Front Porch Stories

Sharing and evening sitting on the porch with friends is one of the pleasures of life.  It's part of what I love to do and to write about.  When I was growing up I think every porch had a swing on it.  I can remember mama planting morning glories and running them up strings to block the afternoon sun.  The porch was where the first and last cup of coffee was drank.  It was where beans were broke and potatoes were peeled.  A place where guitars were played, and prayers were prayed.  This country needs more front porches!  Pop and I spent a wonderful evenings sitting on there front porch.  There is a pond in front of their cabin and we watched the ducks and a few Canadian Geese landed just before dark.  They have this neat outdoor fireplace, so my friend and I sat in front of the fire and enjoyed a glass of wine before we had pizza.  Then we had coffee and pie.  We talked about our grandchildren, our children and just plain girl talk.  It was a great evening!!  Now to top it off I am

My oldest son and his wife are professional photographers.  I think he got his love of photographs and cameras from his Granny. She really loved to take pictures.  She got her first camera from the peddler, she traded eggs and butter and some of her chopping cotton money for it.  I still have some of her old pictures and am working on putting them in an album to help preserve them. She would be really proud of her grandsons work. One of his specialties is wedding photography.

We got a really good rain last night.  It settled the pollen down a lot, we could breath much better today.  We had some yard work done last week and the rain washed trenches in a few places.  We fixed some of it today but will have to work some more on it over the next few days.  Pop can't work for long periods of time, so we do a little here and a little more until we get things done.  He often overdoes and pays a big price for it.  We needed the rain and I think we have more coming.

Gosh have I had some problems with my sinuses!!  The pollen here is dreadful!!  We were talking to some friends who had been to the doctor with their sinuses and the doctor had told them that oak pollen is finer than pine pollen.  So I guess we chalk our problems up to living in the middle of the woods surrounded by oak trees.  I don't normally have sinus problems but between the pollen and the medication it has whipped me.  I had a festival Saturday where I sit up and sell my T-shirts.  I took medication so I could breath, then the medicine made me goofy!  I came home Saturday afternoon and slept til Sunday afternoon.  Whew! I'll be glad for this to be over with.  I hope you have a blessed day and thank you for stopping by my blog.

The calendar says it spring the weather says it's summer.  We went from over coats to shorts over night.  Spring and fall are my two favorite seasons because they bring all the color.  I love to see all the green come back, I don't even mind mowing the grass.  My parents loved this time of year.  They both loved to plant things and watch them grow.  They would have loved this place.  Pop likes flowers as much as I do, and we have tried to choose flowers in a way that we have something blooming from early spring to late in the fall.  We also have several types of vines and shrubs that stay green year round, some have berries which adds a little red to the yard in the winter.  I have been trying to catch some of our feathered friends sitting in the dogwoods with my camera.  They look real pretty against the white flowers.  Have a great and blessed day!

I am an avid hunter, and pretty good marksman, so I was shocked when I "MISSED" a feral hog this afternoon.  In this part of Georgia the feral hog population is getting out of control.  We live about a mile off the main highway and a couple of years ago we had to put a fence up around the house to keep them from ruining the yard.  We plant food plots for the deer and other wildlife, but the hogs root them up.  The fields look like you have been through them with a turning plow.   It will be a full moon tonight so I decided  to sit in a stand until the wee hours of the morning.   I had gotten settled in and was watching a couple of turkeys when a hog came out at the lower end of the field.  He had no idea that I was there, I was not in a hurry, I took aim and fired.  He squealed and ran.  The squeal was a good sign that he was hit, or at least I thought it was!  We searched for a while but could not find any type of a blood trail.  Pop said I must have gotten close enough to s

I stole a car once, it was a 1972 Nova.  Well technically it was community property and I promised I wouldn't take his car, but he left me no other choice.  I was involved in a very abusive marriage and a week or so before I took the car we had a hell of a fight.  He tried to take our daughter and leave with her!  Somehow I got in between the body of the car and the door trying to get the keys out of the car, and he kept trying to shut the door.   I got the keys and threw them up the street.  The neighbors called the police, but when they got there he begged me not to have him arrested.  Like a fool I didn't!!  Instead I talked him into us taking the kids to stay with my mom for a week or two and when we got back from dropping them off  we had a notice that we had to move.  He also had to find a new job, so I took him for a job interview and promised that I would pick him up when he was done.  Promised again that I would not take his car!!  Yeah right,  I went by the car lot wh

My Dad told me that if I wanted to drive I had to learn how to change my own tire, just in case I had a flat. He taught me how to check the water and the oil.  How and were to put in oil and check and put in transmission fluid.  He taught me to pay attention to how the motor sounded and the mushiness  of the brake peddle.  He wanted me to be safe and smart about my automobile. I have been married a couple of times and both of them taught me a little more about cars.  That was one of the things that I enjoyed teaching my kids.  I used to tease my oldest and tell him I was going to teach him everything I knew so I could forget it all!  All three of them have built on what I taught them, and both the boys can work on just about anything.  I am confident that my grandchildren have a get advantage when it comes to car know how.

Have you ever heard Alan Jackson's song, "When Daddy Let Me Drive".  If not it's a song about learning to drive and his dad coaching him along.  I can really relate to that song and I'm sure if you thought about it you would have some fond memories as well.  I used to ride on the tractor with my dad all the time and when I could reach the peddles he started teaching me to drive.  When we were in the truck he would tell me that the closer I could stay to the white line and not get off the road the straighter I could plow the field.  To this day I still hug that white line.  One time we were going through this town that had sewer drains that started right on the white line and I kept hitting the bump, he looked over at me and said, "you gonna have to move over some you're killing me!"  We both laughed and I moved over just a little.  My mom wouldn't drive on the road but she could drive all over the field.  When I first started driving and we were

paid more attention to my mom about a lot of things.  I want to make some pot holders and it is more of a challenge than I anticipated.  Getting the binding to go around the edges without wrinkles is starting to get on my nerves.  My mom was such a good seamstress!  She could look at a dress or anything else and go make her own pattern.  She made all of her dresses and night gowns.  She made my daughters cheerleader outfit. When my daughter started skating I couldn't afford the costumes so my mom made them.  The two of them would watch the ice skaters and pick an outfit they liked and mama would put her own little twist to it.  They were beautiful!!  I wish I had a thimble full of her talent!!  Gosh there are days when I think about her all I can do is cry!  Have a great day and thank you for stopping by my blog.

Bee Balm is a plant from the mint family.  My mom bought some years ago and got it started in our back yard for the humming birds and butterflies.  As it multiplied she shared it with family and friends.  I moved from the home place after she passed away and other folks went in a dug up most all the flowers.  Thankfully my sister has a spot with both colors and she shared some with me a few years back.  It is an evasive plant.  It spreads by it's root system.  It gets about three foot tall and after it blooms it gets top heavy.  So that ours doesn't fall over this year my husband helped me put up a fence around it. It is a beautiful plant and easy to grow.   Thank you for stopping by my blog.  Have a blessed day!

Have you ever tried to put window tint on car windows?  Better yet, have you ever tried to help a teenager put window tint on car windows?  Get ready to shell out some cash, cause it's not easy!!  I don't know how many rolls we fouled up on that first car.  You see when my son was 16 his dad, my ex-husband, gave him a car.  It ran good and was a four cylinder, but it needed a little love.  We took and tacked the headliner back up, he was working so he got him some seat covers.  The body needed a little work, so I had done a little body work so between the two of us we mixed bondo and water sanded all the scratches out and had the body slick.  We primed it using spray cans because that was all I could afford. I even used flat black and did wide stripes on the hood.  Believe it or not the car looked good.  Then came the window tint.  What a pain in the $%^&*!  We read directions then cut and sprayed and scraped and said a whole lot of mean things to each other!  What now take