Goodbye January

Well here we are with the first month of January into its last hours. It’s hard to believe that one month of the year has gone already. January has been a bit of a crazy month. Both long and short at the same time. We said goodbye to 2023 and got ready to start a fresh new year. Lots of snow and ice for us. I read 4 books and listened to 2 audio books. I will have a rundown on those for you in an upcoming post. I finished several knitting pieces and the heart cross stitch. I had a lot of winter snuggly time at home and that is fine with me.

Last week we again had the taste of rural living. Remember I told you the week before, that we had the downed tree and we had to cut it off of the driveway before we could get out. Last week we lost power for over two hours. It went out around 6:00 AM Thursday morning. When we lose power we also lose our water, because we have a pump, and our phones because we have to have power for the internet. So there we were.

We always like to report our outages to the power company and not just hope that someone in our area will do it. To do this we have to go to the top of our driveway and get a cell signal to call the utility board. We then get a recording and we report the outage. The driveway was very dark because the outside light on the driveway was out as well. And I forgot to mention it was sooooo foggy. Oh and we have to back up the driveway because we always pull down the driveway when coming in.

My husband and I both went to the top of the driveway so that one of us could get out and open the gate. It was not easy backing up the driveway with no lights except the back up lights. The fog made it even worse. I had left the house without my glasses. That added to the difficulty, because I wound up behind the wheel doing the driving. We finally made it to the top, we have a very long driveway, and got the outage reported. It had already been reported by a neighbor. But you never know.

***This is what it looked like at 6:00 AM***

The power was out for over two hours and I was a little late getting into work. We never found out what the issue was. It was a widespread issue on our road. Several houses were affected. We do have a small generator that we can use if the power is out for hours or days.

Over the weekend I felt like I was running a bakery. Secretly this has always been a dream so it was actually a lot of fun. It started with my nephew requesting sourdough bread. I make this from a starter that I have had for probably fifteen years or more. It stays in the refrigerator until I feed it. He also requested some peanut butter pies to take to his coworkers. He just moved and started a new job a couple of weeks ago. It was also my brother in law’s birthday and I wanted to bake something for him as well. If you want to read more about the sour dough bread and how I make it, visit this post I did a few years ago. It is definitely a process.Making Sour Dough Bread

I made six loaves of the bread, 20 small peanut butter pies, and about 2 dozen cake pops. The cake pops were just something I decided to do at the last minute. I had never made them before. They were okay but I definitely need to work on those. So I did a lot of baking on Saturday morning and delivered bread, and pies and cake balls all over town in the afternoon. I finished the evening with a visit to my little mother in law at the assisted living village.

The peanut butter pies were a big hit.

I also spent some time over the weekend cleaning my silver bracelets. I am ashamed to say that I haven’t worn them in forever because they looked so bad. I bought some cleaner and got to work on them. I feel like they are new again.

This is not my cat. Well she sort of is I guess. She lives at work. She is feral and we haven’t been able to catch her. We are trying to get one of our team members to agree to take her home. We named her Anthe. Isn’t she beautiful? We feed her and take care of her the best we can. She has been with us for several months. I hate to trap her but that may be the only way we can get her to someone’s home where they might be able to tame her.

How is your week going?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

We Had A Snow Day or Three

Hi friends and happy Wednesday Let me clarify that title by saying we didn’t actually get much snow at our house we just got the dreaded ice. The city I work in actually got about seven inches of snow and that is a lot for us. Everything pretty much shuts down when we get a snow of this magnitude. Don’t laugh. We are southerners and just not used to that kind of snow.

We had been hearing all weekend that we were going to get a major winter storm in our area. At first it was supposed to be Tuesday but then it changed to Monday. I went in to work as usual Monday morning. It had only snowed a very small amount by the time I woke up on Monday. But I was keeping the amount of snow we were supposed to have in the back of my mind. By the time I got to work it was snowing like crazy and very cold. Within an hour it had covered the roads and driveway. I was at work with one other coworker. Her dad called and told her the roads were getting bad. We locked everything up and left.

I had driven our old Toyota four wheel drive to work so I made it home easily with only a few scary moments. The funny thing was when I got on my road the snow stopped and it was only rain. The only problem with that was that everything froze solid Monday night because the temps were so low. So needless to say me nor my husband left the house on Tuesday. The snow continued to fall in nearby areas and they accumulated about 7 inches.

This picture I got off of our work security cameras. This was after the snow stopped and added several inches.

I did not take this picture. Someone posted it on FB. It is downtown Knoxville, South Gay Street, at the Tennessee Theatre. What a mess the snow made Monday afternoon. I think it’s still kind of beautiful.

I would like to say that while I have been home bound, I have been keeping busy cleaning out closets and drawers and much needed inside things. But I haven’t. I binge watched Grey’s Anatomy and read, and worked a million crossword puzzles, worked on my heart cross stitch and finished it, and finished the rose colored scarf I had been working on. Oh and I have cooked a million meals. Well that might be a bit of an exaggeration. it has only been three days. HA!!! But it seems like it.

Sunday before the snow came I made a big chocolate cake. I had been wanting cake for a long time and I decided to make one. So we were able to eat that during our snowbound days.

Over the weekend we moved my nephew Tyler to Cookeville TN which is about two hours from us. He has taken a job there and rented a house. He rented a U-Haul and me and hubs, his parents, his brother and my sister went along to help with the move. I have been trying not to think of him living two hours away because it hurts my heart. I know that is not that far and he will come home often but it’s still not the same. I made him his favorite Butterfinger cake and put it in his new refrigerator for him.

On Friday morning we woke up to really strong winds. Luckily I had taken an extra day off. A good thing because we had a tree down across the driveway! We were also expecting some heavy rain so before the rain started Mark and I went out and cut the tree off of the driveway. Ahhh rural living.

With the bad rain and bad weather, and the day spent moving my nephew we didn’t get a lot of the tree cut up and moved. We just cut it up enough to get it off of the driveway. The cleanup will come later.

***This is how we found Gus and Kitty Kitty when we got home Saturday evening. I think they were waiting for us to walk in the door.***

Last year I bought two heated kitty houses for my outside kitties. We always bring them into the garage at night but even with the garage door down, when the temps drop down to 2 degrees F, as it was last night, it is still very cold. Last year they hated the kitty house and would not go in it. I left it in the garage for a while and then wound up throwing it away during the summer.

Last night I got the other kitty house out. I put it together and took the plastic flaps off of the two entrances. That is what they seemed to dislike about the other one. I also placed it next to their main bed where they love to snuggle together. Mama cat, Allie, was the first to venture in. Then Izzy and finally Sadie went in. They can all three fit inside. They love it!!! I am so glad and relieved. They refuse to come into our house because of Kitty Kitty and Gus plus they are still a bit feral. This will keep them warm on the really cold nights. It makes my kitty mama heart happy.

I finally ventured out this afternoon to take a walk around the house. I seriously needed some fresh air and vitamin D.

So a lot has been going on. A busy week and then a lot of down time at home. Much needed I think. I am hoping to get back to civilization tomorrow.

How has your week been? Any snow where you are?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Catching Up While I’m in California

I am waking up in California this morning. It is very early here about 5:30 AM. It is 8:30 AM at home. I still feel just a bit jet lagged. Yesterday was a very busy travel day for me. I started at 7:00 AM with a flight out of Knoxville and then to Chicago and then to San Francisco and then a short flight into Redding California. I am here for a Caves Association meeting. I will tell you more about that as the week progresses.

My weekend was great!!! I got home from our sister trip on Friday. If you didn’t catch that post you can read more about it here. On Saturday I had the usual groceries, checking on mother in law and laundry. My nephew, Tyler, had messaged me earlier in the week and wanted to go to the local Mennonite Farm Market near my house. He had never been but had heard a lot about it. So we did that early Saturday morning before all of my other errands started.

The fields around the market are just beautiful. I love the simplicity of the Mennonites. They use every field to raise vegetables. They have sheep and cattle and rabbits. They also bake some amazing breads and cookies. They make beautiful furniture. I have my eye on two Adirondack chairs that I would like to have. I may ask for those as an early Christmas gift. They usually close the market in late December and don’t open back up until early spring. Of course the seasons depend on what they are currently selling. Right now they have an abundance of squash and peppers. I bought okra, green peppers, chow chow, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, and a cantaloupe all of this was about $17.00. Tyler bought several jars of honey, I think he was giving it to some of his friends. He loved the market and wants to go back. He was looking for corn but they told him it was a little late in the season for corn. Spring and early summer is the best time to buy corn there. I plan to go back and get some more okra to freeze so that we can have it all winter.

***Isn’t this a beautiful scene. You can tell that winter is coming and colors are starting to change.***

Many different types of squash.

I love this view looking out over the fields. This is molasses. I am not a big fan of molasses but they do sell a lot of it.

***I bought some of these peppers. I planned to make my husband a nice meal on Sunday. Since I was going to be gone all week to California I knew he wouldn’t cook a lot for himself.***

Muscadines, I do not like muscadines but my husband loves them. We have a couple of trees on our driveway that have quite an abundance of them.

The peppers were listed as to the severity of heat. Tyler bought some of the hottest peppers. He loves really spicy foods.

***Isn’t this Indian Corn pretty? I think it makes a great decoration for fall. There were also some pumpkins but I didn’t get any.***

On Sunday I didn’t do a lot except get my clothes ready to pack. I hate packing for an entire week. The temps in California are actually very similar to what East Tennessee is right now. Cool in the mornings and mid 70’s to low 80’s F later in the afternoon. Although I just looked at the weather here and now it is saying mid 90’s for most of the week!!!!

I did cook dinner on Sunday. We had quite a feast from all the vegetables I had gotten at the Farm Market on Saturday.

I love okra and I’m not sure how you cook your okra but I always do mine the way my mama made it. I like crunchy okra. I don’t want it do be soft and mushy. I start out by cutting it and then dredging it in cornmeal or flour. I didn’t have any cornmeal so I used flour. I salt and pepper it and fry it in a large skillet until it is starting to get brown on the edges. I then drain any oil, which is not a lot because I don’t use a lot of oil, and then I transfer it to a small baking pan and finish cooking it in the oven.

So you can see we had quite a feast. Stuffed Bell peppers, a baked sweet potato, okra and cucumbers. All from the Farmer’s Market.

I moved my suitcase into the little den I have upstairs. It’s easier to pack it here and bring clothes and put in it and it’s not in the way while I do this. Kitty Kitty kept watching me from her perch on the loveseat. I think she knew what this suitcase and clothes business meant. Her mom was leaving again. I caught her a couple of times trying to get into the suitcase.

And now I am in California for the week. It looks like a beautiful day here. I know we will be doing a lot of fun things this week and I will be sure to take lots of pictures.

Have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way.

Tuesday Happenings

Hello friends and happy Tuesday. Yesterday we had terrible storms in the area. Schools let out early and everyone was on alert. Around 2:00 PM the skies turned an inky dark color. The wind was terrible and the storm started. It only lasted for about fifteen minutes but it felt like much longer. We lost power at work. We had to close early and because of the power outages in the area we remained closed today. So many people in our area are still without power today. Of course I still had to go in and help take care of some things so I didn’t get an extra day off. But that is o.k. We totally escaped any flooding or downed trees at our house and that is a miracle.

I feel like I am out of creative energy. I’m not sure why. Maybe my brain is working overtime on other things and it is not allowing the creative juices to flow as they should. That does happen from time to time. We are getting ready to do a trip out of the country for twelve days. I have been putting a lot of time and energy into getting ready for that. I am very excited for it but getting people in to be at the house with the kitties and watching the house for that many days is not an easy task. But, one that has to be taken care of.

I am also excited about doing a wedding cake for a sweet couple at work. They have been with us for a few years and the fact that they found romance at work is very special. They both mean a lot to me. They are on a very tight budget so I offered to do the wedding cake for them as a gift. But I told them if they found something else or someone else they would rather use then I would totally be fine with that. I told them I could only do a simple wedding cake and I couldn’t do anything too elaborate. They picked a beautiful cake and I think I can handle it fine. I used to do wedding cakes back in the day but I stopped because they were just so stressful. I am going to give myself plenty of time to do this one. The wedding is in the middle of September.

This is the cake they picked. We won’t put it on the wooden board because I have a cake stand that we are using.

My sister and I had a shopping trip to Knoxville on Saturday. We had so much fun. We spent the entire day out and about and it was just like old times. My sister is doing great after finishing her chemo treatments. She will have follow up visits with her doctor and we pray for continued great results.

I am STILL doing battle with the Japanese beetles on my rose bushes. I hate to use a pesticide with my kitties around. I tried a couple of safe, home made solutions and they haven’t worked very well. I am open to hear about anything that might work.

Speaking of kitties. Today is International Cat Day!!! I thought I would share a pic of all five of my kitties.

This is Gus, Allie (mama cat), Sadie, Kitty Kitty and Izzy.

I finished a couple of books. I finished Creep and have ordered the second book that follows it, Freak. I know it sounds bizarre but as I mentioned before anything by Jennifer Hillier is going to keep you glued to the pages, or the screen I should say, until you are finished.