Irma Aftermath

Or, the not so little pond.

So  much rain here in SE Ga, that it's spilled out of its banks, and into the two adjacent hollows.
These are two separate spots that were dug, we believe, at the beginning of the pond making, but never completed. One is about 3 feet deep and never holds water (it is now), and the other is around 5 feet, and keeps water even in summer to about 1' depth (the water table, we think).

Now? they are all connected! We might need to net the fish that 'migrate' once the water goes down, to relocate them to the main pond. Enjoy your vaca while it lasts, fishies!!

That area of water in the back is the real pond, only it's now a lot wider. This in the front is a dug out depression that will hold water some of the year, but never this much!

Be sure to read my other post for an update on life at LittlePond!

Finally Fall

And I am loving it!
Southeast Ga doesn't really get 4 seasons. More like 3, maybe. lol

Days will climb to the 80's even in November down here, though the nights
get cool and require heat and plenty of blankets. Anyway, slowly but surely,
we are seeing the leaves change and the weather become cooler.

The last hurricane left us with an overflowing pond (no pics, sorry) that is
STILL over full. In the year we've lived here, the small fingerling fish have
become bigger, but we have yet to see evidence of grown fish. We speculate
that a turtle is eating them before they make it to adulthood.

We're considering having a cousin try to fish it out, if it's there. Dh's health
doesn't permit him to do much other than go to work and rest (so he can keep
going to work). He has PKD, and is on the Mayo transplant list at Jacksonville.
See Untangling the Skein at blogspot for that.

On our fish feeding journey the other day, we were emphasizing again to Drake,
who is now 9, to always, always, always watch where you step, even later in the
day/evening. Sure enough, on the way back to the house, he gasped and stuttered
 and finally managed to say "Snake!".

It was a ground rattler, about 14 inches long, just lying in the path, stretched out.
It never coiled up, or tried to slither away, but played dead, as they sometimes will.
We stepped waaaay around it and called for Cousin Donnie, who was on our property
at the time looking for snakes (he sells them, got $60 for one).

He came, held it down with a boot, and lopped off its head with a knife. No rattles, but
the customary yellow tail. Thought at first it was a copperhead because of that, but
the pattern was all rattler. Drake got to see the fangs on the tiny head, and even
touched the body of the snake. Great learning moment!

Donnie did not find any other snakes here, in 3 days of searching. Go figure!

Last night, we came in from a late soccer game and supper to see a gray fox trotting
away from the back door area, where I had tossed some leftover pizza. There is a cat
we've seen that I thought might come and eat it, but it was a fox last night. It had the
bushiest tail!

We see lots of wildlife here, and love every bit of it.
Deer, fish, turtles, rabbits, and foxes, we've got it all! (well, no turkey's so far, but I'm hoping)

Happy Fall, Y'all!

I can see clearly now....

The forest is gone.
Sigh, the land next to us sold. At least, the bit right next to our house did.
It was all woods, with no neighbors to be had for a mile. Now, they've cleared it,
and are waiting on the piled up brush to dry before moving in their home. At
least, I think it will be a mobile home. They could build, I'm not sure. We have yet
to meet them. Sure hope and pray they are nice and quiet!

View from our front porch, where forest used to be. There goes the privacy!

In other news, I might see clearly (the lot next door), but I'm speaking with bugs in my mouth. And hair, and all over my car, porch, and everywhere else. Why? It's love bug season! I'll be glad when these jokers are gone. What a mess.

You can read about them here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug

This is two of them, mating. They fly around like this, connected, and get everywhere. Go outside, and you are swiping and waving like mad to keep them off you. They don't bite, but are just aggravating. At least the love bug season is short. Yay.

Hope you're all doing well!

A kidney for Tony

Hi all,

I think I've mentioned, either here or at my other blog (untangling the skein), about my husband's PKD. That's polycystic kidney disease, and he's in stage 4. He is also on the transplant list at Mayo Jacksonville.

We are humbly asking for help with anticipated expenses. Meds (initial, they won't let him leave the hospital without $1000 worth of them, not covered by insurance), lodging and food for me while he's in Jax (we must stay 30 days after surgery to be close to his doctors), and home expenses until he's able to return to work. 

I've estimated these to be around $7000. A scary prospect, and more than a little overwhelming.
Would you prayerfully consider donating? We appreciate it, and to God be all the glory!

www.gofundme.com/kidneyfortony

Summer, flying by

Where have I been? Spinning and spinning, seems like.
This summer has been full of fun and family, and lots of going to get it all done.
Here's a small pictoral of our days:

Hanging out in the late evening at Lake Grace (highlight: seeing the Canada geese fly over, complete with honking)

We've been spending time at Lake Grace because...CANOE!! Meet Red Feather, our Old Town Saranac 146. We love her, and have already had several adventures. This is another view of that same island above, btw.

Lake Grace from the pavilion/bathhouse side. You can again see the island in the background.

Swim lessons! He didn't really 'get' it, b/c he didn't want her let go of him. Soooo...he still can't swim, or float, or dog paddle, sigh. More lessons are in order. Still, he had a good time.

Giant grasshopper! The pic does not show how big this thing was. Very impressive.

Our Red Feather, all dressed up for the GORRR. You can see more folks in the background, and a few of the actual rafts already in the water.

Game night! Drake loves a good board game, esp when he wins. ESP when he wins against daddy, lol!

Great Oconee River Raft Run 2017

A 4.5 mile paddle from Dublin, Ga. If you look closely above, you can just see the next group of paddlers ahead of us. There are more behind, too.

One side of the landing, before the race. This is not nearly as many as were there. Yes, those girls pedaled that boat the whole way! Paddling ain't got nothing on that!

There are more pics, but that gives you an idea of our days. Hope you're having a great summer!

Easter at Little Pond

A Bunny-ful table, and more!

We hosted this years Easter Egg Hunt/Party and it was a success. Lots of food (hamburgers, hotdogs, chips/dip, potato salad, baked beans, and more desserts than you can shake a stick at!), a giant water slide, trampoline and an egg hunt with 240 eggs for 3 kids to find!

Our front porch was the hangout du jour, with the slide and trampoline right next to it for easy kid watching. I'll be posting pics of it next time, so stay tuned!

Happy Easter. He is Risen, He is Risen, Indeed!!

Edible Centerpiece Idea

Have your centerpiece and eat it, too!
This is too neat, and I have just the placemats (farmers market themed) to do this with.

https://thepaintedapron.com/2017/03/16/tablescapes-have-your-centerpiece-eat-it-too/


Pic copyright to The Painted Apron

Yes, all that is REAL food. Well, minus the dishes, of course, lol.

Tablescape Thursday!

Sounds better to do this on a Tuesday, but I'm a hopeless procrastinator. Heehee!

This red getup will be a good summer table. I don't do the whole dishes-stemware-flatware thing. I don't have enough of my 'good' china (white) for six settings, and since it's only me, dh and the boy, I keep it simple.

Also, we not only eat at this table, we homeschool, play games, do crafts and more, so it has to be readily accessible. You can see that I only have 4 of the patterned placemats, so I finish the ends with round, woven ones in a complimenting color. Sometimes, you just can't find 6 or 8 of a set you really like (at a good price), so you make do with what you have.

Now here is my purple cloth, with the pink plaid placemats. We'll see these mats in another setting below. This was a very simple table. I only folded the napkins into a diamond, no ring. Also no flowers at this point, either, or a candle in the hurricane.

As promised, here are the same placemats, paired with a pink tablecloth. Ignore the wrinkles, I ain't ironing that 72x120 monster! I figure they'll fall out with use. For a big dinner with family, I'd have it steamed and pressed, but this is everyday life, y'all.

About those mats. They are a loose weave, with the strings tied on the ends. When I got them, they were fluffy, but musty from storage. So, I washed them. Ugh. Twisted them all out of shape, loosened the strings, and shrunk them all!! I had to hand shape them back to the correct size and iron the dickens out of them to get the wrinkles out. Now they are flat as paper, lol. I won't buy another set of this kind again b/c of this, and I dread having to wash them. Still, they are pretty and go with lots of color combinations.

Here's a closer look at the plaid, and the strings. Please to be ignoring the tag still on the flowers, I cut it off right after. For reference, the cloths and napkins all come from tableclothsfactory.com, the placemats are Ebay and Amazon finds, the rings are mostly Ebay. The vases (green) are from a local thrift store, the clear hurricane is a Home Interiors buy from years ago, and the flowers from Dollar Tree.

And that's a couple of my tables, a glimpse at my new hobby. Happy Friday, and weekend!

Doings at the Pond

How is it nearly three months into this new year already?? Time really does fly, as they say.

Yesterday, MIL had knee replacement surgery, in a small town hospital an hour from our hometown. The doctors and nurses were great, but wow it took forever to get her to the OR once prepped! Still, she came through fine and is resting well. I'll go back and pick her up Wednesday, if she's ready.

The boy stayed with my sister, for the first time ever. Yes, he's 8. Sad, but true. God worked it all out so that MIL's surgery was on a school holiday, so the boy got to play with his 6yr old cousin, who stayed with my sister/his granny. Our boy had a good time, but was ready to come home!

We still, STILL, have to get the tiles glued. They are being held by tape at the moment. The back faucet/outside needs work to find out why it won't work. We need to replace the rockers on two of the porch chairs (one runner each). We have a swing, made from pallets, that needs sanding, painting, and hanging. We want to paint and stain the porch. Maybe build a bigger side entry deck.
Yardwise, I want to set up the firepit area. Brick around the tub, lay gravel, and trim with landscape timbers. A set of Adirondack chairs (with a regular height chair for MIL) will finish this space.

Will we ever get it done? Sure, in time. That's the beauty of home ownership-there's always something to do, fix, or add on! God willing, we'll be here many happy years to see these plans and more to completion. In the meantime, we are loving Life on Little Pond!

Happy February!

Where have I been???

Wow, time has really gotten away from here at Little Pond!

Life continues on apace, as they say. We had a good T'giving and Christmas (though
only 6 people of 15 came, for various reasons). I had a total of 4 trees up, one of them
real (the main tree). Lots of work, but def worth it.

Now winter has settled in (kind of , we have 70 and even 80 degree days in January
here in SE Georgia), and things are pretty routine. Today, the sun is bright and the
breeze is high. My chimes are singing almost nonstop as I write this! I highly recommend
a set of the large barrel chimes. The sound is so rich and carries so well.

Dh didn't get a deer this year. Juice, the neighbor's dog that has adopted our house as his
own, always showed up and ran them off before they came from the woods. Dh is not
pleased. NOT pleased. lol

The boy has decided he'll try this hunting thing, so they spent a few times out back sitting
in the small blind and learning to be quiet and other hunting lore. He wasn't too impressed
with the cold, however. :)

MIL bought him a trampoline for Christmas, and hopefully next weekend, Dh will have
time to work on getting it put up. We've finished reglueing the tiles in the kitchen and bath,
hung a few more pieces of art, and restained some old furniture and moved it into the house.

I love to spend Tuesdays at our local thrift shop, for Home Décor Day, and Fridays, for Kitchen
days. Half off the one, and .25 for the other! I've fallen into table setting and love it. Simple,
just a cloth, placemats, napkins and rings, and a centerpiece, but it really cheers up a home!
I have around 12 sets of placemats and 6 different colored cloths.  It's become my hobby, and
I find great sales at thrift stores and even Ebay to round out my stash.

And that's my life at Little Pond. Simple, easy days, enjoying this life we've been graced with.
I hope your life is as blessed.