POOCHEROO: HALF DOG / HALF KANGAROO

Poocharoo has been a jumping dog from a pup, and now she is almost 8 years old and she hasn't slowed down any. I would swear she has springs in her legs if that were possible. She has caught five birds on the wing that I know of when they flew too low over her pen trying to get at her dog food in her dish on the back stoop. She keeps a close eye on the squirrels as they race along the high wires, over the house and garage roofs and in the trees. I think they like to tease her by sitting on the roof or in the trees where they can watch her and she can see them. They love the berries on the juniper tree in her pen. I have a short clothes line outside the back door that I hang Davids stump socks and my nylons on to dry in good weather and she takes up a position lying or standing under them and "guards" them keeping a close eye on the tree and the garage roof so that no birds or squirrels comes near until I take them down. But Thursday was a first: a young squirrel was eating berries and was heading out or down a slim branch that was low to the ground--probably about eight feet -- when I glanced out the door and saw her watching very intently. You could almost see her smile! The farther out on the limb that squirrel got the lower the branch hung and he must have been hungry because he wasn't watching my Poocharoo. That branch dipped and she leaped straight up like she does and if that squirrel hadn't made a sudden backward jump she would have had him. It looked like she sprang up a good six feet and just missed him. I didn't take him long to get to the top of the tree! I would swear she was grinning ear to ear when she turned her head and saw me watching her. We have a four foot fence around her yard and she regularly has her head higher than it bumping her nose against my hand as I walk along it with my arm extended above it. If she ever figures out that she can go forward as well as up I'm in trouble and we'll have to build a taller fence! She doesn't play with doggie toys, I've tried them, but she is on her third pair of old tennis shoes. She won't chase or jump for anything unless it's food, people food, then she will practically do flips and catch it. She loves popcorn. She's quite the Poocharoo and keeps me entertained. David has accused me of paying more attention to her than to him (not true) but I tell him that she is always there to keep me company when I need some. I sometimes think that dogs display more of the unwavering love as God does than mankind does. Love one another.

AUTUMN COLORS

Autumn brings many mental pictures to mind: beautiful many colored mums, bright red leaves on bushes, goards of all shapes and sizes (don't you just love the warty ones?), pumpkins, corn stalks, fields of red milo. I could go on and on, but this last week we saw a beautiful new one and today we tried to get a picture of it and if it turns out I'll try to get James or David to put it on this blog. There are a lot of fruitless pear trees here in Smith Center and they usually have pretty leaves in the fall, but there are two on Main Street side by side that are really very spectacular this year. They have blotches of color: red, bright gold, dark gold, orange, plum red, and brown with just a few sprinkles of green left and very few of them have fallen off as yet. They are absolutely beautiful! I don't see how anyone can look at the beautiful world around us in all seasons and not believe in loving creative God. Thank you Lord the grandure that surrounds us if we but look for it and not for the ugly.

PROGRESS ON THE HOUSE!

Yay!!! Another job is done! We knew we would have to replace the lower section of the stairs to the basement. Years of waterfalls every time it rained has really weakened the wood and the handrail hand been removed to facilitate taking things up and down while working on the reat of the house. I did not go up or down without having one hand free to grip whatever I could get a hold on. Poocheroo didn't even llike to go up or down them! Well, Saturday, James was helping David install a small gas heater in the basement so we could stand to to work down there and one of the steps gave way under James, no injury but a good scare for Mom. So today James and David built a new set of stairs and put the hand rail back up. It no longer feels "spongy" and slants off toward Joneses. It's safe and wonderful!

OOPS!

Funny how one little key can delete so much! Too tired to type it again.

SUPERKLUTZ STRICKS AGAIN

There are some days when it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. Yesterday was one of those for me! I had a double senior moment! I managed to both flood the new bath and smoke up the kitchen! David and James had gotten the kitchen exhaust hooked up just a couple weeks ago. It works great! While I do enjoy doing the laundry (There is something very satisfying about putting away clean clothing), doing an extra load of wet towels and throw rugs from mopping up the bathroom and kitchen just doesn't seem as enjoyable. In my defense moments like these mostly happen when I have been under the weather battling some infections or allergies which was the case yesterday.

The mums are beautiful this fall, big and just loaded with bright blossoms. We had two that didn't come up this spring and we replaced them, and those look so small compared to the ones we set out two years ago. I do hope that these make it through the winter OK. Our yard is looking pretty good right now since David did a lot of trim work that he hadn't had the time or energy for while working at the school. We bought some more spring bulbs - tulips, daffy-down-dillies, and crocus - to put between the peonies and mums and need to get them in the ground soon. I also want to move the lilly of the valley out of the dog pen to the north side of the house in front of the porch between the bushes. A friend has told us she has a red peony we can get two starts from to put at either end of our peony row. The ones we have that we transplanted from the shady back yard to a row along the east edge of our yard where they get the morning sun are pink and white and have really gotten big in the last two years and were just loaded with blossoms this last spring. There is still a lot of trim work to do before winter sets in. Oh, and one of my big flower pots of geraniums that we had sitting on the front steps sprouted legs and walked off. Couldn't have been very small legs either as it was all I could do to wrestle them into the basement last fall where I kept them alive all winter under a grow light. I guess someone needed some cheering up by their bright blossoms.

God is so good to us and surrounds us with his love if we only look for it.

(PS - This time I got into my blog all by my self! Hurray! I guess you can teach an old gal new tricks. Now if I could just stop this klutz thing! Oh, well, it keeps life interesting.)

ONE YEAR LATER

FINALLY--it has taken me this long to get back into my blog to make a new posting, even after having all kinds of directions to help (there was a goof). A lot has happened in the meantime:
1. My closet was finished with cedar only to discover that I couldn't breath when trying to sleep in the bedroom connecting to it so-o-o it was all torn out, hauled to the landfill, and the
closet refinished with plasterboard then painted. Needless to say it was slightly upsetting. Neither of us like having to do something over.
2. The next job was to fix the basement door to the outside so we didn't have a waterfall every time it rained. We also changed it to open out so we don't have to go up or down steps to use it. Getting the new guttering installed also made a big difference.
3. Then we could finally get started on the new kitchen. It has been a long slow job even after hiring a young friend to do a lot of the grunt work. A lot of pictures of the progress have been posted on my facebook if you want to see what we have been doing. The only thing we saved from the old kitchen was the old sink with the double drainboard. We gutted the two back rooms, added insulation in the outside walls, took a wall out to make a bigger kitchen, put another one in to create the new bathroom downstairs, moved two doors to allow better traffic flow into adjoining rooms, plus fillling in and refinishing the original red oak floor was the structural work. Installing new cabinets, a dishwasher, an exhaust fan, new wiring and plumbing has brought the kitchen up to date. We also added a simple cove molding around the ceiling. Left to finish: the granit tile countertop, baseboard on the bottom of the cabinets, lights over the sink and counter work area, and the display shelf over the wall cabinets, and the building of my "floating" work island and my recipe bookshelf unit. I gave up on the dust created by all this until I can now finally get to it. I am having fun unpacking everything and deciding where to put it. I am finding all my "treasures" that I have not been able to use since moving here. At last a kitchen made to my specifications!
4. The all new downstairs bathroom is almost done. just a little finish work left. All of those extra trips up and down the stairs are not missed in the least. Of course the stacking washer and dryer are still sitting in the garage in their cartons. After 36 years two stubborn people have met head on with neither giving in: I want to put them on the second floor where 90+% of the laundry is generated. I want to use the cubbyhole in the first floor bathroom as a storage and cleaning closet. David says he'll take them back before he'll put them where I want them. (I measured, they will fit and the plumbing is right underneath.)
5. The second floor bathroom has just a little finish work left. We kept the the clawfoot tub after giving it a new coat of paint on the outside and a good cleaning on the inside. The years of lime buildup was really difficult to remove but it looks great now. We also turned it around so the plumbing wouldn't show. We installed a new console sink and a built-in storage cupboard. We also added beadboard wainscoting and oldstyle black and white tile flooring in both baths. By adding a corner shower stall downstairs we were able to eliminate the makeshift one upstairs. Putting up another towel bar, the tissue holder, the border print and touch-up painting is all that is left. Davids sister Evie gave us some old style posters of children that look darling on the walls.
While all this was going on we celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, Debras retirement, a new
granddaughter (nine grandchildren to date), James return to Kansas, and Davids retirement
from his job at the school (David continues with his preaching) and made trips to Virginia, Iowa and Minnesota. No wonder we're tired!
Next on my list (please note the my) is room by room insulating, painting, refinishing the woodwork and the hardwood floors downstairs and fixing the floors upstairs. At the rate we are going it will be years in the doing, but it is the fixing of our own house and not somesone elses. What a joy! God has been so good to us and I thank Him daily for it all! God bless you all!