Greetings
I sat in the porch swing on Daughter's front porch having my morning coffee as the sun came up & shinned though the trees in the mountains of North Carolina. It's been a crazy exciting busy month in my neck of the woods - Vacation, Daughter's wedding, County Fair, garden vegetables & potty training a puppy.
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| Daughter was the most beautiful bride I ever did see. |
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| Happy Birthday! |
Grandkids
The oldest celebrated his birthday with an ice cream cake that I made at his request per Daughter's recipe instructions. The cake turned out good & Kevin requested I make this cake for him someday. Perhaps I can make it for our 35th wedding anniversary coming up next month. The Grands started back to school with 2 days of attendance & 3 days of distance learning. Here in our county school started back on their regular schedule.
Cooking
There was no cooking involved to make the ice cream cake - 2 boxes of ice cream sandwiches. 1 large container of cool whip. 1 large package of Oreo cookies. 1 or 2 containers of frosting. This cake was 1/2 frosted with vanilla the other 1/2 chocolate. One Grand don't like chocolate very much. Crumble/blender 1/2 the Oreos & mix in with cool whip. I used 18 sandwiches, making 3 layers, putting 6 sandwiches in each layer. Between the 2 inside layers, put the cool whip mix. Put back in freezer till time to serve. Put frosting on top layer just before serving. Crumble other 1/2 of Oreos to go on the top & around the bottom of serving dish to garnish.
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| I make this tator tot casserole once a year when we have lots of tommy-toe tomatoes out of the garden. |
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| Okra cooking for supper. |
Gardening
Growing started out slow at the beginning of the season then all of the sudden everything popped out producing. We've had a dry spell so Kevin has been having to water. The deer have been helping themselves to the tomatoes & the bugs ate all the kale except for the 2 tiny leaves I was able to snatch & add to a salad.
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| The cantaloupes are small but tasty. |
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| We cooked some beans & put a couple bags in the freezer. |
Cleaning
I think I did more packing & unpacking than cleaning. There is still extra cleaning for Covid having to be done at work, so I've not been in much of the mood to clean my own house other than tidy, do laundry & keep the dishes done up. I got back on my cleaning schedule for a week or so then it fizzled out. There has now been 2 cases of Covid in our county & both recovered without community spread. We were the last county in the state of South Dakota to be affected be this virus. The county has a population of approximately 1300 people spanning over a 2600 square mile radius.
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| Cleaning my car for our road trip ended with a Sunday afternoon drive having to get a new battery also a burger & milkshake. |
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| Rose |
Health & Weight Maintenance
I've got a new walking partner that gets me out of the house & walking more. The Grands said their good-byes to Rose & I was able to bring her home with me. I've been working to finish up her potty training - that has meant taking her outside every 20 minutes that she is awake & we're rambling around in the house. I went to the dentist & had a tooth worked on. A sort of a temporary crown was put on the tooth (about 1/2 the cost of a permanent one) to see if it would take in attempts to save the tooth. I have those way old back yonder type fillings that worked at the time but over the years better materials have been discovered & are now being used. Those old fillings are breaking up, falling out & bringing parts of my teeth with them.
Frugality, Savings & Spending
We've been cooking meals using garden stuff & meat from the freezer, therefore didn't need to do much shopping at the grocery store, though I did do our fall stock up of personal products such as shampoo & shaving cream, oil changes for our vehicles & a few can goods such as cream of chicken soup. I ordered some new puzzles to get ready for the long nights of winter. I'm sure you've noticed the days getter shorter like I have. I got Rose a soft bed for lounging in the living room & some other dog supplies. I started my Christmas shopping & plan to mail out all my presents the week after Thanksgiving.
The bug hunters.
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| My favorite craft at the Fair. |
Social & Community Service Activities
Kevin pitched horse shoes at the County Fair & came in 2nd place in his division. I go to the Fair for the cinnamon buns. I noticed attendance & entries were down this year, probably cause of the you know what...Coronavirus. We went to Lions Club meeting & helped with Bingo.
Other Activities
I watched The Grand Old Oprey live staring Vince Gill, EmmaLou Harris & Rodney Crowell. Cabela's sent out an email advertising they were hosting a free show, so I thought why not give it a watch, so I did. I also watched some shows on Netflix - Virgin River, Sweet Magnolia's & The Lost Husband. I did some blog reading but not been in much of the book reading mood. We got in a couple of 4-wheeler expeditions with all the other activities we had going on.
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| View during picnic lunch. |
A few more wedding pictures.
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| The wedding had a touch of a baseball theme. They were married over home plate. See the batter's box. |
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| Mother of the Bride photo shoot. |
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| Wedding souvenirs. I had one of the peach pies. It was good. |
These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how about you?
