A Time For Everything

Lake Texoma / Kingston, OK

This year's writers retreat was another fun time with my favorite writer peeps and a success for everyone.

We spent two full days and two partial days at a lovely VRBO rental, enjoying one another's company and writing, writing, writing.

I wrote just over three thousand words -- a count that would normally take me a good week, give or take. Needless to say, I was very pleased with the increase. My books usually finish in the 40K to 45K range. The longest book I've written, not counting the historical, was almost 48K, and I'm hoping this book will be closer to that.

And for the first time in several years, I had a bed and a room to myself, which was a treat. The room had a lovely, broken-in recliner that was super comfortable and didn't cause any issues in the hips.

As soon as I got home and sat on my couch, I realized that my trip to NFM for a chair suited to my size and comfort needs is now a priority. I almost offered the host money for that chair, but decided a new chair was probably a better expenditure.

From L-R: Chrissy, Clover, ME, and Gina.

Sadly, two of our regulars couldn't make it. Normally, there are six of us. And even more disappointing, one of those ladies is moving out of state, so we're going to have to replace her next year. We'll cross that bridge later though.

For now--stay cool and hydrated.

Catch you in a couple of weeks.

By several years prior to2022, I mean at least ten. When I went looking for a picture of the earliest version of the bird feeder bed, I found it in a post from 2022... But by the small circumference of the mulch and the lack of much else, I know the pic was from a long, long time ago.

Fast forward to the early 2000s and this was the set up: 

I've been meaning to upgrade this squirrel feeder bed for a while now. A long while. As captioned, that picture was taken just over two years ago. But it's probably been since BC (you know, before COVID) that it was last improved.

But what with all the family and life events, not to mention my getting-out-of-debt endeavors, the full funding just hasn't been available. I had some cash stashed for this project, but it was nowhere near enough to accomplish all the plans I had. So when Darling Daughter asked what I wanted for Mother's Day this year I had to think for a mere handful of seconds and the answer was clear: retaining wall blocks and mulch!

That tree has grown (of course it has) over the years and the "thighs" of the trunk--the sections where the trunk branches into roots--have also crept a little higher out of the ground. So rather than the single layer of landscape edgers you see above, I wanted at least two layers of my "tree ring bricks" to help hold in the mulch. So fast forward to 2026 and this is my squirrel feeder bed. 

I moved all the bird feeders farther out into the yard (just out of sight, of the top left of this image) as I didn't want this area overgrown with bird seed that germinated. And I reused the edgers that were originally here to create that planter in the top right.

Here's a closeup of the planter and the day lily I bought for it...

I'm still working on the bird feeder bed, so pictures of that will be along at some point. But I'm pleased that the squirrel feeder setup is finally done.

Stay cool and I'll catch you up in August!