Winter and Spring

Here's a little something that we've never seen before around here.  ICE on our pond. Back a few weeks ago when we were having temps in the teens for several days I made a point to go down the pond and see if there was any ice down there. Sure enough, there was!  Wadn't very thick ice, but ice nevertheless.  Kind of a bad photo into the sun. Could that little green area/dot be some kind of ghostly figure?  I keep running across that Paranormal show on TV.   I don't think I've EVER seen where they've actually got a ghost on film.  Just alot of dark shots, shivers, and goofy sounds that "they" say are from spirits. Any of ya'll believe in that stuff?  Not me...at least I don't think so...

ANYWAY, my thoughts have been turning to my garden and spring.  I have to think about that this time of year else I'll get the SAD blues.  I'm trying to just "be" in the present but it's so hard for me.  In Texas, we do have an advantage of warmer weather where we CAN set out root crops and some other things at this time of year.  I know of folks that have had their onions and a few other things out practically year round.  I sorta follow my daddy's lead on when to set things out. He usually goes by the Farmer's Almanac and of course we have to do things around the weather and our schedules.  I got my garden tilled up this past weekend, and set my onions out yesterday afternoon in the 20 mph wind.  Our daffodils are coming up and the paperwhites have already bloomed and are fading...

Tony got everything started off. Lowe's had some ripped 40 lb.bags of cow manure (which they sold to us for $1.50 a bag - all you have to do is ask about ripped bags and if they have any they'll discount them bigtime!), and he and my son Josh loaded up a ton (literally) of manure and dumped it all on the garden plot.  I put two bags of pelleted lime on it (makes the onions sweeter and not so hot, helps the tomatoes not to get blossom-end rot, among other bonuses).  Then we tilled it all in together plus all the leaves for some good compost-y stuff. 

My garden has improved each year.  I even expanded it this year. We moved a side fence and added another area specifically for corn.  It will be alot of trouble, but this year after thinning the corn sprouts out, I'm going to either stake the stalks or put a row of temp. fencing up between the rows.  The wind blows so hard on the rise where Sand Flat Farm sits that it will flat knock the corn over on the ground.  Anybody got any good ideas on how to keep worms from getting into the ends of the ears?  I'm trying not to use pesticides etc.

Josh is lending moral support and supervising the burning of deadwood and weeds and old rotting fence posts.  He's great at lending moral support.  Actually, he did most of the tilling and all of the fence-taking-down, but Tony and I had to have a turn. It's so nice to have sons that can do heavy work for you.  Josh is so laid back and calm - never gets ruffled about anything. Very serious type. He's quiet but when he has something to say, you better listen, cuz it's probably somethin' profound.

Here's yours truly taking her turn on the tiller.  It's a monstrous heavy thang, but it's SOOO much easier than doing it all by hand which is the way we've been doing it.  I got this tiller from my uncle's estate way back in September when he and my aunt both passed away within the same week.  It's a workhorse, and the bonus - I'll always think of my uncle Bob whenever we use it.  He'd have loved that I have it - I was pretty crazy about him.  He always had a huge garden...

So anyway, that's what I've been doing, besides working.  Working at work, and working on 2 of our 3 houses trying to get one ready to rent, one ready to sell (maybe) and then there's the farm. It always keeps us busy, but we absolutely love it!  I'm researching materials for a chicken house and run now. I want to do it cheap, use recycled materials - but not trashy-lookin', etc. I'll keep you posted on that project.

Take care my dear friends!  I don't thank you all enough for coming by, for your comments, for your interest into my little world, for your prayers and concern.  Thank you just doesn't cover it!  Love you all!

My Dear Friend L. is blogging!

Just thought I'd give ya'll the heads-up on a gal that is new to blogging. L. at Mema's Meanderings - she is a wonderful buddy of mine that I've known for almost 30 years. We had babies together when we were young mothers and worked together. In fact, she and her husband and me and my husband all worked in the same building!  We carpooled to work and got to spend alot of time with each other.  We even had the same cars! We've managed to stay in touch over the years and now she's moving home to Texas!  YEA!  I'm really excited! I've missed her. She's lived in several different places and been able to get to know different parts of the nation. Lucky!

She's been very busy travelling and packing and hasn't blogged much yet, but I'm encouraging her. I'll let her reveal more about herself when she starts blogging so I won't give any personal info away before she's ready.  So do me a favor and stop by to say hi to her and hopefully we'll be hearing much more from L. when she gets settled into her new home!  Thanks abunch! I know I can count on ya'll!

FYI - Check out Margo's (at Margo's Junkin Journal) give away at her blog. She's got some neat stuff to give away there - I personally am holding out for one of her handmade journals! I've seen them and touched them  IN PERSON as well as her garage sale purse and they are so cute, and I will fight you for them.

Thanks also for your sweet comments on my chicken. I feel kinda silly now. My daughter told me I was silly to write a poem for a chicken.  It WAS kind of fun tho. I don't know what made me do it. But it's my blog and I'll write poems if I want to, write poems if I want to, write poems if I want to. You'd write poems, too, if it happened to you!    So there. ;o)

Ode to a Chicken

Tribute to a Chicken.  Ahem....

You showed up from nowhere one cold winter's day,

I knew not if a pet or a stray.

Bedding down in my rosebush bed you did lay

A big round green egg nearly every single day.

It seemed that you quickly decided to stay

So I made you a nest in a box with some hay.

Some scratch, lay pellets and fruit everyday

Made you happy and cluck in your own special way.

The time, it surely did go quite fast

And you followed me closely as I randomly cast

Handfuls of scratch - today was the last.

When I came to feed you I stood there aghast.

For what I beheld in my front yard, O so sad,

But tufts of brown feathers - no chicken to be had.

Something had taken you - and I felt so bad,

A hawk? An owl? A coyote? But I was glad

That altho you were with me for just a little bit,

You made my heart happy and I never wanna quit

Having more like you, little chicken.  I'm SO bit

By the bug. And of Ode to a Chicken, this is IT!

Chicken of mine, may you rest in peace.

HOORAY for my little kitchen!

Hooray for me!  Rhonda Hetzel of Down to Earth blog in Australia was featuring a series of posts about "you, me, and the kitchen sink" over the last few months.  She selected MY little farmhouse kitchen at Sand Flat Farm to be featured today!  I sent some pictures in of mine not knowing if they'd ever have a chance at getting noticed - She's got thousands of readers.  I'm so excited!  You'll have to go see her post HERE!

I didn't know about it being featured until Becky at Hospitality Lane let me know! Thank you Becky!

Rhonda has such a neat blog - it's all about being self-sufficient and making do and gardening and thrifting and it's always so informative!  She is a wonderful resource for cooking, mending, green cleaning, slowing down, keeping poultry, and just plain ole being mindful and thankful. I've been keeping up with her blog for quite awhile now and she is my GO-TO blog when there's something I need to find out - anywhere from soap-making to composting & worms!

I have been thinking lately about doing another post about my little farmhouse and kitchen because when I first posted pictures, it was way back at the beginning of my blog over 2 years ago and only 1 or 2 people read it.

Here's the main farmhouse and I've used this pic for my banner photo several times. Will probably go back to this picture at some point.  The farm was handed down to us through my husband's family and we've had it for about 3 years now. It was in complete disrepair. Here's a picture of the farmhouse after we refinished

everything. This farm is about 78 acres. It used to have Indians here, then it became a rose field, next it grew crops, then the last few years, its been raising cattle as well as growing hay for sale.  The house is about 75 years old which is not ancient, but it was all hand- built, as well as a couple of the pieces of furniture - my pie safe and another little cabinet.

It's still needing the porch rails painted and some landscaping done. We had to get the house leveled, took out the gas and put in central AC/heat, re-wired and re-plumbed most of the house, had new floors put in, new appliances (all others were gas), pulled walls down and floors down completely due to some rot, I personally caulked, sanded, Kilz-ed, and painted the entire house with some help from my daughter especially, and my husband. Oh yeah, we had siding & new windows put on the house, too.

Couple more shots of the kitchen which I love so much and feel so old-fashioned cooking in. No dishwasher - just washing up (like Rhonda says)  I guess the microwave is not old-fashioned, but just play like you don't see that. Most of my dishes came from hand-me-downs from grandmothers and mom, and the other stuff came from garage sales, etc.

A little bit of the laundry room (which is quite large) and the back door in the pic above.

Here's my living room. Sorry about the lace curtains in the window - makes it hard to see. I've done alot more in the house since these pics were taken. Will have to update you sometime!

Here's mine and Tony's room. My dad welded two pieces of iron fence together to make the headboard, and I found that neat white floor lamp in the dumpster at my office!

This is the pink room - my daughter's. She did most of this room. We only have two bedrooms, so if you stay as a guest, you'll be surrounded by PINK!

Last shot for today. This was in the fall of '07. This little farm has been such a blessing directly from the Lord to my husband and myself. It just fell into our laps. We've tried buying 2-3 other places during the course of our marriage but they just didn't work out. Now I know why - the Lord had something even BETTER for us!  Just being there and working in the garden, spending time with family and friends cooking out or hanging out, whatever we're doing is relaxing and has de-stressed us so much. It's our little get-away! Our great plan is to move out there one of these days soon. We're just biding our time until our last kid is out of college. 

Again, Rhonda, thanks for the feature, and thank you all my bloggie friends for looking at my house again!  I'll have to show you a few more pics next time!  Hugs and kisses to you all!

Summertime Fishin' with Pop

Howdy-doody, cold people! Howsa 'about a little hot summertime fishin'?  That oughta get you all nice and toasty!  Just think, settin' there in the sunshine in the boat or on the pier, whether at a lake or on the oceanside... Cain't ya just hear the water lappin' against the pier, maybe swattin' red wasps that like to get up under the eaves of the pier?  Sippin' a cold one (Coke, I mean) and the sun fryin' the tops of your thighs and anything else it can reach? Sweat runnin' down into every crevice and crack on your body? You set there long enough, the sweat and fish stink and dirt makes granny beads on yer neck and inside your elbows. Doncha just love it???  Here's my firstborn on his first fishin' trip 25 years ago with his Pop (my daddy).  Look that proud accomplishment on his little face! He's as proud of that little perch as any trophy bass fisherman, and Pop is just as proud, too! My dad was a trophy/tournament fisherman in his day... I still go fishin' with him... I love it!

And ya know what? Adam and Daddy are still at it 25 years later!

You know what?  Guys can do alot of talkin' and solvin' the problems of the world and life settin' on the lake. It takes alot of patience to fish, lots of analogies about life and fishin' that Daddy taught us kids and now my kids, and there's alot of other things to talk about, too. It's a great "male bonding" thing. But what about when Dad takes ME?  Lotsa good daddy/daughter time, too.  I catch up on what my daddy's into. He's always puttering around doing something. Fishing, huntin', buildin' stuff, fixin' stuf'f, oh yeah, now he's into surfin' the net and whatever the latest techno-gadget is.  He's got a game camera on some of his deerfeeders and it takes night pictures of deer, hogs, whatever comes to eat the corn. It's pretty cool.  I think my daddy still looks pretty good to be in his 70's. He hasn't slowed down much.

And here's yours truly! Today we're catchin' crappie, right off the pier. We like to bass-fish out on the lake, but this is crappie season, and we're pullin' em in right and left. As I recall, we had a big ole fish fry at the farm that night. This was back in the summer of 09.  They were practially jumpin' up on the pier for us.  It was so hot even in the shade, I didn't have a dry thread on me when we got ready to leave. Daddy didn't either.  You know that time in the mid to late summer when the lake water is tepid- feels like bathwater almost - and it's not even refreshin' anymore?  Well, that was this time of summer! We drank several bottles of Gatorade between us and our fishbait (shrimp) was stinkin' to high heaven. I'm sure we smelled lovely when we got back to Mom's. And she WILL shoo you outside if you're too stinky or have dirt or mud on your shoes. And you cain't set down on her furniture without a towel under ya.

Wish there'd been a 3rd person with us so we could have our picture taken together... If there's anything that was any funner (is that a word?) in this world, then the Good Lord saved it for Himself! That's what my Nanny always used to say.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed fishin' hot summertime lakes today in Texas. We can batter up them fish and throw 'em out on the pavement and watch 'em fry if you'd like to. It'd be better than gettin' all that fish grease out and heatin' up and stinkin' up the kitchen. We'll just get out the big propane fryer & cook 'em in there.  Cut ya up some sweet onion slices, fix some coleslaw, fries and some jalapeno hushpuppies and some fish grease cream gravy!  Mmmmmm - it just don't get any better than that!  I can't wait!