Molly Bee's Attic

I've been meaning to get to Olbrich for the last few weekends to see the butterflies and well...you know how it goes.... So today, since I think it ends in a week or so,  I finally went over there. I took my buddy Hannah Banana from next door with me. We saw waterfalls... Canaries  Koi fish (Hannah calls the white one with black spots the 'cow fish').  Beautiful flowers (Doesn't this orchid look like it's in the depths of a dark cool glen? In actuality the conservatory was eleventy-billion degrees and humid!  Butterfly weather!) We saw a lot of butterflies but only Monarchs and Yellow Swallow Tails.  I think maybe the others have lived out their two week lifespan and we missed them.  Double click on this one to biggify.  It's worth it.  The beautiful colors of the butterflies and the vividly hues of the flowers was breathtaking. My Swallow Tail photos didn't come out because they were in constant motion so it's all Monarchs I guess. We even got...

They are starting a bingo like game over on my Zentagle group on Yahoo. The 'entry fee' is to make a sampler of 9 patterns out of the 30 specified on a list. My sampler is posted on my Doodle site. http://mollydoodlesallday.blogspot.com/2011/07/sampler-for-new-zengo-game-on-my-yahoo.html

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Hit the Fairgrounds early on Saturday to beat the heat. Joey and Steve and I made the rounds in the barns. The animals were so hot. I love this photo of three different sized/patterned cows.  Then we perused the arts exhibits. This stained glass cabinet caught my eye.  As did this fabulous quilt of all of the counties in Wisconsin.  Couldn't get it all in one shot.  There was a hybrid car show. This old Gremlin brought back high school memories...  I don't know what this was but it was Molly Bee sized....  There was even room for Mr. Bentley if he wouldn't wiggle so much. I think it gets such great mileage because you have to pedal it to make it go. Maybe the solution is to make Ol' Ben pull it?  There was a sign on the midway that outlined how tall you have to be to ride on the rides.  Steve makes the grade. He's 'this big'. This girl wasn't tall enough but got in line anyway. She suffered the consequences.  (Actually, this was...

Got a call today that the old rooster at the farm was discovered dead in the pasture last night. Roberto was a nice rooster. He didn't peck me and he liked to be picked up and snuggled. He always kept a close eye on everyone and supervised the chores. He was old and it was really hot out and I'm thinking it was a combination that cooked his goose...er...so to speak. The farm owner said that she didn't see any signs that he was attacked by any of the usual suspects out in the yard but you know how that goes. The other inmates always claim they never saw a thing. She's thinking of having an autopsy done.  I don't think that's necessary really; sounds like natural causes to me, but it's not my call.  Although if a certain tom turkey should happen to turn up, uh... '  life-challenged'... possibly with his head on backwards and his sharp, pointy, evil, beak pointing over his tail,  just bury his feathery a$$ and don'...

I've been wearing clam digger pants a lot this summer. Pardon me, 'capris' is the proper term I guess. It's been so blasted hot. I can't wear shorts to the farm because of barn fowl who will remain nameless so capris seems like a pretty good compromise. Cooler than jeans and less bare leg to protect from sharp beaks and talons. I didn't realize how much I was wearing them until I happened to glance in the mirror after a shower the other day and realized I have a farmer's tan from below the knee down. Sheesh!  Time to get some self tanner and try to even it out. Chances are it will still be farmer's tan on the bottom and orange skin on top. Does this crap happen to anyone else? I've been working on a knitting project that I can't talk about and some art work that I can't talk about and relationship issues that I can't talk about. Hmm. Makes it difficult to blog.  All will be revealed soon enough I guess.

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Between work, the farm and socially things, I've been running around like a headless, barnyard fowl again. I know ONE barnyard fowl I wish was headless-or at least beak-less.  Eddie, the attack turkey, has formally decided that I am public enemy # 1 in his 'hood and has become relentless. He tries to mate with the other volunteer and tries to kill me. Story of my life. It's hard to do my chores when I'm defending myself with a leaf rake.  I'm not always successful even with that! But it hasn't been all work and no play.  The Naughty Girls came over to my house Friday night for Knit Night.   It was uber hot so we decided to set the AC on 'arctic' and chill (literally and figuratively) at Chez Bee this time. I made a taco salad and an apple pie that I wasn't ashamed of for a change.   Dale brought cheese and ice cream for the pie. Elizabeth brought cookies and caramel sauce and Jen made a fabulous kohlrabi/beet/peanut sauce salad and a ...

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I've had requests for pics so I finally took my camera to the farm today to get mug shots of some of the perpetrators... These are the kids.  The second from the left is Frosty. He lost some of his ears to frost bite. The one on the far right almost ate my bangs off today when we were snuggling on the goat jungle gym in the background. He was all nuzzley and then *chomp*. Thanks goodness he let go; I woulda had a hard time explaining that to Stylist-Scott! This is Gracie. She has given me new appreciation for geese. I'd only encountered nasty ones in the past, but Gracie is like a big, old, goofy, dog. She likes to see what everyone's doing and supervises most activities. When Beatrice and Henrietta, the pigs, broke loose of their outside pen on Friday night, she was at the head of the pig parade,  honking and running full tilt ahead of them the whole length of the barn when they thundered down to their inside stall. Always part of the action.  This is the turke...

So I spent the 4th over at my new volunteer job at a farm animal sanctuary near my house.   I have a four day internship on animal care before they set me loose on the poor critters. I had idyllic 'All Creatures Great And Small' pictures in my head of how things would be; me gently cradling baby lambs as the wind whispered softly through the meadow...that kind of thing.  It couldn't have been less like that.  As I put on my Facebook status when I got home, "I'm exhaused, sweaty, smelly and covered in goat poop, pig slop, llama spit and duck feathers. I haven't been this happy in a very. long. time." The main tasks in the morning are to feed and water all of the animals and take the ones outside that are allowed in the pasture.  This seemed along the lines of what I expected, until I was told to take a Tylenol taco to the black pig in the sty out back. Uh, you want me to take a what? Where? To Whom?  The lead volunteer took a lettuce leaf, loaded...