Saturday, December 29, 2007

Dust Starting to Settle








Whee! It's been a busy time for us. It all started last Saturday with the Little Woman's family party. Then dinner with good friends, John and Debbie, the Christmas Eve service at church, and Christmas Day with our Australian friends. I'm including a few photos from our busy week. Hubby cooking the hams on the Green Egg, sounds like a book! Both of us at John and Debbie's, our
church service, Steph (Aussie friend) preparing for Christmas Dinner.









We are finally getting some rain, not near enough. We need almost two feet of rain to get us out of this drought. We don't need two feet at once, but we desperately need rain. We got about an inch rain yesterday, and tomorrow we are suppose to get that much or more. When we came out of the movie yesterday it was raining quite hard. We are "National Treasure". Good movie.






















This evening our Australian friends are coming for dinner and a movie. They gave us "The Dish", which is an Australian movie and thought we would need some "interpretation" of the language.

It has been a great Christmas season for us. We have enjoyed it, but we are ready for the new year. We have enrolled in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. It's a 13 week course on how to get out of debt. We're not in debt, but just feel lead to take this course. We are going back to First Place and attempt to get some of the weight off us that we have gained during December. How can you lose weight when you eat an entire box of chocolates in two days!? Not to mention all the goodies from Harry and David's. Actually, the day after Christmas we put all the "good stuff" in the freezer and are now grazing on salads.


Wishing you all a Happy New Year!

Friday, November 30, 2007

HAROLD TONEY, Life-long friend

L-R: Harold, Mr. Evans, their high school woodshop teacher, Hubby
ALBERT HAROLD TONEY


February 9, 1944 - November 29, 2007




After nine years of battling a brain tumor, Harold went to be with the Lord yesterday. On the way home from the hospice last night, Hubby said, "I got so tired of seeing Harold suffer." "You know, Harold have always been there for each other when we needed help, I don't know how I'm going to handle that now." There have been lots of tears, but we know Harold is in the presence of the Lord. The sting of death referenced in the Bible is the sting to those left, not the one taken.



A TRIBUTE TO HAROLD

If words could describe Harold Toney it would be, kind, laid back, unselfish and protective. We have been friends since second grade.
We went to the same grammar school, high school and we joined the Army at the same time. I was getting drafted and I thought it would be a good idea if Harold and I could join on the buddy system. When we got to basic training, we got off the bus, they shaved our heads and gave us shots and that was the last time I saw Harold until training was about over. When I finally saw him, I said, "you don’t look so good." He said, "I don’t?" "and the bad thing, I didn’t even have to go, you were the one who got drafted."
We got jobs at the Gas Company only nine months apart and we did almost the same jobs for 36 years.
Our childhood days were some of the best years of our lives. No pagers, no computers, no air conditioning, no cell phones, and no x-box. We always made our own fun, sometimes at the expense of others. Harold never liked being uncomfortable. He slept next to a fan in the summer, he liked cushy car seats, easy chairs and didn’t like walking long distances. It’s like the time Harold, Raymond and I went to the Southeastern Fair. Raymond’s mother drove us over to the fair grounds, which was a pretty good distance from home. She told us to call her when we were finished. We all had about $2.00 each to spend. Well, we all three spent ALL our money and didn’t have a dime (phone calls were a dime back then) to call Mrs. I. to pick us up, so we walked all the way from the fair grounds home. We were about two blocks from home when we saw something sparkle on Raymond’s shoes. He had two dimes in his penny loafers. We about beat Raymond to death. It had taken us two hours to walk home. This time Raymond was the one who was uncomfortable.
In closing Harold and I have been best friends for almost 60 years and we have never had harsh words. To me Harold was a Proverbs 18:24 man, which says, "A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." He was that man to me.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This is a great time to reflect on the many blessings we have experienced during this past year. We are thankful for our family and friends, our church, our home, we have had all our needs provided, good neighbors, I could go on and on. We are so blessed in our great nation to have so much. We take all of this for granted and have come to expect and even demand so many things. We are so thankful to the Lord for ALL our blessings, both material and spiritual.

I'm really thankful we have completed yet two more projects. The 18th C. floor cloth took weeks, but it's finished, well except for some nonskid backing we have to put under it. The outside shutter looks great that Hubby has made. The other one had not been primed when it was made and rotted out rather quickly. This one has been primed on every surface, even join, every crack. Hubby tells me that tricks of the trade.

Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING and don't eat too much turkey.





Wednesday, November 14, 2007

THE NOISE

Packing our driveway.


It rattles our entire


house.




View from the mail box
looking towards the
house.
Oh no, Hubby has been talking with the workers at the road. They tell us it will be another YEAR before this project is completed. The good news, they are starting to grade the road bed in front of our house and will be putting the rock down today, then pour the curbs and sidewalks, then pave it. The paving part might be a while. They have had the road bed prepared for many weeks down the road, but have yet to put any black pavement down. It's really messing with our minds, not to mention all the RED mud we have tracked onto our driveway and parking area at the house and some even into the house. I have to keep telling myself, "this too shall pass."

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Time Flys









October has been a very busy month for us. Projects, some traveling and life. The Hubby took a short trip to our favorite place, Colonial Williamsburg. We have friends that live there part-time and Harry's wife was going to be away for several days, so he invited Hubby up for a visit. They spend four days revisiting Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown, all of which are in Virginia. Photo of the Governor's Palace.










These are very important places in the history of our country. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. It was settled in 1607. The National Parks Service has discovered the location of the original fort in the past few years. They thought it was out in the James River, but realize they were wrong. They are digging like crazy and finding lots of artifacts from the 17th Century. See the photo of Hubby by the cannon at Jamestown. This year was the 400th anniversary of the settlement at Jamestown. Remember when the Queen of England was in the US several months ago, that's why.




The Capitol was moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg, I'm not sure what year that was, so I'll not guess. It was here that many important historical events occurred during the fight for independence from England. The town has been restored to it's original condition and is a "working" 18th Century town





Yorktown was where Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington in 1782, resulting in the Colonies independence from England. Actually, Cornwallis didn't surrender, he sent one of his aids to do the dirty work. Well, it was dirty work to the English.





Hubby decided he wanted to make an 18th C. floor cloth. They are very expensive in all the publication we get. Now we know why. It is very time consuming and very tedious work. All those stripes and checks have to be drawn and painted on the canvass, only after it has been properly prepared. Prepared means many coats of this stuff called Gesso, which is a special white paint. I had drawn all the stripes and checks on the canvass, then I read the instructions. It had to have four more coats of paint. Always read the instructions, FIRST! Before I did any drawing, I did a scale drawing to see how the end product would look. That took time as well. Now we know WHY floor clothes are so expensive. Hubby has decided this is the first and ONLY one we'll be doing. Hopefully this project will be finished SOON. I don't know HOW I manage to get involved in most of Hubby's projects. This time, perhaps, it was because it ended up on our kitchen table for a period of time.




The severe drought continues. Pray for rain, lots of rain. Our lakes and rivers are so dangerously low here in Georgia. I'm watering my outdoor plants with water collected in a five gallon bucket located in our shower when you have to run all the cold water out of the system in order to have a warm shower. There is a total band, state wide, on outside watering. We do cheat and give the birds water, but we bring the bucket INSIDE to fill, so not to actually use the outside water hose. I suppose this is a techicality, but we will continue to give the birds water. It also attracks those harry deals (squirrels) as well.


We are off to Blue Ridge today to visit some friends.

Monday, October 1, 2007

FISH FRY? FOR THE AMEICAN HEART ASSOCIATION?

This sign is on the lawn of the county court house. A picture can be worth a thousand words, but I just HAVE to make a comment here. What were these people thinking!? Having a FISH FRY to raise money for the AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION! I would think a barbeque would be better than a FISH FRY. Normally, when you have a fish fry there are also fries (as in fried potatoes), hush puppies, which is fried cornbread with onions and cold slaw. There are four items, three of which are FRIED.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Cousins Celebrate After 64 Years





My cousin, Ken, and his wife, Cheryl, arrived Sunday evening. They are on their way to visit their daughter that lives about an hour and one-half from us. They were staying until Tuesday morning and would be traveling down to stay another week or so with their daughter, son-in-law and grand baby. I decided to invite my oldest cousin, Ron, and my brother, Terry, to lunch. Everyone was able to arrange their schedule to make it to lunch.


My grandmother kept her two only grandchildren, at the time, while their mothers worked. So consequently Ron and Ken played together as very young children. Ken was four when his family moved to California. Ron remembers well them playing together, but Ken was just too young to recall their adventures. It has been 64 years since they last saw each other and it was the FIRST time we all had been together, ever. It was really a great day!



Standing is my brother, Terry, on the left, who is the youngest of the group, on the right is my cousin, Ron, who is the oldest. Seated is my cousin, Ken and myself.




It was a really great day. We all had a wonderful time being together. I hope this is the beginning of other reunions.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Happy Anniversary

Today we have celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary. We were VERY young when we married, because we can't be that old! I'm so very thankful for Hubby and our life together.

We had an appointment at the church for photos for the new church directory. We got to preview them and make the selection for the directory. They were all bad. We didn't like ANY of the poses. I suppose we were too critical, but having had our own photo studio for several years we know what good photographs looks like and they didn't look like it. Afterwards we rode down to Peachtree City and ended up having dinner at Ted's Grill. The bison burger was good, we even had french fries.

Thank you for our wonderful together, I love you. I'm so grateful to the Lord for the godly man he sent me. By the way, he gave me a beautiful BIRTHDAY CARD. The verse was wonderful, it just wished me a "Happy Birthday". It cracked me up. Hubby couldn't believe it was a birthday card. He didn't think it was that funny. I suppose I'll get an anniversay card for my birthday.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Yet Another Project Completed


The past three days Hubby has been working on a project at the church. This is part of the 21-day fast our Pastor is calling the church to. The first day was spent building the wall, the second day he and a sweet lady, Debbie painted the first side and this morning we finished the back and ends.

Another Project Marked Off the List

We have been working on this project for weeks. All the boards have been replaced that the squirrels ate. We have finished the painting. All the bird houses have been cleaned and put back up, the rusty heart door knocker has been sanded, painted and back on the door.


Colonial Bird Bottle



Heart Door Knocker
Handmade bird house

The finished project.
We are off to the church this morning to work on a walling wall for the pastor. He is calling the church to a 21-day fast. That should be really interesting for a group of Baptist.

Friday, September 7, 2007

OOPS!

















A picture can be worth a thousand words. I missed the last step on the step ladder. I fell holding a full gallon of paint. At $27/gal. (wholesale) I wasn't about to just leave all that paint on the ground, so I scooped it up with my hands and put it back into the bucket. Then I used my paint brush to gets as much of that paint up and managed to paint the corner boards on the workshop. Once again I'm involved in Hubby's project. We are almost finished. Then on to the next project of repairing a cracked board on the middle dormer on the house. I'm not sure how that's going to happen, but it will be very carefully since both of us are afraid of heights.
I was covered in paint! I was literally up to my elbows in paint. My glasses were totally covered in paint, but I did manage to salvage about half of what was on the ground. Then I went straight away (that's English) and rinsed all that stuff with the water hose.
I did land on my hip, but thank the Lord it was my left hip and not on my new crystal hip.




Saturday, August 25, 2007

I told you I was KING!


















KING OF TIDEWATER


I see you taking my photo! Why won't anyone believe me when I TELL them I'm King of Tidewater? It's nap time and this is one of my many places to nap. I've been to poop and snoop and the grass was WET! What is that all about? I think it rained last night. That's why the grass looks green rather than the brownish it's been lately. Maybe we'll get some more rain this afternoon. We sure need it. I had a puddle to drink out of this morning. I really prefer those puddles to water in a clean dish. I'll always choose the puddle water over the bowl water. It drives my human crazy. Just like I prefer fresh meat to that fake canned stuff, unless it's a sardine. I don't like getting wet and canned fish is the only way I'll get what I really like. I'm sleepy, and I need for my human to cover me up with my blanket, so tootles.




Friday, August 24, 2007

Jury Duty

I have served my civic duty. Three days of sitting, mostly in the jury room. Mid morning the first day the Clerk of the Court started calling names, oh no my name was called. They led 42 of us up to the 4th floor of the courthouse to one of the Superior Court Judge's courtroom. We were questioned 14 at a time, the DA's attorney first, then the attorney for the accused. I figured out I was number 32 on the list and when the two lawyers finally chose a jury I was rejected by the attorney for the accused. I was so relieved. It was an assault and armed robbery case. It was 2:30 p.m. before we were dismissed for the day, but too late to avoid a splitting headache from having missed lunch. Next day we sat for half a day before being dismissed. The third day we sat all. day. long. Twenty were called to hear a civil case. It wasn't long before all returned except for the six chosen for the jury. In the meantime, the people chosen on Monday to hear the assault/armed robbery case returned. Not guilty! The state failed to prove their case. He was guilty, but not enough evidence presented by the state, so they said.

Rumor had it, they were running out of jurors in a murder/death penalty case and we could be carted off up to that Superior Court to be interviewed to serve on that jury. Oh no! I don't want to get on a murder case! Around 4:30 p.m. the lady made an announcement, "you are dismissed for the week, if you need an excuse for your employer, line up at the window, I'll take your name, Mr. Burch will issue the letter." I was out of there like a flash, my employer could care less.

It will be two years before they can call me again. I know it's my civic duty, but it's painful--all that waiting, the questioning, the waiting, rejected, thank goodness, then more waiting and waiting. The murder case is still being heard.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Wild Animals Are Roaming

About two weeks ago I was out looking for Oscar (our cat) and saw a fox in our back yard. I rushed in the house to wake Hubby napping on the sofa. We went back outside and the fox was reclining out by the patio not at all afraid of us. That alarmed us, because a rabid fox can be very unafraid.

I was afraid he would be an enemy to Oscar, but after consulting the Internet, I discovered cats and foxes have a mutual respect for each other. We both kinda relaxed about the fox.

The following evening we found the fox out on the road dead.

Several days ago I was again out looking for Oscar and saw another fox down in the front yard over in the wooded area. I suspect he was looking for food or water. We had attempted to trap the first fox, but he out foxed us. We have a tender trap that Hubby and my brother baited with sardines. The next morning the sardines were mostly eaten, but the trap had not been tripped. We were out foxed.

Unfortunately, we found the second fox out on the road as well. It's sad because all the construction on the road has obviously run these wild animals out of their habitat.

We have lived here 30 years and this is the first time we have ever seen a fox.

We have hawks as well. We know there are three, a mom, dad and a baby. Yesterday we saw one of the hawks swoop down after a squirrel. Too bad the squirrel got away. They are rats with fluffy tails. They also eat siding off of workshops.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

COOLER WEATHER?

I never knew 85 degrees F. could feel so "cool". It's overcast today which helps. After the record high temperatures the 85 degrees feels very comfortable. It was 100 degrees F on our porch yesterday, but that even felt "cooler", well, cooler than 105 degrees F. Amazing how five degrees makes a difference. The forecast predicts more hot weather for next week, back up to 100 degrees F. by Tuesday. I suppose more videos will be in order.

Hubby mentioned today we need to finish putting the siding on his workshop. Ugh! We'll have to get up in the middle of the night to start working on that project in order to get that siding up before it gets too hot to work. We only have about six rows to apply and I'm sure hoping it won't take us more than a couple of hours to do what seems like a rather simple job.

We saw another very good movie, "Miss Potter". It's a true story about the life of the English lady that wrote all the "Tales of Peter Rabbit." I don't recall ever having read those children's books, so I think we'll be off to the library to check those books out. This is a video we will purchase.

Friday, August 10, 2007

HOT, HOT, HOT


Take a look at the temperature on our porch. Would you believe 105 degrees F! This is why we are staying inside. We are so thankful for air conditioning. We both grew up in little small frame houses without A/C. I remember when Mama and Daddy bought a window fan from Sears & Roebuck. We thought it was wonderful. At night Daddy would close all the windows in the house except for the windows in two little bedrooms. Those windows were pulled down to about an eight inch opening, resulting in a breeze coming across our beds. It was like heaven to us. Yes, I had to share a bedroom with my brother until I was about 12 years old and Daddy enclosed the screened porch to make a room for my brother. That house was so tiny, but you know, we never thought it was small.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

IT'S STILL HOT AS ALL GET OUT!

I suppose everyone knows we are having a heatwave, well, if you ever watch or listen to the news. I think this is pretty widespread across the country. I just heard on the radio we are going to have a heat index of 103 to 110 degrees today!

Well, another day inside. We have literally been inside all week. Only getting out to deal with DOT and/or contractors down at the road.

This has given us an opportunity to just rent movies and veg out in the theater without the guilt. We've seen "Man of the Year" with Robin Williams. It was a good movie and not what we expected from a movie with Robin Williams. Surprising end. We saw two 18th century era movies, "Battle of the Brave" and "Copying Beethoven" as in Ludwig van Beethoven. The music was great, as we both love 18th century classical music. Both very good movies. Being the 18th century history buffs we are, we really enjoyed the clothing. Yesterday we were finally able to rent "The Astronaut Framer" with Billy Bob Thornton. Great family movie!

Today we are off to the north side to have lunch with The Hubby's brother and our good friend, John. I've already informed Hubby I'm wearing shorts and flip flops. It's too hot to "dress up"!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Saga of the Road









Well, this afternoon our neighbor called us to say a dump truck was on fire at the road. We walked down to watch the thing burn for at least 15 minutes before the fire department ever arrived. The scary part, we learned the two fire stations closest to us are closed for remodeling. AND we discovered we no longer have a fire plug near us. What comfort! Traffic was stopped in both directions for at least 45 minutes, at 5:00 p.m.

IT'S HOT AS ...

The past two days we have stayed inside because of the heat, well, except to have meetings with the DOT people and contractors about the road situation. Now, the county has had DOT build huge "planters" that look like interstate walls, and wouldn't you know it, one of the six is right here at us. Now we can't see to turn out of our driveway without subjecting ourselves to grave danger. This all started Friday. DOT is suppose to be making us a driveway from our present drive over to the street just past where we live. As of this afternoon they don't have the gravel down. We have informed them we are not going to drive through all that dust, or mud, if and when it rains. We have involved the county's transportation department. They are being very attentive to our concerns. The gentleman sees the safety issues and liability issues as well. We have learned that lots of other people are real unhappy with the "walls" up and down the road. Will this ever pass. The project is already a year behind schedule. We are looking at the middle of 2008 before completion.

Today I have finally typed all of the Hubby's stories he has written about his childhood. They are a hoot. I thought I would share one of the short ones. After finishing he was sharing another "event" that I've never heard before. I was laughing like crazy when he was telling me the story. He's promised to put this one on paper as well.


THE CAR LOOKS BAD






We had an old 1946 Chevrolet Coupe that looked really bad.






My Dad wanted to have it painted before we went on vacation to Panama City, Florida, but didn't have the money. My Mom had an idea. So she ordered two gallons of pain from Sears. One gallon of beige and one gallon of powder blue. She and my brother, Denny, painted that car while Daddy was at work. It looked like it had been painted with pine tops.







You should have seen the expression on my Dad's face when he saw that car, let alone the words that came out of his mouth. Words that I could never repeat to this day. After circling that car for a couple of hours he finally came in the house and said, "you know, it does look somewhat better." He fell asleep in his favorite easy chair with the newspaper in his lap after he had killed a six-pack of beer before ten o'clock that evening.







We never heard another word about our fiasco point job.







This incident occurred in the early 1950's so Hubby would have been about seven or eight years old and his brother would have been about 14 or 15. I'm not telling his Mom's age.


Saturday, August 4, 2007

Why am I so tired?

This has been an extremely busy week. Dr. appointments for my Mom, lunch with close friends, I had to work one day for the county, which is actually a real job, however, it's only one day per month, fishing, cleaning house for a Lia Sophia Jewelry party, whee, I'm exhausted! Then this morning we got up early to pick beans before it got really hot.

We picked and picked--22 lbs. of greenbeans and a very large basket of tomatoes. I've been stringing beans most all day, and I've managed to put a gallon of tomatoes in the freezer. This is so much easier than canning them, only thing when I get ready to use them this winter, I'll have to cook them, better in the winter than heating up the kitchen in 90ish degree weather. Monday I'll have to can those greenbeans. Last week we picked 16 lbs. and I ended up canning 11-1/2 qts. I suspect I'll have close to 15 qts. to can on Monday.

I've started to make a record of quantities and times for these type tasks, it took me about four house to can those 11 qts. from start to finish, that included cleaning the stove, putting away all the big pots and pressure cooker.

Tomorrow is our day of rest, literally. When we owned our own business we made Sunday our day of just church and rest. It has carried over into retirement, but it's a nice change to recharge for the coming week.

As of right now we don't have one thing on our calendar for next week, well, getting those greenbeans into cans. The Hubby has been testing his nail gun on pieces of the Hardiplant we have, so we probably will work on getting the remainder of the siding on his workshop. I would really like to take ONE. more. day and complete that project. Then we'll have to paint. Once thing calls for another. Now he's talking about adding on to his shop. I DON'T WANT TO GET INVOLVED in that project! How is it I always get involved in HIS projects? I did make him help me clean house Friday before the jewelry party, so I shouldn't complain.

We always look forward to church. Our pastor has been preaching some awesome sermons the past month, not that his sermons prior to that haven't been good, but he is really being bold in his stand on the word of God!

Blessings!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

This is not my idea of fun!


In 1973 when we bought our property, where we live, we built Hubby a workshop. Two reasons, we were wanting to "test" the material we planned to use when we build our house and we needed a place to store some of our "stuff" when we moved from our other house to an apartment during construction of the "big house". Oh yes, there was a third reason, Hubby wanted a workshop and figured if we waited until after we build the big house we wouldn't be able to afford the workshop. So the workshop was built. We had NO clue what we were doing, but my Daddy gave us a book, "How to Build Your Dream House for $3,500". Guess when it was published! After the foundation was in place we would literally sit and read that book to figure out what we had to do next in building that structure. It took us months to just frame the thing mainly because we had to read the book FIRST and, we could only work on the weekends at that point in our lives. You understand we were young and we had to work.


Well the squirrels decided they needed a change of menu, so they started to EAT the siding off of the workshop! We are in the process of relocating squirrels, lots of them. They ate almost all the siding off the back and nibbled along the edges of both sides and front as high as they could ready, which was about three rows of siding. So, now we are having to replace the chewed pieces of siding. I don't know how I manage to get involved in Hubby's projects! I think because he says, "will you help me take off the old siding, I can't do this by myself?" Of course I'll help him, I'm in!


So, for the past three days we have been working on taking off the old siding and repairing rot and carpenter ant damage. We had never put in a proper door sill, so we have laboriously removed the old "sill" and installed a new one, a real door sill and threshold. THREE DAYS it has take us to do that one thing! Now the door won't close because after installing the threshold it's a bit too high with the little piece of rubber to keep out the rain, so NOW we have to remove the door and plane it down so we can close the door. I hope that's not going to "justify" another tool, like an electric planer. I suggested the belt sander would work very well, after all, it's a tool justified by another project that had to be done.


Just wait until we get that Hardiplank siding on the building! Just let those little devils, I mean squirrels, sink their little teeth into that concrete siding! They'll be on their way to the dentist, I'm sure.


I'm off to the workshop. We can't do this everyday, I'm getting too beat up. I have bruises all over my arms and hands and a blood blister on my thumb where I hit it with the hammer. OUCH!

Thursday, July 12, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

I know this is a bit late, but here are some photos taken at the 4th of July parade in a small town in south Georgia. Our dear friends, George and Charlene, live here and the parade has always started in front of their house. We had a wonderful day! We sat on the front porch, visited with friends and relatives and just enjoyed all the activities. Most of the people in the parade threw candy to all the people standing along the street. It was so much fun!


View of the porch.






View from the porch








The log cutting contest.










Every parade has a fire truck







Then there were the sack rack.






After the parade there were activities around the courthouse square. The weather was perfect! It was warm, but the humidity was low, which is EXTREMELY unusual for Georgia on the 4th of July and as you can see from the photos blue sky with light fluffy clouds.
In 1776 when the colonies declared independence from England, John Adams said every 4th of July all the towns should have a great celebration with parades, games and fireworks. My prayer for these great United States is we will be able to celebrate another 231 years of independence and freedom. We honor all the people that have fought so hard, even died, to give us that freedom today. GOD BLESS THE USA!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Big Rock



That's the name the locals in Metro Atlanta have given to Stone Mountain, which, by the way, is the largest exposed piece of granite in the world.




Today we pulled our boat over there to fish. It was fun! We actually caught fish, in fact, we RAN OUT OF BAIT! That's not fun when the fish are really biting. The weather was nice, not real hot, don't misunderstand me, it was very warm, but without the humidity we usually experience here in Georgia.


Here are a few photos with our view from the boat. If you look close you might see the carving on the side of the mountain of the Confederate Generals and the cable car approaching the top of the mountain. The photo to the right are young Canadian geese. They were beautiful.
This is the greatest part of retirement. We make our own schedule and some of it is really fun.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

King of Tidewater


Well, Oscar, King of Tidewater has decided that his new favorite place to nap during the day is upstairs in one of the guest bedrooms. This means next time we have company I'll have to wash that bedspread before they arrive. You never know who might be allergic to cats. His other favorite place is under our bed. I have a pillow under there for him and he loves it. He's out guarding mole holes or chipmunk holes all night long, it's he job, you know, so he's what you call a day sleeper. At least when I have to use the vacuum he doesn't go crazy.
We finally had a little rain this week, which helps our garden and our grass. The grass has finally turned a little green, rather than the dried brownish color it has been as a result of all the dry weather. It's amazing how just a little rain water helps. It's going to be hot the next several days, getting up to the 90's, but the good news is, the humidity has been low which is highly unusual for the deep south. The hot weather is fine UNTIL the humidity arrives and it's absolutely unbearable. It just saps the energy slap out of you!
Tomorrow we are going fishing. I'm sure it will be hot, but there will be a breeze. I can assure you if we get out on the lake there WILL be wind. Absolutely! It makes it difficult to fish in one spot with the wind, even though we do have anchors we get blown around and around. Well, there is another factor involved, we have umbrellas for both of us. When Hubby decided to turn the little jon boat into a bass boat I insisted he purchase umbrella brackets for the back of each seat. You see, I don't fish in the sun! You bake your brain. So we both have nice golf umbrellas to keep us out of the sun and they tend to act as sails when the wind blows. That's okay, I'd rather be blown around a little on the water than bake my brain and cook my fair, freckled skin and end up being a crispy critter and my pasty white hubby getting sun poisoning, again.
I'm off to fix our lunch for tomorrow, we'll have a nice little picnic while we are out giving the fish the sore mouth.

Monday, June 18, 2007

LOOK WHO WON!

Did Paul Potts win? Check out this link to see the clip from the finale of the UK has talent.

http://www.marcandcharity.blogspot.com/

Watch the entire clip, because the winner will perform at the end.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Paul Potts, who is Paul Potts?

Yet another performance from Paul Potts.

Check out this link: http://www.marcandcharity.blogspot.com/

This young man is something else. Even Simon was nice to him. This appears to be something like American Idol, but in the UK. He could be another Elliott from last year's season on AI. Elliott was back at the Finale for this season, had had extensive dental work done, let his hair grow out and I didn't even recognize him, even after they announced who was performing. Elliott had been transformed from a okay looking guy to a really good looking guy. So, go Paul Potts.

Please pray for two young women Kelli, who desperately needs a kidney transplant and Heather who's recovering from surgery to remove a large brain tumor. I've been following their blogs for a while. See Kelli's link on my previous post, Living in Grace. Heather's is Especially Heather at: http://especiallyheather.com/

Today was our last day of VBS. It was really a great week, even though we both are exhausted. Three-year olds are busy little people and keep you on your toes. Tomorrow morning I'm sleeping late, because I am definitely not a morning person and this week has been a reminder of why I don't miss working--getting up early is the main reason. I told a friend this morning I felt physically, this morning, just like I used to feel when I was working and had to get up early.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Check This Blog Out!

I've been reading this blog for a while. Check it out and be sure to watch the video clip she has included.

http://www.living-in-grace.net/

Well, we are half way through VBS--for those unfamiliar with VBS, that's Vacation Bible School. We volunteered to help with the three-year olds. They are sweet kids. Hubby felt like he was not helping, at all, but this morning when he came in the class they all greeted him and hugged him and one little boy said, "Mr. Hubby, you feel just like my papa." It absolutely melted Hubby's heart, so he's decided he'll finish out the week helping with the little fellows.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Summer Has Arrived

After many weeks of nice, low humidity the reality of Georgia summer has arrived. It's hot and humid and we have had one or two afternoon thunderstorms. We need MORE of those thunderstorms. We are in the middle of a severe drought in our state and we are crying out to the Lord for RAIN.

We actually had to turn on the A/C. I just hate that, because we have to close up the house. I love the weather that allows us to open the windows and enjoy the breeze. Our house is arranged so if we open the front and back doors we get a really nice cross breeze. I didn't realize that would be the case when I designed it, but it has sure worked out well.

This has been a rather busy week, the Hubby is still taking art lessons, and progressing quite nicely, I must add! A trip to the acupuncturist, not me, but my Mom (it helps with the joint and muscle pain). Don't ask me how, but it does work--all those little needles causes your body to produce it's own pain killer. Bests drugs anyday!!!! I went to my first meeting of the Civil Service Board in my local county. It was an interesting meeting and I think I'm going to enjoy this service to my community. Maybe I didn't mention that I've been appointed to the Civil Service Board, which hears appeals and grievances from employees. This time I'm on the listening end, not the presenting end. I never made presentations in my previous job, but I sure helped those doing the presenting gather all the documents and information they needed to make the presentation. Kinda like a replay of my good government job before retirement, except I just show up and listen. Well, they did send me a package beforehand and I did so SOME homework on one of the cases, but it wasn't bad. This will help keep my mind from turning to mush, if you now what I mean.

Next week is Vacation Bible School at church. This should be a totally new experience for both of us. We are working as helpers in the 3-year old class. We are working with a wonderful lady, Marlene, who will be teaching. Sunday we are helping Marlene decorate the room. Neither of us have any idea what to expect, we just know this is something the Lord has placed on our hearts, so we know HE will give us the grace to do it! Just pray--for us and the kids!

Well, we are off to another party this afternoon. Retirement is rough!

Monday, June 4, 2007

THE NOISE!

This is the view today at our driveway. Look hard, that's a DUMP TRUCK just beyond the trees! Our once country road is being widened to a four-lane highway. This just grieves our hearts. When we moved here 30 years ago it was so quiet we had to buy a machine that makes wind noise so we could sleep. The house we sold to build had tire tracks on the roof from the airplanes landing at Atlanta Airport. Need I say more about that noise. We moved into an apartment for five month while building and the noise from the neighbors upstairs was bad--they wore concrete blocks for shoes and they only ran the dishwasher at 3:00 a.m. Then there were the parties and they couldn't understand why we didn't want to hear all that noise until the wee hours of the morning.
We then moved to our little piece of heaven on earth. Sad what we have lost. The Lord reminded me several days ago that, ... HE works all things out for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to HIS purpose... (my paraphrase). We are believing the Lord is going to work all this our for our good, we don't know how or when, but we have to believe His word.

They are taking up the old road, grinding it up and all those dump trucks are hauling it off. I'm thankful they are doing this during the day. The paving process I DREAD. They start paving after dark and work until the wee hours of the morning. The low pitch of the engines drive me crazy--it actually hurts my ears and when the roller machines (my brother called them steam rollers when he was small) are working they actually cause our house to rattle from the vibration, that is obviously traveling along the ground. THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!! The noise, the house rattling and vibrating, the dust, the noise, the house rattling and vibrating, the dust....

Last week, when DOT shifted the traffic to the new lanes further across the road, they weren't going to put down a cross over for US from our driveway to the new lanes, which has to cross the old road. Understand, they had one for all the other neighbors! I know this might shock you, but we have the phone numbers for DOT's Project Engineer and the contractor's Project Coordinator, so Hubby promptly called Richard and Kevin. He's on first-name basis with them, you know. They wanted us to use our neighbor's cross over, which meant we would have to turn left out of our driveway drive approximately 100 feet, then turn right, then make our turn onto the new lanes. NO WAY! We pointed out to them they were going to take up the old road, so we would be driving through the mud, if it ever rains. We have already experienced the joy of bogging down in the mud. That happened shortly after the project started. The huge pieces of equipment managed to quickly crush the pavement across their right-of-way, which was our access to the road! Then DOT put rock dust down for us to stop that problem. Then there was the mail box issue. We were going to have to jump a ditch to get to our mail box! NO WAY! That would really be GREAT for my artificial hip and Hubby's back!

They made us a cross over. :-) AND they moved the mail box for us and our post with our street numbers. All of this grief in the name of progress. Progress for who? Certainly not us! We loved our little two-lane road.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Check out the Contest

The ladies over at Pinks and Blues have a contest going, so check out their place at www.pinksandbluesgirls.wordpress.com. They are giving away a Dooney and Bourke handbag.


Sunday, May 27, 2007

Retirement Can Be Hard Work!

When we retired, almost two years ago, I thought we could dump the calendar--wrong. Seems like we are busy doing "something" all the time.


There are always projects around the house that have to be, or at least, need to be done, so we have slowly been working on those. We washed the trim on the house, then we needed to paint, because we used too much bleach when we wash the trim. One thing calls for another. Slowly, but surely, we are working on the paint project.


Then there are parties to attend! My niece, Lizzie, graduated from college two weeks ago, so there was a BIG party in celebration of her achievement. Her family had a low country boil and grilled chicken. I must say, the low country boil was new to me, but it was sure delicious! We did have some much needed rain than kinda put a damper on the party, but we retreated to the covered shed in her backyard, which was really nice.
The next weekend our neighbor had a fish fry. The weather was perfect. The food was wonderful, even the fish was pretty good--I'm not fond of fish. I love the things that go along with the fish--hush puppies, cold slaw, potato salad and homemade banana pudding. Yum, yum!
This weekend we had another graduation celebration with friends from church. It was a great celebration for a young lady that has had many, many physical struggles during the first few years of her life, so it was really special. Her Mom and Dad are in the ministry and he made the statement if he could have fast forwarded to this event, he would not have worried so much when she was so very sick, struggling to live. This was a wonderful praise to the Lord at His faithfulness!

There are other necessary jobs, like grocery shopping, ugh, keeping the house in some kinda of order and there is ALWAYS laundry to do. I do believe those close are in that hamper reproducing. We must be the cleanest dirty people in the world, or the dirtiest clean people. Haven't figured that one out yet.

We decided to have some fun, so we went fishing. Mr. Fisherman insisted we get up EARLY, so we could catch all the fish. I reminded him the weather report chart indicated that 5:00 p.m. was the best time of the day to fish. No way! We had to get there early. Well, we drove over to a wildlife refuge with several lakes, found one that would allow us to use the gasoline motor, launched the boat, only to discover the plug was not in properly, which meant we were taking in water. Not a good thing. Sooo, we had to put the boat back on the trailer, pull it out of the water, properly secure the plug and then re-launch the boat. We finally made it into the water. On the way to the lake I pointed out to Mr. Early Bird Fisherman that the cows were lying down. When the cows are lying down, the fish don't bite! Totally ignoring me, we proceeded on to the water. We did manage to catch a few fish--a total of five, four of which was my catch. I must admit we did have fun, even though the fish weren't jumping into the boat. It just does us good to get out on the water. We had a visitor along the edge of the lake that was keeping an eye on his favorite place to eat. That's how we were able to get this photo of him (to the left). When we were coming in to the dock to leave, there was a man on the shore that caught a small fish, and that crane was lurking close by, the man took the fish off the hook, tossed it towards the crane and the bird caught the fish in mid-air! Nice easy meal for the bird. Notice the umbrella on the back of my seat. I don't bake my brain in the sun!


Then there is the garden. We moved our garden spot this year and Mr. Farmer decided we needed fertilizer on that plot of ground, lots of fertilizer. Our garden is struggling--it's burned, really burned bad. In fact, we have had to replant all the squash and cucumbers, and about half of the green beans. The tomatoes are doing okay, some better than others, but not like they should be doing. We found out from the owner of the local feed and seed store that the garden plot needed only about one-half bag of fertilizer, rather than the three bags put on it. Now, we are having to water, water, water trying to save those poor burned plants. I hope they make it. It wouldn't be so bad if we were getting rain, but we are in a severe rain shortage and we have watering restrictions. If this plot of land manages to produce any veggies it will be great, especially the tomatoes. I can't wait to eat a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich (BLT) with those Georgia tomatoes. Better than steak!
Then Mondays are art lessons for Kerry. He admits it's hard, but he's learning a lot. At the moment, he's working with three pencils to sketch pears and strawberries. This morning he was working on one of those pears. It looked really good. I can see in just three weeks he is improving greatly. I hope he will continue to work on his art, because he has a lot of talent. The teacher says it has nothing to do with talent, but with desire. He has both and I know he can do it!
Happy Memorial Day. I want to honor my Dad, who served during World War II. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was in Northern France, Belgium and Germany, and crossed three rivers, Seine, Rhine and Elbe. My brother tells me his unit, the 102nd Division (Ozark Division), marched 100 miles in two days, then had to fight the battle when they got there. He was wounded twice and I have his Purple Heart with an Oak leaf Cluster. I wished I had asked him more about the war when he was living. I have a millions questions now. If he was alive he would be 92. Unfortunately, we lost him at age 51 as a result of heart disease. Thank you Daddy for serving our country well. I love you and miss you.






Friday, May 4, 2007

It has been a while!

We thought retirement was going to be a bit slower paced. I suppose that's what we get for thinking, huh!

We have been working on various projects, to include preparing a new garden spot. That has been no small job. We had several old Virginia pines cut down, back in the winter, along the area we wanted to put our garden. In the early spring we had a guy come in and plow up the ground. That pulled up all the roots from those cut trees. Then the fun started. We had to clean out all the roots and rocks. That was no fun. It took us several days of raking all those millions of roots and not quite as many rocks, but we finally hauled many piles of those things into the woods. We did this the lazy way by spreading a tarp on the ground and just raking those roots and rocks onto the tarp, then we would drag it into the woods and dump them off--that was easier than loading them onto the cart and then hauling them to the appropriate spot and having to off-load all the stuff we just put in that cart. The tarp method worked very well. You do have to dump that tarp often, because those roots and rocks are heavy.

After all the raking we had to till the ground. We took turns doing that, then came the fertilizer, then more tilling. I'm telling you this gardening is not an easy job, but the rewards are so GREAT!

We planted two little rows of radishes. Then we have 12 mounds of squash, 18 tomato plants and six bell pepper plants. Just yesterday we planted six rows of white half-runners (green beans). They are 60-day beans, so about the 4th of July we will be eating delicious green beans, yum. Can't wait. You know, planting those green beans was a hard job. You would think that putting those seeds in those rows would be easy, but being the obsessive compulsive person that I am, those seeds had to be placed just right, so when those little plants pop up through that soil they will be in a straight row! So, it was back breaking getting those seeds lined up just so before being covered.

When the tomatoes start to come in we'll buy our annual pound of bacon, cook the entire pound and we'll indulge ourselves in BLT's (bacon, lettuce and tomato). Oh yes, Oscar will help us eat the bacon. Then that will be it on the bacon for another year.

We still have to put cages around the tomatoes and put up the wire for the green beans to grow up on (it's easier to pick them when they are up off the ground). That's will be another day's project. However, this year the green bean rows are much further apart so when they are big I don't have to crawl along on the ground under the vines to pick the beans, like I did last year. Seems as though the planting person (Hubby) put those rows of beans too close together and it was awful trying to pick them. Once I picked beans without a long sleeve shirt and I was itching all over from being in those bean vines, plus I'm paranoid about snakes, so it's harder trying to pick beans and look for those monsters!!!!

I know, I know, you are asking what are we going to do with all the veggies out of this garden. Well, we'll eat green beans until we turn green and eat tomatoes until the inside of our mouths are raw (from all the acid) and we'll grill the squash. Then, we'll can the rest to enjoy during the winter. Have you ever had home canned Georgia tomatoes in the winter with cornbread. It's a gourmet meal fit for a king. There is something about Georgia soil that makes those tomatoes oh so delicious! That's why we don't eat tomatoes during the winter--no taste to them.

Speaking of those monsters, I was walking from the workshop to the house just last week and there it was, a snake crawling across the walkway. I immediately started screaming for Hubby. I didn't want it to escape and I didn't have anything to use to kill it. I'm not sure what it was, but it's head was pointed, which from my Internet search, is not a good thing. It was brown with some type of darker markings all down it's body. After lots of research on the net, I'm SURE it was a very poisonous snake! The disturbing fact, it was small, about 11-12 inches in length, so I'm considering it a baby. I know snakes don't just have one baby, so my concern is, where are the brothers and sisters? And what about the mama snake? These are great questions of concern. So, needless to say, I'll not be walking to the workshop in the dark any longer!!!!!!

Well, this week I cleaned out the fireplace, assuming we are finished with the cool weather. The spring has been so unusual, we had spring weather in February and winter weather in April, so hopefully we won't have a need to use the fireplace until next fall. All the ashes were removed, the cave was vacuumed, a few pieces of firewood placed on the andirons and then magnolia cuttings placed carefully onto the firewood. It looks nice with the fireplace opening filled with those dark green magnolia branches and it's such a southern thing.

Our social calendar has been full. Lots of activities at church, graduations to attend, an anniversary celebration and fish fry. We have friends at church celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this weekend.

The following weekend our niece, Lizzie, is graduating from college (we are sooo proud of her). We aren't going to the graduation, because each student only has four tickets issued to them for guests, so her Mom and Dad, husband and both grandmothers are going to the actual graduation at 10:00 a.m. Saturday (she was able to get an extra ticket from a friend), but we are going to have a big party that evening. Low country shrimp boil I've been told.

The third weekend of the month our next door neighbor is having a fish fry, so that will be fun. It's a pretty big affair, the food is delicious, well except for the fish, but all the other stuff IS delicious. Fish is not one of my favorite foods, but let me tell you about the hush puppies, cold slaw, french fries, fried sweet potatoes and desserts, they are some more good. They will furnish all the food, except for desserts, so I'm taking a homemade banana pudding. I mean, homemade. I cook my Mama's, well actually it was originally my grandmother's recipe, and it's not an instant pudding, out of a box filling, but real homemade pudding, cooked on the stove and all.

All of our patio furniture has been stored in the basement for the winter, so last week we cleaned the patio and pulled out all the chairs and umbrellas. Seems like one thing calls for another--we had to wash the trim on the house and the porches. Finally, that project has been completed and we are enjoying being outside. We have been eating most of our meals out on the patio. We really enjoy that part of warm weather.

Of course, all the winter flowers have been replaced with plants that will survive the summer. I've been slowly replacing the annuals with perennials, but in order to have some color I have a few annuals scattered among the those perennial plants and I have herbs as well--basil, sage, dill, spearmint, rosemary and thyme (that sounds like a song).

Part of retirement is being able to relax, if you so desire. That has been a learning process for us. We have always been driven to work all the time and we just don't know how to relax. I didn't think we would have to adjust to relaxing, but it has been an adjustment. We feel guilty when we decide not to do anything, but just relax. Well, in my learning process, I've been reading. I have actually allowed myself just to sit under the umbrella and read, all afternoon. This week I picked up a copy of the revised and updated edition of "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey. It's a New York Times Bestseller. I've read this book before, but I'm re-reading it. It's the best book on finances I've ever read, and I've read many on this subject. This man's approach to debt is awesome--you shouldn't have ANY! You get out of debt! "If you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else." He's on the radio every day from 3:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., locally, but I understand he's on many stations across the country. Take a look at his website http://www.daveramsey.com/ He has a program available, Financial Peace University, which is a program that takes the book-smarts of "The Total Money Makeover" and helps you jump start the habits necessary to succeed in this area of money management. This program is taught in thousands of high schools across the country. Pretty awesome, teaching young people how to handle their finances BEFORE they have a job and money. The neat thing is, he's a Christian, he's funny AND he's a southerner. That makes him special all the way around.

I'll be posting photos of the garden as it progresses, but right now, it's not very interesting, only a few little green plants dotted in the dirt. We desperately need rain. Lord, send us some rain!

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Traffic, Traffic, Traffic

So much for the trip to the Pro Bass Shop in Macon. We were going to hop right on I-75 South and zip right on down. Are you kidding!!!! We got on the interstate and the traffic was crawling. The DOT electronic sign said, "Spring Break slow traffic south bound I-75 all the way to FL." We drove to the next exit and got off. We decided to have a nice lunch at Truett's (Chick-fil-A). That's Mr. Kathy's 70th birthday celebration store.

If you're not familiar with Chick-fil-A, Truett Kathy founded the company in 1946 with his brother in a little town called Hapeville, GA. It just happened to be located near the Atlanta Airport and the Ford Assembly Plant. Needless to say, Mr. Kathy has done very well. They did over a billion (billion with a B) dollars worth of business last year. Not bad for a Jonesboro boy? The Kathys raised their family in Jonesboro and still live in their home where their children grew up. A modest brick ranch house, full of love. They have shared their lives with many, many children and families.

Well, Hubby has just announced that my bread fell. YEHS!!!!! I've got to investigate to see why. I haven't made any this week and for dinner we were going to have fresh bread with grilled salmon and greenbeans. So much for the bread this evening, unless I start another loaf. It will take another two hours before it's ready and I'm not sure I want to wait that long for supper (that's southern for dinner, ya'll).

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. This is the remembrance of Jesus coming in to the city being welcomed and praised by the people. We are expecting to have a great service tomorrow! I sure the music will be wonderful and our pastor will being a outstanding sermon. Check it out on the web www.newhopebc.org

News from Tidewater












John C. Campbell Folk School

Well, it's been a while since our last post. Seems like things have been pretty routine around Tidewater until this past week.

Hubby has just returned from taking a tinsmith course at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. He enjoyed the class, but he was really glad to get back home. He was able to stay with the sister and brother-in-law, Herb and Linda, of some close friends from Sunday School. These are the items he made in class. I did the math and they cost him $139.50 each. What a deal! However, he wanted to take this class, we've worked a long time, and why not!!?? We are spending our retirement.







Left Photo
This is Herb and Linda's home where Hubby stayed--what a nice place!




Right Photo--Hubby's tinsmith class




I went up on Wednesday, along with another really great friend from church, Stephanie--my Aussie friend and we had lunch with Linda, then drove over to the school, took a tour of the tinsmith class and some of the other classes close by--like the pottery class. Then we were off to the gift shop. I also met with the instructor of the hammer dulcimer class to see how much my hammer dulcimer is worth. I wanting to sell it, but had no clue what it's worth. Why keep something under the bed collecting dust when you can't play it, really don't have an interest in learning to play it, so it's like having money stashed collecting dust.

It's spring, we haven't had ANY rain in over two weeks and the pollen is AWFUL!!! When you walk from the car into the house you leave footprints in the yellow stuff. I'm trying to stay inside to keep the yellow powder out of my lungs. Historically, we get the most rain in March and we are already in a four inch deficit just for the month and I believe a seven inch deficit for the year. Not looking good for the summer months. We are suppose to be getting rain today, but the sun has just come out. When it does rain we are going to have yellow rivers of pollen. Lord, please sent rain.
In addition to no rain we have had way above average temperatures--low to mid 80's, then the past two days it's dropped back to normal--mid to upper 60-s, so we decided to have a fire last evening, supposing it just might be the last one of the year. I built a nice fire, left the room for just a few minutes and came back to find the room really smokey. I thought I had lost my touch for building wonderful, roaring fires, but I pulled out the fan, got the smoke moved out and went to work on the fire. It turned out and made the den really cozy.
Well, I managed to delete two of my photos and have had to reload them, so I'm going to quite before I delete any more.
One has thing. I've added a link to our blog. I have found a WONDERFUL blog written by a REAL SOUTHERN LADY! She will have you in tears from laughter one second and then tears from the tender writings. I'm addicted to BooMama's Blog. Check it out!!!! http://www.boomama.net
Hubby has announced we are going to the Pro Bass Shop in Macon to look for a boat cover. What fun! He wants to do that and I want to be with him, so I'm going to the Pro Bass Shop and I'll enjoy it.