It's been a while since the last time I posted on this blog, so it's taking me some time to figure out how the thing works, so please be patient.  I remember now that there are two different ways of writing, one is called HTML, and then the other is just "compose" and they come out very different.  The HTML does not allow normal punctuation and paragraphs and so on, so everything come out in one long run-on sentence, which is not very readable.  So, today, we will try making things more in a readable format.
         Pictures.  I was discussing pictures with Brenda yesterday after I got home.  Blogs are not readable without pictures.  No one wants to read blogs without pictures.  They are like deserts.  Deserts.  Not desserts.  So, I will be taking lots of photos at home, and then loading them, and then sharing them here.  Lots of photos.  That's the only way to really communicate.  As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  At least a thousand.

This is my herb garden.  I enjoy growing herbs.  I don't always use them for cooking.  Sometimes I do, but lots of times I just enjoy growing them because they are beautiful plants, they smell wonderful, and they look so good.  I have parsley, rosemary, basil, thyme, cilantro, sage, and tarragon.  The nasturtiums, zinnias and marigolds are for flowers, although I am told that nasturtiums have a peppery taste in salads.  The plant in front is kalanchoe, not an herb or flower, just a succulent.  It was a survivor from the previous owner.  I also have chives, which have survived from several years' of growth.  They bloom every year, and they just keep coming back.  All the herbs I grew from seed this year.  The seed packets said they were very difficult to get them to germinate, but we had about two weeks of very cool, wet weather right when I planted them, and they all came up in the first week except the rosemary, which took another week to germinate.

Coffee tree.  This coffee tree has a long history.  It is more than ten years old, although it is still pretty small.  Brenda and I bought this thing when we were on our honeymoon in Hawaii in 2004.  Yup.  That's 13+ years ago, now.  We had it in a little tiny pot for about ten years, and for some strange reason it never seemed to get any larger.  Strange.  Then, when we moved to this house a year ago, we left it sitting outside.  That was in February.  Yes, February.  I figured the thing was dead for sure.  So, I didn't even think about it until later that summer when I was cleaning out some junk out back and saw that it was putting out new leaves!  It was ALIVE!  Yes, the coffee tree that refused to die.  So, I re-potted it, took care of it, I was real nice to it, and it took off, put on all kinds of new growth, and went from a little dead stick to a beautiful coffee tree again.  Then, this spring we got it this nice big planter and some nice new potting soil for it to grow in, and it has really taken off.  It has grown at least another foot since this spring, and I'm pretty sure it will put on at least another two to three feet of growth by the end of the year.  I'm thinking we may see coffee flowers and fruit this winter.  We will, of course, be moving it indoors when the weather gets cold this time.



Mark mowing.  This is Mark mowing with the sickle bar mower.  As with everything else around the farm, there's a long story attached here.  As you may recall, we now have 14 acres, and about 10 acres of that is brush that needs to be mowed at least two to three times a year to keep it from growing into forest.  I suppose it would be okay for it to be forest, but we don't really want it to be forest, we would prefer it to be pasture, or hay fields.  So, that means it needs to be mowed.  That means it has to have a tractor.  That's my tractor in the photo.  It's my 1945 B Farmall.  For those of you who may not be familiar with Farmall tractors, what that means is, that the rear end of the tractor is real wide, as you may be able to see in the photo, and the seat is offset to the right, and that is supposed to make it easy for the farmer to see the crops as the tractor goes over them, so that he drives the tractor between the rows and not over the top of the plants.  Anyways, that's what a B Farmall is.  Well, my tractor wasn't running this year, it needed work.  So, it got later and later in the year and the grass got higher and higher.  Finally, my very kind elderly neighbor, Mr. Forrest, came over and helped me do the tune-up it needed and got the tractor running so I could do the mowing.  Then, because the grass was so high and so thick and heavy, I broke the U-joint on the bush hog mower.  Twice.  The first time wasn't so bad, it was only $10 to fix it.  The second time was much worse, it twisted the second half off, also, so it was $60 to fix it.  That did it.  So, now I had to get the sickle bar mower out, since the bush hog mower just won't handle that heavy grass.  Therefore, the above photo.  It has been several years since I last had used the sickle bar mower and it needed some repairs.  The mold board had rotted away and had to be  replaced, and the transport bar had broken when we moved (that was exciting! It took off a mailbox when it suddenly extended down as we were going down the highway at 45 mph!).  So, that meant getting out the welder and doing some grinding and welding, and then fabricating a new mold board out of exterior grade plywood, and then finding a nut and bolt to fit.  But, after getting it all put together, and dribbling some 10W40 motor oil over everything and starting it up, it ran! 

The down side was, two days later, I discovered that there must have been poison ivy in all that grass, because I had to go to the doctor for some medicine, as I had poison ivy rash all over me.  So it goes.  No photo of the rash.  Sorry.