How many kids do you count?

Danny's grandfather used to always say that when you were expecting to get any work out of kids that you had to only have one at a time with you that day. He said that when you had one kid you had a whole kid, 2 kids you had 1/2 a kid and 3 kids you didn't have a kid at all!! So true so true most of the time! However these 2 proved him wrong this weekend. Instead of 2 kids I had 2 workhorse men!! You would never believe how hard they worked at The Fairy's Rest. All they asked for was that if they worked really hard and helped me really good that I would drive them over to the lake so they could skip some stones! And of course a lot to eat!!

They picked up roots. Raked brush. Spread mulch. Cut down trees. Trimmed up all the underbrush from under the trees. Hauled many many many wheelbarrow loads of debris off and never once complained or even asked to sit down!!!! Unbelievable!!! Not from Colton cause that's just his way but the other one....?????? LOL!! Teenager!!

This is why 15 year olds do not have a drivers license!!!
Basket gone but she didn't hurt the Black Eyed Susans!

Danny and I put in the side walk.

He hauled a gazillion dollars worth of gravel!

The grass is coming up too! Woowoo!! More mowing!! Yes!!!

The kids worked so hard and were able to understand exactly what I had envisioned for this area. I just love the outcome too. Maybe even better than what I thought it would be!

I had to feed my feathered friends. Or maybe they are furry friends cause something was having a party with my suet feeder this weekend. It would get the feeder out of the tree and carry it to the top of the woodpile and destruct it there.....???????? Raccoon??? Bear???

I don't think it was a Cardinal!!

Morgan was working like a man!!

Oooops this is a man! An old friend/neighbor boy that we lived beside for 7 years is now married and lives a few miles from The Fairy's Rest and he drove by and spotted us and came in for a visit and somehow Morgan was able to talk him into helping with the spreading of the mulch! I just hope his wife doesn't find out that he knows how to do that!!!

They worked so hard that they got to go to the lake!! Emma was able to join them and she didn't even have to pick up a rake or a root! No Fair????

Morgan took these pictures at the lake and this one just cracked me up!!!!!!!!!! I decided that someone must have yelled that supper was ready and they were scurrying to get home! Papa Danny just pushed Colton out of the way!!!!!!!!!! LOLOLOLOL!!!!!

We had a very good weekend getting a ton of things finished. I transplanted a slew of flowers that I separated from my home garden. I planted Rudebekia Black eyed Susan's around the perimeter of the yard and I am going to plant sunflowers of various sizes behind them so the birds and squirrel will have a fall feast. We planted 3 Pecan Trees in the backyard. A Golden Rain tree in the front yard. These 4 were grown from seed by our neighbor down there. He has quite the green thumb! I planted my Purple Flowering Plum in the backyard as a shade tree.

2 Gardenias and a Snowball Bush(new), Hostas and Jacob's Ladder
and more Rudebekia
from my garden, were planted around the front and in the shade garden under the trees. I have many more plants to separate and get moved down this week. I have another 1/2 a dump truck load of mulch in my driveway to take down tomorrow evening and the other half goes to the green thumb, sweet potato pie making neighbor, Jesse!!!! He takes care of us!!

We are almost thru with all the grunt work!!!!! WOOWOOWOOOOO!!!

Some more painting inside and finish making curtains. Then by the time the grass all comes up we will be ready to advertise for renters!! This has been a long time coming!!

WHEW!!!!!!!!

In My Garden this morning.....

"God Don't Make No Mistakes"

That's what a super sweet lady told Leslie and I in a restaurant in Atlanta yesterday when she saw Leslie crying and thought she needed a hug. We explained why we were crying and she said "God don't make no mistakes!". That is so true but it's really hard to understand why things happen when they do.





It is so hard to watch one of your children hurting. My daughter Robin delivered her stillborn baby boy on Friday night at 32 weeks gestation. She and Eric are devastated. Leslie, Morgan and I were able go down to Atlanta and hold Baby Eric for a while yesterday. No one may ever know why this happened but God knows. Please pray for Robin and Eric because the days to come will be so hard.

I might shoot back next time...

Folks, I was on my back deck this morning when a shot was fired from a high powered rifle
right beside my house! I just about jumped over the house! I am a big fraidy cat as I have told you before. I did run thru my house to the front and spotted a strange car heading out of sight down my little back road. I just thought it was someone shooting from the road at a turkey in the neighbors cow pasture. I did not see a turkey there this morning but they have been spotted there in the past.

I thought I should call the neighbor and let him know just incase they had hit his cattle, then he would at least know what kinda car they were driving. I called the neighbors office and his secretary said he was not in but she would relay the message to him. This lady is also the secretary for the company that my husband works for and I know her well.

I never went out and checked on anything around my house and garage cause I just thought it was an illegal hunter. Then this afternoon the secretary called me back to let me know that she heard of a similar shooting that was on the local news a couple days ago where there were 3 houses and several cars shot. The shots came from the road too. This happened about 15 miles from my house. Whaaaaattttt?????

I reported to the authorities what I knew and the investigator came out to question me and have a look around. Of course by the time he got here it was raining buckets full and he didn't go check on anything of mine. Dearest hubby came home and laughed at me!!!!! He said he wasn't getting wet to go look out there either........I think he is a fraidy cat too!!!!! He will find out if they shot his truck when he leaves for work tomorrow morning. He drove his dump truck today so he could bring me a load of mulch home, so his pickup was right beside the house during this shooting. Boy oh boy my mind can wander in times like these!! I can get into so much trouble all by myself minding my own business!!

My newest garden project in the works!!

this is my favorite picture

I am gardening full swing here on the farm and at our vacation spot both.

I really need to have Danny cloned, several times over actually. His boss has wanted to have him cloned for many years too. I need one or two of him making money to support my habits and at least two of him to help with the mans work around the farm!!!!

Above are many pictures of my Purple Flowering Plum tree that has been here for maybe 7 years. I just love it year round. This is the best year for the blooms that I have seen yet, of course the bigger the tree the more impact it has. I love it so much that it was an obvious choice in my book to put in the yard at the vacation rental. I wanted a great year round maintenance free tree. I bought one of these and took it down there this weekend. When I was telling Danny about which tree I had decided on he said.....

"Don't tell me you are like all those other dummies around here who have all those beautiful flowering, weeping peach and cherry trees that do not bear fruit! Why would you want a tree that is not going to have any fruit on it?"

Well...................where do I begin here?.............he has always told me when I asked for "fruit bearing" trees that it was way too expensive to buy the sprays and such to keep them maintained and would shoot me down every time I mentioned it. He had mentioned last year that he would really love a standard size cherry tree but other than that it was a no go.

Not any more!!!! I have now "let him talk me into fruit trees" hahahahaha it's his idea now and you all know it is much better when it is the mans idea!! Right girls??

So my new gardening project is fruit trees all over the place....both places. The best though is that I am going to espalier trees around my front perennial garden and above my vegetable garden. I have always just drooled over an espaliered fence of fruit trees in magazines. I have now found many many many of them on youtube also. More eye candy for my soul!!!!!!

Please go check this one out on youtube!! I think you will then understand where I am coming from!!!

I have also found many great websites about Organic Home Orcharding!!

By the way, the pictures above were not edited!!!!!!!!!!

Gotta go mow the lawn now!

Oh my aching body.......

The last three days were spent at The Fairy's Rest working on the yard.

We worked up the yard and sewed the grass.

He put the back deck up but no rails or steps yet.

It was gorgeous weather, 82 by day and 58 by night!

But oh my aching body. I have posted befores and afters but I am not sure that you can even tell any difference but we sure can. I am proud!!

after


before

after

before

after

What? I have been looking for you!

Did I say you could have a break?

No! Get back to work!!

He worked soooooo hard this weekend!

I love him!!

I sure did love my bed too.

Oh so comfy!!!!

I hope your Easter weekend wasn't as tiring as ours!!

Pouting Pany's New Potting Bench...

I had this table that was not very pretty that came as a set with 4 chairs that I needed for the rental home. The table was pretty rough actually so it was thrown in for free with chairs. I knew I could always use table space somewhere.

Well yes I can!!!


I have always wanted a potting bench. Even when I had my greenhouse in use I didn't really have a neat potting bench like I wanted. Since we converted the greenhouse to a hottub room I have not had anywhere to pot plants that was convenient. So today the wheels got to turning faster than I could catch them!! I love those days when a truly brilliant idea comes to me and the idea is turned to something more than a mere idea by the end of the day!!! Don't you just love those days too??


The twin bed headboard was a yard sale purchase a couple years ago for $6 and I had plans to make a garden bench out of it. You can still see the holes where the bed frame hooks in but they will be hidden when my dearest husband (who is very grouchy tonight and despite the fact that he loves Pouting Pany's Potting Bench that she made all by herself, would not help her with this one little part of attaching the back to the table) finds the time to help me attach this securely to the table.



giggle giggle giggle


enamelware dish pan potting soil pan


giggle giggle giggle


perfect





Wringer washer lid to cover the potting soil pan


so the crazy barn cats, who are not allowed on the porch anymore,
will not decide to use the pan of potting soil for a litter box.


The lid has a nice hole for hanging on a peg when I need it out of the way!


I am sure that's what they had in mind when they made that lid!





aaawwwhhhhh cute!


Miracle Gro

Artisanal homemade goats milk soap, from Terri to wash my garden paws,

under my garden cloche.

I feel so special!!

These garden tools got the best of me yesterday when they absolutely whooped my butt!!

I was too wore out to even talk about it last night....details later!

A tarnished silver covered dish for garden trinkets.

Lots of essentials that I may need kept close by.

This will be great to actually have all my gardeny stuff in one central area.

"No men allowed!" (cause they never return things)

I will make that sign and hang from a peg on the back of the bench!!

Good idea!

I will put the cute little silver hooks on the headboard when I get a drill.

Some dummies left the cordless drill at the other house last weekend.

Of course when we went there on Saturday we realized after we got there that we had left the same drill here at home and had to come back home.

It might not be the men who doesn't return items/tools to their proper place.......guilty here!

Finally I would like to introduce "Pouting Pany Bird"

She looks just like a Dr that I used to work with and she is a really good family friend. Her birth name was "Panty" pronounced "ponty"
I didn't really want to spell this little girls name panty like the bloomers, even though she is a gardening girl!!!! LOL!!!

I made her several years ago but I didn't have gardening boots for her.

My Mom gave me a really neat pair of gardening boots for her over a year ago and guess what?

Pany still doesn't have her boots on!!

I think she has ADD too. Shh... don't tell her I said that!

She is all decked out in her gardening garb.

Tools, seed packets......

straw hat, just no boots!

I think Pany did a pretty good job with her very very frugal new garden bench.

Even the paint was leftover from my bedroom many years ago.

It's called Blue Willow and it looks sorta like Robin's Egg blue.

Pany and I felt it was appropriate for a potting bench.

When the grouchy old man gets in a much better mood, Pany is going to ask him to hang her sink like this one on the wall beside the potting bench and run hot and cold water to it.

Maybe Pany had better make him his favorite meal tomorrow night

:-))))))