Plows, Plants, PawPaws And A Cat

Hand dandy little garden plow always starts and does not use gas.  Easy for cultivating those close spots without disturbing the roots.

We will have squash soon but the bugs have come early this year.  It will be a race to see who eats the first squash, us or the bugs.

PawPaws still hanging on.

Dad would be so proud.

We are never shy of helpers

or supervisors, I should say.

Sunday At The Farm

The highest point on the farm holds a beauty for me that I see no where else.  Today the skies showed blue with a dressing of gray but the rain did not come.  We surveyed the hay which cannot be cut because the equipment has died, thus is the life of a farmer.  We shall fence it and let the cattle enjoy it while the winter pasture grows.

There is beauty everywhere if you take the time to look.  Queen Anne's Lace is lovely in bloom but a pest when seeding.

This tiny wild flower has stickers along its stems.

The stocked ponds feed us.

Maria and Luke came to catch their supper.

Tonight they are having fresh Bass and Crappie.

Lil enjoys the outing

with her ever present stick.

The youngest grandson got his first barefoot mud sample.

Can you guess who caused this?

Then we went to the creek and washed our feet.

Today was a good day At The Farm.

I Knew Today Was Gonna Be Fun...

when I began my morning by putting the toilet paper roll on backwards.   I know this is not important to many but my life is just wrong if the roll is backwards.

I like the roll to spill the paper counter clock wise so, if needed, I can just spin and the paper will be at my finger tips.

On the other hand and the other direction, I become a basket case over where is the toilet paper.  If it lays on the wall, it bothers me.  I prefer for it to free hang in the air. I don't know why I dislike the paper touching the wall first, it is clean and after all I am only wiping my behind.

I could have simply reinstalled the roll but then I would not have been able to write this.

Houston, We Have A Problem

This is a rooster who knows not what he is.  He has some Aracauna in him but the other part is just plain stupid.

He has a buddy and they make their rounds daily, seeking treasures of scraps or dog food or what ever it is their day to find.  He calls softly to his bud when he finds a morsel, the same way a hen calls to her chick.

He has one major problem and those involved are getting rather annoyed with him.  He thinks he is a cat. 

I don't mean he simply hangs with the cats or helps them eat their food.  I mean he is attracted to the cats!  Really attracted!!!

This rooster does not see a four legged mortal enemy, he sees an attractive, a very attractive partner.  The rooster works incessantly at convincing them he can change their world.  He is the eternal wooer of cats!  The cats ignore his romantic overtures and if he tries to carry them out, the cats just move.

I enjoy our animals getting along but this is very unnatural in my book!  He has hens but the cats are the apple of his eye.  Go figure!

Now if he goes in a soup pot, will he taste like rooster or have a strange flavor of cat?

Helicopters, Horses and Hope

Every year at Mt Pleasant Elementary School, a helicopter comes to visit close to the end of the year.

It lands in the ball field.

 Students line up, grades zero through sixth,

and view it up close.

A church is directly across from my work.

It is handy for the horse riders to stay outta the road.

This one did not seem to like the church sign.

The skies showed me a thing or two...

I called this photo, Hope.

No matter how dark things are, there is always light.

It Was A Foggy Morning...

when I drove to work.  I could imagine anything coming through this fog.  I thought of The Fog and The Mist and Jurassic Park.  I thought it was my  imagination working overtime.  I see some prehistoric creature though the mist.

I guickly pull off the road because I am dangerous when I am shooting and driving.  I wondered at what I saw.

The fog wasn't clearing very fast.

I tried another angle and baby woke up.

Isn't zoom just wonderful?

I could see the water drops on the fence.

In this case, I would say zoom was safer too.

Can You Identify This Plant?

Marcy found this growing wild and we do not know what it is.  It looks similiar to tame columbine but we have no idea.

Nothing To Crow About

Unless it is this beautiful foggy sunrise.

Just been taking it easy

and keeping my eyes on things.

Letting every one else do the work,

while I enjoy the fruits of their labor.

I guess you could say,

I've been out to pasture.

The Things I Did Not Do

I did not thin this ground cover nor did I thin the money plants.  Both need it or they are going to force out all the plants we so carefully placed.

I did not weed these beds around the water garden.

The nice thing about all the rain is

everything grows.

Things we have planted and

things we have not.

The valley is good for growth...all kinds, especially spiritual.

These are the pecans Mom and Dad planted

when they first got married.

The Things I Did

after work Saturday should have sweated the rest of the sick outta me.  I made piles.  Oh, the pleasure I had watching those piles grow.  Do you have a place around your house, where you just lay something til later and later never comes?   This is a collection of some of those piles: a broken flower pot, sun worn ice cream buckets used to hold small bits, an old box I was going to use and a chair broken during the ice storm that I was going to fix...

The yard crew (Hubby and Beverly) was mowing yesterday.  East of the house, near the old tractor tire water garden, a copperhead snake was spotted but escaped.  This guy is poison and we do not really like having one this close to the house.  Heck, we don't like having them at all!

Today after work, I tackled the jungle.  My goal to clear the way for easy snake spotting, open it up for easier mowing and pick up some damaged things I had not disposed of yet.  I wish I had taken before pictures but you can measure the piles and imagine the befores because I only have afters.

The elderberries had taken over around the water garden.  Something is eating the limbs so off they came.  A super thinning of plant life took place or a butchering, depends on how you look at it.

This USED to be a great sweeping, beautiful Texas or Blackberry Rose.  I believe I shared some pictures of its blooms.  Well, there ain't no blooms now!  In the heart of this bush is where the copperhead chose to rest when he was spotted yesterday.

Now I have two, no, three big piles full of plantain, violets, blackberry rose and elderberries topped with sticks, dead pecans and limbs and debris from the old tractor tire.  It is over ninty degrees and the humidity is 76%.  I am not sweating like a horse, I am lathered.

You can see around the tire!!!!  The refilling water is clear!  No snakes in site but I did find a marvelously, huge bull frog in my hostas and welcomed him.  Hope I did not scare him off.

Hostas visible, lillies visible, rocks visible...just a  mere few hours later.  This was my resting spot on the log, I would sit and drink a tall cool drink as I pondered my next move.

I have seen the elephant and he is bare!  He was covered with Virginia Creeper.  It is not perfect by any means but much closer.  The plow share is visible and all/most snake hidey holes are gone.

This is on the east side of the lodge and welcomes the morning sun.  Now I can greet the morning sun in relative safety...in this hard won spot.  Man, I am pooped!

 You can read about The Old Tractor Tire by typing the words into my search at the upper left hand side of page.

Marcy Gets To Have All The Fun

Found by Beverly, shot by Marcy

This N That

The water garden needs attention because of fallen pecan blooms but I just haven't gotten there yet.  The lilies are blooming any way so I guess it is not too vital to remove them right away.

Den waited all morning for Sears to repair two mowers still under warranty.  The appointment was for a time between eight am and twelve.  What kind of appointment is that?  Then after the repairman arrived, his determination was bad gas but replaced parts that were not damagable by gas.  Go figure...I am not mechanically inclined.  I just enjoy the power.

I think I am coming back from the sinus,/bronchitis/general infection thing.  I can almost hear again and I can smell some things.  I walk into my room and get a whiff of leather from the saddles and bridles...awesome, I have missed that smell. 

This illness has delayed my reconstruction inside the barn.  My plan for a tack room will be started soon. I shall miss the smell of leather in my bedroom.  Perhaps the nearness of the tack will encourage me to saddle up since it will be more handy. 

The barn is old and has no power so I have been looking at solar lights.  I can place the panel on the barn wall or roof and the light in the tack room.

I am working on eating less unhealthy rather than more healthy.  It just sounds better that way, not so harsh.  It is good that I love fresh vegtables and during the garden season, I have no desire for meat.

I am ready for the tired to leave.  I was not truly aware of how tired I was until I was driving home.  I have been in trouble for not waving at someone before, now I wave at every car I meet just to cover the one I may miss. This is how tired I am...a bird flies across the highway in front of me...I wave.  I have a motion detected wave.  How sad is that?

Sweet Smelling Honeys

The grass is always greener...

Curious equine, hoping for apples

lined up, only they know for what

There must be apples somewhere.

How can you refuse a sweet face like this?