Right now, she is living a blessed life. She is focused on herself. She is falling in love with who
she is. She is excited about where she
is headed, and what is next. She has so
many goals, so many dreams, so much ambition and she is constantly finding new
passions. She is spontaneous.
She is
learning to take risks and constantly stepping out of her comfort zone. You see – right now, she is chasing the
things that make her happy. She is chasing the things that feed her soul. And to be honest with you – she could care
less about what everyone else is doing and thinking.
Because right now, her life is filled with so
much peace, so much light, so much growth, so much faith and so much hope. Right
now, she is living a blessed life. There
is absolutely nothing, or no one that can get in the way.
-RS
Poppy
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We moved into the little farmhouse in the mid 60's in Silicon Valley. The farmhouse was painted barn red.The frontage road was lined with bushes and
it had a long dirt driveway.There was a
huge loquat tree in front of the farmhouse, you could not miss it.On the other side was a willow
tree and a greenhouse.
We started unpacking the truck and mom decided to open the basement door
to air it out. She was planning to store miscellaneous items in the basement.We continued unpacking until dusk. We had
dinner then watched a little TV.Mom
decided to go down to the basement and organize the items she put near the doorway. Mom walked down about 10 cement steps and found a ceiling light switch and turned it
on.As she looked around, the basement
was big, and it had a cement floor with cedar wood walls.Far off to the left was a few shelves that
looked sturdy enough to hold her boxes. Mom made her way over to the shelves with the boxes.When she put the boxes down, something caught
the corner of her eye. Mom walked towards the corner and found an old wooden
brown trunk.As she came closer, she felt
a cold breeze shoot through her body. Mom figured it was the wind from the open basement door, so she zipped up her sweatshirt and continued
walking towards the old wooden brown trunk. It had black leather straps with metal
buckles on each side with a skeleton key lock in the center. Mom kneeled and released the black leather straps
and opened the metal buckles.She could
smell a stench but was determined to open the old trunk. Mom opened the skeleton key latch and then had
to push with both hands to open it because it was heavy. Inside she found a dark
blue military uniform nicely folded
along with a pair of boots. Mom picked up the dark blue coat that was heavy and walked
over to the light to see if she could find a name. The name had been
torn off. Mom yelled for dad, and he went down to the basement. They both looked at
the uniform and dad said, "it was a confederate uniform." It
was double breasted with gold buttons with a high neck collar. The pants had
yellow stripes going down the side leg area
The boots were old and worn with small nails with large heads. Some were missing. My dad said, we should put these back in the trunk. Mom agreed, and walked over to the old wooden trunk and folded the uniform exactly the way she found it. That night dad left for work around 2am, he was a baker.My sister woke up and could not sleep so she jumped
in bed with mom.Just when my mom went
to doze off. We heard a boom then heavy
footsteps coming from the basement.It
felt like it lasted for hours but it was only minutes. Mom jumped up looked around and did not see
anything.She drank a glass of water and
went back to sleep. My dad arrived home early morning and mom told him about the boom and footsteps. He said, it is an old house. The following
evening came along.We were watching
dark shadows and heard the boom then heavy footsteps, coming from the basement, again. My mom decided to go down to the basement and my
big brother went along with his bat.He said,
in case I have to hit a home run and laughed. We were bunched together on the couch waiting for mom to come
back.We heard the basement door open and
then nothing after that.It was
quiet.You could hear the crickets and coyotes
that night.Mom found the old wooden brown
trunk open.She looked at the trunk
puzzled because she knew she locked it.My brother said, “you must have left it
open.” As they both closed the wooden trunk, mom whispered we will call you "Joe Boots." They came into the house and Mom said, “everything is OK.” That night mom decided to call our ghost “Joe Boots.” Whenever we heard the boom and heavy footsteps we would say,
“Joe Boots is out stretching his legs and keeping us safe.”
Let me leave you with this quote – “What you leave behind is not what is
engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the LIVES OF OTHERS.”
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I'm a little scarecrow raggedy and worn. I have big fingers and toes. I wear a hat, and a long sleeve shirt to keep the sun rays at bay. When it’s time to scare the crows away, this is how it goes.
I say, Shoo Shoo Shoo, go crow go, then I
wave, “Away from my garden, go, go go!
I want to wish everyone a "Happy Halloween," and always have the courage to follow your Heart.
Poppytheauthor a Country Girl at Heart
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I am happy to be writing this note to my readers and viewers. When I started writing, my aspiration was to read inspiring quotes and write short stories. Since the beginning of covid/lock down my wish was to keep my readers and viewers buoyant with hope. Poppy has had an overwhelming response to her blog and has touched the hearts of many people which makes her feel loved and blessed. Thank you!
Let me leave you with this quote, "Worry is like a rocking chair: It gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere."
Here is a story I wrote on Friday - Another Day on the Ranch
As I settled in my ranch, I noticed the pine trees that lined the west side of the property were turning brown and dying.I called an arborist.He came out on a Thursday and said I had a “soil
compaction problem” which caused the beetles. I said, OK.What do I need to do?You need to till the soil around each tree at
a depth of about 9 inches and add a layer of amendments.He pointed across the road to the neighbor’s
horses.He said grab some of their horse
manure and mix it with some of your dirt on your property and make a pile in the
middle of your pasture. Every day turn the soil with a pitchfork.You will then be able to use this aged manure
around the pine trees once it is ready.I will be back in 2 weeks to check on you.As I sat there, I grabbed some dirt and formed
it into a ball that did not come apart. So basically, I had clay dirt. I was
watering and nothing was going to the root and my pine trees were stressed. Not to mention, I was stressed too.
After he left, I walked over to the chicken coop and picked up two of my hens.My sexy new jersey giant, and a barred rock hen.I took them over to the trees and set them
down.As I watched, they started scratching
and eating the beetles.My other chickens
started to make their way over to the pine trees. I figured I had a few weeks
before my aged manure would be ready. Why not give the chickens a feast for a
couple of weeks?
The following day, I went
to the neighbors and they let me take some manure off their hands.I then drove over to the Rental Depot on
Riverside and looked at the tillers.A
young man approached me and asked, “what are you looking for?”I said, I need a tiller in about 2 weeks.He then went on and said do you need a front
or rear tiller?I was puzzled at that
point.But I continued and said, it
needs to be able to easily move around my pine trees and small spaces. The kid
looked at me and said, “great let's get the paperwork going for a front tiller.”After I finished the paperwork, I asked him what
is the difference?He said the “rear
tillers are good for larger open garden areas. I learned something new today.
Every day, I went down with my pitchfork, let the dogs out of their kennel and opened my chicken coop.I then went over to the pile of manure and
turned it. It smelled but my only
thought was, it will help the stressed pine trees.
Two weeks came along, and
I picked up the tiller and it had a bladed wheel. The kid said, to make sure to hold it in place so the tiller will dig deeper. I said, ok. As I drove home, I said to myself about a thousand times, “I can do
this.” I got home and drove into the pasture and dropped the tiller. I turned it on, then I engaged the choke, and pulled the cord and it started. I pushed the choke handle in. I did exactly what the kid said, to hold it in place so it would dig deeper. I started on top and came down to the bottom, then
went back up with the wheelbarrow and dropped manure around the trees and
tilled one more time. I then dropped the drip lines and made sure they were not
clogged with earwigs. For some reason earwigs loved curling up in the heads. I started around
7am and finished a little after 2pm.
I made my way into the
house and was ready to kick my boots off when I looked out the window and saw
the arborist parking outside of the main gate.He started walking towards the pine trees and I met him halfway.He saw the chickens scratching near the
pine trees and said, "they too will assist with the war against the beetles."We started from the top and walked along the
fence line.The drip-line was on and he was
extremely impressed.He said I did a
great job.As we said our goodbyes.He looked at me and said, "I thought for sure you would
hire someone to do the work."I said, “No,
I enjoy being outside and learning about beetles, aged manure, front and rear tillers.He let out a laugh and said, a pretty lady
with a sense of humor. I smiled and said, thank you.
Let me leave you with
this quote - Your only limit is YOU!
Poppy
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For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There is no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can
change or stay the same, there are no rules. We can make the best or the worst
of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle
you.
I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with
a different point of view. I hope you live a life you are proud of. If you find
that you are not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Sophia and Poppy
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Here is a story I wrote on Saturday - Living and Learning
While settling in my new home, I planned to start a vegetable garden. I went to hometown nursery in Paso Robles and purchased vegetable seeds for my raised
beds.Mr. Cardinale assisted me at Hometown Nursery.He was a small framed
man, wore a big hat and had a great sense of humor. I then went to Orchard Supply to buy a weedwhacker.I didn’t know anything about weedwhackers
until my housekeeper’s husband said, they work well.I had an older fella help me and he said, are
you sure you want to buy this?I
said, “yes.”I purchased the ECHO and extra
trimmer line along with the blended 2-stroke oil. I had been pulling weeds manually.It was good exercise but 3 acres.Hmm, lets rethink this.While
I was there, I purchased 120 flower bulbs.I would plant them around the trees coming up the hill and around the
front entrance near the main gate.It would
add a splash of color.
I arrived home and unloaded my car. I put the oil into the weedwhacker
and pulled the cord.It started just
like that.I went down the hill whacking
the weeds to the right then came back up and did the left side.It was easy to use and it was really giving
me a workout. My neighbors were sitting on their porch and yelled, “you sure got a lot of energy.”I
said, yes, I do not want the weeds to get the best of me. They smiled as they watched me.I then made it back up the hill and put the
bulbs into my red wagon and headed down the hill to plant them.I stopped at each tree and planted 12 bulbs near
the irrigation line near the tree.I
then went to the front entrance and planted around 30 bulbs to the right and 10
on the left side.As I walked up the
hill, I planted 15 more on the left side in between the lavender plants. The rest
of the bulbs I put near my door entrance under the headquarters sign. I would work on the
raised beds tomorrow because I ran out of daylight.
That evening, I sat on the patio deck and thought about my friends working in the large firms.If they only knew about this weedwhacker machine.Instead of punching a bag at the gym, they
could weed whack and be out with nature.I then chuckled.That night I
slept like a baby.
Let me leave you with
this quote – Never stop learning because life never stops teaching.
Poppy
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Right now, she is living a blessed life. She is focused on herself. She is falling in love with who
she is. She is excited about where she
is headed, and what is next. She has so
many goals, so many dreams, so much ambition and she is constantly finding new
passions. She is spontaneous. 
