Friday, April 18, 2008

Friday Round-up

Welcome to another edition of the Friday Ranch Round-up! (Doesn't that sound official?)

The Bag Lady has much to share today. First, she has a little question for you....she wants to know if she is the only one who sees the potential in this item, sort of a "Do you see what I see?" question. Perhaps the Bag Lady is a "Lady of Vision" (no, not visions, those only come after too much wine!)

Or...not.


She has been working on it, but has not completed it yet.

And here is a photo of some of her tomato seedlings:

(Aren't they cute?)

Next, we suffered a very strong windstorm yesterday, and the Bag Lady thought we were going to make it through unscathed. But, as you can see from the following photos, we did suffer a casualty.

Before (this was taken last autumn):


After: (this was taken yesterday - can you see what's missing? No, silly, not the dog...)



The last of the big old sentry poplar trees toppled today. There were two of them when the Bag Lady moved here 14 years ago. The first one was situated approximately where the old plow sits now, and it fell, across the driveway, one day when the Bag Lady was away. She came home and couldn't get up the driveway.
The one that fell yesterday had been the home of many a bird over the years, and will be missed. Well, the birds will miss it.
And the windstorm blew in a snowstorm this morning. It is a little chilly with a skiff of snow out there. Sigh. Hopefully this will be the last snow of the season.

**Update - did the Bag Lady say "a little chilly"? It's freakin' Damned Cold! The wind feels like it's coming straight off the polar ice caps. The Bag Lady had to put her hood up to walk to the far end of the pasture and back. The wind was so cold, her eyes were watering. Sheesh. A little chilly...sheesh.**

Have a great weekend.

16 comments:

Leah J. Utas said...

Oh that's quite the stump. Looked like a body from hips to knees. Could be made into all kinds of items though. What do you have in that amazing BagLady mind?
Sad about the poplar tree.
I'll take a quiet moment in its honour later.

the Bag Lady said...

dfLeah - you are so smart!!
And the yard just doesn't look quite right without that sentry tree. Kinda lop-sided...

JavaChick said...

I agree...definitely potential in that hunk of wood.

Sad about the tree. The house I grew up in has had a row of maples growing along the front yard since...well...forever. Unforunately over the past 15 - 20 years, some of them have died and had to be cut down. Makes me sad.

the Bag Lady said...

Javachick - it makes me sad, too, to see those big trees coming down. Poplars, apparently, only have about a 30 year life span, and a lot of ours must have reached that. Of course, with poplar trees, there are always new ones to take the place of the old - they are kinda like weeds that way...
Glad I'm not alone in seeing the potential of that piece of wood that was destined for the fireplace before I rescued it.

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Well, duh, it's cold. You're in Canada! Come here and I promise you'll only have that problem INdoors, where we have some of the best air conditioners known to mankind!

That's sad about the tree. There are poplars near my family's land in NM and my grandmother loved to watch them turn in the fall.

Reb said...

That is a good stump, good luck with it. Too bad about the old tree, I am sure the birds will miss it.

the Bag Lady said...

Thanks for pointing that out, BG! :) It's been snow-less for a few weeks now, so I sorta forgot...

Reb - I know the birds are going to miss that tree - it was the highest vantage point for them.

Unknown said...

Definite potential! Sad about the trees though; I love trees passionately (the people who bought our house a couple years ago cut down this BEAUTIFUL old oak tree we had because it was taking up too much space... and they filled up the space with their BOAT. Grrr). And very cute little plants!

Geosomin said...

I like the stump...For some reason I see it all sanded and varnished up to make part of a bench or table...then it will always be around. M grandpa used to make furniture out of old stumps like that...they were beautiful.
I hear you about the weather...we were going ot go to Banff for the weekend for a family thing but just called it off after being given huge blizzard and weather warnings by a bunch of people (including the weather guys)...2 days of driving in a blizzard for an afternoon of visiting just didn't seem worth it - I'll miss going, but perhaps with all the snow coming I'll buil done last snowman to send winter off in style!

the Bag Lady said...

Sagan - I know what you mean about loving trees. Those people should be shot!
Geosomin - sounds like a wise choice, although I can understand being a little upset at missing out.
You could always do a snow sculpture of the entire family...I hear there's a lot on the way for the more southerly parts of Alberta, so I imagine it's coming your way, too.
We got a skiff, and it's been trying hard to come down again, but so far it's not sticking. (-20C with the windchill, though!)

Emily said...

I'm sorry you lost a tree; I love me some big old trees and all the critters they house. Of course I don't like them too close to the house in case of wind storms!

Will spring ever come for you? It was 83F when I left work yesterday evening- woohoo!!

Sarah said...

Mmm tomatoes. I saw all kinds of things in that stump... but I have a very vivid imagination :)

I hope warm springs comes for you soon! We are 20 degrees today!!!

Scrumpy said...

I agree on the stump looking like a body upside down, but I also think it would make a great giant slingshot for launching water balloons!

the Bag Lady said...

Emily - I'm the same when it comes to worrying about the ones close to the house. And your temperature sounds lovely!

Sarah - your temperature sounds lovely, too! And the Bag Lady has a pretty vivid imagination sometimes, too!

Scrumpy - not quite as vivid as yours, though! The slingshot thing hadn't occurred to me! (oh, and thanks for not bragging about your temperature there...)

Crabby McSlacker said...

Love the before and after photo--looks like the windstorm took out not only the tree but all the leaves and grass for miles around!

Oh, seasons! That explains it.

Have a great weekend and hope it warms up for you!

the Bag Lady said...

Thanks, Crabby - hope your weekend is great, too! (Ours is gonna be cold, that's for sure!)