Welcome to the Mote!  

The Good Life

Host: arkymalarky

Are you a newbie?
Get an attitude.

Jump right in!

Mote Members: Log in Home
Post

Go to first message Go back 20 messages Messages 4723 - 4742 out of 5155 Go forward 20 messages Go to most recent message
4723. arkymalarky - 4/15/2012 3:36:32 AM

Haha!

4724. thoughtful - 4/15/2012 2:04:50 PM

Library is almost finished...new rug, new sofa, painted the wall aubergine and new painting from the ny art expo...

4725. arkymalarky - 4/15/2012 3:56:20 PM

Beautiful!

4726. judithathome - 4/15/2012 8:51:34 PM

Now THAT'S a library!!

4727. thoughtful - 4/16/2012 3:55:08 AM

It's been awhile since I posted pics of the house with all the work we've been doing...I'll have to do that when I get a chance. All window treatments are done except for the DR.

4728. thoughtful - 4/16/2012 4:04:44 AM

I did select some of my photos and converted them to B&W and framed them for over the wood stove in the family room.

4729. iiibbb - 4/16/2012 3:30:49 PM

Concerned about the tolerance between the wood stove and the pictures... have you had a fire in that yet?

4730. judithathome - 4/16/2012 4:06:46 PM

Love the stone work on the walls....

4731. thoughtful - 4/16/2012 4:29:22 PM

Yes we've had a fire many times....there's sufficient clearance for the wood beam, and the pics are above that so there is no problem. Objects appear closer than they are.....

4732. vonKreedon - 4/16/2012 5:03:54 PM

I had the same worry as i3b3, the chimney stovepipe gets damned hot at times and I worried for the two pictures directly behind it.

I want to be in your library, reading and drinking scotch.

4733. judithathome - 4/16/2012 5:22:26 PM

I'm assuming, since she said they were copies, that the originals are safely tucked away somewhere...undisturbed by stovepipes!

4734. thoughtful - 4/17/2012 12:29:29 AM

Actually that's a double walled stove pipe so it doesn't get as hot as you may think.

The pics are all digital and I printed them at kinkos fr $5 each....the frames are massively expensive courtesy of Le Wal-Mart.
;)

4735. wabbit - 4/17/2012 10:53:02 PM

I'm going to be very surprised if your home doesn't end up in a magazine. It's really beautiful.

And when is your calendar going to be available?

4736. thoughtful - 4/18/2012 12:03:50 AM

Well the architect is putting the house in for an award and if we win it will be in a mag...but there are so many beautiful homes, we're a long shot...I'd be happy if we get an honorable mention.

4737. iiibbb - 4/18/2012 3:08:44 AM

Best ENGAGEMENT Photos EVER made

4738. concerned - 4/18/2012 8:30:53 PM

I was reading about close encounters between wolves and humans and noticed that most of them were at a distance of 50 yards or more, or with a window in between the human and the wolf, generally with the wolf retreating as soon as it was aware of a human presence.

How about 10 feet away, and with nothing but a shovel in my hand between me and the wolf as it trotted right by me in broad daylight over the just cleared roadway and went into the woods?

This occurred about 12 years ago while I was hand grading part of the driveway to the house I was going to have built (the building site was not yet cleared, so I was surrounded by woods on all sides with a partially cleared roadway in front of me.

This gray wolf just trotted by me, as I said, about 10 feet away. It weighed, I would estimate, 80 to 100 lb, and it was definitely gray and extremely wolflike looking. No collar or tags on it either.

To say the least I was very surprised, because wolves are almost, but not quite, unknown in northern Illinois. The thing was close enough to have jumped on me before I could probably whack it with the shovel.

That close enough?

4739. vonKreedon - 4/18/2012 8:48:37 PM

I had a similar experience 23 years ago in the Cascades. I had been in the national forest just north of Mt. Ranier, digging up trees, and was all alone down at the start of the road waiting for my boss, a distinctly lower middle class guy, to show up and give me a ride back to Seattle. As I stood there a wolf stepped out of the woods and onto the road about 30 feet from me. We both froze in surprise and fight/flight. The wolf then went for flight and ran up the hill disappearing in the timber. Hell of a rush.

4740. concerned - 4/18/2012 8:51:09 PM

My funniest close encounter with a skunk:

I was returning home just finishing up a 3 mile run earlier this year, it was approaching twilight, and I was on part of the same driveway the wolf above used to trot past me, and I heard a sudden rustling in the undergrowth in front of me and a little to the side.

Guess what? It was a polecat at 2 O'Clock about 8 feet away from me paralleling my path. It was actually comical how it was crab-legging as if it had a stick up its butt trying to get an opportunity to set itself and spray me, but I was a little too fast for it, as I was rapidly coming up along its side.

After a few seconds, the skunk had to give it up and let me pass without odorizing me. Poor little stinker!

4741. concerned - 4/18/2012 9:01:19 PM

Re. 4739 -

I'll trade my wolf for yours. Mine was obviously none too afraid of me since it had to have detected me a couple hundred of feet away, yet still approached close enough to touch with a ten foot pole. I basically froze - I didn't want to take a chance on potentially encouraging aggression in a good sized apex carnivore that obviously wasn't spooked or leery of humans. This wolf kept a constant course on the cleared roadway and a pace of a steady trot throughout, not appearing to pay special attention to me, fortunately, as it ran from my left to my right in front of me. A few seconds later, it was lost to my sight in the woods.

4742. thoughtful - 4/18/2012 10:10:43 PM

I always wished i had a vid cam going when our cat learned a good lesson. We were out front at the old house working in the rock garden and the cat was outside with us. There was a turkey grazing on the lawn. I watched as the cat skulked along ever so slowly, paw step by paw step, creeping slowly toward the turkey whose back was to the cat. Closer and closer he got then he stopped, waited, wiggled his butt, wagged his tail tip and took off like a shot and batted the turkey in the butt. Scared to death the turkey took off at a dead run with the cat only inches behind.

As the turkey was running, she craned her long neck around to see what was chasing her. While not normally expressive, I swear I saw that turkey give a look like, "that little pip squeak thinks he's going to chase me!" The turkey did a u-turn and took off after the cat. When the cat realized what was happening, he practically jumped in the air, pulling a 180 and took off like a shot for the house. As he's tearing across the lawn, the turkey is gaining on him. Cat dives under the bushes, totally unaware that bushes don't stop turkeys. Turkey dives in after him. By this time, I'd reached the bushes, scared the turkey off and rescued the cat.

Score: Turkey 1, cat 0

Go to first message Go back 20 messages Messages 4723 - 4742 out of 5155 Go forward 20 messages Go to most recent message
Home
Back to the Top
Posts/page

The Good Life

You can't post until you register. Come on, you'll never regret it. Join up!