Petcretary Fenced In Her Annoyance

 Petcretary Fenced In Her Annoyance, but maybe anger would be a better word...

Our neighbor was fed up with an old rotting lean to carport, at the side of his house. Former neighbours had put it up, with using fresh hewn lumber from tree he had cut down himself...and added used particle board he had gotten from who knows where...and a then a tar paper roof over more particle board. Of course in our Michigan climate something like that will for sure NOT stand the test of time. SO after several years of our now neighbours living there, he decided that it might fall on his vehicle or his wife or kids...so he took off the loosely attached/falling off siding, and pulled apart the walls, down to the support posts. Then he attached a comealong to one of the posts and then to his truck...and began to pull the rest of it down. Petcretary thought he thought it would come down flat, and in the direction he was pulling it...but NOPE! It collapsed and fell sideways right into our fence. NOOOOO!! One of the crossbars was bent, and pushed forward into our yard...and the fence fabric came off the crossbar, and some of the ties were popped off, yards into our own yard!  Not to mention wood bits also thrown far into our yard...We were in our house, and watched this all happen...and we were about to leave for Church, and he came to the door and apologized profusely...sure dude...but why didn't you stop pulling that thing when your wife signalled to you that it was going to fall the wrong way? Well, he said he would pay for the repair...when we came home from Church a few hours later, he had gotten most of the wood pieces off the fence...and piled everything up in the driveway. He says he is going to burn it up...sure and the wind will bring all the black mold and other horrors into our yard and house...Sure hope he moves it away from where it is right now, else our fence might melt from the heat. Anyways,  petcretary and Mr Neighbor were able to push the post mostly back in place, and by using ratchet cords, he and her were able to sort of attach the fabric back onto the crossbar. It looks 'jenky' but it will do, us dogs can't climb through or over it...So that took up two evenings of sweaty  work to get it all fixed...(And thankfully he did move all that woody junk further into his own yard before burning it...and we got the windows closed in time...but not before us pups had a bark-a-holic festival!)

Here you can see the carport before it really got rotten and moldy. (From 7-2023) All that siding facing our yard was coming off, the roof was sagging...blah!

Didn't have time to get a picture of all this mess ON the fence, but this is how he piled it up while we were gone out.

Here you can see how much the post, crossbar and chainlink fabric was damaged.

The post in the foreground is bent inwards...Dalton is investigating...and we do let the grass gow along the bottom, to help discourage digging... 

So that is one reason why we didn't do a lot of visiting this past week, if you got a visit from us, consider yourself blessed! BOL!

Of course all of this led to a LOT of barking...so we had to be corralled in the house many times. On order are several privacy fence covers to occlude the views we have of the next door yards,and their dogs, two on one side and one on the other...all are big pups...which means another project for petcretary...hopefully it will help make life quieter and more peaceful around here *she* says! We say Boo because then we will get bored, and I, Benji, won't be able to play my through the fence games with Rose...maybe I will just do do more digging projects then, BOL!

Speaking of digging...petcretary marked a whole lot of baby oak trees the other day, and when she walked through the same areas the next day, a lot of the markers were knocked over. She thought maybe we had done that as we romp through the yard...but on closer looking, she saw that the baby trees had been dug out and they were now dead, and had no more leftover acorn attached to the stem. Bummer. Lousy tree rats at work, Phooey! The trees she didn't mark are still OK, (She marks then so as to not step on them, or mow them down if they are in the grass.) So those smartypants squirrels must somehow smell that I had been there and investigated...and then reclaimed the nuts they had buried last fall. They don't know or care that we are trying to restart the woods to its former state before the bad storms of 2025. Oh well, SOME of them will survive, we hope! At least they leave maple and mulberry seedlings alone, BOL!

Well, enough of all that bad stuff, here we are for this week's selfies!

All the Sunday Selfies are hosted by The Kitties Blue at The Cat On My Head...Thanks for hosting you all!!

Ussie Variation And Interesting Guests

Well, here it is Memorial Day weekend! May is almost gone!!

We have been spared any patriotic pictures...so far, BOL! Who knows, if petcretary will get out the big bad of things Americana. Or maybe she'll resort to flashbacks, which we say, go for it!!

Anyways,we were in the yard snoopervising *her* doings, and she snapped out her phone and 'caught' us!

The light looks so odd, we were in a sunshine/shade mixture...under a tree.

Then the clouds took away the harshness and Benji even looked at petcretary...of course I, Dalton, never am too sure about those things she holds up, be it her phone, the iPad, or a real camera...by the way, why did you cut off my paws, petcretary??

Well, now here are our guests who took 'selfies', too...

This was a very tiny Green Tree Frog, trying to hide in some tall grass blades...he was a wee bit bashful, so he was not wanting to show us his face...

This is a Myrmeleon...aka an Antlion Lacewing.

Petcretary has never seen one of these before, so she looked it up. They get their name from the larvae which dig pits and then they capture ants or other small insects. 
Here is what one site told her: Myrmeleon immaculatus is a species of pit-trapping antlion in the family Myrmeleontidae. It is found in Central America and North America and is a particularly common species in the eastern United States. This species is usually a blue-grey color and the adults are 30mm long.
Check out the eyes !! Yikes! I think this is a female. They are often mistaken for dragonflies.
Kind of a beauty I think!

That's all folks!!

We hope you have a good Memorial Day, take some time to think about why we have this holiday, then after that you can enjoy fun things like a BBQ! Here we are not going to do anything except relaxing...

A few days ago, Blogville had to say goodbye to Opie,  precious kitty of Greg from Feline Cafe. So this memento was sent to Greg to help give him some comfort, and to honor the memory of Opie. If you haven't alreadym you can visit there and leave your comforting messages. Just click on this caption...

We are joining up with all the other Sunday Selfies on the Holiday Weekend Sunday. Thanks for hosting, Kitties Blue!

Silly Ussies On Selfie Sunday ~ Victoria Day Weekend

 First of all, we want to say we are not responsible for the silliness you will see a bit later...we blame petcretary for spying on us, BOL! Also we are sorry if we missed visiting any of our friends this past week...*she* was busy with a lot of not doggy things. But all is well with us all, so that is good!

Petcretary captured this beautiful seed head of a Dandelion. This lowly weed so brightly colored, already early in spring, has the most gorgeous and symmetrical seed head, before any winds come by to disperse the seeds on their eddies.

A year ago we had a tornado pass through very close to where we live, and THIS was the resulting horrific mess we had in our yard...click here to see it. Now after much work, it looks like this, the fence got fixed and most of the tree trunks except for the largest ones are gone or made into 'piles' ready to eventually burn.

Sadly the meadowlike area where all those trees fell, will take a lot longer to recover; as of now after clearing away what seems like millions of weeds and undesirables, now there are a lot of Solomon's Seal coming up, along with Jack in the Pulpits, May Apples and Canada Mayflowers, and various ferns, among others. There are many oak and maple saplings, and whenever invasive or non-natives are found, out they come! Who knew that all the honeysuckle shrubs where birds like to hide, and indulge in the berries are also invasive. And the wild roses and barberry, too will eventually need to come out...maybe when we are long gone from the earth, the next owners of this property will find it lovely enough to keep it as natural as any Michigan woods...

Tomorrow is Victoria Day in Canada, it is always the week before Memorial Day...Since petcretary is Canadian which means we pups are too, being her 'children'...here are some Victoria Day Flashbacks, from 2021:

OK, then, here are our silly ussies as promised"

We were having a bunch of silly fun...and I ,Dalton, was being kind of a pest to Benji...BOL!!Don't worry, sometimes he is the instigator!

We are sending our celebratory and silly selfies to The Cat On My Head, who are the faithful  hosts of this fun weekly blog hop. Thanks, Kitties Blue!

Happy Mother's Day, 2026!

 Yes, we do call her Petcretary but she is actually really our human Mom...so we pups will wish her a Happy Mother's Day! (Though there won't be any breakfast in bed for her, from us, BOL!)

The two legged sons took her out to dinner, YUM! Not something we do very often, just for 'special' days...

We hope all mothers and mother figures are having a good Mother's Day, be they moms of two leggers or moms of pets, such as doggies, kitties, birds, reptiles and so on.

We went to a photo shoot for Mother's day, and so now we can show our ussies. Note the backgrounds are all AI produced because for some reason the place hadn't received the Mother's Day background so they were still using the Easter one, teehee! So petcretary, aka Mom fixed them. A good use for AI if you ask us!

Anyways here we are:

And wouldn't you all know it, but *she* forgot about doing anything for Cinco De Mayo...so here are some artworks to mark that festival...and no we didn't get any Mexican food, no one here did, BOL!

Recently The Island Cats informed us that Slim, from the Garden center had earned his wings...so we made a memento for him, and another for his 'brother'. Chip.

Come and join us by clicking here to see all the other Mother's Day Sunday selfies, at the regular place as each Sunday the Kitties Blue at The Cat On My Head host this fun weekly feature.

In Memory Of Penny

Penny left for the heavenly realms, after fighting an infection for a long time, but she just wasn't able to deal with the treatment regime anymore, so her pawrents made the sad but loving decision to let her fly away to the RB, where she will rejoin her furblings who went before her...

Penny lived with her family at 15&Meowing, and you can visit there and leave comforting messages if you haven't done so already.

These mementos were made in her honor:

Penny

Penny

We are adding this post to the Feline Friday Blog Hop. since afterall, Penny was such a beloved feline.

Feline Friday

Jackie ~ In Loving Memory

A few days ago, we heard the very sad news that Jackie, of Two Devon Cats, Or Memories of Eric and Flynn) had passed away. Her last post was May 1, 2026...

She was a well known and very loved lady, by not only her beloved Ivor, but also by so many of us in Blogville. She blogged for 20 years! Imagine that!

Jackie also had a travel blog, All At Sea With Me , where she posted pictures taken on the cruises her and Ivor went on, and also from their travels around the UK, where she lived.

She was always quick to comment on your blog posts, and left sweet and kind comments.Even after her two beloved cats, Eric and Flynn had gone to the Rainbow Bridge, she continued to post flashback posts, including doing art with them and making puzzles for those who liked doing them.

Several years ago, Jackie began a long battle with cancer, that evil plague that affects us all, even if we ourselves are not stricken. She had been doing well for the most part, after a return of this disease, but sadly the cancer finally took its toll, and now she is cancer free, and at peace.

Jackie will be sorely missed, her absence is already being felt...

Here is a memento to honor her...

Jackie

Somehow it doesn't seem right, but Jackie's kitties and her remembering posts were always very awe worthy so we are going to join that hop...

It's MAY!

 Yes indeed, it is May, and that means full on spring! Petcretary;s favorite season. Though...we have had a frost warning, both Saturday morning, and again today after midnight. Brrr! She took  several plants inside...but the perennials will just have to deal with it...though she did notice some frostbitten leaves on some of the shrubs, and the trumpet creeper.

Oh well, the cooler weather means less bugs for now, we will complain about that! Though a few days ago, Petcretary found a tick trying to make itself at home on her arm...so she'll watch for any signs of illness. She did save the tick for analysis, just in case...yucky little monsters!

Out in the wayback of our yard, there are still bazillions of weeds, now she's starting to try and get a handle on the cleavers...which is not a bad plant per se, but it is a nuisance! It STICKS to everything! And smothers everything as it spreads. It actually can be eaten, and used for various traditional remedies. BUT...it also makes seeds that stick to US, Blah...

Thank you, internet...this is what cleavers look like.

We also have a few 'stands' of May apples

May Apples; very toxic, and used in medicine, one of them being for plantar wart removal!

The Canada May Flowers are beginning to show flower stalks, though many of these plants do not make them at all!

Canada Mayflower

Wood ferns, check out the fiddle heads! There are all kinds of these clumps everywhere in our woodsy part of the yard.

Yellow corydalis

Chives, almost ready to blossom

Bleeding Hearts

Of course we also rule our yard...and Benji dug out three huge caverns in the back, he was so diligent in his efforts, the dirt was scattered about 10 feet from where the action was. So out came the cayenne pepper...its a great way to make digging in the same spot not fun...at least this project was at the base of a large pile of wood from petcretaryls lumberjacking efforts...

We got some treats after we ate our supper...(Shhh, don't tell them they are actually dental treats...)

That was yummy...

Can I have another one?

I make mine last a while...

I Love these, and they  have nothing that I am allergic to.

                              That's all Folks!!

Click here, and then you too can join in the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop! Hosted each week, by The Kitties Blue at The Cat On My Head

Update:

It is with great sadness that we heard of the passing of a very good friend and well known lady in blogville, Jackie of Two Devon Cats; (Memories of Eric & Flynn)

Jackie, you will be missed greatly and we love you now and forever.