Just Another Picture Day

Don't you just love this sign? 

Wild night, can't find my car anywhere.

Anybody looking for a fixer-upper?

These long sprinkler systems in the fields just fascinate me.

I have corn envy!  A field on the other side of Holly Hill.

I don't know what this plant is, but there are banks of them everywhere around here.

I need a bigger chair. 

Yes, I'm still bragging about my flowers a little.

More signs at my friend's house in Illinois.  Love her style!

Our donkey Sunny still checking out the toes!

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!

Random Thoughts

As I was out feeding "the girls" (i.e., the chickens) this morning, I started thinking about all kinds of random things.  I guess my mind was wandering and I never know where it will take me.

Anyway, here are some of my random thoughts ~

Milk - Why can't you buy the little cartons of milk like you used to get in grade school for personal use?  I don't use milk very often and it's just the two of us, so I end up throwing out old milk and wasting money all the time.  I would like to buy one small kid-sized milk when I go to the grocery store.  What's wrong with that?

Eggs - We have an basket of eggs that I need to get rid of.  Again, only two people eating an egg each day for breakfast is a losing battle when you're collecting 4-5 a day, so I have been trying to think of ways to use them up.  I have a pound cake recipe that uses 6 eggs so if I make about 5 cakes, I can put a dent in the egg basket.  Now I just need to figure out who I can give a pound cake to . . .

Flying Chicken - I have one hen that can fly up to the top of the fence around the chicken yard and does so every day.  What I can't understand is why she feels it necessary to announce it every time.  She makes a huge fuss while sitting up there.  Is she bragging in front of the other chickens or is she mocking me and my 6' fence? 

Dogs - Why is it that a dog who will remain anonymous can play outside all morning, then come into the house and pee on a rug?  Or sit on the same couch for years, then one day chew up a pillow on the couch?  Why?  I don't understand that.

Spiders - Why do spiders shoot their webs from tree to tree across a dirt road or path?  Do they really expect to catch a person in their tiny little web?  Or maybe they're hoping to catch a deer, who knows?  Not me. 

Nesting Chicken - I have a chicken that has been nesting and won't leave her eggs.  I have tried to explain to her that since she doesn't have a boyfriend, there is no chance that her eggs are fertile and she can sit on them until the cows come home (if we had cows, I mean) but they won't hatch.  She's not buying it. 

White T-shirts - I don't understand why I can't wear a new white t-shirt for 5 minutes without getting it dirty.  No matter where I am or what I'm doing, it's going to be stained.  OR I'll actually think I made it through the day without any stains, then wash it and pull it out of the dryer and there will be a stain.  Where did it come from?  How does that happen? 

Alright, one more random thought for today -

Skinny Jeans - I don't understand why the commercials for jeans that are supposed to make you look skinny show super thin models dancing around in them.  Do they really think we believe that we'll look that skinny if we buy their jeans?  Put a real size person in them and let us decide!

Okay, I am not sure where all of that came from, but I feel better getting it all out.  If you have any answers to my questions, please comment.  I need all the help I can get!

Maybe I Should Stick to Flowers

I am not excited about my garden.  Nothing seems to be doing that well except tomatoes, zucchini and squash.  The eggplant and other things are skinny and the lower leaves are yellowing.  I don't know if that means I have watered too much, not enough, or whether the ground was so packed down, that they just aren't getting the nutrients and growing room they need. 

The saddest eggplant I've ever seen.

I am embarrassed . . .

On the bright side - tomatoes are not letting me down.  Tonight on the menu - fried green tomatoes!

Maybe I should stick to flowers.  Here are some of the blooms in and around the garden.

These flowers are about 3 1/2' tall. 

See the corn?  I drive by fields of it and their corn pops up about a foot a day.  Mine, not so much. 

I cut some flowers for the house so I can enjoy them all day!

Those Aren't Carrots, They're Toes!

Let me first say, I am not good at taking care of myself.  I don't like to shop so my husband is always encouraging me to "go buy yourself something".  Yes, he's pretty special.  Anyway, my daughter is always trying to encourage me to get my nails done too and I have to agree, once I've had them done, I feel special but I just never think about it when she's not around. 

My daughter was wearing a really cute pair of peach or tangerine colored sandals one day while we were together and I mentioned I liked them so while we were out shopping I was able to get a pair just like them.  A nail salon was next door so, as a thank you for helping her the last couple of weeks, she wanted to pay for us both to get a pedicure and manicure.   We got them done in a nail color really close to the color of our sandals. 

When we got back to the house later in the day, I went out to the horses and donkeys to feel them and I noticed the donkeys, Sunny and Lilly, kept looking at my feet.  I usually have on boots so I'm not sure what they were thinking but they started trying to nibble on my toes!  I started walking away from them, but they started following me and trying to block me from leaving the pen.  Every time I stopped walking, they started trying to nibble on me feet again.  Heather came outside and I told her what they were doing and she said "maybe they think your toes are carrots!"  I think she may be right.

I took a picture of my feet to show you the nail color, but as I looked at the pictures I realized that my feet are so much cuter in person.  I decided not to subject to a picture of my feet.  It's an image you really don't want to carry around in your head all day.

Out of the Back of a Truck

I just got back a few days ago from Illinois.  I had never been there before, but my daughter was heading there for a few days and I went with her for a girls trip.  We love hanging out together and had a great time with her in-laws when we got there. 

On Saturday we drove into town to buy a few things, and as we were heading into TJ Max, we saw a pickup truck drive into the parking with a bench in the back.  I have been looking for a bench to go in my kitchen for months but everything I had found was either too short or too long.  The bench we saw in the back of the truck was exactly what I had been looking for.  I told Heather I was going to ask them where they bought it and maybe I could get one.  I walked up to the guy getting out of the truck and asked him about the bench.  He deferred the question to his wife that was getting out on the other side.  Turns out they had bought it that morning from an individual so I figured they would not be interested in selling it, but she told me they were going to sell it at their flea market.  I asked how much she wanted for it and she said $250.  I told her I would think about it and she headed on into TJ Max.  I went inside and got Heather to come look at it up close.  We agreed it was just what I needed, so Heather suggested I offer her $210 in cash to take it.  Back into TJ Max I went, stalking the lady with the bench.  I found her and she agreed to take $210.  Her husband and I met up at the truck and transferred it to our vehicle.  It was mine!

I have friends tell me that they would never go up and just ask someone if they'd sell something but I do it all the time.  If I see something on someone's property that I would like to have, an old shed, a glider on the porch, whatever it is, I have no problem knocking on someone's door and introducing myself.  It never hurts to ask and you never know what treasures you may take home!

I made these two pillows last night out of material I bought in Paris.  The wire basket underneath is from my trip to Germany too.

Me and My Tractor

Okay, technically it's Freds tractor but he showed me how to drive it!  I have always been a little intimidated with big machines but it was pretty darn easy.   After he gave me the basic instructions, he told me to bring the tractor over to the electric fence where the horses were so he could mow in the field, then dump the grass clippings in the bucket of the tractor.  Just as I was easing it up to the fence, I accidentally ran the tractor into the fence.  I was hitting the brake, but apparently not hard enough.  Nothing got broken, and he actually let me continue to use the tractor the rest of the weekend.  Now I'm feeling like a country girl! 

Once I mastered the basics, Fred had me lift him up in the bucket of the tractor into a pecan tree to tie a couple of limbs up that were hanging too low.  This is one brave man!

Or crazy, or a little a both.  The jury is still out, but we love him!

4-Wheelin'

When I am not feeling up to a walk with the dogs in the morning I jump on my 4-wheeler and let them run while I ride.  Hannah loves to see me with 4-wheeler keys because she can run as fast as she wants to and doesn't have to wait for me to catch up with her when I'm walking.  Today was one of those days.  I didn't sleep well and it's supposed to rain this morning so I thought I'd take a quick ride and let the dogs get a run in, but my 4-wheeler battery was dead.  I have a small 4-wheeler and I really like riding it but I didn't want to fool with the battery charger so I went back inside and got Fred's 4-wheeler keys.  Now, Fred's 4-wheeler looks like a 4-wheeler on steroids so it's a rough ride but it can go over or through pretty much anything. 

Diesel loves to ride on the 4-wheeler so he jumped on the back behind me and we took off.  It rained yesterday so it was fun to ride through the muddy water but what I didn't realize was that the mud would fly up in clumps all over the place.  The first wack on the back of the head was not expected so I thought maybe Diesel had hit me, but then the clumps of mud started flying from the front tires all around me too.  I was getting hit in the face, on the back of my head and all over my clothes.  It wasn't the soupy kind of mud, but hard clumps.  Good thing I hadn't taken my shower for the day because I really needed one when I got back.

I did ride by the old homestead (sounds better than creepy house) but didn't see "Buzz", the local resident today.  The dogs didn't even bother to go inside and see him.  

Time to get cleaned up and get my computer desk cleaned off.  It's been a mess but I've been waiting for a good rain day.

Is That Stealing?

I need your advice.  I am going to tell you my dilemma and you tell me what you would do. 

I have been over at my daughter's condominiums the last few days helping her and we are actually helping her to move out tomorrow.  While I was there I noticed a huge hydrangea (like 7' tall) behind her condo building with a few small "baby" plants coming up underneath it.  Now I am 99% sure that if the lawn guys see these small offspring, they will pull them up and throw them away like weeds or just run over them with a lawnmower.  I would really love to pull them up, take them home and plant them in my flowerbeds, but is that stealing?  I thought about finding one of their groundskeepers and asking him if I can have them, but what if he says no, then I'm stuck thinking that they will still rip them up and throw them away and I won't be able to save them because I had already asked about them.  Maybe not asking and just plucking them when no one is looking is the answer, but then will I feel guilty because I didn't ask. 

I guess we could look at it as stealing or we could look at it as saving a life.  (okay, I know that's a stretch.  My moral compass is spinning.)
Note:  Fred just gave me his opinion.  He said it is stealing if I don't ask and I know he's right.  Darn it.  (He said that doesn't mean he wouldn't take it anyway.)

Okay, I need your input.  Please hit comment at the bottom of this post and let me know what you would do.

Can I Have That Fried, Please?

I have never liked cooked vegetables.  I know it's not healthy, but I've avoided them all  my life.  My earliest memory of green peas is when I was a child and my mother said I could leave the table if I just ate one spoonful of peas.  The only way I could get them down was to take a big drink of sweet tea and swallow them whole.  I hated the smell and taste of peas, still do.  The joke around my house when my kids were growing up was "if it's green, mom won't eat it."  Sad but true.  Luckily my kids grew up enjoying all kinds of vegetables despite my poor example.

I realized a few years ago that my distaste for vegetables is due to texture.  I don't like anything slimy or squishy.   I also realized, however, that I can enjoy some vegetables if they are fried.  I have eaten okra, zucchini, squash and eggplant fried and really liked it.  The crisper, the better.

I probably don't get as much nutritional value in fried veggies, but at least I'm not still swallowing them whole any more!

Speaking of fried -

I tried the first recipe in the cookbook I mentioned previously and it was Buttermilk Fried Flounder!  Super easy and tasted really yummy.  Basically it's the same as frying fish with oil, flour and salt and pepper, but you simply dredge the fish in buttermilk, leave it for a couple of minutes, then dust with flour, salt and pepper and deep fry it.  Maybe I should have picked a more complex cookbook, but this is right up my alley.  Keep it simple, that's my motto.  Okay, it's not really my motto but I that's how I like things - simple.

They Just Want to Help

I was out in the garden the other day working and Diesel wanted to come in.  Of course, I didn't let him because as we all know he likes laying on the plants.

Since I wouldn't let him in, he started digging outside the fence.

Wanting to do everything Diesel does, Hannah started "helping."

But I think she got carried away . . .

Since they dug along the fence line, I got morning glory and moonflower seeds and planted them in the dug out trench so they can grow up onto the fence.  How about that for taking a negative and making it a positive!

Is That Your Snake?

I was driving down a long country backroad on the way to my brother-in-law's farm one day and I saw a snake (yes, another snake story - sorry!) in the road so I stopped right beside it to look at it up close.  No one else was around and I was in no hurry to get anywhere so I was just enjoying  looking at it from the safety of my car window when all of a sudden an SUV drove past me and ran over the snake.  I was shocked and disappointed but instead of driving away, the SUV stopped a little farther down, backed up and stopped right beside me.  A woman rolled her window down and said, "Oh I'm so sorry.  Is that your snake?"  I told her no, I was just looking at it and she drove off. 

I sat there for a minute thinking about what she had said.  My snake?  Did she think I was taking my pet snake out for a drive in the country with it's head out the window and it fell out? 

Every time I see a snake in the road I think about that day and smile. 

Ah, country life!

The Secret to a Great Garden

Since I have been working in the garden this year, I have come to a realization.  I am an impatient gardener.  I want to just buy plants, stick them in the ground and have a wonderful bounty of food but it just doesn't work that way.  It's hard work, plain and simple.  I guess the old saying "you only get out of it what you put into it, is true about a garden.  I thought the "no till" garden sounded simple and it probably is, if done right, but whether you till your garden or not, there is still a lot of preparation before you can actually grow food.  There are no shortcuts.  Planning and preparation, which I am not good at, is key to a good garden.   I may, after ten years or so, have the kind of garden that you see in magazines but I guess I just need to enjoy each garden, good or bad, beautiful or kind of ugly, and learn a little more each year.  Whether I'm doing it right or wrong, I can still enjoy the feel of dirt on my hands and the sun on my face and what could be better than that!

This is what the beds are supposed to look like.  Do this -

Not this -

I got up early this morning and dug up the plants in three beds so I can kill the grass, till the dirt and replant.  I am an expert at growing grass by the way, maybe I should start a sod company! 
The secret to a great garden?  Planning, preparation and patience.  I'll work on that.

Wild Night?

I went out this morning to feed the horses and donkeys and Blue came up to the fence looking a little crazy.  I can't help but wonder what he was up to last night.  Must have been a wild party!

His halter is completely upside down!

Hey Mother Nature, We Need to Talk!

Okay, I understand that we live out in the country and near the woods, but really - three snakes in three days!?  And not all the same but three different kinds.  First, the copperhead, then the king snake and now this morning I was out cutting grass and the third snake was laying out in the yard.  I had no idea what kind it was but it was about 3' - 4' long. 

I called Fred at work to ask him what kind of snake is gray on the top and bright orange on the bottom.   He told me that it's not a poisonous snake, according to the head size, so I can just put him back out in the woods so he won't get the baby chicks.  Right!  I told him that snake could lay right where he was until he got home from work. 

Mother Nature, let's make a deal.   I'll take care of the domestic animals if you'll take care of the wild ones.  Keep your snakes out in the woods - WAY out in the woods!

4 + 4 = 8

I realized after posting about the baby chicks that the title said Six Chicks but as we all know four black chicks and 4 yellow chicks do not make 6 chicks, but 8.  My mistake.

Well, the title of the blog IS Clueless In The Country!