Home Again

Took the last 11 days off and went to Florida. Have no pictures to share as of yet. When we got home last night, my new camera was sitting on the trunk of the car, along with Timmy's last set of 60 lessons. No, we didn't forget them, UPS brought them while we were gone. Wish the camera had been just a few days earlier and I could have taken it with me. Hubby put in the last 35 years of his life, working for Verizon Phone Co. and the digitalCanon PowerShot camera is my Christmas gift from him. He let me pick any gift I wanted from his anniversary catalog so, now I'm up to speed with the rest of you. I dropped in it's batteries late last night but that's as far as I had time to look at it. Help, Ruth, I need you!
It was cold the whole time we were there, folks said it was 10 degrees below normal.. It was 45 some mornings, windy, warmed to maybe 60 or 65 but the wind made it feel colder. Kenny and Timmy got in the pool while I reclined in a pool chair, under shirt, knit shirt, flannel shirt, and 2 big long pool towels layed over me, trying to get out of the wind. Didn't work, I stood it for a little while then retreated back to our warmer room on the second floor. That was another bummer, too low to have a good view. Couldn't see the beach this time but could see the water farther out. The bushes, grass and greenery was too high to see over but we could still hear the waves crashing. Out in the distance we saw a couple submarines, fishing boats and cruise ships coming and going. someone told Kenny that you can see 300 miles out over the water at the point where it starts going down where you can't see it any more. 300 miles? Go figure. Gotta run Hubby will be home soon and I don't have a thing fixed for supper.

Just a Quick note.

Yes, I'm still here. It's after midnite and hubby is asleep on the couch. He got Gracie to sleep watching HI HO [Disney sing a long]. She's on the big bed and Timmy is upstairs in his bed.
I've been busy putting up applesauce, some with redhots in it for Timmy. I'll post my canning list when I get all done with everything this fall, still have pears coming up then maybe I can breath easier. Last week I had maybe 3 bushel or more sitting on the livingroom floor, all in boxes and bags. I'd put them outside at night to keep them cool then haul them back in in the morning and cover them up with blankets to retain the cold. That was a job, they were heavy. It made me weary just to look at them. The big wind storm we had blew them off of the neighbor's trees and there were so many on the ground I couldn't walk without stepping on them. It was a loss for them but a God send for me. They said I could pick up all I wanted, so I did, nice big beautiful, worm free apples, BEAUTIFUL. There were maybe 6 or 7 different kinds so I mixed them all up for applesauce. He grafts his own trees, has 3 different kinds growing on one tree. They also gave me a good amount of red plums and 2 flats of good purple plums. Made some jam and canned some after sharing with mom.
Had a break today from cutting apples. Cleaned house, Jenny made supper and brought it over for Kenny's birthday, big 57. Made two fresh apple cakes this week, one for Kenny and one for the freezor. Gotta get off this chair, my back is screamingggggggggggg! Nitie nite.

Had a nice visit tonight with Rachel. Parked her truck at the truck stop and Tim and I took her home for supper. We then walked up the hill to check out our new blacktop, visited some then took her back to the truck for a treck on home to E-Town. Sent her home with some frozen corn, blueberries and ripe plums.

Been Busy.

Hope I can get through this before I fall of the chair. Canned Mom 20 quarts of tomatoes last night till 3:15 AM then slept till 7:15. Got up and fixed breakfast for hubby and wanting so much to go back to bed, even told Hubby not to get Tim up yet 'cause I's goin back to bed for a bit. He left and I started looking through cookbooks for a recipe to put in the crock pot 'cause I didn't want to spend 3 hours cooking supper. Remembered I had a half bushel of fresh green beans in the frig that needed worked up, also a half bushel of apples and 2 pecks of plums. Also Tim's lesson takes all day of hard pushing, so I told myself to just suck it up and wake up, didn't have time for the bed. Fixed oats with maple syrup, brown sugar and cinnamon for breakfast then started in on lesson #19's paper work. Worked awhile and mom called, said the apples were screaming for attention, the deer, bees and birds were helping themselves and we needed to get some worked up. Loaded up Tim and his lesson and headed for Shady Creek Farm, East of English. Saw daddy in the barn, digging? Walked in the house expecting Mom to be busy, busy. She's sitting at the table, relaxed, with a book? I ask what was up? She says they had a disaster just after she talked to me. Said daddy was backing the tractor in the barn with a load of water in the trailer and clipped the water hydrant with the bucket. Busted the pipe off under ground and had a major water leak. Had to shut off the water at the pump house, had no water in the house to do apples so Mom was taking it easy. I took over the digging in the heavy sticky mud till we found the problem. It was broke in a good spot, thank the Lord. Daddy went to the hardware and got a piece to fix it, so I did. A person don't know how blessed they are with running water, till they don't have it anymore. Screwed the new end cap on the pipe and WOW! We had water again! Just capped it off and left the hole open for now, can fix it back later. Covered it over with plywood and set an old wash tub on it for decoration, how's that for 'Getten'er Done?' We tied in to the apples and cut like crazy. Washed and peeled them and the applesauce was white and pretty. We finally left around dark and headed home. Dear ol Hubby had a Blizzard from Dairy Queen waiting for us. Yum, Yum good.
Also froze 6 1/2 five gal. buckets of corn, which translates to 70 bags for the freezer.
Gotta get up and fix orange juice for breakfast. So Long.

Good Time, Girls?

Well, did anyone of you ladies have a good time on Mom's birthday? Glad you put it all together girls, it was a wonderful idea, and we actually pulled it off without a hitch. For cousin Jeanie, this is what we did. Had someone fill in for mom at Bea's, girls met at Mom and Dads then drove on over to my house. We all piled in our chiriot [Dad and Tim also] and we drove to Jeffersonville to Derby Dinner Playhouse for Moms birthday surprise. Rachel met us there also. We had a nice buffet, all we cared to eat, and all the coffee we could drink. Desert was extra, way extra. The Hummingbird cake looked devine, [looks are deceiving though] so we ordered two generous slices to share amoung us. We were stuffed so didn't want a whole piece. It wasen't what it looked like. I'm a sweet eater and I didn't like it either. Daddy had mounds of strawberry shortcake, or more like mounds of whipped topping, and Sharon ordered a Brownie Supreme, a moist chocolate brownie, piled high with creamy vanilla icecream, pour on gobs of ooey-gooey hot fudge and a mountain of whipped cream and there you have it. Anyway, tables were cleared and a cast of seven very good actors performed the play "Smoke On The Mountain Homecoming." It was very nice and we all enjoyed it emencly. It was nice that we could all manage to get together again, especially for moms birthday. Here's a little something I wrote afterwards to send to Rachel on her birthday the following week.

SO GLAD YOU CAME TO VISIT,
TO GRACE OUR FAMILY TIES.
HOW NICE TO SAY HELLO,
HOW HARD TO SAY GOODBYES.

WE'LL HAVE TO MEET AGAIN,
SOMEHOW, REAL SOON
TO SHARE AND LAUGH AND TALK AND EAT,
BEFORE THE NEXT 'BLUE MOON'

TILL THEN WE'LL HAVE TO KEEP IN TOUCH,
BY PHONE, OR NOTE OR LETTER,
BUT MEETING FACE TO FACE AGAIN,
WOULD BE EVEN BETTER.

That goes out to all of you who drove the distance to 'Keep in Touch.' LOVE TO ALL

Yes, believe it or not, I'm still here. Think I've messed my page up, somehow, I have to go through a setup that I've not had to go through before today. I installed 'Realplayer' to go to a kids program, didn't like what I saw so I've sat here a couple hours trying to get it out. Finally uninstalled it and also lost my direct way to the bloggs. Just hope I didn't mess up hubby's page. He don't like me installing things and messin up the computer. Any way, took Little Britches to the last day of CARES program at the school, stopped at 2 yardsales, visited a neighbor, made orange goatmilk icecream [with orange Koolaid and orange Jello] and waisted the rest of my day trying to outsmart this computer. I had plans for 'My Day' but they didn't pan out.
Little Britches has completed 5 lessons in his second grade program. We started a little early on purpose. Would have been three weeks ahead but had a couple little boys staying the last two weeks to go to Bible school with him. It was their first time inside a church and they really likes it. They are 7 and 8 years old and Tim had a blast with them here. I was ready to run away.
I thank God for the rain we had, a tad less then 1 inch, but still a much needed rain. Hubby planted soybeans over at the farm, about 15 acers, and the rain was a Godsend. He planted 'no till' on a hilly old cow pasture so now we are waiting for a guy to go spray to kill all the pasture grass. I ask the Lord to send rain, bless the crop abundently and make it prosper. So, that rain was just what I ask for and I'm believing for a good harvest. PTL!
Oh how I need to get up and dust, sweep, gussy up my hair, fix supper, go pick up Tim, prepare the papers for the rest of his lesson tonight, stir the icecream in the making, .............. there's no end to it...............................So Long.

Well school is out, finally. I had high hopes for him to read every day and do a little writing, like thank-you notes for birthday cards and gifts, but that isn't panning out very fast. Started one two weeks ago but it still lays, waiting for attention. He's spent a week back and forth between Granny's and Ruths and loved it, I did too.

Canning season has begun. I've frozen 10 jugs of tea, 10 qts. of strawberries and 10 qts. of sour pie cherries. Talk about a job. Yesterday, in the heat and humidity, I picked, and picked and picked, cherries. After about 3 gal. I had to give it up and head home, had company waiting at the door when I got there. Ended up with 6, and three to spend the night, so need I say it was a long night. Had to work up all the cherries, it was too much work to let them sit and spoil, finished about 3:00 am then crashed. Had to get up and get kids bathed and ready for church, hubby helped. He was a walking zombie himsalf, out disking till 4:00 am then up and out again, all day in a closed tractor with a broken airconditioner and 95 degrees in the cab, or more. Said he couldn't leave the door open on account of all the dust boilong in. He was beat! Finally, tonight, all is quiet and back to normal, whatever that is. I need to get up at the crack of dawn and go pick cherries in the morning, brfore it gets hot or the birds get them. Last year a late hard frost got them, the year before, a hoard of birds swooped down and devowered them all in one day. One day they were there and the next day they were gone.

Little Britches and I went down in the woods Friday to gather ditney tea. I guess it likes to be harvested because this year I found more then the 2 previous

Sneak Peak

Took a quick sneak peak at the family page but it was Greek to me on how to get on it. Right now I'm pushing Lil Britches to WRITE. He's spent over an hour on five very short lines, like 25 short words. He's sitting at the table, it's 10:00 am and his latest excuse is, 'I fell asleep.' Until this school work is done....................................

Field Trip

Went to the zoo today, field trip for Lil Bit and Sissy. Surprise of all surprises, Hubby took off work and went with us, took us actually. We all spent the day together. It was cold this morning, 22 degrees when we got up. My poor bleeding hearts were all droopy. Anyway, the group all met at 10:00 at the zoo and we went from there. It did warm up some and the sun felt wonderful. Left from there and ate at the Golden Coral, stopped at Lowes, Sams and a couple parts stores. Kids slept on the way home, I wanted to, it was a long day. Hubby changed cloths real quick and left again to help Son rescue the bull dozer, he had it hung up. It's now 10:00 and he's not home yet. Kids are watching Narnia and eating popcorn. I need to get things picked up and put away and get the younguns to bed, I have to work tomorrow, one goes to school and one to piano lesson.

Spelling Paper

How's this for a first grader? I told Tim if he'd write a good spelling paper, that I'd post it for all to see. His eyes lit up and he got busy and wrote nice. Sooo......., here it is. How about a little encouragement, a little feedback, something he can read for himself and get inspired to get his work done. We are on lesson #146, with 24 more to go, Glory Be! I'm pushing to get it done before warm weather. Already he's giving me grief over having to get lessons instead of out playing "because it's WARM outside" he laments. Thank you Ruth for all the work and time you put into his chart. It has helped some, hopefully it will continue to inspire through the remainder. I have offered stars a couple of times and he said "I don't want a star, I want a marble"

TEA PARTY

I had a little tea party, this afternoon at three
T'was very small, three guests in all
Just I, Myself and Me.
Myself ate all the sandwiches
While I drank all the tea
T'was also I who ate the pie

And passed the cake to me.

Oh! Hi there, you caught me dreaming............ T'was a fun dream anyway. Join me won't you?

Now, down to earth, the very stuff of life. My 'real' day was full of, "Change 'Y' to 'I' and add 'ed', drop the silent 'e' and add 'ing', double the final consonant, circle the special sounds and mark the vowels, underline the root words and circle the suffixes, 'when a root word ends with a silent 'e', drop the 'e' before adding a suffix that begins with a vowel, put the spelling words in ABC order, write 9-99 by 10's, horizonally, write two words for each sound on PHONICS CHART #9, Use these spelling words in sentences: CHURCH, CHIN, CHOOSE, PATCH, DITCH, BENCH, copy spelling list #28, consisting of 16 words, four times each, copy the following 16 spelling words and underline the prefixes, circle the root words, copy, THE LAZY MAN AIMS AT NOTHING AND USUALLY HITS IT, THERE IS ONLY ONE THING TO DO ABOUT ANYTHING, AND THAT IS THE RIGHT THING. And on and on it goes, hour by hour, day by day. So.............. that's how my days go, just incase you wondered. And now it's midnight, Good Night,ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Sisters Forever!

This was taken on Jan's birthday in
Aug. 2004

WOW, how about that snow? It just kept coming and coming. It reminded me of the poem by John Greenleaf W.[I think] Who's woods are these?
I think I know,
His house is in the village though,
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
Got up this morning to a thick blanket of pristine whiteness.
We measured 11 inches on the table on the back deck. Hubby was called to go in to work at 2: 30 am but he told dispatch that we had 10 inches of the stuff and the roads were not plowed. They called back and
told him to wait till noon to come in. That was just fine with him. His truck was parked at the top of the hill, that would have been a long cold walk, trudging up hill in 10 inches of snow at 2:30 am. After he left for work I started shoveling and kept it up for a couple hours till he came home and took over. It's now dusk and it's all cleaned off, ready for the cold night to settle in. Had our leftover birthday pizza and apple cake for supper, hatches battened down, cat fed and hopefully we're settled in.....till dispatch calls again.
Farmgirl....don't know if this is still good, found it in a 2004 magazine. Check out www.kbhilltopstables.com it would interest you. It's a video monitoring system for animal lovers to share in the wonder of birth. I intended to check it out before I got on here but didn't get it done.
Don't forget to change your clocks back tonight.
Thanks for all the birthday wishes for us both.

High Speed Here We Go!

WOW! I'm cruising now baby. This high speed Internet is NICE! Now I don't have to go wash dishes or do laundry while I wait for something to come up. I highly recommend it. It would be easy now to spend too much time on the puter, to sail from one thing to another.
Hubby has worked for weeks to get it for us and a handful of neighbors. We are right on the border line to get it, our neighbor to the North is out of the boundary line, we barely made it. He made phone calls after calls, pulled some strings, tweaked some noses, twisted a few arms, made some 'inside' phone calls, went over heads to work around some 'stallers' and WAALA, it's here. If our house set just a few more feet down the road, we couldn't get it. Eventually, who knows when, next year maybe, it might have come our way. It's nice to have a hubby who works for the phone company. He was pulling hard for our neighbor to get it ,her husband left for Iraq and she needed high speed to communicate with him. Mom, you know her, she and her family lived in your travel trailer twenty some years ago.
Home schoolers went to the IMAX yesterday. Took Tim, Lucina and Miss Beth, had a nice time. It was cold, windy and rainy, snow blowing, yes both, but we found a nice parking place under I64, overlooking the Ohio river. We just sat there awhile, since we were early, and watched the wind whip up white caps and [sea?] gulls bobbing up and down on the waves. The film was interesting, about 'Our Wonderful Ocean' not the exact title, I've slept since then. Of course, we hit the Goodwill stores on the way back, it was nice to spend some time together. Came home in time to warm up leftover good, creamy rich potato soup for supper. It warmed the tummy and hit the spot.

Hi Y'all, Not much to say. There's an ominous, threatening black cloud hanging over us, hope it moves on. The wind is gusting something fierce. I suppose it's the same in your area too.
Hubby just brought me a piece of icecream cake, trying to plump me up some more.
Wow, the sun just popped through the dark clouds, nice. I'm sitting here soaking up the gardenia perfume, hanging heavyly around me. I recomend a gardenia plant to anyone who likes flowers. I told myself, "Myself, I'm not going to bother bringing it in this fall, just let it freeze." I then thought of how long I've had it, maybe six or more years, and how good the one lone flower smelled last year, so I repotted it in a bigger pot and brought it in. Glad now that I did. It took off with a new lease on life and rewarded me, covered in blooms. I have so enjoyed it this winter. They bloom on new growth so don't trim them back at the wrong time.
I'm watching a bird in the feeder just inches from the window. He's trying to pick up two sunflower seeds at the same time and can't, guess he's afraid another will get it.
I'd best get to my icecream before I have to drink it. So long.

Hi'ya all, I know, I know, I'm in hot water for not writing. Thanks Jeanie for the photo, that's a 'new' one I've not seen before. I too love to look at old photos, post some more when you have time, please. Thanks Lucena for your update too. I check in about once a week but usually don't have the time to write, and it won't let me comment, but I do check in. Little Britches is calling, wanting to know what to do on his math paper. Gotta jump off of here.