Wordless Wednesday - warning - dead mouse photo ahead

And the rest of the story...

Put a dab of peanut butter on the yellow center circle and place trap. When mouse is caught, it kills it instantly when the trap closes on it's neck. Carry trap to disposal site, squeeze the ends together and the mouse falls out. In this case, into a plastic bag that was sealed and taken to the dumpster.  Sorry mouse, but you can't be in my house.

Tomcat Mouse Snap Trap - Best little mouse trap I've ever seen. 

Barbara/Katie 3, Mice 0.

(See sidebar on right for link to Amazon page with Tomcat info. I've bought a bunch of different kinds of traps, but this Snap Trap is the only that that has worked.)

From me and Katie, have a great mouse-free Wednesday, everyone!  :)

The Cliff Swallow Tree

 The other morning when Katie and I went outside for her first walk I heard a LOT of birds singing.  I looked across the street, and this tree was filled with Cliff Swallows.  They come out in the afternoon and fly back and forth, all over the place, fast.  I’m always trying to get shots of them flying overhead, but they are too fast for me.  That morning I had what seemed like unlimited time to take as many photos as I wanted.

The tree was just alive with birds.  They were constantly coming and going, landing on a branch then flying off.  They were also doing a lot of grooming while perched.  It was hard to get shots of them sitting nicely or flying on and off, but I managed a few.  Here they are. 


All I knew about these birds was that they were fast and flew overhead every afternoon, and had white undersides.
 

I got some close-ups and found they are really pretty birds.  I didn’t realize they had the rust color on their heads until I saw these shots.

I couldn’t find them in my field guides, so I showed the above photo to Hazel, and she identified them for me.
 

Hey, find your own branch!

 

 
I was happy to finally get some good shots of these little guys.  I love “bird trees” and was pretty excited to see the Cliff Swallow Tree.

Still no horses in the campground, they have been staying on the other side of the lake, but this bull has been around.  We saw him down by the boat ramp the other day…



… and yesterday evening we saw him by the road, munching his way up the “Private Road” to the Rangers house.   This is the one that was outside Hazel’s rig waking her Greyhounds up at 2 am the other night.



He seems to travel alone, because so far we haven’t seen any cows with him.

Well… I haven’t yet gotten under The Palms to fill in the holes the mice are using to visit us.  Late Monday evening Katie was asleep and I was starting this post and I heard some rustling noises under the driver’s seat in the cab.  I looked at Katie and she didn’t move.  Then I heard a click noise and Katie raised her head and we looked at each other.  S**t, another mouse.  I got out my flashlight and went outside, opened both doors and checked under the seats for the traps I had set there.  I was actually hoping to find a dead mouse in one of the traps since there was a click.  No such luck.

Look what I found:



It almost worked.  The mouse went right past the two kinds of traps I had set and stepped on this glue box that was baited with peanut butter.  He took one bite out of the peanut butter, but maybe it was too old.  He didn’t want more, and was able to step off, leaving only muddy footprints.  Now, don’t you all be telling me how cruel these glue traps are.  I have about 6 different kinds of traps, and whatever works is what I’m going to use. I have three different kinds of traps under each truck cab seat.  I think mice are cute and they are definitely God’s creatures, but if they are in my house, I’d rather catch them in a glue trap than stab them with my butcher knife and impale them to the kitchen floor.  Besides being cruel, that definitely puts holes in my kitchen floor!

I got out the bag of traps, etc., and baited a couple more plastic traps with peanut butter and renewed the bait in the traps under the cab seats. I put  two under the couch and the rest under the cab seats.  I was sooooo hoping we’d get him during the night.  Katie and I were awake on and off all night with Katie barking whenever she heard a sound, going up to the cab area, which I have blocked off so she can’t get up there, and growling and wagging her tail.  Jeeeezzz – what a night.

Check back tomorrow – Wordless Wednesday - for the second installment in photos.

WELCOME to our newest Follower, Dawn Fine!  She writes that she and her husband have been full-timing since 2001, and they love hiking, birding, mushrooming, shelling, rocking, and hanging out in the great outdoors and spending time with family and friends.  Her newest blog post has many pictures of a rare bird, the Red-necked Stint.  There’s something about water birds - whether they are at an ocean, creek or lake - that I love.  Great photos, Dawn.  That must have been fun.  I’m enjoying reading your blog, and love your photos.  Thanks for following me and Katie – we’re happy to have you along!
From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday night, everyone! 

Two little Katie stories and a campsite fight

People always want to hear more about Katie and ask for more photos, so today's the day.

First story:  After Katie's early afternoon walk, she gets half of a Kirkland Dental Chew for a treat.  They are her favorite treat right now, and she won't let me forget to give her one, that's for sure.  She knows exactly where they are stored. Here she is waiting for her chew, guess where I keep them:

I open the cupboard door...  look at that tail wagging:

"Katie - back, lie down!"

Good girl!  (She's so cute.)

Katie loves these Kirkland Dental Chews.  I break them in half, and the gets half a chew every day.  Yum.

Second story:  Katie has excellent hearing.  Her latest thing is this.  Every day in the early evening after it has cooled a bit, Hazel comes by to get us and we go for a ride in the car and exercise the Greyhounds who walk/trot alongside.  I've written about this before.  But the funny thing is this.  Day after day, Katie would bug me to go outside. Not at any exact time, just in the late afternoon/early evening.  EVERY DAY as we are walking along, Hazel's car comes around the bend.  The other day, Katie HAD to go outside earlier than usual, so we went outside.  We're walking along, and here comes Hazel, early.

I had company yesterday - a fellow camper was here putting a program on my computer.  He was done and we were talking and suddenly Katie jumped into my lap and stood up on my shoulders and stared at me. (That's how she tells me she needs something.)  I told my visitor that she must have to go outside, so we went outside. I was telling him about Katie always knowing when Hazel was on her way, but it was a little early.  Wouldn't you know it, around the bend comes Hazel.  Early - but Katie knew she was on the way and we were outside already.

Power and Fleur in the car out for a ride.  They walk outside for a while, then finish up inside.

Not only can Katie hear and recognize her car, I always have either the TV, the radio or a book on tape playing, and in the afternoons I play a computer game that is continuously making noises.  So over those two ongoing noises, she can still hear and recognize the sound of Hazel's car from far away.

Usually we get about half the way down the road before we see her.  If I won't take Katie out right away, like I want to finish a game, then we don't get as far.  It took me a while to figure it out, but Katie must hear them waaaay down the road to near where Hazel and the Greyhounds are camped.  They are at the front end of the park, and we're in the furthest campground by the dam. I know dogs have a good sense of smell, but I had no idea they could hear that well.  Aren't dogs amazing?

And now the Campsite Fight.

Here is my Resident Rabbit - he's kind of sneaky and mean looking, isn't he?  Look at those eyes.

He guards my campsite, and if a squirrel (I don't know if it's any squirrel or just this particular squirrel) tries to come in or run through, he attacks.  Sometimes he hangs out under The Palms, the better to keep an eye on things without being seen. 

Here's the poor squirrel in question yesterday:

I saw a scuffle out of the corner of my eye and looked out the window.  There was quite a fight going on with dust everywhere, rabbit and squirrel twisted together and jumping in the air, etc., so I grabbed my camera.  Things had calmed down a bit when I snapped these.  First the rabbit was in front, then the squirrel ran past and was chased by the rabbit up a tree.  
 

Kind of hard to make them out in the shade of the bushes and trees. The rabbit is on the lower left, and the squirrel is in the lower middle part of the photo.

Can you see them both with all eight feet in the air, running?  The squirrel finally reached a tall tree and ran up, leaving the rabbit behind.

Whew!  That was one tough bunny!

From what I've seen, the rabbit always wins.

WELCOME to our newest Follower, Arkansas Patti!  She says, "Have landed at the feet of 70 and hoping it is the new sixty."  Wow, Patti, I'm almost there with you, but I'm hoping it's the new fifty!  Patti has been on Blogger since 2008, so she's been blogging for five years.  Patti, I'm glad you are joining me and Katie on the road, we're happy to have you along.  Welcome aboard!  :)

From Me and Katie, have a great Friday night, everyone!  :)

What in the World is Wordless Wednesday?

Answer:

 

Per Wiki Answers:  On Wednesdays all over the Internet, bloggers post a photograph with no words to explain it on their blog. Hence the ‘wordless’ title. The idea is that the photo itself says so much that it doesn’t need any description.

There are many groups of like minded people blogging about a particular subject, like we do with our RVing blogs, and some of them band together to form a Wordless Wednesday Group.  There are Wordless Wednesday Bloggers from Mom's groups, church groups, canine groups, etc.  I'm not sure what they do, but I think they all link together so each blogger' s readers can click on the links to find more blogs on that subject.  It's a win/win.

I've decided to start my own personal Wordless Wednesday.  Since I'm a bit of a loner, I'm doing it alone.  Of course.  :)  So you won't find links to other RVing blogs participating in my Wordless Wednesday.  Sometimes I have a photo I want to post, but I don't want to do an entire post around it, so this solves that problem nicely.  A few of the bloggers I follow have Wordless Wednesdays, and I've always liked the idea. 

Now, I'm not promising great photos, or interesting photos, or special photos, but I'll try.  Sometimes it will just be a photo I like.  There will also be times I might cheat a little and get a photo or few from the Internet (like today).  Or even, horrors, post more than one.  See?  And you all know how hard it is for me to be wordless, I'll try, but it might not be completely wordless.  That's the nice thing about doing something by yourself.  You get to set the rules.  :)

So, without further ado (except the following words):

PHOTOBOMBING

What is Photobombing? 

1.  Typically, people/animals/things that appear unexpectedly in a photograph. 

2.  Photobombing is also the act of inserting oneself into the field of view of a photograph, often in order to play a practical joke on the photographer or the subjects.

3.  (verb) - to drop in a photo unexpectedly...to hop in a picture right before it is taken.

4.  An otherwise normal photo that has been ruined or spoiled by someone who was not supposed to be in the photograph. The most common photobomb is someone in the background making a face.

My youngest grandson photobombing a nice photo of my son and daughter-in-law.

The bird didn't plan this photobomb, I'm sure, but still...   I liked it. Internet photo.

Love the look on the photobomber's face on the right.  He's having FUN!  Internet Photo.

Here's an ostrich photobombing a nice family scene.  I laugh every time I look at this.  Internet photo.

From me and Katie, have a great Wednesday, everyone!  :)

What a mess! :(

I apologize to any followers who have received a spam e-mail from me.  It seems my AOL e-mail has been hacked again and I'm getting those fake messages, too, on my other e-mail accounts that are seldom used.  I now have a Master Password to get into AOL and then I input a new password to get to my messages.  Such a pain to have to go through all this again.

If you get an e-mail from me, don't click on any links.  I don't think they are viruses, at least not these from what I've been told, but they are still not from me.


I also apparently accidentally downloaded Sweetpacks and all it's various tentacles while downloading something from CNET.com.  I've always trusted them, but from now on, I'll go directly to the programs' websites.  There are too many "free" little programs that end up being downloaded if you aren't REALLY careful to DECLINE each and every one of them.  I'm not sure if Sweetpacks is from one of those, or from BING, which seems to be connected somehow. If it was a CNET download, I missed checking a DECLINE. I've uninstalled Bing and Sweetpacks, but Sweetpacks seems to still be there.  The research I've done shows that it's very hard to get rid of, and possibly a "factory install" decision should be made.  Anyone else have this problem in the past?

Then I installed Live Writer to give it a try, thank you, Rick, for the link!, and somehow the "temporary post used for theme detection" became the name of the post about the cows in the campground.  I did research on how to remove that, too, but it was just too much, and so it will have to stay that way for now.  

It seems like anything I do turns out biting me in my proverbial butt.  I'm tired of saying OUCH!

I'm thinking about reversing everything back to the factory install, but I've put a lot of time into re-loading programs and files back onto this laptop.  Also, it's been suggested by a couple of people that I delete my AOL e-mail account, but it's attached to everything I do.  That would be a major job.  Anyway, in the past I was able to get through this kind of craziness, and I'm hoping to do so again.

On to a brighter subject:

Can you imagine leaving this in your campsite when you leave?

A couple of weeks ago when I had a site near the lake, there was a huge rain during the night.  I think this belonged to some tent campers.  In the morning when Katie and I took our first walk of the day, we walked around the circle of sites across from us, and here was this bar-b-que in an empty campsite.  It is a gas bar-b-que, and still had four pieces of cooked chicken laying on the grill.  It would appear it was working the day before, because the meat was cooked.

I can't imagine what this was all about.  Anyway, it's in the lost and found I guess.  Weird, huh?

The day before, someone left a nice bike leaning up against a tree in the campsite next to the bar-b-que people.  They had two trucks and two RVs in the site, and I counted 10 bicycles at one point, so I'm not surprised one was left behind.  I reported both the grill and the bike to the office, and maybe the owners will call. 

Here are a couple of new photos of our current campsite.  Weekends we have some neighbors, but during the week, we're often the only ones down here at this end.  I love it. Lots of bunnies and squirrels in this area playing and running around. I got some photos of a runny fighting a squirrel for the rights to sit in my campsite - the runny won.  I'll post those another day.  As I was watching, it reminded me of the fight I captured between a squirrel and a quail at Quartzsite.  Remember that one?

Such a beautiful location!

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)