Fields of Clover

 Click on picture for larger view

This is the scene in a lot of the fields around here. It looks so gorgeous, I can just imagine what it looks like from the air with all that purple. I would love to be in an airplane flying over just to get a look. By the way, this picture was taken by me this morning on my way home from taking David to work.

A lot of farmers around here are growing red clover this year. Apparently it's good for putting nutrients back into the soil and for cattle. You see a lot of cattle around here.

I've read that red and white clover is eatable by humans. Some use it in salads and even boiled. Some even saute it. I would have to make sure it was really clean before I ate it, but it's supposed to be good for you. It's rich in many nutrients and other good things, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center and other sites I've read.

I don't know if I'll ever try it, but it is good to know that it's eatable. It's also really pretty to look at when a whole field is covered with it.

Angel Is Not Happy With Me

Yep, the Angelic one is not happy at all.

It all started yesterday when she went to the vet to get her nails trimmed. She hates the process and fights it, even when given Promace to calm her down before leaving for the appointment. This is why we started taking her and the others to the vet for nail trims to begin with. All hate the process, although the one who used to be the worst, Rolli, is now the best behaved, go figure.

Anyway, while there, I asked the vet to check her ears since she was showing signs, shaking her head and scratching her ears repeatedly, of another fungal infection. Sure enough, I was right so it was back on the drops we went, or rather she went.

I waited until this morning, knowing that she was upset with me yesterday as it was. How did I know? When she got back in the van after her appointment, she laid on the back seat with her back to me, yep, completely ignoring me on the way home, when on the way there, she was a happy pup sitting up in the seat and looking around. After I put the drops in her ears this morning, she again started ignoring me. Whoever said dogs don't remember hasn't had pups like ours.

Now she's napping, so hopefully when she wakes up, she will have forgiven me for my wrong doings again this morning, I cleaned her ears out first, as far as she's concerned; that is until it starts all over again with the cleaning and then getting drops in her ears again tomorrow.

Looks like it's going to be a long ten days.

This is probably what she thinks of me right now.

Yesterday's Nuisance

The smoking tree pile I complained about is gone, poof, just like that!

Let the dogs out this morning and noticed that there was no more smoke, yea! Looked down to see if the pile had burned all the way down and noticed that it was gone. They must have hauled it out early this morning. You can't tell it was even there now except for the bare spot where it used to be.

I'm sure the pups were glad they didn't smell like a barbeque when they came back in. Rolli and Angel even wanted to stay out for awhile. Angel decided that she wanted back in when all the entertainment was over. Rolli wanted to stay out longer, but with her black fur and the fact that it was already feeling hot and humid, I made her come in. I also don't like her being out there by herself. I'm paranoid that someone will try to steal her because she is friendly with everyone. There have been some dog thefts earlier in the year, so now I worry about it.

Anyway, now we can breath easier.  :)

A Little Ranting is Good for the Soul

Do you realize the longest day of the year is tomorrow and then the days start getting shorter? Well, not really shorter, but the part that the sun is out does.

I don't know, maybe it's just getting older, but it seems that the long days of summer don't last as long anymore. Maybe it's because summer doesn't seem to last as long. In fact, everyday seems to get shorter and before I know it, we're celebrating the holidays again and then the cycle starts all over again. I love the holidays, don't get me wrong, but I love the long summer days too.

As David and I were taking Max to the vet for his shots yesterday, I noticed an older gentleman walking along the side of the road and a car parked a little behind him, so I stopped to ask him if he needed help. It was already in the 90s and was expected to go higher. As it turned out, his car had run out of gas. I couldn't give him a ride because I had Max in the car and he doesn't like strange men and the gentleman was also going in the opposite direction as we were going, so when he then asked me if I had a phone, I said yes and let him borrow it. I dialed the number and made sure that it was ringing before I handed it to him, but he was able to call his wife to come and pick him up. It didn't take long and as it turned out, we had to wait a few minutes at the vets' office anyway, so it worked out. The car was still sitting there when we were coming home, but the gentleman wasn't, so I guess his wife did come to get him.

We have had high winds for awhile now and on Saturday we got a really good soaking of rain, boy did we need it, so some things were still wet, like the pile of trees and dirt across the road and a little south of us. Well, the owner of the property deemed that yesterday would be the perfect time to burn the pile, not taking into account that it was wet, therefore it would create a lot of smoke and smoke it did. It's still smoking. The wind is blowing from the southwest so all that smoke is blowing in this direction. The poor pups smelled like smoked barbeque when they came in from outside last night and I was going to hang out laundry today, but that's out. We did put in the air conditioners on Sunday, so at least this side of the house is staying nice and cool and not hot from the dryer.

 (taken after wind shifted as described below*)

This is the second time these people tried burning that pile. The last time the fire got out of control and jumped the road and burned part of the property south of us. Luckily they were able to get it back under control fairly quickly, but it could have been a real disaster if they hadn't. They do have a backhoe down there to cover up the fire, but they're not doing anything for the smoke. Thank goodness we don't have any breathing problems, but apparently they don't care about that, but it does keep us confined inside the house. The only way to escape it would be to hop in the van and go somewhere else. That really stinks too, all because of the disregards of someone else. When have people gotten so inconsiderate?

Oh well, like the old saying, "There's no use in crying over spilled milk." In this case, there's no use in crying over blowing smoke.

*Good news! It looks like the wind may have shifted now to where it's blowing out of the southeast, so it's blowing the smoke away from us now.

BTW, this was Rolli snoozing, enjoying the cool AC. Don't mind the rug, I haven't vacuumed yet.

Kansas City, There We Were

We are back from our short trip to Kansas City. We got back yesterday afternoon.

It was nice that it didn't take us all day to get there or get back. We left the Overland Park area about noon, took a driving tour through Liberty, MO and made it home before 4:00, after a stop at Walmart. We were able to unwind the rest of the afternoon and evening before going to bed.

When I think about it, we didn't do all that much while we were there.. We left here about 10:30  Tuesday morning. After stopping for gas, we finally got on the road at around 11:00. Got into Kansas City with plenty of time before we had to check in so we went off to the Brass Armadillo down there to see if there were any treasures to be had. Not that day, but we had fun looking. After walking all over the place, we headed for the hotel. Surprisingly, the traffic wasn't bad at all, so we got to our hotel fairly quick. We were also able to see where Kenneth worked since we drove right past it. It was huge!

We checked in and went to check things out a little before we went back to eat dinner. The hotel offered a dinner buffet, so we ate there and then went back to our room and just chilled. Since we don't have cable or satellite, I took the opportunity to watch some HGTV. At least this time, I wasn't seeing the same shows I had seen years ago, like the last time I was able to watch.

I have never seen it before, but they have Walmart super markets down there. I missed not walking into a Walmart and having it be a Super Walmart. I have seen them without the food store attached, but I have never seen one with just the food store and none of the other stuff, very strange. It was a nice store though.

Wednesday we went to an antique mall that was really nice. It even had a little bistro attached where we ate lunch. The food was delicious, their carrot cake to die for. While there, I tried to call Kenneth and when I wasn't able to get in touch with him, called Elicia. That was when I found out he left his cell phone at home. Must of had a blond moment that morning. Anyway, through emails, we were able to coordinate where to meet for dinner. Dave wanted barbeque. You can't go to Kansas City and not experience their barbeque.

We settled on a place near where Kenneth and Elicia live. It was called The Smokehouse and the food was excellent. Apparently they have four locations in and around Kansas City. Dave and I both had pulled pork sandwiches and the pork just melted in your mouth. They were spicy, but not to the point of burning your mouth, well not a lot anyway.

Our waiter was a young guy, who some may have found obnoxious and pushy, but we found him funny. He gave us excellent service. He also thanked Dave for the tip he gave him, which he deserved. We didn't have to ask for anything, he was always there with it. We will definitely have to go back the next time we go down there.

Well now it's back to the old routine. It is nice to get away for awhile, but it's also nice to get back home.

Guess Who Showed Up at My Door Today

Would you believe that it was a door to door salesman?

Yep, only this one was selling insurance so all he had to carry was a clipboard, but one of those real thick ones like doctors have. The insurance he was selling covers only heart attacks and cancer.

I was shocked! I thought that kind of business went out a long time ago. I felt sorry for the guy given the gas prices and the fact that he was driving a SUV and the closest decent gas station is a good 15 miles away. There is one north of here but the last time Dave bought gas there, it was quite a bit more expensive and had water in it so the van did what it does when there's water in the gas tank.

Anyway, I let him give me part of his selling speech and then told him that we already had insurance. When he told me that it just covered cancer and heart attacks, I told him that our insurance already does. Poor guy, at that point he apologized for wasting my time. That was the first time I ever had anyone actually apologize for wasting my time.

I felt bad for him, he was a young guy, probably in his 20s and having done door to door sales when I was a youngster, I know how tough it is. I wish him luck and hopefully he'll find a job closer to his liking, because I'm sure he's not liking that one too much.

Never Sleep on a Wet Head, That's if you can sleep

Yesterday I was working out in the yard all day, weeding, pruning shrubs II hope I didn't prune my lilacs too much), and planting. I planted some more lilies in the flower bed out front, another plant I lost the little tag to, and another lilac. Yep and this one is one of those re-blooming ones. Lowes had them and I had to get one. It was a gorgeous day for doing it and the plants needed planting.

I didn't take a bath in the morning because I knew that I would be working out in the yard all day, so I took one last night.

Now normally, I try not to take a bath too late so that my hair would dry in time for bed. Well, last night we were watching a movie from Netflix after we ate an easy dinner so I didn't take one until 9:00pm, an hour before we went to bed.  I knew it wasn't dry enough, but thinking to myself that my hair sometimes isn't the best the next morning when I go to bed with it dry, I figured what the heck, I'll take my chances.

This morning when I woke up it almost looked like my hair had static electricity or one or more of the cats decided to play with my hair while I was asleep. I know the real reasons though was the fact that I went to bed with my hair wet and I was tossing and turning most of the night because of Dave's snoring. Poor guy is still getting over the cold he had and his sinuses were bothering him. I could tell by the way he was breathing. Even though I was tempted, I didn't wake him up like I normally do which meant little sleep for me. Man, I've been dragging today too, but to get back on topic, I even thought of coming out here and sleeping on the couch, but decided to rough it and stay in bed.

The bad thing about not being able to sleep though is that it was a waste of a good sleeping pill and I actually woke up early again this morning too, why when I could have slept in? One reason in one word, dogs. Rolli started barking and then all of them started barking. If that wasn't bad enough, Angel decided that she wanted me out of her spot on the bed and started her morning routine to get me to give up and get up. That is why I am dragging today.

I need to get some earplugs.