Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

 

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? The astilbes put on a show for us this week in the gardens. Congrats to all the graduates, best wishes for new adventures ahead. We went on a Jeep ride & ate at Taco Bell. I like their nachos bellgrande with lettuce added, though it has lots of carbs for me that is supposed to be eating low carb & low sugar. Kevin likes their regular burritos & tacos. I read that the crunchwrap supreme is their best-selling menu item nationwide. I might give it a try next time. We made another strawberry pie & should have blackberries here in a few days. I helped host a Summer Kickoff Splash Blast for Grands & Daycare Friends, celebrated Grand's birthday & went to the last baseball game of the season. Kevin had a little job this week replacing all the screws on a metal roof. He said it took right at 1000 screws. He got a deal at the hardware store on some hinges he needed for building a fold out nightstand in the camper. The 6 hinges rung up as $58.12. They were in the $1 bin, a clearance on discontinued hinges & pulls, so the actual cost was $6.48. They do penny rounding up, so the total was $6.50 a savings of $47.94 according to the receipt. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you what wildflowers we saw blooming this week, then I'm off to Grand's dance recital & Little Daycare Friend's birthday pool party this weekend.

Meet Oreo, one of the newest additions
to Grand's homeschool pet project. Oreo
is a guinea pig.

Waiting for game time. Football &
cheer have already started with
 signups & uniform fittings.

He ended up getting hit by
the ball & taking a base. 

The lady slippers surprised us
by blooming early this year, as
quickly as they arrived, their 
blooms are gone, a reminder
to slow down & appreciate
nature's beauty while it's here.

      

Fire Pinks

             

Spirea

             

      

Happy 19th Birthday to Grand Chandler.

 

12 years ago on his 7th birthday.

Lemonade popsicle drinks.

      

It feels like summer.

Splashing & laughing.

Grands caught tadpoles back
 in March. It takes 6 to 16 weeks
 for them to turn into frogs.

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? Our Memorial Day weekend was mostly quiet. It rained on & off the whole weekend. The garden needed the water. Kevin got a turn with the stomach bug. I've been watching the Sweet Magnolias series again on Netflix. There's a new Season coming out in a couple weeks. Kevin is still waiting on the 02 sensor to put on the side by side. He worked in the garden a lot this week & made us several nice salads. The okra is coming up & we made a pie. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & tell me about your holiday weekend then I'm going to make June birthday cards & get ready for a Summer Kickoff Splash Blast. I'm making lists, gathering up stuff & need to go to the dollar store & the grocery store sometime this weekend.

Kevin's parents & 2 of our Grandbabies.

I met Daughter at the cemetery for 
decoration & a picnic. That's an AI
 data center being built down there.

  

Pretty colored orange &
purple flowers on Kevin's
grandparent's grave.

I took Grands to the lake, found this
at the water's edge.

  

The splash pad is open.

Cookies were made & lots
of the dough was eaten. 

  

America-opoly

The daylilies are blooming.

  

Kevin picked the strawberries & cut 
them up. I made the filling.

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? Whooooo's ready for summer? We're having a rainy weekend, of course we are, the rodeo is in town. Grands scored in the 90s % on their homeschool nationally standardized achievement test, Yay!  My Nana Grandjoy Camp Run-A-Muk theme this summer is owls. I've been getting stuff together for Beach Vacation, Christmas in June. Kevin has been putting strawberries & fish in the freezer & working on the side by side. We had a good ride with Son-in-Law & Grands. I'm just getting over a 24 hour bug that's making it's rounds, suspected to be that norovirus. Daughter got a bad case of it all of a sudden, ambulance had to come check her out. It was a scary few minutes there for a time. They mentioned symptoms sometimes lasts for hours, sometimes for days. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you how many owlets Moma owl had & wishing everyone a happy Memorial Day weekend as we enjoy our time together, this weekend marking the start of summer, remembering the meaning of the holiday - honoring the fallen soldiers who sacrificed for our freedom, thanking them that their bravery will never be forgotten. Also, it's decoration at the cemetery & we'll be visiting graves, placing flowers & remembering loved ones.

It was our 1st time riding at Windrock. Son-in-Law has rode it several times, so he was the leader & tour guide. The ride was a little faster pace than I like to ride, though that is usually how it is riding with a group. We put in about 45 miles. There were a few spots that were rougher than I like. Kevin says those spots make a ride challenging, exciting & fun. I got out & took pictures & did not ride over those too scary for me big challenging fun rocks. There were a few mishaps during the day, that's all part of it sometimes. There were 3 flat tires including a trailer tire 1st thing in the morning on the way. One of the side by side tires had 10 plugs put in it's gash & it held.  There were a couple of broke axles. Both Grands fell/jumped off their 4 wheelers. They were both ok & it was a good little learning experience. One kid playing in the mud, had to be winched out twice. Our check engine light came on near the end of the ride & the side by side went into limp mode. Kevin stopped & restarted several times & we were able to finish the ride. It was a fun day! Kevin checked the error codes on our side by side & has parts ordered. He is going to replace the 02 sensor, ceiling fan switch & the fuel pump. He did some rewiring of the lights & ceiling fan to get those wires up higher out of the way of water splashes that could cause short outs.

Son-in-Law's rig, he made crawling
over this rock look so simple.

3 owlets

I've got fun learning activities about owls planned for the summer with Grands - reading, arts, puzzles, games, crafts & dissecting owl pellets. Also, since it's the 250th 4th of July celebration this year, we're doing activities about states. America-opoly is on the list of games to play.

  

Food art owl.

Take a road trip go fish card game.

I stopped by the Veterans Memorial with Grands in honor of Memorial Day. 

Date night for these 2.
Oldest Grand & Wife.

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 officially strawberry season. We've picked lots of strawberries. Kevin made a cake with some & froze some of the others. We went on a good little trail ride, checking out a different off-road area. We had Grandboy Toddlers last weekend while Daughter took Grandgirls on a Girl's Weekend Trip & Son-In-Law took Oldest Grandboys to a Savannah Bananas baseball game. Braden didn't make the top 3 on American Idol, though lots of concerts are being planned in his hometown & around our surrounding area. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage, let's have a piece of cake & catch up, then I'm going to go start packing for an all-day trail ride Son-In-Law is getting together this weekend, but 1st I've got to put some towels in the wash & clean up the kitchen. 

                

I liked having the kittens around, so soft & fuzzy, checking to see if their eyes had opened, watching them walk around, wondering when they were going to start eating the cat food. They turned 6 weeks old & have moved out. They went to live in homes that have children that are going to love them & give them lots of attention.

The spinach is unreal, it done way better than expected. There is so much of it, way more than I can eat. Kevin planted spinach seeds in several different places hoping to get enough for me a salad. We've talked about freezing some, but I don't know. I eat it fresh & don't cook with it. From what I read about freezing it, it needs to be blanched & then it's good to cook with after it's been frozen. We've pulled a few radishes & been eating on the onions. The onions are still a bit small, about the size of a pecan but they're tasty. The tomato plants have took off good. Several already have blooms. The pepper plants are doing good. Bugs have eat up on the zucchini, squash, tators & pumpkin plants. Kevin has been having to water often. 

Spinach & tomato plants. There
is spinach in another bed too. 
 

  

Radishes & pepper plants.

Onions

     

A little Seven Dust on the tator
plants after trying some dish
soap concoction.

Sweet tator slips that were planted
in the garden.

       

             

Rose the pup & some of the knockout roses.

A Happy Birthday & a Happy Mother's Day goes to this lady, my Moma.

The one thing left to do in the camper is finishing up the bed & putting in the mattresses. 

The mattresses.

  

Building the cabinets.

Making doors.

Foldout dining table & extra
 counter space built in.

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.