Fall view from the back yard
I got tired of carrying enough water for both me and Tux when we're hiking, so I bought him his own backpack. I was afraid he wouldn't wear it but he LOVES it. He's so proud and important now. Ha. So far it's survived 2 hikes and he already gets excited when he sees it.
Paula, Aunt Sue and Me
My laptop crashed and I lost all my recent photos so I was digging around on desktop and found this pic of Cheyenne and Tux from 2004. What a difference a few years makes! Tux is a big as Cheyenne now and Cheyenne is aged, deaf, and barely getting around.
This is how my house has been looking lately. Mom wanted me to have flooring for my birthday (50th, ick - But Thanks Mom!). Before the flooring though, I had to have the ceiling painted. The ceiling starts at 10 feet and goes to almost 20 feet so it's something I couldn't do myself. Scaffolding and lack of fear of heights required!
They did a great job trimming, caulking, and painting the ceiling. 
Mama and baby deer at the yard feeder from about 3 weeks ago. Since then they've split up and the baby has lost all it's spots. They still come around, just not together.
Can you find the deerstand?
Well, the storm came last saturday night. Electric was out for about 12 hours (till sunday afternoon). The yard was completely covered in branches and tree debris and a huge tree fell in front of the house. Thank God it didn't fall on the house or shop - which it would have if it had fallen in either of those directions. It side-swiped the pump house and wiped out the roof of the wood shed but other than that, no damage. My neighbor came over sunday and helped me cut up the tree. We made firewood and hauled off the big pieces with the front end loader on his tractor.
Looks like a fairy pool
The storms are gone, whew. No damage here but Little Rock got pounded pretty bad. Everything's flooded and news reported 100,000 without power in the state.
The good news is the storm wasn't as bad as predicted. The bad news is it's headed here. Weather forecast shows storms all week long and possibly 5 - 10 inches of rain. The outer bands are just starting to reach here now. Wind has picked up and it's starting to rain so I thought I'd check in while I can, satelite doesn't work in bad weather. Also, local news said all of our electric workers went to help out in Louisiana so if the power goes out it might be slow to be restored.
Look what I found all over the ground yesterday. Wild Plums. I knew the tree was there but hadn't seen any fruit in the last couple of years so I wasn't paying attention to it this year. Now I have to decide whether to make jelly or wine. Grin.
The view from the porch for most of the last week. Rain, rain, and more rain. And cool - it's been feeling like fall lately.
Cheyenne isn't doing too well. She's showing her age (15) more every day. She hasn't been going on our walks lately and last night when it was time to come in I had to carry her into the house. She went outside on her own this morning but hasn't left the porch all day.
Nothing new to report, I've been down with a virus all week. Thought I was just tired from company but I caught on when I woke up wednesday with an earache, sore throat and aching bones. Feeling better today except the lingering earache. Hopefully I'll get back to busy starting tomorrow.
Velma, Brandy & Monique
Brandy on the lake
Monique & Brandy floating in the Buffalo River
Mawmaw (Velma) keeping cool.
More floaters.
We had a great time! But I can't remember the last time I tried to keep up with an eight year old.
I'm worn out. Ha.
For being such a reluctant gardener, my garden is doing surprisingly well. I picked the 1st zucchini this morning. Lots of tomatoes coming but none ripe yet. Pepper plants at the far end are still small. The garden bed is long and narrow because I built it for blueberry bushes - which I never could get to grow, even though right down the hill they thrive. The other half (not in the pic) has thornless blackberries, green onion, shallots, garlic, and a few eggplants.
It's not too often you can get two hummingbirds to sit still for a photo! They like hanging out on the fence of the dog pen right outside the living room window.
Today is Mike's birthday, he would have been 46.
This deer came right into the yard in broad daylight friday. Since last post I've picked and put up more berries, made banana-blueberry bread, yum, made more banana-blueberry bread, hauled all my non-burnable construction debris to the dump, burned the burnable, got the tractor running, started cleaning up the jeep to get IT running (needs a battery), ran some errands, weedeated, weeded, mowed, etc....
Today my neighbor Jim and I (and Tux) hiked down to the creek with machetes and reclaimed my trail. Yay! Once down there realized my trail is exactly across the creek from the trail we were on on the deer lease last time. Puts it in much better perspective. AND easier access from both sides. Way cool. 
Last thursday I picked a HUGE amount of blueberries, today I picked more. Eeeek! I've made 3 batches of jam, a couple of batches of blueberry muffins, lots of freezer packs and tonight I'll make some banana-blueberry bread. I've been waiting forever for the bananas to ripen so I can try this recipe. Also picked blackberries. As of today I had enough for a batch of jam (which I made this afternoon). While I was elbow deep in canning and freezing I decided to go to the veggie stand in Greenbriar and picked up some awesome fresh corn and purple hulls and put those up.
Yesterday I was going to log in and post this pic of the pretty little yearling that came to the feeder around 5 tuesday evening. But it stormed all yesterday morning and then I was busy in the afternoon. Then last night around 7 I looked out the back window and saw a couple of deer on the hillside of the clear cut behind me . Looked through the binoculars and saw they were nice bucks. Kept looking and more and more came out! At one point I think there were eight but I managed to get a decent pic of SIX in one shot. You might have to click the picture for full size to get a good look.
After the storms this morning I had a visitor. A nice little doe deer.
Rainy day today. Puttered around the kitchen, read a bit, and took an afternoon nap. I didn't even go outside until it was "Take The Dogs For A Walk" time.
Paula sent me this pic of one of her beautiful orchids.
Saturday I started cleaning and putting things where they belong. Sunday I painted the floor. (thought I would have a real floor with this job - maybe next time). Monday I ran errands. And today I put up the new rods and curtains. Rest of the week more of the same plus yardwork. I have a yard full of construction debris to burn and some to haul off - after my truck goes in the shop thursday. Hopefully by the weekend I'll go to the Antique Warehouse - (12 huge buildings stuffed full, only 20 miles from here) and find a bench seat to put in front of the big window. And if I'm really lucky, a small trestle type table to go with it. Grin.
Eastern Phoebe
