Butler's Boo Boo

I forgot to mention last week how my pastor and I made yard signs for our church last Sunday before church.  Pastor Josh wanted to make ten signs and I sort of made two, maybe three.  The signs were made of that corrugated plastic with holes at the bottom to fit over the wire that holds the sign in the ground.  Well, you get one hole lined up and then find the hole on the other end that lines up and push the sign down on the wires right - nope.  When I'd do that, my sign would start to bow out really bad - I never got the hang of making signs and Pastor Josh and I laughed that my calling was not making church signs but helping with the kids :)

Well I finally got brave enough to get close to the snake hole I saw one of the tripletts slither into and spray that foam insulation.  A little spray foam goes a long way and I wanted to make sure no snakes would be escaping so this is what it looks like.  I'll eventually try to chip off the insulation that is on the grass.  Mid-week I had one snake not moving very fast going into a planter in the back yard that I sprayed the back end like crazy with wasp spray.......

 

This is Butler making my bed his bed the other night and yes, look closely on his behind and that's a bloody bandage.  I've been babying him a couple of days and tonight when I was cleaning the boo boo with hydrogen peroxide and then putting triple antibiotic ointment on it - I could really see how bad it was - bad.  It took me a while a couple of days ago to find the boo boo because even though Butler is short-haired, a black dog doesn't make it easy to find a bloody spot.  The boo boo he had last year is nothing like this one - he cut himself right over a hip bone and it's ugly.  So say a prayer for him that it will heal without any problem.  Last year's boo boo took us to the emergency animal hospital for a little minor surgery to get it pulled together to heal.

 

Friday night a friend and I went out for supper and she was mentioning how she had a job interview in Indianola Tuesday but wasn't sure where the business was located.  I'm like, "We're already on the south side, do you want to head to Indianola to find it?"  And off we go.  But the classic line from my friend was, "I'll know the door when I see it."  And I'm like, "That's good, but we don't know where the door is."  We decided to turn to go toward the square in Indianola and what do we run into but a biker rally which made us giggle like goofs.  Here we go trying to find something serious and run into a biker rally.  I asked her if I should park so we could join in.......

 

Today was an art market in Valley Junction and I really liked this plate that is hand finger-painted.  Mike and I loved our vacations to the Caribbean and one year we were blessed to swim with dolphins.  So between the scene, dolphins (the two blue things jumping out of the water) and colors I decided I needed to buy the plate and have it on my enclosed front porch.

I decided I needed to get a plant for the large planter that is on my front steps, so off to Earl May I headed and ended up getting this colorful plant.  Don't know what the name of it is, but it's good to be in mostly shade and it's pretty - and I had a coupon for 30% off.  After Earl May I went to Village Inn to get a piece of their pie of the month...Hawaiian Strawberry.  Hmmmmm.

And lastly, my friend from Friday night and I goofed around on Saturday - she needed to do some clothes shopping.  We were at TJ Maxx and I could not believe how BIG this hat was so I had to put it on - and she had to take my picture.  Who would buy a hat this large???  And yes, those are red, white, and blue starred greyhounds on my t-shirt.

Mom's Day ~ Computer Stuff ~ Snakes

I hope all the moms out there had a great Mother's Day.  Mother's Day was definitely different for me this year.  One of my besties and one of my cousins can relate - we're all three stepmoms (never had children ourselves) so we are moms but we're not a "real" mom.  So Mother's Day is "interesting" for us.  And then today is my first Mother's Day without my mom.  Back in the day when mothers were given corsages to wear on Mother's Day if your mother was still living, the flowers in your corsage would have color but if your mother had passed, the flowers in your corsage would be white.  Today I would have worn my first, white corsage.  I really wished Mike would have been here to be with me - but that's not what God had planned for me today.....

I finally took my new laptop to a computer place to have the information from the old laptop moved to the new laptop and I was really pleased with the service.  For an additional fee they are basically my IT department for a year where I can have three more maintenance appointments for my laptop (what they did this past week was my first maintenance service of a total of four) and if any parts need to be replaced, I get them at half price.

This past week my good friends Barb and Jim came over to help with a couple of things.  First was to put the plates on my car.  I didn't think it would be too hard but since I had an issue with my weed eater I thought I'd see if Jim would help with the plates too.  He looked at the screws on the car where the license goes and said he needed a Phillips screw driver.  I just looked at him and then looked down at the screws to see they had an "X" in the top so I'd know what he was talking about :)  He took the plates out of the plastic wrap and put my year sticker on it - I looked at him and said I could have done that part myself :)  Then he helped with putting a new reel of string in my weed eater.  Last week when I finished mowing and was weed eating in the backyard my weed eater tried to eat a large stick and got all messed up.  I was too hot, tired and sweaty to mess with changing the reel right then and the way I was jerking on the weed eater didn't help either.  The night Jim and Barb were here, when I wasn't hot, sweaty and tired, I realized I could have figured out changing the reel on my own but it was nice to have them here to help.  Jim also tightened some of the screws on the gate of my privacy fence.

I have a cloth on my towel rack by the sink in my bathroom to wipe up splatters of water - something I learned from Mom.  Actually if you are in a public restroom (or maybe more my work restroom) with me, you'll see me take paper towels and wipe the sink I used so it's not wet for the next person.  Anyway...when I was my face I splash water on my face, lather up and then use my face wash cloth to rinse everything off.  Evidently I wasn't too with it because the sink wiping cloth is a faded orange and my face wash cloth is white.  I rinse my face twice after washing it and on the second rinse I realized my wash cloth wasn't white.........it was orangeish.  Great I just washed my face with the cloth I use to wipe the sink........

A while back I mentioned I was giving my snake issue to God so I wouldn't have all the little "pets" in my yards like I had last year.  Well God must have decided I need to learn something because I have them again in both yards.  I saw one in my front yard and then a couple of weeks ago there was a dead snake on my front sidewalk.  I texted my neighbor to the north (I had left early that Saturday morning) to see if he would get rid of the body for me.  I told him he could put it in my trash can as long as he bagged it.  I later found out the snake wasn't quite dead.........  So I'm not sure if that was the snake I had seen earlier this season or if this was a second snake for the front yard.

Then the second time I mowed, after I had walked the mower by the sidewalk in the back yard a snake popped up on the sidewalk - that was the first snake sighting this season.  I couldn't believe it - especially since I had just walked where it was - blick, blick, blick.  I had read that wasp spray kills snakes so I bought some spray.  I saw one and sprayed the poo out of it - no idea if it crawled off and died or what.  Then the day I got the new car was the day I saw the "big" one - and I only saw half  of it.  I couldn't even bring myself close enough to spray it with wasp spray.  When I went back outside later it was gone and another garter snake was in it's place - that one got sprayed from head to tail.  Then last Sunday after church I saw the triplets - yep three at one time in my back yard.  Two got sprayed like crazy and I saw where one crawled back under my cement porch.  The third was over by my hibiscus plant and I didn't have the spray with me right then so it got away.  The next day I saw part of a body in the back yard and that night asked my neighbor to dispose of the body.  I gave him paper towels and the garbage bag and about had to go back into the house - he looked at me, and tried to hand the trash bag to me saying, "you want to use this in your kitchen can now don't you?"  I just looked at him and then laughed.

So I called the pest place that had sprayed snake repellent three times last year to have a guy come out and see what was going on.  He knew all the things Dad and I had done to discourage snakes and then walked all around my property to note any holes snakes may use - remember I learned last year that snakes can't make holes, they use existing holes.  He gave me a quote to plug all the holes and cracks in the sidewalks and retaining walls.........$600.  I about fell over when I read that email.  And to quote Mike, "do I get a kiss with that?"  If you have no idea what that means, that's probably good :)

So I bought some of the foaming spray to fill holes but couldn't bring myself to get close to the hole I had seen the snake go in to plug it with the spray because I would need to be really close to it and low to the ground.  I hadn't seen any snakes (except for a really little one that slithered from under my butterfly bush when I mowed this week) so I thought tonight it would be safe to try to spray the foam in the hole.  I approached the hole carefully, looked all around and started to spray.  Now....if you have never used the foam spray, a little spray is needed because it expands on its own.  Somehow I got some of the foam in my hair - no idea how that happened - and I'm trying to pull it out.  I checked the foam a few minutes ago and it really expanded.  It ain't pretty folks, but that hole is taken care of.

I realized I needed to lower the wheels of my mower so it would cut my grass lower - where the wheels were set, the grass grew pretty good in a week.  But a week ago when I lowered the wheels I scalped the hill by my driveway - so the wheels had to go back up with some help from my neighbor two houses to the north.  I think I finally know how to move the wheels back up without too much struggle - so the back yard and most of the front yard is mowed on one setting, then the wheels go up a notch to mow my two hills - such fun.

And thought I'd share another pic of my buddy Butler.  I posted this on Facebook a few days ago - he's waiting for me to share my Pop Tarts with him :)

Birthday Butler ~ Tulip Time ~ Cleaning Carpet ~ Hibiscus

One thing I forgot to mention from Jack Hanna's event was this piece of wisdom.  If a snake ever bites you (basically latches onto you somewhere on your body) just relax.  The snake cannot unfreeze its jaw like a dog, cat or other animal when they bite you.  The snake needs to relax so its jaw can relax so it can let go of you, and that can take anywhere between 20-30 minutes.....so just relax....with a snake attached to you.  Jack learned this when an Anaconda decided to eat his hand..............

This past Thursday was Butler's 11th birthday being a McFall.  Ok it probably wasn't the exact date he became a McFall but the Thursday of Tulip Time was when Mike and I adopted him from the Animal Rescue League (ARL).  Mike knew I was interested in getting a greyhound after we had to put Lucy down and Mike found a greyhound at the ARL....Butler.  We went to the ARL, saw him, adopted him and decided to head to Pella to see my folks to show him their new grandpuppy.  And it was Thursday of Tulip Time so we could eat some nummy Dutch goodies.  As we drove down Highway 163 I mentioned to Mike that my folk had been in Des Moines that day for some reason and wouldn't it be funny if we passed them on their way home to Pella?  About ten miles later we did.  We pull up next to their car, Mike is honking like a maniac and I'm waving like crazy and my folks don't even look over at  the crazy car next to them.  We pull ahead and get in front of them so they realize it's us.  We pull off on a side country road before Prairie City with my folks following us - with everyone getting out to meet Butler.

Birthday boy on my bed :)



My best friend since 7th grade and I headed to Tulip Time on Thursday to check out the festivities and visit my dad.  I couldn't believe it was my third Tulip Time without Mike.  Lori and I went through the vendor booths at West Market Park like a tornado - then uptown to see some other things.  Sometimes with Tulip Time you have perfect tulips, sometimes they bloom too early, sometimes they bloom too late.  This year the tulips bloomed too early and there were bed after bed after bed of tulips without blooms - it was kind of sad.  The three of us watched the afternoon parade with mainly me making comments about the bands - evidently they don't care if their lines are straight among other things.  One gentleman stopped by to talk to Dad and Lori says to me, "that's Mr. Baker."  I'm like no way that's our middle school principal - but it was!  It was nice to visit with him a little.

Next door is Arrow, a black dog of some kind, can't remember what she is.  When she was smaller one time she actually got under my fence to visit Butler and me - it was the day I was spray painting my plastic Adirondack chair.  She was tied out in her yard but the line was really long.  I unclipped her and carried her back next door.  Well, Arrow has gotten bigger and sometimes she tries to get her head under the fence to visit.  I was able to get a picture of her "visiting" when I took pictures of my hibiscus plants.  When we first got Butler, his face was as black as Arrow's.

Arrow saying "hi".

I decided it was time to clean the bedroom carpet since Butler tends to have accidents on it, so I headed to the guy up the street that sells sweepers and rented a carpet cleaner.  Now...Mike used to clean carpet for a living when we were first married so I wonder what he would think of me attempting to do this :)  It wasn't hard and the machine wasn't heavy to get upstairs - but making sure I "heard" everything the guy told me to do was the key.  I fill the container with water and some shampoo and head upstairs - and forget to pour the water/shampoo into the holding tank.  So I turn the cleaner on and pull it back a few times and don't think it's doing much - the water was a little dirty - then it hit me - put the water in the holding tank.  Duh.  Ok, water was in the holding tank.  Turned the machine on again and pulled it back a couple of times and still didn't think it was doing much because the carpet wasn't that wet.  I'm looking at the machine and the little diagram on the machine and finally see a trigger next to my right thumb.  Hmmmmm....maybe I'm suppose to click that on....maybe that will make a difference.  So I turn the machine on for the third time, pull the trigger and viola the machine roars to life and starts sucking up blick and the carpet starts to get wet - success!  Wow.

Stick - my hardy hibiscus that Dad bought me last year survived the winter and has three sprouts - I can't wait to see the blooms!  But of course I had to head to Earl May to see if they had "regular" hibiscus at a decent price.  I bought a red, a yellow and a pink plant - pictures are below.  I only hope that my red plant stays a "true redhead" this year instead of having both solid red and solid yellow blooms on the same plant :)