Country Living

Finally......... cooler temperatures have arrived and even a little bit of rain. It's truly amazing that the grass is greening up after so many weeks of drought, just a little bit of moisture is all it takes. I've said it before, Mother Nature is amazing! 

There's  a lot of garden projects that are waiting on us. We have lost several boxwoods this summer and they need to be pulled and replaced. I'm going to be doing a little "furniture moving" in the yard, I bought 20 dwarf crepe myrtles to use along the picket fence that runs on the east side of the house. It's strictly decorative, the fence, just to hide the steep slope that is hard for Jerry to mow. This summer he has resorted to using Round-up to kill out the grass that gets out of hand. When you have country property and only the deer and raccoons see your work, there's no complaining from neighbors who expect grass to be green and flowers to be full!

Anyway, a garden should be a "Stress Free Zone," to be enjoyed and a work in progress... don't you think?

Because not everything is always picture perfect. We have several tree stumps over the property that could use a little face lift. Love the checkers stump, great for my GRANDS! 

Here's another great idea using stumps, add a thick board and you have a great rustic bench. I can picture this loaded up with pumpkins and gourds for Fall! One of my friends on Facebook just salvaged some large stumps from her old school ground. The memories of those 80 year old trees that had to be removed for the new school's addition are destined to become tables in Cindy's home. I LOVE that!

Re-purpose is just another word for 'use it up.' We've been doing that a long time here in the Ozarks. My Grandparents never threw away anything, well practically anything! Grandpa saved twine from bales of hay, wire from chicken coops and cans or bottles to reuse for other projects. They were stored neatly in the brooder house, a shed out back that had been used 40+ years ago to raise chickens. OK, you are getting the whole picture now... it's a way of life for many. Out of necessity, being saving, or purpose. I say it's a mixture of all three... they LIKED being thrifty!

I loved going to my Grandparents, all the roads that lead to that house were pure country. 

You'd pass by farm after farm, old red barns that held hay and pastures of cows grazing contentedly. Tractors parked where they stopped their days work...

It's a piece of Americana that still survives. All along the rural roads of America, families cling to this lifestyle. Small towns that have nothing but a gas station and a church, residents find their way to work in nearby towns and the kids ride a school bus to get an education. They choose country over city, with it's slower pace and cleaner air. In turn they give up pizza delivery, going to the movies spur of the moment and running through McDonald's for a quick bite. We lived in the country when our oldest daughter was a teenager and if you had asked her then if she liked it, she would have said no. If you ask her now, the answer has changed. She has come to appreciate the perks of that lifestyle and in fact, has returned to Small Town America! Since that's where we live too, it makes me very HaPpY!