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.

Radom shots

Just a few random shots....
These are some rivers in my area.

This is the Cossatot River. It is known for canoeing and can be dangerous at times. Very very clear spring water feeds it and it is so much fun to play in this river. I remember going there when I was a young child and getting leeches. Leeches will not live in any water that is not clean...so you know it is a clean enough river to drink if it has leeches. (I can hear you saying yuck!!!)

This is close to the headwaters of the Little Missouri River. This is a park area called the Little Missouri Falls. Many visit in the summer to enjoy sitting in the spa like falls. But watch out!!!! Water is cold enough to bring on hyperthermia.

I have been trying to eat better the last few years. My heritage is Danish on my mother's side of the family. Grandparents all immigrated from Denmark. Mother was full Dane. Anyway much of the foods they eat are finger type foods and I love eating this way. Here is a meal I would love.

I'm soon to work on a new outdoor project. I got some old wooden shutters a few years ago. I painted them red and used them in my youngest son's café for decorations. When he sold the café I then used them in my own collectible shop. I couldn't bear to sell them and so have had them stored for the past few years. I am now wanting to make some of these for yard art.

We ate our first new potatoes yesterday. We planted 2 kinds. We planted a yellow potato for the first time and the plants are huge and bloom so beautifully.

We only dug 2 small hills of the plants that looked the worst and we have a mess of new potatoes for at least 3 eatings.

Our squash and cucumbers have small fruit now as well. It is taking them so long to mature. Up in the summer with the summer heat, they can ripen overnight.

We have loads of sand plums or what we call wild plums. Hubby dug up the trees a few years ago on the side of a road and planted them in 2 spots. They spread by root and so now our tiny bushes are these huge masses. See the tiny fruit...and they make such great jam.