Warning!!!!

puppy faces may melt your heart!

Sunday, My Day of Rest...

yep, sure was restful!  I woke with a bee in my bonnet and proceeded to direct the troops.  You know the troops I'm talking about, the ones who game or computer or tv or snooze in their chair all day...those troops.

I was tired of waiting on Someone Who Does Not Work to get it done!  I thought they might learn by example. I heard an expression used the other night related to hoarding...can't remember the expression but it was the inability to see the mess.  Both males in my home are suffering from this horrible malady...just can't see it.  Boy, oh, boy, I'm not blind just only so much of me to go around!

Yep, I'm not blind and I found out today, they are not deaf!  They heard, they listened, they worked as they wondered, I'm sure, who took the gentle Gail and replaced her with a slave driver.

They both had this shocked expression when I declared, "We are not living like pigs, anymore."  I proceeded with small lines; you drop it, you pick it up, you spill it, you clean it up.  They stood like zombies with a full belly...with a terrible blank look on their face.

We, now, have almost all the laundry done...except they have to put theirs away.  Took one truck load...a bed, a table, a big box and an antique baby chicken warmer, to the shop.  While we were out, we did grocery shopping, with every one's input...and every one unloading and putting away.

Hubbs was so scared (right!) he was hauling things out of the yard to the bone yard where they belong.  Andrew wasn't near as scared but he hasn't lived with me as long.

I have a box full of socks and shorts no one wears that will be a fine free gift to some one who has none.  I have a full trash can, a broken sewing machine needle and a hurt back but, by golly, they listened and they worked.

The sad thing is, I kinda like this so I'm not through with them yet!  As Mom used to say, Things are gonna change around here!

I grew tired of waiting for someone to fix the window sill in the bathroom...that is now sitting with it's second coat of paint after being scrapped, caulked and dried...that was my job, I gave up on every one else.

I may, just maybe, if they're nice, give them the rest of the afternoon off.  Don't want to shock their systems too badly.

Post note: 6PM Sunday...Hubb's napping, Andrew's playing guitar, fresh stir fry on the stove and I am hitting my soft chair.  We have earned our rest.

Saturday Centus…A Day Late

The dark stranger entered the dance hall.
The silent, patient type, he waited.
Our eyes met, we looked away,
both interested, but too shy to act

His toes tapped to the R&B.
I swayed, where I stood,
in time to the waltz.
We could both feel the attraction.

The night moved on, as they always do.
We held moist glasses with cold drinks,
sneaking glimpses at one another
as we both avoided the dance floor.

Slowly he moved toward me and spoke,
”May I have this dance?”
Displaying his badge,
the mysterious stranger in my arms whispered,
“We both know where all the bodies are buried.”

I keep forgetting about these fun writing prompts at Saturday Centus.  Join the fun and the challenge.

A Ki-Ann Adventure...

Gotta be something...

hiding in this timber pile!

Run away, Cutter, you girly man!

I'll find it alone.

I think it got away.

Lazy Person...

This old mirror is topped with Dad's road sign.

It comforted him, during Alzheimer's, to read his name

and know he was home.

I oiled the wood in the hall.  The smell of lemon oil flows through the house and makes it seem fresher and less wintry.  Now, if I could just get around to oiling Grandma's organ and the other wooden items, I might be in fair shape.  Just a square foot at a time...

I read of many doing winter cleaning and I am embarrassed because I seem to accomplish little while staying busy.  Two jobs do that, then throw in just maintaining daily life...not much time left to do the extras.

I did finally finish Hubbs' quilt, a memory quilt made from his embroidered shirts back when he used to have a job.  I did catch him snoozing in his recliner with it wrapped around him so maybe he likes it.

I have eight boxes of farm things to move to the shop. 

I walk through the house, looking, do I keep this or that?  I see all the work that cries out to be done and here I sit on the computer...remembering Granny's words..."Lazy people count their jobs"!

I Walked With My Ancestors...

Yesterday, after Hubbs' doctor visit,

after a very rare (in both respects) steak lunch out,

after a stop for groceries,

I walked.

I walked where my father's father had walked.

I stood where the Osage stood.

I soaked up the healing that comes from the land.

I revisited places I've written about,

places I've lived,

and places I've played.

The sky smiled

while the land loved me back...

 I, reluctantly, returned indoors to cook dinner.

At The Farm...HIstory and Secrets

a small farm, one hundred fifty acres , more or less...not big enough to be called a ranch.  Not fancy enough to be a resort, but it's beautiful and it's home.  I guess, it would be called a hobby farm, since you rarely make money on a farm.  You can eek a living out of the ground.  The land will care for you if you care for it.

This beautiful spring valley, (three live year round springs) surrounded by tree covered hills and grassland was first home to the Native Americans, I would guess Osage by the relics we find.  The place is covered with natural berry bushes and fruit and nut trees and the wonderful Osage Orange or Bodark that makes the best wood for bows, say the bow makers.

March 1885 this was part of an original land grant to John Walker by President (1853-1857) Franklin Pierce (information from the land grant). People called him "Tin Cup Walker" because, way before his time, he believed germs could be passed by drinking after someone.  So Tin Cup always carried his cup on his belt and never drank out of any one's dipper when he needed a drink of water.  His daughter, Eve is buried here, and we still care for her grave.  From there, it changed hands many times through the trading of horses, the inability of some to pay the taxes, and just selling one to the other.

Although Dad was born not far from here, this land did not enter the family til the thirties (again, according to the title search, which doesn't ring true in places)  In between times, and after Dad's birth, the family left Arkansas for Kansas, left the Dust Bowl there, for Missouri and returned here to survive the Great Depression.

There are three old home places on the farm, shown only in spring by the blooming of daffodils and burning bushes.  The old barn is almost just a memory, a few timbers remain.  The old house that still stands close by the house Mom and Dad built was two houses put together with a lean-to kitchen added.  Dad said they pulled the two houses here with a team of horses on a log sled.  Four children and Grandma and Grandpa lived here...two rooms and a lean-to with a toilet in the cedar glade.

Dad had a brother and two sisters and another brother born much later.  They had hogs, goats, cattle, chickens and ducks...plus huge gardens and hay crops to feed every thing and every one.

After Dad left home, he worked hard to send money home to buy more land.  The holdings increased and by the fifties before I was born, Dad had helped purchase more land and left Grandpa in charge while my family worked away...in the wheat harvests in Kansas, running a sheep ranch in Iowa, and many other things to accumulate land.  If you have land, you can live.

Mother has always had a "knowing", as some people call it. Just before I was born, she insisted, since she and Dad had paid for most of the land, to have a separate deed to this place.  I saw it in the abstract.  Dad gave Grandpa almost four hundred acres and Mom and Dad took one hundred and ninety acres.

It's a sad story, really.  Dad sent all his money home during the entirety of World War II and when he returned, the money was gone. Later Dad would work and buy cattle to put on the farm.  Grandpa would sell them the next week.  Dad would work away and Grandpa would sell the timber...on all the land.  Dad always loved his parents and never harbored any bitterness over this...he was a better person than me.

Mother knew a storm was coming.  Grandma died.  Grandpa, who was in the beginnings of Alzheimer's, had another logger come in.  The lady logger showed up with a roll of cash and offered Grandpa $5 a acre in the fifties!!!  Grandpa, not being right, thought that was a whole lot more than they paid for it.  He took it and Mom and Dad found out when they returned that most of the land they had worked for such a long time was gone.  Our over five hundred acres was reduced to less than 150 over night...Thank God and Mom, she had that deed changed!!!

This land is now part ranch and part new development.  It is sad, that because of Grandpa's illness, Dad's hard earned land was lost.

We lived here in the house that Grandpa put together for a while.  We had to walk to the main highway to school...almost two miles.  Mom and Dad bought eight acres by the highway and that is actually where I grew up but even there, we had a big garden, a fruit orchard, a grape vineyard, a stocked pond and a milk cow/calves with hogs to butcher and, of course, cats, dogs, and chickens.

Dad made his living through road construction.  We lived a way a lot until I started school, then we moved home.  Dad still worked away but I attended school here all my life, with the exception of one year in Missouri.

Mom and Dad built the house we live in now.  We all had a part in the construction.  We all  have hammered nails, laid rocks, and painted walls.  They built it as they could pay for it.  They moved back to the farm after I married...and now they are gone and we are here.

Marcy has a retirement home here, we live in the old farm house, and Bev lives in town but is here working 'most every day.

Now, that's a lot of talking!!!  You asked for the history of the farm,  Canned Quilter, and I give you a sad family tale.

Currently, we run a few cattle,(no horses now) chickens, dogs and cats...not counting all the wild encounters we have with the wild life. The items we grow feed many families and we supplement our food with wild game.

With Andrew, it will make the fifth generation that has lived here.

I know I haven't answered all the questions, but keep 'em coming, I'll always have an answer!

With A Name Like "At The Farm"...

I'm sure you expect more farmish things when you stop by but it's winter and the farm in resting.  The grass hangs on in it's brown dreariness, the cows aren't calving yet so not too much excitement going on.

This is when we sew, warm by the fire, feed and water the animals and enjoy the fruits of our summer labors.  Soon it will be time to prune trees with our clothes layered to stay warm.

I am gonna let you determine my next post...any questions about life At The Farm?

And The Sun Shines On...

after cold rain and fog.

Sometimes, it's fun to look back,

while we're moving forward.

Could be dangerous, too.

It's always reassuring to know,

whether we see it or not,

the sun does rise every day...

and the Son is always with us.

A happy update from Missouri dog,

with his new squirrel toy...

I would say, this is a happy dog!

I Met A Miracle Sunday...

and her name was Didera.  A wonderfully sweet lady drove all the way from Springfield, Missouri to pick up one of my little hot peppers!

He has not been in his new home twelve hours, has sweaters, toys and all the wonderful amenities any pup can dream about.  His new mom sent me this picture just minutes ago.

This lucky little man, a mutt from nowhere Arkansas, will become a therapy dog and a life time companion to another dog and the wonderful women who now owns them both.

I loved the follow up emails I've received.  I can hear the happiness in Ms Dideras's voice.

Thank you, Ms Didera.  May this little man give you all the love and happiness his mother has given me.

The 'Possum Battle...

The tracks were seen and depending on who was reporting, this new possum was AT LEAST the size of our biggest dog.  After being sited one night, while boldly dining on cat food by the front porch, we all agree, it was a huge one!

I imagine that's how the possum got so big...this one had a brain.  It has been able to elude all farm dog attempts of capture.  One night I even assisted the dogs in house shoes (me, not the dogs) and a big bad flashlight.  The trail was hot, the 'possum moving too fast for capture, the wild granny with house coat tails flapping in the cold, freezing air with the farm dogs doing their work...it was a scary picture. The 'possum hit an old armadillo tunnel and we had to admit defeat.

After a week of stalking, sitings, and even a few treed-in-the-tunnel nights, the dogs finally were successful.

This old fellow, finally captured and dispatched, mainly by Lil and Ki, was HUGE...a tad bigger than Ki.  Marcy got to witness the victory.  Oh, it was sweet!  Good dogs!!!

Last night, the commotion began.  What?  I thought we got rid of the problem.  Well, the big one must have been talking at the ole watering hole because another showed.  This one, much smaller and less wise, was dispatched quickly by the new lead 'possum hunting team of Lil and Ki.

For the soft-hearted, I apologize.  It is necessary to do this.  After the cat food, the chicken house would be raided, hens killed.

I don't know about you but, I think, I'd much rather have chicken to eat than 'possum!

Fiction???

He was a typical abuser...
never let the marks show.
Never let the world know.
He smiled as he established a gentleman's resume.

But, when the doors closed.
The iron fists clenched
and did angry damage,
despite the begging cries and tears.

Connected, I knew.
I planned and I smiled.

The legend grows,
the speculation runs rampant.
The abuser, who feared me,
without knowing why...
disappeared.

I continue to smile.
Life is safer for the one left behind.

Thursday I Ran Away...

at lunchtime.  I close for lunch but people knock on the door or holler for something...so I left the building...and took a drive.  The town I work in used to be Barren Fork now it's called Mt Pleasant.

Just a skip and a hop down the road is Barren Fork Creek.  This was my lunch break today.  I think you'll agree, it was worth the trip.

The day was perfect.

It was a sweater day, nothing else needed, well,

except for pants and shoes and such,

but no coat.

Driving down a gravel road,

you cross a concrete low water bridge.

The water tumbles through on normal days,

on flood days, it is impassible.

Even away from work, I worked.

The culverts on one side were blocked.

I removed branches and logs to help the water flow.

I caused the water to foam.

Sad, that even on a break,

I just keep on working!

The creek had worked its magic.

I returned to work, muddy, but refeshed....

and there were people waiting for me to open.

Sweet Child of Mine...

She's got a smile that it seems to me

Reminds me of childhood memories

Where everything was as fresh

 as the bright blue sky.

 

Now and then when I see her face

She takes me away to that special place

and if I stare too long,

 I'd probably break down and cry.

 

She's got eyes of the bluest skies

 as if they thought of rain

I'd hate to look into those eyes

 and see an ounce of pain.

 

Her hair reminds me of a warm safe place

Where as a child I'd hide

and pray for the thunder and the rain

to quietly pass me by.

Well, her eyes aren't blue but they're beautiful...

this sweet child of mine!!!

Her heart is as big as the universe.

I wish all the words above were mine but, alas,

Guns N Roses sang them first.

Happy Birthday, Melissa!!!

May this be the best year ever.

I love you.

Tuesday Was One of Those Days...

when the sunrise greets you warmly,

as the storm front

starts rolling in.

You must keep your back to the storm,

and continue driving toward the sunrise.

Hot Peppers Produce Hot Peppers...

Remember the trouble I always had

TRYING to get pictures of Ki-Anne?

Multiply that by seven...

and you still won't have a clue!!!

Sometimes, I get lucky and one or two are still.

They know who Granny is,

and they come running when I call.

Ki's not hurting her baby.

She's trying to control them like every mother,

sometimes, you just have to grab 'em

and hold on.

They're ready to go to forever homes.

Wish for some good ones.

It's Monday...

and it's not wash day nor grocery day but sewing day and a holiday for me!  I am happily clipping and ripping away on Hubby's old work shirts.  He no longer holds the title embroidered so nicely on these shirts and he no longer works for the business so the shirts are mine...MINE, I say.

Plain, solid colors chosen by a plain, solid man who was good great at his job for years.  In political appointments when the lead dog changes, some of the team are replaced as was Hubby.  Through the years, Hubby performed many heroic acts although he would not say that, finding lost children, rescuing people, recovering people and helping the entire county run smoothly during disasters and during the good times. 

So today, I am finishing a quilt I began some time ago.  It will be for Hubby and his magic sleeping chair...you know, the chair that reclines and automatically puts the reclinee to sleep.

I sew happily on my old electric machine, have more trouble threading the needle than I used to but I can still get the job done.

Noticing the pile of jeans waiting for me to repurpose, knowing I will make yard quilts and totes and maybe a pillow or two, but that will be for another day.

Winter weather brings out the Suzie Home Maker in me and so I sew. This day may your stitches be strong, your tension just right and may you always be able to see the eye of the needle.

This N That...

I wondered if you wondered about my new profile photo.  Is that a one-eyed Ki-Anne?  No, she's winking.  I am in search of the perfect profile photo but, so far, no luck.

I sold my western saddle yesterday.  It was a difficult thing.  I still have my Australian saddle which is much lighter than my western.  I have it, just in case, one of these days, I might believe that MAYBE I can ride.

The bright side of that is the proceeds cover the price of my little adventure I have planned for February.  Two tickets and one motel for Andrew and I to see BB King!!!!!  The tickets were purchased and the motel reserved the night before I sold the saddle. 

Maybe, I'll have enough left to buy a citrine stone.  A friend said citrine releases negative energy and protects us from outside negative forces...yep, I could use that.

I have a Bucket list...a Texas gallon bucket, an aluminum three gallon bucket and a plastic five gallon bucket.  Seriously, I do sorta have a bucket list...and on that list was to see BB King...he will be 86, I think, this year.  My grandson plays guitar just by watching someone else pay a song.  Mr King is one he watches.  This is a dream for both of us, may it be as wonderful as we believe it will be.

The sun is shining, the air is freezing but the day is beautiful...maybe I will take a walk to renew my spirit.

May your day be blessed.

The Things We Keep...

What can you tell about a person by the things they have around them?  This has been on my mind as I thin pieces of my life, trying to simplify and  keep only the things I absolutely love.  There are many advantages to this.  You don't have to dust as much, when you're gone people will have less to throw away, and it just feels good being surrounded by stuff you absolutely love.

I wonder what these pictures tell about me except that I am behind on my dusting.  Welcome to a peek inside my head and my heart.  Introducing a few of the pieces that have survived the first cut. 

Do they reveal my personality as you know it here or do they hint at secrets?  Let me know.

Remember, I didn't say I'd been cleaning...

I said, I'd been thinning.