Unusual Happenings!

This past week had all kinds of unusual happenings! I'm going to mention a few. First, we had a mole digging holes out in the garden. Buster, our cat, went wild pretending to be a lion. We would sneak up crawling to a hole and then jump on it and act like he was fighting a huge mole. He did that for hours. I was laughing each time he "shook" the critter.

On Friday night Nana and I went to the 28th annual gospel singing in Franklin. We met Uncle Johnny and Aunt Linda at the Mexican restaurant for dinner before the singing. Then we went over to the church and got a seat right before it was to start. Somehow, Linda and Nana disappeared. The singing started at 7:00 pm and at 8:00 pm the "Sounds of Glory" -- Nana's Uncle Lanier's group came on. There were only a couple of his 6 singers there. He proceeded to tell the story - one was sick, one had his daughter's soccer game, one's daughter was having a baby that night, etc. Then he said, "but I twisted my niece Kathy and her aunt Linda's arms and they are going to sing with us." Nana walked up on stage with Linda! So for the next 30 minutes, they did a great job. I wish we had recorded it. Of course, it was a big suspenseful concert - would they know what to do. And they did.

Also, we were praying for Alexa's dissertation defense this afternoon from 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm. At 4:17 I had a text message on my cell phone, "you can call me doctor daughter now." She did it! She was exhausted and will probably sleep 12 hours tonight, since she's had very little sleep for over a week. We're very happy for her.

Then tonight Nana and I saw a pair of black-bellied Whistling ducks on the lake. I heard them and saw them fly a couple times. They were very, very impressive as you can see by this picture. Bright red beaks, long pink legs, black under-belly, black & white wings, and rich brown front. First time I've ever seen them. What an unusual week.

The Frog and the Snake

As Nana said, "I've never seen that before!" -- We were driving home down the rock road when we saw a huge frog hopping down the road toward us as fast as he could. Then we saw behind him a black racer snake coming as fast as he could to catch the frog. Both headed into the ditch on the right as we drove by.

We've planted some more tomatoes and squash. The green beans are coming up and the little lemons, oranges, & grapefruit are starting to show. The asparagus is starting to slow down. I got a load of mushroom mulch (about 1 ton) on Saturday and have already spread it over the garden with the front-in loader. I need to get another load to put around trees and in flower beds.

Nana's happy as her parent's house and property sold last Thursday. We've gone to pull a few more things out of the house. I wanted to buy a seedless Mandarin orange plant at Wal-Mart that was on sale for $15, but Nana thought we didn't need it.

We're working on figuring out how to save money on gasoline. To fill up my 5 gallon can for the lawn mower, I spent about $20. We are conserving trips to town. What next?

A Great Retirement Party

On Friday afternoon, the Extension office in Walker County hosted a retirement party for Nana. The room was decorated including pictures of Nana from long ago (Dairy Princess in Madisonville, the Trashy Lady in Port Lavaca, and others). There was all that great finger food, spinach dip, fruit, ham salad on rye bread, cheeses, and other treats. People came from her distant past and recent past as well as several relatives. People brought and sent presents and flowers. She received about 60 retirement cards. I heard so many people thanking Nana for all she's done. Her District Manager gave her a beautiful plaque and clock. Needless to say, I'm very proud of her.

At the Scott Mulch Plant in Huntsville there were dozens of 18 wheelers lined up to pick up bags of mulch to take across the country. The trucks were coming out loaded rather quickly. It's that time of the year and the first time I've seen that.

It was fun having Jimmy & Ashley come down for the week with Caleb and Jimmy's parents (Arvin & Patsy). On Saturday morning they caught about a dozen bass from 2 to 3 pounds. Caleb and his grandpa Allen flew a kite. They also helped fix my rotortiller and golf cart. I finally got the garden rotortillered today -- woo-hoo! They also helped clean out some more at Nana's mom's house. They left Saturday night about 8:00 pm and got home Sunday at about 6:00 am. Madison is just beginning to show and Nana and I are looking forward to being there when she's born June 20. Nana, Grandma Allen, and I all grew up in Madison Counties (Texas, Arkansas, and Illinois).

Nana and I are happy that Alexa and Aaron will be moving to Fort Collins this summer to start work at CSU. They've been working hard to fix up the house for sale and Alexa's been working hard to finish the Ph. D. degree requirements. We're hoping Donovan will come stay with us for awhile this summer.

I caught this allergy thingee again and am coughing and sneezing continuously. I had to have a 3-hour nap this morning after I got up. I don’t like missing church, but I think the tree pollen started it and in cleaning out the shop yesterday the dust added to it.

Out with Old - In with New

The Purple Martin chicks are sticking their heads out the doorway of the birdhouses and calling for food. What a great sight!

Nana and I were given some leeks to grow a couple years ago and they've multiplied. We decided to dig up a couple and try them. We found a leek-asparagus soup recipe -- tried it with fresh asparagus from the garden -- and loved it. We then made a second pot of it this week. I had never eaten many leeks outside of a rare occurrence of soup in a restaurant.

We cleaned out more of Nana's office yesterday, but still have a little more to go. We're looking forward to getting it all done. Tomorrow's the retirement reception.

The big news is that Alexa and Aaron called last night to make it official -- they're moving to Colorado the end of June. Alexa will be at Colorado State and Aaron will find a research job in Loveland. We're excited about that.

As life moves on it seems to have a new pace. I'm still sorting all this out in my head.

It's amazing what life will bring
When God opens a new Spring.

Now in Nana's Retirement Era

Well, Nana already found our first project for her retirement -- lay a paver stone patio outside our side door. During the last rain the water stood at the side door, so we thought we'd raise the area a bit also. So she found a 50% off sale on some red paver brick at Home Depot last week and we picked it up with the truck after church yesterday. I had to put more air in the tires before we drove home slowly from Huntsville. We unloaded it today and the truck gave a sigh of relief.

As we were unloading the stone this morning, we saw a flock of about 100 blue jays fly through stopping in the trees and calling "Thief, Thief." They were looking for bird eggs in the trees to steal. Later in the afternoon I saw the wrens out in the citrus orchard fluttering around. I looked in their nest in the lemon tree and the two eggs were gone! The blue jays must have robbed them.

The lemon tree is full of bees -- more than we've seen in a year. That's great news as we were getting worried about the bee situation. I'm working the garden now and eager to put in cantaloupe. Nana and I had trouble getting the bees to pollinate melon last year.

Nana and I are feeling great as we are feeling a lot less pressure. She's almost done with her work and my work has suddenly slowed down. She has just a few more reports to do and a session later in the month. My next trip is to Dallas on April 16-17. The reduced pressure is making it obvious how much we love we other and enjoy being with each other. Wahoo!

Nana is being taken to lunch tomorrow with Nell Williams, a lady she appreciates so much. Then Nana has a doctor's appointment to discuss the mammogram from last week that showed a suspicious object. She might have to experience a biopsy. More later.