Memorial Day

God has blessed us with a beautiful warm day at the homestead after many days of storms & heading to the basement during the tornado watches. I am thankful God spared us from any damage. We lost our phone service for four days. So glad we had cell phones. A local auto body shop had its most busy day after the last storm. Many cars were damaged from large hail balls as big as softballs.

I bet you can guess where I have been spending this day. Yep in the gardens & the gazebo. Hot dogs on the grill with potato salad was enjoyed along with a mason jar of sweet tea. Tuesday will be the boys last day of school for this year. Summer vacation Yeah!

I wish you & your families all a blessed Memorial Day & thank all those who serve & who have served our country. My Pap served in WWII. He has been gone for a little over two years. Today I can thank him in a moment of silence. For me the holidays are the hardest times when remembering those who are no longer with us. Remembering Pap & Gram. No longer here with us but in my heart to stay.

Blessings Til Next Time!
Lara

Homestead Garden Blooms

This This week I have been busy hanging the baskets in the gazebo & filling them with flowers. This year I put Boston ferns in the hanging baskets. I am really happy with the added privacy they provide & how they help block the evening sun. I love spending time in the gazebo. In fact I am in it typing this post. I have joined the wireless age this week.



Remember the bare spot left from the dead tree? I planted a new tree to fill the bare spot this week.


While on my walk yesterday I found this turtle on the road. Of course I had to carry it home with me. I have carried turtles home since my childhood. I made it a nice place to stay while we waited for Sam to get home from school. When Sam came home I told him to look in the chicken brooder. He thought I went to pick up the silky chickens we are waiting for. They are not hatched as yet. Sam had much fun playing with the turtle before setting it free. Sam made a soft bed of fresh soil & placed the turtle on it as he said good bye to it. Well I just had to visit the garden at 11:00 P.M. last night with my flashlight. The turtle was roaming about the flower beds. I hope it makes it home here.

These are the wonderful blooms in the homestead garden God has blessed me with. I am surrounded by his beauty each day while setting in the gazebo. I hear the wonderful songs he has given the birds to sing. No better place to be but in the garden. So fitting. God put humans in his garden to tend it all so many years ago.










I must move from the garden to working on my creations. There will be many people visiting the shop this weekend where I sell my creations. More sales mean more plants for the garden. You can use the link in my side bar to find the information about Antiques at the Square.

Blessings Til Next Time.

A Touch Of Red To The Homestead

Blessings Til Next Time!
Lara

Scenery On My Walk / Leaf & Grass Clippings Cage

I see this amazing creature on my walk every day & always wish I and brought my camera with me. Today I remembered it. I talk to it & it sometimes moo's at me.

A little ways down the road I walk by these creatures. If you have read my blog for any length of time or I may have commented on yours. You will remember that since I was a child I have always loved watching these creatures. There was a cow pasture across the road at Pap & Prams. Somewhere there is a black & white photo of Gram & I standing in the pasture with the cows. I find them to be so peaceful. So much nicer than the young copperhead snake on the road I came across today. It was about 15" long & as round as my thumb.

Other scenery I pass by on my walks. The beauty off green. The sound of running water. Nature in its glory.







To the left of our firewood I added a cage to put the leaves I am racking & the grass clippings Sam empties from the grass bagger after mowing inside the rock beds. I will be using it to amend soil for the veggie garden. I think I have had a change in plans for the dream garden. I looked into building wooden garden boxes & the more I looked at the cleared area in the woods & envisioned my dream layout I thought I would like rocks to build the beds out of. It would just look more natural & blend so much better with the flower garden I have already built. I am hoping my Aunt will allow me to gather & remove rocks at Pap & Grams homestead. She now owns the property where I grew up.

The gazebo is always a welcome site to see when walking into the homestead yard at the end of my walk. A nice place to sit & rest as I watch the birds fly about & sing their songs. There is a little humming bird visiting the rhododendron bush behind the gazebo this week. I think it knows I mean no harm to it for it has gotten to the point it sits on a branch after feeding & listens to me talk to it a bit before flying away. Then off I go to make breakfast.

Blessings Til Next Time!
Lara

What I Found On My Walk

On one of my walks this week I saw this mushroom growing along the road. The sun was shining down on it just waiting for me to pluck it up. I put in in the flowers just to take the photo. It reminded me of the days Pap & I would go mushroom hunting. When Sam got home from school I told him to look in the frig to see what I found. He thought it was part of a deer antler. Oh I have failed to carry on the tradition of mushroom hunting to this generation. I will have to take Sam hunting next mushroom season.

Sam went on a field trip this week. While trying to pass the time & not worry I cleaned his turtle tank. Toby the turtle seems happy with his fresh water.

I thought about changing the spring display on the stove board but I like the little rabbits so much. I added the bee hive jar candle to the granite ware bowl. The apple scent smells so good.

One night Sam & I took supper to the gazebo.

Sam enjoying his supper.

I decided if I was going to get any closer to having my dream of having a potting shed & a box garden come to life I would have to start by cleaning the are.

These three trees made the perfect place to stack the tree branches I picked up after breaking them into shorter pieces. This will be for burning in the fire chimney while enjoying the gazebo at night.

After picking up the tree branches I racked back the leaves just to expose the soil. I was such a rick black color & soft. I believe this will be great soil to build garden boxes on and fill them with.

This is where I still need a tree . I had a tree on each side of this entry way but the one died. It looks unbalanced for now.

I think that I have come up with an idea to close this bare area in behind the gazebo. I saw a grill shack in a magazine. It was really neat. It has a roof, floor & three walls with wide shelves that drop down to hold food. The front is open. Inside you put the gas grill. This would create the privace I am looking for on this side of the property. I am filling this dream in my garden journal for future plans.

Box Garden & Potting Shed Dream Update

After five days & help from the boys & hubby the area I want to build my dream box garden & potting shed is almost ready. Thursday I dug out hubbys power saw. Being raised in a sawmill family I did my share at times. So I figured I could manage cutting the smaller trees I wanted to have removed. Well no such luck. The saw would not start. Friday hubby asked why his powersaw was out. Oh I did not bury it back on the shelf. I left it sitting on the basement floor. Yep I had to tell him I got it out & why. He told me I could not run a saw or cut the trees down. I reminded him I was raised in a sawmill family. I have hooked up logs & pulled them from the woods with a tractor to the wood yard. Measured them with the wood stick & marked them to be cut. I done my share of cutting & driving a loaded truck out of the skid roads. I went about clearing the very small strags by cutting them with my tree trimmers. Soon I heard the saw running. In a short time the trees were cut down. They were sawed in pieces to fit the fire chimney for burning at the gazebo. The limbs were removed by the boys & I. Next the stumps will need to be removed & the dirt pile will need to be spread out to level the area. The dog will no longer have a deep hole to lay in. As I said in another post where there is a will there is a way. Getting there & just why did I wait so long? For now I will continue to plant my veggies in the back of the rock beds. This summer the boys & I will be working on building the garden boxes & getting the soil ready for planting next spring.

A thought to ponder: I heard a preacher on T.V. today say why do we believe what the news says so easily but have trouble believing what the Bible says?

Blessings Til Next Time!
Lara

What I Found On My Walk

On one of my walks this week I saw this mushroom growing along the road. The sun was shining down on it just waiting for me to pluck it up. I put in in the flowers just to take the photo. It reminded me of the days Pap & I would go mushroom hunting. When Sam got home from school I told him to look in the frig to see what I found. He thought it was part of a deer antler. Oh I have failed to carry on the tradition of mushroom hunting to this generation. I will have to take Sam hunting next mushroom season.

Sam went on a field trip this week. While trying to pass the time & not worry I cleaned his turtle tank. Toby the turtle seems happy with his fresh water.

I thought about changing the spring display on the stove board but I like the little rabbits so much. I added the bee hive jar candle to the granite ware bowl. The apple scent smells so good.

One night Sam & I took supper to the gazebo.

Sam enjoying his supper.

I decided if I was going to get any closer to having my dream of having a potting shed & a box garden come to life I would have to start by cleaning the area.

These three trees made the perfect place to stack the tree branches I picked up after breaking them into shorter pieces. This will be for burning in the fire chimney while enjoying the gazebo at night.

After picking up the tree branches I racked back the leaves just to expose the soil. Ii was such a rick black color & soft. I believe this will be great soil to build garden boxes on and fill them with.

This is where I still need a tree . I had a tree on each side of this entry way but the one died. It looks unbalanced for now.

I think that I have come up with an idea to close this bare area in behind the gazebo. I saw a grill shack in a magazine. It was really neat. It has a roof, floor & three walls with wide shelves that drop down to hold food. The front is open. Inside you put the gas grill. This would create the privacy I am looking for on this side of the property. I am adding this dream to my garden journal for future plans. The garden journal is expanding with all my day dreaming.

Blessings Til Next Time!
Lara