Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

41 years, a squirrel, buckeyes & an apple fritter

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? September is moving right along & so are we. 41 years... the day came & went doing our usual things. We're still here, still together & still making memories one day at a time. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you how many fish we caught to put in the freezer this week.

We got up before the sun, stopped by Bojangles for a couple of their sausage egg biscuits then headed to the lake. The water temperature was just above 84 degrees. It felt like bath water as we reached down to test it. The water was calm & glassy just like Kevin likes it. We saw starting of leaf color, watched a squirrel cut acorns & saw a heron. It was a peaceful morning on the lake but not a good day for fishing. Maybe the water was too warm for the type of top water fishing that we do. There wasn't even any fish showing up on the fish finder. Kevin caught several fish, but they got off before he could get them in. He commented that the fish wasn't biting aggressively. I caught 1 fish a little on the small eating size & put it back, so no fish for the freezer this week's fishing trip.

Why do leaves change color? It's
one of next month's lesson plans.

Goldenrods, another sign that 
cooler weather is on its way.

We went on a good trail ride. There were 5 side by sides. We were all related in one way or another. We met up then hauled to the parking spot. The woods were beautiful. It came up a little shower of rain during mid ride. During one of the stops, everybody picked up buckeyes to put in their pockets for good luck. There were several rough places that made me queasy thinking about going over, so I got out. The drivers were delighted to have the challenges. We all ate at Wendy's afterwards. I tried the pretzel bacon pub cheeseburger. It was good but, oh boy, loaded with carbs for those of us needing to eat a keto-ish diet. Yikes! 

Orange flag marker

I assisted Daughter on a field trip to an apple orchard. The staff was so friendly & helpful. I was impressed & I think Daughter was to. It's probably the place we'll go back to next year, if going to an apple orchard comes up in the event plannings. I arrived a little early to find out where things were & to get apple sampling snacks ready. We were welcomed to a covered shady picnic area centrally located to all the things. All the staff went above & beyond to be sure we got to do & see all the things. We did an apple tasting test to see if we could really taste a sweetness difference in apples. First, we had a slice of Crimson Crisp then tried a slice of Granny Smith. Oh My Yes! There was a difference. The Granny Smith seemed really really sour. We picked 2 pecks of Rome Beauty to take home. We have a day planned next week to make an apple pie.

    

We picked Rome Beauty.

Look at me wearing my tie dye shirt
from last week's Meet up at the Park.

   

Cow milking

Hillcrest Orchard

We did all the things except the trikes & bubbles. We sampled the apple cider doughnuts along with the fried apple pies, apple fritters & the cider sippers. There was an extra apple fritter left over. Me & Kevin shared it a la mode after supper.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend.

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? It's time to bring out my fall coffee cup, the soybeans are turning yellow on the way to Granny's house, another sign of fall. The begonias are really putting on a show. We went to Kevin's side of the family's get together. School started back & I assisted Daughter with a Meet Up at the Park. Kevin hauled gravel, pushed dirt & burned brush. He butchered 2 roosters, I cooked them up in the crockpot for supper, maybe the best ones I've done yet. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you what we were making with the aluminum foil last week & show you how my tie dye turned out from the Meet Up.

My tie dye t-shirt was supposed to
have blasts designs. Let's see
how it turned out.

One of Grand's guinea pigs had babies. The babies are called pups. They start eating hay & food their 1st day. Come to find out, guinea pigs like peppers about the same as they do lettuce.

Picking peppers for the
guinea pigs. We had
plenty of extra.

  

The guinea pigs eating a
couple of the cut up peppers
 I gave them. They can't
have too much at a time.

One of the baby guinea pigs.
She had 2.

  

Both baby guinea pigs fit in my hand.
They are so cute.

What secret method do you
use to peel eggs?

I took meatballs & deviled eggs to the family get together. I read a blog last week asking what food would you hope to be remembered for. Back when the oldest Grands were little, they said I made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. My Mother-in-Law used to always tell me I could bring macaroni & cheese to our family get togethers, if that meant anything. I have always enjoyed cooking when I had time & still do. Thinking back, I had a career & not a lot of extra time to perfect my cooking skills through the years as much as I would probably have liked too. I've told this story lots of times & it's still funny to me... I had made a peach pie. In conversation with Daughter talking about having pie with supper, she asked, "What kind of pie did Dad make". We currently like my meatballs & gravy. I'm perfecting my deviled egg skills since we have plenty of eggs on hand to work with. 

We started back our Homeschool Day at Granny's. A couple of the things we did was play a card game & do a craft. We've started out this year playing a card game that seemed to go over very good, "Who Knows Geography Better". It involves things like reading, vocabulary, concentration, communication, critical thinking & doing research while learning about all kinds of stuff about the United States & around the world. We did one round & the kids wanted to keep going. I'll plan to do 2 rounds next week & see how it goes. We finished up the balloons we started last week. The balloons were made using aluminum foil & a laminator. It was a fun interesting project that involved lots of different skills such as creativity, following directions, measurements, fine motor skills, hand & eye coordination, problem solving, cause & effect, so many learning things we don't even realize we're learning about. The kindergartener got some one-on-one time for writing, reading, letter recognition & counting.  

My balloon, "Wooooo's ready for school".

Happy 12th Birthday
to Grand Tripp.

 

We hosted to celebrate Grand's birthday at our place. There were burgers, a family kickball game & the bouncy water slide. We had a cookie cake to celebrate during school for snack.

Grand had a friend over for his birthday party.
They worked on a Lego set together. 

The results of my tie dye 

Daughter's Meet Up at the Park for Daycare & Homeschool was a success. Daughter had activities planned for read alouds, games & tie dye along with free play on the playground & a picnic. It was hot & we had plenty of water. It was fun!

Investigating a cricket. 

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend.

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

 

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? We did pretty much nothing this week, just hung out. We had breakfast for supper one night, the hens are laying good. It was the last week of summer since school officially starts back next week. I watched the kittens play for a while, walked around the yard discovering spider webs everywhere & picked up a few sticks. Kevin got the mowing done & put up some more okra in the freezer. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & as I think back, I realize we actually did plenty. What does doing nothing look like around your place?

Daycare Kids gave me a surprise
 treasure, what could it be...
A granddaddy long legs???

Me in the afternoon sitting in the blazing hot sun
underneath an umbrella watching Grand cheer at
the football game. They had a canopy with fans
 to help them cool down from time to time.

Me wearing my new fall sweatshirt
 cause it was a crisp 55 degree morning.

Me letting Grands try on
masks at the dollar store.

Walking around in the yard.

The young Rose of Sharon bushes
are still blooming. There are several
white ones to. So pretty!

Iris & her kittens.

  

  

The okra is still putting out &
it's taller than me.

The little poinsettia is putting on
some new growth. Wondering if
 it survives till Christmas?

Rose wanting me to throw
her a stick to fetch.

There is 1 ornamental gourd growing.

The knockout roses are making
another round of blooms.

Spiders on the fridge made by Grands.

Another spider web at
the chicken house.

I changed out the seasonal decorations to fall.

Granny having a popsicle
during last week's End
of Summer Water Party.

I asked Grands what they wanted to do for their last week of summer before we start back to homeschooling. I heard one of them say "play bingo with prizes".  So that's what we did, played states bingo along with some very competitive games of Trouble & kick ball. There were root beer & coke floats with biscuits & Granny's freshly made grape jelly. Grands visited with Granny about how life was when she was growing up a little girl.  Some of their take-a-ways - They didn't have a car & her daddy rode a horse to the store. All their farm animals were their pets. She was across the street from Woolworth's historical lunch counter sit-in when it happened. She talked about seeing a commotion, riding the bus that day when the seats were no longer segregated, how it seemed different, being asked to sit in her seat, she said "sure" & had simple conversation. Granny said she didn't think anything much about the situation at the time being only about 16 years old herself. 

My turn.

Find out next week what this is going to be...

    

Grand yellow won.

  

My surprise was........

 A piece of play kitchen toast. It was
 pretend yum yummm good &
I ate it all up. 

   

Daycare Kids made a beautiful
sandbox flower garden.

Time to reset & organize in
anticipation for Grands
to come again. 

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend.