I was digging a ditch this morning. Yes, I wanted the good dirt and the ditch in question has to be dug out manually, lest the buried electrical line be excavated by the big toys used by the big boys.
I was pondering ways to keep the dirt from filling the ditch again and decided to use some big rocks. Lots of rocks around these parts, so I looked around and spied a likely candidate for holding dirt in place. Wide and sort of flat. I pulled it up and saw these eggs and a tail slither further under the rock.
A snake was my first thought, but snakes don't have legs. Mama Lizard showed herself again before running to hide, so I got the camera. I also picked up one of the eggs. It felt rubbery, like a big membrane. It also felt like it was tight. I put the egg back and went about my digging and watering before I had to open for the day.
I wanted to show my find to he who is fascinated by such things, but Mama Lizard (I call her Lizzie) had already moved them. I wonder how she did that. Did she roll them under another rock or did she pick them up in her mouth? I ponder such things in the wee hours of the morning ......
So, the title is eggs. Last week, as I prepared for company coming, I made the obligatory trip to the grocery. Thinking of the birthday cakes and other cooking I would be doing, I decided to get a flat of eggs. That's 30. Two and a half dozen. A lot of eggs, but three cakes and potato salad and breakfast for 6 should take care of it. I picked up a box of TWO flats. 60 eggs.
We had deviled eggs and potato salad with twice the eggs one would normally use. We still have plenty of eggs here in the kampground. I wiped out about half of them. Won't need eggs any time soon.
My baby girl, Adrienne, with me.
With he who is her dad.
Her beau, Chad. I felt like a Pygmy next to him! My head didn't even reach his shoulder, he had to lean in.
I hope he who is Adrienne's dad didn't scare him away with his antics!
You will note that I am not in the picture! This was the best I could do right before they left to go home. I had told them all that I wanted a picture of all of us together, but the park was empty on Tuesday morning as they prepared to leave. He who was home just for a bit still has his safety vest on, so a lot of the pictures didn't turn out well with the glare from the reflective tape. Yes, I do know how simple it would have been for him to remove it .........
Gavin and Kyra are holding Little Martha and Papa is holding Max, the puppy; Gavin's dog.
Chad decided to grab a bite of leftover Chinese before hitting the road. We got to know him better and like him a lot. If he didn't have a good time, he is a really good actor!
Just about to get into the car and leave, but one more picture, please.
I miss Little He Who today! His t-shirt says:
CAMPING IS IN-TENTS.
We had a great visit. The park wasn't full and I got to spend time with them. Of course, if the park isn't full, I make less money. Time with my family is priceless.
My dogs were sad when the house got quiet. Toni Louise was enchanted with Max, The Puppy. They ran and ran, round and round the back yard. Wall-E joined in after a time of scoping things out. Oscar even played ball, something he hasn't done since his mate died.
Kyra was delighted to take over the care of Little Martha. Little M was quite smitten with Kyra and there was talk of Kyra taking the kitten home. I would have relinquished the kitten to Kyra, as she was very responsible and Little M liked her ..... a lot. But Little M is still here.
Funny story about Little Martha ...... when I was presented with the mere handful of fur after the fall from the bucket of the front end loader, I questioned her gender and was told by one of my kampers that it was definitely female. Female, hence the name Martha. Little Martha has a big "M" on her forehead, and knows her name. Little Martha also has testicles ..........
Friday mornings are sacred. It is the final bit of relative freedom I will experience as I rush into the weekend. It is the last day of the week that I will not open my doors until 11. This is my last time to sit and savor the dregs of my coffee cup in solitude. I sit and review what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done. I decide what I can do and what will wait until next week.
This Friday is special, though. I will not paint the signs or transplant seedlings. No, I will be dusting, mopping and making beds. Yes, beds. Plural. My baby girl is coming to see her mom!! I am so excited to cram all of her family into my tiny abode. Her bed is ready and I will be putting the cots up for the kids and banning excess furniture to ........ somewhere.
Then I will be in the kitchen to bake the cakes necessary for the celebration of the birthdays missed and the birthday that will be here on Sunday. So, if you plan to swim in my pool today, come on and enjoy the water and forgive me if I don't stop to gossip. My baby is coming home!!
The camera has to be charged and the furniture made free of the ever present dust that comes with living on gravel roads. The tub must be scrubbed and the towels washed and sweet smelling. The cots need their thick foam mattresses dressed and ready for Gavin and Kyra to fall into upon the late arrival.
Yes, as all Moms around the world will do, I will make ready for them and everything will be spotless. This is the only time I really clean my home during the season. We make do with spot cleaning unless company descends. I have decided that I need a wife! I would rather be outside or in my sewing/craft room than in my little house this time of year.
I have told the dogs to ready themselves for a visitor. The puppy we nurtured for a week before taking him to his new home with Gavin will be here, too. Wall-E is unsure about this; Gavin being his boy first. Wall-E will abandon his beloved Papa as soon as Gavin arrives. He loves that boy and seems to know that his first loyalty is to Gavin, the little boy who loved him first. Gavin's cot will be at the foot of my bed. Wall-E will sleep with him, leaving Papa with a little void next to him.
The puppy Max will no doubt have a show-down with the the reigning alpha male, Oscar, upon arrival. Toni Louise will be giddy with happiness to play with a bundle of energy and Wall-E will ignore him as he goes about the business of reclaiming his boy's love. Little Martha will do what all kittens do and insert her little self into the middle of it all. My new 'almost' granddaughter, Kyra, is a cat lover and she can keep Little Martha safe.
Yes, I am excited. My cup is empty and I have so much to accomplish today. Why am I still here?? Look for pictures next week. Looks for tear drops on them. I always cry when they leave .......
The little hatchlings are all gone. Late yesterday afternoon I checked the nest. One egg remained and a new little Killdeer looked as if it has just come out of his egg shell. Hildee and Henry weren't that happy to have company and tried to lure me away. One of the morning babies followed their lead and rose up and ran on it's tiny legs.
I managed to get this shot of the baby. I was clicking as fast as my camera would let me in the direction of baby K's escape. Those little legs are fast!! I blew all the photos up, but the birds blend so well with their surroundings and are so fast that I could only find one image and it is hard to see!
The grass is brown from lack of rain. We haven't mowed in over a week. We might get a storm front moving through tomorrow, but the forecast is iffy. In the meantime I am watering my flowers and vegetables all day long, it seems.
I tried a little photo shoot with Little M and her canine buddies. Oscar is not happy. He is not able to jump down from my office chair, so I at least had a captive audience for the camera. Little M always investigates his underside in search of a nipple and she is always disappointed. Strangely enough, Oscar is the most tolerant of her. He is usually the least tolerant of new family members.
Wall-E can jump down and did so several times. He does not like this cat at all. He doesn't bother her or try to hurt her, he just wants nothing to do with her. She wants to check out his underside, but that is just not going to happen.
You will recall that Little M was not happy at all to have her sister join her here in my office. I am beginning to think that Little M is prejudiced against females (not me, of course, I am her mommy) because she went into full attack mode with Toni Louise. Poor Toni didn't know what to do.
Little M is quite content to be the one occupying the chair. She likes being the one that gets to stay in the office with me all day. At first she would cry out and meow when I would escape into the sitting room, but now, she just accepts that her time is over, so she goes into her kennel and sleeps until she hears me taking the dogs out in the morning.
The other little kitten that looks just like my Little M found a good home with Kamper Dana. Dana was quite smitten with Little M, so he who was instructed to take Other Kitty back to Mama Kitty, retrieved Other Kitty for Dana. Other Kitty will now lead a pampered life like her sibling.
Next weekend my daughter is coming. There will be a joyful reunion between Wall-E and his boy, Gavin. New puppy Max will be coming along. I doubt he will remember us from his very short stay before his trip north to live with Gavin. Should be interesting with four dogs and a cat ......
Today is my grandson's birthday. Gavin is 8. We have been here almost 8 years. I know this because we moved here when Gavin was barely a month old. I cried most of the way and was sure that I would be blazing a trail back to Minnesota every other month or so. After all, how hard could it be to run a kampground?
I was so very naive. While I miss my kids and their kids tremendously, there are advantages to living in the middle of nowhere. This morning I went to check on the Killdeer (her name is Hildee and his name is Henry, by the way) eggs. Hildee was sitting on the eggs and Henry was close by. Kamper Martha was with me with her faithful canine, Buddy. Hildee began screeching as we approached and Henry was was on the embankment of the pond flapping his wings and making noise. I saw only two eggs!! I got as close as I could and saw the two new birds. I came back for the camera. Look closely under Hildee's legs and you will see her babies.
She looks proud and fierce all at the same time. Do hatchlings have birthdays? Or are they called "Hatchdays"? Whatever it is, Gavin shares his birthday with Hildee's babies.
She finally stood up and walked a few steps forward so I could see the little ones. Wish I had a camera set up to see the other two as they peck their way out of the eggshell that surrounds them. Must be awfully tight in there!
She walked away and let me get a closer look, but still stayed close. All the while Henry was screeching from the pond embankment.
So tiny and perfect. Hard to believe that they were just inside those eggs!
He who hunts stray animals found one of little Martha's siblings and brought her to me. Why? I don't know. He should have left her in the place he found her so that her mother could tend to her. Little M is none too happy about this development, either.
Little M is somewhat of a princess here at the kampground. She has her territory to roam. My office area and my sewing room. She rides the golf cart with me while I water and garden. She likes her status as the only little feline. She will play with the dogs and if things get a little rough, she will use her claws to defend herself. The dogs all know to not hurt her, lest I get out the flyswatter.
The new kitty looks exactly like her, a tad bigger than her; having had the benefit of her Mom's milk longer. Little Martha knows her name and will come when I call her. She knows how to eat solid food and use the litter box. And she knows I love her.
First thing she did was to hike her back and hiss at her long lost sibling. The little kitten is scared, doesn't know how to lap milk from a bowl and the litter box is a new concept. My Martha will not allow her to eat from her bowl. She attacks her and bites her! She tried biting me, the hand that feeds her and got a good thump to her head for her efforts.
While I am glad that she will defend herself, I am not happy that she is so territorial. Or maybe I am, because, when he who brought me another cat awakens, one little kitty will go to the pound. Little Martha has won my heart, but you will note that the other kitty has not been named.
Little Martha is growing fast. I don't notice it so much because I see her every day. He who loves to rescue came home yesterday and was amazed at how big she has gotten. Should be no surprise, considering how often she eats ....... and how much! She is no longer on a bottle. She chewed the nipple off, then decided to use my chin as a chew toy. She is still on the formula for kittens, but with solids. She has also mastered the litter box.
I am so happy to have my husband home. Such a relief to not be responsible for everything. The pool is his chore and he has it down to a science. He e-mailed instructions for back-washing and I tried. I really did. I got a little hung up on the very first item on the list, though. One pump is down for the count and the replacement is on the way. I knew that, but there are two breakers in the electrical box. One to each pump. His instructions said to turn off the 20 amp breaker ......
They are both 20 amp. However, one was actually labeled "20". I couldn't get him on his cell. So I decided that he would have phrased it that way so that I would turn off the one with a label. The rest of his instructions were based on the location of the tanks in proximity to the pool. My reasoning was that he would have said to turn off the breaker closest to the pool had he wanted me to turn it off.
I was wrong. I went on to the next step, which was to press down on the black handle atop the pump closest to the breaker box, then rotate it to the "backwash" function, turn the breaker back on and then let the water run for so many minutes or until clear. Then repeat the process backwards. Sounds so simple.
I could not turn that handle. Harvey was here and it took both of us to do it and then put it back to filter when we were done. I found out later that the water pressure was what made it so hard, because I had flipped the wrong breaker. I did manage to clean and organize the pump house while I was there, though.
Apparently, my method screwed up the works, because as I was filling the pool with a hose to bring the water level up to proper height and water was still coming out, faster than I was putting it in. Finally got he who backwashes on the phone to tell me I had done the whole process wrong and how to fix it. I appreciate his presence so much more now! His mom was doing better when he left. Thank you all for your prayers and concern.
Little Martha likes to go out with me in the morning to explore. We were watering the dry gardens this morning when she discovered a leak in my set up. Like all cats, Little M is curious.
So, she went under to check it out. She didn't fix it, though.
We figure that Little M has only 8 lives left after her fall from the big bucket. She is wary of engine noise and will flatten her little body to the ground if she hears one. But, in the early morning she likes hanging out with me in the great outdoors. We went on the golf cart this morning to set the sprinklers in motion on some sites that have new grass and new plants, then we checked on the Killdeer eggs, still unhatched.
When I stopped to set up the watering on my gardens she got down on the grass. In the sun. It is hot already. If I can't spot her I will call her name and she will meow until she spots me, then run to me. This morning she didn't. She hit under the golf cart in the shade and just watched me. My Little M is growing up!
No pictures today, just words.
I have been just busy enough all day long to keep me from doing anything constructive. He who travels had to make a sudden trip to see his mom. She is in the hospital in Georgia. Now, you may think I am on my own here at the kampground ......
I am not, though. I have my very own support system. Kamper Jackie and Kamper Julie have fed me. Even those here for the very first time have inquired about my mother-in-law and offered their assistance. When my husband left yesterday he was worried about leaving me here, but he need not have.
After last weekend, the kamping world has been redeemed! No shenanigans this weekend, just good thoughts and help.
Little Martha is quite the little imp. She loves to be on the loose in the store to enchant those checking in. She will peek around the counter, then scurry back to safety of my feet. I put her kennel under my desk so that she can see me. When she is hungry she will cry super loud and climb the door of the kennel. I was under the impression that she did not like being locked in, but after she had roamed the store today, following me around as I did my chores, I suddenly realized that she was no longer with me.
I called her name, she will follow the sound of my voice, but she did not answer with her little meow and I could not locate her. No one had been in the store and I was fairly certain that she had not walked out the door with anyone. I searched over and under and finally checked the kennel. She had gone in on her own and curled up on her blankie and gone to sleep!
Yes, she has me wrapped around her little sharp claws! She will nibble on my thumb, but stops short of actually biting me. She still wants her bottle and refuses to lap the formula out of a saucer. I wrap her tightly in her little towel and she pops out her little arms and grabs the bottle to guide it to her mouth. I still have to squeeze it for her when she is really hungry. Her little ears move as she swallows and she gazes up at me with her big blue eyes. Yes, I am in kitten love.
Oh, by the way ....... I am allergic to cats. Don't worry, she is not going anywhere. I will just have to bathe her often. She had three this week ....
