And finally the time change is here!

See that face? That is a very happy face because the time change has finally gotten here! I can let the fowl out and it is not even 7:00 AM yet. I got my young self busy on that changing of the clocks very early, assuming I moved them the right way. One year I did it the wrong way, loaded the grand kids in the car and arrived to an empty parking lot. I then called one of the church people whose number I remembered. He was very quick to tell me where my mistake was.

I hate this time changing. This particular one, I like because I am a very early riser, but the one next Spring is the one that makes me postal! I would like it if the government would kindly leave my clock alone!  They can figure all they want and give me statistics until the cows come home,  but I still know there will be the same amount of daylight hours.  My ducks and geese wake up when the sun comes up.  If I need to leave early I have to open the pen door in the dark and that leaves them vulnerable to predators.  Sure, things can come in the daylight and eat them, but it is a lot more likely in the early morning hours before the sun pops up.

Now, here I am and it is 7:20 AM.  The water fowl are out and swimming around.  They are fed and happy. There was just a moment of confusion when they saw Icarus, the cat, perched on the feeder in their yard.  Normally the cat does not linger when I open the door.  But today she thought she would like to visit a little while.  The geese started to make a circle around her, but being the agile creature she is, she escaped that trap.

So now that my life is on this even keel with the sunshine and stuff, I may be able to get something done around the place.  Oh, I doubt that!  Next I will bellyache cause it is too cold!  I know me pretty well after all this time.

Well, that is my thoughts for the day, so go have a good one and try to keep the cart between the ditches.

Oh, Gino, I can hear your house from here!

I have a new pseudo friend on this side of the Niagara Falls! Now pseudo may not be the correct word here, but I can not find the one I want.  Pseudo means pretend, or spurious and I guess he falls it that category.  I have never met the man, but have exchanged several emails.  I know his political affiliations and know he likes fine wine.  I in turn shared with him my venture into the wine tasting arena and the 5 day bout of dry heaves that followed.  So I guess this qualifies us as friends.

I make seed catchers and sell them on eBay and Gino breeds and sells Canaries, so this is a match made in heaven.  He needs my seed catchers to keep is house tidy and I need his money to keep my house period.  I just want you to take a look at some of his canaries.  I remember way back when mother had a canary.  She kept it in a cage that hung from a stand, much like the grandmother  on Tweety and Sylvester did.  I do not remember momma having that little bun in her hair, but I can go with that!

What I do remember is that momma also had a cat!  Oh, you can see where this is going can't you?  Now the only thing I recall is momma coming home and a pile of yellow feathers and no cat.  Now, I am sure I would not have gotten the licking I did if someone were not pretty sure that little Louella figured in somewhere in the equation of open bird cage, pile of feathers and cat nowhere to be seen.  I am just as sure, that I did not do it, whatever it was.  I am also very sorry that had I did that it was the wrong thing to do.  The sad part is, mother never did get another bird!  Do not know where the cage went either.

Now, if my dear mother, rest her soul, were alive today, I would be for getting her one of these birds.  Let me go look. Oh, I would take either #4 or #6.  Did you see those?  It is this first link.  Highlight it and then click and click again.  Least that is how it works on mine. You will figure it out. But those two have messy hair and look like ornery little boys.  Gino tell me these little fellows are singers to the max.  I really like that early in the morning!  So does he, hence the covers to block out the light!  LOL

http://buffalo.ebayclassifieds.com/birds/niagara-falls/canary-red-bronze-red-varigated-yellows-yellow-varigated/?ad=6629253

Now if the birds were not enough, look at these little bulldogs.  They are so cute!  I did not even know there were such things as French Bulldogs until he told me.  I love these puppy pictures!  They have the shortest little legs.  I am sure Gino can give you way more info than I can.  See, my job is to see something that I think is unusual, cute, interesting, moving or evil and report it back to you, so you know about it also.  I know this man works very hard taking care of his birds and dogs so they are very healthy, unlike the puppy mills you see on 20/20.
http://www.napoleonesfrenchbulldogs.com/

Ok, that is it for today.  Just check out these 2 websites for my friend Gino.  They are free and may make you want to get some kind of new pet.   Gino is far away, but check out the local pound.  Oh, oh!  That is not politically correct!  Check out you local animal shelter!  That is better.

Have a good one!

My token Republican wins re election by like 79%!

Hey, tell me I do not know how to pick friends!  Elections are now over and the token Republican that I call friend in Kansas has won his seat back by an overwhelming 79%.  When I was down there in the Spring my nephew was on the "Get rid of all them!  Everyone of them!" kick.  Twas then I told him, "No, kiddo, you got to check their record. See if you really want to do that.  It is a matter of the devil you know or the devil you do not know."  Apparently he listened.

My friend Joe Siewert and I can set and discuss and you all know my philosophy.  I am the Bleeding Heart Liberal who wants to save the world.  My friend Joe is the Conservative Republican who also wants to save the world.  I even have a picture of him on my phone and I have been know to flip it open and show people that I am not all bad.  I actually have more than one Republican friend, but Joe is far away and I only get to see him once or twice a year. 

So, I send out a big Congratulations to Joe Siewert back in Kansas.  I don't remember his district number, but it is around Hutchinson or Pretty Prairie somewhere.  The important thing is he gets to continue in his job, although he would not starve without that income because he is a farmer.  Joe and I will continue to fight the good fight and just this one little word of warning to the boy,  "Remember your roots and remember that Democrats and Bleeding Heart Liberals also have a stake in the nation.  Oh, and go get 'em Tiger!  I am behind you all the way, nipping at your heels!"

It is the annual Handweavers Guild of Pueblo Sale at the Vail Hotel!

I would like to cordially invite you to the 26th Annual Handwoven Holiday Sale

November 5th – 13th

10:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M. Daily

Historic Vail Hotel, 217 S Grand Ave, Pueblo, CO

(Union & Grand Downtown)

The sale will showcase one-of-a-kind hand-crafted items, including handwoven kitchen and bath towels, table linens, rugs, blankets, tapestries, hats, bags, wall art, jackets, scarves, wraps, basketry, gourds, exquisite pottery and jewelry, handmade cards, ornaments, roving along with hand-spun, hand-dyed yarns and more…..There will be demonstrations of weaving and spinning at 11:00 and 2:00 daily.

If you ever just wondered how to go from the first picture to the second  picture your are going to get your chance to learn.

All you got to do is show up at the Vail Hotel on Friday the 12 of November at 11:00 AM. Well any time between 11 and 2 cause I am going to be there to give you a demonstration. Oh these demonstrations are so much fun! Did you happen to pick up that the first 5 letters of the word spell DEMON? I have been told by the avante guard that I am to behave like a lady! That failing I am not to get too far out of line! I am not sure that they told everybody this, but they might have. There are a couple other women there that we need to caution from time to time and the one in particular knows who she is!

I guess what I am telling you is this sale runs a full week and we have us a good time! Not rowdy, mind you, because I would never do anything to embarrass my dear friends, but this is an event that you need to attend. We work all year getting ready for this sale and there is beautiful workmanship in all our products. All I can say is it is a very good thing that some of the members work harder than I do! Could not pay the hall rental on my meager showing, but I have my lotions and soap there, so that buys me a spot.

And then there is the table over by the door with cookies, coffee and hot apple cider! These people are not only damn good weavers, knitters, gourd decorators, artisans, craftsmen, but accomplished bakers as well. And trust me on this, they all try to out do each other so there will be some cookies on that table that will make Betty Crocker green with envy!

So I hope to see some of you there and when you show up be sure and tell somebody that Lou Mercer sent you! Got to get my brownie points in, you know. A good time will be had by all!

John Clay, my friend in Beulah, is now a stone cutter !

See this little fellow here?  Remember all the beautiful wood carvings he did, like the tree stump he made into a beautiful dragon up on Pine Drive?  Well, guess what the little fellow is doing now?  Stone!  He is making some of the most beautiful pieces of art I have ever seen and he is doing it by chipping away at stone.  A regular Micheal Angelo if I ever saw one.

And do you see that big smile?  He is actually glad to see me!  This is taken at the Beulah Arts and Crafts Fair that I have been trying to get to for 30 years and never made it yet, but this was the day Val and I went up and just got lucky!  Serendipity, they call that!

(Sam, if you look real close on the right that is half of Melinda's face.)

So I went by his shop and checked out the Hawk he is working on.  In my usual haste I did not visit with John about what kind of stone this is.  I do recall a lady who had a gravel pit telling me that Beulah has some on the most beautiful marble in the world and that if I needed any she had access.  So from that conversation and the feel of this, I would say it is some kind of marble.  I do know Beulah has pink marble also.  I have seen some of John's stuff that is much lighter.  I am going to just publish a bunch of his work one of these days.

This is the back side of that Hawk.  I do not know how much more John has to do on this, but it is very smooth.  This just amazes me to no end!  I know rocks are very hard and I can not imagine how that man can shape something like that out of anything that hard, but you can rest assured I am going to visit that boy in the very near future and come away a much wiser woman!

But still I go back to this!  This is the Dragon's Nest that he started last Spring.  This is made out of a tree root and still needs a lot of work to be the work of art that John saw the first time he touched this.  I am going to nag him into submission on finishing this thing if I have to buy it myself!

 

Now I know I have once more given you a report and raised more questions than I have given answers.  Bad Lou!  Some day I will remember to take the notebook with prepared questions, write down the answers legibly, remember where the notebook is at when I write......There is just so much to do and so little time!

But anyway, hats off to John Clay!!  A Beulah Artisan, Stone cutter, Wood Carver, friend, handyman and just all around great guy! This man is going to make his mark on the world and I will be here to say "I found him first!"

Oh, Please! How hard can it be?

Company comes and company goes and I take the trash out so I can sort it and get out the recycle stuff and put it where it goes.  I have box right outside the door for the plastic.  I have a bag on the door for the pop cans.  A box is under the Philodendron for newspapers and another for the junk mail.  The glass gets set on the buffet and I take it to the tin shed.  Call me a nut, but nut I am.

It is all set up, all that needs done is everything in its place.  I guess I should be happy that it made it to the trash, but you know me, if I ain't bitchin' I am probably dead.  I like to go for walks and when I do I always carry a sack.  I come home with lots of good stuff!  I find aluminum cans which I stomp and put in my sack.  Sometimes I do the plastic if it is not really dirty.  No spiders allowed in my sack!  I even found a muffler once which was kind of heavy so I kicked it over and then came back that way and got it.  It went in the scrap metal pile.

The cans go in a drum with a big liner and when that is full, I got me some spending money!  Cardboard gets torn into manageable pieces and goes to the recycle place along with the glass, plastic and newspapers.  I have a box in the front room that accumulates stuff for the Disabled Veterans.  People actually contribute to my piles from time to time.  Remember when we used to use rags?  That was the good old days!  Now we buy nice square microfiber things to use.

So, here is my question, when you pitch that beer can out the window, what do you think happens to it?  Are you doing it so I can find it?  If you are, thank you, but I can not be everywhere.  I used to walk on the levee and I could really make a haul there, but guess where I make my biggest finds?  Right out here in my own trash can!  You would think when people live with me day after day that they would get the idea that mother is a trash picker for a reason!  But no.  What is it the Bible says about a Prophet is not without favor save in his own country?  Well a woman who recycles has the hardest audience under her own roof!

I have seen park benches made with recycled plastic and they are beautiful.  I have seen what aluminum cans can do when thrown over the fence at the Animal Shelter.  They land on the trailer and are then sold for medicine for the doggies.  Glass, I don't know about, but I am sure it becomes something better than a mess on the side of the road.  So, I am not going to nag you, but if you come to my house, I would appreciate it very much if you did not throw your beer cans in the front yard.  And leave your cigarette butts in the can on the back patio.  If you are tired of that jacket, throw it in the box over under the big North window.  We will have a good time if you just humor me on this!

Have a good day, put litter in it's place, and remember to smile cause God loves you!

Elvira the dog and Icarus the cat are having a nap!!

Every body and every thing gets along in my harmonious little home, be it human or web footed, or four legged.  I have my office on the upper level of my house so I need to go down a short flight of stairs to get any where except bed.  In the office I have 2 big pillows for the dogs and this small bed for the kitty.  No one has any particular sleeping place assigned and it is not at all unusual to see 2 animals sleeping on one of the pillows or one of the animals in this cat bed.  It is rather unusual to see 2 animals in the cat bed though.

This is Elvira the dog and Icarus the calico cat.  Aren't they cute?  Daisy is over on one of the pillows.  I could not resist this shot.  Now you should know, that if I decide to set it the recliner and put my feet up, the first thing that happens is Icarus jumps up on my chest and lays down.  Then Elvira jumps up and lays on my right arm.  Daisy, not to be outdone then plops on my legs.  Elvira will reach over and smack the cat on the head several times trying to get a reaction.  Reaction is usually for me to stand up because the whole concept of the recliner is then lost.

When I go outside to either let the waterfowl out or put them in, I am also accompanied by this menagerie.  If I go down to sew, they each have their place in the sewing room.  Weave and the same thing.  Never guess what happens when it is bedtime!

So there you have my social life in a nut shell.  I get more unconditional love in one day right here at home then most people get in their  whole life through.  All my little animals came from either the pound or some where that was going to end up in the pound.  I always thought I would like to have a Standard Poodle, but pound never seems to get them, so I am happy with my bunch of little ankle biters!  What they lack in size they make up for in devotion.