On this Memorial Day

We've left Cairo, visited Angie in Hogansville, and are now in Wildwood.  On the way north we stopped in Kennesaw. 
I had not visited Grandma's grave since her death in August.  Here are Levi & Indi at my Grandma & Grandpa's grave:  Ben & Lorene Huckins. 

We were enchanted during our visited to the cemetery: an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair, visiting his wife's grave just a few rows away, played Taps perfectly on the trumpet he had brought with him.  He told us he did this each week in honor of her and her 23 years serving in the US Air Force.  What an honor for us to be present.


 

Before We Go

Levi finished kindergarten today.  And on Saturday the kids & I are leaving for 2 weeks away to Wildwood, and then a 3rd week away to the beach.  There's so much going on here that the challenge is bringing things to a holding point where they can be left.  I've been hauling hay, mulching, weeding, and also slowly wandering around taking it all in.

Roses & Zinnias - Lovey's birthday centerpiece.

The artichokes are starting to come it!  They were planted in January.

Artichoke plants & Indi about the same height.

This 25 cent pack of 'cactus zinnias' I found have turned out to be my favorite.
They're big (some giant, below) & all are a different color.

Purple cone flower

Waiting, waiting...

charentais cantaloupe flowering

So far, so good with the bees.
The hive body is nearly full, so it was time for another box.

super added

T-ball Party!

Levi finished up another T-ball season today, and the team had a pizza party at Pizza Hut.  Woohoo!!

Happy Birthday Lovey!

Our sweet dear, with her cake - Levi thought she'd like an oreo ice cream cake ;)

I told her Happy Birthday this morning in bed & the first thing she said was "cake"!

We made a little video for Aunt Beth...

Our Turkey Season

Georgia's turkey season ended Wednesday, though Levi and I wrapped ours up a few weeks back.  Turkeys are very important to us.  I study and write about them, photograph and hunt them, spend many hours improving their habitat, and they provide us with sustenance throughout the spring.  Their feathers fletch our arrows and adorn our house, we craft turkey calls from their wingbones, and generally think about them year round.

I've never pushed Levi to do the things I do, but he has an intense interest in nature that is likely due to a combination of genetics and environment  (nature nurturing?). From hunting and fishing to gardening, studying  and collecting insects, to spending hours drawing bird pictures from a field guide.  It follows that he really wanted to tag along this year, and he was my companion every weekend when he was out of school.  He was often up before the 5:00 am alarm went off, and always with his camo and gear laid out carefully the night before.

We had a wonderful season.....accompanied by spring and all its accoutrements; barred owls, the smell of burnt pine woods, glimpses of coyotes, deer, nesting Carolina wrens.  And turkeys!!  We watched turkeys strut and gobble, watched hens dust in freshly turned fields, and had a number of hens pass within feet of our boots without ever knowing we were there.  

Levi got his first turkey, a nice jake, in late April.  His second bird was an old, hook-spurred longbeard I'm sure I've tangled with several times over the years.  Both came in silently to our calling, though the longbeard strutted and put on a show the whole way in.  I mostly hunt alone, so it's been a new experience to sit thankfully in the dirt next to an emerald and copper gobbler with a son who is learning an old craft and experiencing new things.  Our first family meal from the meat he gathered was a really cool experience, and obviously meant a great deal to him.  He began learning patience (a real work in progress) and woodsmanship lessons.  We spent a lot of our 'hunting time' on hands and knees looking at beetles, flint chips, and creek mussels.  I think it's important to find beauty (and fun!) in all things natural, and also to understand our little role in bringing food to the table.  I think he's learning that; as farm kids and Indian children have always known, though fewer of us do these days.

Keep it Wild!                 

Summer Squash Anyone?

The very first zucchini and among the first of the yellow squash.
This belies the mob that is surely ahead of us:
There are no less than 50 summer squash, in six different varieties, planted thus far.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day, Mommy Mo!  From Levi, Indie, and Da.

We love you and all the Grandmas too!

First Chicks of the Season

This is a busy time of year for Joe, the endangered Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers he manages are hatching and each hatchling must be banded.
These are the first of the season.

A Cool & Wet May

The history is written, the seeds packaged to mail.  And today I sent them - 100 seeds to Seed Savers.  'Wildwood Pumpkins' or Joe liked 'Neely Natives'.
It felt a little scary dropping that package in today - a little like letting a child go on to the next step.  They will be grown-out and shared with the public.
At least we can be sure of their survival now.

My right-hand man unloading the first of many.  I get hay all along at a nearby hay farm - it's 0.7 miles from driveway to driveway.
I inquired, and have now got access to a mountain of spoiled hay.  I've arranged to get 10 truckloads in the week ahead.  What I'm doing is packing it inches deep all around our plants.  It's 'pre-weeding'.  So, that I may come back to a weed-free garden after my summer adventures.

Don't you love a man who bakes you bread?

I was totally inspired by SouleMama this week, and constructed a large bean tepee.  It's big enough for the whole family to sit inside.  I made a door opening, so when it is covered with beans it will create a little house.  Indigo has played in and around it all day - here with Daddy.  We planted 'Good Mother Stallard' beans around it - I will not pick them at all & will harvest the dried beans later this summer.

Looking straight up in the tepee.

Planting summer squash in the other garden.

A stroll before dinner.
You wouldn't know she has two 2-inch scars on the top of her head.
Her hair hides them well.

look what I've been staring at all morning

Jarrah Mica was born yesterday right before noon

an old friend I haven't seen in a while

This one hasn't bloomed since I took it from Athens.

That was in 2008.

It was in the $100 order of irises I made after Nana Mott died.

It is a Thornbird bearded Iris.