Close Ups

Today Omaha visited the bird bath for a slurp of water.  

This isn't something I'm crazy about as I don't want him hunting my birds, 

but he only came and drank and then left, 

otherwise I would have had to have words with him.  

I'm always on the watch around my bird feeders and don't want him to linger any where near.

The sun was just right I guess as he gave no indication that he saw me through the window, so I got some great beauty shots of the little feline.  I got a close up look at him, he has a healing scratch over his left eye, but otherwise seems to be in pretty good condition.

Slurpppp

He's pretty for an orange cat.

Thirsty cat

Yesterday we had a little standoff at the bird feeder.

A Mourning Dove was sitting on the platform and a Blue Jay kept flying in and trying to take over.

Interesting to me, the Mourning Dove stood ground and the Blue Jay left after making sure the dove got an earful.

Last night, I saw movement on the front deck and caught this bandit in the act.

He didn't leave until I opened the window and advised him that he should 

"GET BACK IN THE WOODS!!"

Never a dull moment.

9 years is a lot

On Sunday evening I attended a fun pizza birthday party for great nephew Owen.  Owen met me at the car and gave me a big hug and thanked me for coming.  I asked him if he thought he was getting pretty old, and he said he thought he was.  Nine.

Grandma Lois had made the cake, the number nine was spelled out with little squirt guns, she's really the cake master for her grand kids, always a clever idea or exactly what they request.

Owen lit the candles.

He waited patiently while we sang Happy Birthday

Then the wish! and blow out those candles

Great Uncle Harry, brother Ivan, Aunt Heather, cousin Anders, cousin Ruby, sister Megan, cousin Jens, Owen & Great Aunt Lois were just a few of the party folks.

As always, it was nice to see the family for the evening

and Owen give big hugs to everyone after opening his many gifts.

My drive home quite nice, saw a few deer, 

but all kept their distance from the roadway, 

just the way I like it.

Owen was just a little over 1 when I moved here, he has grown up into such a nice, quiet boy.

Life is Good.

Summer with Omaha

Omaha is certainly found an outside home here.

He comes and goes often, I rarely see him, 

but lucky to have the trailcam that catches a photo of him now and then.

I did see him lounging in the tall grass at the edge of the woods one day, 

my guess is he doesn't go far from my yard most days.

He's looking pretty good, we are having a good summer together.

Not Much, just July

Not much going on around here, just normal July weather.

Some wicked storms rolled through this last week, but missed me, I'm very greatful.

My flowers are looking good.

Bee Balm always makes me think 'bad hair day'

This one is called Denver Daisy.  It is right by my front door to remind me of my pals out west.

My day lilies are blooming like crazy.
This one is my favorite right now.

I had a bear on the front deck Friday night, he was trying to open the metal trash can with thistle bird seed in it.  I heard a big clunk when he tipped the can over.

I opened the interior door and yelled at him through the storm door.  

At first he just sat and looked at me, but then he got frantic to get off the deck and could not find an escape route.  He must have come up the steps and climbed over the gate and then couldn't find that route.  

Finally, he climbed up on the railing and jumped off.  

I got a good look at him but didn't think to use my camera to get his mug shot.  

He was big.  

I hope he doesn't come back.  

Luckily the lid stayed on the trash can even through he was rolling the can around.  

This morning I added a new spinner to the yard.

I'm full on spinners now, but I love looking out the window in summer or winter 

and seeing them working away.

The yard is busy with little chipmunks, red squirrels, grey squirrels and gophers, too bad these spinners can't do something to scare some of those rodents away.

Owell, it's just July in Wisconsin I guess.

Omaha

Upkeep

The good thing about owning my own home, is where I live and the privacy.  

The bad thing is the upkeep.  

It seems like there is always something that needs fixed or painted or updated.  

Even with a house less than 15 years old, there is always something to be done inside & out.  

And then there are the outbuildings.  

The garage has a strip around the door that is in serious need of scraping and painting, 

but talk about boring work.  

I got the ladder out about a week ago, scraped for about 10 minutes 

and then quickly found some other task to divert my attention.  

Today, what I found to keep from the garage project, was a repair to Ansgar's silo.  

Some of you remember that I was given barn wood from my Grandfather Ansgar Johansen's 100 year old barn that was in bad shape and had to be dismantled.  

With that barn wood, I fashioned a miniature replica of the barn 

and then added a silo and weather vane for cuteness.  

Well, that was about 3 years ago and the silo had gone to rack & ruin. 

 I had also used roofing material in the original construction that was not authentic 

and in the meantime, had been given some of the tin off of Grandpa's barn roof. 

So, today, I got busy and put up a new silo (more to scale actually), 

took off the dreaded plastic roof, and screwed down the old corregated steel roofing sheets.

I was pretty tired of the weather vane constantly leaning over too,

so that got some behind the scenes structural support today.

 Things look tidy and proper again at Ansgar's barn.

This silo is a little bright right now, but it will weather and fit in as the summer goes by.

 It didn't take long to see that the Danish banner and Nisse should also move.

The Nissemen could use a refresh of the outfit color, but that might be something for another day.

I'm happy to see Ansgar's little barn and danish garden looking cared for and loved.

Red, White and Blue

This 4th of July weekend promises to be sunny and warm.

I'm looking forward to a day at the lake with family  on Sunday

and also a few home craft projects that I've been wanting to start.

Male Northern Cardinal

Shasta Daisies

Blue Jay

 I hope you have a safe weekend 

celebrating our amazing country 

that is already great.