Sap's running and I'll take some pictures of my mini syrup operation this weekend for this post.

Love ya'll and haven't forgotten you one minute.

Garden Planning

I've been busy planning the garden out for the coming year.  I placed the seed order the other day to my seed companies of choice... R.H. Shumway's and Pinetree.  I get those catalogs and the juices start flowing like sap in the maples in spring.  Feels good to just be talking about it.  Last year the Lord gave us such a wonderful harvest, that it's even more exciting to think about all things "garden" this year.

curly kale

romano beans

blackberries... I don't plant them, they just grow everywhere.

lupines also grow wild

Lutz  Green Leaf Winter Keepers - our favorites

Some of the other things we'll be planting...  squash (summer and winter), jacob cattle beans, and peas and cukes.  We don't have a lot of room right now, but that will change over time.  We just enjoy planting and harvesting our own veggies and enjoying those in the summer and all winter long. 

Yea for spring... even if we expect snow this weekend.

New Haircut

Norman's new haircut.  He's looking so grown up these days.  What a personality.  I stopped by on Monday and brought a kids meal from KFC.  He was so excited!  I love the enthusiasm... 'cause let's face it, KFC doesn't excite me too much unless I'm REALLY hungry.

Love this little guy!

Guess I don't need to add any comment to this.  Know what I'm sayin'?

Snow Day!

Nothing like a fun day in the snow.....

Wait for me... I'm coming!

These pictures were taken 2/21/15 at their apartments.  I wasn't there, but thank you again Heather and Brandon for sending me a few picture.

SOME PICTURES OF THE YEAR... SINCE SEPEMBER

Just a little "non-toxic" water coloring.  Yum.

Joanna and her little man. 2014

Warm, sunny days of summer... just a memory.  June 2014

July 2014 tubing with the youth group... was a chilly day though.

September 2014

Norman 2014

You are under arrest!

mini golf with the youth group

pumpkin carving 2014

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what to you see?

hugs

just a few silly selfies

Hmmmm seems like the wrong season for this.

night night

Uncle James... looking forward to seeing you in heaven!

Thank you Heather for chronicling some of our family get togethers in pictures.  You're the best.  I gotta get the camera out more often.

Love to all.

Happy Valentine's Day

We do not do a lot of celebrating of holidays outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I always dreaded Valentine's Day as a kid because we always had to give out cards to all our classmates and that meant we got Valentine's cards from everyone in the class too.  I was perhaps the least popular in my class and as you can imagine that caused my young mind some stress.  I always tried to be kind, but it was not easy being kind to those who ridiculed you.  I look back at those days of elementary school and I know God meant it for good for me.  I recently ran into one of my old classmates working at a local hospital.  In elementary school she wore a leg brace but was an excellent student and I guess I was always a little envious of her because of that and that she had the most gorgeous full head of reddish blond hair.  She recalled to me that the kids in school were so mean to me and it got me to thinking of things I hadn't thought of in a long time.

In our Sunday School class we have been studying the life of Joseph.  I'm not comparing myself to him in anyway because I'm sure I was never, nor will I ever be as gracious and believing as Joseph was, but the verse we are memorizing is a good verse for me to remember and I think I'll share that with my old classmate if I see her again one day.
       Genesis 50:20a  "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good,"

Well, now that I'm 60 and married to the love of my life Valentine's Day has a whole new meaning and I plan to celebrate somehow this year if the septic or the water doesn't freeze and we can get out of the driveway... supposed to snow on Saturday.  All things aside I think we'll have a seafood diner.  It's the way we celebrate anniversaries and such and Valentine's Day... we need that in the middle of the worst part of winter.

Seems fitting that this blog comes back to life in February.  I'm just thinking about spring and trying to focus on that.  I've been doing a little garden planning and thinking about doing some maple sugaring.  I need to get some more taps and buckets and hoods.  Joanna and I made maple syrup last year and this year I plan to do the boiling outside at the fireplace to make it all more economical.  I guess that will be on weekends since I do not have daylight during the week to do this.  I will store the sap outside in the stainless bucket and then boil it on Saturday or Sunday afternoon.  That's the plan anyway.

Our grandboy has been coming over and spending quite a bit of time with us and maybe I can get his assistance since he now knows how to run the snowblower.  He seems to like to come over even though there seems to be an endless amount of work to do around here.  I've been exhausted every night and all I really want to do is crawl into my warm bed.  He likes to go out and run the snowblower and he has been helping Grandpa with the sanding and plowing and getting vehicles unstuck.  When we changed the motor in the plow truck earlier he helped with that too.  He's a great kid and we love him to bits.  He even sleeps on the tiny love seat in our "living room" and stayed with us even though the toilet was frozen and we had to use a bucket or go outside.  I'm amazed that the city boy has adapted so well to country living.

I will try to write here a little more now.

Spring is on the way and I have lots of gardening plans to make.