Wow!!!

I didn’t realize how long it has been since I’d written….time flies when you are having fun!  Actually it has just been busy….cleaning up after winter….I could get more done if we could manage to have more than one day of sunshine per week!!!  I have all my flowerbeds cleaned out and weeded…a nice big clump of  pampas grass planted (thanks to my neighbor separating hers….thanks Crystal!)  I took all my hens and chickens out of their pot and planted them directly in the ground.  My hostas are all up and looking great (probably because of all the rain) and I am so happy because my rose bush has buds on it!!!   This rose bush was my Mom’s and the last year it bloomed was the year she passed away….1999…I don’t know what she did to get it to bloom but I have been trying every year since to get it to bloom…I’ve cussed, prayed,, cried, asked friends advice , read books, finally gave up, when lo and behold the sucker is full of buds this year….go figure!  I am now just waiting for the final frost so that I can plant some annuals and my yard will look pretty good!   Every year I spend so much on my flowers and trying to get everything to look nice….but this year is a different plan….you see in 1969 my Great grandmother moved on this lot at the ripe old age of  80 after her husband passed away.  They had lived on a  working farm….not the type you think of now days with acres of soybeans or corn planted for market, but a self-sustaining farm.  They raised 5 children off this land….raising hogs for meat, and chickens and  turkeys, and ducks for meat and eggs…  and cows for meat and milk…goats for milk and cheese….a garden with enough produce for the family for a year after preserving….they fished and caught turtles and frogs at the creek that ran through the property….Great-grandpa (and the sons when old enough) hunted wild game…deer, rabbit, squirrel and pheasant. There was an orchard with many types of apples, pears, peaches, persimmons and plums.  There was a strawberry bed…a rhubarb bed (or pie plant as they called it) and wild blackberries, raspberries and mulberries.  Great-Grandpa Frank came home after WWI and never worked outside the farm again.  They sold surplus of what ever they had for the cash needed to buy whatever items they couldn’t make or grow themselves!!  Great-Grandma Mabel Fair, knew how to knit, crochet, quilt and sew and never once bought or slept under any blanket that wasn’t a homemade quilt until she went to the hospital for her final days.  I never knew my Great-Grandpa, but remember Great-Grandma well…I was 21 when she passed.  But I digress….lol……anyway after Frank passed away the farm was just too much for her to handle on her own…and the only one of her  children that lived close by was her only daughter..my grandmother…and she didn’t drive and it became harder for Great-Granny to get to town when she needed to. So she sold everything she didn’t need and bought a small mobile home and put it on this lot where I live today….she knew she would be homesick for her "country"  so she brought with her the "weeds" that grew in the woods and fields by her farm.  Jewel weed….purple, yellow, and white violets…..wild tiger lilies….lambs ears…trilliums….mayapple….dutchmens britches among other things.  Well anyway throughout the years when Mom lived here and after I moved here we had always just treated them as weeds and mowed em down to plant our flowers….this spring when I was getting my beds ready I saw the beautiful violets and dutchmens britches blooming….I saw the lambs ear still growing despite all our efforts to get rid of them throughout the years.  The jewel weed was coming up and the tiger lilies as well and it hit me….I could have a beautiful rustic flower beds just with what was there already!!!  I had God’s flower bed!!  I didn’t need to worry about what blooms when so that I could always have flowers…God had already done that for me!!  The violets will bloom all spring and summer…the dutchmens britches will be ending as Mom’s rose bush blooms…when its done, the tiger lilies will take over and the jewel weed and wild daisies will bloom til first frost and beyond.  I just did some transplanting and placed some rocks around each bed as a border and I love it….an added bonus is that it was all free!!  LOL  I only want to buy some marigolds to use as a border around my patio and there is a bed where I want to put some zinnias and maybe a tomato plant or 2 and I will be done.  I think Mom, Great-Granny and God all like my idea and they have blessed the rose bush so that it is going to bloom!!! LOL

Everything else is going well too…Nevaeh had a nice birthday and she and I planned a Easter Egg hunt for the boys since she’s outgrown such goings on!!    They had a lot of fun searching out the real and plastic eggs and being careful not to step in the jellybean bunny "poop" !!  Pretty soon it will be summer and I think we are all ready for it!! It’s been such a long, cold and snowy winter and spring seems to be following suit.  A couple of weeks ago we were awakened by the sirens at 1:30am for a tornado warning…fortunately none touched down here but its been a wild spring with one severe storm threat after another to contend with!!  And even when its not storming its so blasted wet!!!  Last week we only had one sunny day and so far this week today was the only nice day and they are calling for more rain tomorrow and into Saturday!!!  Yuck!  Well, on the bright side all this rain made for a super fantastic morel mushroom spring….we found more than we could eat and usually you can sell the surplus (if you have any) for around $10 a pound but this year you couldn’t give them away!!  I love hunting and eating them so I suppose that it’s okay to have them on a diet….all the walking you do to find them makes up for the calories you get eating the fried treats!! 

Well…I suppose that is all for now….I need to get off here and check on my Ebay auctions that are ending tonight….then hit the bed….I had a super busy day washing and hanging out a whole weeks worth of laundry since the weather hasn’t been cooperating….then I went to the store and post office to mail out some Ebay packages and finally went with a friend to her daughters to sort out and price some clothes for their churches rummage sale this weekend.  I had a few Avon deliveries as well so I’m beat!!  Blessings to all!!