Flowers, Gardening, & Deer

My good word for the day is: "I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content." Phil. 4:11

I was repeating that verse as I was bouncing over the ground mowing weeds and thinking about how hard we ranch girls work to have some flowers, trees, garden "stuff" and maybe a little grass. Gumbo is a dirt (is it dirt?) of it's own kind. It is as hard as a rock when dry and comes out in big clumps when dug and when wet, it sticks to one's feet like deflated tire inner tubes!! I have been known to "lose" a shoe in the stuff!
This is my new lawn tractor from My Cowboy! We wore the other one out in three years! This one has 24 + hours on it so far! It mows a little bigger swath, which is good! We mow lots and lots because I hate snakes!!!
This iris grows in gumbo in spite of itself. This picture was taken this spring before the deer found the blossoms!

This picture of my moss roses is to show that deer will eat them whether I have wire on them or not. If you look closely, you will see chicken wire secured by my lawn ornament made by Wayland. They were also hanging their head into the planter to the left of the moss roses!!

This is an early morning picture I tried taking of two bucks in Grandma's yard! One is eating her Chinese elm tree and the other one is lurking around, since there really isn't anything to eat except in our yards. Granted, they were beautiful to watch and then I came to my senses and clapped my hands and hollered at them (after trying to get a pic).

I wonder if I would be called a red-necked gardener as I have wire around my flowers to keep the critters at bay. It also keeps the cats out of the planters too! It isn't esthetically pretty, but if you squint your eyes you don't see the wire as much! There is also wire on the pansies if you look closer.
The trees, the deer love the leaves on the trees. Both of these trees are struggling for survival. The wind blew the wire off of the tree at the right of the picture. It happened in the spring and all the leaves were eaten off, but after the wire was installed one more time, the leaves came back! Another thing the deer like to do is rub the velvet off of their horns and they do that on our trees without wire rather than the trees along the creek. Plastic sacks looped over the branches works. Does red-neck come to mind??

We work so hard at having a few things grow. My Cowboy put in a 1500- gallon water tank behind the garage for me to catch rain water. The other day I watered the trees on a trickle. When I turned the water off, I had turned it the wrong way. The next morning My Cowboy told me my water tank was empty BUT the good news was that the trees all got watered! They are good until fall!! I know, I know--lefty loosey, righty tighty!!!

So, you can see why I was repeating my Bible verse this morning! My flowers are pretty, the weeds get mowed, I have water for the flowers and veggies, there is gas in the mower and My Cowboy loves me. It can't get much better than that...