After our greenhouse collapsed, we couldn’t get to it for a couple of days due to the rain. Luckily Donny was able to save most of it. We just moved everything to the side yard where the other garden is.
It’s not pretty, but it works, hopefully.
The potatoes and tomatoes are growing big and strong.
The mint comes back every year no matter how cold it gets.
I’ll be planting the top of this pineapple this weekend. They make great plants and grow really big. My last two died when it froze. It’s a cheap was to add plants to your flowerbeds. Plus, you get to eat the pineapple.
The Hostas are doing well in their new planters.
Please ignore all the solar lights. I am trying to see which ones are still working. I also need to power wash the front stoop. All in good time.
My oldest daughter sent me a recreated picture.
Nikki at age 3/4 with her favorite two stuffies.
Same exact stuffies a few decades later.
Hannah’s prom is tomorrow so we are going to practice her hairstyle tonight. Wish me luck!
He finally got his hair cut. We’ve been trying to get it cut for a while, but the timing never worked out. I was able to get him an appointment today.
I promise he is a happy kid, he just hates having his picture taken.
We have another big change coming up.
Hannah picked up her cap and gown. I cannot believe she will be graduating in a little over a month. She has decided to go to Kilgore College and major in journalism. She thinks she wants to finish up at Stephen F. Austin University, although she did tell me today that the best journalism school is in Missouri. Yeah, that’s too far away, sorry. She wants to try to find an internship at one of the television stations around here.
Another good change is that Milo, our stray not stray now, cat is healing up and gaining weight. He’s become a part of the family, getting along with our other male cat, but not the 2 females, but they don’t like any other cats.
And just because I journal about things I like, I was mowing today and smelled the best fragrance. It was these blooms on the trees in our backyard.
Donny and I went to an estate sale down the street. We were surprised to see the home for sale. It has one of the most beautiful yards. Her husband had passed away 11 years ago and she felt the house was too big for her so she moved to assisted living. We picked up a few things.
The waffle maker I wrote about in a previous blog.
I love vintage mugs. The one on the right was made in 1977.
Donny found this trunk made in 1906. It still has the paper giving the details on the inside lid.
I am beat. Mowing in this humidity had my sweat sweating. I cannot wait for a goodnight sleep.
The day of the eclipse we were supposed to be getting rain. A lot of rain. Luckily the clouds cleared for the eclipse. We were in the 99% totality area. It got dark enough to where the street light came on and the solar lights lit up.
Everything was going well until that evening when the storm hit us. It was bad. The wind was just awful. When we woke up the next morning we had lost power and it was still storming. The patio was taking on water which meant our laundry room was too. When there was a break I went out to see how bad everything was.
Our little gnome drowned. The wind and water had flipped all of our landscape timbers.
We had a stream running from the backyard into the front ditch that was already overflowing. But the very worst thing that happened was this
Our poor greenhouse was demolished. I thought we might be able to save it, but when everything cleared up yesterday and we went out to survey the damage, several poles had snapped. Donny had so many plants that he had painstakingly been taking care of. We moved most of them to the side garden, but it was just so heartbreaking. Hopefully he’ll be able to save most of them. We just don’t know yet.
The power was still out Tuesday, but luckily the storm had brought cooler weather. I’m thankful for our gas stove because I was still able to make breakfast.
And coffee, thank goodness
Since it was so dark outside because of the rain, I decided that I would just lay in bed and read. Bailey had other ideas though.
Yesterday and today have been absolutely gorgeous. We were finally able to get back to Kilgore to see if they still had the dress that Hannah had decided HAD to be her prom dress. She gets very overwhelmed when shopping so we lucked out and got the dress, shoes and jewelry at Everything that Blings, her favorite boutique.
Since I can’t post the dress yet, I can post a picture of her shoes since they won’t really show in the actual prom pictures. It’s so hard to find closed toe heels that she likes. (she does not like sandals) I happened to walk back to a corner of the store and found the perfect ones. They were the only pair and just happened to be in her size.
Prom is in one week and lately weeks have been flying by. Tomorrow we are going to practice hairstyles. Wish me luck!
When I look back on days that I find to be almost perfect, they are never the ones where I have made plans or gone anywhere special. They are the days that we just go with the flow, doing exactly what feels right.
Today was one of those days. Donny was off. He took the kids to school while I finished watching a movie that I fell asleep watching the night before. We puttered around the yard and started discussing what plants we needed to buy for our bigger pots that still had dead plants in them from the winter. We decided to go to Home Depot and just see what they had. The weather was perfect. The gusting 30 mph winds of the last two days were gone. It was a sunny 74, which to me, is just perfect.
We ended up with 3 Geraniums, 2 Hostas and, my very favorite, the Jasmine vine. I love Jasmine. Not only does it smell wonderful, but it attracts bees that will pollinate the gardens.
Because the Jasmine and Geraniums need full sun we decided to put them by they front garden.
Donny had a really stressful week so he went in to just chill for a while. He told Hannah that I can’t sit still because I’m afraid that if I do I’ll never get up again. That is true to a certain extent, but I really don’t like sitting still, especially on such a beautiful day.
I ended up moving all the flower pots to the side of the shed until I can get the shed cleaned out and organized. I mowed where I moved everything. I chopped some wood from a downed tree. I moved the fire pit and strung the lights that we’ve had stored since we took them down when we got the rooster. I cannot even begin to tell you how happy I am to be back in the backyard again.
Our yard is rustic. It is perfectly imperfect. There is so much more we need to get done back there, but we are finally able to use it and we’re in no rush. It’s the one big thing I’ve missed about our house in Baton Rouge. We used to hang out in our backyard all the time. Tonight with the fire pit going, lights strung, table set up for food it felt exactly like it used to.
Cannot forget s’mores
Nothing beats simple food and good conversation. As close to perfect as you can get.
I had never heard of the app HipCamp before. Hannah wanted to go camping for her birthday and although we have Caddo State Park very close to us, it’s booked months in advance. I googled “camping near Longview Texas” and low and behold HipCamp popped up.
We found a campsite in Hawkins, TX. It’s about a 25 minute drive. The only problem was that the campsite was down a long dirt road that is very rutted and gets very muddy when it rains. They really want you to have a 4 wheel drive. I contacted the host and told him what car we would be in, but that it does have front wheel drive. They gave the okay, so Saturday after Donny got off work we headed out.
They were not kidding when they said rutted dirt road. It got a little hairy, but we made it. After taking the tour where the owner showed us where the composting toilet and the dock, kayaks and canoe was, it was already dark and we still needed to set up our tents. This campsite was right by a lake and extremely isolated, which we loved. But, when I say it was dark, it was pitch black. Luckily, I remembered to pack my headlamp. We also had about 5 different light sources, but the headlamp was definitely the winner.
Just a quick selfie
I had ordered a bundle of wood so we wouldn’t have to bring any with us. It was a little damp so we decided to have cake while Gavin and Donny were getting the fire started.
The campsite came with a fire ring and a picnic table.
We had fun hanging out around the campfire and later playing a game of Apples to Apples. I think I finally crawled into the tent around midnight. There is nothing better than sleeping outside. Our tent is mainly netting that we can cover if we need too. I loved being able to look up and see the sky and the trees. The only problem was that I tend to have to use the restroom at night and there was no way I was going to walk down a long, curvy very dark path to the toilet. So I just had to use the bucket that was given the us to scoop lake water so we could douse the fire. Hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?
It was a little chilly when we woke up, but it turned out to be such a nice day. Overcast, not windy and no rain. It has rained on every single camping trip Donny and I have taken. We would even check the weather forecast, but it still rained. We really lucked out this time.
There were some cool lily pads on our part of the lake.
We walked down the trail to the floating dock because Gavin wanted to go kayaking.
There was a super cool dome house that you could also rent. It had a deck with a grill. I snapped a quick picture because people were staying in it.
Donny started the fire again and we just relaxed, enjoying the water and all the sounds of nature.
I finally made it to the toilet. Can you imagine walking this trail in the dark? I swear there were animal burrows all around it.
Although our trip was very short we had a lot of fun. I cannot wait to use Hipcamp again. It was so easy and this campsite was gorgeous. And we made a little friend.
The Funky Frugalista 