Turkey Fun

Happy Thanksgiving

On the Menu

Brined Roast Turkey 15.5 pounds

Cornbread Dressing

Fresh Cranberry Sauce from Whole Berries

Homemade Biscuits

Yams and Brown Sugar

Mashed Potatoes and Turkey Pan Dripping Gravy

Green Salad

Pumpkin Pie

Cherry Pie

Happy Turkey Day!

Rain Record Broken

We broke our rainfall record today with a bang.

Excuse me while I go bail out the living room.

Nutty Buddy

Click on photo for larger version!
This is the little squirrel we tamed with peanuts. He has gotten so tame he will come inside the house through our sliding patio door and take a peanut from your hand! He will run back out the door and hide the peanut for later and then come right back with his face pressed against the glass looking for more!


With all the rain and wind we have had this month its surprising he hasn't grown webbed feet!

Soggy Doggy Bloggie

Looks like Washington set a new record last night, the wettest November EVER with 11.63" of rain. We still have half a month left and a fighting chance to take out the big Kahuna, Seattle's all time wettest month of 12.92" of rain set in January of 1953.

Lucky for us, we didn't have any problems with the high winds that other parts of the state had.

Some top gusts yesterday:

• Tatoosh Island: 91 mph
• Clallam Bay: 87 mph
• Sekiu: 77 mph
• Clallam Bay: 70 mph
• Sequim: 70 mph
• Hoquiam: 68 mph
• Bangor Sub Base: 66 mph
• Anacortes: 65 mph
• Mount Vernon: 65 mph
• Oak Harbor: 66 mph
• Forks: 62 mph
• Bellingham: 63 mph
• Vail (Thurston Co.): 60 mph
• Friday Harbor: 59 mph
• Brinnon: 55 mph
• Tacoma: 53 mph
• Everson: 53 mph
• Port Angeles: 52 mph
• Olympia: 46 mph
• Everett: 45 mph
• Seattle: 41 mph

Time to batten down the hatches and hunker down as the next storm comes in Sunday.

Floating away in Washington State

Yes, we are soaked here. Monday was the third wettest day in our weather history. So far today its been raining steady and theres a half inch of rain in the rain gauge. Theres one thing you can count on, the ducks are happy.

for more weather woes in WA, click here.

UPDATE: Well, the heavy rains are gone or at least down to a drizzle. Im seeing .63 inches in the rain gauge so far today (4:30pm) Seattle received over 8" of rain since November 1st -- almost 125% of our monthly normal barely the first week into the month. Put another way -- that's roughly 22% of our annual total. Even more impressive, Shelton had over a foot of rain. A FOOT!

New Blog

Ben has started his own blog , GarrisonGraphics , go over and check it out. I hear he's pretty talented.

Snowy October Days

What a difference a day makes! Ohio weather at its finest, one day sunny and beautiful with the fall
colors in full radiance and then oops, add six inches of snow and enjoy!
















photos copyright 2006 Dolores Norton

"Metro-WA?"

The worst slogan EVER!!!

They spend 200K and come up with this? Metronatural? Sounds too much like metro-sexual to me . The state slogan they came up with was "Say WA" get it?? Hey pay me 200K and I'll come up with something much better!

New slogan for Seattle publicity: 'metronatural'

October 20, 2006

By Associated Press

SEATTLE - Metronatural.

That's the new tagline for an advertising campaign by the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The bureau says the "brand concept was designed to highlight Seattle's rare and uniquely marketable combination of urban and outdoor experiences."

The slogan was developed over a year at a cost of $200,000.

The bureau says it expects its 1,000 member businesses to incorporate "metronatural" into their advertising, Web sites, brochures and public relations.

The bureau says Seattle had more than 9 million visitors last year, and the bureau hopes to attract more conventions, cruise ship visitors and other travelers.

Ohio Fall Color Photoblog

There's nothing more lovely then fall colors in October. Special thanks to mom for sending these photos taken at the Holden Arbouremun in Geauga County Ohio.
















Sunlight and Trees
photo copyright Dolores Norton 2006















Fall Road
photo copyright Dolores Norton 2006















Across the Waterlillies
photo copyright Dolores Norton 2006















Red Road
photo copyright Dolores Norton 2006

Halloween Fun

More Halloween ACEOs on Ebay!

Fall Leaves

Soon you will be raking these!

Clear the Roads!

The kids driving now, doing very good too. Stick shift a little harder to learn then the lazy automatic, but the kid is gettting it. Good work Ian!

Happy First Day of Fall!

And that means Halloween is coming up fast! Stir up the apple cider and get ready for the cooler weather!
Check out my Halloween themed ACEOs on Ebay!

Bay and Bunny

Another watercolor on Ebay!

Under-blogged

Yes I realize the bloggings been few and far between lately, things will get back to normal now.
I'll start off with a new fantasy watercolor I just finished.

The Mermaids Purse





















This artwork is coryright by the artist and you may not reproduce it with out the artists written permission.

Original Horse watercolors

Click art work for a larger view. Visit cleverpupart on ebay for the auctions.

OK GO

and now for something completely different!

"Here it goes again" by OK GO

my new favorite video

Heres a Little Perspective

The highest temperature recorded anywhere on Earth was in Aziziyah, Libya, in September of 1922 – 136 degrees Fahrenheit.

The highest temperature recorded in the United States was in Death Valley, Calif., in July of 1913 – 134 degrees Fahrenheit.

Gators in Montana

I knew this summers heat was bad, now they are finding gators in Montana! What's next, Flamingos in Alaska?

Boys reel in 5-foot, 60-pound alligator in Kalispell pond

Some birthdays stand out as exceptionally memorable; 16 and 21 usually make the list.

Josh Bryant will never forget his 11th birthday, when he came nose to snout with a 5-foot alligator in Kalispell.

On Monday afternoon, Josh and his mother, Lynn, were trying out the new fishing pole she’d given him for his birthday. The Shady Lane fishing pond near the old Steel Bridge, where he spends three or four days a week during the summer, seemed the perfect place to test the rod.

It was about 4 p.m. when Lynn Bryant spotted something swimming toward them.

“I thought it was a muskrat,” she said.

Then she took a closer look. Muskrats didn’t swim with just their eyes and back ridges sticking out of the water.

The Bryants couldn’t believe their eyes, but there was no doubt the animal swimming toward them was an alligator. Bryant moved to the edge of the dock and started taking pictures with her camera phone, knowing no one would believe them otherwise.

At first the alligator was almost friendly, she said, but they still wanted to get it out of the water so someone could come take care of it. A friend grabbed Josh’s pole and tried to hook the gator. He succeeded a few times, but each time the alligator simply swallowed the lure.

A few more would-be fishermen showed up soon after. One of them had a stronger pole; he, too, tried to catch the alligator but once again it swallowed the proffered minnow, hook and all.

By this time, onlookers had called friends and soon a crowd of about 50 people had gathered. Some simply watched. Others tried to help subdue the alligator, which was now agitated.

“This thing was very aggressive,” Bryant said.

“It was snapping at us kids and adults,” Josh added.

Someone brought a bow and shot it. They knew the alligator had been hit because the arrow was sticking straight up, Josh said. Then the arrow — and the alligator — disappeared for almost an hour. Suspense mounted on the banks of the pond.

“It was like a serial killer movie or something, a killer alligator,” Josh said.

The gator didn’t stay down for good, though. When it surfaced, the crowd was ready.

“His dad jumped in the water,” Josh said, pointing at his friend, Kaynen McGuire.

McGuire, 11, nodded. His father had plunged in the water with a stick, grabbed the alligator by the tail and swung it onto the bank.

“This was right out of ‘Crocodile Dundee,’ I swear,” Bryant said.

Four men held it down and tied its jaws shut with fish stringer, then put it in a canoe and dragged it up to the road. Someone produced a knife and tried to slit the animal’s throat. Still it didn’t die.

“This thing’s got like nine lives,” Bryant said.

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office didn’t hear about the incident until about 10 p.m., according to dispatch logs. When Deputy Ray Young arrived, he called Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, which referred him to U.S. Fish and Wildlife. By this time, the alligator was in bad shape, so the federal agency told Young to shoot it.

Brian Sommers, regional investigator with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, got the call around 10:40 p.m.

“When I got there, it was pretty much over and done with,” he said. “It was just talking with the people that were there and picking up the critter.”

The “critter” will go in a freezer at the Fish, Wildlife and Parks office, Sommers said. He’s not sure what the agency will do with it.

He’s also not sure where the alligator came from.

“The only thing I can guess is it was probably somebody’s pet,” he said. “Maybe they got tired of it and turned it loose.”

Sommers has had to deal with pet alligators in the past, he said, but only a few and only animals about 20 inches long. At 5 feet long and roughly 60 pounds, Monday’s alligator was the largest he’s ever seen in the area.

If found, the person responsible will be charged for releasing the alligator into the wild, he said.

“Given the right circumstances, we could’ve had a pretty big problem if it got hold of a kid swimming or something,” he said.

If anyone has information about how the alligator got into the pond, call 1-800-TIP-MONT or call Crimestoppers at 752-TIPS.

Even though it’s now alligator-free, Josh won’t be fishing at the pond anytime soon.

“It was just my 11th birthday, and I had to catch an alligator,” he said. “Why couldn’t I catch a little trout?”