Travel

When the younger Willi were here last weekend, we were talking about travel and Greg asked me about the most impressive sites from my Europe travels back in the 80's. I mentioned Germany but nothing specific. I was extremely fortunate to have been able to travel to so much of Europe (and on someone else's dime) . Traveling on business opened a lot of doors and keeping to schedules also closed them. I've been to Paris five or six times, seen Notre Dame on most of those trips but have never been inside. I've traveled to England, Scotland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and on an earlier trip Austria and Hungary. Fortunate!

But the answer to Greg's question is Switzerland - and more specific, the Swiss Alps. I had to travel to Geneva and Zurich several times and each trip was a train ride through the alps. They were magnificent!! The picture isn't mine but the sight is very familiar. I was probably at this exact place several times and it's just a hint of the mountains up ahead.

We are hoping we'll be able to make another trip to Europe within the next couple years and Switzerland will definitely be on the itinerary.

Oleander (ˈō-lē-ˌan-dər)

Isn't that a great word! It's fun to say it and it just oozes with southern charm! You can almost see the oleander plant by the front porch. And, for those my age, the old Tompall Glaser song always comes to mind - "Oleander, wait a little longer. . ." and the words get mixed up in your mind with "It's an Old New Orleans Custom" because they fit together so well.

The picture is our oleander bush by the back deck. It's been there for years and this year, it decided to bloom for the first time. They come in different colors on the pink, red, purple side of the wheel but we were happy to see that ours is white. (Sometimes it seems that I can just flash my Master Gardener card and plants that haven't done well in the past just tremble with fear and then bloom.)

Some flowers from the garden

Pancho has pretty well cleaned off my desk

so he can have a more comfortable place to sleep!

Playing with some new software

(Same picture as the one in the previous post.)

Xander's First Birthday Party

Here's a Snapfish link to my photo's from Xander's first birthday party yesterday.

It's easier to cross the creek now - a lot easier!

On the east side of the Orange Trail, crossing the creek has been difficult. Sometimes we've had just a couple boards, sometime a few boards nailed together to make a bridge of sorts, and sometimes nothing. Heavy rains can and do wash these things away. No more! The picture is of Daniel and Alex after completion of the new bridge. It's about 25 ft. long and 6 ft. wide. Some of the dimensions were dictated by the need to drive the lawn tractor across it. We needed 5 ft. of clearance between the posts and the ramps had to be gradual enough to keep the mower from bottoming out. We also had to make it tall enough to allow the water to go under it and strong enough to span the 12 ft. with no center posts. We tried several ideas and this is the final. Also, it's made from reclaimed wood. Alex had to remove a deck at a recent job and the wood was good enough to make the bridge. (It's only got about $130 in new material.)














Of course now the west bridge is looking sorta second class.

Now - about this second picture -

Alex and Daniel found this guy when we were taking the tools away from the project after it was done. We don't know what kind it is but we do know he was almost six feet long! Not poisonous!

Wood County Master Gardeners Volunteer Work

I've put in about seventy hours so far in master gardener projects - mostly at the nature preserve in Mineola and the arboretum in Quitman. The last couple weeks I've been helping with the construction of a greenhouse at the special ed building at QISD. I'm learning a lot. That's me on the ladder back there (the photo is from the newsletter). The section where the hoops are up is 30 feet long and in front of that will be a larger section, the "classroom" part, and it will be 20 feet long. When we finish this one, there will be another 100 ft greenhouse to build. Is was donated to the Wood County Master Gardeners and will be built at the arboretum in Quitman (behind the city park on the south side of downtown).

More Treehouse!

We've rearranged furniture already and it was me that did it!! The cabinets are freebies from Texas Mill where Aaron works. They're modified a bit and there's still a little work to do on them. But it's a place to store some stuff that we need to have in there. I've got a picture (of dad) and a bottle of wine to put in the treehouse now. Jules - you can have wine there but it will have to be in styro cups.

This is another 2-Post Day - but I'll put it in one

This morning while Glynda was at Bible study I spent a hour or so at the Tree House reading. It was the first time I've spent some relaxing time there alone. It was a great morning weather-wise with a temp in the lower 70's. We had about an inch of rain last night so the creek was up and the sound of the flowing water was added to the all of the other nature sounds and it was a really enjoyable and relaxing time.

The second post would have been titled "Aren't They CUUUUUUTE!!!!"

The two outside cats that have decided to call our place home have little ones! They came out from under the house today. We had suspected kittens but had seen no evidence. Now we have. Glynda, of course, fed them right away - and I'm sure the mother will appreciate that. She's been looking a bit under nourished. (Aren't they cuuuute!) But how are we going to solve the problem of having five outside cats? FREE KITTENS if anyone wants one. We've already petted them so they're sorta trained.

"Decorating" the Treehouse

OK - the rug may get nixed and removed! But it was on it's way from the dining room to storage in the shop and I thought we'd try it out. Before even considering this, Glynda and I were sitting in the treehouse having coffee and I said "I've got an idea!" and Glynda said "Don't bring that rug down here." Scary! See Bev - when you run off to PA, things can get out of hand!

Also, I put a very little book shelf in there. Paperbook size only. It could use a few more short read books - such as a Bible or Testament, poetry, famous or inspirational quotes, short story collection, etc. If you have a good book, bring it the next time you come.

Oops - one more thing. I took the deer antlers/skull out of the garden shed and put it in the treehouse too! Pretty treehousie looking if you ask me.

Somebody stop her!

On second thought - maybe not! The top one is coconut. It's for me. The next one is cherry I believe. It left the house so I didn't get a chance to find out. The next one was for Mason for his 18th birthday (chocolate I think) and the bottom one wasn't finished when I took the picture. It got topped off with strawberries, blueberries, grapes, & kiwi. Like La Madeliene makes.

Deck Make-Over

We combined the want-to of a deck make-over with a little bit of insurance money and a birthday for Glynda with the discovery of just what we needed at Lowes for a reasonable price to re-do the deck. We added matching cushions to the three levels of the deck, bought two matching umbrellas, and added a second table that, while not matching, does go well with the existing table. We're painting the wood furniture black and making a seating area under the deck gazebo and putting the existing table and chairs on the open part of the deck. There's still some painting and minor construction work to do but, overall, it's feeling pretty good!

I didn't post this when it happened

That was about 9-10 days ago. The top of the big sweet gum tree at the corner of the deck came down during a heavy wind. We were really pretty lucky. If it was going to fall, it couldn't have found a better place or time. Glynda had been on the deck 2-3 minutes before it fell. It landed right between the deck gazebo (not a scratch there) and the breakfast nook. It drove a deck post into the ground and put three holes in the roof. It also broke a couple pieces of deck furniture. With the insurance we'll come out OK. Alex and Daniel are working on the last of it today and we're taking the opportunity to put a skylight in the nook which is something we've wanted to do for a while.

Gotta Get a Rain Guage

The closest thing I had to one last night was a bucket sitting under the tree house tree. It was under the tree but still had over 8 inches of water in it this morning. Discovering that was not an easy thing to do. I first tried the east end of the Orange Trail but that was not passable at all. Jacob's Creek is about 40-50 feet wide at this point and I couldn't even get close to the ford.





So I tried the other end by the pond. Looking
down the zip line, it was covered with water from the pond to the creek. No way to get there! But then I saw movement over there - it was Bev and Alex. They had found a way. I should have known that Bev, after being away from the site for over a week, would find a way! They're right in the center of the picture. (She had to try three different roads to get home this morning because of flooding.)









This is Alex leading the way along the creek. The water has been at least two feet, probably three, deeper then it is here.


















We found this guitar shaped piece of wood when we were getting the cedar for the gables last week.


And here's Bev and Alex on our way back to the house. One end of the bridge behind them is no longer in place and we'll have to fix that!