The Show's Almost Over...

 Here on the hill, we are beginning to get quite ragged, worn, and tired  from a long, hot summer.  When out watering the plants earlier, I kept thinking of  the words from an  old Merle Haggard song  I heard while riding around in the tractor a couple of weeks ago.  "The show's almost over, let me sing one more song..."  

The bees and butterflies were, in fact, putting on quite a show, just as the hummingbirds have been doing for a couple of weeks.  They seem to know, too, that the show's almost over.

The summer tanager that sang his heart out those long summer days,

has ceased singing now, though I still see him occasionally.  He was never shy, nor abashed to come ever so near to sing his sweet summer's song.  I want to say to him, "Come...Sing just one more song."  

Most evenings we have been watching Downton Abbey.  We started with Season One and are now almost halfway through.  You might think a tractor-driving gal and a cow-punching guy, who ordinarily watch cowboys and Indians, wouldn't care for such, but we actually are enjoying it.  I keep my eyes glued to the screen so I don't miss a single costume, but I most enjoy the goings on downstairs.  My favorite characters are Mrs. Patmore and Daisy.  I am quite sure I would never want to have servants, but if I should, I would definitely want one who would cook and clean the kitchen.  I will go now.  I have a pound cake in the oven and a mess all over the kitchen.  "Daisy...."  

  

There's a new post over at Linnie Butts & Company.  Riata has a new school dress that the girls would love to show off.  Just click on the old sewing machine picture above.  

High Summer ...

High Summer:  defined as the period of six weeks and two days from the sixth Saturday before August; the hottest part of the summer.  

Well, that is confusing enough.  This makes me wonder if high summer is already over.   It was awfully hot last week with temps near 100 degrees each day.  And, this morning's walk over the hill was absolutely delightful.  Why I didn't even work up a sweat and my shoes didn't even get wet.  Now, that's a first in a long, long time.  (But, checking out the ten-day forecast, it seems to me that high summer might not be done with us yet!)

Well, no matter, this is how I have been spending these days of summer.  It's really not such a bad thing driving around in air-conditioned comfort, listening to old Merle Haggard songs.  :~)  

FiddleyBits over on YouTube had an even better idea for overcoming boredom while working in the fields.  This video is definitely one of my favorites.  But, oh my, the vastness of that country ~ And, of the tractor too.  I am afraid a gps guidance system might get confused here in our rolling hills and I would run into something, like a tree or a pond.  For all you quilters out there I think you would enjoy this too by clicking here on  FiddleyBits. (You can skip the ad and get right to the video.)

She says:  Multi-tasking with my 1885 Wilcox and Gibbs hand-crank sewing machine and our John Deere tractor with a gps guidance system.  Probably a historical first!  Started string piecing a quilt pattern by Bonnie K. Hunter called "Talkin' Turkey."  

 

The Trail I Walk...

 

The trail I walk is really only an old cow trail...sometimes just a dusty path made by cattle, and sometimes it is just muddy ruts cut deep by cattle's sharp hooves.  The trail is even, on occasions in the cold months of the year,  covered with snow or ice.

When I write about cattle trails I am reminded of the trails of the old west such as the Chisholm Trail and the Goodnight-Loving Trail.  Oh my, wouldn't that have been something to have seen?  As Ed Bruce wrote in The Last Cowboy Song, "We'll dream tonight of when fences weren't here."    

But, it is a sure fact that I do, indeed, walk where the cattle walk.  They know the best trails, so I just follow those trails, add a few loop-de-loops and there it is ~ Miss Chip's Trail, which is what I first called it.  And, we will just keep hoping that this simple old trail is never covered in concrete as much of the old Chisholm Trail now is. 

I never know what to expect when I head out each morning.  No two days are the same for life goes on and things change, even while we sleep.  Yes, even the trail!  Why, just this morning, Millie and I had to detour around an old fallen log.  It was a dead pine that lightening had struck a few years back.  I knew it would fall one day, so yesterday was the day.

 Hill Top Cowboy's  first paying job, when he was about nine years old, was riding his mare, Dolly, to look after a neighbor's cattle.  He counted them each day and reported back to the owner if  anything was awry.  He earned a dollar a day for the work, if you call riding a spotted pony "work."  He gave the money he earned to his mother to be used to buy things for the family.  He had lost his dad when he was only four years old, so those times were hard ones for his mother who, by herself, raised a family of four children (three sisters besides the young cow poke.)  He says, looking back, that the neighbor probably paid him the dollar a day just to help out the family.  

His story always reminds me of that of Ralph Moody, which he wrote about in Little Britches and Man of the Family.   When we married,  the young cowboy didn't have much to bring along  ~ just  his clothes and two old books.  It's not a hard guess as to what those books were.  Dan had read those books when he was a boy, probably about the time he was riding old Dolly on the neighbor's ranch.  

 

And, here is the Cow Poke, himself,  now living out his dream, but he has traded in his horse for one of those new-fangled side-by-sides.  It rides a little easier he says, and he's a little closer to the ground.

 "This is the last cowboy song the end of a hundred year waltz

Voices sound sad as they're singing along another piece of America's lost

He'll dream tonight of when fences weren't here

This is the last cowboy song...

Remington showed us how he looked on canvas

And Louie Lamour has told us his tale

And Willie and Waylon and me sing about him

And wish to God we could have ridden his trail

The old Chisholm Trail is covered in concrete now

And they truck 'em to market in fifty foot rigs."

"This is the last cowboy song...

This is the last cowboy song..."

~Ed Bruce

The girls over at Linnie Butts and Company are meeting the Bully Good Skookum dolls for the first time.  Just click on the old sewing machine at the top of the page to join the fun.

Thanks to all for stopping by...

Mary

The Garden Gone Wild...

 

The Zinnia Garden, also known as the Garden Gone Wild, wasn't exactly my doing this year, as most of you know.  I didn't sow the seeds.  They just happened while I stayed away.  And, stay away I did.  This little garden has a history of having ticks in it (ever since we brought manure in from the horse barn), and I was so afraid of getting one under my cast..  

But, once the cast was off, I was out here almost every day trying to salvage what I might.  About a week ago, I finally chopped and pulled the last of the weeds and grass out, tossing  them, as I did each day, over the back fence.  The cattle seemed to think that I was harvesting hay for them, so they would come every day to eat what was there.. They seemed to like it.

I think Mother Nature did a pretty good job.  I have taken notes not to sow next year's seeds as thickly as I usually do.  I did add a few old accent pieces before we did a little photo shoot.  Mother Nature had nothing to do with those.  I am not sure she likes rust as much as I do.  :~) 

I am adding one photo I found on my photo card of celebrations on the 4th.  The cattle and I enjoyed the neighbors fireworks while Millie hid out in the garage.  

Birds and Blooms...

 

While out watering the Garden Gone Wild, I couldn't help thinking how lovely the garden has become even after all the neglect it has had this year.  Last year's Burpeeana Giants reseeded themselves there, and I must say are just as pretty as last year's crop that was cared for in the best ways possible.  These zinnias are my forever favorites which I call the shaggy ones.  Burpee says they are "an impressive mix of  huge 6" flowers with quilled and ruffled petals in all the best colors."   

The hummingbirds are currently drinking around one and a half gallons of sweet nectar each day.  I have eleven feeders hanging which seems like the perfect number.  I am sure these little hummers have a few battles over drinking rights, but for the most part they feed peacefully together. They are the best ever in that way, which makes them quite enjoyable.  

The big news of the week, however, is that I saw a Painted Bunting!   When taking a little drive around the farm, my daughter and I just happened to be at the right place and at the right time to get a good look at it..  It was my first sighting here on the place.  Wow!  What a beauty!  Wikipedia says the Painted Bunting is the most beautiful bird in North America.   We didn't get an actual photo, so I borrowed one from the internet.  But, believe me, ours was just as pretty as this one.  I hope he and the wife are raising a large family here so we will have pretty little Painted Buntings all over the place.  

And, over on my other blog, Linnie Butts and Company are meeting up with the older dolls in our first "Blast From the Past."  If you would like to take a look just click on the old sewing machine picture at the top of this page. 

                           

The Longest Day...

Happy Summer Solstice!  It always seems to me that this special day should be a national holiday.  We officially ring in the start of astronomical summer later tonight with today marking the longest day of the year.  According to my calendar notes, the sun rose this morning at 5:58 a.m. and will set at 8:32 p.m.  Starting tomorrow, daylight will be on a slow decline, continuing until the winter solstice in December.  

 Sometimes we need all the daylight we can get...

And, sometimes, that's still not enough...

Happy Summer, dear friends.  I hope it's a good one for you all.  Stay cool!