Bama Planter

I HAVE A HAPPY PAGE with most posts about primitives, flowers, old houses, and oil paintings. I don't do politics, wars , religion, or anything else that would draw criticism. I live in a happy Smurf land on here - although I have some pretty strong opinions. BACK IN THE 1980's, I taught Sr. Economics. One of the coaches taught Government. Both courses were for seniors in high school . At that time, I was a full blown Reaganite ! My, how the years have changed me ! The coach was a big Democrat. He would get the students and fill them with the "liberal" ideals of free education, free lunches, right to welfare, public housing, etc. etc. Then for the next 9 weeks, Seniors came to me for Republican Economics, a totally different approach! I taught the stock market, bonds vs. cd's, real estate investments, silver vs. gold as a hedge against inflation, etc. etc. By the time I had the last word, they wouldn't give a dime...

The season is changing and it's porch sitting time again. The 98 degree days and 90 degree nights are done again. I can back off the grass and only cut it twice a month to keep the mower battery going. I can work on sidewalks, fencing, digging the sunflower/okra/zinnia bed to a new length ( 40 feet ) to extend the 20 ft. I had this year. I have four trees to plant and three azaleas. And, a ton of sticks to pick up. I'm already gathering magnolia pods from my friend Janice's trees and freshly fallen pine cones from my neighbors' forest. The walnuts are falling, so that is a job in itself. The green hulls have to be stomped off with a heavy set of boots and then boiled in linseed oil to make the best wood stain. Then the walnuts themselves need to be cracked with a hammer. ( Squirrels are crazy to tackle walnuts but they usually try a few anyway. They bury two or three and forget where they buried them; that's how walnut trees get planted ) . I shall continu...