De Moisturized Zone - cannot waste water on keeping too much area greened - simply keeping a little lawn alive so when the rains come (and they will) grass will have some life left.
Rain will come - always does - right now it seems more our country needs this kind of rain even more than the moisture kind
- but we serve a God great enough for both - THE reason it is always good on Buhlaland! Bless y'all
Rainstorm in Texas - this clip lasts a full hour - listen to as much as you need to recall the refreshing feelings of rain. Good reasons scripture describes the blessings of God coming as rain - sustaining and refreshing.
A snippet is defined as a small piece of something, these photos are small pieces from the quilt of our summer here on Buhlaland.
Long shadows and easy to see where our sprinklers reach and don't reach in backyard - brown versus green is demarcation line.
Tadpoles hatching - you can see a tail on one - most are still curled up around egg sac getting their nutrition from built in feed source.
Egyptian lily is all I know to call this exotic bloom - heat and winds so strong even as buds open they are blasted brown on the edges.
Last snippet was a supperet - stopped at the farmers market intending to buy local honey (seen in background of picture) but the fragrance of fully ripened local cantaloupes got to me - impulse buy turned into most of supper! It is good - hot hot hot and dry but in the essentials very good on Buhlaland - maybe my brain will support more than snippets soon.
Jungles, far off places with strange sounding names?
Where is the world is Linda Sue of Buhlaland? Hard as it is to believe - I took this photograph today - July 9,2010 right here on our property. We are having a wave of tropical moisture and unlike a normal Texas summer (hot, dry and windy)- we have had foggy mornings and afternoon downpours!Pastures and garden have greened up but tomato plants are producing zero!
Flowers - gaudy beauty of a canna and my beloved constantly covered with blackspot and bugs Peace Rose as well as foliage like our big fern are dazzling with raindrops.
No complaints here - we are enjoying the sound of thunder and fragrance of clean air - courtesy of the Lord -
Acts 14:6In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."
Rainy, muddy and oh so blessed - it is good on Buhlaland - even with a few bumps and bruises from our week of intensive remodeling - will be putting up pictures soon of the renovated master bedroom suite.
No words for this - unusual and unseasonal don't even come close! Wet webs in rosemary, cluckers in muddy run, shortstack of fungi on oak stump, droplets of water on the culinary sage - yep - it is wet in North Texas and Buhlaland is good - soggy but good. For those of you who are loyal (or not) readers - you know we've had some serious health challenges. God is so faithful and good -
doctor's appointment on Monday gave us both some much needed reassurance and sleeping SO much better. Not trying to be mysterious - if you have a real interest leave a comment and I'll send a link to our health site for fuller information Honestly - I feel as if our lives have become such an open book - sometimes a comic book and sometimes a mystery thriller - but read on friends read ON!
It is a Monday and we've had such rainy days - a total of 5.25 inches of rain here on Buhlaland since Friday. Soggy and drippy and ticked off goats. We are working on setting up a new normal for our lives. DH has had the final diagnosis on his continuing health issues - very serious and requiring lots of adjustments to our normally busy lives. Didn't want anyone to think we'd disappeared for good (or bad?) we're still here on Buhlaland and working to get life back on track a bit.
Only thing getting me down is being tired - and smelling the roses (even drenched ones) can give me a real pick me up.
Hope all is well in your world - it is good on Buhlaland - a bit stressed but that can pass -
We were facing a day which had a strong potential for difficult life altering storms - or a gentle healing rain. Whichever was brought to us - we knew storm clouds don't last forever but the Father's love is steadfast and eternal. Jesus brought a little rainfall to Buhlaland this morning and it felt wonderful. The doctor appointment wasn't the devastating news we had been prepared to hear -our Abba Father once again provided solutions beyond what our limited understanding could predict. Tonight - it is very good on Buhlaland. We might even get some more precipitation and the spiritual rain storms - they turned out to be showers of blessings!
I may be hitting the wall blog-verbially speaking (making up words is one of my few creative endeavors). Cannot seem to find a reason to post other than I want to stay in touch with my wonderful blogospheric friends. The roses are now serving as buffets for thrips. Insecticidal soap to the rescue! Fence picture is example of with goats (on the left) and non goat pasture. Fencing is between our pasture and property of our beloved neighbor to the north. Advantage for us - no mowing. Advantage for him - lots of wildflowers. Ooh - just realized - advantage for us - seeing his wildflowers and not having to mow -- woo hoo!
Last picture is my feet - I know you've been waiting for this moment for ages - NOT. Odd loop in the right corner of pic is camera strap - I'm so professional in my photography (point, shoot - shoot lots more and find a good picture out of dozens - publish any picture if none are good - now you know full repertoire of photography tricks).
Crocs are as close to barefoot as I go when outside - yesterday we had an unseasonable heavy rainstorm. On my way out to goat pens I stepped in a low place in our lawn and was tremendously refreshed with a flow of cold water through the holes in my shoes. Grateful for nearly 2 inches of rainfall in past 36 hours and we didn't have any serious wind damage.
Appreciating the blessings of downpours this week on Buhlaland. If something comes to mind I'll definitely be back to post. It is good here, muggy, but good on Buhlaland.
I'm not a great gardener - I like to garden and my favorite part of gardening would be watering my garden on warm summer mornings. We would be hard pressed to survive on what I am able to harvest from my gardening endeavors. When we first moved onto Buhlaland we industriously planted an "orchard" - 5 or 6 fruit trees guaranteed to be good for this area. The peach blossom you are seeing ---- is not from one of those trees. Our little orchard was stone cold dead in less than 12 months - I'd picked a spot with clay in the soil, easy access for deer (who like to nibble tender young trees ----to death!) and difficult to keep watered sufficiently. DH dug a trench and ran a water line up to the orchard but it was a case of too little too late. Being an optimistic soul by choice and inclination - I blew another thirty dollars on a genetic dwarf peach tree. It is an itty bitty thing, but has made it through a winter in our yard and actually has the appearance of being alive in a thriving sense of the word. well WOO HOOO! If we harvest this year from the tiny twig looking peach tree - they will be the most expensive peaches we have ever eaten. Hope they taste great! It is drought level dry around North Texas right now so I'm thinking, hoping, praying rain. Rain encouragement will extend to washing cars today and making plans to be outside Sunday - do you think my program will work?
Very quiet worship video - I love the words - here on Buhlaland it is good when it rains down - we are asking for physical and spiritual showers.
You've heard that in movies - some character says "upon reflection, we will be able to offer you a better settlement" or whatever stuffy statement they make. I think the phrase is supposed to make viewers think - doggone - those folks are DEEP.
Not deep here -only reflection is me taking a picture of our water trough in the goat pen about an hour ago. Hiya y'all! How blatantly silly is this? Pretty much all the way up the scale. I think I'm about to make something to eat - not sure what yet but if it turns out well - will be posting recipe and pictures. Rainy almost dreary day - OH word to the wise - don't go walking in the woods in North Texas during prolonged rainy spells . All this rain makes fire ants VERY mobile and more nasty tempered than usual. She speaks the truth here on Buhlaland - and can't wear a shoe for a day or so!
Wednesday we spent several hours with friends who are also clients. In front of their new house they built a lake. I wanted to give you this information as an example of why you gotta love Texans and our sense of what constitutes landscaping. We were out by the lake and could clearly see on the horizon a big storm front moving in.
The scene was beautiful and majestic but we were getting weather alerts of potentially damaging hail, lightning and a tornado watch. Later while going through my pictures I realized we don't always see the storms headed our way so clearly. My friend Sarah is an example of staying safe in the shelter of the Lord even when the storms are raging.
I'm not sure if I've posted one of my favorite C.S.Lewis lines before or not - if so - please forgive me for being repetitious. In thinking of the storms of life --
“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” Amen -
The weather storm finally arrived and was not nearly so bad as predicted. Another truth in life is often we anticipate greater problems than we are given. It stormed violently near us -but not on Buhlaland - not last night.
The small toads around here have rebelled against my camera - I almost had a good shot of 5 of them out enjoying the early morning soaking we got. Alas - ended up with only decent shot being this one tiny fellow up near the large cedar log we have in the side garden. We use pecan shell mulch - it looks so pretty when it is wet! No big news here - other than the blessing of over an inch of much needed rain.
It is a little muddy in Buhlaland!
Friday, July 6, 2007
Haven't posted in a few days - hard to get decent pictures for the blog with our persistent rain and overcast. So what is posted is NOT quality photo . It isn't hailing - the flash went off due to the low light levels the raindrops show up as large white dots. This is water pouring down our driveway into our backyard. Pictures were taken on June 29 - the week of our heaviest rains. Since July 1 - we've had a mere 3 inches which is nearly 5 times the normal rainfall for July in North Texas. The next picture is the water pouring over a retaining wall making a miniature waterfall caused by the volume of water being more than our drainage pipes could handle . The building in the background is my husband's workshop.
As a good friend says"it's ALL good" and indeed it is. Independence Day celebrations were fun - we were at the home of good friends for a cookout and fireworks. Their home has a panoramic view and we watched literally a dozen different displays of fireworks. Great fun since no one had to worry about setting anything on fire - the ground was so wet some of the fireworks had to be set on rocks to properly ignite!
As always - it was good in Buhlaland.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Not a plague of anything - maybe an enticement for snakes but these little guys are everywhere.
We are overrun right now with hundreds of these tiny toads. I don't think they are frogs unless they are a variety of tree frog (though most of our tree frogs are bright green). Caught this little guy and put him in a box to take a picture with a quarter for size comparison - none turned out in focus since he was determined to get away! I'd cover him with my hand then pull my hand away and click - so here are the results. The phrase I kept thinking of was "all creatures great and small, our Lord God made them all". Remember the books and tv series about a country vet in England - All Creatures Great and Small? Anyway - this is what is showing up in our rainy land (I know I promised not to mention rain unless we got 6 or 7 inches - and we have passed that this week!).
It is good in Buhlaland - maybe the toads/frogs will eat some of the flies!
Since Friday - an amazing 4 inches of rain by 7 this morning. It is late in the afternoon now - and the sun has broken through the clouds in a big way. But this morning - the hostas looked like swimming pools for frogs (sorry didn't catch any in the act). While all this rain will result in beautiful flowers soon - the downpours have beaten down some plants and torn up the blossoms on others. Our driveway became a mud track with streams of water cutting into the sides and running across in front of our house.
Always surprised at how much damage heavy rainstorms can do - but we didn't have hail or high winds so the damage is all going to be repaired by regrowth or tractor! Just outside our breakfast nook windows - we have a tiny pond which is home to a rapidly overgrowing lily - in the lower center of the picture you can see the ripples from drops of rain still falling this morning. Normally we have several of the big pink blooms at one time.
So much for the rain updates! Today was also the Sunday to honor graduates at our church - normally kind of a "yawn" for people who don't have kids in that age group. What a pleasant surprise to have a good message and praise music! The J Walkers praise band did a good job - it was wonderful to have young men singing sincerely "blessed be the name of the Lord" and using their musical talents. The high school youth pastor did a "tag team"sermon with one of the graduating seniors. Their topic was the apostle Peter's frequent very public failures yet he was the rock upon which the church was built. They brought up the concept of raising children not to keep them totally risk free and aimed for worldly success. At some point parents have to release their children. Seemed remarkably timely message (besides the tie in to graduation) since several national news outlets did stories this week about parents in the "helicopter generation" - hovering over the lives of their children. Raise a child up in the way he should go - the path might not be smooth or level but with a solid foundation a person has roots and wings.
De Moisturized Zone - cannot waste water on keeping too much area greened - simply keeping a little lawn alive so when the rains come (and they will) grass will have some life left. 
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