Bandit Babies

With few exceptions, mammal babies are cute and appealing and that folks, is a fact. Momma raccoon has a trio this year and my hat's off to her. They are a pawful to raise to adulthood especially when you consider her world is full of lions and lynxes and bears, not to mention coyotes and wolves these days.



They have been popping up around dawn, brought in by seed and water. If they are around when I head out to feed, the babies run up a tree quick quick and Mom guards the base, raising up on two legs and growling and hissing at me.



 I give her a wide berth and continue on to the barn. Yesterday I was late feeding and they were still around, noshing on some seed I had thrown out the afternoon before for the Stellar Jays.



 The light was low so these pics are not very sharp but you get the idea.

While raccoons are thriving, turkeys are not. Since last I mentioned them the meet numbers have dropped from 11 to 7. Yikes!



 Oh and Raccoon momma trumps Turkey momma in seed wars.



 The foxes are around but not as open or regular as in past years. There is more competition at the feeder sites this year and the cougar kill may very well have caused the foxes with their youngsters this year to avoid the area. Come winter they will probably be back to our usual routine.

Few deer have been around either but I caught this handsome buck on the back 40 early one morning.




I have been struggling with color combos to finish off the cottolin warp on the Spring



 until inspiration struck. HOGWARTS!



 I'll weave the last of the towels in house colors. I might not even get all four but at least I have a clear color plan. Griffindor is up first.



And I have more weaving projects in the wings. Discontinued Louet Euroflax colors on sale (courtesy of the Web-sters), work perfectly for this paired with white hemp.



The sewing salon has seen some action too. I had a cutting frenzy a week or so ago and as I like to do with TNT patterns, I cut two at a time. This my favorite V neck top pattern. Both prints Art Gallery fabrics.

Hazel, photobombing...

And this tunic, a save from a previous cutting session.





 I was going to pair this with another print. Once I had cut them out I hated them together. The other print will be paired with a solid and this one got some leftover black linen. I would have preferred grey but the grey in this abstract mouse print leans heavily into green and was impossible to match.

The weather has been very un-August like. Cool at night and this week we are riding between mid 70's and low 80's. I'm not complaining in the least. This year though the yellowjacket and hornet/wasp populations seem to have exploded. They were even chasing after the hummingbirds. Not acceptable so it was time to put out some traps. If anyone else has a problem the WHY traps from Rescue work very well. Costly but you can reuse and rebait them. The numbers have been knocked down quite a bit. The hummingbirds have been feeding in peace in the garden and at the feeders.

I did some canning over the weekend. The Freshtech canner really is a wonderful piece of equipment and I am very happy with it. I did up huckleberries and some bread and butter pickles.



 I have to admit, I over cooked the huckleberries. They gelled and then some. It's like flavored rubber in a jar.I'll be testing the pickles out tonight with a simple dinner of hot dogs and macaroni salad.

I'll be spinning for a morning with friend Cindie and her group of lovely spinners again this year at the Josephine County Fair. And I won't have to lug my heavy Matchless wheel, I can sling the little Sidekick over my shoulder in her travel bag and go. Woohoo! :-)

Parting shot: Sweetness.

Spike, modeling the new safe break-away collars