Sunday, January 29, 2012


What an eventful and productive weekend! This is my husband, the Bear, preparing the burn pile pre-brush clearing.

He's quite the fire starter and is very successful burning brush piles.

He's also very cautious and careful with his fires, unlike myself, my father and my brother.

I come from a long line of fire starters. I started to say careless fire starters, but that's not the case. Maybe overly ambitious and not totally realistic would describe them?

There are numerous family fire stories to relate, probably more than anyone would want to read.

 Uncle Willie  accidentally burned the entire West We Go subdivision in the 70's. Thank goodness it was only subdivided without houses, but it was quite a fire!

My father once set our house on fire, purely by accident.

But my brother has topped us all. We think he may have used the newspaper declaring a fire ban in the county to start the fire. The wind took the fire away from his control, and required airplanes and bulldozers to contain.


This is the Bear's clearing at the end of the day.

Notice the fire never escaped the original fire pit, and it's still smoldering.

I mentioned eventful, but it had nothing to do with the fire department this weekend.












Saturday, January 28, 2012

Thorn bush in isolation
Meet my thorn tree. I have thousands of these bushes, so it's a little unusual to see one all by itself.

My husband, the Bear, and I are currently in an epic struggle to eradicate these thorns of biblical proportion that are taking over our land.

We're not so sure what they're called, so if you know, please give us a shout and educate us as to the accurate name for these bushes.

Sometimes we call them trees, they can grow twice as tall as this one.

Some even grow lemons in the summer, so I'm wondering if there are actual male and female plants.

We've heard them called quince and hedge lemons.

My grandsons call them the enemy. I think they're right. They love to go out with us to "fight" them.





Sunday, January 22, 2012

Fog, drizzle, rain, cold and darkness engulf my home. From the couch, I sit and watch football.

Single, single, single chain stitch, can't wait to get to another row to double chain.

Trying to make a scarf on this dreary, wintry evening.

Thursday, January 19, 2012


The evening sky has been magnificent! And I'm not the only one whose noticed! I've seen numerous pictures of the evening sky on Facebook and others have blogged about it also.

This reminds me of the Marshall Tucker song;

"And there's fire on the mountain, lightnin' in the air
Gold in them hills and it's waitin' for me there "

It really wasn't this bright, but my camera caught the hues and magnified them until they look like fire!

Today's writing prompt asked if I would watch a movie after missing a few minutes of the beginning.

It really depends on the movie, and the audience. If others are watching, I'd go ahead and watch. If it were a comedy I could watch without the beginning.

If it were just me and my honey, and a serious movie, I'd have to insist that I see it from the beginning.

This isn't really an issue in our home anymore, thanks to the invention of the DVR. We record practically everything we watch.

Then we watch when we want, and rewind what we missed, stop and start at will.

I'm starting to get this mindset that I can rewind anything. Driving my car, listening to the radio, I turn it down to go to the bank, then when I turn it back up, I hear something I wanted to hear, and instantly my brain tells me to hit the rewind button.

Obviously, I don't have a rewind button on the radio in my car.

I wish I could rewind the sunset for others to see too!




Wednesday, January 18, 2012


This was the beautiful sunset that I saw this evening.

As I came to my computer to log in and blog, I just had to stop by Facebook for a second to "see what everyone else" was doing. I saw two other pictures similar to mine.

I'm so glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the beautiful sunset this evening.

I'm having trouble blogging this week. I'm having more trouble with the prompts. I've let them pile up, a couple of days now, without blogging, and when I think about the writing prompts I start feeling like it is a job I have to perform.

I think I'd like to "be like everyone else" and just write about what I want to write about.

Reading others' blogs, as the sun sets, seems of more interest to me today.




Sunday, January 15, 2012

Friday's post was to blog about your first love. I've pondered this question for a few days now, I've not been able to blog, too many chores at home.

There is no doubt that my first love is horses. Previously I wrote about learning to write, the first word I wrote was a race horse name. Blue jacket.

 I still have the book with the childish scrawl, Blue jacket. I think the horse's name was actually Yellow jacket.

But I think the way the story actually went was that I wanted to be a horse, and I wanted a name.

 So my father gave me my own  name, similar to the race horse, but unique to me. I must have been wearing a blue jacket.

 I've always been intrigued by race horse names.

For a considerable amount of my young life, I wanted to be a horse. I nickered and neighed, pawed the ground, and the only gait I had was a gallop.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

One of my earliest school memories involves my dad. When I was in the third grade, my dad took a new position as the principal of an elementary school in a nearby "big city". Being from a rural area, I was not too excited about leaving my small school and friends, not to mention having to leave my horse with my grandparents. .

I believe my father was recruited for this position to straighten a problem school out and turn things around. I was enrolled in the third grade, and entered a classroom where I knew no one. I was known for being pretty tough. After all, I had red hair and freckles. Anyone with red hair and freckles knows what I'm talking about.

During the first few days of school, all the students were assembled in the auditorium to meet the new principal, my father. He presented the new school policy with strong admonitions for fighting. Evidently, fighting was a big problem at this school.

 The punishment for fighting would be that everyone involved in a fight would suffer corporal punishment. I didn't know if the other students knew how serious he was by his tone, but I knew that he was not kidding!

The next recess break, I was approached by another red headed girl in my class, who obviously wanted to see how serious me and my father were. So, I was the first one in the Principal's office that day, after the whole school received the no fighting policy.



Wednesday, January 11, 2012

My very first friend

My very first friend would have to be my father. Sorry mom, but he and I were pretty tight from way back. He could always indulge in play with me, if only for a short time, without being the parent.

He always made sure that I had a horse of some sort. He introduced me to my love for horses at the back fence of the race track. My first written word was the name of a race horse. Yellow jacket.

 My first horse was the black and white plastic Blaze with movable legs. Blaze was mounted on a stand instead of a rocker or springs.

Not long afterward, my dad got me a real pony. The stories of the ponies that we went through could be a book all their own.

I watched  today as my father performed a very brave act in a very public setting. He volunteers on several boards in our community. A board meeting was held today with members of the community voicing their support of an issue that my father disagreed with. He boldly cast the only vote against the proposed project.

He was my very first friend, and will always be my very best friend. Love you mother and pops!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Tasks for new beginnings

I believe I have been blessed with a very clear message regarding my tendency toward procrastination.

It's the first of the year, I've reorganized my gym bag, my purse, and make up bags.

I have half heartedly worked on my closets, meaning that I have filled two Wal-mart bags with clothes that I didn't like from my closet. (These are not very large bags.)

My sock drawer set on the ottoman in the living room for almost two weeks before I managed to sort through the whole drawer.

On my agenda has been my husband's sock and underwear drawers. They are always so full when I go to insert clean items in the drawer. So apparently he's wearing the same socks over and over. Never using the socks at the back or the bottom of the drawer.

It's one of the jobs at near the top of my list, re-organizing his drawer. Husband calls me up in the middle of the day, to tell me that he's just "found"a little  money in his sock drawer. I wonder if he knew I was working my way into cleaning out his sock drawer?

This was funny when I told it  at the gym this morning.



Monday, January 9, 2012

My earliest memories involve my parents and myself. Cozy, warm memories of them as a  young couple and the family duties they participated in. My fondest memories are of the sporting events that my father either played in, or coached. I always had the best times playing with others.
This will have to suffice for writing today, this is my busiest day and evening of the week. Over and out.

Update on the stump

Ok, so I didn't blog yesterday. I was punishing my husband, and it hurt me alot worse than it did him!
We were having a spat, and I told him I would just quit blogging, since it bothered him. He told me I didn't have to, but he knew that my free time was already pretty much non-existent.

So, onto the update on that stump. I have a forthcoming picture update also. It's amazing how stubborn a 150 year old stump can be. So it's been burning for three days now, and still hasn't given up and burned to the ground.

As I sit and watch it burn, I conider that this tree has been standing since my parents were conceived, and throughout their whole life time. Maybe even my grandparents, as I'm not sure how old the tree is, I just know it's big.

It's only fitting that it should take several days to extinguish the trees existence by fire. I'm glad to know that 100-150 years can't be so eaisly erased from this earth. I'll keep you updated, it may still be burning by next weekend.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Meet Dixie. She's also know as Dixie Doo, Dix, Dickie Doo or Dicker Doo. Dixie has issues. She came to DeSha Ranch as a young pup who had never been held and petted. She loves her new home, but it took her awhile to allow anyone to pet her. Dixie had a good day today. We spent the day cutting firewood, and being out doors. She loves it when we spend the day with her. She expects me to spend every day with her and is disappointed when I go to work.
This is the leftovers from the fire wood cutting today. Now I don't like to cut live trees, this one was dead and hollow in the center.  Better than therapy for me to be outside with Dixie and my husband cutting wood and burning stuff! I'll have to relay the family "fire bug" history later.

 My sweet husband brought me a present today, a new weed eater! And it's an easy start too! That means I can start it all by myself without his assistance. I know everyone would like to have one too! Maybe Dixie is not the only one with issues!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Everything is as it should be

Everything is as it should be. I have begun reading the daily prompt early in the day, then contemplating what I will write. I most frequently don't have much time to concentrate on what I will write about.

Taking the time to sit down and write at the computer has been the last thing on my list of activities during the day and evening. Tonight has found me particularly tired, and it's "way past my bedtime", but I had to stay up to see the Razorbacks win the Cotton Bowl! WPS!

I completed this post last night at an hour I don't usually see. Then lost the second half of my post when my Internet went down. This also happened to me the very first night that I wrote, and it was a good thing that my writing vanished that night, because all I had managed to do was complain! Just another example of God doing for me, what I couldn't do for myself. I didn't want to start out on the wrong foot!

The writing prompt asked is we wished the start of the year in a different season. I contemplated that concept, considered spring time, as the only other possible option. Spring initiates new growth and a new growing season, so if I had to choose a different start for the new year, that would be my choice.

I'm committed in the belief that there is a larger plan in the universe, and that the seasons and yearly calendar are as they should be. It's only fitting that the new year begins in the dark and dormant time of the year, as the earth prepares for the coming spring and new growth.



Thursday, January 5, 2012

The hardest part of beginnings.

The most difficult part of beginning anything has to be the  first movement toward action. Realization and contemplation, the thinking phase of beginning is the easiest. But to actually begin the process of beginning something, has to be the most difficult for me. I read other's posts and blogs, I love what I'm reading, I want to write, I've committed to writing for 30 days, yet I've not been motivated to write quite yet. I'm using the prompts provided, but just can't quite get into the spirit. I'm determined to continue to come here, to my very own blog spot, unfinished as it is, and keep on writing at least a paragraph daily. Hoping to have something inspiring or just the least bit interesting to others to contribute.


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Superstitious beginnings

Today's prompt brings to my mind, the superstitions passed down from my family. But I suppose any superstition probably begins with the family of origin or the environment. There were many superstitions probably familiar to most people, but one of my personal favorites, and one that I always remember, but don't always heed is the superstition regarding beginning tasks on Friday that you can't finish in the same day. My grandmother always steered clear of starting a large project on Friday that she couldn't finish the very same day. I'm sure there is a historically significant explanation for this superstition. The only explanation I received in my superstition training was that it was not good to start something on Friday that  you couldn't finish in the same day, and then there were references to the end of the week.  I'm really glad that this blog challenge didn't start on a Friday!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

My favorite start of the year tradition is change. Typically, change makes me uncomfortable, but at the start of the new year, I always institute some form of change in my life. Driving past a bank billboard today, it read "change is good". Why do we always have to convince ourselves of that? What drives us to want to change things about our lives, patterns and behavior during this time of year? One of my changes involves changing my socks. Not the ones I'm wearing silly! But actually changing out the type of socks I wear. I'm chaniging to knee socks, instead of ankle socks to improve my circulation.  My gym pal Irene told me it was a sign of growing older. Oh well, at least my legs will feel better because of the change!

http://www.blogher.com/nablopomo-soup-add-your-january-posts?from=comments

Monday, January 2, 2012

Day Two

I've committed to writing every day in a blog, but it seems that I've spent more time trying to develop my own blog site, and reading and looking at other's sites. I have to admit that I've learned alot since I started trying to set up my own blog, but the unanswered questions still outwiegh the answers. But in my quest for progress, rather than perfection, I'd say that it's been a success today. I tend to want to measure my ability based on what everyone else "looks" like here, but I'm going to celebrate my new beginnings, and the progress I've made in just a few days in starting this endeavor.
In parting on New Year's Eve, my father brought attention to the new year ahead of us, as he does every year. He has always inspired me to make resolutions for the upcoming year, and he is meticulous with goal setting for himself. His comment this year was to note where I am at this time in my life, then consider where I was a year ago, and where I plan to be next year. With this in mind, I'll rest well tonight, knowing that my blog is not where I want it to be yet, but it is so much farther along than it was a year ago! http://blogher.com/nablopomo-soup-add-your-january-posts?from=comments