It ain't nuth'n but a numba

What's that exactly? Age, because it doesn't mean a dang thing. This was brought home to me again, the other day when we went to the movies. If you recall I stated we had gone to see the Hundred Foot Journey. It was a great movie, but even as we were queued to buy are tickets we took a look around us at the other patrons and noticed a little skewing of the demographic. 50+ year old women to be more exact about that skewing.

 I then laughed as we entered the theater and that normal hush of people whispering and speaking low to one another was a dull roar for the smaller size of the crowd rather than the expected murmuring. When the burst of laughter slipped out, The Guy looked at me and I said something like, "I can tell it's an older crowd due to the loudness since everyones too deaf to hear a whisper." He lauded to as we took our seat and I looked down into my lap and shook my head at myself before whispering, "Since I'm the only one with knitting in the movies and I'm the youngest in the room, maybe I shouldn't talk."

Some People...

What was I knitting? A potato bag. And yes, I can knit it in the dark. It was the main mesh part of the bag, and that's easy enough to do in the dark. Now the top garter stitch part that has decreases? Ummm... I did do them during the movie but there was some definite scrambling fingering of the stitches as I counted and tried to remember how many stitches I needed between this set of decreases. In fact I had to put it down a couple of times and just enjoy the movie between rows a couple times.

The seasons are a changing as we head into fall and start the cool off. It's nice. Much better than the definite dip Casper Wyoming had yesterday from Sarah's blog. Tell you what, I am not missing the wild temperature swings. Snow today but 80 on Tuesday? Ugh. But I am enjoying the cooler weather here, especially the cool mornings as I walk the dogs and enjoy the dew kissed plants and smell of everything as it starts to transition away from green to autumns golds, browns, oranges, and reds.

Though, it's always disconcerting to witness the loss of light that happens this time of year. Before I left I was out after dawn, now I am having to wait for dawn for a bit before getting the boys out.

I don't know what this thistle like plant is, but these ones right by this pole are so very tall. I'm estimating about 12 feet. Sorry, I didn't realize I snapped a shot of Emmitt taking his morning break until I was looking at the photo as I dropped it into the blog. unintentional photo bombing. Sorry E-man. I low, Dad is so embarrassing.

I mean really, he can't even remember your collar or leashes! Hey, it was early and my brain wasn't quite up and going yet. That's why I have well trained dogs so such little gaffs are quite an issue. the fact that Emmitt is blinking in this picture, well that's just his bad timing.

I also found these nest little weeds green flowers this week while out walking. I think they're pretty at least. It's a horrible blurry picture. Sorry, I'm still on my phone or useless little point and shoot... I gotta get a grown up job before buying a new camera, and I refuse to be one of those people who look like complete idiots out there snapping photos on their iPads.

I snapped this picture while trying to get a shot of the cat birds that serenade us on our morning walks. No idea what kind of birds nest it is. The cat birds however  are always present and calling it seems at dawn, but they are shy little critters. I hear them much more than see them. I was assuming that they were grey catbirds all summer based on their calls until finally the other day I got a look at one and confirmed it.

With it being fall, the battle for homeownership with the resident wildlife has begun in earnest. The Guy informed me that Sunday morning when he fed the dogs he found a mouse stuck in the kitchen sink. Which immediately made me search for broken into food or other objects to which I found none. I have also not seen any mouse droppings. We hurriedly bought a couple sets of traps, and quickly scored another kill for our team. Good old peanut butter. As you can see, the trap was licked clean even with a dead mouse in the trap, which means there are others, even if I haven't caught them. We did find a drowned one in the bucket we have sitting under the air conditioner to catch it's drainage to use in the bird bath. Other than those three, none have been spotted or caught though I know they are out there. This is life in the country after all. I can deal with mice, but I'm happier if that big fat garter snake we've seen around deals with them. The whole circle of life thing and all that. This is what snakes are for, right? If you're going to live in my garden, you have to pay the rent, and I think mice and insect disposal are perfect, now if only I can teach it to leave the frogs and toads alone.

Peanut butter is making me hungry, which leads me back to dinner. The other night I grilled up some eggplant. I'm sure the mice were after that, right? Which is why I ruined it. It made me so sad to have to pick out the eggplant. Teach me to pay attention to what I'm doing. But see those beets on the counter? I roasted them with the eggplant to, but have you ever seen "striped" or chioggia beets?

Well, now you have. And they are good eat'n. And pretty to boot.

I was surprised when I cut in to the first one. Then I couldn't resist getting some pictures as I got them diced. They're just so pretty. And roasted up with some herbs and spices with some melted cheese, they're delicious too.

The Guy got a new camera and I stole some pictures off of it. Well, I really borrowed them since I left them on his camera for his use. He snapped some of our friends that are gathering in the nearby fields and seem to be growing louder as the days grow shorter. Which is fine, I like hearing and seeing them.

Speaking if the fields nearby, all summer long we've occasionally smelled the aromas of steer and horse manure being spread over the fields. This week however, I got home from a walk, took my shower, and dressed for work when I smeller IT. I ran to each dog, looking for which one rolled in IT while we were on our walk. I couldn't find it, so I threw them all outside.

To their credit, they were very disturbed. If they could find out what I was looking for, they would have showed me.

Poor Dogs...

You can see they were very disturbed as I looked for IT all over the house. I went out back and ran my hands over each dog again, not caring if they got it on my work clothes, again just trying to find IT. When I went around the house, I noticed that I smelled IT all around the house. I brought the dogs inside, closed all the doors and windows and gave it a few minutes noticing as the stench of IT faded. Then I realized as the smell became more gentle that I knew that smell. PIG SHIT. They had spread pig shit on the fields in the area, and I can only hope that this is a once a year kind of thing since we ran the AC for a few days instead of opening windows. I don't mind the smell of farms, but pigs, they're different. It's just nasty for some reason. Perhaps its due to eating anything and everything? No idea, but it was gross. I reveled in our Wednesday rains as they rinsed the stink into the ground, and let's hope it stays there.

Today The Guy got off work early and we hit the John Ball Zoo.

We purposely plan things like this for days that the kids are in school. We were a little saddened to see how many of the exhibits and things were closed to the season already. Yes, it was in the low 50's but in my world, that's still shorts weather to me.

We stated that we'd have to come earlier in the year next year...

Yeah, I don't know if we'll be back.

It's not a bad zoo at all. The animals look tended too, the enclosures are... okay, but it's lacking something.

Many of you know I used to work at the Alaska Zoo. Granted, ours was a little bigger, but not by much, but much better laid out. And with time, our exhibits are getting better as they expand and build new for the animals. Many of them are outdated, but they're working on them.

The John Bal zoo is funded in part by the county. To work there you are hired on by the county, yet the cost is ridiculous and any of the "rides" such as the zip line are small, and insanely expensive for what the are. Yes, you pay at the gate to get in and have to pay at each "extra" thing you want to do. And the little Funicular tram, is a few dollars, one way. Really, one way? It's 900 feet of track per their website, and they charge extra for it and not even make it a two way trip...

I guess my main concern isn't for the animals. They look well tended for, even if a bit bored, but that happens in zoos. I worry about misuse of funds. You spend how much money on these things and they are a pittance for the price. Then you have things like these obviously new wooden walkways that aren't even made out of pressure treated wood in a wet environment. I think at these prices they can splurge on some trex so in 2 years they aren't replacing rotten boards or paying for injuries to staff and visitors. Or the earthen wall around the Africa exhibit that is actively crumbling near the tigers because the mortared around tree trunks instead of removing them so the wall didn't crumble as they rotted over time. Obviously either a zoo work crew or hired contractors cut some corners and there wasn't oversight or who ever was doing said oversight was either negligent or ignorant of things.

Fingers crossed that no one is ever injured and the animals don't suffer due to any issues.

Enough of that! If you have young kids, go, they'll love it. Just don't go on a budget.

The boys are home from their evening walk, I better go check on them. You all have a great night.