Goodbye To Summer's Garden

We brought in the last of the basil today.  I hung it to dry last year, but am trying it between two screens this time.  After a hot summer, I'm looking forward to the Fall/Winter garden season.  We have cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts and garlic in the raised beds.  The brussel sprouts sure are cute at this stage.  Tasty?  I don't think I like them!

Basil is not only great in mediterranean dishes.  You can also rub basil onto your skin to ward off mosquitos.

I Would Have Taken Your Place

Time stood still when you were in the water

Calling to God was all I knew to do

9-1-1, hair plastered, your clothes dripping

My body ached to hold you

Wail of sirens, body board, neck collar,

Calming words, maintaining control

Had I given you a happy life? Did you feel loved?

Had God saved your soul?

The blur of sounds in the ER

Severe pain, fear, dread

Touching you, looking in your eyes

I wished to God that it were me instead

Many parents have known the feeling
A hurt child -- others see him as a man

My little boy, I could lose him

How can this be part of the Plan?

Minutes became hours

Hours have become days

Time has changed life

You've grown in so many ways

Always so proud of who you are

Now, even more so

Using this time to further help others

To mentally and spiritually grow

Cliches have real meaning now

The plight of others more understood

To everything there is a season

All things really do work together for good

Connie Riggs

Fall Is In The Air!

Autumn Fires
by Robert Louis Stevenson


In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,

The red fire blazes,

The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!

Something bright in all!

Flowers in the summer,

Fires in the fall!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Molly is wishing for Thanksgiving!

Short End Of The Stick

Summertime Means Fishing!

We usually catch perch and bass from our pond, but thought there might be some catfish there also.  Clay caught the first one today! Whoo--hoo!! What a fisherman! 

Saying Goodbye To An Old Friend

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Cupcake died yesterday. Named Cupcake because she was given to me for my birthday, she lived up to the sprightly name. She was more than a dairy cow who gave our family delicious, healthy raw milk. Cupcake loved to wander up into the yard and hang out with Laura and Clay while they went about their play, and we had fun watching her from the back window acting the part of an over sized family pet.

I think the memories that I'll hold closest are those made when J.R. and I milked Cupcake together.  His two big hands bumped occasionally into mine and the peaceful sound of milk hitting the pail and creating a beautiful froth often compelled me to pour my heart and mind out to him.  Many times I've wished to write a poem or book entitled "On The Other Side Of  The Udder".  I could never quite get past it seeming too humorous a title, and  was sure I'd never be able to convey what I felt while milking a cow and talking with my husband. It makes me smile to think what you as the reader must be thinking now...The smell of fresh hay, the sound of Cupcake munching her feed, the milk hitting the side of the pail, a husband bound to a milking stool and forced to listen to a rambling wife.... :)  Once again, Cupcake has made me smile.

Laura's first butter from Cupcake's cream

J.R. praying for Cupcake when she was losing her calf

God made us to be over the animals and caretakers of the animals, not animal rights activists.  So for us, most farm animals come and go with nothing more than a mere, that's-the-way-it-goes-on-the-farm attitude.  Not so with Cupcake.  We'll miss her.  She's buried beneath the apple trees.

Shade Tree Mechanic

J.R. found a go-kart for Clay at the scrapyard....minus a motor and several other very necessary components. :)  He took the motor and gas tank from a tiller, and the sprocket, gasket, chain and who knows what else from here-and-there.  All of these, along with Clay's paint job, have been a fun project for Clay to learn from.  

The most important message we're trying to send to him is that fun can be created without spending lots of money, and how rewarding it can be along the way. The money saved can be used to further someone else's happiness....it's a win-win situation.

Shade Tree Trainee

Blackberries!

"Why doesn't your bucket make the plunk-plunk sound like mine does, Clay?" 

"Because you're eating all of yours, Laura.  My bucket is filling up...."

We are in blackberry season and having a great time picking them down in the back pasture.

Ummm....Is This My Son?

Barley leaves for stunt driving school today.  He explains why  HERE.  There actually is a method to this madness.....  :)

Fun On A Hot Summer Day

And they say everything is bigger in Texas.....check out this Arkansas waterslide!

From Field to Freezer

Planting beans in two week intervals allows you to have fresh beans until the first frost. Interval planting also spreads out the preserving time if, like most of us, you have lots of other things going on during the summer.

The best quality beans are picked when they are young, tender beans which have only small beans beginning to form in them.

Pinch the ends from the beans and snap them into preferred sizes...bite size or left whole.

Avoid the "Not beans again!" syndrome by varying your preserving method.  These were blanched for three minutes, (dropped into boiling water for three minutes and then ice water to stop the enzyme activity) packed, and frozen.  Beans can also be dried, pickled, cured with brine, frenched, or cut in imaginative ways such as on a slant or in different lengths.

Green beans have only 44 calories in a whole cup and are packed with nutrition.  I love to eat them raw while working out in the garden.  Really refreshing!  They have vitamin K, vitamin C, manganese, vitamin A, dietary fiber, potassium, folate, and iron.  They are also a source to go to for magnesium, thiamin, riboflavin, copper, calcium, phosphorus, protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and niacin.  Wow!  They are loaded with all kinds of goodness for yourself and the kiddos.

Happy B'day Barley!

It's been a wonderful 18 years, Barley!  You've been easy to raise.  ;)  I love you!

Barley's cake toppers were a culmination of his interests over the past few years:  sheep, pilot's license, basketball, jeep, mudding, Bible, politics and Route 66.

He leaves for stunt driving school in Florida on June 19th, hence the checkered flag for the inside of the cake.

Barley memorized this poem a few years ago:

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Swiftly Flow The Years

How can this be?

Almost six foot, three

A blue cap and gown.

Born eleven pounds, six ounces

Two o'clock feedings and horsey bounces

First smile -- giggle -- words, written down.

After one week in a daycare crib

Realizing the World had told a fib

The briefcase was closed and Mamma stayed home.
Dandelion flowers, dirt piles and skates
Legos, cars, a balloon sale, check-mates
Who would have dreamed how fast he'd be grown?

Compassionate, hard working, friendly and true
They ask, "Is he this way even at home with just you?"
Yes, he's the same -- a real man all the time.
A guinea pig first born child
A lickety split Mother, his Father steady and mild
The prodigy, an objective thinker who spins his truck on a dime.

That first embrace when just a babe

And all the memories that have since been made

Seeds sown -- what a glorious reaping!

Cotton top hair, now brown, too soon grey

One thought on this graduation day

May the Lord continue his keeping.

How can this be?

A blue cap and gown.

Connie Riggs