Author: Lisa -Southern Patches

Hello everyone, my name is Lisa I am a southern girl born and raised in East Tennessee. I love discovering new places and things to do. I have a lot of favorites, shopping, traveling, knitting and photography are all at the top of my list. I am married with my fur babies my only children. This blog is actually named after my beloved basset hound Patches. She passed away a few years ago but will always have a huge part of my heart. Come with me and we will explore some wonderful places and discover some really fun things. Are you ready?

And Then Time Stopped.

Have you been tested for COVID-19? The tests are free and they are done now quite frequently. In the beginning you could only be tested if you had symptoms even if you had been directly exposed. It could take days to get scheduled for a test and then up to a week to get the results.

With more and more tests becoming available all of that has changed, in our area anyway, I am assuming it is everywhere. People are encouraged to get tested before returning to work, if they have been exposed to someone who has tested positive or had been around someone who has tested positive.

I spent a lot of time in quarantine. I wear my mask. I have been very very careful. I haven’t been anywhere I haven’t had to be. I haven’t been to a restaurant in over three months. I just got take out for the first time a couple of weeks ago. So I have felt fairly safe. The virus was sort of a bad dream that was in the back of my mind. I knew it was real but I didn’t know anyone who had even tested positive. Sure I watched the news and saw and heard the horror stories but I also knew a lot was being told that might not be true.

And then last week I had to hit the brakes. I received a text that someone I had been in contact, even though it probably wasn’t even within six feet, had been in contact with someone who had tested positive. I froze, what should I do? Should I wait until they got tested and see if they were positive? I called our local health department, I have a friend who works there and she said yes better to get tested and be safe, and set up a time for a test that afternoon. Luckily we had not opened back up at work at this time.

I went to the health department and joined the line of cars with people waiting to be tested. It took about thirty minutes to get to the tent where the nurses were administering the tests. It was really warm that day and they had on head to toe covering with a mask and a plastic shield over their faces. I felt so much compassion for them. They were hot. It was dusty from all of the cars going through. But the nurse doing the tests came bouncing out to the car and did my test quickly and with a kind word and such a great attitude. I then went on my way. They told me I should find out the next day but because it was a weekend it might take an extra day. It did.

I went home and started to worry about my husband, who takes immunosuppressants. I knew that I had been around him all week and if I tested positive then he probably would too. It almost seemed like time had stopped. I could barely think rationally.

I will say that even though I thought the odds were low that I would test positive I still had that worry in the back of my mind. I tried to stay busy on Sunday to keep my mind off of it. Early Monday morning the fear that I felt had escalated. I was doing the what if? what if? Just a couple of hours later the health Department called and told me I was negative. I couldn’t believe the relief that I felt.

I had to think about my friend Lori who works at our local hospital in the ER department. She is on the front line and she has been tested a couple of times. I know how she worries each time. It doesn’t stop her from doing her job day after day. These people amaze me and I am so very appreciative of them. Their fear is an everyday thing.

I guess there is nothing to say to tie this up in a neat bow. I am trying to say that the fear is real, the threat is still there. It really hit home with me when I was tested. And I expect, before this situation gets better, I may have to be tested again.

The Day Lilies are blooming. New growth always makes me feel hopeful.

Please be safe.

Always remember,

Love your day your way (But be safe)

Work, Sleep, Repeat

Hello friends how are you? I have been back at work now for a few weeks. I feel that all I get done is working and sleeping. I hate to say that I miss quarantine but man things were so much simpler then. Don’t get me wrong I am glad to be back to work and doing things day to day that I have done all my life. However, the quiet time that I spent in quarantine was not bad. I had a chance to recharge, reenergize, rediscover, etc. etc. It was an easier way of life.

My work opened back up Saturday. We had a soft opening with very few customers. All of our employees are required to wear masks. We have sanitizing stations throughout the property. We have 4×8 feet panels of Lexan, it is better than Plexiglas, between the registers and our customers. Only ten people per tour. I guess this is our new normal for awhile.

I have had so many things to deal with at work, when I get home I feel mentally unable to do anything but eat dinner and catch up for a minute with my husband, care for the fur babies and collapse on the couch or go straight to bed. Luckily this is all I have to do right now.

During the time I spent in quarantine I noticed that my stress level had gone down considerably. I mentioned that in a previous post. I decided then that when I did get back to work full time I was going to leave work at work. And that once I got home, home would be my sanctuary and a place to rest and relax. I have done pretty well. This helps me to recharge and be ready to start the next day.

Of course I always take time to stop along the road and take pictures. That will never change.

This field is full of yellow wild flowers. It makes the entire field look yellow. I love it.

My daisies. I love having them for as long as I can. They last for only a short time. I have an entire field of them behind my house.

Fields of hay. I love the look. I can stare at these bales for hours. I am quite intrigued by them for some reason.

And now the honeysuckle are blooming. A sweet welcoming smell.

I think that taking pictures is sort of an outlet for me. No matter what is going on in this crazy world some things like nature and beauty never change.

A friend that I know from another attraction quite suddenly quit her job last week. She had only been back to work for a week. She had been at this job for about fifteen years. She said that being quarantined had made her realize how much her stress level had been reduced. She didn’t want to go back. Man, that is pretty powerful. I don’t think I have the courage nor the means to do that. I am not sure about her financial situation but she is not near retirement age. Oh well!! If it works for her it works. I am happy for her and maybe a little jealous. I always thought I wanted to work forever but after being at home for three weeks I am not so sure. I love being out around people I always have, but there is something to be said about the solitude of being at home and nowhere to go. Ahhhhh life where will you lead me? I shall see. It will be an adventure no matter what.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Molly The Magnificent and The Angel Dog

In November of 2009 a sweet precious baby came to our house. I will never forget the day she came. Mark and I were outside doing some yard work and we saw a very old looking black dog coming down our driveway. It was not a new thing for people to dump animals out on our road. The strange thing, there was another dog following along. The other dog followed a little ways behind the black dog. The black dog looked really old. She crept down the driveway and you could count every rib in her body. The other dog looked properly taken care of. Very healthy. I thought to myself this looks really strange. Did someone put both of these dogs out on our road? Why did only one of them look so bad.

Mark put some dog food out on the driveway. I said “I wonder who she belongs to? she looks like a hunting dog”. We didn’t really think the dog could belong to someone she was so malnourished. While the black dog ate the food hungrily the other dog watched, not making a move to try and get any of the food. We thought it was very strange the way the other dog just sat on the driveway straight and tall and didn’t bother to come down and eat or let us pet it.

The black dog let us pet her and we gave her some water. She was in such bad shape. The other dog on the driveway continued to stare never making a move to come down.

We checked the black dog over and decided she must be really old she could barely walk. We made a little bed for her and put out some more food. I looked up and the dog on the driveway was gone. It’s almost like he brought her to us and then left.

The next day we took the black dog to the vet. The vet checked her out thoroughly. Her tail had been cut off. He told us she was a Plot Hound, they are primarily known for hunting bear. He said she was probably gun shy and not a good hunting dog and someone had just let her go. She was not chipped. He surprised us by saying she was only about a year old. The reason she couldn’t walk very well was because she was starving. Surprisingly she did not have any parasites inside or outside of her body. Other than being under nourished she was in pretty good shape. This is probably because she was so young.

We named her Molly Rose, don’t laugh we always give our dogs middle names. My grandmother’s name was Rose. I had always planned to name a daughter Rose so I decided I would give the name to our precious new baby. We called her Molly and she fit right in. She never left the property except to go on our walks that we take. She would visit my father in law’s house next door to see what delicious scraps he may have thrown out. It was as if she was home and she knew it. She got along very well with our basset hound Patches and she was happy.

Through the years of course Molly has aged. She has gray in her muzzle but she still kicks her heels up like a young girl. She still goes on all of the walks with us but sometimes she comes back early and that is o.k. She stays outside most of the time but we always bring her in at night because of the C word, coyotes….

Scruffy and Molly are the best of friends.

Mom!!! We’re ready to come in.

Molly suffers from allergies she itches like crazy starting in the spring through the fall. We have to get her an allergy shot from time to time. She also has the worst ear infections. We have to deal with her ears on a daily basis. But oh how we love our Molly girl. She is the sweetest, gentlest baby you could ever hope for.

Yesterday Mark took Molly for her yearly exam. Because of the COVID restrictions he was not allowed to go into the Vet clinic with her. I knew she would hate that. She is so timid. When he pulled into the parking lot they came out and got her. She hates being around people without us nearby. But she was a good baby. When the vet came out to talk to Mark she said that Molly has a heart murmur, a tumor on her side and two tumors in her legs. The tumor or lump in her side has been there forever so we will continue to watch that. The other two in her legs we will need to get a biopsy. The murmur we will watch for signs of distress. Anyway she is an old girl starting to have old girl problems. It seems like our times with these babies goes by so quickly.

A funny story: When we first got Kitty Kitty we didn’t know how Molly would get along with her. Molly always wanted to attack smaller animals because she chased squirrels and things. We brought kitty kitty home and she was in a small crate in the back of the car. Molly jumped in and grabbed the crate with her teeth and started shaking the crate. We thought Molly wanted to eat kitty kitty. After several visits between Molly and Kitty Kitty we discovered she loved Kitty Kitty she just wanted her out of the crate. What a relief that was. Whenever we take one of the other babies to the vet, Molly paces and whines and tries to jump in the car with us. She hates for them to leave.

We never saw the other dog again. We watched for it. We told poppy about it and that it might show up at his house. It never did. The only thing that we can figure is that it truly was an angel dog. It knew exactly where to bring Molly for her to be cared for. He sat on the driveway and waited for her to be fed and watered and loved on and then he left. It was almost like he was saying, my job here is done.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Southern Apple Stack Cake

This is one of my “Southern Secrets” It is a secret way I have of making a really yummy treat.

When I was first married, I remember my mother in law knew a woman in town who made the best Apple Stack Cakes you have ever eaten. An apple stack cake is just what the name says. It is a stack of cakes with apple filling in between. The higher the stack the better, but most recipes call for six layers of the cake. Now keep in mind the layers are very thin, that is one of the tricks to the Apple Stack Cake. I am going to tell you the basic four steps for preparing the Apple Stack Cake and then I am going to give you a secret recipe that is unbelievably good. You may already know about it. It doesn’t even involve baking. What?? You won’t believe it!!! Please know I am not trying to downplay the Apple Stack cake and the original way to make it. It is a true labor of love and shouldn’t be taken lightly. If I could buy one or make one every week I probably would. But I know I don’t have time for that and you probably don’t either.

But back to my original story. When I was first married my mother in law knew a woman and her husband who made stack cakes at Christmas. They had several apple trees and they would harvest the apples in the fall and peel them and dry them for Christmas time to be made into the cakes. They dried bags and bags of them. This was a big deal for them. They did it to earn extra money for Christmas. They were both retired and lived very modestly. When Christmas came around everyone knew this was the place to get your stack cake. Many many cakes were made daily. They even delivered them to you for the outrageously low price of $12.00. I know!!! I think the first year I knew about them they were $10.00 and then the price of the ingredients went up or maybe the apple crop didn’t do as well and they had to increase their price. If you ever happened to stop by their house during the stack cake preparation, you would see a flurry of activity coming from that sweet couple. You would find it hard to believe that only two people did all of the work that went into all of the cakes.

My mother in law always got one for Christmas dinner. You had to put your order in early because they only made so many and when the apples were gone they were gone. After I got married I got on the list so that I could have a cake for my mom and dad’s house when we went there for Christmas. Two of these awesome cakes at Christmas, well it was just about the best thing you can think of.

The four basic steps for making your Apple Stack Cake: I am not including an ingredient recipe you can google it or you may even have one from your grandmother or aunt Gene.
Here is one that I found that looks pretty good http://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/8012/apple-stack-cake

1. You make the apple filling. You are making the applesauce from dried apples by simmering them with water and spices and a bit of brown sugar. Once the dried apples become soft and pliable you will put them into a food processor to be pureed.

2. Make your cake batter. You can use a basic cake batter but you must chill it so that you can spread the cake batter very thinly for baking. Some people put the batter directly on parchment paper and bake the layers (you must have at least six layers, I don’t know why but you do) but my mama always used a cake pan and just spread the batter really thin along the bottom of the cake pan.

3. When the layers of cake are cooled you put one of the layers on a plate. Spread the filling on top then add another layer continue with this until you get to the last layer. Some people spread the filling on the top and sides. I think this makes it really messy. It also makes it hard to wrap it later. Once you wrap the cake the delicious apple filling will seep into all of the cake and make it really soft and yummy.

4. Top the cake with waxed paper and wrap in plastic wrap. Let stand at least 12-24 hours before cutting.

Doesn’t that look delicious?

Now I will tell you my little cheater way of doing this. A friend told me about this years ago and whenever I get a craving for an Apple Stack Cake I just fix one of these:

You will need a jar of reaaaallllly good apple butter. This is the apple butter I bought at the Mennonite market a few weeks ago. It is so good. You will also need a pack of graham crackers. I use the regular kind. I guess you could use the cinnamon ones.

Spread the apple butter between each of the graham crackers and start layering the crackers.

This is what it will look like when you finish. I may have gone a little crazy on the apple butter but it is just so good!!!!

You then wrap plastic wrap around it and put it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. Actually waiting 24 hours makes it even better but it’s so hard to wait!!! The crackers absorb the apple butter. They will no longer taste like plain graham crackers.

This is what it will look like when you cut it. You will get about 3 servings out of this because it is really dense. It is soft just like a cake and it tastes yummy.

Like I said I am in no way telling you not to make a “real” Apple Stack Cake. But if you don’t have time and you want a treat that brings back a lot of memories, try this. Let me know how it goes.

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!