Backyard Deer (again!)

I hope you're not getting tired of seeing pictures of my backyard deer again! Last Monday afternoon (around 5:00), we spotted her bedded down under the white pines in an attempt to take shelter from the pouring rain. There's a nice layer of old white pine needles, so this must have been a pretty comfortable spot for her.

After I stepped outside to take a few pictures, she got annoyed enough to get up from her napping spot and grab a few mouthfuls of corn before heading to a more secluded spot of the backyard.

I had a nice little video of the deer walking right through the backyard to the ground feeder trays. I've been trying for 3 days to download it to this post and Blogger isn't cooperating, so I'm giving up on that.

I'm also happy to report that we've finally seen her fawn. Mr. Johnson was sitting out on the deck on Saturday night when Mrs. Whitetail trotted through the yard with one spotted little fawn following behind her. I wasn't able to get the camera out fast enough to capture any photos, but I did manage to get a glimpse of the little one too.

And finally, I wanted to let you all know that I'll be taking a break from blogging for a while and not sure when I'll be back. Hope everybody has a good summer!

Miscellaneous Stuff & Some Knitting

I got an e-mail notice from the owner of my LYS (local yarn shoppe) this afternoon saying she had just given away the last chemo cap and it was time for us to make some more. The challenge thrown out to us rabid knitters was 30 caps in 30 days and I've decided to accept the challenge. So in order to get my 30 caps done, I'm going to have to take a little break from blogging (and probably Facebook too) and concentrate on this knitting challenge and also some other home and garden activities. Before my break though, I'll share some of the miscellaneous stuff and knitting that has been occupying my time these past couple weeks.

We moved the deer hunting ladder stand last weekend in anticipation of the upcoming archery deer season opener. (Actually we had to move it off some private property where our hunting privileges have recently been revoked.) Anyway, Mr. Johnson had this tree in mind and the ladder stand worked perfectly there. In this picture, he's cutting off a large grapevine that's grown up on this tree. This is a perfect spot right at the intersection of two heavily used deer trails, plus not much underbrush in the woods, so it should be good for birding if the deer activity is slow.

I picked the first zucchini from our garden. They have a somewhat stunted shape, but were very tasty nonetheless. There are plenty of blossoms and more little zucchinis on my two plants. I like this golden variety because they're easy to spot (not like the green ones that sometimes grow to the size of a baseball bat because you couldn't see them under a leaf!)

I'm finally starting to see more juvenile birds around the yard. Here's a cute little cardinal who visited the birdbath on Sunday afternoon.

This juvenile Red-Bellied Woodpecker easily figured out how to get inside the cage to the suet log. This is the first one of these youngsters I've seen this summer too. The adults have also been noticeably absent from my backyard--although they were regular visitors during winter and spring.

And now on to the knitting projects. I've been looking for this book ever since I saw it on another knitting blog and last week I found it at Michael's. There are so many cute patterns in here, so I also picked up three balls of cotton yarn to try some of the designs out.

I don't think I have to tell you what this design is.......

This butterfly turned out really cute too.

Sunflower

Leaping Frog

Hummingbird

I'm still working on the square lace shawl, but have finally gotten to the edging. Here's what I've managed to complete this week for the edging. I know this shawl will be much more impressive once it's all blocked out. I'm still not liking this pattern very much--the written instructions aren't very clear and I wonder if the person who wrote it was a really experienced knitter or expected only advanced knitters would be working on it. I've spent plenty of time re-reading sections and scratching my head trying to figure out what she's doing. The real challenge will come when I get to the first corner with my lace edging, but I'm hoping that once I'm there the written instructions will make perfect sense and the chart will correspond exactly to the number of stitches I'm working (I would hate to give up now that I'm almost done!)

I've also been whipping up some of these "coffee cup sweaters." Aren't they cute? And a good way to use up some of my leftover yarn scraps.

Here's a couple more pairs of the knitted half-mitts I've finally finished too. I love the colors in this self-striping yarn.

This color is called Pink Camouflage. (I honestly don't quite get the pink camouflage thing......but I thought the colors knitted up rather cute for these half-mitts.)

Most of these knitted items are destined for my Etsy shop, which is in desperate need of restocking, so between knitting chemo caps, watching birds, pulling weeds and all the other fun stuff going on around here, I hope to get the Etsy shop "shelves" full again.

I'll be checking in with occasional posts when I can and hoping to stay caught up with everyone's activities. In the meantime, I hope you all have an enjoyable summer!

Time for a Break

I know you've all had this problem: too much stuff to do and not enough hours in the day to get it done. I'm thankful that I have a job, but that 9 hours spent away from home Monday through Friday really cuts into the time I have to spend doing my "fun stuff" at home. So it's time for me to take a break from blogging. With the lovely weather we've been having lately, most of my time after work is spent outside until it's dark (which isn't until after 9 PM). Then when I come in the house, it's a frantic struggle to stay awake long enough to catch up on all my computer stuff (including my blog posts and checking everyone else's posts). As you have seen from my lack of comments lately, I'm just not making any headway. End-of-quarter activities at work are ramping up, so there's hardly any free time there either. It's been tough for me to make this decision, but of all the things I could give up right now, my computer time at home seemed to be the least difficult (sigh). So I'll be taking a little break until probably July. I'll miss you and will try to check in when I can find a few extra minutes in the next couple weeks.

Before my break, I want to share a few pictures with you.

Here's Garden #1. Everything's growing good! I've even been able to pick some lettuce for my sandwich each day this week.
While I was in there weeding this afternoon with my Garden Claw, I came across this little skull. I might need to call on the Science Chimp for help with ID......I'm thinking maybe it's some sort of vole? The really interesting thing is that the tips of its front teeth are a dark red. If anyone knows what critter this skull belongs too, I'd sure appreciate hearing from you in the "Comments" section.
Here's Garden #2 (of my previous "Can This Garden Be Saved?" post). This garden is also doing great. Our recent rains have really helped to soften and break down the icky, clay/black dirt blend I had in here and it worked up really nice with my little tiller this afternoon.
We haven't had any rain for several days now, so I've have to start watering both these gardens. I've found that raised beds dry out a lot faster!

My "garbage can" potatoes are looking pretty good too.
Here are Mr. & Mrs. Bluebird. I took their photo this afternoon while they were scolding me as I put mealworms in the little dish attached to their house. I'm guessing maybe by this weekend those little ones might start hatching from the 5 eggs in the nestbox.
I never get tired of watching Penny enjoy the sun. This is her favorite place to lay in the afternoon.
See you in a couple weeks. If something happens in the blogosphere that you think I need to know about, please send me an e-mail, OK?
Take care.
Love, Ruthie