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Tooty2shoes
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Recent Entries to this Blog Finally some normalcy-I hope!
Posted: 31 Jul 2014
New Hobby.
Posted: 31 Jul 2014
No More Goats! My heart can't take it.
Posted: 25 May 2014
No Phez!
Posted: 22 Apr 2014
Pheasant racing? No REALLY.
Posted: 26 Jan 2014

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Tooty2shoes's Blog

Got weeds? Just eat them!


Finally some normalcy-I hope!

Category: A little of this and a little of that. | Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 2:48 pm

This has been quite the nerve racking last 8 months. Starting in Sept. when My Mom fell and broke her leg. Which need to have pins and a rod put in. Then nursing home rehab nightmare. Then good nursing home rehab threw Oct-Nov. Nov. she came to live with my hubby and I.
Then my Mom fell in Dec. and broke her wrist and slightly fractured her shoulder. Cast on arm for 6 wks so needed to help her with dressing, bathing, hair setting, ect. But thank God no wiping if you know what I mean. Shoulder healed on it own.
Mom healed great but memory not so good. Especially short term. Had many discussions on-now where did you put this or that. Many search missions which was very frustrating. Especially when one of them was looking for her 900.00 dollar hearing aids.
But since she was living downstairs I knew they would turn up sooner or later. Thank God they did. Also because of short term issues my patience wore very thin and so did hers.
Then in Jan. my hubby retired. So now my life consisted of breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all of us. I knew I needed a hobby to help me cope and relax. So that is when I started to do Wet on Wet oil painting.
Buy May I had had enough of being a care giver to my Mom instead of her daughter. I do not want to sound like I do not love my Mom. I love her to pieces.
But having her living with us was not working out like we had thought.
Now that my hubby was retired we wanted to do some 3 day get aways and we couldn't because my Mom was on safe to leave on her own.
So this July she moved in and assisted living apt. and is doing great. She gets her own breakfast and the other 2 meals are provided. Plus a lot on interaction with folks her own age.
I am so relieved knowing that she is in a safe place with care givers on site.
I am now her daughter once again and loving it. Plus my hubby and I have been able to get away for 2-3 day mini vacations. I know having my Mom living here was hard on him also. Especially when she would complain about his channel surfing to him.
During that time I didn't go online very much either. But now want to get back into the swing of things like before.
I did get our veggie garden planted and so far so good. Beans are in the freezer and next is the beets. Well I better close this blog. Hoping our next 8 months are back to our normal.

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New Hobby.

Category: A little of this and a little of that. | Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 2:21 pm

I have always loved to draw and paint. One of my favorite painters to watch is Bob Ross on our public TV channel. He died in 1999 but they still run his shows. I am so glad they do.
I have gotten so inspired by his oil painting technique called; Wet on wet. That I got some paints and canvas and dvds of his teachings you how to do wet on wet oil.
Here are my first three paintings I have done so far.
One thing I forgot is how messy I am. So I often get as much paint on the canvas as on me. He,he,he. But I am enjoying experimenting with this fun painting technique.



Mountain Birch ( photo / image / picture from Tooty2shoes's Garden )






River Centennial. ( photo / image / picture from Tooty2shoes's Garden )






Winter Reflections. ( photo / image / picture from Tooty2shoes's Garden )





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No More Goats! My heart can't take it.

Category: A little of this and a little of that. | Posted: Sun May 25, 2014 2:42 pm

I think some of you knew that we had two fainting goat weathers. Ziggy and Sweet Pea. Well the end of April my hubby noticed that Ziggy was acting strange. Lying down, getting up and rubbing his head against his stall walls. Ziggy was born hear when I was raising Fainting goats 8yrs ago now. He was still our silly little goats who loved attention. When ever he would see you outside he would talk to you and want you come over and give him a good scratching.
So I called the vet to come out and see what was the matter. Of course it was on a Saturday. He checked him over and gave us the bad news. He had a urinary calculous that was blocking his urinary track and that they was no treatment for it.
In my heart I knew that is what the doc would say.
So we had him put to sleep. Both my hubby and I stood there hugging each other and crying.
Our other goat Sweet Pea knew something was up. He came over and smelled Ziggy and looked at him lying in the stall. We left Ziggy in the barn for several days so Sweet Pea wouldn't panic and run around and look for him after we took him out of he barn.
That was had to see him for several days just lying there dead. So on the third day we loaded him up into a small trailer and my hubby hauled down to the bottom of our wooded property and covered him with old straw and tree branch's. The ground was still frozen and we couldn't even bury him.
I said no more goats. So we found Sweet Pea a home that had other goats as they need to not be alone. As I typed this I still had tears in my eyes thinking about our funny, and friendly Ziggy.

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No Phez!

Category: A little of this and a little of that. | Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:39 pm

It has been over a month since we saw our vehicle racing Pheasant. We are hoping that he went off to find a mate and didn't get ate by something instead. I was so fun having him around all winter and watching is car chasing antics. Now we are enjoying watching the Blue Birds who have finally returned.

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Pheasant racing? No REALLY.

Category: A little of this and a little of that. | Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:00 pm

Well I have been trying to get a video of this crazy male Pheasant that has adopted ours and our neighbors yards. He must have been raised and then released. He is so neat to see under our bird feeder.
But he has a funny quirk. He loves to race vehicles that come down our dead end road. The other day I was sitting in the kitchen watching the birds and here come Phez strolling into the front yard. Just then the mail man drove past our house and he was off running after the car as fast as he could go.
I sat their laughing at the sight. So I kept watch knowing that the mail man would be driving past our place again soon. Sure enough. There came the mail car with Phez in hot pursuit. I think he must associate cars with being fed as he will chase after any car that comes down the road. I will keep trying to get a video of him doing his car act.

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No dead birds. YIPPY!

Category: A little of this and a little of that. | Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:53 pm

Just a quick update. Since my last post and I took down all my feeders. Bleached them really good. Waited 3wks and rehung them. We have had no birds getting sick. I am so happy because we much have at least 30 goldfinches and an equal number of Junkos that visit our feeders everyday. Plus the chickadees, woodpeckers, and nuthatches.
With our winter being so cold we are also feeding the 40 or more turkeys that come into our yard. I will be so glad when we have temps in the 20's and 30's and not below zero. Tomorrow and Tues our highs are going to be below zero.

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I GIVE UP!

Category: A little of this and a little of that. | Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2013 9:31 pm

Just a note to let you know that my Mom is doing great and is living here with us.
I am thinking of GIVING UP on feeding the birds. I bought feeders this year that I can clean with bleach to keep the Salmonella bacteria in check. All summer things where going great. Then 3wks ago I noticed sick looking finch's at the feeders. I just hate it and am not sure why the House Finch's seem to be the ones who show the first signs being sick. Then they spread it to the other finch's and small birds.
I am soooo frustrated as it has returned and the house finch's are dying off weekly. So I took my hanging feeders down AGAIN! I will clean them with straight bleach and let that dry and then hang them back out in 3 wks.
Last winter was really bad with finch's getting sick and dying. I even had a red poll and white winged cross bill die. I just may resort to feeding on the ground only.
It really makes me sad to see those little feathered friends getting sick.


This blog entry has been viewed 308 times


Oh no. Not again!

Category: A little of this and a little of that. | Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2013 2:29 pm

Here we go again. On Sept. 14th my dear 90 yr. old Mom fell down while we where at an art museum and broke her femur up near the top part of her leg. So she is in a nursing home for another 2 weeks for rehab and then will come to live with us.
Now I am pressed for time in getting our family room fixed up for her to live in. She will be out and walking in two weeks from now.
So I am busy, busy, busy, and some what dizzy from the frantic pace as of late.
Last week I packed up her apt. and then on Sat. we moved everything into a Pod and had them deliver it to our house. Those are great. I would have really pulled out my hair if I had to move all of her stuff into our home. Now we have the pod as a storage unit until I get things squared away here.
Now where did I leave my brain.

This blog entry has been viewed 353 times


We Love to EAT Out

Category: A little of this and a little of that. | Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2013 2:49 pm

Both my honey and I love to eat out on the weekends. Frees up our time so we can do other things that we enjoy.
One of the restaurants we dine at is Perkins. We I just read an article that told you what you should not eat and what you can substitute as a lower calorie meal.
Now this meal sounds really healthy but it is loaded with calories, fat, and sodium. Go figure!
It's their Butterball Turkey & Dressing meal. White turkey meat is one of the lightest meats you can eat. But because it is covered in gravy and it comes with so many starchy side dishes it looses it's good for you benefit. That meal includes mashed potato's with gravy, broccoli and cranberry sauce and a roll. Are you ready for this----
That meal has a whopping 1,000 calories, 49 grams of fat (yikes!), 19 grams of saturated fat, are you ready---3,230 mg of sodium.
That's more than a weeks sodium need in one meal.

The article suggests that you substitute eating their
Top Sirloin Steak Dinner, w/baked potato w/ whipped butter blend, Butter-steamed broccoli and skip the roll as it can add an extra 120 calories.
The above meal is 570 total calories, 22 grams of fat, ).5 g trans.fats,280 mg of sodium. Even though the fat is higher in this meal. It is still a better choice.
We I know what I will be ordering the next time I go to Perkins. Stay tune for more restaurant bad for you and good for you meals.

This blog entry has been viewed 383 times


Not Raccoons!

Category: A little of this and a little of that. | Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 4:38 pm

Well last fall I finally designed a suet holder that has kept the crows from devouring all of the suet I put out for the woodpeckers. It's a bit crude, but it works.


Suet feeder to keep out the crows. ( photo / image / picture from Tooty2shoes's Garden )

Because the roof is slanted and there is not enough room for the crows to sit on top of the suet they have been leaving it alone.

But because it is mounted on a maple tree in our front yard the raccoons have been coming and eating it at night. A week ago I went to let our little dog out around 9:00pm to do her job. When I turned on the porch light and saw threw the window in the door a raccoon sitting by the tree licking it's lips after dining on my suet. I never let our little girl out without first checking to make sure there is nothing that she will try and chase.
I quickly grabbed by 22 rifle and stepped outside on the front porch. As soon as I opened the door it was off in a flash. I took a shot at it to scare it off.
Now I have been taking the suet in every night and putting it back out in the morning. I guess they have to eat too. But not my suet!
So the suet saga goes on. I think my next scheme will be to put a piece of wire mesh over the suet at night and then take it off during the day. I love the quote by the wicked witch in the Wizard of OZ---I'll get you my pretty.
Here is a pic of the suet feeder on the tree from my kitchen window. Look for info on the bird feeder in a post I will make later.




New bird feeder with suet feeder on tree in background. ( photo / image / picture from Tooty2shoes's Garden )





This blog entry has been viewed 367 times




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