I'm So Far Behind, I Don't Know If It's Dusk or Dawn

There's been a little of this...Yellow Tail Sparkling Wine...on the front porch where I sit and sip. There's not nearly enough of this, compared to the work, but I'm getting a better handle on the proportions. I think.

Last month, I took sisters Faith and Becky to my Cherry Grove condo (Thistle Cove Cottage); neither had ever been to the beach nor seen the ocean except in photos. sigh, generational differences. Yes, as it happens that is a mobile phone in her hand...I often forget to turn mine on and she's glued to hers. Just goes to show you...she has a lot more going on outside her life than do I. I don't know that many people I want to be connected to.

Tis the season for fall festivals; this one has been happening, so says memory, for 28 years. I went because I wanted to buy 'lasses but no one had any; they had tons of apple butter which I did not buy because I've been making apple butter. Quarts and Quarts and Quarts and pints and pints and pints and half pints of the stuff. I'll just buy a 25 pound sack of flour and this winter will eat biscuits slathered with home churned butter AND apple butter. Overkill can, sometimes, be a Very Good Thing! (After leaving the Garden, I found 'lasses raised and made by Jaimie; the son of my former mail carrier. He's a delightful young man and he and his father farm...pretty much everything!)

Burkes Garden has signs for residents...you just drive around until you see who/where you want then head in that direction. Essentially, Burkes Garden is a circle; some say a thumbprint; a lot of photos here. I won't show the most famous photo because I don't have permission and consider property theft to be a very bad thing. (Local government has no such pesky conscious and regularly use other people's photos without giving compensation or credit to the owner. I've found my photos several places around the i-net from when the county used them without permission or credit.)

For a donation, the Amish would give folks a wagon ride. No, the gent you see isn't Amish, he's a passenger (just in case you were wondering).

How many remember doing this...front little girl standing on the pedals while sister sits on seat and pushes her feet on the road to propel them along. Both had pretty smiles and were having loads of fun.

I got lost decided to take a road I'd never taken that started out asphalt, quickly turned to gravel then to one lane. Fortunately, it had a (very) few pull-offs so when I met a car we'd both pass slowly. About a mile before the top of the mountain, I met a truck, no pull-offs, and decided he could hit the ditch to pass me while I hunkered in the almost middle of the road. I had my window down so I could apologize, "I'm sorry...it's been raining so much and I'm afraid of soft shoulders. I didn't want to get close to the falling off edge. Can you get around me?" He smile big and said, "Don't you worry none; we're just fine. Do you know where you're headed?" I said, "I think this might be the road to Ceres; is it?" He nodded and said, "You're about a mile from the top of the mountain; at the top, you might want to turn around and come back this side. The other side is a mite slick today."

That's exactly what I did after some folks took a picture of me standing at the Appalachian Trail.

One more reason it takes me so long to do everything...Kit and the rest of the animals all have to be a constant, immediate part of my life. And I wouldn't have it any other way!

Canada Geese came back August 1 and, every morning, just like clockwork they come to the cut corn field across the road. It's impossible to get them all in one photos; there must be hundreds!

Hunting season: hunters watching me watch them. I was impressed because they're wearing blaze orange; a lot of them don't. I left a note on their windshield letting them know; they probably think I'm crazy.

Home of the free,

Land of the brave.

Things to stay away from:

And, finally, I think this might be my new header photo.
Do you approve?

Blessings ~ Canada Geese ~ Appalachian Trail ~ my life ~ my farm ~ my animals ~ sparkling wine ~ Burkes Garden ~ the Cove ~

Rural Thursday Blog Hop #1

~ my garage, built to order ~

oops...forgot to say, if you're looking for the Thankful Follower give-away post, look here; you have four more days to comment.


Nancy, Rural Journal, and Lisa, Two Bears Farm, are hosting a blog hop today and invited me to join them. We're supposed to blog about rural living, recipes, homesteading tips, animals, photography... essentially anything having to do with country living. As I'm writing my post, I make number 30 and cow's tail. What can I say? It's been one of Those Days. This morning I had to go to town for yet more meetings with my Wonderful Lawyer...and I mean that sincerely, I do luv my lawyer!...meetings with other folks with whom Dave did business, library to make copies, post office to mail all those pieces of correspondence and topped off by going to WallyWorld to get an oil change. Yeah, yeah, if you don't like big box stores, do us both a favor and keep it to yourself. When I've got a time crunch, there's nothing like being able to grocery shop, pick up 'scripts and then rest my rear while my car is being serviced. When I'm not in a time crunch and when the weather is mild enough for me to sit outside, I go to our local small business auto shop. Unfortunately, those folks smoke and I'm allergic to cig smoke so big box store it is a lot of times. 


Anyhooooo...I got home in very late afternoon and thought I'd blog about my garage being delivered. Dave and I never had a garage though we have plenty of barns, buildings, sheds and the like but never a garage. A garage would have been So Handy while Dave was sick. I shudder remembering the times when it was blowing sleet, snow, ice and rain and I had to get him, his oxygen gear and his previous frail self out of the house and into the car and then to the doctor or hospital. Of course, all of that was after I started the car so it could heat up enough so I could get the windows scrapped and then move it to the back porch to load Dave, etc. Mercy!

~ brilliant truck driver! ~

Daniel and I were talking one evening about garages and I told him I'd seen a shed that looked like someone was using it as a garage. He told me about a company "down on the 4-lane", as they call Rt. 460 around here, and I went to investigate. Yes, they did sell ready made and made to order buildings and they did deliver and set up. So, I ordered a 20x24 building with a roll up garage door, two three foot x three foot windows and a metal door with nine windows. It also has an eight foot loft inside for extra storage. 

~ putting into place ~

The driver delivered and set the building level and all within a couple of hours; amazing! He told me to let it set for about two weeks so it could settle. We've had a lot of rain and the ground is really spongy so sitting for a while is a good thing. In time, I'll have a wooden drive ramp built so I can drive right into the garage. 


Okay, you folks who have garages may not understand my total excitement but this provides shelter for my car as well as security for me. Daniel is going to put up a couple of motion detector solar lights at the front and rear and, in the spring, he's making plans to have a trench dug so I can put electricity in the garage. My nephew is a licensed electrician so it will, naturally, be to code. 

~ way bye-bye to the nice delivery man ~

Come to find out, there are a lot of folks who are in this type business and a lot of them are Mennonite or Amish. Construction varies but my building has six by six skids while other companies only have four by four skids...Very Important. My floor will hold 10,000 pounds so everything from my car to my truck will not only fit but be held securely. I paid a bit extra for more blocks to be set under my building; so none of the skids are touching the ground and even though all the lumber is treated, I still opted to pay the extra money for the extra blocks. The metal roof is screwed on, not nailed on...again, Very Important with all the crazy wind we have in this valley and all doors and windows lock. There's more good stuff but they aren't paying me to say anything so I'll shush.


If you're interested in who made my garage, it's the Mennonites of Old Hickory Buildings out of Statesville, NC and, thus far, I couldn't be happier! This post might not be perxactly what Nancy and Lisa had in mind but, trust me, it's making my rural life a lot better, a lot safer and a lot more secure. Good things, all! 

Blessings ~ made to order garage ~ Mennonites ~ Nancy ~ Lisa ~