Henri in Bowling Green

I have always liked this mural.

Now it is being covered up to make room for a bank on the corner in downtown Bowling Green.

I went downtown to see if I could get some photos of it about a week ago. You can still see Henri and the Water Tower plus a lot of the mural.

Here are my photos:

 

  

News about Large Animal Rescue in Franklin, Kentucky

This photo is from the free Microsoft art page

Marlene Nelson is an activist. She cares about families that have lost everything.
She also cares about horses that are being abused and neglected.

“You would not believe what is going on right now,” Marlene Nelson, operator of SE Thrift store in Franklin, said. “I get people coming here from all around Kentucky, and also from Tennessee. We help them out as much as we can.”

The SE of SE Thrift stands for Safe Haven Equine. It is associated with SEAC, which is the Safe Haven Equine Awareness Centers. The store and the group helps people who have lost everything in fires, or who are having a hard time because of the economic downturn.

Marlene said that many farms are going under right now. “Some people can’t afford to feed their families,” she said. Also, some people don’t care for their horses, donkeys, and other large livestock like they should.

When horses need help, Marlene is there. “I have many horses at my house,” Marlene said, “and there are even more out there that need help.”

She told me some stories about horses being shoved into trucks with no food and water. “And this is just some of what is going on,” she said. “Some people don’t think that horses can feel things,” she explained, and some are terribly cruel to them.

Marlene is moving the SE Thrift store to a much larger area by 31-W close to the golf course and Subway in Franklin in about a month. It will have a lot more room. Right now, it is located at 300 Witt Street.

Right now, the whole place is full including another floor, and it could really use the extra space.

Marlene has big dreams for the future. “I want to get donations to have a place where people can learn how to take care of their horses,” she said. She sees a day when there can be an SE Store in every county seat.

She also told me some stories about horses who were dying and being neglected. Marlene explained that some horses are being shipped to Mexico right now, and they don’t have good rules to protect them. “There are no USDA rules about that,” she said.

When she learns of animal abuse, she takes action. She has called officials and told them they need to check horses. She tells them, “just do your job.”

Do you know of a family having a hard time, or do you know of a horse or horses that need help?

You can call Marlene Nelson at 270-253-2282 to get help, volunteer to help her, or make a donation.

You can also email her at safehavenequine@aol.com.

Learn more about the Safe Haven Equine group and Marlene here on the WBKO News site:
http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/1262287.html

Rockin CM Brand rocking horses donate a portion of their proceeds to the Safe Haven Equine group.

Check out other Animal Welfare Groups in Kentucky
http://www.kyawa.org/rescuelist.html

Planning my garden - part 2

Now I am getting nervous about my garden. I was going to plant my seeds much earlier than now, but now I am thinking about planting them outside instead of inside.

I am a beginner, so I won’t be sure how things will turn out until I try them, and that is what makes me nervous. What if my garden gets a lot of weeds like last year? Will I be able to mulch the garden better this year, and spend more time on it? I hope so. PLUS I hope I won’t forget to water the garden again and lose some plants again.

I hope I have learned something from last year’s mistakes.

On the good side, this year I have the use of an older two-cycle tiller. It uses a gasoline and oil mixture. I think I’ll look it up online and see if I can figure it out. If not, I will call a WKU student who can help me start it up and show me how. I tried it years ago, and could not make it work.

But I am optimistic. I will go through my seeds today also.

Tomorrow: I list my seed catalogs and make last-minute purchases.

Planning My Garden - Part 1

Some helpful related garden postings from last year:
The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog
Heritage and Heirloom Seeds and Organic Sites Around the Country and Kentucky
Thinking about the Garden Again
Motivation and Energy for the Garden Spot

Planning my garden - part 1

THE GARDEN

I am definitely planning a garden this year.

It's a lot of fun to plan it, but I know it will be a lot of work. I also know I want to have some of my favorite things in it, like tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and peppers. It's learning how to plant heirloom varieties and how to save the seeds for next year that will have me researching a lot.

THE YARD
My yard, I'm sure like a lot of others, needs a LOT of help this year. We had a huge ice storm that took a lot of branches off of the front Weeping Willow tree. Although I had a lot of branches taken away, there are a lot on the ground still. I see a lot of raking happening soon.

SPRING!
It's over 70 degrees today, and I know I'll be busy planting not long from now. I will take pictures of the garden throughout the year to show what I am doing.

See Planning My Garden - Part 2

____________________________________

Last Year's Gardening Posts:
The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog
Heritage and Heirloom Seeds and Organic Sites Around the Country and Kentucky
Thinking about the Garden Again
Motivation and Energy for the Garden Spot

I am thinking about the garden again...

The leaves are piled in all the yards here - multicolored, some raked, some not, with squirrels perched behind them - - - sitting up chewing and looking people in the eye thinking the leaves make them invisible.

This sundial belongs in my back yard. I want to make some twig and branch walls for my garden next year. I surely have many materials to make them with.

Maybe this year I will be able to work on them every day. Just think of all the flowers, herbs, vegetables, and bushes I can plant!

I think I'll order some catalogs and have some more fun dreaming of my garden.

Reinactors in Bowling Green

July 19th and 20th, I attended the Civil War Living History Weekend at Lost River Cave.

It was really fun. I'll be posting some more Lost River Cave photos from that weekend soon.

Explore!
Lost River Cave in Bowling Green, Kentucky
More Reinactment festivals and weekends
Buy civil war reinactment items on Ebay

Listing in the Rain

My New Weekly Newsletter

and Ebay Listings
From The Garden Spot
Thursday, 4-3-08

Hi, all!

I wanted to "get posting" today here on my blog, and I'm also posting items for sale on Ebay, too. It's a quiet kind of day... and very peaceful.

My Ebay Items
I have some Stephen King and Peter Straub books, Bob Brigl pottery, a vintage look tin box, a PowerNotes teaching CD, and a Power English cassette training system for sale on Ebay this week.

You can go to see my Ebay listings here.

Here at The Garden Spot in Bowling Green, Kentucky, it's raining - a lot. The pond across the street is filled up all the way, and water is streaming into the cave drain from all the neighbor's houses up and down the street.
My Business News

This week, I bit the bullet and bought a copy of Microsoft Word. I got Office 98, which works terrific on my OS 10.2 system.

Now I can access the great artwork available on the Microsoft site. Will I be able to download it successfully on my Mac? I hope so, because the clip art there is great, and there is a lot of it.

You can check out the Microsoft clip art area here.

My To-Do List - or: What Happened to my Seedlings...

Some of my new seedlings disappeared this week. I couldn't figure out why. Then I looked a bit closer and saw some little tiny bugs in the soil where the little seedlings used to be.

I still have much to learn about gardening, and even more about starting my own plants.

Looking closely at soil before and after planting is one thing I have learned to do next time.

Also, I think next time I will plant outside in a mini-greenhouse (so they get more sun than the window) OR use storebought soil (so they don't have bugs in the soil that like to eat seedlings).

Well - back to work.

My Ebay Listings
My website
The Nontrads site
My Amazon book listings

Motivation... and Energy for the Garden Spot

My To-Do List(s) mention getting seeds going for the garden this week (actually a few weeks ago, but that's OK too).

I found some plastic seed sprouters out in the Little House in the back yard, so now I am ready.

Some choices for this yeaer:
1. Sweet Snap Peas
2. Sunflowers (many kinds)
3. Baby Watermelon
4. He-Shi-Ko onions (must look these up)
5. Tomatoes

I tried some striped tomatoes last year and the flavor was great. I will order some of those seeds for either next year, or (maybe) this year.

There were some very reasonable striped tomato plants at the Farmer's Market last year, too.

It would also be fun to try to make a fence out of willow strips and other branches this year. I know I will want to try to grow some more flowers. If the apple tree can keep its blooms this year, I will be happy because then we will have apples. The early freeze completely took all the blossoms last year.

I think I have some more containers outside, so I'll need to get those to the house, too.