Weekend at the Farm

What a nice weekend we had at the farm! The breeze was blowing, the sun was out, and my husband and I worked in our garden and in the yard. We added purple hull peas, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. I'll have to post some photos later as Princess had my camera this weekend... Besides, it'll look better when the seeds sprout and start coming up. I know we're a little behind schedule but that's okay - better late than never.

We took some time out to spend Saturday evening with dear friends. Hubby grilled hamburgers and we 4 sat on the back deck in the shirt-sleeve evening and listened to the scissortails fussin' and generally caught up after this long hiatus of me being sick. It was so good to visit. It was even better to feel normal.

We have a snake of some sort living in the hollowed out hackberry tree. It's a huge tree that is going to have to be cut down soon. It's still alive and gives us great shade out by the garden shed, but I'm afraid it's going to get blown down and fall on our revamped shed. Anyway, I was walking around the tree Sunday afternoon and kicked the pile of lumber lying nearby to see if I could rattle up the field mice that DH said he saw. I didn't see any mice, but rounded the tree, and found a nice sized black snake peering out of the hollow trying to see if his dinner was making an appearance. When he saw I wasn't a mouse, he retreated into the hollow. Well, now I'm not generally afraid of snakes, but I was not expecting this and I bolted backwards and my heart jumped in my throat.

an aside........Did I ever tell you that I was "mom of the century" because I got into the pet snake project with my middle son for several years?????? I used to handle them along with him and we had to buy pinkie mice to keep in the freezer for them to eat. We've had rat snakes, water snakes, corn snakes. All pretty harmless, except one of the big black rat snakes got loose in the house and when I found him under a chest of drawers and pulled him out he got mad and latched onto my baby finger with his little row of sharp teeth. They don't have big fangs since they're not poisoness, but it still hurts. Well, that rat snake, if he's alive somewhere, probably still has a terrible headache because I slung him as hard as I could across the room to get him off my finger. He seemed okay. We got rid of him , took him back to the pet store- I wouldn't have a snake that would bite me. The king snake got loose one time and we found him in my daughter's closet. She was probably about 9 or 10 at the time, and was none too happy about it. We had all kinds of reptiles at the time. We also took Josh to the Sweetwater, Tx, Rattlesnake Roundup - boy was that a trip! There were some hippie-lookin' people there protesting with signs about the cruelty to the snakes. My husband, Bubba of the year, went over to them with his stuffed rattlesnake and hatband and asked if he could get his photo made with them. They said "yeah, sure" before they had time to think about it, and I snapped a picture. Then they realized what had just occurred and came back with some not so nice comments!

Now I don't know how you all feel about cruelty to snakes, but there are so many of them out there, that they smoke them out of their burrows and take hundreds to a big community center or pavillion or arena...anyway they put them in these pits and handlers will get in the pits and pick them up, sometimes getting bit (but they keep the anti-venom there) and they show how they are milked for their venom. They have another place there where they humanely(?) chop the heads off, skin them, and then fry the meat. It's not bad - tastes like chicken ..... How in the world did I get off on this subject..................

THat was a LONG ASIDE, wasn't it???? I called for DH and and he got his machete and hoe and proceeded to dig the rotten wood out of the tree. Well, we never did find the snake. I don't know if he went in the woodpile or not. I think it might have been a king snake, and if so, I'll leave him alone to eat mice. We had a king snake for awhile. Don't think it was black racer cuz he was too big around. It wasn't a copperhead, cuz I already killed one of those. Could have been a rat snake I guess. If it wasn't any of those, then it probably was a cottonmouth, altho there is no water around the shed. I'll have to get back with you on that one after we find him again. Would you like to see a picture of the soon to be headless snake? Check back....

Sunday was good - went to church and then spent the afternoon basking in the sun and breeze at the farm once again - is this boring you? Seems like that's all we do, but I need it. It's therapy for me. What was going to be MY garden this year actually turned out to be Hubby's garden this year, but that's okay. It's not going to be as big or have as many items in it, but there's always next year, Lord willing.

Well, for me to not have much to talk about, this turned out to be a rather long post. Sorry, I get carried away.

I also wanted to thank Margo for a really nice lunch last week. We enjoyed "just visitin'" this time, no business - she's a sweet lady and I hope we will become fast friends!

Hey, let me know - I changed the font and width of my blog and I need to know if this is too hard for ya'll to read and should I change it back? I don't want people to not read it, so please let me know. I gotta to figure out how to stretch whatever photo I put for my header, too. I need a new one anyway - Take care, friends - Vickie

New Farm Photos

Good evening all-

I've taken some photos of the farm this past weekend. Things are coming up green all over. And Pink and purple and yellow! I'm SOOOOOO behind on getting my garden out what with being sick and all. I have to learn to roll with the punches I guess. Anyway, thought I'd give you a little tour of the little bit we've done this spring so far...

I couldn't help but buy petunias and bouganvilla - they thrill my heart to see these brilliant colors that no paintbrush can match! Only God can make these colors! I set out some periwinkles, some little gardenia bushes (love that heavenly aroma) and we got our garden started. Dad's garden is well on its way. Mine will be a little behind, and if I don't get it out at all this year, I guess that'll be okay. We did get the onions, red potatoes, and carrots out. I've got seed for corn, squash, pole beans, purple hull peas and cucumbers. And tomato plants and pepper plants on the way.

Here's a little shot of the garden shed we revamped from that old dangerously leaning shed. We're going to run water and electric out there soon.

My husband set out peach and plum trees which already have little tiny fruits on them. We might get a couple if the crows don't get them. It's only their first year - I wasn't expecting them to have any fruit on them this year at all. We also have some new pecan trees.

Here are my gladioulus coming up. My grandmother's name was Gladys Ola, and my mama always told me that she was named after these flowers. I love them. They make beautiful cut flower arrangements. I got all different colors. I think there may be some day lilies thrown in there somewhere, too. I kinda forgot what I bought at Walmart...


Here's a shot of my little garden such as it is so far. I hope it gets bigger as we get more things planted. We tilled and raked and had it all looking great with no weeds, and now weeds are threatening to take back over. Guess we'll have to do that all again...

This is the back of our little cottage home and you can see the old pumphouse to the left. It still works and we use the well water for the yard and washing the car and the dog. ALso, we have this HUGE Live oak tree in the back yard which gives us shade most of the day. It's wonderful, except the birds poop on the deck. Oh well, a little bird poop never hurt nuthin.

Sorry, the contrast in some of these photos is not very good. I think I need a new camera. The Princess has drug my digital camera a million miles taking pics of her and her friends and I think it's tired... The east 40 acres - We have lots of fence to repair and gates to replace as you can tell. But I love it!

oops I put the fruit trees in twice and can't figure out how to delete .... ignore this one Never mind - I guess I DID delete it.

Here is little Bella 2. She is now 3 months old and a real pill. We are working on biting and barking. She minds me pretty well, however she thinks Princess (who is her "mommy") is her litter mate and chews all over her. There are little teeth marks on my kitchen cabinet corners and I noticed today that she has chewed a little hole in some of the sheetrock - we have plenty of chew toys and rawhide, and she loves to tear up a good cracker box.

I may have shown you this photo of her at 8 weeks with the tulips. Princess is having a ball with her. I'm glad. Especially after the first Bella died.

Well, that's all for today - I'm feeling a little bit better. I'm back at work toughing it out sometimes, but I'm there. Life goes on, and I can't just lay in the bed all day. As my Aggie Corps of Cadet son says, mom you just gotta suck it up! So that's what I'm trying to do. It's tough, but that's what I gotta do.

I appreciate all your comments and kind encouragements and thanks for stopping by to see me, even if my blog fell by the wayside for awhile. I'll try to be more diligent, otherwise, nobody will come to see me! Have a great day all my friends! Vickie