Eye Camel Friday!!!!! Whoopeee! (and some other stuff)

Well, it has come again and Oliver is reeeeeal excited about this one. Okay, maybe about as excited as normal (I'm not really sure because his expression never changes from the one he had when he was originally carved out. Strange, huh?)

We went outside today as one of the many trains that pass in front of the gallery came by, so Oliver decided to sit in one of the flower boxes and watch.

Can't you just see the joy in his little camel eyes?


It's a real train hauling coal. WOW!
(By the way, did you know that down closer to the Twin Cities yesterday there was a train derailment. The train was hauling coal, too, but on a different line. I suppose that we will be having even more trains coming by for the next little while until they fix those tracks.)


The whole thing was very interesting to Oliver, but he is thankful to live outside of town where the sound of the train whistle doesn't wake him up in the middle of the night. He needs his beauty sleep. Train whistles sound nice from a mile away, but when they're just down the block they can sure be bothersome. Just ask the people who live along the tracks.

Here are a few more pictures from around the neighborhood.


Dan (in the back) and my b-i-l heading out onto Butternut Lake for a quick go around.


One of the prettiest views around. I love to walk up here and just look out onto the lake and the fields. (The local volunteer fire department also sends their weather spotters up here because you can see bad stuff coming in real easily from this point.)


This is "Scared Little Kitty." He, or she, (actually it's more likely that SLK is a she) doesn't really care for human company, but puts up with us as long as we don't get too close and keep food in the food dish.


This is Barney (you've already seen a picture or two of him, I think). He's named after Barney Fife from the Andy Griffith Show and he used to have a sister named Thelma Lou, but she didn't make it. You see, when you live on a farm, there are times when people decide to randomly drop off little kittens. This has happened to us a few times. That is how we have our two (not so) male (anymore) cats, Norman and Barney. Norman came to us about 4 years ago in the fall as a very tiny kitten. He had a sister and a brother, too (Squirt and Herman), but they also didn't make it. Barney and his sister came to us 2 years ago in the fall. I get quite annoyed with the people who drop these kittens off with us. (If I knew who they were, I would try to tell them a thing or two about how to make sure they don't have kittens on their property that they don't want) Both times this has happened the kittens have been too young to leave their mothers, so we have had to go to the vet and get milk replacer for them because they don't know how to eat regular cat food. Plus, at this age they are extremely susceptible to disease. Norman's siblings were a little weaker than him and died from either distemper or another cat ailment (they had probably already been exposed before I was able to get them their shots) and Barney's sister just couldn't figure out how to eat.

. . . But I have a real soft spot in my heart for animals (especially, kittens). I guess it comes from being the only girl in my family growing up and playing by myself most of the time. One of my favorite things to do was to go down to the barn in the summer and find the little nests of kittens in the haymow. I mean, I like dogs, horses, sheep, rabbits, gerbils, mice, and the list goes on and on, but golly-gee-whiz cats are a whole lot of fun.

Well, anyway-have a good weekend!