Category: Family time

Olio – September 19, 2014

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things

Today’s sun turned to rain, 40% that rained off and on all day, so no staining could be done. We had an appointment to get one of the cars serviced in a nearby town, the same town in which the Sherman Williams Store is located. After the car servicing this morning, we went to Sherman Williams as the Assistant Manager had told me on Wednesday night at the coffee shop where our Knit Night group meets, that the stain I needed would be 40% off this weekend. When we got there, the Manager said that his Assistant was incorrect that it was only their products, but since I had been told and their sign was ambiguous, he honored the discount for us this one time only. We came home with the 10 gallons that will be needed to finish our log home staining.

Last night, Son #2 called to give us an update on their house renovation progress in preparation for selling their home and asked if we would check for property of about 10 acres, preferably with some sort of dwelling on it within their price range. A bit of internet research, we came up with a list and set about today to check out some of our finds. As we live in the mountains, in a rural county, this sent us on a 3 hour road trip.

On our return home, we took an less than direct route to check out the address of a house on land that we had seen before and came around a curve to see a beautiful gaited dark bay riderless horse headed right down the road toward us. He turned and trotted back around the fence, past his owner’s home to a poorly attached gate, then back to where we had first encountered him. I got out and knocked on the house door, but no one was home, so I opened the gate and he went right in, but was quite agitated that he couldn’t get past the next gate to the other horses. Unsure how he got out, and due to his agitation, we opened the other gate and let him join the other horses. There was a bit of tussling between them, but we figured it was better than having him run up and down the road. This is the second time Mountaingdad has encountered a loose horse at that farm, the first time, he and a FedEx man got him back in the fence. Perhaps that guy should do something about his fencing. We can never catch anyone there to let him know about his escape artist.

This is the season that pork is less expensive and though I prefer to buy from someone I know, I couldn’t pass up the 10+ pound shoulder roast for under $2 a pound at the local grocer. I had it cut in half and today put half in the crock pot with a mixture of raw cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and crushed red pepper and slow cooked it into Barbecue, 3 1/2 pounds worth. It has been packaged in 1 pound packages and frozen, the remaining 1/2 pound set aside for lunch in the next day or two. The other half is frozen for now and it too will be turned into Barbecue soon. It is nice to have such a quick meal ready in the freezer.

Tomorrow, I will can my last batch of salsa and a batch of Green Tomato Chutney at the suggestion of a blogger friend, http://familyfaithfoodfabric.wordpress.com/, if you have never read her blog, you should.

Lovin’ life on our mountain farm.

September 19, 2014
Pooped Pair

Yesterday Son #1 started as soon as he felt exterior surfaces of the logs were dry. With only a break for lunch and minimal help from me staining, he managed to do almost all of the garage. I did the door frame and window and frame. We put up scaffolding, took down scaffolding, shifted it around and put feet under sections that didn’t have them, leaving a set up that will allow me to get the last few logs on one side of the garage and the front breezeway wall. The back breezeway wall can be reached from the deck with a short ladder, as can the front wall of the house and the garage door tops. That is my job for the rest of the week, but today I rest. I rest because we didn’t stop until 6 p.m. and he had to be at work at 9 a.m. today, 4 1/2 hours away, so we ended our day with the two of us sharing the drive, arriving near midnight, me sleeping there, getting him to work and driving back home this morning.

It is amazing how dark the house looks when first stained and how light it turns in just a year or so.

Left half still to be stained, right half done yesterday.
Today my back is sore and my body weary, so I am limiting myself to kitchen cleaning and laundry. Tomorrow I will stain.

September 15, 2014
Fall Gardening

The sunny day yesterday did not really happen, but it didn’t really rain either. It was only in the mid 60’s most of the day and partly to mostly cloudy, so a perfect day to garden.

Since eggs are a premium around here still, we went out to breakfast at our local diner. I have gotten 2 pullet eggs in the past couple of days. There are 11 pullets, so we are hoping they will all get the message soon. Their eggs are so cute next to the hens eggs.

After breakfast, we ventured down to Tractor Supply for pine shavings for the brooder and to replace the solar charger that is supposed to protect my garden and the chickens, but failed right before we left for vacation. When we purchased it, we only got a 6V solar charger. The batteries on them only last about 3 years and it probably needs a new battery, but Tractor Supply had a 12V on sale for a price I couldn’t pass up. It is mounted and charging to be connected after I return from taking our grandson home today. Our adventure yesterday also took us to our favorite local nursery for fall vegetable starts. Having grandson here, activities with him, and our vacation just got in the way of starting my own. Once home, a bit of grubbing in the soil with my awesome hoe and my hands, cleared two beds, weeded the bean patch where I realized that the gnawed off shoots were growing new leaves. Planted were 4 Rainbow Chard, 8 Broccoli, 4 Kale plants.

Once they were safely tucked in the soil and mulched with some spoiled hay, row cover was placed over them and the beans to thwart the bunnies and the cabbage moths. Perhaps we will get some beans this season after all. We have about 60 days until our average first frost date, so I am hopeful.

In recent years, I have been reluctant to plant radishes and turnips in our garden as they always seem to be attacked by the little white maggots. Recently I read that if you sprinkle wood ash in your furrow that they won’t be a problem. I hadn’t really saved any wood ash, but found a couple of cups worth in the bottom of the woodstove and added it to about a cup of diatomaceous earth and planted a row of red radishes, a row of white icicle radishes and a row of turnip seed as a test, sprinkling the mix in the row and on top of the covered seed. We will see if that experiment works, if so I will save more wood ash next year. This bed was also covered with a row cover to thwart the bunnies.

My son says I should sit out there with my .22 and dispatch them and eat them. Unfortunately, I don’t like rabbit and I couldn’t clean them if I succeeded in shooting one. I will continue to deter them with row cover and maybe once I get the electric fence charged to keep the deer and dogs out, I will string plastic bunny fence around the vegetable garden.

I couldn’t get cabbage starts at our local nursery, they were all sold out, but Lowes just got theirs in yesterday afternoon and a scored a flat of 9. This morning they were planted. , Now it’s time to thin the raspberries, harvest and preserve for the winter.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

August 14, 2014
Book Challenge

One of my avid passions is reading. My favorites are forensic science fiction, historical fiction and fiction by local authors or authors that set their books in areas or regions that are familiar to me, though I often read books recommended by friends, family, or public reviews..

Last year I joined a 100 book challenge a bit into the year and succeeded in reading 90+ books. This year, again I joined the challenge and have read almost 50 books so far. The challenge is a group including many of my friends, however, it is on Facebook and I have decided to deactivate my account. I will miss the book suggestions and reviews from this group.

I have always loved books and have several that I read repeatedly such as Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and the classic To Kill A Mockingbird.

All of our family are readers and I have been in awe of our 9 year old grandson, who while staying with us this summer has read in excess of 4000 pages of novels. Though he still picks up some books that would be considered 3rd to 4th grade level, he has read the entire Seven Wonders series, the entire Eragon series (3 of the 4 are over 750 pages each), and reread the first book of the Hunger Games series. He not only can read them, but will sit and discuss them with you. In that sense he reminds me of his Dad at that age. Such a great passion, love of books.

August 9, 2014
Olio – August 6, 2014

Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

As our last week with our grandson this summer is closing and since he was such a good traveler last week we gave him another afternoon at the Frog Pond, the public pool. He enjoys this outing. The pool has a large shallow circular pool with an island, an umbrella that showers water down and a small frog shaped slide then an attached deeper pool with two water park type tube slides into it. He slides and gets out, slides again, then gets into the shallow area and plays splash tag with other kids. Neither of us got in with him today.

Broody hen is winning. Yesterday, I repeatedly removed her from the nest, put bags of ice in the nest (she sat on them), and finally blocked off the nest (she moved over one). This morning, after I blocked off both of the ones she prefers last night, she had moved over yet another one and was sitting, puffing up and pecking at me when I try to move her. I have pulled her out of the nest and put her in the pen several times today and just a few minutes ago, I found her again, sitting on an egg. In the past 11 days, we have gotten only 2 eggs and she broke one of them.

Yesterday, I brought in several pints of jalapenos and pickled them for Jim, who eats one with nearly every dinner I prepare. There are dozens of Ancho peppers turning red, a pint of so of red cayenne’s, a handful of Habeneros. The Tomatillos skins are beginning to dry and split, showing the fruit inside.

This morning, our neighbor who has been gone for 2 years, having returned a couple of nights ago, came down to visit and say hello. He tried to help get my solar charger on the electric fence to charge the fence. The charger will shock you if you touch the connector with a wire, but won’t charge the braided wire that the charger requires. I sent him home with a grocery sack full of rainbow chard and several jars of various jams. He will be helping us over the next few weeks to get our porch and deck re-stained before winter.

Our eldest, father of the visiting grandson, will be here this weekend to begin setting up scaffolding and caulking between the logs of the garage so that we can begin staining again. Log homes require frequent staining until the logs have absorbed enough of the oil stain, then it can be done with less frequency. Knowing what we know now, though we love our wood house, we probably would not have built a log home, rather one that was easier to maintain.

The weather over the next few days is to be cooler and wet, so the final outings with grandson will have to be of the indoor variety.

August 6, 2014
Vacation

On July 27th, we packed the pups off to doggie camp, loaded the car with suitcases, guitar and amp, bike, ball gloves and a cooler and headed south. Grandson and I in the car, Jim on his motorcycle for his first major road trip. We headed off for a weeklong visit with our daughter and her family. We haven’t seen them since last Christmas and grandson hasn’t seen his cousins since last August. We had booked a hotel room about halfway there, a bit over 400 miles. It took us longer to make those miles than when it is just the two of us in the car as we stopped every 110-120 miles to reconnect with each other and for Jim to have a chance to get a drink and walk around for a bit to give his sore parts a rest. Once at the hotel, the guys took a dip in the pool, we found a Mexican restaurant catering to the Mexican population and had a good dinner, then back to let grandson ride his bike around the parking lot to let off some steam.

As the temperature reached 100ºf that day, I’m not sure if he was letting off steam or making steam.

Visiting was active for the three grands, with biking, Lego building, Light saber battles, reading, soccer and baseball, a beach visit, a day at Busch Gardens in Tampa. The Busch Gardens day was hot and humid, but everyone from the 2 1/2 year old to the 70 somethings found rides to ride, shows to see, snacks to eat.

Riding a camel on the carousel. We rode it about 5 times and she never would get on a horse that went up and down.

Sunday we started our return journey home, leaving early to try to miss the afternoon rain showers. Again stopping every couple of hours to reconnect and spending a night in a hotel a bit more than half way home. The afternoon arrival was greeted with a delightfully cool house that had been closed up with no A/C on, temps in the upper 70’s, a deliciously chilly night in our own bed.

My stop at the neighbor who chicken sits for us, revealed that she didn’t get a single egg, I’m glad I took her two dozen on our way out and brought her a pound of Orange Blossom honey from Florida. My visit to the coop, I found a still broody hen on one fragile egg that she broke when she puffed up and tried to prevent me from moving her off the nest.

This morning, she got a surprise as I removed her from the nest and put re-freezable ice packs in her nest and the next one over. She is nearing 22 days of broodiness on an empty nest.

Later this week, a delivery of 15 Rainbow Ranger meat chicks will be delivered and we will begin raising them for 11 weeks.

The heavy straw mulch on the garden has kept the weeds down. There were a few over developed squash and cucumbers that got fed to the chickens, more harvested for us. Lots of peppers that I need to process today. Basil that needs to be pulled and dried. Yellow wax beans pulled and dumped in the chicken pen. Bunnies or deer got in the garden and ate most of the new green beans down. I will cover them today and see if there is any recovery. There are three beds that need some fall crops planted before it is too late.

This morning, grandson and I went to pick up the pups. They seem to be glad to be home.

We have one more week and a half with grandson and I will return him home. The weeks have gone by so quickly, but it has been a delight having him with us.

August 5, 2014
Curmudgeon

I was fortunate to have my paternal grandfather in my life until I was in my early 30’s. When I was a teen and my great grandmother was in a geriatric ward for a couple of years, he would tell me tales of his young life. He grew up in a railroad family and was known to “ride the rails.” As a young man, he injured and lost one of his eyes with a pocket knife accident and had a glass eye. Though he had an interesting young life and was probably a bit of a bad boy, he was a gentle, hardworking man that owned his own business and raised two sons that both far exceeded his 8th grade education, both getting University degrees in engineering. As an older man, he was a bit of a curmudgeon.

I was the first grandchild and always felt a special bond with him. As a young adult, I would go to the farmers’ market then take baskets of peas or butter beans to my grandparents home and my grandmom and I would shell them for dinner and for the freezer. More than once, Pop as all of us grandkids called him would sit on the porch with us and would pick up a handful of beans and start shelling. My grandmom would comment that she had never seen him do that before.

I had a young kitten and once asked them if they would keep it for a week while I flew to Hawaii to met my husband on R & R. They had no pets as Pop wasn’t fond of them, but indeed they did keep my kitten. One of the things he disliked was having the cat rub around his legs as cats are prone to do. It is strange that as I am aging, I don’t like a cat to rub on me and though we have two outdoor cats and two dogs, I don’t like them to lick me.

Once I asked him if he had seen a comic in the paper and though he was reading the paper, he told me he didn’t read the comics. I couldn’t believe that anyone didn’t read them, but other than the occasional one that my husband points out to me, I no longer read them, none of the good ones are in print anymore.

When my first husband and I started having marital problems, it was obviously distressing to him. After I divorced and met my current husband, the love of my life, my grandfather took him aside and informed Jim that if he ever hurt me, that he would have to answer to him. As it turned out, when Pop had a heart attack at home and my grandmother called me to come to her, I was a city away at work. Jim was close by and he hurried to their home to help my grandmom while the medics were there and until I could get there.

Recently, I have thought of him many times, when an impatient driver behind us honked his horn at Jim, I was reminded of how Pop would continue to sit, roll down his window and point over the top of his car; as I fuss at the cat for rubbing against my legs on the porch or as one of the dogs tries to “kiss” me; when Jim points out a comic in the paper that he thought I would appreciate. Perhaps, I too am becoming a curmudgeon.

July 23, 2014
Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

Sunflowers to brighten another cloudy day. A tiny hummingbird was zipping from flower to flower.

Silly success with math practice.

My space to read and blog, or eat. Wish I could weave like this, or throw pottery mugs.

Best buddies. This will be one sad dog at summer’s end when L returns home.

July 20, 2014
Easy Rider

Many, many years ago, I could be seen running madly down the street hanging on to the seat of one of our children’s bicycles until they achieved the balance and confidence to ride away on their own. I am clearly not that young any more. Eldest grandson, living in an apartment on a hilly parking lot in a busy city has been reluctant to learn to ride. He rides with his Dad on the tandem bike, in fact they go many miles to Kung Fu each Saturday, rain or shine and often a couple of miles to guitar lessons on Friday evening with the guitar strapped to his Dad’s back.

Since he is with us for a good portion of this summer and since we are taking him with us to visit his 7 year old cousin in Florida, we brought his bike to the mountains for some lessons on riding before the Florida trip. He has been here a week now and today, since hubby is off on his motorcycle, I decided it was a good day for a bicycle lesson. L was quite reluctant. The school counselor in me acknowledged that he was afraid, but insisted that together we could overcome that fear. Off to the local elementary school we went, as they have a nice flat road and parking area and several gently sloping grassy hills down to water retention depressions. When we got there, he was very oppositional about even trying, but I was as stubborn that he was going to give it a go, a bit of bribery thrown in for good measure. I ran behind him, helping to keep him balanced until I couldn’t catch my breath and decided that the gentle grassy slopes might provide a good place to practice balance.

This gave me a chance to breath as well. He would coast down the hill and walk the bike back up. Once his balance was better, we resumed the running behind a few more times, but by then I didn’t have to hold the seat and handlebars, just the seat. He is definitely getting it. A couple more times of this and he will ride away from me on his own, a new skill learned. I could see the confidence in his face after today’s session and I doubt that we will have anymore reluctance to try.

July 12, 2014
Let the Outings Begin

One week ago, right about now, we left Vienna, VA, grandson, son, daughter in law, and me. We have had grandson solo since Sunday afternoon. His daily routine here requires guitar practice, Kung Fu practice as he is missing those lessons this summer, a writing assignment and a math assignment as practice for weak skills and reinforcement for those skills that he does well. I supervise those practices first thing each morning right after breakfast unless the writing requires a library visit.

We told him that he would have some basic chores to do here at the house each day and for that, we would give him an allowance so that he has some spending money. He can earn extra money by going above and beyond his required chores. He is only 9, so nothing is too onerous or too difficult. We also told him that while he was here, we would do a series of outings and that with cooperation with his practices and chores, he could earn extra outings. Some of the outings planned can be repeated such as the county pool, batting cage, movie date with granddad. Others are ones that will only be done once, such as the one we did today. We drove to Roanoke, the nearest city, about an hour from home, leaving to be there at lunch time. The market square hosts a farmers market many days each week and we caught quite a number of farmers there today. On the market square, there is a hot dog counter and we though it doesn’t stand up to our favorite one from Virginia Beach, it was a delicious unhealthy lunch, followed with healthy purchases of fresh corn, tomatoes, potatoes and a watermelon. One stand had baked goods and we purchased a whole grain breakfast bread full of fruit, nuts, seeds and not too much real cane sugar.

After our lunch and the market we drove a few short blocks to the Virginia Transportation Museum. This was a fun adventure, bringing back many memories for me as I used to ride a Norfolk and Western train from Norfolk to Farmville to and from college. On display are locomotives, passenger cars, cabooses, old wagons, handpump firetrucks, and a trolley car. Inside the museum is a huge O gauge train set up, displays on bus transportation, train history, and air travel. It was a fun couple of hours spent with our grandson.

Back home, the last of the peas were harvested and the vines pulled for the chooks. The peas were shelled and cooked with the corn and some left over kabob beef and pork tenderloin for dinner. Once the clean up was done, some garden weeding and harvest of 76 heads of garlic, now drying for a day or two outside before the stems are clipped and they are moved to the wire shelves of the root cellar to finish drying.

That part of the bed will be cleaned up and planted with a second planting of bush beans within a day or two.

I love when the garden is producing and the local markets have produce that either we don’t grow or don’t have in ready in our garden yet.

I’m loving life on our mountain farm.

July 10, 2014