How Does Your Garden Grow?

It's been so long since I made a post that I almost forgot my password when I logged in. Life has been overwhelming and there is so much to do in the spring that I deserted our blog. But school is about to end and that means more free time for me! Our newest project on the Ponderosa is a garden. It's about two weeks old and I check it every day to see what's growing and whether the dogs or deer have made tracks through it. It's in our yard--we have plenty of yard--no one should mow that much, so we took a little corner and started plowing. Peanut started with his equipment, trying to plow up the ground.

It wasn't really doing the trick so we did the only thing a person could and that was borrow stuff from our neighbors.
Now our neighbors have all the equipment we need and they are very good at sharing. We love our neighbors!

Larger John Deere, tiller attached in back and now we are in business.

Ready for planting.

After a quick trip to the farm supply store we were ready with tomatoes, squash, blueberry bushes, watermelon and cantaloupe. A brief visit to my Dad's scored us some green bean seeds and lima beans left from his garden.
We have added okra, replanted watermelon and cantaloupe(hail the day after they were planted) and some marigolds. The green beans are up, the lima beans are starting to pop from the ground.
Stay tuned to see what happens, we've already had to battle the elements and I'm certain some critters are going to cause trouble, so there should be plenty of garden stories!

Record Setting Rainfall

We don't normally have creeks or

waterfalls on the Ponderosa, but. . .

after this record breaking rainfall on Sunday night, we now have both.

By daylight the water had receded, but you can see how hard it ran, pushing the leaves out of the ditch as it flowed down the hillside.

At one point it had to run and cover the driveway here because these limbs are too far from the tree line to just fall.
This is no big deal because after seeing the devastation around Nashville picking up a few sticks and walking on some soggy ground will not bother us!

More Adventures Off the Ponderosa!

This is the only damage we have on the Ponderosa--right now! We just returned this morning after a strange day in Nashville yesterday! We returned the King of the Ponderosa to his home on Friday and meant to come home on Saturday, but the rain started falling and would not stop and we decided it best to wait it out. We woke up this morning saw it was clear toward our house, but that more rain was west of Nashville. We hit the road right after 6:00 A.M. and made it home without any rain, wind or flooding! The pictures below are some of the scenes we saw yesterday around the area where our children live. Stephanie and I actually had to take an alternate route home when we went to Walmart for a few groceries!

Adventures off the Ponderosa

To read about an adventure we had away from the Ponderosa click here.

Click here for the picture that began the adventure.

Parkerisms

The King of the Ponderosa spent most of last week here and he said some very funny things. I'm going to call them Parkerisms! They may not seem as funny without his voice because most of the things he says with a tone that should have a question mark or exclamation point after them. But I want to record them so that maybe someday he can read what he said at three!

As we pulled out of the driveway on the golf cart Parker saw where a tractor had left the muddy field and pulled onto the road and he said, "Oh look P-pa, there are some tractor footprints."

Conservation with Nana:
Parker: "Nana, where do bees poop?"
Nana: "I don't know Parker, maybe in the grass."
Parker: "But how, Nana, how"
Nana: "I don't know Parker, I guess bees have a bottom like you."
Parker: "But why Nana, why?"
Nana: "Where do you think bees poop, Parker?"
Parker: "In their nests, no wait they make honey. I think in the woods!"


On the way home to Parker's House
Parker: "Where are we going?"
Nana: "To your house."
Parker: "Nana, did you know that Bob the Builder, built my house for me and mama and daddy?"

What's Blooming on the Ponderosa

Azaleas in white, pink and red!

When two guys clean. . .

Last week when the pollen was so thick you could write your name in it. P-pa and Parker decided to wash off the deck and porch! They thought the pollen was making us sneeze and cough and that it would be good to clean it up.


Now when you get two guys and a water hose,

even if you adjust the sprayer just right,

some of the water is going to go on places you didn't mean to get wet!

And some of Nana's day lilies received collateral damage!

Plan B

We live on the Ponderosa with 87,000 birds. Most of the time there is peace and harmony. The worst bird problem being the woodpecker who is trying to peck our house down. He's been at it for a long time and we shoo him away or make a noise and he gives up---except for the large hole we found last week! Sometimes they eat from the dog food bowls or poop on the porch, but hey, we're outnumbered and you did see that Alfred Hitchcock movie didn't you? It's best not to anger the birds.
But this week a little war involving territory has broken out on the Ponderosa!

It involves this.
This week, the nesting instinct has kicked in and the birds have tried to move into our space. They want to be sheltered and their favorite places are in the eaves of our porch and shed. I can't blame them, there's nice little ledges there. Now, we tried shooing and beating the windows and putting rocks or bricks when they were trying to build, but that instinct is strong and they came right back. We tore it out, they built it right back! We needed a Plan B.
So, since we are suppose to be smarter than their little bird brains. We took ourselves to Walmart and marched right into the toy department, where they had an entire box of just what we needed for only a dollar.

There is another instinct called fear! Our goal was to make it work for us!

Once again there was some climbing and cleaning and strategic placement of the snakes.

Then came the test--hide and watch to see how they react!
Bingo, they hovered in fear, landed nearby, made some bird noise and flew away. No one has seen them this afternoon! Plan B seemed to be working.

Now it was on to the shed where there were seven nests either finished or started. It was an entire bird community--a nesting ground.

Smarter than the birds guy, cleaned up all the nests and

arranged another snake.
Right now we are winning with Plan B, but if you don't see us around somewhere please come check on us--it will be that brown house with all the birds sitting on it!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

What's Blooming on the Ponderosa

Today the Ponderosa is so full of blooming things, you have to watch where you walk! This post doesn't need words, enjoy!















I know, this is a weed, but today even the dandelions are at their best!

Easter Sunday's Blast From the Past

Tattoos of Life

Lately every time I look at my hands, I don't like what I see. They look old. You can see my veins and they are becoming covered with sun/age spots. They look like the hands of a little grandma-- oh wait, I am a grandma. The age/sun/liver spots are taking over. I even bought some expensive serum for my face that is suppose to help even out my skin tone in four to six weeks! It's not been that long, but I don't think I am seeing much progress.

This was on my mind while I was listening to my Steve Wariner CD. (He's one of my favorites) One of his songs is called Tattoos of Life. Here's what he says:

Life paints a picture that time can't erase

And sometimes it cuts like a knife

Sooner or later one way or another

We all wear the tattoos of life

This made me think about the spots and the wrinkles and scars we all carry around. They are part of us, they tell our story. Instead of trying to erase them, we should just consider them to be our tattoos--badges of honor earned for all sorts of reasons. I can't change them because that would change my past and I would not want that.

I learned another lesson when I mentioned to my friend that I was trying the serum on my face and she said, "I didn't even notice it was there." It's a large spot, you can't help but see it, but she is my friend and I realized that when she looks at me, she doesn't see my imperfections. She just sees me.

So, I'm going to embrace my tattoos and not try to change them--with the exception of one-you will never see my true hair color, its a tattoo I'm still going to hide!!!