Countrywindows

Apple Tree

2011-05-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

My son planted this apple tree about 20 years ago, so its been part of the family for a long time. I was out looking at it the other day and noticed that one big limb was split and the leaves were falling off,and the rest of the tree some of the leaves were turning yellow. I took one of the leaves to a nursery and the lady told me, it was getting old. So I said the yellow is like the gray in my hair? She was saying that most orchards cut trees down at age 10 and plant new ones. The tree still looks healthy and I'm not going to take it out of the family till all the limbs are dead.

Spring Thaw

2011-03-08T04:53:00.000-08:00

I don't know about everybody else, but I'm ready for spring to be here. The birds have been singing in the mornings and it has been where the weather is cold one day and warmer the next. The early flowers are starting to bloom and the trees are getting buds on them.

Apple tree in the winter

2011-01-14T12:39:00.000-08:00

The last time I posted on my blog was back in the summer when my apple tree had all the apples on it. As you can see its winter and the tree got a limb cut. It had so many apples on it that the limbs were breaking or hanging to the ground.

Loaded down apple tree

2010-07-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

For the last several years I have been giving my apple away to people. I have so many on this tree and this year looks like another bumper crop again. The limbs get so heavy with apples that last year it broke a limb toward the top of the tree. I try and trim the tree every year but dont want to take too much off. My son planted this tree for a cub scout project 20 years ago.

Flower garden in bloom

2010-07-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year when all my flowers are in bloom and the bees are finding pollen. I was watching some finches pick seeds from one of my flowers, they dont hurt the flower, they just spread the seed. My glads have been coming back every year without digging them up each year. We have some cold winters and supposed to dig them up. Still waiting for the hummingbirds to show up, they seem to be late in my area for some reason, each year.

Capturing the Kansas wind

2010-06-27T06:41:00.000-07:00

I was on my way out to Colorado this last week for a short vacation trip. I havent been out to the western part of the state in a long time. Off to the distance I could see rows and rows of wind turbines. I had seen on the news months ago that people were against building the wind turbines; too much noise, eyesores, taking up too much farm ground, etc. I did some research online about the noise of the turbine and a bird singing made more noise. There were 50 of them in the first part of the area I saw. This is supposed to make enough electricity for 37,000 homes. They are placed on tops of hills where most of time there is no grass growing anyway because of the wind and lots of flintrock in this area. All the land that these 50 take up is only 2% of the total land in that area.
Each turbine is 250 feet tall. Each of the three blades weigh 17,000 lbs and the base of the turbine is 50 square feet of concrete that is underground.
There are several other states that have turbines and make more electricity than Kansas: Texas, California, Iowa and others.
We have an electric plant close by that is ran by coal. Each day loads and loads of coal are shipped to it by train. People are hoping that wind energy will cut the use of coal in the future.
As wind doesn't blow enough all the time to turn these huge turbines, there will still need to be backups to provide electricity for homes and bussiness and such.
I just saw these turbines as huge gentle giants, doing what needs to be done, and that is save energy or find alternative ways to make it.

Building a barnwood frame

2010-04-28T07:08:00.000-07:00

Going to go through the steps of me making one of my barnwood frames.
1. Maybe the hardest part, and that is finding old weathered wood. I sometimes have people that see me at a show and ask where I get my wood and tell me they have some I can buy or have for free. I have purchased some from a listing on craigslist, or maybe even at garage sells.
2. I cut the edge of the boards to get my edge for the side of the frames, then I cut the rest of the board to 2 inches for the frame.
3. I take the 2 inch board and cut them down to the size of frame I'm building, then I cut out the back of it for the glass and print to go into it.
4. The next step is to cut the 2 inch boards corners to a forty five degree cut,then I put each of the 2 inch boards in a jig, so I can use the v-nails to hold the corners together.
5.I cut out my wood that I use for the front of the frame into forty five degree pieces of wood to place on the front of the frame and use clamps to hold them in place while the glue dries.
6.I then install the weathered edging that I had cut off the outside of the board to the outside of the frame.
7.Then the frame is complete.

Guess Phil was Right!

2010-02-05T08:48:00.000-08:00

We got more snow last nite here in Kansas.I don't know if the groundhog knows what he is talking about or not! Was hoping for no more snow this year, we have had more snow this year than when they started keeping record. I took this picture this morning of a blue spruce covered in some ice and snow.

Squirrel proof bird feeder ?

2010-01-04T11:41:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to find some kind of way to keep the squirrels from eating all the sunflower seeds out of the bird feed and the song birds not having any. I tried the pepper on the seed, didn't bother them, grease on the pole of the feeder, and many more. I saw a article in a garden magazine on stretching a rope and placing plastic bottles on each side, so that when the squirrel ran across the rope it would roll off when it hit the bottles. So far this has worked and the songbirds are eating the sunflower seeds. With all the snow on the ground, and the extreme cold, this is one way to help the little birds survive.

Featured in a Blog

2009-12-01T07:04:00.000-08:00

I was featured in a blog, by one of the Kansas Etsy team members! You can go to the link and read a little about myself! Check to the bottom right side of my blog, where it says I was in a blog!
http://simplyinvitingcards.com/blog

Craft Show

2009-11-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

I did my last craft show for the year, saturday. I sold several of my prints framed in nice 16x20 frames at this show. Last year I sold 8x10 and 11x14 frames, I had several people say that they were too big. So what did I do this year, I made bigger frames and they sold. You never know what people want, if you did, I would be so busy making everything. It makes me feel good for a person to spot a photo from across the room and make a beeline over to it and pick it up and say, " I want this".
I have had return customers from the year before stop by and see what I have new, and tell me they bought a certain picture and its still very pretty on their wall.
So I guess I will keep up the good work!

Photos Accepted in Craftgawker

2009-10-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

I have four photo's on craftgawker now! Some people would say," I have been trying to get my photos accepted on it." I have mixed feeling about the site, I have my stone bridge print on there, that has gotten over 1,000 views since I have had it on the site. The other ones get around 50 views a day. Some people say that views will maybe turn into sales. I have lots more photos that I would submit to the site, but I want to wait and see if this type of advertisement is going to work.

Arts and Craft Show

2009-10-10T08:39:00.000-07:00

I had a show last weekend in the town I live in, which made it nice that I didnt have to travel very far. I tried something different this year that I havent been doing. I had some of my prints enlarged to 16x20 and framed them in nice oak or some in a gold frame. My framed print of the stone bridge in my shop sold right away, and some people who had seen it earlier and didnt buy, came back and wanted to know if I had another one like it, sorry charlie! You snooze you lose. So I guess I need to send off for some more prints. I sold my homestead print also, and several prints in the 8x10 size. It was a pretty good show considering the economy and such.

Highway Garage Sells

2009-09-21T06:46:00.001-07:00

I spent most of the day saturday with my girlfriend driving down a busy highway that goes across kansas and goes east and west to adjoining states.Every year they have what they call a treasure hunt. People set up along the highway or in towns along the route. We even went to several farmhouses off the highway. You can find some neat things at garage sells. I like to look for nice frames that I can either use the frame or use the glass out of the frame. A really nice frame can cost well over 100 dollars, and glass can be expensive too. I can in turn save my customers money on my frames, because I dont have alot of money invested in making them. And of course I like to buy tools,and outdoor equipment. You see items on tv where they paid a dollar for them and find out they are worth thousands.

Staring Contest

2009-09-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what animals are thinking or would like to say to you if they could? This black monkey just stared at me while I was taking several of his pics. Sometimes it would just seem to look like it was saying "What are you looking at?"
Animals are just as smart as we humans are, or alot of times I think they are smarter than most of us.

Hummingbirds are back!

2009-08-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

I spent a fortune on flowers to attract them back,I have had my feeder up all summer. The two just came back a few days ago. My theory is that they are male hummingbirds, and they have been raising a family all summer. Now that the kids are gone away from home, its time for the guys to go to there bachelor pad and hang out,maybe have a few sips of that sweet tonic, till they go south. I havent tried to photograph them again this year, but I will set up a tent or something and try again this year, to get one in flight.

Matted Prints

2009-08-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

I have started to mat some of my prints in my shop, to see if people would like them better than just a plain photo in a 8x10 inch frame. I have matted several of my prints and framed them to take to shows. This rose in a black mat,framed in a black frame is very pretty. Sometimes I'm at the craft store buying mat board and overhear how much they charge for matting a print,I know they have overhead and other things, but they charge a bunch. And sometimes people like to mat their own photos to go with their frames or decor.

Happy Faces

2009-08-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

I was out taking pictures the other day and found this tall and pretty sunflower! Sunflowers remind me of being happy,brite and just happy to be alive! They like alot of flowers are fun to watch them point in the east in the morning and slowly turn toward the west in the evening,following the sun. When I was growing up, I would pick a big sunflower and bring it home and take all the seeds from the pod and have mom put them in the oven and sprinkle salt on them and bake them. They of course didnt turn out as good as the kind you buy in the store.

Flower garden and humming bird update

2009-07-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

Here it is almost the end of July and my flowers I planted for the hummingbirds are so brite and pretty. I dont know where the hummers are this year, but they sure didnt come back to my garden this year. I planted some gladiola's last year and didnt dig them up. Here in kansas our winters get cold enough that you are supposed to dig them up every year. I have several glads that came up and are blooming. I have a pic of one of them that made it through the winter.

A little kansas history

2009-07-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

I was in coffeyville kansas, the last few days. A town where some a event took place back in 1892.It was on a sunny morning October 5, that five horseback riders entered coffeyville from the west at about 8 in the morning.Three of the men were Dalton brothers and one of the others last names was Power and the other Broadwell.The Daltons have lived around coffeyville and were lawmen in the oklahoma territory. The daltons soon found out that their wasnt much money in being lawmen, so they turned to robbing trains and banks in kansas and all the way out to california.There were two banks in coffeyville at the time, the Condon Bank and the First National Bank, so that made it very appealing to the gang. Three of the men went into the Condon bank and the other two went into the First National Bank. The teller at the Condon bank told one of the daltons that the bank safe had a timer on it and it wouldnt open for another 40 minutes,later was found out that the safe did not have a timer and it had 40,000 dollars in it. After several minutes had passed while waiting for the vault to open,a passer by spotted one of the daltons and recognized him and went to get help.Nobody in the town wore guns at that time, so they had to go get guns and they set up post in the hardware store, that still stands.The marshall of the town was a school teacher that had taken the job as marshall while school was out. He came out and was shot in the back, a shoe maker was shot and Charles Brown. The three that were in the Condon bank,made a run to their horses.The only member of the dalton gang that survived was Emmettt Dalton. He was sentenced to life in prison, but was paroled in 15 years. In one of the pictures, it shows the headstone of two of the daltons on it and a metal pipe beside it. The pipe was the hitching post that the horses were tied to during the robbery, the hitching post was the only grave marker, until Emmett got out of prison, he came back to coffeyville and had a headstone made and he placed it on his brothers graves. Emmett then moved to california.

Crackle Barnwood Frames

2009-07-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

I have been building the barnwood frames for several years. I started out with just the plain frame with just the outer lip on the frame, then changed to putting the corner pieces of wood on the corners. I have used the faded red barnwood and several different colors of the faded wood. I was thinking the other day of when people did the crackle look to furniture to make it look old. I'm going to try different base colors and outer colors on the frames and see how they sell.

The task of feeding the little ones!

2009-07-09T13:10:00.001-07:00

I have a pair of robins that I spend alot of time watching. They both take turns gathering up bugs,worms and anything that crawls,to bring back to the nest. I love to watch them run a short distance, cock their head and then, the head goes down and catches a bug. They,like alot of birds, must have keen eyesight to be able to see the smallest bug in the grass. A couple years ago, I had a nest of robins in a tree in my front yard. They had built the nest only about 6 feet off the ground. I got a my step ladder, and looked into the nest,there were two fuzzy little robins, I snapped a couple of pictures of them. These two robins use my front yard as the main gathering place for bugs, sure didnt know I had that many bugs in my grass.

Is it clear MOM?

2009-07-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

I have been cutting wheat the last few days. Yesterday, I got out of the combine to make a call on my cell phone and a little fawn came out of the woods and came within 20 yds of me, of course I didnt have my camera with me, with all the dust and such. I was driving around the fields today and spotted this doe with a fawn in the background. She was checking to make sure it was safe before the fawn came out. Of course when she saw me, the tail went up and they ran off. The little fawns are just like my kids when they were little, they wanted to see what was going on and really didnt know what danger was, so mom and dad had to teach them.

Where are the hummingbirds?

2009-06-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

Last year I attracted two different kinds of hummingbirds. This year I havent seen a single hummer. From what I have read on the internet, they are supposed to come back every year. I have had my feeder up for a couple of months now. I spent my last dollar at the garden shop, for about every flower they had to attract them. If you are a avid know your hummingbirds, then let me know what else I can do. I have talked to several people in town and they all say they have hummingbirds. Here is a pic of my feeder and some of the flowers.

Bats Over Austin Texas

2009-06-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

Austin has a bridge that is downtown Austin that has bats that live under it. At a last estimate of how many, it was 1.5 million. Each nite about sundown a big crowd gathers around the bridge, down on the water that goes under the bridge, on grass of the banks of the river, and on the sidewalk of the road that goes across the bridge. The place my son had picked out for me was already full of people, so I had to work my way into the crowd. I got down to the bridge just a little late, and got a photo of alot of them that had already taken off into the evening sky. At one time the city was going to try and exterminate the bats, but locals told them, how many bugs, including the biting mosquito that these bats eat each nite. When they were coming out from under the bridge, there were three sections of the bridge that the bats were coming out of. It was kinda like in a horror movie with the sky full of bats. It was just a solid flow of bats that were so thick, you couldnt get a picture of them, because they were flying so fast and so many.