40 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 4-18-17”

  3. Jo: My eldest, Lindsey, is a working student for the horse trainer in our subdivision. When they go to shows–she walks on average. 12 miles….

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  5. Good Morning ya’ll…sitting here at DIA waiting to surprise my Mom with a week’s visit….gonna miss this Colorado sunshine! I’m flying United and all is calm thus far 🙂

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  6. Hello, y’all! Checking in from the land of crippled roads. I am at home on tax deadline day. Not a lot left on my end. Art will probably be filing extensions until midnight. I am pretty tired. Our grass is overdue for its first seasonal mow. So many things have been neglected at home. Miss Bosley wants to make up for lost cuddle time.

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  7. That male kestrel on the fence post is the same one that lifted off with a rodent, probably a vole, in his talons in my temporary gravatar. The post where he landed to eat it is a long way from the window where I took the photo, so it’s pushing the limits of the camera and not a super-sharp shot, but what I love about this one is his spread tail and the way it allows us to see the artistry God used on this bird. Notice the way both the colors and the patterns repeat.

    The female is a much less colorful bird, marked quite a bit differently (unusual for raptors), but the male is one of my favorite birds in terms of beauty.

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  8. Yesterday I went to the health food store and talked to the “witch doctor”. I am now taking Mega B Stress, Sharp Mind, Adrenal Fatigue Fighter, and L-Trytophan (the stuff in turkey).
    Hopefully all of this will get me feeling better, less stressed, more energy, and a good night’s sleep. Today will be my first day on all of it. I just need the energy to get out of my own way.

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  9. I managed to get several stories lined up for the week which makes me feel better — none are overly exciting, but they give me something to work on and with (and to turn in) if the week is a slow one for breaking local news.

    More base & sand arrive this afternoon for the driveway workers. They’d hoped to finish with the pavers (and the job) today, but we couldn’t get a morning delivery for the added supplies so it looks like it will finish up maybe on Wednesday? Then it’s on to figuring out when and if roofers will be available to do that foundation fix. I hate to pester Real Estate Pal so quickly about the next thing as this job was so much more involved than we thought it would be, but I really want to get as much done (and as quickly as possible) now.

    Don’t know how much I’ll be able to do with the kitchen at the end of it all, that’s more of a “wish list” item, but I was browsing through a “Bungalow Kitchens” book last night for inspiration for floors if that’s all I’ll be able to do.

    Annie Oakley discovered a new wake-up tactic that’s pretty effective — she gets right up to my ear and lets out a giant, loud ME-OW. She thinks I’m hard of hearing, apparently.

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  12. Mumsee – Yesterday you mentioned having failed several fingerprintings. So my question is: Just how many times have you been arrested?! 😉

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  14. You don’t want to know…. But I will tell you, there is also a requirement to be fingerprinted for foster care providing and adoption from foster care. And it used to be we could just run down to the local sheriff office and get it done but then Health and Welfare decided they needed a separate data base so it could only be done in their office. Does that not seem strange to you? Wouldn’t you want to share access so you could make sure your foster families were not on the sheriff’s list?

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  15. We support many federal government agencies and departments and have to get fingerprinted separately for each one. Wouldn’t you think the feds could share?
    A funny fingerprint story – about 15 years ago I started at Duetsche Bank as a consultant along with a fellow from another company. We were fingerprinted the first day. The second day the feds were waiting for him at the door of the bank. We never saw or heard from him again.

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  16. I was just kidding about Mumsee being arrested. I figured it had something to do with requirements for foster care.

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  19. I got fingerprinted at the local police station to get my teaching certificate. When he finished I asked how to get the ink off. He said he didn’t know, usually they just put people in a cell until it wore off. 😉

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  21. That’s a cute little guy in the header 🙂

    Sand and base arrived unexpectedly early, they called right when I was leaving for work so thankfully Driveway guy was able to get over there quickly to receive it all.

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  22. It was set up for a 2-4 p.m. delivery (though we’d preferred morning — they said it couldn’t get there that soon before they called at 9 a.m. today and said, Oh, we’re in your area, we’re on the way over now … ). Oh well, scramble, scramble, it all worked out without my having to be late to work.

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  23. On the way home from church on Sunday we saw a geese family walking across the road – three babies with a parent in front and in back. I couldn’t get a picture but Hubby has a dash cam and is going to see if he can get anything useful off of it. They were adorable.

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  25. I’ve been taking some pictures around my parent’s property. I will send some when I get the chance. I’m alternating between studying for the exam coming up on Friday, enjoying being back in a rural area, and taking care of a few small projects to be done in preparation of getting the house ready for sale.

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  28. Michelle, it’s a butterfly of some sort. Not a spectacular one, but the first butterfly of spring and it posed nicely for me.

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  29. Smooth trip for the most part…kind of bumpy over Lincoln NE! Mom was gone when I arrived…garage door wide open…no Mom…no dog…but the door to the house was locked..(the house key was laying on the ledge by the back door!! I let myself in!)

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  30. Oh, and I think the butterfly is on a blade of grass, which should give an idea it’s not the largest one you’ve ever seen, though it was a fairly wide blade.

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  32. Anyone know much about Courage Worldwide and Courage House? (nonprofit to rescue teens from sex trafficking)

    I have to write a story kind of related to them.

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  34. Sounded non-controversial until I began seeing news stories online from the past 2 years about problems with the group (“Public documents show that Williamson voluntarily closed the six-bed facility — in Bay Area — amid a flurry of state inspections that found numerous violations …”) Among charges was one questioning some of its Christian practices (as it gets government funding) such as incidents citing spiritual warfare and demonic attacks

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  35. What brought about the conversation was the husband of the couple thinks he is dying, which is a conclusion I and several others had already reached. He is struggling with understanding who Christ is. My mother was very clear, only the Holy Spirit can do the rest. Pray that if there is anything that can be done to give him a little longer, that the doctors will see to do it. He is getting lost in the shuffle of the system. It is so frustrating to me, to be on the sidelines and see what needs to be done and not be able to do it.

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  37. Actually, I guess it isn’t grass that butterfly is on, unless it’s prairie grass or something of that sort. But I looked at other photos I took at the same time, and there is grass in front of the butterfly but the blade it’s on is something else.

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  38. My husband had finished a big project and I was wrapping one up, and he asked me what was “next” for me. I told him I had 30-40 minutes more on this one, and then I needed to contact an author on a different book. I finally asked him why he was asking, and he told me that it’s supposed to be much cooler the next couple of days, and rainy, and he was feeling antsy and needed some exercise, and did I want to go out to our state park. Of course I told him no, I’m too busy.

    Well, no, actually I didn’t.

    I knew it was absolutely ideal weather (high 60s heading up to low 70s) and a lot is in bloom, including some things I’d wanted to see. We went by some buds last time that I was hoping to see in flower, and today they were luscious: large bright yellow blossoms. I photographed at least three species of violets, including yellow ones. I saw several kinds of butterflies, though only one let me get a good photo and that was a “perfect camouflage” photo and not a “colorful insect” photo.

    We also saw a variety of duck I don’t think AJ has photographed, at least four tree swallows (and I figured there was a nest, and watched and found it), bluebirds, a turkey, a screaming red-tailed hawk, and more.

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  39. But far and away the best sighting was something we’d hoped to see one day, but didn’t expect to. Pileated woodpeckers are the U.S.’s largest woodpeckers, the size of a crow, and they have huge territories. We’re more likely to hear them than see them, but winter is the best time to see them (since the trees don’t have leaves to hide them), and we’ve managed to see both partners in a pair several times.

    Well, today we heard both of them, one on each side of the trail and not too far from it, obviously calling to each other and thus a mated pair. Then on the right side of the trail, we had several brief glimpses of one bird as it flew from tree to tree. (We’d already seen the male briefly an hour earlier.) When we walked farther, my husband knew we hadn’t seen the bird on the left fly, and he considered that it might be nesting, and so he looked for possible holes. He found them in two trees, and stood to watch. The chance of being “right” was really very slim. The forest has thousands of trees, most of them not close to the path, and any holes facing away from the trail would also not be seen. But he knew approximately where the bird was, and figured it was worth a try, so we stood and waited.

    And in a few minutes he whispered that he’d found it, and he told me where. A male pileated woodpecker was periodically appearing at the entrance to the hole (from inside) to drop wood chips, and then he would disappear inside for a couple of minutes to do more excavation work. I got several photos, and we made a note of exactly where on the trail the nest is. (It’s near a manmade landmark, and thus fairly easy to find.) I’m sure he will want to go back in the next few weeks, though knowing the growing leaves might have obscured the nest a bit, and see if we might have the very good fortune of seeing the adults feeding young. And so, of course, will I! But that was an incredible sighting, and I’m very glad he found the nest.

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