Birds Eye View

This weekend was kinda for the birds! Literally..... you can really tell Spring is here. This is our new momma-to-be at the White house. What a proud momma she is too. Just ask her, or better yet try to get close to her eggs!

The first day we found the eggs there were three but one more has been deposited in the nest in the last two days. It is amazing how much like gravel the eggs seem to look. And why in the world do these birds think a road is a good place to make a nest? Or precisely 4 inches from the road like this momma bird has built. She is very protective of her nest whenever anyone comes close.

These little guys are really good at faking all kinds of injuries in hopes of leading you away from their nests. Mother Nature is truly amazing, huh?

They try all kind of antics to get you to just 'get away' from their nests. Those antics include a lot of crippling around and a lot of squealing or screaming or whatever kind of noise a kildeer might make.

And then there are the humming birds. Our first one showed up last week on Wednesday.... or that is when I think it was. I hope he left to tell all of his friends about the good food at the White house.

This is not recent a picture but must one of many from last years birds. I sure hope those guys remember where they dined at every day last year.

We are also enjoying visits from bluebirds. Not sure if we have any birds nesting yet as the sparrows won't seem to leave them alone.

They sure have been looking into it though. For now... enough about the birds. I am falling asleep at my computer so it is time for bed. Until nest time... I mean next time :)

Keepin' Our Fingers Crossed!!!

This is how our flowerbeds are looking right now! I hope they still look this way in the morning. I would sure hate for them to look this way! The weather men have been calling for a freeze for tonight but I hope dearly that they are going to be wrong 'again'. Things are greening up nicely in my beds and I have been digging and dividing a lot. I have not planted much just yet... hopefully next weekend I can get started! Brad would probably like to have the flowers gone that are sitting around, on the dryer,on the windowsills, on chairs in the dining room, on tables at the windows in the bedroom, in the back of my car...... etc.

As you might guess, I am not by nature a shopper. Not clothes, not shoes, not purses, but look out when spring comes..... my Jimmy stops automatically at all greenhouses. For my pocketbooks' sake I am trying to get a lot of perennials established in my flowerbeds. I will still have to buy some annuals because they provide longer periods of color. This is one of our many friends hiding amid the perennials that are popping up in the gardens. Ha! Brandy will be after me when she sees all the things hanging out in the garden. Hopefully things will be growing fuller and fuller so she won't see quite as many 'things' when she gets home.

Boy, I sure do love Spring! These are just a few of the reasons!

Burning Grass! I think that there is a little pyromaniac in all of us. Just think how pretty and green everything is going to look in a few weeks.

Gorgeous flowers! I just can't get enough of 'lookin at flowers'. They do it for me!

And then there is the Birds! I can't wait for the hummingbirds to come! I know there was a 'sighting' last week. Cold little guy, I guess.

These are actually Hummers from last year but I know that the same ones will surely return to the White house this year. It was quite a sight last year to be able to see the number of birds we had feeding at our feeders. I have also seen Bluebirds out the living room window. I sure hope they are building in the houses. The sparrows have been causing a little bit of a problem in the bluebird house and also in the Martin house. We are just now trying to attract Martins and not being too successful at it as of yet. Between the sparrows and the starlings building in the Martin house we haven't exactly enticed an abundance of Martins. As a matter of fact we have seen zero Martins so far.

That's enough about what I like about spring. Here's what Brad has gotten done in the last couple of weeks. Last weekend we got a skid steer for the day and boy did Brad ever stay 'hooked up'! He built more on the retaining wall behind the house....

hauled Mushroom compost to all of my flower beds...... (and then spread it by hand...yeah!) This was a job I was sure I was going to get to do but when I got home from work Monday it was done. Now all I have to do with it is stir it into the beds. He hauled dirt to the new bed he built a couple of weeks ago and hauled off a lot of junk! Thanks again for letting us bring it home, Mike. What I wouldn't do to own a skid steer. Ha! There might be a few things I wouldn't do.

That was all last weekend. This weekend we went to some friends and took down their old cedar patio cover or portico or whatever you might want to call it. I thought surely I needed the old wood for something??????????? Not sure what Brad thought?????????? But, here is what I got.

Some old wood!!!!!!!!!!!!

But this is the new project so be sure and attend the Garden Tour on May 31st and June 1st so you can check it out when finished.

You guessed it! Another flower bed!

Rocks, Frogs and Fetishes

I definitely have all three. I have a lot of rocks, I am collecting quite a few frogs, and I have a fetish for both of them. The frogs that get to make their home at the White House have to be pretty special though. As for that matter, so do the rocks. My husband and I have spent quite a bit of time searching for rocks. Not only in our state are we finding rocks (certainly not Osage County though) but we have also brought quite a few nice rocks home from Kansas as you might have seen in my last post. The last load we brought from Kansas was a total of four rocks on one trailer and we had a nice surprise from one of those rocks. Check this out! Buffalo....Bison.....Ta Tanka!
It is hard to believe what you can find in a rock! The minute we picked this one up with the winch truck I saw the buffalo. It was especially eerie when I used the water hose on it and where the hair is a different texture on a real bison so also is this rock a different texture. As you can see the color is darker and the rock has a real rough feel to it. You will just have to check it out at the Garden Tour in May! Unless you just want to drive by and you can see it from the road.

This is one of my numerous and fun frogs resting among the plants in my flower beds. Looks like he might have eaten one too many flies. Maybe a trip to Weight Watchers might be on the


agenda soon! I sure hope I am not getting too much 'stuff' in my flower beds because my daughter, Brandy, who for now I will refer to as my 'stuff police' would sure not approve. Brandy was just home for a short visit last weekend and she helped me to see that there were a couple of things that needed to be moved out of sight and maybe some other things that might need a different color of paint. Kids can sure open your eyes, huh?


We have a wonderful neighbor who is helping us with the heavy part of our rock collecting and what a help he has been! This is Earl in the big Ford tractor and he is great! Thanks Earl! We couldn't do it without you.
Not sure if Oatmeal cookies are enough payment for all his help but I will sure try to get plenty of those to him.


Sometimes it is a little tricky get these big rocks moved around and put where we want them but between my husband and Earl and the big Ford it can be done! Brad always figures out a way to do whatever I seem to need done. He might not always like tackling the project that I come up with but he doesn't complain much. He is just as excited about this Garden Tour thing as I am. Of course.... check back on June the 2nd and see if we are still speaking or not. Ha! It will surely be time for a vacation about then. Hello Albuquerque....

The flower beds are starting to show some promise. Little green things are popping up all over. I have been dividing perennials as fast as I can and if you are reading this and think you might have starts of anything I need don't hesitate to call me. (hint, hint) I am shredding a lot of leaves and stirring them into my beds and I just got a 'big' load of mushroom compost for Miami and hope to get a skid loader shortly to haul that stuff around and put in my beds. Skid loaders are also very handy to go find rocks with too!!
The daffodils have been spectacular this spring and they have made my view out my living room window wonderful. Too bad they can't hang around until the end of May. Hopefully there will be some stuff in bloom for the 'tour' but it is at a funny time. It is too late for spring bloomers but a bit too early for most of the annuals I plant and also for most of my perennials. I hope everyone like to look at ROCKS! They stay in bloom at my house all year round.

I sure hope the hummers decide to come and dine with us this year. They will make a special addition to our place. Last year we were blessed with probably 30 or 40 at a time and it was a blast! Since I now have a new camera, I can't wait for them to return for photo sessions.
Last year I took a lot of pics and got some decent ones so I hope I can improve on that this year.
So far, I have been good and not bought hardly any flowers to put in my flower beds. I am not a shopper any other time of year but just let spring come and look out greenhouses! Of course... it is too chancy (not sure if that is a word) to put stuff out yet. And... that doesn't include the 2 new trees I bought or maybe I forgot to mention a few new shrubs I bought. But.... they are not flowers so they don't count. Look out April 15th. I also am scheduled to go to the Sand Springs Herb Festival in a couple of weeks but I don't plan to carry any money with me. Ha! That is such a good show! Not just herbs but a lot of other things also.
Enough for now. I have homework to do. It is a good thing it is raining outside or Business Math wouldn't win today.

Another Weekend.....

Another weekend has came and went at the White House. I'm not sure whether we have made much progress, but it seems like we stayed fairly busy. I spent probably six hours working in the flower beds on Friday afternoon and got quite a bit accomplished. I am dividing perennials, moving things and just cleaning up the beds in general. Green Things are starting to pop up all over the place. Some of these things belong in the flower beds and some of them don't! I'm not sure if I have ever discussed the fact that I have a rock fetish or not.... but there it is. I do. As you can tell by previous postings, my flower beds have a lot of nice rocks in them and we have done a lot of hardscaping with rocks we have gotten around here. I had a friend call me Saturday morning and give me a phone number for a guy who had some 'big' rocks he needed to get rid of. So... off to Kansas I went to look at rocks. We went and took and look at his 'big' rocks and of course I told him that we would come and get them. You know what today was like, huh? Busy. We hauled a load of rocks and then our nice neighbor came over with his tractor and helped us to unload them. The hard part about bringing home a trailer load of
rocks is that you have to decided what to do with them when you get them home. Every rock seems to have its own personality so you have to really study it to figure out what it is trying to say to you. We came home with a couple of really nice ones so if you are interested in seeing what we have don't forget the Garden Tour at the end of May. We are planning a few new projects which we certainly hope to have done in time for the tour.

Here's my neighbor with his big Ford tractor helping us to unload this rock. This rock really looked like a Kokopelli Indian head but that's not what it is going to be. It sitting on its side and is going to either end up being a chicken, a horse, or maybe a small camel. That remains to be seen. I also don't know how to spell Koko whatever Indian. So if anyone knows.... let me know.

Check out the next rock that we are going to 'TRY' to bring home. I hope to get home with it without my brothers seeing what I intend to haul with their trailers. Ha! This is a really nice rock and we already know what it is... we just don't know where to put it. Where ever it goes it will have to stay! BIG rock, huh? It sure made

this truck work hard. We moved it up close to the road so we could try to go back and get it before too long. I hope someone doesn't drive by and decide they want it worse than I do. I'm thinkin' I might be okay there...ha.

Most weekends around here are fairly uneventful but this one seemed to have a lot of things going on. I went to visit a friend Saturday morning before the 'rock viewing' and got in on helping to bring a new baby calf into this world. He was kinda stuck and needed a bit of help so that is just what we did. I think his mom was really happy that we were around to help her out. (although she didn't act happy) This was her first baby and I bet she wasn't expecting things to come out like they did. Bet she doesn't do that again for awhile!

Speaking of baby calves.... Brads' brother had a momma cow that gave birth to twins this week. The new babies are so cute. I just love them at this age! Momma Cow decided that she only wanted to be RESPONSIBLE for one of the twins though and firstborn was the lucky one. "This is me 'Firstborn'. Lucky aren't I? I really do miss my little sister but I be she is going to get most of the attention. I can already tell because I see a lot of people stopping at her pen to pet her and check her out. Don't forget me... I am the cute one down in the pasture with my MOM!"

The second calf looks to be a little smaller but not for sure..... see what you think. She sure is cute! She seems to think whomever is closest to her is her mommy. You can barely see her in this

picture she is so tiny, but not to worry she is eating good and will be fine. Both of the little ones have a heart shaped marking on the forehead. It doesn't get much better than that!

Bare with me on this blog because I sure have trouble loading the pictures on here. If any of you are any good at this I will take any and all help! But.... that is that and now it is time for bed so good night and good bye until next time.

Blow Wind Blow

This has sure been a normal Oklahoma winter. If you don't like the weather just wait a minute and it will change???? Everyone is expressing the same sentiments..... Come on Spring! I know it is just around the corner.... things are popping their heads up in my flower beds every day. We are trying to start doing a few things outside so we can get ready for the garden tour but Mother Nature is just not quite ready to cooperate. I know it will get here soon though and then 'look out yard here we come'.

There are indoor projects that we can do to get ready but.... I hate indoor projects! Except maybe this one. I found this idea in a Backyard Living magazine last month... Pretty cute, huh? Can you guess what it is.... a bowling ball! Since I am unable to use it in the form it is meant to be used in (strikes you know) I painted it and put it in my garden. My family and I have been bowling a couple of times lately and I am doing pretty good at it. Surprise, huh? I probably have about a 175 average now! I think that is pretty good shooting, don't you? If you say 175 fast and maybe leave out the 1 ...... that's my game! I throw some darn good gutter balls.... just ask anyone bowling with me.

I had a bit of trouble painting this ball so I am now working on it again. When I opened the black paint it was a bit clabbered but I thought surely if I stirred it and closed my eyes it would be okay to go ahead and use it. Not! When I put it out it started flaking off the first hard rain. I hope it is the black that is the problem and not the red. The red is new paint and I don't want to have to buy more of it also. This is the kind of paint the article said to use so that is what I am using...... more on this project later. These may also by for sale on the Garden Tour???

I can sure tell March is here..... March winds you know! My dog Gizmo can tell that its windy also. She is really a cute dog but here she looks like she might be ready for take-off. Gizmo is really Brandy's dog but since Brandy is not around much Gizmo is REALLY my dog but it doesn't make any difference whose dog she is because she REALLY loves everyone she meets. This is what she looks like on a normal not-windy day. She is cute, isn't she?

She is half Jack Russell and half Toy Fox Terrier and half human. Seems to be anyway. Too bad our dogs can't out-live us. No more on that subject.

I am collecting a lot of perennials for my flowerbeds if anyone has any nice ones to share. There could maybe be some trading going on. This is such a nice way to get more plants. Just let me know if you are interested.... Enough for now. Until the next time.....

Oh yeah, Brads flowerbed project is coming along ( remember the one I didn't really want). He had gotten kinda side-tracked because it has been kinda cold to mix concrete but he will get back tuit soon. Tuit is kind of a nice word to use sometimes, huh? You know.... around tuit, back tuit, close tuit..... okay bye.

Come on Spring!!!

Another wet rainy weekend is on the way out! At least it wasn't frozen precipt. This is the view out of my living room window right now. It is really kinda gloomy this time of year. This is a gorgeous rock wall that my husband and I built a couple of summers ago. For those of you who have been to my house or seen pictures of my flower beds, you all know this is not how I like this rock wall to look. It needs to be full and overflowing with flowers to make me REALLY happy!

My plans for this year were to just keep trying to add a few more perennials so I could eventually have beds that weren't quite so expensive. I had decided to keep my annual purchases to a minimum if at all possible. TRASH those ideas! We are going to be on the garden tour this spring! Funny, huh? We may be sorry about the middle of May.

Everyone knows how when you plan a party or a big gathering that it makes you clean the windows and the ceiling fans...... you do don't you? This was kinda my thought for this garden thing. Hope it doesn't backfire! Ha! We are going to have more projects going in the next three months than most people try to do in a year.....

This is my husband, Brad and he is building a new flowerbed around this tree which is connected to waaaaay to many other flower beds in our front yard. I don't need anymore flower beds!!!!! We have a drainage problem from the house gutters here, so this is the solution. I think I might need some plastic flowers...... don't throw away those memorial flowers. I can use them!

I am not only passionate about rocks and flowers and gardening, but I also love to feed the birds in our back yard. We are fortunate to have surroundings that are bird friendly and we are trying to continually plant things and build things with the birds and other critters in mind.

As you can probably see by the look on this little guys face he has been unsuccessful in his search for food today. He might just be dangerous! (I also have a fetish for little cast iron critters.) :) My daughter will KILL ME if I put too much stuff around though.... so I do have to be careful.

It is such a pleasure to be able to look out my living room window and see birds feeding on the bird feeders, in the flower beds, along the rock wall, on the back porch.... just everywhere.

We can hardly wait until spring so we can get out the feeders for the hummingbirds. We had tons of them last year! I mean tons!At least 30 or 40 birds at a time were around our feeders. Is that tons? I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the hummers last year and I hope to be able to take a lot more of them if my little birdie friends decide to come back to my feeders! Wish us luck and birds!

Oh.... and by the way, I would like to invite everyone to try to 'do' the Green Country Garden Club Tour. The dates for the tour are May 31st and June 1st. If anyone is interested in a good aerobic workout or some serious strength training in the next few months just look me up and I will work up a nice exercise program for you. (Hope you don't mind a little dirt under your fingernails.)

Any and all ideas are appreciated. You can comment on this post or e-mail me at haircutr57@aol.com. If you have any perennials that you want to share I would be much obliged to except them.... as long as they are not something you are REALLY trying to get rid of.

Fun in the Sun!

I really had fun visiting my daughter in Albuquerque. Too bad they couldn't have named the city something shorter that I could spell a little easier. Sorry Brandy if you don't get much mail from me. :)

Brandy needed to take food to a Superbowl Party. Cookie dough is a real problem for us so guess what? We made cookie dough! Fun! Tastes as good as it looks....

We visited the Petroglyph National Monument west of Albuquerque on Saturday and had a nice little hike. I doesn't look like much at first but it was worth the trip to see. And... a little exercise never hurts!
Flew home on Sunday to 'No More Snow' and now just awaiting the next visit out there.... ha!