Family shots

 Most of these photos can go unremarked!

Reclamation

One of the personal missions I feel regarding my small farm is to rehabilitate to the extent possible the part of the land that was never restored after it was strip mined in the early '60s.    The most serious spot is a berm that has enabled the beavers to periodically flood several acres, and use as a base below it to ruin several more acres of trees by setting up a series of small wallows and dams.     After consulting with the USDA Forest Service, I embarked on a restoration effort that will eventually put the stream-bed that runs through the area in wet weather back to its approximate original path.   My longtime friend Glenn accompanied me on a recent trip, and here is shown learning the backhoe.  We eventually punched a gap in the berm which I hope to expand to make the land productive again.   Beavers be dammed, or un-dammed..

Thanksgiving time is here.

Thanksgiving must be here because my Christmas Cactus is blooming.

When I see this I think of my Big Mama.   She had an incredibly green thumb and one of the plants she grew so successfully was Christmas Cactus. Hers were dark green, plush with long shiny branches and beautiful and very colorful flowers. She would hang the pots on her porch or perch them on posts with the long stems dangling down several feet.  My cactus is a pale imitation of hers.  And we would visit her around the time of her Christmas Cactus blooming.


My other grandmother loved petunias which she very successfully grew in the summertime, and when I see them, I think of her, too.

I miss them both.