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. Happy Easter! How you doing? We have kittens. Two or 3 of them. The dogwood trees are blooming. I took apart Legos this week, so they can be worked again someday. I harvested 3 stalks of asparagus. Kevin went fishing & brought in several messes of fish. He cooked some up with tators & ramps for supper one night & the rest are going in the freezer. We've started saving a few eggs all along for hatching. When there's 42, they'll go in the incubator. Kevin planted some onion plants along with some carrot & radish seeds. Yesterday I got the results from the labs I had done last week. I impressed myself along with the doctor. My A1C was pre-diabetic at 6.3. I changed my whole way of thinking about food & eating. Now my A1C is in a normal range at 5.3. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & let's see what was blooming this week then I'm heading out this weekend to help hide lots of Easter eggs & Kevin is going turkey hunting.

Goldfinch visiting the feeder.

Mountain Air

We took a little road trip to get parts to fix the overheating of the side-by-side. It was a thrill ride for Grandboy Toddlers to get to ride in Pa's truck. Kevin changed out the relay switch & we went out for our next ride. The side-by-side started heating up again as we were going uphill just like it did last weekend. Kevin took out the fuse & wiggled things around. The fan started working, so it seems there is a loose connection somewhere. We had a good time in the mountains with Kevin's Uncle. We did some hiking, dug some more ramps, hunted for wildflowers, picnicked & saw some beautiful hidden waterfalls.

Big Rocks

Stick Bait

We had lunch sitting on logs at the
 edge of the ramp patch. We could
 reach down to get fresh ramps to
eat with lunch. My lunch was
a spinach salad, mustard sardines,
pork skins & a side of ramps.

 

Blood Root

Beaver Dam

 

Bluets

Using panty hose tied up 
did make good handles for 
dipping the nature print eggs.

We had a fun little Easter Day for Homeschool. We took a backroad on the way up & rode by the chicken houses. They have about 800,000 chickens according to their website, so that probably means they get between 700,000 & 800,000 eggs a day. One of the buildings caught on fire recently but we couldn't see that building from the road. We finished up our Dr Suess book reading. We did Dr Suess Read Across America all the month of March instead of just for a week since I do a Homeschool Day with Grands 1 day a week. Sister did a brief presentation about Easter symbols & their meanings. We each gave a presentation of something that happened on our birthday in history. We played an egg game matching homophone words, colored some spring coloring sheets, looked at bugs along with dyeing eggs & having several egg hunts. We tried doing a nature print for dying eggs. It was a fail. Instead of a cute leaf patten, we got blobs of undyed spots. Sister used those eggs to help Grands do egg shrink sleeves. Granny always helps with lunch & looks after the little ones. We all will say that the food is our favorite part of the day.

Granny's azalea was beautiful
in bloom & made good hiding
spots all around it for the
Easter eggs.

   

My people egg head.

 

 

Learning about bugs is fun &
interesting. April themes are
spring, bugs, camping &
community helpers.

Grand discovered this stonefly
skin. We looked it up to get
 the details about it. 

Pajama day & a visit from the Grinch during Dr Suess Month. We watched the
Grinch movie. Grands compared the book to the movie. We read Dr Seuss' 1st
book, last book, the book published after his death, the Grinch & others.

Happy Easter!

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 this Friday the 13th. How you doing? The forsythia bushes & some of the fruit trees are blooming. I spent the week with Grands while their parents went on a spring break getaway. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & we'll talk about our themed days & how the camper transformation is going. I've got unpacking & laundry to do then I'm going to the opening baseball ceremonies this weekend. 

Moma, Me, Sister - Read Across America 
with Dr. Suess. We take our homeschool
day themes maybe a bit too serious.

The youngest Grands explore
in the garden.

Messy Monday - Hotdog roast & catching tadpoles. Our pond has failed to hold water. It's still on our to-do list to line it with some Georgia red clay. For now, it's the perfect place where tadpoles can thrive. 

Sometimes at Nana & Pa's
house you have to cook your
own food.

About a trillion tadpoles
 were caught.

Topsy Turvy Tuesday - Grand's birthday, desserts for every meal, meet the parents for lunch & an adventure outing. Desserts included birthday cake for breakfast, cinnamon roll for lunch, ice cream for snack & peach parfaits for supper. 

Elk crossing in the national park. The Grands
had never seen elk. It was a learning
opportunity of all sorts - How do you spell
elk, why is that one wearing a collar...

  

One cinnamon roll was enough to feed
the whole table. 

  

Snow tubing inside
where the temperature
is 65 to 70 degrees
year round.

Animals to pet, feed & hold at the zoo. 

   

Ice cream before I head back
home with Grands.

Happy 8th Birthday to Grand Jemma.

Wacky Wednesday - Hat Day. Trail walk, playground, picnic, space presentation & local history tour.

We got our hats on heading
to the picnic area.

 

Stars & planets for lunch.

We found lots of sweet gum balls
along the trail & saw some squirrels.
Dandelions were popped up everywhere. 

  

We walked to the river, skipped 
rocks then Sister took the oldest
ones to a couple of local historical
sites pertaining to the first settlers
of the area.

Thankful Thursday - Cooked a turkey, cleaned bedrooms & studied for Bible drills.

Grands prepped the turkey.

  

The turkey cooked up beautifully, though it 
wasn't done in time for lunch as planned.
Starving Grands got chicken bites
quickly cooked in the air fryer instead.

The parents brought home donuts in loving
memory of Baby Grand's birthday & the
cat's birthdays.

  

Daughter always has the most beautiful
centerpieces on the dining table.

Happy 2nd Birthday to Grand Aisley,
forever a part of our family
story.

It's a pretty blue color. It has rock lights 
underneath & speakers of some kind.
It even has a ceiling fan. Yay!

Kevin cleaned out the enclosed trailer, bought a side-by-side & already hauled it home while I was away. He wanted to get a side-by-side 1st, so he can build the camper around where the side-by-side will travel in the trailer.

Pear tree blooms. We've had a nice
warm spell. A cold front is moving in
 Monday with temperatures dropping
below freezing that will probably
kill the fruit buds.

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