Happy Birthday to middle son.

Took him for crawfish, of course. :)

And we brought home some bread pudding with chocolate caramel sauce. :)

And yes, it was all as good as it looked. :)

You all be safe out there. People are getting more crazy, if that is possible.

We will take precautions; but we are going to the flea market this weekend. Supposed to be 81 and partly cloudy. We'll see if heat and humidity kill this new flu like it does most all flues.

God bless!

So how did you spend your Tuesday?

I spent mine in the hospital getting a thyroidectomy. My ENT has been following me for a couple of years and decided now was the time.
Only the right half needed to be removed. He said the left half looked good, so no supplements right now.
mt neck is a little bruised; but it cleaned up well with hubby's help. Just waiting for the results of whatever they do when they remove something like that.

I told hubby it looks like someone slit my throat. Which, technically, is what the doctor did. Just much more nicely. When it is fully healed, you probably won't even be able to tell.
I praise God for blessing the doctors and nurses, and for His hand in my surgery.
BIL called yesterday and was surprised to hear me talking mostly normally.

Called my mom after I got home, and she said I sounded normal, so I give glory to God for that.

God willing, I'll feel good enough to go to the Canton First Monday Trade Days with hubby this weekend. We'll see.

Be safe and God bless.

Guess I should catch you up.

I don't post so much any more. Not so much excitement when you're retired. Most of it is personal stuff and I don't share a lot of that.

A week ago we went to one of our monthly flea markets. It's a nice flea market. But I think the oak trees are going crazy with all this global warming stuff.
I was, carefully I thought, going past an oak tree that had roots level with the ground. There are a lot of trees like that in this particular flea market.
Well, the tree didn't like me walking by. I tripped and fell. Praise God that I didn't break anything. My left knee is still swollen, and it aches a bit. I can walk pretty much fine.
I bruised my right knee also, but nowhere near as bad as my left leg.
I suppose if it doesn't start looking and feeling better in another week, I should go see my doctor.

But on a happier note, we went out for crawfish Wednesday night. They were great! Big, juicy, and spicy. :)

But, the season is almost over. Bummer. :(

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. God bless.

February is almost over

Been down with a cold the last couple days. Frustrating; but thankful it wasn't worse.

Went to town yesterday. When we left yesterday, I noticed a helicopter with a line hanging down and realized they were trimming the railroad right of way. My hands were full and by the time I could get my phone out, it had moved off.

Then when we came back from town, it was still on the rail line.

The photos are not the best, but you can click on them to make them bigger. The sun was kind of blinding me and I was just shooting randomly.

There was actually a line of 5 or 6 blades on that... hydraulic line? It was hard to count them between the trees and us driving 50 the other way. Saw a lot of branches down as we headed home.

It was the only nice day we were supposed to have this week. Rain predicted until Sunday. Boo for Mardi Gras rain, but I am sure people were out.

You all be safe and God bless.

I got a new toy. :)

It's called a Jaw Saw. Made by a company called WORX. It is a battery operated chain saw. It cuts logs, branches, and small saplings up to four inches in diameter.

I tried it for a bit today. Would have done more, but had to poison some fire ant hills first.

I LOVE IT!

Hubby had a scare this evening. He thought he might have cracked a rib. Fortunately, he just bruised his side. Thank you, Lord!

The VA is dragging their feet over everything lately. Ever since VA health care supposedly is starting to improve, it has gotten noticeably worse here. Trusting in God to get things done in His time. :)

You all be safe and God bless. ♥

Not a big post.

And no pictures; but hubby is continuing to improve. Praise God! :)
There is a flea market in Greenwood, Louisiana that we haven't been to in months because hubby hasn't been able to walk well enough to go. We went today and we walked about a mile. He didn't need to take a break to sit down, and was able to stop and look at things, or talk to people.
When we got back to our van, he commented that he felt really good.
I thank the good Lord and all your prayers and thoughts for that.
Be safe and God bless.

A quick, belated update

Hello everyone. We are home. Hubby got released yesterday. We made the drive home safely and before a big storm hit.
I am a little bummed out that we left in a freeze and we got back to another freeze; but I trust that God will bring us through it again.
Hubby has started eating more. We are glad to be home. He doesn't follow all the directions; but he mostly does. I try not to stress and remind myself that God is in control.
Thank you all for all your prayers and good thoughts. They did and do help.
God bless, be safe and have a wonderful weekend. ♥

I believe the prognosis is good.

Hubby's surgery went well. About 12:30 this morning he was using a lot less morphine for pain. Dr. will put him back on pain pills today. The morphine was to help him get through the first night after his back surgery.

His pain had gotten really bad recently, so even though his back was cut open, taking the pressure off the nerves has made a great difference.

Thank you, Lord!
And thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.
Be safe, stay warm, and God bless.

Happy New Year!

I hope it was a safe New Year's Eve for you all. :)

This time tomorrow, we will be back in Baton Rouge, getting ready for hubby's back surgery. It has been changed three times now. January 3rd at 3 PM. That bothers me, since hubby is diabetic and he can't eat before surgery. I think it will be a long one, too, as he is having four procedures done at once; but I need to have faith and leave it in God's hands.

Please keep us in your thoughts; and if you are so inclined, we could use any prayers you care to send our way.

Have a blessed New Year. ♥

Our weekend began Thursday

Because we wanted to go to Bass Pro Shop in Denham Springs and Northern Tool in Lafayette. We found everything we were looking for. The good news is they will open a new Northern Tool in Baton Rouge soon (whatever that means), so it will be one trip to Baton Rouge/Denham Springs for that.

Friday, hubby stepped on a piece of glass in the spare room that we have no idea where it came from. I have been in and out of that room, barefoot, dozens of times with no problem. He was in and out of the room in his stocking feet several times before he stepped on it. Being diabetic, that meant going to urgent care for antibiotics; and the doctor wanted to be sure there were no glass fragments.

Our new love seat came while we were at the VA. The boys took care of that for us.

In spite of all of that, we have a lot to be thankful for.

Only a little rain. Nothing like Iowa this time, or North Carolina.

Hope you all have a very blessed weekend.

Travel day

Went to Lafayette for hubby's second appointment with his new endocrinologist. All his blood work was in the normal range, and some liver marker was absent, so all is good there.

Had a LOT of rain on the way back, some so heavy traffic was about 10 miles an hour on the Interstate.

No pictures of rain, but I did take a couple pictures of the sky between downpours...

What a scary, crazy world we live in. Be safe. May God bless and protect you all.

Hubby has a new Endocrinologist

They agreed he should start on insulin for his type 2 diabetes. It was hubby's suggestion. Most of the other medicines have side effects he doesn't like.

Saw this bush outside the hospital when we arrived. They had a dozen or so of them. Has anyone seen a bush like this before? So pretty!

The flowers(?) looked like they had gold sparkles all over them.

My thoughts and prayers to the people of Eastern Texas.

Hope all of my readers are doing well. Have a blessed weekend! ♥

So is rain a lamb or a lion?

Went to the flea market in Baton Rouge yesterday. Got a late start. There was lots of road work to get around.

Went to Bass Pro Shop. Bought one of those jerky shooters that uses hamburger. Now I get to learn how to make it with ground meat. Been making our own jerky since roughly 1975 when I found a recipe in the Wednesday Sacramento Bee for making jerky. We'd always enjoyed the 'shoe leather' that passed for jerky, so we thought we'd try it. We bought a Rival meat slicer (still the best one we ever had. New ones are too bacteria prone), bought the flank steak (it was way cheap back then), and followed the recipe exactly. Hated that first batch, haha.
Since then, I only use three things. Soy sauce, liquid smoke (has to be Wright's), and garlic powder.
But hubby has a denture plate now, so he can't enjoy it like he used to. Bought a little hand tenderizer the other day. That actually worked okay. When I use that I have to learn how to adjust the marinating time. And the drying time.
Now I get to learn that for the hamburger jerky.
Should be interesting.

Have figured out that youngest boy has a wheat allergy. So now I make his jerky with a wheat free soy sauce. Who knew soy sauce had wheat? I do now. Among so many other things. Even claims of wheat/gluten free aren't necessarily true.
But enough of that for now.

On the way back hubby saw something in a tree. What he thought he saw, I won't say, but I didn't think it possible, so we went back to look.
We saw a couple of these in trees (lots of bayous, and deep water ditches between Baton Rouge and home).

It's the juvenile version of the Anhingha, or snake bird. :-)

And back to the title of my post. For those of you, where it is freaking cold and snow covered, here is how March came in for us here in Central Louisiana.

Here's to spring!
Have a blessed week all. ♥

P.S. I tried to fix the video sound, but it doesn't want to be fixed. Annoying. If you have me on Google +, you can here the sound. If not, this link should take you to my you tube account where you can hear the sound of the rain on the tin roof. :-)

If that doesn't work, let me know and I'll try again!

Wow. Two days into December.

Time for a little update, I guess.

Been picking a few pecans. Price is 60 cents a pound this year, and they aren't buying the little ones. Go figure. Back in '94 they paid more for the little ones, now they don't want them.
There are still pecans on some of the trees;

We have a tree in the center of the pasture with a lot of... little divot holes around it.

A dozen or so of them. Hubby speculates an armadillo has been finding some good eats in the holes.

Hubby is doing well, pacemaker wise. However, he's had to have two root canals and his back and feet are bothering him more. We are feeling really blessed though.

A road from the past...

I know I've posted about this before, but I felt like doing it again anyway.
The whole driveway used to be paved like this. And paths to the out buildings were made of the same bricks. As we speculated when we put the water line in, most of the bricks have sunk down. The ground is soft (except when you want to dig a hole!) from the higher water level. And before the levies were built, the farm used to flood.
This section, another smaller section closer to the cattle gap, are all that's left of the driveway and walkways. The rest will be left for future excavators to find...

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful, safe December. ♥

Random Things

We went fishing on Fort Polk last Thursday. They have a small lake there. We only caught a couple small bream, which we tossed back; but apparently there is a small herd of wild horses there. We saw them in the woods, and while we were fishing, they came out to feed on the grass at the park.

The horses are a reminder of Fort Polk's calvary past. Apparently the numbers in the herd go up and down and people on the base get upset when the government tries to get rid of them altogether.

There are a lot of 'mushroom villages' around the property. Last month they looked like this.

Now, they look like this.

Larger, and darker. As you can see in the second photo, fire ants have taken over one of the 'townhouses'.

It's pecan season.

The collection is mediocre. Partly because we are doing better financially this year, so we don't need to sell them to make it until the end of the month; and partly because hubby is still not 100%. So I spend more time in the house watching out for him.
There are a lot that still need to ripen and fall, too.

Hubby makes a great peach pie! This from a person who didn't like peach pie until he started making them.

Hope you all have a blessed week! ♥

Going to make myself post.

Haven't felt like sharing much, plain and simple. I've tried to keep up with you all; but as most of you know, that hasn't worked either.
Such is life.
Too much craziness in the world.

Anyway. We are mostly over our colds, but they keep hanging on.

Hubby went to the dentist Thursday. A few weeks ago, he broke a tooth on an ice cream cone! A plain, old fashioned ice cream cone. I still don't understand that one; but he did. It caused the tooth next to it to break, too. The reason is he has a partial upper denture plate and these were the teeth that held it in place.
As you know, he just recently got a pacemaker. Going to the dentist is now an adventure that his cardiologist has to approve. For a while he made do without and was doing well. But he could tell he was starting to get an infection. Very not good. So after many antibiotics, Thursday he saw an Oral Surgeon, to be more specific. That dentist removed the two broken teeth and did the required root canals. Now hubby has another weeks worth of antibiotics to be sure this does not affect his pacemaker.

I don't worry. Much. I pray a lot though.

It's pecan season. As soon as the dew dries, I need to get out there and get busy. No side tracks today. Got rain coming later in the week. They're forty cents a pound right now. Every little bit helps.
Not feeling the holidays. More anxious and annoyed than anything.

Well Wayne, I surprised myself and made a meatloaf. As I posted here (ages ago, I know, sorry); that my brother gave me our Granny's cookbook. I thought the first thing might be to try baking bread with it; but I barely have time to make jerky. And anyone who knows us, knows how much I (my family, more to the point!) like making jerky. Heck, we just went fishing for the first time in over six months. I actually can't remember. Last year sometime.
But I sidetrack, sorry.

Anyway, I found a meatloaf recipe. This one.

I substituted mushroom soup for the vegetable soup; because mushroom soup is like bacon for hubby. And we didn't have any corn flakes, so I used Chicken-in-a-biscuit crackers as that was the only crackers I had. (Hubby and youngest boy like those, too.)

Here it is in the pan. Hubby's artwork. ;-)

I like the meatloaf more domed, he likes it more loaf. At any rate, it turned out great! Very flavorful. A bit crumbly, as the bottom was a little too moist. I should have used more crumbs maybe. We will definitely try it again. Oh, I left out the salt and pepper. Everyone seasons as they like. And I didn't baste it, either.

I did remember a picture before it all got eaten.

We haven't been able to find anyone to work on the roof for us, so we need to get another tarp back up there. Looks like a few days of rain coming next week, if the weatherman is right.

I'll try to post more often, but no promises. You all know how that goes. Take care and have a blessed Sunday. ♥

Well

Sorry. Haven't posted lately. Not much to post. We've all been sick. Youngest is still sick. We needed to go see the SIL in FL, and the boys in NC.
I think I am finally on the mend. Hubby had a bit of a relapse today. Hoping it was only temporary.
We are actually taking our time this trip. I'm glad. Keep us from wearing ourselves out.
Hubby is doing well after his surgery. Now it's his back again.
Bad weather in the forecast tomorrow, so not sure if we will make it home tomorrow or not. Will catch up when I can.
Have a blessed week!

A jungle

of Spider Lilies...

:-D

Hubby tried using his tractor today. He is disappointed he could only ride it for a little bit. It is too jarring on his shoulder right now...

Have a safe, blessed week, all! ♥

Think I'm getting a cold

Found these cute, so I thought I would share them with you all.

Day 13 for hubby. I have slowly been letting him do things, all the while harping on him to be careful. So far, so good as near as we can tell.


Happy Wednesday and God bless. ♥

Men!

I was out mowing around the pecan trees in the pasture. I saw the youngest boy take the tractor over by the barn, so I went over to investigate.
Me: "What's up?"
YB: "Didn't you send me a text message?"
Me: "Nope. What's up?"
YB: "Must have been Dad then. I got a message telling me to hook up the rake."
Me: "Oh. Why?"
YB: "Just said hook up the rake."
Me: "I hope your dad isn't thinking of using the tractor..."
YB: "He better not!"
Me: "Exactly."

So, I went into the house. Hubby was in his chair, watching TV.

Me: "So what's going on?"
IH: (Innocent Hubby) "What?"
Me: "You asked youngest boy to put the rake on the tractor. Are you thinking of using it?"
IH: "Yes..."
Me: "I don't think so."
IH: "Darn."
Me: "I'll send youngest boy in, and you can tell him what you wanted to do."

Now hubby is miffed at me. Better him mad at me, than me mad at him because he ENDED UP BACK IN THE HOSPITAL FROM BEING STUBBORN!

Ugh.

Hope you are all having a wonderful, blessed, safe week so far! ♥