Barn Charm - From The Amish Community

I'm sharing photos from my visit to the Amish community.   The sun was brightly shining that day, so it was hard to get a real clear shot with my camera.   Most of their barns are red and very tidy looking.  Do you see the buggy? 

You'll see a lot of horses in this community.  I was happy to spot this draft horse, or some call them work horses.  When I was a youngster growing up on the farm, we had a lot of horses.  We had a pair of work horses that my dad bought for some reason.  He didn't use them for working that I recall.  I do remember how gentle they were.  Their names were Pet and Pat.  They were so tall that I had to climb up a gate in order to get on their back.  I didn't ride them, I just liked sitting on them.  They were so big, I could even lay down on their backs.  We didn't have them very many years.  I don't have any photos of them because that was before I got my little brownie camera!

An Amish school house.  I thought the name was interesting.  There are several schools in the area.  And below is one of the outhouses that go along with these schools!  See the red handle by the school?  That is where they draw water.  The school looks very similar to my old country school that I attended the first 6 years of my life.  So does the outhouse and water pump.  It sounds primitive doesn't it, but I'm glad I got to experience going to a little country school.  I have fond memories of that time.  We didn't have plumbing, but we did have electricity!
 

Isn't the filly a pretty thing?  I didn't aim to shoot the mare's backside...I was focusing on the filly!  When we were living at our country home, we had a couple of horses.  One of them wasn't broke to ride, so we took her to the Amish community where they kept the horse and tried to break him.  He wasn't quite gentle enough to suit me, so he wasn't ridden very much.  When we moved to our present home, the horses were sold.  I do have photos of them and I'll show them one day soon. 

There is still more to come from the Amish community.  So stay tuned!  I'll share more next week.  Oh, I think I mentioned the baked goods for sale in this area?  Last week I mentioned the yummy pecan pie I bought.  They did have some fried pies that day and I bought several of them, too.  Oh. My. Word.  They were so delicious!!  Here's a FYI.   If you want them, I'm told they only sell them on Fridays and Saturdays.  It's probably a good thing I don't go there very often!!

If you like barns, be sure to visit Tricia's Barn Charm.

Thanks for stopping by!
Until next time... 

Going, going...gone

We are so lucky to have a few beautiful lakes nearby.  This lake is one I love to visit and it's very close to our house.  In fact, I could see part of it from my house if I were to climb the tree in the front yard.   Like that's gonna happen!  I never climbed trees even when I was young because I've always been afraid of heights.  However,  I have always, always loved watching the changing skies as the sun sets.
 

        "Never waste any amount of time doing anything important when
              there is a sunset outside that you should be sitting under!"
                                                ~ C. JoyBell C.

"When the sun has set, no candle can replace it."

~ George R.R. Martin

Until next time...

Thursday At Home

Nearly every day when I browse in blogland, I see such beautiful homes and gardens.  Everything nearly always looks like it came straight out of a magazine.  Perfectly staged homes and beautifully manicured lawns and patios.  As I took my camera out with me early this morning, I looked around and sighed.  No perfection to be found anywhere and the yard needs mowing badly.  Here are my random shots in no particular order.  I probably should have called this post "Keeping It Real".  My home and gardens aren't, and will never be, magazine worthy, but it is comfortable and it is real.  It is home. 

 
 My first zinnia shot this year.  We had so much rain earlier this spring that my first planting of flowers and most vegetables had to be replanted.  So these guys are a little late in blooming and are not very big.  It has been so hot lately and we now need some of that rain we had so much of earlier in the season.

I watered all my potted flowers this morning, but so far we haven't started watering the veggie garden.  I usually water flowers in the evenings, but I missed yesterday.   Those are sunflowers you see in the front and in the back is my pitiful looking corn crop.  Squash and cucumbers are just this side of the corn.  I picked a few zucchinis and cukes that were ready.

Veggies have been gathered and the sun is already getting hot, so I head back to the remaining shade on the patio.  It won't be long and this shade will be gone, too, until evening.   I have nearly 50 pots of flowers scattered all around this large patio and on the front porch.  I've only had to replace just a few flowers, in spite of the heat and the kittens.  This is the wall of the walkout basement.  It drives me nuts trying to decide how to make it look better.  Painting might help, but we have red brick above, so what color would I choose?   Any ideas?  I try to pretty it up with all the flowers, but it needs more help!

The kittens are growing by leaps and bounds.  They were snoozing as I sat in my chair after all the watering and veggie gathering.  I'm surprised that I have any flowers left at all on the patio.  They've sure had fun playing in some of the pots.  We're having a hard time finding a home for them.  One person backed out in taking them.  And, no, much as I love these sweet furbabies, we can't keep all of them.  I'm afraid they'll eventually get run over.

The birds have been singing their little hearts out this morning.  I recognized the wren and a cardinal.  This pretty boy landed in the new peach tree we planted last year.  I think it is a Phoebe.  The birds aren't coming around quite so close with all the kittens we have.  Who can blame them?  We have rabbits and squirrels in the back yard and I just want to tell them to Run!  The kittens and their mama will be catching them if they get a chance.  Mama Kitty was chasing a frog on the patio earlier.  She caught a lizard for the young ones the other day.

                    

Back in the house, I walked down the hall and looked into a spare bedroom and saw something was a bit different.  I had just made up the bed with a quilt I had dried on the clothesline.   It doesn't take long for anything to dry in this heat.  Anyway, see that lump under the quilt?  That's my kitty, Stormy.  She loves clean bedding or a pile of clean, folded clothes and just crawls right in and goes to sleep!  See, I told you that this is a Keeping It Real post! 

I'm not sure what I'll get into the rest of the day.  I'm thinking I'll vacuum and scrub floors and dust.  Those are never ending jobs, particularly when you have furbabies in the house.  I also need to do something with all that squash.  I usually peel and dice up any extra zucchinis and put in freezer bags.  They make a great addition to a pot of vegetable soup. 

So there you have it.  Just a normal day at my little cottage.  Hope your day is a good one.  For those of you who are getting too much rain, send some our way.  And, while I'm asking, I'll take some cooler temps, too, please!

Until next time... 

July Note Card Party

It's time again for Vee's Note Card Party!

This month I'm choosing some of my furbabies as my theme, 

starring Stormy and Peanut.  So without further ado.....

Be sure to visit  A Haven for Vee  to see many lovely

note cards.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time...

A Barn From The Amish Community And A First

Isn't he a beauty?  He looked very friendly, too, as he just started

coming towards me as I got out of my car to snap a pic of the

barn.  That hazy look you see is dust.  We were on a gravel road

  and were they ever dusty!

Here's the barn that I was wanting to snap, but Black Beauty kept 

catching my eye.  This is another barn I'm sharing from our day

trip to the Amish community near Clark, MO over a week ago.  

 

You can tell in this shot that Black Beauty was moving 

a little bit closer all the time.  I used my zoom in that first shot.  I 

really wished that day that the grass and weeds weren't so tall and I wasn't in my flipflops, or I would have walked over to the fence.  Do you see

the purple martin house just past the horse?  Most Amish homes have them, I noticed.

This is another barn almost identical to the one above.  I wish my shot was a bit clearer.  It must have been the sun.  :)  Anyway, see the sign in the front?  The Amish homes that have goods for sale will have a sign near their driveway stating what they have for sale that day.  This one had produce.  I bought cucumbers for 25 cents at one home. 

My daughter went with me on this trip.  She had never been to the Amish

community and found it very interesting.  There is another thing she 

encountered and actually used that day that was a first for her.

Yes, it is what you think it is!  An old-fashioned outhouse.  

There were actually signs to lead the way to it.  Now some

of us are, ahem, old enough to remember or have even used these in 

the past.  Raising my hand and waving here.  This one was a two-seater.  But, nary a place to wash your hands in sight that we could see.  Thank goodness for hand sanitizers that we carry in the car!  :) 

We had stopped at this house because it said Bakery on their sign and

the Amish women have such yummy baked goods.  We bought a loaf of bread and a pecan pie at this house.  Oh my, I wish I had the recipe for the pecan pie.  It was the best I'd ever eaten! 

There will be a few more barns and other scenes from this very

interesting community to come.   Thanks for stopping by!

 

Linking to Tricia's Barn Charm 

 

Until next time...

Laura Ingalls Wilder Home ~ Part 3

Is it too early for a tall glass of iced tea?  Not at my house.  Maybe you'd rather have coffee?  Have a seat and I'll pour you a glass or a cup and we'll revisit my trip to Mansfield, MO where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived for 60 years or so.  I have shown photos of her home and told a little bit about her life there in Part One here and in Part Two here.  If you missed them, you might want to check them out.

I'm still kicking myself because we didn't take time to find a place to stop and take photos of the many beautiful coneflowers we saw along the highway on the way to Mansfield.  The one above is in my garden and I recently bought another and planted.  I love these flowers, as you may have noticed!   Okay, now on to Laura's house...

After we toured the museum and Laura's house, we were then given directions for the short drive to Laura's other home that she lived in for 8 years.  As you can see by the sign above, Rose, the daughter of Laura and Almanzo, had a more modern home built for her parents.   Laura wrote articles for magazines and publications and sold her first book "Little House in the Big Woods" in 1932.  Rose was doing very well with her writing and made much more money than Laura did, according to the tour guide.  I was surprised to learn this, I had no idea that Rose was so successful. 

The stone house is beautiful, inside and out.  I really loved it and also the setting in among the trees.  Rose spent a good deal of money to make this house, that was built from a Sears home plan, look like an English cottage.  When she was through making changes, the cost of the house was double the original price.  There are many beautiful built ins, a modern kitchen and a tiled bathroom.  We only saw the five rooms on the main floor, but there's a couple of bedrooms upstairs and a basement where Laura did her laundry.  Photos were not allowed inside.

The house was built using local materials such as the field stone for the siding.  The floors were a beautiful pecan wood.  All of the furniture we saw had belonged to the Wilders including some chairs that Almanzo had made.  

Rose also had a small garage built for her parents and it was sided with the same stone as the house.  In addition to the garage, a brand new car was gifted to her parents, Laura and Almanzo, too.  I didn't get a photo of the garage because the tour was about to start and I had to hurriedly snap the shots of the house and the barn that was partially hidden in the trees.  If you missed seeing the barn, it is shown here.  

As you already know, Laura and Almanzo only lived in this house 8 years.  I asked the tour guide why they moved back to their other house and he told us that Laura said the other house was "home".  I imagine that I would have felt the same way.  Although the stone house isn't really all that large, it must have been quite grand in it's day.  However, there is just something about the other house that was more appealing, at least to me.  It had that homey, cozy cottage feel that I love.  
 
I feel like I should write "The End" now.  But, quite frankly, I didn't want this story to end.  I can't wait to go back and see the museum and homes again.  If you are ever in the Branson area, Mansfield is only about 90 minutes away.    

Until next time...

Just One Of Those Days....And A Reminder

Yesterday was not one of my better days.  The coneflowers have nothing whatsoever to do with this post, they are just here to make me feel better while I write this.
    
Do you sometimes feel you should have just stayed in bed?

My morning started out with an appointment for the car.  Oil change, tire rotation, etc.  I waited and waited.  It seemed like they called everyone's name but mine.  Finally!  They were finished and I could leave.  Yay!

There was another 4 hour wait until my next appointment at the Health Center for my mammogram.  I didn't have to wait long there to get flattened out and x-rayed.  The technician was very quick and efficient.  Hopefully, the news will be good.  I hadn't had one in...well, let's just say that I was overdue.  You women out there...if you haven't had your yearly mammogram yet, please do so!  My gyn reminded me last week that they were just as important, more so for women my age, as the pap/gyn exam.  

It was so hot yesterday and I noticed, while shopping when I was killing time, that several folks had their cranky on.  I might have been one of them.  I'm not a hot weather person.  Or cold weather, either, for that matter.  A good lunch did help matters a wee bit.   

Finally, the appointments were completed and I was homeward bound....and then...what is that noise???

Yep, that dusty flat tire is mine.  I called hubby and said "Help!"  It was the longest 20 or so minutes of the day waiting for him to arrive to change the tire for me.  Sitting on the side of a highway is a wee bit nerve-wracking.  Luckily I had my camera with me, so I amused myself by taking pics of the cornfield on my left side and the soybean field on my right side.  I zoomed in on the irrigation taking place near the trees.  The cloud formation was interesting.  I thought it looked like a man's profile with an old-fashioned hair cut complete with a pompadour.

Why don't people slow down when they see a car on the side of the highway?  

Hubby arrived and tried to put air into the tire but it wouldn't hold.  So he proceeded to change the tire all the while telling me to get off the side of the highway and into the car.  I wouldn't do it because I thought the cars just might slow down if they saw me.  I said I didn't want him to get hit.  He said I was the one likely to get hit.  He said he would sue someone if they hit me.  I said he probably wouldn't get to because if they hit me, then they would likely hit him, too.  I think he may have shot me the look just about then.   

(For either of my children who might read this, I was not standing on the highway.  Your mother wasn't about to go to the trouble of spending all day away from her computer just to get hit by a car!  Provided, that is, that said cars stayed on the highway and didn't run off the road, which can happen.)

It turns out the tire had a puncture caused by some kind of bolt.  It was patched and I was good to go.  The old brick cottage was a welcome sight after a long, hot day.   

Until next time...

Barn Charm

We recently took a day trip to the Amish community which isn't too far from where we live.  There are barns galore, as you might imagine.  We traveled on a lot of dusty gravel roads and the day was very hot and sunny.  It was a challenge to get a good shot because the sun was either in my eyes or else a car would come along kicking up the dust just when I was shooting.  

Once in a while, we would meet a horse and buggy.  The one in the above photo that I snapped from a distance just happened to be on the paved highway.  Look at the horse's feet.  None are touching the road.  Looks like this horse is wearing horseshoes, too.  

It is a very interesting place to visit and we didn't just drop by to snap barns, although I certainly took advantage of the many I saw to do just that!  I will share more in a later post about our visit to this community and there will be...surprise!...more barns from this trip in future Barn Charm posts, too. 

Be sure to visit Tricia's Barn Charm to see some wonderful barns!

Thanks for stopping by!
Until next time...

A Hot Monday

It's hot in my neck of the woods!  All I want to do is sip something cold and stay inside where it's cool.  I'd like to tell you about all the things I got done last week and crossed off my to-do list, but not many were.  At least those things requiring much work.  :)

My shoulder is better and I think it is partly because of the exercises I've been doing that were given to me by my chiropractor.  Plus I've not been lifting or doing anything that might aggravate it. 

I don't know if I'm going to be able to return to my usual blogging routine yet at least as far as commenting is concerned.  This will be another busy week filled with several appointments.  The first one on the calendar is a haircut this morning.  I can't wait.  I think my hair grows as fast as the grass in our yard!  

When I'm not here in blogland, I miss it.  Truly.  It's something that I really look forward to and I enjoy putting photos with my little posts.  There are so many ideas and so little time!  I also love seeing what you are up to!  

One of our recent day trips took us back to the Amish community which is only about 30 miles from us.  It was a fun day and I'll share a few photos later.  I also will finish my Laura Ingalls Wilder Home series soon. 

This little munchkin gave us a bit of a scare.  Oh, not because she's high up in the tree, but because she went missing for a couple of days.  It seems Mama Kitty took all 5 little ones for a hike and left them somewhere else overnight.  The next morning 4 of them returned home, but not this one.  Finally, last night she showed up.   We had to wonder if this is part of a training exercise that kittens undergo before they are weaned.

 
Have a wonderful day, whatever the weather!   

Until next time...

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday to you on this first day of July!  Do you like coneflowers?  Mine have just started blooming in earnest the last few days.  I have just, in recent years, begun to appreciate this beautiful flower.  Don't know why I overlooked it for so many years.  We found so many blooming along the right-of-ways on our trip to the southern part of the state over a week ago.   We even passed a small field covered in them.  I was driving and didn't get photos, but I can tell you they were just beautiful.  I always think of the things that I should have taken time to see or snap after we return from a trip.   Tell me that I'm not the only one to do this!

This will be a busy week for me and I will be taking another blog break.  I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I've somehow hurt my right shoulder and have had trouble using my arm.  It seems to be a tad bit better today, but I have really been neglecting some things so I feel I better stay off the computer for a while.  I actually considered taking the whole summer off, but I just can't seem to stay away from blogland that long!  I need to complete my series of posts on the Wilder Home in Mansfield, so I may sneak in a post on that at some point.  If not, it will be one of the first things I'll do when I get back.  Have a wonderful week and have fun celebrating our nation's birthday on July 4th!! 

  
"From every mountain side

Let Freedom ring."

~Samuel F. Smith

Until next time...