Where are the April showers?????

It's still pretty dry here and our total for the month is roughly 2.5 inches :(
TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart has planted all the vegatables in the garden and has already began to use his new watering idea for the tomato plants. It's a form of drip irrigation! I'll have to get a picture and show you, it's pretty clever, he's been a soil and water conservationist for almost 33 years so he does have a few tricks up his sleeve. While he's not as extreme as a tree hugger, he is a land lubber, haha!! We both believe in protecting our natural resources for future generations. We talk windbreaks, no-till, and terrace farming just to name a few, of the soil conservation practices, that have become common vocabulary, for us and our children, as they grew up. I'm so darn proud of him for all the years he has devoted to conserving the plains, and providing for his family, while ensuring a future on the land for generations to come!! I <3 The ManWhoHoldsMyHeart!

These are his girls, all heifers, that make The Wandering Star Ranch
 authentic for about 7 months out of the year!

Man it's a HOT one, like seven inches from the midday sun!

Do you know the song?? I know you do DD! Here in the middle of Kansas it will feel like seven inches from the midday sun again today! We set a new record yesterday with 95 degrees and today is setting up to be the same, so I imagine another record will fall, as well as myself!! I thought I was melting yesterday, so today I have closed the house up (around 10AM) and will ride it out with the ceiling fans and iced tea. Yesterday I had left the windows open and at 4:30PM the dining room thermostat showed the room to be 93 degrees! I knew it was warm, but seeing that made me go back to lying on the couch and reading, where movement was minimal. It was difficult to think of what to have for supper, so I opted for coconut shrimp(already breaded in the freezer) that I heated up in my electric skillet. For a side, I chopped up some green onions and red pepper into a casserole dish with a pat of butter and cooked in the microwave, added some leftover white rice and sliced toasted almonds, mixed and heated all together. For some other cool sides, marinated asparagus and a corn relish made from leftover corn-on-the-cob. Pretty yummy for a hot girl in the kitchen! Interpret how you will!! We finished the evening out on the porch in the rockers after the sun went down! aahhhhh

Sitting in a coffee shop!! and lovin it!!

My blog entry today is from downtown Salina, at Mokas Bakery and Bistro! Woot Woot I've always wanted to be one of those people sipping coffee and just surfing the net! Sure I've been here before for coffee, but hooking up with a laptop, that's a first! ok so once again, this shows how lagging I am in the tech world but I'm making baby steps and it feels GOOD! We just got the laptop at Christmas, our home PC was TheOther#1Son's and he wanted it back at college. I have also experienced the ipad, DD has one, issued by the school system where she teaches, and I have to say it's awesome, I would love to have one of those someday!! What's really great about hooking up here for Internet is that it's so much faster than our home connection and of course the great coffee, I'm having caramel coffee and I just finished off a key lime cupcake (vanilla cupcake w/cream cheese filling topped with yummy frosting and sprinkled with coconut). Time for a second cuppa, be right back........Ok I'm back. The place is filling up, the large round table near me is full of (older than me ladies) didn't want to say "little old ladies", having coffee and just chatting away. At the table right next to me a business attired young man, and lets face it anymore most men are going to be younger than me. I'm even older than TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart (by four months) he always reminds me that I'm the "older woman" , I prefer today's name a "Cougar"!! Haha Farther away from me there is a young couple in a booth, a table of four hmmm possibly older men, two girlfriends in a booth,  more couples at high top tables, etc. Nice crowd, the aroma of coffee, Sirrus XM coffee shop music, and me here in the corner booth sipping coffee and enjoying my morning!

Just on the edge...

While some of Kansas got tornados, we received some marble size hail and not quite an inch of rain!
I know-- lucky huh?? Well........, that's not really the way we see it! While I don't want to get wiped off the map with a tornado, we, TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart and I love watching storm clouds build out on the horizon. We are in awe of the lightening flashing in huge branches across the sky and the boom of thunder as it builds, rumbles, and crashes in a loud crescendo! Oh yea that's what the rocking chairs on our front porch are all about, getting the IMAX view of the storm!! For several years now the storms have been lacking as we are in a dry cycle and most of the promising radar formations either split and go around us or just disipate before they reach us. So, for the most part we've been limited to enjoying sunsets from the rockers, very satisfying, but we'd love to mix it up with a good Cumulonimbus incus (look it up) cloud formation, they build upward right before your eyes! So, while storm chasers are out there seeking the thrill, we'll be here waiting for it to come to us!

Gray Day :-( Needs some color :-)

Check the close up photo of the lilac bush.....see it?? 

I spy with my little eye a HONEYBEE!!!

Yes almost in the center of the picture, the yellow dot is the worker bee's leg covered in pollen!

Pretty amazing!! I tried for several minutes, at least 20 or so really, to get the perfect picture of a bee with pollen covered legs, on a flower. They are fast workers, by the time I got the subject bee in the lens and focused it moved on to the next flower. Also the tiny screen on the camera was hard for my "old" eyes to get a good view of the bee and snap the picture! So I was really pleased with the results of this particular photo, the colors, the bee and the clarity came together nicely!! Enjoy!

My Addictions

Yes, I have a monkey(s) on my back!

 COFFEE AND DARK CHOCOLATE!!

Together or apart! But together they make my eyes roll back in my head! XD

I started drinking coffee many years ago, but it became an addiction in Devils Lake, ND in the mid '90's when Paul Johnson and his father Dan opened The Liquid Bean! It's still there today and going strong, even without my support! No surprise it's got atmosphere, great eats, wonderful personnel and of course Great Coffee! We began buying beans and grinding our own coffee at home, for our daily cuppa at about that same time. Plus we switched our usual coffee pot for a thermos pot, that way the coffee stayed hot without sitting on a burner/warmer and getting that burnt taste. We stayed with that mode for years, until TheOther#Son presented us with a Keurig apparatus. (that's a whole nother story that I may or may not share someday!)  ;-)  We've been using it for several years now and oh what a great fresh brewed single cuppa coffee! The k-cups are spendy though, so we have gone to an eco-cup that allows you to fill your own similar style k-cup with a ground coffee of your choice. I'm a couponer so I usually get some discount on the bag and we have done the math (wink wink to TheOther#1Son) and found that we get a great cup of coffee for about $.20!!

Dark chocolate has more recently become an addiction, about 2 years. My 2 favorites are Lindt dark with chili, and surprisingly enough Hershey's dark (the cheapest of most dark chocolates). My favorite chocolate chip for cookies is also the Hershey dark chocolate chip! Back in February I found a recipe @bakerella.com for Dark Chocolate Chip Comfort Cookies! OMG They are amazing, what's so surprising is they also have peanut butter in the mix and I was pretty sceptical, while milk chocolate and peanut butter is good, (yea like a Reese's) dark chocolate seems too refined to go with peanut butter! But Noooo it's soooo yummy!!! I made them twice in a row because we couldn't stop, even my Mom likes them and she says she does not like dark chocolate!

So I've come forward and admitted my addictions.....what are yours?????????????

It's always something----

Now the digital camera is protesting, I know our pictures were not that interesting but come on!! The lens will not recede back into the camera, it makes the noise but nothing happens and just holds a fuzzy picture. So we are debating what to do.... it's only 2 1/2 years old, but I suppose in tech years it's centuries!!!We don't like the just dispose of it society fix, so I'm guessing we will first opt for sending it in to see what the cost/prognosis is. I'm old enough to remember fixing something was always the first choice, in a series of repair steps, for appliances, clothing, etc. I do miss buying a brand because it was dependable, golly gee but I am getting old I sound like my grandma!!!! Might as well I'm also beginning to look like her, soft facial hair, extra chin, arms that keep on waving after my hand has stopped, just can't get into the roll down support hose with cotton dresses!! Maybe, the cotton dresses though come summer! I WOULD like sewing some cotton prints into something cool and comfortable to wear, except on windy days that would be disturbing to all.... seeing my granny panties!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Hehe I think a dress, in the evening, after a shower, when some relaxing is in order, but not quite ready for jammies yet! That might be doable! When I was pregnant with DD the summer of 1980, I wore one particular dress everyday for 2 straight months!!!!!! Look it up we had a record breaking heat wave of 30-40 something straight days of 100 degree temps, in Garden City, KS. The dress was a brown paisley print with the elastic gathered bodice, a style that is making a come back now! You buy the yardage needed to go around your chest, plus seam allowance and then sew one seam add some shoulders straps and volia' your done!! I was sooo tired of the dress that I threw it away when I came home from the hospital =D But now I really wish I had kept it for a project of some kind for DD. I also sewed a few halter dresses that I wore in the early marriage years that put a devilish twinkle in TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart's eye and brought a dimpled grin to his face. One particular warm evening, I put the kids to bed early, put on his favorite halter dress, some albums on the stereo, cooked supper and we dined by candlelight and danced! It was so romantic!!!XXXX......................... Yes, maybe some cotton summer dresses ....but let's get real I'll need some hidden support!!!! LOL

Meet the Mousers!

 The 3 girls! (back to front) Bogie, Beth {she's mama to all} and Buffy!

 Bogie and Beth!

 Dom Rocko, the only male, sort of (neutered)! He's on Kitty Krack!! CATNIP in the garden!

It's just too funny to watch him roll and get all gaa gaa! TheManWhoHoldsMyHeart had to move the catnip plants out of my herb garden and into the main garden where the cats can roll and roll without flattening the rest of the herbs! 

Beth has been with us since 2003, had her first litter of kittens in '04 of which Bogie and Buffy joined our country collection! They matured and had litters of which we were able to find homes for all! On the second round of litters, I said while I love the kittens, it's time to get them fixed. Oh and Beth's second litter gave us Dom Rocko of which he was the only one to survive so he had all the mama's milk he could hold! Thus he was a little butter ball and TheOther#1Son was so sure he would never walk as his little legs stuck out to the side and he would just slide on his little belly!!!!HaHa That's where  his name came from he looked like a mafia boss ;)

As I mentioned in the title they are great mousers and all lovin' the scratch behind the ears, on the back, under the chin, etc. very friendly!!!!! On a fun fact note--- Dom Rocko and Anna are the best of buddies! When Dom was in his butter ball kitten phase Anna, also in her german shepherd puppy years, use to carry him around in her mouth, just like mama Beth!!!!! It was so funny! Dom Rocko still likes to rub against Anna when she lying around and Anna will give him a lick on the head if she thinks we aren't watching, doesn't want to damage her I'M the DOG image!!

Willow of whom I've named the blog after is our only inside cat, she and her brother Xander were the only 2 kittens left in Buffy's last litter that we were unable to find homes for so I caved and we brought them into the house! We had just buried our beloved house cat "Sunshine" of 16 years, that previous spring and I said "No more!"
 Zander and Willow we're a very cute pair and lots of entertainment! Xander was also a sewing cat!! He passed in '09 of a digestional problem, so Willow has adjusted and relishes in her position as director of the house staff!!!!!!