Just Me Granny D's Launching Etsy Site!

It has long been a hobby of mine to take photographs of everything - I have drawers and boxes full of photographs of scenery, horses, dogs, deer, inanimate objects, clouds, storms, and just about anything one can imagine.  For several years I made and sold various types of greeting cards which featured my photography.  Since that time I have taken thousands more photos that I believe would be great for a couple of new lines of greeting cards.

Besides my photography and greeting cards - I find I have a house full of vintage items that really might be appreciated more somewhere else.  Over the years I think I have kept most everything anyone has ever given me - some very interesting items and a few strange items mixed in with vintage collectibles and odds and ends.  Each time I open a drawer or a box on a shelf in my house I see things I think 'someone somewhere could probably really use that' -

I am working on developing an inventory, taking the photos for display, preparing a price list, checking on shipping and handling details, and determining my advertising possibilities at the moment.  But with determination, Just Me Granny D will be launching the Etsy store site next Friday - that would of course be Black Friday! 

As a stay at home and work online granny,  it only makes sense to venture into this next avenue of online income opportunity and offer items for sale from Granny D's personal photography and private collections - just wait till you see what is to come!!!! 


Just Me Granny D

Signs of the Times

"I got a new job today," a son said to his father.

"Oh really, where at and what will you be doing?"

"I am going into business for myself!  I will be a rich entrepreneur!"

"Okay, but where at and doing what?" asked the father.

"At the street corner by the mall!   I'll be the one on the corner holding up a sign!  I know some people who make about $1000.00 per day just standing there holding up a sign and so I have decided to go into that business."

"That's called panhandling, and it's against the law!"

"Well, I call it working for myself, and being an entrepreneur.  I'll sing for them if they want!  You know, I'll be like that 'Naked Cowboy from New York' with his guitar and hat!"

"That's not a real job, Son!  You'll get arrested!"

"It's a real job in this day and age Dad - you're just getting old and behind the times!  And they don't arrest you for panhandling, only give you a ticket and suggest better locations to you!"

Street Kids and Streetscapes: Panhandling, Politics, and Prophecies


PANHANDLING LAW; ; ACLU: CITY CAN'T PUT LIMITS ON ASKING FOR ALMS.(Main): An article from: The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM)


 The beggar's handbook: A guide to successful panhandling

Just Me Granny D

Out to Pasture

Out to Pasture

Turning an older horse out to pasture to retire sounds like the humane and decent thing to do for a beloved horse which has worked hard and served well throughout his life. But is it really the right thing to do for that loyal, loving soul? Or could it be that it's the worse thing you could possibly do? Maybe it depends on the horse.

Just as with people, retirement sounds great – but is it really?

How many people retire only to become depressed and go through feeling as if they are no longer needed or productive in life? While some actually enjoy being `out to pasture' and flourish in their golden years, many others find their health deteriorates, depression sets in and they really need something to do. Many find their selves retired or out to pasture because of health problems or factors (besides age) in which they had no control. For these people the self doubts, feelings of rejection and betrayal – whether by others or by one's own body – are major obstacles to being able to enjoy those final years of one's life. The very years in which we believe we have earned some peace, rest and relaxation.

A question to mull over.

If you had a horse which was elderly and having major problems with hooves and hips, would it be best to put him out to pasture - stop riding or working him? Now let's say this same horse had spent his years involved in riding programs with children and really walked proud with a child mounted, evident to all how much he enjoyed and loved the kids – would become depressed and stop eating when the kids were gone on vacations; after-all, he didn't understand why they suddenly weren't there – do you still retire the horse?

If you have a person who is elderly/or not, and having health problems, is it best to put them out to pasture? Would you want to be `out to pasture'?

Just Me Granny D

Tips for Country Life

I love living in the country! However, country living does have it's own unique problems from city or urban life. Finding inexpensive yet effective solutions to those problems can be difficult if not almost impossible – So here are a few of the tips and solutions for various occasions which can and do occur. Hopefully these will help others whether you live in the country, visit the woods, fish in ponds, camp in the wilderness or are just curious.

Snakes

I really don't like snakes. So when we were told before we ever moved here that there were copperheads and water moccasins on the one side of the pond by our house, I immediately started researching how to get them to move somewhere else. I really don't want to share my yard with poisonous snakes! The woods around us is extensive and there are a lot of ponds and creeks all through here, so the snakes do have somewhere to relocate to without people trying to catch and relocate them. Question was, what could I do to persuade them they wanted to move on?! Answers found:

1. Use mothballs – make a perimeter around the property that you want the critters to stay away from. - I immediately took mothballs and used them all around the perimeter of the yard and the side of the big pond that is in the yard.
2. Cats and dogs – having outdoors pets who mark the perimeter of their yards will help to dissuade snakes from coming into the yard. Notice I said “help”. I am not sure really that this works as I have had cats and dogs get snake bit before. They will try to kill snakes when they find one usually, but that is dangerous for your pet. I do have two dogs and a cat though that do daily mark the perimeters of the yard, and the cat hunts daily! My dogs warn me when they sense danger in an area, and my Willie is really great about smelling snakes – he doesn't want anything to do with them! Neither do I!
3. Keep a gun loaded with snake loads and a snake bite kit on hand at all times!! This is very important! Know what to do in case of a snake bite. If you are very far out in the country, it could take a long time (possibly too long) for help to arrive!

Additional Tip: If it rains a lot after you have used mothballs, don't forget to replace them. After a month and a half of rain, I hadn't replaced the mothballs and suddenly found a 4 and ½ foot black snake in my living room the other day!!!

Moles

Moles are a common problem both in the country, suburbs and even in yards in cities. They can tear up a yard or garden in a blink of an eye, or at least it seems that way! Instead of hurting or killing these cute little pests, once more I prefer to use an inexpensive way to persuade them to move on to somewhere else – my answer is Juicy Fruit gum! I have used this method for years everywhere I have lived and had problems with moles.

Locate the mole holes and place a stick of Juicy Fruit gum in each hole. The moles will move away from that location. Locate their new holes and repeat. This could take a few days to actually get them moved all the way out of your yard, depends on how big your yard is, but they will keep moving away from the sticks of gum and will finally be gone out of your yard.

Mosquitoes

Being outside can put you at risk of becoming dinner for thousands of pesky little insects. Flys, gnats and mosquitoes may be tiny little creatures, but they can cause big enough problems to ruin cookouts, walks outdoors, sitting on your porch or patio or any outdoor activity.

The answers I have found and depend upon for these nasty little disease carriers are:

1. Marigolds – I plant marigolds all around my house, yard, garden, patio – everywhere I know I want to be and don't want the bugs to be! Marigolds repel these little pests and really does a great job of it – and they aren't just orange any more! Available in many different colors and varieties now, they can be easily be worked into any gardening theme or color scheme – and will definitely help to make your gardening and outdoors experiences be good ones.
2. Bounce - believe it or not, bounce dryer sheets are not just for the dryer anymore. The original, (not scented), Bounce dryer sheets work very well for keeping flys and mosquitoes away! I stick dryer sheets all around the perimeters of the patio or area of the yard I intend to be in. To go for a walk in the woods or to fish or horseback ride or whatever, I stick a couple of dryer sheets in my belt, waistband, pockets or somewhere on me. Note: the first time I tried this, I was camping on the side of a lake and the bugs were horrible. We made a perimeter of our campsite and hung the sheets in the trees around the campsite – within just a few minutes our campsite was free of flying, biting insects and you could stand and see all the bugs on the outside of the perimeters we had created with the sheets! I have used them ever since and am very grateful to the person who clued me in to this! (Works better than citronella candles ever worked for me!)

1. Marigolds – I plant marigolds all around my house, yard, garden, patio – everywhere I know I want to be and don't want the bugs to be! Marigolds repel these little pests and really does a great job of it – and they aren't just orange any more! Available in many different colors and varieties now, they can be easily be worked into any gardening theme or color scheme – and will definitely help to make your gardening and outdoors experiences be good ones.
2. Bounce - believe it or not, bounce dryer sheets are not just for the dryer anymore. The original, (not scented), Bounce dryer sheets work very well for keeping flys and mosquitoes away! I stick dryer sheets all around the perimeters of the patio or area of the yard I intend to be in. To go for a walk in the woods or to fish or horseback ride or whatever, I stick a couple of dryer sheets in my belt, waistband, pockets or somewhere on me. Note: the first time I tried this, I was camping on the side of a lake and the bugs were horrible. We made a perimeter of our campsite and hung the sheets in the trees around the campsite – within just a few minutes our campsite was free of flying, biting insects and you could stand and see all the bugs on the outside of the perimeters we had created with the sheets! I have used them ever since and am very grateful to the person who clued me in to this! (Works better than citronella candles ever worked for me!)

Coyotes, Bears, Cougars, Bobcats, Wild Boar, etc. -

Thankfully I live where I do not have to worry about bears. We do have coyotes, cougars, bobcats, wild pigs, foxes, wolves and other large wild animals running around in the woods, coming to drink from the pond and hunting for food at night all around us. Answers? - be aware of where you are and what is around you at all times! Tips to persuade them to hunt somewhere else -

1. Do not leave trash or garbage outside in containers that large animals can get into. If they find that you put your trash and garbage outside every day in a place that they can get to, then they will come and eat there nightly! This is the same as with raccoons, skunks, ground hogs, and all kinds of wild animals who would prefer that you feed them nightly with your garbage instead of them having to get out and hunt for their food!
2. Do not leave small animals outside to attract larger predatory animals. If you have chickens, dogs, cats, ducks or whatever, make sure at night that they are safe from the wild creatures of the night. A dog chained to a dog house in the yard can easily become dinner for a pack of coyotes or a bear! Chickens not in their coop or in a pen that doesn't have the top covered or that is easily dug under becomes another animals chicken dinner instead of yours, or the eggs become breakfast for weasels, bobcats or other animals.

These tips are just a few things that can help make life easier and more enjoyable living in the wilds of the country. Hopefully they can help others to find peace, happiness and a oneness with nature. Inexpensive, effective and humanitarian methods of dealing with wildlife, pesky insects and common problems in the country are considered “common sense” to a lot of country folk, but city folk need to have access to this info also for when they visit or move outside the city limits. I will pass on more tips later, in the mean time, hope these have helped you and have fun exploring and enjoying the countryside, the woods, the lakes and forests this summer!

Just Me Granny D

Back In The Country -

Back to the Country

After living the past eight years in an area that is neither suburbia or rural but rather an area that had been rural but is becoming the suburb craze of the area, we have moved back to the real country. I am in such a remote location that my address is not available to GPS, Google Search can't locate us, I can't subscribe for internet or cable service, coyotes are running around in my yard and the woods and ponds are my nearest neighbors!

I love living in the country. Plenty of room for a good garden this year, persimmon trees and berry bushes are abundant, squirrels and rabbits play all day outside my windows, mallard ducks fly in twice a day to swim and eat their fill of fish, tree toads and crickets sing me to sleep at night – all are some of my favorite things in life! The big red-headed woods cocks (looks like giant woody the woodpeckers) are everywhere. A beautiful golden falcon flies across my front deck about 4:30 every afternoon trying to catch him a squirrel. So much nature to see and experience here.

Horses and dogs have been the center of my life for the last eight years, and even though I could see birds, raccoons, ground hogs, muskrats, skunks, deer, etc., - it was nothing compared to the daily surprises I see here in the woods. Camera, where are you? I promise you are going to be kept busy while living here!!!

Peace to everyone, love to all and I promise I will get to town and on the internet to post updated blogs about the country life and to post lots of photos at least once a week! In the meantime I am still trying to get some company to tell me they can push the internet signal out here to me! (Whatever happened to Obama's call for the internet to be made available to all US citizens?!?)

Update: The telephone company has ran a qualification test on the phone lines out here – they tell me they can only get 768kbs internet connection to me until they replace the existing lines out here with new lines which will be capable of running higher speed dsl and/or fiber optics. They are currently in the process of running new lines to all their customers and it is scheduled for completion by 2020 – our area will be one of the last areas that is scheduled to be done as we are on what they call an ACU cliff -(don't have any idea what that means except I know that I do live on the side of a hill) – anyway, the lines are old enough they can't support any faster speeds of internet! The only other options for internet service out here is through direct satellite link from Hughes Network or Big Blue – waiting to hear from them about if their satellites can locate me here or not! Remember, google can't! Anyway, for now I am on the internet with my cell phone and once a week I will take my laptop to town and upload what I have written that week. So – have a good week everyone!

Just Me Granny D