Saturday, May 09, 2015

Have I Ever Mentioned...

I love where we live!  I'm so thankful for our home.  We moved to this property in September 1981. 
I love living in the heartland.  I enjoy the seasons....sometimes two or three seasons all in the same day.  It's an actual fact that I have, on numerous occasions, ran the air conditioner and the furnace on the same day.  Admittedly, it's not the norm, but it happens.  I enjoy being right in the middle of the United States.  We're far enough away from the rat-race in the big cities, yet an easy drive to just about anywhere between the Rocky Mountains and the Smoky Mountains.
More specifically, I love the location of our home!  We're close enough to town for convenience, yet remotely located enough to not hear the traffic.  This afternoon I took my coffee out to the deck after mowing the yard.  It was so peaceful.  Not quiet, but peaceful.  I heard birds of many kinds.  Closest, and loudest were the wrens nesting in a box on the deck rail.  I heard robins, cardinals, orioles, chickadees, towhees, and tree frogs singing.  At a distance, I could hear red winged blackbirds, a woodpecker pecking, doves cooing, and way off I heard crows cawing. 
Looking around, I saw cows grazing in the pasture, a squirrel flipping it's tail on the gate near the pond, bluebirds, nuthatches, a bumblebee, and a pair of brown thrashers in the honeysuckle bush.  I also saw robins, orioles, cardinals, chickadees, wrens, goldfinches, and many other birds. 
I could smell the freshly mowed grass, and the scent of the sweet little flowers on the cardinal bushes.
What I did NOT hear---highway traffic, barking dogs, wind, thunder, mowers running...I heard none of that!
Yes, it was a most pleasant time sipping my coffee out on the deck today.  I am so thankful for our home!

Friday, May 08, 2015

Spring Green

View from my office window this morning.  Everything is green and growing!  Our garden ... too wet to work today!
There's light rain falling today, which will add to the 4.2" rainfall we've already received over the past two days.  Our pond was at a very low level until the rain.  It's now full, and will likely be running over after today.  I've been in it, just to check the water temperature.  It was cool, but refreshing, not too cold!

Before the big rains, we planted peas (my favorite) and two rows of bush beans.  The peas are up and looking good.  We're still waiting to see the beans sprout.

Between the thunderstorms and gully washing rains, the sun was hot and the humidity high.  The calves stayed cool in the shed.  We have four heifers and one steer.  I call them Beefy and the girls.  We've had them since they were weaned.  They keep the pasture mowed for us.
Beefy is the big one in the middle. 

 Since school dismissed classes for five consecutive days over the Easter holiday, Zach, Wyatt and I went on a cruise.  We drove to New Orleans, boarded the Serenade of the Seas and cruised to the Bahamas.  We enjoyed perfect weather and had a great time.  I'm posting just a few of the pictures from our trip.
Our first meal on board...lunch at the Windjammer Cafe

Basketball!

Foul???



The line was two blocks long to stand beside this landmark for a picture, so we hopped up on the wall and snapped this, then rode around in our electric car.

Our transportation while in Key West.  Zach drove us all over town.










We left home on Good Friday, boarded the ship on Saturday, and got home the following Saturday night.  The boys would like to have our whole family go on a cruise together next winter.  I'm all for that!

Yesterday, just before the big afternoon thunderstorm, Dennis and I straightened up the light pole that was leaning.  Actually, he'd already dug around it to allow room to straighten it up.  All I did was help pull it in the right direction, and then shovel the dirt back into the hole while he tamped it.  I intended to get a before and after photo, but just as we were finishing up, the rain came.  Heavy rain with lightning.  I didn't try to get a picture of the finished project at the time! I went back to get a picture later.


















Another "project" we'll be working on later is cleaning up the creek crossing.  When ever we get enough rain to cause Sugar Creek to run full or flood, it backs up our little creek.  When the water goes down, it leaves lots of sand and mud sediment, which makes our "Missouri crossing" impassable. Actually, I did drive through it on the four wheeler in four wheel drive, but the tractor and baler won't make it through, nor will my mower. I haven't done any mowing around the back field yet, and won't until the crossing fixed.

 June 9 update: The Missouri crossing is fixed.  Now I can mow the back trails. 


The Sweet Williams have been blooming all over our place.  Of course, they are blooming all over the tri-state area, but I particularly enjoy seeing them here.
As I was going through the back pasture, I noticed holes drilled in a tree.  Who or what does this?  It's not a dead tree, but it might be soon if it keeps getting holes drilled into the trunk!
Well, it's still raining, so I'm going to get ready to run into town and do the shopping and errands that need to be done.  To me, the perfect days are those days in which I never have to pass through our gate!