Issac's A Come Calling

We've had rain brought in to us by Isaac the barely a hurricane that has wreaked destruction over the southern part of Mississippi and is doing a job on central Mississippi now.

I woke up to rain this morning and tornado warnings for our county and the counties below us.  I don't think there's been a full five minutes that rain wasn't falling today.

About ten o'clock we were under another tornado warning and this time the weather guys were spotting the rotation about two miles from our home.  We were spared yet another time.  But, we're under a watch until five in the morning.  It will be a restless night for me.

Our garden looked alright as darkness fell but we did get some heavy rain and some wind out of the last system pushing through here.  I'm a afraid to see what the garden looks like in the morning. 

I hope our birds will have sense enough to get in their houses and stay there while all this rain is falling.  They'll be drowned if they don't.

That's the update on Isaac for east central Mississippi.  I hope and pray that everyone in his path will be safe. 

There's A Storm A Brewing

Issac is in the Gulf of Mexico and seems to be heading in the same path Katrina took.  I can't bear to think about what another storm like Katrina will do to our Gulf and to our garden.

Katrina brought a lot of damage even further than we live north of the Gulf.  We had trees down and power outages.  In fact, William and I slept on the floor in front of the screen door for seven days.  We had no power for seven nights and days. 

Our garden is growing great guns.  I hate to think about the havoc a storm will do to the garden.  The tomatoes will be torn up as will the peas.

The Marianna's Conflict tomatoes are beginning to ripen.  They are very nice tomatoes but are cracking open.  I'm thinking the cracking is being brought on by the several days of rain we received a couple of weeks ago.  I sure was looking forward to those big, delicious tomatoes on a sandwich or two or ten....The last tomato sandwiches of the summer are always the best. 

I hope that I'm stewing over nothing.  I'm praying this storm will fizzle out before it reaches our coast.  We're still recovering from Katrina.

William caught the skunk that had been coming to visit.  He is now resting in pieces.  I think there's another one around making a stinker of itself.  I know they think they've found a source of food but I hope the pens are secure enough that the rascals can't get into our birds.

Hunny Bunny Haven has been relatively quiet except for the skunks coming to visit.  Even the dog and cat are getting along.  :)  Thank you for dropping by.  Please come again.

A Rainy Week

We've had rain here at Hunny Bunny Haven almost every day this week.  The rain has put a halt to any garden work. 

I did get to work around the cucumbers one afternoon.  They've shown their appreciation by growing a foot (or so it looks) since then. 

The cucumbers are all that's gotten any attention from me because of the rain.  William put some fertilizer around some of the garden.  The rain will help with getting that food down around the roots of the tomatoes, peas, squash, etc. 

The tomatoes William transplanted aren't growing as fast as I expected them to grow.  I'm sure we will have some more ninety degree days and then they will jump up like jumping jacks.

We've sold the chickens we were trying to sell and really more ducks than I'd intended to sell.  I had six ducks advertised in the Mississippi Farm Bulletin but I sold seven of my ten ducks.  I'm keeping a trio.

There you have it, the news from our little piece of heaven right here on earth.  Thanks for coming by and do come again.  :)

Peas, Pictures And Posies

All the vegetables we planted two weeks ago are up and growing. The peas are still coming up. One hill of squash and one hill of zucchini disappeared so they will have to be replanted. That’s fine and dandy as there will two hills bearing a little later than the others. I’m not sure what happened to the plants unless Tomomi, the cat scratched them up or decided to use the plants for a bed. They’re gone completely.


Bed one of theZipper Cream Peas 

Bed two of Zipper Cream Peas

There’s some nice looking green tomatoes on the Marianna’s Conflict plants. We have six of these tomato plants so in a few weeks we should have plenty ripe tomatoes for more sandwiches. This variety of tomato is really good for slicing either for sandwiches and for a side dish. I’m eagerly awaiting the first ripe Marianna’s Conflict. The tomatoes usually grow to the size of a saucer. One slice will cover a slice of bread!



The cucumbers and green beans are looking good. We will need to pull some soil up around them Monday and give them some fertilizer. In fact all the new garden beds will need to be worked and fed.

 Satirday we took a little trip to French Camp, Mississippi.   On one side of the highway is a Christian school with grades up to twelvth grade. The school is for children who either have been in trouble or have a troubled home life. French Camp Academy is one of my favorite places to invest my money. No, I don't get dividends except knowing that the dollars I send to the school helps children find their way and become productive citizens.

On the other side of the highway is this quaint little town, an old French settlement. Some of the buildings are still standing from the time Leflore settled there. The other buildings are old buildings from around the area that have been moved into the town and redone.
  Storage Cabins


Blacksmith Shop and Tractor Barn


The Museum.  Unfortunately it was closed so we didn't get to tour it this time.


 French Camp Inn bed and breakfast is made up of two cabins that were moved into the village and joined together with other old building lumber.
  

The B & B

  

The post office is over seventy years old and is now used as a pottery studio. The antebellum home is former home of one of Choctaw County's earliest politicians,  Colonel James Drane.  Building of the home was begun in 1845..

The Post Office


Drane's Antebellum home



We rode through the area and found the lodge and lake for the Camp Of The Rising Son. It’s a beautiful lake and the lodge looked inviting.

William and I posed in front of the lake. The yard slopes down to the lake. I felt like I was going to slide right into the lake hence the look of “Hurry up and snap the picture” I have on my face.


   William

 
Me   


We ate lunch at the Council House Café. They don’t have much of a varied menu. Only two sandwiches, two salads, three soups and two desserts were offered but the food was good and I learned one thing……Don’t order soup and sandwich there.

The waitress asked if I wanted a cup of soup or a bowl of soup. I ordered the cup of soup which was almost a pint. Then she asked if I wanted a whole or a half of a sandwich….I ordered the whole sandwich…..I couldn’t eat half of the sandwich because it was piled so high with meat and lettuce and tomato. Oh well….I have dinner for tonight….Wonder what William is going to do for dinner.

There’s a syrup mill set up on sight also. The woman in the gift shop told us that syrup is made each Saturday of October. I’d like to go back in October and watch the syrup being made. Last time we were there we bought a jar of the syrup while it was still warm. Yum!

The last three pictures are of the crepe myrtle at the back corner of our house as well as a mound of Oxalis and a Cannas. The tree came from the crepe myrtles that my daddy set out long years ago across the lower part of their yard. It’s blooming beautifully right now! Every time I see the blossoms I think of my daddy and how much he loved flowers.



The purple plant growing in our tomato bed is oxalis given to me by my friend gigi. I don’t know how it came to be in the tomato bed but I plan to have it in the front flower bed by next spring where everyone who comes to see us can enjoy the beautiful burgundy foliage and the lavender flowers.



The yellow/red Cannas is like a ray of sunshine in a dull, weedy area of the garden.  It is surrounded by volunteer Tommy Toe tomatoes.  I'm planning to move the Cannas to the front flower bed this fall.  We can enjoy their birght colors and have more area for gardening in the back.  These Cannas were given to me by my niece, Daphne. 



That was our Saturday. A “Date day” we both enjoyed. Now, I’m looking forward to the next “date day” which will be in early September. We plan to go to the Cullman, Alabama flea market on that date. Being married is fun if you keep your marriage interesting by spending quality time with each other. It doesn’t have to be a trip just time together enjoying each other’s company.

That last paragraph has nothing to do with peas, pictures or posies. Just a little tidbit that we have learned in our almost twenty five years of marriage.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you’ll come again soon.

 

Not Musing But Amusing....

I'm a facebook junkie and I'm the first to admit it.  Although, I will say I've gotten better....Not quite as addicted to facebook as I once was but I do still like to read other people's opinions even though I don't agree with a lot of them.  But, that's alright...It's called free speech and this is still the United States of America.

I said all the above to say this.  A few weeks ago we had over a week's worth of days when it rained every day.  People were wanting rain before the rain came.  After a couple of days people on facebook were complaining...moaning and groaning...sick of the rain! 

We've had a week of very hot temperatures and no rain.  People (again on facebook) are complaining...moaning and groaning and praying for rain.  I find it very amusing that some people cannot be satisfied even as a friend of mine once said "if they were hung with a new rope." 

We need some rain.  We need it badly but I have learned in my sixty-something years that rain will come.  It always does and it's right on time. 

I've also learned that if the rain comes and comes and comes and comes that one day it will stop....Everything will dry up and life will go on.  No amount of complaining, whining, moaning and groaning is going to change anything.  Now praying will help...after all we're not in charge of the weather...We can't do anything about it except wait.  It will change in a day or two.  Just give it time!

That's all folks.  My take on people who think complaining about the weather will change it.  :)

One Heck Of A Husband.....

Well at least most of the time....LOL.   William was nice enough to transplant the tomatoes this afternoon while I made our dinner.  He put four plants in the front flower garden (what's more beautiful than big, red, ripe tomatoes?) and two in each of the pepper beds. 

It's been thundering all around us as well as raining in different areas in our county.  If we could get a good rain right now the tomatoes should be set to grow.

Our late summer garden is now planted.  It's up to us to keep it watered and fertilized.  Then it will be up to us to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

We need to be finding a place to make beds for the winter greens (collard greens, kale and swiss chard) along with the greens we grow in the autumn (lettuces, turnip greens, mustard and spinach). 

William drained his goldfish pond because water  moccasins decided to use it for a swimming pool.  If we filled it with dirt we'd have a great bed for our greens.  I wonder what he's going to think of this.  It's just an idea but it's also a lot of soil.  The bed is six feet by ten feet and two feet deep.  Anybody want to take a turn at the shovel and wheelbarrow?

There you have it!  My exciting life living at Hunny Bunny Haven.  Truly can't think of any where I'd rather be.