Here’s a couple of humorous pictures I found on the internet about Texas. There is some truth to these ideas. Some Texans definitely drive fast. And the map, well, Texans are a proud bunch, regardless of what anyone else may think. There is much to be proud of here, as there is in any state. And there is much to be concerned about too, again, as in any state. But we didn’t come for the politics, we came for the weather and the ease of retirement. We are here, and we’re here to stay, so everything gets consideration. We love it here, and they say, there’s no place like home. There was a lot to love about Minnesota too, and still is. But home for us is Texas.

The Politics Of Planting And Growing

We’re soldiering on with our yard, planting and growing stuff. Sometimes the going gets tuff, but you know what they say about that. Barb planted gourd seeds and only five of them have grown so far. We’re hopeful, so we’ll see what happens.

We went to The Enchanted Forest, which is a garden center in Booth, Texas, not too far from home, because the Trees for Houston group was giving away free tree seedlings. This group is run by volunteers and has planted over half a million trees all over the Houston area, and they give away tree seedlings to anyone who wants them. So we got a few. We now have, Long Leaf pine trees, Elderberry bushes, and Redbud trees. We planted them all in pots and we will put them in the ground next fall.

Underneath the garden shed that was here when we bought the house there was some PVC piping stashed. So we put it to use and built a support for our beans and peas. We have some poultry fence that we’re going to fasten to it. It should work pretty well.

Our Tomato plants are only about 8 inches tall, and already have flower buds on them. The wonders of Texas weather!

If you look through gardening magazines, you’ll see all kinds of fancy, expensive gardening tools. That may be fine for some, and we could certainly afford to upgrade our tools, but why bother? These old things have been with us for a long time and serve us well. They do the job they’re meant to do, and it leaves us more money to spend on plants! A little cleaning and sharpening from time to time, is all they need.

Getting off the subject of gardening, I found this old German Kodak camera at an estate sale last week. It’s the same place we got the big, round, black, planting bins in the pictures above. The camera takes 35mm film and it’s from the 1940’s t0 50’s. So I cleaned it up and put a roll of Black and White film in it. If it works, I’ll post some of the photos here.

Last week we went to Jim and Mary’s place and met Jim’s niece and her two kids. While we were there, we walked around the pond, which is no longer their property since they sold 15 acres. The new owners don’t mind, and the cows, and jake the horse are still there, eating grass. Jake, especially loves carrots so Barb fed him all she had. If she was too slow on the delivery, Jake nudged her to keep up!

And just because you probably haven’t seen one of these in a while, here’s an Emu.