Driveway repairs

Well, that is a picture of some of the new gravel being put down in our driveway. Actually, I didn't dare get much closer to take a picture of the rest of the gravel, because there are big trucks out there and the men are not wanting a woman out there taking pictures. LOL! AND I certainly didn't want to end up under one of those piles! So, I stood on the front porch to take the picture.

We had sustained some damage to our driveway during the flooding rains that we had in north Texas.

The rain waters decided to cut an 18 inch deep by about 8 inches wide and about 20 feet long, little river bed for themselves to flow in. This, now dry little river bed, however, is not appreciated by our cars and their tires, so we are having it repaired.

It is funny to watch these grown up boys playing with their life size TONKA trucks and having fun. I for one am glad they enjoy it. I wasn't enjoying the idea of getting out there with a shovel to fix it, that is for sure.

A Rainbow Shawl

I had a very soft, hand painted, spinning roving and wanted to try some different things with it. I split it in half and used some of it to spin a very bulky yarn and some to spin finely for a shawl.The colors were the colors of a rainbow and painted on the roving in about 5 inch sections. I didn't split the color sections lengthwise, I tried to leave them whole and spin each color in a long yarn, thus having very long color repeats. When I was done spinning, knowing that I didn't have nearly enough for a wonderfully large lace shawl, and not wanting to ply the yarn on itself, because I liked the single color look, I thought I would ply the yarn with sewing thread, which I did. I used a blue thread and plied it in such a manner that the yarn has a lot of texture in it. Then came the swatching for the shawl. The stitch that I had wanted to use didn't lookvery nice, it was too busy for the texture in the yarn. So, I finally settled on the one you see here. I am really excited with how this shawl looks. I will post more when I get more knitted. Oh, and if you look at the ball of yarn, you can see the long color repeats in it.

Boat Ramp

The other day, I posted some photos of the boat ramp near our home. Jeff obtained a picture of the ramp and parking lot, from several years ago. This give you a perspective of the size of the lot and the walking bridge to the fishing dock.
Thought you might like to see this perspective too.

We are having a mostly sunny day today. The storm clouds are hovering around, just waiting to join together, to flood us with their precious gift of rain again. :) At least that is the forecast, and when you look up, you see blue sky and plenty of puffy clouds.

Happy 4th of July to all! Think back to our wonderful forefathers and mothers, who put their lives on the line for the freedoms we hold so dear to ourselves today. Thank you to all our veterans, especially my grandpa(deceased WWI), my dad(deceased WWII), my husband, and my son-in-law, for putting their lives "on hold" to serve for our freedom!

Flooding Pictures of Lake Lewisville

In north central Texas, we have been having a lot of rain. Last I heard, it was the second wettest June on record with 11.10 inches recorded at DFW Airport. Different areas around the metroplex have had more or less rain. So far, we have had 32.08 inches of rain for the year. Would someone look at the map and see if the Dallas, Ft Worth, Denton area of Texas was moved to Seattle, Washington area, in the middle of the month?? I have some great pictures that I took at the boat dock near our home. The boat dock is on Lake Lewisville. All the public ramps are closed, because the water is too high. So, Jeff and I went to see. Enjoy the pictures. This is the parking lot entrance.

Here is our car at the gate to the parking lot for the fishing dock and boat ramp. Can you see the water by the front tire?

We also encountered a curious egret. She was so curious, about our car and the funny lady taking pictures, that she kept moving closer. Then she flew away.

This light pole is in the middle of the parking lot. Can you see the light is on?

This is a fishing dock, that has a walking bridge to it. Notice the trees and light pole are in the water.

The bridge to the dock is submerged under water.

Did you want to know where the egret flew off to? I found her at the other end of the parking lot, with her baby.

My New Favorite Bird and More Rain

My new favorite bird is the Roadrunner. We actually have roadrunners here, living right around us. I looked them up in my bird book and guess what they eat? Snakes. Well, they are at the top of my list, that is for sure! I was watching one today and they are fascinating to watch, as they stalk their prey and catch it. I will keep trying to get a better picture, of the roadrunner, to post on here. Behind the roadrunner is the damage that 6-8 inches of rain in 3 hours did to our rock driveway the other night.

Well, we have had more rain here in North Texas. In a town just north of here, Gainesville, 300 homes were either lost or damaged by flood waters. Other than the gulley in our driveway, we had no other damage, except that our beautiful pool looked like pea soup and had lots of branches and leaves in it. But, we perservered and conquered. We have, once again, a beautiful pool. Of course, more rain is in the forecast. I am grateful, though, that we didn't receive more damage.

A Finished Sweater

Wow! We have been getting a lot of rain! Actually, several years ago, our area started with a drought. By last year, Texas was in a severe drought. In our town we couldn’t even wash our cars. Lawn watering was only allowed 2 days a week. There were wild fires all over too. It was common to be driving on a highway and see a black section where there had been a fire. We left our spray nozzles hooked to our hoses, to be ready. However, when God answers a prayer with a yes, He answers the prayer. Most of our lake levels are above normal state and we are even getting rain in June! Normally, rain doesn’t happen a lot in the summer months. I find myself thinking of the promise God made to Noah after the flood.

On the knitting front, I finished my circumnavigate sweater. It is a pattern written by Medrith Glover and published by Knitters Magazine back in 1989, I believe. It works well with handspun yarn, which is what I used for my sweater. The Dallas Handknitter’s Guild decided to use Medrith’s pattern as a group project last September. I joined along, even though I didn’t get to go to most of the meetings. Here you see my sweater, finished. The sweater is knitted from the bottom up and knitted in one piece. It has no seams to sew when done either. There are pockets knitted in on the front, which is what I put one of the sleeves into, trying to get it to show. It is a great sweater and next winter I know I will enjoy it.


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Snakes and Sauces

Today I found out some good news from Jeff. Since we live in Texas and we now have our wonderful home in the woods, we now deal with the very real possibility of copperhead snakes. Let’s just say that that is not a wonderful proposition in my book. The first night we were moving in, our new neighbors offered to help (that was so great too!), but they told us immediately about the snakes. I stood there and thought, “Oh, no, what I have I done? Well, the house has trees and a pool and we have already signed the papers, so I guess I will have to deal with this, like a grown up.” I am not a snake person, I grew up in suburbia, where snakes were in zoos, where they belong. Not in my back, or front yard.

Well, it happened. Jeff was outside trimming one day, and guess what he saw. Yep, a copperhead snake. Of course, I had to see it too. Gulp. Still didn’t think it a great idea. Well, the news today is, that we have ordered some solar snake repellents. They make the snakes leave your yard. We know they work, because some neighbors down the street have them and they have proven it. So, pretty soon, our little neck of the woods should be snake free. I think I will probably still watch for them though.

Another exciting thing happened about a week ago. I was walking up and down the aisle at the local Wally’s World and, as always, I glanced at the ice cream topping section. You see, I grew up in New York State. We had/have restaurants called Friendly’s there. You can order a Peanut Butter, Hot Fudge Sundae there. Well, eventually, Hershey’s bought all the Reese’s peanut butter items, including, the sauce recipe. So, since there isn’t a Friendly’s here, I keep looking in the stores. The GOOD NEWS is that I found some Reese’s Peanut Butter ice cream sauce in the store, and of course I purchased it. It is tasty, although it is a different texture than I remember it. But, it is good and I will purchase it again.