Nice DAY!

After 3 months of bone chilling cold, it is so nice to see temperatures in 60's. But now, come the thunderstorms. And tornadoes, and the hail. I want just rain. No more weather histrionics, like the 100 year ice storm. Just a nice rain is all I want!

Blogged with Flock

"The only things here are us chickens" There ain't nobody else at all"

Here are some handsome poultry prints. I some of ducks and turkeys to.  I have saved images from all over the web. They make a great screen saver. They are remembrances from a time when everyone had poultry, and took great pride in their flocks. Now we keep boring parrakeet's, and parrots. You can't eat em, or their eggs.  We gave up a lot, when we left the farm. So, look and remember another era.

Blogged with Flock

Flock browser

I have been using the new Flock browser on my Macintosh. It seems to have almost everything you would like in a browser. Based on the Firefox browser, it is more integrated with online photo, and blogging, RSS, and news. And, it looks much more "Macish...' than Firefox does. You can up load pictures to Flickr, and Photobucket very easily, Even on my ancient G3 Yosemite, it's pretty fast. In short, I like it. It uses most of the extensions that Firefox has. It only has one theme right now, but it's a nice one. The bookmarks are set up a bit differently than other browsers. It can also be set up to post to online bookmarking sites.

Blogged with Flock

Time to start posting again!

After that awful ice storm of the century, i feel it's time to star keeping up with my blog again. I let it lasp for about 3 months. I shan't do that again.

Finley River Valley Days

Went wandering down the lovely Finley River valley yesterday. I was so moved by its beauty, that I sat down and painted another image in my journal, There were cows grazing, and passionflowers in bloom on the fence. Bumblebees, and wood boring bees were floating from flower to flower gathering necter, and pollen. After the rains we {finally!} got, everything is wonderfully lush and green again. There were butterflies everywhere, and birds calling from the woods behind me. Sometimes I think, God gives us a dim, but gilded view of what heaven might be like. I could live with this version, I think.

Northview, blink and miss it....

Last week we went east of town, over thru an Amish community{there are several communities near us} and went thru a tiny town, I had never heard of. Painted this picture in my journal. Across the street was a old church that was set up for the weekly bluegrass and country music jam that everybody around apparently went too. Out back, 2 porto potties. Pretty primitive, but I'll bet the music and comraderie are wonderful here on music nights. This community was still trying to hold on to it's identity, just a little longer in the face of the modern world.

This Chicken is kinda representive of everything I love. It's got beauty, it just trusts God will take care of it. As a hen it {usually...} does not think itself too important. It minds its business. It just wants to be a chicken. And thats good enough for it. It does not want to be a duck. Or a turkey, or goose. Just a chicken. Got to be an important lesson in there some where.

Heres a little painting of a local antebellum house. For all our vaunted technology, we still cannot build houses as lovely as these old houses were built. My duck house below, is better designed than most modern houses are. Why is everything now, often so ugly? Everything is plastic, made to throw away, and designed as if wasn't meant to last a year or two.

I was just looking at the large watercolor painting I did of the 2 ducks I used to have. Big Ned, and Harriet. Very large and joyous Pekin ducks. They are gone now. Being a furniture maker, I created a "duck tractor" for them in the backyard where I lived at the time. Ducks have marvalous personalities, as any one who has raised them would know. they are like little children, rather messy, and lovable for it. Chickens are great, but don't have quite the fun loving personalities of ducks. Might be time to think about getting another pair. Pekins are meat ducks, but my hen, kept laying eggs. And laying, and laying....... They make a great breakfast.

Yesterday while out looking for a new hedge trimmer, I decided to stop at Rosie's Cafe, in the nearby town of Ozark. Ordered a BLT. Came with a HUGE helping of homemade fries. A fine meal, on a fine day. I have a personal belief that we should all patronise local businesses if we can. The whole world seems to be "McFranchised" to death. Part of the Agrarian ideal, is that local, is better. Rosies BLT and fries sure are.