I discovered mom's stool in the garage.  It was rusted so the next fire we had going we put it into the fire to burn the rust off.

Here it is bare and plain.  I remember it as being metal with a vinyl pad on top.

Here's a tiny piece of that pad that's left.

Daddy loved mom in shades of red.  Mom's stool will be red. 

 After many, many years I am calm.  I am happy.  Even though I am living in my child hood home there are few memories.  I am at peace in my home life.  I want to make peace in my work life.

 



Life is good.  Have a great day.

Craddock Farms

A few years back we prepared a basket of Rick's canned goods for an auction at his family reunion.  I jokingly told my dad we would say it was from Craddock Farms. Rick has been raising our produce at dad's.   Dad thought it was funny but when I got home I was just thrilled with the idea of it.  I created a postcard size card labeled Craddock Farms with a great picture of the garden on one side.  On the other side I showed my dad as owner, my husband as operator, and me as pea sheller.  He got the biggest kick out of that.  He grew up in Tennessee around truck farms and knew a lot about them.  The fact that I had taken his 1 acre homestead and made it into a huge truck farm was funny to him.

Since his death in June we have had some "signs".  My daughter has a plant from my mom's funeral 7 years ago.  It never bloomed again after her funeral but bloomed the week of my father's funeral.  My mom's gardenia bush has not bloomed well and this year was full of blooms. 

We moved to mom and dad's home Labor Day weekend.  Within a few weeks we started picking up pecans.  We are into December and the pecans are finally winding down.  I don't think Dad ever had a harvest this good.  I have laundry baskets and copy paper boxes all over the garage full of pecans.  We love pecan pie but I started looking for something new I could do that may be a Christmas present or a new dessert for the holidays.  I found the Lee Bros cookbook at a thrift store and they have a spiced pecan recipe.  So I made some Sunday and hubby loved them.  I'll take some to work and test drive them there.

The finished product is beautiful.

I ended up making 2 batches, each batch is 3 cups of pecans so I used up a quart bag the hubby had just shelled the previous 2 nights.

I have seen the Lee Bros on Cooking Channel and didn't realize who they were but loved their comments about different foods.

So, last Friday, after taking our 5 rescue dogs to the vet for their annual checkups (yes, we are saints, NOT) we decided we deserved some shopping treats.  After hubby got new work boots, we went to Goodwill.  I know Goodwill serves a good cause but their prices are getting ridiculous.  FYI - don't get upset with me Goodwill, I have my many receipts for all my donations this year which is probably 1/2 my salary.  Any how, we went back to one of our thrift stores and found some nice shirts for both of us (1/2 of Goodwill's prices).  I always go by the book section every where I go. 

That is when I stumbled on their cookbook ($2.92) and over 2 days I read it from back to end.  There are only a couple of recipes that I would make but it is great reading and gave me some new ideas of what I want to try.  Plus I got the opportunity to learn about the Lee brothers.

Tonight I am down to one pint. The test drive worked, my co workers loved them.  Some wanted them hotter.  Maybe I've got a great Christmas present for some family members.

Thanks for stopping by.

A New Being

When I set up this new blog I thought I would have all this time to include you guys in the move and all the changes in our lives and in the house/property.  Real quickly I realized we were just trying to get by.  We love where we are but it is so different and presents new challenges weekly and sometimes daily.  Our jobs are 40+ hours and we still have the old house to paint, finish, and sell.  We are overwhelmed but hanging in there. 

We have a basic tractor but our neighbor has the deluxe and is kind enough to let us borrow it.  Rick's trying to level the garden.  It's high on the sides and the middle is sinking.  With the rain we've had lately we end up with a pond in the middle. 

Our house is so small you can stand practically anywhere and see out windows on all sides.

I took this from the dining room.  That is the lot next door that we own with our travel trailer, big truck, car and the cypress tree that is turning red.

I'm still in the dining room looking out the front living room window.  I see the a pasture  of our neighbors that they use to workout their horses.  The county road is only one lane so we are close to each other.

This is the kitchen window facing west onto the lot we own.  Similar to the dining room view.  There's a carport in this view that's rather messy but it's just stuff we haven't figured out what to do with yet. 

We moved Labor Day and my sis moved 11/1.  Her place is perfect and mine is still "a work in progress".  It doesn't bother me I just hope she's not disappointed.  This move came with major decisions, emotional elements, and most of all, moving from 1700 sq ft to 840 sq ft.  I am embracing the downsizing but struggle with waste.  I love the small house because it's easy to care for.  I just struggle with what I need to keep and what I need to let go.  We're close to wrapping up the move and then can move onto wrapping up the old house and getting it on the market.

The garden has been so wet for so long and finally dried enough for Rick to run his tractor to till it.

Our boys are always out and about.  They are totally spoiled.  The girls "not so much".