BERRIES! To feed our feathered friends

These are all growing in our yard and we plan to start or divide plants where ever possible to move up to our property. We plan to add to the hedgerow to make it bird friendly and dense to cut down on road noise.

Testing Wings once more

Greg will be off to visit friends in Mississippi later today and will be gone until next Monday. One of his friends bought him a bus ticket and he is so excited! I pray for his safe journey there and back and in between. I'm sure that he will have a GREAT time. I'm going to make some snacks for him to have along the way. I'm going to try a recipe from http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ it is from her post today which is actually a repost of a popular post from her blog. The bars sound delicious.

Scott and Greg are still asleep and the cats have been fed so it's my quiet time. Last night I made the mistake of stepping on the scales - I've gained 15 pounds since leaving my job in November. Time to get busy... gotta burn more calories everyday. I will start my "spring cleaning" now to keep me busy and away from the kitchen.

SCORE!~

We were out and about driving around and I spotted this GREAT FIND in a trash pile and made Scott back up so that I could put it in the back of the truck. I will clean it up and use it in my sewing room for notions. I love it and it's the perfect size for it's planned use. I just love after Christmas when everyone is pitching out "old stuff" to make room for new... street side shopping at it's best!

Stuck in the mud and an Interesting Find

We went up to our land today to check on the little persimmon tree's and to walk around a little. As we were walking in the area that I would like to have a vegetable garden my always alert eyes caught onto something we had never seen before...



This was some sort of fungus that I will have to research more to identify but I had to share this picture that I took of it. It was as large as the palm of my hand and had a bit of water in the center from all the rain that we have been having and in the water there were spores floating. It was definitely the most unusual thing that we have seen on our land yet.

On the way back up the front field we got stuck and had to walk across the road to see if our neighbor Steve could pull or push us out. Thankfully he was and we were able to get back home. Of course he picked a bit at Scott about having "street tire's" on the truck instead of farm mudde'n types... perhaps that is something we will have to look into. I'm sure glad that we didn't take my car up there this time.

An Early Start to the day...

Scott and I are both up all ready and enjoying our first cup of coffee. No point laying in the bed getting achy. I will take down all the Christmas decorations today; we don't leave it up until New Years like most people. Once it's over I want it taken down and everything put away. I think I will take the time to clean out our closet where we store decorations and gift-wrap. Some things in there just need to find a new home as we haven't used them in years. In fact I need to do a DEEP clean on this entire house and purge stuff that we haven't used in years. No point having it around doing nothing for us except collecting dust and adding to the chaos.

I was reading on another blog how he starts flower seeds in 2 liter soda pop bottles and I believe that we will give it a try. Tuesday is trash day and I am hoping to find some 2 liter bottles in recycling bins. I'll post pictures of what I come up with. I have a TON of flower seeds; some being quite old so I don't know if they will even sprout but I will give it a try.

I need to get the bed beside the garage prepared for the horseradish, rhubarb and asparagus that I ordered from Gurneys. Perhaps I will work on that some this week. Scott needs to rebuild one more bed and our garden rebuild will be complete - unless we decided to enlarge it a bit.

What a way to start Christmas day...

I'm up at 2 feeling like poo! I knew something was wrong last night when I was ready for bed at 8:30. And I was having a hard time handling the atmosphere at my Mother-in-law's last night. My head is stuffed up and I'm sneezing periodically. I feel like CRAP! Perhaps some OJ and water will make me feel a little better.

12/25/2009 Well I went back to sleep in the recliner and got up about 8 AM feeling a little better. Thank Goodness! My fella's are still sound asleep so I'll have to wait on them for gift opening here. Last night at my Mother-in-Law's I got 2 bags of pecan's (YUMMY - Scott just requested a pecan pie too); 2 quilting magazine's, a scenic nature calendar, some cozy socks (2 pair), a book on SC Wildflowers and a cool ear muff thing. I was thrilled with it all. I've all ready found several projects in the one magazine I've looked at that I want to make. Perhaps if I start now I can make something for EVERYONE in both families next year.

The Quiet of the Morning

First thing in the morning when I am up and have made coffee it is so peacefully quiet in the house. Of course there is the hum of the various electronic equipment thats running and the noises from the cats - happy to have been fed and groomed but there is no shocking noises to break the near silence. It's a time of reflection and a time of planning the day. We will exchange gifts with Scott's family this evening. It will be nice to be together again. Other than that I don't really have anything else planned into this day. Perhaps we will bundle up and take Amelia to the Riverwalk - if it's open that is. Last time we drove by it they had it closed as a good bit of it was under water. If that is the case perhaps we will just walk around the neighborhood with her so that she can gather some scents to think about tonight so that she won't bark so much. HA HA! The neighborhood has filled with happy families that have traveled here to stay with family this weekend. I believe that more people are cherishing time together this year and buying fewer gifts. I know that is what we have done.

I've been thinking about my pre-teen and teen Christmas's with my Grandma Carr. The sickly little pine tree's that I would march through the snow to find just so we would have one. Going through the antique ornaments in the little wooden chest. The plastic like garland that I would hang from the ceiling in loops above the tree for an added decoration. Blueberry muffins or pancakes with liver and scrambled eggs. The liver being pounded and floured and fried until it was nearly hard as a rock. Hot tea - we NEVER drank coffee as she was certain it caused hemroids. Exchanging one or perhaps maybe two gifts for each other and then a big hug and kiss on each other's cheeks. Sometimes we would cook a big dinner but most years we would go to an Aunt or Uncle's for dinner on Christmas day. I miss talking to her so much these days.

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas filled with laughter, love and GREAT conversations. A Wonderful New Year with tremendous happiness and wishes full-filled.

Another short video

This is Santa in his Airplane...

Christmas Light video

A little video of the river boat that Scott took at the Christmas in Cayce light display. We are just learning to use this camera so bear with us.

Christmas in Cayce

We went over to City Hall to get some pictures of the "Christmas in Cayce" lights. We parked and walked to see them... much more to see if you take the time to walk instead of drive the loop. We had not seen Santa in the airplane before.

Me and Mom

I look older than my Mom with this gray hair but it's me -prematurely gray headed - just as God made me. I love her dearly and adore this photo even if she does have her eyes shut.

COOKIE BAKING DAY!

Thats right... yesterday was also "cookie baking day" at my Moms'. Uncle Scott only came to the kitchen when a taster was required. LOL! the rest of the time he was either outside or sitting in the living room with a child ready lap for "chill time" when the kitchen activity became too much.

MY Mom and her goats

These are Mom's bottle fed babies. I think there were 6 babies in this pen; Mom was saying that she would need to move them soon as they were getting too big to share this space - I believe that she is correct.
And Mom with another pretty baby that was actually born to a good Mom that would let it nurse and Mom with her Billy - RUFUS!

More Handmade Gifts

Abby in the nightie I made just for her. She took up the cookbook I made for her Mom and had a look with lots of OOHH and AHHHs. And Phoenix receiving the super soft doggy blanket that I made for him. And this years BIG PROJECT - Mom and Dad's quilt - contains picture of all 6 of us kids, our spouses and all our children - even a few of the furry variety.

Handmade Gifts

These are all the gifts that I made for my family. Lets see... there were scarves, makeup bags, blankets/quilt, knitted baby wash clothes and cookbooks.... oh and a hat and a nightie.