Oak Mountain (SP) 9/18/25 - 9/21/25 (#26)

It's been a while & I woke up this morning at 2:30a, thinking that I really need to get caught up in my documentation of 'things going on'. 

In late September, we decided to go to a garden festival in Jemison, Alabama. I was able to get reservations at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham, AL.

We stayed on site #A03. Little did we know, it would be our last trip in the 'old' pull behind RV (Forest River, Flagstaff / Microlite 25BDS). And, I didn't get a last pic of it on the site ... boo.

The festival was about 30 miles south of the campground.

It was held at a beautiful nursery/garden center - Petals from the Past. Actually it was more of a meet & greet for around 40 YouTubers/Vendors. Here's a link from Just Dig It Farms for more information: Great Fall Garden Festival.

Our main purpose for going was to assist our neighbors Hoss Tools, setup & breakdown their booth display.

We were concerned about it being hot at this time of the year but the Hoss spot at the festival was in afternoon shade. We don't watch a lot of YouTube but we were familiar with several of the vendors through our friends at Hoss & it was good to meet a few. 

During our drive to & from the festival we passed by a few RV dealerships & decided to stop & shop .... see next post.

November! Where Did October Go?

I try to post at least once a month but somehow October came & went way too fast. Nothing major going on just a few random things.

While cleaning up from Irma at the Country House we ran across a Muscadine vine by the road, that became accessible after a tree fell down. We picked 2 huge bowls. I gave one to MIL & I juiced the other, after I had my fill. It made about 2 1/2 pints of delicious, sweet juice. We also picked a few persimmons from a wild tree but not enough to do anything with & I forgot to open one to look at the seed to see if winter will be mild or not.

I went to the Jax Quilt Fest in late September & as usual saw some amazing quilts.

After that, I went to SC to a surprise Birthday Party for my friend Debbie from
Fox Trot Farm. I stayed w/her on the Farm & finally got to meet Porkchop, their adorable & very friendly pot bellied pig.

Then, in mid October I worked the Ag Expo at the Hoss Sustainable Living Center. The weather was perfect this year! The plants were also pretty spectacular.

5 Different kinds of okra (zinnias to the left)

Broccoli & Cauliflower

6 kinds of Eggplant

Buttercrunch & Red Leaf Lettuc

There was also corn, cucumbers, micro greens, kale & rainbow chard.

Last weekend I decided to clean up my 3 raised garden beds in the City. They were all in terrible shape.

Here's a pic with them all cleaned up. The 3rd one on the right has some horrendous weeds growing that I couldn't get out. Will cover w/black plastic over the winter to hopefully kill them.

I also had a couple of whiskey barrels filled with Amaryllis that were falling apart. So I separated & put them all in pots to take to the country next spring. No pics but when I was putting them in the plant hospital in the corner of the yard I looked up & there sat this guy.

I finished placing the pots & went inside to get my camera. I was sure he would fly away but he stayed there for about 30 or 40 minutes. I was literally about 8 ft. from him! Note: Broken fence courtesy of Irma.

We are in the process of having the siding replaced on our city house. with Hardy Board. It was cedar & rotting in spots. It was over 30 years old so I can't really complain ... about the product.... but I can complain about the contractor. Will get into that in another post.

I think that gets me caught up on what's been happening. Still working on Christmas gifts, will also post about those soon.

The Expo Was a Lot of Work!

As mentioned in my prior post, I had volunteered to help my friends over at Hoss Tools at the AG Expo last week (Tuesday thru Thursday). This Expo is mainly geared towards commercial farmers but my friend talked the shows representatives into letting him open a Sustainable Living Center for home gardeners that were interested in more natural & organic growing methods. Especially since at least a third of the attendees are home gardeners as well.

The location of the show is on an old airfield (over 600 acres). Last year was the first year & it rained almost the entire time & was basically a muddy mess. But, there was a lot of interest so the Center was deemed to stay. They added an open air metal building to hold the vendors & displays of pumpkins which was the theme this year. And, they have a garden shed where attendees can select which implements they want to try. There are single wheel hoes, double ones as well, plus a double seeder & a sweeper attachment (to cut weeds off while pushing through the rows), raised bed kits & a variety of rakes & hoes. The garden was fenced off & divided into 9 or 10 sections. Each holding various flowers & vegetables (4 or 5 kinds of pumpkins, 7 or 8 of squash, pinkeye peas, 2 kinds of okra, various lettuces, pak choy, broccoli, zinnias & cockscomb & sunflowers just to name a few).

They had to bring in over 18 cubic yards of compost because the dirt there was in bad condition. Farmers Organic supplied the compost & Johnny's Seeds supplied the seeds & they both had booths in the building. There was also a speaking tent where various people gave speeches throughout the days, including NY Times best selling author Forrest Pritchard who was promoting his newest book Growing Tomorrow.

We got started each day around 7:00a & ended around 5:00p. The first day started out quite chilly but warmed up to a nice 78 degrees. The next 2 days were quite warm. There were 2 other volunteers from nearby who both have organic gardens, One has a CSA with her brother. We walked around the garden answering peoples questions. Hoss Tools demonstrated their products & let people try them out for themselves. It was quite tiring & as I arose each morning around 5:30a I felt like I had gone back to work!

The interest & enthusiasm showed by attendees was outstanding. Greg from Hoss was interviewed by various newspapers & gave 2 separate live interviews from local newstations. The gardens were beautiful & people were very impressed. We hope to expand next year, maybe have some raw milk & grass fed beef and/or pork products.

There was another vendor (Lauri Jo's) who was exhibiting in one of the larger buildings, doing live cooking demonstrations. She brought in celebrity chefs each day & they came to the garden each morning to pick product to use in some of their demos. Who knows maybe next year we can have a chef or two on site (in the building).

Although this show is always held in the fall, the Media Girl from the show was talking about doing a Spring/Early Summer event just for the Center (read ... no big AG). We'll see.

Here are a few random pictures ...

Raised bed with Salanova Lettuce

L shaped raised bed containing herb

Hexagon raised bed containing, ornamental kale & cabbage

Rainbow Chard, Kale, Romaine, Elegance Asian Lettuce Mix

Zinnias & Cockscomb

Sunflowers

The other 2 volunteers & Greg from Hoss Tools

Double Wheel Hoe

Mennonite Farmer getting ready to buy the Seeder

Trying out the Seeder

Pak Choy, Salinova Lettuce, Broccoli

Daily Life & The Expo

My daily life is finally getting to be somewhat of a routine. Still either exercising or walking (or both) first thing most mornings. If I get an early enough start I am back home by 8:00a or so. No dog lunges recently but I do carry a baseball bat part way, just in case. I leave it hidden behind a post about 1/4 mile from home. The only dogs I see after that are on leashes being walked by their owners & most are very friendly. It's been somewhat cool in the mornings the last week or so & it's been great to get out early. The sunrise this morning was especially lovely, huge red sun coming up on my way back home.

Overheard Greg tell a relative at the family reunion that he is also loving my retirement since I have dinner made most nights (he's only had to cook once he said) & am doing all the laundry & grocery shopping. My sister was sitting near & piped in that it sounded like I didn't do anything at home when I was working. I will say that we shared the cooking but it always seemed like we were behind the clock trying to get dinner on the table before 8:00p. He did ALL the grocery shopping, so that has opened up a new world for me. I actually walked almost every aisle in the grocery store last week. There's a lot of stuff in there! In the past my grocery shopping was to run in & get a few things & leave as fast as I could.

I went to Lowe's yesterday as I heard they had mums & such on clearance. I just wanted a few to spruce up my front porch. They had the mums in 4" pots on sale for .25 each & the 6" for .50 each, plus some geraniums for $1.00 each. I picked up a few of each & spent most of the morning planting those in various containers for the porch & a few for the back patio. Although my potting bench had a blow out & I had to improvise until Greg can fix it. Always something.

I am in the process of turning my workout room into a workout & craft room. I gave away our old treadmill to a former co-worker. We delivered it to her last weekend then met some old friends for lunch. The husbands had planned it & didn't tell the wives, it was a very nice surprise. Greg & I met at an apartment complex where we all lived. There are 5 marriages that spawned during our time there & I'm proud to say that all 5 couples are still together after more than 30 years! Well, except for 1 but that was due to a death a few years ago. I'd say that is a real accomplishment for each of us especially since we all married young & it was the 80's :)

I'll be heading to the country tomorrow to stay for a full week. I won't be doing much at the house as there is a huge Agricultural Expo in the nearby town next week. It's huge & my friends at Hoss Tools have a sustainability exhibit where they plant vegetables & flowers & show how their products are used. I will be helping them out during the 3 days of the Expo & am very excited. I'll be sure to take pics & share them once I'm back home.

Here's a link to a Vimeo on the Expo Sunbelt Agricultural Expo.

Since the last post we've had parmesan chicken, breakfast for dinner, homemade pizza, beef tenderloin, lamb shanks, spaghettia & meatballs for dinner. Tonight is a chicken broccoli, mushroom casserole I saw on Trisha Yearwood's Food Network show last night. It's got sour cream, mayo & cheese in it so it's bound to be good.

Garden & Gate - Memorial Weekend Part 1

We had a very busy couple of days at the Country House last weekend. We don't get many long summer holidays due to Greg's business being at it's busiest during the warmer months, unless 4th of July falls on a Friday or a Monday. But, Memorial Day is always on a Monday so we take advantage. We worked 10 full hours Saturday & Sunday with another 4 or 5 hours thrown in for good measure on Monday before coming home.

I finally got to drive on the driveway, many times over the course of 3 days! It feels kind of slippery but will pack down over time.

Saturday morning, we decided to go ahead & 'set' the gate post, the one that the gate will hang from. Greg cut the 6x6 post to length, dug the hole, placed the post in, poured in quick set concrete w/water added, squished that around, leveled the post, more concrete & water, check level & then let it set until late afternoon. These are the tools of the trade.

10" Auger

The gate

Posts & Misc

Small quiet generator

After that was done, Greg mowed while I piddled around the house. When he was done mowing he decided to string trim.

I had checked on my weedy garden during the course of the day & saw that the beds were not settling as much as I had thought they would. I want to get the asparagus planted this year (2 beds) so I decided to take up my most gracious neighbor's offer of compost, good compost, horse poo & straw compost.

Now that is a load of compost! This is located about 1/2 mile or less, from the house. I had loaded 2 55gallon drums on a small trailer that I had connected to our golf cart. Here's an older picture of that setup from when we first started working on the garden.

It was about 3:00p by then & I was kind of tired. I knew I couldn't put those drums on the ground & then put them back on the trailer so I just shoveled it into them while on the trailer. They got higher & higher w/each shovel full. I would shovel about 30 loads & then rest. The sun was shining almost directly on the pile & it had gotten hot! Plus, our other neighbor (BPC - bi-polar cousin) had started under brush burning of a small row of trees across the street & I was just waiting for the wind to shift to blow smoke my way (which it never did, thank goodness!). I met a new friend while resting.

Bell

My friend has a lot of hobbies & horse & buggy riding is one of them. This horse (Bell) is used for that purpose, and of course helps with the compost pile. He has another horse & a donkey name Ringo, but they weren't around. Natural gardening is another of his hobbies. Here's a picture of his open pollinated corn patch.

His greenhouse is to the right, he almost starts everything from seed too. That raised bed to the left is asparagus which has been in for 3 years so he was able to harvest this year. There is another huge garden behind the shed/chicken coop to the left but I didn't get any pics of it.

I finally got the barrels full & headed back to house. I got 1 asparagus bed completely full & another one almost full, lacking by about 2".

About that time the in-laws arrived & they had brought a whole truck bed FULL of leaf compost from their house in the city. They had brought the mulch up to supplement 26 Crepe Myrtle trees that will be planted (& posted on) soon. But they had brought enough to plant 100 trees! I asked if I could have some to top off the other asparagus bed. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. We told them that we would unload the rest in the morning.

Before compost.

After compost.

We then hung the gate on the now dried post.

By then, it was about 6:00p so we decided to call it quits. We went in, took showers, made an adult beverage & sat down on the back porch to finally relax.

About that time we see Mom & Dad driving over to the fence line in their truck with the intention of unloading the rest of the mulch. Let me mention that they are both stubborn as heck & my FIL is 82 & MIL is 78. FIL has some shoulder issues (having surgery next week) not to mention he's had 2 hip replacements as well. He gets around like he thinks he's 50 but it's getting harder on him. They had loaded the mulch the night before & MIL mentioned earlier that his shoulder was aching.

Anyway, we weren't up to unloading it for them that late but knowing they wouldn't listen to us, I asked Greg to let them know I would like to use some of it on the other garden beds the following morning. They agreed to wait to unload after I had gotten what I needed, whew!

To be continued ....