The Amazing Watermelon Plant

As spring began and we were planting tomato & pepper plants, we decided to stick some of our watermelon seeds in dirt and see if they'd grow. I took nine seeds we'd saved from melons we had eaten and put then in a little pot. Before long, I had six nice little plants. We took them down to an area of the yard that is usually wetter than most and carefully planted them... Over the next few months, we dumped buckets and buckets of water around them... and... well... they just didn't do much. We got some little melons, and one decent sized one that was very tasty... but nothing very impressive.

However, one day, in the midst of our hot, dry summer, we noticed what looked like a little watermelon plant that popped up in the gravel-- yes, the gravel out the back door that registered temps of 115 degrees and up at times... For a while we just kind of laughed wondering how it even got there... and pretty much ignored it... but it kept growing... and growing... so we started paying a little more attention to it... and giving it some water as well.... When we took this picture (Oct 5), we had seen five big watermelon on it-- all bigger than any of our other ones. Since then we've found a sixth one. Anyone want a slice? Watermelon in November! Yum, yum, yum!!!
Here they are... the watermelon picked in November-- 15, 16, 17, 18, 18, & 19 inches long!! And tasty too... except some of them got overripe before we ate or shared them. :(

Fixin' the Dog Pen

Ron picked up a welder at an auction a few months ago and had been wanting to try it out... A few days before, he'd sold our spare dog pen to David and said he had the stuff to fix the rotten part on the bottom of it. So... here it is... finally trying out the new welder. He did a great job-- and even had some silver paint to make it look like new! I ended up holding a light before he finished though-- it got dark on us!

A New Front

One day in late August, we were outside walking around when a hard wind blew out of the north. It unhooked a few pieces of siding on that end and ripped our fancy black plastic job off our hole in front. With winter coming (again), we'd been thinking about what to do there... but the local brick company still hasn't been able to find a matching brick... and we've had so many different ideas, we had never really decided what to do. Now that the plastic was off... we got a piece of metal from the inside of the gym to see how it looked... and then got a few more and finished the job. It is definitely more weather-proof than the black plastic... and wasn't so much work that we won't do something different... if we ever settle on what that should be...

I guess this could have been in the 2005 flashback part.... Early one foggy Monday morning (Nov. 21, 2005), we were rudely awakened by a coal miner who didn't get stopped at the stop sign... He said he was only going 45... and I thought, "yeah, maybe when you hit our wall!" Of course, I didn't say that to him.... but here are some pics in case you didn't get to see them in the last couple years:

2005 flashback, part 2-- still camping!

During our stay at the farm, we headed to Harrisburg for Wilson's big lumber auction... We didn't find any great deals there, but we decided to swing by the old Little Chapel again and see if anything had changed. (We had talked to them about buying it in the weeks before we became homeless.) The weeds were still huge and growing in every crack of concrete. Shingles were blown off... It looked pretty rough and neglected... and Ron loved it! I handed him my phone as it was dialing Jeff's number, and they talked about it again... Finally, on June 20, 2005, it became our little chapel church.... Thus began the transition from our 24-foot camper on 20 acres, to our 10k+sq ft concrete jungle on 2.5 acres... And let me just say... we went from camping-- to camping!! While we camped out in what used to be the fellowship hall, the crews were tearing down their newest old sanctuary. We spent some evenings walking around and checking out the progress... and usually picking up their trash. This photo is about a month after we moved in.

One night as we walked, we even found a little puppy. He was in pretty bad shape at first, but we gave him a new home and named him Buster. Buster liked to chew on anything he could find-- which around here really was just about anything!

The last day of July...

With August in full swing, we took a couple days off and showed Greg around the Shawnee a little. He and Ron were a little too daring for me at times, but no one got hurt. We had lots of fun!

Bombs away!!!

Just a little more time to relax before hitting the books--

Then Greg went back to school... and Ron went back to work! And so did Buster!

They asked if we'd want this part left for a patio or something... and the day Ron told them we didn't want it, they disappeared... After a while, Ron started pulling it up himself.

I wasn't excited about his new project, because I had several in the house I wanted him to do... but this lumber was getting wet and he didn't want it to rot...
so eventually, I decided to help him...

and after some back pain, sore muscles, a busted water line (and finger)-- we got 'er done!! Let me just say... I hope we don't get stuck in another project like that again-- ever!

With cooler weather approaching, our shower outside with the hose plan was nearing an end... so we went out and bought ourselves a fancy bathtub-- at Tractor Supply! The girls thought it was pretty cool!

Then in October, there was a four-day weekend, and all the kids wanted to go to Unc & Amy's... so they did! And, boy, was it fun! I have about 40 pictures to prove it... but here's only one of my favorites:

Ok... did anyone really think I could stop with ONE picture?!

Cole and Buster became good friends

Ron got Cole's dirt bike running, but Greg was the only one brave enough to drive it. Makayla liked to ride... but not drive!

Our neighbors went to Florida, and their kittens came to visit us. The kids loved them...

maybe a little more than they wanted to be loved sometimes! :)

And for all of you who know how much I love cats... We found out where they came from, and the poor little kitties went home shortly after the kids did.

2005 Flashback-- at the farm, our "homeless" days

One day in the spring of 2005, we put an ad in the paper hoping to sell our house in Fairfield... well... it worked... and being the novice sellers that we were, thought 45 days would be plenty to get out. Well, it might have been... BUT... we didn't know for sure that their loan went through until about two weeks before our 45 days were up... oops! They were gracious and let us stay a few extra days... and then we spent our first homeless night at my parents' house. Then we moved to the original "Moore Piece," our 20-acre farm in Texico. With most of our stuff in storage, we landed with our vehicles, a few of our favorite summer clothes, our tent, picnic table, and the telescopes. If I remember correctly, this is a picture of our first breakfast at the farm. Sleeping in the tent on concrete, I woke up about every half hour with some part of my body asleep! We found some foam pads before the next night...Ron was afraid I would have trouble "roughing it," so he made a nice open-air bathroom for us. It may still be there if you're ever around Texico and you've gotta go! :) It wasn't long till we found a storage shed and small camper. This is the shot I like to call "Hillbilly Heaven." We had it all! Well... close enough! :)

We even found some cool owl lights at an auction. Are they cool, or what?!

Greg graduated from 8th grade while we were there. I love this picture of him with his mom!

Twyla came to visit during allergy season. After a tour of the farm from the pickup, these 3 kept interrupting our card game to blow their noses! When they were all blowing at once, I had to take a pic....

Here's Greg demonstrating how to get the cell phone to work. Step 1: Climb onto barn. Step 2: Move around till there's a signal....
My parents stopped by for a cookout on their way home from Branson. We had the picnic table all clean and ready for a party. A few minutes after Ron & Linda pulled in, the storm hit-- So 9 of us ate fresh-grilled food inside our little camper. Can you say 'togetherness'?

Cleaning out the well was one of our first (and longest) projects. You would never believe some of the junk that came up out of this hole... Maybe I should find that picture sometime, huh?

After trying a few old well curbs, we finally went for a drive a bought a new one.

This is a geode I bought when I was about 10(?). I thought it was really cool but had never seen inside it... until now! This was one of the side benefits of the concrete saw that helped fix the well.
Dad became a regular visitor on Tuesdays about lunch time. He was bringing Tim over to visit his dad-- and I got to visit mine too. :) Today he brought DQ.
We managed to find time to play amid all the work to be done. Here Ron & Greg are trying out the marshmallow machine guns that Seth made. Well... I said trying out... I think they went through a whole bag of little marshmallows! Guess the guns worked pretty well!

The night sky was dark and beautiful... Alot of our stuff was in storage here and there, but the telescopes stayed with us-- and got some good use. The one he's using in the picture is the 12.5 inch he made using Bob's mirror. (Thanks again, Bob!)

Madagascar at the Salem drive in. Thumbs up fun!

Organizing the Garage

This is one of those things that may never really end... but last Sunday night about 10:30, we decided to set up some shelves and start organizing the garage. For anyone who's seen it, you can imagine what a daunting task it is... Well, we worked on it all week, and one of our main problems is that we just have way too much stuff! Thursday night, we decided to start dragging stuff out by the road to give away. We started with the stage extension... and by Friday morning had a couple big piles. We posted a couple of FREE signs, and by evening, almost everything was gone! (Some was already gone before I took this picture-- and more came out later too!)

Need anything? We may still have it in the garage! :S

First Day of Fall

I decided to celebrate the first day of fall by going for a swim! The pool was about a foot low because we'd been using it to water the garden, but it was 82 degrees-- and 94 degree air-- so it really was a great day for it. Plus, I'm not really thrilled about summer being over already. It seems like just a few days ago we were putting water in the pool and waiting for it to get warm. (Ok, if you must know... I got in it with my wetsuit because I couldn't wait!)

I love the beauty of fall, the colorful leaves and the fresh crisp air... but I'm also sad to see summer go... the birds are leaving, the blooming flowers and fresh tomatoes will come to an end... and I will miss them... Oh well... at least I'll still have some pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

Anyone know what this bee-looking thing is?
The taller ones in the back are Snapdragons. We bought 8 of them last year, and this year they came up EVERYWHERE-- in pots, gravel, other places in the gravel, and even around the corner on the way to the old basement (tennis court). I transplanted these and put some Celosia around them.

Ok, so Ron probably won't miss some parts of summer! :) We just couldn't get Buster to look at the camera...
House finch & 2 yellow finches
These little things sure can eat alot of sugar water! We even saw a bald eagle in the neighborhood a couple times.


For those still waiting on a picture of the pool.... here it is. Bria and Makayla enjoyed some Unc-time!