freezing rain that resulted in broken branches and trees all across town Sunday into Monday. That included quite a large tree branch that fell on Alison's silver two-door parked in her parents' driveway. 

UGHHHHH! From outward appearances it doesn't seem there is much damage. What a relief!  But later that day, the patient stepped outside the front door to retrieve her dog, and her feet went out from under her and she fell on the ice. Although worried she might have injured her healing incisions and sternum, A. says she is just stiff and sore, from the fall.

It goes without saying that everyone in this family eagerly awaits the arrival of spring!

Le Peeeew!!

My sister phoned this morning with some news that had me chuckling because she said she sure could have used my gun last night.

That struck me funny at first, because I was with her until about 9 p.m. at One Block Over's "quilt night," and wondered what kind of trouble she'd gotten into at that late of hour on her way home. Seems my younger sibling thought their darling-faced Golden Doodle, "Bella" needed some Fresh Air before the family retired around 10 p.m. But the air was anything but that 10 min. later, as Joleen called for the dog to return to the house.

Living on the edge of the "wild" as they do, with a fairly large pasture of unmowed grass behind a grove of pine trees ... nocturnal varmints emerge in the dark looking for a meal in the backyards of the city's residents.

Unfortunately, Bella had an encounter with PePe Le Peu, or his cousin.

So with the clocking ticking toward 10:30 p.m., Joleen searched the internet for a cure, and soon the pair was giving their dog a bath of vinegar and baking soda – in OLD CLOTHES she informed me, in case they needed to throw them away afterward!

Apparently their quick action was beneficial, as after one bath outside on the deck (brrrr!) and another in the garage, they deemed Bella indeed had lost most of her 'Le Skunk' perfume.

In the future, Bella will likely be restricted to the front yard for those 'just before bedtime do-your-business excursions.'

The Pony Express could have delivered it by now

On Sunday, Feb. 6, I ordered some dye for fabric (the latest craze I am into.)

Thursday of last week (Feb. 10) I finally received a confirmation my order had been shipped. Hallelulia, a cause for celebration.

Tuesday, Feb. 15, now NINE days since placing my order, I decided to use that handy tracking feature offered by Fed Ex.  And therein lies the problem.  Just how effective is it for a package to depart Belleville, Mich. on Feb. 11, destined to travel WEST to Iowa .... but instead it travels first to New Berlin, Wis.  Monday it arrives in Kansas City, Kansas. Uh, hello? Is that the most direct route to Iowa, via Kansas? 


The Pony Express could have had my package here by now! As it is, the shipper Fed Ex, is suggesting my pkg. should arrive by Thursday.


To be clear, my complaint is with the corporate system that's determined shuffling packages from shipping site to shipping site is more effective than a direct route. As for the local Fed Ex delivery persons -- I have nothing but praise regarding their service. When temperatures were below zero, we've even had our delivery guy phone ahead while packing that day's order to be sure we'd be around for pick-up when our delivery was a case of wine. That's customer service! Perhaps the corporate office could take a cue from it's laborers who obviously better understand customer service.

Matriarch of the Pape family?

In celebrating my Aunt Kathleen's 85th birthday Saturday, Feb. 12, it was discovered that the party was cause for marking an additional milestone. Not only has Kathleen been fortunate enough to be the only one of Henry & Mildred Pape's six children to reach that grand age, she just might be the only one in her family of Pape lineage to have had such longevity. Good clean living? What's your secret, Kate?

The cake of strawberry and white layers she holds was baked by daughter, Jayne Weber and the decorative frosting added by granddaughter Brianna Weber. Daughter Julie Routh and her husband, Don, and their daughter Nicole and great grandson, Owen Larson, were among the others in attendance.