Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Geese and Gardening

Life in Hickory Hollow...
This past weekend we had beautiful weather! Beautiful weather for getting out and getting some projects completed. We have had to do a bit of work in the garden, actually a lot of work. The soil is just not rich enough for anything to grow very big. We bought bales and bales of peat moss and tilled it in the soil. This fall it is going to get a manure and lime treatment. These cute geese were hanging out by the pond all Sunday morning. I crept up pretty close to get these pictures to share with you.

Visitors...
We have also had a couple of unwelcome visitors. Doug had to shoot a big snake down at the pond shortly after I had taken these pictures. It was about 4 feet long and as big around as a man's wrist. He couldn't tell if it was poisonous or not and we couldn't risk the kids getting bit. Now, I am not a big on guns type of gal, but I was pretty relieved that we owned one and my husband knew how to use it. I am absolutely, positively, skin crawling, jumping, yelling scared of snakes....even little garter snakes!

Another unwelcome visitor has been the deer. Humph...they are not so cute anymore...they have tried to prune all my Cleveland Pear trees that line the driveway into topiaries! I am not thinking they are cute in the least...they have also eaten the new leaves of my raspberry and blackberry bushes and have tried even more topiary art on the fruit trees.
BAD Deer....very, very BAD DEER!

The Stone Nest...
We have a Killdeer couple that have made a nest of stone, smack dab in the middle of the driveway. There are 4 little stone colored eggs in the middle. The comical act of these two was pretty funny about 2 weeks ago...they pretend that they are injured to lure you from their nest. We call it "hurt wing". Here we are a few weeks later, and they aren't so cute...and they are getting a bit aggressive. We have been driving out and around the nest so we won't disturb them. Now as we come down the drive they run at us! We pull over to the side and ask her everyday if she could just get on with it, so we can have our driveway back! I will let you know when the BIG day arrives...personally we can hardly wait!
In the Garden...
So far in the garden I have planted 9 Big Boy tomatoes, 9 Celebrity tomatoes, 2 Brandywine tomatoes, 4 Cherry tomatoes, 4 banana peppers, 4 green peppers, 4 jalapeno peppers, 4 Italian Basil plants, 4 Siam Queen Basil Plants, 3 rows of Blue Lake Green Beans, 28 cucumber plants (yep, you read that right, 28 plants germinated from the seed), 4 cantaloupe plants, 4 watermelon plants, 4 zucchini plants, 4 yellow straight neck squash plants. We are getting ready to plant corn later this week. My potato plants are up, but not just real big. I have been Miracle Growing everything, and they look a bit better. I am hoping to be able to can spaghetti and salsa this fall! I will take some pictures of the garden later this week to share with you.

and the Chicken House...
We have really been working hard on the chicken house...Doug put on a new roof, and I have finished painting the outside. It is soooo cute! I even added a hanging basket and potted up some plants to sit on the little front porch. I will share some of those pictures with you too! I am hoping to be able to finish the inside with the wallpaper this week. Doug and Tyler are almost finished building the nesting boxes! I think I have decided that we will get 8 hens. I am going to get a couple that lay the pretty pastel eggs. If you are in the neighborhood in the next few weeks, come on by for a slice of quiche made of farm fresh eggs!

Thank you everyone who so diligently follow this gal, who doesn't quite so diligently post! My goal is to post at least once a week this summer. We are really working hard to get our place up and going so we can have bountiful harvests later this summer!
I seem to be over the bloggers block...now I just need to find a bit of time, to visit all my blogger buddies!
~Jill~
P.S. I am addicted to watching the Bachelor/Bachelorette shows...why, I don't know...it is so silly, but this girl loves a good romance, I guess now matter how fake it is...anyway... I like the pilot so far for Jillian!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

My Fountain Courtyard


I finally found some inspiration
and here I am this morning with a new look and a new post!

All before 10:00!
What do you think of the new look?
It is a bit more classic and hopefully I won't be so inclined to redecorate once a week.

Now on to the fun stuff
~*~
My new courtyard fountain and landscaping...

While looking a couple of weekends ago for a fountain locally, we learned about a place in Southern Missouri that makes their own fountains. We found out the name of the business and drove down last weekend. They had over 80 fountains up and running. Beautiful things...Grecian ladies with urns, balustrades, bird baths anything your heart could desire in concrete!

The couple that owns the business were so very helpful. But, they asked me all sorts of questions that I couldn't answer. "How big is the area, how long is the sidewalk, how tall is your roof, how tall all your windows?" Hmmm...well I really don't know, probably about yea high and this wide. They wanted to make sure that the fountain would not over power the space or look dinky.
It didn't take me long to find this one, and I think it is perfect!


Bob still has to come back and do some odds and ends. My front door still needs to be stained walnut and the pillars painted. We only have a week and half left of school, so we will have the whole summer to frou frou!


Now I am off to go teach this afternoon,
but I certainly feel better, having everything in it's place again!
~Jill~

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

AWW SHOOT!

Have you ever had just the sudden URGE to redecorate?
You decide, say, to redo the living room...
pull the furniture all around...
some of it you slide into the kitchen,
some of it you carry out to the hall,
roll up rugs, remove all knick knacks,
because while you are "redecorating" might as well clean, too!
Well, I got the URGE to redecorate my blog...

Hmmm...I'm going to do a Nell Hill look,
today I am going to spend hours on the internet looking for free backgrounds,
I am going to fart around with margins,
change the font and the colors make a beautiful new header...
and I came up with NOTHING!

I didn't like a thing I came up.
Now, I'm tired and my cyber house is in disrepair.
I had a beautiful post planned showing your my new fountain.
Alas...photos are still on the camera.
I've brought back the chickens for a bit...
until Iget inspired for my blog background...
So for now, I have pushed the furniture back into the living room,
and didn't even dust!
Humph...
and would you just look at what I did?
A post with no pictures.
How sad is that?
Maybe inspiration will hit soon!
I have some great things I want to share with you!

~Jill~

Monday, May 4, 2009

Fountain Search


The blogger's block is still here. And I am telling on myself....I haven't even looked at the computer in about 2 weeks.

Lindsey has started playing softball and I have volunteered to be an assistant coach. Bet you didn't know that I played softball since I was 5 years old and continued playing until I was about 19 years old! I dug out the old ball glove and have been literally having a "ball" ever since!
My official title is outfield coach/pitching machine operator!

I've also been substituting a lot at school, 4 days just last week. There isn't going to be any classroom teacher openings this next year, but maybe next year I will have a room of my own. I have already been dreaming of how I am going to decorate my classroom. Can you believe it...ME dreaming of decorating something! I am daydreaming of a cute country school look with a Debbie Mumm schoolbus lamp, willow baskets of apples and country plaid curtains. Debbie Mumm has even created school bulletin board borders and calendar sets. It is taking every bit of will power not to start stocking up!

In between all this madness we managed to get our driveway pad poured, curved sidewalk and a back patio. Doug and I did a bit of landscaping out front, planting barberry bushes, hostas and ferns. I am on the lookout for an outdoor concrete fountain. We went on a huge drive yesterday but didn't find anything that struck my fancy. I just called a place in Kansas City and they have a huge selection, the lady on the phone told me I needed to get up there in a hurry though. With Mother's Day quickly approaching...they sell out FAST!

Okay...I gotta go!
My heart is racing...and I think I need to strip out of these jammies and jump in some sort of vehicle and head out to find my fountain....I am afraid they will be all gone by the time I get there. This is sort of like the rummage sale panic I experience every Saturday morning!

Okay...
I will try to write something more often!
If I don't get beaned in the head by a softball!
~Jill~
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