Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? It's coming a nice gentle rain this morning. I've got the door & windows open. It's a very comfortable 69 degrees outside. I set my 4 house plants & the 2 amaryllis bulbs out so they could soak up some of nature's nourishment. I would like to have more house plants put I just don't have the room for them. Clothes are going in the washer & a grocery list needs to be made. I ate lots of birthday cake this week. We got okra & tomatoes from out of the garden. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & we'll talk about birthday cake & some other random things.

Me & Sister took Grands on a
hike to a waterfall last week. It
was interesting & loads of fun.

It's about a 1/2 mile to the falls.

We met quite a few other
hikers along the trail.

There were lots of little butterflies. We
saw minnows in the creek & a spider
web with a big spider on it.

An interesting gnarled tree. We saw
lots of millipedes & different colors
of mushrooms while walking.

The dollar store was putting out
fall stuff. I thought this corn was
cute but didn't know what I
would do with it. Any ideas?

    

 Fall is in the air.

  

I waited for a downpour to slack up to go
in the grocery store. It hailed some to. A
few others were waiting in their vehicle.
We all headed for the door at the
same time.

Elevation 4,784 at the highest
point in Georgia.

Friends Steve & Nancy from Iowa stopped by. They were traveling through from visiting the capitol in Washington DC. Kevin worked for Steve operating heavy equipment playing in the dirt building ponds & putting in drainage systems on farms & things like that when we lived in Iowa. We spent the day shopping around at a flea market, ate at Chic fil a & Taco Bell, stood on the highest point in Georgia, walked on the Appalachian Trail, took a jeep ride & explored the woods. It was very enjoyable talking & catching up.

Overlook on the side of the road.

Needoh, butter squishy &
zombies.

There were a couple snails to look
 at along with rocks, mushrooms &
millipedes.

Cake & ice cream with
Daycare Friends.

I celebrated the last year of being in my 50's with 3 birthday cakes, ice cream & a feast. Kevin brought home a blueberry pound cake & ice cream. I got a garden owl from Daughter & Grands. I got a basket filled with all kinds of goodies from Granny & Sister. Coincidentally, I forgot both gifts at their houses. At least I didn't forget that they had gave me the gifts. I thought about the owl on the way home. When I was unloading the car, the basket wasn't there.

Cake made by Sister for Homeschool Day.

Birthday feast made by Granny & Sister.

Grands mailed out their 1st
pen pal letters.

Me playing in the sand. The
mermaid liked to splash her
tail in the water.

Lake Day

The lake level is down this summer. It is usually
over our heads out at the rope. We've been able
 to walk out there & it's chest deep.

The plants enjoying the rain.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend.

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing? The strawberries are blooming. We're planning to have fresh strawberries pretty soon. I harvested 2 more asparagus stalks & ate them for breakfast this morning with ham & eggs. Kevin has a birthday this weekend. He didn't get a turkey, said he didn't find much good turkey sign where he wanted to hunt, he went fishing instead. Easter was happiness & gratefulness as Grand's grandparents joined together for a joint Easter dinner & egg hunt. There was lots of good food & fellowship. Youngest Grands got bubble blowers that lite up making the ending of our celebration majestic. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage or how about an ice cream today? I'll tell you about our jeep riding this week, Kevin's deal at the grocery store & how many kittens we have. We'll be working on the enclosed tailer camper transformation this weekend then I'm heading out to hang out with Grands while their parents go on an outing.

Shared Easter treat, strawberry
 milkshake flavored.
 

It was so foggy at the top of the mountain,
we couldn't hardly see anything.

We went on a couple jeep rides this week. We had planned to go fishing on those days, but it was rainy one day & a little too cool & windy the other day for an enjoyable day on the lake. We rode on some roads we hadn't ever been on before. We checked out a few places that we thought would be good for camping, riding the side-by-side & maybe doing some creek fishing. We got windows & lights ordered for the camper. Kevin went to Home Depot & got insulation & ceiling panels. He thinks he already has some electrical wire.

Dutchman's Breeches

Beaver Den & Dam

 

Blue & stripped rocks
along the creek.

   

Squawroot also called bear corn.
It looked like pinecones. It
produces pollen. I saw a butterfly
 on it is how I seen it. It seems that
 bears have been known to dig it
up & eat the sweet ears.

Meat Cuber

Kevin got a 10-pound pork loin on sale for about 1/2 price at the grocery store. He sliced the meat then cubed it. I bagged & sealed it to put up in the freezer.

We have 2 little barn kittens.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been? Go out & have a wonderful weekend!

Let your light shine. A mix of
faith & fun.

Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing this 34th week of 2024? It's been a few weeks since we've chatted. I got the blackberry jelly made, enjoyed a food truck event & hosted a Farm Day Summer Day Camp. Kevin butchered some roosters for the freezer & got his retirement benefits approved. We're both officially retired now, though he chooses to continue working part-time for the time being. Great Grand was born & Moma spent a few days in the hospital getting treated for phenomena. I spent a few days with Grands while their parents went on their annual anniversary get away. Me & Kevin had a couple good days out on the lake fishing & then went for a jeep ride. Grand's football & cheer practice started, the leaves are starting to change color & the goldenrods are blooming. Fall is in the air. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & we'll catch up. The gender of Grand Twins has been announced & I'll introduce you to Great Grand...

Meet Ash. 8 pounds 1 ounce.
20 3/4 inches long.

*  I took the jelly making supplies up to Moma's. Me & Grand spent the day up there just a few days before Moma got sick. We made jelly, planned the final touches of Cousin Camp & started planning for a Two Little Pumpkins baby shower for some time in October. Then we all went to the food truck event in town for supper.

Cooking & mashing up the
blackberries to make
juice for jelly.

 

Straining out the seeds & pulp
from the juice.

Beautiful & tasty blackberry jelly. It's so good on buttered toast.

Me & Sister tried the pina colada
lemonade. It was delicious with
the cherries & crushed lemon
pulp.

Elvis was there at the food truck event.
Well, at least it sounded like his voice.
We enjoyed listening to the band while
 we ate.

*  Farm Day was fun. The time went by so fast. There were garden food samples, chicken petting, a picnic & playing in the creek. Have you ever had mud pie coffee? If you have, I know you will agree that it's one of the best kinds of pretend tasting that there is. We did an egg drop activity to see if an egg could be protected from breaking using some things normally found around the house such as cotton balls, newspapers, toilet paper, lemons, marshmallows & pieces of egg carton. The results of the experiment were that egg cartons do protect the eggs very good. Most the eggs survived being dropped from 8 to 6 feet, but there were a few that didn't. 

 

Everyone took turns touring the
chicken house & gathered a 
couple eggs.

The food sampling consisted of looking,
touching, smelling, handling, squishing,
tasting... followed by a spit out bowl. There
 was banana pepper, tommy toes, cucumber,
blackberry jelly & strawberry jam to taste.
 The jelly & jam was tried on graham
 crackers. Several rounds of Hot Squash
 was played.

*  Back in mid-July when Daughter's Friend was visiting, me & her hosted the Grand Twins pregnancy announcement & gender reveal. Daughter wanted to wait for the public gender announcement since one of the babies had 85% accuracy on it's gender at the time. We made predictions & had a lot of fun with it. Baby B continued to be stubborn as it took several hard hits to crack that ball open.

Baby A - It's a girl, 100% positive. Turns out,
 the later ultrasounds show it's a boy 100%.

 

Baby B - It's a girl, 85% sure. The cord
was between it's legs. Turns out, the
later ultrasounds show it's a girl
100%, maybe.

Where the lake meets the river, there was about a 20 degree
 colder difference in the water temperature & we could
feel it in the air too.

Sitting around the fire at Cousin Camp,
eating popcorn & listening to creepy
stories being read. The Cousin's
are Moma's Grands, 3 generations
of them now.

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

Happy Birthday to Grand Austin &
Granddaughter in Law Jessi. Happy
 Birth Day to Great Grand Ash.
We celebrated their days at
 Cousin Camp.

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.