Odds-n-Ends

I've been pretty scattered the last couple of weeks. Here are the highlights:

At home.

Away from home.

From Alabama to Enid, Oklahoma to Wilmington, North Carolina and back again in one week.

Saw this in OK. Oh, phooey! I forgot to turn this picture over and now I don't know how! Sorry!

Saw this in Wilmington. I know, I know, reeeaally bad picture through the windshield. But hey, you saw the itinerary, no time for proper picture taking.

(It's a battleship.)

Saw this on the way home. I bet they have a full bath in there. Maybe a hot tub too.

We got home just in time for this.

This is the annual "Thunder on the Mountain" fireworks display over the statue of Vulcan on Red Mountain in Birmingham, AL. We hadn't been in the last couple of years, but my older daughter lives on a street right under Vulcan, so we sat on her front steps to watch. Fun!

Oh, and I thought I'd show that not all of my garden critters are scary.

Cute, huh?

Oooh, nature, my favorite

Hi there! I just thought I would post a little post about gardening so that you all might learn from my vast experience.

Some reasons not to let your garden get overgrown with weeds.

1. It is unattractive to the human eye and artistic sensibilities.

2. The things you have actually planted in your garden suffer due to competition.

3. It will sadden and embarrass you to see your once lovely garden in such a state.

4. You will feel compelled to remedy the situation. If you do not use chemicals this may mean hand pulling an obscene amount of grass from a ridiculously large area.

5. If it is hot, this is unpleasant.

6. Bad, bad things lurk in weeds.

OK, so it is technically only one bad thing (and her cottonball of billions of baby bad things).

It is clear isn't it? You do know what this is, right? No? Look it up.

I pulled up a clump of grass, and there she was. I missed grabbing her by about a centimeter.

That was the end of the weed pulling that day.

I would like to say "live and let live" or something about all God's creatures....but no. I smushed her and her little ones too.

Can ya dig?

My super cool neighbor chick posted about needing a tractor and since I can relate to that, I thought I'd share some of our tractor history. We talked about needing a tractor for about 2 years before we actually got one. This is my husband on our first tractor, a 194?(or was it 195?) Ford Workmaster.

This served us well until we(read he) broke the axle. We found a neat old guy who fixes and sells old tractors and he gave us a good trade value for a very slightly less antique International Harvester B-275. I can't seem to find a pic of that one. We are still using it 2 years later, although there is a laundry list of things it needs(tires, brakes, you know, nothing very essential). I really wish I could find the pic of our daughter driving the Ford. She was about 14 and Dad taught her to drive it. And let her drive it! Freaked me out a little but it really was cool.

Last summer we decided that this spot needed to have a pond.

So we did what any"normal" person would do, we rented a backhoe. Now mind you, it had not rained at all for about 2-3 months. Perfect time to dig, says we.

Quiz: How do you break a record drought? Why just rent heavy equipment for the weekend, of course! It started drizzling immediately upon delivery and did not stop all weekend. By the way, this was at the end of the week that the Governor of Alabama had declared a "week of prayer" for rain. It was awsome timing in that regard, but I was still a little irked.

That's me in the blue raincoat being irked and supervisory all at the same time.

I'll put up recent pictures soon (I'll have to take some).

Oooh, know what you get when you get a pond?

TADPOLES! Lots of tadpoles.

Waterbabies

Busy, busy ,busy. I can't think of a single thing that has kept me from my blogging commitment, but I must have been terribly busy. This was one of my occupations recently.

These are my beautiful grandchildren, Emily and Elijah. The stunning redhead is their aunt, my sixteen year old daughter Charlotte. Yes, I know she is but I try not to think about it. I am sooo thankful that she is a sweet, obedient,Godly girl.

So, anyway, I was terribly busy photographing the swimsuit edition of my blog and just couldn't possibly find time to post. But I will soon, I promise.

I read 'em , why not write one?

Maybe because I have no idea what I should say. Hmm, I have an idea! Maybe if I put photos of my "projects" up here and resolve to update my progress frequently, I'll not only have something to say, but I'll be honor bound to actually MAKE progress. OK, I'll start with my vegetable garden(because I happened to take some "before" pics today).

As you can see, there is much work to be done. The garden area is about 40x40. Those are my compost piles on the right. Don't get the wrong idea, I actually have very little gardening experience. This will be my second year to have one. Last year had huge successes(okra, zucchini, green beans) and HUGE failures(tomatoes, corn, peas). I don't use chemicals at all and don't yet know all the organic tricks. I hereby vow to post new pics as progress is made. There!

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Soon, I'll put up pics of the antique dresser I'm repurposing as a bathroom vanity and the whole bathroom remodel itself. Oh, and don't be surprised to see pics of the horses, cats, dog, random critters I run across, and the chickens(ok, not yet, but someday and soon)(I hope).

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"Most things in life won't kill you, and the things that will, will only do it once."-don't remember who