Monthly Archives: October 2016

Prints for the Young and the Young at Heart – Take 3

 

b-serendipitous

“Serendipitous” by Bethany Kerr                          

 

 

 

 

 

b-squirrel

“The Cable Squirrel” by Bethany Kerr

 

 

b-tex

“Tex” by Bethany Kerr

I’m so pleased to show you four more clever drawings by Bethany Kerr on Creative Artworks.  I wish I had a young child so I could fill his or her room with these!  If I were still an elementary school teacher, I would love decorating our room.  If I were lucky enough to have grandchildren, I would send some for each occasion until they had the whole collection. If I still had an office outside my home, I would feature a grouping – assuming I could choose a ‘few’ favorites – on a wall so that I could lighten my load a bit from time to time.

Click on any of these links to purchase. From there you can click on “All Posters – Prints by Bethany Kerr” to see the whole collection!

Leave a comment

Filed under drawings

20 Quotes from Children’s Books Every Adult Should Know – Take 13

Shel Silverstein

Shel Silverstein via Encurious.com via Melissa A. Eastman

Leave a comment

Filed under Favorite Quotes, Reading is FUNdamental

A Gentle Rain….

The Law of Attraction Blog - Daily Dose of Inspiration

The Law of Attraction Blog – Daily Dose of Inspiration

I just spent the nicest hour or so. We had the doors open, enjoying a nice breeze. I heard the pitter-pat of raindrops, so I got a cup of coffee, and the latest Robert B. Parker book I’m re-reading in the Jesse Stone series, and went out on the deck. It was quite a bit cooler,  so I came back in for a hoodie. :0)

I put two chairs together so that I could really get comfortable. I had my book and my coffee, surrounded by the gentle rain. My cats, Abby and Smoke, came to keep me company, plus one of our dogs, Molly.  (Bambi had been snoring happily when I went out.)

I lay back, over and over, just to absorb the wonderful smell of the rain, and the calming sound of the drops hitting the deck cover…

It lasted about an hour, I guess, and I felt wonderful when I came back in, all the animals coming in with me.

We need a lot more rain for our lawn and plants, but what a gift I was given today!

Leave a comment

Filed under Arkansas, Mother Nature

Need a Hug?- Take 2

hug5

 

 

hug6

 

 

hug7

 

 

hug8

Thanks to Marsha Koenig for her email.

Leave a comment

Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, Family

Happy Halloween – Take 10

 

 

jol-daddu

daddu

Leave a comment

Filed under Creativity, Halloween - How Do You Carve YOUR Pumpkin?

Under the Weather

Pinterest

Pinterest.com

Pinterest.com

I apparently did too much with the leaf mulching yesterday. I slept in, yet still feel I’ve been run over by a truck. Not ‘sick,’ just completely without energy. I’m going to take it easy today and see if I can find the old broad who usually lives here….

Leave a comment

Filed under Attitude

Nature’s Pastels

paul-beauties-of-mother-nature5

“Beauties of Mother Nature 5”

 

 

paul-chrysanthemums-11

“Chrysanthemums-11”

 

 

paul-chrysanthemums-31

“Chrysanthemums-31”

Paul Militaru Photography

Leave a comment

Filed under Paul Militaru Photography

The Vet’s Office – Take 4

tvo10

 

 

tvo11

 

 

tvo12

 

 

tvo13

Thanks to Marsha Koenig for her email.

Leave a comment

Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography

Beautiful Stream

s-media-cache-ako.pinimg via Cathy Ruggiero

s-media-cache-ako.pinimg via Cathy Ruggiero

Leave a comment

Filed under Creativity, Mother Nature

Happy Halloween – Take 9

 

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Creativity, Halloween - How Do You Carve YOUR Pumpkin?

A Leaf Mulching Afternoon

Business Insider

Business Insider

This was the way I felt when I finished the afternoon of leaf mulching. When I took my watch off, it looked like I had quite a tan. It was all dirt! I had a thin layer of fine dust all over me and my clothes.

I made three large leaf bags of leaf mulch and stored them in the garage until I’m ready to distribute it. Depending on the weather tomorrow, I’ll try to do some more before it’s due to rain.

 

worx3

Our new system is about as good as it can get. It’s still a lot of work for an old broad. I was really exhausted – even after taking breaks and drinking lots of water – when I finally got everything put away for the day. I got a lot of leaves from the front lawn and the area between the triple flower bed and the driveway. I’ll do another area tomorrow if I get the chance.

I caught my breath and drank more water when I came in, then went up to throw my clothes into the hamper and take a nice, hot shower.  I came down feeling alive again and ready to finish up dinner.

We had a really productive day today. We may get rained out tomorrow, but we have plenty of projects to tackle inside, as well.

I hope your day was a fun one.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening

The Irrigation System is Working!

ir5

My husband worked really hard in the bright sun today, adding irrigation to the three new raised bed planters.  In the middle of each raised box, we have a sprinkler. The three of these are tied together by lengths of hose mounted on 1 x 2s that span the length of the three planters. Then the three sprinklers are attached to the main control, a faucet that we can use to control the amount of water that is sprinkled onto the plants. We can control the north side of the garden separately from the south side. These are attached to a hose that runs to the outdoor faucet on which we have a control system with a timer that allows us to select when the plants are watered and for how long a time.

 

ir6

These are the three new planters on the north side of the garden. We’ll use these starting in the spring.

 

 

ir3

These are the three planters on the south side of the garden where I’ve planted two kinds of lettuce, some celery, radishes, broccoli and cauliflower.

 

 

ir2

The two kinds of lettuce (head lettuce and salad blend) are mainly in the closest planter in the picture, though the bright green in the second planter is also head lettuce.

 

ir1

This is the garden, with the picture taken looking to the west. I need to harvest again soon! :0)

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Happy Tuesday!

amazon.com

amazon.com

My husband and I took advantage of early voting this morning. We only had to wait about 5 minutes after checking in. I LOVE it that we don’t have to stand in line for hours waiting to vote!

When we got home, we put our groceries and other stuff away and relaxed with a cup of coffee. Then my husband went out to the garden to work on the irrigation system for the new raised beds on the north side of the garden.

While he did that, I got some chicken breasts in the crock pot, trying out a new recipe for tonight. I particularly love getting something in the crock pot before I start a bit project. I’m just not in the mood, when I’m hot and tired, to try to figure out what to have for dinner, much less cook.

Today I’m taking advantage of our really wonderful weather to try out our new WORX leaf mulcher. We used something else last year, but we had to put the leaves through it twice, and it was a real hassle. This one has been set up and waiting for the right time. :0)

I love making our own mulch. We can make as much as we need, on our own schedule, not having to go buy it. Our weather has been such that we’re not having much color this fall. Our leaves have fallen as much from not enough water as from the changing season. Anyway, I have lots of material to work with, so I was excited to try it out today.

 

worx3

This is the WORX leaf mulcher. You can see that the black shredder is up in the air, sitting on a round frame with legs. There is a large leaf bag on the frame, right below the orange part. I rake up some leaves, use the yellow ‘hands’ to dump the leaves into the pop-up tan canvas barrel, then take the barrel over to the WORX. I put in about a third of the leaves in the top of the leaf mulcher, make sure the leaves are down into the black part nicely, then turn on the shredder and wait a few seconds. I turn it off and the black top is empty, having shredded the leaves into the black leaf bag under it.

You can lift the black thing a bit to see how full the leaf bag underneath is getting. It took me about half an hour to fill the first leaf bag. I took it to the garage for storage until I use it in the flower beds, brought another leaf bag out with me and got it set up again. I’m finishing a break now, but I’m delighted with our set up. My body will probably complain this evening, but I’m happily making mulch!

Leave a comment

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Love this Sign!

lovethissign

2 Comments

October 24, 2016 · 2:04 pm

Storybook Places – Take 14

Oia Greece via Paow Magazine

Oia Greece via Paow Magazine

Leave a comment

Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Seemingly Storybook Places

“Little Waterfall”

"Little Waterfall" - Paul Militaru Photography

“Little Waterfall” – Paul Militaru Photography

Leave a comment

Filed under Paul Militaru Photography

Need a Hug? – Take 1

My friend Marsha Koenig sent me these in an email. I melted into a puddle. I thought YOU might need a hug, too…

 

hug1

 

 

hug2

 

 

hug3

 

 

hug4

2 Comments

Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, Family

Purging and Reorganizing – Master Bath – Before

mbr10

I really have little excuse. I’m not Suzy Homemaker who puts things where they belong as they are used. I wish I were! Instead, I clean things like our sinks and the counter between them, stuffing things in drawers or on shelves. As a result, we have another area that desperately needs attention. It’s on the second floor of our home, so no one sees it but us, but enough is enough.

 

mbr11

This is one of two sets of shelves in our master bath. This mess has essentially been years in the making. This one acts as a linen closet, medicine cabinet, and cleaning supplies place.

 

mbr12

This second set of shelves is cosmetics, soap, lotions, potions….

I won’t show you my drawers (if you’ll pardon the expression :0) )  But I will show you some close-ups so you’ll have an idea of the job I’m undertaking. I can imagine you shaking your head in disgust, or feeling good that YOU don’t have this mess. It’s okay. I ALWAYS have excuses, other priorities…. I would have to clean and reorganize before I could get people to come and try to clean my house!

 

mbr9

 

mbr8

 

 

mbr7

 

 

mbr6

The above pic was the end of the pics for the first set of shelves. The remaining pics are for the second set of shelves.

 

 

mbr5

 

 

mbr4

 

 

mbr3

 

 

mbr2

 

mbr1

So, now that I’ve again admitted that I’m a slob, I’ll get started doing something about it. I’ll need to do this in several sessions over at least a few days, but when I take breaks, I’ll post again – unless I get completely buried. (My husband is concentrating on straightening out our genealogy records on the computer and may not even notice I’ve been buried until he wonders why I haven’t brought him food yet….

Encouragement is definitely appreciated!

Have a wonderful day!!!

3 Comments

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob

Supplies Part of Pantry – After

spafter6

Well, it’s about 4 hours later and I’ve finally finished. I HOPE you can see a difference here. I threw out a bunch of stuff. relocated other stuff, and reorganized what was left so that the things we use most often are the most accessible.

 

spafter7

I also tried to organize things so my husband can find what he’s looking for easily.

 

spafter

 

 

spafter1

 

 

spafter3

My husband noticed that things were ALL over the kitchen when it was time for me to fix lunch. We managed amid the complete chaos. He then noticed all the stuff that was in the kitchen had made it ‘somewhere else.”  He made one suggestion on moving the instant pot to the place I had the salad spinner, “since I never used that anyway.” I shooed him out with a big smile and left them where they were…

I’m feeling much better since I found some things I had lost. Everything is much cleaner now, and I think I have things where I want them. If not, I have a GREAT start on another move-around!

12 Comments

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob

Keep On

Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero

Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero

Leave a comment

Filed under Favorite Pictures, Favorite Quotes

Happy Halloween – Take 8

 

jol-echolakeinn-com

echolakeinn.com

Leave a comment

Filed under Creativity, Halloween - How Do You Carve YOUR Pumpkin?

I’m a Slob – ‘Supplies’ Side of Pantry

 

I’ve admitted before that I’m a slob. Some people have tried to excuse this for me, saying that I’m too busy ‘creating’ to bother with this. To this, I thank them for being kind, but say, HOGWASH.  Every once in a while, my clutter and stashing bothers even me, and that’s when I finally do something.

I showed you the food side of the pantry that I finally cleaned up a few days ago. The trigger for this was that my husband needs to eat as sugar-free as possible, so we are getting rid of a lot of foods that neither of us should no longer eat, clearing the decks for a new emphasis on making condiments, sauces, etc., that are not filled to the brim with sugar. Due to the purging and reorganizing, I can now find things quickly and easily, concentrating on the MAKING, rather than the FINDING.

 

spbefore2

I hate to have to admit I’m such a slob, but with the glorious supplies side of our pantry, I have now stuffed and jammed as much as the shelves will hold – and more. I’m going to take a good, long look, get rid of a bunch of ‘stuff,’ and reorganize the rest some that we don’t have to climb into the shelves to get things, hoping nothing falls on us.

 

spbefore3

Even UNDER the shelves is jammed full.

 

spbefore5

All I can say is, “What a mess!” I’m determined to make sense out of this, though, and hope to be able to report significant progress by the end of the day.

Strength – don’t fail me now….

 

8 Comments

Filed under Acting Like a Grownup, Housekeeping - Maintenance, I'm a slob

Taylor’s Greenhouse/Deck Progress

dave-deck

Our good friends, the Taylors, are building a fabulous new addition to their home – a second story deck outside their bedroom and a two-story greenhouse! Here you see Dave working on the new deck. I love the way he’s built it around the full-grown tree!

 

greenhouse

And here is the gorgeous greenhouse. This is useful, of course, as Laufrain is a master gardener and will love working in it, but it’s also simply stunning.

This is a lot of work for both of them, but what a wonderful addition to their house – one they’ll enjoy for years to come.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under When Wood Comes Alive, Wonderful Projects

Cats Play Pounce

ex-askthetrainer-com

AsktheTrainer.com

I’m not the only one using my new exercise ball.

The dogs laborious walk around it, or nudge it carefully out of the way of their bed, which is beneath the entertainment center. They’re pretty leery of it, mostly.

The cats, however, used it as a play opportunity yesterday, and had my husband and me laughing out loud. :0)

My husband noticed it first. Abby, our older tortoiseshell cat, was on ‘our’ side of the ball. She was looking at the ball funny for some reason. All of a sudden Smoke, our short-haired gray cat, suddenly leaped from behind the ball onto Abby. They rolled for a second, then split up, opting to try it again. Abby didn’t leap, but was totally engaged in the game. Smoke leaped a couple more times until Abby hissed at her. The next time, the ball suddenly came at Abby, running right into her, causing her to leave the area.

I swear I heard Smoke giggle…

Leave a comment

Filed under Amazing Animals, exercise, Family

Garden Harvest 2016-10-22

gardening-rainforestinn-typepad-com

rainforestinn.typepad.com

Well, I certainly got my exercise today! I had the perfect day for it. I went back out to take the fabric shade off the top of the garden and hauled it to the burn barrel. I cut it into thirds, put one section in the burn barrel and put the other two sections beside the burn barrel. Then I took down the old neon colored tape, which was really faded and brittle, and replaced it with new. I spread cedar chips under all the new planters.

 

garden3-20161022

This is a pretty awful photo, but I wanted to show you the garden with the shade fabric off and the new tape on.

 

garden2-20161022

This is taken from the north side so that you can see the new spring planters and the fall garden planters behind them.

 

garden4-20161022

This is taken from the south so you can see the abundance of ‘leaves of the garden…

 

saladblendlettuce20161022

This is the ‘salad blend’ I harvested this afternoon.

 

headlettuce20161022

This is the head lettuce.

 

broccoli20161022

And this is the broccoli.

No sign of anything but leaves on the cauliflower so far…

I’ll try to plant radishes tomorrow and get a pic of the sweet, little bitty celery plant that is still with us.

Hope your day was wonderful.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Fall Garden Progress 10-22-2016

fallgarden5

This is a planter with broccoli and cauliflower. The plants are looking healthy, but I have no clue how much actual FOOD we’ll get…

 

fallgarden6

On the far right and the far left, toward the top of this picture, you can see some broccoli florets! Woo Hoo!!!! :0)

 

fallgarden8

This planter is mainly two kinds of lettuce: head lettuce and ‘salad blend’. There is a teeny tiny celery plant that is very green and still alive, and I’m going to plant a 2nd batch of radishes today.

The next pictures you see won’t have the fabric shade at the top. I’m about to go out now, spread the cedar chips under the new planters, and start snipping wire tires that hold the fabric shade in place all the way around the garden.

Wish me luck?

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Raised Bed Planter Photos

fallgarden10

This gives you an idea of what our raised bed square foot garden looks like now. You can see the three planters on the left (south side of the garden) where I’ve planted my fall garden. On the right side of the picture (north side of the garden, you can see the three new raised bed planters we’ve installed. We’ll start using these in the spring.

 

fallgarden9

Later today we’ll remove the fabric shade from the top of the garden and spread cedar chips under the new planters.

 

fallgarden4

I just came in from working out there. I put the Mel’s Mix into the last planter. I’ll top these three off before I plant in the spring. I also measured off 1 foot measures all around the top of the three planters and put in screws. We’ll use these when we stretch string in both directions to mark the squares for planting.

 

fallgarden3

We’ll run some 1 x 2 strips down the center of the planters so that we can add a sprinkler in the middle of each square, then tie them together with hose cut to length, and finally attach these three planters to the garden irrigation system.

 

fallgarden2

I’ll weed whack again around the garden and sprinkle Sevin to try to keep the grasshoppers away. I’ll also replace the pink ribbon that runs around the garden and down the guy wires to detour deer from running into it.

 

fallgarden1

Leave a comment

Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Gift

Hannah Brencher via Victoria Toumit via Akiva Huber

Hannah Brencher via Victoria Toumit via Akiva Huber

Leave a comment

Filed under Favorite Quotes

Haunted

getting on in age

getting on in age

Leave a comment

Filed under Favorite Quotes, Grin for the Day

We Did It!

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed

To say we’re exhausted just doesn’t cut it.

We spent all afternoon putting up the last of the six raised bed planters. Part of the process went well. My husband had made the stakes come to a point on the lathe. The drilling on three of the four holes went well and the stakes went in pretty easily. It went down hill from there, though.

We had trouble getting the 4×4 template up off the stakes, bringing two of them back up in the process. We managed to pound them back in, and then brought out the metal legs and square box frame. We had trouble getting the frame at the right height, having to move vice grips one at a time and moving the legs from the inside of the frame to the outside, trying to get all to fit and be level.

We discovered that one part of the frame didn’t have a hole drilled in like it was supposed to. We had to rig to bring the drill out and do it in the garden. We got the legs cut off and the extra hole drilled and finally got the bolts in.

The last step was bringing the wooden box out and placing it into the frame. Except this time it was too big to go into the frame! My husband said he thought this frame was the first one he made. After this one, he decided to give an extra 1/8th of an inch or so on the frame dimensions to give us more slack. This time we had to use a chisel, pry bar, and a sledge-hammer to move down the edges and force the wooden box into the frame.

We finally prevailed, but the installation of this last box took us about four hours and completely exhausted us.  The next step is to install the sprinklers in the three planters on the north side of the garden and unite them with lengths of hoses, attaching them to the irrigation system for the garden.

Tomorrow I’ll put the Mel’s Mix into the planter. We also plan to remove the fabric shade from the garden now that the 90 degree + weather seems to be behind us. (The first year we had the garden, we had an ice storm. The weight of the ice pulled down one half of the garden completely. Usually we roll up the fabric shade and attach it to one side of the garden. This year we’ll take it down and dispose of it, putting up a new one for the spring planting.

Tomorrow I also plan to harvest lettuce and maybe some broccoli! I’ll take some pics of both the planters and the fall garden to share with you.

2 Comments

Filed under Arkansas, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

“Money Monster”

mm-imbd

IMDb

“Financial TV host Lee Gates and his producer Patty are put in an extreme situation when an irate investor takes over their studio.”

This movie stars George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jack O’Connell. My husband and I watched it last night and we both were impressed. It was directed by Jodie Foster. There wasn’t a dead spot in the movie and we both held our breaths until the end. Neither Clooney nor Roberts played on their good looks. The acting was superb and the plot believable. It was amazing that we actually felt sorry for the ‘bad guy’, who took over the TV station and threatened all of their lives.

We highly recommend this movie if you haven’t seen it.

Leave a comment

Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews