Did The Gopher See His Shadow This Morning?

My gophers certainly did not see their shadows this morning. They are DEAD.  Every last one of them that steps tooth in my yard.  I promised them that this would happen, but they just don't listen.  Dear Vee, I'm sorry that I cannot make the same disclaimer #4 as you -

**Disclaimer: No gopher or groundhog was maimed or killed in the making of this here particular post.

Actually, I think I can - if it's about the actual post, there were NO gophers killed in the MAKING OF THIS POST.  Oh good, I'm off the hook with Vee..... She loves the GOPHER COUNT on my sidebar!

If you're interested in reading more about these groundhogs' distant relatives and my on-going battle to rid this earth of these ugly little varmints, you can go HERE to read the post GOPHER BROKE !!!

So, I don't really don't think any of my gophers saw their shadows this morning.  Now, I guess some of their relatives that live out in the pastures could.  But if they even so much as cast a small little shadow or they stick one little toe (or tooth) into the parameters of my yard at the farm, they are dead meat.  Are you listening gophers??????  Smiling at me trying to look cute  with your old yellow choppers won't get you anywhere.  It's a lost cause!  My mission in life is to put you guys into permanent hibernation!

Sand Flat Farm Artist Studio

Okay my peeps - my husband has been trying to get me to do this for quite some time, so I'm gonna take a stab at it.

A few years ago, I was in an online art gallery, and I still have giclee prints from several of my original oil paintings.  I have been trying to get some good quality photos of them so I could put the giclees in an Etsy shop.  I'm attempting to do this so bear with  me. It's taken me 2 hrs tonight to get one photo on there.  I'm technologically challenged. I needed my daughter or son here to help me, but they were unavailable so I winged it. (or wunged it - whatever)

I will be adding more giclees to my shop as time allows as well as trying to do some new original smaller items.   I do all my painting in oils and occasionally acrylics.  Sometimes I'll throw in a watercolor with some pen and ink.   Giclee is simply a fancy French word for reproductions or quality prints on canvas.  They look like originals in other words.  The online gallery closed down and I've been thinking of what else I could do with them, so Tony volunteered me for Etsy.  So here we go.

You can see a few of my paintings down on the bottom right of my sidebar.  Now that I've advertised that I'm doing this, I'll have to follow through with it.  Here's my link - Sand Flat Farm Artist Studio.  You all can hold me accountable. I simply HAVE to get back painting.  I NEED to do it, even if it's only for ME.  So, take a look, enjoy, no strings attached!

EDITED TO ADD:  Giclee is pronounced "Zhe-clay".  Also, I will be posting new photos on the etsy shop of my works. The one on there right now is a "make-do". Probably shouldn't have used it until I've got the good ones...

To Be 17 Again...

It was all about the car back then. All the girls wanted to date him.  We met when we were 15.   My boyfriend (later to be husband) had undoubtedly the coolest car in our high school. I kid you not. A 1970 sky-blue Pontiac Firebird with the flip tail on the back with white leather top and white leather interior.  While most speedometers went up to 120, this car's speedometer went to like 160. (I hope he never went that fast.)  There were a few roads in our area with steep hills, one of which was called Suicide Hill, that he took me on a time or two.  It was too scary for me.  I thought we were going to go airborn!  He now says he doesn't know why his dad let him have that car - he wouldn't have let our boys have a car like that!

At our high school, Ag was the big thing. Very country town with lots of agriculture/cattle stuff going on. You were cool if you were in Ag/FFA and raised cows and had horses, etc.  He did. He and his daddy raised Charolais cows.  I was immediately attracted to him. I thought he'd never notice me until I drew a very detailed  picture of a horse and "accidently" dropped by his desk in English class.  He never knew what hit him.  He was all over that, and the rest was history. 

He was, at our red neck high school, a leader, made good grades, was Student Council President and class president and all that.  We attended all the dances together & it was so much fun!  We knew all the same people, and also, there were about 6 of us couples that were high school sweethearts that wound up getting married, and all but one of them have stayed married and live in our hometown still!  I did Drill Team (which I loved). Why, when Earl Campbell took our high school to the State Playoffs in 1974, we got to strut our stuff in the Astrodome!  Cool for a small town girl! 

Our school counselor, Mr. Brown, also taught Ag, so he'd get his favorite Ag guys out of class and they'd go mess around during school hours - go to the donut shop, go to the school farm, go run errands for Mr. Brown - man they had a great time. I wasn't so lucky to get to do that!

Look at the styles in this photo - short shorts for guys and girls, too, but this day I didn't know we were going to be washing his "Blue Baby".  This was a year or two before we became engaged I think. We didn't marry til we were 21, with college and all that.  I ran across this photo a day or two ago, and I just wanted to share it with you - good memories!  I'd love to find a car just like this one and give it to him.  He wishes for it back sometimes... Ya'll have a great weekend! Stay warm!

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)