June 8, 2025

    Good morning to you, is your day starting off well? It is very warm here in Hewitt this morning and it will get very hot this afternoon.

Today is Sunday and we have no big plans for the day. We will likely go out for lunch and do nothing else that I can think of other than come back and complain about the heat.

We didn't do much of anything yesterday, on Saturday, I mowed the front yard, and it looks pretty nice, we went into town for a sandwich at lunch and then went to the cheap store where we bought nothing. We couldn't find anything in the cheap store that got our attention, so we left there, came back home sit around in the house, sat around outside, came back into the house to cool down, fed the dog, went back outside sat outside till about 7:00pm. It was hot outside but there was a breeze, so it wasn't too awful bad.

I do have a photo of myself standing beside a huge sunflower which my wife pointed out to me. I thought I'd get a selfie of the sunflower and me together for your enjoyment.    

I know I'm as bright as the flower in this photograph, thank you.

Sunday will be a sunny day!

       Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow.

June 7, 2025

            The sun is shining brightly this morning. We want to wish each one of you a good morning and hope that you have a good day filled with kindness and friendship.

We have no big plans for today. Saturday normally we would have our yard man Alex come over and do our mowing for us, but we learned that he's going to be working with his father in their garage straightening up moving things around and getting everything in order. That means, if I want the front yard mowed, then I must get out and do it myself. Yes, an old person having to do the mowing himself. I will likely go out and mow just as soon as I finish these notes attempting to beat the heat which we are having now.

Let's see if I can tell you a little bit about what I did yesterday, being an old senior person work is difficult for old senior people. I did go out front with a very long pair of pliers to pull some weeds out of the Jasmine beds. Using the long pair of pliers I don't have to bend over as far but I still must bend over, and that's rough on an old senior person.

I did get out and replace one of our security cameras yesterday. The first thing you have to do is to take the old one down, that means you have to get on a ladder. Can you believe that I climbed 25 feet up to get to that camera and took it down, I wouldn't believe it either, I only went up on a step stool 2 steps to get to it and take it down. I was able to replace it with a new camera and after a few adjustments everything is back in order. The new camera has a very nice clear picture and I'm happy with the work I did.

We did sit outside yesterday afternoon even though it was very hot and a friend came by. It is really nice when you do have a friend that will stop by and talk to you for a little while. When she left a second friend came over and we sat around and talked. Would you believe that in both of those situations we did get some Bible talk going.

After the friend's conversations I decided to head into the house and see if I could get a bite of something to eat and had no intention of going out back in the heat and picking blackberries but once I got done with my small left-over supper, I decided to go out and pick blackberries.

All the work done I finally was able to get me a nice shower, and it felt good. I then crawled into bed and watched the little TV before going to sleep. What a day.  

Today after I get done mowing, we will probably go into town for a sandwich, we will probably stop at the cheap store, which is a normal thing for us, and then head back home.

I will attempt to stop for now, we hope you have a good day and that we all stay safe in all we do.

Lawn Man Don?

                        Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow.

June 6, 2025

            We would like to wish you a good morning. It's a nice, beautiful morning here in Hewitt, the sun is shining, and it is warm. We are supposed to be hot this afternoon in the mid-90s. This morning when Tres and I walked outside to view the yard and see what was going on in the neighborhood, I noticed an odd cloud with the sun shining on it, so I took a photograph of it, photo to follow.

             Yesterday's review: It was early afternoon as I sat inside the house with nothing special to do, nothing interesting on TV, so I decided to get up, grab an apple from the refrigerator and go out front and sit on the front porch for a while, allowing the afternoon to just drift on by.

My pot hound trace decided that he wanted to go out with me, so he was out there on the porch giving everything around the neighborhood a close look, as we saw one of the cats down at the neighbor's house across the street going to the other neighbor's house for a snack.  We know that one neighbor across the street feeds the other neighbor's cats across the street. So, who's cats are they if two parties feed them?

            As we sat there for a little while it was hot, humid, and there was very little breeze. I wished I'd have carried a fan out with me so I could fan myself, but obviously I had not done that. I was eating my apple when I saw the neighbor down the street back out of his driveway with his pickup truck. It's a red pickup truck and my dog barks like crazy at it every time it goes by because the neighbor has 2 little dogs and a lot of the time when he goes by, those two little dogs are barking at my dog. Well, I had the apple, and I took a bite, and I took it and held it up where my dog could see it and he looked at the apple and he wanted my bite of apple. The truck drove by and he didn't pay any attention to the truck as he was too interested in the bite of apple. The truck got completely by without him even knowing.

            A little later as we sat there, I saw a shadow go across the street. Yes, it was a shadow, and it went across the top of the neighbor's house went around a little bit and it came back across the other neighbor's house. This shadow was a shadow of a large bird, and it was flying around checking the neighborhood out to find something to eat. The shadow went away and then a little later the shadow came back and this time he flew far enough away so that we could see him, not just his shadow, and it was a big old Buzzard looking for something lying on the ground dead to eat.

             Even though I did not get a photo of the buzzard I do have a photo of the most interesting thing that I think we may have seen the entire time that we were outside, photo to follow. Tree limbs and clouds overhead. Can you say it's an uninteresting time sitting?

            I guess you can see how interesting my little trips out to the front porch can be with nothing but me, the dog and an apple. The neighborhood was dead quiet, nothing was happening, nobody was outside, it was too lonely, so we decided to go back into the house and cool off.

            Later in the day I did venture Outback where I observe some sunflowers starting to bloom and also, I noticed the neighbors must have had an Easter egg hunt, because there is an easter egg still laying in their back yard by the fence, and it has been there for several weeks, photos to follow. Yes, the birds planted the sunflowers.

     

 My favorite wife and I harvested blackberries yesterday, and we did say ouch several times. We got quite a few blackberries again, probably more than we need.

I have one more photo then I will quit irritating you with my thoughts and photos. This photo is of the first blooms on our plumerias this year and we thought they were pretty.

            I will stop for now, we hope you have a good day and please stay safe in all you do.

Master photographer.

            Don the Ford

May to day be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow.

June 5, 2025

            I sit here again trying to use the new computer, I am learning a lot about the new computer, but it is as crazy as can be. Sometimes coming up with things that I have no idea why it was there or what it's for, and eventually, being the smart guy that I am, I usually am able to get rid of some crap.

            Allow me to wish everybody a good morning. We got through the day okay yesterday, no big problems here at the Ford homestead, we didn't do much of anything, but we did sit outside yesterday afternoon and talked about different things.

            I did get over to the nursery yesterday and did not get one of the items I wanted but did get some weed killer that hopefully will kill a few weeds we have and not hurt the grass. I sprayed a little bit of it out back yesterday to see if it had any effect or how long it would take if it had an effect.

            I was allowed to remove another what we call, "4 O'clocks", out of a flower bed where it was not supposed to be growing. As we sat out yesterday afternoon, I noticed a little flower blooming right next to where I was sitting so, I took a picture. Now in the picture you'll see my hand because the bloom is so small that I wanted you to kind of get an idea of how small it was by also seeing my hand.

             Our big plans for today will probably be going out to supper this afternoon, considered as a date night, no other big plans for the day unless something happens to pop up.

             We hope everyone has a good day and a safe day and be nice to everyone.

Nice hand!

                Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow.

June 4, 2025

            Allow me to start out with a good morning to all, we hope your day will be great and safe in all you do. We did get a little rain last night, but it wasn't too much, not even 1/4 inch in the rain gauge. The backyard is not standing in water although it is wet but it's not standing in water.

We did have our yard man Alex over yesterday he mowed the backyard, and it is looking good. We looked at the front yard and decided that we would not mow it, as it was doing OK.

We didn't do a lot yesterday other than help with Alex a little bit, we did sit outside for a while and it was kind of odd, our clock that chimes with the president's voice was not heard by either myself or my favorite wife at 5:00pm. Neither of us had remembered hearing it talk so we must have been in a very intense discussion. We both listened at 6:00 and it did talk.

I had thought that I would go to the nursery yesterday and after dropping Alex off at home, and on the way home I totally forgot until I pulled into the driveway. Possibly I will remember to go to the nursery today and talk to them about something I have in the backyard. I will show you a picture of something that's growing out there, I have no idea what it is and it is growing on old roots of a tree that's been cut down, photo to follow. 

I know it is a type of fungus, and I hit it with my foot, and it is not soft like a mushroom. The old roots are above ground in a couple of places, and this fungus is in several places. The other photo is of a flower blooming.

            I will attempt to stop now. We hope everybody has a good day and that we all stay safe in all we do.

Killer Fungus?

DON THE FORD

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow.

May 3, 2025

            We are starting off with a good morning here in Hewitt TX, and we hope your day is awesome. We had a rain free day yesterday and they're suggesting that we're going to have rain this afternoon or tonight, which is going to make the backyard wet even again and no mowing.

            Today we want to talk about how we harvest blackberries here at the Ford homestead. We have 3 BlackBerry beds, and each presents us with several blackberries each year. If you're going to have blackberries in your garden or yard, you ought to talk to somebody who's had blackberries for several years who knows how to handle them, and how to plant them, and how to harvest them.

One of the first things you should learn is they need to be planted in a place where you can access both sides of the blackberries, in other words don't plant them up against the fence against a building, because you still can't get to the other side to pick the berries.

I typically make my BlackBerry bed 3 feet wide and anywhere from 10 to 20 feet long.  Plant your blackberries in the center of the bed all the way down through the bed, the plants will expand as time goes by.

It has been my experience that the vine that had blackberries on it this year will not produce blackberries next year, so you might as well cut back those that had produced berries this year. All the new growth should have berries on it next year.

When the berry beds have been there for a couple years, they will start growing both inside and outside the beds, you may find the new growth as much as 6-8 feet away from the Berry bed. If you want, you can dig up the new growth and plant them elsewhere or give them to a friend.

It has been my experience that the thornless berries that I have purchased seemed to be smaller in size than the blackberries that have regular thorns on them.

When harvesting the blackberries you will say ouch a bunch of times, you will get stickers in your hands and arms, you will likely have bloody arms from the cuts and scrapes when you get done picking the blackberries. It is not something that everybody can do.

Thanks for reading.

New topic: yesterday as I was leaving the house I observed a small hawk in the neighbor's yard. It was eating something so I stopped my car, rolled the window down, and tried to get a photograph which I will post here for you. Later in the afternoon as my wife and I were sitting outside enjoying happy hour, we saw a big old hawk land in the neighbor's yard. I grabbed my camera to get a picture and about that time a car drove by and scared the hawk away, so there was no picture of the hawk.

Another photo which I will share: the photo is of a blooming lily. When I looked at it I thought it looked like it was shaped somewhat like a heart, so I found it interesting and posted it here.

Let's see what might happen today; I might go over to the nursery to see about some dirt and some weed killer, other than that not much going on here at the Ford Homestead. I will stop for now, we hope you have a good day and be safe in all we do.

Black berry lecturer.

            Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow.

June 2, 2025

            Good morning from us here in Hewitt to everyone who reads this, or should I say to anyone who reads this if anyone reads this.

We had a very good day yesterday. We went out for lunch over at the cracker store and we enjoyed the food and service. After lunch we returned home and did very little other than sitting around outside on the front porch in the quiet neighborhood. We enjoyed the nice weather for a while then we came in and I fed the animals. We started to get some thunder, and the Dog and cat were both upset as it began to rain.

My favorite wife had been out on the back patio talking to someone on the phone when the rain came and it poured for a little while, we got a little over 1/2 inch of rain again yesterday.

 After the rain stopped, we went outside to the driveway and enjoyed the afternoon. It had cooled down after the rain, so it was a very nice quiet afternoon.

            Different topic: as an old person I find it interesting, that sometimes I cannot remember what I did 10 minutes ago, yet I can still remember what I did 65 years ago, that's kind of odd.

I began thinking about memory when it came to me about something that had happened at least 68 years ago. I saw a post from an old friend Richard. We were kids back in Missouri, we were probably 12 years old. We were both on our bicycles and we had ridden down into a graveyard which was across the street from where he lived. The graveyard was on a big hill, and you can see down to the Mississippi River from the graveyard. We were down there goofing around and then when we left the graveyard we went up back up to the street and we rode over there was a school that was about a block away. We were playing around riding our bikes on the school grounds when a cop showed up and stopped my friend. Now I'm down at the other end so I don't go see what the cop wants but the cop got on to him and told him that we were not to be in that graveyard anymore. Someone had called and reported on us for being there.

Why can I remember something like that, from that far back, and not remember what happened 10 minutes ago isn't that something (nope it is just ole people).

We have no plans for today; I do need to harvest the black berries if I can wade through the water in the back 40. I guess we will see what happens.

I have been doing most of this posting verbally, that means I would talk, and the computer would enter the data for me.

We hope you have a good day and be safe in all we do.

Dictating words.

            Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow.

June 1, 2025

            I would like to wish everyone a very good morning, and we hope you all have a very good day. Saturday was very good. We did get to go into town for sandwiches for lunch and we went to the cheap store as usual and then returned home, and I mowed the front yard myself. Our grandson Alex is out of town at a ROTC camp. I had to do all the work myself, and the yard looks almost as good as if Alex had actually done the mowing. Photo to follow.

                        Today being Sunday, we will probably go to the cracker store for lunch and have our usual pot roast. We hope there's not too many people there, so we don't have to wait in line to get seated.  We had a very good waiter last week, and we hope to get him again this week.

            I did do the Ouch thing yesterday, that is harvesting blackberries. I said ouch a bunch of times and my arms were bleeding when I got done.  After all that strenuous work we did sit outside for a little while and relax in the quietness of our neighborhood.

            To anyone who reads these posts we wish a good day, and we hope that we all stay safe in all we do.

Lawn Man Don the Ford.

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow.