I know it's been a while

 Not much to say when you don't do much. I do praise God for each day He gives me now.

It will be 2 years next month that my husband went to Heaven. Sometimes it doesn't seem that long; others it seems like much longer. 

Old oak leaves are falling in the wind, and the birds are singing. A short video.

And the wild blackberries are blooming. 

And the oak trees are blooming. I never really noticed before, but I was out today and I realized all the light greenish I had been seeing on the oak trees, were flowers.

The second picture is a cropped "close up". As you can tell, they are quite a way over my head.

I want to apologize for not commenting like I used to. Seems I never have enough time for everything. 

We are nearing the end of the age, I think. Though as we know, know one knows the time.

But Jesus will be returning soon, I think. Praise God for that. 

If anyone still reads, thank you. You all be safe and God bless.

Hummingbird

 I went out for a bit this morning. Mid 70s. Nice!

And I saw a hummingbird! I tried to get a video but it didn't work. Well, I could see it but I knew what I was looking for. :)

So I'll post the two pictures I think you might like.

Hummingbird and morning glory.

And a picture of the hummingbird resting on a branch.

I have bird feeders out. Not hummingbird feeders because Louisiana has enough wasps without attracting them more. But regular seed feeders. We have one sparrow that doesn't fly very well, and I think there is something wrong with it's legs because whenever it lands, for the most part, it sits on its stomach and doesn't stand on its legs. 

Here is a picture when it got confused and landed on the ramp right in front of my scooter!

One of my sons had been watching for me to come back in. He walked out slowly and the bird began flying. For a moment I thought it might land on the bird feeder, but it ended up on the lower level of the ramp. I think it mostly doesn't see so well, either. It is often sleeping at night in the bowl feeder I have.

I am thankful that the new storm in the Gulf/Caribbean will miss Louisiana. Now I pray for Florida.

You all be safe and God bless.

Crazy thunderstorms the last couple days

 Birds waiting out the rain.

After the storm.

A few zinnias.

Look at the spines on this weed!

Hurricane season starts soon.

You all be safe and God bless.

So the year is almost half over.

 Not posting much.  Still try to read blogs. Comment when I feel I have something to say. 

So, a few pictures.

I have never seen ducks perch. Sorry for the quality but as you can see it was early morning and I spotted them as we were leaving the house. 

Not sure why; but I never knew that potatoes bloomed.

For me, potatoes are the easiest things to grow. Even if you can't take care of them properly, they will give you a harvest. Thank you, Lord. :)

We have a cat that adopted us. Not sure what happened to her tail. It was like that when she said she needed to live with us. Hubby named her Punkin. She LOVES to run. Her nickname is Punkin McQueen. She also likes to climb. Yes, that is a hand truck that she likes to climb on to see where else she might be able to get to. :)

If I did it right, this link will open in a new window to show her speed...

Just wait... :)

Crawfish season is almost over. May try to get one more meal if we can. :)

Hard to believe it has been two months now. There many times when it is definitely believable. 

You all be safe and God bless. 

Around the house

 The mowing "Supervisors" checking to see where all the bugs and frogs are. :)

Magnolias are blooming.

As is the Catalpa tree.

Too bad we are in the middle of farm land. We never see catalpa worms. ..

You all be safe and God bless.

Hard to believe it's already August.

Progress is slow, but getting there.

We've gotten more stuff moved out of the house. The washer works. Only three cycles; but it's enough to not have to pay extra to do laundry now. And I already told you about the dryer, so praise God! :)

Some people who do demolition came by. They have offered to tear the house down and remove everything for the barter of keeping (or probably selling) what they can use. They have burn pits to handle the rest. I thank God for them. Years ago - seems weird to say that; but it's been 12 years since we started driving back and forth to the farm -- Hubby and I and the two boys could have given it a good go ourselves. But with health issues (not to mention lack of real training); it just isn't happening quite so much now.

The word we got today was our manufactured home might be ready by October. That would be nice.

We had some feathered visitors the other day. Coming to see what they might kick up in the mowed part of the yard.

You all be safe. Praise God for all you have. God bless.

Son spotted this while out clearing some weeds.

Can you make out the bird beak almost in the center?
A momma bird with some babies. He didn't want to get too close because she was watching him really close, he said.
The nest is on a section of our front gate that hasn't been used since we got completely moved in.
Can't really tell from the coloring what species; but it was nice to see anyway.
I imagine the thorns on the vine there offer some protection as well.

Hubby was out the other day in the pasture and said he saw both hawks in the pine tree nest, but that they flew off when he approached.
Probably to draw him away from any eggs? Or babies. :)

I really could use a flea market right now.

Bossier City Farmers Market is going to open for drive through only customers. No idea how this will work; but hubby and I think we need to find out.
Upper 70s to low 80s the rest of the week, with more rain expected Wednesday - Friday.

You all be safe and God bless!

A video from yesterday

Not sure you will hear the specific bird. It was funny. I recorded it for a sound that I was listening to. When I played it back, I was surprised at all the other sounds that I had not heard. Or was used to hearing.

However, hubby heard the repeating sound that now seemed to be buried in the background, and helped me identify it. An Inca Dove.

Our little part of Louisiana is the extreme Eastern edge of its habitat. Nice!

I hope you are all doing well. God bless

What I'm doing during the zombie apocalypse.

No wait, that's something else, isn't it?

85 headed to 90 today. Went outside for a bit. Planted some red spaghetti beans, some mini munch and sweet slice cucumbers.
And some nasturtiums. Need to get some marigolds.

Last week, I think it was, I planted some Blue Lake bush beans and some carrots. Need to plant some nasturtiums with them, too.

And I took some pictures.
Not of the planters, but stuff.

More pecan trees are blooming.

Looks like we might have a pair of hawks nesting in the pasture.

Here's what looks to be a nest in our lone pine tree.

I tried really hard to get a good pictures of the birds. Together or alone, and this is the best I could get. :-(

Hubby thinks because of the coloration, and the way the nest looks, they might be osprey, rather than red-tailed hawk; which was my first guess.

You all be safe and God bless!

Almost mid March!

Took the middle son out for crawfish for his birthday (which isn't until Sunday; but this restaurant isn't open on Sunday); he got the biggest crawfish of all we ate. :)
(Okay, we all went, including youngest son. He doesn't go out much unless we make him. ;-) )

Some photos from around the farm.

Blackberries will be ready soon.

Wildflowers have bloomed even with the cold.

I recorded this yesterday. Fairly big woodpecker. I thought maybe a pileated woodpecker in that oak tree; but I never saw it, so I don't know.



Anyway, that's it from my little piece of Louisiana. Stay warm, stay dry, be safe, and God bless. ♥

It was pretty windy

While picking pecans Saturday. And noisy, too.



Just push play and I think it will work. I don't do these often, so let me know if this is a fail, haha.

You all have a blessed week, and a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Saw this little one

When I was out picking pecans a couple days ago. Thought maybe it was looking to build a nest, but it might have just been looking for bugs.
Not sure how many we've picked so far. A couple hundred pounds or so. The rain slows us down. They don't like wet pecans, understandably, because they can fungus or mold. Same if the ground stays too wet for too long.
But we do what we can and it will all be fine.

Now we need to watch the ads for turkey sales.

Have a blessed day!

Mowing in May

So we decided to mow the pasture today. Lately I have not been having good luck with the mowers. Hubby wanted me to use our old tractor. I was a little rusty since middle son has been doing the mowing since he got here. Hubby helped me get the tractor started, I was heading out and noticed the left rear tire needed air. Then I had to look around to find the tire pump end of the air compressor. Couldn't find that, but youngest boy remembered where the portable air pump was.

Got that done and about a third of the 5 acre pasture mowed (with hubby's help on his tractor), when my tractor just quit. Shut the PTO off, let it sit a minute, tried again, nothing. Did this several times. Hubby came over. We tried a few more times. Nothing. We'll look at it tomorrow.
He told me I could use the riding mower. Got started on that, and the front right tire needed air. Then after some more mowing it needed gas. Got it filled, and it wouldn't start. Tried several things, then realized it was operator error, haha. Forgot to shut off the mower deck when I shut it off to fill the tank. Ugh!

The best part about mowing today, was we had as many as 15 helpers eager to fill their tummies. These egrets are not afraid of mowers. They will walk and run in front of tractors ten times the size of ours, if it means a meal. And it usually does!

And we had a little lady who just had to get in the way.

But as you can see it was a gorgeous, if windy, day.

In 2011, I ordered two hazelnut trees from Stark Bros. Nursery. Only one survived and decided it was going to be a bush instead of a tree. I did some reading, and this is normal for hazelnuts. Hubby kept thinking about pulling it out, but procrastination won over and I may finally get some hazelnuts this year!

We did get the pasture mowed, which was nice as we may get some rain tomorrow. Just in time for it to grow a few more inches. :)

You all be safe and God bless.

Day late and a dollar short

Just don't seem to be able to post like I did. Oh well. Went to Baton Rouge last week, and came back on Highway 1...

Sorry about the quality of the pictures. The road is actually quite a way from the nest and 'lookout' tree. You can't see it here, but there is a least one eaglet in the nest. Kind of neat. ^_^

There were some birdwatchers there, too. Cameras with lenses the length of my forearm, haha! And chairs. We had a nice talk with them before we continued the trip home.

Happy President's Day (for a few hours yet). Hope you all have a blessed week!

Only a little pier fishing

Didn't really catch anything. Small ones to throw back. A gar, that I didn't take a picture of; and a snake bird or Anhinga. Didn't get a picture of that either. Have you ever noticed that your eye can see things clearly that your camera can't? Pretty amazing, don't you think? Hubby and I were discussing that yesterday. The driver in front of us was quite obviously texting while driving. We discussed taking a picture and turning them in to the police. But the camera would have had to focus past our windshield, and past the reflection on the back window of said car, to get a picture of the cell phone in the driver's hand while they were tapping their message.
While the human eye can sort past all the distraction to see the evidence, the camera often can not. Just pretty amazing.

I did take a picture or two of where we were fishing.

The funny thing about this spot. There is a place where they obviously used to do boat rentals, but don't any more because of the huge weed infestation. One of the trees in another area actually has a sign that indicates canoe trail. I don't think even a canoe could get through this stuff. Last year they did a draw down on the lake to reduce weeds. Not sure what weeds, but it obviously didn't affect the water lilies. Some of the leaf pads were big enough you could almost imagine walking on them. I was disappointed not to see any frogs on them, haha!

If you look to the right of my fishing pole, you will see a lighter green tree between two darker ones (cypress all, I believe). The dark spot in that lighter green tree is the Anhinga. I watched it closely because the first I saw of it, it was pushing itself out of the water onto the tree and I didn't really know what was going on at the time. I lost sight for a minute, but then saw it again as it flapped its wings. That was when I realized it was an Anhinga. Then it would hop to a higher branch and 'shake' its wings again. It did this for several branches and may have well reached a top branch to sun itself dry; but we had decided to to leave before that point. All we were catching and seeing, as I said earlier, were little ones. It was 95 degrees plus humidity, so we didn't see any reason to stay longer.

Birthday and anniversary coming up. 64 and 42 respectively. Yay? Don't get me wrong, I am happy on both counts. We are truly blessed. It is just I never expected to see the decline of America. And certainly not in my lifetime.
I pray that God may take pity on us.
I pray that you are all having a safe and happy Independence Day weekend.
Please pray for the firefighters and people in or near the area of all the wild fires. Sad and scary.
Have a blessed weekend and a safe and blessed week!