Our time is not our own anymore, or at the very least, we have given it away. Knowingly and willingly we daily spurn our limited, precious hours away. How? Think about it. Chart the course of your own typical day. Keep an account of just how you spend every hour of it. Be honest with yourself. What did you find?
Perhaps you discovered hours of your day has been willingly given away to your device. Do you own your own time, or does the device own it? Do you even care?
Truly, our time is not our own. It is a gift. It has been given to us and can be taken away in a moments notice. We all know someone who has suddenly died.
So then, do we treat time as if it is an unlimited commodity, or worse yet, as if it were nothing?
Here is my ultimate question and point of this blog post:
If the birds stopped their singing today, would you even notice?
A beautiful Mockingbirdsinging his melodious songs.Love the Kiptopeke birds.A sassyKing bird.Eggs of our sweet Plovers.Gorgeous Meadowlarks.Our beloved Barn Swallows.Our amazing Hummingbirds.Never forget our State bird—the Cardinal. The sweet, sweet Kildeer (aka Plover).Our gorgeous, sharing Bohemian Waxwings.And last but surely not least, our diminutive, cheerful Goldfinch.
I ask again—would you ever miss them if they stopped singing?
We locals call it ‘The Bloom’. Winchesters Annual Apple Blossom Festival. Celebrating our 99th this year!
A week chock full of events, parades, pageants, crowning of the Apple Blossom queen, midway, music, luncheons, etc., etc. Truly something for everyone. Our whole city is involved in one way or another. Streets, homes, businesses and area folk are all cheerfully dressed in pink and green. It truly is an event our fair city loves having!
The Prayer Brunch is a popular event. So big is the response that only two churches can manage the crowd of about 500 attendees. One of those two is the church my husband and I attend. Fellowship Bible Church. The other is Winchester Church of God. Years of hosting are alternated between the two.
This year was our year, and I volunteered. I do every year. To help make the tables, with food, gifts, and flowers, beautiful for those attending is satisfying. Who does not enjoy a well-set, thoughtful brunch?
The smiling, happy faces of the guests is infectious, and I absolutely LOVE the creative ways folk dress for this special occasion. So much pink and green!
I believe you may just want to visit Winchester during Apple Blossom and join in the fun of The Bloom with us!
Pink and green everywhere!Our church and only one other is large enough for the attendees.Bomb dogs pass through before event starts.Setting pretty tables and food!Door prizes were terrific!Place settings for 500 attendees.So many smiles dressed in pink and green.So festive, pretty and joyful. A welcome relief from news of today.Standing for Pledge of Allegiance.Beautiful was the sound of all those voices.Perhaps you may come next year?
Handing me a small bag of sunflower seeds one morning last summer my neighbor informed me, “These are Mammoth Sunflower seeds.”
I have seen huge sunflowers at our county fair for years, and marveled at them, but have never cultivated any. I suppose because of the sweet, little volunteer ones that spring up all around our place from the bird feeders.
This will be funto see how big they get, I thought while planting.
I have to say, if a rating would be given on germination, I would have to give those seeds a poor one. Only a couple grew at all. Much less big to any impressive height. Perhaps I did something wrong?
At any rate one did grow, and grow and grow and grow. I felt as if I had a Jack-in-the-Beanstalk plant in the garden!
Several times I thought to cut it down and enter it into our fair. But I did not. I simply watch it grow. Literally, I could stand in its shade from the huge leaves.
I wish the photos gave a better ‘feel’ for its size.
Our jolly green giant.It’s huge leaves provided shade!We have lots of pretty little sunflowers all around from the bird feeder.They are bright and cheerful. This one is from a different place, I just like it!Isn’t the design and movement stunning?Pointing water sprayer straight up in the air was the only way to reach the flower.This is not near the ground where the stem was around 4″ in diameter!See the other ‘mammoth’ growing in the other bed?
It was cut down after the flower head passed its peak. My husband said the flower head was about 18″ in across, and the stalk was at least 4″ in diameter. It stood 12′ tall. He used a saw to cut it down.
What fun it was to plant and watch grow. Have you planted Mammoth sunflowers? How did yours turn out?
We are small-time farmers. We have heard it said ‘go big or go home.’ So what? We do not care what ‘they’ say. Our little farm is big enough for us. Sometimes it feels like a thousand acres.
It is big enough to handle three miniature beef steers, and four horses. Two of which are miniature the other two are full-size horses.
We always purchase three. One is kept for our freezer. The other two are sold to customers who are looking for well-raised, grass-fed, premium beef. Our customers tell us it is the best beef they have ever had. Five-star beef.
It is satisfying and comforting to know how well our little cows have lived before, as I say, “They have one bad day in their life.” It is hard when their time has come. We do that as gently as possible.
We have been thanked for raising these little steers in an environment that is healthy and caring to them.
What we do not do is name them those “funny”, thoughtless names such as, ‘Sirloin’, ‘T-bone’, or ‘Hamburger’. It is hard enough knowing their ultimate demise. We pick silly, fun names that help make this job of raising them a bit easier.
May I introduce you to some terrific steers we have had over the years?
This older photo is when we had four miniature horses. The three steers are in top center of photo. They are Kevin, Bob and Stewart (the three Minions).
We also have had Mario, Luigi and Bowzer.
We do not notice any difference in quality/taste of the beef between Angus or Hereford.Larry, Mo and Curly on a cold, wintery morning feeding.This photo of Mo won a blue ribbon in our county fair with his peaceful repose.
I grew up on a big farm in Virginia. I have always enjoyed cattle.
Hewey, Dewey, and Louie enjoying the lush pasture.
Miniature Herefords are our choice of steer to grow out, but we have grown out miniature Angus as well. This year we have one White Face steer. He is a cross between a Hereford and Angus.
Our first White face steer, Porthos.
Athos, Porthos, and Aramis are with us now.
Aramis patiently awaiting his hay.
Thank you for ‘meeting’ some of the great steers we have raised here on our farm. We take effort and pride in them, and raise them to the best of our ability.
We take this stewardship of these animals seriously.Herefords are our favorite. Happy steers.They live very nicely with the horses. Horses rule over cows.
A horseshoe cow I had made for our porch.
A man told me once, “You call yourself a horsewoman, but you’re a cow-woman at heart.”
There is something in the garage I informed my husband one cold winter morning this past December.
“It’s a rat”, he replied.
He has killed one before in our garage. Where in the world do these awful critters come from? It is bad enough having one show up in the barn, but the garage? Yikes.
Several days passed. “Did you get it?” I asked.
“You know, I think it actually is a possum”, was his reply.
Great, whatever it is is still there.
I am not keen on uninvited ‘guests’ in my house. Though I never saw any sign of anything, I could tell by the dogs behavior something was there.
Then…one morning I saw ‘it’…
I actually saw only a face peering around the door jam. After a few more days I was able to get a photograph.
‘Here’, I told my husband, “is your possum!
“Would you like to see what it was?
I did not get a photo, but this is the little face I saw peering around the door jam.
A kitten! A fluffy, scared kitten was the critter in the garage.
Occasionally he would venture out in the warmth of the day, only to hurry, scurry off the second he saw us.
He would not let us near him, though when I would say hello to him, he would let out a plaintive cry.
December was cold and so was our garage. Towels were made fluffy and piled up to keep him warm. He ran and hid every time he heard anyone, but it was easy to see he was staying warm on the towel bed.
A little frightened kitten. How would I ever approach him and have him feel safe?
It took many days before he would linger at the door.
He had been eating the kitten food provided for him, watching me all the while from under the shelves meowing softly.
Finally a thought came to me. A toy! He needs a toy to play with. Digging a plastic Easter egg out of storage, and filling it with little rocks supplied the interest he could not refuse.
He chased and batted that toy all over the garage, and he was starting to reach out to sniff my finger as I extended it towards him.
Trust was growing.
By the end of January we were able to bring him into our house and make him a part of our family.
His name? Hercules. Herc for short. One day he will grow into his big, strong, brave name.
He is very playful.HerculesIt has taken a while for Herc to go all around the house.He has great fun with the dogs. Buster is politely ignoring him.He has not been outside too much.He is soft and fluffy and purrs like crazy.He is a nice addition to our family
I am glad our ‘possum/rat’ turned out to be a kitten.
one_local_gal 