Dear Friends,

If you have noticed (by chance) my absence in the last couple of weeks, let me say that it is not by choice but rather by circumstances that are beyond my control. I am, once again, faced with using a dial-up connection, and it is ABOUT TO DRIVE ME CRAZY!!!!!! Truly, pulling-my-hair-out, wanting-to-scream crazy! So, this means it takes forever to load a page, especially those with lots of images, which are always the ones I enjoy the most. I do hope you’ll be patient with me and stay with me through this difficult time, and hopefully I’ll be back up to speed (no pun intended) soon.

In the meantime, gremlins must have taken over Xanga. My site is completely different. When I open my private page, the options are different….and weird. When I try to post, I can only type…can’t figure out how to add pictures. And the options for text are simply gone. EVERYTHING IS MESSED UP!!!

Can anyone tell me what has happened?????

A very disgruntled, unhappy, getting-close-to-bald Americanjanet

The full moon is hypnotically beautiful tonight, rising golden and dreamy and ethereal in the southeastern sky. As I walked down our hill just at dark, to finish the day’s work, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. And my initial thought was, “How I wish I could capture the image and then share it with those who cannot see it.” And then my next thought was, “But how would I also capture the sound of a thousand tree frogs, their symphony filling the night air in accompaniment to the rising of the moon. And the scent of honeysuckle and elderberry, sweet and heavy, surrounding the sound….and the twinkling of the lightning bugs, beginning their night’s work, blinking a “Good evening” to one another as they hover and float, here and there….I’d want to add that, too, to create the whole of it. A simple walk through the evening, to finish a mundane task, elevated by the incredible beauty of the whole to something surreal and astonishing…no one could have scripted it more nicely.

Time for last week’s test questions to be answered!

This….

was labeled a “candle drying rack” when I bought it at a local antiques shop. I tend to agree. One of you thought it might have been some sort of rake, but there is no place where a handle would have been attached. So I’m stickin’ with the label. Only, I didn’t have candles to dry. I did, however, have this jumbled mess on the top of my lingerie (seriously, I don’t say “lingerie,” I say underwear–but again, labels…) chest:

And when I saw the candle drying rack, I remembered this mess and wondered if it could be helped.

Voila!

Don’t you just love it when something works like you want it to??!

Last evening, when I closed up my chickens I got this handful of eggs but almost overlooked the tiny one that was tucked under the straw in one nest…

One of the younger hens has “become a woman.”

We’ve been in the throes of a dry spell for the last month, after record-setting rains in April and May. So on Tuesday morning, when we FINALLY got a nice one, we were very thankful. It also cooled things off, so as soon as the rain stopped, we headed out to gather up cattle for another busy day of sorting, branding, weaning, castrating, vaccinating….all that goes into “working” a herd.

It was well before sunup when we started, and the light was barely illuminating the western horizon, which was where they were heading.

The times they are a-changin’….4-wheelers have replaced the horses this year as the “workhorses” on the ranch. I hear that they are easier on the rider’s back and quicker–so modern has trumped traditional, yet again. Although I’m sad to see the horses left behind, I’m happy for the farmboy’s back to not be hurting, so progress is a good thing.

All gathered and heading up the alleyway, into the corral for the real work to begin, still before much light.

And my job was then over. So, as usual, I took the scenic route home,

checking on the neighbors,

checking on the old barns,

checking out the rock-bottom creek that was flushed with flow from the morning’s rain…

checking on a fanciful birdhouse…

checking on the wild hydrangeas now blooming along the north slope of a narrow dirt road…

looking back on where I’d just been, seeing the mist over the mountains…

noticing this Ozarks’-style cornerpost and realizing those must old wagon-wheel rims holding it together….

and finally coming home by way of Fern Bluff (my name for it.)

It just makes you feel cool to see this, doesn’t it?

The maidenhair ferns grow out of cracks in the rock face of the bluff, rows and rows of them, following the fissures, for hundreds of feet along its surface. Ferns are my FAVORITE plant, and this is my favorite fern, and this is my favorite bluff. Water constantly drips down, even when the creek has dried up, so that there are pools of water under it, creating an oasis on a hot summer’s day.

Hope you all enjoy a happy, safe Fourth of July, remembering the price of independence and freedom–it came and continues to come at no small cost.  Remembering to count that cost, as we celebrate and have fun…