Spring 2010 Hope and Promise

Spring is all about hope and promise. We have Easter with the story of the suffering of our Savior and His resurrection. We have new life coming forth in the animal kingdom and also the plant world. Our garden was tilled this month by Sean and Krysten as they came out for the weekend to look for housing and work opportunities for when Krysten graduates. They hope for a job and feel the promise of opportunities as they graduate and start new life. This is our greenhouse that we built a few years ago. It is small and portable and so far has not been a rip roaring success. Our friend John Hadfield gave us the idea for it several years ago. This year I am going to try again to start my own tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. I am raising the little plants up closer to the light. I saw a photo on the net showing them really close to the light and so will try it this way. It is all about hope and promise. We went all over town looking for Early Girl tomato seed. Finally found them at Nick's Garden Center. They have everything. Nolan was glad I bought balloon tomato seeds (yellow pear) and cherry tomatoes.

These barrells were bought last year and cut in half to plant more stuff in. I got the idea from a gardening blog about English allotement gardening where they grow carrots, and parsnips in whole and half barrels. Our soil here is so clayish and hard that carrots don't generally do well. This is to try and beat that soil. I am also going to put vining stuff like cucumbers, and watermelons in them. Next week we will get the soil and fill them up. Hope and promise again.

Levi in Grandma's back yard. He quickly spied the football and the bouncy ball. You can never have too many balls.

Milly likes it outside too. We played for a little while outside and then she decided it was time to go in and led the way into the house. We followed.

When Sean and Krysten came out the kids quickly warmed up to them.

Nolan turned 9 years old on the 5th of April. He graduated into the Bear Den in Cub Scouts at the April 6th pack meeting. He had earned his Wolf badge and five arrow points. Good job Nolan!

Nolan on his new roller blades. They were his favorite birthday present and were a gift from Owen. His friend Kimball came over last night and they bladed till dark and then were out again early this morning. Nolan is getting pretty good, and has a big rasberry on his knee to prove it.

We will be going next week to Provo for Krysten's graduation. More hope and promise. The Lord is good!

Mission Accomplished

While I was at Mom and Dad's I had a couple projects that I intended to do. This little dress for Milly is one of them. I used a really old pattern that my Grandmother had used to sew some dresses for her grandchildren. It had her writing on the envelope. It was a lot harder than I imagined and I am glad I was there for Mom to give advice and assistance. We had to hand baste the sleeves and the bodice in place to avoid puckering. Mom used her nifty embroidery machine to make the cherries. These are to match a little sweater that Janet Roberts got for Milly. It will be a very coordinated ensemble. I had fun making it and cannot wait to see herself in it. Now to make a matching shirt and pants for Levi (without the cherries).






The next project was to get the pantry put together. The house was built in 1952 and had a nice sized pantry, but very inadequate shelving. They were only about one can deep. So for Christmas 1 1/2 years ago Rebecca and I gave her the gift of new shelving. Mom has been waiting all this time for them. So we cleaned out the pantry, removed old shelving, patched holes, painted, plugged cracks with steel wool to keep out mice, and added these sturdy new shlelves. I installed the little wire racks in back all by myself with power tools (drill). Then we reloaded all the stuff into the pantry and labeled the shelves. Hopefully she will be able to find stuff, and use it before the stuff expires. I also reorganized her spice cabinet, cleaned out a utensil drawer and we put another shelf together to store her cleaning supplies. All in all it was very fulfilling. She seemed to like it and that was the whole point! I love you Mom!

Stuart

Stuart is in Switzerland now. Here he is with his old seminary friend, church friend, neighbor Stephanie Campbell. She is also serving in the Mesa Arizona visitors' center as a missionary, and they were in the MTC together. Note the short tie!

Nolan's 9th Birthday!!!!

Happy Birthday Nolan!

Sleeping in at Grandma's!

Playing with Bryson and the other cousins was one of the best things about spring break!

We Love You!!!!!

Spring Break 2010 Hereford Texas

When you see this you know that you are on the way to see these...

people. Dad-Homer Rudd, Mom-June Rudd and the other assorted people that you might encounter while there. This time we were joined by my sister-Rebecca Dockery, and her lovely daughter-Emily Dockery. You will see Emily a few more times in this post.

We got to go to the old swimmin hole, also known as the Hereford, Texas Aquatic Center. Nolan wanted to have his birthday at Grandma's so his cousins could come. Before the party I took them all swimming, at least the 6 who were there. Courtney, Reagan, Brynna, Bryson, and Beau. I think it might have been easier to stay and help work cattle.

Mom has her lovely chickens, she get about 20-24 eggs daily and is plying them off to anyone who want them and some who don't. I told her to sell them to help pay for the feed, but she is a soft touch and gives them away to most. I really think she just likes to have chickens. They are a little bald in the back, any remedies out there for this?

Reagan ties a dally. Rebecca helps hold the blankety-blank calf down. We learned to do this as we were growing up. Dad would put three of us on one calf, no fair you say, but have you ever been on the receiving end of a kick from one of these lovely creatures? Nolan could only watch, goggle eyed and in horror as we "worked the cattle". I insisted that he stay for the whole thing, he really wanted to go back to the house, as this was gross and disgusting. After explaining the whole process and the reasoning behind it, he managed to stay but still kept his point of view that it was disgusting. This was his first exposure to his mother's country roots at the grass level.

Nolan took his bow and arrow and went on a prairie dog hunt, unsuccessful but some good quality time with me. Notice the promising rain clouds? No such luck, Dad says this is the worst drought since the 30's. It really is quite grim. Pray for some rain for these good folks would you please?

Emily with her 2 year old colt, Bandit. She is working on getting him used to her. She even was able to get on his back without the usual consequences. She loved her time on the farm. She plans to take Bandit to Provo next year after her graduation from high school.

A dirt devil. This was taken while we were on the prairie dog hunt.

More cattle sorting. My job was to help with the gate in the intricate collection of corrals and lanes that are made for this job. Communication was not the greatest and some gates were open when they should have been closed, but we managed to get the little calves away from their mothers for the process of working them, ie. castrating, vaccinating, tagging, etc. I also had the job of snubbing the rope around the post after Wesley had roped them.

I love my roots!