The Tree update

Ok, so the "tree" has now flowered, (not a weeping fig). It had twice as many group clusters a few days ago but the wind has blown them away. The clusters also had twice as many flowers also. It realy looked good. I'm sad I didn't get pictures before the wind claimed most of the flowers. If anyone knows what this tree is called and what family it is in please let us know with a comment at the bottom.

We moved it from the greenhouse to the front porch where it gets morning sun. Liked that a lot I guess.

On another note, our neibhbor asked us why we didn't grow figs. He said the Oklahoma climate was good for figs. I may try one or two trees to see how well they will do. He says to start them in a bucket from seed then transplant to the yard when they outgrow the buckets. I will have to do some research to see best time to start the seeds.

The Tree

When last in Houston I had recovered a discarded pot with a ?tree? growing in it in the woods. It was all tangled in with the forest things, vines – bushes – other saplings – weeds – etc. After the rescue much of it was cut off in order to get it out. Root bound as well. To get it in the van to bring it home I had to crop it even more so all that was left was 4 twigs sticking up with a about a dozen leaves shared among them.  At home I repotted it with fresh soil and dressed it up a bit, fed and watered it and waited to see what would happen. As you see in the above picture it came out in great shape and is on it’s way to becoming a fabulous weeping fig. At least that is what it looks like to me. If anyone knows what it is please comment, I would like to know.

I have also loaded pictures of some of our other plants that are doing quite well now though when we put them out for Memorial day they were pretty ragged due to the wind. We were very unhappy they did not look well for Memorial day after all the work. Look at them now!!!!

(MEMORABLE?) Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend,

This is the only picture of the weekend! I had already washed most of the mud off with a hose outside.

The weekend started with Nina ready to leave for her sisters. When she came in to say goodbye I told her I would like to go along to go fishing while she was visiting. This delayed the start for another two hours while I packed up and loaded.

When arriving in Ponca City we dropped off flowers at the cemetery then arrived at her sisters. Nephews were there so had a good visit. Next morning I left early to go fishing, stopped by Bill (my brother) along the way but he didn't answer the door so on to the river.

Now my adventure begins;

I arrived at Wolf Creek and proceeded to drive down the old road which was more of a deep rutted trail through the woods. As I proceeded I came upon a Very DEEP rutted mud hole with no way around. Of course I got stuck so spent the morning trying to get out. At the end of that ordeal I was wet, muddy, and a bit tired to say nothing of my attitude at having not put a hook in the water. It was back to Nina’s sister to clean up and wash the van on the way. That afternoon I called Bill and ask if he wanted to go with me to put flowers on family sites at the Newkirk cemetery and then explore for a fishing spot. As I was loading the flowers I dropped one and had to repot it. That was not a good sign that the afternoon would go any better than the morning. Well, Bill showed up to go along and our exploring ended with a flat tire we had to change in the dark. The next day was Sunday but the flat had to get fixed, which I didn’t much like but the ox was in the mire. Monday was not much better however I did get a hook in the water and I caught a good sized bass. Now usually I would put the fish into a wire basket but I didn’t, I put the bass on a stringer and into the water. It wasn’t long after that noticed a large (14 to 16 inch diameter) snapping turtle was looking at me out of the water next to the bank where my stringer was. Yep, he got the bass. Now I could bore you with details about getting hung up and losing several spinners, hooks, floats etc.; but that all goes with fishing and is tolerable when you catch fish. So now it is getting on to about noon and Bill arrives which was a good thing. You see the creek bank was very steep and as the water was receding the bank was wet and slippery. It wasn’t long after Bill got there I found myself in the creek. I couldn’t get out on my own because of the wet slippery slope and Bill had to give me a hand up. By the end of that day’s fiascos I still had no fish and was once again wet and muddy. Ok, I give up, time to end this and head back home. I dropped back by the cemetery and picked up the flowers I had dropped off the day of the flat. Next I Picked up Nina, then the flowers at the other cemetery and headed for home. When I picked up Nina she was not doing well and had a sore throat the whole time with laryngitis so the visit with her sister did not go as well as she had wanted.  

I have an unwavering hope that the next fishing trip will be more productive with fish and less productive with accidents. We did come home to a productive garden with lots of cherry tomatoes. It was a very MEMORABLE weekend, though I would like to forget it.

EAT VEGIES

Well, I'm am now on insulin. Great trepidation as waited for days for my appointment with the nurse to show me all about pokin myself. The day finally arrived. I have to say the worst part of the whole ordeal was after she had explained everything and actually handed ME the needle and was waiting for me to poke and inject. That few seconds, seemed like minutes, was very unsettling. Then ... I poked ... and injected ... Hey, didn't even feel a thing. What was all the hullabaloo about anyway. It was just as everyone kept telling me ... no big deal ... won't feel a thing ... its easy ... and on and on. I'm am not looking forward, however, to remembering all the do's and don'ts about storage and moving the spot around and taking it with me on trips and keeping it from extreme temperature variations and all that goes along with it.

I have to say, however, that if any of you are looking at high blood sugar and are unable to get the numbers down, don't fret over the needle. Taking insulin to maintain a healthy body is not a bad thing. Of course it is better to maintain a healthy body without it so follow a good diet, get exercise, and do your checkups then ADPIE which means Assess, Diagnose, Plan, Implement, Evaluate.

Assess your health, take the test, check weight, blood pressure, all the vitals, head to foot inspection, etc.

Diagnose your situation, determine why the data you have collected about yourself is not where it should be.

Next, Plan what you are going to do about it. Develop a plan to follow that will get the numbers or data back into the parameters you want them to be.

Implement your plan. Start following it. Set up a regimen that will enable you to keep on track with your plan.

Finally, Evaluate how your body or health is changing as a result of the plan you are following. Make any necessary changes to your plan, implement  and continue to evaluate your progress.



Everyone likes PIE so remember to always ADPIE to your daily routine.

May God bless you and keep you.

Thanks for the visit.

End of School Assembly Presentation for parents

A fun time today watching Samantha in her school assembly presentation. here are some pictures and video


You could see they were having a lot of fun.

I didn't count the number of different songs they san and put motion to but there were a lot. I don't know how they remember them all, must have worked on them all year.









After the presentation we went back to Samantha's class room where she showed us a book she had made for her mom. Here you see her coloring some on one of the pages. Note the consentration to get it just right.

fun in the dirt

While on our most recent trip to Houston our Daughter invited us to stay with her. I brought down some plants I had started in my greenhouse. Above you can see my grandson, Levi, and I carrying out a few of these plants.  If you look just in front of the door you can see some of the potting soil which Levi was sure was not supposed to be in the seed planter he is carrying. This picture was taken just a second before he realized he still had some plants and soil in the pan so again turned it upside down and shook it then we proceeded to center of the yard where we had prepared a garden bed for these unfortunate seedlings.

The next couple of pictures are of the garners carefully planting and then pulling back up the seedlings.  We had a lot of fun but not many of the seedlings survived I’m sad to say.

For the remainder of our stay, every time Levi went out the front door it was straight for the dirt bed.  Fortunately we did have a few plants left when we departed, hope they are still there.

The next picture is after all the hard work, we had to rest with a movie on the computer. 

We also had fun in the back yard climbing up the slide then sliding down and swinging and poking pine cones through a hole in the back fence and doing sidewalk chalk pictures of clocks.

Grandma and mom spent a lot of time sewing and canning in the kitchen.  We also took a walk in the forest behind the house and found a river and a lot of ants along the way, even seen a snake which Grandpa moved out of the path with his cane.

When it was time for Grandpa and Grandma to leave for Oklahoma Levi and mom got into their car and left first to do some shopping.

An enjoyable trip.  We also spent a little time with our older gradsons on the West side of Houston.

This is all in this post, more in a later post.

Mother's Day

A very special day today, Mother's Day. Today, at church, the Bishop told all us guys we needed to do all the meals today so the mothers could enjoy their day. Now I don't know about the rest of you but I'm not sure my spouse would enjoy eating what I cook, sooo ... I fed her left-overs from the fridge (at her request). To make the day a little more special than normal anything she requested was delivered immediately without any delay or comment other than "may I get you anything else?" All done with a smile and a show of love for the opportunity to serve. After all she serve the family 363 days a year. She has received calls from all her children and has even "Skyped".

I think about my mother and grandmother who has passed many years ago and wish I had shown them more love and devotion than I had. The sacrifices they made for me and all their children and grandchildren leaves a debt that we cannot pay only to remember them and love them and make sure that their posterity knows who they were.

The Wedding

We have returned from the trip to help our granddaughter with her wedding. Collin Jones was the lucky returned missionary who has just graduated BYU and snagged Taylor for his bride. It was a beautiful Wedding and Reception. Taylor’s mother survived the ordeal but was plum tuckered out having spent every waking moment for the last several (5 or 6) months preparing everything for this event.  I think Taylor was very pleased with everything.  They are very much in Love and have eyes only for each other.  My prayer for them is that they will always feel this way about each other even on their 50th. I am looking forward to watching this new family progress.  It was a life altering event I would not have wanted miss for anything.

Wer'e busy on another stained glass project and have brought back cannas and a weeping fig we had to get planted.  The pear tree we have almost lost to the “fire blight” The squash bugs are back again this year so have to spray. A quick nurturing moment for the garden and house plants, which had to survive without us for two and a half weeks, and all is back on track.  Oh, I did have to mow grass that was 8 to 12 inches tall also.

All in all we loved the trip but are happy to be home again. Next up will be a memorial weekend trip to decorate the resting places of our loved ones who have moved on from this life to spirit world. If any are interested in current stained glass project then visit our glass blog, click the link at the top left.

That’s it for now, hope to post more after the weekend.  Keep your oil lamp lit and full of oil should the bride groom come quickly in the night and you miss out.