Taking a ride on Cotton Branch is a normal activity. Seeing two Cowart boys on tractors is not. Today we saw Ryan and Ben fluffing and baling hay. That was a good sight. Both boys worked hard today. The fields with hay bales always look good to me.
This is Ryan on the baler. He knows just how to do it right. Ben on the fluffer. He can really drive that tractor and keep those rows straight! The two of them working together warms my heart!!
Gotta love those hard working guys!!
There's a website here called "You know you live in Franklin County if". This is one of those things!! Ed has had a friend from Virginia here riding bicycles with him getting ready for the Ride the Rockies ride in June. They have ridden every day and left to go on their ride on Tuesday. Not to long after they left the phone rang. Ed said, "we just met this guy at Fenn's riding a bicycle. I'm sending him to the house to take a shower and we're feeding him steaks for supper." You know the next words out of my mouth!! He convinced me it was ok and Ryan was here with me so we went to the barn and sure enough, there stood a nice looking young man with a bicycle. His first words were, "you husband didn't call you." I said that he did and we introduced ourselves. We brought him up to the house, he took a shower and came down to visit with Ryan and me. I asked him how he got here. He was riding from Chicago to Mobile. My response was, "obviously no wife and no job!" He said, "understanding girlfriend and between jobs." Lawyer by profession he was changing firms and had talked them into a couple of months break. He usually hikes but decided to ride his bike to see if he could do it. I can't remember his specific route but he had left Nashville and ridden the entire Natchez Trace to Natchez. What a beautiful ride that must have been!!! He rode by day and camped out by night. He's ridden 50-60 miles a day except for Easter Sunday and one day that it rained all day. I wonder what he thought when Ed and Jim turned around and asked him if he wanted to come here? He did say that it was an invitation too good to refuse. Matthew John McDonald, lawyer from Chicago and new friend of Cotton Branch!!
Linda got here before Matt left. She is never surprised at what goes on at the "Branch". She watched him pack his gear. He had a sleeping bag, books, a small cook stove and clothes. He bought food and drinks as he rode.
After gearing up Matt was ready to take off. I said my goodbyes and left for wound care. I couldn't watch him leave. He had been fed a great steak dinner, chocolate pie and homemade ice cream, a full Southern breakfast and given a Cotton Branch tshirt to remember us. His next stop was Bogalusa, LA and then on to Fairhope, AL to see his Godchild that he'd never seen. Our prayers go with you Matt McDonald!! Without a step of faith we'd never had you in our life. What a blessing we would have missed!! God speed and safe travel!! I hope we hear from you some day!!
I can't believe that it's been a month since I blogged. So much has happened yet nothing has been accomplished really. The end of trapping season for Ed meant the start of him doing training rides for a 500 mile "Ride the Rockies" in June. He and Josh will be doing this together along with 1998 other people!! I'll post pictures this summer.
As for me, I finished up with my chemo and was planning on some rest until I started my "maintenance" treatment. I got to attend a couple of Scrapbook events. This one in Mandeville started out on a fun note!! 
Spring brings the arrival of new babies on the farm. Here are the four that have been born so far.
Last week one day I was coming home from town and saw something at the Elementary School. Being the "interested" person I am, I stopped to check it out. This is what I found. 
A few days after that I spent five days in the hospital with staph infection in my port. It was removed and now I'm undergoing open wound therapy until it heals. So far it is doing well but I'm sort of stuck close to home!!
Ryan and Haleigh dropped by and left me a happy. Cupcakes and cookies~~I love them both. Here are the cookies.
So sweet of my grownup grandchildren to do this!!
Update: Saw the Dr. today; said I was doing well. See him in two weeks. Prayers for wound healing are ongoing. I know God hears them.
Happy Easter to everyone!!
Youth season opened with a bang for Ben. He got a big bodied eight point. He was in the stand way back behind the house and called to check with Ed if he should shoot. Papa gave the ''go ahead'' and I told him to open his bathroom window that we might could hear the shot. A few seconds later "boom"!! Then the cell phone rings!! Deer down. That meant that we had tenderloin on Monday night with rice and gravy and biscuits!! A great early birthday supper for Ben! Way to go, Ben!
Our family has gotten so large that we pretty much keep our dove hunt weekend for family. Ed's cousin and his wife from Texas, our friends from TN, Ed's brother from TN and my brother and his wife from Petal along with our children and grandchildren and in-laws began arriving on Friday. Even with having such a big house, it sure filled up fast!! There was constant chatter and laughter and of course plenty of food. Some of us went out on Friday night and had Mexican. That was a treat. On Saturday morning it was up early and out to the dove field for the men. Never mind that it was raining. "Some of our best hunts have been in the rain." Famous saying!! About 10:00 am when the hunters came in soaking wet and hungry this was waiting for them--a pile of bacon, hot grits, homemade cinnamon rolls, orange coffee cake and fresh fruit with juice, milk and coffee. They needed some nutrition because after all, they had more work to do. The shishkabobs had to be prepared!
Since the beans, potato salad, desserts and appetizers had been prepared earlier, the ladies got to sit and visit!! We certainly enjoyed that.
Of course, there was some ballgame watching!
We signed Kelsey's cast. To bad she's getting it off soon. She won't be able to carry around Ed's art very long!
Sam spent the night with us and we went to church. We filled a whole pew.
Vin and Cathleen from Houston, Texas.
Vivian and Sam from Riceville, TN.
Ed and me--our first picture together in a while.
After a wonderful church service with communion, a delicious Sunday lunch and a short last visit, our house emptied and Ed and I took a nap. A great Labor Day Dove Hunt weekend with friends and loved ones--family--all of them. And what a welcomed addition--soft, sweet rain!!
I can't remember when it hasn't rained in the afternoon! I'm quite ready for some sunshine!! Papa and Piper were watching tv and I noticed that one of her ears is standing up. She has grown a lot in the 11 days we've had her. She's got a serious attitude problem. Her favorite past time is fighting. I guess that's due to the face that Papa likes to fight with her toys with her. She thinks she owns us. She's typical. Boy, it's going to take her a while to train us!!
See how she has one ear up and one ear down? She thinks she's something now. When the other one stands up--watch out world!!
I left you yesterday saying that we have new plastic bottles with new labels. Sam and Ed finished them up today. They look great and will be much easier to use--less messy and a little cheaper too!
New label !!
New bottle!!
Awesome honey!!
After a very busy and hectic week my afternoon was spent at the back barn bottling honey!! I guess honey is kind of like corn--"when it's ready, it's ready". And a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! Ed and the farm guys had worked so hard all morning, and after a lunch of grilled burgers, chocolate cobbler and homemade ice cream Sam and I went up to help. Our job was putting the honey in the new plastic squeeze bottles. Doing honey is a very messy job, but we got it done and it's rewarding to look at all those beautiful bottles of liquid gold!!
This is Sam helping Papa empty the spinner.
Filling the jars is a tricky job! Your timing has to be just so.
All that's left to do is the labeling. We have our own label for the front and a nutrition label for the back along with one that says "I Love Honey". I'll post that when we finish. We ended up with over 300 bottles. Ryan said they would be showing up at the "Frog Pond" soon. I will be taking some to the TOAD HOUSE for my booth!! Get those biscuits ready!!
This time of year is one of my favorite times. The flowers begin to bloom and I get very enthused about gardening. I usually "overbuy" and have to spend a lot of time planting. I love container plants but not necessarily the watering process they require. Sunday morning I was ready early for church and I walked around snapping some pictures of the things blooming in our yard. Love the colors!!














Hope things are this pretty when it's time for the wedding!!
Where this you see there used to be, a beautiful big green oak tree! I'm not a "tree hugger", I'm just not a fan of cutting trees. This big old oak tree has been here for longer than most of us. It should have been cut when we built the house but no one wanted to do it. Then, along came the garden and the orchard and they began to flourish. The poor blueberries were leaning to the north for sun because the tree was shading them out. I finally caved--my head knew it had to go but my heart was fighting it.
This is the view from the upstairs window this morning.
The sun can now get to the garden and the blueberries and raspberries will be happy and all is well on Cotton Branch!!
Ryan called last night to tell me to get my camera. If you are "faint of heart" now is the time to "turn her off" and go read somebody elses blog. Since hardly anybody else blogs you might as well just keep on reading and then say, "gross" and move on!! :) If it can be caught, trapped or killed, Ryan does it. It's a farm thing and a wildlife management thing. He doesn't kill for fun. The animals he kills usually kill our turkeys, quail or baby deer or damage the fields. He is very agriculturally trained. He respects the land. This is what he brought to show us that he'd caught on Haileigh's grandfather's land--
This 130 pound female hog got caught in a snare around her nose. The snare was caught between her two huge teeth. You can see the ring around her nose in the left picture. Those are the teeth in the right picture. These animals have no natural predators and will ruin your fields and can hurt you badly. Some folks down the road will have some "good eatin' " and we won't have to worry about her making it to Cotton Branch!! Good job, Ryan!!
One afternoon recently I was gone somewhere and when I returned Ed said he had something to show me. He handed me his phone. This is what I saw.
He and Sam had built another bluebird house and it looked so good.
Sam even used the cordless drill to hang it on the fence post. He loves the bluebirds just like we do and loves the power tools just as much. Thanks guys, for building another house for our birds!
This has been an interesting week. The boys have been power washing and painting the fence around the pasture and house. They've worked very hard and the fence is looking great. I didn't get pictures but take my word for it. They've done a wonderful job. I got to go with Haleigh to get her dress fitted. I did take pictures but I can't show you. I want to live to go to the wedding!! :) I went trapping with Ed on Thursday morning and we got three coons. He says I'm his good luck charm. Nothing would do but Linda take our picture. We have had company (very long time friends!) from TN here since Thursday. They've been turkey hunting and we've been visiting every spare minute. We've shared some good meals and had a wonderful time.
Sam and Vivian have three grown boys so they were comfortable with our boys hanging out all week. Having a table full of boys all week long at lunch was fun! The conversation was always lively.
Graham and Sam showed up Saturday afternoon wanting to show me something "big"! I had a feeling that it was a camera moment. I took the camera out and this is what we saw.
Graham will be taking drivers ed this summer and here's his ride! I hear that Sam was driving it around the farm this afternoon with Shelly!! Haven't heard what Jennifer thinks about it yet!! I just started a new prayer chain!!
Finished off the day with a nice dinner in Brookhaven and am looking forward to a good breakfast and church tomorrow. We're blessed beyond measure--and have you seen that moon??
Thanks to a breaker blowing today in the freezer room in our barn, we almost lost a lot of fruit and veggies. Thanks to Linda and the boys who found it and called the electrician who came and fixed it. The blueberries in the door of a freezer had thawed so Linda brought them to the house and cooked them (not realizing that I would rather make jam than jelly). When I got downstairs I had blueberry juice for days!!! I strained it all and started making jelly. There were only eight boxes of Surejell so I knew I would have to stop when I got through with that. By 9:30 PM I was worn out and had 44 half pints of beautiful and delicious blueberry jelly made. I still have three HUGE bowls of juice to finish. As I posted on my Twitter--there will be CB Blueberry Jelly at the Toad House tomorrow.
I'm already thinking biscuits and butter with blueberry jelly!! Or the popovers in the new issue of MS Magazine with Blueberry butter!! Company's coming--they'll be getting it!
Thanks to a friend of ours who loves to hunt and fish with the boys Ben got to go hunting for the Youth Turkey Hunt weekend. It was raining like crazy but they went anyway. I got a call early (for me on a Saturday) and he told me he'd killed a turkey. Naturally I had to take pictures. After all, that's a proud moment in a kids life!!
The gobbler had about a nine inch beard and some pretty good looking spurs. Casey was going to do a tail mount for him. Looks like we have another "hunting addict" in the family!! Awesome Ben!
One of the joys I get each day is looking out the kitchen window. A friend made us a bird feeder and put it where we could watch it. Ed keeps it full of black sunflower seed and we enjoy our birds all the time. We even have a book and mark the ones we see on the feeder. I found some millet in the fridge left over from our parakeet days but the birds didn't like it. Ed put it on the ground after this picture was made.
Waking up to everything frozen is a beautiful sight! We haven't had the snow we had last year (only about 1/2" on Friday) but we had a couple of days of ice. I love the way the trees look like crystals but we don't need the icy roads for the vehicles. It's nice when God surprises you with special beauty on a wintry day!
Last night I tried twice to do this post and lost it. Now I know why. I went trapping with Ed on Saturday morning since my plans fell through. He'd been wanting me to go. We found that the first trap had been disturbed but he had no animal. He reset the trap and we moved on. We checked several traps and some had been tampered with and some hadn't. It was interesting to see all the things he did. The stuff he uses for bait is awful and I'm surprised he touches it.
I spotted these prints and Ed said they were coon prints. They were in a pass through under a fence and I thought it would be a good place for a trap. He put one and I was sure there would be something there today. We were going to check them after lunch today. Don't you think that looks like a good spot for a trap?
This morning when I woke up Ed had gone to check traps. I started lunch and fixed muffins and called him to see if he had checked "my" spot. He said he had just driven up to it and it had a bobcat in the trap. He came and got me so I could see it.
He was a bad looking dude as the boys would say. At least we know that our quail and turkeys are a little safer with one less bobcat around to eat their eggs and prey on them. And I'm all about quail and turkeys--bobcats and coons-NO!
Enough said!!
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Recent Comments