Arnold and the Chipmunks

When I started to write this entry, the title came up as soon as I wrote "Arnold." I looked it up and sure enough a year ago I had an entry entitled "Arnold and the Chipmunks." Worse yet, it said just about everything I would have said about Arnold catching a chipmunk. It didn't say, however, that I think chipmunks are as cute as they can be, except-- they eat my flowers and sometimes dig them out of the pots for no apparent reason at all. Hubby tried catching chipmunks in a live trap and then submersing the whole trap. He got rid of 14 chipmunks that way in that one summer. Then, at a Master Gardener meeting, someone suggested that you leave a pail of water out with sunflower seeds floating on the top and the chipmunks will do themselves in. He tried that but came out in time to see the chipmunk swimming desperately and couldn't watch so he let him out. The chipmunk was apparently brain damaged and walked leaning heavily to one side. We decided Arnold was our best choice. Arnold got his exercise and enjoyment and the chipmunks had more than a fighting chance, besides it seems natures way.

Martha is a Civil Engineer

Saturday Martha received her diploma from the University of Detroit Mercy and is now a civil engineer. We had a big party with her sister's family from New York, a brother's family from Maryland, a sister's family from Ohio, and a brother from Wisconsin. Great Grandma was there along with aunts and uncles, cousins and lots of friends. It was quite a celebration. Now she needs a job!

Back to Cleaning

I have two weeks until Martha's graduation party and now that I have four days until we are back to having company, I have to get back to cleaning. I still have the kitchen to do. It gets really dusty up on the hanging lights and the fan blades. I cleaned the living room and dining room last week. My cats are rather bulimic at times so I had to scrub the wood floor. When I pulled out the credenza to clean behind it. I found 15 milk bottle rings. Hubby says the cats must use it as "goal."

"Sew Like the Wind"

I am a "Three Amigos" fan and I love that line, "Sew like the Wind." Gretel stopped here today and told me she is expecting a baby in February. I am so pleased! But that means I have twice as much knitting to do , two baby quilts and two baby name embroideries. I only have one stocking to complete by Christmas though. I am thrilled I just better "Sew like the wind."

Butterflies

The other day Hubby took this picture of an Eastern Swallowtail butterfly. He was very excited about it. Later that day I told him about this neat article I saw on Kittalog about eagles. He went to her site and looked at back episodes and found the Western Swallowtail Butterfly from her July 23rd entry. He was thrilled and even more amazed by her photography. (I don't know what she does for her living but her photography is excellent). He said," I need a new camera. " So Kitt if you are reading this, What kind of camera do you have?

Sunflowers

We have been busy planting in our new garden space but so have the chipmunks. We feed the birds. We have sunflowers for the cardinals and sparrows. Peanuts for the woodpeckers, nuthatches and sparrows. We have thistle for the finches and sparrows. We have a grape jelly feeder for the orioles and a hummingbird feeder. The birds tend to scatter seed and the chipmunks and squirrels love it. The chipmunks tend to bury clumps of sunflower seeds in our garden. At this time we have at least 5 clumps of blooming sunflowers. We pulled out lone plants or those which were not in suitable locations. All in all the chipmunks are better at planting flowers than we are.