Petit Jean Mountain State Park

One Saturday morning we decided to go hiking at Petit Jean Mountain State Park, which is only about an hour and a half from Little Rock. We had a very pleasant drive up to the park and decided to do the Seven Hollows trail. The Seven Hollows trail is my favorite, because of the huge rock formations. Here's Sweetie and the Little Black Dog on the Seven Hollows trail.

We didn't get very far before we realized that the trail was really CROWDED, so we decided to do the BSA (Boy Scouts of America) trail instead. We pretty much had the trail to ourselves for most of the time. We're spoiled from hiking at our place in the country, because we usually don't run into anyone on the trails we hike there. Anyway, it was a good hike - nice and warm, but breezy - and we ended up at Mather Lodge.


This is a pic of the vista from Mather Lodge - doesn't really do it justice, you have to be there!


Here's another pic from close by.  There are so many great trails at this park - that's why it was crowded!

Buh Bye Tiny Water Heater.......

This is the water heater that was in the building when we bought it.  It is way too small.  This is maybe one sink full of hot water?!  This just won't do.  So, we replaced it with a tankless, gas water heater, which is now in the tiny kitchen and not in the front bathroom.

Here is the tankless water heater in the very narrow kitchen.  It's ugly and takes up too much space but well worth it!

Bees

Here are our contractors working to remove the rotted windows in the new classroom/workshop.  These are going to be replaced with big six foot windows, as it appears that is what was there originally and we love lots of light!

So much light!  I'm thinking this would make a great yoga space too!

Then they started working on the second window.  And there was buzzing - then more buzzing.  Then Tim came in and said I think there is a beehive in there!  You see that whole panel on the left?  Yep - that's a bee hive - and there's some of it on the right too.

One of the guys knew a bee guy (apiarist, beekeeper) and he came and gently took the bees to their new home.  Honey was distributed - sticky work.  I kept some of the honeycomb and made a mold of it - I'll show you the necklace I made from the mold later!  I love bees - they keep our world going.  I have so many bee items in the store - check out The Bees of Summer collection if you love bees too!

Arkansas Bead Retreat

If you ever want to meet a great group of women, then attend the Arkansas Bead Retreat!  Every single one of these women (and men!) is remarkable!

And they are all so patient and will show you all kinds of ways to make jewelry!

The amazing Ida, the lady on the right, does an awesome bead retreat in Shreveport twice a year.  I love having Stifft Station Gifts, but I do miss going to these bead retreats every year!

The Deck

This is so ugly!  It's basically an old, metal industrial loading ramp.  The litle black dog hates to walk on it because her little toes get caught in the grate.  And can you imagine trying to walk on it in high heels?!

These stairs have a tread that would fit a munchkin - they are tiny and useless.  Also, no one really wants to gaze at the beautiful air conditioning unit as they come into the back entrance of the store, now do they?!

Amazing, huh?!  Stefan Vickery, of Vickery Construction, and his guys did this.  They did most of the work on the store and they are great!

I have a pretty little railing, and room for the A/C to breathe.  I can even stand over it and pretend I'm Marilyn Monroe!  That would make a great photo shoot!

Here's another view.

And another view.

And nice new, wide stairs for normal sized feet!

Then I painted it chocolate brown.  That's right, I painted it.  By hand.  With a Brush.  It took a long time.  But doesn't it look good?!

The little black dog is so thankful we have a nice deck for her to walk on now.  Here she is sitting in the sun, watching all the nice people go into The Oyster Bar for lunch and smelling the yummy smells.  I'm very happy with my deck, folks!

Sprouts

Here are my sprouts!  And my brand new mucking boots!  We live in the middle of the city, but next to a huge stretch of woods, so boots are a necessity due to copperheads and such.  But see all the little babies?!  It's so fun to grow them yourself and if you get F1 Hybrid seeds lots of them will reseed each year.  And the herbs, like basil and cilantro, already have their yummy smells when they are only a couple of inches tall.  I find it fascinating - yes, I am a plant nerd as well as many other varieties of nerd........