Rabbit Trails

The book is called : A Very Small Farm.  If you are looking for a good book to read, buy this one or check it out at your library.  It was a very pleasant read.  I like to read about what others do and enjoy.  I like to read diaries and journals, but especially this ....a memoir....... he is a very good writer and you can almost feel the wind in his trees, and smell his breakfast cooking!!! I especially liked this part.......you cannot ask somebody to build you a farm.  It just happens a little at a time.  Kind of like a flower garden.....a real flower garden.  Not one that you measured, bought perfect boards for, bought fill dirt and sand, bought four plants already blooming, placed them in the garden, then surrounded them by mulch out of a bag.  You could do a farm like that, too, but it just isn't the same as a farm emerging over the years.  You can buy a gate, but I want to hear it squeak.  You can build a barn, but I want to see some chipped paint!  You can put gravel

Look at what one quarter will buy. A chance to have ice cubes the shape of a lime circle..... a wedge of orange..... a strawberry. What have you bought lately that you're glad you spent the money on? (because, sometimes we aren't.)

When I was in grade school, my mom was MY school cook.  I of course felt like I had some liberties other kids did not....but my liberties were contagious. I always asked for an INSIDE roll.  I didn't want a corner or an outsider.  I didn't want to take a chance and get one that was a little dry or hard.  So....then everybody wanted an insider.....except a few rare kids that didn't seem to take notice.  There's always gonna be those people in the group.  How can they NOT have a preference. ??  Well, everybody makes the world go around.  There's two crusts in a loaf of bread, and the people that prefer them are usually happy......there's plenty other pieces to please everybody else. If there is a loaf of bread and I'm making toast, I prefer the piece right next to the crust. I would eat the crust for a piece of toast before I'd take an outsider roll.......and I surely want a middle piece of cake or cornbread.  Now when I'm eating my Peach Clobbe

As you can see, this is a brand new privacy fence.  Right up against our old chain link fence. We will never see Mr. Joe OR his back yard ever again.  Mr. Joe died a long time ago, but while he was alive, he would stand at the fence and talk to the kids.  When the new neighbors put this fence up, I wondered what Mr. Joe would think. The new privacy fence totally changed the feeling in my back yard.  I can hear dogs bark, but I can't see them.  The breeze has changed....and of course, it feels closed off from the world now.  Another neighbor built a privacy fence right after this one was put up.  They had a yellow lab.....now we just hear the bark.    Privacy fences can be nice.....but there is a time and place for chain link fences, too.  Or no fences at all.

The rusty wire baskets on the left, remind me of being a kid going to the swimming pool. They put your *dry* clothes in a basket with a number on it... and a pin with the same number. You better not lose the pin. The old water cooler makes me think of pictures I have  seen of family reunions at a park. Family reunions I didn't go to because I wasn't born yet. The old mop bucket was given to me by a friend in a church we used to be a member of. I used it so much with a real mop, that the wooden part wore out  and wouldn't hold the screw anymore. I still miss using that bucket. I just planted some Ice Plant from my mom's garden in it.  I hope it grows and grows. I love little gas heaters. We had a propane heater in the basement in the house I grew up in. The heat would rise to the rest of the house. I thought everybody had a basement with a propane heater in it..... I thought that until I moved to Texas. A state not famous for basements.

My sister knows me so well.  She sent all of this in a little package for me.  OK, I like jelly beans...and the little tin with the puzzle is nice, and who doesn't love old clothes pins....but the FORK!  On purpose, we do not have a *set* of forks.  Our silverware does not match.  I like it best that way.  I love to just buy ONE knife here and there....a spoon once in a while....and have forks given to me as gifts.  It's fun to get into the drawer and decide which knife, fork or spoon  I want to use for toast.....cereal.....soup....or a salad.  When somebody sets the table, somebody will probably be right behind them moving the mix and match plates around to get the one THEY want....and more often than not...somebody says something about the fork they have.  I won't use the bamboo fork and we know which one Sara would take home with her if she could.  I have a little knife with a bunny on it that I have to keep a close eye on.  If you ever come to eat a meal with us....

I've had these purple porch posts  (say that 10 times real fast) for a LONG time. I've saved them knowing one day  I would have some tea-cups and saucers to put on them like others have done in their gardens. I guess you can put water or seed in them for birds. I like old coffee pot parts and old pans better than tea-cups, so that is what we used. I don't know where I will put them yet. Still thinking, thinking, thinking.

Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the places you can, To all the people you can As long as you ever can. A smile costs us nothing. A heartfelt handshake is free. A compliment is always welcomed. Doing something big or small for others....is the best medicine.

http://www.titanicstation.blogspot.com/ My son's blog............

A Closing Thought Did you ever stop to think What makes a day seem bright? It isn't just the bright sunshine, Though, of course, that helps, all right. It's not just meeting friends you like, Exchanging news and jokes; No, sir, it's the little thoughtful things You've done for other folks. Clara Holm

Zephyr always looks miserable and crabby.  She just hardly ever has a nice look on her kitty-cat face.  Nothing seems to make her happy.  I wonder what she would act like if she were a human.  It's hot, it's cold, it's dry, it's wet, it's hard, it's soft, I want in, I want out, put me up, put me down, admission is free pay at the door, pull up a seat and sit on the floor.  Why don't you just smile?

I KNOW you are de-boning chicken. I can smell it. I can smell it I can smell it. Are you going to drop some or not? If not, why not? I'll dance for chicken.

I have a book with all sorts of fun facts and information in it. I like reading books like that because there's always a good stopping place... on just about any page. There are a couple pages in the book that have lists of the  most admired women in America. 1986-1948 Corazon Aquino Ella Grasso Corretta Scott King Lurleen Wallace Rose Kennedy Lady Bird Johnson Oveta Culp Hobby Princess Elizabeth Clare Boothe Luce Eleanor Roosevelt This is just a sample of some of the names....... just see how fleeting fame is..... I recognized lots of the names,  but very few could I explain why they were  somebody's favorites. I don't know how or why they made the list. For a little while, it had me concerned,  as if I was missing out on some great information. I was not. At about the same time I read this list, my husband was preaching through the people from Hebrews Hall of Faith! Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,  the evidence of things not seen. A

We generally make our worst mistakes  in matters which appear to us to be so plain  that we think we do not need direction from God  concerning them.   -  Charles Spurgeon

This is a bloom from the Tulip Tree! I can see it out of my kitchen window when I do dishes. I didn't even know there WAS such a tree until this year. This is Sara's rosebush.   It has the sweetest fragrance. I love to see dew on roses. Oleander Flower This little blooming flower plant was a surprise this Spring I have had fun watching it get different buds on it and then bloom. I moved it Tuesday night to get at some weeds....and some ants had made a  home for themselves underneath it....and it uprooted....and is not going to make it. I don't even know what it is so I can buy more seeds. Tulip Tree bloom after it rained. Just a lovely white larkspur. A curly little flower..... I'm pretty sure this one is a goner, too. This is what cilantro looks like before it goes to seed. Pretty little white flowers. And no, you wouldn't use them for perfume. Shrimp Plant Another Larkspur. I love these! Sara's rose in full bloom. I think this is the