Peanuts, Cotton & Pecans ... Fall in the South

Went to the country last week for Thanksgiving. MIL, FIL, SIL, Niece & her boyfriend came for Supper. Had all the usuals ... turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, butter peas, snap bean  corn casserole, mac & cheese, dressing, gravy, rolls & pumpkin & pecan pies. It was all very good & the weather cooperated so we could eat on the screened in back porch.

After cleaning up hubby & I took our niece & boyfriend to the Lights! Lights! Thanksgiving Night in our nearby town. It is a beautiful little town with a town square with a beautiful Courthouse in the middle and restaurants & shops lining the square. They string lights from the top of the Courthouse & light them at dark. They bring in Santa & he goes to the top of the Courthouse stairs where the little ones can visit. Almost all the shops open up for more window shopping than anything. It's not as commercial as it sounds, not like they are trying to 'get a jump'. It's really more of a social affair where neighbors meet & talk & stroll the streets.

The next morning was our 34th Wedding Anniversary so we didn't want to work all day. We had gotten some pecans from a cousin & I had picked up a 5 gallon bucket so we took them to the Cracking & Shelling place, .40 a pound & worth every penny. They do a great job so there is very little to pick through before storing.

Then we went to a special place to buy some sausage. This place sells, smoked & fresh links as well as 'loose' sausage. We had some at the family reunion & it is really good so we wanted to stock up on some for ourselves.

On our ride we passed many cotton fields which is gathered this time of year. The fields that have been defoliated are just beautiful, it's the snow of the south.

Some farmers harvest into large rectangle shaped pods:

And others in rolls:

Either way it's a sight to see them gathering & to see all those rolls out in the field before they are picked up by many semi trailers (usually in the middle of the night for some reason).

The other fall thing to see is rolls of peanut hay. Peanuts had been gathered in September & October & the leftover plant is harvested & rolled into hay. Good for cows, horses generally won't eat it.

Got back home & just couldn't stand it, we had to fill our time with some kind of work, so we mowed the grass, the last time for this year, yea!

The next morning we cleared some of the fence line that had gotten out of control then went visiting. When picking up some fallen pine logs we discovered that one had partially turned into fat lighter! This is like getting an early Christmas present.

See the top portion that looks really hard, that's fat lighter. Nothing better to use for starting a fire! We'll chop it up soon.

Of course we ate leftovers all weekend long but I wanted to try my hand making biscuits like my friend in SC does. It worked!

They were light & fluffy & delicious. The secret is to use Martha White Light baking flour & follow the recipe on the back except to replace the lard with frozen butter (grated into the flour). I am so happy I finally have a biscuit recipe I can turn to, this has taken a long time for me to master & that may or may not be a good thing!

The moon was a full one on Thanksgiving night & I finally got a decent photo through the trees.

I'll sign off with a pic of the beautiful sunset the last night I was there:

Note: All picture, except the biscuits, fat lighter, moon & sunset, were taken from various sites off the internet. I was lazy with the camera, again.

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.