This 'N That...

Oh JOY!  We've been having scattered showers for the last few days, and let me tell you - right here near the middle of July, it's been WONDERFUL!!!  Thank you, Lord!  After last year's drought conditions and 100+ temps for 2 months, it's been such a blessing!  It's been a bit cooler the last few days, too...

I love in the afternoons and evenings to see these big thunderheads building up - they are so beautiful!

The evening sky last night was so pretty after the rain!

This was our sunset!

Boy howdy, are y'all in for a real treat.  Not only do I have a video of my chickens but you get to hear my East Texas accent!  You think Arkansans are bad, just wait til you hear this (sorry, Arkansas)!  We had divested the tomato plants of some horn-worms awhile back and one of my Black Stars had swindled it away from the other chickens...  (besides, everybody else does little videos of their chickens so why can't I?)  Just a little over a minute - that's all, can you stand it for a little over a minute?  I watched this first and though, "eh, it's not so interesting," til I got to nearly the end and heard myself talking.  Then I thought, "WHOA - my peeps might like a good laugh!"

Ooooweeee!  Is that accent bad or what!  I hate to hear myself on audio!  (scratching my foot - fire ant bites...)  Don't these chicks have a nice place to live?  Dad did such a good job on my coop and run!

Josh has missed his chihuahua, Bug!  He loves this little pooch.  Lindsey just shakes her head.  But she's got a kitty-cat, Alice, that she is crazy about so I guess they're even (remember Alice? She used to live here with me...).  Bug was so glad to see Josh, too!  I was really hoping that nothing would happen to her before they got home from New Zealand.  She's about 13 now and is having problems getting around.  

Bug was so excited to see Josh, too!

Well, y'all have a great Thursday - I've got some more tomatoes to process into spaghetti sauce today, and a few more pickles to make before the cucumbers turn to mush.  Take it easy on yourself!  Sending you all a BIG HUG from BUG!

Fall on the Farm

Last hay cut for the season at Sand Flat Farm.  The hay is already all sold and that's good. When we get our own livestock, I'm sure we'll be keeping some of that.  Below the sycamore tree is turning golden - I think these are my favorite tree - I love the graceful way the branches grow and the white bark with the different colors of grey and green and brown sheets of bark that peel off.  They kinda remind me of aspens on steroids. I love 'em!

We're starting to see color around here.  I spotted this beautiful red maple on the way to work last week. They don't last long, but they're gorgeous while they last!

There is a new cat hanging around - I have named him Jasper (just for you Aunt Amelia). He is a complete and utter nuisance.  He's a big cry-baby, meowing all the time and he's LOUD, and gets all underfoot.  He sits at the front or back door and yowls and cries for someone to come outside and feed him at all hours, AND he's finicky!  He won't eat the canned catfood that comes in little chunks - he only wants the solid stuff and Meow Mix crunchy food. He'll turn his nose up at anything else.

I'm sure Miss Alice is  attracting boyfriends right now, but she goes to the vet Monday for her spay. I cannot make this Jasper leave.  I'm about ready to haul him off and drop him in somebody else's neighborhood.  You can tell that he's been around people.  I figger somebody dropped him at our farmhouse, too.  If he'd quit waking us up and caterwauling at all hours of the day and night I wouldn't mind him staying - 'specially since Mr. Sam disappeared  :(   I did tell Jasper, however, that he would be making a trip to the vet for an anatomy alteration, too, should he decide to stay...

He's a nice big tomcat with beautiful markings, looks like he's been drinking chocolate milk, AND he's got pretty blue-green eyes.

Alice doesn't like him. She's been either under the porch OR on the roof.  Jasper is very put out that I'm feeding him at the garden shed, and I'm letting Alice in to eat.  He eats all her food, and she's not getting anything. Here she's hiding from him under my wagon full of mums. Very cute!

Now I'll leave with you these beautiful autumn sunsets.  The golden glow of autumn sunsets - it's magical and beautiful to me to see the palette of God streaming across the sky. Enjoy!!!

Around the Farm

I'm kinda tired these days with the Mother in Law and work and kids and such, so today I'm just showing you some photos around the farm.  We spent the night out there Monday evening - love it this time of year. I'm working in my vegetable garden and re-doing some flower beds and getting things cleaned up and planted for this year.  I got up a little before 7 Tuesday morning - early morning is my favorite time of the day at the farm.  The birds are singing, the air is still a little crisp, and there's always a breeze blowing at Sand Flat Farm. It was invigorating!

I have a whole bunch of iris.  I picked some up free that somebody was giving away at a garage sale. This one is gold, not yellow, and I have some purple and white, too.

Can you see me in this previous picture?

This flower bed with iris and hydrangeas is one that I moved. The hydrangeas were not well established yet in another location that was just too hot.  I've always heard that hydrangeas do best on the north side of the house. But I thought I knew better, of course, and could magically make them grow where I wanted. Nope, should have listened to the farmers & gardeners. So I made this flower bed with my own two little hands. Dug it all up, worked in some good planting mixture, arranged the edging, collected the rocks, etc.  I'll plant some annuals in the front section of the bed.  Our big oak tree stands over this bed to shade it all day. It gets early morning and late evening sun, so I hope it will thrive here.  Do you like my rock edging? I do, I think it's sort of cottage-y...

I'm adding another flower bed this year - an azalea bed with some big fuschia colored formosa azaleas and also some white mixed in.  They're supposed to do really well in our sandy soil here so I'm looking forward to next spring when they'll make their first showy appearance!  They still have a few unopened blossoms on them now. I waited to buy some until I could see them blooming.  I've bought them before just taking the word of the gardener as to what color they were and they turned out to be a different color. Sometimes even if they're tagged, they'll be MIS-tagged.  You just never know!

My little tin garage in the early morning light. I've already got petunias in the box, the lillies are coming up, the dianthus are beginning to bloom, and all my roses are about ready to POP!  My plumbago didn't make it through the snow this winter so I'm trying to decide what to fill in this bed with....  got any ideas?  I could always do annuals, but I'm really trying to establish some perennials here.

Here's my new morning glory that I've got to find a place for. It's an annual, but it re-seeds, so I need to find a kind of permanent place for it.  It's really a dark blue, and not purple like it looks here.  I also picked up these couple of old iron fence pieces that I will put in my flower gardens somewhere. I was wondering if I should paint them white first and let the white wear off?  Rust is nice, too, tho.

Well, my friends, I hope you are having a wonderful day, a beautiful springtime, and that you're getting your hands dirty like I am.  My husband fusses cuz I love to go barefoot while working in the garden (actually I go barefoot most of the year).  My heels are brown. Yuck.  I hate wearing hot shoes when the turned up dirt is so nice and cool!  And when I'm watering and it's hot, I love to spray my feet.  My feet are my temperature control for my body.  Does that make sense? And at this point in my life with being either constantly hot or having a cold shiver, it's all about comfort, right?  RIGHT!

Mr. Bunny wishes you a Hoppy Day!!!

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! 

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!

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!

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!