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Mrs. City Boy

~ Our little corner of the Midwest!

Mrs. City Boy

Tag Archives: ozarks

Time Away

18 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by becky6259 in Our Life and Times

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Arkansas, country life, grandchildren, grandma, nature, Ozark Mountains, ozarks, rural, rural life, visit

Cover of "To Grandmother's House We Go"

One thing about having every
single one of your children and grandchildren living a distance from you is that you can take mini excursions to their house to visit.  “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go” has given way to “Grandma’s coming and she gets to sleep in MY bed and I get to sleep on the air mattress!”
I have been out-of-state for a visit with my oldest daughter and her family.  My 22-year-old son lives with them, so it’s a double feature for me when I get to visit with them at their home in Arkansas!
My curly-headed seven-year-old grandson considers my visits to be an adventure, like camping out.  The inconvenience of having someone take over his room doesn’t seem to bother him at all, and it gives him chance to show Grandma all of his toys and explain to her in minute detail how each of them works.
The trouble with visiting here is that I always eat too much, way more than I am used to, and usually stuff that is not very good for me.  So then I always go home fatter and sicker, but it’s worth it to me.  I enjoy seeing my kids and both grandsons, and I do enjoy good food!

Picture of the Ozark Mountains from Missouri S...

The Ozark mountains here in the northeast part of Arkansas are beautiful, and the scenery and vistas are wonderful.  There’s a reason this old gal loves the Ozarks!
Life is slow and easy here, and that’s alright — I’m looking forward to sharing some of my adventures with you when I get back.  In the meantime, I hope you are anticipating Thanksgiving with great relish!

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Texas Meets the Ozarks

30 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by becky6259 in Holidays/Seasons, Nature, Our Life and Times, Spring

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baby, baby photographs, Beginning photography, flower photographs, flower pictures, nature photographs, nature photography, nature pictures, outdoors, ozarks, spring, Texas

Since City Boy is from Texas, our front entrance has a bench with a Texas star on it to greet us and guests alike.  Too bad we use the garage entrance mostly.  Anyway, being outdoors in Spring is enough to shake off the blues and knock some cobwebs out that have settled in over the winter.

When we first moved here City Boy was fascinated by the blanket of pretty yellow flowers that covered our back yard.  He asked, “What are those little yellow flowers?”  

“They’re dandelions, honey.”  I guess I had to go easy on him though — once I thought about it, I didn’t remember ever seeing any when I lived in Texas.  I told him, “They’ll go away when it gets really hot.”

There are worse things, and Frank lost his humor with them when they grew straw-like stems and the tops turned white and fuzzy, and when he’d mow the lawn the yard was full of them the very next day.

Today I just have to slip in another picture of Frank’s granddaughter, Precious Baby.  She is wearing one of the headbands her mother Becca made for her.  That toy Precious Baby is in looks like it has everything but the kitchen sink and could keep a baby entertained for hours!  Becca can keep these pictures coming all she wants as far as we are concerned!

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Have a glorious day today!!!

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Small Town Folk

26 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by becky6259 in Nature, Our Life and Times

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Beginning photography, cat, cats, Missouri, nature, nature photography, ozarks, photo processing, river baptism

The other day when City Boy took Lucy and me for a ride/walk out in the country, I posted a few pictures from that excursion and then some from when I got home.  Here are a few more from that day.

Of course, it’s probably easy to tell that I am totally fascinated with old barns and buildings, and it’s probably also easy to tell that the first picture and the last one are the same picture.  I love playing around with photo processing, because I’ve always liked old photographs, and an old photograph of a barn, well, I’m in hog heaven!

JohnandBrenda6I wanted to show you a few pictures that were loaned to me from our good friends John and Brenda.  City Boy and I have known them since we moved back here to southwest Missouri, and they’re quite the odd couple.  She is quiet and reserved, and he is a cut-up and quite talkative.  They don’t know the meaning of the words “Settle down and relax!”

  Anyhoo, this is their cat, who looks like a typical cat for all intents and purposes (stay with me — I’m going somewhere with this).

And this is John on one of his feisty days (actually ALL days are his feisty days).

Well you know how it’s said that pets start getting to resemble their owners after a while….

The picture of John was taken long before he and Brenda ever owned the cat, so it looks like the pet/owner theory holds up!

Brenda was baptized several years ago the old-fashioned way — in the river.  A small group of people were scheduled to be baptized and John brought his camera so he could take a picture of Brenda as she was about to be submerged.  While he had the camera, he took pictures of the others that were also being baptized.

This is the lady that went right before Brenda.

And now here is John’s picture of Brenda being baptized, which was taken only a minute after the picture above.

John said, “I took both pictures exactly the same way — I don’t know what happened.”  If a person wasn’t religious they would probably say this was spooky.

John and Brenda don’t have a computer, and I know them well enough to know that they aren’t likely to have manipulated anything to get the pictures that way.  So, coincidence or phenomena; camera trick or real happening; malfunction or divine function — I guess it’s up to what a person believes.

Glad you joined me for meeting a few of our friends and another stroll through small-town life — I always enjoy the company!

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From One Sunset To Another

19 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by becky6259 in Holidays/Seasons, Nature, Our Life and Times, Spring

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

Beginning photography, Bird, flower photographs, flowers, nature, nature photography, Ozark, ozarks, sky photographs, spring, spring flowers, Sun, sun photographs, Tree

Yesterday evening, while the sun was still up, the yard was once again alive with critters and flowers, so I grabbed several pictures through the window just for fun (stay with me, they get better).  These next three were the only pictures I took from inside the house, and I try not to post them when I do take them through the window, but I wanted to give you an idea how lovely Spring in our little Ozarks town is!

Have absolutely no clue what kind of tree this is at the corner of our house, but it was covered with little buds

No clue what kind of tree this is at the corner of our house, but yesterday it was covered with little buds!

There were two of these kind of birds foraging around in the yard seeing what they could find, so I’m guessing they are a “couple.”

This shot even had to be taken standing a ways back so as not to spook a rabbit that was right close to the window as it was getting dark.

Then last night, as the sun was sinking behind the trees, it looked like a big orange ball.  Nice sunsets are so peaceful!  Who could resist stepping outside to enjoy it (and take pictures of it)?

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Bright and (halfway) early this morning, the tree that had been only budding out yesterday was covered with blooms!  It is so beautiful!

Tonight’s evening sky was fairly low-key because of the clouds (compared to our orange ball sun from last night), but peaceful and pleasant just the same.

It’s been a great week, with some storms and some sun, some warm and some cold, some turmoil and some peace — things are not always sunny, warm and peaceful, but that doesn’t make it a washout.  Long as we remember there is no storm that somebody can’t help us through, because it rains on everybody at one time or another — we’re all in this together.

Have a delightful weekend full of peace and blessings!

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Rural Ozarks Life In the Not-So-Fast Lane

14 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by becky6259 in Holidays/Seasons, Nature, Our Life and Times, Winter

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Beginning photography, Missouri Ozarks, nature, nature photographs, nature photography, ozarks, photographs, Photography, rural, Small town

This past week the Weekly Photo Challenge was actually to use a cell phone camera to take a picture of the neighborhood that we live in.  The other day I posted that picture, and while City Boy and I were out-and-about that same day I also took some regular camera pictures, which I have posted in this post.  I am so looking forward to Spring and greenery and flowers that I figure if I keep taking pictures one day everything will just go green!

These photos are from our town, a few of our next door neighbor towns, and the countryside in between.

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Back home the sun was coming out from behind the fluffy clouds from time-to-time, and the contrast of the sun playing peekaboo in a blue sky to billowy clouds just made me smile.

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Very high atop a tree (the one pictured in the center of the photo above, actually), a little bird decided to bask in the sun after I had taken my cloud pictures.  She sure seemed to enjoy the nice warm sun rays, because she stayed up there for a long time.  I don’t blame her!

ROLITFL10

As nightfall came a little hammock moon appeared long enough to wish us all a good evening.

ROLITFL11

Wishing you all peaceful days and nights!

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Odd Or All Too Common Things Seen Around Town

11 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by becky6259 in Our Life and Times

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

country, Kiwanis, Missouri, Missouri Ozarks, Ozark, ozarks, rural, Rural area, Small town

There are just some things that are common in the midwest, and most midwest rural towns have some of the same characteristics.  Of course, there are exceptions, such as when a town has less than 100 people and the only places of business are a gas station and a post office.  But I went around my little town a couple different days and noticed some things that have been common to every small town in the Ozarks I have lived in or been to, and some things that were just odd.

For instance, in nearly every rural town there will be a water tower in a prominent place in town, high enough to be seen far and wide, and plastered on the side of its domed top will either be the town name or the picture of that town’s high school team mascot.

You know it’s a small town if you pass an American Legion hall or a Kiwanis club gathering place.

Most cities and towns are aggressive when it comes to keeping trees away from power lines.  Many workers are unconcerned about what the trimming does to the look of trees. In my little town, though, the trimmers get creative.

Enough of the tree had to be left to fully shade the city bench without too much encroachment on the power lines.

The local farm store doesn’t just sell farm equipment.  They also sell a full line of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing and footwear, toys and gifts.  For busy farmers, this is a one-stop shop, especially at Christmas!

Only in the country might you be driving along and pass a Halloween decoration made out of a hay bale.  I love this!

On a gloomy, drizzly day Lucy and I decided to go out and take a look-see around.

She always looks ticked-off in every picture I take of her for some reason.  She really is a happy little dog, and loves riding in the truck.  I’m not sure how I always capture the mad dog look.

We were parked in town by the local thrift/antique store, which is never called a thrift store in most small towns.  But they always have a lot of interesting new and old things to see, and yes, antiques as well.

Driving by and spotted a church steeple…

Usually those are pointing upwards.  Well, we didn’t have a recent storm that blew this steeple down, it’s just the first stage of our church installing a new steeple.  We’re so excited!

I was walking through a field and looked down to see, among all the dead and dying grass and such, something unusually colorful that stuck out.  Somehow a little sprig of artificial leaves had found their way to the middle of that field. Huh.

When we moved to our house earlier this year, it was still winter and the trees were mostly all bare.  Only a few months later we would be treated to a blooming array of spring flowers everywhere.  In our own yard were pretty trees, but we didn’t really know what all of them were.

This is a few shots of a tree that is doing something neat from the early start of spring to late Fall, whether it’s blooming, full of green leaves, then berries, the Fall leaves and berries both.  And, we have no idea what kind of tree this is!  Any guesses?

There are also several Bradford pear trees in our yard, which are fully covered in white blooms in spring, and beautiful red foliage in Fall.  These are some of the pears on them–unfortunately, they are not edible.  Dang.

I must say, City Boy and I are lucky–we live in a rural town that is scenic as well as functional.  Lots of pretty, flowering trees in the spring, and beautiful color in the Fall.  Friendly people abound here, and you don’t even have to know them!  Amazing little town.

Can’t beat it.  Just can’t beat it.

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Frugal Rural Ozark American

05 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by becky6259 in Being Frugal, Our Life and Times

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

frugal living, Frugality, Humor, Missouri, Ozark, ozarks, rural, rural living

When someone mentions being frugal, do you picture living on a shoestring and always carrying around a little coin purse to squeeze every last dime out of the budget?

When someone mentions living in a rural area, do you picture being in the middle of nowhere, miles from inhabitants?Missouri

And if someone mentions the Ozark hills of Missouri, do you picture a hillbilly scene from “Deliverance” and a shack in the woods with a washtub and outhouse in the back, and lots of people who need major dental work?

If you have ever had these notions of these ways of life, you are not alone.  There are a lot of us who see it this way, and sometimes for good reason.  There are still people who fit these definitions and live exactly like this, even in this day and age.  I have known a few of them!

But, most of us have also heard about people who spent most of their lives being skinflints, and then upon their deaths are found to have amassed a fortune that ended up going to their pet.  Or about people who lived a backwoods way of life just because they wanted to, and not because they had to or didn’t know any better.

Being frugal is actually just as  much a part of wasting less.  Even some financially comfortable folks may decide there is too much waste in today’s society.  Or, a person may be on a fixed income and has figured out ways to make money stretch.  It doesn’t necessarily mean they have a bedspread crafted out of garbage bags, or that they stand over an open fire making apple butter every Fall.  Nor are they eating leftover food that was foraged  from a dumpster, or going places dressed in clothes that look like feed sacks because they’ve made them all from old bed sheets.    Some frugal people can be credited for not only having common sense, but also for having some amount of taste!

Rural living can be a farm way out in the country, but also rural life can be a small town surrounded by countryside that is able to sustain itself and it’s inhabitants with a full array of stores, churches, restaurants and businesses.  A rural town is usually just like a city, only on a much smaller scale.  Because of this, there is less congestion, and less headache.

It’s good that rural life is more modernized–I like all the modern conveniences!  But Frank and I do try to choose wisely.  Some conveniences cost a lot to use, or take up even more of our time, so we have to decide if it is worth to us what we will be getting out of it.  

And, as far as saving money by doing things myself, I like things that are easy, so it depends on how much extra effort it will take on my part.  If there are a thousand steps involved with making it and it takes a long time for little results, then I don’t have time for that, no matter how much money I save.

One of the hazards of rural life is that I also don’t have time to frequently travel to a city specialty store to get exotic or specialty supplies needed to make a project or recipe.   The alternate option of ordering things online usually comes with a hefty shipping fee, so any savings from an item’s cheap price gets eaten up with the cost of sending it.   It’s always good if everything I need can be found at the closest Walmart.

So, it’s kind of a contradiction–one time I might serve you chili whipped-up completely from convenience foods, but another time I may use mayonnaise I made myself to make you a sandwich.  All is not always as it appears, as the ingredients for the chili are found at Walmart inexpensively and cook up quickly, and the mayonnaise takes five minutes to make in a blender.  Believe me, if there is anything more to it than that (with a few exceptions), I usually won’t do it.  Most of the things I post on this blog will reflect easy, quick, inexpensive ways of doing things.  And hopefully they are things you will find worth doing as well.

Being a rural frugal hillbilly housewife has been a good way of life.  Not all of us live like L’il Abner.  Maybe being married to a no-nonsense urban Texan has taken some of the hillbilly out of me, thankfully!

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becky6259

becky6259

My daddy married a city girl and put her in the country, and then I married a city boy and he put me in the city...for awhile anyway. We're now living in small-town Mid-Missouri and enjoying the best of both worlds!

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