The Front Porch Swing

[Loc20chick]

Our front porch...it's not as large as I like a porch to be, but it's cozy and smells like honeysuckle.....not the greatest of pics as I realized I had my flash on when the sun was shining brightly, so everything is overexposed. This is the porch on which we visit, relax and also bring our firewood into. In the winter time we store firewood on it as well.










This is the porch/stoop/entry way where we actually enter the house....as you can see, we've recently added a gate and some deer fencing to its adornment so that we can keep the chickens off it....they like to stand there in the winter time and preen, poop and otherwise cause dirt.



And this is the back porch/stoop with the same chicken deterrents in place....these were added in just the last 3 weeks. This is the door we "work" from....where we keep our work shoes, go up to feed the animals, tend the garden, mow the lawn, etc. It's usually pretty well used looking, but we have it abnormally spruce as we ready for our company this weekend.



And this is the house and its porch that I moved from to live with mother.....loved that house and porch! It had a swing, a settee, a rocking chair and wide banisters for the sitting.....




With a harvest decorating it....



And the views were always spectacular.....




Porches mean a lot to me....they symbolize peace, love and joy in my life, so I always tend to spend a lot of time on the porch if possible, laughing with my family, reading a book while a thunderstorm rages next to me, or just visiting with neighbors.

Lovely lovely, and the view amazing... now When I'm at the porch I can actually visualize where I am.

 

[jmoeller]

Our front porch...it's not as large as I like a porch to be, but it's cozy and smells like honeysuckle.....not the greatest of pics as I realized I had my flash on when the sun was shining brightly, so everything is overexposed. This is the porch on which we visit, relax and also bring our firewood into. In the winter time we store firewood on it as well.










This is the porch/stoop/entry way where we actually enter the house....as you can see, we've recently added a gate and some deer fencing to its adornment so that we can keep the chickens off it....they like to stand there in the winter time and preen, poop and otherwise cause dirt.



And this is the back porch/stoop with the same chicken deterrents in place....these were added in just the last 3 weeks. This is the door we "work" from....where we keep our work shoes, go up to feed the animals, tend the garden, mow the lawn, etc. It's usually pretty well used looking, but we have it abnormally spruce as we ready for our company this weekend.



And this is the house and its porch that I moved from to live with mother.....loved that house and porch! It had a swing, a settee, a rocking chair and wide banisters for the sitting.....




With a harvest decorating it....



And the views were always spectacular.....




Porches mean a lot to me....they symbolize peace, love and joy in my life, so I always tend to spend a lot of time on the porch if possible, laughing with my family, reading a book while a thunderstorm rages next to me, or just visiting with neighbors.

Love your porch(es). I also love Virginia and West Virginia. The mountains are so beautiful. Better than the Rockies IMO, because they seem more gentle and wooded. It is just a peaceful serene atmosphere.
This country is just so full of absolutely gorgeous places. I wish I had more time and money so I could travel more. I was thinking about taking a trip out your way this fall for our 30th anniversary, check out some blue grass music. Don't know if we will be able to pull it off though.

 

[Alice28]

...

When I was homeschooling, charter schools started popping up.  You are right, part of it is done from the home or by homeschoolers in some cases.  Every child is different and have different interests.  When you are in public school, the teacher can't teach 30 different ways.  That is one of the reasons why I loved to homeschool.  Being able to teach and watch the 'lightbulb' come on in their heads thrilled me to no end.  Every night was study night for me.  I loved every minute of it.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.



Oh my gosh Lisa, I saw all the bold print and red and was like, shoot, I didn't even say anything that could make someone mad! Lol! Then I read what you wrote I love my son and it just hurts when I can see he just learns by doing and that's not possible always. I just don't want him to feel like he's bad. My husband and I are hard workers and very go go go. We get stuff done! lol. I just want him to hear how good he is and what a good worker he is. Strangers on the street have heard him talking and stopped to comment on how observant and smart he is. Just dot want that to stop when he can't conform to a class and an overwhelmed, over worked and way underpaid teacher. So it's absolutely something I'm looking into. I might be sending you a message in another year for tips! Haha

 

[perchie.girl]

Our front porch...it's not as large as I like a porch to be, but it's cozy and smells like honeysuckle.....not the greatest of pics as I realized I had my flash on when the sun was shining brightly, so everything is overexposed. This is the porch on which we visit, relax and also bring our firewood into. In the winter time we store firewood on it as well.










This is the porch/stoop/entry way where we actually enter the house....as you can see, we've recently added a gate and some deer fencing to its adornment so that we can keep the chickens off it....they like to stand there in the winter time and preen, poop and otherwise cause dirt.



And this is the back porch/stoop with the same chicken deterrents in place....these were added in just the last 3 weeks. This is the door we "work" from....where we keep our work shoes, go up to feed the animals, tend the garden, mow the lawn, etc. It's usually pretty well used looking, but we have it abnormally spruce as we ready for our company this weekend.



And this is the house and its porch that I moved from to live with mother.....loved that house and porch! It had a swing, a settee, a rocking chair and wide banisters for the sitting.....




With a harvest decorating it....



And the views were always spectacular.....




Porches mean a lot to me....they symbolize peace, love and joy in my life, so I always tend to spend a lot of time on the porch if possible, laughing with my family, reading a book while a thunderstorm rages next to me, or just visiting with neighbors.

LOVE it all... Porches views history.... Log cabins are awesome....

deb

 

[Tomtommom]

Quote:
Yup, that's my step-son too. He strikes up a conversation with everyone.. sounds like an old man at times

And then he goes off on a tangent about something crazy. Complete strangers adore that boy (doesn't help his need to be in the spotlight, it's constantly encouraged by doting folks). He talks like an adult.. I sometimes have to reign him in and tell him he's a kid, we're the adults and he can't talk that way to adults until he's one too.

I wanted to home school him, but he's not my child, I do not make those decisions. And now that he's been in school for a year with a great teacher, he loves school. I just worry about all the not so great teachers... We got really lucky with our last one, one of those kindergarten teachers little boys want to marry and a little girl want to grow up to be like. Patient, gentle but firm, caring... passionate about her job. I saw some of the other teachers and they appeared disconnected.

Ofcourse, now I have my hands full with Thomas and I wouldn't know how to fit homeschooling in.

He's such a sweet kid. So responsible. He wants to be a dad and a racecar driver.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: Its funny as a twelve year old my first year with horses and first horse almost killed me partially crushed a vertibre in my back and I didnt find out till I was 25. I was thrown over a hundred times my second year of riding... Mostly jumped out from under riding a much younger but sweet and spooky mare. My fourth horse by then. I would tell you its a long story but I am currently actually writing a full on story about it.

My one horsy boyfriend and I were riding out on the trail and he cantered down hill to a trail below. My mares one and only time of bucking. She threw me up and over her head and galloped over the top of me. yep I saw her feet and belly and the one toe that grazed my face taking a Teeny strip of skin off about the width of a match stick and a quarter inch long... Faces bleed profusely but I was ok. Boyfriend took my horse and gave me his.... He was the son of a horse trader and an Uber qualified horse trainer in his own right. My mares only fault is she was young and trained by a fourteen year old.

After that year I was pretty much un dumpable till I was bucked off twice in one ride by a horse that came off a bucking string because he wasnt good enough. That was my first experience of actually being bucked off because the horse wanted me off. Thankfully he didnt belong to me.

From then on I was dumped about once a year. Kind of a way to keep me humble and all that. Then I rased a foal from my spooky now marvelous mare. He was half arab.... Marc was a pocket pony... Unflappable because I exposed him to everything while he was still nursing. I rode and took him along on a longish leadrope.

The only time I ever got hurt with him was when I was riding him as a three year old. Second or third time out on trail.... Unfortunately we had to ride about a mile down paved road to get to nice dirt roads. I always rode with a riding partner for safety. Her horse was a been there done that gelding named Chief. As we were riding Chief would go in front to give Mark a feeling of safety. Well That "safety" was stripped when a fellow on the road decided to drag race with another. HE changed lanes right infront of the other car with a swoup.... Which put him right next to Marc

I can still see it in slow motion.... Marc thought he was going to die. He raise his front feet off the ground just a little turned and leaped off the embankment toward a cow pasture.... fortunately when he came down he mist the T Post on the barbed wire which would have ment death for him.... Unfortunately he only got half of himself over the barbed wire. I was still aboard in my english saddle (I never really rode western after I converted over to english) I could feel him kicking and trying to get his balance over his front legs... I bailed off the off side... First time I have ever bailed off a horse. He got free at the very same time. and in the scramble to keep from falling he stepped on my leg just below the knee and barely on the bone. It was an irrigated field so the soft soil underneath kept it from breaking.

I got up he got up and whinnied at me.... Like MOM are YOU OK... "They are gone now and YOU are OK" I told him He heaved a big sigh... I looked him over and all he had was about an inch and a half cut on his stifle and a split righ in the lower middle part of his sheath. Whew... No ligaments were involved. Outside of a tetnaus shot that was all he would need. I rode him the rest of the way home. It was good for both of us.

I have been Bit, Kicked, spooked out from undre, bucked off, Fallen down with, Trampled at least twice been thrown through a wooden fence.... I have fallen off being silly had my bell rung a dozen times.... Had toes stepped on.... But in all that time covering 47 years of riding and being around horses I have never really broken a bone. (that I knew of) And only learned fear from this mare...

deb

 

[LindaB220]

Today was chore day for me. I bought 3 50# bags of feed the other day and today was the day to get out of the trunk of the car and into the storeroom. I managed to get all three bags to the utility cart and pulled up to the storeroom. Opened one and started dipping out bucket fulls to a 5 gallon container. There I can carry it up the 3 steps and pour into the 18 gallon containers. I had the first one about 1/3 done and Aimee came out and said "Oh I wanted to borrow your cart". So she lifted the 50# bags into the storeroom for me and poured them up. Love that girl of mine. She laughed and said "I pick up 100 lb dogs all the time". Win-win for me. And saved my back a LOT. The VERY first time help was offered in chicken doings. EVER.

 

[LindaB220]

It his mom that would take the diagnosis and run with it.

She's got some issues.... She's been telling us the kid is bipolar, has diabetis, ADD, ADHD etc. etc. We get calls every other weekend that something is wrong with him. Ear infection, stomach virus, black eye... She's called CPS on us before. Tried to claim I abused him. He's seeing a councelor who keeps tabs on things, she testified that there is NO sign of abuse. When he liuved with her she'd take him to the pediatrician every other week. It's not malicious on her part, she truly has attention deficit disorder (which also means she feels a constant urge to receive attention). She's told us with a straight face that she has brain cancer.. and she was born in puerto rico.. and she had her legs stretched as a kid etc. etc. etc. My ex-husband dated her in high school a year before we became an item (LOOONG story), so I'm familiar with her antics.

My step-son is doing much better. He started the school year receiving yellow and red smilies on his behavior chart several times a week, toward the end of the year he actually had mostly green smilies with the occasional yellow and rarely a red. Being in a stable home really helps him. He loves being a big brother and a helper, so calling on that urge helps to center him. His councelor says he has ADD tendancies, but not enough to warrant medication yet. He's going to first grade after the summer, we'll see how it goes.

He does talk A LOT. And it's about nothing and everything.. and everything gets spun around so it's about him

Wild tales... just like his momma. I just hope we can teach him the difference between truth and fiction as he gets older.

Attention deficit disorder. That doesn't mean he craves attention. That means that his brain neurons are firing so fast that his attention span only lasts a certain amount of time. With Patrick as a 3 yr ol, his was about 6 seconds. It's better now but not much. I could start a sentence and by the 6th word his eyes would glaze over and he was thinking of something else. That's why his learning was so late. Twelve in 3 wks and he's terrified of people , outside bugs, loud crowds etc. He has to get on the bus everyday and go to class. That's why he has a grown helper to sit by him and show him things other people have picked in one sentence. Writes like a five yr old. When he comes to see me and watches TV, he starts a new movie every 5 mins. Heartbreaking. No idea what he will do later in life.

 

[Beekissed]

Today was chore day for me. I bought 3 50# bags of feed the other day and today was the day to get out of the trunk of the car and into the storeroom. I managed to get all three bags to the utility cart and pulled up to the storeroom. Opened one and started dipping out bucket fulls to a 5 gallon container. There I can carry it up the 3 steps and pour into the 18 gallon containers. I had the first one about 1/3 done and Aimee came out and said "Oh I wanted to borrow your cart". So she lifted the 50# bags into the storeroom for me and poured them up. Love that girl of mine. She laughed and said "I pick up 100 lb dogs all the time". Win-win for me. And saved my back a LOT. The VERY first time help was offered in chicken doings. EVER.

That's worth celebrating!

It's nice to get some help every now and again.....that's been missing a lot in my life, so I no longer even expect it but it's still nice when it happens.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

The spinach artichoke dip Bruce and his girls made for our lunch was a big hit! Dad was licking the plates. I over cooked the steaks, but it was good meat so we could still chew it. Next up, strawberry shortcake, minus the cake. Strawberry Even Shorter Cake? More room for whipped cream, I think.