The Front Porch Swing

[BCMaraniac]

Still not feeling well. Just stopping by to say hello from afar... don't want anyone else to get sick. Love you all very much.

Please get well soon Lindz. We are all praying for you and your family.

 

[Beekissed]

Still not feeling well. Just stopping by to say hello from afar... don't want anyone else to get sick. Love you all very much.

Awwwwww, Lindz!

Here's a steaming hot bowl of my chicken kielbasa rice and noodle soup....good for what ails ya.

 

[lovingmyhens]

I wrote to a few of them to give them the back story on the poster they were attacking thinking that might smooth their feathers, and they wrote back with intense justifications for firing with all cannons because they felt offended. "That's no excuse!"

You know how there are some people who communicate differently, and at first it might be upsetting, until you realize there is a really good reason they communicate differently?

Like if someone is using a second or third language they might have awkward word choices that sometimes come across badly? Or if they are dyslexic and their spelling can make their posts virtually unreadable? Well ... it was kinda like that.

I'm a little sensitive about other people struggling with those things here on the Internet or in other public places for a couple of reasons. One is that I didn't learn how to read until quite late in life, and had a really hard time feeling "welcome" on the Internet because I know my writing is flawed and I still read VERY slowly because it's a lot of work for me so I can't always keep up and don't want to drag everyone down. Another is that I've lived in countries where English is not the primary language and was more or less dependent on other people working pretty hard to help me communicate, so I feel I owe the Universe on that score. And another reason is that now I have vision trouble, so often can't see things to read them and then I make odd replies because I missed something obvious to everyone else.

So I feel compelled to help in in those situations.

Well, I am a writing teacher (3rd grade) and I think you write just fine! My daughter has a "language deficit" which we found out when I thought she was dyslexic-at 19. She isn't dyslexic but has this language deficit. It really makes her struggle to write, she just can't think of what to put on the paper. It is in her head, but from head to hand there is some kind of disconnect. But she just graduated Suma Cum Laude with her teaching degree and just got a job as a kindergarten teacher at a new school here in Katy. We all have our issues...you should see me try to do math. I still count on my fingers and I'm 51! I know that if my mom had gotten me tested for a learning disability in math I would have passed with flying colors. When we had to take those standardized tests back in the day, I always tested 2 grade levels below where I was in school in math. God loves us all just the way we are, He made us you know!!! And we are all special in our own ways. We all bring good things to the porch. And I thank Him for all of you!

 

[Triple Willow]

  I wish I could get that 35 seconds back and erase that image and sound from my mind.  (rushes to the bathroom and washes eyes and ears out with lye soap)  OUCH.  That hurt. 

Oooops! As usual I can't hear/understand what she was saying. I just like the table flip. LOL Not nice I know but I have seen a few times I'd like to give one a good flip. hehe

 

[lovingmyhens]

Hi, I got invited here by a dear friend, so here I am. North Texas here.

Can I please squeeze in on the swing with a nice cold glass of fresh lemonade?

I read the first page, saw the date and skipped to the last. This is one busy porch! 455 pages in 3 months.

While I am here, can I ask if anyone knows how to reattach the front cabinet panel (from IKEA) to my dishwasher, that had the screws stripped out?

Spring has sprung here at my house.

Welcome my friend! Scroll back some and see if you can catch some of Boolie's stories. She is an amazing story teller!
Deb might be able to help you with the stripped screws. She is really handy with implements of mass destruction.
Your flowers are gorgeous. I will have to put some of those on my wish list-that is for after I get my fence replaced.
Melanie

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Still not feeling well. Just stopping by to say hello from afar... don't want anyone else to get sick. Love you all very much.

Hope you feel better. I will make you some cinnamon bread. Everything is better with homemade cinnamon bread.
This is the best recipe ever.

As far as the screws go...I don't think I can use bigger since they go through the metal door too. :/

About me...I am a single mom with 2 grown boys (20 and almost 22) that I am extremely proud of. My oldest is graduating from UNT in May. My youngest is currently working two jobs and is trying to get his dream job as a Subaru mechanic. He wants to have his own Subaru Rally team someday. When I took him to his first rally up near Paris I thought I was just along as the driver - he couldn't drive yet - and it turns out that I love these rallies too. OK, back to me.... I work from home for an insurance agency. Not a glamorous job but I won't trade it for the world. My hours are somewhat flexible and that allows me to cycle.

I am obsessed with cycling. It keeps me sane. I've been a roadie for 2.75 years now and I can ride over 6K miles in a year. I did that in 2012 and 2013. This year is proving to be a challenge for riding outside. Dang weather! I ride in the trainer on 'bad weather days'.
I just planted my garden last weekend and I am trying to fix up my yard after 40+ years of neglect. I bought a 1966 Ranch house a year and a half ago that you couldn't see from the street. My friends thought it was abandoned. The previous owners had sort of fixed up the inside to I have been concentrating on the yard. This yard (1/4 acre) had not seen any real landscaping. Ever. My neighbours love me.
I don't have chickens yet, but I am working towards that. It will hopefully be a reality sooner rather than later. In the mean time I am learning all I can.

 

[lovingmyhens]

Still not feeling well. Just stopping by to say hello from afar... don't want anyone else to get sick. Love you all very much.

I really am praying that you get to feeling better...sometimes this stuff can drag on and on and on...

 

[Blooie]

Well, the way I look at disruptions in a thread is that I'm guilty of the same thing, so I won't say a word. It's all about self-control, and I usually have none....a love of words and little self-control is not a good combination! Lesson learned here - and I'll probably make the same mistake a few times, unfortunately. I'll try harder, I promise.

Leslie, I know what you mean about people having trouble writing what they are thinking because I have the same issue, only with speaking. I know what I want to say in my head, but the words either don't come out the way I meant them to or I get nervous and a little bit of the stuttering sneaks back in. But my chickens don't mind as long as I feed them, water them, and sneak them treats.

Ken grew up on a 1000 acre ranch near Pinedale, Wy. with 6 sisters and two brothers. I got to "play" at ranch chores a little bit when I'd go back to visit. But I never did outlive the title "dude", even though it was never said in a mean, cutting way - always in good fun, and I gave as good as I got. I loved to help with the lambing and calving! My official job was the ooher-ahher. You know, see the little lamb or calf wobble to his feet and say, "Ohhh!" and "Ahh!", and "Oh, how CUTE!" That was about all they trusted me with but I was really, really good at it.

Early one spring I went out to see what I could help with (translation: how much I could get in the way) and they were cleaning out the corrals. All but two of Ken's siblings were out there working - the two little ones were in with Mom. What a smelly, slimy, muddy mess it was out there! Ken's dad had some doohicky attached to the front of his little tractor, scraping the corral down to bare ground and pushing it all up against the side wall of the loafing shed. Everyone had wheelbarrows and shovels, and they were scooping it away from where he'd pushed it and moving it through a gate into yet another corral - the empty, dry one - so he could load it into the manure spreader later and pull it out to the fields with the big tractor - I guess. I don't understand these technical processes. Seemed like a stupid way to do it - push it into a line against the shed so it could be shoveled away from the shed and put into a big pile in another place. I thought it would be so much more efficient to use the tractor thingy and load the spreader to start with, but what did I know? So I made the mistake of asking why he was doing it that way when he could just scoop it up and load the machine.

Very patiently he explained that the drier corral where it was being dumped by the wheelbarrow load was dry because he alternated corrals every winter. That way when he took the big tractor and manure spreader in for loading, he didn't have to worry about getting stuck in the slime.

Anyway, there I was in my stiff new jeans and my amazing mother-in-law's sweatshirt, windbreaker and boots, nodding my head wisely like I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Need some help?" I offered.

I swear the gleam in Dad's eye was as bright as a new penny. He saw another opportunity to get me, and he wasn't about to let one this rich get past him. "Sure, grab the shovel and 'barrow from Liz so she can take a break."

I watched what the others were doing. Boy, they were sure being lazy. A few scoops of muck into the wheelbarrow and off they went through the gate into the other corral. I could do better than that, and I was just a city kid. I took Liz's poop mover equipment and got busy. I filled that wheelbarrow, and I filled it good. It was heaped high in the middle and I was getting twice as much as the other kids were. Then I propped my shovel up against the shed and prepared to join the parade. I grabbed both handles of that wheelbarrow, lifted it up, pushed......and the only thing that moved was my head and my hands. My feet had no traction in that mess, the load was so wet and heavy that it wasn't budging, but my hands slid down the handles toward the neatly domed pile I had created and in I went, face first. The first row plowed with that rich fertilizer wasn't made with a plow - it was made with my chin.

I came up spitting and sputtering and I knew every one was rolling with laughter. So I wiped my chin on Mom's windbreaker, which did nothing more than smear it worse, wiped my hands on my new jeans, and lightened my wheelbarrow load considerably. Dad ordered everyone back to work, and we went on through the rest of the morning as if nothing had happened. I did something stupid, I paid the price, and as far as the family was concerned it was over and done. Until dinner that night. But I think we just won't go there at the moment.

So understand, then, how proud I was of myself when today I put on my chicken coop shoes, my flannel lined jeans and my fluffy flannel shirt, my denim jacket, and I went out in the snow for the first time to "do my chores." Look at me, Dad! I'm a chore doer! Why, if I could have found an old floppy hat and a straw to stick in my mouth I'd have looked almost like a real farmer! But then again, I've suddenly become a little leery of straws in the mouth!

 

[Beekissed]

Hope you feel better. I will make you some cinnamon bread. Everything is better with homemade cinnamon bread.
This is the best recipe ever.

As far as the screws go...I don't think I can use bigger since they go through the metal door too. :/

About me...I am a single mom with 2 grown boys (20 and almost 22) that I am extremely proud of. My oldest is graduating from UNT in May. My youngest is currently working two jobs and is trying to get his dream job as a Subaru mechanic. He wants to have his own Subaru Rally team someday. When I took him to his first rally up near Paris I thought I was just along as the driver - he couldn't drive yet - and it turns out that I love these rallies too. OK, back to me.... I work from home for an insurance agency. Not a glamorous job but I won't trade it for the world. My hours are somewhat flexible and that allows me to cycle.

I am obsessed with cycling. It keeps me sane. I've been a roadie for 2.75 years now and I can ride over 6K miles in a year. I did that in 2012 and 2013. This year is proving to be a challenge for riding outside. Dang weather! I ride in the trainer on 'bad weather days'.
I just planted my garden last weekend and I am trying to fix up my yard after 40+ years of neglect. I bought a 1966 Ranch house a year and a half ago that you couldn't see from the street. My friends thought it was abandoned. The previous owners had sort of fixed up the inside to I have been concentrating on the yard. This yard (1/4 acre) had not seen any real landscaping. Ever. My neighbours love me.
I don't have chickens yet, but I am working towards that. It will hopefully be a reality sooner rather than later. In the mean time I am learning all I can.

You are a busy woman!

What a neat thing that you can work from home and engage in your love of cycling...I wish I was that fit and had a place to cycle as I would love to take Jake bikejoring. Have you ever done that?

Can you grab a pic of your door that needs fixing and a close up of the problem? If not, and it's just the facing panel, can you glue on that part with Liquid Nails?

 

[lovingmyhens]

Anyone ever heard of Honey bars? http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/glazed-honey-bars-recipe.html?_escaped_fragment_=
These are the best. I'll make some this weekend and drop them by.
Melanie