And Then Came The Rains.....

The heavens opened and down came the rain and more rain and more rain. Water gushed across our yard and headed toward my garden and all those potatoes I had just planted. I'm hoping they don't all wash away!

The water was going over the spillway down at the pond and the boat was in danger of floating away, never to be seen again.

So the kid's Poppy  brought up the 4-wheel drive and we went to check out how high the water was. For the second time since we moved out to the 80 acre homestead, the road was flooded blocking our exit into town by going North. My daughter kept reminding us to "turn around , don't drown" from the back seat of the truck. So we watched to see if the oncoming car would give it a try, then backed up the hill and went south. Again, the road was blocked. By now, being a person who hates being blocked in, I was hunting for a paper bag to breathe into. So again we backed up and this time headed west. The deluge of rain had done a number washing out the road, but it appeared to be open going into town that direction. When we got back home, my daughter donned her husband's boots and we took the boys and headed across the yard to check out the damage. Everywhere we walked we kept sinking into the ground. The boys thought it was a hoot. It started thundering so I grabbed the kids and made a dash for the house, sinking into the wet ground every step of the way. We were all muddy by the time we got back , but what fun it was!

The Cherry Tree

Today we picked up another Cherry tree at Lowe's. We plant fruit trees every year on the 80 acre homestead because the deer usually destroy in one way or another our trees. The kid's Poppy found a cider press at an auction one year and has this dream of making his own cider using the old press. However, we don't have much luck with the apple trees either. But, we'll plant again.

Mark and Koda think anything their "poppy" is doing they should be helping with, so everyone jumped into the jeep and headed for the orchard. "Poppy" had already brought shovels for each of them thinking years from now they will remember having a part in planting "the cherry tree."

Mark couldn't figure out why we were only planting one tree. Poppy assured him we would plant more but the store only had one today. I like the way that little one thinks. Never plant just one of anything, that's my motto!

Finally, The Potatoes Are Planted!

Finally, the ground dried up enough to plant the potatoes. Unfortunately, it was only about 45 Degrees outside. There is something wrong with planting the garden and wearing a coat at the same time! It has rained for a week and is suppose to rain again for the next few days, so if the potatoes were to get planted at all , we needed to don the coats and get on with it. The old-timers always said potatoes were to have been planted by St. Patrick's Day and today is March 29th so we are already behind schedule!

The kid's Poppy  had plowed the ground a couple weeks ago before the big rains so he now attached a harrow to the back of the four-wheeler and ran it over the ground to break up the sod. Then he ran the tiller over that to loosen up the dirt even more. Now we were ready for the fun part, the manual labor.

We had picked up some red and white potatoes from the store, but I wanted more variety than that, so I went to our local greenhouse and they had five different kinds. I remembered we cut the potatoes up with eyes left on each piece, but I did not know how many potatoes I would need so I figured 5 lbs of each one sounded good. We planted Red Pontiac, Yukon Gold, Norland, Kennebec, and Cobblers and ended up with five pretty long rows. My "roll her eyes around" daughter thought I was just kidding when I told her we would be filling up the root cellar with potatoes! My son's dog couldn't figure out why we were planting something that looked like it was meant to be played with in the ground. He was so confused!


I couldn't remember how far apart to plant the potatoes so I just winged it. Some of them were spaced about 20 inches apart and some looked like they had been sowed, so we will just have to see how things turn out. I am finding that I don't stoop and bend as well as I use to . Poppy  says he will have to design a fork to attach to the tractor before time to dig all those potatoes. He is good at that sort of thing and I am counting on it!!!

The Tiny, Little Spot

Taken from my journal Feb. 06:

I stopped in at my daughter's house on my way home from work tonight. My plans were to work in the greenhouse while it was still warm outside. When I got to her house and my young grandson heard I was going to be outside, he begged me to let him go too. I was in a hurry, but I told him if he would bring me his shoes and if he hurried, I would take him with me.

He crawled up on my lap and just as I was about to put on his shoes, he noticed a teeny, tiny ketchup spot on his sock. He kicked and squirmed and had a little fit because he did not want his shoe on with that little spot on his sock. Being in a hurry, I had to forcefully put his shoe on and make him get up and walk.

I am reminded that many times we are like this little child. We have some little, thing that we are focusing and obsessing over , and it is affecting our walk too. It might be a hurt, an offense or whatever. Instead of focusing on that , God wants us to get up, put our shoes on and walk with Him!

Summer Of My Refreshment

I love old things! I love going through flea markets and antique stores and walking around and touching old pieces of wood that someones ancestors probably hand carved and picking up delicate pieces of china that probably were stored for years in someone's old china cabinet, only to be taken out on very special occasions.

 And I have a special place in my heart for old quilts and hand embroidered pieces. I can remember as a little girl going to grand-ma Reaves house and her quilting rack would be up and she would be once again working on a quilt. So I am a bit of a sucker at auctions when old quilts come up for sale. I will buy them if possible and adopt them into my family heirlooms.

I have one very special sister-in-law named Lola whose home I love to visit. A sense of peace and tranquility seems to invade every part of her home. And she loves to not only make quilts , but she loves to embroider, crochet and cross-stitch. How I envy her that ability! Some times when life seems to be getting too much and I need a break, I like to go to her home and wander around and touch the home-made things. She's very creative and some of the things I see she has made, I think "I can do that too."

She has taken an old window frame and put antique tractor pictures behind each pane and hung it on the wall. My father-in-law hunted me down an old window so I could do the same. He did some logging when he was young and I want to take some old family pictures and enlarge them and put them behind the panes in that old window. But, I would never have thought of doing that until I went
to Lola's house.

Another thing she has done that I want to also do, is make a memory quilt. She took a small quilt and attached assorted sewing implements to it, including sewing scissors, old, wooden thread spools, old buttons etc. I have several old things from my grand-mother's sewing box , especially a couple of small , round doilies that she made that I can also add to my quilt. Even old pictures can be added to the quilt. I am not a very creative person, but I can see what someone else has done and make something like it work for me.

Sometimes, I have to remind myself to slow down and take time to do the things I really enjoy . If we are not careful, life can get so hectic that the really important things seem to get shoved aside and we don't make time to do the things that give "rest to our souls." I have decided that this summer will be the "summer of my refreshment" or a time in my life when I will concentrate on doing the things that I enjoy the most. Gardening will probably take up most of my time and that is O.K. because God speaks to me many times during my times in the garden, but I also want to do some of those things that I have been putting off for so long.

 I want to wander through more flea markets , visit friends that I haven't seen for a long time, have some special "Hicksey Chicks" times with my sisters and even spend time sitting in my porch swing drinking a glass of tea and enjoying the sounds of nature. I'm going to slow down and learn to "wait upon the Lord." At this time in my life, my children are all gone from home, I don't need to work as hard as I use to just to keep the things of home going and I want to enjoy life while I am healthy and able to do so. So the promise I am making to myself is to learn to relax.......and stop doing the busy things.....and start doing the fun things...........

Easter 2008

I have a plaque that says "Faith, Family, Friends" on it in my bedroom and I believe those three things are the most important things in life. Without any of the three, your life will never be whole. Today, we joined with other family members and celebrated Easter at Poppy's  sister and brother-in-law's house. As I sit back and reflect on the days happenings , I have a sense of satisfaction in knowing that even though life moves on, and our kids will grow up and leave home and have their own families, that there will always be special occasions that draw us all back together again. And as with today, there will be good food, lively conversation where we catch up on what's happening in one anothers lives and it's also a time of being thankful that we have been given this day to enjoy being with one another.

First, we got to welcome a new baby into the family! Nothing fills you with such wonder as picking up a new baby and touching the softness of their little skin. I believe each little child is a special gift from God and He has entrusted us with it's care. How sweet and precious that little fella was and it seemed such a short time ago that his mother was a baby too. How fast time moves on! And nothing can compare to watching a proud, new grandpa hold his first grandson.

And, we got to meet a new fiance-a new future member of the family. And cousins got to get together with other cousins , some they barely knew. But that doesn't matter, because the important part was they were with cousins.


And of course, we had to have an Easter Egg Hunt.










Janet, the one I think we need to designate as the family historian brought her scrapbook albums and we looked through old pictures of ancestors and marveled at how each generation really does resemble their ancestors. And how fascinating it is to see pictures of your moms and dads and grandparents when they were young and hear the stories of how they met and what life was like when they were young. Thanks Janet for all the hard work you put into the scrapbooks. Someday, there will be a generation following that will thank you for what you have done!!


And what fun it was to watch the wonder on my own grand-kids face as we all trekked outside and saw the sights that you miss out on when you don't live on a farm. Who can describe the awe on a child's face when they see that eggs can be gathered from the chicken coop instead of from the grocery store! Or touch the soft down of a baby duck and watch baby chicks as they huddle together under the light to keep them warm. And what a delight it is to watch a small child try to sneak up on the chickens , all the while thinking they will eventually get fast enough to catch one. I'm a firm believer that all children should get to visit a farm somewhere so they can get personal and up close with the animals.


























I like to laugh and tease my family but in reality I am thankful to have been grafted in to become a part of this little group. My heart is moved when my mother-in-law tells me her heart still "thumps" when she sees her husband and you see the love is still there after many, many years of being married. And I feel very honored when she kisses me good-by and tells me what a good daughter-in-law I am .
.



Faith, Family, Friends.

Make sure all three make up a part of your life and you will be blessed because of it!

Cattle Panels- Best Thing Since Duct Tape

I have found that cattle panels are an indispensable part of living on the 80 acre homestead. The kid's Poppy  and two of my grandsons unloaded some I bought recently. Apparently, the littlest one did not like the noise because you will notice he has his ears covered.

I have cut them up and used them as a trellis for my clematis to run up, shaped them into a giant U-shape and trained my wisteria to climb up and over the top, trained my grapevines to run up the top of one, and run them in rows in my garden for my tomato vines to have something to support them. Now I plan on circling the perimeter of my garden with them so as to keep the deer out . And they are inexpensive!!!

I learned the hard way though that you do not want to haul them home in the back of a new pick-up. They do terrible things to your paint job!