New Year, Oranges & Snow!

We had a great Christmas. Spent it with family. My FIL had his artificial hip removed back in October & has been in re-hab ever since. SIL & family came down from Atlanta to spend Christmas with everyone. We took Christmas Eve dinner to the re-hab place, then niece opened her gifts. We stopped exchanging with the adults on hubby's side of the family several years ago. We were just exchanging $$ & gift cards & decided to stop.

We still exchange with my family so we headed to my sisters on Christmas Day. Had a wonderful late lunch & after gifts were opened we headed to the country to work on the Barn Apartment.  We have been working on it since late 2015.

Yes, we take things a little slower here in the south ...lol. Really though, the reason is that we save up to do what we can & then stop & save up some more so we can pay off as we go. We were in the final stretch & only had to install the plumbing stuff (faucets, toilets, etc.), get a septic tank installed & then hook up the water. Greg got the plumbing done & we got the septic installed but not inspected before we left (that happened yesterday). He'll hook up the water when we go back. Then all we have to do is take all the crap things that I have been accumulating. Once my wrist(s) heal I will be able to clean cabinets (need water for that), install shelving paper & get the kitchen set up too. I can't remember what I have bought (mostly at Estate Sales) & what I still need.

It was cold the whole time we were there & the only thing I got done was get my asparagus beds ready for winter & pick the oranges that had finally ripened.

42!

We headed back to the city on the 30th because it was supposed to get even colder in the country. When we got back, the Christmas Cactus was almost in full bloom.

Pink is pretty but I wish I had a red one too.

We had a low key New Years Eve dinner & the usual for New Years Day (pork chops, turnip greens, black eyed peas, rice & cornbread). Greg headed back to work yesterday (bummer for him).

We are having cold weather here in the city & it is currently raining which may turn to sleet later this afternoon if the temps continue to drop (dropped from 36 to 34 in the last hour). There was snow just west & north of the city & quite a bit near our country house. Here's a a couple pics of relatives kids.

These were taken about 5 miles from our house up there. Here's a couple closer to the house, not as thick but accumulation none the less.

And last one, taken in town about 8 miles away.

It will most likely melt by nightfall or tomorrow morning. Fun for the kids & a novelty for the adults as this only happens this far south every 10 years or so.

Headed to the kitchen to make 15 bean soup as we are supposed to have hard freezes (20s) for the next 3 nights. All animals are hunkered down trying to stay warm. For those not allowed inside I've created warm boxes with bedding & quilts, under shelter, out of the wind, to keep them warm. Plus, they have very thick coats of fur & are doing fine.

Hope everyone has a great New Year!

Quilt Gifts & Merry Christmas

I finally finished  & gifted some of the quilts I have been working on. Some, for a very long time. It feels good to have them done so I can begin work on a few new projects next year. Although, the tendons in my wrist (from thumb) have gotten worse so I will be taking the entire month of January off. Other than surgery, the Dr. said that non-use is the only thing that will heal them. Oh well, such as it is with aging!

Here are photos of the finished quilts.

Step Mom Quilt

 I used leftover weave fabric to create the binding for this one.

Two friends Quilt

I finished 2 of these for friends. Only difference is the borders & binding. I still have mine left to finish.

For a dear friend who loves Christmas.

Wish I had swapped out the upper right block with the lower left one to make it more balanced. But, you don't notice when it is wrapped around your legs keeping you warm.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Years Celebrations. Stay safe out there!

Cookies, Gates & Snake(s)!

Hope everyone had a great end to 2015. Can't believe this was the 3rd Christmas w/o my sweet niece Brooke. Everyone is moving forward with their lives but it will never be the same. As the saying goes - Life does indeed go on.

I've almost always made cookies to share at Christmas time. I used to take loads & loads to work to place at each coffee station or in each Department. One year we made over 1000! Since I don't work anymore I still found that I wanted to bake the week before Christmas. This was my haul this last year.

Peppermint Bark (new)

Pineapple/Coconut Cheesecake Bars (new) & Lemon Squares

Oatmeal, Sugar, Coconut Meringues & Flourless Chocolate (new)

I had success & failures this year.

Only half of the pan of My Lemon Squares baked. Weird, one end was done & the other completely not done.

It was very humid the day I made the Meringues & they had a hard time drying (usually on a 175 degree setting). I eventually just turned the oven off & left the majority in it to see if they would dry by the morning. I neglected to tell Greg that I had left them in only to come back in the kitchen a while later to him heating the oven (at 350 degrees) for our dinner. We saved most but some were waaaay brown. They are supposed to be just a very light tan.

I always try a couple of new recipes. This year was:

1. Pineapple Cheesecake Bars - good.

2. Peppermint Bark which also was good but way too thick.

3. Flourless Chocolate which turned out ok. I always give a big batch of cookies to a good friend of mine for her large family. She has a daughter with Lime disease & she's trying a gluten free diet to see if that helps w/her symptoms. I wanted her to have something to eat besides bark & meringues so I tried the Flourless chocolate. The first batch (w/o nuts) weren't even close to being done in the time frame the recipe called for so I stuck them back in for 5 more minutes (after sitting out for about 5). They were flat as a flitter but melt in your mouth light & airy. The 2nd batch (1/nuts) rose & cooked just fine but not near as light as the other ones. Hopefully I can reproduce my mistake next year.

I also decided to make homemade Cinnamon Rolls for a select few families to bake on Christmas Morning. I made the icing & gave in a mason jar for them to ice immediately after taking from the oven.

Ready to rise & bake

We celebrated with my family on Christmas Day & then headed to the Country. Note: I only have my Tablet when we are in the Country & I can read blogs & email but have trouble commenting.

We always have some project or another to do since we have the entire week between Christmas & New Years. We were originally going to work on the Garden Shed since it's been in place since Nov. 2013 & still not finished. But since the ground was fairly dry we decided to go ahead & extend our gate instead. We put the poles in the ground on the 27th & came back the next day to add the boards.

Before extensions

After extensions

*** WARNING - If you don't like pics of snakes don't scroll down past this point ***

When I walked out to the edge of the driveway, by the ditch & road to take the above pic, I noticed movement on the ground to my right. It was a small King snake that I thought was shedding it's skin. I ran to get the camera & when I came back I realized it wasn't shedding it's skin .... IT WAS EATING ANOTHER SNAKE! Hopefully a poisonous one! Hubby thought it might have been a Water Moccosin.

Didn't see the head or how much had been eaten already but the eaten snake had to have been almost as long as the King.

Close up.

About 10 minutes later - making progress.

More progress .... that tail was still moving --- ewww!

All done!

You can't tell from the above pic but the tail was sticking out the side of his/her neck & was still moving!

Slithering away ... About 3 foot long

We figured he/she had caught it in the ditch & drug it up to consume. It definitely wasn't there when we started on the gate boards. Gotta love the wildlife. Makes me remember to watch where I'm stepping at all times up there!

Christmas Weekend 2014

Had Christmas lunch at my sister's then opened presents. In addition to my sister, her husband & niece we also had my Dad & his wife, her daughter, boyfriend, grand daughter & my Mom. It was very low key this year. We normally open gifts one at a time so everyone can see what each received. With so many present this year we all opened at the same time which made it go a LOT quicker. Gift cards were the theme for us because we kept telling everyone we didn't need anything. Actually, I wish we wouldn't exchange anymore but my Dad will have nothing to do with that. This was the 2nd year without my other niece. We all miss her very much but truly believe she is in heaven doing what God needs her to do.

We got an earlier start to the Country due to the presents not taking so long. We woke the next morning to this beautiful sky:

After breakfast, we made enchiladas from some leftover taco meat from earlier in the week.We then decided to continue our Christmas tradition of buying ourselves blocks for our own present. If you remember, 2 years ago my niece had just died & we didn't celebrate Christmas at all. That's when we bought 250 blocks to define the raised beds in our garden. Read about that here Christmas 2012. This year we needed new steps to our front porch & off the car port. We had temporary steps made of a couple of old blocks & wood. The wood was starting to rot & spiders had taken up residence in the block holes. We decided to make steps out of solid blocks so off to Lowes we went. We only had to buy 24 this time, whew! We got the steps put in after much levelling & decided to call it a day. 

Just as we sat down I got a text from my neighbors at Hoss Tools down the road, inviting us to come over & hang out by the fire & to eat some Christmas leftovers. We put on our boots & hopped on the Mule with our enchiladas. It was a fairly small group of about 10 or 11. Everyone brought a dish of some sort. We had ham, boston butt, broccoli casserole, etc. My friend's daughter was home from Germany & made homemade biscuits. They were great with the ham & the enchiladas were a big hit. It was a nice night & we were home & in bed by 10:00p.

We got up the next morning & I decided to try to make some biscuits myself. I just don't have luck with the regular old fashioned biscuits so I found a sour cream/7 up recipe on Pinterest. I had 1/4 c. sour cream & some lemon lime soda. It was very soft dough & you place the 'cut' dough on top of melted butter. Very messy & while they were baking I had my doubts but boy were they good! And, I can't find the recipe now. I need to get back on Pinterest & search. I didn't want to pin it in case they weren't good. Silly me.

We then put up a weather vane that Greg gave me. It's more for looks than anything. It's really the same brown color all over but the rooster & arrow looks copper with the sun shining on it.

While at Lowes the day before we also bought insulation for our garden shed roof but wanted to wait until the end of the day to install that. The early afternoon was spent string trimming (him, not me) & laundry. We then got the insulation done & stopped for the evening. Had leftover spaghetti & meatballs & called it another early night.

We left fairly early on Sunday because we wanted to stop by my sister's on the way home. We stopped & gorged ourselves at a country buffet in a nearby town. Roast beef, potatoes, carrots, turnip greens, dressing, chicken & dumplings, butterbeans & fried chicken. It was sooo good & I think it was $6.99 a person.

My Mom's house trailer is falling apart & we wanted to talk with them about buying her a new one. Since they live in the same town as her, we wanted to see if they would coordinate getting the old one torn down, permits, etc. We all agreed & hopefully she'll have a new safe home to live in, in a few weeks.

Greg has gone back to the Country, his business is closed until the 5th & he is going to work on getting the electrical & water trenched to the garden shed. I have to work tomorrow & 1/2 day on the 31st & will then head back to spend the New Year weekend with him.

If I don't post again I hope everyone has a safe & happy New Year celebration.

Merry Christmas All!

Merry Christmas to all my blogging friends. Wish we were closer & could raise a glass & eat a great meal together. Enjoy your time with family & friends.

This & That

We've been busy little beavers here lately. Thanksgiving was quite nice. We spend it with my husband's family almost every year. MIL is a fantastic cook! We usually take 1 or 2 things to go along with the meal. But, like everyone else there is always a boatload of food left over. This worked out great for us, as we headed to the country on Friday & with all those leftovers didn't have to spend any time cooking up there.

Last summer we had 2 big things happen:

1. Greg bought me a mule for my birthday:

We had a golf cart that was able to pull a small trailer but nothing heavy as the batteries wouldn't last. So he decided to splurge & get something that would last. This thing is a work horse! We've since added a roof & trailer ball. The bed lifts to be able to unload all that poo that I intend to haul!

2. We had a metal building put up on the country property.

It is divided intro 2 separate sections. The front section will house a kitchen, living & dining area, plus a bedroom & bathroom. And, best of all ...... a pantry!

The back will house an office, workbenches & shelving. The 'shop' of Greg's dream.

Over Thanksgiving weekend we laid out the front section & the office. We will be talking to someone about framing it inside, we just don't have the time. We will then hang the sheet rock, run the wiring for the electricity & lay out the duct work for the air. I would have loved to have solar but it just didn't work out. But, we hope to add a wood burning stove for heat.

Over the long weekend, I did get a chance to pick up some pecans from the volunteer trees along the fence line/driveway. I have at least 2 varieties. They are small but very sweet & meaty.

Other than that, I have been very busy at work with year end deadlines. Plus, we had our Christmas party last Saturday afternoon. It was on a boat & we had beautiful weather. Afterwards, we went to a nice dinner & then went to see Jeanne Robertson, a comedian that we really like. Here's a link to one of her YouTube videos if you are so inclined.

Don't send a man to the grocery store.

I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping. Cutting back a bit this year. Taking this Friday off to finish & then it's back to the country for the weekend ... woo hoo!

Christmas in February

Got a call from my sister last week, asking if we were going to the Country over the weekend. If so, they (her, my BIL & 16 year old niece) would like to come up and celebrate Christmas. They haven't done anything much for the past 6 weeks & thought the change of scenery would be nice. Our Dad & his wife would be at the Country as well. Their place is across the pond from ours.

Pole Tree w/moon Circa 2007 at the Country House

Greg had already committed to moving the 2nd 1/2 of his parent's porch to the Country. So, the in-laws would be in 'town' as well. He left with them to their 'other' property on Saturday morning.

I finished wrapping presents, loaded my vehicle & drove up on Friday afternoon. I had to get there ahead of time, as I haven't dusted in forever. Which actually was a blessing in disguise as there had been a terrible wind storm during the week. No matter how sealed your house is, when the wind is blowing & the farmers are harrowing & people are driving up & down the dirt road, dust & grit gets in and settles. It only took me about an hour to do a somewhat thorough job (it's a small house <1300 sq. ft.). I took a suggestion I had read about recently & used damp micro fiber towels (we have a boatload of them) on the swiffer for the floors. It did a great job. I also got the sheets washed & the beds made up & then ate a salad.

They arrived around 7:00p, after stopping at my Dad's, they got to our house around 8:30a. We just sat & talked a bit before retiring early.

I got up Saturday morning & made Pecan Pie Muffins. Everyone else got up & we just sat around and drank coffee, checked email, facebook, etc. We talked while the television made noise in the background. They are very melancholy & stoic & as we talked Brooke's stories intermingled with ours. One item we were discussing is coffee. Everyone that comes & stays at our Country House just raves about the coffee & my BIL is no exception. They all say, what kind is it? & where can I find it?! I always answer .... Maxwell House Lite / the grocery store. I don't know why it tastes so good there, but it does.

Everyone went to town except me. I stayed home & made soup & a couple of loaves of bread & puppy sat with my Sister's cutest toy poodle, Lexie. She is a very sweet dog & we had a wonderful afternoon waiting.

Once everyone got home we put on a low country boil & had a fine time over dinner. We then opened presents & sat around & talked some more.

Talking about Brooke throughout the morning, afternoon & evening came so natural to us all. I am especially proud that her Mom, Dad & Sister feel so comfortable talking about her. All the Pandora charms that I had bought Brooke are now displayed on my Sister's bracelet, as they should be. It was all so comfortable & natural. We ALL miss her but know that nothing we do can bring her back so we must just celebrate her life & memories that each of us had with her & just keep remembering our moments with her.

Since Greg & I had driven separately, I took the long way home Sunday & stopped at Brooke's resting place. Yes, I cried, just as I do every night & most times when I am driving alone (very dangerous as my eyes get very blurry), but it's what I am now conditioned to do & I feel better each time I do it.

Her gravesite had been cleaned of all the flower arrangements & only held a couple of mementos, until her headstone is ordered. I wanted it to all be a bit neater, but will wait until my sister moves forward to keep it as I know Brooke would want it.

It's quiet, out of the way & peaceful there. Like I said before, her resting place is not where she is, but where I can go to reflect on her life & my short time with her. I will never stop missing her but she would want us all to move on & just keep thinking about her.

I doubt Christmas will ever be the same again but that's okay. Presents are not what it's about, it's just nice to spend time & just be, with those I love.

Hard Work & Christmas

Since we have been so sad & preoccupied with memories the past couple of weeks, Greg thought it would do us good to do some hard physical labor & just plain hard work. Okay?

Greg closes his business the week between Christmas & New Years Day. Normally, he would leave for the Country after celebrating Christmas at my sister's & I would head back to the City to work a few more days then head up to the Country to ring in the New Year. We've been doing that for 30+ years. This year my sister asked that we not celebrate, just yet & they wanted to be alone. Understandable.

So, we decided to go to the Country & spend Christmas there. We left a couple of days after the funeral, stopping by my sister's for a few minutes, on the way. They are better but still very reserved. Time will heal, it's just having to live through the time itself.

Greg usually has projects lined up for the last week of the year but didn't really have anything specific planned this year, except .... the garden. This thing is going to kill me one way or the other.

The first day, we got the rest of the large bed covered in the requisite, newspaper, leaves, poo & straw, yeah! We don't normally exchange Christmas gifts as we save & buy what we need during the year. But not this year ... after we finished the bed, Greg decided to go buy me a present, he went to Lowe's ....

Yep, I got blocks for a Christmas present, 256 of them! No surprise. One year we were clearing our property for our City House & since I had a hard time swinging a full size axe, I got a boy's axe for a Christmas present. Practical people are we.

The blocks were less than we had originally priced because they were "light block". My foot. I would have hated to see what 'heavy block' did to my back.

The next day we got the block unloaded & 'placed' around the existing beds. In order for everything to be somewhat uniform we needed a starting spot. I wanted the first 2 long beds to be our asparagus beds & want to plant those next spring (in order to have asparagus in 3 years). So, the next day we decided to go ahead & place those beds, as a starting point.  One bed went down fine, the 2nd one is on the curve of the terraced land we own & didn't level out as well. We had to dig out in order to get them somewhat level, remember this is clay soil. I was sitting down, in the wet ground, scooting along as I was digging and the seat & legs of my sweat pants were absolutely filthy. Sorry, no picture, didn't want to put you through that. But they came out fine in the wash.

After about an hour on the 2nd bed it started to mist. We worked feverishly & finally got the 2nd bed down. It's a bit lopsided but we will be able to make minor adjustments in the future. It then started to pour so we stopped for the day.

After the rain, the temperature dropped & the wind started to blow (I swear that is the windiest place on earth). The wind & rain continued the next day & we lounged around, actually had a lazy day, very unusual for us.

I had started The Hunger Games series a week or so ago & was able finish the 2nd book & started on the 3rd. I plan on finishing it before the New Year is out, if Greg will let me be still another day. Since the weather didn't look like it was going to cooperate we decided to head back to the city.

B-T-W ... By the time we were packed & ready to go, the wind died down, it was 65 degrees & a beautiful day to garden!. We left anyway.

In the meantime I got another Christmas present!

Broad Fork... blurry pic.

It's a broad fork from one of my cousins who has a connection to the maker of these fine American Made products - Hosstools.com. They mainly sell manual push plows & seeders but have dabbled in other tools. The owner of the company had sent me one of these earlier this year.

It's a small shovel & it works great here at the City House with our plethora of trees & tree roots. These are great products & very well made! If you are in need of any manual tools for the garden, this is the company to go to!

More manual labor for me ... yeah!

The first day back in the City, we decided to do nothing except go see a movie & go out to eat (I think we are changing our lifestyles). Going to see a movie is a stretch for us. We've been married over 30 years & have only been to the movies a few times (Hunt for Red October, Pulp Fiction, Jurassic Park are 3 that come to mind). 2-3 hours of just sitting & watching a movie always seems like a waste when we could be doing something else. Besides, we could wait until they come on HBO or on video & watch in segments.

Anyway, we went to the matinee to see 'Lincoln'. It was just what we needed, not too much drama, good acting & an excellent story. I even learned a couple of things.We then went to what we were told was a good Mexican restaurant. It was ok, we've had better, much better. We don't like Americanized(sp?) Mexican. Give us the real thing or nothing. If they put orange cheese or lettuce on it, it ain't true Mexican, got to have Queso & cabbage. But, it was palatable.

Anyway, on to hard work (no pics) ....

With 2 houses to keep up & so many projects, our homes get wiped but not really bathed. We decided the City House could use a good cleaning. So we cleaned room by room. I mean really cleaned, moved furniture away from walls, scrubbed baseboards, swept, vacuumed, mopped, dusted. We got the foyer (our take to Country staging area), den, dining room, & living room done yesterday. And, today we got the master bedroom, guest bedroom, master bath, hallways, 1/2 bath & finally the kitchen.

I knew it was serious because Greg got out the Murphy's Oil Soap to wash the cabinets. Everything was cleared off the counters, upper cabinets washed, lower cabinets washed, appliances shined, etc.

It feels so good to walk through a mostly thoroughly clean house! I swear our bedroom is bigger!

Still have my office (where many things got stowed), the garage, spare room (aka canning staging area) & back porches, but we don't live in those so we will tackle as we go. Plus, we still have 2 more days of vacation! Whoopee more work!

Seriously though, I don't mind hard work. It is kind of mindless & let's me reflect my inner thoughts without drowning myself in sorrow. So good for  my soul. And it feels good to get so much accomplished.

I'll write about my niece another time. Just to know that she is in my heart & thoughts daily gives me comfort.