More Bluejays & Mittens

Well, I hope you're not sick of bluejays yet.....because here are some more.

Bluejays don't posess the natural ability to cling like the chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers, so that's why this peanut wreath is so much more of a challenge for them.

Some of the bluejays are smart enough to figure out if they perch inside the circle, it's quite easy to choose a peanut.

As the level of the peanuts goes down within the wreath, it becomes more difficult to choose a peanut while clinging to the outside of the spiral wire.

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The two-session mitten class I'm teaching starts this Thursday. I needed to get my example mittens finished so I could drop them off at the yarn shop yesterday morning (so people know what they're going to be working on). The half-mitts are going to be the bonus pattern they get for taking this class.

I have to say it was a little weird sitting in the window watching birds while knitting on wool mittens and the window thermometer said 79 degrees! Most definitely not mitten weather.

I'll be typing up the mittens and half-mitts pattern today. If anyone would like a copy, please let me know via e-mail or in the "comments" section.

Working for Peanuts

When I checked my peanut reserve in the garage yesterday, I realized that 50 lb. bag I bought a few months ago is almost gone! Since those bluejays can gobble out up 3 cups worth in less than 20 minutes, I decided it was time to get the peanut wreath out again and make those jays work a little bit harder for their peanuts. Since they're used to coming back to the deck now, it shouldn't take them long to discover where the new peanut dispenser is. Some of them used this peanut wreath last winter, so it will be interesting to see who remembers it and how long it takes the young bluejays to figure it out.

In the meantime, this clever downy woodpecker is in 7th heaven with a whole wreath of readily accessible peanuts just for him!

A Bluejay Morning

While waiting for the vet to return Princess Daisy this morning, I was entertained by the antics of my hungry bluejays.

First of all I lured them in with copious amounts of peanuts in the shell. The bluejays simply cannot resist the lure of peanuts.

Usually they come 1 at a time and sometimes one bluejay would allow another jay to dine at the same time (I'm guessing either siblings or an adult and one of its offspring).

But woe to the unacceptable bluejay who attempts to come and dine with the wrong family! That jay will be turned away in no uncertain terms and must wait its turn in the background.

They're intelligent and amusing birds....some will pick up several peanuts until they decide they've found the largest one while others will pick up a small one and gulp it back as far as they can in an effort to make enough room in their beak to pick up a second peanut.

Sometimes they will stay around and peck the shell open to eat the peanut right away, but in most cases they fly away and hide the peanut somewhere out in the yard. (I found quite a few peanuts buried in the garden while weeding this summer.)

I know a lot of people don't like bluejays--they're loud and bossy. But for me, the action, sounds and pretty blue feathers are what I enjoy about these funny birds (plus my kitty loves to watch them too!)

(And now that I've posted all the pictures of bluejays, I realize I must move that tray over a little bit so future pictures won't have interference from that branch arm holding the suet log!)

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I'm getting into the home post office groove--my new digital scale was delivered today (no more guessing on the weight of those jelly packages when I send them out!) I also received some of the stamps I ordered at www.USPS.gov. Have you seen these new ones?

The "Nature of America" Alpine Tundra is the ninth in the series. I have all the previous ones framed and hanging in my foyer. They're pretty cool stamps with a nature theme.

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And here's our good old girl, Daisy, back from the vet.

She's a little droopy yet, and will be taking pain pills for 5 days plus antibiotics for 9 more days. But, she's eating, drinking, peeing and pooping, so I think she's doing pretty good and we're really happy to have her back home again.

Another Rainy Day

The weather service went out on a limb with today's forecast of a 100% chance for rain. This morning when I got up, the "red sky in the morning" was all I needed to see.

Sure enough by 9:30, heavy rains arrived once again.

Poor Daisy had to go for surgery today. Last week when the vet was here to check on Sophie because of a suspected bladder infection, we noticed Daisy's face was very swollen. Sophie's problem turned out to be 'older doggy incontinence' (minor problem and easily treatable), but Daisy's problem turned out to be a seriously abscessed tooth. And we had to make a decision about how to proceed, the infection could be treated with antibiotics, but it would never get better and Daisy's health would continue to deteriorate until euthanasia would be the only option.

Daisy was 14 years old in April, so her age was a huge consideration for performing surgery. Also she has a heart murmur from a hunting episode several years ago when the weather got unexpectedly warm and Daisy almost died from exhaustion (she hunts like a demon and we had no idea what was going on till she collapsed.)

The vet would have to do blood work to determine the status of Daisy's liver, kidney, and cardiac function and whether surgery would be able to proceed. The vet called about an hour after she took Daisy to let me know that Daisy's kidney function wasn't very good, but she would be able to proceed and would take some additional precautions to allow Daisy's kidneys to function properly during surgery. She also told me that due to the abnormal results, we will have to change Daisy's food once she gets home.

We knew the surgery was going to take a long time as the vet was going to have to check and clean all of Daisy's teeth in addition to removing the abscessed tooth. Finally at around 6:15 PM our phone rang and it was good news....Daisy had survived the surgery. She was still moving around pretty slowly, but doing OK. The vet will return her to us tomorrow morning around 8:30. The vet feels that now this abscessed tooth has been removed, Daisy's overall health and quality of life will improve. And we will get more time to spend with our old girl.

Fall Fest Parade

Last Saturday morning dawned cool and cloudy--weather you'd expect for the end of September in Minnesota. That was just fine, except Mom and Dad were supposed to be Grand Marshals in the Wykoff Fall Fest Parade. As I was getting prepared to leave for the parade, I started hearing the rumbling of thunder outside. Sure enough it was looking kind of ominous to the southwest. I turned on my trusty computer to the National Weather Service radar and there it was....a huge green and yellow precipitation blob heading northeast out of Iowa. I called Dad to ask him if the parade was still on and his response was affirmative and he assured me that he and Mom had raincoats. "They aren't going to make you ride in a convertible, are they?" I asked. (Seriously, if you owned a convertible, would you drive it out in the rain with the top down?? I certainly wouldn't.) Dad indicated they would be riding in a convertible but the weather service said the rain should be done by 10:30 and since the parade didn't start till 11:00 all should be fine. Besides, the weather service is never wrong, right??

So, like the doofus that I am, I left the house without my raincoat or umbrella but as I got going down the road, it became obvious the rain wasn't going to stop, so I made an emergency stop at the Dollar Store to pick up a nice big umbrella.

First came the Color Guard.

Here's Mom and Dad in the convertible (you can see Mom's big smile--not just because she's waving to us, but because we're at the end of the parade route and she knows she'll be back to her nice, warm house in less than 5 minutes!)

The horses didn't seem to mind the rain.

The Fall Fest has also become the time of year when class reunions are held. Here are some classmates from the class of 1947. Wow, that's 60 years! That would make most of the people on this float 77 or 78 years old. That's pretty amazing!

This looks like some sort of exotic millipede.

And finally, the contingent of local emergency response vehicles--all with lights flashing and sirens blaring.

The rain certainly put a damper on the parade, but afterwards we headed over to Mom and Dad's where they had the furnace turned on and we were able to warm up. I downloaded all the photos I had taken to Dad's computer so he and Mom were able to see what they had missed (they were soaked from their ride in the convertible and chose to stay home rather than come back to watch the rest of the parade).

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On a totally unrelated note, I got several items crossed off my "to do" list today. One of these items involved cleaning out a couple closets (there are 8 large trash bags awaiting delivery to the local Goodwill store tomorrow). I came across this trio of brass seagull sculptures, each with a hanging chain (I assume to be hung on the wall).

Would any of you blogging friends be interested in these seagulls? I'm thinking particularly of the West Coast or East Coast residents (or anyone else) who may have an affinity for seagulls and know of the perfect spot in a bathroom, guest room or sun porch where these seagulls would look really nice. If you would like these seagulls, please send me an e-mail with your mailing address (rjknits at msn dot com) and I'd be happy to ship them off to you tomorrow morning.

Trail Camera Highlights

I finally had the time to go out with Rick and check how many pictures we had on the trail camera near our deer hunting area. It's been out there since Sept. 16 and since I haven't showed Rick how it works yet (he's a good deer hunter, but stumped by technological stuff--except the TV and DVD remote) I still need to make the trip out there to open the camera, reset the picture counter, and exchange the compactflash card.

There weren't as many pictures on there as I thought there would be for the 2 week time period, but still a fair amount of activity. This area is kind of a crossroads for 3 distinct deer trails and right on the edge of their big cornfield feeding area. The deer using the trail most frequently are mostly does and fawns, but we did get pictures of a couple different bucks.

This small one (looks like a 6-pointer)

And this really nice large bodied 10-pointer

Who we thought looked very similar to this nice 8-pointer we got a picture of last year

Could it be the same buck? Note the time these photographs were taken. These big deer are smart and you very seldom see them in the daylight. We got pictures of 8 or 9 different bucks on the camera last year and never saw any of those bucks while we were out hunting.

You can see by the times printed on the pictures that these deer are moving around at all different times of the day and night.

Isn't it cool the way their eyes reflect the flash of the camera? It reminds me of "turn around bright eyes" from that old Bonnie Tyler music video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart." (remember that one?)

I've saved my favorite picture for last. See this little fawn and notice the few remaining spots on its flanks and shoulders? Now look at its posture....ears pricked forward and looking down toward something that's captured its attention. Follow the direction its looking towards.... Yup, right there in the bottom right corner of the picture.....showdown with a raccoon! I wish I had been there in person to see that! I wonder who ran away first? Looks like a pretty darn big raccoon!

A Butterfly Post

Well, I made it to the end of the quarter. This morning I got up at 2:30 to get to work by 3:30 in order to accomodate my suppliers in Italy, Czechoslovakia and Thailand. Long story short, I was out of work around 1:30 with 14 hours of OT in addition to my regular 40 for the week, but it's done. And what a great day to get home early.

I let the dogs out to run around. Sophie took off like a shot and finally came back and dashed into the house to eat her supper. As I was feeding them I noticed a horrible odor down in the shop and couldn't figure out where it was coming from, so I'm walking around sniffing and trying to figure out what stinks so bad and I finally figure out.....it's Sophie! No wonder she was gone so long, it takes a little while to find and roll in enough black, gooey raccoon poop to coat this dog's entire chin and neck! Emergency bath time. Sometimes my dogs are so gross!

Now it's time to enjoy myself on this warm, sunny afternoon by capturing some photographic images of all the butterflies that are still taking advantage of all the blooming flowers and other nectar sources in my yard.

On one of my yellowjacket traps, a very tattered mourning cloak and red admiral take advantage of whatever they can get out of this unusual nectar source.

A little later I found another mourning cloak in a little bit better condition dining at the same nectar source.

There were some sulphurs flying around also and sampling the variety of asters out in the wildflower garden.

Clouded Sulphur - Male

Clouded Sulphur - Female

Cabbage White

How about this Painted Lady? They're beautiful with their wings opened....

but I think the back side of their wings are also quite striking.

Here's a Red Admiral (with a little chunk missing out of its bottom wing)

There were also a few monarchs flying around also and I managed to net and tag another wild monarch.

While I was out there I noticed that my American Holly bushes are really loaded with red berries this year. I hope the birds enjoy these berries during the coming winter.

My highbush cranberries look like they're ready to be picked too and since I've got all next week off, that would be a perfect time to try another jelly recipe, don't you think?

Dad Gets an Award

Last night was the Annual Meeting and awards presentation for our Southeast Minnesota Chapter of the American Red Cross.
This meeting was originally scheduled for August, but then all the bad floods happened in our area and the chapter was too busy responding to this disaster, so the meeting was rescheduled for a month later.

Melanie introduces a photo presentation of the relief efforts our chapter provided after the floods.

Here's a little background: Dad used to be the Chairman of the Board of Directors for our chapter and during his tenure, he recruited me as a board member. I served on the board with Dad for a few years and also participated in some other volunteer activities at the chapter during that time. I got to know some of the staff pretty well and it's nice for me to stop by the chapter office and see them every once in a while (even though I don't have free time to volunteer anymore).

Melanie (who is the Executive Director of the chapter) called me a while ago to tell me they were going to present Dad with an award at the annual meeting and could I please make sure that I convinced the "parental units" to attend without divulging the surprise. I did tell Mom, since she's the person who would have to do most of the convincing.

It was an enjoyable meeting (they served BIG pieces of pie and decaf coffee and I was able to knit almost the entire time). It was good to be reminded of the Red Cross purpose and services in our area and beyond, plus fun to see some familiar faces and visit with old friends.

There were many awards given out and then it was time for Dad's award.

Here's Dad with some of the other award recipients.

The award he received is the "Lois Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award." Lois was the Executive Director of the chapter for many years and Dad worked closely with her and the chapter on many projects during his tenure with the board. However, Lois reminded us of many other things Dad did for the Red Cross over the years, including teaching many adult and kids first aid classes, and organizing disaster response guidelines for Fillmore County (many more which I can't remember just now).

So Lois is reading all this stuff about Dad and then finally gets to the point where she says, "and the Lois Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award goes to....Chuck Kaun!" Dad looked so surprised! I patted him on the back and said, "didn't you figure out what she was getting around to, Dad?"

(Sorry Lois that I didn't get a better picture than this!)

Mom and I were so happy he had agreed to come to the meeting. Dad was funny, he said, "now I know why Mom told me to put a tie on."

It was great to see Dad recognized for all his hard work over the years, even though he didn't think it was hard at the time. That's just Dad....he enjoys helping others and if he can do a little teaching along the way, that's even better.

Here Lois is explaining that they would be getting a new award since Dad's name had been spelled wrong and they didn't find that out till the awards were unpacked for the presentation yesterday afternoon.

And the other thing I found out while I was at this meeting last night is that Mom and Dad are being honored this weekend as the Grand Marshals for the Fall Fest Celebration going on in my hometown. "Geez, Mom, you should tell me this stuff in advance," I said. "Well, I wanted you to be surprised when you saw it in the newspaper," was her response.