A little breeze....

and nice weather has me sighing. Sighing because have to travel down to Florida to take the youngest to college. It is not the college thing. It is the anticipation of hot and humid weather - yuck! While away, I can promise I will be dreaming about being back here in the mountains at home.

Two blueberry bushes added to the orchard. Two give a better chance of bigger berries. Maybe we will see blueberry pies and jams next year. No canning this year, I guess. Did visit Sunrise Grocery and got okra, yellow squash, scupernongs, fresh apples and hoop cheese. Also a couple of the delicious fried apple pies.....yum. Can't get to canning or freezing. Still too much to get done. I will enjoy getting some apples later this month - maybe I can dehydrate some and make some pies....

Looking forward to Fall - cooler weather, fall leaves, apple cider with spices. A breath of fresh air. Might have to check out a high school football game. Maybe the homestead will be finished by the first winter chill. Working on the studio now - getting everything a place to be. Then I can begin creating again...have enough supplies I think. Maybe I should teach classes again? Let's see where the Lord leads...

Off to finish working in the studio.

Be Blessed,
Kim

Slip away....

into the fog that enrobes our woods in the mornings - that is what time does - and that is why I am 10 days since last post. Time actually got "squeezed" by the ever demanding "to do" list. In the mornings, however, the fog is there and it slips around the trees, leaving some parts revealed and some parts shrouded and imperceptible. Our temperatures overnight are in the 60s and the lack of humidity makes everything here so pleasant. About to add to the orchard of the future with some "tall" blueberry bushes and blackberries too, I hope. Then wait and nurture and wait some more before we get jams and sweet breads - yummmmm.

It is kind of like that with kids - we have waited, watched and nurtured and now youngest heads off to college. Next week will be crazy busy and we will venture back into the heat and humidity to move him to college - the next step of his journey. It will be hectic and it will fly by - as has his youth and that of our other children. Seems like yesterday that they were just babies....

Speaking of babies, my precious pink baby passed away yesterday - or at least suffered a fatal blow. Her vid-something is messed up and so, I will be receiving a new one in 2-3 weeks. Disposable society. Everything can be replaced. I really liked her. She went most places with me - used her a lot in her short life. I can't even save her skin - I will have to order a new one for the new baby. I will have to use Jeff's in the interim to get by. Just a bump in the road - she is replaceable. But people are not. So should be glad it is just a machine I personified and not one of my true loved ones. Puts a damper on getting photos done.....oh well... now to journey out into the cool morning fog.....

Sunday, Sunday....

lazy Sunday. First, breakfast and the Sunday AJC paper with coffee. Then church with all those lovely people and getting to know them. DH has joined the Men's Bible Study - I can't join the ladies because it is during the work day. But we signed up to bring in pastries for Sunday fellowship and I have offered to make some home-made bio-degradable cleaners for the project to make baskets of cleaning supplies and personal items that low-income families can't buy with food stamps - shampoos, toothpaste, brushes and cleaners, detergents etc. Also getting patterns to crochet prayer shawls for those in the nursing home. But, service is restful - music provided by Dan on guitar, a keyboardist and a set of drums. Simple. Refreshing. Real. It is the first time I have enjoyed church in a long time - it is more personal.

Then home - groceries put away. Took a brief nap (love those naps!) and then up to start to sort through boxes to get things put away. Got some work done in the studio, but have more to do this evening in the bedroom to get the suitcases put away.

Now it is time for DH to watch the PGA tournament and I prepare dinner. I actually love to cook, when I have time. Cooked breakfast - veggie scrambled eggs with cheese, toast and bacon. Now working on dinner - a true Cajun inspired meal. Cajun spiced chicken, red beans and rice, fresh pole beans (cooked with a little bacon) and for dessert - home made banana pudding - the kind with the vanilla wafers. Have to use COOKED vanilla pudding - none of that instant stuff - creamy, cakey, and real. Made Louisiana-style Cuzzin's iced tea - one Luzianne quart tea bag, one mint tea bag, one orange tea bag - 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup Splenda, 1 gallon water. Boil water and pour over the tea bags, THEN add the sugar and Splenda so they don't just sit on the bottom. Add 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup orange juice and 1tsp. mint extract. You can garnish the iced tea with mint leaves - very summery and refreshing....

Yep, cooking is fun. Cooking for two is different. Working on the left-overs thing. DH grilled a turkey breast today, so that will be a good starter for this weeks dinners. Got chorizo for our Thai-fusion Chorizo Stir Fried Rice. Have to bake brownies for a certain boy away from home and banana-strawberry-nut muffins for early breakfast. Maybe a quiche - veggie or bacon? Saw a great recipe for potato-crusted salmon.....hmmmmmm..what box are the recipe books in?

Be blessed,
Kim

"Make rest and refreshment....

a necessity, not a luxury." Dan Zadra. Hmmmmm...sensing a theme here, carried over from yesterday. Rest. Refreshment. I have a few more luxuries to be grateful for....a comfortable chair where I can fall asleep and nap without planning. Laying down later, after moving more furniture, just to read about my composter and future chicken brood. Chases away the chronically cranky leanings one might acquire without it. Need to take refreshment from the Word of God daily - as a necessity, not a luxury.

Moved more furniture today - DH's $10 walnut desk, 4' x 7' bought from a church yard sale (can you say heavy lifting?) which I say (as I have said before) I am NEVER going to move again. (Make it NEVER, EVER.) The old dining room table, which is now headed for my studio. And boxes - lots and lots of boxes - lots of them. Can you say sore muscles?

So, I took a little rest afterwards - not a nap - just a "layabout". Dinner sort of cooked itself. I thought of a few simple luxuries we got to enjoy and get to enjoy because of where we live. Fresh, locally grown sweet corn, cooked just right, with creamy butter - fresh, locally grown, pole beans (the flat green beans) cooked just right, with a little bacon and a little salt - Jim's ribs ( a local guy with a road-side Bar-B-Que/smoker and his home-made sauce that is heaven on earth) - no urgent schedule - the luxury of time. Those are all the little luxuries we are enjoying here.

Seeing lots of wildlife - several bear sightings, deer sightings and other, smaller critters. They have plenty to eat - the bear we saw at the old folk's place was eating the corm left for the deer, stopped by the pond as he ambled by and caught a big trout and carried it up the hill as he headed for the blueberry patch - perfect meal with protein, vegetable and fruit! He has a tough life!

We have several things coming up - we are hopeful we get to the closing on the Restoration House at Serenity Woods homestead next Friday, August 20th, then taking Drew to college September 1-6th. After all of that, we are planning a weekend "field trip" (literally) to Mercier Apple Orchard for a morning of u-picking apples and lunch at the orchard. Apples to make canned applesauce, spiced apples and other apple goodies. Preparing to pick up a bushel of that sweet corn and flash freezing it. Also planning to "can up" some home-made salsa, flash-freezing pole beans and freezing peppers. May take a crack at peach preserves and blueberry jam. Better get started on the blueberries and peaches. This evening though, think it is time to work on the quilted wall-hanging in the living room and tomorrow to organize and empty boxes......but maybe a rest first....

Be blessed,
Kim

One of life's little luxuries....

is a taking a nap. Nothing better than curling up on the bed and taking a great restful sleep. It only costs time. Why is it we start fighting naps at the ripe old age of 4 or 5 years old? We are a sleep-deprived nation. I think there is something to be said for Sundays off with the family and times of rest each day. The Spanish-speaking and tropical islands have the right idea -siesta each day. I plan to indulge more often when I get home from work, so I can spend some evening time with DH. My early wake-up call (4 AM to get to work at 5 AM) means I can usually get home in early afternoon - time for a nap! I can curl up with a good book or magazine and then drift off to sleep. That will also give me time to work in the studio - which is coming along - lots of boxes to empty. Then my therapy will be complete. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

So, in the middle of...

chaos. my DH goes out and buys me a present. For my birthday. I had given him a bunch of not so expensive suggestions to chose from. Nope. He had other ideas. So he bought me my cowgirl boots. I had been wanting boots since last Spring, but no time and no money. Figured they would wait until he won the lottery or something.
He got me a beautiful pair of teal and brown boots with embroidered tops. One problem. Toe was too narrow. You know the type - cockroach kickers - toe fits in the corners. Couldn't make it work. So we packed it up and headed for the Cowboy Store to see what we could do. See I have been walking barefoot or in Birkenstocks, so my feet are flatter and wider than they once were,
so not pointy toed shoes for me.
At the Cowboy Store, I tried on about a half-a-dozen. I loved some of the colors on the uppers - they can get downright wild. I finally set my heart on a pair that are gingerbread brown on the bottom and purple on top with pink, blue, purple and peach embroidered flames on the uppers and a flaming peace sign. They rock! Since they were on sale and much less than what Jeff spent on me, I also got a soft purple cowboy hat with silver and jeweled trim, a baseball cap with a jeweled peace sign, that matches the boots and a boot jack, and he got money back....
So now I am ready to take on the world - which way to the rodeo?
Be Blessed,
Kim

So, how do you spend....

a quiet weekend at home? Resting, relaxing, taking a nap, reading a good book or working on a crafts project? Canning fresh produce or making jams to celebrate summer? Nope. Not this time. Instead, we are trimming doors and windows. To appease the appraiser God. See, unbeknownst to us, a house is unlivable and unsellable without all your windows and doors trimmed and without baseboards. Did you know? How many times have you entered any home and thought about their window trim or baseboards? Yeah - me neither. I won't go on to explain why I think this is a scam - too upsetting - but suffice it to say, this was not how I planned to spend my weekend. Working. On stuff I wasn't ready either by plan or finances to work on. The job is not pretty - it is clunky and square and not at all the handsome designs I had in my head. It was all we could afford. Beyond Basic. Blah. But it had to be done. And I am not sure if I will later undo and redo it, after the appraiser God is satisfied and I get past the magical "closing" ritual. We'll see. After I get over it.

The four-legged furball really did herself in this time. Her last escape and adventure must have lead her to eat something truly sickening. She has had the runs for three days. Woke up in the middle of the night the other night for my nightly hike to the bathroom and stepped right in it. Yuck. Cleaning up the mess at 2:00 AM did not create warm fuzzy feelings toward furball. At night she is now required to sleep in the bathroom until she is over this so she has a limited space to make messes in. Not to worry - the bathroom is the size of some bedrooms. Plenty of room. The floor is easier to clean and shows nothing afterward. I can turn on the light to check for messes as I approach. As for her being sick, we have been feeding her white rice for two days, which usually fixes her right up, but no luck so far. She does not appear sick and mopey and grudgingly eats her rice. (I noticed some under her bowl - sloppiness or trying to hide some? Who knows.) Going to make her some rice and see if Imodium AD is okay for dogs. I thought they had cast-iron stomachs.....

The neighbors below are upset with us - the leaves, gravel and rain ("debris) wash down onto their driveway. They don't like it. They took a pick axe and dug a trench across our driveway. We had it regraded to fill it in. They sent us a note. Does not seem to occur to them it is because their paver decided to dump some "leftover" asphalt on our driveway to create an "apron" without our knowledge or permission. In doing so they raised our driveway to be even with theirs and the road. They also sealed off the drainage culvert. Before they did that there was no problem - our gravel surface was lower than their driveway and the road and the water just ran off the sides into the ditch. It is their opinion that we should pave our driveway. Hmmm. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But we are not going to pave. To do so makes our driveway dangerous in winter with ice, so we either can't get up or can't get down safely. It messes with the environment as it limits the rainwater's ability to soak into the ground and go to the aquifer. Besides, since it costs almost $5,000. who plans on paying for it, if we wanted to do it, which we don't. So guess they will just have to remove the asphalt apron or pay the county to do so. That would solve the problem. Of course it really solves the problem if folks don't pave over paradise, live with the Master Gardener's plants and landscaping and stay off other folk's property. Just sayin'. Don't think they will be happy with our response - but they really won't like the bill for the clean up from the county. Or the fact they encroached on our property with their landscaping and have to move it (my DD says charge them rent for the land at $100. per square foot- nah - prefer they return it to it's natural state). Love the neighbors, really I do.

But when I get frustrated with all the craziness and chaos, I look out a window and see the mountains across from mine....look to the mountains from whence comes my strength....
Ahhhhhhh.

Off to hammer more nails and paint a few things....

Be Blessed,
Kim

As the rain comes down.....

in buckets. The sound is music on the metal roof (part tin and part other metal) and my plants and the orchard have no complaints. If the rain keeps up (we are getting a cool front tomorrow - isn't that great?) for a few days, we can have the fella' come back and re-grade and gravel our driveway. We'll put cement on the top (in light amounts) and water it to make the gravel hold together better.....a more sturdy solution for the winter months.

So now, what do you get for a couple who have everything, need nothing and are celebrating their anniversary? It is their 54th and they are my parents. DH and I will be taking them to Brass Town Resort for the seafood buffet tomorrow night to celebrate. Very elegant. Dad likes the seafood part. Mom likes the elegant part. But what to get them?

On their 50th, they had planted a Japanese Maple. With the drought, it did not make it. So, even though they have a forest full of trees surrounding them, we thought it would be a great idea to get a replacement Japanese Maple for their yard. Off DH and I went to go "tree shopping" at a local nursery (we have actually been looking for about a week). At the nursery, we are checking out all the various Japanese Maples - DH says they are "Acers". The nursery is on the outside of town near where I remember my grandfather's farm being. Jeff went off to find some help, when I found the perfect tree. The name suited the occasion perfectly - a "Glowing Embers" Japanese Maple - get it - "glowing embers" for the celebration of a long-term marriage. So we packed it up, picked up a card, said something schmaltzy and cliche' and drove over to deliver it.

Funny part was, at 3:30, we passed them on the road into town as they headed off to an anniversary dinner....they did not notice us, but their truck is distinctive. It made it all the better to get to their house and deliver the tree while they were gone. Mission of the tree fairies accomplished.

When it rains here, we lose satellite feed. We get to be entertained by the rain and it's sounds, read or as I am now, write for the Blog. The four-legged fur-ball is distressed by the rain....she gets whiny (sounds like a teenager again) and so she makes us slightly crazy - whether she intends to or it is just coincidental, she is quite successful. I can stand whiny babies and laugh at and scold whiny teens - but whiny creatures can not be reasoned with. Silence of the beast would make the sound of the rain more enjoyable.

Well, off to do some research for work. Listening to the rain is soothing and the storms here in the mountain are just so much more raw and powerful. Battery back-up for the alarm clock is installed in case we lose power (common for stormy weather here) and I have 2 hours of battery or more for the computer if needed. Just another perfect day in paradise - the mountains....

Be blessed,
Kim

So today....

we went to church at Fellowship of the Hills again. This time no run-away hound to make us late. The service had visiting missionaries from Guatemala and Africa. For a little church, they have a big heart and are promising some support to these missionaries each month. The church is small, but does not seem focused on the trappings that money can buy. The pastors are volunteers except for the head pastor and I sense he is not paid a lot. No big expensive building or building fund. It is the way I think the church is meant to be.

Home to paint the rest of the living room and dining room - a beautiful soft blue, which frames the windows which reveal at the beauty of our woods - so many shades of green out there - more beautiful than a painting. We can see the mountains across from ours through our trees. A beautiful view. The only interuption to our blue wall is the electrical panel in the living room, so I have found material to make a quilted wall hanging to cover it and blend with the wall nicely.

We just finished watching "The Notebook". Both of us end up teary-eyed with this movie - it brings up so much about our future and the future of our parents. I plan to make every effort to care for mine in their home for as long as is possible. I hope the same for the two of us....

Suppose I ought to go make dinner, then take some fresh corn to the parents' house, before coming home to turn in early - work tomorrow....
Be Blessed,
Kim