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.

The Storms

Lots of extreme weather over the past several days .... flooding, severe thunderstorms and tornados that went around us and not through us. I've had lot's of emails and phone calls ... some from friends I haven't talked to in a long time ... so I realize that the series of storms we've had have caused concern .... thank you for caring! Lea and I are very sorry for the residents of Alabama that suffered so much loss and our hearts go out to them .... we are fortunate and we are fine :)

Yesterdays High Water

Loberg Park in Hardy

We made into town today via the long way to get around the flooded rivers and closed roads. Main St. in Hardy was drivable but you couldn't cross the Spring St. River Bridge ....


At the end of the video you probably heard a RailRoad Crossing Bell ... that's because the railroad lines had been flooded

and the crews were working to restore electrical. It's been an exciting few days and although the sun was out today, a storm is moving in for tonight and tomorrow .... but .... Thurs. and Friday are going to be beautiful!!!

April Showers Bring May Flowers?

I'm thinking that what's going on here is little more than "April Showers" and our garden is begging for some sun. Now I really love the rain and I appreciate the water and all but I'm really ready for some kayaking, tubing, barbecuing, and working in the garden .... still ..... the rain sure makes everything green and lush so I won't complain but I would like to share with you what's going on right now.
The Spring River that flows through Hardy has overflowed the banks and is in a "severe flood event" according NOAA. Flooding begins at 10' and as of this morning it was 14.2' and rising .... it's being forecast to reach 21' tomorrow morning which means that the Main St. of Hardy will be flooded. In our neck of the woods we have the South Fork of The Spring River running through the bottom of our property .... if you've been following our blogs then you've seen plenty of video of us "frolicking" and tubing in the waters of our backyard. Fortunately our house is safe from any flooding so it's just fun now to watch and see how high it will get. We are hoping that the current flooding will create a better beach for us after it recedes :) Ok .... enough blah blah blah .... here's the video ....


So I was hoping to share some of the video that Lea shot yesterday at Otter Creek but she and Ozzie had a "little mishap" with her MacBook Pro laptop and she lost all the video that was on it .... as well as the hard drive .... so we've ordered a new internal hard drive and I'll put on my techy lab coat and perform surgery when the new HD arrives ... but all is lost on her computer and she didn't cry because she had almost everything backed up on an external ... except the footage she shot yesterday ... bummer.

But .... I do have something sure to not disappoint .... enjoy :)


Not much new about guppies and their babies .... from our childhood memories of watching in joy as the babies were being born and then the horror of watching their parents snatching them up like cocktail weenies at a potluck. I made it a personal goal to give them a little bit of a chance of surviving without going into the maternity ward business.

Otter Creek

We often walk from our house to the trail that follows Otter Creek but today we drove to the trail head because it was raining pretty hard. We had to leave the dogs in the car but they didn't seem to mind too much. I imagine you're thinking ... "why would you want to go on a hike when it's raining?" .... well ..... watch this video to find out :)

Rain .... The Barrel .... The Garden

I'll just let the video tell the story ....

The Rain Barrel

I managed to get the old rusted out rain barrel apart and rolled it up the hill to the street. Our hope was that someone would take it or maybe ... since the next morning was trash day ... the trash man would be kind enough to put it in the trash truck. I was bummed when I got up this morning to see it still sitting there next to our trash bins on the street .... however .... a few minutes later a truck stopped and a guy jumped out and threw it in the back of his truck .... yeah!!!! The funny part is that we went to B&B Supply (the lumber yard) later and besides running into John (Lea's brother in-law) in the parking lot, there was also the blue truck with our old rusted out barrel in it ..... small town stuff .... I love that!

Here's a little video I made on the rain barrel ....

Arkansas Weather

..... is beautiful!


I know you hear a lot about the storms and tornados and stuff and it all sounds pretty scary but we have good insurance, a basement, a strong home and we live in an area that is sheltered and not historically prone to tornados .... so about the worst it gets for us is being up part of the night during the loud thunderstorms that scare Andi .... she can't sleep and won't let us sleep :)

We had a bad storm Thursday night which created a beautiful Friday ... perfect for a drive to Mountain Home for lunch ....

Barefoot Weather

I find myself wearing shoes less and less often as the weather is warming up. It doesn't get much better than being able to sit outside on the deck and play poker online :)

But just hours before, Lea and I dug up at least 500 bulbs that were so compacted that they couldn't produce flowers anymore. We really needed the space for another vegetable garden so the unproductive bulbs had to go ... but it wasn't easy! Here's before ....


and here's after ....


I can here you saying ... "no way was there 500 bulbs in there!" .... I'll be happy to send them to you for proof :) Ok .... maybe I'm exaggerating just a little .... maybe it was only around 475.

Today we stocked some more finished silk scarfs and woodturnings at the store .... forgot to photograph them for the website but they're selling pretty good at the store ... here's our scarf display today


I love "before and afters" or "winter and spring" photos so I'll end this post today with a shot of our front yard dogwood on a snowy January morning and one I took this afternoon. Both of these were shot from my studio window.

We're Back!

Spring is here and we're back on the blog. We're doing great and made it through our first winter in Arkansas .... not nearly as bad as our winters were when we lived in Grass Valley .... so that was good and pretty much what we expected.

I believe the last time I posted that the deck view looked like this ....


and now the deck view looks like this ...


the trees are getting their leaves and the grass is greening up


It's time to start playing golf again so we've arranged for some lessons from the pro at the golf course you see in the deck views, a really nice guy who can do nothing but help us improve ..... I hope :)

We have a lot of garden vegetable plants started so now we're busy building some raised beds .... here's the first ....


I'm sure you'll be seeing way more photos than you want to of our garden growing in the next few months :)

And then there's Sydny .... you may recall this photo from the day after she hatched and came up from the dirt in Sept. ....

Well .... here she is today ....

you gotta click on this photo and look at it big to really appreciated her great smile :) .... no photoshopping done .... honest

Last month we were able to obtain a little corner of the Ozark Crafts Mall in Hardy .... we still have a lot to do to get it the way we want it before tourist season but we are making some sales now. I'll get a photo up soon that shows more but for now all I have is a corner ....


So I'll be back to posting on a regular basis of a few times a week now through the summer as we make the best of the great days.