It's Been A Hard Day's Night And I've Been Working Like A Dog

The day after Thanksgiving, we stayed busy. It was bloody cold for this part of the world, but still started on the chores.

First, I decorated the house inside and out. Put the tree up. Yeah, it's a small one this year. I used only the top part of the artificial. I'm concerned about putting something with pretty dangles on the floor with our new Jack Russell brothers will be just too much temptation.

Oh, and all the dogs "helped". [ha ha] As soon as I crank up The Mule, Lucy gets excited because she knows "Mommy is doing something outside! Oh boy!"

Jack and Sam, The "Jack Russell Terrorists". They certainly put the fear in all our squirrels now!  Get 'em boys!

Lucy "helped" too. She's my moral support.

Also made time to start [emphasis on start] burning the yard debris. Now that the trees are so huge I'm going to be picking up leaves for awhile. [sigh] I keep repeating, "I love my trees", "I love my trees" ...

Oh, and I also got all the Christmas cards with a newsletter ready for mailing on Monday. How cool is that? [smile]

Hope your day was productive and fun too.

~ Ride Safe ~

Sparky

Fall-ing Into The Season

I am so ready for Fall! Today it's been cool, breezy, and definately hot tea weather. Now the sun's out and it's warmed up a bit, but still, the leaves are falling. Summer is losing her grip. Good-bye summer heat! Hello to long sleeves, hot cocoa with marshmellows, and those lovely Autumn colors.

Now that "the boys", as I'm now calling Jack and Sam, are getting settled in and acclimated to our sedate way of life, I set about decorating the homestead. These are not all of the decorations I'll use, but it's a start.

I always start down by the gate and work my way up to the house. I guess it's because it's the curb side appeal (not that we have a curb anymore!) one gets of our place.

Then the front door.

Then the carport door. This is just the start, mind you. We're hosting a Hallowe'en costume party this year for all our close friends, and I plan to add a black spider webbing with white skulls and other "spooky" faces here. It's gonna be cool. [I hope.]

Then, I move inside.

This is as far as I've got this afternoon. Now, I'm tired. Thinking is hard for a blonde, you know. [giggle] Hubby is making sausage tortellini with homemade tomatoe sauce. That should be the perfect ending to a perfectly wonderful day. I hope everyone reading this has had a wonderful day too.

"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice." Philippians 4:4-8 KJV

~ Ride Safe ~

Sparky

Hubby's Home!

... and he is one cool dude too.

This photo was snapped by his little sister on her cell phone.

Turned out really good, didn't it?!

Makes me question why we have all this fancy photo equipment. *lol*

~Ride Safe~

Sparky

Our Week So Far

Well, I’ve been busier than a one-armed paper-hanger this week. I had to have a YAG laser procedure performed on both eyes to improve vision quality. This had to be done on separate days, of course, so the doctor could charge the insurance company twice! sarcasm alert!! And I just love having my eyes dilated twice and then cooling my heels in a doctor’s waiting room for hours on end. NOT! Then Hubby ran over a nail with his Moto Guzzi. Because his Italian mistress has to have tires balanced in a certain way, that meant driving all the way down to Jax, and all the way back, to have the tire mounted and balanced properly. An entire day blown on that. Mix all those events in with the daily work and it made for a busy time in the Sparky household.

I am so looking forward to Fall. Even though it’s cooler than usual for August, I am tired of the heat, humidity, and bugs. I think I’ve only rode the V-Strom I think three times since summer officially started. Last time I rode was a short stint into Waycross to buy some grass fungicide. Because of all the rain, our grass has been getting some nasty Brown Spot. I wore all my protective gear but because of the heat index, I opted to leave my heavily armored Joe Rocket jacket in the closet. I was so nervous the whole time I was moving! There were quiet thanksgivings offered by me when I arrived home without any mishaps. Rather than do any more risky behaviour, though, I’ve parked the metal steed until it cools off a bit more. I thought about going for a night ride but do you know, in all the years I’ve ridden (since my early teen‘s), I’ve never had a bike out in the dark. For those of you unfamiliar with motorcycling, it’s a whole new dynamic when riding on two wheels at night. It is imperative to slow down, be highly visible and use even greater caution than usual. There’s all manner of dangers in the dark: critters, road debris, impaired drivers and so forth. So, for now, the “V” sits in the garage hooked up to the trickle charger.

My only sister-in-law worth speaking too, and I, are going to let our currently short hair styles go long. Since mine was so incredibly short when I started letting it grow out several weeks ago it was starting to look very unkept. So, I decided to have my local hair person trim it straight across the back and make the edges look neater. I’ve been doing the bangs myself. Now, hopefully when it grows out I won’t look like I should be on Food Stamps.

Our 34th wedding anniversary is this Sunday. I still have the pink wedding dress in the photo. I can’t wear it (must have shrunk?? … lol) but it is in the closet! To save money during the economic depression, we plan to stay home this year. Sweetie said he’s going to cook a super spectacular meal. He always does anyway, but I can’t wait to see what treats appear. I think the only thing that would make it even more special is if we could take the bikes out.

We’ll see …

~ Ride Safe ~
Sparky

The Fascinating Fungus Amoung Us

We've been getting a lot of lovely rain this year. Along with the green grass and budding trees, our yard is full of so many interesting mushrooms! I've been on a real tear taking photos everywhere. (Hey, I'm a poet and don't know it! ha ha) I didn't try to learn all the names since mushrooms are very difficult to identify unless you're practically an expert. There are so many varieties! Below are a few of my favorites from around our property.

~Ride Safe~
Sparky

Tranquility Base

Now that I no longer suffer from the debilitating Thoracic Outlet Syndrome pain, I try to not pass up an opportunity to work outside. Today was almost perfect: slightly cool, light breeze, sunny blue skies. Excellent painting weather too except for the Buick size gnats and the mosquitoes.

When we first moved here, I named different parts of the property just for fun I'm weird like that. I even name my cars and motorcycles. This area I dubbed "Tranquility Base". Years ago I used to sit here reading the Holy Bible or one of my many Agatha Christie mysteries.

BEFORE

The area was wall-to-wall leaves, overgrown trees, cats claw vines, potato vines, etc. The swing needed light repair which my Most Excellent Husband happily obliged. It was now ready for swingin'!

 

AFTER

I raked the majority of leaves out of the area and put them in the new vegetable garden. Hey, never waste good mulch is my philosophy! Then repainted the repaired swing, hung two new wind chimes and planted shade tolerant flowers (Torenia) in an old black charcoal grill that I resprayed to match the swing and decorations. The orange colored Dwarf Azaleas are deformed from when the tree used to invade them. They are lovely this year in spite of the years of neglect. I'm hoping that once they're pruned and fertilized they'll look a little less scraggly.

Below is the Torenia. It's planted in an old charcoal grill I saved from the scrap heap.

 

I had never heard of Torenia until today, so, after getting home I looked up the flower on google and learned that this little beauty is in the Snapdragon family. 

Below, I hung an inexpensive cross wind chime over the plants. I gotta have my "tinklies". :)

Oh, and the Confederate Jasmine is in full regalia! The smell is so strong this year it wafts gently all over the yard. It's such a yummy odor. Even the birds & bees seem to enjoy it as much as we do.

I'm whopped now so I'm kickin' back with a brewsky and watching old Seinfeld reruns. Then I'll watch one of my pre-recorded old black and white movies. Hey, it beats the News these days. 

~ Ride Safe ~

Sparky

Hamburger Vegetable Surprise

Ingredients

¼ cup Olive Oil
1 tbsp Garlic, minced
1 Sweet Onion, chopped
1 tsp Basil
1 tsp Oregano
1 lb lean Ground Beef
1 can diced Basil Tomatoes
3 cups frozen mixed vegetables
1/3 package of DaVinci Bucatini (pasta)


In a large fry pan at medium heat cook the olive oil, minced garlic, chopped onion, basil and oregano. Cook until onions tender. Then add the lean ground beef, continue cooking on medium heat. When beef is evenly browned add the can of diced Basil Tomatoes and frozen mixed vegetables. Let simmer.

In a separate pot, bring water to boil and cook the pasta or noodles of your choice until tender (we used DaVinci Bucatini). Then add pasta to the beef mix.

Simmer mixture on medium heat until most of the water cooks off.

Good served with grated parmesan cheese and garlic bread as a side.

Serve hot. Serves about 4-6 people.

~ Ride Safe ~

Sparky

Our Day In Pictures: Southeast Georgia Countryside

Today it was quite pretty but too windy to ride comfortably. So we parked the metal steeds took the 'cage' (4 wheels for you non-riders) for a spin. All these photos were taken on Big Creek Road then Bennett Still Road in Bacon County, Georgia.

 This was an abandoned farm house

on Big Creek Road. From the outbuildings

still standing, they must have specialized

in raising tobacco.

---

A little ways from the above place,

just around the corner on Bennett Still Road,

Sweetie spied this cute little place.

The horses looked so contented and well fed.

Just had to snap a pic.

Hope you enjoyed the ride too on this lovely Sunday!

Ride Safe

~ Sparky ~

Country Entertainment, Au Natural

This is our day in pictures and song ...

 Burned lots of yard debris

from the storms that

passed through recently.

Lucy "helped".

 My new shoes arrived.

Don't Step On My Blue Suede Shoes

Enjoying a brewsky,

serenaded by the croaking frogs

 and twittering birds

while watching a fiery sunset.

 

How Great Thou Art (Second Stanza)

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze;
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee; How great Thou art!
How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

AMEN!

 

A Ride In The Country

A few short days ago, Sweetie installed the dog bones (lowering links), so, we took our steeds out for a spin to test all our new gear.

The 2012 Suzuki V-Strom 650 handles like a dream. This bike is much improved over my 2005 V-Strom. The gears are smoother so it shifts better (no false neutrals on this one). The bike is lighter and thinner. Plus the comfort in the seat has been improved.

Final Conclusion? I absolutely LOVE my new "Wee Strom"!

Now I wanna go somewhere farther than a few hours away. It will probably be awhile before we travel anywhere far enough to stay overnight. Got too many irons in the fire. One thing is my 13+ year old miniature schnauzer, Maxie, is steadily going downhill. Her bad days are starting to out weight the good days. I really don't know if she'll make it to Christmas (I pray she proves me wrong). Bless her little fuzzy heart. I don't want to board her anymore if I can help it. The weather must cool off a bit more. Mid-80's is still too warm. I'm also concerned that if crapweasel is not kicked out of office, there will be no money at all. For anyone. I think it more prudent to hang onto what we have at the moment.

That aside, I wanna ride! Wanna come with? Grab your gear and let's get motoring!

Yeah, that's me grinning inside that helmet. This bike is GREAT!!

My Sweetie and his 2006 Moto Guzzi Breva 1100

First Container Garden Crop

Remember the new container garden? Well, today, I've harvested my first winter crop from it! That's broccoli and one head of cauliflower. We planted too late for any more harvest this season too. I know, I know, we would have starved to death if this was a necessity. So much for 'shrugging'. Next season we'll start earlier, plant more and I might go back to planting in the ground. I may save the container gardening for tomatoes and green beans. We have so many wild rabbits and such that it's better to keep the beans out of mouth reach anyway.

Bon Appétit Y'all!