Narcistic Cardinal

The first time we saw this bird sitting on the mirror on Buddy's truck, we thought he might be "fighting" the bird in the mirror but this bird now finds my truck mirror to adore himself while Buddy's truck is gone.

Can you see him behind the mirror? He sits there admiring himself and poops all over our trucks. I've seen parakeets do this but never a wild bird.

The Incredible Egg

Twenty weeks ago yesterday, I brought home 24 day old hatchlings and placed those little puff balls in a brooder box in our RV with Buddy and me. Yes, we lived with those in the house and talked to them like little babies (which they were), coddled them until it was time to move to the barn and then the big move to the outside world and the day finally arrived when I found the long awaited prize of a little brown egg. Unless you have chickens that you've raised from hatchlings, you can't begin to understand the joy it brings to find your first egg. It's like a precious ball of gold.

Happy Trails...

A Whole Lot of Preachin' Going On

I have to share with everyone pictures of this great little church we've been trying to attend on the first Sunday of every month. It's way off the beaten path to say the least. The building itself is not quite finished..the steeple needs to be finished and there's plans for an arena where kids can come hear the Word and then learn to rope and ride after Sunday dinner.

And this man can preach the Word! What a great way to start your Sunday and then meet afterwards for some good eating and visiting.

Then it was back home for a quick nap and then to work in the garden. We've been blessed with some great rain here lately. Way back I posted about the fact that we had so much rain, it was like a lake out in the orchard. Well, last Sunday it looked like that again and the winds were blowing a current out on the water. I woke up and looked out and saw that a pair of wild ducks had flown in and were swimming out there! That's a lot of rain water!

And the rains bring lots of weeds in the garden so off to work we go... here's a few shots of the back garden.

Already a bell pepper..this is encouraging.

Buddy's watermelons..

corn and beans...

Buddy and I have decided that after doing all the weeding, that we have a new appreciation for homegrown foods. We both worked gardens as kids but decided it's different when you're older and you start it and work it together. I will admit, I do have some very fond memories of running barefoot through the garden when I was a kid...oh, those were the days...

Happy Trails...

Moving In..

We're in but we're not unpacked. I'm anxious to get y'all some pictures, but I'll bet y'all have all seen pictures of boxes. We got moved out of both storage units and got the furniture moved in and those boxes unpacked. Then Buddy and I ventured out to the storage container and brought up yet another truck load..I'm slowly but surely getting those things unpacked and put away and will soon take some pictures so you can see the house.

As I was walking out the door last Monday to the doctor, they were calling to reschedule due to the doctor being out...so I rescheduled for yesterday...although I called the day before and cancelled it. Being the good nurse that I am (ha!), I decided to take off my cast and start some physical therapy. All is going well and I can see that it's going to take to pain to make some gains getting this hand to working again. In due time...

Here's Buddy working on my kitchen garden. I put herbs down at one end and then planted tomatoes, lettuce and carrots.

And then Harley got to it with her digging holes. All she got was the mint and I think even a little bit of it is trying to come back up.

Here's the back garden before everything was planted and we turned out the chickens. Let's see.. now there's watermelons, corn, purple hull peas, Kentucky Wonder beans, cucumber, okra, squash and potatoes.

Speaking of chickens, they are now 19 1/2 weeks old and have not yet started laying. The nest boxes are ready and I talked to them everyday telling them that they better start getting it on their minds. As a matter of fact, it's time for me to go put them up for the night.

Happy Trails...

Oh My, Oh My

Oh, how I've missed being able to blog and comment on so many of your blogs..but I have enjoyed reading and keeping up with everyone. As you can see from the picture, I've been in a bind..literally. Over a month ago after a torrential downpour, I slopped through the mud to go pick up a chair that had blown off the back porch of the house and I danced all the way to the concrete with the chair. After many tears and much moaning, Buddy talked me into going to urgent care the next day....ah yes, I broke a bone in my hand. My first broken bone...So now I've been adorning this lovely half cast. I go back to the doctor tomorrow for more xrays and will find out if I can get rid of this nasty thing. I must admit, I've taken this off this weekend to do some physical therapy on my hand. My wrist and three fingers are frozen. I figured trying to type would be good therapy. Do you know how often you use the letter "a" and the shift key? Way too many times! Weeks ago I tried pecking out some words but it took me forever and was extremely frustrating so I gave it up.

I am happy to announce that our house is finished and we started sleeping in here three days ago. Yippee! That's another thing that I've just been able to master...holding the camera.

Right now the house is full of boxes to be unpacked. Now, that's a sight! I have to take out one thing at a time with my good hand (which, thank God, I'm right-handed) and put that one thing in it's place...it takes forever.

Anyway, I'm back and will be posting once again and will get lots of pictures. By the way, I'm telling my doctor tomorrow that this cast stays off! I cannot stand it anymore!

It's a Good Day!

Happy Anniversary to Buddy and me! It's been 15 years. I'll admit it hasn't all been wedded bliss because we've had some tough times to get through in the beginning. But I will say that our love has continued to grow every day. This man still makes me laugh and I love spending my days with him. I am so blessed to have a husband like him. We both know that it takes having Christ in our marriage to make it work. Both of us have our faults so we rely on our perfect Lord for strength to continually bind our love for each other. How blessed I am to know a love like this!

So what's with the juicer? Buddy has been wanting one of these for a long time so it's a happy anniversary gift for both of us. Maybe it'll make us a little healthier so we can have another 15 years. I gag at the thought of V8 juice but Buddy loves it. I can handle fruit juice so this'll be interesting. I'll let you know how it works and if anyone out there has one, I'd love some tips.

It's official! Rooster Cogburn is a rooster. He found his voice this morning and was crowing up a storm. Now he holds his head up a little higher and struts his stuff!

I had to snap this picture of Jess and Bridget. It's like they were saying "thanks for the hay" since, as you can see, there is absolutely no grass here. We're still praying for rain.

I want to say a big thank you to my blogger friends who have sent such comforting words about me wrecking the truck and being so stressed. I really appreciate you.

Happy Trails...

A Sense of Calm

Yesterday was foggy with a lot of drizzle......not so much rain but heavy drizzle. We'll take it. We haven't had measurable rainfall since last September.


There was a sense of peace and calm yesterday..no workers, no hammers, no skill saws...just quiet.