Oh, My...

I just realized I have been lax in my posting but sadly have had little to say.  I'm all talked out.  I'm stuffed to the gills with wonderful and some strange food.  The litter from opening packages is cleared. The next to last guests have returned home.

There is some sense of order in my world again. I am comfortable with order.

I sit in my area crocheting, checking now and then on the injured daughter still here.  Zander plays with Legos while his mother naps. Monday we return to the doctor.  Some one comes here three times a week and does what ever they do with a wound vac.  

Tuesday we drop Bonnie at the vet's for her shots, check up and spaying.  Hubby has a doctor's appointment the same day.  I'm hoping I don't get the places and patients mixed up.

Wednesday I take recyclables to turn in an hour away.

Friday, Zander's school begins again.  Monday Andrew's and Jake's begins.

And we begin the year to do it all over again.  We are grateful and blessed.

Happy New Year.

Boy Adventures Or Running With The Pack

Boys, dogs and water

 are an interesting combination

on an extremely warm Autumn day.

No problem finding adventures

Heart warming to see cousins helping each other

I'm holding my breath but no one falls in the water.

It was difficult to keep up but

I returned with the same number 

of children I left with today

I Think...

All heroes don't wear capes.

Everyone can get along.

Tears are as real as

raindrops.

Mark Harmon is not the only guy

who can rock this haircut.

Funny faces are fun.

Fires can be like revenge

especially with thorny plants.

Editing Dummy Here...

I am working on a clip so you can finally hear Andrew play.  I have no idea how to begin but just know I am trying.

I, the photographer, am fired. I have fired myself.  Andrew has practiced twice with the new 289 Band since they have changed things up.  Two old members remain four were added.  

Andrew was the only invited "special guest" with the band.  The Izard County Consolidated High School opened this act with their school band.  The entire band played well.  I'm a sucker for sax and horns...they were great.

The theme for this show was the history of rock and roll.  Chuck the writer/announcer/guitar player told the story as we traveled from the forties to the present.  We heard Beatles, Sonny and Cher, The Turtles, CCR with John Fogerty, The Carpenters, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nix, Booker T and The MGs, Janis Joplin, Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lynyrd Skynyrd The Kinks and many more I can't remember...not because they weren't good but because I forgot!

Andrew played three solos I think and was on stage playing back up the entire time.  He had been there since one o'clock and the show ended at nine.  He was tired but still had energy to get phone numbers

from some fans.  A young lady wanted him to join her in a talent show.  She sings.  He plays.  That's all I know.  Andrew ain't talking!

The crowd was great.  Hoots and hollers from old gray haired people...that includes me. Many people stood up during one of Andrew's solos.  He played solos in Hey Joe, Pride and Joy, Green Onions and more that I've forgotten.  Next time I will take notes and no pictures.

"...and the crowd went wild" was true this night.  The radio station from another county was there broadcasting live.  A good friend suggested maybe the radio has a recording of the complete performance

This was the best family photo I could get not including me, Hubby, Jake (middle grandson) and Stormi, Toni's daughter.  I was happy to catch this many in one spot with SOME of them looking at the camera.

Left to right:  Zander (youngest grandson, son of Maria), Toni, (nephew), Maria (daughter, Andrew's mom), Melissa (oldest daughter, mother of Jake) and our star of the night, Andrew.

I am so proud of Andrew's God gifted, self taught talent.  I am proud of all my family.

It was just a magical night.  

Soon, I promise, I will figure out how to edit film and make it small enough to post.

May your day be filled with wonderful music.

Down and Dirty On Easter

Many know we have live water from springs.  This is pumped into the house for our convenience (I have carried many a buckets from this spring).  Our water is far better and sweeter tasting that any city water I've had.  The rock circle is where the pump sits suspended in clear spring water.  My grandpa and Dad made this years ago.  

The bad part about all this is we have to clean and flush the spring at least twice a year according to conditions.  Well we missed last year (Hubby's and Marcy's illness).  Our water remained clear and sweet but this day of work was long over due. 

This is not a one man job.  So we invited family with the lure of Marcy's cooking and they went to work.

First you make a plan.  The culvert for over flow was removed to flush out the area removing moss and two years of natural deposits in the bottom of the holding pond.

Then you jump in and start moving the mud.  The more mud moving out the better.  The blanket moss goes out with the current.

Basically it is like making wine.  You squish the mud and work it down stream with your feet.  Andrew kept us hydrated.

Second grandson Jake ran to get whatever we needed, sometimes driving the Ranger or running as fast as he could go.  Andrew and Jake played some foot ball

and then they deserted us.

Shoveling muck is fun.  Now maybe we won't have to clean it again till next spring...hopefully!

We scrubbed everything, dug muck and pushed water.  We've done this since childhood but it was all done by hand then.  We would dig grass from this branch all the way to the creek.  It was an all day job for four generations.

 We rescued critters

and moved them to a safer place.  Our plan was to bleach the main spring to kill the blanket moss but not the live things.  The bleach will do its job and it will dissipate before it reaches the pond or creek.

Boots were no good.  

All was work was done barefooted.

Melissa, my oldest daughter,

captured a mother/daughter portrait.

The work continues and the water level lowered.  Melissa said she never saw any pictures on my blog of her.  I wonder if she will be proud of this one!  Bev, my sister, is working that mud so it can move on out.

Marcy, my oldest sister, came over to tell us she had cooked a feast.  Toni, my nephew, did work although I have few pictures of it.

We chlorinated while Hubby dammed the creek.  We ate a mouth watering belly filling delicious dinner at Marcy's and returned to the spring.

Busting the dam.

Replacing the culvert with Toni looking like a Highway Department employee we are nearing completion.

Now we are back in the pure water business again.

As the world celebrated the Resurrection

we resurrected our water source.

For Poetry Jam: Steps

If we're lucky
Our first steps are
Hopefully into
Trustworthy arms

The next steps
Are guided
By loving hands
Keeping us from harm

Then we climb
Step after step
Planning our choices
Are charmed.

For Poetry Jam:  Steps
and for my grandsons:
Andrew, Jake and Zander
May all your steps be true.

The Past Few Days...

 Jake prepared for the two day youth deer hunt.

No luck but there are more seasons ahead.

 I have a new bright spot in my room.

I recovered my ottoman.

 Trees downed from ice storms and tornadoes past
have been re-purposed

into fence posts.

 I saw many Turkey Buzzards in the air

 and on the ground.

Hubby informed me it was breeding season.

Always one to question I wondered

 how they could lay eggs this late in the year.

I'm just telling you what he said.

He said they "bond" now and breed

laying eggs early in the year. 

You'll have to take his word for it.

No way am I googling Buzzard Sex.

Fair warning...I have believed him many times

and he has fooled me.

 We crossed the great Norfork Lake at speeds too high for good photos.

Evan Zander became four.  I keep him every afternoon between Mom go-to-work time and Daddy come-home time.  How in the world did I ever have time to work at a paying job?

Football Injures!!!

I do not like to hear that phone ring!  The school called me.  Maria was out taking Marcy to do her shopping. Talk about a hurt elbow!   Before the doc.

After the doc, no bones broken but taking blood tests to see why two injuries in one week.  I can tell you that without going anywhere.  Football hurts!!!  In no other place can three 250 pound guys jump on your back, throw you to the ground and nothing happens but another guy blowing a whistle.

I have often told you how scared I am to see Andrew play and NOW my second grandson, Jake, is playing too.  I am not getting Evan Zander one football!!!  I have enough gray hairs already.

UPDATE:  Doc just called.  Minimal elevation in white blood count, continue current treatment: Steroids, ice pack, wrap, surface cream with some therapy trying to straighten the arm.  The swelling had reduced then a warm bath brought it back worse than before.  If none of this improves the condition, he will be referred  to another doctor for possible drainage of site...ouch!

My Main Men...

Tractor Man and Andrew

Jake and Zander...

all the men I need!