2022 – Archived Blogs – All Is Right On The Homestead

Well, 2021 is done so moving on to 2022. Colleen and I sure don’t have any complaints about last week’s weather even though this morning is gray and rainy. The temperatures were quite nice even almost touching 80 degrees yesterday. It’s been warm enough that we haven’t had to put a fire fireplace since Christmas Eve. Everything changes tonight though. As this front moves through the area the temperature will drop. Today we’ve started at almost 70 degrees, but by this time tomorrow we may very well be seeing snow. The forecast is saying we may see up to an inch of the white stuff, but I don’t think it will stick around very long and could very well be gone by Tuesday. Then again this is North Carolina and anything could happen. Colleen is supposed to go back to school tomorrow so we are watching the news for any changes her school system deems appropriate. I don’t go back to school until Wednesday.

Last Sunday turned out to be a very quiet day up here on the hill. The weather made it feel like a spring day and Colleen and I spent the day recovering from our day long Christmas festivities on Saturday. We did have our usual daily chores of taking care of the chickens and Buttercup, but that was about it. Colleen read most all of the day and I wrote and even took a nap in the afternoon. There were more than enough leftovers to eat so Colleen didn’t have to cook. We even ate on paper plates and used plastic utensils so there would not be many dishes to wash. There aren’t many days over the course of a year where Colleen and I have nothing to do, but with a week of break still in front of us, last Sunday was certainly one of those days.

Monday ended up being a little upside-down. The group that showed up on Christmas Eve and I agreed to get together again and continue playing our little game. Unfortunately, Louis who had ridden with James and Donna to get here on Christmas Eve and had gone home with Micayla on Christmas afternoon had left his car keys in James’s car and had no way to get here on Monday. James eventually had to drive home to give Louis his keys in the afternoon and we were able to reschedule our game for Tuesday. Everything worked out okay though because Colleen spent her day in the living room taking down and packing up her big Christmas village for the year. I ended up getting started on finalizing my grades and grade books for school and helping Colleen where I could.

Tuesday was game day again. Everyone showed up at noon, more or less on time, and we played for another six hours. Colleen made a couple of her quesadilla pies for us to eat at dinner time and then she started putting away the Christmas decorations on the family room. Colleen pretty much stayed on cleaning up the family room all day and by the time we took a break from our game for dinner Colleen had everything put away except for her Dickens Village. Our game finally broke up in the early evening, the kids went on their way and Colleen and I spent the rest of the evening relaxing until we went to bed. I slept right through the night, but the coyotes got to howling right around midnight which woke Colleen up and she had a tough time falling back asleep.

My grade books needed to be finalized by New Years Eve so once I got up on Wednesday I spent most all of the day on the computer. It was a kind of gray day, but there wasn’t any rain so I got to do my work out on the porch and luckily I had everything done and ready to go right before dinner time. Colleen spent her day packing up and putting away more Christmas stuff. The Dickens Village in the family room came down as did my Mom’s crèche that was on top of the hutch in the dining room. After a dinner of leftovers again Colleen and I actually found the time to sit down and watch a movie together in the living room. That is something which we do not often do.

Colleen decided that Thursday was errand day and she was out the front door with two full bags of laundry headed to the laundromat not too long after sunrise. If doing the laundry wasn’t enough, she also planned on getting our weekly market run done as well. While she was gone I set up the digital picture frame we got for Christmas. It’s one of those fancy ones that needed to be hooked into the internet so the pictures can be stored in the cloud. Once I had it set up I let Alysia know everything was up and working properly and before I knew it she and Al had put 50 pictures up in the cloud for Colleen and me to see on the frame. When Colleen got home I helped her get everything into the house and then showed her the pictures. Colleen thought it was just the neatest thing and sat there watching all of the pictures go by like she was watching TV. After Colleen had seen all of the pictures she spent the rest of the day running up and down the stairs to dry the laundry and then put it away. Colleen had also stopped at the dollar store while running around in the morning and picked up a few plastic tote bins. In between the laundry she started repacking some of our Christmas stuff. We had been using regular boxes, but between the humidity in the summer and the mice in the basement, the boxes weren’t cutting it anymore. Colleen feels much better with everything in sealed plastic storage bins now.

Friday was New Years Eve and Colleen and I didn’t do a whole lot. We certainly didn’t have plans to attend any celebrations, in fact it’s rare that we stay up until midnight on any night. I noticed that the weather for the coming week was going to turn cold so I decided that it was time to refill the back porch firewood rack. Colleen just sort of bumped around all day packing up the last of the Christmas decorations around the house. Colleen did manage to get the swing for the chickens hung up in their coop during the afternoon. By the time dinner rolled around the only Christmas decorations still up were the outside lights and the Christmas tree. After dinner I watched another movie and after it was finished I headed outside to the front porch with a cigar to enjoy our Christmas lights one last time. When I finished my cigar, Colleen and I walked out to the road to look at the lights before we unplugged them for the night and the season and then headed upstairs, calling it a day.

Yesterday was New Years Day and it was another quiet day around here. Colleen and I were hard pressed to believe it was winter as there was plenty of sunshine and the temperatures flirted with 80 degrees. After we had our morning coffee and a little breakfast, Colleen and I spent the rest of the morning taking down the Christmas tree which is a whole lot easier said than done. The real problem is finding all the right boxes for the specific ornaments and after twenty two Christmases together we have a rather eclectic collection of ornaments. After the ornaments were off, the lights had to come off and the tinsel pulled off of the strings of lights. Right before lunch Colleen and I carried the tree out of the house and very unceremoniously tossed it over the front porch rail. I will carry it down to the fire pit at some point in the future. After lunch the extension ladder got brought inside and we took down the last of the inside decorations from the ledge up in the stairwell. Colleen got everything into proper storage, moved, and put on shelves in the basement. I enjoyed the late afternoon with a cigar on the back porch before dinner. All the inside Christmas decorations are now put away for the year. It’s supposed to be mostly dry this week so the outside decorations will get put away next weekend and we will turn our attention to our spring gardens.

The rains came and came hard to start today. It’s suppose to rain on and off all day, changing to snow tomorrow morning, well at least according to the current forecast. I suppose I can us the indoor time to get ready for school on Wednesday and Colleen will most likely be spending some of her day in the kitchen. The politicians and media are totally lost and still changing their stories every day and now the goofy weather is following suit. Colleen and I are just sticking to our knitting up here on our little hill, taking everything one day at a time. We are making our way through this mess just fine though. Every day we can look around and smile thankfully too, because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

January 09, 2022: Well, Last Week Got Turned On Its Ear For A Bit!

It certainly has been an interesting week up here on our little hill. Mother Nature seems to have run the gambit with the weather. Last Sunday we were warm but cloudy with the temperatures up around 70 degrees. A quick line of heavy rain passed over us on Sunday morning and by Sunday evening the rain came back, not quite as hard, but steady. All through the night the temperatures held and when Colleen headed to school Monday morning, we were still around 50 degrees. By 10 o’clock Monday morning the temperatures had dropped in a big way, and it started snowing. For the next few hours, the snow really came down too. Right around 1 o’clock the snow stopped, and the sun came out. When Colleen got home a little after 3 o’clock, the inch or so of snow we had on the ground had melted. We haven’t had any more precipitation this week, but we have had the temperatures drop below 20 degrees in the early mornings. It’s not quite that cold this morning, but now we are expecting rain again this evening.

Last Sunday was dreary at best and a good day for laying around and it was the last day of Colleen’s Christmas break so she spent the better part of the day getting ready to head back to school on Monday morning. I spent my morning writing and really didn’t do much else on the day. Colleen made a couple casseroles to get us through dinners for the week and for dinner she made some pan-fried salmon on a bed of orzo, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes with Brussel sprouts on the side. It was the first time Colleen had done any real cooking since our Christmas morning brunch. For the record, the dinner was incredible. After dinner Colleen cleaned up the kitchen and then made her school lunch. Making school lunches is one of those mundane things that is more a pain than anything else.

Fortunately, it wasn’t raining too hard when Colleen headed into school on Monday morning. I banked a fire knowing full well the temperatures were dropping and were going to keep dropping all day. The snow showed up mid-morning, coming down fast and hard, piling up quickly, and then it stopped just as quickly as it had started. The temperatures were still around freezing, but things warmed up just a bit when the sun came out and everything melted. The snow was pretty while it lasted, but as is North Carolina’s way, the snow didn’t stick around very long. Apart from the roads being a little wet, Colleen had no troubles on her drive home after school.

Tuesday morning was the last day of my Christmas break. Colleen’s school was starting on a 2-hour delay because of icy roads, but Colleen headed into school at her usual time so she wouldn’t have to make up any time later in the week. Wednesday morning everything got back to our usual school day routine. Colleen headed into school, and I waited for sunrise to let the girls out of their coop before I headed into school. For some reason Colleen couldn’t sleep on Wednesday night and when Thursday morning rolled around, she was in no shape to go to school so for the first time in 15 years she called in sick so she could stay home and get some sleep.

Thursday turned into one very interesting day. The day started out just fine and mostly went well, that was until my last class of the day showed up. I’m not sure the reason, but there was a blow up in class that I never saw coming and when all was said and done five computers got wrecked, one desk got smashed, and a projector nearly got torn off the wall. No one got hurt fortunately. One of the computers was my personal computer so now I will need to replace it. When I got home, I found out that the internet in the neighborhood was down. That was probably a good thing because it kept me from doing any schoolwork and let me relax for the evening. In 20 years of teaching, I thought I had seen just about everything. I can add a new one to my list now.

Colleen had managed to get some sleep on Thursday so both of us headed into school on Friday morning. Friday went well. Fortunately, I have an old spare back up computer at home I was able to use. I got to school early enough to put my classroom back together. Colleen got home at her usual time and there was a big pot of fresh homemade corn chowder waiting on the stove when I got home. Colleen and I both were worn out Friday evening, so it wasn’t long after dark when we both headed upstairs and called it a day.

I slept until sunrise yesterday morning. Colleen was up at her regular time, had the coffee made, and the fire going. We had planned on taking down all the outside Christmas decorations, but we waited until about noon so the sun could warm things up a little and temperature could get above freezing. Colleen and I spent most of the afternoon out in the front yard and got everything taken down and put away except for the lights and garland and on the house. After dinner I sat in front of the fireplace and graded schoolwork and started getting my grade books updated for the week. I did find time once I had my fill of working on the computer to get out to the back porch with a cigar before I headed upstairs for the night.

We are getting a little sunshine this morning, but there is a damp bite to the morning air. I still have a bunch of schoolwork to do, and Colleen will spend a good part of her day in the kitchen getting ready for the week in front of us. I guess what they say is true, the more things change the more they stay the same. The world is still crazy, COVID is still running wild, and the politicians and media are still trying to sell everyone snake oil. It might have been a little bumpy for Colleen and me this week, but that is just part of the show, and in the grand scheme of things it was relatively minor. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time. Winter is not even a month old yet and we are starting to look forward to the spring and the gardens. All in all, Colleen and I are doing well and when things get hectic, we just pause to take a breath and look around because up here and on our little hill, all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

January 16, 2022: A Quiet Week, A 4-Day Weekend, And Our First Real Winter Storm!

Colleen and I survived a full week of school, we do get to enjoy a 4-four weekend this weekend, and now it is snowing. We did get a little bit of rain last Sunday night, but the rest of the week stayed dry, and the temperatures stayed mostly seasonable. The forecast for snow this weekend came out earlier though and had everyone buzzing all week. At one point the forecast called for a day and a half of snow adding up to close to a foot. If you live in Central North Carolina, you learn quickly to take such forecasts with a grain of salt. Right now, it looks like we may get an inch of snow with a quarter inch of ice on top of that. There is a stout wind blowing too so it wouldn’t surprise me if a lot of folks lose their electricity once the ice and wind start bringing down branches and trees. If we lose our electricity though, Colleen and I will be just fine. We have plenty of firewood and a gas camp stove to cook our meals.

Colleen and I were still less than motivated last Sunday as we had just started back to school in the previous week coming off our Christmas break. I did my usual writing and schoolwork all while shuttling firewood into the house to keep the fire in the fireplace going. Colleen found enough energy to do a little cooking and baking on the day. She ended making a nice batch of muffins. Since the muffins turned out so well and we were expecting cooler temperatures during the week, Colleen pulled out her big cast iron pot and made some spicy chicken soup too. Needless to say, there was a thermos full of soup in our lunches every day last week. I guess from here on out, Sundays will be set aside for us to get ready for the following school week.

As school weeks go, last week was slow and uneventful. Colleen would leave for school before sunrise, and I would wait until sunrise to let the girls out for the day. Colleen’s school was giving end of semester final exams all week. I had my usual class schedule, but there were a lot of kids and teachers out because they were in quarantine. Fortunately, all my class work and notes are online so even if a kid misses a day they can still stay caught up on their work. If need be, I’ll even have an online video meeting with the kids to help them out. With so many teachers being out and with few substitutes available, during the day teachers at my school usually end up covering one or two extra classes. I really don’t mind all that much and fortunately neither do most of the other teachers at my school. I really do teach at an awesome school!

The pending weekend storm was the big news of the week. The forecast seemed to change every couple of hours, but by Thursday the evening sky had a steely blue-gray hue to it and there was a definite wintery bite to the air. Colleen and I weren’t sure when the bad weather would get here so we made plans to head out Friday night to get a jump on our Saturday errands. Unfortunately, when Friday evening rolled around neither of us felt like leaving the house. After looking at the forecast we decided we had plenty of time to get everything done on Saturday morning so Friday night we just relaxed and went to bed early. I’m hoping that as we move further into the second half of our school year, Colleen and I will get our school legs back and not feel so played out on Friday nights.

Yesterday had a bit of a different start to it for a Saturday. Colleen and I started a 4-day weekend thanks to a federal holiday and a teacher workday. We knew the winter storm was headed our way, but we knew we wouldn’t have any problems traveling around in the morning so come mid-morning we headed out. We really only had two big stops to make, one to get me a new computer and then to get supplies and feed for the girls. We treated ourselves to lunch at Hardee’s in our travels and got home just after noon. That worked out particularly well too because Colleen wanted to clean out the coop and give the girls fresh bedding and we needed to fill the firewood rack on the back porch. We got both chores done well before dinner too.

The snow that started falling this morning is trying to change over to sleet now. Things are going to get messy around here. Colleen and I had wanted to take down the Christmas lights on the house today, but when it started snowing this morning Colleen plugged the lights in so everything would be lit up instead. I don’t think we’ll be doing much outside today. Colleen is already in the kitchen baking and I’ve been shuttling wood into the house from the rack outside to keep the fire burning. I guess we are about as ready as we can be for whatever Mother Nature throws at us today. The worst scenario would be if we lose power, but we are ready for that too. Tomorrow the snow and ice will have stopped falling, but the roads will be icy, so we don’t have plans to leave our little hill. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time and no matter what happens we will just look around and smile because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

January 23, 2022: Hot Dog! We Have Another Long Weekend Thanks To The Weather.

We’re a month into our winter and Mother Nature decided we needed a second weekend with snow on the ground. Last weekend’s snow didn’t amount to a whole lot and came with a good bit of freezing rain. This weekend’s snow gave us a snow day off from school on Friday, a couple of inches of snow on the ground Saturday morning, some lovely moon shadows, and temperatures that have barely made it over the freezing mark all weekend. This past weekend’s snow was strange to say the least. Earlier in the week the forecast had the snow starting on Thursday night and lasting until midday Saturday, but Mother Nature is fickle, and the storm was difficult to pin done. The snow finally started Friday sometime after sunset, the skies were clear again by sunrise on Saturday morning, and we had 2 or 3 inches of white powder on the ground. Colleen and I had done all the appropriate things in preparation for the storm so keeping warm and staying home was all we really had on the books.

Colleen and I had a very easy week last week actually. There was no school because of the federal holiday on Monday which was probably a very good thing since there was a full moon Monday night and everyone knows school can be a little crazy during a full moon. We both used a leave day to stay home on Tuesday which was a teacher workday. Monday was basically a lounge around the house day. I worked on my computer in front of the fireplace and Colleen enjoyed reading in front of the fireplace for most of the day. For lunch we foraged through the refrigerator and Colleen made some of her Stroga-Knock-Off for dinner. I think the most work I did was to shuttle firewood in from the back porch and apart from cooking dinner, Colleen made sure the fire got taken care of on the day. Tuesday wasn’t much different than Monday, but with the forecast of a pending weekend snowstorm, Colleen and I did refill the back porch firewood rack.

Wednesday and Thursday Colleen and I headed back to school. The forecast for the storm changed about 30 times, but by lunchtime on Thursday schools in the area decided to play it safe and made Friday a snow day. I suspect that had a lot to do with the rain we had on Thursday and the fact the temperatures were supposed to drop well below freezing on Thursday night. Originally the snow had been forecast to show up on Thursday night, but it didn’t. Still, with all the rain on Thursday, by Friday morning the roads were basically a sheet of ice, so it probably was a good thing school got canceled. Even as cold and wet as it was the deer really didn’t seem to mind as they were wandering around the backyard both Thursday and Friday morning.

There was no snow on the ground Friday morning, but the temperatures were definitely cold enough for Colleen and me to keep a fire going in the fireplace all day long. I spent a better part of my day grading schoolwork, but without the sense of urgency that it usually has on a weekend. Colleen found her way into the kitchen and before too long had a big pot of pea soup simmering in the stove. Pea soup is one of my favorites right up there with a good corn or New England clam chowder. I guess Friday was a pretty typical snow day though. Colleen and I weren’t in a terrible rush to get anything done and we certainly didn’t have plans to go anywhere. The snow still hadn’t start falling by 9 o’clock at night when Colleen and I called it a night. In an odd sort of way, being from New England as we are, Colleen and I were a little bit disappointed.

Yesterday morning Colleen and I woke up to 18 degrees on the thermometer and a couple of inches of snow on the ground. While we were looking around enjoying the view of our winter wonderland, we also realized the deer were still bedded down just past the wood line in a small clearing. With the temperature below 20 degrees it didn’t take us long to get a hard fire burning in the fireplace and a pot of hot coffee perking on the stove. I figured I better get my grade books caught up for the week, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the state’s system down for maintenance. I quickly wrote that little task off for the day and spent my day focused on my class work for Monday. The day, which I might add, is still a question mark as to whether we are in school or classes will be remote. Colleen spent a good bit of her day in the kitchen making an awesome turkey stew in the morning and some minestrone soup in the afternoon.

This morning it is bright and sunny. The temperature has finally crawled above freezing. I’m not too sure how much snow will melt today, and school tomorrow will depend on how much ice is on the roads. Colleen and I are planning for three different options, a remote learning day where I stay at home, a two-hour delay to the start of school, or a regular school day. The decision for what happens tomorrow is way above my pay grade. It should be an easy day today up here on our little hill. Colleen has a list of things she wants to do. I just really need to make sure we keep the fire burning, finish up my schoolwork, and help Colleen if she needs the help. Colleen and I will tackle the upcoming week one day at a time. We’ve all but gone to ignoring anything coming out of politicians’ mouths or the media so no matter what happens when in this crazy world, Colleen and I will rely on our good old fashion common sense. Colleen and I really do not have a clue what will happen this week. One thing is for sure though, Colleen and I will find our way back up here on our little hill every day, we’ll look around and smile thankfully because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

January 30, 2022: More Snow And Biting Cold Temperatures.

Well, isn’t that something, for the third weekend in a row we got snow. It wasn’t much snow, maybe an inch or so and it all fell in the dark of Friday night, but it was enough snow to cover everything in white. Like most snow in central North Carolina though, it is all but gone this morning and we are left with just temperatures in the teens this morning which may make it to 40 degrees later today. Last weekend’s snow gave us a snow day off from school on Friday and left the roads messy with lots of ice all over the place right through the weekend. Monday ended up being a remote learning day, so Colleen and I didn’t have to leave our house and try to get to school on Monday. For the most part, the weather for the rest of the week was just cold, but we did have plenty of sunshine. Traveling the roads should not be a problem tomorrow so I expect Colleen and I will be heading into school at our regular time.

Last Sunday was quiet for the most part. Most of the snow had disappeared, but it was still cold which seems to be a recurring theme lately. Colleen spent her day getting things ready for the school week in front of us and I spent the day making sure all my schoolwork was ready and posted online for our remote learning day on Monday. A lot of teachers don’t like remote learning days, but they don’t bother me. I found a structure that works well with the kids, and I run everything off our learning platform whether we are in the classroom or remote. The only thing I didn’t get done last weekend was my grade books. I had all the grading done, but the online grade book system was down for the weekend. All the same, between Colleen’s cooking and my schoolwork the day passed easily.

Since neither Colleen nor I had to go to school on Monday we just sort of hunkered down for the day. I spent a little time out on the porch to start the morning, but then I had to come inside to get my computers ready for a day of remote school. Colleen doesn’t have to do much on a remote day, so she took a day of leave and spent her day in her workroom working on her recipes and cookbooks. My first class of the day came off without a hitch, but right after class ended, we lost power for a few minutes, and it took our internet down. That was the end of attending my online classes for the day because our internet didn’t come back on until 8 o’clock Monday night. Fortunately, everything the kids in my classes needed was already online. I did what I could for school without internet access so I would be ready for the rest of the week, but mostly I just kept the fire going in the fireplace so we would be warm. It was a bright sunny day too albeit still cold, but by mid-afternoon the only snow left on the ground was on the north face of the ridge out back.

By Tuesday morning the roads were safe enough to travel and the rest of our school week pretty much ran as usual. Colleen would leave for school before sunup, and I would wait for daylight to let the girls out of their coop before I headed into school. My school did have a good number of teachers and kids that didn’t show up for one reason or another and I had to cover a few extra classes, but that really wasn’t a problem. Of course, when the forecast started calling for snow on Friday everyone had their fingers crossed that we would have our third long weekend in a row. That didn’t happen though as the snow didn’t get here until late Friday night. Colleen and I did treat ourselves to Chinese takeout for dinner on Friday evening which I picked up on my way home from school.

Colleen and I woke up to an inch or two of snow yesterday morning, but it didn’t take long for the sun to come out. All the same, we had no plans to leave the house. I spent most of my day elbow deep in schoolwork, taking breaks to get more firewood from the back porch. Colleen spent most of her day in the kitchen making everything from muffins to chili. I did get chance to work with my baseball cards yesterday afternoon. It was a rare opportunity where I wasn’t doing schoolwork. I figure with our retirement only a few years away now, it might be a good time to start thinning down my collection on eBay. The extra money won’t hurt either. I’m hoping I can finish my schoolwork today and spend some more time with my cards again.

Today like last weekend, the only snow left on the ground is on the north face of the ridge out back. The temperature is biting cold and there is ice on the pool again, but we have blue skies with wispy clouds over head. Colleen and I will keep a hard fire burning in the fireplace all day and go about our usual Sunday activities to get ready for school. I couldn’t begin to tell what is going on in this crazy world as January draws too close, but our bills are paid, and Colleen and I are doing just fine. We’ll just keep taking things one day at time, find our way home at the end of each, look around up here on our little hill, and smile thankfully because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

February 06, 2022: January Has Disappeared, February Is Here, And Phil Says Six More Weeks of Winter.

Colleen and I made it through the week, but by Friday it felt like we had two flat tires and the gas gauge was on E! The weather last week was just plain strange. We had snow last weekend, then some rain and temperatures near 70 degrees in the middle of the week, and Friday night the mercury plummeted 30 degrees and we are back in the 20’s this morning. We do have lots of sunshine and blue skies this morning. Nothing too wild happened at school during the week fortunately and this weekend Colleen and I are getting ready for another week at school. Apart from being seasonably cold for the upcoming week, Mother Nature looks like she has calmed down, and we aren’t expecting much, if anything, in the way of precipitation. The groundhog saw his shadow earlier last week, predicting six more weeks of winter, but he isn’t all that reliable so we shall see. I am optimistic that come the middle of this month I can start getting our gardens ready for the spring planting.

Most of our snow was gone by last Sunday. The snow that stuck around was on the shaded north side of the ridge out back. The roads had cleared up nicely, so Colleen and I knew we’d be back in school on Monday, so we spent Sunday afternoon getting ready for school. I finally got my grade books caught up. The system had been down the weekend before last. Colleen spent most of her day in the kitchen and I spent most of my day shuttling firewood into the house and working on the computer. I should have figured it was going to be a long dragged-out week though because I didn’t get all my Monday class work done. I usually have everything ready to go by dinner time on Sunday evening which didn’t happen last week. In fact, I ended up staying up until after 10 o’clock which is very out of character for me.

The school week was long and arduous for Colleen and me. It’s not like anything terrible happened, but it sure did seem like we were playing catch up all week. I would let the girls out right at sunrise and then get to school where I inevitably was trying to finish up my class work for the day or was in a meeting of some sort. I ended up staying up late every night too. A couple of nights we even lit a fire in the fireplace to warm things up while I was working late in the living room. Usually when the winter’s evening chill starts to take over the first floor, Colleen and I retreat to the warm bedroom upstairs. Colleen and I were both very thankful when we finally got back home Friday after school. Needless to say, Colleen and I spent Friday evening relaxing, knowing full well our weekend would be busy getting ready for the week in front of us.

Thursday and Friday morning the temperatures hung right around 60 degrees, but not yesterday morning. Colleen and I woke up to a thermometer that had dropped to below freezing. We had plans to head out early to replace our dead microwave, but plans change, and we decided to wait until later in the afternoon so we could treat ourselves to dinner while we were running around. I got a fire going to heat the house and got in front of my computer to do my schoolwork. Colleen got her cast iron pot out and spent the morning making a big pot of gumbo. I’m really looking forward to having a thermos of gumbo in my lunches this week. I shuttled firewood into the house when I needed a break from my computer and that was pretty much how our day went until later in the afternoon when we headed out to get the microwave.

It was after 4 o’clock when Colleen and I headed out. The traffic on the roads was light, but there were a million people at Walmart. Fortunately, Colleen and I had a very short list, knew exactly what we wanted, and got in and out in short order. We treated ourselves to dinner at Hardee’s where we got our meal at the drive-thru and then ate in the Trail Blazer. It may not seem like anything special, but it is something both Colleen and I enjoy. Colleen and I do not like being around crowds unless absolutely necessary so eating in the in the Trail Blazer in the parking lot suits us just fine. Colleen and I got home right around sunset. After we got the microwave set up, I rekindled the fire and got back to my schoolwork. Colleen headed upstairs to her workroom to put new elastic on our masks for school. Since I have a classroom full of kids during the day, I have two masks on my face most of the time and after a year the elastic had gotten stretched out.

Colleen and I are starting out slow this morning. The coffee is hot and fresh, and we have a busy day in front of us, but it wouldn’t be Sunday without a nice leisurely cup of coffee to start our day. The deer have made their way through the backyard, and I suppose I should be thinking about getting started on my work. I’ll be by the fire and working on the computer all day and Colleen will be getting everything ready for our school week. Colleen and I are hoping that this coming week passes easier than last week. The world is unsettled as ever. Not much of it has reached us up here on our little hill though. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time. We try to keep things simple and take care of our business. No matter what happens though, we know at the end of each day we will find our way home, look around and smile though, because up here on our little hill all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

February 13, 2022: February Is Flying By So I Guess We Should Start Thinking About Our Gardens.

For anyone counting, we just finished week 100 since this whole pandemic mess started with the lockdowns, mandated vaccinations, mandated masking, and everything else with which governments saddled the people of the world. Through it all Colleen and I have paid little attention to the government and media, instead expecting the whole ordeal to last two to three years and relying on our common sense to keep us safe and healthy. I can happily say that so far, we have been doing just fine. Apart from a stint of online teaching, fewer family gatherings, and getting sick for a day because of a vaccination which we didn’t want to get in the first place, not much changed for us. In fact, Colleen and I found several opportunities we might not have had otherwise. Of course, we didn’t spend our time complaining about all the things we couldn’t do, instead we found great pleasure in doing the things we could and even found a few new things to do too.

Last week, for the most part, Colleen and I enjoyed some pleasant weather. After the week started with a little rain, there was plenty of sunshine and things warmed up some around here, especially later in the week. I think the temperature may have even gotten to 70 degrees yesterday. The cooler temperatures have returned this morning though, and we might see a little rain today as well, but things should start warming up again by the middle of the week. The groundhog saw its shadow and with it came the forecast of six more weeks of winter, but the Farmer’s Almanac says we will have an early spring. Colleen and I are inclined to believe we will see an early spring because the daffodils are getting ready to open and we have our first crocus bloom of the year. With any luck, we will start working in our gardens next weekend weather permitting and it is time to start our seeds inside.

Last Sunday was a little bit chilly and it didn’t take me long to get a nice fire going in the fireplace. The skies were gray and threatening all day. The deer didn’t seem to mind as they found their way along the wood line. It wasn’t cold enough for another weekend of snow, but that really didn’t matter because Colleen and I had no intention of leaving the house. I did my usual Sunday morning writing, but the better part of my day was spent at my table by the fireplace in front of my computer doing schoolwork. For some reason, the last few weeks at school had been rough and I was still trying to get caught up on things. Colleen spent her day in the kitchen getting meals ready for the week. Sunday evening Colleen made chicken fried steak for our dinner which was just a wonderful meal. Apart from me shuttling firewood into the house to keep the fire going and Colleen taking care of the chickens in the morning and the evening, we saw no other reason to go outside on the day.

Our school week started out slow and a bit choppy on Monday, but by the middle of the week things had started to turn around and get back to normal. Colleen stopped at the laundromat on Tuesday and the market on Thursday. My school had an early release day on Wednesday and once the kids were gone, I taught a professional development session. It went well. Thursday and Friday were test days for my classes so both days proved to be easy for me. All the same, by the time Friday afternoon showed up, Colleen and I were tired from our week at school. I did spend Friday evening out on the back porch, in the warm evening air, grading schoolwork, but I didn’t stay up very late, and I got a decent night’s sleep that put me in good stead to start Saturday morning.

Yesterday morning Colleen and I actually had plans to start the day. After we finished our morning coffee, we headed out the front door to Perkins Orchard to get some fresh produce for the week. Perkins opened a month early this year, and while we know the produce is coming from hot houses, fresh produce is still a treat. Once we got back from Perkins, we spent the rest of the morning refilling the firewood rack on the back porch. Colleen and I emptied the last of our firewood from the winter ready for racks. Once those racks were empty the rest of the firewood came from the pile of oak at the bottom of the hill that I had split late last summer. Hopefully, that will be the last time for the season that we will need to fill the porch rack. If not, there is still plenty of firewood at the bottom of the hill.

Our Saturday plans sort of derailed after lunch. Colleen got a catch in her back while stacking the firewood which shut her down for the afternoon, more or less. I started to finish up my grading after lunch, but I ended up taking a nap in the middle of the afternoon. I woke up with enough time to finish my grading before dinner. After dinner I started updating my grade books, but I took a break at sunset to sit out on the porch and watch the stars come out. Colleen took care of the girls for the night at sunset and then spent the rest of the evening upstairs, relaxing in bed. I eventually got back into the house and back on the computer. I was able to finish my grade books before I called it a day and headed upstairs.

It’s a quiet, but blustery morning right now. There is plenty of hot coffee though. I may even start a fire in the fireplace later. Colleen is already in the kitchen where I suspect she will be for most of the day. Her back is feeling much better this morning. I only have my class work for tomorrow to get done today so I may have some free time this afternoon. The skies have cleared up a bit, but there is still rain in the forecast for this afternoon. Where today or next week will take Colleen and me is anyone’s guess, but we will take things one day at a time. The world will do as the world will do. The politicians and the media will continue to spew their usual nonsense, but Colleen and I are quite content up here on our little hill because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

February 20, 2022: Finally Some Free Time On The Weekend. Oh, What To Do With Ourselves?

Well, it took almost the whole month of January and a good bit of February for things to get back to an even keel around here, but last week turned out just fine up here on our little hill. Last weekend I would have thought spring had made a very early arrival too with the temperatures in the low 70’s, but Mother Nature was having none of that, and come Monday morning the mercury was back down around freezing. The rest of the week was pretty seasonable with even a little bit of a warmup during the week until Thursday night that is, when a cold front with some rain pushed through the area and temperatures plummeted again. Colleen and I decided yesterday that we needed a fire even though the temperatures got up into the 50’s and I didn’t waste any time this morning rekindling the fire in the fireplace because the temperature outside is right around 25 degrees and there was a definite chill in the house. We had plenty of sunshine all week except for the clouds and rain that moved in on Thursday night, but the rain was gone by Friday morning when I left for school.

Colleen and I spent last Sunday playing a little more catch up than usual after our running around and outside work on Saturday. Fortunately, I had managed to get most all my schoolwork and grading done early so I did have some free time after dinner. Colleen spent most of her day in the kitchen. She made a double batch of muffins, a potato pie, and a big pot of soup. The soup turned out okay for an experiment, but it’s not likely to make her cookbook. Even after all of that she found the time to make her chicken creole for dinner. After dinner I had enough free time to work with my baseball cards and put a handful of cards up for sale on eBay. There was a time when I would actively sell cards to help add to our sparse summer funds, but now I’m looking forward to thinning out my collection and generating some funds with my retirement which is in sight.

The school week went well for Colleen and me. For the first time in far too long I headed to school every single day with my work for the day done and ready to go. I did not have to hit the ground running to finish anything once I got to school. Even with a full moon in the middle of the week, my kids were relatively well behaved all week too. Colleen stopped at the laundromat on her way home on Monday and at the market on her way home on Thursday. She had a teacher workday on Friday, so she got to stay home and get her cleaning and housework out of the way for the weekend. Friday, when I got home after school, we decided to run our errands so we wouldn’t have to leave the house all weekend. I’m not too fond of driving especially in traffic or at night, but our little trip worked out so well, we might just have to make the Friday night errand run a thing. We even treated ourselves to a burger and fries at Hardee’s while we were out and about.

The latter part of the week had warmed up nicely, things got cold again Friday night so yesterday morning we decided we needed to put a fire in the fireplace. Colleen’s indoor greenhouse for her herbs arrived on Friday so yesterday morning we put it together and got it set to go. Since Colleen wanted it in the bedroom in front of the southern facing windows, once the greenhouse was set up, she spent the better part of her day cleaning and reorganizing the bedroom. I headed downstairs to get in front of my computer and the fireplace to do my weekly grading. By 9 o’clock last night I had every bit of my grading done. I had done a good part of my schoolwork for Monday at school on Friday, so I have very little schoolwork to do today. I think I rather enjoy having some free time on the weekends. It looks like I will be able to spend some more time with my baseball cards again today.

It is beautiful outside this morning with brilliant blue skies even if there is still a bit of a chill in the air. The fire is burning in the fireplace and the house is warm and toasty. Colleen has tomorrow off for Presidents Day, but I must go to school. Colleen will spend today in the kitchen getting ready for the week in front of us so she can spend tomorrow planting her herbs and putting them in her greenhouse. Even though we still have our chilly mornings, everything is starting to feel like spring is just around the corner. It looks like our governor will be lifting our state’s mask mandate in the next couple of weeks too. Interestingly enough though, it will come almost exactly two years to the date from when this whole shooting match started. Colleen and I will continue to err on the side of caution though, and our masks will not come off for a while. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time too. We’ll do what needs to be done and what we can do each and every day. At day’s end, we’ll find our way home, look around and smile, knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

February 27, 2022: A Calm Week, A Rainy Sunday, And A Warm Fire

It is a wet, gray, and dreary morning. February is coming to a close quickly and the start of spring is just a matter of a few weeks away. I guess I could say last week our weather was pretty typical for this time of year. We saw a little bit of everything except for any frozen precipitation. We had lovely spring like days with plenty of sunshine and 70-degree temperatures followed by chilly days with a biting rain that saw the early morning temperatures below 40 degrees. Today’s rain is forecast to be here most of the day, but it should be moving out by the late afternoon. That won’t give things much time to dry out today. I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow and Tuesday, both of which are supposed to be warm and sunny. While it isn’t really all that cold today there is a definite damp bite to the air so Colleen and I will have a low fire burning in the fireplace most of the day.

Last Sunday started out cold, below freezing, and with a late morning moon in the sky, but turned into an absolutely beautiful day. I spent the better part of my day buried in schoolwork and grading. Colleen who didn’t have school on Monday used her day to cook and take care of a few extra things on our “To-Do” list. She ended up making a big pot of soup for my lunches during the week, the usual tuna salad, and other odds and ends that go into lunches. She did get out of the kitchen in the afternoon and headed down to the hen coop to change out the bedding for the girls. For dinner she whipped up some mushroom Swiss burgers and squash fries. I did take some time Sunday evening to put a few more things up for sale on eBay. In a nutshell, last week started pretty much the way the week before had finished, and that was busy, but calm.

Colleen spent her day off on Monday planting herbs. I didn’t hear much from her while I was at school because she was elbow deep in peat pots and potting soil right through lunchtime and into the middle of the afternoon. When all was said and done, Colleen planted five pots each of 20 different herbs and had the trays in her new greenhouse in the bedroom. This is a major and a bold step for Colleen who is determined to establish a substantial herb garden this year. Of course, our track record with starting plants from seeds is not great so we shall see how things turn out. My day at school was just the usual run of the mill with no unexpected surprises.

The school week ran without incident for both Colleen and me. Oh, I had my usual meetings and had to cover a number of classes for absent teachers. Substitute teachers are still as scarce as hen’s teeth these days. Given the current state of things in the world, Colleen and I decided we had best make a Costco run to replenish our supplies. Rather than deal with the Saturday crowds, we opted to go right after I got home from school on Friday afternoon. Usually, the crowd at Costco is not bad on Friday afternoon and it wasn’t last Friday either, so Colleen and I were in and out in roughly an hour. Along with our usual supplies, we came home with four elderberry bushes. One never quite knows what you will find at Costco. Colleen has been wanting elderberry bushes for a couple of years now, and we just haven’t had any luck finding them. We didn’t even know where to look around here for any established bushes from which we could take clippings. Now that we have the bushes, Colleen needs to tell me where to plant them and I need to get them into the ground.

Yesterday started to be a low-key day. Colleen finished putting our Costco haul away. In the process she decided to pull a couple of frozen leftover meals out of the freezer for our dinners during the week. That really helped in getting the prep work done for the upcoming week. I spent a good bit of my day doing schoolwork and organizing baseball cards to sell on eBay. After lunch we got a surprise visit from Louis. As it turns out, Louis and the Army will be parting ways for medical reasons. Louis has been in the Army for more than five years and he is a bit torn about what is happening. Colleen and I did our best to remind him that everything happens for a reason even if that reason isn’t immediately understood. After Louis left, Colleen and I ate dinner and after that I butchered some meat we bought at Costco so Colleen could store appropriate sized portions for our meals. Colleen’s big challenge was getting everything into our freezers which she did. Needless to say, we are well stocked with food stuffs and supplies again.

I don’t have school tomorrow, but I will spend a good bit of today doing schoolwork anyway. Colleen has a little bit of baking to do, but overall she is in a good place with her preparations for the week. A low fire will keep the house toasty and comfortable as we wait out the rain. With spring right around the corner, Colleen and I will need to turn our attention to the gardens in the coming weekends when we have nice weather. I do start my spring intersession break in a few weeks so that will be a huge opportunity for me to get outside too. Colleen and I have no idea what tomorrow or the day after that might bring our way. The world is a mess, and the politicians and media are only making it worse. Colleen and I know there isn’t a lot we can do to change things, so we keep doing our best to keep things positive for those with whom we interact every day. Everything up here on our little hill is still just fine and everyone is healthy. We take one day at a time and at the end of each day we look around and smile thankfully because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

March 06, 2022: A New Month And Spring Is In The Air!

It’s the first week of March, daylight savings time hits next weekend, and the first day of spring is just two weeks away. The weather has definitely taken a turn for the better. Even though we had a cool weekend last weekend with a little bit of rain on Sunday, we needed a fire to chase the chill out of the house, the week got progressively warmer as we worked our way through it. There wasn’t any rain of which to speak and yesterday we got up over 70 degrees. Today we may flirt with 80 degrees, but it’s not likely to stay there for next week. It looks like we have some more of the temperature roller coaster ride coming our way and the latter half of next week looks like it could be wet. Whatever Mother Nature does with the weather this week is just fine because I’m looking forward to the start of my 3-week spring intersession break starting on Friday afternoon. I’m hopeful that the weather will cooperate while I am on break though.

Last Sunday was wet and chilly, but Colleen and I had nowhere we needed to be and the chickens didn’t seem to mind. A fire in the fireplace warmed things up nicely so I could do my schoolwork. Colleen went about her usual Sunday meal prep for the upcoming week. I had a teacher’s workday on Monday, so I wasn’t feeling too terribly pressured about getting my work done and I even found some time to play around with my baseball cards later in the afternoon. There aren’t many weekends during the school year where I can say that. Despite my somewhat laid back day, Colleen was very busy and productive, in addition to the usual weekend batch of muffins for my lunches, she put together a big pot of her spicy chicken soup and then made her usual Sunday dinner. Last week it was pork chops, mashed potatoes with mushroom and onion gravy, and broccoli.

I got up with Colleen on Monday morning and after she left for school I sat down and enjoyed a cup of hot fresh coffee. That was about it for my relaxing Monday. I got an SOS email from school and needed to attend an online meeting about one of my kids. That meeting last over an hour and then I spent the rest of my day buried in schoolwork. It sure didn’t turn out to be the day off I anticipated. Colleen had her typical Monday and she even stopped at the laundromat on her way home. I ended up staying up later than usual to make sure I had my schoolwork done. I’ve come to the conclusion though that when a teacher takes a day off it’s only so they can work uninterrupted at home.

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful. Colleen would leave for school I would wait for sunrise to take care of the girls before I left for school. My week entailed the usual meeting and covering classes for absent teachers. Colleen stopped at the market on her way home on Thursday afternoon so we wouldn’t have any errands over the weekend. The real highlight of the week though was that the girls starting to lay eggs in earnest for the spring. Colleen always gets excited when she finds eggs in the nesting boxes in the afternoons and on Friday there were three eggs. We only have six chickens, but three of them are geriatric so I’m not sure they are laying eggs anymore. Those girls aren’t likely to end up in the stew pot either, because they have become more like pets for Colleen.

Friday afternoon was beautiful outside and Friday even was low key for Colleen and me. I didn’t update my grade books last weekend and with the end of the quarter at school coming quickly I knew I would need to have the books updated this weekend, so I started grading. I spent most of the evening on the computer and by time I headed upstairs for the night, I had all my honors courses up to date and done. It wasn’t necessarily a fun evening, but it was productive. Colleen piddled around the house and relaxed knowing she wanted to spend yesterday in the kitchen experimenting with a few new recipes for our gathering of the clan for a St. Paddy’s Day get together. We’re planning the get together for next weekend after having to forego the gathering last year thanks to the Great American Stay at Home.

Yesterday was a beautiful day and even though I slept late, I ended up outside on the porch all day doing the last of my grades and grade books. I much prefer working outside on the porch. Colleen spent the day in the kitchen experimenting with a cheesy bacon beer bread to go with the corned beef and cabbage feast next weekend. She made rolls instead of loaves and the bread turned out fabulously. Colleen even made a vegetarian version with “fake bacon” that came out well. Personally, I’m still trying to wrap my head around a corned beef and cabbage meal designed for vegetarians, but Colleen always manages to pull something wonderful out of her hat.

Today is very mild and quite pleasant despite an overabundance of clouds in the sky. The temperature may even reach 80 degrees today. I have some schoolwork to do today, and Colleen will be in the kitchen again. The world certainly is still a mess, inflation is making everything more expensive, and things don’t look like they will get any better any time soon. Sadly, there isn’t much that many of us can do and it doesn’t look like the politicians and media are much help either. Colleen and I will keep doing the best we can within our sphere of influence. Our life is simple, and we just keep taking things one day at a time. With all the uncertainty, there is one thing Colleen and I do know, and that is when we find our way home up here on our little hill at the end of each day, we can look around and smile thankfully because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

March 13, 2022: Two Years After The Great American Stay At Home Started And We’re Still Here!

Two years ago today, Colleen and I learned schools would be closing indefinitely because of Covid. It was only supposed to be for two weeks at first, but that quickly changed. Here we are two years later, things are still uncertain and while vaccines have been mandated and mask are starting to come off, Covid related deaths and cases are still making the news. Of course, the politicians and media are still doing their best to spin things, but no one really knows what will happen or if Covid will ever go away. Colleen and I are still religious about wearing our masks when we go out in public, and I suspect we will be for a good while still. When this whole mess started, Colleen and I quickly decided based on our reading that we were looking at a two-to-three-year run. It doesn’t look like we were too far off the mark either. Fortunately, only one member of our family came down with Covid and it was just a minor case. What happens from here on out is still anyone’s guess though.

Anyway, another week has passed, and it is a beautiful, but chilly Sunday morning. There is lots of sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. Mother Nature wigged out on us again last week. For the most part it was a pleasant week though. Temperatures were mild and we even got close to 80 degrees in the middle of the week. We did get our share of rain early in the week and then again Friday night and yesterday morning. Yesterday’s rain came with a good bit of wind, and we had a large tree on the downhill side of the house get uprooted and come crashing down. Fortunately, it didn’t hit anything. Behind the rain was a cold front that pushed the temperatures down to 20 degrees this morning. Needless to say, we do have a fire in the fireplace this morning, and just to make things better, Colleen and I have almost nothing on the books. I almost feel lost without something pressing that needs to be done.

The school week was routine passing quickly and uneventfully for both Colleen and me. Colleen stopped at the laundromat on her way home Monday. Wednesday was an early release day for my school, and I got home before Colleen for a change. Wednesday Colleen stopped at the market on her way home to get the few things that we needed so she could spend Thursday and Friday starting to get ready for our gathering of the clan on Saturday. Friday was my last day of school before my intersession break and, like most teachers, I could not get out of school fast enough after the kids dismissed. Thursday and Friday night Colleen started cleaning and cooking to get ready for yesterday’s gathering of the clan. I did what I could to help with the cleanup. Spring definitely let us know it was doing its best to chase away the last remnants of winter and to go with the daffodils, hyacinths, and crocuses that were blooming, the pear trees around my school are adorned in their white spring flowers.

Yesterday Colleen and I revived our traditional St. Patrick’s Day gathering of the clan. The last one we had was two years ago right before the start of the Great American Stay at Home. Unfortunately, not all the kids made it for the feast, but Alysia, Al, Louis, Madie, and Alex were here. Colleen made fried pickles for the first time to start the show while everyone waited for the corned beef and cabbage to finish cooking. Who would have thought fried pickles would have been as popular as deviled eggs with these kids. The pickles disappeared off the plate as fast as Colleen could get them out of the air fryer. All of Colleen’s hard work to prepare the feast really paid off and she got to sit down and enjoy the meal with everyone. The stories and the banter around the dining room table was a throwback to Sunday meals when the kids all lived here. Colleen did such an awesome job making everything this year that every single one of the kids took some leftovers home with them.

By 5:30 all the kids had left, and the house was quiet again. Colleen and I took a few minutes to catch our breath before we started cleaning up which took a few hours. I helped where I could, but once the furniture was back in place and there was just cleanup in the kitchen left, I headed off to bed. Colleen was up for another two hours before she finished the kitchen and headed upstairs for the night. I would help in the kitchen, but Colleen will have none of that. First, the kitchen is her turf, and second of all, no one touches her Nana’s china. The china was a wedding present for her Nana and has been handed down through the family over the years.

It’s not often that Colleen and I have a day off, but we do today. There are more than enough leftovers to get us through the upcoming week, I’m on break so I don’t have any schoolwork, and Colleen doesn’t need to make anything for my lunches. I think we will have our usual Sunday dinner today, but that will likely be the extent of Colleen’s time in the kitchen. With all the chaos in the world these days, it sure does feel good to have a day off at home in front of us. Starting tomorrow I will tackle my “To-Do” list while Colleen is at school. I have no idea what will or won’t get accomplished, but stuff will get done. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time, and matter what happens we can look around up here on our little hill and know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

March 20, 2022: A Busy Week With Car Repairs And Lots Of Outside Work

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning with which to start my second week of break and to start spring. Yes, today is the first day of spring and the start of another seasonal chapter of our life up here on our little hill. I would have to say today is every bit the typical early spring day around here. The sky is blue without a cloud to be seen, the temperature is 50 degrees, and there is a cool spring breeze blowing. On the whole, the weather last week wasn’t bad at all. The only real rain we got was Wednesday night and the temperatures were anywhere from 40 to 80 degrees at various points in the week. I spent the better part of my days outside and managed to at least make a dent in my “To-Do” list. With any luck, I can be just as productive this week while Colleen is in school.

Colleen and I did our best last Sunday to relax. Saturday, we had our traditional gathering of the clan for St. Patrick’s Day, so it had been a day of feasting and then cleaning up. Sunday we kind of just sat around. I did my usual Sunday morning writing. With me on break and plenty of leftovers in the refrigerator, Colleen didn’t have a lot of prep to do for the week. Colleen did make a lovely meatloaf for dinner. The definite highlight of the day though was a phone call from an old friend of mine to whom I had not spoken in a number of years. My friend and I started working together right out of college and now, after 40 years, he has retired after being with the same company with which we had started. I guess we talked for an hour or so, got caught up on each other’s lives, and have started planning to get together again once I retire in few years. I was feeling old, but like a $1,000,000 after the phone call so I just hung out on the back porch and watched the sunset through the trees.

Monday morning, I had great plans to start my break, but like all plans, they were subject to change on a moment’s notice, and they did. I had a few errands to run in the morning and when I pulled out of the parking lot after finishing my last errand, I realized the Honda had a problem. Fortunately, I was only a mile away from our mechanic’s shop and I managed to get the Honda there. I found out later that day that the hydraulic master cylinder for the clutch was shot. That whole ordeal took the wind out of my sails for the day. I spent the rest of my day cleaning up outside and getting the winter-ready firewood area ready so I could start moving firewood to the racks for next winter. Buttercup even came outside to help me, but all she did was sniff around and get in the way occasionally. Colleen’s day at school was pretty typical, and she ended up leaving school at her usual time, stopping at the market on her way home to pick up a few odds and ends we needed, and spending over $60 to fill her gas tank up. The evening was quiet, and Colleen and I made an early evening of it, both heading upstairs for the night before 10 o’clock.

Tuesday morning Colleen had jury duty. Colleen was lucky in that she had a very low juror number. I ran her down to the courthouse first thing in the morning so she would be there on time. I guess it was a little before 10:30 when I got a text from her that she was done and they had released her, so I ran back to town to pick her up. With Colleen home for the afternoon, it was time for the Christmas lights on the house to come down. Colleen steadied the extension ladder while I took the lights and garland down from around the front window. After that Colleen did some housework inside while I finished unwrapping the lights and garland from the front porch. It was a job easier said than done and it took me all afternoon to finish the job, but the lights and garland are securely stored in the basement now until after Thanksgiving later this year. Colleen and I got the Honda back from the shop before dinner and after dinner I just hung out on back porch and watched the deer meander through the backyard as the sun set.

Wednesday morning Colleen headed back to school and with rain in the forecast I decided I needed to get the pile of split firewood moved up the hill and into the rack. Moving split oak uphill isn’t easy, but I did it one wagon load at a time. It took me all morning and into the afternoon, but one rack is filled and now I can start cutting and splitting more of the wood that is still on the ground for the other racks. The rain started about the time Colleen got home from school so not much else got done outside. Lily had a birthday party last Saturday at the same time as we had our gathering of the clan for St. Patrick’s Day and since we didn’t find out about the party until that Friday, Colleen and I couldn’t make Lily’s party, so Anna brought Lily over to the house late in the afternoon. We gave Lily her birthday present and got to spend a little time with her before Anna and Lily had to leave. We don’t get to see Lily as much as we might like, unfortunately, and she has grown so much already.

Thursday morning the rain was really coming down and Colleen had a tough drive to school in the dark. Fortunately, it was an uneventful commute. I finally got around to replacing the faucet on the kitchen sink on Thursday morning and I was very happy that the whole job ended up being easy and I had it done and working by lunchtime. The hardest part of the whole job was getting my 6-foot frame into the cabinet under the sink so I could reach the faucet fittings. The rain stopped by noon and by midafternoon we had a bright and sunny day on our hands. It was also the first day of spring training baseball, so I took the afternoon off from working around the house, streamed the baseball game on my phone, and sorted baseball cards all afternoon. The Trail Blazer hadn’t seemed right to Colleen for a little while and since Colleen had Friday off from school, when Colleen got home, we took the Trail Blazer down to the shop so they could look at it on Friday.

Colleen and I took our time to get going on Friday. The ground had started drying out nicely on Thursday, so come mid-morning on Friday Colleen and I headed outside to work in the gardens. I started by heading down to the compost bin to screen out the pine shavings out of the compost to put in the gardens. I spent all day doing that and didn’t finish. After I filled the wheelbarrow up with compost the first time, I did clean out two raised bed gardens and top dressed them both gardens with the compost. Colleen spent the better part of her day cleaning out flower gardens. She quit early enough in the afternoon to make fried pickles to go with the Ruben sandwiches we had for dinner. Ruben sandwiches are a treat to which we both look forward with the leftover corned beef from St. Paddy’s Day. After dinner both Colleen and I were tired from a busy day, so we spent the evening relaxing. The shop did call us about the Trail Blazer, and it seems on of the front struts had a problem, so I gave them the okay to replace both front struts. They couldn’t finish the job on Friday so they will finish the job on Monday, and Colleen will take the Honda to school.

Yesterday started out cloudy, but with no rain in the forecast, Colleen and I headed outside to finish up the work we had started on Friday. Colleen planted four lilac bushes in pots on the back porch before she headed out to the side yard with her rake to clean things up. I headed back down to the compost bin to finish screening the shavings out. I ended up cleaning up and top dressing two more raised bed gardens too. Colleen headed back into the house around lunchtime to start working on summer “shirts” for Buttercup. Don’t ask me why, but Buttercup likes wearing doggy coats and her winter coats will just be too hot for her in the summer. After lunch I got to plant a couple of gardens for the spring. I planted our usual cool weather veggies, radishes, peas, turnips, spinach, and Swiss chard. Feeling like we’ve seen our last frost of the season, I took a chance and planted oregano and cilantro too. I have beet seeds soaking in water this morning and I will plant those this afternoon.

It looks like we are in for another beautiful day today up here on our little hill. Colleen is already working in the kitchen, but I’m not real sure what I will do today. I still have two more weeks of my break left and plenty left to do on my list. I do want to work with my baseball cards and put some more up for sale on eBay today, and of course there is a baseball game to watch this afternoon. My first week of break was wonderful. I got to cross several things off my list, and I still found time to relax. Looking at what’s going on in the world, I’m thinking those fool politicians should find time to relax instead of trying to convince everyone they know what they are doing. I guess when it comes to politicians and the media, some things never change. No matter what happens though, Colleen and I will just keep taking one day at a time. We see no point in worrying about tomorrow until it gets here. I do know one thing though, and that is all Colleen and I need do is look around, up here on our little hill, to feel good about things and smile because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

March 27, 2022: Week #2 Of Break, Some Wet Weather, And More Car Repairs.

Week #2 of my break is in the books, and I still have one more week to go. Last week’s weather was all over the map with warm temperatures and cold temperatures and sunshine and rain. It happens to be just above freezing, at the moment, and we will not get out of the 50’s today. Most of the week our daytime temperatures were in the 60’s, or higher, and it felt every bit like spring. We even had a full moon to start the season. The storms that ran across the southern states with heavy rains and tornadoes got here to Central North Carolina on Wednesday, but by then the storms had lost much of their fury and all we got was a lot of rain. The sun came back on Friday, but things started to cool off. It looks like we may only have one or two days of cool temperatures before everything starts warming up again and we get back to the business of spring.

Not a whole lot happened last Sunday around here. Colleen did some cooking, and I did a few odds and ends before I settled in out on the front porch to listen to the baseball game and work on my end of quarter grades for school. We did eat an early Sunday meal of leftover corned beef. Mostly, I guess, Colleen and I took advantage of it being the first day of spring. Most of our late afternoon and evening was spent doing things other than our chores for a change. Colleen was up in her workroom making summer shirts for Buttercup, and once I finished all the grading I wanted to do, I was sorting baseball cards and listing them for sale on eBay. As Sunday came to a close, Colleen made sure she was ready to head to school in the morning, we closed up the house for the night, and headed upstairs having enjoyed a very peaceful day up here on our little hill.

Colleen took the Honda to school on Monday because the Trail Blazer was in the shop getting a new set of front struts. I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated on the day, but I did spend the morning cleaning up around the log splitter knowing full well the splitter was going to get put to good use again in the not-too-distant future. I spent the afternoon grading on the computer and listening to a ball game again. Colleen stopped at the laundromat on her way home and when she got home, we headed down to the shop to retrieve the Trail Blazer which was ready and waiting. Colleen was very happy to have her vehicle back and riding just as smooth as silk. By the time we headed to bed, Colleen had all the laundry dried and put away too.

Tuesday was just another school day for Colleen. I found a good bit more motivation on the day than I had on Monday. I spent a good part of the morning splitting the firewood that was down back and already cut to size. I’m pretty sure I got most all of it which just leaves the stuff that needs to be cut to size before I can split it. I cleaned up a little more down by the splitter since I had eliminated the pile of cut, unsplit wood. Now I’ll have to haul the split wood up the hill to the winter-ready racks. I spent the afternoon working on my grade books and listening to the baseball game again. Colleen got home at her usual time, got settled, took care of the girls, collected the eggs, and decided we would have an early dinner. There was nothing really out of the ordinary around here for the rest of the evening.

The rain showed up on Wednesday morning, but not until after Colleen got to school and until after I took care of the girls for the morning. I spent all morning sorting through and organizing baseball cards. I’ve just about have the upstairs closet emptied out, but I haven’t even started going through the stuff in the basement yet. After lunch in I was back out on the front porch with my computer, working on grade books, and listening to the baseball game. The day’s rain was just about finishing by the time Colleen got home from school. Around dinner time the sun had found its way through the clouds. Everything was still soaking wet and there was a misty sort of fog hanging in the tree tops out back. Colleen and I spent the evening doing a few small things, but mostly just relaxing.

It rained a little during the night so everything was still wet Thursday morning, and I was stuck working in the house again. The day sure didn’t look like it was going to amount to much though. The morning sky was devoid of the usual morning colors and all we had was a break in the clouds on the eastern horizon. Thursday afternoon though, I was out on the front porch with my computer, and I finally finished getting my grade books sewn up to end the quarter. Thursday on her way home from school, Colleen stopped at the market for our weekly groceries. After we got all the groceries carried into the house it was time for dinner. After dinner Colleen cleaned the kitchen and put the groceries away while I listed a bunch of stuff to sell on eBay. Not much else of note happened Thursday evening and it was a peaceful evening.

Friday, I had to do a quick switch from Plan A to Plan B almost right out the gate. Colleen left for work at her usual time and once the sun came up, I let the girls out of their coop for the day, but Colleen had left me a list of things we needed from Tractor Supply Company and Walmart. Once the girls were set for the day, I got Colleen’s list, my wallet, my keys, and a mask and then headed out to the Honda to run my errands. The car started up just fine, but I stepped on the clutch to put the car in gear which didn’t happen, and I was right back where I had started on the first day of my spring break. All I could do was laugh, call the shop to let them know what was up, and to call AAA to tow the car to the shop. Plan B turned into sorting baseball cards in the morning and planting seeds in the afternoon. In past years, I haven’t had great success with starting plants from seeds in the house, but I keep trying. This year I planted banana peppers, bell peppers, and eggplant. When Colleen got home, she found room for everything that I planted in her greenhouse upstairs. The rest of our day was uneventful. Colleen took care of the girls and cleaned up after dinner. I got in front of the computer and listed a bunch more baseball cards on eBay.

Yesterday I decided I needed to take a day off. I got in touch with a friend, and we made plans to catch a baseball game at my old high school. I hadn’t seen a baseball game since 2019. The new coach for the team was a kid I taught and coached during my 17-year tenure with the team, so it was a real treat to see him. I even knew some of his coaching staff. It was a wonderful day for baseball, but it did feel strange watching the game from the stands and not the dugout. Colleen did a little cooking while I was gone and there was a super frittata waiting for dinner and cinnamon rolls rising on the stove when I got home. After dinner I headed out to the porch with a cigar and didn’t do much else the rest of the evening.

As early spring temperatures tend to do, we went from warm comfortable days in the beginning of the week to a morning where the temperature is near freezing today. It looks like we will have the same tomorrow morning, but everything will start to warm up again later in the week. All the same, the trees are starting to really get filled with the new buds that come at this time of spring. Colleen and I want to run the errands I could not get done on Friday this morning, and we’ll probably stop for lunch while we are out too. Colleen has tomorrow off, and I am still on my break so playing catch-up isn’t terribly rushed this weekend. The world is still crazy and the politicians from around the world are sparring through the media. Colleen and I can’t do much about that, but we can take care of our business. We take everything one day at a time up here on our little hill. We certainly do not a have any complaints either, because we just look around and smile thankfully knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

April 03, 2022: Spring Is Here, April Is Here, And My Spring Break Is Done.

I’m heading back to school tomorrow. It sure has been a quick 3-week break for me. It seems that spring has finally settled into place around here. Temperatures got down to near freezing a few days this past week, but I don’t think we ever got much below that mark. For the most part it was a very pleasant week weather wise. We did have a little rain in the middle of the week, but mostly we had clear skies and seasonable temperatures. Colleen ended up taking a couple of days off during the week for vehicle issues, and daily plans got switched around on a moment’s notice, but that is the way of things up here on the hill. This morning we have bright summer skies, temperatures in the 40’s, and a day of getting things ready for next week. I have a little schoolwork left to do, and Colleen will most likely spend some time in the kitchen.

Colleen and I finally got around to running our weekly errands last Sunday morning. It really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. We needed some supplies for the chickens and a few odds and ends from Walmart. We treated ourselves to a late lunch at Hardee’s and then pretty much took the rest of afternoon off. Colleen got to spend time working on summer shirts for Buttercup and I sorted some baseball cards and got them ready to sell on eBay. I even found the time to relax some on the back porch and watch the deer meander through and graze in the backyard. I guess between last Saturday and Sunday, that was as close to taking a break from the work that needed to be done around here that I had over my entire 3-week break.

Colleen had a teacher workday on Monday, so she didn’t have to go to school. Colleen spent the better part of her morning prepping meals for the week. I took care of getting sold baseball cards packaged up and into the mail before I headed down back to clean out the girls’ pen and coop. Cleaning out the pen took a while longer than I anticipated. The girls tend to scratch the shavings out of their coop over time and with the pen being on the side of a hill, everything ends up along the fence. I bet I pulled a good 6 inches of stuff out from along that back fence. Fortunately, it all makes for good compost, so it all went on our compost pile. Colleen spent the afternoon in her workroom with Buttercup’s shirts and I worked on selling more baseball cards. We had a big dinner Monday night too. It should have been our Sunday dinner, but since we treated ourselves to a late lunch on Sunday we didn’t see much sense in a big Sunday meal.

Tuesday started out a little bit crazy. Colleen got out to the Trail Blazer to go to school, and the battery was dead. The Honda was still in the shop because they couldn’t get to it on Friday when I had it towed down there. I called AAA to get a jump start and Colleen called into school to take the day off. It was after 8 o’clock when AAA showed up, but the Trail Blazer started right up with the jump. I took the Trail Blazer to the auto parts store to test the battery, and everything seemed just fine after that. We were expecting rain on Wednesday, so I figured I’d better clean the leaves off the front yard. It just must have been one of those days because I could not get the leaf blower to start. Rather than pull it apart and tune it up, I just threw in the towel and did a few other things around the house. Colleen, however, did manage to get a couple of Buttercup’s summer shirts sewn up.

Wednesday Colleen headed off to school in the Trail Blazer and had an easy day of it. She even stopped at the market and pharmacy on her way home and the Trail Blazer didn’t give her any trouble whatsoever. I got to enjoy a brilliant sunrise while I had my coffee, but with rain in the immediate forecast and a mess in the living room I decided it was a good day to clean things up and get more organized. Earlier in the week I had brought my first small batch of baseball cards up from the basement. When Colleen got home, we brought the groceries into the house and everything seemed to have finally settled down for us. The rains showed up late Wednesday afternoon and we got a good soaking with the rains lasting right through the night.

Thursday morning the chaos started again when the Trail Blazer’s battery was dead. Colleen called into school again to take the day off. The Honda was still in the shop because they were having trouble getting a needed part. The plumber was scheduled to show up Thursday morning too which he did. It took him less than an hour to get everything fixed and we had our second-floor facilities up and working again. After the plumber left, I took the Trail Blazer to get a new battery. While I was in the parking lot getting the battery, the lights in the Trail Blazer started coming on and then going off by themselves. I headed right down to the shop at that point. Fortunately, the Trail Blazer did it again so the mechanic could see it, but the Honda wasn’t ready, so I came home. The shop called right after lunch and I headed back down there to swap out vehicles. Much to my surprise, I got a call right before closing time and the Trail Blazer was ready. Colleen spent the day working on Buttercup’s summer shirts and Buttercup was wearing one of her new shirts by dinner time.

Friday morning everything seemed fine until Colleen started the Trail Blazer to go to school and the check engine light stayed lit. Colleen put her stuff in the Honda and took it to school instead. I waited until the shop opened and took the Trail Blazer back down there, but about a hundred yards down the road the check engine light went off and never came back on. I did have the shop replace a burnt-out brake light on the Trail Blazer and made the arrangements for the shop to take a good look at the Trail Blazer while Colleen was on her spring break. Friday ended up being a beautiful day, but with me heading back to school on Monday I spent my afternoon doing schoolwork. Colleen and I decided we needed Chinese takeout for dinner after the week we had had and over dinner I regaled her with the story of my day with the Trail Blazer, and Colleen decided to name Trail Blazer Christine. After the week it gave us, it seemed more than appropriate.

By the way our week had gone, yesterday was calm. I ended up doing schoolwork on the front porch for most of the day, and Colleen replanted her herbs, moving them from the peat pots to long planters. I finished what I wanted to do before dinner, so I spent the rest of my day sorting and listing baseball cards on eBay. When Colleen finished with her herbs, she was back in her workroom working on summer shirts for Buttercup. I did check our gardens and we have little green sprouts coming up through the ground. Now it’s just a matter of finding some time to take care of everything. We reheated the Chinese leftovers for dinner and then got to spend some time relaxing yesterday evening. I guess I need to put time to relax in my “To-Do” list after the last few weeks I’ve had on break.

We have another beautiful morning this morning. There is lots of sunshine and a light breeze. It looks like today will be another “get ready for school” Sunday around here. I need to finish up my schoolwork and Colleen has a meal or two to prep along with getting our lunch fare ready. It may have been a busy three weeks of break for me, but it really was a great break. Colleen has her spring break coming up the week before Easter. After that we will both be looking forward to our summer break. Spring is most definitely here though. Flowers are blooming, the trees are starting to get their leaves, the air is heavy with yellow pine pollen, and the gardens are starting to grow. I need to find some time to do our taxes too. UGH! Colleen and I have no idea what the coming week will bring our way, but, like always, we will take things one day at a time. We do know we are doing just fine up here on our little hill though. We come home every day, look around and smile, because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

April 10, 2022: Easter, Warming Temperatures, And Taxes Are Around The Corner.

Another week has passed, and spring is trying desperately to firmly establish itself around here with several bushes in bloom and the trees getting their leaves. Mother Nature had the temperatures swinging all over the place last week from 35 degrees up to 80 degrees. We got a little rain Wednesday night and Thursday, but for the most part the week was pleasant enough. We got down into the 30’s again last night, but we have plenty of sunshine today. Colleen is looking at a week of spring break for the upcoming week and the start of the week is supposed to be warm and sunny. If we get any rain, it will be later in the week, just in time for my 4-day Easter weekend, so I guess that makes today Palm Sunday. Growing up with a devoutly religious mother, I still have long memories of going to mass and getting new palm fronds to put with the crucifix on the wall.

Last Sunday was the last day of my spring break and I had wisely gotten my schoolwork done well ahead of time, so I had an easy and restful day. I spent the better part of my afternoon listening to a baseball game and scanning baseball cards so I could list them for sale on eBay which is proving to be a good side hustle for me. Colleen was still in school mode, so she spent the better part of her day prepping meals and getting ready for the upcoming week. Colleen even made an eggplant lasagna from scratch that would feed us for a couple of meals during the week.

Colleen and I were both in school last week, but the week was not without a few bumps in the road. Thankfully after shuttling vehicles back and forth to the shop over my spring break, both the Honda and the Trail Blazer were well behaved all week. Tuesday morning, we woke up to find we had no running water in the house. I checked everything inside and outside of the house before school, didn’t find any wet spots from a busted pipe, so I shut the valve in front of the water meter before I headed off to school. I sure didn’t want to pay for water I wasn’t using. Colleen called the water company when she got home. The problem ended up being a blowout on the line for the vacant lot next to us. Once the water company capped the blowout, we had running water again. The guy fixing the problem was even done before I got home. After that, the rest of the week calmed down and things ran about as smoothly as they can up here on the hill.

Friday after school Colleen stopped at the market for the week’s groceries and we both stopped to fill the vehicles up with gasoline. It was the first time we really felt the bite of the wild price increases that have hit just about everything of late. Between Colleen and me, we spent every bit of $300 for essentials. Colleen has a 35-mile drive to and from school every day so the Trail Blazer which only has a 6-cylinder engine goes through just shy of a tank of gas during the week. Fortunately, I only have a 10-mile drive to school so a tank of gas in the Honda will last close to three weeks. At least Friday evening was pleasant, and we got to relax and enjoy the evening once we got home.

It didn’t take Colleen long yesterday to get into the rhythm of her spring break. After a leisurely breakfast and a couple of cups of coffee, she headed upstairs to her workroom to finish working on some summer shirts for Buttercup. Wearing coats, shirts, dresses, or whatever you want to call them helps keep Buttercup calm and lowers her stress level, and heavy winter things are just too hot for the summer around here. Colleen found some light material a couple of weeks or so ago and has been making things for Buttercup’s wardrobe. I spent most all day on the porch grading and getting my grade books up to date for the coming week. I made a nice dent in my work too, so I won’t be buried in it today.

This morning we have lots of sunshine, a good spring breeze, and temperatures headed into the 60’s. I have some schoolwork to finish and some things I sold on eBay to package up so they can be shipped out. Colleen will be getting stuff ready for my lunches at school, but she will also be experimenting with a new dish for our Sunday meal. Luckily, I only have three days of school this week and then I have a 4-day break for Easter. Unfortunately, the world is still a mess, and I can’t see things getting any better any time soon despite the spin the government and the media keeps trying to put on things. And just to make things a little more uncomfortable, taxes are coming do on April 18th. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time and take care of things up here on our little hill. The world will change, it always does, but no matter what happens on any given day, Colleen and I can come home, look around, and smile, because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

April 17, 2022: My 63rd Trip Around The Sun, Colleen’s Spring Break, And Easter Sunday.

It’s a lovely Easter morning. Mother Nature has the thermostat set at 60 degrees this morning and we have a little sunshine mixed in with the overhead clouds. Today is the last day of Colleen’s spring break and the last day of my 4-day Easter weekend. Every once in a while, we get the Monday after Easter off too, but not this year. Last week was a very nice week and while there was rain in the forecast at times, not much found its way to the ground around here. I suppose we could have used a little rain for the gardens, but so far everything seems to be alright. I don’t think we’ll see any more freezing temperatures, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see another night or two to drop below 40 degrees before we get to May. With spring break behind Colleen and me now, we are looking forward to our summer break which starts in June.

Last Sunday was a quiet day up here on the hill. I had my usual schoolwork and grading to do, but mostly I was getting ready to give my kids quizzes and tests on our short school week. Colleen had an easier day of it than usual since she was going to be home on break for the week. The only real prepping she had to do was for my school lunches, and by lunchtime, she had a wonderful batch of cinnamon rolls in the oven. Colleen is always on the hunt for new recipes and somewhere along the way she found a Mexican dish that really caught her eye. With an easy Sunday at hand, she really outdid herself for Sunday dinner too. It didn’t take either of us very long to decide this recipe was a real keeper!

Monday through Wednesday were typical school days for me although Monday started out on full Monday fashion with my thermos full of coffee ending up spilt on the kitchen floor. Colleen had a busy start to Monday as she headed down to the laundromat with four full bags of laundry and found out that on Monday morning there are a lot of people doing laundry. She finally got everything washed and home, and then spent the better part of the rest of the day drying clothes. I suppose with the weather getting nicer, she will start hanging the laundry on the line before too long. The pollen must subside first though. Things had settled down for me by the time I got home Monday afternoon, and I even found a little time to relax on the back porch after dinner and watch the deer in the backyard.

Tuesday and Wednesday, Colleen was up early and outside working in her gardens. Free time has been hard to come by this year and it was later than usual for Colleen to clean out her gardens so she ended up pulling a lot of last fall’s leaves out of the gardens by hand so she wouldn’t damage any of her plants. Wednesday she even moved several her potted plants down to the back porch from the second-floor porch where they overwintered. The afternoons got warm on both days, reaching 80 degrees, so by mid-afternoon Colleen was inside and relaxing which is exactly for which spring break is designed. My days at school were easy and I got home at my usual time both days.

Thursday was actually a teacher workday, so I had to go to school for a bit, but without kids in the classroom, it was quick and easy. Thursday was also my birthday, so I had planned for an easy day anyway. I did do our taxes on Thursday afternoon after I got home. Taxes are always a pain and the state taxes we pay go to paying my and Colleen’s salary. It doesn’t make much sense to me, but it is what it is. I did get to really relax after dinner. I couldn’t help noticing that spring had finally settled in around here and our azalea bushes were an explosion of color. I even treated myself to a special cigar after dinner to celebrate my 63rd trip around the sun.

Friday morning Colleen and I decided to get our weekly errands out of the way. After a leisurely cup of coffee and some breakfast we headed out. Our first stop was Perkins Orchard for fresh produce, and they had their first local strawberries of the season. The strawberries looked wonderful, and Colleen and I decided we wanted to make some strawberry jam, so we got a flat to go with our usual produce. We stopped at the market on our way home too. We were home before lunch, and I figured if I wanted an easy weekend, I better get a jump on my schoolwork, so I did my work on the porch which wasn’t all that bad since I had the baseball game playing on my phone while I worked. Colleen started to slow down a bit Friday afternoon. I’m not sure if she was worn out, suffering the ill effects of all the seasonal pollen, or picked up a bit of a head cold, either way she spent the afternoon resting and relaxing.

Colleen and I were up and ready to start jamming yesterday morning. I hulled and cut up the berries while Colleen put the fixing for the jam together and cooked everything. Usually, we do the cooking outside on a gas camp stove, but Colleen decided to use the kitchen stove yesterday. The kitchen stove is a glass top electric stove and has not proved very good for canning in the past. Well, it bit us again yesterday. The jam tastes wonderful, but it did not set up. I guess we’ll just have to empty the jars which all sealed properly and cook the jam some more. Next weekend though, we will cook it over a more reliable gas fire. Colleen spent the afternoon cleaning up and relaxing. I headed out to the porch to listen to the ball game and do more schoolwork. I got most of my schoolwork done too.

It looks like the cloud cover has broken this morning and we have a sunny morning with blue skies now. There is rain in the forecast for tonight, so I expect to see more clouds later. Colleen is feeling better this morning, but we are back to our usual routine of getting ready for the week in front of us. It’s anyone’s guess what will happen in the world on this Easter Sunday, but Colleen and I will just keep taking everything one day at a time. We know that our summer break will be here soon enough. No matter what happens in the world, everything is still calm and peacefully up here on our little hill, and Colleen and I know we can just look around and smile thankfully because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

April 24, 2022: One Less Week of School, Warmer Temperatures And Sunny Skies, And The Taxes Are Behind Us For This Year.

It’s hard to believe we are already sitting here looking at the last week of April. Time seems to be just flying by again this year. With the end of April comes our seasonal change of weather though. The days are not as blustery or rainy and the temperatures are definitely starting to warm up. The treetops are starting to fill up with leaves and it won’t be too long before they have their full summer canopies. There are enough leaves in the trees now though that we can no longer see across the ravine and the forest floor, once again, looks like a patchwork quilt of sunshine and shadows. 70-degree days are now more common than not and before long 70 degrees will turn into 80 degrees.

Last Sunday started out with some morning clouds, but the sun made short work of them by mid-morning, and it turned out to be a lovely day. Both Colleen and I were looking at a full week of school, so we spent most of the day getting things ready for the week. I finished my schoolwork and got my grade books updated while Colleen got a few mid-week meals prepped and got things ready to go into our lunches. The elephant in the room last Sunday was our taxes. Now that the kids are gone and the house mortgage is paid down, Colleen and I, inevitably, end up owing the government money, and so it was again this year. The real kicker is the state charges $25 to file electronically. Go figure. Anyway, the state is getting their taxes via snail mail again this year.

There wasn’t anything particularly special about our school week. Even the rain cooperated by not starting until we got to school on Tuesday and ending before we got home Tuesday evening. My week ended up being easier than most because my school started its end-of-year, round of benchmark testing. The testing chewed up almost all-day Thursday and Friday, as it will this coming Monday too. On Thursday, Colleen stopped on her way home from school and took care of our weekly market run. Friday evening Colleen and I treated ourselves to a dinner of Mexican takeout from one of our favorite restaurants. Thinking back on things as we ate our dinner, we realized it had been well over two years since we had enjoyed restaurant food other than Chinese takeout or a burger from Hardee’s.

Yesterday was busy around here. It was a beautiful morning, the raspberry is starting bloom and, after some coffee and breakfast, Colleen and I were going. We stayed going all day too. I headed out to the gardens for the first time in too long and Colleen got the vacuum cleaner out to start the day. I spent all morning thinning and weeding the gardens. I brought Colleen a gallon Ziplock baggie full of young, tender turnip greens for my troubles too. Colleen spent the better part of the morning vacuuming and cleaning the first floor before she headed into the kitchen. The day heated up quickly and it wasn’t too far into the morning before Colleen had the doors and windows open in the house and I had shed my long sleeve shirt.

Colleen spent her afternoon in the kitchen turning Martha Washington’s revolutionary era gingerbread cake recipe into mini muffins with a brandy glaze on top and making a double batch of her cinnamon rolls for our lunches this coming week. I pulled the lawnmower out of winter storage and cut the side and backyards. It was easier said than done for sure. The weeds and grass had both gotten knee high, so the yards took me every bit of the afternoon. By the time I finished and cleaned up, Colleen had dinner on the table. On top of all her baking yesterday, Colleen made pan-seared salmon and pasta Alfredo for our dinner yesterday evening.

The show didn’t stop after dinner either. Colleen headed back into the kitchen to wash the dinner dishes and clean things up. I dragged my computer out to the porch and started updating my grade books for the week. I managed to get my grade books done before sunset. I’m not sure exactly what Colleen was doing after she cleaned the kitchen, but I could hear her bumping around in the house until she headed down back at sunset to lock the girls in their coop for the night. We both finally got a chance to catch our breath after that and I headed back out to the porch with a cigar while Colleen headed upstairs for the night.

Have I mentioned that it is an absolutely gorgeous Sunday morning? The sun is shining, the temperature is headed to 85 degrees, and there is a light breeze blowing. I can hear the girls squawking down in their pen, the birds are singing, and the squirrels are running around everywhere. Colleen will spend her day finishing up all the prep work she usually does to get ready for our school week. I have a little bit of schoolwork that needs doing and I want to spend some time listing more baseball cards for sale on eBay. Colleen and I have a full week of school in front of us, but I think we have a long weekend next weekend with a teacher workday a week from this Monday. The end of the school year is coming quickly, but Colleen and I will keep taking things one day at a time. Everything has finally settled down, well, as much as it does up here on our little hill. No matter what is happening on the world, Colleen and I know that all we need do is look around to know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

May 01, 2022: May Is Here, Summer And Our Summer Will Be Here Soon.

Another week of school is in the books, and Colleen and I are one week closer to our summer break. It’s a lovely Sunday today, and while we are supposed to see some rain later today, the sun has found its way through the cloud cover for the time being this morning. Come to think about it, last week as whole, was a very nice week. I think we got some rain on Tuesday, but it started after Colleen and I got to school, and it ended before we came home. It was enough to water the gardens though. There was rain in yesterday’s forecast, but it stayed north and east of us. The worst we saw up here on the hill was some gray overcast skies. The rain in today’s forecast is still west of the mountains which means anything could happen as the line of storms moves east. Right now, the rain is supposed to start in the late afternoon, be around through the night, and be gone by tomorrow morning.

Last Sunday was pretty quiet around here. Colleen and I went about our usual Sunday “Get Ready for The Week” activities. Fortunately, I was looking at some county mandated testing for the kids to start my week so there wasn’t a whole lot I needed to do. Colleen made sure there was plenty to go into our lunches for the week, and she even made a dandy pork roast for our Sunday meal. I got my grades and grade books all caught up for school and got to spend a little extra time working with my baseball cards and getting a bunch more of them posted for sale up on eBay. The way that is going, selling baseball cards might be a project lasting well until after I retire.

The school week was mostly uneventful. The first three days of my week got chewed up with the county’s testing. I took care of the girls in the mornings and Colleen took care of them in the evenings. Colleen stopped at the laundromat one day and the market another day on her way home from school. Wednesday, I had an 8 o’clock meeting before school and stayed late for a club meeting. There were the usual end of the month fire drills for both Colleen and me. In general, everyone was well aware that April was coming to a close and with the start of May, the countdown to the end of school begins. There are less than 25 school days left to this school year and there is less schoolwork to do in the evenings so we can enjoy the later sunsets after dinner now.

Friday evening Colleen and I treated ourselves to some street tacos Colleen had picked up at the market for dinner, but we spent most of the evening winding down from the week. Yesterday morning though, we were up with the sun and hit the ground running shortly after finishing our breakfast. Two weeks ago, we made some strawberry jam, but it didn’t set up right, so yesterday we emptied all of the jars we had canned back into the pot, and I cooked the jam down again. Two weeks ago, we cooked the jam on our glass top electric stove, yesterday I did the cooking on our gas camp stove which is far and away much better for such things. I think we ended up with 18 half-pints of properly set up jam from 6 quarts of strawberries.

Getting the jam squared away took us up to lunchtime. I was able to get a good bit of my schoolwork done while I was watching the jam cook so that freed up my afternoon. After lunch, Colleen and I decided to finally plant the elderberry bushes we had gotten from Costco last month or so. The bushes had been in Colleen’s greenhouse upstairs and were doing quite well, but it was time for them to go outside. We needed to soak their roots for a couple of hours, so Colleen put them in a bucket of water while we dug holes. The hole digging didn’t take very long despite the rocks and clay. Once the holes were dug, Colleen headed back inside to make some paella for dinner while I enjoyed a cigar. Once dinner was cooking in the oven, we finished planting our elderberry bushes. We now have a row of four elderberry bushes just inside our property line that hopefully will grow big enough to create a natural property barrier.

It sure was a busy day up here yesterday so after dinner Colleen and I didn’t do much. There was the usual cleanup after dinner. I spent some time on the porch lamenting that any rain we got would probably mean the end of the flowers on the azalea bushes, but the rhododendron bush has gone into bloom now. I did get time to get a bunch more baseball cards listed on eBay when I came back inside, and Colleen found time to spend up in her workroom before we both called it an early evening, and we headed off to bed. Colleen stayed up for a while watching something on her tablet, but I drifted off to sleep in short order.

Even with the threat of rain in this afternoon’s forecast, we have a beautiful morning at hand. In fact, it’s a perfect morning for sitting on the back porch, drinking coffee, and letting my chubby little wren buddies come and visit me. Colleen and I both have a teacher workday tomorrow so there isn’t much pressure to get things done today. I do have a little schoolwork that needs to be done and I think Colleen has some plans in the kitchen. The world sure is crazy these days and it seems that so much of it gets played out on social media. I think I will stick to writing about our quiet life up here on our little hill. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at time. Around here, the sun comes up in the morning, goes down in the evening, if we are lucky, we have a little time to watch the grass grow, and when we look around, we can smile because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

May 08, 2022: A Short School Week, A Few Storms, A Weekend Visit, And Mother’s Day.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I sure hope everyone has a great day. It seems that Mother Nature decided to turn the thermostat down this morning. It a cold, gray, blustery day up here on the hill with the thermometer sitting just over 45 degrees. That sure is a far cry from the warm weather we had last week. After the storms that rolled through last Sunday night, we didn’t have much more in the way of rain until late Friday afternoon and then the thunderstorms were hit or miss, and we only got enough rain to water the gardens. After today’s shot of chilly air things will start to warm up again and we’ll be back in the 70’s before too long. At least there isn’t any rain in the forecast today. Funny, but it strikes me odd that I can’t remember Mother’s Day ever being this chilly around here. There should be a standing order for a warm and sunny day on Mother’s Day.

Last Sunday was quiet around here. Colleen and I had a teacher workday on Monday so there wasn’t the usual pressure to get everything sewed up and ready to start the school week. I slept a little later than usual and then enjoyed a pleasant morning out on the back porch. The girls weren’t real happy about being let out of their coop a little bit late in the morning though. Colleen baked some fresh bread. I did do some schoolwork, but it didn’t eat up my whole day. For dinner I fired up the grill and Colleen and I enjoyed a dinner of steaks and lobster tails. We did have a thunderstorm roll through right after sunset, but it wasn’t anything major. We may have had a second round of storms blow through in the middle of the night, but if we did, I slept through right through them.

There was no alarm clock to wake us up on Monday morning, but Buttercup still woke us up at sunrise. Colleen didn’t have to go to school, but I did. I had finished most all my schoolwork over the weekend, so I really didn’t have much to do. I hung around for a while, visited with the other teachers, and then headed home so I could finish the work I needed to get done for Tuesday. I always can work more effectively at home where there aren’t any distractions. Since Colleen was home, she decided it was time to wash blankets and get them hung out in the clothesline. I finished my schoolwork up on the front porch after lunch while Colleen was in the kitchen baking.

The rest of our school week was uneventful and the weather was pleasant enough. There were the usual meetings and I ended up staying late after school on Wednesday. On Thursday, Colleen stopped at the market on her way home. Friday evening, we braved the traffic and dodged the rain to get a Walmart run out of the way, and we treated ourselves to a Hardee’s Frisco Burger for dinner. Even though it was just a 4-day school week. Colleen and I were tired when the sun finally set on Friday. Our school year is winding down quickly though, and Colleen and I have our sights squarely set on the last day of school in June. Of course, our summer break may not be a real break because our “To-Do” list seems to be growing daily.

Yesterday, Colleen and I were expecting a visit from Louis, Madie, and Madie’s young son. I spent the morning cleaning and vacuuming while Colleen got things ready in the kitchen. The kids showed up shortly after noon. The young’n caught sight of the chicken coop when they drove into the driveway so once everyone was in the house and somewhat settled, we had to head down back so he could check out the chickens. I fired up the grill for only the second time this year a little later and we feasted on grilled cheeseburgers. After we ate, Colleen had to bring the girls their usual afternoon treats and guess who wanted to go back down to see the chickens again. Colleen let him get the eggs from the nesting box and you would think the kid found gold the way he lit up. Of course, the two eggs had to go home with him when the time came for the kids to leave. Louis and Madie left with ten more fresh eggs to make an even dozen and a box full of stuff from our larder too. After the kids left, I set up shop on the front porch with my computer and got my grade books done for the week while Colleen cleaned things up.

I suspect the other kids will drop by here or call today to wish Colleen a Happy Mother’s Day so anything we can manage to get done will be in betwixt and between everything it will be a plus. We might even get all our usual work done if we are lucky. Colleen and I will both be heading to school tomorrow with a full week in front of us. Fortunately, the temperatures are supposed to start warming up too because we are about over these chilly temperatures. The school year is coming to an end quickly and even with the anticipation of our pending summer break, Colleen and I will keep taking things one day at a time. We know that no matter what happens, we can just look around up here on our little hill and smile because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

May 15, 2022: The School Year Is Winding Down, The Summer To-Do List Is Growing, And The Price Of Gas Keeps Going Up!

After a chilly Mother’s Day last Sunday, we have a beautiful spring morning today. The temperature is over 60 degrees and climbing towards 80 degrees, and the morning sun has chased the clouds from the sky. Last week’s weather just kept getting better and better with each passing day too. We did have some rain. There wasn’t too much during the week, but yesterday morning the skies were gray, and it rained off and on until about lunch time. By mid-afternoon, the rain was gone, and we had ourselves some lovely sunshine. Of course, with the sunshine, warmer temperatures, and wet ground, the humidity made things rather sticky outside. I just hope that yesterday’s humidity wasn’t a harbinger for this summer. There isn’t much we can do about that though, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Colleen had a wonderful Mother’s Day last Sunday. Louis and Madie had dropped by on Saturday and on Sunday, Alex and Steven stopped by the house. Both boys are looking good and doing well. The other kids called to check in and talk to Colleen. With all the activity around the house, Colleen and I did get a little behind our usual Sunday “Get Ready for School” things, and even though it was a good bit later than usual, everything got done.

There really wasn’t much to our school week last week. Colleen’s days passed as usual without any surprises. I spent the better part of the week administering county mandated tests. The test ended up taking my kids anywhere from three to five days to complete. I now have less than two weeks of school to get the kids ready for final exams which begin on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and run for two weeks. Most of my kids will be taking the state mandated End of Course exam for their final. I have my fingers crossed my kids will hold their own, especially since they spent the previous year in online classes. Unfortunately, the week didn’t go entirely without incident. One of our hens died on Thursday so we are down to five birds now and thinking about getting more.

Colleen had done the laundry earlier in the week and got our market run out of the way on her way home on Thursday, so we spent Friday evening relaxing. It was supposed to rain, but the storms broke up before they got to us. The rain finally did show up in the dark morning hours while we were asleep. I spent a better part of my evening sorting, organizing, and listing baseball cards for sale on eBay. Colleen spent her time on her tablet, catching up on email, shopping on Amazon, and watching shows or a movie. With the end of the school year less than a month away now, both of us are relying on sheer determination to get us through, so we are doing our best to save up our energy reserves.

Yesterday morning was gray and rainy. Colleen did some housework after she finished her morning coffee and before she headed upstairs to her workroom. She is still making extra summer shirts for Buttercup. I dragged the computer out to the front porch, graded, and got my grade books up to date for the week. I still have a little bit of schoolwork to do today, but nothing major, and I do have a teacher workday on Tuesday. After lunch Colleen had to do a little maintenance on her sewing machine and I took a quick nap. I’m not sure what Colleen had to do to the sewing machine, but when I woke up there was the familiar hum coming from the workroom. It wasn’t too long before she had another summer shirt finished for Buttercup.

While Colleen was busy upstairs, I headed downstairs to go check the mail. Sometime during the course of the afternoon, Amazon had delivered a package for Colleen. My darling wife has the most entertaining habit of ordering things and then forgetting what she ordered them or for that matter, that she even ordered anything. That was the case again yesterday. As it turns out, there were small miscellaneous things in the box and half a dozen Christmas stockings in the box. Yes, Colleen is getting ready for Christmas in May. There was also another garden decoration. This garden decoration does not light up, but it reminded Colleen of Alex, so she just had to have it. It wasn’t out of the box too long before Colleen was setting the statue up in her garden.

Colleen and I are hoping it will be an easy day today. I have a little more schoolwork to do, and Colleen wants to sew in her workroom on top of getting everything ready for the week in front of us. With the way the price of gasoline is going through the roof, it looks like our summer break will get here just in time. We have no travel plans whatsoever this summer. Right now, with the way things are, Colleen is going through $80 of gas a week. The politicians and media are still trying to convince us that we are doing well though. Personally, I have a few choice words for the way they are seeing things. It is what it is, and I have no doubt Colleen and I will work our way through the mess. We’ll just keep taking everything one day at a time. We are looking forward to our summer break though. No matter what happens, Colleen and I know that all we need do is look around up here on our little hill because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

May 22, 2022: Getting Ready For Final Exams, Readjusting The Budget, And Some Early Summer Heat!

Another week done, and another week closer to the end of the school year. Despite a somewhat overcast morning today, we had a good taste of summer a little early last week. The week was warm, actually hot for the last few days of the week, the humidity started climbing, and we had the familiar rumble of pop-up summer thunderstorms. It was a quiet week for the most part and any rain we got happened mostly at night. We did have some storms rumble through last night and we lost power for a short spell. Everything is back up and running this morning and even with the humidity, the overcast skies are keeping things cool and comfortable.

Everything stayed quiet up here last Sunday. Apart from my usual morning writing, I did have schoolwork on the computer that needed doing. Fortunately, that is winding down quickly as the school year comes to a close. Colleen was lacking her usual abundance of energy and determination. She sort of gave up in the kitchen apart from making some muffins and a meatloaf dinner. Our biggest challenge of the day was trimming Buttercups claws. Buttercup is not fond of anyone messing with her paws, and it took Colleen and me two rounds with Buttercup to get all four of her feet trimmed properly. Fortunately, at 11 years old, Buttercup isn’t nearly as spunky as she was in her youth. Her toes are good for another couple of months now, and she even got a little bit of meatloaf in her dinner bowl as a reward for being patient with us.

Monday morning was the start of another school week and while Colleen had a full week of school, I had a workday on Tuesday. I did fire up the grill Tuesday evening to cook dinner and Colleen and I enjoyed some grilled brats and sautéed onions and peppers. It wasn’t much, but it helped a good bit since Colleen hadn’t prepared our midweek meals on Sunday. The rest of our week went well with nothing out of the ordinary to get us sidetracked. Colleen stopped at the market on her way home from school on Thursday and on Friday she stopped at the laundromat. Colleen and I are definitely looking forward to our summer break though, and we are finding it more and more difficult to find our motivation in the mornings during the week.

Friday it got hot up here on the hill with the thermometer kissing the 90-degree mark. Yesterday it got hotter! There were things that needed to be done outside so after our morning coffee, Colleen and I got an early start to our day. I dragged the lawnmower out front to cut the weeds and mulch up a pile of leaves Colleen had by her gardens. I spent the rest of the morning cutting the rest of the yards. This getting old stuff is sure making formerly routine and simple tasks a bit more challenging. I ended up needing a couple of breaks because of the heat and not wanting to give myself a heart attack. Colleen spread out her mulch and then changed the bedding in the hen coop. After lunch, I was on my computer doing schoolwork and Colleen was adding solar decorations to her gardens.

Yesterday evening was quiet. Working outside in the heat all morning and into the afternoon had worn us out, so after a dinner of burgers and chips, we just sort of hung around until it was time for Colleen to lock up the hen coop for the night. I spent a better part of the evening sorting and then listing more baseball cards on eBay. Even with the economy in its present upheaval, I’m managing to bring in a little extra money to help our budget. There was a good bit of rumbling in the skies yesterday evening and the rain was spotty. Colleen and I decided to make an early evening of it and some time after I fell asleep we lost power for a little while. The power was back on this morning, and everything seemed just fine.

The week in front of us is the last week of actual classes at school. The final exam window opens this coming Friday. Next weekend is the Memorial Day weekend too. Colleen and I need to get into our gardens and to sit down and rework our summer budget especially with the price of everything going up. Fortunately, we will be staying close to home with very little traveling this summer. Gas around here is quickly approaching $4.50 a gallon. I don’t even want to think about what they are paying in California! Just to make things even crazier, the Covid numbers are on the rise again. I have some very choice words for the current administration and the politicians at all levels, and the media, none of whom seem to have a clue with what people are really dealing. All the same, it is what it is, and Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time. Up here on our little hill, Colleen and I will just tighten up our belts and weather the storm. With everything going on in the world right now, Colleen and I are doing quite well. We have all that we need, don’t want what we don’t have, and when we look around, we can smile because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

May 29, 2022: A Long Weekend For Memorial Day And A Chance To Get Started On Our Summer Activities.

It’s Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start to summer, and Colleen and I are so ready to start our summer break. Despite some rather tumultuous weather last week, this weekend couldn’t be any nicer or prettier. Last weekend was hot and steamy, but things started to cool off as we started the week. By Wednesday there was a little rain that carried through right into Friday when everything got really wild. By the time Colleen and I had gotten to school on Friday a very strong line of storms was bearing down on us along with a full complement of warnings, tornado, severe thunderstorm, and flash flood. By 10 o’clock in the morning, the winds were howling, the rain was blowing horizontally, and trees were falling over. Fortunately, only a few limbs came down around here, but across the street from my school a tree fell right in the middle of a house. Luckily, no one was hurt, but everything was a mess. Yesterday we had plenty of sunshine and mild temperatures, today we’re expecting things to get a bit warmer, and tomorrow we may very well see 90 degrees again.

Last week was a full week of school for Colleen and me. It was the last week of regular classes for me because my school’s final exam window opened on Friday. Apart from the wild weather on Friday it was a typical week. I spent most of the week reviewing with my kids at school. Colleen’s week passed without much fanfare. Colleen did stop at the market on her way home from school on Thursday to take advantage of the market’s senior discount day and she stopped at the laundromat on Friday because Colleen has found out that no one is there on Friday afternoon. Friday’s storms had passed, and the sun was shining when Colleen got to the laundromat. When we looked at our receipt from the market Thursday evening, we figured inflation is making our regular weekly staples from the market about 50 percent more expensive than this time last year. We did have plans to run a few errands Friday evening when I got home, but I was wiped out after the week at school, and I was looking bad enough that Colleen just chased me to bed so I could get some extra sleep.

I ended up sleeping for 12 hours Friday night into yesterday morning. Colleen had gotten up with the sun so when I got up about an hour later the coffee was ready, the girls were out of their coop and fed, and Colleen was just relaxing to start the day. After I finished my morning coffee and started draining the pool, Colleen and I headed down to Lowe’s which was the big thing we wanted to get done on Friday evening. Memorial Day weekend means it’s time to clean the pool and get it ready for the summer. I needed a new power washer, we wanted a new canopy for our pool patio, and of course, it is time to go to the garden center and get plants for our gardens, a lot of plants. We filled the back of the Trail Blazer, got home just before lunch, unloaded our stash, and had a little lunch while we decided what to do with the afternoon.

The ground and gardens were still soaked from Friday’s storms, so working in the gardens did not seem prudent, and the pool was only half empty at that point, so Colleen and I decided to clean up our pool patio. The indoor/outdoor rug on the patio was a mess having stayed out all fall and winter, but the power washer came with a soaping attachment. Colleen and I moved all the furniture off the patio, she swept what debris she could off the rug, I soaped up the rug with the power washer, and then we rinsed the soap and dirt off the rug with the power washer. It took us a while, each taking turns with the power washer, but the rug is clean and looks good this morning. For our efforts, we treated ourselves to Chinese takeout for dinner. Needless to say, we both have some stiff joints this morning.

I’m not sure what we will do today. We’d like to get into the pool to clean it up, but that depends on whether or not our joints loosen up today. Of course, I can always do the last little bit of schoolwork I have left to do or maybe get into the gardens, and Colleen can experiment in the kitchen. I guess we’ll just have to see where today takes us. With inflation the way it is now, especially the price of gas, it looks like we will tighten our belts and just lay low this summer. Just to make things more uncertain, the Covid numbers are starting to go up again. The government and media continue to prove they are worthless in the face of what is going on here at home and in the world. Colleen and I will do what we can and just keep taking everything one day at a time. We are thankful that everything up here on our little hill is quiet and peaceful. We’ll have a busy summer break taking care of things around here, but every day we’ll look around and smile, because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

June 05, 2022: Another Crazy Week, But School Is Almost Out For The Summer.

Colleen and I survived another week at school and now we are looking at closing out the school year with the last week of school in front of us. Last week’s weather seemed more like summer than spring. We saw a little bit of rain during the week, and that was at night. Mostly, we had lots of sunshine and warm temperatures. Towards the end of the week, we started a couple of our mornings near 70 degrees and saw daytime high temperatures reach 90 degrees or better. Yesterday and today though it has been cooler. We just barely pushed through 80 degrees yesterday, and today things look to be much the same. It looks like the week in front of us will stay in the 80’s too. Colleen and I will start our summer break during the last week of spring, and once summer gets here, we are expecting things will warm up a good bit as they tend to do here in the heart of the Carolinas.

Last Sunday was only day 2 of our long Memorial Day weekend so nothing was rushed knowing Colleen and I had Monday off from school. I started the day with my usual writing, but before I was finished Colleen had already found her way out to the gardens. I joined her about mid-morning. While Colleen planted all the flowers we had gotten on Saturday, I headed into the vegetable gardens. By the time lunch rolled around Colleen had her flowers planted, and I had the zucchini, watermelon, cucumbers, and bell peppers planted. We had hoped to tackle cleaning the pool that afternoon, but we opted to leave that until Monday, and Colleen experimented with some pie crusts for her quiche after lunch while I started working on cleaning up and closing my grade books for the end of the school year.

Monday morning showed up, Colleen and I started with our usual cup of coffee and then it was time to clean out the pool and get it ready for the summer heat. Cleaning the pool took us most all day. First, we had to get the leaves and debris out of the bottom of the pool, then I power washed the pool walls, and finally Colleen mopped the bottom of the pool, but by dinner time we had the hose in the pool and were filling it with water. Even with all the time we spent in the pool, Colleen was able to bake a batch of muffins for the week and for dinner I grilled a couple of steaks and some veggies while Colleen broiled up a couple of lobster tails to go with our meal.

Colleen and I both had a week filled with final exams at school. The week wasn’t without its share of intrigue though. As always with the end of the school year, the kids get antsy. At my school, that meant a few kids got into a couple of scuffles. That’s never fun at school. It seems it was usually at the end of the day and who knows what’s running through the kids’ heads after a long day of testing. Fortunately, no one got hurt and everything got handled appropriately. Anyway, Colleen had her usual stops at the laundromat and the market towards the end of the week. We both needed to get gasoline last week and the prices have climbed to $4.60 a gallon around here. Thankfully with summer break starting at the end of this coming week, Colleen and I will not need to fill our gas tanks up as much once our summer break starts. In the way of a side note here, we had the pool filled, filter running, and chemicals added by Wednesday evening.

Yesterday morning started slow and after our coffee, Colleen and I were on the road to run a few errands. Our short trip included a quick stop at Tractor Supply Company for chicken feed and dog food, then a walk-through Walmart for some odds and ends, and finally lunch at Hardee’s. Colleen and I still wore our masks, but it seems that most folks have given up on masks even with the Covid numbers starting to climb again. After we got home, Colleen and I put up the canopy over the pool patio and then Colleen cleaned up around the pool while I started closing my grade books for the school year. Colleen even got in the pool after she finished cleaning up yesterday despite the water temperature only being 76 degrees.

We have a beautiful, cool, and peaceful morning today. The day shouldn’t be too busy for Colleen and me. Colleen wants to work with her herb garden today, and I will try and finish up my grade books for the school year. I don’t think it will get hot enough to get into the pool today, but we can never tell. The world is still crazy. The media is trying to spin things and convince everyone things are getting better while the politicians are still making empty promises that they will fix the problems. Sadly, too many people believe without doing anything themselves that other people will fix what is happening. Colleen and I know better, so we’ll just keep taking things one day at a time. We do our best to make things right around us and fortunately everything is going well up here on our little hill. We have what we need and want for very little of anything else. At the end of each day, we can look around and smile thankfully because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

June 12, 2022: Let The Summer Fun Begin!

Last week was the last full week of school for Colleen and me. It was an easy week by most measures, even the weather cooperated. The mornings were warm for the most part and there was plenty of sunshine. We did get some rain, but that was at night, and I don’t remember exactly which night it was because it wasn’t a whole lot and it had very little impact on the week overall. We did see the temperatures climb into the 90’s a couple of days, but that is to be expected in June around here with only a week or so to go until the start of summer. This morning the skies are gray, and we do have the threat of rain later today, but every now and again the sun does manage to peek through the cloud cover. I only have a couple of teacher workdays left at school to start the upcoming week, so today should be a slow day as Colleen and I try to sort through our summer “To-Do” list and figure out what we can accomplish.

There was a mild air of excitement as Colleen and I started our final week of school year last Monday. The week passed quickly and uneventfully. The kids at Colleen’s school only showed up if they had a final exam. The final exams at my school were mostly done and a good many of my kids started their summer break early and didn’t show up for school. Colleen stopped at the market on Thursday, and she stopped at the laundromat on Friday, so from that aspect, the week went as expected. Friday was Colleen’s last day of school, and it was the last day of school for my kids. It was a tough school year though, but fortunately just about all my kids passed my classes, and while they didn’t score as well as the state would have liked them to have scored on their state mandated final exam, they did score considerably better than anticipated coming off of a year of remote learning.

Colleen’s school had their annual teacher and staff luncheon on Friday and the school voted Colleen the award of IA of the year for everything she had done to make the school year a success. I got my annual review on Friday and was quite surprised to find out I had done even better than I had expected. It doesn’t mean I will get a pay raise, but I did feel pretty good about things. Knowing the struggles a lot of my kids had throughout the year though, it was very reassuring when a good many of my kids stopped by my room so they could give me a thank you note or have me sign their yearbook. It may seem weird with the news about so many teachers leaving the classroom because of the stress of last few years, but even after 20 years of teaching, I’m looking forward to going back to start the next school year. Don’t get me wrong though, being 63 years old, I am definitely looking forward to retiring in two or three years.

Colleen and I woke up yesterday morning with the relieved feeling knowing we had nothing to do for school. After some hot coffee, Colleen headed out to the gardens to plant some begonias and added her recent shipment of solar power lighted garden decorations. I was a little slower to get going, but it wasn’t too long before I was out in the vegetable gardens weeding and planting bush beans. Colleen found time later in the morning to dig into our freezers and update our inventory, and I even found some time to clean up a little around my work area where my piles of baseball cards and boxes were starting to get unruly. After lunch Colleen and I started to reclaim the top tier of our terraced front yard by putting a raised plastic lip in front of the railroad ties to keep things from washing down the hill every time it rains. Hopefully in time we can add a small stone wall and then back fill the area with some topsoil.

With the afternoon wearing on, Colleen and I found our way to the pool to cool off and relax. The water in the pool is still rather chilly, but after the initial shock of getting into the water, we were able to relax and cool off. Dinner was quick and easy, and after dinner I even took a short nap. Once I got up, I spent the rest of the evening on the front porch with a cigar. Colleen came out to the porch as dusk started to settle in around us to admire her collection of garden lights. Needless to say, my darling wife was tickled pink and when she headed back inside where I suspect she was scouring Amazon for more lights.

Things are moving slowly this morning. I’m not sure where the day will take us. Colleen is of the mind to do a little baking today, but she doesn’t have to prep meals for the upcoming week. The sun is trying its best to burn off the morning clouds and I may be motivated to get out in the yard a little bit later. If not, there is still a good bit of cleaning I need to do around my worktable. Prices of everything are still climbing. Gasoline has risen to $4.70 around here. Summer break is here though, and Colleen and I will tighten up our budget some and just keep taking things one day at a time. I suspect our summer break will pass in the blink of an eye, but that’s okay because all we need do is look around up here on our little hill to know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

June 19, 2022: Summer Break Is Here And We Had A Busy Week.

Another week has passed, Colleen and I are in full blown summer break mode now, after a week of hot temperatures, Mother Nature is giving us a cool weekend, and it’s Father’s Day today. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. The weather has been all over the place this week. We had lots of sunshine, humidity, and temperatures well into the 90’s until yesterday. We had some wild, but short-lived thunderstorms that moved through the area on Thursday and Friday evenings. We lost power and water for a while on Friday. Yesterday the mercury struggled to reach 85 degrees. This morning when I looked at the thermometer, the needle was below 60 degrees. At least we’ve learned to expect wild weather here in Central North Carolina so today while the sun is shining and the temperatures are cool, Colleen and I will take full advantage of the day and get some work done out in the yards.

Not a whole lot happened last Sunday. Colleen’s summer break had started Friday afternoon when she got home. Mine sort of started because I still had a couple of teacher workdays to start last week. Colleen did a little baking on the day. I worked on the computer doing club stuff and listing baseball cards on eBay. We did find time to get in to the pool later in the afternoon. After that, I fired up the grill, so Colleen and I could split a steak for dinner. I guess it was pretty much just a well-earned and much needed day to wind down after our school year. For the rest of our summer break, Sunday will seem like a Saturday, just like every other day of the week feels like a Saturday. It is a good feeling!

Monday, I headed out to school. I’ve never have seen much sense in going to school when kids weren’t there, but that’s part of the gig. I didn’t have much to do since my grades were all but finalized for the year. Colleen spent her morning working with her herbs. She’s still trying to learn how to grow things other the flowers. When I got home in the middle of the afternoon, Colleen was in the kitchen and needed me to pull a couple of turnips from the garden. This is the first time we’ve had any real success with bigger root vegetables. While Colleen was cutting up the turnips, I got the greens ready to cook. Colleen isn’t a fan of turnip greens, but I am, so she let me cook them. They turned out alright, but I need to find a better recipe.

Tuesday morning Colleen had a doctor’s appointment for a checkup. She left and got home before I ever left for school. I had even less to do at school on Tuesday than I did on Monday, so I used my time to get caught up on some mandatory training videos. I did stop at Walmart on the way home from school because we needed a few odds and ends. It was hot when I got home, and Colleen and I quickly decided to get into the pool. The heat index was well over 100 degrees. The rest of the day and evening was uneventful, and I even took a short nap to celebrate the end of my school year.

Wednesday morning, I was up before Colleen, so I took care of making the coffee. My darling wife woke up and was feeling like she wasn’t running on eight cylinders, so we scrapped our plans to work outside, and she spent the morning cleaning the house. I did get outside and started cleaning under the porch. I spent the morning breaking down a couple of old, rusting pool ladders. I have no idea why we saved them. I spent the afternoon power washing plastic lawn chairs. I still need to finish that job. By mid-afternoon the heat index was well into the 100’s again so Colleen and I headed for the pool to cool off. The time in the pool did wonders for Colleen and she started feeling a whole better. We did take it easy Wednesday evening though, looking forward to a busy day around the house on Thursday.

Thursday morning Colleen was feeling like her old self again and right after her morning coffee she dragged the wash tubs out and did the laundry. Summer break means no more laundromat, the clothes get washed by hand, and hung out on the line to dry instead. Thursday was my day to be less than 100 percent. I woke up with an optical migraine which had me looking through white clouds for most of the morning. Despite feeling quite disoriented, my optical migraines are pain free. I just spent most of the day cleaning up and organizing baseball cards. By the time Colleen and I headed to the pool in the afternoon I was doing much better. We had plans to grill brats for dinner, but Mother Nature changed our plans when a line of thunderstorms came through the area. By sunset the skies had cleared, and it was just hot and humid.

Friday morning was hot and sticky to start. Colleen wanted to run some errands so as soon as we finished our morning coffee, and we were out the front door. We didn’t get home until right before lunch and by then it was starting to get hot again. Colleen and I headed to the pool a little earlier than usual, and it was a good thing we did because there was another line of thunderstorms headed our way. I had enough time to grill brats so that was good. Right before dinner we lost our water. The valve to the vacant lot next door had blown out again. Colleen called the water company to get them up here to fix it. Before the guy got here, the line of thunderstorms descended on us, and we lost electricity. The water company showed up to fix the water problem right after the storms passed, but the electricity didn’t come back on until just after midnight. Everything we did Friday evening was by camp lantern.

Friday night’s storms were followed by a cold front and yesterday’s temperatures were quite mild for this time of year. Colleen and I took advantage of the cooler temperatures to get out back, cut and pile up firewood to be split and stacked. We’ll do the splitting and stacking later today. The temperature only got up to 85 degrees yesterday, but after working with the firewood most of the day, it was still refreshing to get into the pool. Colleen and I treated ourselves to some Mexican takeout for dinner yesterday evening and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

It sure doesn’t feel like summer is just a few days away this morning. Colleen and I will try to finish splitting and stacking the firewood we cut yesterday. With any luck, we should fill another half-cord rack. I might even get into the gardens today. I don’t know if any of the kids will stop by today, but I should hear from them at some point if they remember it’s Father’s Day. We’ve never done a lot to celebrate Father’s Day around here. The world seems to be getting crazier by the day and it looks like we are headed for some tight times. Colleen and I are going to stay close to home this summer and just let things fall where they will. We’re doing quite well up here on our little hill and we’ll just keep taking things one day at a time. No matter what any given day brings our way, we will look around and smile thankfully because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

June 26, 2022: Summer Heat And Humidity, Taking Care Of Busines, And Buttercup Gave Us A Scare!

Another week has passed, and I must admit, I’m really enjoying the slow pace of my summer break. We have a beautiful morning to start our day today. The temperature is just under 70 degrees and we’re looking for a high temperature this afternoon around 90 degrees. There is plenty of sunshine and a light breeze blowing. That’s pretty much how it’s been all week. We did get some rain earlier in the week, but it came and went in the dark of the night, actually, it rained a couple of nights. The wet ground made for a few steamy mornings, but overall, the humidity wasn’t all that bad. The afternoons were more than warm enough for Colleen and me to enjoy some time in the pool after we spent the mornings running errands or working outside. I still have a few more weeks of my summer break left, and Colleen’s summer break runs until late August. Even with that, we have plenty to keep us busy until school starts again.

Last Sunday was Father’s Day and while none of the kids stopped by the house, they did call or text to check in and wish me a great day. The day was a little cool even for the end of spring, so Colleen and I took advantage of the weather and worked on the firewood pile at the bottom of the hill in the backyard. I had cut everything to size on Saturday so on Sunday I fired up the log splitter and started splitting everything down to fireplace size. While I split the wood, Colleen used the wagon to haul the wood up the hill to the winter ready racks. Even with the cooler temperatures we both got our cardio in for the day, but by the end of the day we had two full racks of wood up by the house. We like to have at least six full half-cord racks filled and ready to for the colder months of the year.

Monday morning after our coffee, Colleen and I ran the Trail Blazer down to the shop for an oil change and just general maintenance and upkeep. I wanted to the mechanics to give the Trail Blazer a good going over so we left it there and came back home to finish hauling firewood up the hill. We filled another half of a rack, Colleen raked and cleaned up the area leaving just a pile of small 2- or 3-inch limbs that needed to be cut to size. It was another day of cardio as Colleen went up and down the hill. We finished up shortly after lunchtime and after lunch I took a nap. That’s what summer breaks are for, right? When I woke up Colleen had me pull some fresh turnips and cut some Swiss chard from the garden for dinner. The evening was quiet and peaceful, almost too quiet.

Tuesday morning Colleen and I were back down at the wood pile cutting up the limbs and adding the small un-split logs to our wood racks. That didn’t take us too long and once we finished, we decided to move the log splitter up the hill. When I start taking apart the main trunk of the oak tree laying on the ground in our backyard, we won’t have to bring the wood down the hill to the splitter and then bring the split wood up the hill to the racks. Moving a 500-pound hydraulic log splitter is not an easy task even with wheels on the splitter. It took Colleen and me just under an hour to get the log splitter up the hill. We zig-zagged up the hill moving maybe 10 feet at a time and blocking the wheels every time we stopped to catch our breath. We did it though, and now, we’re ready to tackle the main trunk of the tree.

Tuesday afternoon Colleen and I also realized Buttercup was not doing well. In fact, we had never seen our baby girl looking as bad as she did. Buttercup is a 130 pound, 11-year-old dog. Dogs that size have a projected lifespan of 8 to 10 years so Colleen and I feared the worst. There wasn’t a lot we could do for her, so we made her as comfortable as possible. The rest of the day we sat on pins and needles. Buttercup hardly moved all day and we really had to coax her off the lading in the stairwell so she could go outside. Neither Colleen nor I slept well Tuesday not knowing if Buttercup would still be with us on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday morning when I woke up and came downstairs to get the coffee going, I breathed a big sigh of relief when Buttercup picked her head up to look at me. The old girl didn’t have a great day, but she is a fighter, and we got her off the landing a couple of times during the day. We got the Trail Blazer back on Wednesday too. The mechanics did a great job for us and really gave it a thorough going over it, so much so that Colleen could tell the difference just driving it home. We didn’t do a whole lot for the rest of the day. Colleen and I took care of our routine chores and took a dip in the pool, but mostly just we kept our eyes on Buttercup and tended to her as needed.

Thursday morning, I had to run to Walmart for a few things. Colleen stayed home because of our concern for Buttercup. Our baby girl did start showing small signs of improvement though. When I got back home, Colleen had already made a couple of her quesadilla pies and was just finishing up a batch of crumpets. The crumpets were an experiment for Colleen’s Christmas buffet. They came out great too. I spent the rest of the day organizing baseball cards, Buttercup spent some time down on the first floor, and Colleen stayed in the kitchen. Her afternoon experiment was something called Syllabub. It’s basically a fruit in whipped cream thing, but there is a little bit of wine for flavor in the whipped cream. That turned out exceptionally well, and Colleen will be making more for our 4th of July gathering at Al and Alysia’s place.

Friday morning Buttercup seemed to be improving, I was supposed to go fishing with Steven. Unfortunately, something came up and Steven couldn’t make it. Colleen headed upstairs to clean out some closets, and I decided to start cleaning up around the fallen tree trunk since the bottom of the hill was not clean and the log splitter wasn’t down there any more.. There wasn’t a lot of cut wood, but enough to make a small pile of stuff that needed to be split and a pile of several long 2- or 3-inch limbs that needed to be cut to size. I got everything moved over by the log splitter and once the log splitter was in the shade, I split all the wood I could and stacked it on the rack. It was much easier than having to haul the split wood up the hill. By mid-afternoon, Colleen and I were in the pool and then after dinner we spent the better part of the evening just relaxing.

Yesterday Steven and I tried to get together to go fishing again, but Steven’s truck blew a seal on his brake lines, so he spent the day repairing his truck. Anyway, I had to shift gears, so I decided to cut up the limbs by the log splitter and stack the wood on our racks. Colleen headed down back and spent her morning doing the week’s laundry. After lunch Colleen wanted to clean out the hen coop, add new pine shavings to the coop, and put up the chicken toys she had gotten from Amazon earlier in the week. I was sitting in the front porch when Buttercup came up and stuck her nose in the window screen. I opened the front door for her suspecting she might want to come outside, and she did. The next thing I knew she was headed down the stairs and around the back of the house looking for Colleen. The chickens didn’t think too much of Buttercup sniffing around the outside of their pen, but Buttercup was quite happy to have Colleen in her sights again. When Colleen was done in the pen, Buttercup trotted right behind Colleen heading up the hill.

The afternoon got hot, and Colleen and I found our way to the pool again. After we got out and dried off it was dinner time. The evening was quiet and peaceful, and after Colleen headed down back to lock up the hen coop for the night, we sat on the front porch and watched her garden lights come to life. Buttercup was still moving slowly, but by far and away, she really looked like she was doing so much better. Buttercup spent all day yesterday on the first floor and even poked her nose out to the front porch to make sure we were okay yesterday evening. Buttercup finally did head back up to the landing when Colleen and I headed upstairs for the night.

Well, Colleen and I are not particularly motivated this morning. It is a beautiful morning though. Buttercup came downstairs without any coaxing this morning and has been staying close to Colleen, like usual. I’m not sure what will get done today, but I have a mind to start working on the tree trunk or get into the gardens. I did promise Colleen that I would grill some shrimp and steak for dinner this evening, but other than that, who knows. The world just seems to be getting crazier by the day. I guess people like to scream when they don’t get their way. Of course, it’s all fodder for the politicians and the media and that just helps to feed the frenzy. Up here on our little hill things are quiet and peaceful. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time, and smile at the end of each day knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

July 03, 2022: Cutting Firewood And Getting Ready For the 4th Of July.

Another week of summer break has passed, and I just have a week and a few day to go before I head back to school. Colleen still has seven weeks left. We got some rain early in the week, but it wasn’t a lot. What it did do was cool the temperatures down for a few days though, so Colleen and I were able to get outside to get some work done. Humidity is so much easier to handle when the morning temperatures are under 80 degrees. Daytime high temperatures got back up to 90 or so by the weekend. Of course, this is also summer in North Carolina, and we had tropical storm Colin kick up and run along the coast that threatened us with rain for the holiday weekend just in time for our 4th of July gathering at Al and Alysia’s place.

The skies looked threatening last Sunday so Colleen and I didn’t have any big plans for doing anything outside. We did get a short break in the clouds in the early afternoon so we got to see the sunshine for a little while. I spent most of my day writing and working with baseball cards. Colleen did some baking, but mostly we kept an eye on Buttercup. Buttercup still wasn’t 100 percent, but by Sunday she was doing much better. We sure don’t know what happened to her, but for the last half of the week before things did not look good. Sunday was the first day Buttercup started looking more like her old self. I did fire up the grill on Sunday evening and Colleen and I enjoyed some grilled steak and shrimp for dinner. We did get some rumbling of distant thunder during the evening, but we sure didn’t get any rain.

Monday morning Colleen and I woke up to gray skies with the sun peeking through the clouds every now and again, but we had rain in the forecast all day so we both stayed inside for the most part. Colleen spent most of her day cleaning up her indoor greenhouses while I spent the day organizing baseball cards. Buttercup finally spent the day downstairs with us keeping an eye on things. We finally did get our rain in the middle of the afternoon, but right after dinner the skies were clear and the temperatures had cooled off. There really wasn’t much to do after dinner so Colleen and I just sat around, waited for the sun to set, and then headed upstairs for the night. Buttercup even made it all the way up to the second floor and spent the night sleeping in her usual spot in the bedroom.

It was a cool Tuesday morning and Colleen and I figured we better take advantage of the lower temperatures and see if we could do something about the trunk of the oak tree laying in the backyard. I was able to separate four rounds from the trunk and split two of the rounds in half so we could move them up to the log splitter. My chainsaw has a 20-inch bar, and the diameter of the tree is closer to 24 inches. We managed to get four huge half-rounds up to the splitter, get them split, and get the wood stacked. That took us until just after noon time, then things started getting hot, so we quit for the day. We were able to finish filling our third half-cord wood rack and start on a fourth rack. The rest of the afternoon we just sort of puttered around the house. I took a nap before dinner, and we headed to bed that evening with plans to get two more rounds moved and split on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday, as soon as I finished my morning coffee I was out in the backyard with my chainsaw, a maul, and wedges to split the two rounds that I had cut on Tuesday. Colleen and I were out there until noon again hauling, splitting, and stacking firewood. After two days of working with firewood, Colleen and I took Wednesday afternoon off. Colleen did make some potato salad to go with our burgers for dinner, but mostly though we just took it easy and just tried to stay cool as the temperatures started to warm up and feel more like summer in North Carolina. Buttercup started really seeming like her old self again, roaming around the first floor and milking Colleen and me for treats every time she got a chance.

Thursday morning, our old bones were not going to let us go back out to cut, move, split, and stack more firewood. Fortunately, it was also market day. Dang, groceries are getting expensive! Anticipating our trip to Al and Alysia’s house on Sunday, we stopped and filled up the gas tank in the Trail Blazer on the way home too. I sure am glad we are not planning to travel this summer, because it cost a leg and an arm to fill the gas tank. While Colleen spent the afternoon putting groceries away, I sharpened my chainsaw and then got more baseball cards ready to sell on eBay. Thankfully, selling baseball cards is proving to be a good way to provide us with some extra money to help our budget. After dinner neither of us did much, but we did get to enjoy Colleen’s lovely lighted garden ornaments after dark. Colleen got a couple of new solar powered lighted peacocks for her gardens.

Friday morning after my coffee I was out back cutting more rounds out of the trunk of the oak tree. Even with a freshly sharpened chainsaw it took me all morning to separate four more rounds from the trunk of the tree. With a 20-inch bar in my chainsaw and a 24-inch diameter tree, I had to keep switching sides on which I would cut. Colleen was in the kitchen most of the day. She made some hot cross buns for our breakfast and started preparing things for our gathering on Sunday. We did find time to get into the pool later in the afternoon and then right when we sat down to dinner, we got about a half-hour of rain from a pop-up summer thunderstorm. We crawled in bed early on Friday night because we knew we would be busy yesterday making our final preparations for our Sunday feast.

Yesterday morning it was all hands-on deck. After our morning coffee, Colleen headed to the kitchen to do some baking and final preparations for Sunday, and I headed down back to smoke three racks of ribs. Knowing I had to keep an eye on the ribs, I set my computer up on the porch and started building a database for T206 baseball cards. There are just under 600 cards in the full set and each card comes with the potential of an average of ten different backs. Some cards have over 20 different backs. Needless to say, even after spending all day on the project I’m only about halfway through. I took the ribs off the smoker in the early afternoon, and they looked great. The meat was just starting to pull away from the bones. Colleen and I even tried a small sample of the ribs for dinner. Not only did they look good, but they also tasted good too. Colleen finished her preparations after dinner, and we both took a deep sigh of relief when our day was done. I ended up sitting out on the front porch well after day just to unwind with a cigar. I don’t often stay up that late, but I really got treated to a beautiful light show from Colleen’s gardens.

Today is the big day. Colleen and I will be heading over to Al and Alysia’s place for our traditional 4th of July get together. The rest of the kids are supposed to be there too, but I’m not sure who will show up. It a bit of a long trip for everyone and frankly, it’s the only trip Colleen and I will take this summer. It takes us a little more than an hour to get there and I’m not fond of driving anyway. We used to have this gathering every year, but we haven’t had it for the last two years. It will be good to have a midsummer family gathering again. We’ll be leaving in a little while and whatever comes of today I’m sure it will be a wonderful affair. Tomorrow Colleen and I will get back into our usual routine of taking everything one day at a time up here on our little hill. The world will do as it will, but Colleen and I can smile every day because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

July 10, 2022: More Than Halfway Through The Year Now And School Is Getting Ready To Start Again

We have a wet Sunday morning today and, in fact and apart from a quick pop-up thunderstorm or two, this is the first significant wet weather we have had in a while. Our week was mostly a dry one. The pop-up storms we did get were confined to the late afternoon or evening. They really didn’t do much other than take the humidity through the roof. Most of our days last week got at least into the upper 80’s and lower 90’s. The sunny mornings afforded Colleen and me a chance to get outside and get some work done, and the pool cooled us off in the heat of the afternoons. I head back to school this coming Tuesday, but Colleen will be staying home until the end of August. Needless to say, I haven’t come anywhere near close to taking care of everything on my “To-Do” list this summer.

Last Sunday was the renewal of our annual 4th of July gathering of the clan, or at least it was supposed to be. I smoked ribs on Saturday, Colleen made some pica de gallo, coleslaw, a gluten-free carrot cake, and Syllabub, and then we headed over to Al and Alysia’s place for the afternoon. We hadn’t had the gathering since the “Great American Stay at Home” started in March of 2020. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, none of the other kids showed up. I’m not sure why, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time. A few of Al and Alysia’s friends showed up and there was plenty of food. We had a fantastic afternoon, ate well, and got home safely.

Monday was the 4th of July, but there were things to do around the house. Colleen headed down back first thing in the morning to wash some blankets. I headed out back with my chainsaw, wedges, and maul to split the oak rounds I had separated from the trunk of the tree on the previous Friday. Colleen helped me move the split rounds up to the log splitter once I finished. We finished up everything right before lunch and decided to take the rest of the day off from any major projects. I guess we were still worn out a bit from driving back and forth to Al and Alysia’s place. Colleen and I are not fond of extended road trips, but we will make the drives for special occasions.

Tuesday was a busy day for Colleen and me. Colleen was down back first thing in the morning doing the rest of the week’s laundry. I headed out to the log splitter, fired it up, and started splitting wood. Before I knew it, Colleen had the laundry on the line and had come up to the pile of wood I had split and started stacking it in our winter-ready racks. By the time we finished, around noon, Colleen had filled the fourth half-cord rack and started on the fifth rack. Once the wood was done it was time for a quick lunch and a dip in the pool to cool off. It was still early enough in the afternoon when we got out of the pool that we tacked a Costco run onto our afternoon. We didn’t do much after dinner though.

The humidity was sky high Wednesday morning, but there are always things to be done around here. Colleen spent the day repackaging into usable size portions much of the stuff we got from Costco. I sharpened up my chainsaw and headed out to cut more rounds off the trunk of the oak tree. I had cut far enough down the trunk of the tree that diameter of the trunk was now and inch or two bigger than the length of the bar on my chainsaw. The cutting went well enough until I realized I ran out of bar oil, so I had to give up cutting for the rest of the day. We didn’t do much Wednesday afternoon. Colleen got a new garden ornament from Amazon, a rooster weathervane, so it went out in her garden.

Thursday morning, we decided we needed a Walmart run. After having our morning coffee and waiting for the morning traffic to clear out, we headed out the front door. It was getting close to lunchtime when Colleen and I got out of Walmart, so we stopped and treated ourselves to lunch at Hardee’s. The heat of the day had really socked in by the time we got home so we spent the rest of the day staying cool. Unfortunately, one of the older hens, the dark brown hen, we were fostering from school died Thursday evening. I’m not quite sure if it was the heat, old age, or both.

Friday morning, I was out at the tree trunk again after having gotten bar oil on our Walmart run. Colleen was still repackaging the stuff from Costco. Getting rounds cut off the main trunk of the tree gets more challenging with each round. When I cut my last round of the day, the trunk diameter had grown to about 4 inches bigger than the length of my chainsaw bar. My Echo chainsaw is doing a yeoman’s job of getting through that dense oak though. The day was hot and humid and even cutting just a few rounds had me soaked to the skin with sweat. Colleen and I spent another afternoon just staying cool. I did take some time to sort more baseball cards though, and then get them listed for sale on eBay in the evening.

Yesterday ended up being a busy day for Colleen and me too. Colleen cleaned the house for the first part of the morning, and I headed out to split the rounds I cut Friday into movable pieces. Once I had everything split in halves, Colleen came out to help me move them to the log splitter in our garden wagon. After we got done moving everything, I had a little lunch, and then took a quick nap. When I came back downstairs from my nap, Colleen was in the middle of making her Super Frittata. The log splitter was in shade at that point, so I headed out to split the wood we had moved in the morning. Colleen finished her cooking and cleaning up, and then she came outside to stack the firewood I was splitting. It didn’t take much convince for both of us to head to the pool once we finished. The forecast rain moved in shortly after dinner, and Colleen and I spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

With a rainy Sunday at hand, and school starting for me on Tuesday, Colleen and I won’t be doing much today. I suppose I can work with my baseball cards or do some schoolwork to get ahead of the game. That’s really all the motivation I have. Colleen may find her way into the kitchen. The cool temperatures make it a good day for cooking. I’m not sure where my summer break went this year, but even the year seems to be flying by us. Colleen took great pleasure this morning in reminding me there are only 169 days until Christmas. Whatever does come our way, rest assured that Colleen and I will take everything one day at a time. Tomorrow will be a new day and the sunshine should return. This evening when our day is done, Colleen and I will look around and smile because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

July 17, 2022: And I’m Back In School, Colleen Still Has A Month Of Summer Break.

And another week has passed with little fanfare. We are definitely in the throes of summer although not quite yet to those dreaded dog days of summer. Last week we had lots of sunshine, the morning temperatures started around 70 degrees, the days heated up to around 90 degrees, and we had our share of late afternoon and early evening storms. Up here on the hill, we were spared the worst of most of last week’s storms as the lines of really bad storms stayed to the south and east of us. The biggest news from last week was that I started back to school with the first four workdays of the new school year. The kids will be in the classroom starting tomorrow. I’m pretty well set to start school tomorrow, so this morning I’m just sitting on the back porch watching the bluebirds and enjoying a beautiful morning.

Last Sunday we got a good soaking of rain. It rained on and off pretty much all day. Sometimes it even turned into an outright downpour. I spent most of my day on the porch doing very little. I figure I deserved a day or two off before I started back to school. There were enough breaks in the rain for Colleen to take care of the girls and add a few more solar powered lights to her gardens. At least the girls were smart enough to stay out of the rain. I guess the most productive thing Colleen accomplished on Sunday was making a squash lasagna that would feed us for four meals during the week. I did have plans to grill for Sunday evening’s dinner, but the rain nixed those plans for us.

Monday was my last day of summer break. I was up well before Colleen, so I got the coffee going to start our day. Everything was soaked from Sunday’s rain, and I really didn’t feel like getting started on any major project anyway since I had to go to school Tuesday morning. The wheelbarrow on the side of the house reminded me just how much rain we got on Sunday. I spent my day on the front porch building class content online for the new school year. Colleen found her way up to her workroom and spent her day re-writing recipes and adding them to her cookbooks. Generally speaking, Monday was a slow and easy day. I got to grill dinner Monday evening and rib-eye steaks seemed appropriate to usher out my summer break and usher in the start of a new school year.

Tuesday morning my daily routine changed. I was up early and well before Colleen, I enjoyed a little bit of quiet time on the porch with some coffee, and then I headed off to school. That’s how it was for the rest of the week. Colleen was up and moving around by the time I left for school as she would be every day, and she would stand out on the porch with coffee in hand, wishing me well as I pulled out of the driveway. My school week was filled with meetings and when I wasn’t in a meeting, I was trying to put my room in order. The maintenance crews had done the floors over the break so everything was upside-down in the room shall we say. I had most everything done by Friday, but I was sure worn out from the routine change when I got home Friday afternoon.

Colleen spent her week taking care of things around the house. She started her annual raking of the lot. Mostly last week she got everything around the pool cleaned up. Of course, she is having to work around what’s left of the uncut tree trunk laying on the ground. When Colleen wasn’t out in the yard raking and picking things up, she was doing the routine chores around this place like the laundry. She did have to scamper out back a couple of times in the late afternoon to collect the laundry from the line before we had one of our late afternoon rain showers. For the most part though, Colleen was outside during the mornings until the heat of the day chased to the shade of the pool patio or into the pool itself.

Yesterday morning I had to decide whether I wanted to get out in the yard or sit in front of my computer. The computer won. I did manage to get a good deal of my schoolwork done, but I have more to do today because I’ll be walking into chaos Monday morning. The new computers the teachers got for the new school year are missing some key software and the kids do not have their new computers yet. I’m not even sure if the kids’ new computers are at the school yet. It looks like I may have to resort to old school pencil and paper for the first week of school or so. While I was working on the front porch and looking out over the mess in our front yard, Colleen spent the day cleaning up the house and, in particular, scrubbing the bathrooms clean.

Alex stopped by the house yesterday afternoon. He’s been busy and we probably haven’t seen him in a good month. The boy looks good. He’s finally settled into his new place out in the middle of nowhere, and he is thoroughly enjoying it and his freedom. He did take the time to properly sharpen my chainsaw for which I am extremely grateful. With any luck and after refilling the gas cans, I might even be able to cut some more firewood next weekend. Of course, that all depends on how things go at school during the week.

I suppose I need to get rolling for today. Colleen is already back to cleaning bathrooms, and I do have to get things ready for school. It is a beautiful morning though. I’m hoping I can get my schoolwork done early and then spend some time with my baseball cards. The politicians and the media are still trying to tell us that the economy is getting better, but by all classic definitions, the recession is here, and it looks to be getting worse. It is what it is though. Up here on our little hill, Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time. This evening we’ll have our usual Sunday meal, after that try to spend our evening relaxing, and before we call it a day we’ll look around and smile thankfully because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

July 24, 2022: Surviving Week 1 Of The School Year Despite The Sizzling Temperatures.

The first week of the new school year is behind me now. Of course, as we are nearing the end of July, the temperatures have been hot and there are always those rogue summer afternoon thunderstorms that pop up every now and again. We had a dandy right at the end of school last Wednesday. The rest of the week wasn’t too bad though. This weekend things really got hot. Yesterday the heat index got up into the 100’s and it looks like we’ll be back there again today. It all just comes with the turf of living in Central North Carolina though. Colleen and I just keep the house windows open and the floor and ceiling fans going so the house never really gets too hot. Things to get a bit uncomfortable on those really humid days, but even that isn’t terrible.

Not much really happened last Sunday, although it was a beautiful day. I did my usual morning writing and then pretty much spent the rest of my day on the computer getting ready for the kids to be back in the classroom on Monday morning. Of course, nothing with the school’s software seemed to be working the way it should. I can only imagine it was worse for the teachers trying to use their new MacBook computers. I really do appreciate the county’s drive to get new computers in the hands of teachers, but they did not do us any favors by getting MacBooks. I did get everything squared away on my end though even if it was well after dark when I finished. Colleen spent her day cleaning around the house and then putting together a marvelous Sunday dinner of pan seared salmon and pasta Alfredo. She didn’t have any fettuccine noodles, so she just used the pasta she had available. Colleen will be on her summer break for about another month, so there is no urgency to what she does on any given day.

Monday morning, I headed out the front door on my way to school with Colleen on the front porch seeing me on my way, and she was there every morning for the rest of the week. Usually, it’s the other way around since when she is in school, she leaves the house before I do. My school week was every bit as chaotic as I anticipated. The IT group still didn’t have the software issues resolved so the new computers ended up making three times more work for the teachers. The kids didn’t start getting their new computers until Thursday and most of the kids still don’t have their computers. There were the usual after school meetings during the week too. Fortunately, we have a great principal, a great administrative staff, and an awesome group of teachers, so everyone just pulled together, did what we needed to do making the week successful. I suspect the upcoming week will be crazy too, but things will settle down before too long. Colleen did get me a new windshield sunscreen for my car so at least I had a good chuckle at the end of each school day as I headed out to the parking lot.

Colleen spent her week holding down the fort up here on our little hill, doing a few projects, and making sure the routine stuff got done. On top of the usual laundry run and market run, Colleen decided her kitchen cabinets and walls needed a good scrubbing. The grease and oil that gets into the air when she cooks tends to build up on the cabinet doors and walls, so they need to be cleaned semi-regularly. Well, one thing led to another and after the cabinet doors and walls got cleaned, Colleen decided to gut the inside of the cabinets and clean everything out behind the doors. That little project took my darling wife the better part of the week. I haven’t been brave enough to go looking for anything specific in the cabinets yet, but Colleen knows where everything is.

Colleen and I were both pretty worn out from the week when Friday evening rolled around. Pizza and beer worked out perfectly for dinner. Neither of us did much after dinner though. I sat out on the front porch for a while just looking around and even admiring the white snowball like flowers on Colleen’s hydrangea bush. It’s not a true hydrangea bush, but rather a cultivar of some sort. I wasn’t out on the porch very long before I knew it was going to be an early evening for me. Before the sun ever set, I was upstairs, in bed, and sound asleep. I have no idea when Colleen came to bed. I guess the first week of school had worn me out more than I thought.

Yesterday morning I woke up after the sun came up. Colleen got up about the same time too. Neither of us had much in way of motivation though. After our coffee, I set my computer up on the front porch, planted my tail in a chair, and worked on schoolwork most all day. Colleen had designs on doing some cooking and baking, but that never happened. Colleen did breakdown the pile of Amazon boxes that had accumulated in the family room and that all went into the recycle bin. I think Amazon is Colleen’s new best friend. While I was taking a nap in the afternoon Colleen switched out her Boston rocker for a Canadian glider in the living room. Later in the afternoon we found our way to the pool and after that dinner was the leftover pizza from Friday night. On the bright side I did get everything done online for school on Monday.

It’s a warm, bright, and sunny Sunday morning. It’s going to be another hot day today too. The world is still crazy, and it looks like Covid and Monkey Pox are not making things any easier either. I guess it’s always something. Colleen and I still wear our masks religiously. Of course, a great many people have abandoned their masks which probably accounts for the rising numbers now. There isn’t much we can do about that though. Everything remains quiet up here on our little hill, and no matter what happens, Colleen and I just take everything one day at a time. We stay close to home and when we look around we smile because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

July 31, 2022: School Is Settling Down, But The Weather Isn’t!

After a week of temperatures in the 90’s, heat indices over 100 degrees, and nightly rogue thunderstorms, today we have gray skies and rain. We’re only likely to see the temperature reach the low 80’s today, but it will be a welcome change from the searing heat. Right now, we have a steady light rain falling and a misty fog hanging in the trees. Last night when the rain finally got here it came down hard and fast with plenty of special lighting and sound effects in the sky just to let us know it was here. I usually can sleep right through storms, but last night’s storm woke me up.

Last Sunday kind of started our onslaught of heat. I think the heat index got to 105. Mostly though, I spent the day recovering from a tiring first week of school. I never could get the pool filter to work so I just ordered a new filter, and Colleen and I headed into the pool in the middle of the afternoon anyway. Other than that, Colleen did a little cooking on the day, and I was in front of the computer getting work ready for school on Monday. The evening brought the threat of thunderstorms, and there certainly was plenty of rumbling from the skies, but we never saw a drop of rain. Oh, there was rain, and plenty of it, but none of it got closer than 10 miles to our little hill, but the sky sure had some color to it at sunset.

Monday through Friday were full school days for me. I would pull out of the driveway with Colleen standing on the front porch bidding me farewell. My week passed quickly enough, but it was still crazy. Over the course of the week, the kids started getting their new school computers. Until all of them have computers though, I still need to have their work on paper which essentially is doubling my workload and keeping me up late into the night. The new computers the teachers have are still giving everyone fits. When every piece of software teachers use for productivity, from email to an internet browser, is based on Microsoft software, why are the new computers MacBooks?

Colleen spent her week cleaning porches and working with her potted herbs. Colleen didn’t like the shelves she had in her greenhouses, so she bought some shelving units and replaced the greenhouse shelves. Over the course of the week, Colleen took care of the usual chores too. The laundry got done one day, Thursday was market run day, and the girls got taken care of every day. Colleen took a bit of a tumble coming up the front porch stairs on Tuesday and ended up with a dandy bruise on her arm. Fortunately, it doesn’t bother her unless she sleeps on it the wrong way. At least Colleen still has three weeks of summer break left so she has plenty of time for the bruise to go away before she heads back to school.

Every day at the end of school even though I knew it was hot, I always seemed to be surprised at just how hot it was when I left the building. Even though I’d leave the car windows and sunroof cracked open during the day to help the heat escape, I would have to give the car a few minutes to air out in the afternoons. Of course, the warm seat always felt good in my tired back. Colleen would have dinner waiting once I got home and after dinner, I would set my computer up on the porch to do schoolwork. A couple of nights I didn’t get to bed until 11 o’clock which made my 5 o’clock in the morning wake up time seem even earlier. By Friday night when I got home, I was wiped out and very thankful to come home to street tacos and a cold beer for dinner. After dinner Colleen and I hooked up the new pool filter and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

I slept until after 8 o’clock yesterday morning. As soon as I got up though, I started setting up on the back porch so Colleen and I could can some French onion soup. Colleen makes the soup and puts it into the jars. I babysit the pressure canner to make sure the pressure stays steady for 90 minutes for each batch. The last batch of jars came out of the canner at 4:30 yesterday afternoon after which Colleen and I headed to the pool to cool off and relax. Even though I spent so much time with the pressure canner yesterday, I did have my computer out on the porch with me and I got all my grading done and my grade books up to date for the week.

The fog is still hanging around this morning, but the sun is trying mightily to burn the fog off. It doesn’t look like I will be grilling for dinner tonight though because there is rain in the afternoon forecast. Fortunately, I don’t have a lot of schoolwork to do today, and it is cooler outside so I will enjoy working out on the porch. It’s a crazy world out there right now with Covid, Monkey Pox, the recession, and whatever else. The politicians and media are doing their empty headed best to convince everyone everything is alright. Colleen and I will just ride with the tides. We do our best to keep everything simple. We take everything one day at a time up here on our little hill and don’t worry about tomorrow. We have so much for which we are thankful. Every day we can look around and smile because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

August 07, 2022: The Last Week Of Colleen’s Summer Break, Still Too Much to Do, But Everything is Quiet Up Here On The Hill.

Summer sure is zipping by this year. I’ve already finished three weeks of school and Colleen has just over a week left to her summer break. The weather was all over the place this past week, but we have a lovely morning today. Despite the humidity being rather high this morning, the temperatures are quite pleasant for the time being. The skies were noisy last week, especially in the evenings and at night. We got more than our share of rain with those summer thunderstorms too. After a week with temperatures in the 90’s and some 100-degree heat indices, things have cooled off a little this weekend and the high temperatures are staying in the 80’s. I figure as we move deeper into August we’ll see a few more hot days and as we get into September the likelihood of a hurricane coming our way starts to significantly increase.

Colleen and I closed out July on a quiet note last Sunday. I did some schoolwork and packaged up some baseball cards for the mail. I even had my schoolwork done before dinner which is always a good thing. Colleen spent some time in the kitchen getting things ready for the week in front of us. I was supposed to grill some lamb chops for dinner, but Mother Nature wasn’t cooperating. The threat of thunderstorms forced a change in our plans, and we ended up enjoying a dinner of some of the French onion soup we had made and canned on Saturday.

Monday morning rolled around, and the alarm clock seemed to wake me up way too early, but it was just time to get up and head to school. Other than a bunch of meetings last week at school, the week was mostly uneventful. Most all the kids finally got their new school computers which will make my work a lot easier. I did take advantage of that fact and got my kids all caught up on quizzes and tests I had been putting off because I didn’t want to grade paper copies of everything. Unfortunately, where I had been giving the kids credit for their assignments we had been doing on paper, a good many kids didn’t do their daily assignments once the assignments were online. A number of kids are going to wonder why their grades dropped this week, and I hope it motivates them into doing the necessary work.

Colleen had a quiet week at home. She took care of all the usual chores, laundry, cleaning, and the weekly market run. She found plenty of time to work outside in her gardens and the front yard. A week or so ago she seeded a good many of the bare spots in the yard with clover so she was very happy to see it starting to sprout in spots. The upper tier of the front yard is starting to look especially green and even some of the seed she put on the barren clay areas of the yard had some of the clover sprouting. Colleen has been trying forever to get anything to grow in the spots of the yard that usually turn into mud puddles every time it rains.

Tuesday things got a little bumpy around here. On Monday night a drip in the shower in the master bedroom turned into an all-out leak with water running out of the shower head. The only thing we could do was turn the water off in the house at that point. Colleen spent Tuesday trying to get things done by turning the water on and then back off with the master house valve. I figured the gasket in the faucet had just deteriorated, so on the way home from school I took a little detour to Lowe’s for new washers. Things don’t often goes as smoothly as expected around here, but once I got home it took me all of 15 minutes to pull the valve, replace the washer, and reinstall the valve. That did the trick! We had dinner after that, and I got to spend the evening doing schoolwork on the porch which took me almost no time. I even had a visit from a couple of fawns and their momma while I was on the front porch.

By the time Friday got here, Colleen and I were tired like usual, but we weren’t wiped out. The girls have been teasing us with an occasional egg, but Friday they really pushed the envelope, and it gave Colleen and me a good laugh. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a chicken’s egg quite that small. Unfortunately, we are down to just four hens and two of those are too old to really lay eggs anymore. Colleen and I are starting to consider getting a few more birds so we can get back to having an ample supply of eggs. Our biggest decision is whether to get pullets or chicks.

Yesterday morning, Colleen and I had plans to can some turnips. Colleen changed her mind and ended up dicing up the turnips I pulled from our garden, parboiling them, and then freezing them. A quick change of plans is no big deal around her, and I pulled out the lawnmower to cut our overgrown backyard. While it wasn’t terribly hot, the humidity made it tough on me. The whole job took me more than two hours, but it’s done now after several breaks and lots of cold water. Colleen and I had some time to enjoy the pool yesterday afternoon too, and after dinner I got all my grading done and my grade books caught up to date for school before 7 o’clock. Yesterday sure did look different than it started out, but it was a good and we got stuff done.

Colleen is already in the kitchen this morning. I’ve got some class work to get ready a little later today. It looks like we are headed back into the 90’s to start the upcoming week, so we will enjoy the slightly cooler temperatures today. Colleen has just over a week left before she must be back at school, and then, our morning routine will change again. Fortunately, I have now caught my stride at school so the week should pass quickly. I’m not sure exactly where this year has gone. We are already getting to the middle of August. There is still more firewood to cut and split along with a million other things that need to be done. Before we know it fall will be here and then the holidays. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time. The world will do as it will, but up here on our little hill, Colleen and I can relax and smile because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

August 14, 2022: Colleen’s Summer Break Is All But Over, And The Temperatures Are Starting To Cool Off.

Another week passed and it appears as the heat of summer may be fading as well. Last Sunday we were still in the throes of 90-degree temperatures and 100 plus degree heat indices. This weekend we’ve started our days at 60 degrees and watched the thermometer just barely get into the 80’s. We had a little bit of rain here and there, but nothing too terribly major. This morning we started with a little bit of cloud cover and a rogue 5-minute rain shower, but the clouds are starting to break up and I can see blue sky through the trees. It looks like we’ll be hard pressed to even reach 80 degrees in the upcoming week even though there is a month of summer left. To go with the cooler temperatures, there should be some rain moving into the area tonight and through tomorrow, maybe even into Tuesday morning.

Last Sunday was quiet up here on our little hill. I spent my morning writing and doing schoolwork like usual, but the schoolwork was finished early, and I got to relax for most of the afternoon. Colleen spent some time in the kitchen during the day, but she found time to kick back and relax during the afternoon as well. I took care of dinner on the grill, and Colleen and I enjoyed a rare treat of grilled lamb chops, a baked potato, and roasted corn. Colleen oven-roasted an acorn squash just to top things off. Colleen and I like our big Sunday dinners, and it’s a good way to end the weekends.

Monday morning started Colleen’s last full week of her summer break and I headed to school just like every other day. My school weeks have settled down into a semi-routine now that we are a month into our school year. The kids all have their school issued computers now and the teachers are finding ways to get around the issues with their new computers. Why we got Apple computers when all of the software we use is Microsoft based is beyond me. Fortunately, I primarily use my own personal computer, so getting the online work ready for the kids is easier for me. There was a full moon on Thursday, and the kids got a little sketchy on the day, but nothing too bad. The skies looked ominous coming home on Thursday too, and sure enough we got some rain Thursday evening. There weren’t any flying monkeys though. On Friday, the staff learned our principal would be retiring at the end of the month which came as a shock to everyone. Our principal is truly incredible, and one of the very best under which I’ve ever had the privilege of teaching.

Colleen spent the better part of her week working around the house, both inside and out. The porches got cleaned and put in order, and the front yard got some sprucing up too. She even managed to can a couple of quarts of cherry tomatoes from our gardens one day. My darling wife is determined to get something, anything, to grow on the bald hard clay patches in our yard. She tried seeding part of the yard with clover a few weeks ago and it seems to have made some inroads so she ordered more clover seed, and I suspect she will be going at it again before she heads to school next week. Of course, with the first part of the week having been hot, when the heat of the day started to wear on Colleen, she would find her way into the pool to cool off and relax. Unfortunately, with summer waning and her school year starting this coming Wednesday, there probably are not a great many afternoons in the pool left this year.

Yesterday was cool and turned into a very busy day for me, at least until just before dinner time. After I finished my morning coffee, I was trimming back the boxwood bush by the back porch stairs, and then it was time to cut some firewood. I managed to cut four rounds off the oak tree on the ground in the backyard and then split them in half so Colleen and I can move them to by the log splitter. Moving and splitting the wood will probably be next Saturday’s big job. After lunch I was on my computer grading and getting grade books caught up for the week. I finished that job and had to take a nap at that point.

Colleen decided to take a break yesterday and spent the day doing a little light cleaning and piddling in her workroom upstairs. After working all week and with the start of her school year looming, she most certainly deserved an easy day. At one point I asked her what was for dinner, and she told me takeout from our favorite Mexican restaurant which was just fine by me. After I got up from my nap, we headed out to pick up dinner. Interestingly enough, the Great American Shutdown for Covid taught us one thing about ourselves. We like takeout a whole lot more than sitting in restaurants to enjoy a meal. Neither of us did much after dinner, and we both called it an early evening heading upstairs right after sunset.

My coffee is about done, the sun is out, and the morning is still cool. Colleen will be in the kitchen some today and I will head out to the front porch with my computer shortly to finish my schoolwork for tomorrow. It should be a quiet day for us up here on our little hill. Everything seems to have settled down nicely after the start of my school year, and we’ll have just a few changes in our routine once Colleen starts back to school on Wednesday. The politicians and media are still trying to tell us inflation and a recession won’t hit folks very hard, but they obviously are not seeing what is really happening. Sadly, the folks that believe them will be hit the hardest and hurt the most. Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time. We’ll find our way back up here to our little hill at the end of each day and we’ll look around and smile thankfully knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

August 21, 2022: Rain, Colleen Is Back In School, And A Scary Accident!

It’s just starting to rain this morning and looks like it will be a gray and wet day. Our week started on the wet side too. Rain rolled in last Sunday night and stuck around until Tuesday morning. Fortunately, with the rain came some cooler temperatures and even when the sun came out in the middle of the week, the thermometer never got above 85 degrees. I had a long, but easy week at school, and Colleen started her new school year last week with a few teacher workdays. At least the mornings Colleen did have to go to school the roads were dry, and she didn’t have any problems getting to school.

The threat of rain kept Colleen and me in the house last Sunday. The sun did come out in the late morning and hung around through most of the afternoon. For the most part it was a quiet day for us. I spent the morning writing and the first part of the afternoon putting my class work together for Monday. Colleen spent some time in the kitchen. She got several ingredients prepared for the week’s meal and baked some berry muffins for our lunches. I’m not sure how, but I ended up with one heck of a stiff and sore neck. I suspect it was from cutting and splitting firewood on Saturday. This getting old stuff is for the birds. Fortunately, once I finished my schoolwork, there wasn’t much else to do other than sort and organize more baseball cards.

Colleen spent the first part of her week taking care of a few odds and ends around the house. She headed back to school on Wednesday. She did find out that she would be the IA in the autistic support room this year rather than being one on one support for any one particular kid. I worked through my stiff neck on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday night was “Meet the Teacher” night at school, so I didn’t get home until after 8 o’clock. Wednesday was an early release day for the kids, but teachers had to stay for meeting until the end of the day. Thursday, I stayed after school for my club’s meeting, so I was very glad to get home at my usual time on Friday. Colleen started her new school year on Wednesday and spent her days at school getting her room setup and she got home in the middle of the afternoon every day. She did stop at the market Thursday on her way home though. Overall, it was a good week.

Friday evening, I was pretty tired, and I tried to get some grading done after dinner. I didn’t get a lot done and ended up spending yesterday morning and a good part of the afternoon finishing up my grading for the week. I wanted to update my grade books too, but the state’s grade book system was down for maintenance. I guess I’ll check it again today. Yesterday, Colleen did some of her usual weekend cooking making a couple of meals for the week and a pork roast for yesterday’s dinner. It was a quiet day mostly until Alysia called. Alysia called yesterday afternoon right when Colleen was getting ready to put the pork roast in the oven and Colleen forgot to put the roast in the oven until after the phone call. Dinner was a little late yesterday evening.

Alysia’s phone call ended up being the big issue of the day. Alysia and Al were on their way to a festival of some sort when a mattress flew off the back of a truck a couple of cars in front of them. Someone in the lane next to them swerved to avoid the mattress and plowed into Al and Alysia’s car. It wasn’t pretty. The air bags inflated, the kids got banged up a little, and their car got totaled. Fortunately, apart from some bumps and bruises the kids walked away and are okay for the most part. We’ll check in with the kids later today to see how they are. Now they must deal with insurance companies, getting a new car, and putting things back in order.

After dinner everything was quiet around here fortunately. I sorted more baseball cards and even had time to list some of them for sale on eBay. Colleen cleaned up after dinner and spent the better part of the evening relaxing. We never saw any rain yesterday even though it had been forecast. I finished up what I was doing right around sunset, and Colleen took care of the hen coop before we called it a day and headed upstairs for the night. At least we were able to go to bed knowing the kids were okay after their accident.

It wasn’t raining when Colleen and I got up this morning, but it wasn’t long before the gray skies turned into rainy gray skies. There is a little bit of thunder and lightning, but at worst the rain is just steady and not a torrential downpour. It looks like I’ll be set up on the front porch today to do my work. The world is still crazy, prices except for gasoline at the moment are still going up, and budgets everywhere are getting tighter. There isn’t much Colleen or I can do about it, so we’ll just keep taking things one day at a time. We have a good life up here on our little hill and no matter what a day brings our way, we can smile knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

August 28, 2022: A Beautiful Weekend, Some Long Hours, And The End Of August.

August is coming to an end quickly and we’ve had beautiful weather on this last weekend of the month. Last week started out on the wet side but by Wednesday morning, everything dried out and with seasonal temperatures in the upper 80’s, we couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the week. Friday and yesterday we even saw the thermometer touch 90 degrees in the late afternoons. I don’t think we’ll see 90 degrees today, but there will be plenty of sunshine and this afternoon it should be just perfect to fire up the grill for dinner. Next weekend is the Labor Day holiday, a long weekend for Colleen and me, and hopefully another opportunity to grill a meal or two. Today, though, Colleen and I will try to take it easy and just enjoy the day.

Last Sunday was quiet around here. Colleen checked in with Alysia and Al to see how they were doing after their accident last Saturday. Apart from being a little stiff and sore, they seemed okay and were getting ready to start putting their life back in order. I spent the morning doing my usual writing and after that I finished up my schoolwork for Monday. Colleen spent the better part of the day getting things ready for our upcoming week at school. Sunday evening, I even found time to list more baseball cards for sale on eBay. I guess I could say the day was routine and calm for us.

Last week was Colleen’s first full week at school even though it was a week of teacher workdays. She would leave for school before sunrise, and I would wait until after sunrise before I left for school. I did get to see Venus shining in the early morning skies while I waited though. As is always the case, there was a deluge of meetings and annual training Colleen had to attend, but she got to leave school a little early each day so she wouldn’t incur any overtime, and she managed to get a stop at the laundromat and get our weekly market run done on her way home during the week. My week was a bit chaotic. Tuesday night was “Meet the Teacher” night and boy, oh boy, did the parents show up in droves. I didn’t get home until after 8 o’clock. Wednesday was a teacher workday for me with plenty of meetings scheduled. I’m glad I had my personal computer too because the new school computers had all kinds of glitches. Thursday, I stayed after school for my club meeting and didn’t get home until around 6 o’clock. Luckily, my three-week semester break starts in just another three weeks.

Friday was another beautiful day, and an easy day for me at school. After lunch we had a short assembly for our outgoing principal. They retire at the end of August. My last class of the day had a test, so the school day ended on a very quiet note. Colleen and I treated ourselves to some Mexican takeout for dinner and after dinner I just sat out on the front porch and was able to get most of my grading done for the week.

Colleen and I woke up to plenty of sunshine yesterday morning. After some leisurely coffee and a little bit of breakfast, we headed outside to move firewood. I had split the rounds I cut last weekend in half so they would be easier to move. They weren’t! Even split the half-rounds are still too big for our garden wagon. We got everything moved though, but when I cut up the last part of the tree, I will have to quarter the rounds so we can move them. The pile of wood by the log splitter doesn’t look like too much now, but once split to fireplace size, we are looking at easily filling up a half cord rack. Since we have a long weekend next weekend, I will split everything then.

With wood finally moved, Colleen cleaned up the debris from where the wood had been, and I headed to the front porch with my computer to finish grading and updating my grade books. Colleen spent the better part of the afternoon making potato pies for meals during the week. I guess I’d been doing a good job of staying on top of my grading last week because I had everything done by dinner. After dinner I worked with my baseball cards and then decided to tackle my class work for tomorrow. I was up a lot later than usual, but I got everything done so I won’t have to do any today and I got to enjoy the light show from Colleen’s solar garden ornaments.

Well, I slept until after 9 o’clock this morning which is very unusual for me. On any other Sunday I would be worried I was running behind my times, but not today. I’ll spend today doing a few things I normally do not have time to do. Colleen has a few things she needs to do in the kitchen today, but even she is ahead of the game today. The kids come back to Colleen’s school tomorrow, but for me it’s just a regular school day. With August coming to a close, Colleen and I are starting to think about getting ready for the fall, winter, and the holidays. It has been a very quick year up here on our little hill. All the same, Colleen and I will keep taking things one day at a time. At the end of each day, we’ll find our way home, look around, and smile, knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

September 04, 2022: We Lost Our Dear Sweet Buttercup This Week.

There are a few clouds in this morning’s sky, but mostly it’s a sunny and pleasant start to the day. Last week stayed dry for the most part around here. Oh, we had a few spotty rain showers here and there, but nothing that lasted very long or got us very wet. The week’s temperatures flirted with and touched 90 degrees a time or two, but I’m thinking that with fall just a few short weeks away, we have seen the last of the summer heat. Still, despite the nice weather, it was a tough week up here on the hill for Colleen and me. Our dear sweet Buttercup crossed the Rainbow Bridge on Monday night and has left a huge void in our lives.

Sunday seemed to be just another day up here on the hill. Colleen and I went about or usual business getting ready for school. Buttercup seemed to have a tough day though and just spent the day laying around the house in front of the fans. I got my grading and grade books caught up for the week and Colleen spent a better part of the day in the kitchen preparing for the upcoming week. I did get a chance to fire up the grill for dinner Sunday evening and Colleen and I split a ribeye steak for dinner. Little did we know that Sunday would be the end of our routine week.

The kids showed up at Colleen’s school Monday morning, so she left a few minutes early. As I was getting ready to go to school, Buttercup headed to the back door, so I let her out. She got down the porch stairs just fine and walked around in the yard for a few minutes, but then her hind quarters gave out, and it took a little bit to get her back into the house. Once she was back in the house, she laid down and pretty much stayed there all day. When Colleen got home, she realized that Buttercup hadn’t eaten or drank any water all day. Colleen and I made Buttercup as comfortable as possible. Buttercup’s breathing was labored so Colleen stayed up with her until our baby girl crossed the Rainbow Bridge just after midnight.

I had told our assistant principal that I might need a day off during the week and I told them why. They totally understood and told me not to worry about it. Neither Colleen nor I went to school on Tuesday. When I woke up at 2:30 Tuesday morning Colleen was just sitting on the sofa. There was little chance of me falling back asleep, so I got a cup of coffee, a cigar, and headed out to the front porch to wait for sunrise. Colleen did head upstairs and lay down about 4 o’clock, but she didn’t get much more than a short nap. A good many of my teachers texted me during the day to checked in because I haven’t missed a day of school in more than ten years.

The sun started coming up at its usual time. I opened the coop for the girls and then got a pick and shovel, headed out to the side yard next to where we had buried Daisy, and started digging. Colleen eventually joined me. I had texted the boys earlier in the morning to let them know about Buttercup and around 9 o’clock Steven pulled into the driveway. Steven saved the day! He took the pick from me and finished the digging. By 11 o’clock Buttercup was resting peacefully next to Daisy. Steven hung around for a while visiting and even sharpened my chainsaw for me. After he left, Colleen and I started cleaning up around the house. It seemed everything reminded us of Buttercup.

Colleen and I went back to school on Wednesday morning, but it was tough. Colleen stopped at the laundromat on the way home to wash the comforters on which Buttercup would sleep and then the Trail Blazer starter acting strange on her way home. We took the Trail Blazer to the shop before they closed for the day. Needless to say, the week really wasn’t going well for us at that point, but there were still things to be done so Colleen and I kept going. Colleen did some more cleaning around the house, and I got on my computer to make sure my schoolwork was done for Thursday. The day ended nicely, but with little solace for Colleen and me.

Colleen gave me a ride to school Thursday morning which got me there two hours early. My school starts at 8:30, Colleen’s school starts at 7:30, but she has a 45-minute drive to get there. Colleen picked me up after school too, and we headed to the shop. The problem with the Trail Blazer turned out to be electrical and minor so we brought the Trail Blazer home. I’ll take it back to the shop when I’m on my semester break in a few weeks. Friday went a little better for us but doing the routine things like leaving for school reminded us of Buttercup. She would always stick her head the bars on the landing so I could give her a chew treat before I left. Looking at that empty landing every day will be a tough adjustment.

Yesterday Colleen and I decided we needed to run our errands in the morning, so we headed to TSC and Walmart. Even running errands reminded us of Buttercup. Colleen and I both had a mournful sigh as we walked by the aisles of dog food and dog treats. We always needed more treats for Buttercup. When we got home Buttercup wasn’t there to supervise getting everything into the house either. I spent the better part of the afternoon doing schoolwork while Colleen put the groceries away and cleaned up some more around the house. We did have plans to do something for dinner, but both of us were worn out so dinner was leftovers. Colleen found some more solar powered decorations for her gardens at Walmart and the new light up pumpkins did bring a smile to our face last night.

Thankfully, Colleen and I do not have school tomorrow on Labor Day because neither of us has any motivation this morning. I had thought about splitting firewood, but it won’t happen today. I will instead try to finish my schoolwork, so I don’t have to do it tomorrow. Colleen and I did decide that this house just isn’t right without a dog underfoot, and perhaps this spring we will see if we can rescue another dog or two. We are looking at getting a few more chickens too but aren’t up to that yet either. Some of the bumps in life’s road are bigger than others, and during weeks like last week Colleen and I just hold on to the reins and see things through. We’ll keep taking everything one day at a time. No matter what happens up here on our little though, at the end of each day, we can always find something for which we are thankful, and we smile because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

September 11, 2022: We Survived The Week And An Unwelcome Anniversary, NEVER FORGET!

The skies are gray, the rain is falling, there is a thick fog hanging in the trees, but the coffee is fresh and hot. After a most pleasant week weather wise, it has been a dreary weekend. The rain is supposed to last into tomorrow too, but after that we should see the sunshine. Fall is less than two weeks away now, and while we may get one or two more quick hot spells, the temperatures are feeling quite nice lately. This weekend’s rain helped cool things off some too and we may only see 80 degrees today. I start my three-week quarter break this coming Friday and I am very hopeful that Mother Mature will play nice and bring some beautiful weather for my time at home. Unfortunately, while I am at home, Colleen will be at school. We won’t have time off together until Thanksgiving.

Last weekend was the Labor Day holiday, so Colleen and I had time to catch our breath after the crazy week leading up to the long weekend. We were still getting used to Buttercup not being underfoot, so we were still at a bit of a loss. Fall let us know it was on its way as the leaves on Colleen’s hydrangea bush started turning gold. I spent the day writing, doing schoolwork, and working with my baseball cards. I even managed to get some more listed for sale on Sunday evening. Colleen found her way into the kitchen and did some baking for the week. Mostly it was a slow day though and we just sort of made our way through the day trying to get ourselves back to rights.

Monday morning, I got to sleep late so the coffee was ready when I came downstairs. Colleen decided to try and get some laundry done at the laundromat on the morning, but the place was packed. Colleen just headed across the street to the discount department store and bought some new bed linens. When she got home, she went into full blown nesting mode. The bedroom got stripped, vacuumed, dusted, furniture got moved, and her greenhouse ended up in her workroom. It seemed weird walking into the bedroom and not seeing Buttercup’s bed on the floor though. I finished what little schoolwork I needed for Tuesday out on the porch, and then I did some stuff needed for my club meeting on Thursday after school. Colleen found the time to make a meatloaf dinner which was the extent of our holiday celebration. That evening I just sat out on the porch and enjoyed the cool evening while Colleen’s garden lights came to life.

Tuesday through Friday seemed to drag as we made our way through the school week. Colleen had to drive to school in the rain on Tuesday morning, but by the time I got to school we had some sun trying to peek out from behind the clouds. I had my usual barrage of meetings during the week and my club meeting on Thursday ran long so I didn’t get home until just before 6 o’clock. Colleen and I quietly celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary during the week too. Slowly, but surely, Colleen and I started to find our stride, getting used to life up here on our little hill without Buttercup. We still have our moments, but mostly now we can smile at all the great memories we have. We’re nowhere near ready for another dog yet, but I’m sure we will get one or two when the time is right.

Come Friday evening Colleen and I knew we were in for a rainy weekend. I camped out on the front porch after dinner and started grading. I figured anything I could get done would be that much less to do on Saturday. Colleen put a list together of things she wanted to do on Saturday, but mostly it was a low-key evening. Yesterday morning, I picked up where I had left off on my grading. Colleen looked at her list and then decided to clean the kitchen and move a small table and some bookshelves around, none of which was on her list. By the time she finished in the middle of the afternoon, the table that had been where she put her cast iron cookware and the jars and jugs full of Buttercup’s treats was in the living room behind the love seat and there were two sets of shelves in front of the kitchen window. Colleen figured the extra table in the living room would be a bonus for putting out more Christmas decorations. I got all my grading done and my grade books updated for the week, finishing shortly after dinner so I got to enjoy the evening.

The weather has us housebound again today. I have a little class work I need to do for tomorrow. Colleen will be in the kitchen for most of the day doing the cooking and meal prep that didn’t get done yesterday for the upcoming week, and of course cleaning. It’s going to be a crazy week at school for me with more meetings than usual, lots of late work from the kids, and me needing to get my end of quarter grades all squared away. Just to make today a bit more somber, it is 9/11. Those of us old enough to have lived through that horrific day can remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we first got the news. I will never forget that day! Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time though and watch the year continue to fly by us. With fall just around the corner, the holidays will be here before we know it. Still, every day we find our way home, look around, and smile, because no matter what a day brings our way, we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

September 18, 2022: Things Are Settling Down And Fall Is Knocking At The Door.

Another week has passed, and what a week! I guess we had a little bit of everything with the weather. There was plenty of sunshine, some rain thrown into the mix, cool temperatures, and warm temperatures. Mostly, it was a week of me anticipating Friday afternoon and the start of my quarter break. For Colleen, it was just another week at school. This weekend we have cooler, mostly seasonable temperatures, blue skies, and plenty of sunshine. There is a hurricane spinning around in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere, but it doesn’t look like it will be heading our way. Just to make things interesting though, the forecast for the upcoming week has us seeing the thermometer climb back up to 90 degrees.

Colleen and I headed to school Monday morning like we usually do. Colleen was looking at a typical week, but my week was packed with meetings. My day always starts with bus duty before classes start so with all the meetings, it seemed like every day was longer than usual. Of course, once I got home, I had to get things ready for classes on the following day. I have online office hours on Tuesday and Wednesday from 6 to 7 PM too, but at least I am home for those meetings. Monday night after dinner I got to enjoy a very colorful sunset while I worked out on the porch. Tuesday and Wednesday I was able to get my schoolwork done around my online office hours. Thursday, I didn’t get home until 6 o’clock. Friday, I left school right after the kids got dismissed and there may have been a little gravel being kicked up from my rear wheels as I pulled out of the parking lot.

Yesterday morning Colleen and I got up right around sunrise. We didn’t rush our morning coffee either. I looked at the firewood that needs splitting as I sat on the back porch and quickly decided physical labor was not on the books for my day. I spent the whole day working with my baseball cards or sitting on a porch doing absolutely nothing. Colleen started doing some housework in the middle of the morning. She started upstairs, but when the vacuum cleaner came downstairs, I reminded her that I would be steam cleaning the rugs later this week, so she didn’t vacuum the first floor. Colleen did do a few things in the kitchen after that. It was mostly an easy day around here, so Colleen and I opted for Chinese takeout for dinner. Tonight, I will grill dinner.

I’m still not of the mind to start any physical activity today, so I think I will start sewing up my end of quarter grades on the computer. Colleen will spend some time in the kitchen, but with me being home all week, I promised I would grill dinner a couple of times during the week so she wouldn’t have to cook. I do have a long list of things I want to get done on my break. With the holidays fast approaching, it’s time for me to shampoo and steam clean the rugs. With the temperatures starting to cool off, I need to finish filling the firewood racks too. I guess those are the big things that need doing. I’m sure a bunch of other things will pop up too, and I will do what I can. With any luck, I should have plenty of time to work with my baseball cards, today and over the course of my three-week break, and make some extra money which no doubt will get spent on the holidays.

It’s hard to believe we’re halfway through September and that fall starts next week. This has been one very quick year and a lot has happened. Colleen and I are finding things are starting to get back into a routine around here after we lost Buttercup at the end of last month, but we still do miss our baby girl terribly. Today is another day though and a beautiful one at that. The critters are running around the backyard and even climbing on the pool to get a drink of water. Squirrel season does open in a month though. I’m looking forward to that. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time though. For the next three weeks I will be staying put up here in our little hill. Before we know it, Colleen’s garden lights will be replaced with our Christmas lights in the front yard. The sun comes up in the morning and sets in the evening, and at the end of everyday Colleen and I can look around and smile thankfully knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

September 25, 2022: It Was a Busy, But A Great Week To Start My Semester Break.

The first week of my fall semester break is behind me now, and it was a dandy week. The first part of the week which were the last few days of summer were warm and sunny. We even had a couple of days when the mercury in the thermometer pushed through 90 degrees. The first day of fall was Thursday, and it sure felt like Mother Nature just flipped a switch late that afternoon. I guess until about 4 o’clock it had been just a beautiful day in the mid-80’s with plenty of sunshine. We had 30 minutes of rain right before dinner, and by the time Colleen and I got ready to call it a day, the temperature had dropped into the 60’s. The last few mornings we been starting our days below 55 degrees, and the days are only getting up into the 70’s for high temperatures. We have another beautiful morning today, and we haven’t seen any rain since Thursday, and that looks likely to continue until later this coming week, depending on what hurricane Ian has a mind to do.

Colleen and I enjoyed a lovely morning, and took it easy last Sunday. Oh, we went about our usual activities, but with a three week break from school in front of me, there really wasn’t much urgency to the day. Colleen decided to do a little cleaning and dragged the vacuum cleaner upstairs, but when she made her way downstairs to the first floor, I reminded her I would be cleaning the carpets and rugs during the week. Colleen gladly put the vacuum cleaner away and found her way into the kitchen to do a little cooking. I spent most of my day sorting through baseball cards, but I did pull out the grill in the afternoon to cook up a couple of steaks for our Sunday dinner. We ate an early meal Sunday, so apart from me listing baseball cards on eBay after dinner and Colleen locking up the hen coop for the night, we both took the time to just relax.

Colleen headed to school at her usual time on Monday morning. Monday was technically a teacher workday for me so after the morning chores I headed into school, but I didn’t have any work to do. I much rather do my schoolwork at home anyway. I did have a few errands to run on my way home though. Once I got home, I changed out burnt-out light bulbs starting with a burnt out headlight in the Honda and then on to probably a half dozen or so light bulbs around the house. Colleen stopped at the laundromat on her way home, but she only had one bag of laundry. Dinner was leftovers and after dinner, Colleen and I just took care of our routine chores to end the day.

Tuesday morning, I sat on the porch with a cup of coffee after Colleen left for school and after the sun came up and the morning chores were done, I headed into the family room to start on the carpet. It’s not that it’s a difficult job, but there is a bit of work to it. Everything thing needs to be picked up, furniture needs to be moved, the carpet gets a thorough vacuuming, pretreating spray goes on the stains, and then the steam cleaner comes out. I end up only doing half a room at a time because of the sofa took up the other half of the room. After cleaning is done, it’s a waiting game as the carpet dries. I did clean the open half of the area rug in the dining room too. I was really on a roll so for dinner I grilled some brats so Colleen would not have to cook again.

Wednesday morning was almost a repeat of Tuesday except I got the rugs on the stairs and landings up to the second floor cleaned. I did get to enjoy watching the deer meander through the backyard before I got started in my day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the attachments for the steam cleaner so only the landings got really cleaned. During the afternoon I vacuumed the family room and dining room to pull up the carpet nap because everything was dry. Dinner Wednesday evening was leftovers, so it was easy for Colleen. After dinner we moved the sofa to the other side of the family room and the dining room table to the other side of dining room to get ready for more carpet cleaning on Thursday.

Thursday morning after Colleen left for school and the morning chores were done, I tackled the second halves of the family room rug and dining room carpet. The toughest part of that was getting the carpet leading into the kitchen from the family room clean. It’s easily the part of the carpet with the heaviest traffic. It took me a bit, a goodly amount of pretreating, and hitting the area twice with the steam cleaner, but I got it. Our carpet is old, worn and tired, but at least it’s clean now. Colleen stopped at the market on her way home and along with our usual groceries she picked up some foam rug cleaner so I could do the stairs to the second floor. I managed to find some time to start wrapping up my end of quarter grades for school later in the day too.

It was chilly Friday morning, but there was still work to be done. I finally got to clean the stairs with the foam rug cleaner Colleen had brought home on Thursday. The carpets and rugs I had cleaned on Thursday morning were dry, so I vacuumed them to raise the nap. I laid the area rug back down in the family room and cleaned the open half of that rug that was not under the sofa. I spent the afternoon buried in my baseball cards until Colleen came home. I fired up the grill again Friday evening and roasted some corn on the cob and grilled some cheeseburgers for dinner. After dinner I did some schoolwork, but mostly Colleen and I relaxed.

Yesterday, Colleen and I decided to split and stack firewood. Alex showed up mid-morning with a 36-inch chainsaw and finished cutting up the tree stump for us. My 20-inch chainsaw was just proving inadequate for the job. Colleen and I split and stacked into the early afternoon. We now have close to three cords of firewood on our racks, and we should be able to get the sixth rack filled with the wood that is still in the ground. Once that wood is all cut and stacked, there is another tree that fell on the other side of the house that I can start harvesting for next year’s supply. After we finished with the firewood Colleen and I ate a quick lunch, then Colleen headed down back to clean up the hen coop and put down new bedding for the girls and I sat down with my computer to start finalizing my end of quarter grades. I got one class done and all the late work for another class graded. I’m hoping to get that class sewn up today.

I guess Colleen and I worked ourselves pretty well yesterday because were both stiff and a bit achy today. I think our age may be catching up with us. We wanted to finish the firewood today, by that isn’t going to happen. Colleen has tomorrow off from school, and I’m still on break so we will think more about doing the job tomorrow. I suppose we’ll get a few things done around here today. Colleen is already in the kitchen this morning, and I suppose I could vacuum some rugs, so we can move some furniture back to where it needs to be. For the most part, everything is calm and quiet today up here on our little hill. Hurricane Ian is spinning in the Caribbean, and it may or may not head this way later in the week. No matter though, Colleen and I will just keep taking everything one day at a time. At the end of each day, we can look around and smile thankfully because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

October 02, 2022: Ian Has Come And Gone, But Now We Need To Clean Up.

Wow, what a weekend Colleen and I have had. The week was going pretty well until Friday got here and Ian started dumping rain on us. Fortunately, it was just rain and some gusty wind as Ian started losing strength once it made landfall. The eye of the storm stayed south and west of us, but we sure didn’t see any sunshine on Friday and Saturday, but the sun is out this morning, for the moment anyway. We’re supposed to be getting some more rain this afternoon. Ian left us with a mess in the yard and one tree partially uprooted and leaning precariously, but other than that and a little more than 24 hours without electricity, we are doing okay.

Last Sunday turned out to be a slow and easy day. Colleen had a teacher workday on Monday, so we were in no great rush on the day, and there was nothing of great urgency that needed to be done. Colleen spent some time in the kitchen and tried a new blueberry cheesecake bar recipe. They bars came out great, and Colleen added the recipe to her collection for our Christmas brunch buffet. I spent the day sorting baseball cards and cleaning up the living room. The highlight of our day was dinner though, because I cooked up some shish-kabobs on the grill and we cracked a bottle of wine open for dinner. Every now and again we find a reason to celebrate although there was no particular reason last Sunday.

Monday morning Colleen and I nursed our morning coffee until it was time to take the Trail Blazer to the shop. Colleen stayed home because she had a teacher workday. The Trail Blazer needed new tires and a few small maintenance things that we wanted out of the way for the coming winter months. Once we got home, I finished the family room rug, Colleen and I put the area rug back in place, moved the sofa back to where it belonged, and then I cleaned the area rug. After lunch I headed outside with the chainsaw and finished cutting up the wood up by the tree stump behind the pool. Later in the afternoon we picked up the Trail Blazer from the shop, had some dinner when we got home, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing. I was caught a bit by surprise when we picked up the Trail Blazer. The price of new tires is not cheap!

Colleen had school Tuesday through Thursday. Her days at school were quiet and passed uneventfully. The only stop she had to make on her way home was on Thursday to get our market run done for the week. There was a rumor flying around school on Thursday though that school would be canceled on Friday because of Ian. As it turned out, it wasn’t until right before Colleen got home that news came about school being canceled. My county made the day a remote learning day, but that didn’t affect me because I teach at a year-round school and was still on my quarter break. For another week, I get to enjoy my coffee on the back porch and watch the deer wander through the back yard until I start my daily activities.

Once I got going on Tuesday, it was back to the carpets. I got frustrated moving furniture around and running out of room with all the moved furniture in the living room, so I put the family room furniture back into the family room because the rug was dry and finished moving the furniture and cleaning the dining room before I cleaned the carpet. After lunch, I sat down in front of my computer on the front porch and finished my first quarter grades for the kids that turned in late work. With the work graded, I only had my grade books left to do before the end of the week.

Wednesday morning was another lovely morning. I looked at the firewood that needed to be moved and decided it wasn’t the day to do it. I spent the morning and the better part of the afternoon getting my grade books sewn up fir the quarter and out of the way. When Colleen got home, we took down the pool patio canopy and started getting things ready for Ian’s arrival on Friday. The part of the dining room carpet I had cleaned on Tuesday was dry, so I put the area rug back down, Colleen and I moved the dining room table to the other side of room and I pulled up that half of the area rug and got ready to clean the other half of the carpet. I still haven’t started on the living room carpet, but I am hopeful I can finish it this week.

Thursday morning, I cleaned the open half of the dining room carpet and then ran down to the store to get an extra tarp to put on the pool patio furniture. By the time Colleen got home I had the furniture covered, all the firewood covered, and everything that needed to be off the porch picked up and in the house. After I helped Colleen get the groceries into the house, it was dinner time, and after dinner we just watched the orange skies as the sun set and we got ready to spend a rainy Friday in the house. We don’t often get color like we got in the evening skies, but then again, we don’t often have a hurricane headed our way.

Ian’s rains started some time before sunrise Friday morning. The breeze picked up more and more through the day, but everything was going along just fine. Colleen baked some muffins and started working on a pot of chili. Our lights flickered occasionally during the afternoon, but it wasn’t until after dinner when we lost our electricity. The chili wasn’t quite cooked yet, so Colleen let it cool and then put it in a cooler with a large ice pack to keep it from spoiling. She also threw a heavy comforter over the basement box freezer to add extra insulation because we didn’t know how long we would be without electricity. We dug up our storm lanterns and candles, went about our business, and called it an early evening.

Yesterday morning we still didn’t have electricity when we woke up. I guess about 300,000 folks around here lost their electricity, so I figured it might be a while before utility crews got our electricity back. Nonetheless, a morning without coffee isn’t going to happen around here, so I set up the camp stove out on the porch and it wasn’t long before Colleen and I had a pot of fresh hot coffee. Colleen heated up some of our homemade French onion soup that we had canned early in the year for lunch. She even used (more like played with) her kitchen torch to melt the cheese on top. Colleen didn’t feel like cooking a full-blown dinner on the camp stove yesterday evening, so we had some clam chowder for dinner. The electricity finally did get turned back on around 7:45 yesterday evening. Once we had the electricity back, Colleen checked the freezers, and everything was still frozen solid. Even the refrigerator was just a few degrees above 40 degrees, so we didn’t lose any food.

I did get a chance to get outside and check for damage yesterday afternoon. The yards are strewn with tree debris, but not much more. The only real concern we have after the storm is a partially uprooted tree down by the fire pit. I don’t think it will be problematic, but I have let Steven and Alex know it must come down. Since our firewood racks are just about filled for this year, this tree will be next year’s firewood. I was able to track down James and Louis yesterday too, and they made it through the storm just fine. Alysia posted online today so it seems she and Al are doing well too.

Well, we had a little sun to start this morning, but clouds have now filled the skies. The girls are scratching around in their pen. We’re supposed to see some rain this afternoon, but I didn’t see anything heading our way on the radar. I think I can finish the dining room carpet today and then get started in the living room. Colleen will be spending some time in the kitchen getting ready for the upcoming week. I still have a week of break in front of me, but Colleen will be heading to school tomorrow morning. Colleen and I will just keep moving forward as always, taking everything one day at a time. We’ll clean up the best we can and wait for things to get back to normal after Ian. No matter what happens though, at the end of each day we can look around and smile because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

October 09, 2022: My Last Week Of Break, Cooler Temperatures, And A House Guest For A Couple OF Weeks.

That sure was a quick three-week break. Of course, hurricane Ian really punctuated the start to the week, and last Sunday we were still dealing with the last of the clouds and a little bit of the rain. The sun came back on Monday morning even though everything was still good and wet. The week warmed up and we even got into the 80’s by the end of the week, but a cold front moved in this weekend, and this morning the temperatures are hanging right around 40 degrees. There is plenty of sunshine though, so we are looking at just one terrific fall day up here on our little hill. If the skies stay clear we should have a big, bright full moon overhead tonight.

Last Sunday, Colleen and I spent the day checking around the house to see if there was any storm damage that wasn’t so obvious. Fortunately, other than a lot of small tree related debris in the yard and a couple of trees trying to pull out of the ground, we came through Ian unscathed. The electricity came back on Saturday evening, but the internet was still dead through Sunday. Not a problem though, because I just used my phone for a hotspot. Mostly, Sunday was slow and easy up here. Colleen spent a little time in the kitchen. I didn’t do a whole lot myself though, but then again, I still had a week of break to go in front of me.

Monday morning Colleen headed off to school in a dense fog. The fog burned off as the sun came up and after taking care of the girls and finishing my morning coffee, I got started cleaning the living room carpet. I moved all the furniture out of the way, gave the open section of carpet a good vacuuming, and then hit it with the steam cleaner. James stopped by the house in the middle of the afternoon, and since he was headed to Lowe’s anyway, I asked him to pick me up a replacement piece for our downstairs toilet. Colleen tried to stop at the laundromat on her way home, but the place was slammed, so she just came home. James stopped back by the house right after dinner with the piece I needed for the toilet, and I fixed the toilet right after he left. Colleen even baked a batch of her bacon, cheese, beer biscuits after dinner.

Tuesday morning after Colleen had gone to school and I had the girls taken care of for the day, I got back to moving firewood from the tree stump over to by the log splitter. I just didn’t have it in me though to spend the afternoon splitting firewood. Since the internet was back up, I spent the afternoon getting more baseball cards ready to sell online. Colleen did get to stop at the laundromat on her way home and get the laundry done. James who will be working in the area for the next few weeks took up temporary residence here when he showed up Tuesday evening. Truth be told, it is nice to have one of our kids back in the house if even for just a short period of time.

Wednesday morning the living room carpet wasn’t quite dry. After Colleen and James had left for the day and I had taken care of the girls, I headed out to the log splitter. I spent all morning and part of the early afternoon splitting and stacking firewood. I got everything split, filled our last half-cord rack, and moved all the fireplace unsuitable wood down to the fire pit. There is plenty of wood and wood debris for the kids to burn in the fire pit now. The living room carpet had dried by the afternoon, so I vacuumed the clean area, moved the furniture, and then vacuumed and steam cleaned that last section of carpet.

Thursday morning, I didn’t like the way a particularly heavily trafficked part of the living room carpet had turned out, so I pretreated the area and pulled the steam cleaner out again. The carpet cleaned up a good bit better this time around. With my break coming to end quickly, I decided to take Thursday afternoon off and spent the afternoon buried in my baseball cards getting more ready to sell online. Colleen got home at her usual time and James got home a little after dinner. Right at sunset James had to run to his partner’s house to put together a last minute quote for a job, and as luck would have it he had misplaced his keys. James and I spent the next 30 minutes looking around in the dark for keys which ended up being in his backpack. Fortunately, all’s well that ends well, and James was on his way there and back home in just under two hours.

Friday was a beautiful day. Unfortunately, I had to go to school because it was a teacher workday. I didn’t have any work to do though and not many other teachers showed up. I did attend a 9 o’clock meeting where the new principal was introduced to the staff. I didn’t do much else for the rest of the day until Colleen got home after school, and then we headed down to Costco to stock up our larder and freezer. We fully expect the cost of food to continue to climb for the next several months. Our Costco haul was large, but not exceptionally so. After we got home, everything got brought into the house and Colleen and I sat down to a dinner of street tacos. After dinner I enjoyed a cigar on the back porch and watched the sun sink behind the trees. James called to let us know he would be spending the night at a friend’s house because there was a small gathering of friends.

Yesterday morning Colleen and I were up just after sunrise. Colleen finished putting away the dry goods from our Friday Costco run and then she ran to the market to get the last few things we couldn’t get at Costco. I checked the living room carpet which still wasn’t quite dry. After turning on a space heater and letting it blow on the carpet, I spent the rest of the day just relaxing. With me heading back to school Monday, I really didn’t want to start any new projects, so I spent a good deal of time on the front porch. James showed up mid-morning looking tired, and even though he started working around the house once he was here, by mid-afternoon he was taking a much-needed nap. Colleen made some of her quesadilla pies for dinner, and for the first time in a very long time we sat down to dinner with one of our kids. Usually, meals with our kids, any of our kids, is relegated to holidays.

I slept until well after sunrise this morning which is something very unusual for me. Colleen and James were both up when I came downstairs. James had some errands to run this morning, Colleen is cleaning up around the house, and I am just getting started with my coffee. I would like to finish the living room today and give my schoolwork a looksee to make sure I am ready for tomorrow. Colleen is planning on spending some time in the kitchen today, but with her staying home tomorrow for a teacher workday, there isn’t a lot of urgency to the day. I guess Colleen and I will start thinking about the holidays now. Everything has settled down up here on our little hill and the leaves are getting ready to change color. Colleen and I will just keep taking everything one day at a time. We’ll leave for school in the mornings, come home in the afternoons, and in the evenings, we’ll catch our breath, look around, and smile because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

October 16, 2022: Back To School And Time To Start Looking Forward To The Holiday Season.

Fall seems to have settled in quite nicely around here last week. It was cool, but not cold, and mostly we had a lot of sunshine with just a little rain. This weekend, the sunshine has stuck around and the temperatures even got up into the 70’s. The leaves are starting to change too, and we are seeing our first real color of the season. With the change of color, the leaves are starting to fall too, so I suppose I should think about getting the leaf blower out of the basement because I will need to clean up the yard. Temperatures will continue to cool off for us in the coming week, and we may even get down to freezing at one point. The only rain we might see will be tonight and tomorrow morning. There is sunshine forecast for the rest of the week after that. We’re halfway through October now, so Colleen and I are starting to think about getting ready for the holidays too.

Last Sunday was a low-key day around here. I slept late and enjoyed my morning coffee while I did my usual writing on the back porch. Colleen spent the morning making a pot of gumbo for my lunches during the week. Colleen makes an awesome pot of gumbo, I might add. The living room rugs had dried by the afternoon, so Colleen and I moved the furniture back in place and that was the end of my carpet cleaning. I had already done my schoolwork for Monday and Colleen had a teacher workday on Monday, so we spent most of the latter part of the day relaxing.

Monday morning Colleen stood on the front porch with a cup of coffee to see me off to school. It was my first day back after my three-week semester break. It was also the first day at school for our new principal. The day went pretty well until about 15 minutes before we were going to dismiss the kids for the day. A fire extinguisher got accidentally knocked from a wall and discharged. The dry chemical went everywhere and set off the fire alarm. Needless to say, there was a little bit of chaos to end our first day back to school. When I finally did get home, it was a beautiful late afternoon. Colleen spent her day puttering around the house. She did some housework and after dinner even did some baking. She made a batch of blueberry muffins and then some oatmeal and craisin cookies.

Tuesday through Friday, our mornings got back to our usual school day routine. Colleen would head to school in the dark of the morning, and I would wait for daylight so I could let the girls out of their coop for the day before I headed to school. I had my usual week’s worth of meetings waiting for me, and our new principal spent the week getting the lay of the school and meeting the staff. It was a quiet week at school for both Colleen and me, but I guess I got used to just hanging around the house, because by Friday I was worn out. Colleen had suggested a quick easy dinner for Friday night, but I said, “Mexican takeout sounded better.” Colleen quickly agreed to that and after I got home from school Friday, we ran down the road, got our dinner, came home, and enjoyed a quiet and peaceful meal.

Yesterday morning I was up first and made the coffee. Colleen and I were both feeling a little more rested, but still weren’t working with a whole lot of extra energy. We had entertained the idea of going to an antique fair, but we ultimately decided to just stay at home. Colleen made a killer eggplant lasagna that will feed us several times in the coming week, and I dove into my schoolwork getting all my grading done and getting a good start on my grade books even though the state’s grade book software was down for maintenance most of the day. I had all I wanted to do done before we sat down to dinner. After dinner, our evening was quiet, and we both headed upstairs to bed a little early.

I slept in a little later than usual this morning, so Colleen had the coffee made and had taken care of the girls before I ever got downstairs. Colleen will spend some time in the kitchen today and I will finish my schoolwork. Hopefully, everything will be done before dinner. With it being the middle of October, Colleen and I are starting to look to the holidays. We’ve already started putting our Christmas lists together and have done a little shopping. The trees are still mostly green, but we will have plenty of color before long, and then the trees will be bare for the winter months up here on our little hill. There will be a fire in the fireplace before long too. Colleen and I will just keep taking everything one day at a time. We’ll go to school in the mornings and come home in the afternoons. At the end of each day, we’ll look around and smile, because we know that all is right in the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

October 23, 2022: Our First Frost Of The Season, But It Didn’t Last Long.

Another week has come and gone. We got us a dandy cold snap in the middle of the week and saw our first freezing temperatures of the fall. Most of the week was sunny, but there was a little rain last weekend and into Monday. We even had a rogue thunderstorm blowup right on top of us late Monday afternoon. It didn’t last very long, but it sure did dump plenty of rain while it was here. The cold snap has really encouraged our leaves to start changing colors and while there is still plenty of green, the green is starting to fade quickly. It doesn’t look like there is any rain in our immediate forecast and temperatures are supposed to be headed back up into the 70’s for most of the coming week. I suppose I should seriously start thinking about pulling my leaf blower out of the basement and make sure it runs because I suspect the yards will be covered in leaves before too long.

The weather got in the way of Colleen and I doing anything outside last Sunday. I took care of my schoolwork most of the day. Colleen spent part of her day in the kitchen. Apart from baking muffins for our lunches during the week, Colleen experimented with a new recipe. We ate an early Sunday meal of baked, stuffed flounder. To go along with the flounder, Colleen made some Parmesan and bread crumb encrusted asparagus. It didn’t take either of us long to realize those recipes needed to go straight into Colleen’s cookbooks. The meal was fantastic! After we ate, the rest of our Sunday was spent getting ready for the school week and relaxing when we could.

For the most part last week was just another school week for Colleen and me. Apart from a couple of mornings of driving to school in a dense fog, Colleen’s week passed without incident. Colleen stopped at the laundromat on her way home Wednesday, did the market run on Thursday, and stopped by the pharmacy on Friday. My week at school wasn’t anything special either. I did get to enjoy the lovely fall mornings every day though as I waited out in the school’s back bus lot for the kids to arrive. It was our second week under our new principal and on Friday we got word we had a new assistant principal who will start tomorrow. It looks like the county is bent and determined to change the whole persona of our school. A good many teachers are not particularly happy about it, but there is very little teachers can do.

Friday evening when I got home, I decided it was time to start checking out what I needed to do to retire and when I needed to do it. I’m not impressed with the changes happening in our school, and while things may very well work out in time, I want to have options should things go badly. I was surprised as I started working though my various options. I finally settled on three dates, July 01, 2023, July 01, 2024, or January 01, 2025, but any way I look at it the longest I have is 26 months. Colleen is looking at retiring January 01, 2025, or thereabouts. As I sat out on the front porch doing my figuring, the sun started to fall behind the trees which at this time of year is always unsettling to me because the sun sets around 6:30. I don’t mind it so much once we change the clocks back. At least after we turn the clocks back, I expect the sun to set early.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, but I woke up with one heck of a stiff neck. Some Icy Hot and ibuprofen made things workable though, but I figured I had better take it easy, so I spent most of the day in front of the computer doing schoolwork. I got all my grading done and my grade books up to date for the week. Colleen was feeling a good bit more ambitious and started her day out front in her gardens. She took in about half of her solar powered lights, leaving just the ones she felt would work with our Christmas yard decorations. After that, she headed upstairs to take care of her indoor plants and her greenhouses. We did get out to early voting in the middle of the afternoon, so we’re all set for this year, and it frees up November 8th which is a teacher workday.

Colleen and I both slept until just after sunup this morning which is later than usual for both of us. Colleen had the coffee made before I ever came downstairs. I’m not sure what today or the coming week will bring our way, but then I never really do know. There have been a lot of changes at my school, so everyone is just trying to find their way at the moment. The holidays are fast approaching too, and Colleen and I are eyeing them with anticipation and excitement like always. This year has flown by up here on our little hill. Colleen and I will just keep taking things one day at a time and let the world do as it will. No matter what any day brings our way, we know when all is said and done, we can just look around and smile because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

October 30, 2022: The End Of October, Thanksgiving Is Coming, Christmas Presents are Getting Wrapped.

Another week has passed, and now October is ending. The weather was well behaved and seasonal all week. Our morning lows were between 45 and 50 degrees, and our afternoon highs got between 65 and 75. We didn’t get a lick of rain, but we sure did have some dense morning fog in the beginning of the week. Yesterday, we had some clouds move into our skies, limiting our sunshine, and it looks like we’ll have more of the same today. We are expecting some rain starting Monday night and running into Tuesday morning which will make for some wet trick or treating around here, but we’ll be starting November off right where we left off last week.

Colleen and I slept late last Sunday which is unusual for us. The sun peeking through the curtains is what woke us up. Unfortunately, I slept wrong or something, because I woke up with one heck of a stiff neck. With a stiff and sore neck, I sure wasn’t going to do much around the house, so I ended up spending the day in front of the computer. I did my usual Sunday morning writing, got all my schoolwork done, and even had time to list some baseball cards for sale on eBay in the evening. Colleen went about her usual Sunday doings, getting lunch fixings and meals ready for the week. Colleen even had time to start wrapping Christmas presents. It wasn’t a particularly active Sunday, but we still managed to get things done.

Monday morning, we were greeted with a dense fog, it came back Tuesday and Wednesday too. It made for some tough driving in the predawn hours for Colleen on her way to school. Thursday morning the fog wasn’t as bad, but there was some road construction which Colleen had to navigate, and she ended up getting lost on her way to school. Fortunately, when she texted me for help, I knew where she was and was able to give her directions on how to get to school. Colleen and I have decided it’s time to get her phone upgraded so she can use Siri and the phone’s GPS. All’s well that ends well though, once Colleen got to school, her day went just fine, and she even stopped at the market on her way home. My week was kind of hectic at school. There was a lot of daily schedule shuffling and a good many teachers called in sick, but nothing major happened. I had to stay late a couple of days, but still managed to get home for dinner at reasonable times.

Friday turned out to be a nice day, but when the evening rolled around, Colleen and I were both worn out from the week. Colleen tried to stop at the laundromat on her way home, but it was closed for maintenance, so she just came home. I suggested Chinese takeout for dinner so Colleen wouldn’t have to put together a meal or heat up any leftovers. After dinner I tried to do some schoolwork, but could not keep my eyes open, so when the sun set, I headed to bed. Colleen stayed up for a while wrapping Christmas presents. I have no idea when she finally headed to bed though. Sadly, I ended up waking up in the middle of the night and had a tough time falling back to sleep.

Colleen and I were both still tired yesterday morning when we woke up. Lacking in any motivation, we quickly decided to make an easy day of it. I spent the morning taking care of my grades and grade books for school. At least, it was nice enough out on the back porch for me to enjoy our fall colors while I worked. Colleen sat down and paid our monthly bills and did a little bit of housework. After lunch I sorted and organized baseball cards. Colleen headed back upstairs to her workroom to wrap more presents. I do all the online Christmas shopping, and Colleen wraps the presents. With any luck when December gets here, we be done shopping and wrapping, and we can spend the time after Thanksgiving decorating.

The sun is sure trying to burn through the clouds this morning, but it’s a hazy sunshine. The trees are awash with color, and will be bare soon. Colleen has already found her way into the kitchen this morning, but I’m still working on my cup of coffee. I do have a little bit of schoolwork to finish today, but hopefully that won’t take me too long. Colleen and I have a full week of school in front of us, but the week after that has a teacher workday and a long weekend for Veterans Day. Thanksgiving is coming up quickly too and that means a family gathering up here on our little hill for a feast. Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time even though our “To-Do” list is still long. Everything is going well though, and at the end of each day we can look around and smile knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

November 06, 2022: Summer Like Weather In November And Counting Down To The Holidays.

To look around, it is quite obvious that fall is here. The leaves still on the trees are colorful, perhaps even more so than in recent memory and the ground is covered with the leaves the trees have already shed. The temperatures, of late though, are anything but fall like. Yesterday we started with some fog in the trees, but the sun came out, and we got very close to 80 degrees and the thermometer has been solidly in the 70’s all week. This morning, we are starting the day at 65 degrees with a gentle, almost summer like rain. The rain shouldn’t last very long, and the warm temperatures will only stick around for today and tomorrow. It looks like we’ll have plenty of sunshine for the upcoming week, but the temperatures will start dropping again, and before long it will cold enough to see frost in the mornings and put a fire in our fireplace.

Last Sunday was a slow day up here on our little hill. It was warm enough to be very comfortable sitting out on the back porch drinking coffee and writing. The trees were adorned with glorious fall colors too. We couldn’t have asked for a better fall day on the last Sunday in October. By midday I was on the front porch finishing up what little schoolwork I needed to get done, and with the free time I had in the late afternoon, I was able to get some online Christmas shopping done. Colleen spent her day puttering around the house doing what little housework that she needed to do. The afternoon found her upstairs in her workroom wrapping Christmas presents. There were plenty of leftovers still in the refrigerator, so she didn’t have to do any cooking either for a change.

I had a full week of school last week and it was just as crazy as the week before had been. I had four 8:30 meetings, had two after lunch meetings, one after school faculty meeting, stayed after school on Thursday for a club meeting, and covered two extra classes for absent teachers. I’m supposed to have two planning periods a day, but I only had two where I could do any work all week last week. I was up later than usual at night too, getting things ready for the next school day once I got home. Alas, such is the life of a teacher these days. Colleen on the other hand had a very calm and quiet week, and she even stayed home on Friday for a teacher workday. Our respective schools which reside in two different counties rarely have workdays match up. At least, there were some beautiful mornings to start our days.

Friday morning Colleen saw me off to school with coffee in hand from the front porch. After I left, she finished her coffee and spent the better part of her day getting caught up on things she normally doesn’t have the free time to do. She headed down back to the hen coop to let the girls out for the day and decided while she was down there to clean the coop and change the bedding in the coop. After that she was upstairs in the bedroom rearranging and organizing the potted plants which she keeps inside during the cold months. I got home at my regular time, and we treated ourselves to some takeout from Cracker Barrel. When we do takeout, I drive, and Colleen runs in to pick up the food. Of course, I should know better than to let Colleen go into Cracker Barrel alone this time of the year, because along with our dinner she came out with a new Christmas tree she just had to have.

Yesterday morning started out a little foggy, but Colleen and I had a few errands to run so after we finished our coffee and had a little breakfast we were on our way. Our first stop at TSC yielded us the chicken feed we needed and a few Christmas presents, and then it was on to Walmart. Walmart ended up being a two-cart shopping trip between the usual groceries, two Thanksgiving turkeys, a few more Christmas presents, and of course a few more Christmas decorations. We treated ourselves to a burger and fries for lunch before we headed home too. I spent the afternoon working on schoolwork while Colleen put the groceries and everything else away.

The rain has stopped now, and the sun is trying to come out, but I don’t think we’ll see too much of it today. The trees are starting to look bare now too. I still have some schoolwork I need to finish, but with a workday on Tuesday and a holiday on Friday, Colleen and I both have an abbreviated week of school in front of us. I’m not sure if Colleen will do any cooking today, but she is getting her Thanksgiving recipes pulled out and ready to go because Thanksgiving is just a little over two weeks away now. We turned all of our clocks back last night, so it seems like we are early with everything this morning too. Even with the holidays quickly approaching, Colleen and I will just keep taking everything one day at a time. We know everything will work out just the way it should, and when we look around up here on our little hill we always smile thankfully because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

November 13, 2022: A Late Season Hurricane And Fall Temperatures With A Hard Freeze On The Way.

It looks like our run of warm weather has finally given way to the chill of fall air which isn’t bad considering we are six weeks into the season. I guess we had a little bit of everything weather wise this past week except for snow and ice. There was lots of sunshine most of the week, and the temperatures may have touched 80 degrees one day. Hurricane Nicole passed through the area, but only caught us with a glancing blow in the form of some rain on Friday. The sunshine was back yesterday morning, and we have plenty of sunshine this morning, but when the sun set yesterday evening the temperatures started dropping and quickly. Right now, it’s about 45 degrees with a stiff breeze, and we’re looking for a high temperature today that might sneak through the 50-degree mark on the outside thermometer. It was 70 degrees outside yesterday. There isn’t any rain in the immediate forecast, well, not until Tuesday anyway. Of course, the temperatures are going to keep dropping through the week and we’ll be looking at our first hard freeze this fall before long.

Things seem to be slowing down in some ways around here and last Sunday was pretty low key for Colleen and me. It really was a beautiful day that started with a brilliant sunrise though. I did my usual Sunday morning writing and then my usual schoolwork. I got my schoolwork done in the middle of the afternoon. Colleen puttered around the house for a good bit of the day, cleaning up here and there. Just after noon, Colleen made a meatloaf, and we ate an early Sunday meal. After Colleen cleaned up and put her kitchen back to rights, she spent the later part of the afternoon wrapping Christmas presents. I’m not sure if we’ll be done our Christmas shopping by December 1st, but we will be close again this year.

Our school week was just plain weird last week, not to mention we had a full moon thrown into the mix too. A full moon always seems to bring something weird with it where school is involved. Colleen and I both had Tuesday off for the election day and Friday off for Veterans Day. Just to add to the confusion at school, my school started its mid-year round of mandated benchmark testing that will run into this coming week, and Colleen’s school had an early release day for the kids on Thursday. With more testing this coming week and just two days of school the week of Thanksgiving, I’m not anticipating any difficulties heading into the holiday. Of course, we are dealing with school, so anything could happen at the drop of a hat.

Tuesday, I did have to go to school for a while since it was technically a teacher workday. By the time I got home from school on Tuesday, the day had warmed up nicely. With the uncertainty of the weather for this weekend, Colleen and I decided it was time to fill the wood rack on the back porch. It seems like firewood is a year-round activity up here in our hill. I spend a better part of the late spring and summer splitting and stacking firewood. In the fall and winter, I haul wood up to the porch and start cutting next year’s wood, so it has time to season before I split and stack it for next winter. Truth be told though; I rather enjoy doing the job.

Friday was Veterans Day and Colleen’s birthday. She slept late which she likes to do when she gets the chance. I was up early and had the coffee hot and waiting when she came downstairs. Colleen is not much for breakfast when she first gets up, but later in the morning I made her a birthday brunch. Hurricane Nicole kept us in the house all day, and we really didn’t do a whole lot. Later in the afternoon the sun came out make for a picturesque afternoon. Colleen started looking on the internet for local restaurants so we could get takeout for dinner for her birthday. She had a hankering for steak and shrimp, but when she worked up the order and it came to over $80 with tip, my ever-frugal wife nixed that idea, and we ended up enjoy a delicious fish fry from Cracker Barrel for about a third the price of the steak dinner.

It didn’t take yesterday long to warm up, but everything was still soaked from Nicole’s rain. I ended up spending the morning doing schoolwork and getting most all of it done before lunch. Colleen spent the better part of the morning enjoying her coffee until she headed into the kitchen to start working on a new pork chop recipe. After lunch I did some online Christmas shopping and scanned a good many cards into the computer so I could list them on eBay in the evening. Colleen’s culinary experiment turned out exceptionally well, and we really enjoyed our dinner. After dinner I listed baseball cards for sale and Colleen sat down and chitchatted with Alysia for a good hour or so.

Everything is still calm and slow this morning, it is a blustery day though. Colleen has some more Christmas gifts to wrap and some meal prep for the week to do. I have a little bit of schoolwork to sew up for tomorrow. In all though, the day will not be hurried. Thanksgiving will be up here on our little hill before we know it. We’re still not sure exactly who will show up, but there will be space and plenty of food at our table for whoever shows up for the feast. Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time though. In the evenings, we look around and smile thankfully knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

November 20, 2022: Cold Temperatures Means A Fire in The Fireplace.

This past week was the coldest of the season so far. Night temperatures dropped below 30 degrees, and some days we never reached 50 degrees for a high temperature. Tonight, it’s supposed to get down to 20 degrees. Despite the chilly temperatures, we had plenty of sunshine all week long, not that it helped warm things up much. The first thing I would do after dinner last week was get a fire going in the fireplace to keep the evening cold at bay as the sun would start to set. Yesterday and this morning the first thing I did was get a fire going to chase the morning chill from the house. Things are supposed to warm up a little this coming week, but I’m sure we’ll have a fire going most of the time we are home. At least there isn’t any rain in the forecast until Thursday night and Friday. Of course, with any forecast out that far, things could change by the time Thanksgiving gets here.

Last Sunday belonged to Colleen. I did my usual Sunday writing, finished my schoolwork early, and spent the rest of the day keeping our fire going and getting cards ready to list on eBay. Colleen hit the ground running though. Before I ever finished writing, she was down back cleaning out the hen coop and adding new bedding for the girls. The rest of her day was spent in the kitchen. She tried a new flakey cornbread recipe that turned out very well, she made a batch of lemon-squash muffins, and then made stuffed flounder for our dinner. Somewhere in between all of that, she even managed to decorate the high ledge in the stairwell for Christmas.

We both had a full week of school last week, so nothing unusual came of the week, and like usual every day, Colleen left before sunrise, and I left with the sun coming up through the trees. My schedule at school got turned upside down though as the school finished up its most recent round of county mandated benchmark testing. We had a lot of teachers call in during the week too, so I ended up covering a good number of extra classes. Colleen didn’t get to the laundromat until Friday, and she did get to the market on Thursday. Our evenings were quiet for the most part. Colleen took care of the usual evening chores while I did my schoolwork and kept the fire in the fireplace burning.

I slept late yesterday morning, so when I came downstairs dressed and ready for the day, Colleen already had the coffee made. I decided to get my grading done right out of the gate, so after I finished my morning coffee, I was on my computer. Colleen was in the kitchen making French meat pies for the holidays by then. I finished up my grading before lunch and then re-cleaned a couple of spots in the family room carpet. After lunch, I headed down back, got the leaf blower going, and spent the rest of the afternoon blowing leaves off the backyard. Colleen made her holiday fruitcake which I love! Of course, we had meat pie for dinner. After dinner, Colleen and I sat down in front of the fire and watched “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story”. It’s one of our favorite movies and is always the first holiday movie we watch every year.

It seems to be a little warmer this morning, but I don’t think there will be much more heat during the day. Colleen has already headed down to the market to get a few ingredients for her eggnog which she will make today. I have a little more schoolwork to do, and with any luck, I can get out on the backyard later today to finish blowing leaves off the yard. Colleen and I only have school on Monday and Tuesday this week and then we are off for our Thanksgiving break. The big sit-down feast is on Thursday like usual, and on Friday our Christmas tree gets put up. This is easily our favorite time of year up here on our little hill. Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time though. No matter how crazy things get with our kids coming and going or with the festivities, Colleen and I will look around and smile because all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

November 27, 2022: Thanksgiving Is In The Books For 2022, So Bring On Christmas!

Another week has come and gone and with it this year’s Thanksgiving holiday. It was a fairly warm week, although we started the week off with temperatures in the 20’s. The thermometer just seemed to keep climbing higher as the week passed. When Thanksgiving got here it was a warm 60 degrees, and today, we may even reach 70 degrees. We got some rain Thursday night and Friday morning but come Friday afternoon we had plenty of sunshine. It’s raining again this morning, but the forecast says it will be gone by lunchtime again. The forecast for the coming week has us starting off warm again, but a cold front will push through on Wednesday bringing us rain during the day and colder temperatures for the rest of the week.

When Colleen and I got up Sunday morning we had a beautiful sunrise, but there was a chill in the house, so my first order of business was to get a fire going in the fireplace. Colleen wanted to make her holiday eggnog, so she headed down to the market first thing in the morning to get a few last ingredients. For the most part, the day was quiet. Colleen spent time in the kitchen making the eggnog, and I found the time to get out in the backyard and finish blowing the leaves. Colleen and I were only looking at school on Monday and Tuesday before our Thanksgiving break, so there wasn’t much schoolwork that needed doing to get ready for the week.

The skies were blue and sunny on Monday and Tuesday and our days passed quickly. Everyone at school, kids and staff, were looking forward to the long Thanksgiving break. The PTSA at my school made sure the entire staff left school on Tuesday with a pie for the holiday. The only real fly in the ointment for the two days at school was a last-minute training session that got called for math teachers during the last period of the day on Tuesday. For the life of me, I cannot figure out who in their right mind would have a meeting at the end of the day on the last day of school before a holiday break. Everything worked out though, and I got to leave school right after the last kids got dismissed for the day.

Wednesday, it looked like we had fire in the sky to start our day, but there was a lot we needed to do. Wednesday was prep day for our Thanksgiving celebration. Colleen spent the better part of the day in the kitchen making things that could be prepared ahead of our Thanksgiving feast on Thursday. I headed outside to blow the leaves off the front yard, as much to make the yard look cleaner and neater as to get ready for our outdoor Christmas decorations. After I finished outside, I was inside with the vacuum cleaner and making sure everything laying around got picked up and the house wah clean. The last thing Colleen and I did before we called it a day was to move some living furniture around, move the dining room table into place, and set up an extra table at the end of the dining room table so everyone had a place to sit and eat on Thursday.

Colleen and I were up with the sun on Thanksgiving morning. After our morning coffee, it was time to cook some turkey, one in the oven and one in the smoker. The kids started showing up around 10 o’clock and Alex even brought his dog, Koda, with him. Steven and Ariel were the next to show up, followed by Al and Alysia. James was the last one to show up a little before noon, and by 1 o’clock everyone, even Colleen, was sitting down to our Thanksgiving feast. After the meal there was a good bit of visiting with the kids, and of course, there was the traditional gathering around the fire pit outside. Unfortunately, the afternoon passed all to quickly and by sunset, Colleen and I had an empty house again. Colleen who will not let anyone help her cleanup, since we ate on her grandmother’s antique china, was done cleaning and in bed by 10:30.

Friday was Christmas Tree Day, another tradition up here on our little hill. After our morning coffee, Colleen and I headed out to Perkins Orchard to get our tree. Perkins Orchard always has great trees that easily last, staying fresh, until after the New Year. We got the tree home and decided that we wanted to get our market run out of the way, so with the tree sitting in hot water, we headed back down the hill. We were home before noon, had a little lunch, and then set the tree up in the living room. While Colleen was putting the groceries away, I put the lights on the Christmas tree. That was about all we had the energy for on Friday, so after a short, but relaxing evening, we called it an early night.

I was the first one up yesterday, made the coffee, and headed out to the back porch to start my day. When I came back inside, Colleen was decorating the tree already. I jumped right into the fray, and we had all the ornaments hung by 10 o’clock and I started hanging tinsel on the tree. Steven and Ariel showed up right around then. Steven and Alex made plans on Thursday to meet here yesterday and take down the uprooting tree by the fire pit. Alex showed up not very long after Steven and Ariel. Rather than be a bother to the boys, I stayed inside putting tinsel in the Christmas tree. Colleen does not do tinsel. I had finished just long enough to light a cigar on the back porch when the chainsaw started and in no time at all, the tree came down with a rather loud thud. The boys had dropped it in a narrow opening away from the house, so it didn’t hit anything or get hung up in another tree. Steven and Ariel had to leave to run errands, but Alex stayed behind to cut up most of the trunk until he had to leave. Colleen spent the rest of her day decorating and I got baseball cards ready to sell online. We did call it an early night again though.

It is a dreary morning with some heavy rain at times. I have schoolwork I need to do today, and Colleen has some meal prep to do in the kitchen. If we can find some time later today, we will do more decorating in the house. We are planning on decorating the front yard with lights and inflatables next weekend. I have just three weeks before the start of my Christmas break. Colleen had three weeks and a few days. The bulk of our Christmas shopping is done, most of the wrapping is done, and we are hoping for an easy run into our Christmas break. We certainly have started our holiday season in grand fashion up here on our little hill. Even with all the chaos and excitement of Christmas, Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time. This time of year, we also have great big smiles on our face, especially knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

December 04, 2022: 21 Days Until Christmas And Counting Down!

It’s a fine Sunday morning up here on our little hill. The sun is coming up, the coffee is hot, and the sights and sounds of the Christmas season are taking over our humble abode. We ended our Thanksgiving break last Sunday morning with a good soaking of rain, but the sun came out later in the afternoon. The temperatures warmed up some in the middle of our week, but we got more rain. Yesterday, it rained again on and off, pretty much all day, but a cold front pushed that weather system out of the area, and this morning we have a bright and crisp morning with the temperature just under 40 degrees. We should see the thermometer climb to over 50 degrees, and our clear skies will last through tomorrow, but come the middle of this week, we are looking at more rain again.

Last Sunday was quiet around here. Colleen and I wrapped up our Thanksgiving weekend by getting ready for school, taking care of some leftovers, and generally, shifting gears as we focused our attention on Christmas. Colleen had the leftover turkey bones simmering on the stove to make the stock for her turkey soup while she worked on setting up her Dickens Christmas Village in the family room. I was in front of the computer for the better part of the day getting grades and grade books caught up and schoolwork ready for the week in front of us. I had woefully neglected my schoolwork over the Thanksgiving break, but I really needed a few days of not looking at my computer.

There isn’t much to say about our school week other Colleen and I started it with a good case of turkey hangover, and the week, as a whole, seemed to drag as we watched the clock on the wall every day. Fortunately, the week was uneventful, so nothing upset the apple cart. Colleen and I would get home in the afternoons do our chores, eat dinner, and after dinner Colleen would clean up, and I would do my schoolwork. I still prefer doing my schoolwork out on the front porch, but it does tend to get nippy after the sun sets this time of the year. I did have to smile one evening when I moved my work light out of the way so I could get by to the front door, and I noticed the decorations on the Trail Blazer lit up. Yes, Colleen likes to decorate everything, including her Trail Blazer.

Friday evening after dinner, Colleen and I headed down to Target to pick up Christmas stocking candy and a few odds and ends. We save the miscellaneous gift cards we get through the year just for this trip. I must admit, Target was almost depressing though. There were very few people in the store and if we hadn’t known it was the Christmas season, it would have been difficult to tell by being in the store. Even the Christmas candy section was lackluster. Colleen did find some reindeer to add to her Christmas tree forest though. We weren’t there very long, and we stopped at another store on the way home, but we were back in the house by 7 o’clock. We put some Christmas music on the stereo when we got home, and did a little bit of decorating, but mostly, we made an early evening of it and headed upstairs for a good night’s sleep.

Colleen and I woke up to rain showers yesterday morning. With plans to decorate our front yard this weekend, we figured we should get all our inside work done so we could get outside today. It was warm enough for me to sit out on the front porch and get my schoolwork done which I did. I had everything, grades, grade books, and class work done by 5:30. Colleen put the finishing touches on her family room decorating and the dove into setting up her Christmas village in the living room which was another reason why I hid outside with my computer. The Christmas Village in the living room is quite the production for Colleen that includes pictures, layout designs, and topography maps so she gets everything just right on a 3.5 by 7 foot table. By 7:30, my darling wife was celebrating having completed the daunting task.

Today looks like it will be another busy day for us. I was up at dawn to make the coffee and get an early start on writing. Colleen got to sleep a little late. I’m not sure exactly when this morning, but we will be heading outside to decorate the front yard. Of course, Colleen has a list of a million other things to get done, but the Christmas decorations are definitely going to go up outside, although you could never tell I blew the front yard clean before Thanksgiving. I don’t think I’ll have time to run the garland and the lights on the house, but there is still a little time for that. Christmas is 21 days away now. The next two weeks of school before we start our Christmas break look to be easy, but that could always change on a dime. Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time up here on our little hill. It won’t be long now before everything is decked out for Christmas around here. In the evenings our smiles will be a little broader as we bask in the warmth and joy of the season knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

December 11, 2022: The Shopping Is Done, The Decorations Are Up, And Christmas Is Just Two Weeks Away!

Two weeks to go until Christmas and three weeks until the New Year. I’m not real sure what’s happened to the time this year, because it sure seems to be flying by us. Mother Nature wasn’t in too much of a snit last week though. We got some rain in the early part of the week. The temperatures were a little bit warmer than usual for this time of the year, although we had some very foggy mornings along the way. The one thing of which we didn’t see a whole lot was sunshine. Even through yesterday and today the skies stayed gray. It looks like things will stay that way into the middle off this week when we are supposed to get some rain. With any luck, we’ll see some sunshine next weekend.

Colleen and I spent last Saturday getting what we could done inside the house while it rained, because last Sunday we spent most of the day out in the front yard decorating for Christmas. Decorating the front yard started years ago when Colleen and I would have to make a round trip drive of 2000 miles to get Stephanie, Louis, and Alex for Christmas. We’d always leave everything lit up so when we finally got home, usually around 2 o’clock in the morning, the kids would be wowed by the decorations. Colleen and I don’t have to get the kids anymore, but when they show up for Christmas, they still get that special feeling when they see the front yard.

Colleen and I both had a full week of school, last week, and it was a screwy week to say the least. One day towards the middle of the week, I forgot which one, Colleen’s school went into a Code Red Lockdown. I don’t know the specifics, but it made the news. The whole ordeal lasted less than 2 hours and nothing came of it. I spent my week testing or quizzing of one sort or another getting ready to end the quarter this coming Friday. Last Friday towards the end of the day, I found our new administration wants to shake things up and hopefully improve the test scores at our school. I’ll be getting three new classes when school starts back in January. I’m not worried about the kids I teach, but I am very skeptical about all the changes, and I can only hope the kids fare well. It is what it is. Up here on the hill, Colleen and I took care of the usual chores, Colleen had a stop at the laundromat and made a market run on Thursday. It was warm enough during the evenings for me to have my online office hours and do my schoolwork out on the front porch.

Colleen and I didn’t do much Friday evening as we were both tired from our week at school. After dinner and the evening chores, Colleen headed upstairs to wrap more Christmas presents and start stuffing the stockings. I headed out to the front porch to do the last little bit of online Christmas shopping. I can now say that the shopping is done. We might be cutting it a bit close this year though because one gift isn’t supposed to get here until December 23rd. Fortunately, it is just a stocking stuffer, and Colleen and I are planning to resume our annual trip to the mall next weekend so we can always pick something small up as backup as we look around at the decorations. We haven’t been to the mall in two years now.

With Christmas just 15 days away, yesterday, it was time to finish up as much of the decorating as we could, so that is what Colleen and I did, all day. I mean all day too! Colleen was up and down the basement stairs bringing various standalone decorations up and setting them up in the house. Even the downstairs bathroom now has snowflakes, a reindeer, and Santa on the mirror and twinkle lights on the wall up by the ceiling. I spent all day outside running garland and stringing lights. It took a good more time than I anticipated, and I didn’t put the last lights up until 7 o’clock. I still have some garland to run around the front door too.

Today, Colleen and I will try to get caught up for the upcoming week. We’ll do a little more decorating, but Colleen will be spending time in the kitchen, and I have a little bit of schoolwork that needs to be done. Fortunately, my Christmas break starts at the end of school this Friday, but Colleen has school until a week from this coming Wednesday. With most of the decorations up now, our home is now at ElfCon 4 in anticipation of the big day. Still, Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time up here on our little hill. At this time of year though, our smiles are a little broader as we look around at the end of each day because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

December 18, 2022: Just A Week Until Christmas And Were Just About Ready.

Christmas is just a week away now, and while it certainly will be cold enough, once again, we will not have a White Christmas. I guess last week’s weather was typical for these parts around this time of year. We had one or two mornings where the temperature got down to freezing, but the daytime highs got into the 40’s and 50’s. We had a good rain that started Wednesday evening and lasted into Thursday. Fortunately, it didn’t get cold enough to freeze and cause problems, but it was a miserable, cold, and dreary rain. Everything cleared up nicely by Friday, and our weekend has been sunny and bright, albeit chillier than the rest of the week. It doesn’t look like we’ll get out of the 40’s anytime this coming week though. It’s supposed to rain Thursday and into Friday with a hard freeze behind the rain. Christmas morning is forecasted to start at 15 degrees, and it might not warm up to over freezing. There will most assuredly be a fire in the fireplace, and Colleen and I are glad we have plenty of firewood.

Colleen and I had a full week of school last week. My Christmas break started on Friday. Colleen has school until this coming Wednesday. Sadly, my school lacked the usual electricity of the week before Christmas break. The recent change in administration is not going well, and I ended up saying goodbye to several teachers that will not be returning when we start back to school in January. During the week, Colleen found time on her way home after school to stop at the laundromat on Monday and the market on Thursday. Friday evening Colleen and I treated ourselves to Chinese takeout for dinner, and I started to settle in for my three weeks of Christmas break.

Yesterday was a busy day up here on our little hill. After my morning coffee I headed outside to take care of things that needed doing. My leaf blower did not cooperate right out of the gate though. I guess it didn’t like the cold temperatures. I spent the morning splitting and stacking firewood for next winter. I finally did get the leaf blower going after lunch. The leech field for our septic system is 45 years old, probably filled with tree roots, and tends to behave badly in the winter if the leaves on top of it get wet and matted. We learned this the hard way quite a few years ago. After things warmed up a little bit, the leaf blower was far more cooperative, and I ended up going through two tanks of gas in nearly three hours, but the leaves are gone, and our leech field can breathe now.

Colleen spent most of her day in the kitchen. After she finished her morning coffee, she started making French meat pies. Colleen uses the recipe my mom gave her, and the pies are a real holiday treat for me bringing me back to when I was growing up. The pies took Colleen all morning to make, and she just kept going after lunch. A number of years ago we got away from a big sit-down Christmas dinner in favor of a brunch buffet. This year Colleen decided to add creme brûlée to the buffet, so she made some yesterday as a trial run. Colleen can make some awesome creme brûlée.

The sun is starting to come up and I will be heading down back to open the hen coop shortly. Colleen and I will be heading to the mall this morning to walk around, to look at the decorations, and to treat ourselves to lunch in the food court before the crowds descend on the mall. Our Christmas shopping is done and wrapped so there are no gifts to buy. This trip used to be an annual ritual for us until Covid showed up, so we are looking forward to the trip after a two-year absence. Apart from Colleen cooking the Christmas brunch, there isn’t much left to get ready for Christmas up here on our little hill. Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time. At the end of each day, we will look around and smile, enjoying this special time of the year and knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

December 26, 2022: We’re A Day Late, But What A Christmas We Had!

Another week has passed, yesterday was Christmas, and next Sunday is New Year’s Day. We didn’t get our White Christmas again this year, but it was one of the coldest Christmases I can remember since coming to North Carolina in 1999. Last week started out just fine. It was seasonably cold, but then we had a front push through the area on Wednesday night bringing rain with it. It rained on and off all day Thursday. Friday morning the temperature was right around 45 degrees, but it was all downhill from there. By dinner time the temperature was below freezing. Saturday morning Colleen and I woke up to single digit temperatures outside with a wind chill below zero. Christmas morning, which was yesterday, things were a little bit better, the thermometer was sitting somewhere between 10 and 15 degrees. Needless to say, our fireplace has been working overtime for the past several days.

Last Sunday, Colleen and I restarted one of our holiday traditions we put on hold for the last couple of years. We went to the mall to look at decorations and treat ourselves to lunch while we were there. Colleen and I got there right after the anchor stores had opened, but before the mall stores were open. That worked out quite well for us. We had no trouble parking, and we were able to walk the mall and look at the decorations with only a handful of other people in the mall. The decorations were sparse, but nice. We already had all our Christmas gifts bought and mostly wrapped, so there was nothing in particular for which we were shopping. We did take advantage of some Christmas clearance sales to get ourselves a few extra presents, but we didn’t spend much. We got our lunch once the food court opened, after which we walked around a bit more and headed home in the early afternoon when the crowd started to build. Even then it was a thin crowd at best.

Colleen had a regular day of school on Monday. I had a teacher workday, but no work to do. I left school early and stopped at Lowe’s on the way home to get a new faucet for the upstairs bathroom sink. I replaced the faucet as soon as I got home and took off what was left of the afternoon. Colleen stopped at the market on her way home. She needed a few extra ingredients for her Christmas cooking. There wasn’t much else that needed to be done around the house, so the evening was relaxing. Colleen and I ate a quiet dinner and then sat in front of the fire for a while before we called it a day.

Colleen went to school again on Tuesday. I had a doctor’s appointment at 1 o’clock so I didn’t do much on Tuesday morning. I hadn’t been to the see the doctor since right after Covid hit. I shocked the heck out of the doctor too. Not only had I shed 20 pounds since my last visit, but my blood pressure had also dropped back to almost normal. That was not something the doctor was expecting after two years of the “Great American Covid Shutdown”. He was actually rather impressed with me. Colleen stopped at the laundromat on her way home and that pretty much took care of all the errands we needed to run before Christmas. I knew Colleen was getting ready to start her Christmas cooking, so I stopped at the market on my way home and picked up a premade meal of street tacos and a bouquet of flowers to surprise Colleen when she got home. I guess I picked a pretty good bouquet too, because they are still blooming as of today.

Wednesday was my first real day of break where I didn’t have to do anything, and to celebrate, I did nothing but hang around the house and spend time with my baseball cards. It was Colleen’s last day of school. It was an early release day for the kids, so Colleen was able to come home a little early to start her Christmas break. We knew there was rain headed our way so when Colleen got home, we refilled the firewood rack on the back porch and made sure the winter ready racks were covered. The rain started sometime well into the night, so our timing was good in filling the porch rack. It was another quiet evening in front of the fireplace, but Colleen and I both knew that we would be starting our final Christmas preparations in the morning.

Thursday morning was just plain dreary and miserable outside. I put a fire in the fireplace before I ever got my first cup of coffee. Colleen spent most of her day in the kitchen. The house was cool enough in the morning that the dough Colleen needed to rise got set on the fireplace hearth. I spent the day picking things up around the house and vacuuming everything on the first floor. At that point, we still hadn’t heard from the kids, so as far as we knew no one would be spending Christmas Eve here at the house. The day turned out to be productive, but not crazy for us, and we accomplished a good many things on the day. We did call it quits at dinner time and watched a Christmas show while we ate dinner.

Colleen and I picked up Friday morning where we had left off on Thursday evening. The rain was gone, but the Arctic blast hit us on Friday too. It was 45 degrees at sunrise, by lunchtime temperature had dropped into the 30’s, by dinner time the temperature was below freezing, and by the time we wrapped up the day, the temperature had fallen into the 20’s, and there was a bitter cold wind chill to go with it. Colleen stayed in the kitchen most of the day again. I shuttled firewood in from the porch all day and kept a hard burn going in the fireplace along with putting the finishing touches on cleaning up the house. I did have to get outside a couple of times to do a better job of tying down our inflatable Christmas decorations in the front yard. The wind was relentlessly beating everything up.

Saturday morning it was bitter cold when Colleen and I woke up. The temperature outside was in the single digits and temperature on the first floor in the house had dropped below 50 degrees. I can’t remember the last time that happened. I worked quickly to get a fire going in the fireplace and to start heating up the house. Colleen headed back into the kitchen after her morning coffee. About mid-morning, Steven texted me and wanted to know if he, Ariel, the two kids, and the two dogs could spend the night. Of course, we said they could, and the Chinese fire drill started. I cleaned up one spare bedroom while Colleen was in the kitchen. In betwixt and between her cooking, she found time to put new bed linens and extra blankets on the bed. Shortly after that, James called to see if he and Donna could spend the night. That was a bit more of a trick to get as we needed to turn a single bed in the second spare bedroom into a queen size bed. The box spring and mattress came off the bed frame and got put in the floor. I blew up an inflatable queen sized mattress and put it on top of the box spring and mattress. Again, Colleen found time to add the bed linens and blankets. We had everything done before any of the kids showed up.

Yesterday morning was Christmas, and Colleen and I were up early to make sure Santa had his job. Steven and Ariel had put a bunch of the kids’ presents in the family room before they went to bed for the night which kept them busy until everyone else showed up. Alysia, Al, and Alex who also brought his dog all got here by 9 o’clock, and Colleen got her brunch on the table, so everyone got to eat before we gathered around the Christmas tree. Once everyone was in the living room the “Great Boudreau Paper Tear” got started. The two young kids were in heaven. There were presents aplenty for all. The house was filled with excitement and laughter. Louis, whom we were not expecting, even found a way to get here around 11 o’clock. Like all family gatherings, time passes too quickly, and it seemed far too soon when the kids had to start heading back home. By sunset, the house was quiet with just a crackling fire still burning in the fireplace.

Today, Colleen and I didn’t do much of anything. We cleaned up a little. Colleen got the used bed linens off the beds and ready to go to the laundry, and we put the spare bedrooms back to their normal state. Our meals were leftovers from yesterday of which there were plenty. I kept the fire going all day again. We looked at our pictures from yesterday and smiled a lot. Yesterday was certainly a Christmas we will remember. Colleen did change the advent calendar in the kitchen to reflect our anticipation for next Christmas. Tomorrow we will make a real effort to start getting back to a normal routine. Still, Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time. The year is almost gone, we are still on our Christmas break, and when we look around we can smile broadly at the year gone by because we know that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top

********************************************

January 01, 2023: Christmas Chaos Is A Memory, Now On To The Beginning Of A New Year!

It’s a new day, new week, new month, and a new year, and Colleen and I are looking forward to whatever 2023 will bring our way. After a very frigid Christmas Day last Sunday, things have warmed up around here. We went from single digit morning temperatures last weekend to daytime high temperatures in the 60’s this weekend. We did have a laugh when our joker thermometer outside caught some of the warm afternoon sunshine the other day though. In all, we had a very lovely week with plenty of sunshine, and the only real rain fell yesterday. Fortunately, for the New Year’s Eve revelers, the rain was gone by sunset. Colleen and I were not among those New Year’s Eve revelers last night though. When midnight came, we were sound asleep, much preferring to face the new year being well rested.

Last Sunday was Christmas and we had a house full. All our kids that could showed up to celebrate the day with us. We even had three dogs running around in the house to go with all the kids and grandkids. There were presents a plenty and a day long buffet from which to feast. It was quite the memorable Christmas, even by our standards. The house certainly was filled with smiles and laughter. Sadly though, as our kids are all older and on their own, by the time the sun set, the kids had all headed on their way back to their homes. As Colleen and I sat in the living room in front of the fire that evening, we couldn’t help but remember all our Christmases over the years, and how our kids have grown up. Where did the time go?

Monday was catch up day for Colleen and me. We woke to a beautiful sunny morning. We made our morning coffee, lit a fire in the fireplace, and slowly started moving and cleaning up some. There were plenty of leftovers, so Colleen didn’t have to do any cooking. Colleen did change one of our advent calendars to reflect our countdown until next Christmas. I got to spend time going through some baseball cards I got. The only real work that got done was when Colleen changed the bed linens in the spare bedrooms, and we started putting the bedrooms back into their usual condition. Christmas Eve, we had six guests and two dogs tucked into two rooms, so we had to shuffle things around, so everyone had a place to sleep comfortably.

Tuesday things started getting back to a little more of a routine around here. Colleen headed down the road come mid-morning to do the week’s laundry and go to the market. I started getting ready to list more baseball cards to sell on eBay and did some schoolwork even though I won’t be heading back to school until this coming Friday. I cut up a bunch of the boxes in which Christmas presents were wrapped and got those boxes into the recycle bin. Having more less feasted on holiday fare for the preceding few days, Colleen decided to get into the kitchen again and we had stuffed flounder for dinner. The evening was quiet, spent in front of the fireplace again, and slowly, but surely, things were returning to normal, or at least as normal as things get around here.

Wednesday morning after our morning coffee, Colleen started to take down the Christmas decorations. Her big Christmas village in the living room came down first, got repacked in the appropriate boxes, and the boxes got stored in the basement. It was no small job either, taking Colleen most all day. I got back into my schoolwork, kept the hearth rack filled with firewood, and the fire burning. Right before dinner, Colleen and I took the 7-foot table for her Christmas village out of the living room and that job was done. Not much got done after that. Dinner was a quiet affair, and after dinner, we both just did our best to catch our breath before we headed upstairs for the night.

Thursday meant more decorations getting packed up and put away, more cleaning, and more schoolwork. More stuff piled up in the family room waiting to be brought down to the basement and stored. Colleen made a big pot of chili on Wednesday. Thursday, I had an appointment to get my blood work done. It was the first time in a good while that the note came back from the doctor saying all my numbers, and I mean ALL of my numbers, were in their normal ranges. My big challenge now will be to shed another 15 or 20 pounds. As it is now, I’ve had to start wearing suspenders to keep my pants from falling to my knees. I will admit though, I rather enjoy wearing the suspenders because they are comfortable.

Friday morning it was warm enough for Colleen and me to wonder if we needed a fire in the fireplace. Ultimately, we did light a fire to chase the morning chill out of the house. We kept a low fire going until just before dinner time too. With rain forecast for Friday night and all day Saturday, Colleen and I decided we had better fill the porch wood rack too. We had taken the Trail Blazer to the shop on Thursday for its annual inspection and some routine maintenance. When we went to pick it up late in the afternoon, Colleen and I did a little running around too. She stopped at the pharmacy on her way home, and I stopped and picked up a couple of subs for dinner. Friday evening, I enjoyed a fiery sunset, a cigar on the porch, and our outside Christmas decorations to end the day.

Yesterday was just plain dreary. The rain gave the air a damp bite and even though it was more than warm enough, I put a fire in the fireplace. I kept it at a low burn all day, but it sure did make the house feel good. Colleen finished taking down the last of the decorations in the house, except for the Christmas tree, the decorations on the high ledge in the stairwell, and the outside decorations. Everything got boxed up and neatly stored in the cedar room in the basement. How Colleen manages to pack all the stuff into the room is beyond me though. We did spend the evening relaxing in front of the fire before we called it a day. We did not, however, stay up until midnight to welcome the new year.

So here we are at day 1 of 2023. The squirrels are running around, and the sun is trying to come out. Colleen says it’s too wet to get outside and take down the Christmas yard decorations, so the Christmas tree will be defrocked and taken down today instead. Colleen wants to do some baking today as well, and I’ll probably do more schoolwork and list more baseball cards for sale. Christmas 2022 has been relegated to mostly pictures and great memories now. What the new year will bring our way can only be a guess at this point, but Colleen and I will keep taking everything one day at a time. No matter what does come our way, at the end of each day, we’ll be able to look around and smile knowing that all is right on the homestead.

Jump To Top