BACON COMES TO VISIT
  (see video below)

I have mentioned that our home is surrounded by wildlife, and from time to time we have unexpected visitors in the yard or pasture.  Friday evening Dennis and I were sitting on the bench by the pond watching our dalmatians, Jessie and Jamie, playing in the yard.  Suddenly they raced to the far corner of the yard where we have a woven wire fence, barking very loudly to warn us of an intruder.  Jazz even chimed in from her kennel.  This was not a typical squirrel bark.  This was the 'danger' bark.

We both ran to see what they had found.  I saw a glimpse of something big, and kinda round on the other side of the fence.  Then I saw a snout!  It was Bacon, the neighbor's pig and he was trying to lift up the fence and crawl under it.  I was able to call the dogs in and quickly put them in their kennels.

By now, Bacon had waddled all the way up to the back door looking for a treat.  He sniffed around and took a bite of my petunias, then he walked over to the pond.  Keep in mind it was a hot summer night and Bacon was getting warm from all this activity.  I was afraid he would try to cool off in the pond.  I don't think pigs can swim. Dennis quickly got on the cell phone and called Bacon's mom.
She said, "Oh, he escaped again.  I'll be right up to get him."

Bacon was investigating everything, including looking in our patio door to see why we were inside hiding from him!  I remembered I had just put a dozen ears of sweet corn in the fridge earlier, so I grabbed the bag.  I broke an ear in half and started throwing the corn out the back door to keep Bacon occupied and from going back to the pond.  He ate 3 ears of corn and grunted a few times.  I watched him from inside the house behind the safety of the patio door.  I know a pig can be a sweet pet, but I also know they can get angry if they become upset.  The dogs were not helping with all their barking.

Bacon's mom arrived carrying a loaf of bread, joined by her granddaughter.  Bacon walked up to them once he saw they had his favorite treat.  He ate a slice of bread, and another, and another as they coaxed him through the garden gate, down the driveway, and to the road.  He kept following them down the road as they fed him white bread.  His curled up little tail was switching back and forth as we waved goodbye.

I'm so glad the camera was right by the back door when they arrived, so you can see that I'm not making this up!  Enjoy our video of Bacon walking home.

Dennis and I grabbed tools, steel posts, and wire and proceeded to repair our fence before dark.

So much for a quiet evening by the pond. 

CANNING PEACHES

                                               Fresh picked peaches from southern Illinois. 


Our friend brought us a bushel of wonderful peaches from Murphysboro.  There is nothing better than these juicy, drip down your chin peaches.  Just sitting on the counter, in the cardboard box, they smelled sweet and yummy.  It was very hard to resist eating them.  I could go on about the canning process but you can read about that in a good canning book.  These are wonderful warmed up and served over vanilla ice cream.  Oh Lucy!

We put up 9 quarts tonight from 1/2 a bushel.  Tomorrow night we will can the rest.  Then we store them on a dark basement shelf for the winter.  A few might even become Christmas gifts. 

Butterflies 29 Cents.

I like to add a few surprises to the garden to spice things up and sometimes to tease my unsuspecting friends.  A few years ago I was watering flowers for my friend, who was out of town.  On the way to her house, I ran a couple errands.  To my delight, I had a light bulb moment in the Dollar Store.  Those plastic dinosaurs would surely scare someone, I thought, so I bought five.  As I watered my friend's flowers I found some great places for a dinosaur to live, and left them there in the ferns.

A few days after my friend returned home she weeded her garden.  She reached in the ferns to pluck a few weeds.........yep, she found the first one.  It took her a few days to find all five and I think her grandson had joined the search party.  I had more fun with that trick than she did.

Another friend moved to a new house recently.  One night, after dark, I drove past her house and my car suddenly stalled right in front...............oh yes it did.  My car door opened and out jumped a little gnome with a pointed hat.  He sat right down in the rocks by the light post!  He would not get back in my car, so I left him there!  I don't think she ever figured out who played that prank on her.  You should try it.  It really is fun and innocent.  You won't get arrested for it.

So, knowing my track record, guess what I did today?  I decorated the butterfly bush near the patio with beautiful monarch butterflies.  I wrapped them around each stem.They look like they just landed to enjoy a sip of sweetness.  So far, my family has not noticed.

I'll just wait a few days and see what happens. 

Farm Gate

At 7:00 a.m. it was very pleasant outside.  I had coffee on the patio with the puppies and listened to the serenade of wrens and robins as they did whatever it is birds do:  eat bugs and fly around.
I wished I could fly.  I think I actually flipped through about 5 pages of the magazine before I had to get up and pluck blooms, water a few things, feed the rabbits and move some patio blocks to their new home.  I move about eight a day because I can.  No one said I had to move them all.  After all, it is Sunday.

I noticed the old farm gate out front by the driveway.  I sorta left it there until I could decide where it would look best.  There just happened to be a crooked post stuck in the ground that I was not able to yank out last year.  (See the post by the tub!)  Hm, the gate looks pretty good propped up against it.  Oh, and my friend gave me two old wash tubs that I thought might fit in somewhere around here.  How about there!  What do you think?

Now, how should I decorate it?  I could put some dirt and flowers in the buckets or I could be really sneaky and go to Big Lots to get a few sunflowers to stick in the tubs!  Let me think about this for awhile.  Stay tuned.

50% Off Sale

The robins are bathing in the waterfall of the pond and the little wrens are chirping their lungs out!
I love mornings in our garden.  When I moved here, seven years ago, there were three sheds next to the house and I could not envision a nice yard.  The previous owners had a burn pile which we had to bury by digging a pit with a big John Deere tractor.  Now it is planted with lilacs, forsythia, an arbor and 2 boxwood.  That will be the future entrance to the host walk over the hillside.  I am killing off the poison ivy there this year. 

Now the yard is a private little spot on the hill with flowers blooming all summer.  Currently, the daylilies are beginning to fade and the mums are blooming for the first time.  Soon I'll snip the flowers off the mums so they prepare for their blaze of fall color in September.  The potted plants look great, as well as the coreopsis and geraniums.  One of the clematis is blooming a second time.  It is always a surprise to walk around and find a new plant blooming.  It is such a gift from mother nature.

The local nursery is having a 50% off sale so we drove there this afternoon to look for some good buys.  Another pink knockout rose and a grass will give us more impact in the pink garden.
I think I'll have to put up some shade cloth because we are nearing 90 degrees again and that is just too hard on newly planted flowers.  I noticed that one delphinium has died this week.  It upsets me so much to loose a plant.  I feel like I failed.  I have this roll of burlap that I might be able to stretch around some metal stakes to protect them.  I'll try it tonight.

Lawn Mowing Bra

Years ago, my girlfriend said she wears her lawn mowing bra when she mows her yard.  I laughed and quickly a vision flashed in front of my eyes of what this might look like.  Hm, I think I have one too but I had not admitted it to anyone.

It's the old, stretched out, dingy, saggy bra we wash and shove into the back of our underwear drawers.  Come on, fess up, you have one too.  We only wear it for special occasions.  Usually it is those 95-100 degree days in July in Illinois, where the humidity is unbearable.  Like right now.  I had it on this week when I was weed wacking, and again when I had to crawl into the pond and lift out some big rocks the dogs had knocked loose from the edging.  It doesn't matter if it gets fishy pond water on it, or salty sweat.
I always perspire enough to soak it.  Then, when you take it off there is a distinct sour smell.  I really should throw it away today, but I will need it again tomorrow so I don't.  A good washing with a few of the kitchen rugs freshens it up just fine and back in the drawer it goes.  This might be the last summer before I retire it to the burn pile.  Being a child of the 60's, I can still burn a bra anytime I want to. 

All this talk brings me to my other pet pieve.  Do you call it mowing the yard, cutting the grass, mowing the lawn, or just what do you call it?
To me, mowing the yard sounds more like work.  Cutting the lawn is a little too dainty for my taste. 

Ugly Hands

June 20, 2012
One would think there would have been plenty of time to blog since March.  I'm sure Martha Stewart would find time, but I sure couldn't.  When I did have five or ten minutes to rest from pulling weeds, I did just that.  Plopped down on the bench beside our pond, and caught my breath.  Illinois seems to have prolific weeds.  I mean I can pull them today and I swear in two days they are back and brought friends.

 Weeds can grow in the most uncommon places; in sidewalk cracks, in rocks, under rocks and between rocks, in gutters, even in the fire pit.  I can't seem to just go for a walk through my gardens or over the hill because I am compulsed to bend over and twist the little buggers out by their torso.  Even if I do not get the roots at least I have ruined their day.  Once I tried spraying them with vinegar because that had worked for a friend of mine.  They did begin to turn a faint shade of yellow but they got a second wind.  Sometimes I gas up the Stihl weed eater and whip them to smitherines.  Shreds cling to my jeans, shoes, shirt, my face and smear my glasses.  After a few weeks of regular shredding they seem to be afraid to stick they fearful heads up at the moment.

Actually, some weeds almost fool me.  Last night I surveyed one in the bed by the road.  It is probably a weed because it is so lush and bushy and green, but I can't be sure it's not a flower that might yet bloom.  I am keeping a close eye on this one with daily evaluation.  The whispy plume at the top could be the beginnings of a flower or not.  Time will tell. 

I get so tired and sore from bending that I often weed with my little spade.  I skim across the top of the earth, which is dry as a bone right now.  I have to sharpen the spade frequently.  In fact, it's much shorter than it was when I first bought it.  All the little weeds that I cut are diced up into a weedy mulch and spread to the side to be mowed over with the lawn mower.  Occasionally, I'll dig a deep root and get that bugger out of there.  It's a quick fix that works for me.  I feel like I've made an attempt.

I wear brown cotton work gloves when working.  However, the dirt still silts through the glove and into the cracks in my hands and under my nails.  It seems I can never get my hands clean.  All the women at work have these soft, beautiful hands and nails, and then there's mine.  I have tried Lava soap, bleach, lemons, spray and wash, and on and on.  I just have ugly hands.