Winter

Winter

Thursday, May 31, 2012

So Glad It is June!!!

The schools in this area got out today!!! Even though we got out on Monday, I am thrilled. Now summer can begin. It will be 100 degrees tomorrow, I think a very nice way to start June. I am weary from the month that is May. I tried to sit down this week and write a fun list of things I want to do. I couldn't think of any thing.

I think this calls for major plan of action. I need a couple days swimming in the pool. I just need to read some fun books. Light books, like Anne's House of Dreams or some Harry Potter or My Friend Flicka. I want to stay up late and sleep late and eat ice cream.

I want to sit outside and watch my chickens and I want to take my pen and paper and write down dreams.
I want to rest my mind and collect my thoughts. I think June would be a nice time to do this.
I want to watch my grand children play in the water and run and eat junk that I shouldn't give them but I want it to feel like summer for them too.

I want to spend time with my girls and I want to learn to spin. I want to sit around the fire pit in the evening and eat S'mores and have the kids bring their friends and tell ghost stories as the bats fly over at night.
I would also like to throw rocks at the skunks but I won't.

This morning, I walked out early as the sun was coming up. I stood in the dappled early morning light and picked apricots for my breakfast. I think apricots are bits of distilled sunshine. That is what makes June different from May.

Life slows down, the smell of summer comes on the wind. It smells brown and toasty. I can sit outside in the twilight and watch as the sky goes from blue to black and then the soft breeze comes across my skin like a silk scarf.

Yep, I am ready for June. Welcome back!!!

~Kim~

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Lighting Storms and Other Things


My sister sent me photos from last night and the lighting storm she could see going on outside. She said there will be another one tonight. It has been a long time since I have watched light shows like this one. We rarely get lighting. My hat is off to all of you who live in places that produce storms like this. I really do like weather. I think I do because I never have any weather. I think though secretly I would like to be a storm chaser.

That is so amazing to me and scary at the same time. Such power.

It just amazes me to see that cloud just right there so low. You know that a tornado could just drop right out of the sky.

My sister has had the job of going through my Mom and Dad's things. So she keeps sending things she runs across. Today I got a couple of boxes with old photos in it. This is the very, long time ago Kim. I loved showing animals and this was one of my favorite steers. It was the year that the Cincinnati Reds won the world series. I was a big fan so of course I named my steer Cincinnati Red, The big red machine.

He was a heavy weight steer and when I was trying to halter break him as a calf, he dragged me all over the place. I never thought I would ever get him halter broke. I loved him though and I loved working with him and I was so glad that my sister found this picture because he was one of my favorites. Now if she could just find the picture of me and Goldie. Goldie, I delivered as a calf and he was my last show steer. That was one of my favorites things to do as a young woman was get a wild calf and turn it into a mild mannered animal. I loved everything about the cattle industry. I really did think I would grow up and be a ranchers wife. Who knew that when I fell it would be for a young, computer programmer with dreams that I came to share as my own.
Funny thing about life isn't it? 

Okay, who knew I would be called Farm Girl. :)
I just love how pretty he is, and I just loved his face. I have tons more pictures and who knows If I will share them or not. Memory lane is hard for me to walk down sometime.

I hope you have a lovely Thursday,
~Kim~



Walking in The Garden

I took a walk in the garden with the camera and not the hula-hoe. I should have been chopping weeds. I know for a fact, the weeds are winning. I love taking pictures of fruit. When it starts changing from green to ripe. This plum tree is so loaded with plums. My girls come and pick from this tree and make jam. One of the things I love is watching my grand children pick fruit and be big helpers. It just makes me so happy.

Remember when my husband planted 72 Zinnia seeds? I just had him put a bed in the garden and they are already blooming. There is just something happy about zinnias. I think this year I planted more flowers than I did things to eat. I guess sometimes because it is with me anyway, I need food for the eyes because flowers feed my soul and some times that is what is most important to me.

Isn't it nice to see sunflowers? I just love watching them grow this year. The thing I like most is that on really hot days they just shoot up. My husband calls them little radar dishes because they have their faces always pointed at the sun.

Here is the whole thing and how far it really goes. I don't think I have ever planted as many as I did this year. I do have them all labeled this year so I will know just what each kind is and maybe be able to save some seeds before the parrots carry them off. They are watching the progress very closely now, the parrots I mean. The whole flock was flying around yesterday scolding me.

I just had to show you a picture of the Hydrangea. This was a tiny little plant that I got for my birthday when I turned 50. Now it has got this big. I have always killed Hydrangeas. I didn't hold out much hope for this one either. I babied it for a couple of years and now it has finally went crazy. It just amazes me and I kind of stand out here and stare at it.  The picture doesn't really do it justice because even though the flowers are pink there is a bluish tinge to it. I guess I need to put more iron in the soil for really blue ones.

I started my chicken rug yesterday. When times are hard sometimes it is nice to have little things that bring joy. This rug brings me such joy and makes me laugh inside. I just had to share how it looks. The little chicken just makes me so happy.

 Here is a close up of the little chicken.

Isn't it cute? I have had so much fun so far working on this rug, I think I would work on it all day. I can't because today in my youngest son's 17 birthday. He has been sick for most of the month of May and has lost so much weight, I don't think we will be doing much. My kids have all been sick with something off and on and I just hope now for a well household.

I want to say thank you for coming along today. Your visits and your comments continue to be my light in a dark tunnel. Blessings to you all,
~Kim~



Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Chats On The Farmhouse Porch

I just wanted to say thank you to Patrice for this chat. I haven't written a post since last Thursday. There might not have been one today without Patrice. I have had a house with sick people, that meant I spent time in the doctors office and at the pharmacy. There is family drama going on with terms of a will and all of it leaves me without one drop of creativity. So to have the nice questions that Patrice provides every week it really helps my mind. So onto this weeks questions:

QUESTIONS

 1.   Do you have any musical instruments in your house? If so, which ones do you have?

Oh my gosh do we have musical instruments,  I couldn't even begin to count the guitars, we have 3 pianos,3 violins, my closets have more musical instruments than anything else. We have a banjo and a mandalon and even ukulele. I have a clarinet which is the only thing that is mine. So all day long you can hear some kind of music being praticed and played.
2.    When you take a walk, what are you likely to pick or pick up from the ground?

A rock, I am always looking for neat rocks.

3.    They say to have breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. I guess that means you have fuel for your body to get through the day and don't have a full tummy when you go to bed. Are your meals like that?

No I don't think so, Ron will fix a very nice breakfast for me, I hardly eat lunch, my favorite lunch being a thing of greek yogurt, a banana and some string cheese that I share with Sasha. I eat that because it takes about 5 minutes standing on my feet then I don't have to think about food until it is time for dinner. Then we do have a big meal between 5:30 and 6:00 with it being daylight longer we can stay outside.

4.    Do you prefer iced coffee or iced tea?

I always would choose coffee. My family really enjoys ice tea. I will have a pitcher of it all of the time. I am not a big fan of ice tea. I wish I was sometimes because it looks good, but I would rather have water, so I rarely drink it.

 5.   How do you handle doing things you'd rather not do?
You know what? Until the last few weeks I would have thought I was a person that just let things go, but with this trust and will thing that has been going on in my life for the last month I find I am compelled whether I want to or not to do the right thing. Even though it means I am attacked in ways I never dreamed was possible. 

Thanks for Patrice. It is nice to have questions to look forward too today. I hope you will all stop by for a visit with Patrice.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Today on Thursday

Here we are at Thursday again. I can't believe how fast this week has gone. I am officially finished with school.
One more year left. I don't think I have ever finished up a year before that made me feel this way. But on to the fun stuff that I did this week.

I harvested our first batch of artichokes. Something I noticed about these that I never noticed about the ones in the store, is that they smell like violets or lilacs. They had the sweetest smell. When I first picked them I kept wondering where that lovely smell was coming from then as I walked in the house carrying the basket I realized it was the artichokes. Who knew? When I was steaming them the kids kept coming down stairs saying they smelled so good. It really was a treat to have them for dinner. For the little plants that we just planted in the spring I thought this a pretty good for a first crop.

I finished up projects this week. It was nice to start getting my project basket emptied.
Remember this from the fall? Well I had never finished it. I was going through a box that I had put my projects I didn't want to look at anymore and here was this one. So yesterday I finished it.

I finally finished May. I was so glad to finally finish May. I thought I would go crazy, I was so bored with this, I don't know why now that it is finished but it just seemed to go on and on. I bought these from Country Stitches, last week on Brenda's blog she said that she does one in a week over coffee. It takes me every bit of four weeks to do one and nothing as easy as over coffee.  Maybe if I didn't change things, like making some of the bees into lady bugs. Just like recipes when I am cooking, I am always changing something.

 When I discovered the world of blogging, to say I had been out of the loop was a understatement. When the kids were small I would make their clothes and even when I had six I would make stuffed animals for them and they would draw patterns out for dinosaurs and what ever and I would make them out of cloth. But then life got to busy and I stopped sewing. I did red work because I could carry it with me to lessons, but that was it.
It has been like starting over from scratch to learn to sew again. Not to mention working in the garden had made my hands so stiff and clumsy. Then there is the whole deal with my eyes. I was blind, and even yesterday I had to wait until someone got up to thread my needle on the sewing machine.
This was one of the first things I made but never finished. I really didn't know what a sewing roll was, and yesterday I thought I am finishing this too. This is one of the first patterns I bought from Stacy Nash.
I loved the whole idea of something called Hollyhock Farm. After not doing cross stitch for 20 years this was such a challenge. I kept thinking I need to make it again just for fun.

I have been making these scissor fobs. I have the worst habit of putting pins and needles in my mouth when I am sewing and I have been trying to break myself of this bad habit. So I thought if I make these fobs and put them on my scissors then I won't be putting needles in my mouth.

I hope to finish up my pattern by Country Stitches today or tomorrow. The House of Blues and Browns.
I drew out two more rug patterns yesterday. I bagged wool to start my new rug projects but I wanted to finish up these things I have been working on.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a great weekend.
I also want to say from here, Happy Birthday to my friend Kim, I hope you have a great day.
 Kim has a lovely place called Millie's Mats. 

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Chats on The Farmhouse Porch

My daughter was asking me why I am so tired all of a sudden. I was trying to figure out what was wrong with me too. Then I thought it all started with the episode of the skunk visits. Last night was a very close call. Every night when Sasha wants to go outside, I get up grab a flashlight and go out the door and shine it all around the yard. If no eyes are looking back I go get the dog. Last night, I was shining the flash light around the yard and I didn't see anything, but I still had that feeling I was being watched. I walked down to the end of my porch and shined the flashlight down the fence line and then something moved and I shined the light in my flowerbed and there not a foot away from me watching me being really still was the skunk. I turned and ran in the house. So the reason I am so tired right now, is I keep having these adrenaline rushes at two in the morning and I don't go back to sleep. I ended up taking Sasha to the front yard praying there wasn't two skunks.
A little later it must have got in a fight in my side yard as the house was filled with scent. I could hear the sound of windows being slammed upstairs. My early morning adventures have to stop. I am not a violent person but I am having thoughts of guns and traps and things like that.

 Okay I think it is safe now to come out on the porch with me. No skunks are around.

Questions

1.    What are you doing for Memorial Weekend?
I imagine working, in the garden and working around the house. It will be a four day weekend and it promises to be cool so we will try to get as much work done as we can before the heat sets in and then we can't work.

2.    What's the last old movie you saw?
A Shadow of a Doubt. It is a Alfred Hitchcock movie, with Joseph Cotton. I was on a Joseph Cotton kick.

 3.   What color are the walls in your living room.
The whole inside of my house is painted a color called Sunshine White. The wood work is white. I still love the color and I have never got tired of it, every time I think about painting I always come back to this color.

4.    What's your favorite food to cook on the grill?
Just about anything on the grill. I love cooking outside. The kids keep asking for pizza so I need to try that soon.

5.    What's your favorite animal?
I love all animals even skunks if they would stay out of my yard. When I was young my Mom had a pet skunk, it was a great pet. My vet told me he would descent them if I brought them in, which just ain't gonna happen. I have always been pretty crazy about animals.

Thanks to Patrice for some nice question. I guess this time of year is just a busy time. I hope everyone has a nice week and thank you for stopping by and visiting.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Monday Morning

One of the things that I find really interesting since my husband is so interested in doing Bonsai, is the plants he finds and brings home. This is called a Desert Rose. One of the things about it is the books say it is really hard to get them to bloom. My husbands plant started blooming this week. What you want on a Bonsai is a big base and you can't get a big base if you start with a cutting, you only get them from seed. The seeds from this are really valuable for my husband as these are hard plants to find.

See how big the base is and how interesting it looks. . He was going through his list of plants that he wants to use for Bonsai and I was amazed at how many rare plants he finds at Lowe's and Home Depot. He didn't find this one there though, and he has never seen another one.
This is the area that we made for our herbal tea garden. I need to harvest it and dry it. This is different kinds of mint and lemon balm and lemon thyme. I also have things here to help upset tummy's. It is one of the things I love about growing herbs is having a medicine cabinet growing outside my door.

A few of the girls out in the yard while I was taking pictures of the flowers. This is the bunch who rules the roost. You can tell by how pretty they are, it is amazing how you can tell the bosses from the slaves. The slaves all have messed up feathers. The hardest thing for me to watch with chickens is that pecking order thing they do to each other.
My black-eyed Susan's are just going crazy. They are such a happy flower and for a cutting flower none last as long as they do and they don't drop as much pollen as sunflowers do when you bring them in the house.
I have one parrot that sits on a tree out in the yard in the early morning. He screams at the house. I know he is pretty unhappy about there being no sunflowers. I also saw a lone Canadian goose flying over this morning.
I wondered where he was flying to all by his self.

This what is going on today. I think I have for sure one rooster in my chicks. He was trying to fight everyone this morning. I am okay with one, but not four. So we will see.

Have a great Monday,
Kim

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Feeling Boring

Sometimes I feel so boring. I haven't done anything except chopped weeds, cleaned up after children, chickens and me. I am pretty messy sometimes. I have done laundry, cleaned and cleaned my house, and sewed. My coffee pot broke this morning. My daughter was getting ready to go to work when we came in after working for a cup of coffee. She couldn't defend herself because was gone but I said lots of things about people who drink too much coffee. The two cups I did pour were luke warm. My son who had not had coffee yet, made another pot which never made. This afternoon I went to make a normal pot of coffee and water ran all over the counter and then never came on. Do you know the worst place to go on Sunday afternoon? WalMart. Only a coffee pot would get me to go there, I didn't feel like driving all the way to Target. Do you know how much I am thinking of just giving up coffee? Except I just can't face the headache.

So this is me being pretty boring. Do you know why I am writing this? Because this is my 987th post.
I want to hit 1000, just one of those silly goals I have.

I am thinking only thinking mind you of doing a giveaway to celebrate. Whatcha think? A Fowl Mood Pillow? Some soap? A pin cushion? Just curious. You have a few more posts to think about it. 13 to be exact.

Okay, we have a new week coming, I hope you have a lovely new week,
~Kim~

Friday, May 18, 2012

Friday Update

Today when I woke up, I felt I needed a trip like this above picture. Just to do nothing and sit on the beach and watch the water. Listen to the sound of the waves. Instead I will be watching this:

Sasha digging holes in the dirt. She makes me laugh when she does this as she gets such a crazed look on her face.
I will be watching the girls walk around the back yard.
I will be doing lots of working in the garden. The weeds think we put in that water just for them. They are growing great!
I finished my little sheep rug and it is bound and everything. The fastest I ever made. It was a fun little project to do.
Here it is:
I hope you have a great weekend. We went to see the Avengers last night. Nice movie. I will be checking in later. It is my hubby's Friday off so it will be busy today.
Until later,
~Kim~

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Walking in the Garden

I thought this morning I would take you on a walk around the garden. This is a rose bush I have to pass on my way out to the pasture. I love this little rose bush as it always looks like it is filled with bridal bouquets.

Remember that song, " Paper Roses?" That is what I thought of when I saw these roses. I love how they have all of the contrasting colors.

The sunflowers are growing and they love the hot weather, the days that it is over 95 you can almost see them growing.
Nothing else is up so you can see it, there are potatoes and corn planted here. The herb garden is in the middle with a bed of Zinnias and beets. We didn't put the wood around the beds this year. It will be easier to move the drip lines and use the tractor to plow between the rows. The garden this year looks so much bigger but we did it so much further apart for the disk. Sorry for using the wrong word, I say plow my husband says disk.

Here is another shot with the artichoke and the tomatoes and peppers, and of course, Sasha sneaking up on my chickens. I love when she walks like that, it just drives her crazy when the chickens come outside the gate.
This is what Sasha is sneaking up on, I do enjoy watching them scratching out here but really they want to drift over to eat some of the berries that are starting to get ripe.

Here are the chicks today. One of my favorite things to do in the morning is to change and clean the cage. Give them fresh water and fresh food. It is like how when the kids were babies I loved giving them baths and putting on sleepers and getting them ready for bed, that is what this reminds me of every morning. I just love standing and watching them as they eat and scratch and make the little peeps of how good the food is and how nice the water is, just a lovely little job I look forward to doing each day.

Thanks for coming along this morning. Just all of the simple things in my life that gives me so much joy and I like being able to share it with you.

Have a lovely Wednesday,
~Kim~

Monday, May 14, 2012

Being Busy

Just a short post to say hello, today. It has been a busy day as It seems my to do list must have added things to it today all by itself. I decided to stop, and pour a cup of coffee and sit down, before I start dinner.

I finished up my rooster rug and I decided it might look good as a pillow. It looks okay, it is really bright. If I wasn't such a chicken I would hit it with some brown dye I made and bake it in the oven to give it that old look, but I just can't do that yet. It looks okay, but you know I just finished it and I hate it. So I need to put it away and I will like it in a few months.

I started a new project. This one is fun, so much fun I would rather sit and do this all day. I think I will finish this one up pretty fast. I started it this morning. It is a pattern from Buttermilk Basin.

It has really nice shapes to work with. I really like the curves. That is all I have tonight. It has been a long day. The chicks are doing fine. When they get feathers I will take some pictures. They are still so scared of me that I hate to disturb them any more than I have to but I do like holding them, well until they shake then it breaks my heart. Poor little things, that is when I see why God had to become a man, so we could understand Him. I always think that, I wish I knew chick so I could tell them everything is going to be okay. It is a very weak analogy. I am not very deep tonight.

I hope your week is off to a good start.

Thanks for stopping by today,
~Kim~

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Odds and Ends

I had some odds and ends I wanted to share today. My daughter went to Disneyland this week, and she brought back a Mother's Day gift for me. I don't want you to get the wrong idea when you see it so I will give you an explanation.
When we were in wedding mode around here the year the girls got married, it was busy and full of all kinds of exciting plans and dreams. There were dresses to be bought and plans to be made and life was just so crazy.
Since  both were at our house, I was busy getting stuff ready for those days. I wasn't really paying to much attention to myself.
One day I happened to glance in the mirror at my reflection, and it dawned on me that suddenly, I was no longer the princess from all of those Disney movies but somewhere I had changed into the queen.

All of a sudden, I realized that those so called evil Queens had been misjudged. It wasn't their fault the mirror showed them someone else. All of a sudden I felt sorry for those queens who got a bad rap.

Come on you have to admit they are beautiful in a mean way. So I decided that I thought they had way more character because you know they worked hard to get to the top. Anyway, my kids thought it was so funny that they try to get me things like that so at Disneyland my daughter found this for me for Mother's Day.

 It says, "Before my morning coffee, I'm wicked." I am I think.
On the back side it is this picture.
It is a ceramic cup with a lid so I can take it with me. I thought is was so nice. My husband also brought home lovely flowers for all of the Mothers in his life. He is so sweet.

These are called Orange Star. They are from Africa. He does find the coolest looking flowers now.

I hope you have a wonderful day. We will have our first 100 degree day today. Yay Summer!!!

~Kim~