We are so proud of him! He’s always been into service, both in church and home. As a senior in high school, he plans on becoming a helicopter pilot, hopefully with LifeFlight. As a member of the Guard, he will be eligible for help with the cost of his flight hours, which are quite expensive. David had the same plans, but we couldn’t afford the flight hours even though the VA would pay for his college. On Sunday, we went to Duluth to the airbase of the 148th Fighter Wing to see Mason sworn in. Wow!
Meanwhile, back home, Will has been busy, hauling in those 16-foot pine logs he and friend, Matt, bought together. Our half made two trailer loads on the big equipment trailer. As our driveway is in breakup mode, muddy with some ice, I wondered how that would go. But it was all uneventful and they are now across from the sawmill, right in the yard. Will and Drew got the sawmill running and sawed a few boards, just to make sure everything was okay before getting into those big logs. There’ll be a lot of very nice lumber there!
I got all the peppers transplanted and moved out into the greenhouse to grow on. Next is the tomatoes, followed by the pansies and petunias, which look great. It won’t be long before it’s time to plant squash, melons, pumpkins, and cukes inside. This year, I’m starting them in the greenhouse to eliminate all the running out to the back deck and in again, should the weather threaten to freeze like it did last year. That will be a big labor saver, for sure. Will heard a Red-winged Blackbird today. Yep, spring is definitely coming soon! — Jackie
Please tell Mason I am grateful for his willingness to serve and save lives. May God bless him and keep him in the palms of His hands.
Congratulations to all your family for instilling strong values in your children and grandchildren.
I will tell him. We’re so proud of him in all ways!
Soft times make soft men; hard times make strong men. Mason has chosen the “difficult”. As Dave Ramsey says, Live like no one else now, so that later you can live like no one else! Mason sees the big vision and at his tender age, is going for it!!
And we’re so very proud of him for having the forethought to keep on track.
Listening to the news. I can tell we as a nation have been in preparation for several years, for such a time as this that we’re going into: a reset of the nation, of citizen’s change of thoughts and perspective. That’s why the homestead fad; a change of lifestyle. Yes, I thought it was “over”, but no, it happened to prep us to be self (and God) reliant, to return to our true Foundation: our God, our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, His Truth.
That’s what you’ve been a vital part of, Jackie. Pointing the way.
|Amen, Elizabeth! I’m sure not a doom and gloom person but, like our ancestors, I try to encourage folks to take care of themselves, with God’s help. I really hate it though, when folks just say “God will take care of me. I don’t need to do the prepper thing.”. I truly believe that, yes, God will help us. But He expects us to do our part too! Not just sit on our butts and wait for him to save us.
Jackie, Amen! God Will Bless Us and care for us. WE have to do our part for Him to do His part. Thank you Jackie for all you do for us followers. Have a great day
Congratulations to Mason. Most of my family served in the military.Civil war, 1st WW, 2nd WW and my husband was in Vietnam. Our daughter served in the Coast Guard. Some family members wanted to go into service but had medical problems and Uncle Sam would not take them. Wish more young people wanted to go in the service and stay off the streets.
I was shocked when the recruiter said that it used to be about 10% of eligible people joined the military. Today, it’s less than .01%. Wow!! So much for patriotism, I guess.
Congratulations to Mason! We remember when he was just a little guy when we visited with you and Will many years ago. Wishing him the best!
Isn’t it amazing at how fast those little guys grow up??? I remember when he used to beg David to ride on his shoulders when they came for visits.
Thank you Mason. God Bless You My very early planting of cukes and summer squash are up! Ready for the transition to disposable coffee cups- styrofoam has been eliminated from the market. Finally got a nice rain early. Hopefully the winds don’t suck it all away. Temperature are very unsettled still here in the Columbia Gorge
Yep, just as soon as I finish transplanting our tomatoes, pansies and petunias, it’s on to planting squash, pumpkins, melons and cukes. This time of the year flies by!!
It is great news to hear of Mason’s decision to join the Air National Guard. Godspeed to him!
My son-in-law flew helicopters in the service and years later helped out with Christmas Light Tours over the city at night. So fun! But yes, it is very expensive.
Two- and three-inch hail hit eastern Iowa last evening, but the Des Moines area lucked out. We may have bad weather coming later today, however.
Oh boy, I hope you missed the bad weather! We had hail, but it was about the size of the end of my thumb and didn’t do any damage. I’m sure glad nothing is up or it would have been pulverized!
As a former member of the military I congratulate Mason, thank him for his decision to serve and wish him the very best!
Those are some beautiful logs!
We’re having the last of an early spring mixed with some bits of early summer already with these temp swings. It has enabled me to plant the first bush beans on April 2, about 3-4 weeks earlier than normal! The first corn rows will be planted this Saturday. The first broccoli button is about 2″ across. Pepper and tomato plants are still young with planting time in about two weeks.
Other than two quick 5 minute sprinkles we’ve had no rain since March 16 and there’s none in the forecast. The soil is dry as dust. I’m hoeing trenches in row and planting hole locations and filling them with water several times pre-planting. I call that hydrating the rows, something I’ve done a long time because it really helps.
Then anything planted gets a good layer of leaf mulch that we gather up every fall.
Here’s wishing all of you a successful planting season!
Thanks Chris! We’re pretty dry here too, yet a long way from planting, as we begin planting in early June around here. I’ve used leaf mulch too and it is wonderful and breaks down so well when tilled in, in the fall.
Good idea about hydrating your planting holes/rows!! When it’s so dry it can make all the difference in the world.
Way to go Mason! We are all proud of you!!!!!!! And the goals are wonderful. So wise going through the military to get training and hours!!!!!!!!!!!
Spring is here in N. Central TX. Weather is like a wild roller coaster. We have seen upper 90’s and come Sunday morning could see upper 30’s for a low!!!!!!! Sigh. Believe it or not, hay producers here will be working at putting up there first cutting within a couple/few weeks (in good years, there are as many as 4 cuttings of hay here). Actually down here, we can garden almost year around. The worst times for gardening……… the “dog days of summer”……. to hot. Many have a spring/summer garden and a fall/winter garden……. With an average last frost date of mid March and an average first frost date of mid November. Cold loving crops can be raised here all winter (think greens). Sorry, I am way off topic.
No, you’re not! I love hearing about gardening in other climates. It’s so cool you can have a spring and fall garden. Here, we only get, hopefully, two cuttings on clover and one on grass mix. And, of course, only one garden season, June until October.
We were on the edge of the nasty storms that hit our part of the Midwest. Looking like another inch of rain from this storm, another inch with tomorrow’s storm.
I wish I’d had time to hit a few spots in the strawberry patch – dandelions and one is absolutely huge. Rain here thru Saturday – thankfully not coming via hard down pours however some flood watches tonight.
Watching the morel sighting map – a report about an hour south of us. We’re getting plenty of moisture, temps have been warm (almost too warm hence tornadoes in the area). Sunshine has been spotty but I am on the watch.
Wow, I’ve see some of the nasty weather in the Midwest! Tornadoes and rain/hail. Wow, I hope folks stay safe.
I’m jealous. We get very few morels up here. I only see one or two each spring. When I was a young homesteader in Michigan, we harvested sacks full every spring to can up. Yum!!!
Congratulations to your Grandson Mason!! That is wonderful!
We have had some breath taking storms the past 2 days. Lots and lots of rain! But its better than snow!!!
Yep, this time of the year, I’d much rather see rain than snow. But not tornadoes and hail!! Stay safe.
Wow, Mason is a handsome young man. A life flight pilot is a wonderful career to pursue.
We think so too! We’re so proud of him.
Congratulations to Mason! What a special young man and I wish him all the best in his career choice. We are very warm here, 86 today and we have been getting rain along. Its the first spring we have got rains in several years. My brother in law always says we are only 2 days away from a flood and 2 weeks away from a drought at any time. I guess in some ways that is right, but its a depressing thought, lol. The red winged blackbirds are all back and of course the robins and buzzards. I have not seen hummingbirds yet, but I suspect they will be here shortly. I planted potatoes in containers today and put some onion sets in containers where I have lettuce, spinach and radishes growing. Those logs Will got are a great score! Sending prayers for a blessed week for you all.
We’ve got vultures, a very few Kestrels and Robins. But soon! I’m so looking forward to getting in the garden to clean up the fall mess. It’s pretty wet out there yet, due to snow melt and I don’t want to get my solar-powered golf cart (garden-mobile) stuck! My garlic, in old stock tank raised beds hasn’t started up yet, but I check every day. No daffodils breaking the soil, either. Thank you for your continued prayers!!
+Gorgeous, warm weather this week–it’s so tempting to plant early but, like your good advice from your years of experience, we have learned that the plants don’t like cold soil, and even tho’ our first ‘frost free day’ here is May 15th, we’ve had frost many times a day or two later. Hey, everybody, listen to Jackie and Will. : )
A side note to save others from a mistake that we made three or four years ago:
We wanted to enlarge our garden space, and had read that laying flattened cardboard down, and covering it with dirt would prevent weeds and ‘claim’ the space for gardening. Great!
We laid flattened cardboard boxes, and covered them with dirt; it worked great…until the next year, when we realized what we had done. We hadn’t removed the tape first.
Tape is made from plastic. It breaks down as it weathers BUT that just makes smaller and smaller pieces that do NOT compose. And when the garden is rototilled in those areas, the pieces of tape grow smaller, and spread throughout the garden. Who knows how many nanoparticles of plastic find their way into the otherwise fresh, wholesome vegetables we grow. Yikes!!! When I realized what we had done, I pulled up every piece of tape I could find, but much of it was buried under several inches of dirt. Our freezes and thaws bring some of it to the surface, but every year I find pieces here and there. I don’t know how many years it will be before we have it all…but the answer is probably ‘never’–because the pieces grow smaller each year.
So, if you want to use cardboard as the base of a new garden, go for it! BUT FIRST, remove every scrap of tape, including labels.
And thanks, a million times over, for all the wisdom you have shared with us, Jackie and Will.
Thanks for the tips on tape on cardboard boxes! I know we used lumber tarps as weed-suppressant between rows for a few years. Then they solar-degraded. What a mess!!! There were tiny bits of woven plastic EVERYWHERE. Luckily, we didn’t use them in our big gardens, only the berry patch. But I, too, think of nano-plastic particles….
Thank you Nancy and Jackie. Really good advice. I tried the last 2 years to get my garden “in” earlier and earlier, like March/April, but soil temperate really, really matters. Going back to late April/May this year. We live on top a mountain at 1,500 ft elevation, that is a banana belt/temperate zone. But, not enough to garden so early. It is easy, however, to get in a fall garden (mid August), though! Regards from far north Redding, California, zone 9, the very top of the Sacramento valley, in the foothills.
Mason sounds like a wonderful young man, you have every reason to be proud of him! To be a lifeflight pilot is a wonderful ambition. Prayers for him and all those who serve!
Thanks Vicki. He’s such a good student too, having finished several college courses in high school already. Plus being a very polite and kind young man. We are proud of him, big time!
When I homeschooled my 3, we did what they call “concurrent education”, that is, enrolling in college at the same time as high school. The credits you earn in college are doubled and a half for high school credits to graduate. Of course, you get last choice of college course availability, but that’s okay. It usually works out very well for a high schooler. My granddaughter took college during high school, and is also graduating high school a year early, to go into nursing.
Got our first red-winged blackbird today. With the drought many are taking a chance planting early but there is a killing frost called for on Friday and most likely even more after that. What few plants that are out there early are flying off the dealers shelfs. Our cherry bushes are just going into blossom but are small enough we can cover them with tarps. Looks like it’s going to be a rough year.
Oh boy, I was hoping for a year better than last. Will heard a Red-winged Blackbird but I still haven’t heard or seen one yet.
I try to hold off planting early as I’ve always found I had trouble doing so from cold soil or severe frosts.
How wonderful!! I know you and Will are so very proud!!
Yes, we are. Will is a Vietnam era Marine Corps veteran so going into the service is special to him.
I spent 20 years in the Florida Army National Guard. It is a challenge which some do not take seriously and I wouldn’t want to do it again, but I certainly don’t regret it either. Good luck to him in the Air Guard and I hope he gets to do what he has planned.
Our nephew, now 21, graduated from the Air Force academy in Colorado Springs. Talk about difficult. Man! He’s flying the big boys now and is awaiting in Germany maybe some service for the Iran conflict.
Jackie,
Do the juncos spend spring and summer at your place? I sure do miss them. They left here last week–central MO.
They’re here in the spring and early summer but usually move on north later in the summer.
Then I guess you have them again as they work their way south. They are here from late October until early to mid April. I love them..slate-colored bodies, white bellies and little pink/yellow beaks.