Tag Archives: Sully

Mar 30 2019

Sully Saturday # 21 “March Madness”

 

No, its not the college basketball tourney thingy. Mom has mentioned it in the past so that is how I know about it.

I have the let me out of the house, I am sick of winter, cabin fever kind of March Madness. I have been doing my usual eating, sleeping, eating and napping. I have been playing with my little sister, Little Kitty. I was chasing her back and forth through the house.

 

I have helped Mom with photo shoots of her crochet items.

 

I even played make the bed with Mom. I thought she was done, so I decided to lay down to enjoy the sunshine on the end of the bed. Then she goes and throws the afghan on me. She tucked it around my face and took photos. Oooo and awwwing how cute I looked.

Note from Mom: When I am wanting to take actual photos of just him he acts all mad and bothered by it. But if I am down on the living room floor doing a crochet project shoot he is all up in the camera. CATS! Gotta love ’em!  😀

 

None of this seemed to help with my cabin fever. I continually begged Mom to go outside. She did take me out a couple of times, but I didn’t stay out long because it was a bit chilly or the wind was blowing to hard for me. Then one day I decided to beg my older human brother, Nick to go outside. This was just a couple of days after the winter storm Ulmer. He let me out but he did not put on my jacket or leash, because he thought I would just sit on the step. I had not seen so much snow in a very long time. My cabin fever had been so great that I mustered up my courage to leave the steps and explore the front yard a bit. Once Mom saw that I was not going to stay on the steps she followed behind me. She took these photos of my snow adventure.

 

Thanks for sharing my adventure and remember to stop and smell the catnip

even if it is buried in a snowdrift.

 

 

 

Feb 2 2019

Sully Saturdays # 20

December 2018 and January 2019

Well here it is February all ready. I know Mom was supposed to post for me on the last Saturday of each month, but December and January were busy for her around those times of the month. Also I really have not been doing much myself. Just a lot of napping, eating, sleeping, eating, napping, eating, well you get the picture.

I have on occasion asked Mom to go outside. Most of the time it is too cold or too windy. There have been a few odd nice days here and there. So Mom will put my jacket on, this is my fully cloth harness for late fall, and take me out. She will clip my leash to the deck stairs while she goes to the shed to take care of Milly. That only takes a few minutes and I am usually ready to go back in myself when she is done.

The reason is because all the grass and my catnip are all brown, dry or covered in leaves. I do sniff around in the leaf piles around the deck. That is about the only thing to do other than sniff the breeze. The ground is cold on my feet too. Most of the area around the deck is in the shadow of Bob the RV, so the ground stays frozen and cold.

One day I was pretty insistent about going outside Mom said, “Ok, but there is snow everywhere.” She put my jacket on and opened the door. She was not kidding that there was snow everywhere. There was about an inch covering everything. I was going to change my mind but Mom nudged me out the door. I stepped close to the wall outside where the snow was starting to melt. I was thinking about jumping from the deck to the ground by the steps but didn’t. My hips probably would not like the landing part. So I went ahead and walked down the snow-covered steps to the snow-covered ground. Mom went on to the shed to take care of Milly. When she came back I was already back on the deck waiting to get in the front door. Brrrr, my feet were freezing. I was glad to be back inside. It reminded me of when I was a kitten living in the hotel courtyard in winter, before I came to live with Mom.

The only other thing I have been doing is helping Mom with her crocheting.

This group of photos is from late December.

I was helping Mom with a photo shoot for her granny squares afghan she has been working on.

 

This group is from January 20th.

Mom had finally finished the squares afghan.

She laid it out on her bed so that I could do my final inspection and comfy test.

 

I helped with the final measurements after Mom had crocheted the border/edging on the afghan.

 

So there you have it. The last two months were just pretty much the same old same old. Mom may not do another post for me until the end of March. Seeing as we did this one in early February and it is such a short month.

So until next time, stop and smell the catnip!

 

Nov 24 2018

Sully Saturdays # 19

November Notes

 

Well here it is almost the end of November. So I will fill you in on some of the note worthy happenings for the month.

The weather has been up and down. Some seasonal weather where it has been to cold, windy, or snowing for me to go out. I have gotten to go out a couple of times this month though. Those days were nearly 60 degrees or better and sunny. There is not much green grass for me to eat now. It is really slim pickings. All I can do in my catnip jungle is rub on the dried brown stems.

On one nice day Mom was going to take me out but I was in the middle of my morning beauty nap. So she found me a few blades of grass and a bit of catnip that was still green that was on the south side of the wildflower bed. She brought them in and put them on my perch(Mom’s sewing machine cabinet) in the bedroom. She said,”You were sleeping and now it is dark so I brought the outside in to you.” I gave her a grateful look. She spoils me sometimes.

A couple of mornings when Little Kitty was out of her room to play, Mom set up a blanket fort for us. We had so much fun running around in it. We sneak attacked each other. I was like a kitten again! Then Mom had to put Little Kitty back in her room. We both were so wound up that we were both getting a bit too rough in our play. Little Kitty had here claws dug into my face pretty close to my eye so Mom said that was enough. I had also made Little Kitty cry out when I had her pinned to the floor I was probably biting her a bit too hard. So Mom broke that up. I did end up with a small scab behind my ear from her attack on my head. Little Kitty came away unscathed.

 

Oh, and Little Kitty has been my little sister for two years now.

Wow, time has flown by since she was this poor skinny scabbed up kitten.

She didn’t get much bigger but she is a much healthier happier kitty.  She is our forever kitten.

 

The last note worthy item for November is I have been helping Mom with her crocheting a lot. She finally finished the blanket for Connor. So I helped with the photo shoot for measuring.

 

After she got the border finished I did my final inspection of her work.

 

Little Kitty helped with the staged photo shoot for the blanket too.

I think she needs a little bit more practice.

 

Until next time, stop and smell the catnip! You know I always do!

 

 

Oct 27 2018

Sully Saturday #18

October Occurrences

 

Well here we are on the second day of October. It was actually nice out again so Mom took me outside. I hung out around the deck while she went around to the shed to pick peppers.

 

When she was done she came back over to me.

I was stretching my leash out trying to get around to the south side of the deck.

So she asked if I wanted to take a walk.

 

She didn’t have to ask me twice. I am a slow walker though. I like to stop and smell things even if it is just the breeze in my face. The breeze can carry so many different smells. I love the breeze in my face. Now breezes are just fine for sniffing, but not those gusts or straight winds that try to blow the fur right off my back. Nope, don’t like that!

 

This is a video of my walk it is about 4 minutes long.

 

So even though on some sunny days I beg Mom to take me out, she says, “Sorry Bug Bug(one of the many of my nicknames), it is super windy today. If it is nice tomorrow I will take you out.”

Well today it is sunny out. I have begged Mom to go outside. It must not be too windy today. She says” I will take you out after Nick goes to work and I get Dad up. I don’t think you would like to go out right now. The sun is melting the frost from last night so it is wet. You would not like getting your feets wet. ”

So here I lay patiently waiting for Mom to take me out after she does all that. Heck, I might even have time for a nap.

 

I was just waking up from my nap when I saw Mom walk by.

 

She was walking over to the entry way closet. Then I heard her open the closet. Well I jumped down off the couch and came waddling to the front door because that meant she was getting my harness and leash out.
She took this 45 second video of her trying to put my harness on one-handed. She had to stop filming after she got the neck part snapped together because she needs both hands to snap the chest part together. She has to hold me up so I am standing on my back feet so she can see what she is doing and make sure she doesn’t pinch my fat roll.

 

 

Well it had gotten windy since Mom went out around 7 am, so I only stayed out for 10 minutes. It was long enough to curb my yearning to go outside though.
Now we have reached the 8th and it is cold, cloudy, and wet again just like yesterday. Dad says we are not going to get a temperature much over 40 if at all for the next week. BRRRR! Guess I will be staying in for a while again.

Mom caught me waking up from a nap. She got this awesome photo of me yawning! She was so excited that she got it too!

 

I got a chance to go out again on the 20th. It was a nice day. Dad was doing some work out on the deck so we had to go out the side door. I went down the steps first and was well in front of Mom. I did not walk in the leaves that were piled in the grassy area by the wind. Mom just walks right through the piles. It made a very loud crackley noise that startled me and made me fluff up my tail! I had to run to get away from that noise.
I just kept on going right on by the deck steps I didn’t stop until I found this small clump of catnip by the wildflowers.

 

After I was calmed down with some catnip, Mom was able to get me over to the deck steps. I was able to relax even more in my catnip jungle. Only thing is, it has all dried up into brown old sticks. It is ok though you can still rub all over it and get lovely smells from it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was drooling like a teething baby. I had a wet spot in my fur under my chin and got my neck strap of my harness pretty wet too.

 

Until next time, stop and smell the catnip! You know I always do!

 

 

 

Sep 6 2018

I Found Some Late Bloomers, Big Leaves, A Bee, A Beetle, Patterns, Peppers, and Plums

 

 

I was out watering the flowers on August 31 when I noticed two different patches of purple and a patch of small blue flowers down low among the taller flowers’ greenery. I got down for a closer look, they were all new varieties that had not bloomed before. So the next day I took out my camera to get these photos.

 

My coleus, Cleo is doing so awesome. She has gotten so tall and look how huge her leaves are! I took these photos showing the size and the beautiful tricolor of her leaves.

I don’t know if I will be able to bring her into the house this year, I don’t think I have a pot big enough. I wonder if I cut her down close to the ground and mulch her really good if she would survive the winter ? Oh, and then put an empty wall o’ water around that. Any other suggestions would be helpful.  😀

 

Sully asked to go out on Wednesday(September 5th). I got my garden jacket on and put the garden scissors and camera in the pocket. I put his harness on him and out the door we went on this cool morning. As I was going down the deck steps I noticed a nice bloom of the white with pink trim cosmos. I got my camera out and ready, by that time the flower had a visitor on it. What luck, I had tried to get a photo of a bumble bee on the flowers the other day but she was a bit flighty in the warm afternoon. This was a nice cool morning so she was a bit slow. I was able to get pretty close. I tried to get one more really super close but I must have touched her with the lens, so she flew away. I didn’t bother her again when she landed again. I don’t need an angry be wanting to sting me.

 

 

I was walking over to the east shed bed to pick some peppers when I noticed this in the corner of the bed. The other gladiolus canes were finished weeks ago. I thought this one might cane, but was not positive as it was small and skinny.

 

I continued over to the pepper plants, I began moving leaves around looking for peppers. I was expecting to find two peppers that were ready to pick. I was surprised to find three more.

 

Sully was all settled by the deck so I went over and turned on the water hose to begin watering. I was just about to start when I noticed this sitting on a marigold. I am pretty sure he is not a beneficial bug to the garden. I believe he is some kind of pine beetle.

After doing some research on the internets I was able to determine that it is a Monochamus notatus, the northeastern pine sawyer or notable sawyer. I was correct that they can be a pest. It is not surprising to find them around our area, we do have the Nebraska National Forest all around us. The information below was provided by Wikipedia.

Monochamus is a genus of longhorn beetles found throughout the world. They are commonly known as sawyer beetles or sawyers, as their larvae bore into dead or dying trees, especially conifers[1] such as pines. They are the type genus of the Monochamini, a tribe in the huge long-horned beetle subfamily Lamiinae, but typically included in the Lamiini today.

If sawyer beetles infect freshly cut pine logs, they can cause a 30–40% loss in value due to the tunnels their larvae bore. It’s important to process logs within a few weeks of cutting or store them in water to minimize damage.[2] Some species are known to transport phoretic Bursaphelenchus nematodes, including B. xylophilus which causes pine wilt disease.[3]

 

After noticing the beetle, I started noticing some really cool patterns in many of the other marigolds. I took these photos of the more dramatic ones.

 

Do you remember that bunch of asylum that surprised me in the west bedroom window flower bed? Well it is finally blooming now. It is just full of these tiny white flowers.

 

The wild plums that grow along some of fence line with the horse pasture have produce a good crop this year. The bushes along the county road and the top of the driveway are just bursting with plums. This is just a small bush that grows outside the back door of the house.

I was able to lean over the fence to pick this one that was within my reach. You can see here they are not as big or the same colors as the commercial kind you buy in a store. I don’t think they are good for just eating right off the bush. They are probably more suited for jam or jelly.