Indulge Me

No cowboy was ever faster on the draw than a grandparent pulling a baby picture out of a wallet. -- unknown 

They're Here

It has been a special day.  Happy Birthday to Brooks and Brynn who arrived today around 11:45.  They are very close to the same size with Brooks being a bit larger at 19 1/4 inches long and weighing six pounds and 2 ounces.  Brynn is 18 and 1/2 inches and weighs six pounds and one ounce.   Their Mom and Dad are so proud and all are doing well.  Being good grand parents we have spent several hours today just holding them! Here where they live the cicadas welcomed them to the world today by loudly singing their songs!! And it seems there may be some fireworks in their honor tonight!

Just Waiting

  The number of people who call me Nana will increase by two this week with another little boy and a little granddaughter that we will meet on Wednesday, May 25th.

 So we are just waiting for them.  Every thing is ready.  They have lots of clothes to wear.

They have a comfy place to sleep.

And most important they have parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins just waiting to love them.  They don't know yet just how lucky they are to have a family that believes there's always room for TWO more and that sleep is over rated!

!#*!@%$!

For over twenty years we have tried to get along with all the critters who share the Ponderosa with us.  We would just like to have the yard and garden spot, and varmits can feel free to roam the rest of the Ponderosa.  But lately they have been entering forbidden territory!  They have become increasingly bold!  They run across the deck and swing from my hanging baskets!  They steal the dog food and dig up flowers.  They look innocent enough. And some people would even call them cute. 

We call them the enemy!  When our strawberries began to disappear it was the last straw.  First we tried the rubber snake trick.  After all it worked with the birds.

But they just sat right down by the snake and ate the berries, taunting us by leaving the pieces right there by the plants that we had planted, and kept free of weeds and grass and fertilized and watched every day when the blooms and then the berries appeared waiting anxiously for the first ripe berries.

We also tried pinwheels thinking the movement might scare them, but they are fearless!  We tried lowering the electric fence around the berries that we had put up to keep out the deer--no luck.

Well, enough is enough and now it is all out war.  We are taking back the Ponderosa!

That is if Peanut's shoulder can hold up.  He says it is very sore right now.
 We may have to call for reinforcements.

Happy Mother's Day--to Mothers Everywhere!

Graduation Day

May 7 was a special day for the youngest Ponderosa Princess.  She became a college graduate.  There were so many graduates at TTU that the ceremony was divided into two parts.  She was in the morning graduation.

Here she comes marching in.  The youngest Ponderosa Princess is only five feet tall, but her place in line was in between some very tall dudes.  

Here she is waving to her friends and family in the crowd!  

The ceremony is long and introduces a lot of people, so it was a good time to send messages to her sister, the oldest Ponderosa Princess, who could not attend, but watched on the Internet feed.

It was finally time for her name to be called and she walked right across that stage in her gold sparkly shoes just like the princess that she is!

She sang the Tennessee Tech Hymn

.

And then the specter guy led the entire procession right out of the gym,

where we made pictures 

then went out to lunch after which the graduate left with her little family to catch a plane to the beach!

It was a very good day!

Danger Zone

When I hear the word danger, I always think of the robot from the TV series Lost in Space.  

If you are under fifty you may not remember it.  The Robinson family was lost in space and trying to return to earth.  It was science fiction set in the future (1997)!  The youngest child in this family was Will Robinson and he was always exploring with the Robot.  When they encountered something dangerous the robot would wave his arms and exclaim, "Danger, Will Robinson, Danger."  It was awesome!  

Anyway,  lately I've felt like I needed a robot companion to warn me of the dangers here on the Ponderosa.  One must always be aware of his/her surroundings here because just because it wasn't there yesterday doesn't mean it won't be there today.  For instance, it is amazing how much progress a hornet can make on a nest is a very short time. This one popped up on the eaves of our storage shed. 

One must also be careful inside the sheds where reptiles sometimes like to lie in the doorways or even on the walls!

Things like this do not bother boys, they just add to the danger by trying to poke it with a broom.

And always look before you sit on the Ponderosa.

Because you don't know what may be sitting in the chair already!

May Flowers