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.

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

 

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? A local in our home county is one of the top 5 to become the next American Idol, Braden Rumfelt. Vote for Braden! Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you about going to a frog race, some of our current favorite kinds of ice cream & some other April things, then I'm heading out to a baseball game & going on a trial ride this weekend.

Work continues on the enclosed trailer camper transformation. The cabinets & floor are done. We still need a sink, bed & to finish the bathroom.

The library had a frog extravaganza celebrating National Frog Month with books, games & crafts & I wanted to go check it out. I lured 2 of the Grandgirls to come along with me. We listened to books read aloud about frogs that were fun, silly & educational. We made origami frogs & raced them. My frog was cute but didn't win any of it's races. Grands chose to eat out at Taco Bell for supper then we went for ice cream.

These are our current favorites,
what's your favorite ice cream?

April was Kevin & Daughter's birthday.

Happy Birthday to Daughter,
Kasey with basset hound Max.

We had a good day fishing on the lake. We ate some of the fish, the others went in the freezer. 

I caught one of the fish.

There was dance pictures & a tball pizza party with trophies.

Homeschool themes were Easter, Spring, Camping & Bugs. We had a day camp at the lake doing some fishing & hiking. We picked up trash & made bird feeders for Earth Day. Sister & Granny grilled hotdogs. There was a bird's nest in one of the grills.

 

We ended the month hosting a farm day with baby chicks, kittens & strawberry picking.  Neighbor came over with one of their horses. There were sand farm playsets, water tables, balls & frisbees. Green beans put up from out of the garden were included in lunch.

These are a few of the things that went on in our neck of the woods this month, how has your month been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend.