Texas wind and dust

The wind has blown here all week. Cold, strong, and dirty. The sky is orange from all of the dust blowing off of the surrounding cotton fields. I heard things being blown up against the house all night last night. When I got out to feed the chickens and ducks, I discovered the force of the wind ripped off the door to their enclosure in the night. Now I have to find something to replace it until my husband can get home from work. I can do almost any thing, but when it comes to building or repairing things of this nature, the item always comes out crooked looking. This looks like it will be another day of inside stitching for me.

A beginning

Last year,at an outside flea market, I had the chance to meet a very interesting elderly gentleman who was showing pictures of pine trees and forests in which he had a hand in working in. He travels around the nation, educating groups about planting pine trees. He graciously gave me a bag of pine cone seed and instructed me on how to get them to sprout and grow. Around this same time last year, I proceeded as he instructed and am delighted at my miniature forest in the making. Since that wonderful experience, I stop to grab up any pine cone I find in hopes of gathering the seed inside. So once again, I am planting pine cone seed this year. Along with pumpkins, decorative squash , potted flowers, and my hand work,...(see http://yesteryearembroideries.blogspot.com) I hope to join the local farmer's market this coming summer and hopefully start to sell my small pine trees. I am not sure if I want to sell my young seedlings this year, but maybe wait until they have gotten a year's more growth to them. My only roadblock..... I find it extremely hard to stand in front of people, and I hope I can find enough courage to set up a booth to sell. The folks around this area are friendly and supportive, so I have faith that I will be able to overcome my fears. The weather has kept me inside working with my thread and needle for the past week. This weekend has turned out warm and welcoming and I was able to get my hands into the dirt. I am looking forward to more pleasant days ahead.

Introducing Sophie

Sophie entered my life last year. A small bundle inside of a shopping cart with her brothers and sisters. I truly did not want another dog ( we had just put our other dog we had had for years to rest after he had gotten sick) But, I stopped, I petted, and then I picked her up, and away she went along with me. Now she follows me everywhere. My walking and traveling companion.

This past summer, I had some detours that took me away from the work that needed to be done outside. The result... thick tough prairie grass that needs to be mowed. I have to say, mowing is my least favorite thing to do. In fact, the word "favorite" does not exist in my vocabulary when it comes to mowing. Today, I hope this get this obstacle out of the way so that I can enjoy the gardening process. Sophie, my constant outside companion , loves to be out with the mower, barking and jumping over the high grass in pure enjoyment.

My dread

While working out in the grounds, imagine my surprise to see this little one drinking from the water pail near to me. As I approached it to get a quick photo, I was even more surprised to see it not fly away, but to jump down and hop away. My feline friends are always close and I new they would snatch it up .I quickly scooped it up, took a close up picture and took the little bird deeper into the woods away from potential danger. As I opened my hand,it flew away, not as good as a usual bird would, but good enough to land into the trees. I guess it must have been young and new to leave the nest. I am happy that I got to get this close to nature!

A new visitor

New year, new hopes and dreams

What a beautiful morning! The ducks and chickens are always so eager to start the day and they run out to greet me.

The hens have been laying well so far and have not fought to keep their eggs from me. I do have the pens ready for the sitting hens however. I am a little disappointed that the ducks I ordered have turned out to be all males. I was hoping to have a mixture of both female and males. Hopefully, I can get some females this coming Easter.I would love to have peacocks but the coyotes are so aggressive that we can't have any thing to roam free on the grounds. I finally conquered the jungle of weeds and have the ground cleared for what I hope to be a pumpkin patch. I still have other areas where weeds need to be cleared and there is still so much mowing to do. The days are so short and it gets dark so early that I have to spread my work out through the weeks. This is the year I hope to plant fruit trees to start out a small orchard. I am starting off small to see how they grow, so I won't plant to many to begin with. With all of the rain we received last year, I am expecting the wildflowers to be in abundance this year, and the tulip and daffodil bulbs to have multiplied. How grateful I am to be here and away from the noise of town. There is nothing like the peace that comes from the stillness of a country road.