A sunny day on our little farm...

Since we moved into our new place we have to make a garden area and begin creating a lawn out of what was pasture. This is our new front yard...

It's pretty rough right now, but it will evolve. The little sandy patch right in the middle of the picture now has some nice black dirt on it. Bob is planning to make me a flowerbed there with some old wagon wheels and other antique items as accents.

Our garden area was already a garden, but we hadn't used it for several years so it had to be plowed and disked and is now ready for planting.

The little white flags you see behind the garden mark our border fence. Our farm has gotten a lot smaller, but it's still plenty of land for two old duffers like us. We have about 9 acres including the pasture behind the house and the woods beyond that.

This is Bob's new/old John Deere tractor. He had to sell his two tractors a while back, but then found this one and bought it a little at a time. He's lived on a farm since he was a child, so he didn't feel quite complete without his John Deere. He's one happy boy!

Now for the seeds!

Enjoy your summer!

Those crazy robins!

I wish I had a photo! (Oh, wait! I nabbed this one from Pom Pom's blog!)

Yesterday I looked out the window toward our horse pasture and there was an intrepid robin pulling at a piece of baling twine. The problem was that this particular piece of twine was about 20 feet long (left over from a large round bale) and one end was embedded in the ground. I could hear the little bird thinking, "Man, if I could just get this loose I could build TWENTY nests in no time!" Today he, or another robin maybe, was back at it! Never give up! :D

Audrey goes to the next level...

She's standing up! Micah tells me she's been doing this for a few days, but this was the first time I saw her.

Coffe table...

Climbing up Grandma...

Uh-oh! Micah and Adam have to find a new place for the laptop!

Well, now nothing is safe. Start putting stuff away! :D She'll be 10 months old tomorrow. Seems like only last week we were so excited about her mastering the combat crawl! Go, Audrey!

Great-grandson, Oliver, arrives!

My granddaughter, Tori, gave birth to little Mr. Oliver Thomas on May 9th! She is smitten for sure! They live in Oklahoma, so we'll have to be content with pictures for now.

I love this simple black and white photo. Isn't Tori a beautiful gal? We haven't gotten to see her much as she's grown up way down in Oklahoma, but she's a sweetie. Tori's a single mom, so she'll have many challenges ahead. We'll be praying and she has a loving family to help her as well.

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Tori reminds me so much of her mom, my step-daughter Tammy, in these pictures. Don't worry, Oliver, you will be loved and taken care of!

Shalom!

Library book sale!!

Ha-ha! I missed the last library book sale, so I was determined to make it this time! I worked from 9-5 yesterday and the sale closed at 6:30 so I hurried over in my J&B Foods uniform (yuck!) and began my search of the shelves and boxes of books.

I first went to the literature section looking for classics. These were the 25-50 cent books. I found several treasures including a paperback copy of "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis which I plan to mail to a young friend who just moved out of the area. She worked with me at the deli and was very open to learning more about God, but hadn't gone to church growing up. I think this book gets some concepts across in a very readable way. I may include another Lewis book from my home bookshelves 'cuz I just love him! I'm also going to make her an artsy bookmark, maybe using zentangles, maybe not. One way to use art for the good of all mankind, eh? :)

Here are some pics of the wonderful books I found!

The story of King Arthur looked interesting. I don't know if I'll get around to reading it, but for 10 cents, I thought it was worth picking up. "Seeing England and Scotland" is a book from the '30's and is full of black and white photos and lots of good info which may be outdated, but still fascinating! I've heard good things about the writings of Rider Haggard, so this was another one I just had to try. Most of my books came from the "Ten Cent Room", so I spent a grand total of about $3.50!

"Godric" is a book I bought for one of my college classes and then, I believe, they switched professors on me and we got a new list of books, so I didn't read it. I'm not sure if I'll like it, but at these prices we can take some chances! "Briar Rose" and the book of "Jewish Folklore" I will add to the folk lore section of my bookshelves. "Someday" I'd like to try my  hand at rewriting folktales for children, so I'm collecting some tales for that purpose.

"The Way Home" and "For the Children's Sake" are two homeschooling classics which I read years ago. I bought TWO copies of "The Way Home" (one of them has my name and phone number in the front because I donated it to the library a LONG time ago!) and I may give them to my daughter-in-law down in Ft. Worth. She's part of a homeschool co-op and they could pass them around.

I always snap up anything to do with writing! The "Writer's Market" book is several years old, but still has lots of good articles.

More writing stuff! Oh, frabjous day! :)

Once again, though these books are a few years old they still have lots of good articles. Fun reading!

This was the most expensive book I bought at $1, but the artwork inside was wonderful and I thought I could find some inspiration for my own art!

Here's that copy of "Screwtape" I mentioned and a really great cookbook that I will have fun looking through. Maybe I'll even make something! :0

Of course, I always pick up some children's books. I'm building a library for Audrey and collecting some favorite illustrators!

This is one of the pages from the "Christmas" book above. I love the drawings and handwriting! It also had some illuminated pages with the big colorful letters and lots of other fun stuff!

So there you are! Another successful book hunt!

Well, I'm off to enjoy the next couple of hours before I go to work. I have to draw my 11th face for the "29 Faces Challenge" on my other blog.

Have a great day!

Shalom!

It's a Girl!

Today was the big day to find out if Micah and Adam are expecting a girl or a boy in September! Bob and I drove Micah to her appointment, along with little Audrey. The ultrasound technician was under strict orders not to tell Micah or us what she found out. Instead, she wrote the verdict on the ultrasound photo which was sealed in an envelope. This photo was delivered to Micah's sister-in-law, Ashley. Ashely devised a creative way to announce the news.

This evening we (Micah and Adam, us and Adam's dad and sisters) met at Adam's dad's house where Ashley whipped out a large water gun filled with colored water. She had told Adam to wear a white T-shirt. She then proceeded to spray him liberally with PINK water, meaning, of course, that it's  GIRL! Afterwards we all went to the local burger joint for supper where Micah announced that they had picked the name Hazel Jane for the new baby. So.... glad THAT'S settled!

I took some snapshots of the weather on our way home from Micah's doctor appointment. It was one of those days of sporadic showers. It would be sunny one moment and raining the next.

 

Some spooky skies!

Well, that's the news for today. Audrey Rayne and Hazel Jane! They rhyme! :D