Not much going on

 Since it has been raining, I've made a couple of things to keep me busy since I am out of reading material. The topiary took oodles of cardstock to make the 38 flowers. I had no long stick pins with pearl heads on them to stick the flowers on so went to Pa's shop and found some 2 1/2 finishing nails. I glued half pearls on them and attached the flowers to the styrofoam ball. I sprayed the flowers with glitter spray for a finishing touch. I really liked how it turned out.

The piano is actually a box. Took me all day to make it since I had so much trouble with it. First of all, I had no 12x 12 black cardstock on hand. I found some at Walmart when we went shopping last week. It was nothing but crap! So I threw everything I cut out away. I had some good quality 8 1/2 x11 and after looking at the cutting pattern discovered only the piece that surrounds the top of the piano needed something larger than what I had on hand. I put the piece on my virtual mat on my Cameo, cut it in half, made a tab and welded it on one piece, cut it out and glued the two pieces together. Turned out just great!
    We've had so much rain, that Pa has collected close to 2000 gallons of water for our garden tank. That was just from two rain storms. The weather has cooled down a lot which makes my body feel better. The garden is loving the rain and the tomato plants are getting huge. Unfortunately for some reason, there are no tomatoes. Lots of blossoms. Probably due to not much flying around to pollinate them. We do have lots of lady bugs this year and not too many potato beetles which love tomato plants. We've also seen little ants crawling around on the squash and I have a yellow squash almost ready to pick. I can hardly wait.
    We had a nice visit with some new friends who have property at Sierra Highlands. They came over for a couple of hours, first time we've met in person. They were so nice! Unfortunately, they can't move until they retire in 9 years. I guess I'm destined to have no close girlfriends who live nearby. Two friends are 60 miles away in Holbrook and one is 60 miles away in Show Low!
   My grandson might be moving in with us until he can get on his feet. His mom and stepdad are kicking him out of the house this weekend. He just graduated from high school, has no car, no driver's license and no job. He's been searching every where for a job. His stepdad can't even find a job so I don't know what they expect. It breaks my heart that they are treating him this way. He is a good kid, not into drugs or anything bad. I told him I would find a way to get him here by bus or something. I'm so upset with my daughter. She had better be prepared for him to move out and never hear from him again. Can you imagine how unloved and unwanted he feels? It will probably damage him for life.

 We had a new visitor to the bird feeder. No idea what it is but it likes sweet water!

 Just in the past couple of days, our feeder has attracted around 15 hummingbirds. They didn't appreciate the new visitor.

My windows, as usual, are dirty thanks to Tilly's nose prints. We won't mention the dirt on the outside of the windows. As soon as the monsoon season is over, I'll wash the outside. I haven't washed the outside since we moved in. Hey, I never said I was Ms. Housekeeper of the world. It won't last long with all the dust and sand blowing around anyway.

Since our little ranch fire, I decided to take pictures of all our stuff in the house so I'd have a record for the insurance company. I can't imagine anyone believing all the stuff  I'd have to claim just in my craft room alone. I have a few more to take and then I'll burn a copy and send it to my daughter in Vegas for safe keeping.

At the end of our fence line, Pa piled a bunch of tree branches to close the gap between the fence and the state land fence. Of course, the needles from the juniper trees broke down and made the brush fence lower. A cow and her calf jumped the barrier and were munching to their hearts content in the front yard. Pa and I rounded them up and herded them thru the front gate and down the road. I told Pa that we needed to check the fence line to see where they got in. I had no idea Pa had just piled brush up for a fence. Lo and behold, the cows just jumped over the brush and got back in. They were in the back part of the property. Took us forever to find them again. I was using the grannie mobile and Pa was on foot. We finally found them and I herded them off the property with the grannie mobile. This time I got them going in the other direction and down the road. That mama cow was so pissed that I wouldn't leave them alone. Fortunately, I stayed on her heels and got her to move on to greener pastures.  Pa piled more branches across the gap. We discovered the next day that they ate part of my apple tree. Dang their hides!!!  The other morning I woke up around 4:30 and heard this weird growling sound. I looked out all the windows and back door and couldn't see anything. It kinda creeped me out!  I heard it again the next day and discovered a bull wandering down the road.....growling. I had no idea they made a noise like that. Learn something new every day!

Rain, Glorious Rain!!!

Yesterday we had our first real rain storm. We went grocery shopping in Show Low in the morning and then had a visit with our friends who had just moved into their new home in Show Low. Show Low is surrounded by forest and right off one of the main roads, you wander thru the roads and forest to find their home. It is so beautiful, home and forest alike. From their backyard deck, all you can see is forest. Simply breath taking. You feel like you are in Oregon. We had a rain shower when we were there. Unfortunately, when we got home, not a drop of rain was to be found. We unloaded the truck, opened up all the windows in the house and started putting the groceries away. All of a sudden, it started to downpour! We ran around shutting the windows on the front side of the house, closed both front and back door. I forgot about my craft room, oops! The carpet got wet and so did some of my scrap paper/cardstock. The leftovers from projects so no loss there really and I think most of it is fine. We got 3/4 of an inch in the rain gauge and 1000 gallons of water off the roof in 30 minutes. Pa is in the process of transferring everything into the big rainwater tank which holds about 3000 gallons. What a blessing the rain is. Everything is so dry here. My garden was under water for a short while but this morning, the water has soaked in and every thing looks so happy. My body is so happy too. The hot weather really is hard on me so when it is cool, it feels alive and so much better. I feel like jogging for a million miles but can't because of my knee.

 We have a new young snake prowling the property. It was about three feet long and as big around as a pencil.

 They are so pretty!

 When we got home yesterday as I was opening the gate, I saw a chipmunk or ground squirrel running across the driveway. First time we've seen one on the property. I wonder if it was here and eating my garden last year. Hopefully, our snakes will get it.

One of my favorite online stores, SVGcuts.com offered their customers a gift certificate to their store if you would submit your version of one of their purse files. They gave us the file for free. I used some old fashioned print cardstock and ran the front panels thru my Cuttlebug machine and glued some pearls onto the front panel. Instead of a paper handle, I used some chain I had laying around. People submitted some stunning purses. If you have a Facebook account, you can see them.  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152045461652067&set=a.10152045458382067.1073741856.109879932066&type=1&theater

With so much rain, we won't be leaving the ranch anytime soon until the roads dry out. Where we live, you can get out most of the time after a rain except for a quarter mile spot where it is slimy clay. We've asked over and over for the POA to put some gravel down there but that request has fallen on deaf ears. UPS and FED-Ex will not deliver here when the roads are bad but they will meet you down by the highway.
40% chance of rain all day so I'll spend it playing in my craft room. I want to do laundry but won't because I hang everything out side to dry.

That catches us up for now. I found a bloom on my green beans!!! My grape tomatoes have about three baby tomatoes on them.