flowers for kev

           rarely do i get flowers , except when i buy them myself. a special friend bought me some and they are lovely , more so because i would hardly spend money on them as i now manage a greenhouse, and would only hope i can grow such beauties . it sure has brightened a winter wracked kitchen on which i will spend awhile getting the gray out. but the flowers sure help. thank you again. 

         and i am buying flowers and starting baskets. in fact it was a month ago i started about thirty baskets and transferred to the greenhouse. after which winter started with a vengeance causing me more harm than good. burnt up a bunch of lp gas fuel and decided it was time to convert to wood. even though winter is still nagging on.  it doesn't take much sun  to get the greenhouse up to 80 degrees and it wont be long till i will need to ventilate. i had never expected to be running a greenhouse and to say the least this is still a new adventure to me. i only plan on being in this business for the next 10 years, and hopefully by then i will know everything you shouldn't do in running a greenhouse. 

        the greenhouse is owned by yockey farms which is a family corporation and the name is in honor of my grandfather and grandmother with out whom , our family would have been a lot worse off. this is a new adventure for us. the greenhouse is located at 7528 e. sparta ave. magnolia ohio, 44643. i am the resident carver and chief and cook and bottle washer. i know all but i am a  hardly get anything as much as i would like to get done type person. wishing for wasted youth i spent freely to come visit me again. with help from a friend , i am getting closer to resembling a greenhouse operation. 

       it is time to go to the next step,  to try and make some money. the greenhouse is loaded with pine trees that need to start moving and yockey farms  is  offering for sale pine trees out the door in original pots at 5.00 per tree as an arbor day special. originally i had planned to plant on reclaimed strip mine land but the lease is still being held by the coal company. also i originally thought that by planting in pots would assure a lower mortality rate among trees as compared to bare root planting as they normally come. i feel it has helped me preserve more trees especially during last years drought conditions. the trees are growing great and will soon be out of the pots with most needing re-potting,  save me some needed soil and plant directly into your yard or fence line. their size should surely help in easy identification to prevent loss due to mowing or weed whipping. most are in the 2 foot range and taller, with well established roots. 

      why plant a tree on arbor day? why not . maybe you were going to jump in your new corvette and take a quick trip to the beach , or maybe it was pontoon boat trolling the shores of the ohio river looking for a place to tie up. it is about balance in life. as humans we have become real good at taking but find it much hard to give, especially when it comes to the environment  we expect our politicians to look out for our best interest when it comes to our consumption practices. unchecked petroleum prices grow exponentially as profits do also , while oil spills, fracking , and the impact on the environment. the wellhead and the pipelines that criss-cross our nation as well as the international impact all add up to one of many abuses we inflict daily upon an already stressed  ecosystem.  and politicians are to deeply embedded in the system to change it or want to. we are still studying the effects of the industrial revolution and how it impacted our weather and climate today, yet not really understanding completely mankind's role in how we affect everything us.  

        we should err on the side of caution and safety in health. even if global warming didn't exist , then what harm will a couple of more trees cause. none in fact it will be shade for a weary sole someday or food for a squirrel as it keeps on giving and at same time locks up- hydrocarbons and stabilizes our environment.  in the end rots to nothing and becomes nourishment for another of its kind or other plant life. your corvette or pontoon takes a little something away from the environment each time we use it. or worse yet it releases carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide into the environment , at the same time the oil company is clearing a 100 foot right of way through a woods somewhere for a pipeline or a well head to keep you going down that road or up that river. . how many trees did the pipeline or well operators plant? none. 

        turn up your thermostat and the power company shoots another ton of coal buried under the hills of northeastern ohio , to sell to you. of that money , reclamation and air quality are  mandatory expenses comprising a large percentage of that money . but  are we getting what we pay for when it comes to matching original vegetation. if the trees were 65 percent oaks , then that is what should be replaced. we get the area reclaimed where mining exists , but barren level fields hardly reminiscent of anything of like it was originally is the norm . 

       i could go on and sound like i am on a soapbox but instead choose to not fight with industrial zealots who believe we can continue utilizing all resources without any fear to the consequence except when it comes to profits. i have a simple solution buy a tree and i will feel better about everything. 5 is nothing , it is half of the new anticipated minimum wage. every year i plan on having this sale and hope that each year it expands as more people get involved. prices may not always be the same. 

      if you are interested in buying a tree or trees, i will have some planting information available at time of sale. in addition i may be offering to deliver these trees to your place of residence lessening their fossil fuel requirements as i would plan my route and would have one vehicle driving as opposed to several vehicles coming to my place of residence. 

      some people who are not interested in planting or cant plant , may decide to use our service of planting on your property or ours if you are renting and want to do something to help the environment. our planting crew will plant on your land for 10 per tree. if you need a place to plant a tree to help do your part and want to plant it yourself , you can do it on our farm. the cost is 7.50 per tree. we will provide the shovel and the tree and a ride to your tree planting site on a wagon. this planting area will be set aside with promise to never cut the tree while our family retains the land. i will take a picture of your family with your tree if you like aalso for free . this is kinda like going out to cut your christmas tree only you are planting one that will be around a lot longer. our family originally bought this land in 1942 and really don't see selling anytime soon. but for as long as i am around will do my best to keep my word . we are not responsible for accidents , and large groups should make preparations in advance. we will do our best to accommodate handicapped individuals. but this is a farm. if participation is high then may provide hotdogs off the grill and a drink. possibly cider. 

        will have contact information on my new website : kevscarvings-chainsaw carvings -i am still working on it but if you go to my contact page and send me an email , i will get back to you as soon as possible. a receipt will be provided and all taxes will be paid for that amount. also on my website i will have yard tools available for sale in both new and used condition. at times i will have carvings available for sale also when  they become available. the website will be the business end of our yockey family greenhouse. 

      the official arbor day this and every year is the last week in april on friday the 26th . as more information and response becomes available will let you know in this blog. i will be looking forward to planting at least 10 of our own trees also as well as maybe even more. 

       

.halfway to my goal

      when i started this blog i had certain intentions or goals to achieve. to become more relaxed at writing and learning how to tell a story. the idea being that if i wrote a page a day , that in a year i would have over 365 pages or a novels worth of writing. well it has taken me a year to just get halfway. so be it but  i have learned a lot and now i have 183 posts out of 365 i was supposed to achieve by now . with 7489 hits or viewers  who have visited my site. i admit some may have been trying to delete me and just hit the wrong button. happens to me all the time , but anyhow i still plan to take credit for my half - baked attempt at trying to catch your attention. now i will work on getting your full attention as i think i might have something in my writing here. i am not out of stories but instead currently working on several . some of these require illustrations and these take longer.

       without you the viewer all of this is for not. thank you for being patient with me , and as well my peculiarities of typing only in small print. i have big hands and type with 2 fingers fairly quick and accurately and if i capitalize takes 3 x as long to type. maybe some day i will hire an editor and they can share title with me. i like to be able to type and have the words pour forth on the keyboard as i go along with the story. a little rewrite and i can move to next story. 

      most of what i have written and shared with you is my life experiences at times mocking myself , as i try to understand who i am and where i came from and where i am going to. the past is written and i am living the present and could only wish for one more day like this one. even with all the challenges i faced , i still managed to make the most of the day. 

     i would like to say it is easy being me , and i only wish it was so . but can still remember the wasted youth when i was strong , and had no purpose. i can remember when i couldn't ever imagine becoming aged, and spent little time thinking about it until visiting the parents or grandma and grandpa and looking at them and myself i would see their reflections in the mirror as i studied my face. and would say to myself is this my fate?
       it was and now i accept. i am slowly accepting their role , whether i want to or not. we all do. we become a new version of our parents. writing only comes natural to me as i do come from a long line of bs'ers . i am a little better at spelling is all.

 
         i was dads official crossword mystery filler inner. i can remember mornings in my late teens when it was still dark outside and dad would roll us out of bed about five thirty in the morning . the early hour would allow us a cup of tea or coffee, before heading out to bring the cows in to milk before heading off to school. i would sit in the living room waking up ,  and dad would sit at the dining room table and do the crosswords in the paper daily for years. he wasn't bad at it , but if it it was my habit  , i would have given it up if i was him. he didn't in fact. when he was stumped he would simply yell out to me in the living room how do spell this or that.

       if i was wrong he would yell back , that doesn't fit. to many letters or just plain wrong word. as if i could see the crossword puzzle at anytime. he hoarded it as if it was sacred. that was, until he was done , and then you could do whatever with it. and forbid the thought of ever doing the crossword before him. as he would say you would rather pour hot butter up a wild cats ass , than mess with his paper. a colorful quote he used frequently and this was dad. a little crude at times but cant we all be at times. as  some one told me once  that i was rude,  crude,  and socially unacceptable. that is fine  as i know at least i should have some company in that category.
       this carving is for my friend , she loves orangutans and i saw this guy when looking  at pictures. his pose is for real. she believes in saving the orangutans habitat as i do also and this inspired me to thank her with a carving for her efforts since it wouldn't be fitting to have one of her own in captivity. it is not done and i will post more pics including final ones.
      again thanks to all of you readers  who have followed me . i hope that i can improve on my writing and have you all breathlessly waiting for  my next blog. shouldn't be hard as we get older every day , the breathlessly part that is. it was a pretty lofty goal to achieve in the first place and even though i didn't do a page a day i still feel i have done well even if it is only in my tiny little mind. thanks and come again. -kevin
     

the day better homes and, gardens didnt come. 

   when we were a lot younger and may i say dumber . mom in her infinite wisdom came up with a way to try and make us do things we probably wouldn't have done otherwise. it isn't so much we were lazy , but living on a farm,  a child has so many responsibilities .  like play in the creek, climb trees , pick on your little sister , anything but clean up toys or straighten up the house. all of those things and a million others were more fun than work. but mom found the most innovative way to get us moving. bribery and deception. works every time. 

    grandma and mom were avid readers of better homes and gardens and the picturesque city houses that adorned the jackets of the magazine were a far cry from where we lived in our old farmhouse, heated with a clanging banging coal stove . about the time you had the house heated up in the wintertime  it was time to go to bed and freeze the next morning when you woke up to do it all over again.    there was always a copy or two of better homes and gardens laying around the house , where we would thumb our way through issue after issue pretending we knew what it was all bout. our home was a roof over our head . modest as it was it was hardly ever going to be seen on the cover of better homes and gardens magazines , but us kids never knew that. instead it left us wide open to be hoodwinked by mom. 

     it was the early 60's and my older brothers had just started school and were blessed with new found intelligence , of which they eagerly shared with me in their sarcastic i am smarter than you way. who was i to doubt their wisdom in such things as realizing a good deal when you see it. so when mom gathered us together to announce the news that the very one and only better homes and gardens was coming to take pictures of our house and that we needed to get things cleaned  up , skeptical as i was , i immediately looked at the enthusiasm of my older brothers and knew that this could be the real thing. 

    in fact as the work plan was laid out i could see my older brothers taking charge and informing us all of work needed to be done to make the place ship shape. toys were picked up and messes were cleaned up as mom silently slank off to a corner to watch this transformation of a simple farmstead into a picturesque front page cover . we worked ourselves into a frenzy , biting at each others remarks as we grew tired as we were just young kids and obviously not used to such a task. but on we pressed until we could find no more to trouble ourselves with. it was time to clean up and wait for the photographer to pull in with his shiny car. 

    mom was suddenly no where to be found , and we started searching as we needed to know when this big event was going to happen. apparently mom was overcome by the excitement and decided to take a nap. 

 hardly the thing you would think someone who is about to be visited by the favorite magazine of the time would do. we pressed her for more information and then she let loose with a big laugh as she lay on the bed and told us it was all made up and that in fact they were not coming and that she nearly burst open with laughter watching us scurry around like ants heading to an anthill , doing all we did . and that the place never looked better but even she would hardly doubt that better homes and gardens would ever visit us. 

      it was at this moment i learned something about my family. laughter is best when taking someone in the family for a ride , even better when it is the whole family. second thing i learned is that with all that fancy schooling my brothers had that made them better than me , they were still a long way off from where they needed to be, intellectually speaking. their eagerness to be sucked in to moms scheme in fact left us all a little wiser. i would  forever doubt their ability to be an expert on anything. looking back i still have to smile at this story, and isn't that what memories should be about.