They're HERE!

I saw 2 lightning bugs this evening! That's the first I've seen of them this year. I think that means summer has begun.

I'm growing an avocado tree from a pit. It has taken it a long time to sprout and I looked up on the internet how to grow it. I follow the directions carefully, but I didn't read ahead. The tree has roots and leaves now but I finished the article and it said it "sometimes" bears fruit in 3-4 years!and that your chances are better if you have several trees so they can aid in pollination. Here I thought I was going to harvest avocado's next year. I also didn't know it would be so large. It's supposed to be 20-40 feet tall. That's like a real sized tree. I was thinking it would be more the size of a large bush. I don't have a good place for "several" 20-40' trees. Do you?

Sicko

Poor little Gordon got an ear infection while we were in AR for great-grandma's funeral. I took him to her doctors office in podunk. It was close to closing time. I was sure to bring him in so they could see how cute, but obviously sick he was. The receptionist kind of made a face but they agreed to see him, I think mainly in honor of Grandma. So the doctor confirmed my suspicion, it was indeed an ear infection, his temp was 102. Then she called in a Rx to another city because, get this, there is no pharmacist nor pharmacy in podunk, population 282! And she told me that some of her patients can't afford the gas for the trip to the nearest town with a pharmacy to pick up a Rx. So she keeps lots of stuff on hand, none of which she offered me. Guess she thought I could make the drive. I'm just kidding, we discussed it, they were all very nice and told me repeatedly how sweet GGma was and how much they would miss her. So thanks Grandma, for the doctor props, your stardom helped get my baby on the track to feeling better.

Gardening

So my gardening is going well. My plan is to scatter my fruits and veggies around the back yard instead of having one big garden. I have one bed on the side of the house where we are already harvesting green leaf lettuce. The broccoli is coming along and yesterday I planted mixed lettuce seeds and flat leaf spinach in that bed. Then in another bed I planted 2 rows of sweet corn and 3 mounds of pumpkins. I also watered the blueberry bush, which reminds me that I need to go the farmer's market and get another one. I wanted to wait and see if it lived through the winter first. I think I have already mentioned the grape vines. 3 of them are still alive and have a few green leaves. They all got stunted (again) by the frost in late April and then the horses stepped on one of them. I was trying to be nice and I let them in there to eat the tall grass before I mowed it down and they go munching on the bushes and stepping on my grapes!

Back to my garden. I planted okra seeds today, this is a new veggie for me, never grown it before. I also have one Big Boy tomato, one sweet cherry tomato, one red bell pepper, one green bell pepper, one sweet banana pepper, and one jalapeno pepper plant. And for herbs I have cilantro (which was surprisingly hard to find, evidently it is very popular) and oregano. I am also growing mint and basil for my mom and I'm still searching for rosemary. I think that's everything.

So this is my stress relieving hobby. I dig, I weed, I water. Not too much brain activity required for that. You'll probably hear more about my garden just because I love it. Feel free to skip over any future blogs about pepper pests or pumpkin problems.

Meet Bill & Molly

Yes, that's right folks, here are the first animals on the Rocking K Ranch. Picking them up was a trick. First we went to see them, their owners weren't home but a tenant was present and he said it would be ok to take them and he would hold the money. Konrad seemed to believe him but we needed a pen to put on our trailer to haul them in. Tenant suggested hog tying them and putting in the back of our car, which we politely declined. So off we headed to a friend's house to borrow her great dane dog crate. Well she wasn't home, but Konrad thought it would be ok to take it anyway...from their back yard...inside a chain link fence which also contained a pit bull. I did not know this at the time because I stayed in the front yard to keep the boys out of the fish pond and to protect a sweet cat that thought it would be a good idea to let a 3 year old get close enough to pet it. We soon loaded the trailer and were rounding up the boys when who should drive up, you guessed it, the owner of said trailer! Caught red-handed! It was a bit embarrassing, but we took the pen anyway. So we drove back to the goats and Konrad and tenant wrestled Molly into the pen. Bill was happy to go, he just followed the can of feed. That was about the end of the excitement. We enjoyed watching the goats as we drove down the road. So now we have 2 goats! and we are fairly certain that Molly is pregnant and soon we will have 3, 4 or 5 goats. I'll keep you posted and will surely post pics if we have any babies.

Finally Home

Our Texas adventure was a lot of fun. We were there to celebrate Grant's graduation from divinity school. Grant's family and Ken and Tina were there. We took in a Texas BBQ complete with pony rides and a petting zoo. We spent Mother's Day at the Zoo. Between our family passes and discounts, all 12 of us got in for $3.50. They certainly made their money on lunch though I didn't pay, thanks Ken. We thought we might have to detour to Arkansas on the way home but instead we drove home on Monday, then the boys and I left Wednesday for Arkansas for Grandma Hendrickson's funeral. She was 91 years old and had 4 great-great grandchildren, my sons being two of them. She was a Christian and is happy to be with God now. We spent some time out at her house before we left AR and I was able to dig up some of her hibiscus, iris' and a couple other pieces of plants to bring home with me. I share her love of gardening. She was also a bird watcher, a hobby I hope to take up someday. Someday when I can sit still for more than 3 minutes at a time without interruption. The boys traveled good, but I am still so glad to be home! Above is Kaden, we kept him happy quite often by feeding him. Here he is with a container of a new hit snack Lil'Crunchies. If you have little ones, they'll love 'em. Thanks to my friend Amy for introducing us to them.

Big Texas Adventure

Our trip to Texas is underway. Today we met up with the family and ate an authentic Texas meal of BBQ and beef brisket and finished off the afternoon with pony rides and a petting zoo.

This is Meerkat enjoying his first pony ride.

This is Meerkat sliding down the jumpy slide.

...and in the petting zoo.

Here Varmit is making himself at home in the hotel.

More later about our Big Texas Adventure!