Mulching Monday

 Today at 8 a. m. I went to Lowes and got something Larry needed for the well pump.  We use the well to water outside.  Larry has put hydrants near my chicken pen and around in the yard.   I also bought 15 bags of mulch..it is all out and tomorrow I need to go get 15 more.  Don't you love the little Yellow Finch!

 This is some type of clover.  I don't know if it just came up or I bought it.  I am very forgetful, but it is pretty and I pulled the other stuff around it up and gave it a little mulching.

 Above is my old Mary plant.  I think I will save seeds for Helen and Fleet of Foot as it grows like a weed and is very pretty.  After this purple flower, it will have a thing that looks like a mirror on it. I will show what it looks like when it puts that on.  A seed is in each one.

 Above is my one and only rose and it may be a wild rose at that.

 I am going to get Larry to put a bed around this before fall. I want it to be rectangular.

 These are two wild plums our friend gave us two years ago.  They should take off this year.

 This is a white Lilac and beside it is a Japanese one Larry bought me two years ago.  The Japanese one will not bloom for a while.  A Lilac has to be 7 years old to bloom.

 Two new bird houses in my front yard so I can see them from my new living room.

 This is a Catalpa tree and a Red bud.

 My hens and chickens are starting on the  third year.  I think they are so pretty.

 Can you see my Aday crystal?

Here is an Iris in the fence row.  When Larry gets my weed whacker going....I plan to do some fence row cleaning.

Sisters Reunited

Helen is back at the homeplace...with slow internet.  She has to hook up her phone to the computer and that is how she can post to her blog.  Quite complicated.  But this Sister now has a phone.  Helen you want anything posted send it by phone and away we will go.  This is Patsy's Box Elder.  What a special tree.  Daddy just knew it would die!  Well, it is still here and Daddy and Patsy are gone.

Reunited and it feels so good Reunited 'cause sisters are understood

There's one perfect fit

And, sister, this one is it

We're three so excited 'cause we're reunited, hey, hey!!

 Helen walked down in the field and cut some dogwood for her little house.  See the lamp Momma bought.  It is all about family.

 Erin's bunch went camping down by Yellville.  What a pretty place.

 Way down the shore line I see Clayton and Greta.

 Above Greta is crackin'.  Below she is fishing.

 Hanging with Dad!

Weeds

 Our pasture is full of yellow weeds.  It would cost too much to spray the entire Meadow but I wish we could spray and fertilize it as I love seeing green grass.  Some folks think weeds are flowers, but they are not what we want our Meadow to be filled with.  If you have a farmer's blood in your veins, you will like clean fence rows and fields without weeds.  If you are a city person, you will want the weeds as they look like flowers and you will love the overgrown fences.  Weeds choke the grass.  Can you imagine how many seeds are in the yellow field!  Millions I am sure.  Larry is working on my weed trimmer, the roll around kind.  I want to be able to whack some weeds.  I told him I wanted a new one...he said we have two old ones...I will fix one.    He has it humming and now he has ordered a new belt for the drive.  We called Sears and they said they would have to order it.  Our shipping would be 7 dollars and it would take a week.  No thank you...we will order it ourselves 4 bucks shipping and half what they were changing.

 Larry sprayed my garden for weeds but now I must try to wait for them to die before we plant.  We need to get some seeds in the ground.  Helen said "won't it kill what you plant?".  No round up only kills what you spray it on.  It will not hurt your trees.  After you spray it, a good hot day helps.  Add a little dish washing liquid to the sprayer to help it stick where you spray it.  And just buy the generic...starts with a g but I forget the name.  It is the same chemical.

You don't want to spray when the wind is blowing as you will have "drift" and you might kill what you did not mean to.

Vegas Girls

 Astrid got third in her age bracket, 15 to 20, and Momma finished which is awesome!  13.1 miles is long way.  I am so proud of these two runners.

Wonderful Wisteria

 I would love to have a Wisteria.  Everything goes back to my childhood.  We had one by the front porch with a swing in front of it.  What a beautiful memory.  Daddy trimmed it back and it killed it.

 Here are my irises that Larry put a bed around the tree in front of my house.  I dug them up and put them there.  Last year they were not really very pretty but this year they are.

 When I walked to take dogwood pictures I snapped Laura's house between the trees in the woods.  It looks like a really big house, but it isn't really.  It is just enough for them.

 Here are the irises by my old blue house.  I thought I had weeds but there were weeds around everything here.  The couple that live in the blue house are older than we are.  They bought it from the reality guy we sold it to.  So just our family and theirs have lived in the blue house.

 My Martins have really been busy.  I love them as they eat lots of gnats and mosquitoes.   We can sit outside here without being bitten.  Sigrid stayed the night.  She has changed the name of the Lake to
Hidden Cove Lake--no more Galla Creek Lake.

The Blue House

I have made a lot of bad decisions in my life.  One was the siding on the blue house.  We lived here from about 1985 until just after Daddy passed away.  We built the "blue" house from a floor plan we drew up ourselves.  It was a narrow house, the lot was narrow.  The house was built of the site of an old barn....copper heads lived there under the rocks.  Larry saw about 8 at one time one summer day.  He only killed about 3 or 4.  There was an old rock fence.  They lived in it.  We had about 17,000 dollars when we started the house.  Not really enough money.  We lived without cabinets, without carpet, with only a wood stove for heat.  No air.  I guess we did just fine.  I got a Masters Degree in education while we lived here.  Larry went to Vo-Tech school.  I guess Laura was ashamed to have her friends come, but several did.  Erin did not care as long as she could play outside.  Daddy's cancer returned while we lived here and all summer of 1988, I went to the red dirt road on the weekend to help Fleta. Once I got stung by red wasps at the well house and told Momma--I will have to leave now for home as my eyes will swell shut and they did but I made it home first.  I knew I would have to go back to school in August and probably could not go help each weekend.  He died on the 21st and I was able to start school knowing he was in safe hands!

Dogwoods Everywhere

Around Here

 Sigrid is constructing something in gifted class.  I bet it is a bird house!

 Above is close up of Laura's Irises. So pretty and below Greta can write Greta Jones!  She has the Greta part down pat!.

 Poor Clayton got whacked in the head with a piece of playground equipment.  It hurts me to see him. I think his eye will turn black.

 The only way I can rotate my pictures is to put them in my paint shop program rotate them and rename them.  I must try to learn how to do it in google.  I remember that I went to images and you could turn them and save them.  I must figure it out again because Old Sister is gone.

 Astrid is pretty in pink.  Her feller got her the new pink converse shoes and Momma ordered the Barbie shirt.  Astrid is nothing like Barbie but she gets called that often.  Doesn't she look pretty.

 Yesterday, both Astrid and Ingrid ran in the Jr. High track meet.  Astrid got 3rd in the mile.  That is without any training.  To train for the mile you have to have someone work with you on the third and fourth lap.  They should be the fastest.  Astrid runs a lot but training is different.  The coach will use a stop watch and time the laps and even half laps and the runner works on getting faster.  The two girls that beat Astrid were only about 10 to 15 steps in front of her.  She was first in the Russellville girls. When they asked Astrid if she would come and run, she had to get premission from the Soccer coach...which she did.  So she just showed up and ran.  She told them "I don't want to run against my Sister!"  Nothing like sisters, Sisters!

Ingrid ran the 800.  She is in Middle School and was running with Jr. High.  She got third in her heat and she passed a bunch of girls on that last straight away.  I could even see she was proud of herself as we were so proud of how she put forth a burst at the end.  Today Ingrid goes to Jr. High to work on her cheer leading.  The little girl with here below needs a lift over there so I will take both.

 These are Laura's irises near her garage...they are so pretty.

 This is what Laura shared with me this morning on my new phone.  My hens are not in henopause as I am getting a bunch of eggs everyday.

Fifteen Candles

She stole my heart when she was born!  Still has it today!  Happy Birthday, Astrid Erianne.