***********HI PEEPS!!**********

Came home for 1 week and tried to get as much done as possible. Just returned to help with Mother-in-Law continuing chemo for a couple of weeks (4/3), then home for another week (4/17), before coming back for another planned round (5/2)...If all goes as planned.

Here are a few pix of how home looked when I left...

Here are the guys trying (later, successful :) to get the old tractor tires off using all kinds of means....

Some irises I'm hoping bloom this year---I've watered with dregs from bottom of koi pond. They look a whole lot healthier this year. I also took the mulch that had accumulated on top of the roots off. Apparently, they don't like that....That's a long stemmed yellow rose bush in the front right...

You can barely see the 6 cages containing tiny tomato plants to the right and 6 tiny pepper plants to the left (orange flags) in this garden not too far up from my back door...Managed to salvage them from some seedlings which I had tried to grow the last time I left home. (See earlier post!!) My 15yr old did pretty well :) If they live, we'll show updates!

I learned that you DON'T "prune" pear trees, as they get a bacterial disease called "Fire Blight" on the new, succulent growth which can kill the entire plant. The pineapple pear just above and to the left of this garden got this disease this spring. I pinched off the affected tips/pears and removed them from the area. I didn't get all of them however, I hope it was good enough. I learned from my Rodale's gardening book, that you must spray with dormant oil in the early spring in areas where this is a probem...I'm documenting all of these facts inside my gardening book under each season for each crop, hoping not to repeat the same problems next year...There's a LOT to learn. We lost our 2 goat kids also at about 8wks. Still trying to put all of the pieces together on that one :(

These are baby pears on the bigger tree closer to the house. I believe they are Asian pears, as they do not get soft until they begin to rot. You pick them when they just begin to take on a yellowish/green color, and the flesh just gives a little near the stem. They are more round-shaped.

This is a view from the back, west side of the house looking toward our little pond and the lane beyond which leads up to our oldest son's and his wife's home :)

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Of course I miss home and family and friends, but I am so privileged to be able to have the flexibility to come and help care for my Mother in Law who has been sooooo wonderful to her kids all these years!! We begin round 4 of chemo tomorrow. While she gets her treatment, my 9yr old and I work on school in the atrium lobby of the building, or get a flavored Kurig coffee or hot chocolate in the oncology waiting room and look through the various home/travel/gardening magazines for about 1 1/2hrs.

Today, my sweet husband is 49. Swwweeeet :)

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Why is it that we,
in the very kingdom of grace,
surrounded by angels,
and preceded by saints,
nevertheless, can do so little,
and, instead of mounting with wings like eagles,
grovel in the dust,
and do but sin, and confess sin alternately?
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Is it that the power of God is not within us?
Is it literally that we are not able to perform God's commandments?
God forbid.
We are able.
We have that given us which makes us able.
We do have a power within us to do what we are commanded to do.
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What is it we lack?
The power?
No; the will.
What we lack is the simple, earnest, sincere inclination and aim to use what God has given us, and what we have in us. (John Henry Newman)

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Put another way: We don't know what we are, nor what is the battle that is raging...For surely, if we did comprehend these things, we would act! Open our eyes, LORD!

Early Spring Pruning--February at A Thousand Hills Farm

Hey Y'All! During my last stay at home in between trips to help my Mother-in-Law with her battle with lung CA, there was a LOT to do around our place!...It was time to prune all of those plants that were still dormant while I had time:) The variegated privet along the pool fence was WAY overgrown!...Several feet above the fence top and into the deck area! I went ahead and pruned it back fairly severely, as they can take it pretty well, and figured I wouldn't have to fuss with them for the rest of the year. The deck will need to be pressure-washed this year, as the wood hasn't been weatherproofed in the last few years, and unsightly mildew has grown on it as well as the white vinyl lattice which forms the walls. That is a project for a sunny, warm day in the not-so-distant future, maybe this next trip home? Also, the crepe myrtles around the property, (I haven't counted how many we have...roughly about 25...) needed to be trimmed back. I used some of the nearly 10ft. long spires to form the pole bean tee pee in the previous post...Just to the right of the above photo would be the gate entrance to what I call my "secret garden". The tree in the foreground is a redbud, and I am hoping to see it in full purple/pink bloom when I return for this next week. This is the tree that I hang my hummingbird feeder from. There are delicate, yellow,Japanese(?) irises along the picket, along with butterfly bush, assorted lillies, rose of Sharon, nandina, and several other grasses and plants that I am still unsure of!! The previous owners of the property who planted all of these wonderful things spent 20yrs creating all of this!! They don't live too far from us, and came by after we moved in to show us some pictures of the house and property through the years...It was so neat!! She was very happy that someone bought the place who appreciated it :) It was sort of likeI imagine the Isrealites felt going into the Promised Land as I kept/keep discovering new things that they had planted...Literally eating of the crops that we had not planted...Drinking from cisterns that we had not dug. Thank you God for allowing us to find/purchase this little corner of Your green earth :) I often walk the property, or just find a place on the upper portion, and look out and dream of the new earth when all things will be made right and Jesus will be our King among us forever!

I Know I'm in Good Company...Dreaming of My Summer Garden!

These are the tomatoes and peppers that I'm hoping to transplant...Will move them outside under tree in the garden soon so that they can get some real sunshine!
Ah...the sight of "babies" growing in the spring garden! 2 rows of brussels sprouts and 2 rows of broccoli in the forground. Toward the back, you can see the "bean pee" that I made from the trimmings from the crepe myrtles. I plan to plant pole beans so that they grow up the wood and form a shady, hide out for my 9yr old daughter. She can help to harvest the beans too! At the foot of the fence, is a row of 3" snow peas. I'll need to supply an additional, lower structure for them to grab onto before they are tall enough to reach the wire fencing (barely visible) that is attatched to the wooden one...Behind them is a row of garlic against the block base. A newly planted 10" rosemary is planted to the far left end of the snowpeas. I had a much older rosemary which finally died a year ago.

At the moment, I am not home, but at my Mother-in-Law's home about 2hrs away helping her as she undergoes chemotherapy for lung cancer :( This is her 3rd round. We are having to play many things "by ear" as far as making many plans, but that's OK, and I am privileged to be able to help her at this time...Hopefully, I will take more pix around our place as things progress, and I am home.

Today, my DH told me that he bought 2 apple trees, 2 peach trees, 2 more figs, more blueberries, and 8 raspberry plants!! Someone is going to be VERY busy ;)

It Has Been a LONG Time!!

Just wanted to get back into blog-world with this quote from my morning devos:

"We fight not for ourselves alone. These are they-our brethren-the cloud wherewith we walk encompassed; It is for them that we wrestle through the long night; they count on the strength that we might bring them, if we so wrestle that we prevail. The morning that follows the night of our lonely trial would, if we be faithful, find us new men, with a new name of help, and of promise, and of comfort, in the memory of which others would endure bravely, and fight as we had fought. Oh! turn to God in fear, lest through hidden disloyalty we have not a cup of cold water to give those who turn to us for succor in their sore need." Henry Scott Holland

Regeneration v. The Idolatry of Decisional "Evangelism" (Paul Washer @ t...

Wow! Oldest son is getting married in 2 weeks!!