Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

 

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? We had all 4 seasons of weather here this week: warm, spring blooms & a thunderstorm; beaming hot sun having to put on sunblock; wind with twigs & sticks in the yard & it snowed. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & we'll talk a little about the Bradford pear trees that are in bloom then were going to baseball games & heading out on a trial ride somewhere another this weekend.

Best day ever moments with
 baseball, kettle corn & the
smell of fresh cut grass. I
could eat this whole bag myself
in a sitting though I did share
most of it.

Kevin cooked us some fish bites
for supper one night. The fish
were caught fresh then put up
in the freezer.

I've got a rocking camp chair picked out for when the enclosed trailer camper transformation is complete. Kevin said he can just use a fold up metal chair. I will probably get 2 of the rockers when the time comes just in case Kevin decides he does want to sit beside me by the campfire & rock too. Kevin got a utility trailer for the side-by-side so we can go on day rides without having to use the larger enclosed trailer. This week we worked on getting the side-by-side ready to ride, needing insurance & a tag. A deputy had to come out to look at the vin number & do a little inspection. The vin number tells the life story of a vehicle such as if it's been wrecked, stolen or whatnot. GA is not a ride anywhere you want to ride state, with only being able to ride on county roads. There are many private places for riding for a fee. We'll be checking out some or all of those places eventually. Some are in neighboring states.

I discovered a different flavor of pork skins
at the grocery store this week. They are
 pretty good to tame a sweet craving.

A row of Bradford pears beautiful
in bloom at the cemetery.

I had a good little chat with a lady that was walking her dog along the river walking trail at the ballfields while waiting till game time. She mentioned that the Bradford pear trees were now considered invasive, she thought they were banned & people could get fined for having them these days. We have one on our property, so I did some reading & sure enough. Some states have banned the trees & other states have it up for consideration. The trees started being planted in the early 1900s to 1960s. They were considered one of the best landscaping trees due to their ability to grow just about anywhere, their beautiful early spring bright white blooms & their pretty fall leaf colors. They became one of the most popular ornamental trees in the United States. Problems started showing up 20 to 30 years later. It was first believed that the trees wouldn't spread seeds & would stay where they were planted. Early 2000s the trees were declared invasive because overtime, the trees did cross-pollinate with other pears & spread aggressively to places they were not wanted to be. Since around 2010 the trees have been considered one of the worst invasive trees in the Southeast. My area does not currently have bans or fines. There are local programs such as the Bradford Pear Bounty Program that encourages the trees to be cut down & they give free native trees to plant back. Well, I be.

Robins on the ballfield. I know
I've mentioned it before, I go
to the games to smell the
fresh cut grass.

  

My early morning shadow &
spring blooms along the trail.

It snowed! 

We had an overnight thunderstorm that rocked & lite up the house. The grass turned a vibrant green as daylight approached. Later in the evening it snowed then the weather turned miserably cold compared to the sunburn heat that we had just had.

The Lenton rose thrives in our late-winter
early-spring cold snaps.

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