Springtime at the Edge of the Woods

{I failed to mention a couple of things about my trip to Branson with my sister, Norma.  At the beginning of our trip, Norma suggested we look for "license plates" on any vehicles we saw.  It was like a game we played as we traveled to and from Branson. We ended up with seeing license plates from 29 U.S. states and 3 foreign provinces!  Of course we saw Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri but we also saw Iowa, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, Alaska, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, New York, California, Montana, Illinois, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Massachusetts!  Also Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and Brunswick!  Do we humans like to travel, or what!
Oh, and we also saw two wild turkeys and what we think was a muskrat (it scurried across the road so fast it was hard to tell!) as we traveled the back roads of Arkansas and Missouri.}

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Springtime is a busy time of year for us with gardening, mowing, clearing brush, and working at our paying jobs. 

Following the traveling to Australia and New Zealand, and then immediately afterward a trip to Branson, I felt like I needed some "home time".  I love being home.  Staying busy puttering around our place, mostly outdoors, but some inside work also, like painting our bedroom walls.

 Tom got his garden planted and it is coming along......

We had a surprise hail storm with hail stones larger than we had ever seen before in our entire lives.

  We were very blessed and fortunate that we did not sustain damage to our roof and thankfully our vehicles were protected under our carport.  Hundreds of nearby folks were not as lucky!  As the hail stones were coming down, I opened the back door to snap a photo and it literally sounded like gunshots as those stones were pounding on the metal roofed portico!  The sky was awesomely threatening looking.

We had a little reunion with friends from our Australia/New Zealand trip:

Sam, Jeanne, Ray, Althea, Norma, Tom and me

 

Ray and Althea, who live in Indianapolis, Indiana, were passing through here between visiting their son in Lafayette, La. and their other son in Dallas and we all met at a local Italian restaurant for dinner and reminiscing.  Donna, we wish you could have been there with us!

 

The Indian Paintbrush wildflowers in the hay meadow next to our garden are awesome this year.

 

Tom has literally declared war on the dandelions which seem to be all over our yard this year.   He spends every spare minute he can find out in the yard, squatting down to pull up dandelions by there "healthy" roots!

 

He has also been more diligent this Spring about spreading fertilizer on our lawn and all his hard work is really paying off.  Our lawn looks better than it ever has.

 

We recently decided to clear out the two "clumps" of undergrowth in our front yard.  This is before:

(Wagons are not an every-day occurrence.)

 

This is after we cleared out all the undergrowth and vines:

 

 

We recently did the same kind of work at my Mom's place.  She wanted an old firewood lean-to, which had been overtaken by privet shrubs, eliminated.

Before:

 

After:

After that little project, we treated ourselves to a burger at famous Juicy's  in Tyler!  Along with fried dill pickle slabs!  Yummee!!

 

 

This Spring I decided to make a flower garden with my old retired A.T. hiking shoes.

 

Tom decided to grow radishes and try pickling them!

...and the garden continues to grow....

 

 

I totally lost interest in riding my horse, and have not ridden in over a year.  So, the trails through the woods on our place have not been ridden on (or walked on) in about a year and a half and with our past drought conditions, there is sure to be lots of deadfall, and also lots of briars, poison ivy, and other undergrowth.  When some of my Saddlebag women friends mentioned possibly having a Thursday ride here on our trails, I told them there would have to be a "trail work day" to get the trails ready.  Tom and I did an exploratory walk-thru, finding the trail, hanging some ribbons.  Then a group of my stalwart women friends showed up with loppers, saws, and a smile, all dressed for work.

There were a total of 10 women led by a fearless Tom!

Tom was very nice to help us on his day off.  It was a warm muggy day down in the woods and after a couple of hours of whacking our way down through the grown-up trail we came to a clearing where we had earlier parked our truck, loaded with refreshments.  Time for a much-needed break!

 

 

Afterward, we separated into two groups, each headed off in different directions, agreeing to meet back at our house for lunch.  My group took the trail along the creek.

 

We slogged, whacked our way through, slow but sure, arriving at the road and walking up the hill to our house.  We enjoyed sandwiches, salad, cookies and cold drinks at the picnic table on our deck, following a job well done.  (We cleared 2-3 miles of trail.)

 

I was fascinated by four baby birds as they were getting ready to leave mama's nest, built under our back door portico.  Right after I snapped this photo they flew away and never came back, and neither did mama!  Where do baby birds go when they leave the nest???  The next morning when I looked, I found the tiny "runt of the bunch" lying dead on the back walkway just a short distance from the nest.

 

...and the garden just keeps on growing... 

 

In my next post, I will talk about our recent trip to Mississippi to attend a family reunion.

Branson Day 6

Day 6 - Saturday, April 26, Going Home

This morning we got up and finished packing our bags, then went down for our last breakfast in the Radisson's Restaurant where we said goodbye to most of our fellow Texas Peacemakers.  I am so grateful for this great group for including me and making me feel like one of them.  Thank you to Norma for inviting me to go along.  Traveling with my sister again is very special to me.

It's been fun but I am ready to go home.  Norma and I studied the map to decide on a different route for our return trip to Texas so we could see some different scenery.
 
We made it across the state line back into Arkansas and once we got into Harrison, Ark., we headed south on Ark. Scenic Hwy 7, a winding mountain road that took us through Marble Falls, where Norma recalled that many years ago she brought her young children here to a Dog Patch, U.S.A.!  Remember those parks from the 1970's?  Well, there was not much of anything remaining of what used to be an entertainment destination there along the river.
   
We continued on across the Buffalo National River and into the tiny town of Jasper, Ark.  I guess Jasper is the jumping-off point for river trips because there were hundreds of people milling around, with all sorts of water gear laying on the ground, waiting to board one of the many busses/vans that were lined up alongside the street.

We continued on Hwy. 7 enjoying the spectacular scenery.  We continue to see lots of dogwood trees shining through the thick woods of mostly leafless trees.

The lower in elevation we got we began to see more trees leafed out.

 

We soon pulled off the road at a scenic overlook.

 

                                What incredible views!!

 

We followed Hwy.7 until it intersected with Hwy. 16 west, another mountainous winding road with beautiful scenery, taking us through the tiny Arkansas towns of Deer, Nail, Swain, and Fallsville where we head south on Hwy. 21.  We passed through Salus, Ozone, Hillcrest, and Ludwig, more tiny Arkansas towns, before we came to I-40, just east of Fort Smith, Ark.  We have had enough of winding mountain roads for today so we head west on I-40.  We take the I-540 bypass at the eastern edge of Fort Smith, and soon we were crossing the Arkansas River.

 

   It wasn't long after crossing the river that we saw this sign!

 

We traveled on U.S. Hwy 271 and then U.S. Hwy 259 south heading toward Broken Bow, Okla.  Norma wanted me to show her where Tom and I like to go kayaking near Broken Bow, Ok. on the lower Mountain Fork River.  We detoured over to Ambush Adventures, located under the river bridge on U.S. Hwy. 70, just west of Broken Bow.  We also drove down the gravel road to the spillway where Ambush Adventures takes us to "put in" the river with our kayaks.  Tom and I love kayaking on that section of the lower Mountain Fork River and try to go at least once every Summer!

We pass by fields covered in Indian Paint Brush flowers:

 

Following that little detour, we finally are crossing the Red River!

 

Yippee!!!!  We see that long-awaited sign!

I'm telling you, there is no place like it in the whole wide world!

 

We make a short stop in Gladewater, Texas so I can snap a couple of photos.

 

It was just a short drive from there to Tyler where Tom was going to meet us to pick me up.  Tom brought his garden tiller over with him to Norma's daughter Carla's house, to till up the ground for Devin, Carla's son to plant his garden this year..  Devin was so excited.  He had a small garden last year and loved watching vegetables grow and getting to pick and eat them.

 

How wonderful it is to see my Sweetie!  So good to be home!  Like I always say when I return from a trip, "There is no place like home"!

 

 

 

 

Branson - Day 5

Friday April 25, Day 5

Today is considered a "free" day until our evening dinner and show.
So Norma, Sherry, and I head west toward Joplin, Mo.

In Joplin, the Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center showcases a chert glade, a globally unique habitat.  Nearby Shoal Creek is used by migratory birds and a variety of wildlife, while wild flowers add to the beauty of the area.  To the west of Wildcat Glades, a section of Shoal Creek produces Grand Falls, which is the largest, always-flowing waterfall in Missouri.  The falls plunge about 25 feet and offer a breathtaking opportunity for photography and exploration.

Norma and I navigated over a few hundred feet of the chert (a compact rock consisting essentially of microcrystalline quartz) hillside to get as close to the gorgeous falls as possible for a photo-op.

                            Breathtaking views of Grand Falls! 

As usual, Norma found her way down to put her feet into the water.

                       
                            Fascinating colorful chert....

 

 

Just too pretty!

 

Sherry, who said her "bad knee" would not let her climb down the hill, enjoyed the views from the top.

 

 

Grand Falls is reached by travelling on Hwy. 86, a mile south of I-44 (Joplin), then turn (just after you cross over the bridge over Shoal Creek) onto an unmarked country road, drive about three miles on this nondescript narrow blacktop road, then suddenly there are these spectacular falls.  There is no signing anywhere, on the highway or at the falls.  There is a tiny gravel/dirt parking area.  But what a grand sight it is!  So totally worth it!  The three hour drive through the rolling hilly landscape of western Missouri between Branson and Joplin was truly an enjoyable journey.  It is Springtime in the hills of Missouri!  Blooming white (and pink) dogwood trees everywhere we looked.  Here are just a few of the photos I took as we drove west toward Grand Falls. 

These photos do not do justice to what we were seeing.  Everywhere we looked there were hundreds of blooming dogwood trees dotting the forest.

..and such beautiful scenery along a winding road.

We took a faster, shorter route back in the afternoon, arriving back to the Radisson in plenty of time to freshen up before we went to Landry's Seafood House for dinner.  Good service and good food!

After dinner, we went right next door to the Presley's Jubilee Theatre where we will enjoy the Presley's Country Jubilee music show on the now world-famous 76 Country Blvd.  The Presley's family show was filled with good-natured humor and the pure sounds of country and gospel music.

The "pre-show", held in the small balcony area above the lobby, was as good as the "regular" show!  Just one guy on the piano, singing and asking his small audience to sing along sometimes.  A very small, intimate setting with great piano playing and vocals and a little humor thrown in!  Loved it!

And like I said before, the restrooms in Branson's theatres are just awesome! 

                                 
                                  The Presleys regular show.

The end of another great day in Branson!

Tomorrow we head home.