Summer Rain

Thank you Heavenly Father for the rain!

I am presently sitting by (one of) my garden(s) watching it grow.  I got my gardens out real late and I guess you could call it a "hail Mary" attempt. I figured it would dry up and be like last year but I sowed anyway with little faith and lots of disgust.  Well, this "Thomas" has canned 8.5 quarts of green beans, had our  first ripe tomatoes for supper, the beets are ready to pick an I just spied at least two cukes ready to pick!  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Postage Stamp Lawns

Now if you don't know what a "Postage Stamp Lawn" is, let me enlighten you.  It's a yard the size of a postage stamp...Some of the thousands of readers of my blog are saying right now, "What is a postage stamp?"  OK, OK, I'm blogging about a very very very teensy tiny yard.

I see the most amusing things when I am out and about.  There is a guy with a huge beer belly (amusing), half-dressed (NOT amusing), mowing the lawn/yard with a RIDING MOWER!!  He can't even turn the mower around without executing a seventeen point turn!  He is very near to defying one of the principles of Quantum Physics - the Pauli exclusion principle. (clueless? - read about it here)  The only way this could get worse is.... if it is the wife doing the mowing....and I won't even go there...

My yard is small.  Not postage stamp size but definitely monarch envelope size.  I do have a belly.  Not a beer belly but may be a root beer belly.  I do not have a riding lawn mower.  This is the reason.  It is commonly referred to as the "Yard Enlargement Rate Theorem" or YERT.  It states:  "The size of the yard is in direct proportion to the size of the equipment used to mow said yard"  Hence:
Tiny yard - push mower (no engine)
Small yard - push mower (with engine)
Medium yard - conventional style rider
Large yard - Zero Turn mower
Humungous yard only a deranged person would have - A Tow-Behind Golf Fairway Mower

So...in keeping with the YERT, I have purchased a new lawn mower.  The picture below will give you some idea of the size of my yard.

It is a Sears Craftsman with 190cc OHV self-priming engine.  It has a bagger and the little green thing on the deck is a hose hookup to wash the underside after mowing.  Purty neat!

Hope you have enjoyed my rant and happy mowing!!

Redburn Peaches

One of my old friends passed away a couple of weeks ago.  Carl Redburn was a good man that served the Lord in his own quiet way.  We lived neighbors to the Redburn family for a few years and went to church with them basically my whole life.  When I think of people like Carl and Elaine Redurn, the song "Good People Are The Salt Of The Earth" by Ricky Skaggs comes to mind.

A year or so ago, Brother Carl gave me some peach tree seedlings.  I planted a couple and gave some to my father-in-law.  The drought last summer put the hurt on them but as you can see in the picture below, they are thriving.  I dubbed them my "Redburn Peaches" and am looking forward to my first peach cobbler!

In the picture below, Brother Carl is on the right and Brother AE Young (with cup) is on the left.  Thank the Lord for good, Godly examples like these men!

Earls Cousins

Found this picture of the Earls First Cousins.  These are the Grandchildren of Jess and Effie Earls, known as Papa or Brother Jess and Mamma (Ma'am-ma).  There is one cousin missing that evidently was not born yet.  I'll try to get the names and pecking order right but feel free to question my analysis!

 

The children of Elmer & Alma (Earls) Riggs - Tallest man in the ball cap is Leamon Riggs (my Dad), to his right Lorene (Riggs) Hendrix and to his left Yvonne (Riggs) Trantham.  Little boy in shorts - Marion Riggs
Pecking Order: Lorene (oldest grandchild), Leamon, Yvonne & Marion

The children of (Jesse) Ray & Nell (Huddleston) Earls - Second tallest man in ball cap is Charles Ray (Son) Earls; to his right, Jesse (Pud) Earls; in front of Pud - Jerry Earls; in front of Jerry - Dillon Earls; Tall girl right in front - Shirley Earls (Von Allmen); Shirley is holding Edwin Earls by the hand
Pecking Order: Son, Pud, Jerry, Shirley, Dillon, Edwin (and not born yet - Brenda)

The children of Hugh Willard & Pauline (Earls) Willard-Capshaw - Middle row-girl on the far right (picture) Kathleen (Kat) (Willard) Dennison and to her right, Phyllisdean (Willard) Sharp
Pecking Order: Kat & Phyllisdean
(Hugh Willard passed away in 1976 and Pauline married a Capshaw but I do not know his first name)

By the way...On my Grandma Alma's obituary it listed another sister to Alma, Ray and Pauline.  When I find the obituary I will post it.

And by the way...I think this picture is taken at the Lost Pond School House where Ray and Nell lived.  The rock building corner in the picture is the corner of the school house.

Your Hometown???

Not "Caahoon"...Tightwad!?  I was working at Windsor Missouri the other day and just had to take a picture of this sign.

Now the other day, my friend, the Reverend Davy Boggs, gave the history of Wartburg, TN on his blog.  I will endeavor to do the same here with the help of Wikipedia and other sources.

It seems the moniker originated from a store keeper that cheated someone in a transaction involving a watermelon (some contend it was a rooster).  So the town was named after the old "Tightwad" that ran the General Store.  But don't think everyone in this little village is a cheapskate.  In a 1988 interview, Mayor Tom Skaggs stated "Tightwad townspeople are generous to a fault."  He made this statement while standing on the corner of Stingy and Miser streets in Tightwad....  The present day village has a bank, which is appropriately named "Tightwad Bank".  The bank building sits on the corner of Scrooge and Skinflint avenues. (I just made that up!)  So...all you Penny-Pinchers out there...hope you enjoyed the history of your hometown!!

Father's Day 2013

We had a good Father's Day with Grandma and Grandpa Bean and all of the Bean offspring.  The picture below, in pecking order, left to right, youngest to oldest - John, Tim, Anna, Tami and Mike.  They were sharing a laugh with the photographer...............

I really appreciate my Mother-in-law and Father-in-law.  They have been a Mom and Dad to me since I lost my Dad in 1985 and Mom in 2006.  Grandma is my "Coffee Drinking" buddy and Grandpa and I keep the yard/garden ship-shape.  I love them so much!

And last but not LEAST...we know who does all the work at these gatherings and gets no credit...The In-laws!  Paula, Dar and I were plum tuckered out from all the dishwashin', cookin', sweepin' and cleanin'!  We were two short with Judy and Dave not able to be there but we hung in there and posed for this photo before going back "to the old salt mine"!

The Christian Troubadours

In the late 1960's, our church at Junction Hill was quite primitive to today's standard.  We had no air conditioning, no PA system and outside toilets.  I guess that was the reason that it made such an impression when we came into church one night and found the "The Christian Troubadours" all set up and ready for a concert.  I can still picture the big speakers on stands, the microphones, the sound board and then,... the music!

I don't know what possessed our Pastor, Brother Harold Essary, to have them come but I told him before he passed that their coming had a profound effect on my life.  It was in this "concert" that my life-long love of music was born.  My Dad bought the record shown above, without us even having a record player to play it on!  My Grandma, Alma Riggs (Momo) gave me an old box record player and I nearly wore out the record playing it.  It was the only one I had!  Then Momo gave me some old gospel records that she had by the Blackwood Brothers and Don & Earl,  Dad bought me some Happy Goodmans and Spear Family records and I kept the ole record player hot!  God has given me a great memory for remembering words to songs and to this day these song come to me and I can sing almost all of the words.  I sang all the time as a boy and now Tami says I have a song for every occasion!  Dad, Ralph and myself would be riding down the road in the truck (I had to sit in the middle cause I was the littlest). Dad didn't talk much so I would sing.  It didn't take long for Ralph to get tired of that so he would start pinching and poking me and whispering for me to "shut up"...so...I would stop singing...and start humming!!!  We came through the 8-track era, into the cassette era, then the CD and now I keep Grooveshark or Pandora on most of the time.  I consider myself an eclectic gospel music listener because I love lots of styles of music (excluding rock and some of the contemporary stuff).

Brother Harold told me he caught some flak for having them come but I assured him that it was in the plan of God.  I thank God for my Mom who encouraged me to sing and Sister Maurine Essary who stood a backward little boy on the piano bench and played for me to sing...And my Brother Ralph that played the banjo while I sang "Old G Chord"!

If you would like to hear a sample of the Christian Troubadours songs you can find them here.