In Passing...

the rooster mumbled.

Lizzy asked, "What did he say?"

Mirrors

i turn
to the wall
and
paint
the
ones
black
i cannot turn
do I fear
a portal
I cannot see
or
the
eyes
that look
back at me?

For Open Link Monday

with Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

Tommie Copper

I roll out of bed and hit the floor
my body ain't so good anymore
I can sit and I can stand
but I have to wait for someone's hand

the basketball knee
needs support
I pull on Tommie Copper
now i play sports

My back won't bend
it just hurts
I pull on my
compression shirt

I am weak
my shoulders are whacked
let me put on my sleeves
be right back

Compressed from stem to stern
these new girdles work I'll be durn!
I am old but encased with Tommie Copper
Will someone help me outta this rocker??

Disclaimer:  Tommie Copper did not reward me for this!

You Know It's Done Right

when folks want to move in.

The hidden skeleton in the water garden

 Jump, frog! 

It's Ki-Anne.

You can't get me here, dog!

Treasures Found

Who said wall paper sample books have no use?

Blue enamel bed pan and a gun holster 

Red neck potty chair...take lid off and use for dining room chair or remove linoleum and slide a bucket underneath for an instant portable potty.

washboard

My personal favorite...a box of rocks.

I come by my love of rocks naturally. 

 Wall art from cut metal cans, wire and a button

Cast iron, copper and the politically incorrect

cowboys and Indians with an astronaut

A tiny hand carved cage for something

includes a nest box and a ceramic water container

Who the heck is this??

If you know, please tell me.

That's all the news I have today.

Update on more treasures next week

if the Lord's willing and the creeks don't rise.

I Worked

in the old house.

On a farm multiple buildings always means something needs repairing, sorting, or improving. This house was where my sister was born and where two siblings were born that we never knew. 

Thanks to varmints and dogs chasing said varmints there is some disarray inside this small three room house where three generations have stayed at different times.  

The death of Mom, the watching of Dad until his death, the ice storms, the tornado, and health and life in general has kept me from doing a proper job keeping the outbuildings in order.

One year the chickens laid eggs in the attic. The dogs have continued to search and seize any trespassers that entered the old home.

After the tornado the loose tin caused some water damage.  The roof was repaired but water has caused a floor joist to fall.  Know this is a box construction house.  No two by's.  No four by's but a simple floor joist system and roof rafters with board and batting connecting the two.  Paper and cloth was used for insulation if you can even call it that.

Primarily used for storage I have my work cut out for me. I am slowly sorting things that have ruined from over sixty years of storage, saving what I can and repairing as I go.

One room is on a slant so I slide in, grab a box and run uphill to get it to level floor and repeat and repeat. I sort and stack in a solid room.

I sort, reduce, protect and stack.  I would carry a sack to my throw a way pile while keeping the "good" stuff.  When I needed air I would carry a box of bottles from my other project and place it in the lean-to kitchen.  A thousand steps, a million steps....maybe more.  Until the muscle cramps and promise of rain stopped me.

An old wringer washer

a wood cook stove

A complete school desk from a one room school house

I've written how two small houses were pulled up the creek by horses and a sled joined by a common roof. A lean-to kitchen was added.  This was in the early thirties so there is no way to tell how old the house or houses really are.

  

I remember being warm in winter with no insulation.  I remember the smell and taste of Mom's biscuits.  I remember Dad setting us out during the first snowy morning to run around the house to keep our feet warm all winter. .I remember hauling water from the same spring we use today. I remember the weight of all the quilts in winter and the cool breezes of summer. I remember the love.

In this house with each box and bag, I remember.  Yes, I remember.  This is the reason I work in this old house...to save those memories and perhaps, just maybe, make more.

Just in case you were worried, I have not lost my marbles.  In fact I may possibly have five or six generations of marbles, so I'm in good shape.

dVerse Passion

out of the earth

by Brook Shaden

for

dverse~Poets Pub

clawing my way

out

i can't forget

from whence i came

where i will return

and in between

those times

that made me laugh

and love

in celebration of

Mother Earth

Dog Parts

I can't seem to escape them.

Not complaining because I'm a better person for this gift.

She Walks...

Tess Kincaid

She walks
In the clear
To avoid
The muddy
Turbulence
That is
Her life

Never looking up
She strolls
Splashing
In tall boots
Pretending
This is real
Not the murky water

In this moment
She walks on rocks
Never disturbing
Silt nor mud
Nor secrets
And thinks
This is how it should be

With Patience

they will come.

If you cough,

they will run!

The Train In Guion

Before my husband and I met he lived and almost died in Guion, Arkansas. Driving in his '66 maroon Mustang with his cousin they crossed these train tracks. Hubby was fiddling with his radio.
The crossing lights did not work that day nor did they work this day. Hubby looked up to see one big light bearing down on him.  Trying to stop, the car spun around and died.  Hubby started the car and by popping the clutch he lost only part of his bumper that day. The cousin had left the car. Hubby stayed to save it. We still have part of that bumper...wish we had the whole car. Hubby said for months afterward his dreams were haunted by the train light.  The engineer had not sounded the horn but he did this day.

At the beginning of my film you see a mine in the bluffs. This is a sand mining town and has been for a very long time.  I imagine one day  the town will disappear into the great void that lies beneath its hills. Once a thriving city with many businesses it is a smaller town now but beginning to grow again. In addition to the Unimin Inc there is Silica Transport and a new tiny grocery store.

We lived here a few years when the girls were young and Hubby worked at the sand mill as a laborer then as an operator washing and drying sand.  Twelve hour shifts were rough on all.  I'm sure the working conditions have improved while the mines still provide jobs for many.

As Hubby grew up he traveled much by train since his father was an employee of Missouri-Pacific Railroad and family could travel free.

The track runs along White River for many miles and is still in use today but only for transporting products not people.

Just another tendril from the vines of life that twine together and make me who I am. Where would I be today if Hubby was not a great driver?

When Blog Fodder Is Thin...

there's always room for a Bonnie post

Some how I slipped away without her.

Galloping toward me

 She hung her collar on the fence

looking back to see who grabbed her

Shortly she figured it out

crawling under the barbed wire

Nothing touched the wire but her tail.

Bonnie is a quick study.

Morning Curtains For Magpie Tales...

House work
Dishes
Dirty floor
Sat to rest
Fell to the floor
The curtains entwined
As she slept
The husband
Immediately
Hired some help.

For the prompt at Magpie Tales with Tess Kincaid

Crocite...

Crocite for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

Powerful

Carried

In my pocket

You

Reach my base

To travel 

Through 

Centering
Balancing
Reconnecting
Me with life
Earth
And myself
I KNOW
NOW
I
CAN
DO
ANYTHING

Eighteenth Birthday, Registered To Vote and Registered For The Draft

Looking cool in his found Ray Bans

Showing off

Fishing

Shopping for amps

with Faith

Fender won the pick

  

Know we are very proud and 

love you "to the moon and back"

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

The Rocks' New Home

The water fall 

is falling over new rocks

The fall now runs through a new holey rock

The river stones redirect the falls

and my collection grows.

Elysium

was my entertainment and boy, howdy, did it entertain me!  I was appalled, shocked, impressed and riveted to the screen.  I was scared, sad, and jubilant from scene to scene.  It may not be every one's movie but I don't watch many.  Even a year after it has been in theaters it was good enough to knock my sci-fi socks off.

I've been At The Farm far too long to be so easily entertained by one movie.  Doesn't take much but I'm still reeling from Elysium.  Matt Damon and Jody Foster were just two of the memorable cast.

"Never forget where you come from."

Elysium is a movie worth watching if you're a little different like me.

Enjoy.

I've Been Mooned

and loved every minute of it!

I Know You're Wondering About The Rocks

Those who know me well also know what a rock hound I am.  Instead of postcards I collect rocks and know where each one was gathered.

Fossils in limestone too large to carry

Quarried limestone along the boat ramp full of quartz

Limestone ledges shelters fish under water

and whatever needs shelter above it.

Most of our rocks are different forms of sedimentary.

Note the snail fossil here.

I could not catch the sparkle with the camera

but sunshine and the eyes can find the quartz.

I love rocks where the hole goes completely through it.

We call them fairy rocks as in door ways for the little folks.

Others call them Crone Stones

 and believe that the wearer can see the future.

All are sedimentary rocks of varying types.

 Silt stone

These I carried home.  I had my handy canvas bag just for this reason.  I had to be selective because it was a long way back to the boat.

Double prize here with a hole that is also a fossil.

I found some thin flat rocks to paint and others I will incorporate around my water gardens.

We've found metamorphic rocks and some volcanic rocks along with lots of sedimentary rocks At The Farm.  I enjoy reading the history in each stone.  Millions of years can be seen in a rock cliff and I get lost in time. 

And that is Geology One for preschool...I try to learn more with every rock I touch but I have a long way to go.