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?