Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing this 47th week of 2023?  I made a thermos full of hot chocolate then we headed to the woods for a picnic & to pick up pinecones to use for decorations.  Moma & Sister hosted Thanksgiving. I was thankful for family get together time & the bounty of food with lots of leftovers for lunches. Our neighbor down the road turned on their well-known Christmas lights display. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you the final item I marked off my Fall Bucket List, come walk with me...

Look at those perfect pinecones
to decorate with, how many
do you see? 

My edges used to overcook till
I discovered the method of wrapping
aluminon foil around the edge.

*  The final item I marked off my Fall Bucket List was.... 15. Make a pumpkin pie. I made 2 pies using pumpkin puree from a pumpkin Kevin had got at the produce stand. One of the pies went to Moma's Thanksgiving dinner, the other one went in the freezer to have at Christmas.

Christmas Lily Elf helping me decide
which vegetable out of the garden I should
 use to make a dish for Thanksgiving.

Daughter with her Mississippi Mud Pie. 
Me with my carrots & pineapple dish.

* I went to Grand's basketball game.

Fans in the stands having snacks & sharing
nachos & cheese with pulled pork on the top.

  

It's never too early to get them
tossing around a ball.

Happy Birthday to Grand Olivia.  She chose for her
party to be at Build-a-Bear with her siblings.

The lovely ladies that hosted Thanksgiving, everyone's favorite cooks. Sister gave a
short sweet educational presentation about Thanksgiving's history that included football
& there were a few turkey jokes in between. 

Why were the turkeys parading down the street?
They were marching to the beat of their own drumsticks.

Why did the turkey cross the road?
It was the chicken’s day off.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been?

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing this 46th week of 2023? The nandina bushes were so pretty around the office building where I've worked the past 3 weeks. There is also a mural in the planning & deciding stage that is going to be painted on that building in the very near future. I am thankful for the rain that slowed down the spread of the local forest fire. I decorated for Christmas, wrapped presents & planned my Christmas party foods & activities. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you a few tidbits, come walk with me...

Playing fetch with the empty wrapping paper roll
was fun, until... Rose decided it would be funner
for herself to shred the roll into gazillions of pieces.

A sneak peek of my
Christmas decorations.

*  I ordered a couple of Christmas wreaths & some red flameless candles to complete my decorating for this holiday season. I'm having my Christmas Party for Daughter's family mid-December due to all the wonderful activities going on this time of the year that we want to fit into our schedules. There are basketball games, a Christmas parade, family visits, cookie baking... 

Daughter sent videos of her
family working together to
put up Christmas lights. It's
a wonderful time of year.

Christmas Lily Elf found joy & wants to spread it all over the world.
"Happy Thanksgiving" to those that celebrate it.

*  We got enough rain to slow down the spread of the fire while fire fighters worked diligently on making containment lines by dozers & by hand. The fire started a mile or so from my mother's house. It started it's movement up the mountain instead of towards her residential area. The fire was said to have started by a tree getting struck by lightning. One of those electrical fires where there is lightening but no rain. Those type fires are common out in the midwest but not so much here in the mountains.  5,505 acres have burned at this point & the fire is over 80 percent contained. Smoldering logs & stumps will continue to cause smoke until there is a drenching downpour of rain that fully smothers out all the hot coals.

Beautiful wet fire extinguishing rain.

 

Thank you, veteran, for those that are
serving & those that have served.
Brother is a Desert Storm Veteran.

*  We made chicken dumplings with the chickens Kevin had butchered & put up in the freezer. I cooked the chicken part in the crockpot. Kevin did the dumplings part. We say each time the dumplings are the best we've made yet. We've experimented with different spices to get a savorier flavor. This time I started with cream of chicken soup as the base then added poultry seasoning, rosemary, thyme, salt & pepper. Friend told me about rosemary & thyme. Thank you, Tricia, those spices did make a world of difference.

These are some of the things that went on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been?

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing this 45th week of 2023?  All the leaves are off the trees in our yard.  Kevin has said many times this fall that he is so thankful he got a backpack leaf blower. There were several local fires that smoked us up. I got a visit from an unexpected guest. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you who came to visit, come walk with me...

Smoke coming into town.  One of the
biggest forest fires ever to be in the area.

I met up with Oldest Grand for lunch.
We had good conversation & delicious
wings at a place I hadn't tried before. 

* I actually had several visitors this week.  

I was washing dishes & saw movement out
the window.  See the deer?

My Christmas Lily Elf' made an
  unexpected early appearance with a
 message for us all.

Burritos, red enchilada sauce
& shredded cheese.

* I tried a new recipe.

Preheat oven & cook per burrito
cooking instructions,

I used some leftovers from
my wings lunch.

 

* I went along with Youngest Grands to Friend's groovy Lightening McQueen themed birthday party.

Happy 3rd Birthday to Colton!

While hanging out with Grands, I 
raided their Halloween bags.

These are some of the things that went on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been?

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing this 44th week of 2023?  I went to Sister's Halloween party. There was bobbing for apples, a cookie face game & a lava cake. I forgot to set out my deviled eggs. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you what I dressed up as, come walk with me... 

Me & Moma decorated the front
of her house.

My leaf bag jack-o-lanterns &
party favor boo bags. Trick-or-Treat!

Sister decorated the backyard with a spooktacular creepy graveyard.

Sister's jack-o-lantern.

There was huge piles of
leaves to get buried alive in.

I dressed up as a Caribbean Pirate. Sister dressed up as a Plague Doctor.
There was a jack-o-lantern contest, which one would you pick?

Spiders hidden out of site. No one
saw them or knew they were there.

*  I took my deviled eggs in a cooler cause I knew there probably wouldn't be room in Moma's fridge.  I sat the cooler out of the way behind the dining table.  As I was driving home after the party, I thought of the spider deviled eggs I had made.  At that point I realized I had not even set them out.  I turned around & went back & got the cooler.  Kevin & I ate deviled eggs all week, spiders & all.

There were monster
fingers eaten up. 

  

There was witch's brew
nibbled on.

I packed leftover party foods
to have on a picnic during
our jeep ride exploring
adventure.

These are some of the things that went on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been?

We encountered lots of leaf showers.
The woods were beautiful.