Merry Christmas

My Christmas wish for you, my friend

Is not a simple one

For I wish you hope and joy and peace

Days filled with warmth and sun

I wish you love and friendship too

Throughout the coming year

Lots of laughter and happiness

To fill your world with cheer

May you count your blessings, one by one

And when totaled by the lot

May you find all you've been given

To be more than what you sought

May your journeys be short, your burdens light

May your spirit never grow old

May all your clouds have silver linings

And your rainbows pots of gold

I wish this all and so much more

May all your dreams come true

May you have a Merry Christmas friend

And a happy New Year, too ..

anon

Thursday December 13th

Yesterday morning the turkeys came right up to the house, they had no idea what a big mistake that could have been! The one below just knew 'something' wasn't right. She was looking right at the window.

Poor Tux was having a fit! He was so excited he was shaking. He'd go to the gun rack, look at it, look at me, look at it, look at me, and whine. He didn't understand why we didn't 'get one'. You can see in the pic he's got a death grip on the windowsill with his claws. Too funny.

Monday December 10th

The wildlife has been super active the last couple of weeks. I've been seeing the same 2 doe deer from the previous picture most days, sometimes with a 3rd and sometimes there's a young buck with them. (I didn't have a doe tag and don't shoot baby bucks). Lots of cool birds at the birdfeeders - woodpeckers, goldfinch, chickadee, nuthatch, titmouse, junco, and I saw 8 bluebirds fighting over my 2 bluebird houses. The wild turkey have been feeding in the garden for hours a day but the last 2 days they've come right into the yard. The pics aren't too clear because of the fog but you can see how close they are.

Saturday December 8th

With the leaves gone you can watch the sunset from the front porch now. Here's a nice one.

Not much going on, the weather is cruddy. Rainy and gloomy since tuesday and it looks like the sun won't come out till next thursday. Ugh. The temps are all over the place - highs from low 40s to high 60s and lows from low 30s to high 50s. When it's warm enough I've been working on cleaning and organizing the shop so I can use it. That's a big job that'll take awhile.

The 2nd hunting season ended last sunday and I didn't get a deer. Bad weather, other things to do and a lot of laziness on my part. Some days I didn't go out because I just didn't feel like facing the aftermath if I did get one. I need to hunt harder during the christmas hunt or learn to bow hunt (bow season is oct 1 - feb 30) if I don't want to eat grocery store meat for the next year. Yuck!

Now that hunting season is over Tux and I can go back to taking our afternoon walks. Poor pup was bored to death being cooped up in the house but I didn't want to disrupt the habitat during the season.

Friday November 30th

Gus and Colleen are the couple who came and took the shed, Gus is an avid photographer and took bunches of photos of our demolition project. He's posted them on the web and you can see them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Dragon43/Cedar
Make sure to click on the slideshow - the captions are great!

Wednesday November 28th

Look what was waiting on my doorstep last wednesday morning......a copperhead! Eeeeek! I put on my rubber boots, grabbed a shovel, and he's in snake heaven now.

It's been a pretty sucky week. Thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, and monday were cold, windy, and rainy so I was stuck in the house with serious cabin fever. Coco (the 11 year old german shepherd) has been going down for weeks and died friday night. I buried her saturday morning. Now it's just me, Tux, and Cheyenne. Sigh.

On the good side - the weather has been gorgeous the last 2 days and the old shed in the front yard is gone. I put it on Freecycle http://www.freecycle.org/ for the wood and had a nice couple come out and get it. We spent the last 2 days tearing it down. (whew, I'm sore!). All that's left is a burn pile and shingles to haul off and I'll have a nice spot in the yard instead of an eyesore.

To make up for the ugly snake pic - here's a pretty moonrise at sunset from the backyard.....

Monday November 19th

This was the view out the back window this morning. The first hunting season ended yesterday. I swear, critters keep a calendar too. The only other deer I've seen in the last 2 weeks was last thursday when the wind was howling about 40mph. I didn't even think about going out because deer HATE the wind. Walked past the back window about 5pm and there were 3 of them prancing around the garden. I think they're laughing at me. Heh.

Wednesday November 14th

I haven't seen any deer yet but I haven't been hunting too much. The weather is terrible for hunting, hot (78 yesterday!) and super windy. The season ends sunday then restarts the 22nd to Dec 2. After that there's only the 3 day christmas hunt.

The picture is the view from my tripod stand in the middle woods, overlooking the garden area. You can't see the fruit trees at this time of year but they're in there.

Friday November 9th

November 2006

Deer season opens tomorrow, I'll be out hunting bright and early. Here's a pic of Mike and a nice 8 point he got last year. Maybe next post I'll have one of my own. Can't believe it's been almost 9 years since I shot a deer. I guess having someone else to bring home the meat makes you a lazy hunter.

We had our first freeze tuesday night, other than that it's been pretty nice. I've been mostly doing yard work lately. The leaves fall faster than I can clean them up but I don't want it piling up and having a huge mess later. And I started working on the middle woods, it was 'almost' cleaned up a year ago but now it's full of branches and vines again. Hopefully it'll look like the back yard one day and I'll have continous yard down to the garden instead of yard/woods/garden. Or not. Ha.

Saturday November 3rd

Last weekend I went to an after birthday spa retreat with Roxann (and Tux) at Lake Ouachita. It was great and a beautiful place. Thanks Mom! Here's a pic of me and Tux on the lake shore.

The weather this week has been perfect. Sunny and 60s every day. I've had a lot of running around to do but even that was pleasant because the drive to almost anywhere is just gorgeous right now with the fall colors. Funny, last weekend there were hardly any colors but now all of a sudden - wow.

Wednesday October 31st

Yikes, it's been almost 2 weeks since I reported in. Sorry about that.
The craft fair weekend before last was really nice. And it was Huge! We wore ourselves out seeing it all. Lots of beautiful handmade stuff. I have to say though, except for the woodturners (who had gorgeous bowls and vases), none of the woodworkers I saw had anything that compared to the beauty and quality of what Mike made.

Last week the weather was horrid every single day. Rain, howling wind, and cold. Ugh. I didn't get much done. This week so far is lovely. Sunny and mid 60s - low 70s.

Thursday October 18th

Well, I finished painting the bedroom finaly. It looks much better, but even if it didn't I wouldn't redo it. What a pain that job was! I'm glad it's fixed though, it'd been bugging me since day one.
Now I need to catch up on the yard work but monday it poured all day, tuesday I ran errands, and yesterday it rained all day again. Last night it REALLY stormed and this morning the yard is just covered in tree debris. Hopefully it'll dry up enough today or tomorrow to clean it up.

This weekend I'm going to the War Eagle Craft Fair with Roxann. Should be fun, it's the biggest craft fair in the state. http://www.beaverlake.com/wareagle/wareagle.htm

Sunday when I was in the bedroom painting Tux started barking so I looked out the back window to see what was up. There was a huge buck deer just standing in the backyard. He took off before I could grab the camera though - I "almost" had a nice picture for today.

Thanks for the song y'all ::::::smile:::::::

Friday October 12th

43 degrees this morning. Brrrr. It's been windy and cool this week so I started redoing the bedroom walls. I did a hurried and cruddy job the first time and the paint color was horrid, I've been wanting to redo it since day one. So far I've primed and retextured (hopefully it'll look like plaster when I'm done). Today I'll start the actual painting.
Starting tomorrow it should be warm again.

The seismic crews are finaly gone. I was seriously annoyed! The crew were mexicans who pretended they didn't speak english and kept trespassing every time I wasn't looking, even though I told them they couldn't. I managed to ambush one and give him a note to tell his boss to come talk to me. He knew enough english to tell his boss that there was a Scary Mad Lady. Heh.

Sunday October 7th

Yesterday I went over to my friend Roxann's place in the midst of the Ozarks. It's gorgeous up there. 3 1/2 hour drive but some of the best scenery there is. We went for a hike on her mountain and here's a picture of her by one of the rocks. There's several more like that. Wow.

Nothing much going on here. General day to day stuff.

Tuesday October 2nd

Gerald & Jody

I was looking in my files for a photo to post and found this cute one of Gerald and Jody that I took at the farm last month.

Not much going on. I finished painting the floor, from tan to hunter green. Looks much better, goes with the wall color and with the new rugs I got really accents the furniture Mike built. It does show every single doggie paw print though. Inbetween paint coats I've been doing yardwork. Next paint project is the bedroom (indoors) or the window sills and side porch (outdoors).

Haven't seen any more deer - or anything else - lately but it's been full moon so they're probably coming out at night. And there's been siesmic crews swarming everywhere disrupting the habitat. (a huge natural gas field was found in the area - they're drilling all over). Hopefully they'll be out of the neighborhood soon.

Wednesday September 26th

Backyard, Middle Woods and Garden Area

(way in the back, through the woods)

Monday I went to Conway to bring the fold-up wheelchair to the Hospice office. It was sad but hopefully someone needy will enjoy it.
While I was in town I stopped at Lowes and picked up paint, a chainsaw blade, tin snips, and a stovepipe cleaning brush. Obviously I have some fun stuff ahead of me. Ha.
Yesterday I started painting the living room/kitchen floor. Moved everything to the center and painted the rest. 2 coats. It's been raining since yesterday afternoon so this morning the paint is sticky. Guess I'll have to wait another day to move furniture back and paint the middle. Ugh.

It's getting to be that time of year - last week I set up the corn feeders and sunday evening there were eight deer in the middle woods and the garden area. One looked like a nice buck but it was getting dark so I couldn't tell for sure. Planting the winter grass in the garden is on my to-do-soon list. Don't want the critters to go hungry over the winter.

Sunday September 23rd

Floyd's Pond

I meant to check in sooner than this, time just gets away from me. Not much interesting going on just general day to day stuff.

Oh, Floyds place is officially for sale now -
http://www.idxvow.com/cgi-bin/pman/brockre/vlm.cgi?view=res.cgi&show=yes&id100=847
Anyone want to be my neighbor? :::smile:::

Late every afternoon I take Tux for a walk, last sunday we walked to Floyd's pond and it just looked perfect for fishing so monday I brought my fishing pole and fished awhile. Brought home eight nice Brim and threw back at least twice that many small fish, brim, goggle-eye, and bass.

Speaking of walks, the other day the girls (Coco - 11, and Cheyenne - 14) were hopping up and down like puppies so I let them come too. We went down to the garden to check the fruit trees. The dogs were milling around the corn feeder and I was standing at the edge of the garden looking over the clear cut. I looked down and not 10 feet away was a Doe deer laying in the brush staring right at me! She must have had a baby with her or she would have left when she heard us coming. So I called the dogs away and we went back to the house. I didn't want them seeing and chasing her.

Thursday September 13th

I've been trying to decide what to do with the blog.
I guess I'm going to keep it since everyone already has the address and it's a great way to share pictures. (If anyone wants to save any of the pictures on your own computer just right-click then select 'save as'). And if anyone wants to keep up with my doings they can check here, but it won't be daily updates - I just don't have that much interesting to say.
In the last month I've mostly been getting things in order after months of neglect. Yardwork, housework, paperwork. Still not caught up.
Went to Louisiana for a week to visit family, got back last wednesday night. It stormed all thursday, friday, and saturday and rained all sunday and monday. We desperately needed it, everything outside was suffering from heat and drought. Since tuesday the weather has been perfect, low 60s at night and low 80s daytime. Hard to believe winter is just around the corner already.

Saturday August 25th

It's hard to believe it's been 12 days since Mike passed. It seems like 5 minutes ago and yet it seems like an eternity. When I think of where he is now and what he's doing, I always think of this picture.

Tuesday

Most of you know by now that Mike has died. Monday at 3pm. He went the easiest possible way considering his condition. In his sleep and in no pain.
I want everyone to know that we sincerely appreciated all the kind words and prayers these last few months. They meant more to us than you'll ever realize.
Also, if anyone was considering sending flowers or anything else, I’d rather the money be spent instead on a donation to either of the following in his name (Michael Bourque). They were extremely kind, caring, and helpful in our time of need:

Arkansas Hospice Foundation
5600 West 12th Street
Little Rock, AR 72204
Attn: Pat Williams

Fr Bill Elser
St Jude Catholic Church
250 Woodlawn Dr
Fairfield Bay, AR 72088

Love, Dena

Monday Morning

Mike was restless last night. Poor guy just wants to Get Out Of Bed. He finaly slept well from 11:30 - 3:30. He's sleeping again now but his breathing is bubbly. I'll be calling the nurse at 8 to make sure she comes out this morning, not afternoon.

More.....

Grand Canyon - August 2002

Forgot to mention, today is our anniversary, 5 years. I'm grateful he stayed with me for it. Here's our favorite honeymoon pic. I'd rather he be remembered like this than the previous pictures.

Sunday Afternoon

Mike's been sleeping most of the day. When he's awake he's forgotten he's sick and forgotten his legs don't work anymore. He wants to get up and do things. I convinced him to let me put the other side rail on the bed and he's okay with it. (for now). He hasn't had anything except sips of water since friday.

Sunday AM

My friend Roxann came yesterday, this morning she's out running errands for me. After the friday crew it's a blessing to have someone here that's calm and helpful.
Mike slept off and on all yesterday but he stayed stressed and anxious, it takes a while for him to calm down and relax after he gets over stressed and excited. Around 9pm he started relaxing and by 11 he was sound asleep. He had a good sleep till this morning. Woke up to take his medicine and he's back asleep now.

Saturday Afternoon

I was way overstressed and exausted earlier so I called my friend Roxann to come and sit with me. She'll be here any minute and stay overnight.
Mike is still sleeping off and on. He'll probably sleep all day and night now that he can rest.

Saturday AM

Hey Betty and Crystal, thanks for the kind comments, it's nice to know I'm not the only one pissed off. And yeah, you'd expect a little more consideration from a mom towards her dying son.
They left at 8:30 this morning and Mike's been sleeping ever since.
We had a rough night, he was agitated the whole time. He went to sleep at 12:30, popped back up at 1:30, went back to sleep at 2:30, popped back up at 3. Went back to sleep the last time at 4:30 and up at 6.
Forgot to mention, Mike did drink 3 Ensure yesterday.

Friday

A house full of women hovering over Mike. Mike was sound asleep when they got here about 8:30, he woke around 10am, then never really rested again despite the sleeping pill at 2.

At 9:30 pm Mike's mom was sitting at the counter chatting with her sister and I asked if she'd be going to bed soon. She looked at me like I was nuts and didn't answer. (I'd had the conversation earlier about her not keeping Mike up all night this time). I turned off all the lights except the kitchen and a lamp in the living room, settled Mike in his bed, etc. Ignored her and waited. At 10 she said they could turn off the kitchen light so Mike could rest. I said NO, it's not the light that keeps him up, it's the people. With us sleeping in the living room, we can't go to bed until everyone else does. (duh!) As soon as you go to bed I'll turn the light off and he'll rest. They went to bed at 11. It took till 12:30 before Mike was able to relax and rest. (he gets stressed and anxious with too much commotion and it takes awhile for him wind down and relax).
I'm worn out and cranky.
Rant over.

Thursday PM

Mike had a good rest earlier, and he drank another Ensure when he woke up. (that's 3 today). He's been pretty perky since but talking nonsense.
I convinced mom and all to stay in a motel in Conway tonight and come out in the morning. They would have gotten here at around 11pm and probably kept him up for hours visiting then expected him to have a full day of visiting tomorrow. He's not up to that and I'm not going to let anyone wear him out. It may sound bitchy but Mike is my 1st and only concern.

Thursday Afternoon

Mike is doing much better than this morning. He drank 2 Ensure so far today. He was lucid and said prayers with the priest. He's sound asleep now.
Had a call from his cousin Monique and she's driving Mike's mom and 2 aunts up. They should be here about 10 tonight. (I won't be letting mom exaust him this time though. She'll have a strict bedtime).