Thank you, Tioga!

You may call it OCD, but I've been tracking what states and countries have visited my blogs.  It's an obsession.  I posted about it back in November, when I was visited by Bydgoszcz, Poland.  That day, I passed a thousand cities.

As of today, I've been visited by over sixteen-hundred cities around the world.  That amazes me!  Blogging has made the world a much smaller place... more like a neighborhood.

It used to feel like this...

 Now, it feels more like this...

I had a goal to be visited by all 50 states.  Delaware, North Dakota, and Rhode Island were the last holdouts... until this week.  Yep, all three showed up on my visitor widget.

So thank you, whoever you are, for visiting me today from Tioga, a city way up in the northwest corner of North Dakota.  Tioga is the Iroquois Indian name for Peaceful Valley.  My life is complete.

Not Enough Thyme!

How do you like my new title graphic?  Time is short these days, so I don't have much to spend on a picture. All the items in the collage are from photos I took here on the farm (except for the clothes line.) 

Speaking of time...  I have some lemon thyme in my front garden, but I don't know if it's edible.  Mr J and I had to make a trip to the feed store this morning, so on the way back we stopped at a small nursery to see what kinds of shrubs and herbs they had.  I spotted some lemon thyme that was solid green and edible.  On the same table with the other herbs was the green and yellow variety of lemon thyme that I have.  It did not say anything about being edible.  If it wasn't raining, I'd get a picture of it.  Maybe someone in Blogville knows.  But it is raining and dark, so...  if you don't hear from me anymore, you'll know it's NOT edible!

Last year I told you about planting onion chives off the bedroom deck where we built the new steps...  I love sitting on the steps and munching away, but I forget about the fresh chives when I'm cooking!  I do want to expand the herb garden, so today I bought a couple more perennials...

  On the left is Pineapple Sage, and on the right is peppermint.  The sage tastes exactly like pineapple.  It should make an exciting addition to a stir-fry.  I have an addiction to Altoids Peppermints.  I think I can pass them up now.  Just a pinch off this plant gives you nice peppermint breath that lasts!  I hope they spread fast... I can see me chopping them down to the ground in no thyme!  LOL

I'm not much into annuals.  I like plants that stay year after year and spread.  I had some rhubarb in one flower bed, but something dug it up.  I'll try a different spot next time.  We're also going to plant some asparagus.  It is a lovely garden perennial, but gets much too large to  place where the herbs are going.  I will place it out in the lawn and build a new garden around it.  I think it will look good placed between Mr J's new plants...

Mr J picked up these two varieties of lavender... English and Munstead.  I think they would look splendid framing the asparagus, and would make an ideal garden spot for the windmill.  The windmill was damaged by the hurricane that blew through the mid-west a year-and-a-half ago, and has been in storage ever since.  Sounds like we've got another spring project.

I need to visit my bloggy friends!  Brady is keeping me away for awhile, but I'll try to get around to you all this week during his nap times.  Wish me luck.

so far...

I've had fun going through my photo files trying to pick some for a collage.  As you can see, I have a little trouble making decisions.  I guess I kinda overdid it.  I have some ideas of how it'll end up, but I didn't have much time to work on it.  Let me know which shots you like, and any ideas you have.

Here's a shot of my weeping cherry:

Spring has sprung!

I do love winter, but this winter was long enough.  I've started weeding my gardens... not making much progress, but I've got a very good reason...

Yes, this is the guy that has kept me from blogging.  It's his fault I haven't had my giveaway!  But he's just so doggone cute...

Brady comes to see me every morning at seven, and stays all day until his ride comes.  We sing, we play with a cow.  We watch Spongebob.  We eat, we nap.  We laugh, we cry.  The hours pass quickly.  I think I'm in love.

I have been trying to capture a smiling face, but Brady doesn't like cameras.  He puts on his 'glassy-eyed' look and stares at his shoulder each time I try to snap a cute shot.  Or...

...he moves.  I have a lot of blurry shots.  Even the camera that freezes the galloping horses is no match for Brady!

Brady does let me go out sometimes...

I caught Sadie and Chubs having fun in the weeping cherry branches.

I have some good news to share...  Sadie lost almost 10 pounds!  Daddy has a hard time holding back the treats, but, now that she's made some progress, he's ready to stick to the diet, too!

I have managed to leave the farm a couple of times...

...like the night we went to see Dani (G #1) in South Pacific.  She's a nut for musicals.  Dani passed up trying out for the fall play because it wasn't a musical! She wasn't crazy about this one, but she went out for it anyway.

I think she looks cute in her military uniform.  It makes my heart just a little bit heavy to think about how grown up she is...

OK, I just had to post one more...

Brady is starting to settle into a schedule.  Soon I hope to be announcing that giveaway!  Stay tuned.

Now, I'll leave you with a couple of shots of my lovely river birch.

Me me meme....

OK, I've been gone a bit.  It's going to take a little while for me and the new grandson to get in sync.  He leaves me little time through the day to get things done, so I end up using my internet time to do laundry!

I haven't forgotten about the contest... It will happen!  But for now, Crazy Cris over at Here and There and Everywhere has tagged me.  I don't usually spend time on these, but now it's a chance to post without skipping the load of whites...

Cris' instructions were to open the tenth folder and post the first picture.  Oh, let's just see where that takes us...

My 10th folder is titled 'my scrap book' and is for things I've scanned.  Some are old photos, some special cards.  There's the lock of hair from my daughter's first haircut...

That folder has folders, so I went with the first one.  It is titled 'Jenny & kids' and is for things relating to my daughter and her four girls.  The first picture was this card:

This was the very first 

Valentine's Day card 

I got from my granddaughters.

 It was really signed by them...  Well, I think Danielle might have signed for her little sis.

Yeah, it's my birthday too.

Might as well show you the lock of hair, too.

The tape wasn't yellow back then, but the hair was. 

 Actually, it was a beautiful strawberry blonde.  

It's straightened out a little over the years, 

but she's still my little curly top!

A Quick Update...

 I've been MIA again...  Last week I had a very sick granddaughter here for some TLC.  Today I started babysitting my new grandson, and also have the kindergarten girl for a few days.  And I still haven't started my taxes!  So don't be surprised if you don't read comments from me for a few days... or a couple of weeks!

I thought I'd take a minute to post a couple of pics to show you what I've been up to in my 'spare' time...

A while back, I shared my  drawing of a TV table I wanted Mr J to build.  Well, here's the almost finished product:

 

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.  It's the first piece of furniture that Mr J has built.  I('m already planning the next.)  I still have some detail work to do...  The trim has carved detail that I am going to paint to make it stand out.  Of course, whenever I get around to that I'll post a pic.  

As you can see, it holds a lot of the kids' toys and games.  Videos fit nicely on the bottom shelf behind the wood boxes.  I found them at Michael's and painted them to match.   Now I have a handy place to keep my cameras, batteries and PC cables.  Plus, I finally have a little more space to display some of my  handmade gifts from the grandkids!

I bought two slipcovers last week... one for my FIL's ugly worn recliner and one for my over-sized, over-stuffed chair.  So I stripped the ottoman that matched the chair...

I've had it for almost 20 years!  It was due for a change.  It had a muted print with a pleated skirt.  When we moved the TV, we balanced it on here for a few minutes and now it leans to one side.  I'm going to take it apart and replace the uprights with a beefier size, but less of them.  I'm going to add a solid bottom and keep it open for handy storage for magazines or games.  It will be painted off-white to match the TV table.  The cushion will be covered in denim or tooled leather.  Haven't decided yet.  I'm thinking denim since I have two rectangular ottomans under the front windows that will be the tooled leather.  (I'm not a 'matched set' kind of person.  I prefer eclectic.)

Well, it's after midnight. the baby comes at seven, and the farrier is scheduled to come at eleven.  I think I'd better go, but first I'll share a video of the boys experiencing a bit of spring fever...

G'night all!

Did someone say drawing?

No, not that kind of drawing!

It's this kind of drawing!

Be sure to stay tuned.

 

You'll want to get your name in here...

for this..

I'm still working on the details, but...  

I'm celebrating that 

I finished the task of combining 

Essays & Blahwg!

And I'm celebrating  my recent anniversaries...

One Year at Blogger

My 100th Post

My 400th Post

I'm so geared up that I think I'll even feature the contest on my writer's blog!

Tell me what you think...

I'm going to come up with a new title graphic, or at least a tweaked one.

I'm thinking of a collage title pic... maybe showing all the different critters and the farm.  Or maybe change the title pic on a regular basis, spotlighting different areas of my farm  and non-farm life.  Or perhaps go with an aerial view of my little chunk of Heaven.

What kind of title do you think would best fit my newly combined blog?