Snow

Can you believe we are getting snow? Amazing!! I can’t remember ever getting snow in October in Floyd. Maybe years ago, but not since we have lived here. Anyway, we are getting it now. It is COLD here-well, maybe not real cold but cold compared to last week. It has been a drastic change in temperature. We are right now in the upper 20’s with wind gusts of 40 mph which makes it seem much colder. Needless to say, we are so thankful for a dry wood supply. Definitely makes all that hard work on Saturday seem worthwhile.

Last night we had an intruder in the meat chickens coop. It was an opossum or as we call them-possum. We leave off the o part. Jasper and Hubby took care of it though. He is definitely becoming a valuable part of our family. Shadow is getting too old for critter chasing. Well, that’s about it for now. We will be starting school in just a little bit. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

October 29, 2012 6

Sunrise, Geese and Jasper

Not much going on here this morning. Grace is practicing piano and Julie has already practiced. Then we will do the regular morning chores of sweeping, shaking rugs, etc. Then time for school.

It is a beautiful day here. Lots of sunshine. We were a little cool last night-mid 30’s. I will probably have to build a fire by this evening. It is chilly in the house-62 degrees-but I am hoping it warms up in here as the day goes by. I have clothes in the washer ready to go on the line to dry.

I took this picture of Jasper this morning as he was on duty. There are calves that get out continuously. Jasper takes his duty very seriously. He makes sure they know their boundaries. He does not allow them in the yard. He has learned well this summer. I think he will be a very good farm dog.

Well, Grace is almost done practicing so I better get busy. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

October 16, 2012 4

Around the Pond

The other day we all decided to take a walk around the pond. It has been absolutely beautiful here in Floyd this week. Our morning temperatures have been mid 40’s. Amazing!! Wonderful sleeping weather. The days have only gotten into the mid 70’s. I love it. For my part, the Good Lord could just let it be this way all summer and I would be happy.

The girls had lots of fun. They came in the house and got their wading shoes and spent lots of time wading in the pond. Jasper even joined them for a while. He doesn’t care much for water. I suppose after his accident the first winter, he thinks water isn’t much fun.

Lots of cool bugs were flying around the pond.

I have no idea what they are but if you look closely you can see the tiny blue bugs that were hovering around the blade of grass.

We have so many of these birds. I couldn’t tell for sure from the picture if they were barn swallows or tree swallows. Both birds are abundant here. They will fly down to the pond and touch the water. It is amazing to watch. Sometimes as many as 50 or more just skipping above the water. I’m not sure if they are getting a drink or catching bugs but it is one of our favorite evening passtimes to watch them.

I hope you all have a wonderful evening and God bless.

June 27, 2012 4

Garden

I thought I would share with you all a picture of the lower garden. It is doing pretty good. The upper garden is having a little more of a difficult time. We are having trouble keeping the calves out of it. They seem to find new ways to get out every day and seem to enjoy the corn in the upper garden very much. Shadow is getting too old to chase them and Jasper is just learning. He is on the accelerated learning program right now as I want him to learn quickly. He actually is getting much better. He “sometimes” listens and obeys commands. Sometimes he is just so happy that the calves are running from him, he doesn’t care where they are running. Oh well, that’s life on a farm.

I helped Hubby today at the farmhouse job. We thought we would start on running the pipes for the plumbing. However, the walls in the bathroom were in terrible shape, so we started tearing out the sheetrock in there. We will be running the pipes up and over the ceiling as there is not enough crawl space underneath. These older homes were built right down on the ground. The bathroom has a rock type flooring on it and the owners are wanting to keep it. This suits me just fine as I was not looking forward to trying to crawl under that floor. The girls worked on history and science while I was helping Hubby. We had brought our portable grill with us and did a picnic for lunch. We had hot dogs, potato chips and oreo’s. The lunch of champions. It was fun. We set up under a huge walnut tree and were entertained by a very friendly squirrel while we ate. I brought the girls home after lunch. They did the house chores while I went back to help Hubby. It was a full day.

I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

June 15, 2012 4

Saturday

Hello ladies, I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far. We worked today on putting a fence around the gardens.

The “ladies” were very glad. They had not been free all week as we had not had time to get the fences up. We knew the minute they were turned loose they would head straight to the gardens. To express their dislike of not being turned loose they cut back on their laying. We usually get 11 or 12 eggs every day. This week we got 7 or 8. I told them I expected full quota next week. No excuses.

We found this drift netting at the barn, rolled it out and cut it in two pieces. The posts are cut from old wood we got from the job site. Not bad-zero expense. I am hoping the plastic bags that you see will keep the birds away. So far it seems to be working. I replaced the 14 plants they had eaten and so far all is well. It took us 4 hrs to put this fence up. Hubby helped or it would have taken much longer.

The rose bush at the green swing is in full bloom. I think it is lovely this year.

Another picture of the rose bush.

I realized it had been a very long time since I put a picture of Jasper on here.

He is our farm dog in training. Shadow has been teaching him all the tricks. (Most times, Shadow just tolerates him). Well, that’s about it for today. Supper was hotdogs and beans. Simple because Mom was tired. I hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend and God bless.

May 26, 2012 4

Sunrise

I just love to see a sunrise or a sunset. I think it comes from living in the mountains of southwest virginia. Where I grew up, you never saw either one. Our house was in what we call a “holler” so the view was blocked by the mountains. The sun would hit our yard about 11:00 and go down about 3:00. I guess thats one of the reasons I love living here in Floyd. In the summer, the sun is in our yard about 6:30 and leaves about 8:00. Lots of sunshine, which I love. This morning God put on another show for us to enjoy. Thank you Lord! School today as usual. It is hard to concentrate on school now though. We feel like we’re been let out of prison. The temperatue is warm, the snow is almost gone, so of course everyone wants to be outside instead of in. We try to mix a little of both so it doesn’t get to bad. Jasper (young dog) had his first experience with a skunk last night. Not very pleasant. I tried a remedy one of the ladies from church told me about. I sprayed him with Febreeze. It actually helped quite a lot. He still smells but not as bad. I don’t have to cook tonight, we are eating at church. Roast beef and potatoes with all the trimmings. It has been a long time since we went to church on Wednesday night. When the weather is bad, they call it off. I am definitely looking forward to going tonight. The girls are involved in TeamKids there at church. They alternate Wednesdays doing childrens choir and handbells. They really enjoy the handbells. The adults are doing a Beth Moore study on the fruit of the spirit. It has been a really good study so far, however we are pretty far behind because of the bad weather we’ve had this winter. They have decided not to watch the video that goes with it, in order to hopefully get it finished in May. Guess I better get ready to go. Take care and God bless.

March 10, 2010 2

Bigger Now

My, what a difference a few months can make. Jasper was about 8 weeks old in this picture. The other one was taken this morning. I think he’s grown some, don’t you all? He is drying off from a bath, waiting on the girls to break for lunch so he can play with them. I am not sure how this happened. I’ve never cared for animals in the house. We now have 2 full time cats inside and 1 part time dog.

I used to be so strong. Oh well, it’s not too bad. The girls really enjoy them being in. Cold here today. The wind is blowing pretty hard. The fire went out last night and when I tried to build a new fire this morning, the smoke was terrible. I eventually just took the wood out of the stove and left it alone. I would rather be a little cool than have to deal with all that smoke. We have the gas logs on so its not too cold. Hopefully, we will do bible study tomorrow. I am very excited to begin this study. Esther is such an exciting book to study and I’m sure Beth Moore will bring out things I would never think about. We are hopefully going down to Jessica’s this weekend. I want to do some girl stuff. The town she lives in has an excellent Goodwill Store. I love shopping at Goodwill! I guess I just love thrift store shopping in general, yard sales, consignment sales, etc. Good deals at good prices. Well, lunch break is over. Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 4, 2010 2

Road

I took these pictures this afternoon after church. This road connects to our road. About 3 weeks ago when the first drifts came, they cleared this road. I was told it took 12 hours to clear it. I can only imagine how tall the snow was then, if it still looks like this 3 weeks later. Church today was very good, communion with a fellowship meal, then a business meeting. I went alone as Julie is still sick. Hubby volunteered to stay home with them. I very seldom go anywhere alone, so it felt very strange. Julie is feeling some better though so I pray she is on the mend. The young pup Jasper seems to be on the mend too. Take care and God bless.

February 28, 2010 3

Drifts

I apologize for not posting anything is several days. Things have been a little busy here. Julie is sick with a sore throat and head cold. We took her to the doctor yesterday. Thankfully it is not strep throat. But she feels yucky just the same. Rest and lots of liquids for her. Also we have been doctoring Jasper’s (young dog) paw. He seems to have stepped on somthing and run it through his paw in 3 different places. The first day it happened he just limped, the second day it was swollen 3 times normal size, the third day it bled alot, then finally it has started ( I hope) to improve. The swelling is down, he still can’t put any weight on it, but it looks much better. Of course, he has been allowed to sleep on the enclosed porch, which I am thinking he likes WAY too much. Cold temperatures here-below zero wind chills. Wind gusts of about 60 mph. We had to let the fire go out in the wood stove. It was just too much smoke coming in the house, especially with Julie sick. This is definitely on Hubby’s to-do list to fix this problem this summer.

The pictures are of drifts in our side yard. They are a little darker than I had hoped but you can get the idea anyway. I estimate them to be over 4 ft. Yesterday when we took Julie to the doctor, the main road was pretty bad. 3-4 ft. drifts blocking one side of the road. Lots of places had only 1 lane open. When we came back, the road crews had cleared them. Our road crews have definitely spent a lot of time working this winter. Speaking of work, I guess I better get busy. Take care and God bless.

February 27, 2010 2

Snowing Again

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I thought everyone would enjoy some more snow pictures. The last picture is the pond. I know it just looks white but it really is snowing hard. Yes, it is snowing again. 2-4 inches. Well, that don’t sound too bad. We did get out over the weekend. Went to town Saturday and church yesterday. It felt good to get out. Not much else happening here today. Just school and everyday things. We brought Jasper (the puppy-I shouldn’t call him puppy anymore) in and gave him a bath this morning. Very interesting! He hadn’t had a bath in a while as he has been outside most of the winter. I was amazed at how much bigger he is. I have allowed him to stay in today while he is drying. He is a very happy dog, and of course Julie is a very happy girl. Enjoy your day and God bless.

February 15, 2010 2