The first week of 2021 started off pretty normal around here as we got up a little earlier to greet a grand child. CA has her check up appointment this morning so IR was dropped off here around 8 . I got chores done and then we had breakfast together. After we finished eating I got laundry started and waited for daughter to get here with CA. Daughter had to work on some back to school classwork so we took CA with us to the feed store to pick up chicken feed and she got a nap all the way there and back and even slept on couch after we got home. IR chose to stay here with her mom and watch TV. We unloaded the feed and then came inside to here the last of the school board special meeting that put all county schools back completely on virtual learning for all students for the month of January. Covid-19 case counts are hitting new records in the county and state everyday since the holidays began so they didn't think it was safe to send students back to face to face learning. Daughter was relieved that she could teach from home at least for this month. It still is unbelievable to me that everyone wouldn't try wearing a face mask for awhile to see if that would indeed slow the spread of the virus. China made it a law back in the spring that everyone out in public had to wear a face mask and that stopped the spread over there. I did laundry and made a cake delivery and changed bed covers this afternoon while daughter worked and hubbie played with the girls. RL came up after lunch because d-in-love had a doctor appointment. After they all left we spent some time sitting on the front porch enjoying the nice sunshine and upper 50's temps. We got chores done and then I spent some time undecorating tonight and then caught up my blog post. Thankful for the blessings of this day. God Bless and Good Night
Monday, January 4, 2021
Sunday, January 3, 2021
UNDECORATING BEGINS
A nice lazy Sunday morning today as we got out in the still unseasonable warm temps already in the upper 40's. After chores we had breakfast then began some lunch prep. We had cooked a beef roast in the crock pot overnight and to go with it we had smashed potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, biscuits and I made a fruit salad for dessert. #1 son's family and daughter and the girls were our only guest today for lunch. After we ate we met son-in-love over at Edneyville elementary to let the kids ride their new bikes for the first time. Daughter also got in some drone flying practice. She starts teaching her drone class this coming Thursday. The wind started blowing and the temperature dropped like a rock so we cut our stay short and headed back home. We left the bikes in the back of hubbie's truck and came inside to build a fire in the wood stove and warm up. After a short rest we got out and got chores done and then hauled my Honda full of Christmas decoration containers up here from the storage shed so I begin taking down the decorations tonight. We had a light supper and then I put a way some laundry and took all the ornaments off the main tree in the living room and we took the tree downstairs and stored it away for another 11 months. The living room looks so bare and different with the big tree gone out of it. That was my goal for tonight so I relaxed the rest of the evening.
Thankful for the blessings of this day. God Bless and Good Night
Saturday, January 2, 2021
LAST ROOSTER HARVEST OF THIS SEASON
Up to get a busy day started. Thankfully no rain this morning and the clouds are breaking up pretty fast in the warm temperature. I got chores done while hubbie walked an egg order down to the mailbox for a customer to pick up and caught a ride back up with #2 son who was off today and coming over to help us with our last rooster harvest of the season. With hubbie's hurt finger I needed some extra help with setting up and plucking duties so son and daughter volunteered but son-in-love has a migraine this morning so daughter is staying home and keeping the girls . I grabbed a breakfast bar and a cup of coffee while hubbie and son were gathering our tools. Son helped me catch the 5 final roosters and we got started. It went so much faster with son's help and since we were finished in less than 2 hours I decided to cut all these up so we would have chicken pieces and they will take up a lot less room in our pretty crowded freezer. I got all these in the refrigerator to cool overnight while d-in-love and daughter both came over to let the girls play and draw more on the easel I sat up. D-in-love took RL home and I went to Sam's Club with daughter to pick up some after Christmas on sale dresses for next year for all the girls but we struck out and didn't find anything on sale. Back home daughter took IR and CA home while hubbie and I went outside to get some things done. I cleaned out all the rooster pens that were no emptied for a while and hubbie worked on a water bucket cover to hopefully keep my chicken waterer refill water from freezing. We also got chores done and then I sat on the front porch with "Meow Meow" to watch this beautiful red sunset.
Friday, January 1, 2021
WELCOME 2021
HAPPY NEW YEARS DAY , welcome in 2021 , may you be kinder than 2020. However when I think back over 2020 it wasn't that bad for us as we found new paths and got to explore different avenues of family life and fun. We enjoyed the neighbors fireworks when the clock struck midnight along with RL at her house who also made it up to ring in the New Year.
Thankfully hubbie's finger is feeling much better this morning as we got out in the rain to get morning chores done. Today is suppose to be a complete washout and it sure looks like it has started that way. We had a quick breakfast then started cooking our traditional New Years day lunch. I put a ham hock in the oven and started some black eyed peas in the pressure pot while hubbie stripped the stems from some fresh collards from our garden. We also had boiled potatoes in the larger pressure pot and biscuits in the oven along with an apple crisp for dessert. Everyone made it to lunch and then daughter and son-in-love helped me clean up the kitchen so hubbie wouldn't be tempted to try and wash dishes with his bandaged finger. After everyone left hubbie and I went to pick up a curbside order from Walmart and then relaxed to watch it rain heavily all afternoon. By the time it slacked enough to get out and get chores done there was 2.2 inches in the gauge and still raining and more predicted tonight. This evening the creek was licking the bank tops .
Thursday, December 31, 2020
2020 HIGHLIGHTS
A cloudy but warm morning greeted us on the last day of this year. We got chores done and then had breakfast. We don't have any concrete plans for today so I did some house cleaning things that seem to get over looked routinely like cleaning the ceiling fans, etc. Hubbie went up to split some more firewood. Just as I finished the kitchen fan bubbie came stumbling in the front door with one of his hands wrapped in a rag and said he had had mashed his hand really badly. He passed out from the pain almost as soon as he came through the door, I have no idea how he made it this far. I grabbed ice packs from the freezer and cold rags and got him back conscious before I looked at the wrapped hand. He said he had caught his fingers in the wood splitter and his left hand ring finger nail was hanging be a couple pieces of skin and bleeding and swelling badly. Thankfully we got his wedding band off and I put his finger in ice to hopefully stop the bleeding. He said it was very very painful and was making him sick at his stomach it hurt so badly. He wanted to get up from his position of lying on his back in the living room floor so I called g-son who was the only one around today and he came right up to help get him up and catch him if he passed out again. We took it really slowly and thankfully he made it to the bathroom and then into the bed without passing out again. G-son helped me get some gauge pads wrapped around his finger to catch the blood that was still coming from 2 splits on each side of his nail. He took an Aleve pill and layed really still to help stop the sick feeling. G-son was great with him and watched him closely. Daughter happened to come by to pick up something and her and the girls stayed awhile to make sure he was going to be okay. D-in-love and RL also came in to check on him. RL and IR were glad to see each other and get a few minutes to play together since they haven't seen each other in a couple days.
January ...... Who knew we would look back on these first 2 months as the only normal times of this entire year. We had a routine month with the big events being that IR started going to the preschool that RL goes to and had a hard time adjusting as sickness and weather cancelations limited her days in school. Market annual stockholders meeting was held and I was re-elected to the board and appointed to be treasurer this year. One birthday this month as BB got a year older. The month ended with a snowfall but it didn't last long.
February.........This month began with a major flooding rain and ended with another snowfall and in between there was many days of snow and rain. It was a very routine month with the girls being able to play at the park on a couple days and taking turns with sickness.
March.......... This month started out normally with market days and park play days and g-son's first track meet which he did great in and unknown to us while we enjoyed these days by mid month the world as we knew it would change totally. With the arrival of the covid_19 virus that is assumed to be a manmade virus from China invaided our peaceful routine. President Trump issued a national emergency and govenor Cooper issued a stay at home order and closed all non-essential businesses which ended my cake baking market business. As we started to rely more on ourselves we planted an early garden and ordered meet from some small farms around the area to make sure we kept our food supplies up as grocery store shelves emptied from an unspoken panic. Toilet paper and paper products became highly sought after items and every mom became home school teachers as schools closed. All our family started wearing face mask when we were around anyone even though the news was saying these wouldn't work. We knew the reason for them saying that was so that the same panic hoarding of face mask wouldn't take away medical staff mask. This month 4 members of our family got a year older as #2 son, daughter, Re and EL all celebrated birthdays.
April......As store shelves continued to stand bare we were very glad for our abundance of fresh eggs and some early garden produce already coming in. I bought a new incubator and decided to hatch my own chicks as a shortage of chicks at all the nurseries became evident as more folks bought chicks for meat and eggs. I had only a little above 50% hatch rate both times I ran the incubator but I feel like there is a learning curve to this and will begin candeling the eggs next time to see at what time the eggs are going bad. However with full incubator racks I got enough chicks and guinea chicks to satisfy my needs. The guinea chicks are to sell and replenish my flock after a fox let me only 2 males and 1 female this spring. There were no park days but we made the best of all our playground equipment here and the girls had a great month. Easter was a wonderful celebration with just our family as the kids hunted eggs and had fun on Easter Sunday and we all recognized the significance of our Savior being nailed to that cross for the opportunity for all mankind to be able to be forgiven of their sins. We celebrated one birthday this month as d-in-love got a year older.
May........Hubbie and I with the help of #1 son built a fire fit patio and we really enjoyed it this year. Mother's day was celebrated with gifts and love from all the kids and son-in-love and CA had memorable birthday celebrations this month. Late cold weather delayed garden plantings but we managed to get the garden plantings completed before the end of the month. The kids said good bye to their teachers in drive by fashion still under covid lock down rules. Hatched more chicks this month. #1 son found out he had a gall bladder problem when he made a couple trips to the ER with stomach pain.We had a lot of rain this month for a lot of wet inside play days but there was a lot of sunshiny days to enjoy outside also as the girls all still stayed here while their moms worked from home.
June...........Summer weather was finally here and the pools were opened and the kids enjoyed the hot days cooling off in #1 son's pool, Aa's pool and daughter's neighbor's pool. Daughter participated in the drive through graduation for the 2020 Senior class. We started harvesting garden produce and enjoying the bounty of our work. IR had a toothache and her dentist saga began. I bought a new chicken tractor to house some of my many chicks that are still hatching. We celebrated father's day along with 4 more family birthdays as d-in-love Tif, hubbie, IR and Aa all got a year older. #2 son and Tif also celebrated their 1st wedding anniversary.
July........Started the major food preservation process from our garden with dilly bean canning on the first day then canned green beans, made zuchinni relish and froze some of our excess zuchinni, also made hot mustard thoughout the days of this busy month. We had an awesome fourth of July celebration over at Aa's after he and #1 son went after fireworks and it was a beautiful evening the God added some of his own fireworks to but thankfully we only got the colorful lightening and not the rain. We made visits to a local farmers market and to a friends berry farm this farm to add to our fresh produce. IR finally was put to sleep and had her dental surgery which we were all grateful to have behind us. Pool visits were numerous in this above normal temperature month. I also picked blueberries and blackberries this month for the freezer and the 2020 hurricane season geared up with several storms but thankfully none caused trouble here. I got a year older this month and daughter and son-in-love celebrated their wedding anniversary.
August....... Started out with virtual Bible School for the kids. I started this month out busily baking and decorating 375 wedding cupcakes for a friends wedding. I had tomatoes to can this month and more hot pepper mustard plus more berries to pick . Daughter and I were to cover story on a local magazine called Boldlife ,with our caramel cakes . Started clearing off some of the shelly beans and onions and planting fall crops in the garden. G-son got braces on his teeth and a jaw alignment hinge put in. Schools decided to go back on a virtual schedule. As some major hurricanes came into the gulf and came our way we had several flooding rains but thankfully no damage. We gated our driveway after numerous airbnb customers came looking for an address that was in another county at all hours of the day and night. And to end the month we had a corn harvest and but up all our freezers full of corn for the season.
September.......This month started off differently with a visit from a big black bear to our front yard. He spent the night in a big tree right in the front yard and we haven't seen him since. There were more tomatoes to put up this month and apple jelly was made. We spent a quiet Labor day and celebrated RL's 5th birthday. The hurricane number for the year record was broken in this month and at one time there was 5 named storms in the Atlantic at the same time. We received plenty of rain from several of these storms. Part of the family and hubbie and I hiked to the top of Bearwallow mountain and had many fun playdays and smores making campfires. School started back on "B" schedule where students went to school 2 days a week and had virtual school 2 days a week with Wednesday an off day. Kindergarten through 2nd grade went to school fulltime with everyone wearing face mask and social distancing being strongly enforced.
October........This was a fun month as always with fun outside play and pumpkin carving. We celebrated g-son's and #1 son's birthdays. We did some fall garden planting and dug our potatoes. #1 son also had his gall bladder removed and they found it was full of stones which had not shown up before in any of the test they did. I had a good annual checkup report and hubbie got a good report in his dental exam. We had our first frosty mornings and moved all the plants into their winter basement homes. Hubbie and I voted early so we would not be subjected to Covid carriers at the regular poles. Had a bad flood from a tropical storm named Zeta along with strong winds that knocked out power to a lot of folks but thankfully not us. We made fun trips to the pumpkin patch and ended the month with a very fun Halloween trick or treating and cook out here.
November............ brought the end of daylight savings time and earlier darkness in the evenings. A new president was elected under major suspictions of voter fraud as high numbers of votes changed overnight in some states and mail in ballots delayed the final results in other states. We harvested our first run of roosters that I had raised from chicks. Daughter took her turn at surgery as she had MOH surgery to remove a cancerous mole from her forehead. Daughter and I stayed busy with cake and pie orders for customers for Thanksgiving, even though we are not going to the Curb Market right now we had more orders than normal this year. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner of Thanksgiving day attending by all the kids. We harvested a second set of roosters for the freezer and ended the month quietly with a cold blast of weather.
December..........The first day started off with the first snow flakes of the season and very cold temperatures. I got my Christmas decorating started and had plenty of good help this year with all the kids getting in on putting ornaments on all my trees. #1 son and d-in-love and hubbie and I both celebrated wedding anniversaries this month. We had a light icing on a couple mornings and then had some really pretty days to play outside. We had a wonderful Christmas eve celebration and even had snow that started during out celebration and we woke to a very rare white Christmas morning. We visited all the kids on Christmas morning and all the kids got everything they wanted . We had the coldest temperatures of the season with the chill factor well into the single digits but the year ended with some nice weather before a rain storm moved in for the first day of 2021.
This year has been challenging but as for me ,I have enjoyed the staying more at home and curbside grocery and shopping pickups and most of all the closer family time we have had the opportunity to have. I pray for health and guidance from our Lord in the coming year as I expect it is going to be another challenge for all of us. We have our faith to lean on and God always is in complete control if we continue to follow Him and use the Heart and Brain He gave us to help ourselves with His guidance.
Thankful that I have a wonderful, loving Savior and in that I can face anything that comes along with Him beside me. God Bless, Good Night and Happy New Year
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
FOGGY ERRAND DAY
Up to a misty cool cloudy morning to start this day. We got chores done and had breakfast . We loaded the truck up and headed to daughter's to pick up IR and CA who wanted to ride with us on our errand run today. We made stops at the PO then the courthouse to drop the market taxes check in the outside drop box then we headed over to the market to get some end of the year things cleaned up. I talked to Sue the manager on the phone while I was there and she isn't happy at all with the challenge to get some of the vendors to wear face mask. Hardly any vendors are coming in and practically no customers and she feels that the refusal to wear the mask by a few of the vendors is contributing to the absence of customers and she is very uncomfortable with them not wearing mask. Sue is such a great caring manager that will be impossible to replace so I hope the board members that are attending market will take this into consideration in enforcing the mask wearing rules.
We left there and went by the dump before going to pick up lunch for the girls who were both asleep by this time. We dropped them off at home with their lunches and they both woke up to eat. Hubbie and I came home to have our lunch then hubbie went outside to work in his shop and I finished up a last load of laundry before IR came back to stay with me while her mom delivered some cakes. CA was napping in the car so she rode with her mom. IR and I cuddled under blankets and watched some cartoons until daughter came back. After they went home hubbie and I watched some early news and had a left over bowl of soup for supper. We went out and got chores done in a still misty foggy evening.
Thankful for all the blessings of this day. God Bless, Good Night and Happy New year
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
"COLD MOON" LAST FULL MOON OF 2020
Up to another beautiful sunny morning and the temperature is already above freezing at 37 degrees as I head out to get chores done.
After chores I had breakfast with IR and CA who wanted to stay with me while daughter delivered her cakes to the produce stand. Hubbie is also gone this morning to get his truck inspected so we can renew his tag online today. The girls and I ate and watched cartoons until hubbie got home. We all played until daughter got back , she had stopped in Sam's Club to see if they had any after Christmas sales but she struck out there also. We all had lunch and I got hubbie's tag on it's way and did some market business online. After daughter and the girls left hubbie and I went outside in the very warm sunny afternoon with temps in the upper 50's and took down and put away all the outside Christmas decorations. I wanted to get them all stored away dry before more rain comes in tomorrow and for the next several days. After we finished that we decided to get out the clippers and chainsaw and cut down all the Walnut and Wild Cherry trees that are growing on the bank below my sewing shop. Hubbie cut and I dragged all the brush and tree trunks down into the woods. I know I will be sore tomorrow but this had to be done. It is one of those jobs that we have been putting off for a while and had decided we would get it done during this vacation time. Thankfully we were able to get it done today. After a short rest it was choretime. The moon is a lot lower tonight than it was last night at this same time. This always amazes me when I see the moons different position each night while everything else looks like it is in the same place. The explanation I remember from science classes is that the moon is also orbiting the earth along with the earth moving. It takes the moon 27 days to orbit the earth so it is in a different position each night. This is where the moon was at the same time I took the picture last night of it already above these trees.
