Some East Texas Highlights

Hi, Friends,

How are you? I hope that you are well. 

I thought I'd share some East Texas highlights. 

The view in the image below of our raised beds and little tool shed is one of my favorites. The shed is complete on the outside. It needs a few shelves on the inside. A wasps nest needs to be eradicated too but that's not a problem. For some reason the flies like the shed a lot. I'm not sure what that is about. We need to do some creative fly removal as a whole.  

The bush beans are growing like crazy. I don't know what we'll do with that many beans but at least from the road it looks like we're little gardeners and that we know what we are doing. 

There are sunflowers, zinnias, cucumbers and cantaloupes coming up so far. No pumpkins are growing yet. I think the freeze ruined my seeds. 

I knew that sunflowers turned their faces to the sun but the seedlings do as well. So cute. 

We have grass so far. It's not healthy grass but it is green. 

You can see the remnants of the circular drive in the photo above. Grass is starting to grow now that it is spring. Bill doesn't want people driving on this anymore. When we first bought the house, we unloaded the moving van here and repair men drove right up the house to unload. 

I've watered the grass here but it needs a feeding. Eventually, I think the grass will fill in. 

The position of the concrete wall blocks seems to invite drivers to drive right around the tree, so I may need to move those. 

I just haven't mustered up the physical energy to do that. 

The bed is the daffodil bed in the early spring and then its barren the rest of the year. 

 I cannot stand empty flower beds. I design one garden area at a time. Once an area is finished or almost finished, I can begin to think about the next section of the garden. Do you do that or do you have a plan for the whole space? 

We're currently working on the little yard off of the screened in porch. 

We wanted to move the propane tank and spirea the day we saw the house for the first time. 

It goes to show that the longer a person lives with something, the less they see it. 

I'd grown accustomed to the tank and it didn't really bug me all that much but Bill persisted and now the tank and the spirea are moved. 

The spirea looks good after its move last weekend. 

We hope it survives. Water is on a timer so it will get two drinks a day for the first few weeks. 

The grass back here is terrible. It needs a good feeding so that we can get a healthy patch right outside the door. I'd love a red climbing rose where the little picket fence section is resting. 

This was a little test fence. We were going to build one all around the raised beds but the price of lumber is too high. It is very unfortunate because it affects so many future plans for the cabin. 

We are getting guttering next week. It will help the water running off of the roof. The metal roof wasn't cut properly and needs to be trimmed back on the front and back of the house. There has already been splashing and damage to the bottom portion of the screened in porch wall. Bill just replaced that in December and it stinks that it already shows signs of damage. 

My pine trees survived Uri. There is new growth all along the top. 

I spent some time identifying East Texas plants. 

Wooly-White or Hymenopappus Artimiisifolius

Yellow False Indigo, Baptisia Tinctoria

Some of the yucca has bloom stalks. 

We have Sassafras. 

Time will tell if we make root beer. 

Bill and Kate's Old Time Root Beer. It has a nice ring to it. 

You have probably heard of Rick Astley. 

This song popped into my head when I saw that the pansies came back after being decimated by ants. 

"Never Gonna Give You Up." 

We love evenings on our new front porch. Soon it will be too hot out here and we'll move to the back. 

That will be okay. The view is going to be cute out here too. 

This is Texas so we'll enjoy our time outdoors while we can. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into weekend life at our little house in the woods. 

To catch up on the full story, check out this page. 

Have a blessed day. 

Katie