That Rascally Rabbit

When the kids were younger, we read them the Beatrix Potter stories.  They were all pretty good, but our favorite was Peter Rabbit.  It had suspense and danger in it.  You'll remember it, I'm sure.  It started off like this...

“Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.”

What a bunch of mischievous bunnies, right?  We all thought they were so cute (and Mr. McGregor so mean!)  The rabbits were given instructions that were very clear.  The limitations to their journeys even contained a horrific explanation of just what had made Peter Rabbit's mother a widow...

“You may go into the fields or down the lane, but don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden. Your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.”

I always thought that was a little too much detail to tell young bunnies.  Maybe she should have told them that Papa Rabbit was away on a business trip.  The other thing I always wondered about was: Rabbit Pie?  Mr. McGregor did not live in south Louisiana.  No rabbit pies.  Papa Rabbit would have been cooked in a dark brown gravy or smothered down in a fricassee.

Well, in our garden, a rabbit or two has been helping himself to our produce.  We thought it might be worms doing the damage, but then I spotted the rabbit poop.  In addition to devouring our entire green bean crop, he's nibbling on the lettuce, beets, and swiss chard.  That row of beets at one time was full from end to end.

I've gone out at night with a spotlight and a rifle.  No luck.  In the book, Peter was chased by Mr. McGregor!

“He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and the other shoe amongst the potatoes.”

If I were to catch the rabbit, he would lose more than his shoes.  Surprisingly, the row of carrots have remained unscathed.

We've never had rabbit issues before.  Since I've failed in shooting the rabbit, I have a three pronged attack plan, and I've implemented 2 of the 3 action steps.

First, I went out past the perimeter fence between our property and the woods with an ax, a machete, and a swing blade.  I cleared a 12 foot opening.  It looks like a manicured lawn.  My thinking is that a hawk or an owl will more easily spot "le lapin" and swoop down and devour him before he comes to dine in our garden.

Secondly, I set a trap.  I have it baited with carrots and celery.  So far, no rabbit in the trap, but no additional evidence of him eating.

If I'm unsuccessful in stopping Peter Rabbit and friends, the third prong in my plan requires spending a little money.  I'll purchase some chicken wire and run it around the entire perimeter of the garden.  I really don't want to have to do that.  It costs money, requires a lot of work to install, and it can be easily damaged by the goats when they stand up on the garden fence to try to crane their necks over and eat what's growing in the garden.

Hopefully, like the skunk and possum blog post, this story will have a happy ending (for us - not the rabbit.)

The Valuable Shoe Shine Box

This post really has nothing to do with our little homestead farm, but I'll share it anyway.  I don't know about you, but every so often when I look down at my "church" shoes, I am not greeting with a nice  shining reflection.  Instead I see a dull, sad reminder that I'd better get out the old shoe shine box and get busy.  Shoes that are polished are a refection of a gentleman's attention to detail and civility, I have been told.

So I got out the shoe shine box and did a quick number on them, using an old tee shirt as my shoe shine rag.  Keep in mind, I am nowhere near a professional shoe shiner.  My polishing work leaves a lot to be desired, but it did at least resurrect the leather from dull, lifeless, and lackluster, to at least some degree of brilliance.  Hopefully I moved the needle closer to "civilized."

My shoe shine box is very old as shoe shine boxes go.  I would guess it is about 30 years old.  It is actually an old shoe box.  It is filled with an assortment of Kiwi shoe polish in varying colors, brushes, toothbrushes, and a rat's nest of various shoe strings I'll never use.  Not a fancy box, to be sure, but one that has performed its duty admirably in keeping a lot of junk together in somewhat of a semi-organized fashion.  When I need to shine my shoes or Tricia's cowboy boots, I know where everything is.

Now, one might think that it would be a fruitful endeavor to peruse various websites to procure a real shoeshine box.  This one is just tacky.  Perhaps, if I was ambitious, I could make a shoeshine box.  Or, I may have to repair it by getting some duct tape to 'firm up' edges of the box and the box top.  Age brings on wear and raggedy appearance in both boxes and people alike.  Should I just throw it away?  Nah, my old shoe box that serves as a shoe shine box will continue to perform its duty until I no longer need to shine shoes.  The reason it is important to me is not due to what's in it.  The treasure is on the outside of it.  Some 25 years ago, my daughter, Laura Lee, my aspiring artist, drew a self-portrait on my shoe shine box.  It is a happy drawing of Laura Lee and her brother.

The most expensive shoe shine box I could ever purchase couldn't come close to the value that I ascribe to the one I currently have!

Supply Chain Upheaval

Prior to Thanksgiving, I was listening to some ladies talking about the absence of necessities for cooking the Thanksgiving meal.  They were opting for alternative brands or skipping certain dishes altogether.  What a shame!  There is also talk of shortages of fertilizer in the spring, pushing prices higher and supply lower for many staples we rely on.  Very troubling.  

We have lots of seeds saved, but I figured in anticipation of breakdowns in our supply chain, I had better inventory our saved seed and make an order from my favorite seed supplier: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  They can be found online at www.rareseeds.com.  I ordered and walked out to the mailbox today and lo and behold, my seed order had arrived!

I opened the package and everything I had ordered had arrived!  The package contained:

Verde Tomatillo: We make roasted salsa with this.  First time order!

Blue Lake Bush Beans: To replace the beans that the rabbit devoured!

Lima Beans: I love some lima beans cooked with some smoked sausage.

Cauliflower: Both PURPLE and white.

Okra: Burgundy, Clemson Spineless and Jing Orange (a new variety for us)

Stowell Evergreen Corn: We'll hope for a better harvest next year.

French Breakfast Radish: Fast growing and delicious in salads or a dip we make.

Blackeyed Peas and Contender Green Beans: Favorites of ours we order again and again.

Brunswick Cabbage and Mustard Greens: Well make sauer kraut with the cabbage and eat mustard over cornbread with the pot liquor poured over!

Russian Red Kale: To replace the last of the seed we had saved.

Butternut Squash: Is there anything better than a creamy butternut squash soup?

Roma II Beans and Purple Hull Peas: Romas are a flat, Italian bean we love and purple hulls are a high protein survival crop hardy in heat and draught.

Black Turtle Beans and Sugar Snap Peas: Black beans for refried beans and sugar snap peas are our year in - year out favorites for snacking.

There are a few benefits for ordering from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company:

1. Shipping is free!

2. Seeds are open-pollenated, so they can be saved year after year - unlike hybrids,

3. The Baker Creek Seed Catalog is beautiful,

4. When you order, they always throw in a FREE packet of seeds.  I like this as it enables you to try a new variety that you wouldn't have otherwise ordered.  It has introduced our family to some new things.

The free seed that came with this order was Uzbek Golden Carrot.  It comes from Uzbekistan and is called the "muscle" carrot as it is blunt and powers through tough soil, yet has a very sweet taste.  It is favored in Russia and China.  There is a video about it that can be viewed HERE.  We will try planting them and see how we like 'em.

Giving Thanks 2021

Psalm 100:1-5 KJV

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, And into his courts with praise: Be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; And his truth endureth to all generations.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday.  A time to pause, refocus, and count our many blessings.  We give thanks to our God who is so faithful and good.  Although there is turmoil and division in the world, we find a respite from the turbulence and find peace.  It is a time to gather with family and friends and visit, enjoying one another's company.  And we eat!

And we visit.  For hours we talk, and laugh, and recollect good times in the past.  We discuss what's going on now and we look to the future.  Then there's coffee and dessert.

We are thankful for so many things!

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Molting Time

Around the barn and hen house, the ground is littered by feathers.  One by one our laying hens are molting.  They are losing their old, dull feathers and are replacing them with fresh, new feathers.  Pardon the photos today.  I'm using a new cheap-o phone camera until I get a new work phone and the photos aren't as sharp as they normally are.  But, the hen in full molt that I was trying to get a picture of was not photogenic.  She was running around quickly, embarrassed, no doubt to be caught on film an a "bad hair day."

She has only one or two tail feathers remaining.  Most of her side and back feathers are gone and you can see the prickly-looking pin feathers taking their place.  The remaining feathers on her side and neck are a dull grey and white, rather than the black and white coloration that the Barred Rock usually has.

The hen looks like she's having a bad day, doesn't she?  You can even see her pink flesh on her rear-end since she's featherless there.  Molting is a normal thing with chickens, especially during the fall. The days get shorter and even in south Louisiana, it will get cooler.  The Good Lord knows that the hens will need quality feathers to help them get through the winter cold.  Also, we've noticed that our egg production has fallen off.  This is because the hens are redirecting their energy from laying eggs to growing new feathers.  The Creator has that all figured out.  It is marvelous the way it all works!

In a short time the molting hen will put on new feathers and will look like the hen in the foreground and also the one in the top left in the photo below.

You can see the difference.  The feathers are bolder in color and they are fluffier and thicker.  The bird just looks healthier.  While the birds are molting, we've put out a higher protein Laying ration that will give them nutrients they need during this time of change.  

Learn To Embrace the Authenticity of Imperfection

This morning in Sunday School, in a moment of just being real, we talked about how we tend to compare ourselves to others.  I think that has gone on since the dawn of time, but certainly social media has exacerbated this phenomenon.  I used the example of homegrown tomatoes.  When you harvest a nice basket of sun-ripened tomatoes off the vine, one of the things gardeners like to do is to take a photo of them to share.  

When you do that, if you are honest, you position the tomatoes, right?  You put the biggest, most beautiful ones in the front.  You turn the ones with the stink bug damage, the ones with the worm holes and also the ones with the bird-pecked holes to the back.  There. Now you can take the picture of the basket full of your perfect homegrown tomatoes.  Except, almost none of them are perfect.  We may try our best and put in the best effort imaginable, but we are imperfect people in an imperfect world.  Things happen and the sooner we come to grips with that, the better.

It's not just gardening.  Fishermen do the same thing, showing their biggest fish.  They talk about the "one that got away."  Hunters pose with their ducks or their trophy buck.  But it is quiet as crickets on those days that we kill nothing but time.  Parents do that to when little Johnny makes Honor Roll or Student of the Year.  We don't share when little Johnny gets in trouble.

No ones tomatoes, fishing trip, hunting trip or kids are perfect.  This side of heaven, they won't be!  Let's just be honest, open, and real with one another, okay?  That being said, let me show you my snap beans.  I planted a double row, 15 foot length of Contender and Roma beans.  Check 'em out:

Wait, did you see them?  Well, before we left on vacation for 3 1/2 days, the beans were looking great.  I was anticipating a good harvest.  Nothing I like better than fresh picked green beans cooked with some butter and new potatoes.  Unfortunately, the worms or a rabbit (I never caught the culprit) like them more than me.  They chewed the tops off of EVERY SINGLE PLANT, leaving just a barren bean stalk sticking out of the ground.  

Oh well, I guess I'll have to grow the perfect green beans this spring!

Sea Oats to the Rescue!

Hebrews 1  New American Standard Bible

God’s Final Word in His Son

1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, to the extent that He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

While on vacation, we saw lots of sights.  I like the beach, but I like the mountains, too.  Tricia and I debated which type vacation we like the best, but never could make up our minds.  Being an agriculture person, I'm always looking at plants, trees and the like, wherever we go.  We hiked on the island and went into a Discovery Center for the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  The Seashore runs from Mississippi to Florida and the museum had a video we watched that was very interesting about the wildlife that inhabits this ecosystem.

One of the interesting things we learned was about "Sea Oats."  I took a photograph of them below.  Sea Oats were all over the sand dunes and birds would fly and roost on the stalk of the sea oats as they swayed lazily in the breeze.  If you look closely below, you can see why they got the name sea oats.  They have a head on them that looks similar to oats.  While what you see above the ground is interesting, it's what you can't see that makes this plant a real hero.

Sea oats, we learned, are a remarkable plant largely responsible for the islands' success in remaining despite hurricanes and punishing winds and water in this extreme weather environment.  Sea oats have an extensive root system that stretches out and holds the sand in place.  If the roots of the sea oats were not there, the sand dunes would be blown away and deposited elsewhere.  This is of vital importance to the mainland as the barrier islands serve as a "first line of defense" against the onslaught of bad weather, absorbing the first blows of hurricanes to protect the mainland.

The Bible verse I pasted above tells us that 'God upholds all things by the word of His Power.'  God holds all things together.  This is very encouraging to me.  As hurricane force winds metaphorically blow in our lives, we need an anchor - something to keep us from being blown away.  God is that rock, that strong tower, that Mighty Fortress that holds us together.

In a time of shifting sand, may we build our house upon the Rock!

Toes in the Water, Toes in the Sand

I decided to make a career change at 55 (Yikes!!) and Friday is my last day at this job before starting another next week.  I gave my two week notice but added a couple of days to it as I still had two personal days that I could use that I wouldn't be compensated for.  We left town Friday night after work and headed to the beach!  Tricia had booked Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at Fort Pickens National Park near Pensacola, Florida.  We would be tent-camping and were looking forward to it.  Russ took care of all the animal chores while we were gone.

We arrived in Pensacola after a six hour drive.  It was after midnight.  We pulled up to the campsite and began to pitch our tent in the dark but found out that the poles were broken!  Defeated, we found a hotel for the night and purchased a new tent in the morning.  Home Sweet Home for the next few days!

We cooked on a little Coleman stove for the next few days.  Camp food always tastes great.  I don't know why that is.

The further you can get away from the Mississippi River, the whiter the sand is and the bluer the water is.  There's a reason they call it the "Big Muddy."

We saw bottlenose dolphins jumping out of the water, sandpipers poking in the sand, and two stingrays gracefully flapping their "wings" in the water.  That's them below:

It was SO RELAXING!!  No agenda.  No plans.  Just soaking up the sun and napping.

The days were very comfortable, but the nights got cool - into the 40's.  We made campfires and had s'mores!

Tricia and I were able to spend a lot of uninterrupted time together.  We read the Bible, we sang, we laughed and talked.  Just before 5 PM, the sun put on a performance on the western horizon.  We didn't miss it. 

If we could just catch it and make the days on vacation last longer!

Going....

Gone...

Relaxed and Refreshed!

A nice beach vacation...

Picking Pecks of Peppers

We always plant our peppers from seeds on January 1st.  We've eaten plenty of peppers all throughout the year.  Unusually high rainfall earlier in the year sickened our peppers, even causing some of them to die.  It hurt their yield.  Now that cooler weather has set in, the peppers are very happy and they are producing peppers faster than we can eat them.  That's a good problem to have, I guess.

We picked two buckets full of jalapenos the other afternoon.  We have a mild jalapeno and a hot jalapeno.  I planted them too close together and they have cross pollinated, so they are all very hot now.  Even as we picked the larger ones, the sheer weight of the smaller peppers weighed down the branches.

We've cooked with them, dried a bunch of them and eaten a whole lot of them.  We'll make jalapeno poppers again pretty soon.  That's our favorite thing to do with them.  I'll have to check our inventory of Pepper Jelly in the pantry to see if we can make more.  That's a good snack!

The sweet bell peppers are producing nicely, too.  Just the other night, we had "dirty rice" for supper.  The next evening, Tricia picked some nice bell peppers, stuffed them with the leftover dirty rice, baked them, and we had stuffed bell peppers for supper.

The Lilac bell peppers are very healthy now, too.  We like colorful things in the garden and these fit the bill nicely.  Named lilac for their purple color, these peppers are just beautiful.  They are sweet, so the taste resembles a normal bell pepper.

The peppers are full of blooms and will continue producing until the first freeze kills them.  Until then we'll continue to enjoy.  Long about the time the freeze kills the mature plants, we'll plant replacements for them from seed on January 1st and start the process all over again.

Pickin' Up Pecans

We were happy to find that we had pecans this year.  We pronounce them puh CAHNS.   Our trees haven't produced in a couple of years.  We were out!  We don't know if it was a fertilization issue or something else that caused them not to produce.  Tricia's theory is that the hard freeze did something.  Who knows?  

Normally, we pick up a whole lot and then shell them and freeze them in quart sized freezer bags.  We'll snack on them, use them in baked goods, making pesto and then we soak some and ferment them.  Pecans are delicious.  We have seven pecan trees on our property.  The ones up front make small pecans that are kind of hard to shell.  Although they are small, they are "fat."  By that, I mean they are full of oil.  The trees in the back either don't produce or the darned squirrels eat them all.  The tree by the garage makes larger pecans, but they aren't quite as good as the ones in front.

Last weekend was a beautiful weekend.  Tricia and I each grabbed a bucket and went into the front to pick.  There were pecans everywhere!

Tricia likes to just pick them up with her hands.  I have a contraption I use that collects the pecans in lazy fashion, where I don't have to bend over.  You just walk, press the device over the pecan and the wires separate and allow the pecan to enter.  Then the wire closes behind it, capturing the pecan.  Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

In no time at all, the pecan-picker-upper is full and ready to be poured into a bucket.

So far, we've filled a couple of big landscape buckets along with two five gallon buckets.  We have more to pick, too!  As you look in the bucket below, you'll see some pecans with the green 'hull' still on them.  Tricia made a grievous mistake and tried to peel off the green hull.  It stained her hands!  It won't wash off.  It has to wear off!

I do have a different mode 'pecan-picker-upper.'  I have a photo of it below.  It operates on the same principle as the one above, except this one is like a Slinky.  Instead of pressing down over the pecan, you roll this one over it.  I don't use this one any more.  It is from my childhood and was from my great-grandmother.

We still have some more pecan picking to do.  Once we've finished, we'll weigh them and shell them.  Then we'll weigh the shelled pecans, so we'll know gross and tare weights.

First Time Making Bagels

Many appliances are in the cabinet taking up space and don't get used very much.  Our bread machine is NOT one of those appliances.  We have gotten lots and lots of use out of it.  In fact, I would be very interested to know how many dozens of loaves of bread that that thing has made.  I wish it had an odometer on it.  Anyway, we've used it to make all sorts of items.  One thing we've never tried to make was bagels.

There's a first time for everything, right?  Tricia made up some dough and after the first rise, you get it out and let it rest for five minutes.  

She formed the dough into little balls and then shaped them into doughnut-like objects and placed them on a cookie sheet and let them proof for fifteen minutes.

I missed the next step, which is an important one.  The next step that I have no photos of is that you drop them in boiling water for 30 seconds.  What we surmise happens is that the boiling stops the yeast from continuing to rise, giving bagels the dense and chewy texture.

Once you remove them from the boiling water, put on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes at 370 degrees Fahrenheit.  When they come out, they look like regular bagels.

We sliced one open while it was hot.

And put lots of cream cheese on it.  The cream cheese melted into the steaming hot bagel.  Delicious!

Then, Tricia made some scrambled eggs with peppers, onions and cheese and made a concoction she called Egg McBagels.  Here are the two ingredients before assembling them into an Egg McBagel:

We will definitely make bagels again!

Pepe LePew RIP

We thought there was a pretty good chance that we had killed the skunk the other night when we shot it in the flower bed.  When it couldn't be found the next morning, I thought that one of two things happened.  Either it was wounded, and it drug itself off to die somewhere OR I missed the doggone thing.  As it turns out, the latter was true.

Tricia called me last week to tell me that the skunk was out in the back yard during the middle of the day.  Not good!  She wanted me to teach her how to load the rifle so she could take care of the thing.  For the next few days, we didn't see the skunk.  But Saturday we decided to go pick pecans.  As we rounded the southwest corner of the house, we saw the skunk not 20 feet away.  He didn't see us.  I quickly ran inside and got my .22 rifle.  

In no time at all, the skunk was dead.  Boy did that thing stink!

It was a little ol' thing, and I almost felt sorry for killing it, but I didn't want to get sprayed.  My wife had also reminded me that skunks carry rabies and when wild animals start acting strangely, like coming into the yard unafraid in the middle of the day, something is wrong. Maybe it had the rabies.  We don't know, but I knew I had to put it down.

One shot from my Marlin .22 lever action rifle did the trick.

We don't have to worry about getting sprayed by the skunk anymore.  Crazy stuff!  In just a few days, we killed two possums and a skunk.  RIP Pepe LePew. 

The Disappearing Stump

Our oldest son, Russ, had catastrophe strike a little over a year ago when Hurricane Laura hit the area.  The neighbor of his had a big water oak tree that was rotten in the middle.  When to strong winds blew, the weakened tree succumbed to the hurricane force winds and fell directly on Russ' roof.  It took many many months to get a contractor and materials to make his home whole again.  But alas, it is done.  Looks real nice, too!

Russ had a smaller water oak tree in his front yard.  It was slightly more than two feet in diameter.  The tree was healthy, but Russ didn't want to go through another tree on his roof.  He called a tree service and they chopped the tree down.  The front yard definitely looked a lot different.  One thing the tree service didn't remove was the stump.  He could have called a stump-grinding service, but he didn't.

He did something that I'm afraid my hard-headed self taught him.  He took the stump out the hardest way possible - by hand.  We've done it here at our house.  It is done with stubborn determination.  That's a nice way to put it.  One might also call it some less flattering words.  I had read that a good way to remove a stump is to drill a bunch of holes in the top of the stump, pour a gallon of cooking oil into the holes, let it soak it up and then light it.  Trouble is, that did not work very well.

Russ went to the tried and true way to do it - using an ax mainly.  The ax is used to chop slivers of the stump off.  You keep doing this round and round the tree.  Over time the diameter of the tree is being slowly reduced.  Th chips are saved, piled on top of the stump, and used to burn the stump each day.  He also used a sledgehammer and a wedge to chop the stump.

A few days ago, we received the following text from him: "My stump is missing!  I can't find it"

There is only a hole in the ground where the stump once was.  Three ax handles, numerous blisters, and gallons of sweat later, the stump was gone!

It is a testament, I think, of persistence, hard work, stick-to-itiveness, and endurance.  Maybe it is a bit of insanity, too, in following after my crazy methods of doing things.  What can I say?  He's a chip off the old stump block!  It is pleasing to see the fruits of your labors.  No more stump!

He will plant another tree in its place - one that isn't known for falling on homes.  

Stinkin' to High Heaven

When I was six years old, I remember riding around in the family car singing a song entitled, "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road."  It was a very simple folk music song with the singer, Loudon Wainwright III, singing along with banjo accompaniment.  It was a funny song about a skunk that got flattened on the road by a station wagon, and now it was baking in the summer sun stinking to high heaven.  The song probably wasn't funny from the deceased skunk's perspective. 

We could relate.  We had a station wagon, there was always road-kill on the road, and we enjoyed singing.  My younger brother and sister and I belted out, "You light up my life," by Debby Boone, and "Rhinestone Cowboy," by Glenn Campbell with such gusto and emotion.  We thought we were troubadours or crooners, maybe.  Our singing careers never panned out as our talents weren't discovered or appreciated by agents.

Here are the lyrics to the song.  You can mash the button below and hear the dead skunk song if you wish.

Crossin' the highway late last night

He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right

He didn't see the station wagon car

The skunk got squashed and there you are

You got your

Dead skunk in the middle of the road

Dead skunk in the middle of the road

Dead skunk in the middle of the road

Stinkin' to high heaven

Last week I asked Milk Maid Tricia, the queen of the Manor, if she had observed any pecans on the ground.  When she answered in the negative, I told her I would go out and check.  I grabbed the spotlight and walked out to the pecan trees.  Pecans!  All over the ground.  Good!  We hadn't had pecans in a couple of years.  As I moved the spotlight around, my eye caught something!  A skunk.  It was only 10 feet away from me and its tail was up.

I ran inside and got my .22 rifle and quickly got back out there.  Tricia pleaded with me to not get sprayed.  When I got back out there, the skunk was still there.  If you look closely below, you can see it with its tail raised.

Pepe LePew scurried into a pipe.  I spotlighted him, took aim and fired.  Unfortunately, the gun went "click."  I ejected the bullet, reloaded, and tried again with the same result.  I ran back inside to assess the issue and found that the gun needed some adjustments.  With those made, I went back out there, but the skunk was gone.  Almost every night since, we've seen him (or her) out in the yard.  Trouble!

Two nights later, Tricia walked out on the front porch and found the skunk occupying the steps with her.  She came back inside with the quickness.  Like Jed Clampett hunting for vittles, I scurried out on the front porch with my rifle.  The skunk, tail raised, ran into the flower beds for cover.  I shot but was in such close quarters, I didn't want to risk getting sprayed confirming a kill.  The next day we searched, but could not find a carcass.  Perhaps he drug himself off and is stinkin' the high heaven.

A Facelift At Cornerstone

Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.  Genesis 1:11-12

Our church, Cornerstone Baptist Church of Jennings, voted at a business meeting to undertake a landscaping project to hopefully beautify the front of the church.  A couple of boxwood shrubs had done their best anchoring down either side of the sanctuary for many years, but it was time for some freshening and rejuvenation.

A tractor was brought in to uproot and pull out the old boxwoods and then till up the area proposed for the new flower bed.  We arrived on a beautiful Saturday morning to begin the work.

A pile of topsoil was delivered the day before.  This was the biggest challenge and proved to be the hardest work - moving the pile of dirt.  Inch by inch, it's a cinch.

We didn't have any mechanical equipment, so we opted for the second best thing - shovels and a wagon.  It was hard work, but you couldn't have asked for a more perfect day - a bluebird day, you might call it.  We loaded wagon after wagon and pulled the wagon into the bed and dumped it.  Repeating the process again and again until we had the bed filled up with fertile topsoil.  We left one end open with no landscape border until we filled it all up with dirt and then we erected the last metal border.

Then we got the shrubs unloaded.  We had purchased them from a local nursery we like to use.  We selected "Knockout Roses" for the central point under the stained glass window where the baptistry is and then flanked on either side by loropetalum.  We carefully arranged them, measuring for uniform placement.

Then we dug holes and planted them, following up by raking a good layer of mulch over the exposed dirt.

At last we were finished.  We enjoyed a Popeye's Spicy Chicken Sandwich as we rested and looked at the transformation.  The plants will grow and fill in the open spaces soon enough.  The roses and loropetalum will bloom and flourish and beautify the spots they occupy (as we should do, right?).

Tricia watered them in and committed to doing so for the next couple of weeks to ensure the new plants get rooted and get a good start.

This turned out to be a good project - one of those where you really could see the results of your work just four short hours later.