Ideas for blog posts...

 If you have followed my blog over the years you know that we love to see the wild creatures around us. As Carl & I travel back and forth to the gym each day we see some neat sites. On one stretch of road there is a hawk that sits on the electric lines just waiting for a snack to pop up in the field. 

On another one of our trips we went traveling a new road. Coming around a corner we saw an old house or barn that was falling apart. Of course I had to stop and get a picture and while I was clicking away I noticed  a vulture in the rafters. Can you find it? It took Carl a couple minutes to find it even though we were right there. While we were there a second one came hopping out to join the first one.

Over the years we have seen a lot of natures beautiful creations and I think a couple of our other adventures have been my favorites. This one while we were on a picnic not far from Lake Pleasant in Peoria, AZ and on our way back from Hoover Dam a few years ago. What are your favorite sites you see around you?

Until next time,

Happy Quilting, Sharon 

Permanent "Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2013

Wow! It has been way to long since I have been here....

I guess I have been busier than I thought over the past month or so. I guess having 2 grand-daughters near makes a big difference. In June some ears were pierced. What brave girls. Of course Maddi was the first brave one.

Then Ella had to be brave because her sister didn't flinch.....

We also hit the rollerskating rink a couple times. The first time I didn't hit the floor, but the second time my pride was hurt 3 times.... at least no broken bones, LOL!

Of course the whole family went to the local carnival on the 4th of July to watch the fireworks. I also met another crafter that sells ribbons and hair bows. We may be meeting up at the Hendersonville, TN Farmer's Market. 

Here is my new craft fair set up. We had a profitable and dry day this last week. The week before we got very wet....

One of the stores that we visit here have these in stock. It has been many years since I have see them. My mother used them all the time when I was a kid. Do you know what they are and were they part of your bug control?

One of the things that surprises me is seeing barn quilt blocks all over the area. These 2 are on the side of an building that has a LQS (local quilt shop) in Goodlettsville, TN. The Quilter's Attic is nice shop except the class room is on the second floor and it doesn't have an elevator.

 Of course we always have to find a park to watch the animals and we found this one in Hendersonville, TN. It looks really nice from the road, but it is small and there are a lot of geese and ducks that make a very big mess! We watched this Blue Heron catch and eat it's meal. That was so cool.

Of course the 'families' were hanging around. It is so much fun to watch how the parents take care of their babies.

These are the frogs that are very plentiful around here. We get serenaded every night and have to watch where we walk. Also, we have to watch out when we move things around because we never know when one is going to jump out at us.

This is one of the frogs that grew up in our pool before it was opened for swimming. The girls had fun chasing them. They were all over the pool deck for a couple days.

I found this funny looking bug resting on some firewood near the shed. I looked this one up, but can't remember what it is except that the black dots are not the eyes and they are good for gardens.

This guy was found in our driveway. There is a small creek out back and I am sure that is where he lives. I haven't ever seen one this big in the wild.

As we were heading home a new way a few weeks ago I spotted these birds in the field. I counted 14 either on the ground or in the air. It took a couple minutes, but then I realized they were buzzards. I have never seen so many in one spot before. A couple weeks later we traveled the same road and saw a few in field across the road from where I took this pic. I figure they must be roosting and raising their young close by.

At the end of May we made a trip 'home' to central New York. Most of our family still lives there and we had a great time visiting all of them. This is Carl with his sister Joyce. 

Then we headed up the 'hill'.

 A great plus with this trip was being able to visit family from Virginia too. Filip, Bonnie, Carl, Stevi, Meggin and KeeKee (the shy one). Filip and Stevi were visiting from Virginia.

One of the reasons we went to NY was Roxanne and Larry's 30th wedding anniversary.

Their kids hosted a surprise anniversary party. It sure was a great success.

Of course there is always a 'fun' picture! This is Roxanne and Larry's great grandson. I was the only one that was able to get a picture. Some day he is not going to like having this picture floating around in cyber space. Grin....

We stayed with Lissa and Bruce so then we saw Wendy's crew. Only Brandon stuck around for pics.

A pretty plant in Lissa's yard.

 

Most of you know that I love our country's flag and have taken many pics across the country. These are at 3 car dealerships that are next to each other. When you are driving south on route 31E you come around a corner and there they are.

 

 So I guess I have a good excuse for not posting on my blog.

Until next time, 
Happy Quilting, Sharon 
Permanent "Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2013

Another new baby hanging around

I have a hummingbird feeder on my back porch and this decoration. This little fella kept going for a drink then going back to rest. As I was watching another bird came to get a drink and this one chased the second one away. Zoom they go flying across the yard and over the roof of the house behind us.

 

About 10 minutes later I saw the little guy back again. This picture isn't as clear because I took the picture through the window film to get a better shot. 

 

Until next time,

Sharon

 

Happy Quilting, Sharon 

"Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2009

Happy Western Festival Weekend!

The "Festival of the West" came back to town this year. A couple new faces in the crowd.

Bobby Crawford

Joe Lando, "Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman"

Julie Adams

Does the picture in the back ground ring any bells?

Kevin Sarbo

 

Meet Acoma

Meet Darwin

Meet Sabina (I think that's this beauty's name)

These 3 feathered friends are from "Liberty Wildlife" in Scottsdale, AZ. The hawks are Redtails and the owl is a Horned Owl. These have all been rescued and can't be released back into the wild for one reason or another. Acoma is almost 28 years old and will beat the 'oldest Redtail' known if he makes it to his 30th birthday. He was rescued and not turned over to 'professionals', but kept at the rescuers home and fed hamburger and other meats. When this happens the bird isn't getting the grit from the bones of the animals they usually eat. The bones keep the redtails bones in good shape. When they don't have the correct diet the redtails bones start to bow and weakens. That is what happened to Acoma and his wings are no longer strong enough to keep him flying to hunt. I was really surprised when the handler told me that he only weighed 2 pounds, he looked at least 5-7 with all the feathers.

Sabina is also a Redtail, but is a rare color. They usually aren't that dark red/brown.

Darwin facinated me the most. The handler said that the way they train them to be 'education' animals they alter their feeding schedule. Owls are nocturnal feeders and to have them this alert during the day takes training. Darwin is at Liberty Wildlife because he fell out of the nest as a fledgling and broke his wing and it didn't heal well. The handler said that Darwin's personality was great for education because he was so calm. The only thing that made him a little jumpy was a bag being flashed in the next booth.

~Then we come to the old favorites~

Johnny Crawford

Remember Mickey Mouse Club?

We know him best in 'The Rifleman', which is now playing on MeTV everyday!

Of course we had to get a 'duo'.....

Buck Taylor

How about LQ Jones? 

Ed Faulkner

We have seen him many times at the western festivals.

Lee Anderson, who we worked with last October on the "Wild West Festival" in Glendale, AZ. He was written up in 'True West Magazine' a couple months ago. He has a horse named, 'Concho' that he rescued from the dog food factory.

I would love to hear about your memories of these 'old time' western actors.

That's it for the Western Festival. Later I will get into my 'Quilting World' and update my day with Kaye!

Until next time,

Happy Quilting, Sharon
"Quilting the Kaye Wood Way"
Certified Instructor since 2009

Good morning one and all!

What a beautiful day here today! The sun is shining and there is a little bit of a breeze. I am on vacation so I get to play a little bit! I have managed to get a package off to my grand-daughters in NY and to a friend for a tote swap. I picked my tote up from the PO while I was there... I shall get a pic when I can, this one is great! I even managed to get some chores done while I was playing! 


I have a silly yellow cat sitting at my feet giving me the 'pet me now' look. Every once in awhile I hear a soft little 'meow'... boy she sure can look lost and all alone at times...

I am on my way into the sewing room. Wish me luck on getting my stuff done!


Have a great day!


Happy Quilting, Sharon 
"Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2009

Picnics!

Several weeks ago Carl & I started going on Sunday picnics. On our way back from Wickenburg on our first time out and about we returned the 'back' way. It is interesting to see this silver 'dome' so far away. Where I took this picture we were about 1 to 1 1/2 hours drive from this 'dome'. The 'dome' is the home of the Cardinals, our football team. The 'dome' is the stadium. You can see that silly thing for miles and miles. Check out more pictures of the stadium here.

Then this past weekend we wanted to go to Lake Pleasant, but they charge just to go in and we decided we didn't want to spend the money just for an hour or two. On our journey finding all of the entrances to the lake we ran across a pull off and that is where we ended up having our picnic. We were glad that we did. This is the second time that we have seen a wild burro on our travels. If you remember our anniversary trip to the Hoover Dam last year we came upon a burro. This young man sure did look nice. We didn't notice until I downloaded the pictures that he has a sore on his left front leg. He sure didn't walk like he had any problems.

He just walked across the road watching us to make sure we didn't want him for anything. After he disappeared into the cacti and brush I figured we wouldn't see him again. We were sitting in the back seat of the car eating when I happened to look into the rear view mirror and caught a glimpse of him again. He just did a detour around us to get where he was going. If you look real close in the center of this picture you can just about see him. He kept right on walking and we never did see him again after this. I really like to see the wild life when we are out and about. You can't imagine the number of things that you miss when you are just zipping down the road. Several vehicles sped past on their way to the lake while we were there. All I could think of was that they didn't know what they had missed. Of course not many would have cared either.

It is so nice to be able to enjoy the small things in life. Our picnics only cost us time and a little bit of gas, but we are seeing some interesting things. Sometimes we manage to see nothing but desert and other times we see one of God's creatures. Both are beautiful in their own way.

While you are here check out the new Temple pictures. Slow, but steady progress going on each week.

Happy Quilting, Sharon
"Quilting the Kaye Wood Way" Certified Instructor since 2009

I had to share this with you. I have been surfing the net and this site is a hoot! I'm hoping that the picture will load here, but am not sure.


see more Oddly Specific

Happy Quilting, Sharon

Can you believe it has been 15 years???

As of today May 23, 2010 Carl and I have been married 15 years!! We did our first road trip in a long time. I wanted to see the new bridge they are building to bypass Hoover Dam so we spent Friday night in Kingman, AZ then took the tour at Hoover Dam. Nice weekend and a couple neat surprises.

Here is the first site of Hoover Dam.

It is an amazing site. Lots of visitors. We went on the tour and we were so lucky because it was the first one in the morning and there were only 6 in our group including the guide. Once we got inside the dam I could not tell you which way I was facing. I still don't have a clue, but it sure was neat. A couple years ago when my brother, Joe drove back from NY with my oldest sister, Loretta we stopped here. We weren't able to do the generator room due to his defibrillator, but I'm sure he would have been fascinated with all of it.

One of the places we went to while inside the Dam was a vent that faced downstream. 

  

This was looking down at the water.

This is looking up and at the new bridge.

Here is the contraption that helped build this bridge. Our guide told us that when the wind get to 35 miles per hour they shut down construction. It is a long way down that's for sure!

This is one of the generator rooms. Only 3 generators were producing electricity. In the lower right there is another generator that produces all of the electricity that is used at the Dam. There is no public out of pocket monies used to build or take care of the Hoover Dam. The sale of the electricity pays for all of it. What surprised me was that the major reason this dam was built was not for the electricity. It was to control the flood and drought along the Colorado River. 

Here is one of the designs in the floor in the generator room. It depicts the water power here. I think it would make a beautiful quilt.

This one depicts the electricity.

How about some exercise?? I have no idea how many stairs are here but these went way down, down, down!

Turn around and you can go up, up, up!

We exited the dam on the walk way over the dam and here is the picture looking straight down.

Carl remembered that there were large fish in Mead Lake and we had to check them out. We were actually able to get some pics of them. Now, you have to remember that the water is a long way down from the top so they look small in the pictures, but these have to be huge!

Then on the way home there is a road that goes down to the Colorado River that is a park. I just wanted to see what it was like down next to the River. As we are winding our way down the side of the mountain I yelled at Carl to 'stop!'. I could not believe my eyes when I saw a flash of this creature standing on the side of the road. Carl stopped and we took a few pictures. He sure wasn't upset that he was getting his picture taken.

We went on down to the river side turned around and drove right back out and he was gone! Not a sign he had even been there except his 'road apples'. Our surprises weren't over with yet. Again I yelled to Carl to 'pull over!' This was our next surprise.

They were so far away that we could not tell what they were until I uploaded them into my computer. Can you tell how many are there? We counted several times and came up with 4, but Carl kept saying that he thought there were more. I'm glad I kept taking pictures.

There really are 5 in this bunch. I have never seen wild Big Horned Sheep before. They knew that we weren't a threat as they just stood there ignoring us!

Our final joy of our weekend was being able to attend the Gila River Valley Temple Dedication. The dedication was televised into all of the Stake Buildings in Arizona and we were able to attend. This was the first Temple Dedication I have attended and I sure hope it won't be my last. What a beautiful way to celebrate our anniversary!

It is so great to be able to look forward to more road trips. Carl and I have missed being able to just take off for a day or two and be able to just spend time together. We are planning on visiting grandkids in California and 'upstate' Arizona this summer. We also want to go back to Old Tucson and Tombstone. We are hooked on the 'wild' west and love to visit these places and learn about the history. I also want to hit Prescott and Jerome. I love the shops and the craft fairs and of course the cooler weather!!

Happy Quilting, Sharon