I can’t make this stuff up, folks! I kept hearing a little scratching sound in the kitchen – living room area and I thought it was a recessed light bulb burning out but finally a bulb went off in my head instead. I followed the intermittent sound to the fireplace where we have a wood stove insert with glass doors. Our contractor forgot to put the cover on our chimney before he left and even though we have reminded him, he has not been here to fix it. Suddenly I just knew there was something in the fireplace so I got the flashlight and shined it in a corner, slowly moving the light across the floor of the fireplace – nothing. The doors are dirtier than I want to admit so it was hard to see inside the stove area. Slowly I panned across the glass doors and screamed! There was a screech owl staring at me right next to the glass. Holy Smokes! I took a picture but I was holding the flashlight in one hand and my phone in the other so it’s really a bad picture but you get the idea. My plan was to have Connie and Mary Baker help me by holding a bedspread tight against the fireplace with me inside cornering the owl. I didn’t want him to get loose in the house. I slowly opened the door – maybe he’d fly into my face? I wore leather gloves and had a blanket in front of me to confine the owl. Then I took a pillowcase and put over him, bringing him outside safe and sound. I wish I had held him longer so we could get a great picture but I have to say I was kind of scared of him – that beak could be deadly, I think, so I let go and he flew away. And now you know the REST of the story! Ha! Like I said, I can’t make this stuff up, folks!

Emma and Susannah make themselves at home in the yard – especially on Sunday afternoons. Aren’t they funny?

I’m working on washing all my windows – what a job but I just love clean windows. Clean windows make the whole house look better, don’t you think? I hope to finish this weekend as well as winterizing the screened porch. It’s time to start getting ready for winter and all that stuff that I have in my yard has to be put away before it’s buried under snow and Rick hits it with the snowblower. He would not be happy if that happened.

We are still having many problems with the blog and I’m nearly ready to give up and try to start over but I need help and I just can’t seem to find anybody. The blog is run by WordPress and you cannot contact them by phone or email. They have forums online that you have to read to see if someone else had the same problem you’re having and then there are no answers from WordPress, only suggestions from other bloggers. Ugh! It just doesn’t seem fair to not be willing to help people with your product. WordPress must think we’re all technical geniuses and I am just barely able to post and approve comments. They initiated an update several weeks ago which changed our settings and now we don’t know how to get it back like it was. I can still post and you can still comment but your comments will not post. Got any ideas, anybody?

Mary Ellen from Little Quilts called to chat the other day. We agree we’re in that group of “dinosaurs” who have been in business for 30+ years.   Quilt Market is going to be in Minneapolis next spring and we’re hoping to run into Mary Ellen and some of our “dinosaur” friends.

Connie is getting two kittens next week – I wonder what their names will be. Connie, a very creative person, likes to give her cats names like Blackie, Whitey and Gray-Gray. Surely she can come up with something better than that for these new babes.

We each just wrote our author bios for the new book and we both decided to write our bucket list for retirement. We both listed ‘sewing for fun’ as our main interest.

That’s all for this week – 3 more Farm News to write and then hopefully we can all switch over to the blog. Keep your fingers crossed!

Mary
Daisy in her new home with Dudley