Jessica :-) Songbird

LOL good win!

Pokey is my friends sons nickname! He got that BC when my friend was pregnant with him she would just there and poke him all day long! In reallity she should be called pokey! </blockquote That would be a cute nick-name for a kid! I guess you're right, though, SHE was probably the one that should be called Pokey! By the way, on the quiz last Wednesday, did you change your name to "Pokey: Death By Cuteness"? Don't think I didn't notice! I'm not sure I saw you on the quiz today; were you there? You gave me an idea when you changed your name; I put it into action the first time today. So, keep an eye out for me there. Look out for the word "Tater", and you'll know who I am. Sorry it took me so long to say anything. Sometimes I'm not sure what to say, and very honestly, we've been pretty busy lately. Today we planted most of our veggie garden and put down soaker hoses. It's supposed to rain, and we might possibly have some bad weather tomorrow, so we planted our seeds today so the rain could soak them in. We decided against putting out our tomato plants, since they said it might hail. :-) We planted some moon and stars watermelon, straight-necked squash, marketmore cucumbers, and okra seeds. I read on one of your other posts that you like big dogs, and I agree. I like big dogs, too. In fact, I'm not sure you could get much bigger than an English Mastiff. May I ask, do you have any dogs? If so, what kind?

That would be a cute nick-name for a kid! I guess you're right, though, SHE was probably the one that should be called Pokey!
By the way, on the quiz last Wednesday, did you change your name to "Pokey: Death By Cuteness"? Don't think I didn't notice! I'm not sure I saw you on the quiz today; were you there? You gave me an idea when you changed your name; I put it into action the first time today. So, keep an eye out for me there. Look out for the word "Tater", and you'll know who I am.
Sorry it took me so long to say anything. Sometimes I'm not sure what to say, and very honestly, we've been pretty busy lately. Today we planted most of our veggie garden and put down soaker hoses. It's supposed to rain, and we might possibly have some bad weather tomorrow, so we planted our seeds today so the rain could soak them in. We decided against putting out our tomato plants, since they said it might hail. :-)
We planted some moon and stars watermelon, straight-necked squash, marketmore cucumbers, and okra seeds.
I read on one of your other posts that you like big dogs, and I agree. I like big dogs, too. In fact, I'm not sure you could get much bigger than an English Mastiff. May I ask, do you have any dogs? If so, what kind?

Yep! I was pokey death by cuteness! xP
I cant go to all the quizs, because my parents set up an internet safety thing, and it doesn't
let me get on till 12:00 ^most time it messes up and is more like 12:30^, and I can't get on my laptop,so i would have to do it on my tablet and that is really hard!

Do i have dogs? Sadly, nope. :( My parents dont like pets so we never had any. Untill now. :) We moved to west virginia almoast a year ago from ohio and the way our house is, my brothers bedroom is next door. So when we moved he was allowed to get a cat and keep it in there. And we found two tiny stray kittens, so he ended up getting two of them. :) when we first saw them they were so cute! Haymitch was chasing Cilla's tail and they were play fighting. It was so cute!
There are lots of stray cats around my house, but we found one little kitten that was like a day old! Me and my sister got to take care of it and feed it for a day. There was a big group of people here on a mission trip with our mission organization and they were going to take it home with them the next day when they left. And one of the teens here, his parents owned a pet store so he knew how to take care of little kittens

Are you serious, or are you joking? I'm not trying to be rude, but sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference. :-)

Yes, I like "The Lord of the Rings." I also like the new "Hobbit" movies that are coming out. I just watched "The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug" again not that long ago, and I enjoy it more every time I watch it! The dragon is awesome! That's the best dragon I've seen on a movie in years!
I read you're introduction; I like puppies and kittens, too. And I like music; I try to listen to some kind of music every day.
Do you like to read, or not really? What about arts and crafts?

I like your birds. :-) Had to look up what they all were in my bird book. I thought I remembered what a mountain bluebird looked like, but I had no idea what an eider even was. I found two kinds of eider in my book, the king and the common eider, but I couldn't find a third one. I also couldn't find bluethroats; what kind of a bird are they? If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear more of what kinds of birds you have. We have robins and chickadees, but those are the only ones that we share so far. :-)
We have cardinals, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, goldfinches (bright yellow now), bluebirds, mockingbirds, catbirds, brown thrashers, summer tanagers, ruby-throated hummingbirds, and blue jays. I can't think of many more right now. In the winter we have red-tailed hawks and merlins, and in the summer we have two different kinds of cuckoos, whip-poor-wills, chuck-wills-widows, screech owls, barred owls, and sometimes great horned owls.
We have had rose-breasted grosbeaks, orioles, an American redstart, and one time we had a painted bunting. Indigo buntings haven't really come yet. I've thought that I've heard a thrush lately, but I'm not sure. Do you have a lot owls up in Alaska?
Do you live along the coast, may I ask? My book said eiders were a coastal bird.
May I ask where you are now, since you said you weren't in Alaska?
By the way, the reason my mom couldn't take the quiz yesterday was because she had to take Pippin to the vet. She had to go and get him again today.
By the way (again), I know that this is late, but, hey, I'm always late. So, I'll go ahead and say it now so I don't have to wait a whole year, and then probably forget it again.

This is for last Sunday: Happy Star Wars Day! MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!!! :-)

Are you serious, or are you joking? I'm not trying to be rude, but sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference. :-)

We don't even know!

Are you serious, or are you joking? I'm not trying to be rude, but sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference. :-)

We don't even know!

^That's a very good question, and a very good answer.^

The other kind of eider is a Spectacled eider, which is a very funny looking bird. No, we don't live on the coast, but we can get there, especially since my Daddy is a pilot. Bluethroats live in Siberia and the farthest northwest corner of AK, and they're little brown birds with a blue throat patch and a bright red dot in the middle of the throat patch.

We have several different kinds of owls and raptors, including bald eagles by the hundreds. I'm not sure how many hundred I've seen at once, but it was several hundred.

We are just leaving some training in NC to go up to Ontario.

Are you serious, or are you joking? I'm not trying to be rude, but sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference. :-)

Seriousness

That's pretty neat that you got to take care of that small of a kitten, even if it was only for a short time! It's been a long time since our boys were kittens.
Pippin is still in the house convalescing after going to the vet, and he's enjoying it quite a bit. He wanted to go outside at first, but now he's accepted it, and is happy sitting in a chair or on somebody's lap. :-) He looks a bit ragged, though. He's a long-hair, and the vet clipped him partially, but not all the way. He's really soft where they cut his hair!
I bet it must be strange having to move. Have you moved a lot, may I ask? I have never moved; I've been in the same house my whole life. It's nice here for the most part; there's too many neighbors but other than that, it's not a bad place. I'm happy here.
Do you have any hobbies, may I ask? Or do you like to read? I enjoy reading, and I've read some pretty good books over the years. Good books are hard to find, however. "Needle in a haystack", so to speak, or "separating the wheat from the chaff".

Note: Goats like watermelon, and so do geese. However, some geese will try to peg you if you run out of watermelon.

Hi, Arwen!
Yeah, we see bald eagles occasionally, but not very often. It's pretty neat when you do see one here! I have a hard time imagining several hundred eagles all in one place!
I forgot some of the birds that we have; I finally thought of them again. We also have pileated woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, an occasional yellow-bellied sapsucker, flickers in the winter, and wrens. Every once in a great while we'll get a road runner, but it's been awhile.
You said before that you played piano: do you play classical piano? I started learning to play some songs on my piano at one point, but I didn't stick with it.

Pileated woodpeckers are the birds that started my birding!

When we lived in TX, we saw roadrunners a lot.

I play classical piano, and I'm not very good at it, even after almost eleven years! ^Of course, I missed three years of practice, so…^

That's pretty neat that you got to take care of that small of a kitten, even if it was only for a short time! It's been a long time since our boys were kittens. Pippin is still in the house convalescing after going to the vet, and he's enjoying it quite a bit. He wanted to go outside at first, but now he's accepted it, and is happy sitting in a chair or on somebody's lap. :-) He looks a bit ragged, though. He's a long-hair, and the vet clipped him partially, but not all the way. He's really soft where they cut his hair! I bet it must be strange having to move. Have you moved a lot, may I ask? I have never moved; I've been in the same house my whole life. It's nice here for the most part; there's too many neighbors but other than that, it's not a bad place. I'm happy here. Do you have any hobbies, may I ask? Or do you like to read? I enjoy reading, and I've read some pretty good books over the years. Good books are hard to find, however. "Needle in a haystack", so to speak, or "separating the wheat from the chaff". Note: Goats like watermelon, and so do geese. However, some geese will try to peg you if you run out of watermelon.

Yes it is very strange to move, especially to a poverty, depressed, and odd place like here. We moved once other then to west Virginia, to Mexico in '06 for 5 months. That was fun! :)
My hobbies are pretty epic. I like to four wheel, play airsoft, eat, play super smash bros, soccer. Other boring stuff to, but I can't remember it now :p
Yes, i also like to read a lot! My favorite book is 'Between the lines' by Jodi picoult! Its about a girl who falls in love with a fictional character from a book, its a really great book! She spends the whole book trying to get him out of the book so she can meet him for real! What is your favorite book?

That's neat that pileated woodpeckers started you on birding! I like them a lot. We had them where they'd come to our feeders. They don't really look all that clever, but I think that they're really neat birds. They are big for a woodpecker! Talk about some serious damage if he wanted to! When we let the birdcakes run out once, he did some serious damage to the feeder. Like I said, I don't think that they're very smart. I could be wrong.
What kind of songs you play on the piano?

Note: Always make sure when Patrick the goat is around that your handkerchief is firmly in your back pocket, or he will pull it out and run away with it. And if you are holding it in your hands, hang on to it fairly tightly, or he will steal it from you and run away, and enjoy himself as you chase him around in vain .

"Poverty, depressed, and odd place"? Hm. Sounds like here, except the depressed part.
What is super smash bros and airsoft?
Some of my favorite book series that we've ever found are the "Hank the Cowdog" series. I know that they're meant for younger people, but sometimes they can be pretty funny, especially if you know anything about dogs. Another one of my favorite series were "The Tales of Redwall". Personally, I think it's better to read them in the order that they were written, because they weren't by any means written in chronological order. My favorite was "Taggerung".
I also like "The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme". I've read the first two, but I'm saving the third one for a while.
I also liked "Lorna Doone" and "Pride and Prejudice". Now, granted, they're a bit difficult to stick with at first, but you get to the point where you can understand them better as you go along.
I've got several other individuals titles if you want me to share them.
Do you like to write stories?
What's your favorite color?

Note: Tater despises bananas. According to Tater, fruit of any kind is not food, and if you offer her any, she gets very offended. Fig newtons are an exception.

They're known as "the Redwall books". They only became known as "Tales of Redwall" with the newer reprints.

Taggerung is good. And, yes, they were written in chronological order! Heck, I arranged them on my shelf in chronological order when I was 13!

They're known as "the Redwall books". They only became known as "Tales of Redwall" with the newer reprints. Taggerung is good. And, yes, they were written in chronological order! Heck, I arranged them on my shelf in chronological order when I was 13!

Uh, oh, hopefully Cari isn't reading! xP

Hi Jessica,
If you would still like help with getting a gravitar set up, I think I could help you. I just did mine, so it's fresh on my mind, and we're in the same timezone, so it shouldn't be too hard to get on here at the same time. We might could talk on an old SC page or something… ANYWAY, if you want to do it, let me know. :)

Thank you very much, Evie. I would like to change my picture, I just really have no idea how. I would appreciate your help, but I'll warn you, I'm borderline computer illiterate. :-) Let me know what time would be best for you, and I'll get back in touch with you.
Thank you again!
By the way, how's the weather in Alabama?
By the way (again), I don't like football, either. :-)

I'm game if you are! I usually get on at around 9:45 (a.m.) on weekdays, and I can get on again at about 3:30 (p.m.) if that would be a better time for you. Tuesday through Friday this week should work for me. :)
You're so welcome! I know what it's like to have an weird shape by all your comments. :)
Weather in Alabama is amazingly nice these last couple of days (highs in the 70s to low 80s) but by the end of this week the weather guessers say it will be in the 90s!
You know, I wondered if anyone got the bit about football after I posted it. I'm glad you did! :)
How are you're goats? Is this kidding season for y'all?

Edit: I changed that 4:00 to 3:30. My brother plans to milk the cow that day. :)

Do you keep a bird list, Jessica?

Hi, Evie!
If it's alright, I'd probably like to try to set up my new avatar tomorrow afternoon. Let me know it that'll be alright.
Weather here has been really, really nice for this time of year, surprisingly so. So far, we haven't had much trouble with buffalo gnats, or mosquitoes. I'm not sure if it's the weather or the soap I'm using. :-) I know that it's a blessing. The temperature fluctuations have been strange… we were getting down in the forties for lows not that long ago, and now we're back to eighties for highs again, almost overnight! It's been raining a lot, too, which is nice, considering that once it stops raining, it usually doesn't start up again willingly.
We've got our vegetable garden planted, and my flower garden, but I still haven't planted all of my flowers yet. I did some today, but I'll have to try to finish again tomorrow. I bet ya'll have your garden planted by now. :-)
Our goats are doing good. You know if they're getting into trouble that they feel fine. It would be kidding season now, but we quit breeding goats years ago. I was raised on goat's milk, and I thought it was wonderful stuff. When Mom would dry up the goats and we'd go back to drinking store-bought cow's milk, it just was not the same. Are you expecting any calves? How are your cows doing?
What are some of the books that you've liked reading?

By the way, I liked your comment about the weather guessers. I thought it was appropriate. :-) We judge the weather by our weather rock: If it's wet, it's raining.
If it's white, it's snowing.
If you can't see it, it's foggy.
If it's bouncing around, there's an earthquake.
If it's under water, there's a flood.
If it's missing, there was a tornado.
:-)

Do I keep a bird list?
Only in my head. :-)
Actually, it's not a bad idea, though. I do write down when I see them on the calender.

Sounds great! The cow was really rotten yesterday, and I'll have to help with her today, so if it's possible I'd like to start nearer 4:00 than 3:30. I'm really, really, sorry I wasn't more prudent about considering the time.
Got to go!

EDIT: I'll work toward being as near 3:30 as I can. Again, I'm very sorry.

Hi, I'm here now!

I'm so sorry I didn't get here any quicker! Are you still here?

I am! No problem.

EDIT: Do you want to do this on an old Social Chatting or on here?

I don't understand about rotten cows, but I do understand about rotten goats. How much milk does each cow usually give, and how many do you have to milk?
Don't worry about the change of plan; I really appreciate that you're helping me. :-)

Whichever is easier for you. :-)

Praise God! The cow did very well, and I didn't have to help at all.
We're only milking one cow, and she's giving 'round about a gallon now, but she just calved so she'll probably drop off her production soon. Dexters are a little, dual-purpose breed, so they give less than milk-only breeds.

Then I'll say we go to Social Chatting #6, so we don't have to worry about space conservation! :)

Here's the address:
https://www.memverse.com/forums/general-chat-topics/topics/social-chatting-6?page=375#post-200985

Okay, we'll try. :-)

I wish I could have chatted with you longer yesterday, but life was invading. :)

(This is in reply to what you wrote earlier)

I love reading your posts! They're so much fun. :)
Buffalo gnats! Those sound scary. Are you saying that those are mosquitoes or that you haven't had problems with mosquitoes either?
You're right! The garden's been in the ground for about a month now. What kinds of flowers do you plant?
Haha! We used to keep goats, and I think I can relate to everything I've seen you write about them so far. :) A friend of ours once said that the only way to keep a goat from getting out a hole in the fence is to leave the gate open. :) We got rid of our goats when we started milking cows (The goats would always climb into the milking area to steal the cow's feed.) And even though they were a lot of work, I miss them.
The cows are doing well. We've had to buy hay lately, which isn't good this time of year, but it'll be alright.
Are we expecting calves? Hmm. Well, we just had a calf born a week and a half ago, and we have a cow who is supposed to be drying up so she can calve again, but her calf won't stop nursing. :] He's figured out how to nurse through a weaning ring!

Books! Don't get me started! :) Besides the Bible, I've enjoyed the LOTR (The Return of the King is my favorite), G. A. Henty books, Looking for the King, Death by Living, Wordsmithy, etc., etc. I can't say any of them are perfect, and most of them have their quirks, but I've liked them all.

That's really funny about the weather rock! My sister was looking over my shoulder when I read that and we had a nice laugh together. :)

This may be a weird question, but is nail-painting common in your area?
How many siblings do you have?

Hi, Evie!
I hope that you and everyone in your family are doing good. :-)
Buffalo gnats aren't mosquitoes. I'm not sure whether to say they're better or worse. Maybe worse, because they're small, and they fly about an inch away from your face in little zig-zag patterns where you have to squint, and they wait for the most opportune time to kamakaze your eyeballs. And once they get in your eyes, they burn, even once you get them out. Sometimes they won't even give you any warning, but will kamakaze your eye from across the yard at the speed of sound. Aside from that, they also bite, but they don't tend to welt as much as mosquitoes. They're hard on chickens, especially ones with large combs. We've had to catch every chicken we had (more than once) and smear skin-so-soft bath oil on their combs to keep the gnats from killing them.
Okay, so, now that I'm done with that bit of morbid information. :-) I'm assuming you don't have gnats.
We plant all kinds of flowers. We have bright lights cosmos, (which are one of my many favorites. They look like they could glow in the dark), four o'clocks, phlox, grandpa Otto's morning glories (which are big, dark purple, with a light purple center), lady in red salvias, I keep pinks in hanging baskets, columbines (which aren't easy to grow here. They don't like heat), I have iris beds and day lily beds, we had a good many canas (but it got too cold last year and it killed most of them), zinnias, and we're trying yellow evening primroses for the first time (hope they grow and bloom), we've got Boston ferns in hanging baskets that we over-winter, lantanas, an angel-wing begonia, roses (one of them a Joseph's coat), rose of sharons, and right now our privet hedges are blooming. We also have mossroses and marigolds. Mom bought me a lobelia that I need to put in a pot soon. We also have luffa gourds and purple coneflowers, and brown-eyed susans, and a geranium, and sweet anise. That's all that I can think of right now. I'm sure that's not all, but that's all that I can think of right now. We spend a lot of time watering in the summer, needless to say, and we overwinter a lot of our flowers like lantanas and such. What kind of flowers do you have?
What kind of goats did you have? We don't have trouble with our goats getting out. We have a really good fence to keep dogs and coyotes from getting in.
Are ya'll in a drought down there?
We just got done reading a book called "God King" by Joanne Williamson that was a good book. It was about a pharaoh in the time of King Hezekiah. I like books. :-)
Well, very honestly, we tend to stay at home a lot, but when Mom and I go to town, yes, nail-painting is fairly common. We don't paint our nails. In fact, I keep mine trimmed down to a nubbin so I can work in the dirt. :-)
I have an older brother and sister. My sister is married, and I have a niece and a nephew. :-)

I'll talk to you later; I'm off to play in the dirt! :-)

We're doing well, thank you!
We do have gnats, but they are more of an annoyance than anything else. Also, we don't put "buffalo" at the begining of their name, so I figure you have a different species.
Wow, that's a lot of flowers. Your place must be lovely! I've only heard of about half of them flowers, but the other half we've grown before! My mom plants zinnias every summer, and we have several lantana plants. We've grown purple coneflowers before, but they died or got dug up or something. We've grown cosmos a couple of times, and have gardinias and knock-out roses in our flower bed. Our privet hedges and indian hawthorns just dropped their blooms.
We've been in drought up till last year, when we had such a huge downpour that it killed the garden! The cycle seems to have broken, and rain has been more regular, thank the Lord.
That book sounds neat. :)
I've never painted my nails until recently, when my mom said I should start painting my toenails if I wanted to go barefoot in the garden and not wear close-toed shoes all summer. I keep my fingernails really short too. :) Here everyone paints their nails, so I wondered if it was an all-American practice, or just southern/ south-eastern, or something else.
Alright, enjoy! :)

Hi, Evie!
Hope you and your family are doing well. :-) We're doing good here. Been getting lots of rain.
Did you have a good Memorial day weekend? We did; Mom made potato salad, baked beans, cole slaw, and fried chicken on Saturday, and we've been eating it ever since! I don't mind, though; she's a good cook.
Today I cleaned up some of the flower beds out front with a hoe. They've been let go for a long time and were getting a bit on the overgrown side. I saw my first tortoise today!
I've never heard of Indian hawthorns before, or gardinias. :-) What color were the cosmos that you grew? Do you have a favorite flower? I don't think that I do; there are too many that are pretty. :-)
Do you like birds? I like birds a lot; I can identify most of them by their calls. We have lots of pretty ones here, with lots of their own characteristic quirks. :-)
Do you have geckos down that far south? I've never seen a gecko in the wild, but they sure do look neat!
Are you reading any good books lately? I'm reading one now called, "Beyond the Desert Gate", and it's pretty good. I'm also trying to read another called, "Lessons from a Sheep Dog" by Phillip Keller, and it's pretty good, too. It's very short, though.
What's your favorite color? Mine's blue, and my second favorite is green.
My mom rescued a chipmunk from the cats the other day. Tucker had him treed between some flower pots, and Frodo was watching a short distance away. The chipmunk broke from his cover, and Frodo grabbed him up and started to run away with him, but Mom stopped him, and the chipmunk ran up a tree. :-) I like chipmunks. Unfortunately, chipmunks and cats don't go very well together.
Do you have anything left in your garden after the rain?

                                           "Ten Things About Me"

#1 I can whistle tunes that are in my head.
#2 I was stung by a scorpion, but I've never been stung by a bee or wasp (except sweat bees and yellow jackets)
#3 I collect books. Most of my birthday and Christmas presents over the years were books.
#4 I can find four-leafed clovers by just looking (or sometimes just glancing) at a clover patch (drives my older brother crazy)
I've also found five and six-leafed clovers.
#5 I like catching lizards, frogs, turtles (or tortoises) and…snakes. (I'm curious about some of the reactions I'll get from that)
#6 When my hair is braided, the braid reaches to my hips. I'm hoping to grow it out to the backs of my knees… and, why not, maybe even to my ankles!
#7 I really like dragons. (The dragon Smaug on the second Hobbit movie is awesome!) I also like gargoyles.
#8 I don't like driving; I never have. The notion of hurtling down the highway in a tin can at 70 mph with me behind the wheel doesn't do anything for me.)
#9 I like reading books aloud and performing the voices of all the different characters.
#10 I've made baskets and brooms, twined rugs, spun on a drop spindle, and pieced quilts. So many hobbies, so little time.

God Bless You! :-)

CAN I MEET YOU????? =D

^If you ever want to come to Alaska… hint, hint^

"Ten" "Things" "About" "Me" #1 I can whistle tunes that are in my head. *Fun! I used to be able to whistle...now I can't cause I got braces and now have a retainer. :(* #2 I was stung by a scorpion, but I've never been stung by a bee or wasp (except sweat bees and yellow jackets). *Ouchhh!!!* #3 I collect books. Most of my birthday and Christmas presents over the years were books. *Nice! I so like books.* #4 I can find four-leafed clovers by just looking (or sometimes just glancing) at a clover patch (drives my older brother crazy) I've also found five and six-leafed clovers. *Whoaa...neat!!!* #5 I like catching lizards, frogs, turtles (or tortoises) and...snakes. (I'm curious about some of the reactions I'll get from _that_) *Ummm...ew.... :P* #6 When my hair is braided, the braid reaches to my hips. I'm hoping to grow it out to the backs of my knees... and, why not, maybe even to my ankles! *Wow! That's really long!* #7 I really like dragons. (The dragon Smaug on the second Hobbit movie is awesome!) I also like gargoyles. *I don't particularly like either...* #8 I don't like driving; I never have. The notion of hurtling down the highway in a tin can at 70 mph with me behind the wheel doesn't do anything for me.) *Haha! That's one way to put it. :)* #9 I like reading books aloud and performing the voices of all the different characters. *Neat!!! My mom does that and she is sooo good at it!* #10 I've made baskets and brooms, twined rugs, spun on a drop spindle, and pieced quilts. So many hobbies, so little time. *That sounds great! I've always wanted to do stuff like that...but I've not been able to...yet. :)* God Bless You! :-)

I thought I'd put these here in case anyone wanted to find a book to read. Personally, I thought these were really good.

"The Language of the King James Bible" by Gail Riplinger (more than just a language book)
"Ancient Book of Jasher" by Ken Johnson Th.D
"The Harbinger" by Jonathan Kahn
"I Am David" by Anne Holm
"The Yearling" by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
"Eight Cousins" by Louisa May Alcott
"The Adventures of Ven Polypheme: The Floating Island" by Elizabeth Haydon
"Redwall" by Brian Jacques ("Taggerung" was my favorite)
"Incident at Hawk's Hill" by Allan W. Eckert
"Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame
"Village School" and "Village Diary" by Miss Read (especially "Village Diary" in my opinion)
"Hank the Cowdog: The Case of the Perfect Dog" by John R. Erickson

God Bless You! :-)

How's your dad doing now, Jessica?

Praise the Lord, he's doing much, much better; thank you so much for praying! :-) I'm sorry that I haven't said anything in so long…things have a tendency to slip away if you're not careful. I should have said something sooner; I'm sorry. But thank you for praying! He's still weak, but he's much better than he was.
So, how are you these days? Are you getting bad weather down there?

Wonderful! Don't trouble yourself about taking a while – obviously I am quite your match for it. It doesn't seem like 18 days since you wrote! : /
I have been quite well lately, very busy in fact, and happy to be productive.
When you wrote, our weather was safe, but cold and rather gloomy. I think northern Alabama got enough snow to make driving unpleasant, but we were fine. We had a simply beautiful day today – clear sky, just near 70 degrees, a little breeze.
How are you?

We're doing pretty good. :-) It's kinda nippy right now; it was supposed to get over 70 degrees, so I opened the windows. It certainly doesn't feel like it made it, at least at the moment, (as I'm sitting here in a sleeveless shirt, and barefoot.) I think it's been pretty dreary all day.
The weather has certainly been nice here lately. It never snowed this winter, at least not enough to cover the ground. I guess the weather has cycled around again where we're having mild winters for the most part, and that's okay. Early spring sounds kinda nice, except for the bugs. Ticks, mosquitoes, and gnats are a problem here (why we have mosquitoes I'm not sure, since it hasn't rained very much for about a month.) We have a few flowers blooming: quince, daffodils, crocuses, and hyacinths. I bet your flowers down there are probably already done blooming this year, at least the spring ones.
Daddy saw a phoebe on the front porch earlier today. We're hoping that they'll come back and nest there again this year like they did last year. We were wondering what those nutty birds were doing building a nest on a ledge under our porch, but, apparently when we looked it up, that's what they look for: a ledge, especially one under a roof. I hope they nest there again. Shouldn't be too long and we'll have hummingbirds again. Do you feed hummingbirds?

Before posting this, I saw the forecast for this week. Apparently, according to them, we're going to get over an inch of snow Wednesday. I'll consult my weather rock before I get my hopes up too much. :-)