BLUE MOON!

Remember we have a BLUE MOON New Year's Eve!  Check out the post on this blog:

http://joansastrology.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-years-eve-blue-moon.html

This gives a good description of a Blue Moon!  I'll be out watching for it instead of reveling! 

I STILL have a chicken!

I ran out to the farm this afternoon after work to check on my gopher traps and my little chicken. She's still there!  I was afraid that she'd leave or that some varmint would gobble her up, but she's still there.  I decided if she was, then I would go to the feed store and get some scratch. So I did!  When I got out to the farm today, I think she was glad to see me, OR more than likely, she recognized the scratch sack! Regardless, she came a'runnin' right up to me.  I scattered scratch for her and she started gobbling  it up.

Here she is again eating her scratch.  One of you posted yesterday that she needed a name. I know all of you chicken keepers have named your hens, so I decided she should have a name.  I thought and thought and here's what I came up with -

My niece, who's 16, makes fun of me all the time for my Texas country accent and country ways. She was teasing me mightily over the holidays at mom's house and she gets a real kick out of some of the stuff I say - the words, the phrases and the hick way I talk. SOOOO,  guess what I named my chicken?  JACI !  I think that's very appropriate to name my chicken after my niece after all the grief she gives me!  I sent her a message on her facebook & a picture of her namesake and I'm waiting for her to respond and see what she thinks!

I did get another gopher over the last couple of days - now the count is up to 16.  Found a couple of new mounds in the front yard, so I got my traps out again. I didn't think I'd see any more of them until the weather warmed up a little.  I guess this one was stupid. I told 'em all that they could stay out in the pasture, just don't come in the yard. He can't say I didn't warn him. Must've been a crazy teenage gopher.

I have lots of raking to do. The catalpa trees have finally dropped all their foot-long bean pods and there are thousands of them laying all over the yard. It's quite a job to get them all cleaned up especially when we have 7-8 of these giant trees around the yard at the farmhouse. Oh well - raking's good exercise.

Back to work this week. Been playin' catch-up. I'll probably get my tree down this weekend and get all the Christmas stuff put up.  Ya'll take now, ya hear?  And do keep those gowns down!

I'M OFFICIALLY A CHICKEN FARMER!!!

Well, sort of... 

See, we were out at the farm today shootin'.  Got new guns. Me, Dad, Tony, and Adam.  Dad had to sight in some new scopes on his deer rifles. We had a coupla new handguns to practice on so we set up some targets down towards the pond so we wouldn't shoot anybody over the next hill.

SOOO, anyway I was walking up to the house and I heard some "...paawwwk..." sounds in the front flowerbed where my rose bushes are. I thought it sounded like a chicken. Upon closer inspection, I discovered it WAS a chicken - a cute, scraggly little hen - I don't know what kind, some of you will have to tell me. She was a little shy, she'd come out of the bushes and come near, but I couldn't touch her. I don't know where  she came from.  We have distant farms around but not anywhere near that a chicken would want to venture as far as our farm.

I had some dried corn and lettuce and some dried oatmeal that I threw out for her. She seemed to like it, and she was also scratching around for bugs and stuff and pecking little weeds.  I put out a bowl of water for her and she immediately got herself a drink and went back to scratching.  She looked a little thin to me. She's got a good hiding place in the middle of all the rose bushes, but it might get cold. I figured she was probably a free ranging chicken so she was probably used to being out in the weather somewhat. But I had an old bushel basket which I turned on its side and put a bunch of hay in it for her. She wouldn't let me catch her. I'll go check on her after work tomorrow or the next day. I really hope a hawk or owl or dog doesn't get her. She's far away from home, wherever that is. I don't know what else to do for her. She'll probably be ok if she'll stay up close to the house where she is. If she hangs around for a few days, I'll stop by the feed store and get some scratch and see if there's a better shelter to be had for her at the farm.

Do people drop chickens off at country homes like they do dogs and cats? I wonder.... I hope she makes it! If she does, and if she stays at our farm, then I'm officially in the chicken business!  I've been wanting chickens for so long, but haven't been able to have them since we're not there every single day. Maybe she's telling me that it's time to have chickens or it's time to move out the farm permanently?  Only the chicken knows!

O HOLY NIGHT

HERE IS THE REAL REASON WE CELEBRATE ---  Jesus.
Just wanted to wish you all my dear friends the Merriest of Christmases!

Merry CHRIST-mas!!!

You might have seen this making the forwarded email rounds, but it gives me great sadness to know that alot of it's TRUE...

*Twas the month before Christmas*

*When all through our land,*

*Not a Christian was praying*

*Nor taking a stand.*

*See the PC Police had taken away,*

*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*

*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*

*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*

*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*

* December 25th is just a ' Holiday '.*

*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*

*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*

*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*

*Something was changing, something quite odd! *

*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*

*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*

*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*

* At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*

*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*

*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*

*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*

*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*

*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*

*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !*

*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*

*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*

*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*

* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*

*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*

*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*

*So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'*

*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*

*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*

*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS ,

not Happy Holidays !*

Please, all Christians join together and

wish everyone you meet

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

Christ is The Reason' for the Christ-mas Season!

Re-furbished Window Box

Ok, Here is the little tin garage at the farmhouse that's probably as old as the house (about 70 yrs).  This little garage window faces the back yard of the house and I've thought for a long time of putting in a flower bed along side and maybe a window box.

These lilies in the picture are sitting in their pots still but I planted them later in the flowerbed.  I had picked up a couple of old shutters at a garage sale and painted them blue, and had my son make me a flower box to put on this window.

Then he attached the shutter to the front of the box and I have filled it with pansies and ornamental cabbage for this fall/winter.  I think it turned out pretty cute. Pretty basic easy project but it's something I've been wanting for awhile. I planted some roses and plumbago along with the lilies in the late summer, so hopefully next spring/summer it will be lookin' good! I have just put rocks along the front of the bed and am debating leaving it that way. I sort of like rocks for an old-timey cottage theme. You know, when the flowerbed is all grown up and I put in annuals and make it look real cottage-y, I think I'll like the rocks. If not, I can change it. What do y'all think? 

I'm also wondering if I should paint the window frame white?  The wood on the tin garage probably was painted white at one time, but it has all faded. If I do the window frame, I'll have to paint all the wood up under the eaves and in the overhang, etc.  Should I or shouldn't I?

We also had a cement floor poured in the garage (when we built the tractor barn) to make it useable. It had 2 feet of pure-D East Texas white sand in there. Everything you stored  was full of sand or covered with sand. It's still not air-tight, but it's much more storage friendly. I need to set off a couple of bug-bombs to kill spiders that have lived in there for eons of time but at least we don't have to deal with sand. (and now, no snakes either!)

Not very attractive but functional and a good place to keep overflow or lawn equipment, etc.

Addressing the GOPHER count - Gopher season has officially slowed to a crawl here on Sand Flat Farm. Cold weather has sent most of them way underground to wait for spring.  Or they've all sent out a warning about the mean old lady that carries around half a dozen traps on her belt and whoops one out to shove it into a new mounded burrow.  Plus, they generally do most of their digging after hard rains which fills their holes up and they have to clean house.  We've not had any hard rains lately. I know I can't get rid of every single gopher on 78 acres, but if I can keep them out of the yard, I'll be happy.

We are, however, having some problems with their smaller cousins - moles - which make horizontal runs just under the surface.  It's dangerous to walk across the yard without stepping into one of these soft spots and twisting an ankle. Guess I'm gonna work on those next...

Well, thanks for looking at my little project today. Squeezed it in here right at the holidays. Actually a little before Thanksgiving, but just now getting around to showing you guys. Have a good one and keep your gown down!

Just around the corner

Not much going on today around here.  Thought I'd post a pic from this morning. Just around the corner from my house there's a little stretch of road where the county put a "Deer Crossing" sign because we have a resident HERD (I kid you not) of deer that stroll our parts.  I don't know if you remember but I posted some pics back in the spring of the herd crossing the road and they had traffic stopped in both directions.  This morning early the deer were laying in a pasture along the road probably just waking up from napping. There were a couple standing around, but most of them were lying on the ground, legs folded under them, looking sleepy and flopping their big ole ears around.  Of course I didn't have my camera. I always have it, but I didn't this morning.  So I whipped my car around, flew back to the house, grabbed it and was back down to the pasture in a flash. Alas and Alack, they'd moved on, but I caught the tail end of the group as they wandered out of sight.  Here they are for your amusement and entertainment:

I hope you can see them. If I tried to make them too big, I lost the clarity. So...  Don't know if this interests you, but it always does me.  I'm a big animal lover, and I'm always excited to see our local deer herd.  Talk to ya'll later - Keep your gown down!

No snow

OK, Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel.  You promised us  snow - now where is it?  You promised this morning while I was getting ready for work. You warned us Texans that we were definitely going to have snow.

I looked out my office windows at 5 minute intervals all day. At noon, I see a little flurry of flakes, and then it's gone. Is that ALL we're going to get?  Now the sun is out. There better be some white stuff on the ground when I wake up in the morning or comes the WHOOP.  And I know where you work, Cantore.

SNOW!!!

Howdy, how're ya'll doin' this mornin'?  Well, I'm fine as frog's hair split 4 ways!  That's purty fine! That's what my daddy always sez.

The weather man is saying it's going to SNOW here in Texas today!!!   We're so excited!!!  We hardly ever get to see snow even when there's a little bit around our area.

Here's my professional opinion, if you're interested, since I am well-versed in meteorology (JK) -

Tyler sits between two big lakes and there are more not too far off.  I think there's a thing  I made up called "the lake effect" (not like the one up in the Great Lakes area).  I don't know if these large lake bodies of water keep the temps a bit warmer or if there are air currents swirling around doing something weird to the atmosphere, but we just don't get much snow. It has to be a really good cold snow system moving through this area to get more than a dusting. 

The same is true in the tornado season. Tyler, Jacksonville, Bullard, Chapel Hill and Whitehouse sit between these two lakes.  If there's a tornado in East Texas, it's gonna come right thru here, you can bet your kids on it.  I've lived in this area all my life. We've not had the big killer tornados (thank the Lord) like in Wichita Falls or Oklahoma, but they do alot of damage nevertheless.  We've had our property/house damaged 3 different times. We had one come across our property about 5 years ago and did $40,000 worth of damage to our house.  Dadgum huge pine tree fell perpendicularly across the top of my house & crashed the roof in - flooded the entire front of the house. Hey, I got a totally new kitchen, new appliances, flooring, dining room, breakfast area, roof, gutters, septic system, trees taken out, more stuff out of it. Just wish a tornado would do some home improvements on the rest of my house! snicker-snicker! I stand outside during a storm and say, "cooooooome over here, tornado, thisaway!"

Anyway, this is tornado alley between the two lakes.  Every time we have a tornado alert, you can look on the radar map, and track just about exactly where it's gonna go - between the two lakes!

They are promising us snow today!  We'll see.... it sure would be nice to go Christmas shopping this evening with my husband in the snow and maybe take in "Blindside". I HAVE to go see that movie!

That's my professional meteorological opinion and I'm stickin' to it.

THE "RAT"

For the next coupla weeks, I'm Rat-sitting.  No, no, no - it has nothing to do with my gopher count, which by the way is up to 15 - did you notice?  Five more and I get a black belt in gopher kwan do.  No, my dears, I mean THIS RAT -

This little Rat belongs to my daughter, Princess.  Princess is taking finals this week and next week, and I was  finnagled into rat-sitting for the duration.  Princess called me yesterday when she went back to college and said she really slept well, and it was quiet.  The RAT likes to bark, and loves to play with her "mommy" there at college. "Mommy" is usually busy, so Rat gets into stuff and does really mischievious things to get attention.  Here's the RAT in her fairy princess outfit for Halloween. OOOOO!  Isn't she scarey???

The Rat is a merle Pomeranian and her real name is Bella, but she's such a pill and she reminds me of a little grey rat, hence, I call her Rat.  It's actually kind of stuck. (don't think Princess likes that name tho...)

Here's a saucy grin. You can tell she's just plotting some kind of sneaky activity "Oh what can I do next!!!"

It's like having a little bitty powerful cyclone in the house. And you can bet there's a trail of destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Rat!

She generally wears this cheeky expression most of the time.  She has a game called Gladiator Dog & has a couple of stuffed animals that she slings around in the air and growls like a big dog! I'm sure she's thinking she's ripping their bellies open and their guts are spilling out all over the floor. She loves the applause and the standing ovation.  She likes to use them as pillows.  She likes her chewy bones, and she LOVES to torment our chihuahua, Bug. 

Bug likes to lay on the couch and Rat comes up to the edge and just looks at her and wags her tail.  Bug's lips curl back, the ears go back, and the growling and barking start.  Rat takes off through the house with Bug in high pursuit.  Then she'll turn and face Bug, and they start mock-fighting and biting and growling and Bug's hair is standing up on her back. Tony and I yell for peace and quiet.  We usually have to separate these two because the Rat won't leave Bug alone for one minute.

Here're some shots of Rat in the pasture on the farm this past weekend.  She's very cute isn't she?  Kinda reminds me of one of those big fat spotted ticks.  She DID look like a fat hairy tick when she was a puppy.

Monday night when I was giving Tony a haircut, Rat found and destroyed into a million zillion pieces Tony's headphones for his computer.  Just like a child, if we hear (rather don't hear) her get quiet, you can pretty much bet she's into something. Worse than a two-year-old.  She loves to get into people's dirty laundry - socks, underwear, t-shirts, kleenexes, toilet paper, Q-tips, trash, you name it.  She eats everything she can get in her mouth - paper, pens, pencils, combs, coins, paper plates, Coke boxes, etc. If we were to do an X-ray of her stomach, no tellin' what we'd find.

Rat has some power struggle issues as to who is in charge.  Oh she minds me - she knows I'm an alpha female. I've had enough dogs to know how to get my bluff in early. The Rat thinks Princess is her litter mate, therefore, the Rat thinks SHE's in charge of their relationship.  Maybe it'll do her some good to stay with me for a while?  Princess is going to have to take charge.

Here she is in her Christmas finery.  Amazingly, she's left her elf collar on and hasn't bothered it.  I'm actually quite pleased with how she's avoided ruining the new Christmas tree up to now. But it's only been 3 days.  I think she just hasn't noticed it yet OR that there are some balls hanging within her reach. Hope I haven't spoken too soon!  Bite my tongue!

Princess informed me this weekend that when she gets into nursing school next fall, guess where Rat needs to stay so she can devote 24-7 to her studies?

Bear with me. Trying to get caught up - be back soon!

Learning How to Cook

(don't know where  the idea for this post came from, maybe from Debbie at In His Pasture, her post about the biscuits brought this to mind...)

Imagine if you will about 26 years ago, a young wife and mother, in her first home.  She and her young husband have scrimped and saved and done without, and finally put a down payment on a tiny but new home.  She is so proud of her little house. It's small, but new, and she got to pick out the colors, the carpet, the flooring, the wallpaper and paint. They bought it at just the right stage. It's a pretty little house - 3 little bedrooms, 2 little bathrooms, a little kitchen, a little living room, and a little utility room.  She has a new washer and dryer, a new queen size mattress set and she even found some garage sale bunk beds for her little son's room.  She is expecting baby #2.  She's planted some flowers and some tiny shrubs in the front flower bed, and her husband has put together a little swingset in the back yard and a little sandbox for their little boy to play in.

For their Christmas present that year, the young wife's in-laws have bought them a new-fangled contraption for the kitchen - a microwave oven!  She is so proud!  They've been on the market for a little while, but she knew nothing about them.  She was so excited to begin using her microwave because she knew now she was a thoroughly modern housewife. 

She planned a wonderful dinner one evening for her husband who worked hard all day.  He came in about 5:30 and sat down to watch the news on their little TV set and hold their little boy in his lap.  The young wife was so content in her little kitchen and feeling all Susie-homemaker-ish and everything was perfect in her world.  She needed some boiled eggs for what she was preparing for dinner and she thought to herself, 'well, it would be so much faster and more efficient if I give my new microwave a try and boil my eggs in it!'

So, she placed a couple of eggs in a little dish in the microwave and set the timer.  Then she went back to work on her meal preparation smiling to herself.

BAM!!!!!

She practically jumped out of her skin and screamed like she'd been shot!  Her husband came running into the little kitchen yelling, "what happened????"  There she was holding her hands over her little ears with a horrified look on her face.  There was fragments of EGG all over her, all over the little floor, all over the little walls, all over the ceiling, all inside the microwave!!!

She burst into tears!  The egg explosion had blown the door open to the microwave and had blown the eggs to kingdom come and back again!  What a mess!  Their little boy stood there looking dumbfounded.  Then, her dear sweet little husband took her shoulders in his hands and guided her out of the kitchen.  She sobbed into his neck, and he put his arms around her trying to keep from laughing.  "It's NOT funny!" she said between her sniveling and snubbing.  "I know, honey, it's not," he smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'll clean it up."  And he did!

I found pieces of egg in places that I never knew it went when we got ready to move to another house 5 years later....

Perspective for the Holiday Season

If you haven't already been there, you must go to Southern Inspiration and read Suzanne's post on November 12. It's about putting everything in perspective for the season, and not only that, but for every day of our lives.  It's a Gift that you can give yourself.  I get SO overwhelmed at Christmas feeling like that everything's left up to me.  I have way too many things on my list to do.  I plan all sorts of neato things I'd like to accomplish for decor & food and parties and family gatherings.  And while they're all wonderful ideas, I wind up getting myself over-extended and worn out, and sometimes it's almost impossible to enjoy the season and I get frustrated with myself & everybody else cuz they're not helping.  I feel like I let myself and everybody else down because I'm not Martha Stewart and everything's not just perfect.  Suzanne really put into words what I feel each year, AND what we need to do to keep ourselves from getting frazzled and disappointed.  We should keep this mindset ALL YEAR LONG!

I don't want to dread Christmas and the holidays, and I find myself feeling that way nearly every year.  I'm going to try to take her words to heart and pare down if need be. I want to enjoy the holidays, my family and loved ones, and if things are not decorated like the pages in a magazine, so what?  Being together and spending time with the ones you love are the most important things besides celebrating the birth of Christ. Won't you all join me in my endeavor?

photo courtesy - http://www.yowzers.com/thanksmp.jpg

Non-Twitter Twitter

Just went and got my annual mammogram this morning. y.e.a.  I think there ought to be something equally as mortifying and painful for the guys. . . . . . . .  it's just not fair. . . . . . . .

Be sure to go get your mammograms friends.

Laundry Gone WILD!

Sorry this picture isn't very good.  I was just over at April's of Coal Creek Farm empathising with her about her laundry problems and thinking about the fact that my kids didn't and still don't like doing laundry either.  I quit doing their laundry many years ago, so they do their own or they go dirty, skid-marks, wrinkles and all.

Which brought to mind the beginning of them doing their own laundry. I hope April will read this and maybe it will help her get her kids motivated. At least maybe she'll get a good laugh out of it.

Let's go back to when my two youngest, Josh and Hayley, were in middle school, say maybe 7th and 9th grade. Josh was the older of the two.  Ok, Hayley was 12 or 13 and  Josh was15 or so.  Certainly old enough to be learning how to do laundry. 

Soooo, my kids were home from school one day, I guess it was maybe a holiday or summer, and they were driving me stark-raving crazy fussing and fighting and yelling and screaming at each other and hollering for me to referee. You know how that goes. I had had it up to my eyeballs.  I decided to give them some chores to do not only as punishment but also because I needed help.  They were like everybody elses' kids and liked to lay on the couch and watch TV and be waited on hand and foot.  But not today!

I started doling out the chores amidst the whining and complaining from both of them and the "pore pitiful me" expressions and accusations of whose fault everything was.  There were at least 4-5 laundry baskets full of clothes and towels to be washed.  I explained (in a loud exasperated tone of voice) how to seperate and do the washing.  Then, smart-mouth Josh said,

"I'm NOT doing  laundry." 

"What????  Why not???"  I ask.

"BECAUSE THAT'S YOUR JOB." he replied. And I could see that Hayley concurred, and was glad that Josh  had relayed that sentiment to me and she didn't have to.

Deadly silence. Steam beginning to spew out of my ears. Face turning red.  In a carefully contained voice, I whispered, "not.  any.  more." I  quickly gathered up all the quarters out of my change bowl, grabbed the Gain and Bounce sheets, ordered them both to go put all the laundry baskets in my Suburban, told them to GIT IN THE CAR, drove them up to the laundromat (only a mile away in town), and dropped them off. I handed Hayley my cell phone and said "call. me. when. you're. all. done."

I peeled out of the parking lot, very smug, with them standing there in front of the laundromat looking dumbfounded like "what just happened?" and "I can't believe she's actually doing this!"  I drove home actually laughing out loud in the car! If anybody'd seen me driving down the road laughing and bouncing around in the car, they'd have thought I was nuts!  Boy I thought I was MOM OF THE YEAR!  I had made such a wonderful wise timely decision on how a parent should deal with this behaviour that I felt ready to write a #1 best selling child-rearing book that would rival that of James Dobson!!!  Man, I was on a roll!!!!!! (applause here)

Now, I'll interrupt this enthralling story to tell you to hold on to something while I finish. You won't believe it.

I'd been home for say 15-20 minutes. I'd even called my husband to tell him what an intuitive thing I'd done with his children.  He beamed over the phone and told me what a good wife and mother was I.  We laughed together over this little joke.  The phone rings.

"Hello", I say.

Hayley's yelling at the top of her lungs, "MOM, COME QUICK!  THE LAUNDROMAT IS FLOODING, AND THERE'S WATER EVERYWHERE, AND THE MEXICAN LADIES ARE SCREAMING AND GETTING ALL THEIR CLOTHES OUT OF THE DRYERS CUZ THEY'RE AFRAID THEY ARE GOING TO GET ELECTROCUTED!!!  MOM WHAT DO WE DO?????"

Oh my gosh.  What have they done now?  I drop everything and jump back in the car and race back up to the laundromat.  Sure enough, the little Mexican ladies are scattering with their babies and laundry and yelling and fussing in Spanish about those 2 kids in the washateria.  There is water running out the front door and into the parking lot.

"What happened? What did ya'll do?" I tip-toed in the door and they were both standing there in the water looking guilty and wringing their hands.

"I don't know, mom," Hayley said, near tears. "I started the machine and put the soap and quarters in like you showed me. Then the washer stopped (probably mid-cycle I thought) and I thought maybe it was through or needed some more money and so I started it again and then something happened and now there's water everywhere."

I shut off the washer, and saw on the bulletin board an emergency phone #. I called and talked to the owner and told him what happened. He arrived about 10 minutes later, madder'n a wet hen at the mess on his old lineolum floor.  The entire floor of the washateria was standing in water.  He shooed us out after we got all the laundry, including the dripping wet clothes already in the washer.  We loaded it all up and went home.  I'm still not sure if indeed the washer overflowed due to my kids, or a hose broke or something. I'll let them think it was them...

Wow - talk about backfiring.  Here I was thinking I'm super-mom and in reality this whole experience has turned into a disastrous fiasco.  Josh and Hayley were secretly pleased they didn't have to do laundry at the washateria and tried not to laugh on the way home. I could hear sniggering coming from the backseat.  I did not want to hear a peep from anyone and they knew it.  I called Tony and told him what happened later and he and I had a good laugh in private.  I can surely laugh about it now. 

But my kids are still doing their own laundry.

VETERANS DAY NOVEMBER 11, 2009

I am thankful to all the men and women who have served in our military, those who are serving even now, and those who will serve in the years to come.  I am thankful to those who've lost their lives keeping me and my family and my country free.  I am thank for their families, who've supported them, prayed for them, mourned over them and missed them. I'm thankful for their sons and daughters, wives and husbands and parents who've also made that sacrifice.  I'm thankful that the United States of America is STILL the land of the free and the home of the very most brave of all.    God Bless America, Land That I Love.

Photo: www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/poster/vetsday07.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ETrr-XHBjE

More Randomness...

OKAY - I'll post something, but I don't know what. My mind is mush. Ever feel like that? Why would I think you all would want to read a bunch of stuff I wrote just to waste time?  Lessee here...

Here's a fall picture of our pond. The leaves are getting in full swing here, but there's still a couple of weeks til they peak. Usually around my birthday is when they're at their best providing there doesn't come a huge storm and blow all the leaves off.

Another random picture:  G.E.R.A.R.D   B.U.T.L.E.R.   If you haven't seen him in "P.S. I love you", the movie, you don't know what you're missing. Love that Scottish accent. He actually plays an Irish man in the movie, but he is SOOOO dreamy.  Love it!

Ok, whew, enough of that...

Love it! Love it!

Ok, here's the little mini-horses across the road from my parents house.  They are so cute. I tried to get a close-up picture of them last fall cuz they had frost on their fuzzy coats, but they kept turning & looking at me and wouldn't be still.  I wanted it back-lit so the frost would stand out. This was the best one I got. I'll try again maybe...

Since we just passed Halloween and the Mexican holidays Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos, thought I'd show you a  couple of shrines to the dead loves ones that I took at Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurante (mi restaurante favorito de todo el mundo!) in San Antonio a couple of years ago. To the Mexican culture the way I understand, death is a part of life, and on November 1 & 2, they honor their beloved dead relatives by creating shrines to them in the cemeteries and elsewhere. They shower them with decorations, flowers, music, photographs and favorite foods.  Sometimes they will stay at the gravesite and wait for their spirits to come and it is comforting to them, not scarey. The Mexican bakeries are full of the sugar skeletons and skulls and all kinds of goodies which they add to their shrines, too. Anyway, here's a couple of shots to honor some departed souls in San Antone.

And THAT, my friends is about all I can think of this day and may you find something of a tiny bit of interest here just to prove that I am, in fact, still alive and kicking (struggling), and have not gone MIA in bloglandia.

I've been quite busy with work, kids, getting ready for company, and a church fellowship at the farm, and gophers.  I"m trying desperately to git rid of some mounds before the fellowship, but I may be fightin' a losin' battle.  You don't want to see a photo of one of the dead gophers that I have. 

I think I'm going to start a "GOPHER COUNTER" on my sidebar and keep count.  I think, to date, it's 8 or 9, but I really need a counter so I can keep up - I like statistics (not really). Monday I  caught 2, yesterday I caught one.  If you need any help learning how to catch gophers,  find their burrows, set the traps, and how to dispose of said varmint if not already dead, I'm thinking of having an online tutorial called "Gettin' Gophers 101" and will have it on my side-bar for you to click and download for $19.95 and that comes with a $5.95 certified galvanized homogenized plagiarized gopher trap that's guaranteed to catch gophers for you or double your money back (if returned within 10 days of purchase).  Think it'll sell?

PETA will probably come after me...

New Blog Buddy Debbie

Hey people - get on over to my new friend Debbie's entertaining blog - Attracted to Shiny Objects! She is so funny - read back about her funny escapades - I think her blog title attests to her personality for sure (Just kiddin', sorry Debbie!)  She has a charming country home and is racing around chasing her tail like most of the rest of us with a million and one projects and a lovely family! Very sweet gal - go see her, and tell her I sent you!

Garage Sale Finds

Sunday night, a quick review of Friday garage sales.  I only went to one this week, squeezing it in between bank runs and post office.  I've been looking for something to help me organize my little garden shed at the farm and I stumbled upon the neatest thing!!!  No, it's not pegboard. You know how you stack all your garden implements in the corner and they all slide eventually and fall down and you step on them and they're in the way, or you get too many in that corner and then you can't find anything you're looking for cuz you grab a handle and have to follow it down with your eyes to see what you've got ahold of, and dirt and hay collect behind them and you have to move every stinkin' one into another corner so you can clean out from behind it? (how's that for a run-on sentence?)

It's THIS!  Can you tell what it is???   Or once was???  Here's another picture...

Now, do you know what it is???  It came out of an old lumber yard.  It used to house WEATHER STRIPPING of all different sizes.  Isn't it a cool color?  Vintage green.  Must've been a really "with it" color back then, because I see SO many different things painted this color.  And it was only $10.00!!!

Anyway, I thought it would make an excellent storage place for all my garden tools.  There are slots in the top that you can slide your hoes, shovels, rakes, etc. down into.  It has a cool lid, too, but of course I can't close it with the stuff in it.  I thought it made quite a unique storage place.

Also, I found at the same sale, all these wooden boxes, made from pieces of old produce crates.  Some were small with lids that swung open sideways attached on only one end by a nail.  Some were old drawers with dividers that had been used at the lumber yard to store different size nails and hardware.   I thought some of them might be of storage use in the garden shed or I guess could be used as planters.  $ .25 EA!I'm open for suggestions on these boxes - what do ya'll think could be done with them?  I'd love to get some more ideas for them. Would you paint them different colors or would you leave them alone and let the old produce marking show?  That was mostly on the bottoms. It wouldn't show anyway. 

Some of the drawer pulls were made out of old coke bottle lids with a screw.  It was definitely a make-do situation on these little boxes.  I love how frugal people used to be and would just make do and be creative and use what you had on hand to make things work.

Anyway, we worked all day at the farm. Sorry I didn't get any fall pictures taken. There is so little time on the weekends - we have THREE houses we're trying to keep up right now - our home, my in-laws' house, and the farmhouse & land.  It's running us ragged.  We've got to do something with one of the houses QUICK!  I'm going to have an estate sale at my inlaws' house ASAP.  Gotta do it before the holidays or just wait until maybe February or March.

Well, girls, Ya'll have a wonderful Monday - I 'magine I'll be staying pretty busy this week.

Keep you dress down!

Calling all Pellet Gun Owners!

Would somebody please come down here to my office building and take out these stupid crows on top of my metal roof PLEASE!!!  The sweet gum balls are falling on my roof and it sounds like those mini-buzzards are playing soccer up there.  Jumping up and down, cawing, and trying to stab the sweet gum balls and digging them out of the gutters. It's not pecking - it's hammering!  Sounds like a jackhammer!  They've made my office roof their new playground for the last 2 weeks! I'm surprised I don't have a leak in the roof yet!

Gopher Broke!

Got gophers?  We do. Hate them little suckers, rather diggers.  They are digging up our entire yard at the farm.  They are in the hay pastures and I guess that's alright, but I don't want 'em in the yard.  When you have sandy soil it's perfect for digging and burrowing.  It's a little scary to walk in the yard because you might step in a hole, or at least a soft spot and twist your ankle. Don't need to do that.

I bought me 4 traps. I've caught about 5 gophers in the last week so far and am working on the others.  Yesterday afternoon, it was a battle of wills with this one particular gopher. I knew he was purty big cuz he had huge dirt mounds and large holes in the ground.  I'm gettin' pretty good at finding the main tunnel. I poke around the mound with a long sharp stick and feel for a soft spot, dig straight down in a single motion and lift out the dirt. There you can see the run. There's kind of a talent to finding the main run and I guess I've acquired that talent.  Something extremely valuable I can use in the future.

Then you tie a string or a piece of wire on the back of the trap so's the gopher won't pull it down in the hole, set the trap and stick it way down in the hole - check.  Then you wanna make it a little dark in there so they won't see the trap. I shove some leaves or some loose grass and dirt down in there - check. Sometimes I put a little peanut butter on the square metal piece on the end for bait - check. (Hey they make poison peanuts to kill them so I figure what the heck)  Now, the trap's in the hole, the hole's covered up, and the other end of the string or wire you stake it in the ground outside the mound - check.  Now sit back and wait.

Sometimes you have to wait just a little bit, sometimes it may take a day or two.  If you haven't caught anything after a couple of days, it's probably a dry run and you need to try another mound.

ANYWAY, yesterday, I was going after this particular gopher, dug out a hole, found the run, set the trap, staked my string, and went to set a trap elsewhere.  Ok, I go back about 10 minutes later, move some of the leaves and dirt away and lo and behold, MY STRING HAS BEEN CHEWED IN HALF and the trap's gone!  I had to dig down and to the side another foot and finally found the trap - still unsprung and just a little piece of string still attached.  So I reset everything, put a new piece of string on the trap and waited.  Come back about 15 minutes later, SAME THING!  This time I had to dig even farther. Found my trap still unsprung.

OK, This is WAR!!!  (cue "Caddy Shack" music here)  I go to the garden shed and git me a piece of thin wire and attach it to the trap. He ain't gettin' away this time!  I'm talking and fussing out loud now - (cue Bill Murray)  Here we go again. I bring a spoonful of peanut butter outside and load up my trap, stake it out with wire and water my roses.

I pull on the wire, it's not wantin' to come out of the hole. It's stuck & I have to git my little shovel under it and bring it out.  There attached by a little piece of stomach skin was MR. GOPHER - nearly big as a rat, and he's jumpin' all around tryin to get loose.  First one I've caught alive. 

Now, I'm a big animal-lover & don't like killing animals no matter what kind - except snakes. But I can't let him loose to keep digging up the yard. I call my sister and ask her opinion. She's a big non-squeamish-do-it-yourselfer-cuz-you-don't-wanna-wait-around-on-your-husband type of girl like me. Wrong choice.  I thought she was going to tell me to take his head off with the shovel. No, she said I should let him go. WHAT?  Of course, it's not her yard and she doesn't have gophers.  So she shamed me into letting him go. BUT I let him go way down in the pasture by the pond. Hopefully he'll never make it back up to my yard.

I feel like a failure somehow. If I'm gonna be a farmgirl I've got to learn to do what has to be done. I wimped out yesterday.  I've always prided myself on being able to take care of business that has to be taken care of. It won't happen again - PROMISE!   ;o)

In the meantime, I've got Mr. Gopher by the tail and he's twistin all around trying to grab me and take a hunk out of my finger with those big ole gnawing teeth of his. Every time I tried to move him with my stick he's chompin on the stick, the trap and my gloved hands. Thank goodness for leather gloves! If he HAD of bitten me I guess I could have carried out my farmerly duties to cause his demise posthaste! So I carry him by the tail out to the pond and set him down in the dirt where he starts scurrying around looking for a place to hide.  I think he'll be alright.  I'll just let Mother Nature take care of him.

So that's what I did all afternoon yesterday.  Kathy B over at  Spot on Cedar Pond has been after moles at her place.  What'd you do fun and entertaining yesterday?

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jog!

Hi friends. Back from Nashville TN - a quick weekend trip but a long journey. From my house a good 10 hrs up there and 10 hrs back. We dawdled a bit on the way back, stopped for coffee, stopped to potty, stopped at Cracker Barrel in Little Rock, stopped at the farm, stopped to check on Tony's mom at her memory care facility - it took us about 11 hrs and we dragged our tired rear ends in about 9 p.m. this evening.

Here's Adam and Tony walking back up the alley behind Adam's apartment. I love Nashville. Adam lives on Music Row. Most all of the old homes from eras gone by have been converted into quaint little offices or apartments.  He works, lives, and does everything right there. His studio and music writing activities are right there.  I love the old house he is living in. Instead of staying at a hotel, he let us stay there with him.  We had a good time and enjoyed spending time with him just hanging out. He's supposed to send me a picture I took of him and his Texas birthday cake that is on his I-phone.

I saw this picturesque farm driving around. Tennessee is SO beautiful. Lots of little farms (and big ones, too), beautiful country with rivers and mountains and the trees were just beginning to turn color a little.

We spent the day just driving around the countryside, taking in some of the smaller towns around Nashville. My folks used to live in Dickson which is just a bit west.  It's a neat little town full of nicer than nice people. My parents lived there about 10 years ago for about 5 years before moving back to Texas. They loved it. They would be living there still if it weren't for their grandkids being here - both mine and my sister's kids.

We drove over to Franklin, too, and I decided then and there that if I couldn't live in Texas, Franklin is where I'd wanna be. A quiet homey town with a square and lotsa churches, schools, families and outside of the hustle and bustle of Nashville.  It was so friendly and neat as a pin and clean.  There was also a Civil War Battleground there as well as a cemetary.  My guys were not in the picture taking mood, but sat in the truck as I went running up and down the road snapping off a few pics.

Right behind the cemetary there was a farmers market sort of place that was all decked out in its fall finery. They had all things autumn and it was so colorful.  The guys were rushing me so I did not go in, but took a few shots from the street.

They had all kinds of veggies, pumpkins, gourds, tomatoes, etc. I would love to have lingered a bit, but NOOO.  And of course, as I headed back the car, Adam honked the truck horn right when I walked in front of the truck and scared the pee-diddle out of me. Even tho I KNEW he would do it, I still jumped!

Do not adjust your computer - your eyes are not deceiving you.  This is how most of my photos turned out whilst riding down the road.  I saw some of the most beautiful colors - all kinds of farmland, golden fields of grains, cotton, ready to harvest, some already harvested, grain silos, barns, farms, cotton gins running kicking up a dust - such wonderful photos ops. Would they stop?  NOOOOOO.  Soooo..... I did good to get the photos that I got.  Story of my life.

We ate and ate of course - why is it that all social activities and family activities seem to revolve around food? I don't know but they do.  So we indulged in that particular activity freely.  I'm full and tired and happy to have seen my oldest and now I'm ready to go to bed.  I missed you all - leave me a comment and let me know if you missed me, too!

Keep ur dress down!

Music City, Here We Come!

Howdy folks.  Short post here. Sorry I've been so busy chasin' my tail 'round and 'round. Ever feel like that? This weekend is my son's birthday, Adam in Nashville, and we are makin' a very quick trip up there, Birthday Cake in hand, to visit him.  We're drivin' straight through Friday night (he's playing a gig Friday night anyway), takin' turns drivin' & we'll be there bright & early on Saturday mornin', spend the day with him, eat breakfast Sunday mornin' and then get back on the road home to Texas by Sunday evenin.  A whirlwind trip, but oh so needed for all of us!  He wants us to come and we want to go! I don't think I've missed any birthdays of my kids YET!

Keep ur dress down!

Random skies...

Good morning fellow bloggers and friends... Hope all is well with you.  Things are clicking along here in East Texas perty good I suppose.  We had some really nice mild temps the last few days, but today it's a balmy hazy foggy morning and we're supposed to get rain again today.  Texas and other parts had some flooding last week, then it cleared, and I think we're in for some more showers/storms during this week.

I took a couple of photos lookin off to the north amidst the fog and dampness that had settled on the farm during the night. Everything was wet. Not from rain, just SO bloomin humid.

We've had some wierd weather lately. Today, it's s'pose to get back up into the mid to upper 80's, then tomorrow cool again, then back up higher.  Enough to make everyone sick. Speakin of which - I need to go find a place that's giving flu shots.  I went twice yesterday to the chain pharmacies here and they were either already out or did not get any flu vaccine.  I need to let my fingers do the walking today.

After our last big rains we had a couple of weeks ago, we had a double rainbow in the skies. It took me 2 photos to get it all. Out at Sand Flat Farm with the open pastures, you could see the beginnings on either end of it. Look closely and see if you can see both of the rainbows...

Ok, here's the right side -

It WAS beautiful in person. You can barely make out in the photo the double rainbow especially on the left side.  Ok, here's a Halloween photo for you...

This was the last full moon we had - sorta creepy huh? I love it.  I love to be out at the farm on moonlit nights. The landscape and pasture are all lit up, you don't need any flashlights to take a stroll around the farm after your eyes get used to the dark. Very romantic, too, for my sweetie and me. We like to stroll and visit and talk and go over our day and the kids and the parents, etc., and sometimes we like to just be quiet and soak up the moonlight. It's almost like I can't open my eyes wide enough to take it all in!

Here's an interesting shot - or it was to me - I thought I was very lucky to have my camera in hand at the time.  The sun had gone down behind the trees in the west, all was in shadow, but there was a single ray of sunshine that was bouncing off this pumpjack. Now that old pumpjack across the road from us is almost black - really dark old green color.  But just look how that sunray makes it look like pure GOLD.  It made me think about how our lives can be stained black with sin but when the grace and love and forgiveness of God & His SON shines down upon us, we are cleansed and become purer than GOLD!

I pulled over to the side of the road in town a few nights ago after heavy rains. I had to get this shot off, even with the ugly traffic.  It's unexplainable to me how bright the light of our Lord is.  I can only compare it to the light of the sun.  You can't tell from the photo, but just this little bit of sun peeking through the clouds was so bright I couldn't look right at it. I just turned my camera that way and shot the picture. There were colors in the sky that no artist's brush could match.  Sometimes when I see something like this, it makes me want to just cry with its beauty.

Here's another shot a few minutes later. I was transfixed for about 10 minutes there, taking pictures out my car window and traffic zooming by. Don't care if anyone watched or not - had to get these shots to share with all of you my dear friends!  Have a wonderful blessed day!