Monday, June 25, 2012

Amazing Nieces and Nephews

Hello, I hope if you are reading this that your day has been blessed and that you are aware of all of the circumstances of your life that God has shaped to bring you to this exact moment. I hope that you are thankful for His perfect plan for your life. I know that some of you may be in a place of joy and others of you may be in a place of pain.  I have learned to be thankful for the pain because I draw nearer to God and the painful circumstances always cause my life to make sharp right turns in my path and as I look back, the right turns are the best because they are ALL God and ZERO Tracy.

Today my blog is about my amazing family that I am thankful for.  I come from a big family and my brother and sister have 9 children between them.  I did not have children and was always sorrowful that I did not have children but tonight I am so thankful that I did not have children because I can see why God did not allow me to have children.  The first reason that I am thankful is because God used my aching desire for children to seek His comfort and leading.  That love of children that He gave me caused me to begin teaching children and then He called me to begin a children's bible study at the ladies bible study that I attend.  I feel like I finally have found where I can serve God wholeheartedly and devote my life to His service.  The second reason that I am thankful that I do not have children is that He blessed me richly with the most amazing 9 nieces and nephews.  If I had children of my own, I would not have had time or energy to spend time with my nieces and nephews and would not have been so interested in their lives.

I want to brag some about three of them today and about my brother and sister-in-law and my sister and brother-in-law.  I love my brother and sister so much.  Some of you may not have a good relationship with your siblings or maybe your life is busy and you do not spend as much time as you could sharing their lives.  Your siblings are the only people in the world that shared the same experiences that you had growing up.  They are the only people in the world that know every part of you and hopefully still love and accept you.  They are the people who "get you" at a level that is inexplicable.  They are the people that you can give a look and they know what you are thinking or that you know have your back when the going gets hard. They are the people who know the funniest stories of your life.  My brother and sister are great people and they married great people and are still married to those great people 30ish years later.  They also have raised all of their children to be amazing young adults who I love dearly and am so proud of. I am proud of them for raising great godly kids in a society that does not encourage godliness.


Niece number 1 - She was the first and only for four years as a baby and had to forge the way for all those that came behind her.  She is truly a virtuous woman.  She loves and depends on the Lord and it is clear that she has a heart for God.  She is a loving, dedicated mom and is a very loving, kind and supportive wife.  Her life is about making a warm, loving home.  She is an accomplished artist who is sought after for commissioned pieces.  She is a published author. She looks for good in all things.  She notices the little things and is grateful for them.  She personifies loving God, husband, children and family in exactly that order.  I never have heard her be cruel to anyone.

Nephew number 1 - He has always been a complex child.  So very smart and so brave to try new and different things.  He is a godly husband and father and is the head of his household as God calls him to be.  He and his wife are in their 20's and I believe that they are completely debt free.  He is a hard worker and provides for his family so that his wife is able to be a stay at home mom with their 4 children.  He is a master builder.  He is an accomplished musician and a virtuoso on a guitar.  I can watch his videos of him playing the guitar and I am in awe.  I remember buying his first guitar and being very afraid that his parents would kill me for the noise.  He attacks everything with purpose, practice and precision.  His work ethic has always been amazing.

Nephew number 2 - This nephew is the one that I have spent the most time with of all of them.  He and I trekked to hockey games and built wonderful memories.  He has graduated from Pepperdine University and has a very good job.  He has bought his home and is doing some traveling.  He is an accomplished photographer.  The other day, I was looking through his photos on facebook and I found a picture of him speaking to a group of elderly people in a convalescent hospital.  He looked so grown up.  He was holding the bible in his hands and I started crying because I am so proud of how he has grown closer to God as he has matured and is involved in serving God in a wonderful way.  He makes me laugh all of the time because he has a superb sense of humor.  He will make an amazing husband and father when he meets the right girl. 

I hope you did not mind me bragging.  I was overcome by love and admiration.  I have been searching through old photographs at my Mom and Dad's and seeing them as babies but knowing them as adults is a great treasure here on earth and therein lies one of the jewels in my heart. 

I am praying that tropical storm Debby comes to Oklahoma but am thinking I may not get my way.  My next blog will be about my garden and pets.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Fire Ants, Guineas and Gardens

It has been so very long since I have posted anything.  I have been very busy and was suffering from severe blogger block.  I finally am back in the mood to post.  I have several things to talk about today as the title suggests. I am going to discuss Fire ants, Guinea Keets and my Garden.

Fire ant mound in my yard


Fire Ants - Oh my, has anyone ever been bit by a fire ant?  I am from California and had not encountered fire ants until I moved to Oklahoma.  They are not native to Oklahoma, they were imported.  Who would import such a vile creature?  They cause terrible itchy puss filled bumps that take forever to heal.  They kill trees and build big mounds that ruin yards, pastures and gardens.  They can kill plants in my garden.  In other words, they are pesky and are so thick on my farm.  I have declared war on them for 5 years and have tried all kinds of poisons and natural remedies.  I have reduced the population but still have a significant battle on my hands. Today I am trying a remedy that Will promises to be successful.  I am hoping that he is correct.  He is a genius at lots of stuff so I think he may be right.  His solution is to mix grape jelly with borax and make a thick paste of it and drop it in balls around the fire ant holes.  I deployed the paste but I could not resist taking my horse training stick and ramming it into the mounds to stir up all the fire ants.  He said I should have probably just put the poison balls around the mound but I am at war!!  He says that the ants take the poison down into the ground and that it kills the queen.  I will let you know if it works.  Everything else I have ever tried just makes the colony move and become more virulent.  Did I say they are pesky pests?

Little adorable guinea keets, so sweet don't you think?
 My dear friend called me yesterday and told me that she has to get rid of her guinea keets because the animal enforcement lady in town said they are too loud.  She had ten little guineas and so I went to get them and she let me take them and the ferret cage that they were in.  I have not ever raised my own keets but have adopted Mom's guineas that were here when I moved here.  Guinea moms lay their eggs out in the tall grass and the babies are very tiny when they are born.  The guinea mommas are not very good at keeping their babies alive.  We have had more than a hundred hatch in the last 5 years but only 5 are still alive here.  My guineas hatch their babies but at night they roost in the top of the barn and leave their babies to fend for themselves.  They get eaten by coyotes and snakes or die in the cold nights.  Guineas are amazing pets and are wonderful to have here in Oklahoma.  They eat every kind of bug including fleas, ticks,chiggers, grasshoppers etc.  My neighbor has been infested this spring with fleas and grasshoppers but I don't have any thanks to my guineas.  They also will fight and eat snakes.  They are great watch dogs.  When the hawks start circling, the guineas raise a ruckus and sound the alarm.  I will go out to look and all the guineas and chickens will be under the bushes or vehicles and do not come out again until the guineas sound the all-clear.  I know if the guineas are shouting there is a problem. They are hilarious to watch.  They invented the grid-search that you see law enforcement do.  They chatter and toddle like little ladies and walk in straight lines searching for bugs systematically.  I have been concerned because I have gone from 30 guineas to 5 and so I am thrilled to have these wonderful new baby guineas. 

 My garden is the best garden that I have every had.  I have 6 varieties of tomatoes, various kinds of peppers, cantaloupe, squash, tomatillos, beets, radishes, corn, basil, rosemary, sage, cilantro, plums, pears, peaches, grapes and pecans.  I have already harvested the plums and froze them for smoothies.  I had to harvest the peaches today and put the unripe fruit in a paper bag to ripen because the birds were already having a feast.  I have pickled some peppers.  I have not ever pickled anything so I am unsure if I did it right, I will know soon enough. 

I found all my Mom's old California Cooperative Extension books that tell how to dry, pickle, can and make jams and jellies.  I have all of the fruit jars that Mom left and all of the canning equipment.  I am determined to conquer my fear of canning and preserving this year.  It is intimidating.  I chastise myself every day for not paying attention when Mom was canning, pickling and preserving.  I hope I can learn how.  I want to can salsa, chow chow, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, pears, peaches.  I want to pickle watermelon rind, peppers, beets and okra.  I love to go out to my garden with my puppy dogs in the morning.  It is quiet and the plants are still covered in dew.  It is amazing how much the garden can change overnight.  I love to find peppers I did not see the night before or new budding tomatoes.  I have not ever been able to control the pests and weeds before. This year with the aid of the tractor and tiller and my hoe and yanking, the weeds are few.  The pests are being controlled with diatomaceous earth and lime.  If you have not ever tried diatomaceous earth and/or lime you should.  The diatomaceous earth is very cheap, pests cannot become immune to it, it is all natural and organic and works very well.  It is fossil shell flour and it scratches the waxy coating off of bugs and they dehydrate to death.  It is working so well.  I also use it for mites on chickens, mites in nesting boxes, fleas on dogs, worming chickens and dogs, flies on my horse, as an anti-caking agent to spread lime, as a feed additive for cows and horse to control fly population.  If I were brave enough I could make a paste of it and use it to exfoliate my face.  Maybe next week :).  The lime enriches the soil, keeps the fungus away in the ground, stops bloom rot on tomatoes. 

So that's all I have to discuss today.  I am supremely contented with my critters and garden.  I love how the Lord has blessed my life.  This is the day that the Lord has made, rejoice!