B-r-r-r-r . . .

I'm beginning to wonder if "that's all there is" to some reasonably seasonal weather.  What a year this has been---definitely out of the ordinary and definitely more than our share of erratic behavior with the weather. 

It's another cold morning here in North Idaho and gray.  There's a deep-seeded but glimmering hope that we've paid enough and will have a gorgeous fall.  Only time will tell, but at least we have a chance to have some color when the leaves begin to die this year.

Last year it was "cold turkey," so to speak, when one brutal frost in August did 'em in completely.  

Anyway, nothing we can do about what's gonna happen outside except to deal with it.  

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I put Annie's bird picture up today, just in case folks did not see it yesterday to vote.  Again, if she gets enough votes, it will appear on the cover of the 2011 Woodland Park Zoo calendar.  Today is the final day of voting, and you can go to http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=207932&id=8297947707&ref=mf. 

Voters must click the "like" button to become a fan of the zoo and then vote.

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Annie's headed off to Kansas today to spend time in a Verizon booth at the Kansas State Fair this weekend, explaining the geocaching feature on the droid phone.   I'd give anything to go there and hang out with her cuz I've always wanted to go to a state fair, and I'm guessing Kansas puts on one of the best. 

~~~~~

Bill and I will probably be attending the Celebrate Conservation party at Western Pleasure this weekend.  It's sponsored by the Clark Fork-Pend Oreille Conservancy and promises to be a lot of fun for everyone. 

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In the "small world" department, Sandpoint's Jesse Harris (son of Charlie Packard)  passed through a clerk's line at a store somewhere in Texas.  The clerk happened to be my sister-in-law Margaret's good friend.

Jesse told Dot, the clerk,  to tell Mrs. Love she met the guy who did the two-day book report on To Kill a Mockingbird.  I knew right off who Jesse was.

Phenomenal book report, to say the least.  He took on some of the major characters from the book and acted out scenes in a one-man show for the class.

We were all mesmerized for two days' worth of Jesse's genius.

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Today is lawnmower fixing day.  I did get a sizeable patch of lawn mowed yesterday with Lawnmower No. 2, but the minute I got off the mower to put the blade guard back where it belongs, the belt jumped its reels.

So, I'm hoping Tony comes early enough for me to finish the rest of the lawn.

If not, my neighbors Janice and Mark will get to gloat cuz their lawn will surely look better than mine.  At least, I have a disclaimer.

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Lefty is screaming as I type.  Today marks the first official day of his diet.  Lefty is an easy keeper and he's kept most of what he eats all over his body.  He's got fat lumps up by his tail and a good-sized paunch. 

I decided this morning to leave Lefty in the barnyard with a couple of flakes of hay.  He likes the hay, but he doesn't like being alone, so he screams.  I figure that maybe, along with his screaming, he'll run around the barnyard and burn off a few calories.  

Every little bit counts when you're losing weight.  I don't think Lefty's impressed with that thought, but for his own sake, he needs to become the biggest loser here at the Lovestead.

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Speaking of horses not liking to be alone, we had a couple of visitors yesterday.  The neighbors to the west had a couple of horses staying temporarily at their place to eat their grass.  Well, temporary was a little shorter time span than they originally anticipated.

Somehow the electric fence enclosure did not work, and the horses took off-----a Morgan mother and her 2-year-old daughter.  They had no trouble clearing the 3-foot high goat fence on the west border of our place and, of course, ran toward our horses, which were grazing in the hayfield.

In all the frenzy, the daughter horse jumped two sections of fence (one electric) into Meserve's pasture.  Obviously, once a horse has jumped and "ticked" an electric fence, it's gonna stay put in that pasture.

That's when all the commotion started---horses on the run, mother separated from daughter, resident horses racing and prancing around their field, trying to snort off the invaders, neighbors running with a halter to catch at least one of the escapees.

I had started a leisurely walk to the woods on a sleuthing mission to see where Brooke the grand puppy had been digging all morning when I first saw the action in the hayfield.  

It took a while, but we figured out how to get the mother back home.  It was soon thereafter that the daughter finally got up the nerve to jump those two stretches of fence (one electric) and come back home to Mommy. 

Then, I called Stan Meserve and told him he may have some fence fixing to do.  

All in a day's work here at the Lovestead, and I learned later that Brooke, the grand puppy, digs at the base of trees, wherever there's a squirrel in the limbs of the tree.  

And, there are a lot of squirrels here now.  

Never a dull moment, for sure!  Now, on to the morning routine and the wait for Tony to come and fix my mowers. 

Happy Friday and do pass the word about voting for Annie's bird.