Country life = juicy peaches

Our war with the raccoon, the deer, and the opossums is over.

Well, at least as far as the peach tree is concerned.

Look at that luciousness! They're ready!

And they're juicy.

 As in pick it right off the tree, take a bite, & feel the juice run down your hand.

Heavenly.

We picked these 3 bowls...

Kevin & Katie picked another huge bowl...

We ate some...

The deer ate some...

The opossum probably ate some...

The chickens ate the fallen ones...

The birds & the bees nibbled on some...

The raccoons ate MOST of them...

Grr.

Well, at least we got this many.

These are going in the freezer for pies.

Also heavenly.

Antiques vs. Electronics

A few days ago, 2 kids came in the shop. A boy & a girl. Ages 12 & 13.

They were fascinated with the antiques. They didn't know what most were, but were eager to hear about them. The old scissor style grass clippers particularly had them curious. "You mean people mowed their whole yard with these?"

The generation gap was a bit obvious. At 12 & 13, they have known electronics all their life.

"Do you have any antique TV's?"

"Is that an antique satellite dish?" (It was a flat, metal lampshade for an outdoor light)

My favorite though was, "Hey look! An old time dry erase board!"

 

In other amusing news, I looked at the comments in my spam box. Oy.

It's funny how the comments don't even go with the post. One was on my post about the Super Derecho

If you look at that post, you'll see that my only photos on it are of a bucket that blew across our yard and got caught on a farm implement, making it look like it was hanging in mid-air.

The comment said, "You shouldn't rely so heavily on posting videos and letting them tell the story. You should rely more on your writing skills".

And then the real reason for the comment, "Please visit our site for adult chat."

Uh huh. No thanks.

Some of the comments didn't even make sense. Poor English etc.

I read a news article recently that said the poorly written spam emails etc. are written that way purposely. Their thinking is that if you are gullible enough to fall for a poorly written email notifying you that you won something (or whatever), then you just may be gullible enough to follow through with their directions. And then they have your credit card number. And then they have you.

We have to be careful in our modern day electronic world! Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for the young people of today who are growing up with electronics constantly in their hands.

I big part of me preferred the day when a dry erase board was actually a chalk board.



Cutter quilt

CUTTER QUILT DEFINITION: a quilt that is so badly worn or damaged in some areas as to be sold for the purpose of cutting it up into pillows, dolls, or other...

The quilt I've been working with is absolutely beautiful. When I got it, it had already been turned into a cutter quilt. I have a hard time cutting a quilt. All that work that went into it!!! But, since this one was already cut, it made it much easier every time I took the scissors to it.

Some of it was large enough to  use in old window frames:

This frame looked like it "needed something" at the bottom. The hardware was missing, and a couple screw holes were glaring at me. I simply painted No. 426 on a small block of wood, distressed it and glued it on. Problem solved.

Why No. 426? No idea, it just popped into my head.

This 2 pane window is missing a pane. The quilt came to the rescue. It has these fancy, scalloped edges. Perfect for a "curtain". I cut the word BLESSINGS out of vinyl on my Sihlouette Cameo machine, and stuck it to the glass pane. I love how it turned out.

I still have several pieces of the quilt left. Got to get my creative juices flowing some more!

These photos don't do the quilt justice. The colors are very vivid. I'm getting close to getting a better camera...that certainly should stir those creative juices!

Country Life = Night Time Visitors

We've been in battle all summer.

It's us vs. the raccoons. The prize? There's two.

The chicken's feed, and the even more coveted peach tree.

George put some metal flashing around the bottom of the peach tree.

The thinking was that the raccoons couldn't climb it.

The thinking was good in theory, but not quite accurate.

Maybe they can't climb it, but they sure can jump it!

See that blur jumping right over the flashing?

This one must be mama, she doesn't look like she would even need to jump.

By the time she stretches to her full length, she could just lazily pull herself up & over.

"Thanks for the lift guys. You made my job much easier."

Our game camera caught another night time prowler too....

Yep, that would be a deer.

Ahhh, life in the country.

Edited to add: When George looked at my blog, thus looking at the photos more closely, he noticed that in the second photo (the one where the raccoon is jumping), there is an opossum there as well. We're being bombarded by wildlife!

Country Life = Wind damage

We've been so dry, and praying for rain. Well, we got it. And with it came the wind! The day before yesterday, I was sitting at our kitchen table, beside the sliding door, (eating peanut butter on saltine crackers...just in case you're wondering).

I was getting a little nervous, because the glass door was starting to shimmy a little in the wind. I'd no more than thought maybe that wasn't the greatest place to be sitting, when I saw the wind suck the screen door out, and lay it on the deck.

Ok, I'll move. I went in the living room and watched the storm for a few minutes, then wandered back to the bedroom. I glanced out the window. OH NO!!!



That would be our beautiful Bradford Pear tree. And under it would be our new tractor.

You would have thought I would have heard that happen. But I didn't. The wind was so loud, and over top of it was the constant thunder. My guess is that the same gust of wind that sucked out the screen door also broke our tree.

Believe it or not, the tractor is fine. And it's actually a good thing it was sitting there. If it hadn't been parked there, our CRV (you can see it behind the tractor) would have been there, and it wouldn't have fared so well.

If the tree would have fallen just a couple more feet in the other direction, it would have done considerable damage to the house. As it was, it just tore up the gutter a little.

We did lose power for 25 hours after this storm, but still, we're thankful for the rain. And yesterday, another big storm rolled through, with more rain.

Looks like it's going to be one of those summers. Lots of heat. Not much rain. But when it does...better watch out!

Country Life = Super Derecho

Were you hit hard by the Super Derecho? You know, that word no one ever heard of till the huge storm rolled across the midwest and Mid-Atlantic states on Friday, June 29.

We were lucky, we never lost power at home. The store was without power on Saturday, so I had to close. Considering what so many others were going through, that truly was no big deal.

I know lots of folks who were without power for several days, some for closer to 2 weeks. During a prolonged, sweltering heat wave. Never a good combination.

We had some branches down, even a tree, but again - considering what others were going through, that was no big deal.

We also had some rather amusing "damage".....

I looked out our kitchen window the next morning, and couldn't figure out what I was seeing.

It seemed as if a bucket was hanging in mid-air. Upon closer inspection, we saw that the wind had picked the bucket up, flung it across the yard, and it's handle got caught on an old farm implement in our flower bed.

And yes, other than the handle being caught, it was indeed hanging in mid-air.

Please don't look at the weeds. It's been very dry here for weeks, hardly any rain. But the weeds still thrive.

Actually, looking at these photos, I'm amazed at how green the grass was just 2 weeks ago. We've only had one brief rain since then, and our yard is getting more brown than green, and the dirt is turning to dust.

I saw a map of the drought areas, and to my surprise, we were not included in it. I'd hate to think how much worse it could get before we're declared a drought area.

Wonder what the criteria is? Maybe it's when even the weeds won't grow.

Rain is in the forecast for this weekend. We have our fingers crossed.

Oh - by the way - when we were traveling last weekend for our son's wedding, we saw lots of electric truck convoys on the move.

I don't know how much money those linemen make, but however much it is, it isn't enough. They have to work in the worst conditions...and we thank them.

Edited to add: Shortly after posting this, I saw in the newpaper that our area is classified as an "abnormally dry" area. Guessing that's one step below a drought?

Country life = wedding ties

I have a very good reason for not blogging lately. Life comes first, especially when life equals our son's wedding!

 

His fiance Katie was beginning to think July 7th was NEVER going to get here, but get here it did! And with it came the heat! When they planned a July wedding, Katie assured us that in the mountains of Pennsylvania where she was born and raised, a typical July day would be about 80 degrees. So the fact that the church and reception hall do not have air conditioning would not be a big deal.

Yeah, right.

As you are probably well aware because you have sweat dripping off your nose, most of the country is in the midst of a heat wave. Including the mountains of Pennsylvania where Katie was born and raised.

It was hot. As in almost 100 degrees. With no air conditioning.

But you know what? The wedding was absolutely beautiful anyway. And, they will have a story to tell their grandkids.

I don't have wedding photos yet, other than these ones our son-in-law Brian took of Kevin and his dad outside our motel room. Kevin doesn't wear ties anymore than he has too, and that is usually just long enough to forget how to tie one. George can't stand in front of him and help him, he has to stand beside him, and they tie their ties together.

 

This scene has been played out several times throughout Kevin's growing up years, but never was it more poignant than on Kevin's wedding day.

 Look at that deep concentration on Kevin's face!

When I look back on Kevin's wedding day, one of my favorite memories will be standing in the motel parking lot, watching my husband and my son tying those ties.

It's truly the little things in life than end up meaning the most isn't it?

And speaking of little things...

 

This is our newest family member Lydia, our great-neice. Jessica snapped this photo of Lydia trying to beat the heat. It was super hot, but let me tell you, 7 week old Lydia didn't complain. She was so sweet for the entire production. Her daddy was the best man, so she was there for everything starting with the rehearsal. What a sweetheart!

Ahhh, the memories that were made. Good times.