Thursday, September 25, 2008

Just Another Day

I am so bad about keeping up with this! I have been working at the school cafeterias on call when somebody is going to be off. I worked at the middle school all last week and will work there again this Friday. Yesterday and today I worked at Northside Elementary, which houses only 3rd, 4th, & 5th grade. Southside Elementary houses headstart, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd grade. There used to be 6 elementary schools in Hartford City.
The picture above and the picture below are obviously the same picture.
My friend, Nila, just moved into this house out in the country with her husband, Neil. They used to live just 3 blocks from me. They now have 2 acres of land, but no farm land. Nila said she got woken up at 4 in the morning Saturday by a coyote howling. I went out and took pictures of her house before they had their closing, and she never knew it. I made these 2 pictures along with a colored pencil filtered picture, and gave them to her as a house-warming gift.
I had never seen this church before. I only recently saw signs pointing the way to it. It's simply called the Old Country Church. I have no idea what denomination it is.
This ugly guy was in our sitting room tonight when I went out to close and lock the front door for the night. He was hiding against the baseboard near a glass-top table . Salem found him after I got the camera. I think it was a wolf spider, but I'm not sure. He was brown, hairy and with his legs extended he was probably between 2 & 3 inches long. Salem started biting at it, and somehow it ended up on Salem's shoulder! Salem got him off and the spider ran under the recliner. It eventually came out and I killed it. We have had a real problem with spiders this summer. This is the first time I've had one of these in this house. I used to get them all the time when I lived in Florida. I even had one in the shower with me one night! Talk about getting freaked out! LOL
I still have some hummers. It seems like more have been around lately than all summer.
This is one of my mother's neighbor's cows. They have an electric fence around their meadow, but they always manage to get out once in a while. The last time was on Father's Day. They got out and destroyed about an acre or more of field corn. They have destroyed the front yard, and gotten out on the road. Luckily, it is not a heavy traffic road.
I thought this shot of Taffy was hilarious! She was chewing her food, but it looked like she was snarling. Last night and tonight she has surprised me. She may start heading for the yard, away from the food, and I'll just say, "come here, Taffy", and she turns around and comes back up on the step. She has done that almost every time I have called her. Not even Salem comes when I call!
My friend Glenna currently lives in Anchorage, Alaska. Her son was killed last summer, and she couldn't stand being around the house any more, so she left. He was found in the bean field out near the woods behind her house. Nobody is living in the house, and hasn't been for several months. She and her husband split up way before the incident. She asked me to go out there and see what was left of her belongings, and bring them home with me. Mostly pictures and such. The place was a wreck. I also took pictures of every room, except the kitchen and dining room, and e-mailed them to her. Her estranged husband is the one who destroyed the place. I could say more about the situation, but without proof, what can you do. The boy's death was automatically ruled a suicide, but there are strong speculations going the other way.
Okay, it's 2 O'clock in the morning, so I'm taking my tired carcass to bed! I am still up because I was cooking down some concord grapes for juice to make jelly. I ended up with enough to make eight batches of jelly. I had a bushel of the grapes. My mother came over this morning while I was at work and picked the grapes off the stems so they could be washed and cooked. I have purple stains everywhere! Thank goodness for bleach!
Everybody have a good day. I will visit your posts in the morning!
Love Ya
Lisa

21 comments:

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

Turning briefly to the subject of your friend and her son - that's horrific for her. I think the worst thing that could happen for a parent is to always have that doubt that something else may have been responsible for the death - like a friend of mine's daughter was murdered abroad and they have never found the killer (though they pretty much know who it was).

But your photos, as usual, are fantastic - what a lovely present to give for a housewarming xx

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Lisa: You really did a neat variation through the post. I'm glad to hear mom was over to give you a hand. God bless her for helping yo.

flydragon said...

What a great idea for a house warming gift. She's gotta love it.
At my house this is the time of year for the spiders to try to sneak in the door, but I've never seen one like you had in your house. Don't want to either!! Ewwww.
Sorry about your friend. Not a very pleasant task for you to go out to her house.

Lib said...

Hi Lisa,
So sorry to hear about your Friend and her son! Horrible!
Love the photos!
Hope you're having a great wk.
Blessins',Lib

Reader Wil said...

I am sorry that your friend should have lost her son in such a terrible way. Your photos are great and the two first are very good. I hope your mother is doing well.

Patty said...

How horrible for your friend. Sounds like she also had a psycho for a husband to go to the house and destroy the contents. I hope he doesn't know where she's living now.

Hope your jelly all turned out great.

The little hummingbirds are probably trying to fatten up a little, they usually leave around the first of Oct. to head back south.

Have a great week-end, it's just around the corner.

Anonymous said...

A 2-3" spider...yikes!!! My DH would have freaked out. LOL. Have you tried the website picnik.com. It's a cool place to change around your photos and it's free. The Old Country Church...how cool is that? That's so sad about your friend's son.

Lori Schmidt (LoriProPhoto) said...

What a great house warming gift, I am sure she will treasure it, there is nothing that compares to something that has been given from the heart and has a personal touch to it.

Taffy sure looks snarly LOL, glad she is getting to know you more and trusting your presence.

I am sorry about your friend's son and the circumstances, it sounds horrendous and very sad.

Don't work too hard. (((Hugs)))

Lori

Anonymous said...

Lisa, watching your posts especially the signs that I can I say, unique in the approach is what me every time the water again on your page. what to do, and every detail of embroidered is true love and soul. greeting
Steven May

Nancy said...

What a sad story about your friend's son!

I thought you were supposed to quit feeding hummers in September so they would be encouraged to head South before cold weather really sets in. That's what I was always told.

We have lots of bugs and spiders here in SC. I use that BAYER stuff to spray around the edges, inside and out. I get it at Lowe's...it's like 9 or 10, if I remember right. GOod stuff! A friend from Charleston told me about it...she said she uses it every week and never sees a bug or spider in her home. I have had no problems since I started using it, either. It really works well with ants, too! We have brown recluse spiders and also black widows here....I am scared to death of spiders!

I hope I can get caught up reading by the end of the weekend. I am sooooo far behind!

(((((( HUGS ))))))

Merle said...

Dear Lisa ~ Beautiful photos and a lovely housewarming gift. So sorry about your friend's son, and also her house damage.You are a good friend, even Taffy trusts you!! Thank you so much for your visits and I am glad you enjoyed seeing the Twin story again. It was very popular and I loved it. I am sure lots of baby animals react similarly. Why don't you get a virtual cat for yourself? There is a small sign under mine and you just click that and somehow it puts one on your blog. Good luck. Poor Salem. Take care, have a great weekend, Love, Merle.

Jeanette said...

Ohh Lisa So sorry about your friend son. and how terrible for you to go find your friends house trashed...
Nice photo's.. and I hope your Mums health keeps improving..
Your Aussie friend Jen

Dan said...

Great pics as always Lisa!

Anonymous said...

what a pretty good cow!

GMG said...

Hi Lisa! Here I am to enjoy your lovely blog on my weekly visit!
See that you had a busy week! Loved the pictures, including the amazing cow!
!Look forward to reading you at Blogtrotter, now back in Chania!
Have a great week!

Moby Dick said...

Spiders are your friends! They eat all kinds of other insects and they basically stay out of the way most of the time!

Susie said...

That spider is creepy. I know they are great for eating insects but I dislike them terribly.

Taffy is such a cute raccoon. I love how she visits you.

I still have some hummers buzzing around as well. I guess they will leave when they are ready.

Merle said...

Dear Lisa ~~ Hi again Lisa ~~ Just a quick note to tell you that I have left an award for you on my blog. Take great care, my friend, Love, Merle.

Anonymous said...

You are one busy lady, Lisa. I can imagine how tired you must be/get. You need to take some time, sometimes, for yourself.

Hope this week will be great for you.

Elisabeth said...

Great pics - except for the spider! How horrible...!

Unknown said...

I love Taffy! I guess we don't totally have the raccoons in common, you literally have raccoons! How awesome! I on the other hand (along with hubs) are the bandits on geocaching, and we use the raccoon as our little mascot. :)