Rain, Rain, go away....

don't know what it says on this clip art, but liked this little rainy-day picture

I wanted to get down to the end of the driveway to take some pictures of the flower beds, but twice now I get 1/2 way down the driveway with my camera and it begins to pour.  The poor daffodils are all bowed down in the wet.  I did notice the bleeding hearts have come back from last year and they are blooming.  Also I noticed some slugs on different things... gotta get those egg shells down PRONTO.

I will get some pictures on here as soon as I can.  Mr. D was out weeding the veggie garden and I cut some rhubarb to sell along with our eggs.  We have two rows of rhubarb and it's usually the first crop to come up.  We got a little asparagus last night too.  Yum. 

I want to send you to one of my favorite blogs...  Across My Kitchen Table  my friend Mrs. T has some great comments about springtime there.  She is also a wonderful "cooker" and baker and likes to share her recipes.  We have enjoyed her cooking at church dinners and special occasions.  We have twice been to their home for Thanksgiving which have been wonderful times of fellowship, fun and of course delicious food.

We have known each other for quite some time, but have only become true friends in the past few years.  I have great respect for Mr. and Mrs. T and am glad to call them friends and of course we are family... in the Lord which makes it even more special.

Hope you enjoy her blog as much as I do!

Finally a little spring

We've had some beautiful spring weather the last few days.  Yesterday and today is wet and will probably be wet the rest of this week, but last week was so nice and warm with many sunny days.  It makes the wet days tolerable.  I noticed that the new little apple trees are beginning to leaf out finally.  I was afraid for them after such a hard winter, but they are coming along.

The day before Mother's Day, our local fire dept auxillary had its annual plant sale.  We bought some wet-loving plants to put in down at then end of the driveway.  It is always wet there, but the water seems to flow right through and in the dryer season will be dry, so we picked up some more day lilies...

These are "Kwanzaa Double Day lilies.  They will probably not bloom this year... or maybe they will.  The other day lilies that we had there already have bloomed very well for the past few years.  We also got some iris...

The Siberian Iris

larger Purple Iris...

and we also transplanted our German Bearded Iris which had multiplied well, but did not do well where we had it planted because of slug attacks.

These should look pretty all together there.  It will be nice if they all fill in that wet spot.  Mr. D also went back on that Monday and asked if they had any left-over plants.  He wanted to get me another Peony.  So the lady who helps run the plant sale went to her own garden and gave him a little Rose Peony...

Of course none of these pictures are my flowers... mine look more like orphan green stems and leaves right now, but we are hopeful that they will fill in and look nice next year. 

Mr. D was able to use the Blazer to pull out all the small trees that were growing on the road-side of the rock wall over to the neighbors driveway, so now our driveway entrance looks more manicured.  I'll take some pictures when the sun comes back out so you can see the progress.

I just love to get my hands into the dirt.  Thank the Lord we have summer... makes all the long winter tolerable.

Hope you are all having a good week.

Mud Season Continues

While I was away, Mr. D strained his shoulder so is not able to lift much on one side.  This week we needed to purchase chicken feed and we get 550lbs at a time in 50lb bags.  Our driveway is impassable due to mud season.  Here's how it goes.  The station wagon is parked at the end of the driveway.  I take that to work, go at lunch to pick up the grain 'cause the feed store closes at 5pm.  Load grain into the back of the wagon.  After work I park the wagon at the end of the driveway and haul all sacks past the mud hole and into the back of the truck.  Then drive the truck as close to the coop as I can get... which isn't too close.  Haul each sack through the mud to the coop and empty it into the grain bin.  It probably wouldn't be so bad, but I'm just not used to all that hauling.  Then we had produce too.  My boots almost came off in the muck a few times too.  Once I almost fell into it.  Yuck!

It seemed quite a bit dryer this morning, so maybe soon we'll be able to drive up again.

I noticed the flowers are starting to work their way up through the soil.  It is exciting to see the green.  Down in town here the Forsythia are blooming... first flowers of spring and I've noticed a few Daffodils here and there.  Where I work is about a week ahead of where we live on the seasonal calendar.  We are just beginning to see signs of spring, but there is still snow on the ground especially in the shady spots and out in the woods.  Our little pond just opened up last week so the ducks can go swimming again... happy little ducks they are too.  The first day one of the Muscovy mommas was out there washing and preening most of the day.  We have one momma who is setting on her eggs so we'll probably have some little ones in about 3 weeks.... yippee.

I don't know if it's the same momma who gave us a bunch of ducklings last year or not.  She was sure persistant and would have raised several clutches if we'd allowed her to set more than once.  It was so hot last year we had trouble keeping it cool enough in the coop.

We will be ordering chicks in the next couple of days for delivery in June.  We need to replenish our supply of egg layers.  When we hatch out our own we get too many roosters.


APRIL 24, 2011
RESURRECTION DAY

I Corinthians 15: 12-22

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
And if Christ be not risen, then [is] our preaching vain, and your faith [is] also vain.
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
And if Christ be not raised, your faith [is] vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, [and] become the firstfruits of them that slept.
For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.




II Corinthians 9:15
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.



We had a wonderful Resurrection Day.  Very busy.  When I sat down for the morning service it was such a release just to sit and not be moving about doing something.  We had a nice sunrise service, then yummy breakfast.  I so love the fellowship and of course the good food.  Then we had Sunday school and morning worship.  After the service we came home and enjoyed a beautifully warm day.  We'd had snow on Saturday.  Though is was a little discouraging to see snow falling the day before Easter it is not unheard of around these parts and Sunday was so nice a warm that it all melted the next day.

Here's what we found...


Little babbling brook... only runs in spring and early summer
and when we get a big rain in the summer.
Sawdust is from a tree Mr. D had to remove this winter.



The pussy willows are going by getting ready for leave and green.



First harvest of spring... sweet parsnips that have over
wintered in the garden.  We had these and roast chicken
for dinner.  Very yummy.



 

little yellow wild flowers

The ladies are getting all clean... not all the snow is gone yet.

The boys are keeping an eye on their hens.  Notice how dirty
Mr. Muscovy is... he never takes a bath.  Must be a guy thing :)

I hope you all had a wonderful day with family and remembering what a wonderful gift God gave us through His Son.

Today is the last day

I have been visiting with my daughter and family in DC this past week.  I arrived on Thursday and today is the last full day.  I will be flying home tomorrow.  It doesn't seem possible that the time has gone this fast.  We have had a good time together.  On Friday evening we went to a great Italian restaurant together with a group of Heather's friends.  It was fun to get to know some of her friends.  Then on Saturday it rained all day so we stayed home and made some food and played some UNO.  Today Brandon and I went to Capital Hill Baptist church for Sunday School and church and then afterwards we took a little tour of some sites.  I had never been to the Pentagon memorial before so we went there first.  It was a sobering experience set just in front of the site where the plane struck the Pentagon on 9/11.  The youngest was a three year old little girl, the oldest a 71 year old veteran.   Each one of the 184 benches represent on person whose life was lost.  There is a small reflecting pool under each of them.  The trees which are small now will provide shade for the memorial in the days to come.  I didn't know this, but the repairs were done on the Pentagon in one year.

We also went to the Capitol building and it was such a glorious day we took some pictures...

There were even a few Cherry blossoms left and I think we must have been under one of the last ones to still be in bloom.  It took a while to get this shot, 'cause there was a group of school kids under... and in this tree taking pictures.

Everyone was out enjoying the beautiful day.  It was warm and the breeze was blowing and the sun was shining.

There's that happy face.  Even though the sun was right in our eyes.  

OK.  Now it's back to mud season in New Hampshire, but this was sure a lot of fun.

Thank you to my wonderful family for getting me out of the cold and mud for a few days.

See ya soon.

Sometimes God Says, "No".

We do not know the reasons, but we trust in a great and mighty God.  We don't see the future but He does.  We don't see dangers ahead, but He is able to take us through those times and keep us safe.

Our loan was not approved.  Because of the uneasiness of these financial times, it may be totally for the best.  We were hoping to get a lower interest rate, but what we have now it not outrageous and will be reviewed in another year anyway.  We have some decisions to make now, but I think it includes a little more elbow grease and a little more grit than we had anticipated.  I'm OK with that.  I haven't been sleeping well the past couple weeks anyway and it probably has something to do with this whole loan process.  Of course the same thing happened to me when I took my first car loan.  It's scary being in financial debt to someone else.  I know there are some who do not think we should take loans out at all.  We didn't have many choices when faced with moving in a fairly short period of time and having to find room for all of Mom and Dad's stuff.

It's just another adventure for us.  Doug and I are just trusting that the Lord knows what He's doing to and for us.  We are His children.

Keep praying please.  We really need to get stuff out of storage and it would be nice to have a home with 2-way traffic. :)

Trying to make progress

I am indeed sorry to not post in so long.  We are trying to make some progress on the land and getting set up in the house.  This is the phase I dislike the most... paperwork... but it is going well and with good help from our financial institution we seem to be going forward. 

Keep us in your prayers this spring as all things must fall into place for this to work out.  We cannot afford to not get it right this time!



Borrowed from another blog... can't remember now who, but really liked it and saved it...
one of my dad's favorite verses.

 Love ya all!

Nicest Day in 5 Months

Yeah!!!!  I think spring has actually arrived in New Hampshire.  I went out at noon for a little sunshine and it must be 50 degrees and the sun is shining and it's definately NOT snowing!!! 

This was the symbol on my computer weather forcast this morning... along with  "high 54".

Other things to celebrate today... the bank loan forms are sent... yeah!  One step closer to getting into our house and out of the tiny camper.   I was able also to get all the documentation off to the insurance company today.  Sooo happy to have those things off my desk.

I got an invite from my daughter Heather to come and visit and she'll fly me down in April.  I'm just a little excited about that.  We thought it would be on the bus, but she was able to get a great price on plane tickets, so that's very nice.

We had snow yesterday at our house, the kind they call "sugar snow".  Would have been great for making a snow man, but it made our driveway really slick and I wasn't thinking much about snowmen.  Hope that's the last of it.  For the last two days on my way home I've seen a herd of deer eating from the grassy patches in the fields above Mascoma Lake.  They're getting excited for spring too.  It was a very hard winter for all the little critters.  

Hope spring comes soon for all of you too.




http://ulocal.wmur.com/_Mud-Season-is-Beginning/photo/8056372/63455.html?enlarge=true
mud season in New Hampshire has officially begun.