Christmas Tree Farm

This year, we decided to go back to the farmer with the small tree farm. He had a hand painted sign posted on the highway on highway 214 - XMAS Trees. We drove up and knocked on the farmhouse door. Although we could see him in the house, he didn't get up to answer. We turned to leave and saw a jar on the porch railing with an envelope inside that read, "Christmas Trees - $15, leave money in jar". On the porch chair there was a saw and axe.

After walking up and down the rows for 30 minutes, we decided on a 10 foot tree and the grandkids found a 14 foot tree.

We enjoyed decorating the tree the next day. One day later I heard a crash in the living room! Apparently the tree was too big for the stand. What a mess! Ken bought a larger tree stand and we started decorating round two (minus the ornaments that had broken in the fall.) Ken bought a beautifull angel for the top.

Autumn in the Ozarks

It's a wonderland of colors here. The leaves are on the trees later than usual this year and the colors are gorgeous. We've put our garden to bed for the winter, by covering it with a layer of straw. We have winterized the bees. And we have a cord of wood stacked in the yard. Our first freeze was a week ago, with our thermometer registering 23 degrees. Since then, we have had some pretty mild days. I wonder what our winter will be like!

Advantages of Working from a Home Office

One of the advantages of working from a home office, is that you always get a window with a view! My view faces the woods.

We Love Company!

Our friend, Monique, and her cousin, John came for an overnight visit on their way from Alabama to Kansas. She and John took turns on the bike. After taking one wrong turn on a dark county road, they made it safely to our house. Last summer, Monique, dad and cousins made a cross country bike trip to Alaska. You can read all about it at http://colacrewontheroad.blogspot.com/
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Gardening in the Ozarks

Here are a couple of recent pictures relating to our vegetable garden. We've already gotten some yummy veggies and are learning what works and what doesn't. The corn is as high as an elephant's eye and it ain't even Oklahoma. We've got the corn, tomatoes, white potatos, sweet potatos, squash, and pumpkins. We had peas, but they are finished for the year. Something is eating the tops off of our onions. The "salad greens" did not work too well, but we did get a couple of delicious salads out of them.

We've had deer walk right up to our dining room window while we are eating. The other evening, we drove up our driveway to see two deer eating weeds in our front yard. We slowly drove up and would stop every few feet. The deer would look up at us, but it was almost like they are nearsighted or decided we did not pose a threat until we got several yards from them. Then they took off into the forest.

Bee Keeping Fun

We started a new hobby this spring - bee keeping. We ordered a package of bees and a queen and it arrived at the post office on April 24th. The post office call me at 6:30 am telling me to come and get them. After a nervous installation of the bees in their new hive and 6 weeks of feeding them syrup, they are finally going strong. The hive is now 2 boxes high with an additional honey super on top of that. The trees and wildflowers are full of nectar - so we are excited to see how well they do this summer. It's been more fun than we ever imagined! -- oh, and I was only stung once ... when I accidentally put my thumb on the screen of the package of bees when I got them home from the post office.

More Gardening News

Almost everything has been planted. We have the fence and gate built around the garden to keep the "critters" out. We've had lots of rain the past week or so and everything is sprouting. We look forward to a summer of delicious vegetables.

Garden takes shape

This weekend we got the garden into better shape. Colleen took care of making the rows, moving around the dirt we had delivered and doing some planting. I put in the posts for the fence we are putting around the garden. Setting up the garden for the first time is hard work. More then poor city-folk are used to. But we hope to be able to pick our own fresh organic vegetable this summer and fall.

Next we install the fence and the gate.

Colleen also set up the super for the bees which we should receive tomorrow. If our bees don't get abducted like aliens like is happening around the world right now. Then after several months, we should be able to get our own fresh honey.

Preparing the garden

Our son-in-law drove his tractor over to our house to prepare the area for our vegetable garden. Then, a few days later, temperatures were down in the 30's and 40's and are going to be in the teens at least one night this week.

Tomorrow, we will be getting some soil delivered for the garden - the soil here is too rocky for what we need.



This evening, we saw a luna moth on our dining-room window. Seems to be the same feathery guy that is on the Lunesta commercials. Or not.

The other day, we passed this little lady on our way back home from The Walmart. OK, maybe not so little. She was probably 5 feet tall at the shoulder.

I also got a chance to poke a stick at this creature - tried to save its life by getting it off the road before some local yokel came along and ran over it or shot it. Later, this one or a relative was dead on the side of the road.

Signs of Spring

The dogwood trees are now blooming, here in the Ozarks. The wild peach trees are in bloom and tiny leaves are starting to green up the landscape. A couple of tiny birds are trying to make a scraggly little nest on our front porch, even though we keep discouraging them. This week, we also spotted a bobcat, a wild turkey and a long black snake.

We have some vegetable seedlings ready to go into the garden. We bought a large supply of seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, we'll have the garden planted. It's going to be lots of fun.