HEAVENLY MELODY

"Praise the Lord!

Praise God in His sanctuary;

Praise Him in His mighty firmament!..."

(Psalm 150:1)

This beautiful angel is available for purchase now. She is brand new and would

make a graceful addition to any home decor.

For pricing and other information, check out our website. Just click on the link for

BurdenStudio.

JOANN'S PLACE

I know this is not part of the petting zoo, etc - but

this bottle tree of Joann's says a lot about her.

She's creative, whimsical and colorful.

I love my mother-in-law, Joann.

Here's the outside animals, the petting zoo.

The geese make great watch dogs.

Such honking they make whenever anyone approaches!

Then there's Joann's favorite,

precious Ben, her miniature, white donkey.

Here is Tag (named because of the tag

that was in his ear when he was purchased),

and goat and other goat respectively.

See why I love living here?

SPRING, ALREADY???

It's not officially Spring for

22 more days. But things around here

are definitely getting an early start.

• the geese have flown North (see earlier Geese Watching post)
• There are tons of tadpoles in our back lake (we put out a minnow trap and when we hauled it up, there were like 10 big tadpoles in it!
• I found a ladybug on the edge of Abe's water bowl yesterday
• the fruit trees are budding
• and tiny little flowers are appearing everywhere!

So we decided we better get some stuff planted in the garden. We put the little plants in the trooper, and Abe of course, and off we went. Abe was so embarrassed that I was taking his picture. He refused to make eye contact.

On the way, we stopped by to see my sister-in-law, Donna.

It appears that David was sitting on Purdy's sofa. (Purdy is the big, white english setter next to David) Bonnie, the chihuahua needed to sniff David's collar.

Here's a picture of some cabbage plants about

to go in the ground. We love cabbage.

Yep, there it goes. Grow little cabbage grow!!!

And let's hear it for the onions that have survived the

single digit temperatures earlier this month and are

still thriving.

Everyone appreciates a pat on the back for a job

well done, even onions.

ABRAHAM

Here's Abe, in his favorite place, as close as he can get

to us at any given moment.

(There's something so endearing about that.)

What a face! Who could say no to such a face!!

Abe: Are we going for a walk?????

Abe: Daddy, excuse me. Are we going for a walk??

David: What did you say? Did you say you

want to go for a walk?

Abe: I really do, really.

HURRAH!!!! Snow is my favorite thing ever!!!

Abe after an hour walk in the snow. Yes,

He's lying in the snow, brrrrrr.

Abe: Okay, I'm ready to go in now.

Oh Abe, Abraham, Abra-hambone-areena, Abey-Baby.

GEESE WATCHING

This is one of the grandest sights in the world to David, geese flying, on their way North in the spring and South in the winter. Doesn't matter. He just wants to watch them.

And He wants me to watch them. I can be in the middle of the most interesting story.

Me: And then Carol said....

David: LOOK! GEESE!!!

Me: Is that a shotgun shell?

I do occasionally glance up at the geese. I mean, I don't want

to be rude. And sometimes they are pretty magnificent.

But to David they are a wonder.

They are a miracle!

They are fascinating beyond belief!!

He just has to look.

He has to.

Wow.

(Yeah - more geese, I know David - good, wonderful)

You just keep watching them sweetie.

I'm going inside to watch Nate Berkus. It's 2 o'clock.

RE-PURPOSING (AFTER)

This is a classic country style carport, made of 100% re-cycled materials. It's not quite finished yet, as you can see. We need 8 more 2 x 4's and David is loathe to actually buy new ones.

This tin on the roof (don't you loved the rust and blue color of it?) came from our friend, Bill Klein, who invited us to come over and glean building materials as he was demolishing a house and some outbuildings on his mother's property. Yeah!!! And thank you Bill!!!!

Ah, and do you recognize those telephone poles??? This is going to be our little horse barn.

And then there's this wonderful old screen door from the aluminum section

of one of Harold's categorized dumping areas. Thanks Harold. You did know what you were doing after all. Sorry I never got to tell you that.

RE-PURPOSED (BEFORE)

When I was a young bride, I used to think my father-in-law was nuts to always be saving things. Endless coffee cans of nuts and bolts, old screen doors, old posts, bits of iron, string, etc., etc. Back in the 70's no one ever heard of 'going green' or 're-purposing'.

Since moving to the farm, I have a whole new respect for Harold. Anytime we need to build something or repair something or even create something artistic, we visit Harold's categorized dumping areas on our property we inherited from him and David's mom.

David doesn't remember exactly where his dad got several old telephone posts, but they have been back here in front of our woods for literally decades now. We are quickly using them up.

Then there's these wonderful old railroad cross ties. They have a variety of uses, mainly to do with landscaping.

And here is a stack of steel fence posts left over from my brother and sister-in-law's emu farming days. Aren't they are tempting little pile?