~Plans Change~

We have cancelled our plans for this weekend.. We were taking a short weekend trip to New Orleans, but the expected Hurricane changed all that... They are talking mandatory evacuation, catagory 3.... So we opted to cancel and do that some other time. Larry has been in S Louisiana all week working. I was going down in the AM on Thursday and driving back with him on Monday. SO now, I workedThursday and Friday, we are staying home and unpack more boxes, organize more scrapbook stuff and hang stuff on the walls. It will again be a productive weekend. I was looking forward to Beignets (Fried Biscuits) with chocolate syrup on them, walking on the River Walk listening to the Calliopes, having dinner at Seaport Cafe and shopping at the French Market, Oh well, there will be another safer time to do that. Just do not want to tempt fate.. Heard today that it has become a Catagory "4" hurricane and they are now expecting it to become a "5" before making landfall early next week. Glad we did not go. They are asking all visitors to leave New Orleans, they began that early this morning.

We have spent Saturday, looking at yet another tractor. This one is a 1960 model (year I was born, gotta have it), runs good and has a belly mower. I think we are going to get it tomorrow. I will post pics of it when we get it home. Buck found this one, some one he works for has it. Nice tractor. Now we will have 2 and can get the yard done much faster, when we get the first one running good and get a belly mower for it. We started taking the first one apart this afternoon to fix a couple of oil leaks and do some sanding and re-painting. I am doing a photo diary of this as I did for the house. It will be fun to tinker with.

Bruce just came in and asked if we wanted him to shoot a hog. We have a hog out there in the circle where we have been feeding the deer. It is an area they cleared in the pine to run the field lines to for the septic tank. We have been putting Sweet Grain out there for the deer, and Bruce has planted wheat and we are about to plant clover. Larry and I sat at the Breakfast table this evening eatting dinner and watched 6 deer playing out there. Bruce got his coon light out and we were looking at it. He walked to within 10 steps of it before he started grunting at him. So Bruce, decided that was close enough. If the wild pig starts coming into the yard and messing up the grass and sod, he will be a dead piggy... He is really big, we may have Bruce kill him and have him butchered and put him in the freezer. We will have to see about that. I am not having him root up the yard.. Rocky has a hog trap, I may have him come trap it and then decide if we want to butcher him or not. Had no idea we had hogs around here. We have every wild animal there is except SQUIRRELS. We have yet to see a squirrel out here. We fed the squirrels at the other house and Larry said he would build me new squirrel feeders for here, but now he says there is no need to build new ones, when we have no squirrels. Dad traps them and takes them to the country and releases them, I have asked him to release them out here. SO the next ones he catches, he will bring our here. Then maybe I will get my feeders. Not sure if we can afford to feed deer, pigs, hummingbirds and squirrels. I am filling up the hummingbird feeders at least once a week. We are going through 50 lbs. of sweet grain a week, then add the squirrel food, oh well, we so enjoy watching them.

Well, gotta go finish an afghan for one of our nurses to raffle for the Race for the Cure. Will post a pic when I finish it. It is brown with pink ribbons in it.

Nite all...

~Fulfilling Weekend~

This has been a busy weekend already and we still have today to get through, Friday evening I changed clothes when I got in from work and we hauled some dirt (6 loads from the house they are building next door) and filled in some low spots in the front yard. We finished at 8 and then I fixed dinner and cleaned the kitchen. Finalized plans for Saturday and called it a day.

Yesterday was a very full day... We left going to Slogohachie (near Morrilton) to my Uncle Roy's. I had asked him to build me a swing for my front porch right after we decided to have the house built. I already had the frame, from another one I had bought that the birds tore a hole in the cushion and pulled the stuffing out to line their nests with ( I saw them doing this). He called me about 2 weeks ago and said he almost had it completed. I was so excited.. Then on Tuesday of this week he called and said it was finished. When Larry came in this week, I asked him if we could go get it this weekend. So here is my Porch swing, built out of Love from my Uncle. I just LOVE IT!!!!! Thanks Uncle ROY!!!!! We had a WONDERFUL Visit. Larry and I got to see their home. It is just BEAUTIFUL. All the cedar trim and the cedar cabinets in the Kitchen. That is AWESOME!!!! I also came home with some black berry bush trimmings to try to root. I am going to try to grow some next year. I also got the name of the ones that he plants (in case my rooting does not work). I took a really close look at his Skepanon arbor that he has. I may try them as well. There were some ripe ones that he picked for me. They are so good!!!!!!!!!!

Then the 2 hour drive back home. Once we got home, we got the swing frame on the front porch the swing put in it, adjusted where it was comfortable to me.

Then on to the next project. The handle for the CHURN!!!! Larry had found an old handle that came off some tool, not sure which one, but apparently it was no longer needed on that, because it was in a can with extra screws, bolts, nails, etc... SO it got modified to fit the churn. Worked our perfectly. Larry even made it recessed in the end for the end of the bolt that went through it. I LOVE IT.. Here is my churn, Tom's Jar (that my daddy got when he worked for Tom's when I was a little girl), and a Seyfert's Butter Pretzel jar we found while Junk Shopping last weekend, sitting on top of my Grandmothers kitchen cabinet with the flour bin, that I have (Thanks Damon). Now on to search for another Treasure that we just can't live without. We are still wanting a Dasher Churn ( mom and dad have one they said we can have, haven't told Larry yet, it will be a surprise, once I can bring myself to bring it home) and an old Milk Can.. We may try and talk his sister out of her Milk Can...

Then we began bringing in my Scrapbook stuff to get it organized in the house. Weather will be getting cooler soon and it will be time to catch up on some of that. I am WAY behind, I have not done any since we decided to build and move, that is one of the first things that got packed up, and that was a year ago. So I have alot to catch up on, as it has been a busy year. But in time, I will get it all caught up..

Here is another treasure that we have put together. This is a lamp that my mother had in a yard sale (not sure where it originally came from, will have to find out) that did not sell, The white close to the bottom of the lamp is onyx. The lamp was kind of a gold and country blue, we took it all apart and painted it all black, redid some of the wiring in it and then my SIL (Larry's sister) made this lampshade for me. It is the done with all the braid and beaded fringe. She used the embroidered pieces from the fabric I had left over from the shears that we put on the dining room windows. You can see more detail on the lampshade below. She has made 4 lampshades for me like this. She made 2 in Rose and Burgandy for the bedroom lamps and then in the living room we have Larry's mothers old floor lamp that she made one for in Peach. She makes these all the time.

I think every lamp in her's and 2 of her sisters houses have this type lampshade. I have some in my living room that were made for me that are coming apart. When I have to replace them this will probably be the type I replace them with.

Well time to close this post. I have to do some laundry to get ready for the work week. This will be a short week. I am off on Thursday and Friday. Larry is working in New Orleans area this week, so I am flying (free ticket, free hotel room) down for the weekend. I want to spend sometime in Jackson Square, the french market and the river walk listening to the calliopes on the river boats.

until next time. have a wonderful, safe day!!!

Nan

~Treasures~

A couple of weeks ago, Larry and I went to pick up a TREASURE that he had found he wanted, a 1946 Farmall Cub tractor. He wants to restore it and use it to mow most of the yard, but first we have to find a belly mower for it, Uncle Roy thinks he may know someone that has one, I hope so... We stopped at several Junk (I mean ANTIQUE) shops along the way, in one of them I found part of a Dazey type churn, the jar was missing. He talked me into getting it hoping to find a jar...
For 2 weeks I have searched the internet every which way I could think of to search it with no LUCK. Now I am thinking I have wasted that money.... Not a happy thought for me...
This past Saturday, we set out on the search again.. The first shop we went into had several 4" jar's but we needed a 5", Stuck in behind some STUFF, I saw part of the top of a jar. When we dug it out, It was a 5"... I got excited, but cautiously, Larry went to get the churn out of the blazer and it was a PERFECT FIT> Now I want to find someone that has a milk cow, because I want to make BUTTER. I love fresh churned butter. So the search is on for a Milk Cow...

~Lake House Weekend~

Last weekend we spent at the LakeHouse. My 3 boys, their families and myself. The girls, Mandy and I went up on Wednesday nite and spent Thursday at Magic Springs (theme and water park), what a WONDERFUL day that was. We started at IHOP for Breakfast (waiting on the rain to stop), then off to Magic Springs for a day of riding and water activities.

We spent Friday at the swimming hole, waiting on every one else to arrive.

Saturday was spent on the lake on the Party Barge (thanks Mom and Dad). The girls swam till they were tuckered, I think Kelsey got a little water logged. She was not scared of going anywhere on the lake that the other 2 girls went. They even played king of the Tube with Uncle Bruce, of course he lost,,, We enjoyed just cruising around the lake relaxing.

Saturday evening it was grilling, Bruce is King of the Grill, we had Beer Hiney Chicken, BBQ chicken, Cheesy/Bacon Potatoes, Corn on the Cob, Ribs and Peach Cobbler, all cooked on the grill except the Cobbler. Boy did we all get stuffed. We sat on the front porch and listened to it rain for awhile then off to sleep with the sound of the rain on the tin roof.

Sunday, it was pack up and head home. Back to work on Monday.