Whats New? Captain Jack Reports...

Well my Mom has been really busy. With what you ask? You will never believe this story. Its just nuts!
Last week on Thursday my brother and his friends went sailing at the lake where my Mom and Dad take me. See picture above for the view(-:
Anyhow... when my brother got to the lake and unloaded his sail boat he found a baby rat laying (or is that lying? Forgive me I forget) on the boat trailer! He said the rest of the family must have fallen off on the ride to the lake! How tragic right? Well you know if I was there, there would be no rats left(-: Anyhow, my brother has a soft heart...kinda gets that from my Mom!
He felt bad for the little baby and took it over to the grass and laid it down. Then he and his friends went sailing for the afternoon. I guess he didn't feel that sorry...(-:
When he arrived back at the boat dock he checked on the baby rat. Guess what? It was still alive! Amazing huh? Of course I wasn't there to help with that part! So my brother decided it should come home and see what we could do to help it. Ha! I am laughing at this point in the story! Of course I would love to "help!"
My brother didn't have that kind of help in mind. How rude.)-: He asked my Mom to help with it! Can you believe it? What did they do you ask? Well they fixed some formula up and fed it with a syringe minus the needle of course! My mom keeps all this on hand just in case she has to take care of an orphan. It happens more then you think! I at this point still can't believe I am watching this happening. Me...the rat terrorist! I am really unhappy sitting next to my mom watching her feed this little baby RAT! Geez Mom what are you thinking? It needs to be fed every 3 hours? Are you kidding me? What about me? So anyhow you get the story. Mom is busy taking care of a rat. Oh you want to see it? Well your in luck cuz Dad snapped a picture for proof! Can you see me licking my chops? Well, no cuz Dad didn't take MY picture)-:

We did however get to go to the lake on Saturday. It was very nice and no RATS to look at all day! My brother had to take care of the rat(-: It was of course there when we got home and my sister even bought it a new little rat cage to live in! Can you believe it? We have to keep it? Oh...and Mom said to tell you its doing really good and its eyes opened yesterday! Yay now it can see me licking my chops!!!!

Fairy House

This is one of the gifts I got in my Summer Junk Gift Exchange on Garden Web from Jeannie. I loved it and as it sat on my table for a month a vision came to me.(-: Can you hear that clicking in my brain...(-: This project cost Zero dollars. I had all the stuff to use.


I had an old birdhouse that was in a tree and kept falling out. I decided to use it for this project. I painted it brown to start with. Then I added the gear flowers for windows. Of course it didn't stop there. (-: The porch light is an acorn top and a piece of the cracked safety glass from my bbq project(-: The number 8 is off an old telephone pole we salvaged years ago. The door is made of driftwood. The "hinges" are from a pepsi can top. The door knob is an old screw.

I used pinecone pieces for the shingles then I covered it in moss. I added snail shells here and there and pieces of fungus. The huge piece of fungus was collected from a tree stump in my yard(-: These were all dried.

I used acorn tops for bowls on the table. The table is a piece of driftwood cut and the base of the table and the base of the chairs are deer antlers. There is also a deer antler in the roof as you may have already noticed. The umbrella is a lotus seed pod. I glued an acorn top to the top of the umbrella for a finale.

I used many pieces of fungus and placed them randomly around the house as well.

The patio is made from slate that I broke in pieces and glued. I then grouted it to finish it off(-: I also added pieces of slate to the sides of the house and back and then grouted them as well.

I am not finished with it yet. I plan to add a light to it and some more "windows" in the back.

Cactus Monday

Happy Cactus Monday everyone!
I finally have a cactus to share! This one opened on Saturday and it is just stunning. I love this cactus. It is planted in my bbq planter. Thank You Cathy from Outside In for identifying this cactus as a Frailea-Grahliana!







Enjoy your day and don't forget to swing by and check out the other Cactus Monday participants at our hostess with the mostest Teri

Junk Art

My brother made me this mom and baby for Mothers Day a few years ago. She use to have a frying pan head but she fell over one day and off came her head! It was an ugly sight! Anyhow...earlier this summer I re did her when the fishing guy broke his head off. I added this clay pot for a head then planted it with dichondra silver falls. It makes a nice hair-do for her don't you think?(-:

Window/Shutters/Window box

I finally finished the shower pond garden. I got the window a while back and painted it black. I added chicken wire so I could have a vine climb on it. Then a month ago my Dads GF gave me the shutters and the planter box. I painted them black and added some chicken wire behind the shutters to match the window.
Last week I finally found a life saver ring to add to the window.
I plan to add some Sugar Pine pinecones to the planter box.(-:
To complete the window, I added a fishing net valance over the top. I stapled the net to a piece of driftwood I got at the lake on Saturday(-:
So anyhow here is the whole scene completed.



And a picture of the window/shutters/planter box and life saver ring(-:



You can't see the otter but he is still there showering up! He never seems to move from that spot! I guess he likes it! (-:

Please Meet Milton and Myrtle Muckle

Some loser dumped these poor things out on the road yesterday and they were walking down the asphalt! It was 100 degrees out. Imagine the pavement! Poor things were hot and thirsty and distressed. My brother found them and caught them pretty easily and brought them to me. I fed them and watered them and they are recovering nicely. We have lakes and a river not far from here where they could have been released. Why would someone dump them on a roadway?

The Adventures Of Captain Jack

Ahoy Mateys! Boy do I have a story for you!
Todays adventure started at 5am! We got up, loaded up and left for the lake. Dad wanted to get there before the sun came up! I told Dad that was just to early for me, but he wasn't listening!
When we got to the lake, Dad got the boat in the water and we started our voyage! I figured I would catch a lot of Z's on board Dads boat so I wasn't to worried, but not long after we anchored in our favorite fishing hole and I was finally sound asleep and snoring, I got a whiff of something. I jumped to attention like any good old guard dog would do.





No It wasn't an Osprey I smelled...



And...it most certainly was not the silly CAT TAILS! Which by the way look nothing like a cats tail! Who comes up with these names for plants anyhow?



Neither was it the quacky ducks!



The smell I smelled was definitely not an Egret either...

No this was a very distinct smell. I had to bark to get my Mom and Dads attention...It was something much bigger.


Yup there it is...

A black bear...

And not just one...Mom and Dad said there were seven altogether!

I lost count. I got tired of counting bears!

The bears seemed to be searching for something to eat. I am glad they decided to look somewhere else.

They were pretty big!

They liked the water!

They also seem to like to chase each other!

We watched them for a long time until they were out of sight!

Then pretty soon another one would come around the corner!

And, sometimes we saw two bears at the same time!


Even after we left that area and went to another place we saw one more bear!



Needless to say, I was so exhausted after all that bear watching I passed out on the blanket in my chair!


I was so glad to get home to my nice warm bed and not have to worry about bears anymore!

Until next time,
May you all have a tastey bone to chew on!
Your Captain,
Jack!

Clouds

Will it rain?

The Blues Brothers

I was inspired by Karen on Gardenweb to make my own pair of Jake and Elwood Blues.
These were made out of a pair of old pink flamingos my Dads GF gave me. Thanks Janice! I also want to thank my daughters friend BF Alicia for going to Michaels in Sacramento to get the sunglasses and bringing them all the way to Redding for me!!! Thanks Alicia!!!! (((hugs to you both)))
Here they are in all their glory.

This is Elwood


Jake

Elwood and Jake together



I am sure that brought a smile to your face and a good chuckle(-: Until next time...

Adventures With Captain Jack

Ahoy Mateys! It is I, Captain Jack again sailing the seven seas! Well o.k. we were not actually sailing the seven seas, just the lake. In all honesty it was more like a cruise on the USS Minnow! Whoof!
For your viewing pleasure here is an awesome picture of the lake we were cruising on!
This is Whiskeytown Lake! I wonder...is there really whiskey in the lake? No wonder those boaters are so crazy!

Here is the cruise ship, aka Dads boat. It isn't as smooth as a caddy but, it gets the job done! I told Dad I had to make a shorline stop asap or I would have an accident that starts with a P. He found a place to pull over and I was happy to get out! The sand here was nice too. I wasn't to impressed with the black trees though. Whats up with that? Oh yeah, Dad said this is where the fire was last summer! Ewwww it doesn't look pretty! Fires are bad!





Well, the two fish Dad caught got away, so he says. Um, Yeah right! I think he was to busy feeding the geese and ducks to keep an eye on his fishing pole! Guess it will be another fishless dinner for Mom and Dad tonight!
Well folks, that's the end of our three hour tour... Actually, it lasted much longer then three hours, and I was more then ready to get home to air conditioning and my nice soft bed.
I hope Mom and Dad didn't forget that they promised me icecream! I better remind them again!
Until next time! I hope you all have a good bone to chew on! Whoof!