Throw Back Thursday: Our Love Was Once In Tents

Hubby and Sparky

In 1979, we were newly wed, full of the moxie of youth, bright eyed with great hopes for the future. Gainful employment was easy back then. Jobs where plentiful. The future was bright. We weren't rich but we weren't broke either. Whatever life was to throw at us, it didn't matter, we where ready. And, ultimately, loves conquers all.

Our first trip together was on a shoe string budget, so, we planned for a location close to home in western North Carolina. This trip we spent a lot of time camping and hiking the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville and all parts in between.

Hubby brought a vivid blue two man pup tent into the marriage. This was the start of a long love affair for me with camping. Soon after this trip, we 'moved up' to a 6 man Hillary canvas cabin tent sold by Sears. It gave us many years of faithful service and happy memories. Many years later, tired of sleeping on the ground, we bought a towable Recreational Vehicle. Now that we live in the woods, an RV was no longer exciting. I really miss being outdoors on our trips, though, but Hubby grew weary of all the work. Can't say that I blame him.

Above is the dear man during his salad days sitting by a stream on the Blue Ridge. I fell in love with that charming smile the first time we met. I am happy to report that he is still that wonderful guy and more.

Thank you LORD Jesus for all our wonderful years together.

 "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." Ephesians 5:31

Scooter Poopin' In Southeast Georgia

Yesterday, we took off zigzagging around Southeastern Georgia. If one could ignore the bone chilling wind, the day was picturesque. The sun was incredibly bright making the sky like unto an enormous blue diamond. It was charming. Like a prelude to Heaven. How could we resist!? Our first stop was the metropolis of Valdosta. We lunched at Smok'n Pig on Valdosta Road.

I just had to snap a pic of the pink pig BBQ grill. Hubby burst my bubble, though, when he said that the first time he cooked on it, the paint would chip. Oh well ...

Sated with good 'ol southern BBQ, we traveled further west to the little community of Dixie (how original, right?!) in neighboring Brooks County.

Winter Road, Dixie, Georgia

The above picture is downtown Dixie, a sleepy little burg, never destined for greatness. I never knew this county had such easy to ride, meandering, shady, scenic roads! Now I want to move there and ride every day.

Emanuel AME Church

County Road 78, Dixie

I snapped a photo of this black church only because it has the most unusual architecture for the area. It must have been built on a shoestring and perhaps with more than one chef in the kitchen.

What is the round room for? I wonder. The front had one style, the windows don't fit the design of the front, and the back is ... well, unusual. At any rate, it was interesting.

One nice thing about old age is it doesn't take much to amuse me anymore. *lol*

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your day is blessed.

Wordless Wednesday

[click to enlarge]

The Day After

These creaking bones are moving slow today. I blame the damp weather but it could be just plain laziness. The rain started last night at the party, then temperatures began to drop and now it's gloomy. Today has been as quiet as the tomb. Somehow after coming down off the sugar debauchery of last night, Hubby and I have managed to stay busy most of the day.

It just dawned on me I hadn't shared the pics from last night. I do apologize for the sorry picture quality. I'm still trying to get accustomed to the smartphone camera. Apparently, there's a trick to getting good photos from this thing. Wish now I had taken the Olympus.

Our long time friend and host, Daniel, cooking the roast beast.

He's a master with the smoker.

My plate of smoked pork, pork & beans, cole slaw, beef steak tomato.

There was much, much more and I made certain to sample it all.

My husband's homemade Banana Pudding was a big hit!

Hubby enjoying his meal with me next to Kawasaki Mule.

Now, you know I'd be near the machinery.

This is just a small view of the building Daniel built for

his parents last year. He's quite the master craftsman!

I added a star on the little girl's face. Since she is a minor,

I don't have the parents permission to put her face in

cyberspace. Just want to protect all the little ones.

We're being 'good' tonight, having a strictly vegetable supper (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it). *lol*

Thank you for stopping by. Hope your day was blessed.

The Guest Bedroom Is Completed

We are finally 'finished' with the house remodeling! Here's the photos below. Please forgive the brevity. We are both so whipped that the mental processes are completely gone. And I'm sure normal people are more concerned with getting everything just right for The Big Day.

Before the stinky old carpeting was removed.

Preparations made, the first board goes in place.

I know that 'almost' only counts in horseshoes and grenades,

but we are truly Almost There. *grin*

Ta Da! The floor is finished!

This is the Guest Bedroom all put back together

and we are both long necking a Blue Moon.

It might end up being two ... *giggle*

I know everyone is super busy so I appreciate your taking time to stop by. And if you're really bored, the complete home remodel is here. I should have taken a picture of the money as it disappeared too. *lol* 

Have a blessed rest of the week folks.

A Monday Hodgepodge

Pearls Before Swine

It just dawned on me, that it has been days since I visited blogs or posted here. Y'all must have thought I fell off the face of the earth.

The cartoon above reminds me of our family. It will just be the two of us this year (their choice, not ours). What are your plans?

First some news, I think we have finally found a church in which to feel comfortable in. Sundays usually find us in the First Baptist Church. Being a "grace believer" I will not be "joining" (i.e. submitting to water baptism) but it's a pleasant diversion every Sunday morning. I spoke to the Pastor briefly about it, and he said it's not a problem. Without "joining" one just can not hold office or vote in the business part of their church. Thankfully, I'm not interested in any of that anyway. But the natives are friendly and there is a motorcycle club called F.A.I.T.H. Riders in which we are members. That should pacify even my persnickety side.

We have started on, hopefully, the final remodeling project in our 23+ year old stick built home. It's taken over a year to accomplish all the necessary interior projects but it's been well worth the financial and physical pain. The current project is the guest bedroom. It still has 23+ year old carpeting. First Hubby removed the smelly carpeting in the closet and placed nice easy to clean floor tiles. Today, we've removed everything from the bedroom except the ceiling tall bookcase out into the hallway. The bookcase needs another coat of white paint before moving on. Then we'll started pulling up carpeting and replacing it with the floating Pergo flooring.

And something else good came from all this work.

Experience is a wonderful teacher. For most who know me they know that one of my absolute favorite hobbies is genealogy / family research. I've been following people's migrations and habits for years. It's become second nature to figure out why an ancestor moved or did whatever they did during their lives. I also study a lot of old photos. This leads me to I keep all our photo albums in this closet that's being renovated. This week, whilst everything was in a disarray, I began thumbing through an old homemade photo album that belonged to my adopted mother, Helen, who had died in 1966 when I was 10 years old.  I have few memories of my mother. The reason being that like a monkey in a cage, my father was good at flinging obscenities or threats in my direction whenever I even so much as spoke to him, so, I quit asking him anything at a young age. Anyway, I happened on a couple of old Polaroid photos in the album that I'm sure I must have looked at a million times two and wondered "Who are these people?" since there was no writing on the photos. Well, I was sitting on the bed casually looking through the album and I had one photo of Mom in one hand, and this one below in the other, and I finally realized, this is my Mom at a very early age! She always had that serious look on her face. My Mom and her brother, Richard, where the only children of Richard Darrell Koethe, I, and Edna Margaretta Strain. This has to be her in that very treasured photo album. That was such a very joyful moment to discover a photo of my Mom for the 'first' time. It's a nice Christmas gift.

And I'm still enjoying, and learning about, my new Smartphone. I feel so modern. *lol*

If I don't get to post again before the Holiday, I hope everyone has a very happy, prosperous and safe CHRISTmas season.

A Day In A Country Life

There hasn't been much going on in our neck of the woods worthy of note. However, today we had a friend drop by and help remove a 30 foot Red Cedar that was too close to the carport.

Notching the tree in preparation of a fall.

Thar she blows!

Now the fun begins ... disposing of all the limbs and debris.

And a pleasant surprise. An early Christmas gift from Santa.

I know, OMGoodness! It's a 'bling'! The necklace is made from Sterling Silver. The stones blue Tiger Eye. I nearly suffered whiplash during the last visit to the Tractor Supply Store and my husband noticed. He's such a sweetie. Now if I can just find a way the earrings wear it under my helmet ... (ouch) *lol*

Double Heaping Of Blessings Hodpodge

The giblets are simmering.

This year, we get to have two Thanksgivings. The 'free' turkey won at the local IGA has already thawed, so, husband said, "Better cook it now." Works for me! I never turn down those kinds of lovely smells. The Jack Russell Terrorists, especially Jack, haven't left the throw rug sitting near the stove all morning. He's such a moocher. There will be  the traditional cornbread stuffing, homemade turkey gravy, green beans, cranberry sauce, and mashed sweetened yams for dessert. There's probably more but I've drooled on the keyboard and have to stop to clean it up. *grin* Yum yum!

For the official day, we've been invited to our local dear friend's home for another happy repast. By the end of this week my belly will look like an overfed turkey. Guess I'd better steer clear of the woods. *lol*

El Cheapo Telephone Stand

Last Friday, my husband bought an antique telephone stand for only $19 at a local auction. This little number is solid wood, very well made. He's been refinishing and repairing the table as the weather permits all weekend. There's really plenty of furniture for our tiny living room but I wanted a small table next to the love seat. Fits nicely, don't ya think?

And it's finally cooled off in our neck of the woods. The sky is a deep blue, the air fresh and crisp. It's so pretty today. I think I'll start raking all the Long Leaf Pine needles that the wind left us this weekend. They would add a nice touch around the roses bed.

I hope everyone is having a good day and will be able to enjoy the holiday with family and friends. Thank you for visiting with me today.

Pining For A Pantry

It's been a hoopla of activity in our neck of the woods with yet another 'remodeling' project for our almost 24 year old home. (I blame the new hormones ... they're working splendidly, much to my husbands chagrin!) Next to the last thing to be changed was the pantry I've been pining for. OK, here's a brief history of the house for the newbies: this room started out as the laundry but because it leads into the carport, it migrated into a sort of impromptu front door for the neighbors. My fellow country friends will understand why. Anywho, now that the carport is looking so lovely, I just couldn't have folks weaving past dog smells and clutter before entering the house plus our kitchen is teeny tiny with very little cabinet space. Thus, the pantry idea.

BEFORE

First, we sold the coffin style deep freezer on Craigslist. You know, that thing sold in two hours!? I had no idea freezer's where so popular. It was taking up way too much real estate for just the two of us, and since it was still in excellent working order, we where able to obtain a top dollar resale price.

Next, purchased a smaller upright frost free freezer on sale (my favorite word!). Whilst at Lowe's purchased a single door white cabinet with lots of shelves and matching coat hooks. Moved all the dog items to the left hand side of the room (in the back). We are so organized now.

AFTER

Voila! Just add food.

Sam III was cool with the whole renovation thing, but his brother Jack was totally freaked out. Someone moved his cheese! I found him cowering in my office with a shattered look on his face. Poor little guy. Several dog cookies, a chew bone and hugs later he was much improved.

The, hopefully, last scheduled remodel is the guest bedroom or The Blue Room, as I call it. The new flooring is purchased, so, we're all set. All that remains is removing and disposing of the 23+ year old carpet. I think that should wait until after Thanksgiving. The older I get, the longer it takes to recover from all this 'fun'. *lol*

My Day

We've had a lot of this ...

Which made a lot of these ...

It's possible that at least one of these mushrooms are in the Armillaria mellea family but don't hold me to it. *grin*

Even though I do appreciate the rain, after three days of it, I think it's time for a little sunshine and cooler temp's. It's been too warm even for Southeast Georgia.

My medical appointment to discuss the hormone issues is tomorrow afternoon. I'll be sure to let you know what the Physician Assistant thinks about my ideas on this subject. Hopefully she is well versed in this field and together we can come up with a clear plan to get my health in ship shape order. I'm anxious to get back in the saddle again.

Happy Halloween

(Comments turned off

so you can get lots of candy

... and then share it with me! *lol*)

Ride Safe

Wordless Wednesday: Jack And Sam III

Jack (left) and Sam III

19 October 2015

A Walk Around The Property Making Plans

An evening walk around our property yesterday revealed this in the distance.

One of the first trees to 'change' for Fall in SE Georgia is the Chinese Tallow (Triadica sebifera). On the left is our pet cemetery of past furry friends. Notice the forest of leaves on the ground? Time for moi' to get busy with the mulch mower.

The Tallow, up close and personal. They are lovely this time of year. Too bad they're considered invasive in this neck of the woods. This one is not a threat for getting out of hand as it's on the driest part of the property. Nothing seems to want to propagate in this soil.

It should be a quiet week. Only three items that must be taken care of. 

First and foremost is one of my dearest friends is having cataract eye surgery this afternoon. She is scheduled for the first of two lens replacements that I had years ago. I will rejoice with her when she can throw away those coke bottle bottom glasses forever. Please pray for her that all will go well. Thank you so much.

Second is it's time for a monthly B-12 shot. At the same time, I must corral the real Doctor (not the P.A. that usually administers medical care) and start discussing alternative hormone replacement therapy. Seems that after 23 years of Premarin, I may be on the wrong medication. Some adverse symptoms have arisen. I can thank my wonderful husband for acquiring the answer to this problem. When it comes to discussing medicine, I am definitely Medically Challenged. Accounting is my forte. He read a recent article in Motorcycle Classics (yeah, motorcycles ... to the rescue as always ...) that addressed these symptoms and said, "Honey, I know what's wrong!" So, now I have a starting point with which to fix the ailments.

Third is preparations are underway for the Halloween party on Friday evening. I am so juiced. Hubby still has not revealed what he has planned for his costume. Guess we'll have to learn that together, won't we Dear Readers. *grin*

And that's my life this week. What's on your agenda?