Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hello everyone, 

We are doing just fine and hope this post finds everyone doing well. 

We are enjoying the new roof to our upper deck, keeping the snow and rain from the door and windows. I will have some pics later on. 

We also now have several trees taken down this fall, I will say more about them later on. We are getting the place opened up some. I feel it will let the air flow through better around here. I have removed all the honeysuckle from the fence and cleaned that up as well. We will have some cleanup to do, and I also plan to have several half-barrows with plants where some of the tree stumps are. 

More coming later on. All our pups Truffles and Kricket are doing just fine, and our Frosty bird is fine also. 

Stay tuned with us.

Love and Prayers, 

 Margo

New Upper Deck

Morning, 

Here is a pic of our new upper deck. They got it finished in July, just now getting a pic to post and show the new deck. I think they did a nice job. 

No longer looking at holes in my deck. LOL 

They used yellow pine for the wood. The darker 4x4's were left as they were in great shape, but the spindles and floor of the deck were bad. 

We are still thinking about adding a ROOF over the upper deck. 

New Upper Deck with Kricket and Truffles

Love and Prayers,

 Margo

Hummers

Morning everyone, 

Well, here we are in August already. Snake is still in the tree hole, comes out part way and goes back in again for a while. Chickens are all doing just fine, getting between 3 to5 eggs a day now. Our 5 hens are doing just fine. 

Dogs are all doing great now, keeping them inside because this year is BAD for ticks. I am back to grooming them also. Vince helps by blow drying them and I do the washing and grooming once dry. 

The new upper deck is nice, and we are thinking of adding a porch cover over it to help protect it. 

They say we have coyotes and foxes and bears around us, so far all we have seen was a black bear running up the side of our driveway to the woods in back of our house. Vince seen it I was inside and missed it. Neighbors up the way say they hear the coyotes howling and have seen them. So far, we have not. Vince said he saw a fox since we have been here. 

We are still going through a few boxes that are left and getting rid of lots of extra stuff. Getting more and more settled in. Still wishing for a smaller home and level yard though. 

We have hummers this year that are unreal, I am making a double batch of food for them, and it is gone in less than 3 days. Some days we are cleaning and filling the bird feeder twice a day. This summer has been crazy with them, love it. Tried to get a pic of them, but just too fast for me. There are 3 hummers sitting on the feeder and more around flying and in weeping willow next to porch. Truly God's little jewels. 

I have just hung a fresh mixture for them. They had many babies this year. It is a feeding frenzy of a morning and late evening and throughout the day every day.

Love and Prayers, 

 Margo

BEAR in our driveway

Well, now we had a bear run up our driveway yesterday evening pass the house and into the woods at back of property. This was a first for us. Vince did see a bear a week or so ago now as he was driving to Walmart's. Now it is at our place. 

Workers on the upper deck said he has a male black bear that hangs at his place, and he lives about 15 min.'s up the street or hill from us. The deck will be finished today. He also told us there are lots of coyotes living around here, and we have seen foxes. 

Thank goodness I do not have a picture to show for the bear.

Love and Prayers,   

Margo

Yet another snake

Well, believe this or not. We went back out to see it, and ether it went back inside the hole OR this is another snake coming out of the tree. This live snake stuff is happening the same day. The SKIN happened a few weeks ago.  

Days later he or she is still in the tree, we believe it is the same snake. It is eating ants and other bugs that are on the tree. So, when he gets bigger, he or she will come down and get on with living.

Snake head out of hole in tree.

  Crazy weird this summer around here in W.V.

 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Another Snake in Tree

This time a LIVE snake coming out of the hole in the Pauline tree and just sitting on the old sewed off limb. We do not know if this snake belongs to the snake skin we first saw a few weeks ago. 

But here is the snake out of the tree limb with its tail still in the hole. 

Black snake out of hole on tree.

Crazy snake in a tree.

 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Snake Skin hanging out of Pauline Tree

Snake skin hanging our of our Pauline Tree. There is a old cut off limb and a small hole in the center, we found this snake skin hanging our of it. 

Snake Skin in Tree.

 Just have never seen this before. Snake skin just hanging from the hole.

 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Rain, humid, raccoons

Last two half grown raccoons.

The weather is terrible this summer so much rain, and humility. It seems to never stop and to that add all the heat that goes with it. We are living in the house mostly. 

It is taking the guy on the upper deck over a month to replace all the boards because of all the rain. I have never seen this much rain hitting this summer. He is using pressure treated yellow pine for the job. On the few boards that have been put down so far, I am seeing long splits (not deep) in the wood all over not just here and there. Makes me wonder if this is normal. I am sure I don't know but going to ask them the next time they come over. We are like a "fill in job" because he has a huge job they are working on. Some homeowner has sued the man who built it because of structural damage, part of the house and foundation had to be taken down and redone. This job has my handy man mostly tied up and I am thankful that he is working us in to get this done. 

 Well last night, the last two half grown raccoons come back and they were dispatched also. Now at least we can breathe a little easier and so can my chickens who are my pets. 

We had a problem in Ohio with a baby skunk and one raccoon. We scared the skunk away and never seen it again. We also had a baby possum in the garage, and we caught it and released it outside. Never seen him again. The raccoon was moved to another place miles away where there was a creek. Never seen him again. About 3 days later another raccoon walked through our backyard with 3 little ones following her. That was the rest of that family. Never saw them again. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Another unwanted guest

Morning everyone, 

Yesterday evening we had 4 baby half grown raccoons come to our back door, in daylight, two of which were dispatched, The other two ran for the hills. So we sat the trap once again, surprise, another full grown raccoon was in the trap this morning. This has been 3 days since we caught the other one. Thinking this must have been a family of varmints. Here is a pic of the nasty thing. It tore up the ground all around the trap even though it does not show that much in the pic.

If this was a family of them we still have two more to deal with when they come back. I sure wish these things would just stay in the woods where they belong and stay away from our home. We do have chickens and dogs and I know these filthy things bring ticks, fleas, and disease with them. 

When we lived in Ohio, one was acting funny in our front yard, we call the police, they come and he followed it through our yard until it was in the back yard, then the cop "shot" it and left saying they get a call two to three times a week on them. He said it acted like it had distemper. I was thinking rabies, not the other. Any way Vince wearing gloves got the raccoon and put in trash, we did not leave it there for any other animal to come and check out and perhaps getting the disease from the raccoon.

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Nita's Beauty Bush

Hello everyone, 

Today I have a pic I took earlier this summer of one of Nita's Beauty Bushes that she planted by the front of the house. It has never had this many flowers before or at least that I have seen. Has to be because of all the heat and rain this year. In fact everything around this place has grown and flowered this year and it is like a jungle out here and it is hard to just cut the grass when needed because of all the rain. It smells so sweet when in flower.

Beauty Bush

 There also is one by the back of the house and out in the front yard. This bush has several others along the fence that we have cut back some. The gate is hidden. This one is almost as high as the upper deck on the home. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

My Lemon Tree

 Hi to all, 

This is my lemon tree. I had a lemon tree that Nita gave me (she grew it from a seed) I grew it into a huge plant in which a robin made her nest one year in Ohio. That tree came back down to West Virginia and still did not produce any lemons, never even one flower. So I let it sit outside and freeze. It had 1 and 1/2 inch thorns on it also. Then two years ago I bought a small lemon tree. He was about 1/2 foot tall when I got it two years ago. Last summer it put on one flower and then let it fall off later on. So it is two years old now and next summer I expect a lot of lemons.

Then this early spring, it sat on 8 to 10 flowers, still so cold outside, he lives with me inside during winter, they smelled so good, then as summer got here he had lost some of the flowers and had set on about 3 different lemons. But slowly all of the little lemons dropped off but one. This is the pic of the one that stayed on the tree and keeps growing. Not sure if it will be any good or not but just the fun of having one grow on a small tree for me is wonderful.

 I do have to re-pot this thing and give him a larger root area. I think the letting it get too dry before I watered it may have caused the problems, so larger pot and less problems and perhaps next year I will have a few lemons. I love to eat them with salt sprinkled on them, love them in ice tea also. 

Here are a couple of pics and one with my glasses to show some size for lemon. 

 

 I let the lemon rest of the rail of the porch because it is pulling the lemon tree over side ways. Not bothered with huge thorns either. 

Watch your pets, I feed this tree in the spring with its citrus food and Kricket was caught eating the citrus from top of the pot. He is ok and it did not seem to make him sick either. thank God.

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

 

My Avocado Tree

Hi everyone,

I have grown this little guy for about 2 years now. It was getting too tall, so I cut the top out, now it has branched a few times. I will have to clip to two longest branches back so the others can play catch up. I was hoping for an avocado but guess it is not going to happen this year. I do need to re-pot it this year. 

Here is a pic

My Avocado Tree

Don't know just when it is suppose to flower and set fruit. Have to wait and see what happens.

Love this little guy.

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Hen & Chicks

 Hello everyone,

Went for a walk in the yard and found some pretty things to enjoy. This year for some reason, perhaps the weather, my hen and chicks are growing so large, I will have to divide them up into other containers. They have no more room to grow.  I now have so many hen and chicks, that once divided, I can place many more containers around of them. These sit in the shade most of the time.

Here are a couple of pics of some of my Hen & Chicks. You can click on pic for larger one.

My Hen & Chicks

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

My first Mug Rug

Hello all, 

Today I share with you a pic of my first Mug Rug. I had tried to make my own and did not like how things were going. I wanted one large enough for a large cup of tea or coffee and a cookie to be on it. I found a pattern that I really liked. It uses crazy quilt pattern while is perfect for what I wanted to do. Got it sewed out and I will add a few things to make it mine. 

Here is a pic of the first sew out. I will post others as I get them done because I am adding batting to make them extra nice. This one can be hung up in kitchen to show when not in use, nice touch.

 

My 1st Mug Rug

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Unwanted company & Ticks

Hello to all, 

Wow, this summer is bad for heat, humidity and lots of rain. Just don't want to go out for much of anything this summer.  Also "ticks" are very bad this summer, I let the dogs out to run and play, they come back with one flea and one huge tick on top of her head, needless to say I went into panic mode, bath for both with flea and tick shampoo, then while sitting by them at the computer, I found one HUGE tick on my arm, needless to say I then sprayed with home defense all over and outside also. Then the next day (pets are being kept inside at this point) went out to feed chickens and found one on my boot that I wore when out. Needless to say boots got sprayed very good also. Now I will not let the dogs out anymore this summer, they are house trained so there is no problem there. These are huge ticks and I am not kidding when I say "huge". In the last 3 years we have lived here, there have been NO ticks and only a flea now and then. I have never seen it this bad here before. It is dangerous around here this summer. Even my neighbor down the street said she has taken ticks off her and her husband and pets this summer.

Just an update about what we are doing. Nothing much, working on getting the upper deck of the house redone. But the people doing it are working in between other jobs, and then when it is clear for them to come to home to work it is raining. So it is slow progress. But, it is getting done a little bit at a time. Can't wait until it is done, the old deck had holes and wood was rotting away. They are using yellow pine that is pressure treated. What they have got done so far looks really nice. 

I do enjoy so much feeding the birds, little hummers are so much fun to watch. There are enough this summer to put up two feeders for hummers. Two small feeders for the regular birds that come by.

Did get new glasses this year and WOW how much detail I was missing, everything looks so much better now. Getting use to wearing them "all the time" now though is something else for me. Was only using them at the computer or sewing machine. I think the eye doctor made me realize just how much I was missing "in between" as she put it. So glad I listened to what she said. Now I can see all around me in sharp clean vision which is something new for me. 😋

 Here is the unwanted company, another raccoon, on man are they mean acting and trying to bit you also. He has been dispatched now as of yesterday.  I sure don't want them around my chickens. This one was on my back porch. UGH! Needless to say, they stink so bad, had to scrub the cage and back porch with soap to kill the smell and make clean for the next one.

Bad Raccoon

The night before this there was a "cat" in the cage. It was released, seems quite wild and not even half grown. Don't know what people think when they dump their unwanted cats and dogs on other people. It is not always a good out come for them.

 We are always protecting our pets and we always keep our pets on our own property. They do not run loose to bother someone else. I sure wish other people would do the same. We also had fence put around the property to keep the loose dogs from getting to our pets when outside in yard.

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Happy 4th of July

Hello to all

Wishing all a very Happy 4th of July. 

This design is for sale, look under Designs for July 4th.

 

This is a very weird summer this year, Rain and more rain all the time and the humidity is off the scales around here. Something else strange this year, don't seem to be so many bees around. Not that I am complaining, I love it. 

We do have something "huge" living under one of our sheds, I keep putting rocks to fill the hole and it keeps pushing them or pulling them out. Today I re-did the rocks again and placed a much larger heaver rock on the hole, if this is moved again, I will fill it using quick set cement. 

The flowers and scrubs have flowered, the bulbs for "tree lilies" are not doing their thing this year either. Just so many things are strange this year. 

Now working on making some mug rugs. I have made one and it is so cute.

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

What is happening

Hello to all, 

      I am still here, just so much going on I have forgotten to even post in a while. We have had snow a little bit now and then and we watch it melt away then more of the same.

     I have been so busy sewing up 10 10-inch blocks using a crazy patch with huge stitches over all the seems. They are so pretty, I can't seem to stop to do anything else.

    We did the dogs last month, decided to keep our money and save some gas and wear and tear on the truck and try to do them ourselves.  This lady whom we have been going with all three dogs for some time now just charges way too much money and she takes too long to get them done. We were dropping them off at noon and not picking them up until 8:30 p.m.  That is just way too long, but for a long time with all that was happening here, I just could not do them. Now we only have 2 dogs and it still takes her the same time. Plus she was getting the pattern on them all wrong and crooked. So I have bought a new hand clipper and I use the small little ones, I will give it a try and see how it goes.

     We also lost our parakeet sometime back now. Died of old age, as far as I know, he was old but healthy. So it is just us and Frosty and Kricket and Truffles. We are all doing just fine. 🥰

Love and Prayers, 

 Margo

Happy New Year

Hello everyone, 

Long time no post, sorry about that, just too many irons in the fire simultaneously. It is so cold outside it turned my letters blue for this post.  

Little birds outside need you to take care of them for the winter, remember to put fruit and/or seeds out for them each day and water. They will pay you back by eating lots of bugs around your home in the summer. 

We are doing just fine and I hope this will find each of you doing well.

 

We lost little Ginger Rose in Dec. last year. Her immune system was fighting itself and it took her to skin and bones. She is with Nita and Larry now. 

We also lost "Lucky" a parakeet we had rescued 10 years ago now. He was sitting in his huge food bowl, looked like he was taking a "nap". We placed him under the bushes in our yard where flowers will be each spring and summer. 

We got a couple of days ago, rain, thunder, lightening, and hail all in one day. Two days later it was snowing again, about 1-1/2 inches. Before all that, we were in the high 60s outside, and a couple of weeks before all this, it was so cold, below 0 here where we are located, it has been a wild winter here in W.V. I never have heard the house "pop" so loud, it even scared the dogs. 

Our 5 chickens are being taken care of outside also. They stayed nice and warm during this awful cold. Warm the right way for outside chickens. They had dry hay to stand on in the covered pen area, and a wind break was much needed the way the wind was blowing. Inside their shed, it was warmer and we do have an overhead heater that you don't even know is on unless you take your glove off and put your hand right under and on the heating part, can hardly feel any heat, but is just enough to keep the hens from getting frostbite on their cones. When it gets so cold their feathers turn blue, you can find them in their shed on the roost under the heater. Out of 5 hens, all but one has quit laying this time of the year, but we keep getting a huge brown egg from one hen each day. Oh yes, we have cedar chips for the floor in the shed. Keeps them warm also. 

Love and Prayers, 

 Margo