Liz Howell

I went to the barn the other day to get my golf cart and look at what was waiting for me!  I think he is called a Golden Orb Spider.  I have never seen a web like this before. The Zig Zag pattern is so cool. His web is really tough and didn't come apart when I moved the cart out even though some of his thinner strands were attached to it.  He is a very laid back spider and hasn't minded everyone coming to see him or me taking flash pictures of him.  Its been about a week now and he hasn't moved so pickings must be good in the barn. I just have to remember that he is there and not walk into the web when I get the golf cart out.  I don't think I would like him so much if he was crawling on me.  Jim calls him our security system because if anyone goes walking through his web they will sure be screaming instead of stealing. Update: I just found out that this is a yellow and black garden spider. Harmless to humans and this one happens to be a female. Continue reading →

Thanksgiving this year was really great!  My Mom, Brother, Sister-in-Law and Nephew all came down to visit. We actually had dinner on Sunday as they were going to be in Orlando on Thanksgiving day.  Sunday morning I took my Brothers family to Silver Glenn and boy was the water cold.  I did not stay in it nearly as long as I normally do. My Brother and Zack (Nephew) snorkeled around and had a great time while Laurie and I stayed on the bank taking pictures and watching them have fun. Continue reading →

Thanksgiving week was an up and down week. Jim was sick most of the week which of course made my week not so great.  We went to the neighbors for Thanksgiving dinner and they were both sick.  Jim took about two bites of his food and turned solid white so I told him he needed to go home immediately.  I guess what little he ate came up on the walk back home, poor guy I felt so bad for him.  I wish the neighbors hadn't gone through all the trouble they did to make all the delicious food as they really needed to be resting and not having company.  I quickly ate, said my goodbyes and went on home all the while praying I didn't come down with what all these sick folk had. Several hours later I too was able to re-taste what I had eaten earlier Yuck. Talk about being bummed, I was really wanting to hit the Black Friday sales and this was the last thing I needed. Continue reading →

Every year Jim and I participate in the Haunted House for the community put on by the Forest Advisory Council with help from the Eagles.  It is free to the community and benefits those in the area. This years theme was a haunted pirate ship.  Diana a local artist did a fabulous job on the backgrounds and creating the rooms. I went as a vampire pirate and Jim went as Hammerhead from the Pirates of the Caribbean. I wasn't scary enough to scare anyone but Jim got a whole lot of screams.  We did not have as many victims this year as we did last year but it was still a lot of fun.

We came home that night only to find that someone has tried to break into our house.  They busted the window and twisted out the whole frame in my computer room.  We will have to replace the entire window now which was an expense we had not planned for.  We filed a police report but were told that the charges will only be for misdemeanor vandalism since it did not appear anyone got in.  We have an idea of who it was because only a few people knew we would both be gone for the event and the times that we would be gone.

Well Slick kitty is MIA.  The last time we saw him was Monday night for dinner, it is now Sunday the 27th and still no Slick. I went to Animal Control on Thursday to see if anyone had picked him up and turned him in but no luck.  We have searched the roadways in the event he was hit by a car but never found a body. If he was ok I am sure he would come back home, however he was our resident hunter and prone to investigating things that he had no business messing with to include getting in vehicles that didn't belong to him so who knows. I can only hope that perhaps he is at someones house and living the life of luxury as an indoor house cat.

Slick showed up on our doorstop as a young kitten, he was very sweet and very skinny. After about 1 month when it seemed he was here to stay I took him to get his shots and neutered. He brought home Black Kitty about 6 months later, they were always together play fighting, chasing each other and stalking small critters around the property. Slick has only missed one feeding in the entire two years he was here and that's because I accidentally locked him in the horse trailer, so he didn't really miss that feeding as I heard him crying and let him out.

The first couple of days that Slick was gone Black Kitty and Abbie seemed to be on edge so perhaps they know something I am better off not knowing. Black Kitty who has always been reserved and shy is now very active about coming to see us and sleeping on the porch. I have never been able to catch him so I can't let him in the house (even though I want too) as he might have something contagious and Naomi is fighting her own battles with bowl issues so we certainly can't take a chance on her getting sick with something else.

I will check the pound again next week and hope to find Slick but unfortunately my hopes are not high on finding him. We did have him micro-chipped so if he is scanned our address will show up and maybe he can come home. We all miss him terribly.

Jim's Firecracker Lilys bloomed and once again he was out of town so I took a picture for him. He was at his Mother's last year when they bloomed too. They are really pretty but multiply like crazy, I have already re-potted six of them this year and still have 2 more that need to be removed from thier original container. They are very beautiful but only bloom for a short amount of time before dying back to thier bulb.

We had three baby Armadillos visit us this year. They were so cute to watch, they rooted around the yard and jumped on the mower and if anyone tried to touch them they leaped up in the air. They looked like little pogo sticks jumping around. Armadillos must not be on the menu because Slick our resident hunter was content to just watch them. The older they got the darker grey they turned. We haven't seen them for a few weeks now so we don't know if they are still living under the shed or if they moved on to a quieter place in the forest. They are certainly distructive creatures when they become adults but we really enjoyed having them around as babys.

WOO HOO!  Jim and Tyler after almost 3 weeks finally got my computer room totally refinished.  They put in solid oak flooring, drywall, baseboards, redid all the seams and doorways and the room looks fabulous.  I had purchased some paint along the green lines thinking it would be very very pale and painted the walls.  After I was finished all of us agreed that it just wasn't the right color.  It reminded me of the green appliances from the 60s-70's and shag carpets, yuck so ugly.  I told Jim and Tyler that they could go pick out a color because obviously I am color blind and that what ever they picked out would surely have to be better than what was currently on the walls.

They came back with a peach-beige-brown like color (I told you I am color blind) and it fits the room perfectly.  Jim just has one more piece of trim to install and a little more caulking but enough has been done that I had them move the furniture back into the room. I am sooo happy and the room feels so light and airy now.  I spend 90% of my house time in the computer room as it is also my craft room, tack cleaning room, E-bay room, television room, cat room, sewing room, and anything else I want to do that Jim won't allow me to do in the main part of the house.

Now I am in the process of putting everything away Neatly, unfortunately its already a mess. Funny how that happens...CYA!

Here are a couple of pics before the final touches.