Baby Owls and Introducing the Girls to a New Puppy

At the beginning of the week while outside one evening I got something out of the side of my eye flying swiftly along the ground of the wooded greenbelt across the road from our RV.  Periodically I caught other movement and couldn't figure out what it was.  It was getting darker so I realized I wasn't going to know what I was seeing.  

The next evening the movement started up again so this time I started to pay attention.  I wondered closer to the area and just stayed still and realized it was an owl.  As I watched I realized there were now two of them and eventually three were out there putting on a show.  They didn't seem put off by humans or dogs.  On the third evening I made a point of getting out there by 8:15 pm and took my little Nikon camera with me.  Wow, what a show.  All three showed up but alas my camera's telephoto just wasn't strong enough to get a great shot.  One of them landed on a tree not too far from us and we got a good look with binoculars.  But it was getting dark. 


Last night I came out with my good camera and telephoto and boy did I get some pics.  This barred owl landed about 20' from me while I sat quietly next to a motorhome in a swing and just looked at me.  Then up into a tree he flew and kept watching me.  These seem to be young barred owls.  I assume they are hunting each evening.

This weekend we were not able to go to Cedar Blue.  John had a nail removed from his big toe so getting into the lake wasn't going to be on the agenda as he certainly didn't want an infection.  Also, our builder was at a point of putting in drywall and flooring in our new room and asked if we could wait until next weekend to go down there.  

So on Friday we headed over to our friend, Priscilla's home.  She has a new puppy (Pippa) that is a morkie like our dogs but a completely different color.  We are going to keep her next weekend so we wanted to introduce our girls and start the process of getting them to like each other.  She is all puppy so April did a lot of snapping at her and Bailey just gave her some fierce growls.  It was a sunny, hot day so we got into the pool and just let the girls run around and get used to each other. 

We put Pippa in the pool trying to teach her the way out.  She has some more training to do on that but she loved the pool and climbed out just fine when she did get to the steps.  The water didn't put her off at all and she would just lay down at the edge of the pool and interact with us.  She's just a little lover.  Still trying to get her housebroken though so next weekend we will have to keep our eye on her all the time.

Bailey and April aren't buddies with her yet but they did play chase around the pool a bit.  I got each of our girls in the pool too and they didn't seem nervous about it at all.  They also swam to the steps but weren't interested in hanging out at the edge!  LOL  

I wasn't able to get a good pic of Bailey today.  She was being her willful self. April, on the other hand, posed for a couple of nice shots.  

Priscilla has tons of potted flowers around her pool and they are just beautiful.  

July 4th 2014 Weekend

The July 4th weekend has come to an end and we had a nice time.  On the 4th we started by visiting our friend, Priscilla, and her enormous mob of family at her home.  She must have had 30 family from out of town visiting for the weekend.  The small children enjoyed her beautiful pool.  We enjoyed some good food and then moved onto a fellowship our Sunday School class was having our one of their homes.  They have a beautiful home out in the country (kind of) with a very large back yard that backs up to a dirt field.  So this made it very conducive to having fireworks shot off.  One of the class members brought an enormous amount of fireworks with him and put on a very nice display for all of us to enjoy.

April

Bailey

On Saturday we took a day trip to the Great Salt Plains State Park in Oklahoma.  This place is really neat to see and hard to believe it is in Oklahoma.  We took the girls and the jeep and headed NW for 2 1/2 hours to Jet, OK.  On the east side of the park is where you can access the lake and camping areas.  There is quite a large dam and spillway there as well as some equestrian camping areas and trails.

 We found a small but nice camping area that would handle our rig that sits right on the river below the spillway.  It was very nice and we will probably spend some time there when it's cooler.  It would be fun to go out and dig for the selenite crystals.  http://www.fws.gov/refuge/salt_plains/visit/dig.html 

In order to get to the crystal digging area we had to head back south to Jet then west for a few miles to go up the west side of the lake and salt plains area.  By this time it was lunchtime and the only place we could find for food was Cadillac Jacks Cafe in Jet.  Since we had the girls, John went in and got food to go while I kept the girls cool in the car.  They actually had very good greasy spoon cheeseburgers.  

As you can see from the picture of John in the vast white area, this salt plain covers an expansive area. The picture of what looks like a road is just that.  You have to drive where directed to the dig areas which are rotated all the time.  There is apparently quick sand under all this so you really don't want to end up in that!  The crystals are always forming to that is why the dig areas are rotated.  The web site I listed tells you how to dig for them but you hit water no more than 2' down.  We had a great day and look forward to heading there to spend more time.  Only about 45 miles SW of this area are the sand dunes so we hope to check those out in the jeep as well and see if we can do some 4-wheeling!