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 2023?  We went shopping for a jeep, celebrated my Mother's birthday & worked on the chicken house. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you more, come walk with me...

Happy Birthday to Moma. 

Sister grilled hot dogs & made a
pineapple-upside down cake for
Moma's birthday.

*   There was an early birthday celebration for my mother's 80th birthday.  She was the youngest of 10 kids & is the only one still living.  When Moma was about 2 years old, their mother died of phenomena that could probably have been prevented had she went to the doctor.  Moma took on responsibilities of cooking & cleaning at a very young age.  The oldest kids were grown & already out of the house.  The brothers still at home went out & did the field work with their Daddy.  Moma tells about peeling & boiling tators about every night for supper, her Daddy telling her she needed to cook them a little longer.  Moma can make the best green beans & mashed tators that I've ever ate.  

The flower candle rotated & played the tune
"Happy Birthday to You".

I got sidetracked looking at these
daisies while Kevin took a closer
look at a jeep he was really
interested in. He loves me, 
he loves me not.....

*  We had decided before we left South Dakota that we wanted to get a jeep to use for exploring in the mountains.   We sold our camper, side by side & 4-wheeler that we had used to explore the prairie.  We shopped marketplace & word of mouth to replace our exploring vehicles with a jeep.  There's not a lot of trials for riding a side by side or 4-wheeler in this area, but there are lots of roads for jeep riding & such.  

Maybe?

This is it.  The jeep we chose to be our
new exploring vehicle.

Too many miles, too much money.

*  We've been converting a bathhouse into a chicken house/coop.  When I say we, I mean Kevin mostly.  He ordered baby chicks that's expected to arrive mid-June.  From what we've been told, our property used to be a campground of the sorts, having 6 electrical hookups, a bathhouse & a pavilion with a stage where music was made.  The pavilion is now the barn/workshop.  The stage is now a mower/tool shed.  There were still 3 electrical hookups & the bathhouse that was still fully functional.

The makings of a chicken coop door.

Kevin gutted the bathhouse &
unhooked the septic.  He
left the water hooked up. He 
cut the shower in half & made 
a brooder box for the baby chicks.

I got the baskets labeled that are located
on shelves above the washer & dryer.

I took a peek inside the bird
nest that's located in the
rafters of the mowing shed.

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

*  I found places for the remaining things sitting in the utility room floor from our moving boxes.  It might not have been their permanent place, but the stuff was put up off of the floor out of the way in a basket or in a cabinet or in a closet or took down to the barn for Kevin to go through.

Sitting out on the porch noticing
the poplar trees in bloom.

I pulled out weeds & scratched
in the dirt in the flower bed around
the tree then planted marigold,
zinnia & sunflower seeds.

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 2023?  We had blackberry winter - a cold spell when the wild blackberries are in bloom.  Kevin came across several good deals & we got his onXmap set up for Georgia.  We went exploring back in the mountains & I discovered lady slippers in bloom. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you more about those deals & show you some pictures of the lady slippers, come walk with me...

*  Kevin's deal #1 - He got 2 trailer loads of stockpiled mulch for the garden from the electric company's cleanup from underneath the power lines. 

Tomato & pepper plants
were planted.

Kevin discovered this bird nest up in the
rafters of the mower shed.  I put the camara
 up there & took a picture to see if I could
see what was inside.

I waited not so patiently for this
iris to bloom, checking on it
daily for years days.

*  Kevin's deal #2 - He went to the mile long yard sale at the fairgrounds.  He said he went to the back end of the sale because there were less people in that area.  He came across a refurbished, scratch & dent sale. He got a flat top grill & a fryer that had some dents, scratches & maybe some missing screws.  The grill had the grease drip pan missing.  He pounded & straightened out the dents, tightened some screws & added a few.  He came up with a drip pan.  Wala, good as new!

*  Kevin's deal #3 - He got discounted fruit tress & azalea bushes.  Kevin wanted some fruit trees to add to some that were already established in the garden area to make a little orchard.  I wanted some azaleas to plant out back on the bank so I could see them out the kitchen window.  At the discounted price, he was able to get more plants than we were expecting to get. 

Apple trees, pear trees & blueberry 
bushes added to the orchard.  

The azaleas waited patiently for their
holes to be dug for planting.

 

The strawberries in the hanging
basket were snuggly & warm inside
 the house during the chilly nights
of blackberry winter.

The tomato & pepper plants were
covered during the night as the
 temperature fell below freezing. 
Unfortunately, the newspapers 
 didn't protect enough.  The
plants had to be replanted.

 

 

*  Nana Grandjoy Camp Run-A-Muk - Grand spent the night & we went exploring in the mountains.  We ate a snack sitting alongside the creek.  We took a little walk to see if there were any lady slippers blooming.  To my great wonderful awesome surprise, I found some.

There was lots of talk about cars that 
went on between these 2.  They both
seemed very knowledgeable about the 
vehicle things they were talking about.

Lady Slippers

Happy Birthday to Daughter.  She
celebrated her 29th birthday
for the 7th year in a row. 

Grand went to Senior prom with
Girlfriend.  They both looked
gorgeous.  They said it was fun.

* Tuesday - clean the kitchen & utility room day... Putting away extra cleaning supplies Kevin brought in our moving stuff.  I found the BBQ sauce we needed last week.  Kevin said he knew he had packed some.  There it was, packed with the trash bags.  He said now if he could find his gun oil.  I told him it would show up somewhere, eventually.

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

Wild blackberries in bloom.

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 2023?  Kevin & I went to the Plant Affair on the square, the Rhododendron Festival at the fairgrounds, shopped at Home Depot on the other side of the mountain & did some exploring on the Appalachian Trial. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you more, come walk with me...

I couldn't decide on these $30
pots of rhododendrons at the
Plant Affair.  I took a business
card for maybe later.

* The Plant Affair was hosted by the local Garden Club.  There were all kinds of gardening stuff for sale:  plants, bird houses, arts & crafted yard ornaments along with homemade jams, jellies & honey.  There was supposed to have been a bake sale but I either overlooked it or all the goods were gone when we got there toward the end of the event.  I was interested in getting rhododendrons to plant along the property line that is up on the bank close to the house. Kevin was interested in getting vegetable plants for the garden.  There were some really nice plants at the affair, a few flowering things that we had never seen before. I noticed some really cute painted gourds & uniquely made wind chimes, but we ended up not getting anything there. 

*  The garden trail at the Rhododendron Festival was started back in 1982.  1000 rhododendrons were placed on the hillside along the bank of the lake.  There were markers placed where plants had been donated & added through the years in honor of or in memory of someone.  There was live music & food trucks at the festival.  There were also rhododendrons & other plants for sale along with arts & crafts.  The rhododendrons there were $50 a pot.

                      

*  We got a 15% off coupon in the mail from Home Depot, welcoming us to the area.  Kevin had sold a lot of stuff out of his shop to keep from having to move it.  A couple things he was in need of were a toolbox & shop vac, though there was a whole list of things on a list that was left laying at home on the kitchen table.  

Which toolbox to get & what color?
A medium size red one was the winner.

Which cucumber seeds to get? 
Burpless was chosen.

The drive over the mountain was
nice.  The dogwoods were still
in bloom & a tree Kevin called
a cucumber.

*  Trillium, Mayapple & woodland Iris 

were in bloom as we walked a short 

distance on the Appalachian Trail. The

 town does free pickups on certain days

 at certain times for hikers so they can 

come into town to get supplies, eat out,

stay the night or do whatever things 

they want or need to do. 

 

Trillium

I always make a round or 2 in 
the lumber aisles to smell
the scent of the wood.

These are some of the 

things that's been 

going on in my

neck of the woods,

how's 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 2023?  Everything turned vibrant green overnight after a good downpour of rain that we got.  Kevin arrived with the rest of our stuff.  My back has been tired & sore from putting away totes of canned food, moving shelves & changing the bedroom furniture around.  We also worked in the garden & planted a thing or 2.  Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you more, come walk with me...

Kevin brought in a few totes at a time to unpack.
We downsized our belongings & our house size.
Seems we need to do a little more downsizing of
our belongings to fit in the downsized house.

Baby Grand got his 1st 2 teeth.

 

Daughter's family gussied up for Easter
services at church & then an Easter egg
hunt & dinner with Son-in-Laws parents.

*  Our garden is a little different this year.  There were raised boxed beds already in place, so we'll use those to garden in.  Kevin added a row of boxes & strawberries were ordered.  While the weather was rainy, he burned the 2 brush piles of sticks & leaves that I had created. 

                  

53 onion plants were planted.  I scrounged around to see
 if I could come up with one more plant to make an even
 54, but the plant just was not there.  The bundle was
  probably a pack of 50 & perhaps the 3 were extras. 

There are thoughts & plans to plant peppers, cucumbers,
tomatoes, squash, carrots & maybe another thing or 2.

The grapes are putting out.

Rose decided she needed a 
drink while I was watering the
blackberries.

Kevin transplanted a bunch of
daffodils over by the creek.

The old apple tree has lots of blooms.

  

A few pears are starting
 to take shape.

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