Blue Bird

Yes, I know, I have another bird picture but I couldn’t help myself. He and the Mrs. come every morning to our catawba tree. They swoop down get a bite of something and go back up to their limb. It is always entertaining to watch. Sorry about the flash glare that is present in his eye. I did not know how to correct that. Anyway, the picture shows how brilliant his color his.

We had some major storms come through here last night. Jess called to tell us we had a tornado warning for our area. Thank the Lord, that didn’t happen. We did have lots of lightning and some rain. This morning is calm but the fog is very thick. Grace tells me she likes fog so today will be her kind of day. We are supposed to go do our annual spring cleaning at church today. I’m not sure if we will still be doing it or not. We could clean inside but I don’t think we will be doing any outside cleaning.

Yesterday we went to pick up Grace’s new glasses. We did a little shopping in Sam’s and then came on home. I didn’t want to overdue as Grace is still not back to 100 percent. Hopefully today she will be feeling much better. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless.

April 9, 2011 4

A Cozy Corner

This is a corner in what we call the “sitting room”. It is a wonderful place to sit and read or look out the window and just rest. Remember yesterday when I said our wind was not too aggressive, well, that certainly did change. By lunch, we had 40 to 45 mph wind. By afternoon, 50 mph and by the time we went to bed 65 to 70 mph. Needless to say, we did not get any outside time. Too windy. We did walk down to the barn to get milk. It was just too much wind to do anything. Before we went to bed the rain started. It rained most of the night with lots of lightning. When we got up this morning, our temperature was 51 degrees. In less than 2 hours, our temperature has dropped down to 36 degrees. Big change. I may soon have to build a fire. Hopefully, things will warm up after today.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 5, 2011 5

Happy Birthday, Alexius

Today we will be celebrating our granddaughter’s 6th birthday. It is amazing how quickly they grow up. Weather here this week has been pretty chilly. Yesterday’s high was about 35 degrees with lots of wind. COLD! We have had some snow, rain, ice and lots of wind. Hopefully today will be better, at least the sun is shining. I have one load of clothes on the line and another washing as I type. We have had to dry clothes inside all week. YUCK!

I better get busy. Lots to get done before party time. Enjoy your day and God bless.

April 2, 2011 5

Project

This is the big project we have been working on all week. The first year we lived here we enclosed the front porch with glass. Hubby had gotten these glass doors free from a job site years before. This porch stayed wet all the time. So he took the glass doors out of their frames and framed them up on the porch. We love this this area. All winter it is used for coffee drinking, book reading. In the summer, it is a favorite spot to sit and look at the stars, the lightning bugs, summer storms. It is a well used porch. However, this winter we discovered a problem. The wood underneath the porch had rotted so badly the windows were falling down. Not good. So Hubby decided we had to fix this before it became a disaster.

First step was to remove the glass. In this picture, he has already replaced some of the rotten wood but you can still see some of it. We had to jack the porch up and put new wood under it. We also had to replace some of the wood flooring.

This was our attempt to keep the cats out. LOL As you can guess, it did not work but it did keep the rain out which was our real objective. We had a lot of rain Wednesday evening. Lots of wind, thunder and lightning but the porch, Praise the Lord, stayed dry.

We now have all the posts replaced and the 3 big panes of glass back in. We will be working on the last section today and then hopefully start replacing the trim. He wants to cover the front boards with metal. This will keep the weather from doing too much damage. He had to work alone yesterday as the girls and I had to go to Roanoke for a dentist appointment and other errands. Hopefully we will get most of it finished today. Rain is in the forecast for the weekend. We are still working on our surprise project. We just had to stop working on it to get this finished. Priorities, you know. I’ll try to have more pictures to show you all tomorrow.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 25, 2011 5

Turtles

Here are a few of the turtle pictures we took while at Pandapas Pond the other day.

They were pretty skittish so we had to sneak upon them to get the pictures.

Grace did a great job!

A beaver lodge on the pond. Several geese were resting on top of it.

We have several things planned to work on today. Rain is in the forecast though so we may not get any of it done. We’ll just have to wait and see. I am going to use the remainder of the pork tenderloin this evening to make bbq sandwiches for supper. I have enough rolls left from last night to use for buns. I think I will do homesfries and coleslaw with it. I like to cook enough meat to make several meals from it. This makes it a little easier I think. We have dentist appointments tomorrow in Roanoke, then we are going to Sam’s Club to pick up a few things. After that, we are going to pick out Grace’s frames for her new glasses. The Horns are supposed to come by tomorrow evening to visit. YEAH! It has been a while since we have got to visit.

I better get busy. Hubby and I are working on a big outside project. I’ll try to show pictures next time I make a post. Anyway, he is wanting to get started so that hopefully we can get some of it done before it starts raining. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 23, 2011 5

A Ride Around the Farm

Yesterday evening the girls convinced me we needed to take a ride around the farm. Grace took pictures for me. Thank you, Grace. First we start up the hill.

I almost forgot, first we must get Shadow in the truck bed with the girls. When he was a young pup, he would run beside the truck. Now he rides in the truck bed. He’s too old and too heavy to jump in the truck bed so we back up to this little incline, let the tail gate down and then he can jump in. He loves it. As soon as the girls climb in the back of the truck, he starts getting excited.

See how the fields are starting to get green!

A little stream in the field.

A view from the top of the hill. These are just a few pictures Grace took. I will show more later. We have sunshine today. We did get some rain last night but I think it has already passed us by. We plan on getting some more outside work done today. Maybe even working some more on our surprise. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 19, 2011 6

Grapevine

Our grapevine. You can see another smaller “brash” pile in the second garden. We are hoping to have lots and lots of grapes this year. Now that we have our steamer juicer, we are looking forward to making lots of grape juice . We certainly did enjoy the apple juice we made last year. I want to experiment with other types of fruit to make juice.

Today is another beautiful day here in Floyd. Very windy though, as usual. Temperature is already in the 50’s. Forecast is for rain over the weekend. I was hoping for sunshine and warm temperatures but I know we did rain too. The ladies will be coming in a little bit. We are planning on doing some more outside work after our study is finished. The girls work on school while the ladies and I are doing our bible study. We are working on a surprise outside which I will show you all when we get it finished.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 18, 2011 7

Lilac Bush

Our lilac bush has lots of buds on it. YEAH! If all goes well, it will have lots of beautiful, sweet smelling flowers soon. We have a small bush we just planted a few years ago at the edge of the garden and it is full of buds too. I love spring. I think our rain has stopped for a few days. It is still very cloudy but the forecast is for the sun to come peeping through this afternoon. It is already warmer than it was all day yesterday so that is a good sign. We are hoping to do some more outside work after school. We have been trying to start school a little earlier so that we can be finished around lunch. Then we have the afternoon for work and play. It seems to be working out well so far.

Yesterday, while the girls were at their piano lessons, I went into our local thrift store-Angels in the Attic. It operates entirely on donations and volunteers. All the profit each month is given to help local needs. It is amazing. They have moved 3 times because they keep growing. The last time they moved, they purchased the building and in about 2 years had it paid off. Since all workers are volunteer they have very little expense. It has really helped our community. The lady who thought it up is a Christian and tells everyone she can “It is all God”. Anyway I said all that to say this. Many years ago, my sister-in-law gave Hubby a coffee cup. He loves this cup and uses it every morning. Well, guess what I found. One that looks just like it at Angels for 25 cents. How exciting! This morning I put my coffee in the new cup so that our cups matched. Cute! Ialso found this pretty glass. I love old dishes and this glass just so wanted to come home with me.

I better get busy. It’s almost time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 16, 2011 5

Crocus

We are finally getting a little color in our yard. I love these cheerful early flowers. They brighten up the landscape and our outlook so much, I think. Saturday was very nice here. We got all the trimming done. YEAH! Everything looks so much neater. It is all piled up in the garden to be burned whenever we can catch a day the wind isn’t blowing too hard. Yesterday, was absolutely beautiful. The temperature actually got up to 60 degrees. I sat outside for a very long time reading. Then Hubby came out and entertained me with his banjo. We had a team leaders meeting yesterday after church so we did not do our bible study last night.

Friday’s weather was very different from Saturday and Sunday. First we had quite a lot of rain.

Then we had some hail.

Today is chilly and overcast. They are calling for rain today and tomorrow. Grace has an appointment at the eye doctor later today. We will be doing school until lunch then leaving for the appointment. Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 14, 2011 4

Signs of Spring

These are some of our earlier flowers. I’m not sure what they are because they were already here when we moved in. It is alway very exciting to see them start shooting up out of the ground. As you probably can tell by the picture, we have been getting lots of rain. It is still raining today but I think it is supposed to stop tonight. I am looking forward to doing more trimming Friday and Saturday. Being outside is so nice after being inside all winter.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

March 10, 2011 6