The Lizard Lounge

When I got home from work yesterday, the husband takes my hand and says "I want to show you something.....I'm calling it the Lizard Lounge," "you have to be quiet while we go there." So I am thinking, "we have lizards here?" 

He'd hung the hammock I'd bought a few weeks ago, once settled in it, it is quite cozy.  Once I was settled in, he pointed up into the plum tree......There was this owl and her baby, dad was over in another tree, they were watching us as close as we were watching them.  Frank thought they had to be Great Horned Owls, but I was thinking Barn Owls, and when he looked them up, we found out they are Screech  Owls............

  

The baby is all fuzzy, no real feathers yet.

The Old Misener Place

             Like my gardening hat?  Picked it up at the thrift store, and I finally had the opportunity to wear it last week-end.  I spent the whole week-end working in the yard, and that hat really worked at keeping the sun out of my face, blew off a couple of times, but what the hay!   I love these trees, huge maples that must have been planted over 100 years ago, they will keep our house cool all summer.  I can't help but wonder who planted these trees so long ago. 

When I'm out pulling weeds and trying to manage all of these beautiful flowers I think about the lady that planted them, and I hope she's not cringing as she's looking down from heaven at the terrible job I'm doing to maintain her flower garden.  When we tell people where we live, they say, "OH, the Old Misener Place"  I don't think they were the ones who planted the maples, but I hear Mrs. Misener's flower garden was spectacular in the day.  So, Thank You, Mrs. Misener, you sure do have a beautiful garden, and I'll try and do it justice.................

A Place for Mom

 I always said to my brother and sister I would take care of mom someday.  Well, that day is getting closer. Mom is doing great, she'll be 77 and is still driving and going to Curves!  But she just needs to be closer then the 8 hour drive it takes to get to her now, and I'm the closest child to her.  She hates being alone in the winter, and I know she loves the beach, and the thought of having to move is really hard on her. But we've been talking about it since we moved back from Alaska and she's warming up to it now. Sounds like she may be getting excited now that it's really happening.............Broke ground yesterday out behind our house.

Doesn't look like that big of a spot in the dirt, but she'll have a nice 3 bedroom modular in less then 2 months!  I'm so glad she's decided to sell her place and move here while she can, and not when she has too.  This way she'll have her own space and still be able to visit when all the grandkids, and great grandkids, plus other relatives come to visit.  When we ordered the modular I didn't even realize she picked the same color as this garage she'll be using too! How funny is that!




They left the big trucks out back...........I wonder if the keys are still in them......mmmmmmm

I'm so thankful I still have my mom and for the opportunity to have her near us at this time in her life.  If you have your parents still, call them and tell them you love them, or better yet, go see them!

The Talented Husband of Mine

 Our chickens were attacked by a dog, this is one that survived.  Dr. Byrd fixed his broken leg, yet another use for Duct Tape!  The leg doesn't want to heal straight, but I think he'll survive.  Now he can add broken chicken legs to his animal fixes, once I had to hold the cat so he could stitch up a wound she received jumping on the fence.

 His green house is bursting with green, just waiting to be planted, it's just amazing to me. Left to me it would all be brown.

And his pea trellis he just built. I love it, so do the
peas,it's only been a couple of days and they are
already crawling up it. Soon it will be covered and
you won't be able to see how cool it is......

Feedbags And More Feedbags

 I started making market bags out of our old chicken feed sacks, when my friends saw them they started saving all of their similar tough plastic feed bags for me too.  I think I'm almost done with the last 15 I received, and  I know there are more waiting for me........

 I think I've given all of my friends one, and now I have them listed on my Etsy shop.  I have chickens, dogs, cows, bunnies, birds, it's crazy, who knew there were so many different kinds of these plastic bags.  I find that I am shopping for chicken food by what's on the bag, and if I have it already!

My biggest problem I've noticed is when I go upstairs in my craft room now that most of my stuff is stashed in one of these bags......I keep thinking this one is cute, I'll just keep it for me.......I think I best start using them for gift bags next.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

 I have the ultimate "brown thumbs", even my dad who had a fantastic green house quit giving me plants because I'd end up killing them.  We don't have any house plants, and I dread getting one as a gift, because I know it will be dead the next time that person comes to visit, and it will probably still be sitting where I put it all brown and dead the next time they come over. Fortunately for me my husband has 2 perfect green thumbs.....our new place has a huge fenced in garden area to keep the deer and other critters out. It has raised beds that were begging to be planted. It also came with a small green house that hadn't seen anything green in a long, long time.(Looks like I had been taking care of it)  My husband has been ordering and starting seeds, tilling and planting in the raised beds, and now we are starting to see results.....

 The starts in the green house are just about ready to get put into bigger pots or the garden itself.

 I don't go here, I'm afraid everything will turn brown if I step inside the fenced in area.....

 A neighbor gave us some rhubarb starts, I'm really hoping we'll be able to eat some of this, this year.

The raspberries I can handle, I cut out the old vines without managing to kill the new.......maybe there is hope for me yet.  I can't wait to pick!

Chick, Chick, Chick

I didn't think I liked chickens. The last time I was around them I was a teenager, they chased me, they are mean, and boy are they stupid.So, of course the husband had to have chickens on the mini farm. But, in his defense he has had chickens before, so he knows what they are all about, how to take care of them, and most of all he's not afraid of them. And he built a fenced in area for them and me. Our first batch of about 19 were so pretty, and not mean at all. It worked out great, we let them out to run amuck and at dusk they go into their pen to roost for the night, how easy is that. I did not realize though that I had to keep an eye on them when they were out. Within a couple of weeks of this routine, I was home alone, the chickens were out, and I was in the house minding my own business. Frank got home from work to find dead chickens all over our 2 acres, it was devastating. Some dog had come into our yard to chase and kill chickens. Some had escaped across the street to the neighbors house, one had gotten on a branch across the creek (Frank had to put his waiters on and go rescue her), but over half of our flock had been killed. And of course we had company coming for the week-end who showed up in the middle of all this commotion and aggravation. It was absolutely heart breaking.
Now I am older (by a month), and wiser, this will not happen on my watch again, plus I have a shotgun by the back door. Now we only let them "free range" for an hour in the evenings. We have bought more and have hatched 7 in one batch and 3 in our latest batch. And guess what? I am NOT afraid of chickens, we have a ton of fresh eggs, and they are absolutely hilarious to watch because they really aren't very smart, just entertaining. I have not passed the insanity on, so the grandkids love them too!