Deer Babies

These are the new additions to our backyard family .... we'll enjoy watching them grow. Lea was able to get some footage from the deck early this morning. Turn your volume up high on your computer so you can here the sounds of nature :)
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Last Night

3 minutes from our 1 hour backyard fireworks show. The rain stayed away and it was beautiful. Already looking forward to next year ....

I Do Take Requests

By request ... here's a little video of Alex playing poker with Lea. A flashback to 2 years ago in our motorhome at Lake Tahoe (our last summer as it turned out) .... we were easily entertained .... hmmmm .... guess we still are :)


Fast forward to now .... and here's a little video I did this morning when I got up .... I don't think I'd even had my coffee yet but I was sooooo anxious to show off the additional fireworks we got in Mountain Home yesterday ....

Power Has Been Restored!

After a day and half with no power and a day and half with half power .... we are now back on the grid! Here was the $310.00 culprit ....


We thought we had done all the major "preventative maintenance" stuff be we never thought of an old house's main circuit breaker.

Ahhhhhhh .... how I do love thy air conditioner so :)

Old Barn Wood and Bugs .... but not together :)

We were able to score some old barn wood last week .... our intent being to make small boxes out of it and sell on Etsy. My first project, however, was to make a small table to sit next to the recliner in the living room. We had a long table there but when we got the new window it just had to go so here's a plank the wood being sanded and the finished table ....



I do as much sanding as I can outside because it's such a fine dust it gets everywhere in the shop ..... but whenever I'm doing little projects on the shop/basement porch it seems I always have company ... be it dogs, deer or bugs. Here's a couple unusual bugs from last week ....



We were without power for the past 2 days and right now we only have 1/2 of the electric working .... unfortunately the air conditioner is one of the missing :( ..... we had a powerful storm move through and it caused a lot of widespread outages but they were pretty quick on restoring power .... however .... for us the fuse blew in the transformer so we were left in the dark. They replaced the fuse yesterday but the storm damaged our breaker panel box and only one side is working .... being that there are two 120's coming in. Anyway .... we might be lucky and have it repaired tonight .... local electricians are very busy right now. I realize that I could never live on an island void of electricity ..... I really love my electricity and internet and I missed it. I really appreciated my Apple device car charger!!!!!!!

Alex and Fireworks .... but not together :)

I've gotten some emails asking about Alex our parrot .... he's just fine and highly opinionated as usual. Here's his opinion of one of the Snow Peas from the garden .... be sure to have your volume up ....


Some of the salad ingredients last night .... fresh picked from the garden ...


Yesterday we went to the Fireworks stand under the big tent in Hardy. If you like looking at fireworks (pre setting them off) then here's our walkthrough ..... I love buying them as much as setting them off :)


We tested a few last night so we'll be heading back this week to buy more. Here's what we've got so far ....

Plates, Windows, Doors, Friends and more ....

In Arkansas you can't just mail in your payment for your car registration ..... first you have to go to the Assessors Office .... so they can tax you a few bucks on your annual property tax I guess ... anyway the Dept. Of Finances (that's the motor vehicle dept) is right next door so it's easy to then pay for your annual tags. What we found out was that since we have a fish and game plate and we pay $35. a year extra for it (it goes to fish and game) we can get a different one every year if we want ..... for One Dollar .... is that cool or what? So here's our old one (which we're going to hang on a wall in our house) ....

and here's our new one ....

On a little side note .... we didn't know that you had to do the car assessment every year until Lea's brother in law, John told us that when he was at the assessors office last week, the assessor said "hey you need to let Lea and Marlene know that they need to get in here and have their car assessed" ...... small town stuff ..... oh and hey Diana .... the assessor said "Hi".

So we ordered a new living room window, a new kitchen window and 2 new sliding glass doors about 3 months ago .... well our job finally made it to the top of the list and now we have beautiful new energy efficient glass in at least part of our house. The old window you couldn't see out of and the sliders leaked water and the wind blew through them enough to blow the curtains .... kinda non energy efficient and they were really hard to open and close. So here's some photos ...



and some before and afters ....
old window

new window


one of the old sliders

new sliders


We're happy .... and Millie got her new chair

and a new friend

That is Trukha ... Marks Husky puppy who's about 4 months old now

I'll end with a photo of the Cucumber plant .... tonight we're having a fresh cucumber in our salads .... there's a nice ripe one in the middle of all this .....


Saturday we're going to buy our fireworks .... I love being able to have the classic back yard fireworks for the 4th of July!

Blueberries In My Cereal

Fresh from the front yard ....


and oh soooooo good .... sorry no video of me eating my breakfast :)

Sunsets

The weather has been beautiful ..... a little rain each day either in the early morning or late afternoon with days in the low 90's .... that's perfect for my tastes .... especially for a swim and float in the river come around 3:30 pm ..... back up on the deck by 5pm for "Happy Hour" and then a BBQ. We love having a gas BBQ upstairs on the deck instead of the charcoal BBQ downstairs .... just a little more convenient. Our new sliding glass doors are supposed to be installed this coming week which we're really looking forward to since the ones we have now we believe to be the original doors .... 1966 .... and they are really heavy and hard to open .... I'll be sure to post pictures :)

Speaking of weather :) .... here's Friday nights sunset ...


and last nights .... lounge level with a nasturtium from a deck rail basket in the foreground ...


and then a little later .... or maybe before

Perfect Weather For Getting Things Done Outside

Lea, Lynda and I went to Mountain Home on Tuesday to pick up some stuff at Lowes and check out a store that we just heard about .... "Mystic Forest" .... our kind of store



But the main reason for going was because we got tired of slipping on our front and downstairs concrete porches when they were wet ... plus the concrete was stained and kinda ugly .... so this was my project yesterday ....

It's like the coating you put around pools so you don't slip. I was able to get 1 coat on the front and back before running out so we'll be heading back to Mountain Home for another big heavy bucket of the thick oatmeal stuff to do a 2nd coat.

Meanwhile Lea's been setting in some of the flat stones we search for on the dirt back roads around here and here's how it's looking so far ...


Lea also finished this slab of wood that was laying under some dirt in one of the basements and now it's done and under her computer looking awesome!



And I can't not include a garden photo .... here's how it looked this morning when I let the dogs out ... yes .... my iPhone is always with me:)


One last thing .... we love "moon chairs" around here and even Millie has one down by the "cauldron" but she made it very clear that she also wants one on the upstairs deck .... this look was all it took to get one ordered from Amazon last night .... geez!

She looks like we're punishing her by making her sit in such a horrible chair .... what ever happened to dogs that laid on the ground?
Will post a photo of her in her moon chair when it arrives :)

The River .... The Gardens .... and more ....

Friday afternoon and we let the dogs run down to the river .... first time since the high water level ... now it's back to normal and all is good. Here's also a tour of the gardens and more :)

Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay

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Perfect Weather .... Perfect Water For Tubing!!!!

Lea's sister Lynda joined us for an afternoon on the river ....

The Garden, The Wasp and The Pool

The continuing video journal of our garden along with the eviction of an unwanted renter in the BlueBird box and the ongoing re-engineering of the pool.

Today we rest .... in the river .... yay .... we're going tubing! I'll try to remember to take my head cam :)

Just One More

This is the kind of music that moves my soul and I'm compelled to share ....

Gimme Shelter

I loved this song when The Rolling Stones did it but this is way more powerful and it affects me right to the core. Incredible musicians .... incredible video .... beautiful!

The Pool

Seemed like our neighbor had her leaf blower going all afternoon .... sorry bout that .... it's amazing what that little mic on the iPhone will pick up.

Memorial Weekend Around Lake Sequoyah

I promise to clean my windshield before doing another drive by :)

Slip'N Slide

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ta da ...

Memorial Weekend Part 2

more to come ..... we're setting up the slip'n slide today :)

Memorial Weekend Part 1

I love holiday weekends!

Diana and Nanc were in town for a short time .... sorry no video ..... but I can tell you that we spent our time together wisely .... sampling Lea's homebrew. So that was the start of a great Memorial Weekend!

On Friday our friends Karen and Sparky came all the way from Colorado to visit us ..... ok .... not really ..... they were hanging out in Branson Mo. but they did drive 3 hours from there to here to visit us. We had a great time .... with some lessons in trees from Sparky and "Jug Fishing" from Karen. We took them into Hardy to see our little corner shop in Marks store and at the same time see his new Husky puppy that he got from a Husky rescue in Missouri (his 12 year old Husky companion passed away last week).

So here's Friday in a nutshell ..... more to come

A Monday Morning In May

May is normally the biggest producer of tornados in this part of the country but this year it's been low and April was hard hit. We have had several "Tornado Watches" which aren't too alarming .... it's the "Tornado Warnings" you have to take seriously. Last night we were under a warning and a thunderstorm came through that was really interesting .... horizontal rain and the tops of trees on their sides ... it filled my rain gauge that I'd just emptied to almost 2". Today I had to go to town to get carpet cleaning soap for our carpet cleaner .... one of my spring cleaning projects .... so here's a short video on our way back .... sorry about the "stuff" on the windshield :)



By the afternoon the skies became pretty ominous so I turned on NOAA and found out we were under a Tornado Warning .... gathered everyone up and hung out in "The Cave" for about 1/2 hour until the warning was cancelled and then I resumed cleaning the carpet and Lea resumed her wood carving :) That was one of our Monday's in May.

Trellis Sticks

I need to make some supports for my cucumbers and I'm thinking about just making little TeePee shapes supports out of sticks. This morning I went down to the river in search of driftwood sticks but ended up finding some awesome vines .... will probably be used for art and not in the garden but that's ok. My battery went dead on my iPhone before I found some great thick braided vines so the video got shorted. I'll take some pictures tomorrow of one of the vines that's really beautiful and post them. So for now this is all I have ....

One Year Ago Today ...

Yep ... today is our 1 year anniversary of moving into our home. It's been an amazing year that I will treasure .... a lot has changed and is still changing .... every day our home takes on more of our personality.

I spent most of the day weed wacking the mid section of our property and I'm exhausted but I did think ahead and bought some steaks to BBQ tonight in celebration of our anniversary :)

For the next couple of weeks I'll be taking a look back and doing a "then and now" theme ... hope you enjoy.

Here's the way the garden area looked on the day we first saw our home in mid March 2010


and here it is today ...


and the really cool thing is this ....


Look closely and you'll see that the snow pea plant has already grabbed onto the string .... I almost cried with joy when I saw this .... they're soooo cute and those tendrils are like little hands ..... it made my day :)

Stringing The Garden :)

Yesterday......

.... blogger went down and dumped everyone's past 20 something hours worth of posts .... for me it was only 1 post but for those who make many posts a day it was drastic. It's looking like they're starting to get the posts back up and they've opened the ability to write new posts back up but it looks like comments are still missing.
So here I am and here's a little video I made yesterday ....


Today I went to the lumber yard and bought 12 8'x2x4's and began making the frame for the trellis that going to go around 2 sides of the garden. It was raining off and on so I had to keep dragging all my S**T back and forth to the shop but by the end of the day it was framed and sunny!

Water Heater, Beach Clearing, and a Turtle :)

First off ...

A cup of coffee and photoshop this morning while waiting for the plumber.

Our water heater was installed in 1986 ..... we figured it would be wise to put in a new one before this one died .... we've been through one death and seen the destruction it can cause so we ordered a new one and the plumbing company picked it up for us and installed it this morning .... yaaaaay!!! That's our old one sitting by the truck.


So the afternoon was spent down by the river .... no ... not tubing .... yet .... but clearing. Here's a before and after of the spot we're working on ....



And while doing the clearing, I found our NorthEast Property marker pipe with all the survey info stamped on it ....


And then a turtle went by


So that was my day :)

The Studio The River and Kayaking

I love making music and I love making videos so I create my own "unique" music for my videos and for Leas. I do most everything on my iPad .... yep you read right .... it's become a mobile music studio of choice for many professionals and the apps are outstanding .... if I had to buy the real hardware versions of the apps I'm using I'd be out of luck. I do use my Mac for some things but the iPad is the most used .... I can even plug my electric guitar and Korg Wavedrum right into it ... amazing huh? Anyway here's a shot of my little comfy music zone in my little production studio ....


I'm starting to do some clearing now along the riverbank now that it's receded almost back to normal. The area just at the river line used to be a lot steeper and it had a lot of brush .... nature made it leveler and I'm making it less brushy.


Spring is really here and even though the lakes are still a little muddy from all the flooding .... we just couldn't wait any longer to get out on the water. We went to Lake Chanute .... it's about 4 miles from our house and we've never kayaked it before. We both were happy not to get upper body sore .... we've been doing Qi Gong every morning for about 10 months now and it's really paying off. Anyway we had a great first kayak day of the season and Lea shot a little video....


In a peaceful cove we watched those baby Herons for quite a while and kept our distance so not to disturb them .... so Lea was at full zoom to get what she did. I'm amazed Lea was able to get this shot considering she was in a kayak and pretty far away. Naturally when the camera was off the mother came and got the babies .... wow .... it was awesome ... she just swooped down on them and then up in the air and they joined her.

I'll end this with a photo of "Hardy Station" .... I've never seen it open but I love taking pictures of it and playing with in photoshop .... a perfect subject :)

Flowers, Slip 'N Slides and more :)

We've been spending a bit of time at the local nursery lately ....


and planning for summer ....


The baby guppy is doing great .... eating with the big kids and being an inspiration to other newborns ... no footage of the new babies but I do have this shadow of the tank on my wall :) ....

A Place To Lounge and Assembling A New BBQ

We bought this little Weber Smokey Joe the second day after arriving at our new old house in Arkansas. We used it that Spring, Summer and Fall almost daily .... but it's charcoal so we used it on the cement porch downstairs because we didn't want it on our upstairs composite decking .... I tend to spill hot charcoal out of the chimney starter now and then :) .... so here's what may be the final shot of Old Smokey cooking hamburgers Thursday afternoon .....

because ....yesterday we bought a new propane BBQ to use in a more convenient location .... on the deck upstairs .... near the kitchen .... but it came in 500 pieces .... or was it 475 pieces? Anyway Lea left and spent the afternoon at the nursery (a wise decision) while Ozzie and I put together the BBQ ....

as much help as a cat can provide it wasn't enough to cook the steak last night .... it was ready but I wasn't :) So tonight we'll break it in.

Planted more seeds but a drenching storm this morning probably washed them away .... I'll just keep reseeding until they stick. In the meantime .... yesterday morning .... when it wasn't raining .... we worked on "A Place To Lounge" ......


I'll get some steak shots tonight :)

I Only Have 4 Words To Say ... and a photo

One Year Ago Today ....


Ok ... I lied :) ... I have more to say. This photo was taken on May 06, 2010 at Tahoe Valley Campground where we kept our motorhome. We gave it to my nephew but had to get everything out of it that we treasured to haul back to A.J. and then home to Arkansas .... whew! That was a trip that we wouldn't want to do again but it had such great positive results that we have to treasure the whole experience.

From Storms To Sunshine

Today was beautiful! It stopped raining this morning after 3 days of what seemed like non-stop rain and thunderstorms. We're lucky to have the basement ... part of it is the shop and has windows but another part of it (not shown in the video) is safe of windows so when it gets scary we just hang out in the shop .... close to what I call "The Cave"....


So here's a little snip of life during and after this weekends storm...

Iris, The Garden and The River

The Iris are starting to bloom ....



And a little update on the garden and the river ....


Another storm is moving in as I type this out and I've gotten the emails from the weather channel warning of chances of more flooding .... but it's looking like the rest of the week (after Monday) is going to be really nice! We want to go kayaking!!! We're also trying to plan a day trip to the Mark Twain National Forest up the road a bit and across the border in Missouri .... waiting on one of those perfect spring days.