Random Photos

I've neglected this blog for far too long, but really, nothing particularly exciting has been going on with me lately besides working and knitting. My sissy and I did have a 3-day getaway last weekend and I've got some pictures to post from that (hopefully this week yet). But in the meantime, here are a few pictures I've taken in just the last couple days.

While I was gone over the weekend, Mr. Johnson reported that we had a new visitor in the backyard. As luck would have it, that visitor showed up again a short while ago and was more than willing to come right up to the back door for a photo op. This is the first time we've seen a raccoon in the backyard. Hopefully this busy little critter doesn't decide to start destroying my birdfeeders!

The weather has been quite lovely for the entire month of October. Lots of "summer" birds still hanging around here still including grackles, red-winged blackbirds and robins. This one was trying to get a drink from the nearly empty birdbath on the deck. They're such pretty birds!

And for the first time since I put up the new aquarium, Penny has finally discovered the perfect spot for watching the fish!

9 out of 10 Cats Prefer

9 out of 10 cats prefer to share their home with a knitter!

And if you're wondering about that 10th cat, it's only because that kitty was unlucky enough to choose a non-knitting hooman to share its life with.

Sunny Tuesday

It was really nice to see the sun again today, unfortunately the clear skies brought us cold temperatures again, but if you could stay out of the wind, it wasn't too bad of a day outside. The birdies were also taking advantage of a nice day by visiting my bird feeders. Hey wait a minute.....what's that big dark blob in the middle of my birdfeeder??

A flick of the "zoom" button reveals that Mr. Bushy Tail has made himself at home in the bird feeder feasting on sunflower seeds and corn.

"Hey Sophie, wanna go outside and chase a squirrel?"

Penny enjoyed the sunny afternoon too. She loves this spot on the living room floor where she can bask in the sun and watch the birdies outside on the deck too.

And here's a look at some of the knitting projects I've completed so far this month of January. In this picture is the sweater I started right after Christmas, plus 3 hats, 2 dishcloths and 3 pairs of fingerless mittens. (Before the end of the month, I plan to finish three more projects that are really close to being done: a pair of fingerless mittens, a pair of socks, and 1 more dishcloth.)

Every year I start out with good intentions of keeping track of every project I start and finish each month. A few weeks ago, I made up worksheets for 12 months (that's the piece of paper you can see right below the sweater). Ideally, my plan is to complete more projects than I start (since I have 20+ unfinished projects stashed all over the house) and having them listed on a worksheet helps me track my progress. I usually do really good with recording my projects until about April or so and then once my indoor knitting time slacks off, all my good intentions go by the wayside. I'll let you know in a few months how my projects are going.....

Christmas Wrap-Up

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas celebration with family and/or friends. We made the journey down to my parent's home through heavy snow yesterday morning (thank goodness for that AWD Chevy Tahoe!) and arrived without any problems although we saw more than 1 car in the ditch along the way. Brother Dave wasn't able to make it from St. Paul due to the more blizzard-y conditions north of here and the fact that he's also come down with a nasty cold (hope you feel better soon Dave!) We picked up Mr. Johnson's mom on our way and my sissy, her friend Harriet, and her daughters and grandson also made it, so we had a good group around the dinner table.

My mom and niece prepared a delicious dinner for us with enough for everyone to have seconds (good thing I don't eat like that every day!) My niece Kathy wasn't quite as hungry as the rest of us and decided to turn her leftover pile of mashed potatoes into "Spud" the mashed potato snowman -- complete with toothpick arms, green bean smile, carrot nose, mustard seed eyes and a jaunty pecan beret!

Here's Boris (one of my parent's indoor kitties) searching for his Christmas present.

Boris never did find that missing box of kitty treats, so he retreated to Mr. Johnson's lap for some consolation pets. (Mr. Johnson is not a huge fan of cats and somehow cats always seem to sense this and deliberately search him out!)

It's the little guys that always seem to get the most at Christmas isn't it? Here's the huge pile of presents for Ethan (my niece's little boy who was 2 in August). He got lots of cool dump trucks, cars, backhoes, tools and other stuff that makes lots of noise.......my sister may have to think about building a toyroom addition on her house before too much longer!

And after getting up early this morning, I got the chance to start a new sweater for myself! (This is a present I give to myself each Christmas after completing all my other Christmas projects.) Watch for future posts on this one.......

Extreme Kitty Approval

Looks like Penny has given her kitty approval to the sweater project I'm currently working on.
I'm sure gray cat fur will definitely be a great accent to this design, don't you?

Great Backyard Bird Count

I had too many other things going on yesterday to start my Great Backyard Bird Count, but today Mr. Johnson had to go into work for a few hours, so I made good use of that time by knitting on my Big Lena Sveater and watching birds from the dining room window. It was a beautiful morning, and I went out early and filled all the feeders with food and treats to optimize my birdwatching opportunities, and the birds didn't disappoint me! Here are some pictures from today that I hope you enjoy (don't forget, you can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them).

Mrs. Hairy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Red-Bellied Woodpecker


Crow (with a couple chunks of bread)

"Dude......you didn't leave me any!!"

In addition to goldfinches, I also saw (and recorded) 1 Common Redpoll and 1 Pine Siskin

Dark-Eyed Junco

"Penny, wake up!! You're missing all the birdies!"

Bluejays were the first ones here this morning.

Red Rules! Cardinal and House Finch sharing the birdfeeder

Remember those giant mealworms? Chickadee loves 'em!

I took Sophie out for a walk to the far end of the yard, hoping to spot some other birds or maybe a Red-Tailed Hawk. Instead Sophie found this feral cat that's been hanging around the backyard. I let Sophie terrorize this cat for a few minutes and it finally took off running to the nether regions of the "back 40." I hope this cat learned a lesson and thinks twice about coming back!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Why Do Cats Do This?

I was trying to get my checkbook balanced before supper, but as soon as I got up to heat up some vegetables in the microwave, Penny saw my empty chair and proceeded to park her extensive girth on my recently vacated work space.


Why is it that hours can go by and you never see the cat, but the minute you sit down at the table and try to get something done, she's right there?


Penny adores Mr. Johnson. I don't think he feels the same way about her--especially when he's trying to get some work done!

Just Bluejays

Because shotgun deer season opened today and I didn't get a license for that season this year, I got to stay home on a Saturday for the first time in weeks. The house was in desperate need of a thorough cleaning, but before embarking on that adventure, I spent some time watching my bluejays. I know a lot of people don't like bluejays, but I enjoy them and their antics immensely. For all their boldness and the fact that they're one of the largest feeder birds in my backyard, my bluejays are quite shy around humans and I always feel fortunate to be able to capture some photos of them from the warmth and comfort of my dining room. So today's post is going to be a celebration of the bluejay.

Here's one of the sunflowers I grew in my garden last summer. I noticed that something had been eating the seeds, but didn't know till this morning that it was the bluejay.

It takes a little bit of effort for the bluejay to get these seeds. It looks like they've already eaten the most accessible seeds, I wonder if they will be able to get to those at the bottom center portion of the seed head?

I got a chance to wash some windows last week and while it was still warm I also put up my window feeders for the winter. Since it as so snowy and damp this morning, instead of going outside in my jammies to fill birdfeeders, I just opened the window and threw some peanuts in the tray. It didn't take the bluejays long to discover those peanuts! Obviously, some of these bluejays have been here before!

Looks like this guy has some tail feather issues.

Usually they fly away with the peanut, but sometimes they just fly over to the crabapple tree and open the peanut there. That also accounts for the huge number of peanut shells I have to rake up every spring from under this same crabapple tree.

This jay has snow on his beak--I wonder if that's from burying a peanut he picked up on a previous trip?

Sometimes they will try to fit two peanuts in their beak, but usually they fly away with just one.

Did you happen to notice on all of these pictures that their crest is down flat on their head? Does anyone know why that is? I'll have to watch my other feeders and see if they always keep their crest down while feeding.

Did I say "just bluejays?" Well, I lied.......during a break in the bluejay feeding frenzy, Mr. Downy Woodpecker got a chance to stop by and try to grab a peanut also.

And lastly, for your viewing pleasure, here's a little video I shot this morning too. Enjoy........

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

Just Miscellaneous Stuff

Because our turkey hunting season starts early tomorrow morning, Mr. Johnson and I decided to leave work early today so we could get our weekend errands taken care of and get our turkey blind set up so that all we have to do tomorrow morning is set out the decoys and wait for the turkeys to arrive.

While we were out in the woods this afternoon, I finally saw a few spring wildflowers starting to bloom. I didn't think to take my camera along and boy was that a big mistake! In addition to the wildflowers, there was a pair of bald eagles flying around and calling back and forth to each other the whole time. That would have made a really neat little video. My only consolation is that I'll be spending the next 3 days down in these woods, and I'm packing my camera tonight, so I don't miss out on any other photo ops.

While walking back to the car, I found some newly sprouted catnip and picked a little handful to take home for Miss Penny. Was that ever some potent stuff!

First Penny rolled all over it on her right side (note expression of "kitty bliss!")

Then she rolled to her left side to rub in this super smelly catnip.

Look at her messy face--all wet from drooling on the catnip and then rubbing on it. I finally took it away from her after about 90 minutes, but she's still laying on the carpet where it had been. I'll have to pick some more for her tomorrow before we come home.

Here's a ID question for the 'egg'-sperts: Do you know what bird laid this egg?

I found it on the front lawn this afternoon. I know it's not grackle or robin and I'm thinking maybe mourning dove? I can't think of any other bird in my backyard that might already be nesting and also lay an egg this size.

How much is that doggy in the window?

"uh-oh, I'm busted!" (she even looks guilty, doesn't she?)

This is one of Sophie's favorite places to lay in the afternoon sun. I was surprised the first time I saw her up in this bay window and immediately shooed her down. Now she sometimes hops up and lays on the little rug when she can't find a sunny spot anywhere else. As soon as she heard the camera turn on though, she was ready to take off (she's terrified by the camera). Goofy hound!

Unbelievably Cute!

My friend (and bow-hunting mentor) Michele sent an e-mail note yesterday afternoon with pictures of her new chicks. I wrote back and asked Michele if she would let me include these pictures and story as a post in my blog and she agreed. In fact, she sent me even more pictures!

Are they not the cutest little fluffballs?

I'm amazed at all the different colors! Here are species she received: Silver Laced Wyandottes, Buff Orpingtons, White Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, Black Australorps, Speckled Sussex, Delaware, Columbian Wyandotte's, Partridge Rocks, Barred Rocks, and Araucanas.

I thought these baby chick pictures were cute, but as I continued to scroll down through the pictures, the story got really interesting..... Michele had also included some photos of the chicks and her cat, BOY.

Who needs a heatlamp when you've got a kitty to snuggle with?

Here's what Michele says about these: "Just a few more pictures of my cat BOY and the baby chicks. A good kitty as long as I'm there." Talk about Cute Overload. Have you ever seen anything like this in your entire life?

And this is not the first time BOY has been a chick foster mom.....here are some other pictures Michele took in 2005.

And the really amazing thing is that it's a lifelong friendship. Here's BOY with Zha-Zha (one of the 2005 chicks all grown up into a pretty little hen).
I would dearly love to get some chickens for our place here. Michele's advice is to get 4-6 hens but no roosters (because they will drive the neighbors crazy). I'm not too worried about my neighbors, but a rooster might drive my dog Sophie crazy. Her chickens are free range and she says they eat tons of bugs in her yard. Now I just have to convince Mr. Johnson about how nice it would be to have some chickens of our own!

Thanks Michele for sharing allowing me share your story and pictures in my blog.