Home for rent

Home for rent, newly renovated, fresh paint! Beautiful area, lots of bugs, great flight way in to home. Plenty of neighbors in the area, very nice ones, oh, and the landlord is extremely nice. So come on in! start your little home "nest" for the little ones, and if you do the landlord said she'll probably let you have it for free!

Isn't it cute? The old one fell apart so I found this one up the hill in another tree, brought it down, and painted it. We have always had bluebirds here, and they would always nest in that one box. It was so much fun to watch them. I'm not sure if they will nest in this one or not as I have seen them checking out the other homes in the area. We shall see!

Tree down

When hubby came home our neighbor came over to help with the tree. A little over two and a half hours later the tree came down. Thank goodness. We have some storms moving in so I was a little concerned with this tree. Men are such funny creatures when it comes to some things. They have to stop, discuss, work a little, stop, discuss, work a little, you get the picture! I told them two women would have had it down faster!! Nah, really they did a great job, and then hubby took one more tree out. I hate to take any trees down, but we do have a lot of trees here. It made such a big difference just seeing those gone too. It is too bad we can't burn poplar, but I have heard it makes great furniture. Of course if you want to hear something real funny during those two and a half hours I had the camera out trying to catch the "movie". I spent such a long time on we almost got it! It's coming down! that when the moment was starting to happen the camera said memory full!!!! HA! Never a dull moment!!
So I'll leave you with a few trees in bloom which I love, the weeping cherry tree

The Bradford Pear tree, beautiful white blossoms

But don't cut any branches to bring inside! The flowers smell like rotten eggs!! Sure hope the honeybees don't go here as I don't think that honey would taste very good! Lots of other things in bloom.....isn't it nice spring is here?

T-i-m-b-e-r....but when?

I have not blogged in a few days, all the pollen/mold floating around has had me a little under the weather. Anyway, we have so many projects going on around here. Well, we got the greenhouse moved, good. We have the small metal shed to move that has yard stuff in it, and the flooring is just about finished for it. Then after all this time that I have been telling hubby that he needs to build a barn it is finally being done. Actually he decided he is going to add on to the shed, but the problem with that is there are trees in the way.
One or two of these tall trees are coming down.

Will it fall through here? I hope not

It is suppose to fall through here...may or may not hit the hammock area.

So, the pulleys are all set up, hubby has been digging the root out, using the chainsaw, and that tree is still stubborn. I only hope that with the rain coming in it doesn't get the notion to fall the other way! I have been assured by hubby and the neighbor (he used to cut trees down in Wisconsin) that everything will be ok.
Let's hope so...the sooner it is down the more relieved I'll feel!!

Sunshine smiles

I call them sunshine smiles....

Hope you had a wonderful beginning of spring weekend!

Where did they go?

We have a loss at our house. This bee hive (photo from last year)which was active a month or so ago is now empty. Who knows what happened. The queen might have died and the bees flew away to die. So now we are down to one hive. I had told hubby the other day I saw no action from that hive, just a few stragglers. So, yesterday being a beautiful day we opened it up, no bees, but something very beneficial....lots of honey! We never robbed them last fall as we had too much going on, and it helped them to survive this past crazy winter. Hubby got on the phone and ordered two more 60 pound bees, they should be along in the next week or so.

A sad loss for us, but on a brighter note....Happy Spring!!!
Now I need to get back outside to
1. burn the garden
2. plant some more roses
3. work in the greenhouse
4. buy more plants
5 -101 and the list goes on!!!
Looks like a busy weekend here!!!

If the shoe fits

The other day I received a package in the mail. It was my giveaway that I had won!

Is that not the prettiest?! All hand done, and the little baby doll has the cutest outfit. My daughter picked it up and said, look mom she even made undies for it!
A big thank you to

at http://ourvictoriancottage.blogspot.com/

Thank you Marilyn! It is going in my guest room with my other Marilyn!

Don't get pinched!

I can so remember when I was a little girl saying, but mom! I have to wear green so I won't get pinched!!
So here is my green courtsey of the gorgeous socks that Petra sent to me, and notice I can dance a little jig too!!

Oh, and a big thanks to Dianna from Bits and Pieces for the Sunshine award.

I know I should pass it on to 10 people, but there are so many!! So I will say all of you are sunshine in my life!!
Hope you have a good St. Paddy's day.....now where did I put that corned beef?!!

So the story begins

It all began with this story
In the story a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster, all past their prime years in life and usefulness on their respective farms, were soon to be discarded or mistreated by their masters. One by one they leave their homes and set out together. They decide to go to Bremen, known for its freedom, to live without owners and become musicians there.
On the way to Bremen, they see a lighted cottage; they look inside and see four robbers enjoying their ill-gotten gains. Standing on each others backs, they decide to perform for the men in hope of gaining food. Their 'music' has an unanticipated effect; the men run for their lives, not knowing what the strange sound is. The animals take possession of the house, eat a good meal, and settle in for the evening.
Later that night, the robbers return and send one of their members in to investigate. It is dark and he sees the eyes of the Cat shining in the darkness. He reaches over to light his candle, thinking he sees the coals of the fire. Things happen in quick succession; the Cat swipes his face with her claws, the Donkey picks up his hooves and kicks him, the Dog bites him on the leg and the Rooster crows and chases him out the door, screaming. He tells his companions that he was beset by a horrible witch who scratched him with her long fingers (the Cat), an ogre with a knife (the Dog), a giant who had hit him with his club (the Donkey), and worst of all, the dragon who screamed in his voice from the rooftop (the Rooster). The robbers abandon the cottage to the strange creatures who have taken it, where the animals live happily for the rest of their days.
I was going to look this up, but Anne from http://elmilagrostudio.blogspot.com/ beat me to the punch so I borrowed hers! Hope you don't mind!!

So, (a little throat clearing here) ahem....30+, ok, maybe 40 years ago while going to school over in Germany we took a class trip to the town of Bremen. I finally found these photos after searching for them, and you know, they are always in the place where you looked first! Here is the statue those many years ago.

All of the classmates gathered around. One of our teachers took the photos, I believe it was Frau Mueller.

The Roland statue (a statue of the city's protector erected back in 1404 after the wooden one from 1366 burned )

Another group picture of some of us.

I have no idea where this windmill is, but I remember it was taken in Bremen

A fountain that intrigues the boys especially since it had money in it!

Oh we were all excited to see the chimney sweeper otherwise known as the schornsteinfeger. You were suppose to shake his hand as it would bring you good fortune! I wonder if I ever shook his hand? Nah...

Here is just about all of the classmates together. If you notice the girl in the very back next to the boy sitting on the statue, well, that was the first, and only time, that I had a classmate with my name!!!!

Now, many, many, many moons later here is what it looks like today

Hubby had to get in the picture too

And me

And this is as hubby said what we traveled 4,000 miles to see, along with family of course, but I wanted the photos as it would bring back memories of so long ago of a childhood class trip. Oh yes, could you pick me out in any of the photos?

Where are they going?

Today is a going to be a busy day. Lots of birthdays today, various friends of the family, and one of my very good friends. She turns 50 today, and I'm sure it will be quite a party! Thankfully we are not having a blizzard again here in the south as we did one March 13th, nor as on another March 13th tornado sirens, no, today is just a plain cold rain.
I thought I'd leave you with a picture taken over in Germany. It is an old fairy tale, some of you may know it, some may not. I'll have to look up the tale on the internet since I can't remember it unless one of my German friends do!

With my next post I'll tell you the story behind it and why my hubby said we traveled over 4,000 miles to get right here!
Now, I have to go and get fixed up!

The little girl and the Indian

I came across the cutest pictures the other day while looking through some photos. It makes you realize how time flies by so so fast. One minute they are little the next they are grown. These were taken when my cousin and her husband had come over from Germany so the family gets together and do what we always do....take them to Cherokee, North Carolina! It is a beautiful area. My daughter must have been around three maybe four when this was taken, and she is in her 20's now. Man.....I'm old! Here in this picture my mom is trying to get her to stay with the Indian. We wanted a photo with just the two of them. As you can see she's like...but mommy is over there taking the picture!

No way! I'm not staying here! Mommy!! And she ran as fast as those little legs could carry her!

Sigh,....the memories.....

A garden 20 years ago

Such a rainy day here that I went looking through some old photos. I found some that I have not seen in ages, and since it is getting closer to spring I thought that I would share these few from a home and garden show that was held in Atlanta....probably close to 20 years ago!!!
A welcome sign of spring, tulips at the door

The "wabbit" is in the garden!

A lovely place to sit and enjoy the "spring"

Don't you wish your yard could look like that?

I wanted to go to the home and garden show this year, but forgot they have it in January!! So, I missed it again. I'm always amazed though how they can have all of those plants blooming at that time! So, maybe next year, but for now I'll take a look and enjoy my spring flowers that are finally popping up!

The mobile greenhouse

This weekend was so pretty here! We had temperatures in the 60's on both days, and today we are to hit around 70! There will be trees and plants budding out everywhere real soon. One (and there are more!) of my big projects on the to do list was to move the greenhouse down the hill. So Saturday was spent cleaning it out; mostly my project as hubby had to work on our daughter's house. I won't even show you the pile I pulled out as I am still wondering why did I have all of this in there? Hubby built this greenhouse for me while we were dating so it is many moons old. First it had plastic, now it has plexi plastic, and down the hill are windows he has been salvaging that will be added to the greenhouse soon. This is a photo before we started moving it. We had to set the front on blocks and take wooden stakes to wench or level it way to the left. There is a fence in front so we would not be able to position the tractor there. That took a while.

Once it was in position we had son-in-law come out for some "heavy" lifting.

They were getting situated with the blocks. Hubby pushed the trailer underneath while we lifted the greenhouse up and slid it on to the trailer.

I can't believe it is actually on there!!!

Hubby getting started

Coming around the fence corner, trees up ahead, oh boy!

Hit a few lower ones, but it made it through

Heading down the driveway, power lines overhead

This was a scary part for me as he had just made it on the slope of the hill. I kept waiting for it to slide off!! Not only that further down the hill the lines were closer. I had to stand watch with a pole to lift the phone and cable in case it was too close. The power lines are a lot higher. Can you imagine me letting it snag the phone or cable? No way!!!!!

Backing it up into place. You can see one panel or actually several window panels put together so it can be place on the greenhouse later. Hubby is always thinking of something!

It's final resting spot. We will pick up some concrete siding for the greenhouse to sit on so the framework will not rot out. Up the hill it was sitting on bricks.

My two water barrels waiting to be attached by hose to the greenhouse. I bought about 4 of these during the drought so we could catch the rainwater. We actually have a gutter on the greenhouse too so it can drain into a barrel placed in the greenhouse.

So that was my weekend! Very busy, but satisfying work. I can't wait to start filling it with all the trays and seeds! Hope your weekend went well too!!