Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing this 18th week of 2024? It's 60 degrees here this good Friday morning. The black cherry trees are in bloom & they are so sweet smelling. I'm on the count down for my last days of work this month. I've officially joined the Dull Women's Club in preparation to a retirement lifestyle. I've ordered a magazine subscription as a substitute to work comradery for recipes, what movies are coming up to watch & info on things going on in the world around me & such. People have asked me what am I going to do after I retire. The 1st things that come to mind are... 2 hour morning coffee quite time, meal planning more strategically - cooking things we keep stocked up in the freezer & things from out of the garden using recipes from that magazine subscription, the church cookbook & several cookbooks I have on hand plus all those other recipes I've collected through the years that I had planned to make one day. I have plans to finally & truly organize my pictures & make photobooks that I've had on my to do list for at least 19 years since the 1st Grand was born. Then I have thoughts of everyday feeling like it's a weekend. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll show you our 90th birthday surprise for Aunt before I head out to Grand's baseball game this weekend & a dinner for Moma's birthday & Mother's Day combined. Also, Me & Kevin enjoyed a picnic & jeep ride last weekend, the wild azaleas were in bloom & lots of other wildflowers that I took pictures of that I'll share with you, come walk with me...

I came up with the birthday card idea,
Sister put it into action. Aunt is very
loved by so many. There was a big turnout
 of family & friends to celebrate her birthday.
 She received lots of cards & pots
of flowers. Happy 90th Birthday to 
Aunt Velva.
 

  

I saved room for a piece of the delicious
birthday cake made by Cousin, the same
one that made the cake for Grand's
wedding. Cousin is a wonderful &
true cake artist. 

*  Since I made a countdown of my last days of work, my mind wants to put off doing anything & everything till after I retire. They'll be plenty of time to do it then, I'm thinking. The overflowing dirty clothes hamper along with the small mound of dirty clothes beside it & the dirty dishes stacked in the sink told me otherwise, so there was laundry done this week & the dishes washed as usual. I started a 31-day walking challenge for May. I need to get some weight off & also eat less portions & have less to none sweets for my health to try to get those glucose & cholesterol numbers down or else... So far, I'm rocking it & have walked the 1st 3 days of May. I've been walking 1st thing in the morning after coffee time, of course. 

Some have asked if I was counting down the days
to retirement. I am now, 29 more to go.

* We hadn't been on a jeep ride in a while. Nature did not disappoint with all it's beauty. There were lots of blooms, these were some of the best pictures I took.

Asters

 

Yellow Flowers, Maybe Ragwort
The poison oak does not bother me.
Kevin steered clear of it.

Lady Slipper

  

May Apple

Wild Iris

 

Fern

Wild Azalea 

 

We went through several
fords in the creek.

Lunch, using the new lunch box
Daughter gave us for Christmas. 

  

It's me, sitting on the creek bank 
taking a moment to admire the 
beauty, sounds & smells.

Cucumber Tree

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 17th week of 2024? It's 55 degrees here this Friday morning. The iris have been blooming this week. Grand's wedding ceremony & celebration was a success & perfectly beautiful. The wedding was in an old train depot that is now a rental space for such special occasions. I had such a good time visiting with everyone & of course we got tons of pictures of everything, the cookie table was a big hit. I'm heading out this weekend to Aunt's 90th birthday celebration. I'm planning to take mashed tators & make them like Daughter does. She uses red potatoes & leaves the skin on. The Grand's tell me that's how the mashed tators get their flavor, so that will be a flavorful added bonus. Me & Sister are pulling a birthday surprise out of our sleeves for the event, stay tuned next week for what it is, so for now, grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you some about the wedding & show a few pictures of the highlights, come walk with me...

I shouldn't have, but I did indulge. There
was leftover chocolate cookie topping &
 I remembered we still had some of those
"sweet as candy" grapes.

 

* I couldn't decide which of the 4 varieties of cookies to make for the cookie table, so I made all 4 of the ones I had made samples of - chocolate thin mint cookie bar, butterscotch haystacks, pecan cups & sweet & salty turtles. I had to make a do over batch of the haystacks. I didn't have enough karo syrup, so I used some honey. Those cookies were too sticky & didn't set up good enough. 

Guests were asked to bring a couple dozen
or so of cookies to make up the cookie table. 
Look at all that yummy cookie goodness.
There were boxes for everyone to take
cookies home as a party favor.

There was a festive balloon garland
in the reception area. The food tables
 made an L. The cookie tables were at
the bottom of the L. There wasn't a
rehearsal dinner, instead, a meal
 was served for all to enjoy
 immediately after the
wedding nuptials.

  

Gnomes of different sizes were hidden 
all around. See one? The bride & groom
have a collection of gnomes, so it was
a fun surprise for guests when they
discovered one of the hidden gems
to add to the collection.

The wedding cake was so delicious &
perfectly moist. I chose this strawberry
 piece. The layers were strawberry &
vanilla. The bottom was vanilla, the
 middle strawberry & the top will be a 
surprise when they have it on their
1st anniversary.

  

The wedding cake was made by Cousin
Sally. She makes the most beautiful & fun
cakes for any & all occasions. 

The groom's cake was triple melt
 in your mouth chocolate.

  

Do you see the flowers in the
veggie trays?

The arch turned out perfect for a quaint
 intimate wedding ceremony. Me & Kevin
were on the arch committee. Moma put the
flower arrangements together for the arch.
The bride & groom wrote their own vows.
 I may have shed a joyful heartfelt tear or
 2. Kevin had the wood on hand & plans
to reuse it to make some sawhorses. 

  

They did it, congrats to the newlyweds!

There was a guest book for signing,
giving well wishes, advise &
decorating the book up with
self-portraits. It was fun, I helped
 take several pictures. The camera
 was a Christmas gift to one of the 
Grandgirls. It worked perfect for
this wedding activity. The camera
works like the old Polaroids, if you
ever remember those back in
the day. 

 

The background for taking
pictures for the quest book.
Happy April Birthdays
to my Adventurous Guy &
Daughter.

* Last but not least was the excitement of sneaking out to decorate the get-away car. The married sign had to be taken down because they couldn't see out the back window for driving. I always say "have fun but be safe" & "watch out for deer" (that means I love you).

Honk! Honk!

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 16th week of 2024? It's 59 degrees here this early Friday spring morning. Sunny sweaty temperatures heated up into the 80s this week. The azaleas are blooming. I saw a hummingbird out the bedroom window the other day, so I put out the feeder. I thought the mix was 3 parts water to 1 part sugar, Kevin thought it was half & half. I looked it up & the directions I read was 4 to 1, so that's how I made my food for the hummingbirds. The hummers started feasting, at least that one. We've tired the new Bojangles in town a couple of times now. One for supper & one for breakfast. I've decided their biscuits are my favorite over anywhere. My tender tastebuds didn't care for their slightly spicy chicken, but I ate it anyway. This weekend is Grand's wedding. I've got our wedding clothes pressed & the loose threads snipped. I had to go out & buy a tabletop ironing board. Mine got left behind or sold in the yard sale in South Dakota. I've got my cookies made for the cookie table. We've got the arch built & it's already set up in its place. Everything is going to be so pretty. Did I mention that the wedding colors are lavender & light blue with a touch of burgundy? I'm ready to go do all the wedding things, but 1st, grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & tell you about going plant shopping & I'll show you the remodeled flower bed we did in front of the house, it's finally completely finished & planted, walk with me...

Kevin was shopping for marigolds for the remodled flower bed. All the flowers
looked so good. These marigolds at the grocery store garden center were one in
a pot, so we just looked.

I was shopping for a fern to go
with the arch decorations. These
Bostons at the produce stand
were all so beautiful & vibrant.
 It was hard to choose.

 

I chose this lively character. It might
 have been a bit bigger than I was
expecting. I've babied it all week to
keep it looking it's beautiful
vibrant self. 

The produce stand just got in a
shipment. Kevin went with these
marigolds, 6 plants to a container.
He also got another rhubarb &
planted it beside our other one.

Looking around, there was a different kind
 of fern mingled with these beautiful
geranium baskets. Oh my gosh,
everything was so nice looking.

*  Here are pictures of before, during & the finished remodel of the flower bed in front of the house that I've been talking about for weeks. Kevin wanted to redo the bed to make it easier to mow around. The flowers overgrew the edges last year & grew out into the grass. Even trying to weed eat risked chopping the flowers down. 

Before...

During...

Finished...

Have you tried these grapes? They are
"sweet as candy", as Kevin would say.
I was just talking about my tender tastebuds
 then I accidently got this hot stuff at the
grocery store. This was actually a good 
combination, chips & salsa chased
with the coolness sweet
tasting grapes.

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 15th week of 2024? The dogwood trees have come alive. It's 47 degrees here this early Saturday morning. I had planned to sleep in, but I was bright eyed & bushy tailed at 4 am. I don't know why, maybe excited to go to the produce stand & get flowers to plant in the newly remodeled flower bed out in front of the house. Soon my everydays will be a Saturday as I get closer to my retirement date. Then I'll have plenty of opportunities to sleep in & take 2 to 3 hours to have my morning coffee. We got all that rain along with some wind that was forecasted last week. I have more sticks to pick up around in the yard. I didn't walk outside during work time to look up at the solar eclipse, but I did look at some interesting pictures of it online later that evening. I had a good time with the Grandgirls last weekend. The girls did end up convincing me that it was not too cold for them to get in the creek. Good thing I had plenty of hot chocolate on hand. It was too cold for me & Kevin to get in the water to move around the rocks that had washed out of their place. Kevin got a load of mulch instead. We all worked on putting it out around in the flower beds, Kevin cleaned out the chicken house. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you about a couple of whoopsies we had this week & a few of the fun things the Grandgirls did while visiting, walk with me...

"This is so much fun" for about 3 buckets, then
they got hot & went to the creek.

The mud bath loving girl.

 

The mud pie loving girl.

The stick fetching loving girl.

  

"Do you like butter?"

The new pulley verses the old
one that fell apart & caused
the belt to break.

*  Whoops... The belt broke on the jeep as we were taking the Grandgirls home. The belt flew off about a mile from our destination. Kevin kept driving on to their house without any power steering but before things started to heat up. Luckly, there are a couple of parts places open around here on Sunday. We were able to get the 2 needed parts to fix the jeep, though Kevin had to get 2 different size pulleys because he wasn't sure which size he would need. Son-in-Law helped Kevin put in the new pulley & belt to get the jeep back on the road. The unneeded pully was returned a few days later for a full refund. I was the flashlight holder & the tool hander in case anyone wonders what I did to help in the situation. 

*  Whoops... We woke up to the power being off one morning this week. Neighbor told Kevin it had went off about 11 the night before. That meant our electricity had been off for at least 8 hours. We went to work & don't know when the power came back on. Kevin has an incubator full of chicken eggs that are supposed to hatch the same time the baby chicks are expected to arrive here in a couple weeks. We're hoping the eggs are ok & maybe the only side effect will be a day or 2 later for hatching.

The hatching eggs look all snug
as a bug under a rug, or maybe not.
 The temperature stays at 99.5 F.
A good range of warmth is 
99 to102, plus a little water
in there for humidity.

A sneak peek of the arch for
Grand's wedding.
 

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

The strawberries are blooming,
the rhubarb has 4 beautiful leaves,
azalea blooms are about to pop
open, an asparagus the size of a 
toothpick has showed itself.