While I've Been Away...Garden Totes

I've been making Garden Baskets!

They are made from cedar, are nice and lightweight and will last forever.

My family all got them for Christmas, all the gardeners anyway. My sister's that don't garden got the small version that will fit on their counter and hold all sorts of fun things.

The large one is over 21 inches by 11 inches with the handle 19 inches high and will hold over half a bushel! It will make for less stooping while picking in the garden. They are made with garden wire so I can spray everything off with the hose before it comes into the house.

Now if spring will ever come so I can use it.

It's Been a Long Time!

It's been ages since my last post, five months to be exact. So much has happened but it's almost all the same thing, just a different year.

A most beautiful puppy that went to live with a really nice family.

We have baby turkeys, a big garden, puppies, a new roof, and on and on. I take pictures almost everyday, wanting to post something but it all seems repetitive and boring to me.

Our new arbor.

We built the arbor to block the view of the road. We also built new steps that lead to the front door because we never had any and the people that had the house for 20 years before us never built any either. What were they thinking? Guests had to attempt to walk up the steep slope.

We are hoping that the grapes eventually cover the lattice.

The garden.



There are changes are worth noting though. This year we used black plastic on the garden. Man oh man, I feel liberated! No weeds at all. The only area I have to weed is along the bean and pea fence and that's actually fun. I can mow along the borders. Another thing worth noting is the fishing line that we have strung, at different heights, along and around the garden. You can kinda see it in the picture. It supposed to be a deer deterrent.



It's working so far. Yesterday while I was mowing, (And yes it was so hot that I was practically sliding off of the vinyl seat from sweat.) I saw that one of the lower pieces had been pulled way into the field by something that had gotten caught in it. It's only 20lb. test so it couldn't hurt an animal but we sure hoped it scared it.



I just went out this morning and picked way more cucumbers that I can use. Too large for pickles, they really snuck up on me. I think I'll make some freezer pickles, they are sooooo good, almost like candy.

The new roof.

We re-roofed the house last week, very hot and very humid but it needed to be done and it is!

So that's the update, maybe I'll be back a little sooner next time.

~Beth

Turkeys and Puppies and Snow and Snow and Snow and...

I bought my husband seat covers for Christmas. So, maybe around New Year's or maybe even later he decided to install them. The directions said to plan for 45 minutes and wear safety glasses so he didn't know what to expect!


They are from a company called Precision Fit Seat Covers and boy are they really heavy duty and nice! I picked a fabric called Endura (water proof.. read coffee stain proof) and a camo color .




So on a kinda warm day he and the boy went out to install them. I should go out now and take a close-up picture of them but it's 8am and freezing out and not worth it. And check out that you can see green grass in these pictures. We have not had green grass showing since that weekend. We have been slammed by snow storm after snow storm after snow storm. And throw in a couple of ice storms too.

Luckily they had the help of one of the turkey hens and got the job done easily and there were no safety glasses needed. What do they think will happen? A snap will smack your eye out? Really?

But I just cropped this last picture so you can see the seat cover a little better. It was actually kind of challenging shopping for the covers. The web sites are not all that user friendly. But I finally settled on this company and we are really glad that we did.

Speaking of snow! Poor Laddie has a snowy playground out there. See him watching me... always.

There he is with two of his daughters. They are almost as big as him. They were supposed to stay small, I hope they don't get too much bigger.

I still can't get him to come into the house. He loves it outside and is still so afraid of people. He will come to the door and lick my hand but if I try to pet him he is off. He is really excited to see me and really happy when I talk to him but he's not crazy about being touched. If I catch him and pet him he loves it though.

I did trick him one time and got him in, I threw a biscuit on the floor and he came in to get it and I shut the door behind him. He needed brushed and looked over so he got about a half an hour of me fretting over him.

He won't fall for that trick again. When he was in the house I had to put a diaper on him cause he just pees anywhere so maybe he was humiliated. (kidding) More like scared but when he was in here he was happy, trotting around. But he still would not come up to anyone. He is such a chicken. Actually, that's not entirely true, when I catch him and pet him for a while he will come up and let me pet him after I let him loose but it only lasts an hour or so.

Soooo, I decided that I wanted to try and take some portraits of the two puppies. I researched and read all about shutter speed and aperture settings and stuff like that and usually I can follow directions pretty good but my attempts were pathetic. I still have no idea how to use my camera besides point and shoot. All the other photo bloggers take beautiful shots but if I get a good one it's by accident.

It was frustrating but the results are below.

I put a sheet up and found a spot with natural light. She looks like she has a chicken neck here.

Bad angle but I did get a highlight in her eyes. Or I guess it's called a "gleam" or a "spark".

She's sitting like a frog and mind you, she didn't want to be up there on the table surrounded by cardboard with a sheet hanging off of it.

Now she's looking for her sister.

Now the other dogs are barking at something.

Now I want to smack her. (Just kidding, I would never smack her, she's my sweetie!)

But I kinda did want to.

OMG!

Better. But still chicken neck and bad angle.

Crap!

A little cuter but blurry.

Ugggggg!

She kept looking for her sister so I decided to put both up there, wow, look at the results and you know that when I pushed the button they were looking at me very cutely.

Sherpa, the one in front, looks like a bat. The one in the back is named Pink. She has the classically correct features of the Sheltie breed. Sherpa's ears are huge, I hope she grows into them but her personalty is amazing, the most loving puppy you've ever met.

She spends most of her time laying under my computer chair. (When I'm in it ) Pink is more stand offish, would rather be playing with her mom. Sherpa prefers people though, it's awesome. The best part of our day is when we come home to our dogs.

My husband insisted that they sleep with us. I waited until they had no accidents all night then up they came. They always go down by our feet to sleep though. My sister read that if they sleep up by your head that it means they are trying to dominate you, not these little guys. Even when we pet them try to hold them up close to us they won't stay. My sister wonders what it means that her Jack Russell trys to sleep on her head...

Very cute! I think the background should not have been light, her white collar does not show up very well.

Cropped it is cute but not in focus.

Pink looks cute but I have no idea where Sherpa thought she was going.

I cropped this to show only Pink but it's blurry... but she has that spark in her eye and it is cute.

All in all I learned that it is hard to take puppy pictures and I need to take a photography class! But I never want to go anywhere so that may be a problem! Maybe this spring or maybe there is some kind of on-line course. I'll keep taking pictures though, some good, many mostly bad but I will keep trying.

Til next time,

Beth

A Video for my Nephew and His Family

I made this video for my nephew and his family for a Christmas gift. They are visiting from California and have a new baby.

I was inspired by the beautiful song from this video by Jenna at Cold Antler Farm. She is one of my most favorite bloggers. It's here, at this link below.

http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/2010/12/year-so-far.html

But here is mine.



The song is by Josh Ritter and it's called "Change of Time" and I just love this song.

They Are Coming for Christmas.

We are coming to Ohio, YAY!!

(My words, not theirs... they live in sunny, 70 degree California.)

My nephew and his wife had a new baby last spring.

His wife is beautiful and we are incredibly lucky to have her in our family!

The new one.

Three sisters!

She has two very beautiful grown up sisters and we can't wait to see them again.

Very beautiful!


There, that's better!


This was taken at the pumpkin patch last fall.

Uh oh! Going to freezing cold Ohio?




I'm not too sure about that.

Really? Well, ok....

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Santa Was at the Dollar Store!

I grocery shop at Dollar General. Maybe two times a week, sometimes more. Every third week or so I stock up on basics, maybe dog food, paper towels or whatever and usually my cart is heaping.




On these trips I usually fill a cart up to the point where stuff is falling out, like my dog biscuits and bread last week and it costs less than $100.00. A heaping cart for less than $100.00! The total for these same items at a normal store would be at least $200.00. And believe me the items are EXACTLY the same, just in different boxes. Sometimes the items are name brand like the tea that I buy. Dollar store price is like $2.00, grocery store price $4.00. I love, love the Dollar General!



Anyway, An advertisement for the dollar store is not what this is all about. Santa is what this is about.



Thursday when I had this heaping cart and I was about to checkout I remembered that I needed cereal so I pushed my cart near the register and hurriedly went back to grab it. I popped around the corner and there was a man standing in the middle of the cereal aisle looking for something that he was having trouble finding.



I was kind of peering over his shoulder because he was, of course, standing right in front of the Cheerios (which by the way are much cheaper at DG than at the grocery store). I noticed that he was quietly singing the Christmas song that was playing on the overhead speakers. He found what he was looking for and when he turned to go to he noticed that I must have heard him singing. He looked a little embarrassed and smiled so I smiled back and grabbed my Cheerios.

When I got back to my cart at the checkout line he was waiting behind it. I had parked it about 10 feet back so people could easily get around it but he had decided to wait behind it thinking that I was already in line.



Now, one thing you must know is that I'm always in turmoil with a full cart at the checkout line at this store. Most people go in there to grab a few things quickly and don't expect to wait in a long line. So of course, me being the middle child or whatever the reason, I always tell them to go ahead of me. -Always.- Sometimes I'll let three people go in front of me and then I'm in agony, watching the other shoppers, hoping no one else comes up behind me.

If they have a cart then I don't feel so bad but if they don't and if they have so few items that they are carrying them in their hands then I have to let them go ahead of me or else I feel terrible. Even though I am always in a hurry to get home, I still let them go ahead.



Now, back to the the man that was waiting behind my cart... So when I see him standing there I (of course) tell him to please go ahead of me. He looked surprised, actually very surprised and said "Are you sure?" and I said "Of course!" and then I thought nothing more about, because I'm on the lookout for shoppers possibly getting in line behind me with few items.



As he was paying the cashier he seemed kind of nervous. First he gave the lady too much money and she got confused and that made him kinda confused and then when she gave him his change he dropped a couple of pennies but didn't pick them up and kind of turned and sheepishly smiled at me again.

I smiled back but believe me I was eyeing those pennies on the floor cause I would never leave pennies on the floor and I was busy thinking about trying to pick them up for him but my bulging cart was between me and them (the pennies) and I was starting to put my items on the counter. For me, if I see pennies on the ground, face up or down , I'm picking them up. (Ha, I didn't mean for that to rhyme.)



The man then turned towards me and laid a 20 dollar bill on top of my groceries that I was in the process of stacking up on the counter. Then he said "Thank you for letting me go ahead of you and I want you to put this towards your grocery bill."


I opened my mouth to say something but no words would come out because I immediately started to tear up. I absolutely couldn't believe it. He quickly turned and walked out of the store before I could protest. Which I would have done if I could without blubbering and possibly scaring the man and embarrassing myself to the point of never being able to return to that store ever again.



I finally got control of myself and was able to pay the cashier. I have no idea why that made me react the way I did. My husband thinks I'm nuts.

So this year for me, Santa was at the dollar store, no red suit, no jingle bells but he was there.

Oh and by the way... we have two Sheltie puppies for sale. I think they would make a really great Christmas present for you to give to someone special...

Don't ya think?

And if I don't post again for a while...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

And oh by the way, I did pick up the pennies. I put them on the counter for the cashier but then changed my mind and picked one back up and put it in my pocket. When I got back into my car I set it on the dash so that every time I get into my car to go somewhere I will see it and remember...

Fall 2010 Pictures From our Game Cam

Most of the pictures are like this and we have actually maybe 300 pictures of our neighbor mowing the lawn. Back and forth, back and forth. But I do think there is a deer running in the left part of this one.

But most are like this, just different angles of the sun. We get around 350 pictures every time we check the memory card and like I said, maybe 300 are of the sun.

And like this... more sun.


And then we get some like this.



There she (he?) goes.

Oh no! What is Buster doing back there at 10:00 at night!

And look who else is back there. I hope he is not the one stealing eggs.

Holy crap! What is that! Do I see pointy ears?

A coyote I'm afraid... Yikes! Waaaaaay too close to the chicken yard.

Awww... there they are.

That's an apple tree behind them.

Heading for the apples.

Does she smell something scary? That tail is way up.

Ohhhh yeah! See the antlers?

He's a nice one

Oh, this one sees the camera... or hears it.

I don't think he cares.



Uh oh.............................

LOOK WHAT'S COMING IN!!

Makes my husband's heart beat fast!

WOW! WOW! WOW!

YIKES!

Double YIKES!!

What an amazing buck.

OHHHHHH MYYYYYYY!

He's only coming in around at around 2:00 am. I bet we'll never see him during shooting hours. He didn't get that big by being careless.

I'm just happy that we've gotten these pictures.

Til next time,

Beth