Today and yesterday was laundry day. I do my bed linens every Friday and then the rest of the clothes on Saturday. I also bathe the dog on Fridays. So all her doggie blankets get washed then as well. I know you are wondering what I mean when I say "blanketS?" I really mean more than one. We keep the recliner love seat covered in small blankets and the back of it covered in a quilt and then she has her crocheted blanket to cuddle in and the blanket throw on our bed. I know we spoil her. She was a rescue dog. We found her down the road with her brother. She was terribly thin and dirty. She weighed in less than 4lbs. We took to the vet and the little male had to be put down as he had a broken back. We fed her and cleaned her up and she has become our "baby." We spoil her terribly. She is now about 10lbs or so and goes with us every chance she gets.

(photos may not show up as on slow internet still).

I've drawn out 2 new rugs onto backing. Another "Bad Hair day" and a group of 4 sunflowers in frames.

I live in southern Montgomery County. It is one of the largest counties in the state.

Mount Ida is the county seat and there you will find a lovely old court house which is on the Historical record.

During the summer months a large group of people meet each Saturday night for singing on the square. They even have a stage for local bands and concession stands. The stage is called the "Front Porch."

The entire area around in the Ouachita National forest is known for it's crystal mining. Crystals were I high demand during the 1920's to 1960's for use in radio sets. Now most are mined for jewelry and for those who believe in crystal magic.

 

Found out why my internet connection was acting up. Seems I used up my allotted time on my satellite internet. I went with the slower speed as I wasn't spending as much time online as it seems I am now. So everything has slowed down to dial up speed. That is fine by me but may be a problem uploading photos here. So until my bill which is auto-bank drafted soon, then I may just be posting words.

Blogger is doing strange things. I keep getting an error message and it says to reload and finally I just clicked it off and could load..???

Just a couple of things today. I live near a tiny tiny village that is about 7 miles between larger towns. Our little village of Caddo Gap has nothing but one church and a tiny post office. There used to be a Mercantile store but was closed for a long long time and then about 3 or 4 years ago a friend of ours bought it and opened it as an antique and collectible shop. But in past year she has closed it and turned the back half of the building into a cabin rental. So sad as the town used to have 2 banks, 2 churches, a service station, the mercantile store and another store. The tiny town has some gorgeous antebellum homes of which several have been remodeled.

 This is the old Gap Mercantile.

This was an old service station. Notice the big tree trunk holding up the porch roof.

The area was named for the Caddo Indians and Desoto was supposed to have camped here. He was the first to see the Caddo Indians. The local school mascot are the Caddo Hills Indians.
There is a statue in the center of the town that President Clinton dedicated.

 

 

Also there is an old swinging bridge that crosses the Caddo River near Caddo Gap. It was the only way to get across the river when it flooded. It was for foot traffic only. Now there is a nice concrete bridge.

Gardening life

Just a few shots from around our place.

This is our Catalpa Tree. You can seed them with worms from other Catalpa trees and then in later years can use the worms for fishing. They make the best catfish bait. And the trees are gorgeous and smell yummy when blooming.

A far shot of our garden. The tree stumps in the foreground is out fig tree we cut back due to freezing temps for 2 years. It is coming back out from the stumps. It makes them bushier to do this ever so often anyway and easier to pick. It will be 2 or more years before we get figs again.

No comment needed here. Hopefully we will have tomatoes ripe by July.

Our 2 yard dogs. Lulu is the brown and black by the pot. Freddy is the smaller Chihuahua and his real name is Fredrick VonBlackballs.

The clematis that were supposed to be blue. They are pink!!!

We had a busy weekend. We drove over to Hot Springs on Saturday and met my sister and BIL to eat an early lunch at New China. My sister had shoulder surgery last week and she had been doing so good until Friday night when she fell on her hurt shoulder. But she and BIL met us anyway and we had a good visit. She brought me a bunch of "junk" they got on their trip to N.Carolina a few weeks ago. Yard art type junk. I'll share a photo another day. But here we are enjoying our meal.

We then met the youngest son and DIL and Miss Molly at the convention center for Miss Molly's dance recital. It was a lot of fun and those little kids are just so sweet to watch.

Plum tree is gone!!!!

Sadly we had to bid our largest plum tree a fond farewell. It had these terrible growths. The local plant nursery said it wouldn't hurt the tree but the fruit this year was half the size as normal and the warts had grown on every branch.

The tree was also at the top edge of our garden and shaded our asparagus patch so badly that they wouldn't produce as well as they need.

The warts were spreading to our other plum trees so we decided it needed to go. And strangely when we cut it, the wood inside stunk...like something dead. Since we cut it, the asparagus has begun to come back in that area of the bed that was shaded. But it looks so strange to not see that old tree there.