You've Heard About Working Smart?

Those of us in the know have all been bemoaning the upcoming task of getting the wood for the treehouse from the closest spot you can drive a trailer to the building site. There is a lot of wood and it's pressure treated wood - that means it's heavy!! Going by way of the trail, it's 200-300 yards. You can cut that in half by going in a straight line - but that's through the underbrush, across the creek, and up the hill. I was on my way there this morning to begin working on it. I heard noises as I approached and it was Daniel, hacking a path - but not for carrying the wood. He was working on clearing a path for a zip line.

Leaving out quite a bit of detail, within an hour or so we had a zip line ready to carry the wood. We still had to load it, push it through the woods, and unload it. Daniel only did about 95% of the work but I was there to encourage him. At the end of the day all of the wood, except one piece, was at the treehouse site. (We left the last piece of wood for Alex cause he's really gonna enjoy zipping that through the woods, across the creek, and up the hill and he'll be even more appreciative of Daniel's execution of a really good idea that saved us all a lot of work!!) In the picture Daniel has two 16ft long deck boards ready to go!

Jacob Hayes Scholarship Crawfish Boil

Lots'a crawfish, lots'a folks, good music, good time!

This is a Three Post Morning

The first one's about mom. I've been reading some of her diaries from the 1970's and have discovered a couple definitions. (1) Any breakfast served at home and involving other adults is a "leisurely breakfast" to the diary world. (2) Also, any meal eaten away from home but not in a restaurant is a "picnic". She had a lot of both! (Sorry mom.)

There's a New Dot on the Hummingbird Migration Map

I reported it this morning. Our first hummingbird of the year stopped by for food this morning. (The photo's from last year.)

Birds and their dwellings

I built three of these very nice birdhouses. This kind is dimensioned specifically for bluebirds (I'm not sure how the other birds are suppose to know that) but my three nice birdhouses are vacent.

This nice little birdhouse by the pond is primarily there for decoration but a chickodee was very intersted in it a few weeks ago and went in and out of it a number of times but it too is vacent.

However, in the eve of the carport we have a happy home of some unknown bird and her several eggs.

And, in the tractor shed, we've got a condo building with three new, little nests all in a row!

So How Observant Are You Really!

I'm guessing that you'll miss over half of the important things in this picture. You probably see Beverly raking up stuff to burn and you probably see the fire and, of course, you see the big special tree. But do you see those other little things that really tell you what's happening here? Look at the second picture below to see what you missed!

I Need Help!

I've been cleaning out the shop for the last couple days and probably have a couple more days to go. It's one of those major cleanings where you go through boxes and throw away everything you can. It's the first time since we started building the addition that we now live in.

The problem - I just came across mom's diarys 1950's to 1980's. What do you do with those? Whose going to read them? Then you read bits like:

"Saturday, May 9, 1981 - Alex and Beverly got here a little before noon - then Jim & Glynda came. Had lunch - Then Beverly, Glynda & I went to Whitesotten's Greenhouse to get some plants. Real rainy day so they didn't get to ride horses until it cleared off some in aft. Later Bev, Jim & I played scrabble and they beat me like crazy! Ray & Alex played chess. This evening we just yapped & Alex played the guitar."

"Thursday, June 4th, 1918 - Got up early today and really got busy. Washed three loads of clothes - did a lot of housecleaning. Doris called this aft. to tell us that Aunt Effie passed away a little after noon."

Friday, November 27th, 1981 - Busy cleaning the house this morning - Then about noon - Jim, Glynda, John (their friend from England), Bambi, Jennifer, little Jimmy all came. We fixed and ate a bite of lunch - then they rode the horses and stayed outside nearly all aft - since it was such a pretty day. Bambi and I baked some pies - then we fixed supper, ate, & spent the evening visiting."

"Friday, December 18th, 1981 - Real cold this morning so we couldn't go anywhere. Worked on budget this aft. It warmed up some so we went to Nocona to run errands and get groceries."

Anybody want some old books?

A Recent Addition at the Beaver Outlook

Idea by Aaron, execution by Glynda and Aaron!

Yesterday's Master Gardener Class

Yesterday's class was a two-parter. The first half was conducted by Chris Wiesinger and it was on southern bulbs. Chris has been dubbed "the bulb hunter". His thesis at A&M (2004) was about starting a company that specializes in southern heirloom bulbs. The deal is, he then went out and did it, The Southern Bulb Company ! And he's just a few minutes from us in Golden. Chris is now an internationaly recognized expert that commands high speaker fees and is booked through the fall. However, he still lives in a little cabin on his farm and does most of the work there himself including the propagating, growing, harvesting, packing, and shipping. And he's a really nice guy. But all that's another story.

The second part of the class was on Native Plants - and native to Wood County. It was a fascinating class. One of the local Master Gardeners talked about plants that grow wild in our area and about native plants that she planted "along the path in the woods" at her acreage. The list she discussed had 37 plants on it. When I got home I had to take a walk down the Orange Trail. I wanted to look at one plant in particular but, on a first walk through (with no notes), I found seven of the 37 enjoying a home here.

At the part of the trail that's the furtherest from the house, there is a very large area filled with this plant. I've been calling it an umbrella plant because of the shape. In the presentation, it showed the plant with white flowers and that's what I went to look for - and they were there - down under the leaves. It's really unusual. Now I know that the plant is Mayapple (it fruits later), or Podophyllum peltatum. Greg and Jill noticed these when they were here.

Another plant that I found in abundance is Red Buckeye, Aesculus pavia. I was looking at them first because of the leaves but then found some blooming. The flowers and leaves will all be gone by August.

It's a bit hard to see in this picture but the white blossoms are on our second dogwood tree. We knew we had one but this is further from the house (and along the trail).

Do You Know What This Is?

It's a farm on Farm Town in Facebook. This one belongs to the friend that got me into it. (But that IS me out there visiting it!) Farm Town requires diligence and patience. I tried it out on Bambi but she wasn't too thrilled. She planted five plots and when I looked in on her farm a couple days later nothing had been harvested and her crops had all rotted in the field!! It's a strange thing about this but it looks like over half the people playing are from the UK. That number's not from a controlled study or anything but it becomes obvious after working the site for a while.

Max - the magnificent!

To learn more about this incredible animal, talk to Caroline or Ren! Ask about adoptions. The story began yesterday. All four of the younger Willi arrived for a visit. At the same time, Max (who wasn't Max at the time) came boldly walking in the back door just like it was his house. It looked like they came together. That wasn't the case. But, they left together!

A Tall and Massive Oak Tree

. . . along the Orange Trail. A really impressive tree that could hold up a lot of weight! And that's all I have to say about that.

Pay it Forward

So, here's how this game works-the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade or bought gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise, unless you have something in mind! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or be lazy and copy and paste like I did). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift. I think this is gonna be fun! :)

A Beaver Post

Glynda and I took our afternoon break at the pond deck and got in some beaver watching. He's definitely doing something under the pier. There's a swimming beaver picture, a feeding beaver picture, and a beaver tail picture. We walked over to the pier while he was under it and he sorta let his tail hang out. (it feels just like it looks!) BTW - the water is still muddy from the recent rains and there are also lots of little bits of plant material on it from the budding out of tree leaves.

Here's the Picture From a Litttle Different Angle

The impetus for the building of this was to provide a safe alternative to a treehouse for the kids. It can still serve that purpose well but we've already found that it can be very nice for adults too. When I got home from a Master Gardener's work day today, no one was home. Glynda was at Bible study and when I went to the pond to take these pictures, Aaron was sitting out there with his cup of coffee enjoying the beautiful morning and the sounds of the birds.


Alex, Daniel and Aaron built this yesterday. I helped with a little lumber toting, etc. when I got home from class. It's a great place and already begging for a name, just for brevity and specicifity when referring to it in conversation, - BOD (beaver observation deck)? POD (pond observation deck), WOD (wildlfe observation deck - since we've already seen the beaver, turtles, ducks, bass, and catfish from it), or change all the "D's" to "P's" and substiture the work "post" for "deck". I don't know! Anyway - I do know there's going to be lot of enjoyment realized here whatever we call it.