You never know.

This is what I came home to find in my front yard today.  Yes, that is a tractor.  Yes, I live in town.  He is a farmer, okay?  Sometimes, we combine the two.

We have been in the house for about three years, but there continue to be little projects that come up.  Little improvements that need to be made.  Maybe a dead tree that needs to be removed or replaced.  But you must know, when Mike begins one of these projects, there is no way for it to be done but the best, A-#1, high-quality way. 

My example above -- See the lamp post sitting on a concrete pad?  We, jointly, decided that this lamp post would look better with a new coat of paint and some small shrubs around the base of the post.

Solution - LIZ - Run to local nursery, see what shrubs they have (it's nearly July, after all), grab however many we need, then come home, get on the business end of a shovel and plant them.

Solution - MIKE - Give deep thought to exactly what shrub would look best and do well in this area of our yard.  Discuss with Liz and at least one other person.  Decide how many of those shrubs we need, okay, eight.  Oh, good, Liz is going to Amarillo soon, she can run by our few favorite nurseries and find the Renaissance Spirea in the two gallon size that we will need.  In the unfortunate event that it is too late in the season that they don't have the size or variety we want, we will just order them and wait 3-4 weeks for them to come in.  This will give us ample time to build the proper box to border the new shrubs.  After measuring all sides, he welds a perfect 60" square iron box.  The only way to lift it over the top of the lamp post (believe me, this picture was taken after we had already tried the ladder -- I wasn't quick enough with the camera) was to go get this little John Deere, and lift the iron box right over the top of the post. 

So -- there it sits.  Now we wait the 3 weeks for the special order spireas to come in.  And we are super happy about it!  It's going to look great!  Such a tiny little project in a yard that needs so much!

The big birds have no idea.....

The birds that made this nest know nothing about the World Cup.  They have no idea that the USA is out.  They have no idea that they are center stage because of .... soccer.

I don't know if you can tell or not... but there are four little baby bird heads poking up out of this nest.  It is on my back porch, and yes, they are making a big mess, but what do you do?  The mom and dad come along ever so often and feed them, and these little fellas act like they are starving to death!  After all, it is around 95 degrees out there, and I'll bet they would like nothing more than a big long gulp of water. 

For a while now, I have been watching the parentals coming and going from this nest, making the preparations needed for the arrival of these itty bitty ones.  The nest is way up high, probably about 12 feet off the ground.  So until a couple of days ago, I didn't know that the eggs had actually hatched, and the babies were fighting for survival.  It has been a fast incubation, if you ask me.

It got me to thinking about my own nest.  Seems like not so long ago, we had a baby or two of our own.  They squawked.  We fed them.  They started to show signs of growth and maturity, and we gave them space to grow even more.  We let them take little trips out of the nest, and they learned confidence, and always came back.  But we are approaching big steps out of the nest.  They are probably ready.  But, am I?  What's next?  Will they come back?  Ever?  The big birds have no idea what is going to happen to their little nest and its occupants.  But I do.  And it's good.  Life is good.

World Cup Soccer

 USA!  USA!  USA!

Today it is all about soccer. We are in it. It's a chess game. Psychologically, we have the upper hand. I love how it brings us all together. We are all cheering for the same team! I crack myself up how I barely know what is going on, but for 95 (approximately) uninterrupted minutes, I am glued to the television. Barely breathing. Holding my breath. Sometimes yelling. Sometimes wondering what the call was and trying to learn how it might happen again. And listening to those vuvuzelas.....

And does anyone know how long the half time is? Seems like it lasts about a minute and a half. Barely long enough for an actual commercial.

I have to learn a few more details about the yellow and red cards. I think those are kind of important.