We taught the pups to pick tomatoes!

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urIMSLGR5Qg&feature=youtube_gdata

Sent from my iPhone

Rain and more rain ...

Local Severe Weather Alert for Christiansted, VI (00820)

...FLASH FLOOD WATCH NOW IN EFFECT THROUGH LATE TONIGHT... THE FLASH
FLOOD WATCH IS NOW IN EFFECT FOR * PORTIONS OF PUERTO RICO AND VIRGIN
ISLANDS...INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING AREAS...IN PUERTO RICO...CENTRAL
INTERIOR...CULEBRA... EASTERN INTERIOR...MAYAGUEZ AND VICINITY...NORTH
CENTRAL... NORTHEAST...NORTHWEST...PONCE AND VICINITY...SAN JUAN AND
VICINITY...SOUTHEAST...SOUTHWEST...VIEQUES AND WESTERN INTERIOR. IN
VIRGIN ISLANDS...ST CROIX AND ST. THOMAS/ST. JOHN/ADJACENT ISLANDS. *
THROUGH LATE TONIGHT * A DEEP TROUGH EXTENDING FROM THE SURFACE TO THE
UPPER LEVELS OF THE ATMOSPHERE IN COMBINATION WITH DEEP MOISTURE WILL
CONTINUE TO FAVOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS THROUGHOUT THE DAY. THE HEAVIEST RAINFALL IS EXPECTED
ACROSS THE ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHNS THROUGH NOON TODAY. ADDITIONAL
THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT IS LIKELY ACROSS NORTHERN SECTIONS OF PUERTO
RICO LATER THIS AFTERNOON AS DAYTIME HEATING HELPS DESTABILIZE
ATMOSPHERE. * FLOODING MAY CAUSE LOCAL RIVERS TO RISE RAPIDLY
ESPECIALLY ALONG THE NORTH COAST...NORTH COASTAL PLAINS AND NORTHERN
FOOTHILLS. FLASH FLOODING IS ALSO OCCURRING IN ST. THOMAS AND ST.
JONHS. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... A FLASH FLOOD WATCH MEANS
THAT CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR HEAVY RAIN ACROSS THE WATCH
AREA...WHICH MAY LEAD TO FLOODING. IF YOU ARE IN THE WATCH
AREA...CHECK YOUR PREPAREDNESS REQUIREMENTS... ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE
INTERESTS ALONG AREA RIVERS. KEEP INFORMED... AND BE READY FOR QUICK
ACTION IF FLOODING IS OBSERVED OR IF A FLASH FLOOD WARNING IS ISSUED.
PEOPLE IN THE WATCH AREA SHOULD CONTINUE TO BE AWARE OF THE
POSSIBILITY FOR HEAVY RAINFALL. AVOID LOW LYING AREAS...AND BE CAREFUL
WHEN APPROACHING HIGHWAY DIPS AND UNDERPASSES. THE HEAVY RAIN COULD
ALSO CAUSE MUDSLIDES IN AREAS OF STEEP TERRAIN.

These are bigger keys ... Nice ... Very nice

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Brrrr ...

Yes, Vicki ... The Pansy is whining AGAIN! :)

Eight

8 years ago today, I packed up my faithful canine companion, Shilo, and my hellacious cat, Stinkie, and moved to St. Croix!

 

Hard to believe it's been 8 fabulously fun-filled years since I quit my job, sold/gaveaway my stuff, and moved to this big ol' rock in the Caribbean ... HOLY COW!

 

Time to dig up a bunch of pictures and post them ... after breakfast

Veterans Of Oregon, Field of honor

Flags of honor displayed at Chinook Winds in Lincoln City, Oregon.

(If the link doesn't appear, click on the other link at the bottom of the page)

The Best Commercial Ever - Thank you Veterans

Every time I watch this I get teary-eyed ... and I never get tired of watching it.

Thank you to all Veterans, then and now.

In God We Trust

Beam me up, Scotty?

Interesting clouds and light yesterday afternoon ...

Watch RevAbs™ Coming Soon!

stxjill@aol.com wants to share this video with you:

Personal Message
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Won't be long now ...

YUMMMMM :)

Passion fruit are blooming

Yipppppeeeeee!

Lovely afternoon at the beach with Barklie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7CI0qAD7AM

Relocation

The hummingbirds have been fairly inactive lately ... used to be I'd fill all 92 feeders (exageration, it's really only 8, but sometimes seems like more) every day. Lately, for the past month, the hummers seem to have disappeared. They're just now starting to make a comeback, I've noticed mama hummer doing some remodeling on her home. She's picking apart the old nest and starting a new one ... good for her! Looks like it's time for a fresh start, that old nest was looking pretty old and tired. She's previously added on 3, 4, maybe 5 times to the old nest. Now she's picking off the good parts and rebuilding ... here's the old nest ...

And here's her new nest ... she seems to be trying it on for size, bless her little heart. It's very small, I'm sure she's just trying it on for size before she adds more ...

I've got a bag of lint from the dryer, she loves to use that in her homemaking process ...

Happy homemaking hummer mama.

Oh how I love my pretty flowers

So many of my orchids are starting to squirt out their beautiful
blooms ... I LOVE that :)

Bubba the cat (2nd attempt)

Bubba is one of our many cats that have adopted us. Can't remember exactly when he arrived (we have about 14 that have adopted us) but he is the sweetest cat EVER! He never picks fights ... That's rare, and unfortunately gets his butt kicked on a fairly regular basis :(

He's blind in one eye, I feel bad about that, I think it happened when I put out a ton of slug bait in the flowerbed. But he is just as sweet as he can be with his whiny/pathetic "meow" ... Sooooooo sweet!

Bubba ... the sweetest cat EVER!

Bubba is one of our many cats that have adopted us. Can't remember exactly when he arrived (we have about 14 that have adopted us) but he is the sweetest cat EVER! He never picks fights ... That's rare, and unfortunately gets his butt kicked on a fairly regular basis :(

He's blind in one eye, I feel bad about that, I think it happened when I put out a ton of slug bait in the flowerbed. But he is just as sweet as he can be with his whiny/pathetic "meow" ... Sooooooo sweet!

YUCK ... WTH is this?

Found it in the kitchen sink yesterday morning ... Ewwwwwww! Thought
it was a baby lizard at first, that would've been ok. Captured it and
set it free ... Hope it doesn't come back, whatever it is. Crimony,
I've come a long way :)

Waterworld ... the most fun I've had in a long, long, longgggggg time!

GOOD TIMES!

A couple of weeks ago my brother, Brian, and I went for an adventure on the water. HOLY COW ... that's quite possibly the most fun I've had on the water since I moved here!

If you live here on the lovely island of St. Croix, or you're visiting ... you've gotta do this. I was grinning for hours afterwards, and so was brother Brian, it was sooooooooo much fun! Our guide, Justin, took us out along the North shore towards the East end of the island. They cater to your desires, if you want to see the sites, they provide that. I've lived here almost 8 years, so I've seen the beautiful sites ... we just wanted to fly across the water, and that's what we did. I'm sure they heard us laughing and yahoooooing on land ... soooooo much fun!

The name of the company is Island Flight Adventures Jet Ski Rentals and Tours ... they're awesome. Very friendly and customer service oriented ... how refreshing! Here's a link to their site: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g147402-d951899-r46544786-Island_Flight_Adventures_Jet_Ski_Rentals_and_Tours-Christiansted_St_Croix_U_S_Virgin_Islands.html ... I hope that's the right link ;)

Here's a couple of pics from our adventure ...

Gotta start if off with the rabbit ears, it's a tradition ...

And there I go ... ready for some fun ...

There's brother Brian, he's ready for FUN ...

And we're off ... look at that flat, calm water -it looks like a lake ... niiiiiiice!

The moral of the story:

We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.

~The End~

Home Sweet Home

Nothing like a visit back to Oregon to really put things into perspective for me. What a great time, visiting with my family and friends ... makes me realize just how much I miss them all. Another fabulous Mother/Daughter beach weekend ... this was number 11! So much fun to spend time with my Mom & Aunt Donna and cousins Debi and Geri at the Lincoln City beach house ... Good times. And staying at the fabulous Fisher B&B is always a treat, my Mom & Dad make it so comfortable and relaxing for me ... thank you!

A full week of no mosquitoes and no sweating ... now that's a slice of heaven right there!

The highlight of my week, aside from spending quality time with my family and friends: getting a warm welcome from my furry 'kids' ... they do know how to let you know you've been missed and they're happy to see you, bless their big hearts.

P.S. BIG THANKS to Rudy for taking care of the chores while I was away.

Hummer sleepover

Last week, as we were preparing dinner, I noticed a hummingbird flying around in the house. We've had several come in to visit, along with an occasional sugar bird. I think they just like to come in and see what we're doing, then forget their way back out. It was shortly after I'd filled all the feeders on the front porch, so I'm thinking it came in to thank me personally, or it had the biggest sugar buzz going and didn't know where it was.

Later, it became apparent the hummer was infatuated with the fake hummingbirds hanging from the mobiles dangling from the tall ceiling. At one point it landed on the mobile, and appeared to be making goo-goo eyes at the pretty painted hummers floating in the breeze. Awwwwwwww ... I think he momentarily fell in love ...

It also became apparent he was eyeing the fake hibiscus ... poor little feller is hungry! We brought in a couple of feeders, hoping he would quench his thirst and be on his way ...

That hummer drank a lot of food ... poor thing was really hungry. After he'd quenched his thirst, he continued his visit and discovered the pretty fake parrot ... goo-goo eyes for the parrot soon followed ...

Eventually, the hummer settled down and perched on the hummer mobile and watched a movie with us. Don't remember what movie we watched, but I do know both the hummer and I snoozed through the end.

We decided to let the hummer spend the night inside ... not really much choice at this point. In the morning the hummer took a drink from the feeder and decided to go outside and explore. He was a most excellent houseguest.

~The End~

A day in the life of a baby hummingbird

We have a mama hummingbird that raises her babies in a nest on our front porch, attached to the chain of a hanging light fixture. I'm not sure if it's the same mama hummer each time, but there have been at least half a dozen families in the nest over the past couple of years. Each time she starts getting the nest ready, she'll sometimes add on and attach pretty little flowers to the outside ... soooooo cute! It's starting to look like a hummer tri-plex now

This is the view inside the nest, taken shortly after the baby left ...

This little hummer left it's nest earlier in the morning, and decided to take a rest on the front fence. Shortly after, a lizard appeared and showed great interest in the little baby hummer. Mama hummer continued to go get food, from one of our many feeders, and came back to feed the little darlin' ...

No worries, the little hummer flew away before the reptile could grab it. No critters were harmed in the photographing of this event. However, I was armed with a rake in the event I needed to intervene and scare the lizard way ...

~ The End ~