OUR LITTLE HEAVEN

This is our home, and in the summer it's quite beautiful here. We have thirty pecan trees all around the house. There were more then that, twenty years ago, but my Father-in-law had four cut down, that grew closer to the house. He was worried that a storm would blow those trees down on the house, and he was probably right.

In this photo, I'am standing on the carport looking West. Our yard is pretty large, and, it's an all day job mowing it. Walking to the mail box is good exercise also. On a rainy day I get in the Van and drive too the mail box and backup into the carport. No hard work for um waa (me) :)

Here's my niece Tina, sitting on my daughter's horse, named OLD MAN. Cheryl has since sold her horse. I did attempt to ride OLD MAN..but..forget it !!! I chickened out...like real fast. OLD MAN is a very spirited horse, and was used for barrel racing at Rodeo's.

Photo Courtesy of Female34pa@aol.com

Most of the trees were planted over one hundred years ago by my husband's Grandfather. He planted over ten pecan trees, after he bought the land from the Butler Family of Northeast Louisiana.

This is a Japanese Magnolia trees. I took this picture in May of '91', and at this time, it's a lot bigger then what you see here. They start to bloom early in the year, before the last freeze, so the petals fall of too soon. They also have big leaf's, and in the fall, my carport is full of dead leaf's. They are on the North side of the house.

Here are two of my Grandkids, Jason and Stephen. They live in South Louisiana. I'am looking West. Our yard is just right, for the kids and their bikes. No busy highways.

This photo was taken about seven years ago. I'am standing out at the old garden area, looking Northeast toward the house. Over the years the yard has changed, the trees are bigger, some smaller trees are gone, and more shrubbery has been added.

Copyright 1998 Cheryl Boswell Used With Permission

We also have one huge Magnolia Tree in our front yard. As of yet, I have no photos of it, but will get one later on, when it's blooming. Magnolia flowers have a smell of Lemons. John has picked a few flowers and I put them in a vase, and the whole kitchen smells like one big lemon. Good clean smell.

Country folks will do anything for a birdbath. This old sink came out of the old Armstrong Home long ago. John and I cleaned it up and made a hole in the ground, and buried the bottom of the sink and covered it with dirt. And then I planted some flowers, looks cute. Not everyone has a sink in their yard. Quite original....I thought !!!

This is a photo of the old Armstrong Home.This is what you call a shotgun house, it had another room connected, which made it L shaped. My husband and his sister's grew up in this home with their parents. John can remember when they had no electricity or running water, they used lanterns and had a well for their water. Of course later on they had some modern conveniences installed.

The old home was located at the rear of the property, behind the brick house. And for those of you who don't know what a shotgun house is, it's rooms that are built one after another in a straight line. No two shotgun houses are the same. This particular house first had the livingroom, then two bedrooms, one after another, and next was the kitchen, with a rear room that was called the back room. It had everything in it, frig, washer, table for eating, a bed, and one long closet for cloths. The other portion of the house was set into the house which made it into an L shape. It had more bedrooms only. And also, there were two extra rooms built in the front and in 1970 one of the pecan trees fell on it and destroyed those two rooms during a storm. No, don't panic....no one was living in it.

John also can remember (he was 5 or 6) that this particular house was located further up in the cotton fields and was moved here, by way of using big logs. They had the house sitting on ten or so logs and used horses to pull it, and would remove the last log and hurry and take that log and put it up under the front of the house. They repeated that until they got the house where it stood for many years. I have no idea how many hours it took them to move it. Now...sit back and try to picture that, that's what you call HARD WORK.

In winter of 96-97 John and I with our daughter and her boyfriend tore down the old Home. Through the years the house started to deteriorate, weather was a major factor on the deterioration of the house. John and his sisters have many good memories of living here as children. And from the stories I've been told, this was a happy home.

It's so sad, that now adays, kids and young adults don't really care for the country. They like the city and bright lights. When I lived here back in the 60's, as a young girl of twenty I didn't care for it either..LORD..what was I thinking of. I love it and wouldn't live anywhere's else.

I hope ya'll have enjoyed our home. We sure do. Please come back often, I'll be changing photos around some. I have tons and tons oh pics. Ya'll come back now. See ya.