Finally finished!

I seriously don't quite get all the hoopla over this book. It's OK, but was just not a page turner for me. At least, I did finish it. Usually, if it is not a real page turner, I don't finish it.

Ripped from an email and Dr. Seuss!

I do not like this Uncle Sam, I do not like his health care scam.

I do not like these dirty crooks, or how they lie and cook the books.

I do not like when Congress steals,

I do not like their secret deals.

I do not like this speaker Nan ,

I do not like this 'YES WE CAN'.

I do not like this spending spree,

I'm smart, I know that nothing's free,

I do not like your smug replies, when I complain about your lies.

I do not like this kind of hope.

I do not like it you BIG Dope.

I do not like it NOPE NOPE NOPE!

Nostalgia!

I took a detour through my old college campus yesterday while I was in that college town on a mission to find peaches. After all, Ruston is the peach capital of Louisiana and they were having the Peach Festival. Of course, it has been a very long time since I lived in Ruston and not much is the same. The one thing that has not changed is the dorms. All the dorms I lived in are still there! They still look lovely, but those suckers are old! They weren't new when I was there. I didn't get out and walk in the areas where cars are no longer allowed because it was too freakin' HOT! I would like to go back sometimes and find the brick that I purchased with my name and year of graduation on it!

You know you want some!

Some of these peaches magically turned into this yummy peach cobbler!

Don't be jealous!

And I even forgot to put peas on the plate....fresh peas, okra, corn and the essential hot, buttered cornbread!

SOS to Billy the Exterminator!!!

I went out to pick peas in the garden this morning and kept hearing a sound of metal against metal under the pear tree. My brother had set his coon trap under the tree just to get it out of the way. Apparently, it had some food still in it. I went over to it expecting to see a coon in his trap. But, NO....it was a SKUNK! WTH! I didn't get close enough to take a picture because I didn't want to get sprayed. I called my brother and asked him if he knew there was a skunk in his trap....he likes messing with me, so I thought he might have left it especially for me! He did not know, but he came over with his gun and shot the skunk. Of course, the skunk sprayed when he shot it. Condolences to PETA! Once again, GET OVER IT! I don't care! Our pea picking was over temporarily. Why am I ALWAYS the one who finds the varmints????   I don't like varmints! I don't even have a dog!!!!

Ouch!

The rep from the monument company finally came today and we picked out a family monument with 5 foot stones. We chose a glossy black granite for the family name..then we will each have our own foot stone with the pertinent information on it. It cost nearly $10,000, but when we consider that all of us are now covered with the exception of dates of death, it's not a bad deal. Really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Mom basically knew what she wanted and my brother and I agreed. We should have a computer print out of them by tomorrow, but it will take as long as 10 weeks to get them completed and at the cemetery.

Untitled

It's time!

Time for me to suck it up and be a big girl. Father's Day was always a special day for me and I always tried to make it home to be with my dad on that day. Same for Mother's Day. I knew it would not be easy this year, but everyone loses their father at some point and I was incredibly lucky to have mine for 66 years. I miss him very much, but I will suck it up tomorrow and go to church on Father's Day. He would want me to be in church!

CRAP!

I had to suck it up and hire someone to do my yard for the hot, humid, hideous days of this summer! It was hard for me to admit that I just wasn't up to doing it as hot as it is. I am real picky about my yard and it must be done just right or I am not a happy camper, so I hope he will make me happy. He is a local firefighter who does this on the side, so I am OK with helping out a firefighter. I just wish I could do it myself! I will still do Mom's because it is all done on the lawn tractor and most of the time my brother beats me to it anyway. I think part of the problem is that I don't want to admit I am freakin' OLD!

Uh OH!

 Update: Chills are back again and fever is returning! WTH!

Well, I guess it was a little more than being tired yesterday. Turns out I had some sort of mysterious fever which caused chills and just made me feel bad. I finally took my temp last night after I realized I had a fever and it was confirmed. I took some aspirins and some time later woke up drenched in sweat. Today has been better although I still don't feel like really doing anything. Just another lazy day, but no fever so far.

A day off!

Once again I wore myself completely out yesterday and I guess it now takes me a day to recover. I pulled up every bean plant and picked the beans off of them after I pulled them up. I will never plant any more beans like these. They grow all down below the plant near the ground and it is just too hard on my back to pick them. They had lots of grass in them anyway and they were making our garden look bad. I also picked a lot more corn to give away. I'm done with cutting corn off the cob and freezing it. If I recover enough to get hungry today, I have okra/tomatoes, squash, green beans, cucumbers and hot buttered cornbread on the menu. When the heat index is 105, it kind of takes the wind out of my sails!

Ugh!

Spent hours doing the part of gardening that I don't like. Harvesting and "putting up"! Lots of corn ready right now. I picked, shucked, (Mom silked), cut off the cob, and froze 15 quarts of corn. That would be 62 ears. It's tedious and boring, but I sure enjoy some fresh creamed corn in the dead of winter! I will be cooking some of it for dinner tonight after a little nap to recover. Had to go to the Farmer's Market to get some tomatoes since mine are a dismal failure! Don't know why they aren't making...neither are my squash.

Success!

RIP

Well, not so much for the coons! We tried all the deterrents and they worked for 3 nights, but last night when my brother went to put Dad's truck in the garden with the radio going, he saw 3 coons coming into our corn. They were bold and brave and pretty much ignored him. He called his wife to bring his gun..C-ya coons. We planted enough corn for us and them, but they brought all their family and friends and got greedy. They are now in raccoon heaven. Get over it PETA!

New BP logo!

Hello!

Dinner

• Fresh sliced cucumbers w/Italian dressing
• Fried zucchini
• Fresh corn on the cob dripping in butter andidon'tevencare!
  

God smiled on us today!

I am so thankful for the rain today. It was only an inch and a half, but it certainly will help the garden. Today was another one of those "be lazy and never leave t he house" kind of days. I am reading a good book called The Help by Kathryn Stockett, so I was happy to not have anything that had to be done. I had a plumber come and change my sprayer hose on my kitchen sick, so the leaking would stop. That probably wouldn't bother most people, but I could not stand for water to leak out of it every time I turned the faucet on. Drove me crazy, so I sucked it up and called a plumber. He is a member of my krewe, so I was happy to give him my business.

Yep!

WooHoo!

Finally got my time on the new lawn tractor today. It is sweet! Takes a little getting used to and it made me more tired. One reason is that it is a challenge to stay in the new seat because it is slippery and another thing is that one foot has to be on the accelerator at all times. Our old one had hand controls where we could set the speed and relax. It's ok....it mows like a charm! We just need rain. The deficit here is nearly 10 inches for the year and everything is suffering. Some of our vegetables just aren't producing even though we have watered them faithfully...tomatoes, squash, cukes, zukes....none of them are producing. Corn is doing well if we can keep the coons at bay. Two nights in a row we won the battle!

Crap!

Back in November when I bought a new computer, one program did not transfer. Unfortunately, it was the one that held my database for my high school reunion stuff. Fortunately, I did print out the addresses before the transfer, but now I can't get my off site back- up to find the data to restore it. Therefore, I am having to re-enter all the names and addresses for the address labels.

As an added pain in the ass, the raccoons got in our corn last night in spite of all my brother has done to prevent their destruction. They ate about 10 ears last night. Tonight I think he is going to park a truck near the corn and leave the radio on. He is threatening to stay up there as well. We had some of the corn for lunch and it is really good!

One pot meal!

New potatoes, peas, onions, green beans....add some hot, buttered cornbread and a tomato and it will be dinner at some point tonight!

Lunch and sunflowers!

How to tell a gay terrorist!

The ladies lunch group met at Nicky's today and we solved all the world's problems....well, except  this one!

Excellent day!

• Cleaned floors and vacuumed....the task I hate most!
• Picked berries
• Picked beans
• Ran errands for Mom
• Picked my first two cukes and my one zuke and one ear of sweet corn
• Trimmed part of my azaleas before the lightning sent me running in

Still plan to cook berry cobbler and eat the corn and cukes. Will have to finish the yard tomorrow and pray for rain right now!

Sincerely grateful!

Good bye, Patriot

I did not know Josh Tomlinson, but it was my honor to be a part of the silent guard, along with the Patriot Guards, Combat Veterans of America, and many other motocycle groups, as well as proud citizens of Minden, Louisiana. The first time I teared up was this morning when I got behind this. I knew they were coming to protect the family of Josh from those dirt bag protesters that call themselves Christians from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.

It was a sight to behold. Awesome photos here. I was so humbled by the support shown to this family and the dignity of the whole thing. He was appropriately honored. Apparently, the MORONS who promised to protest at his funeral heard about all us patriots here in Minden. Maybe they heard that we don't play that!!!!!!!

After the family went into the church, we went to line the road to the cemetery again displaying our flags and showing this family the love from this community. We counted 188 motorcycles following the family to the cemetery and we got started late counting. My guess would be around 400.

YUMMO!

It doesn't get any fresher than this!

Squash that was on the vine this morning.

Potatoes that were in the ground this morning.

Beans that were on the vine this morning.

Hot, buttered corn bread that was in the Morrison's package only moments ago. Hey! It can't all come out of the ground! Add a few pickled beets from earlier in the week and dinner is served!

Mom update

I had to make a run to the airport yesterday and didn't get down to see my mom yesterday. Today, I got there about 2 P.M. thinking she would still be napping. She was sitting at the kitchen table wanting to go to the berry row to pick berries. My brother had taken her up there this morning and let her pick berries. She couldn't stand it that there were still so many that needed to be picked, so I took her back to the berry row in the heat of the afternoon so she could pick her berries. Here's the evidence that my 85 year old mom can still hang...even with her foot still in a surgical wrap and boot!

Here's the bountiful harvest of about 15 minutes!

Ummmm....NO!

In between putting up the beets today, my brother, his wife and I went out to pick beans on our one row of pinto beans. It ended very abruptly for me with a scream and a run! I pulled back one of the bushes to get the beans from under it and there was a black snake all coiled up under there. They went to try to find it after I screamed and ran. They saw it, but then lost it and were unable to kill it. My brother wouldn't have killed it anyway because he said it looked like a chicken snake. Anyway, my bean picking days are over. I know it makes no sense to be that scared of snakes, but it is what it is and it always has been. Looks like it is not going to change!!!!!

Beets!

My brother loves pickled beets, so we planted some this year and were successful at growing them.  Yesterday he pulled all his beets up.

With Mom telling us what to do and cutting a lot of the beets up herself, we turned them into this.

 I have never been into "putting stuff up" as in vegetables and fruits, but we did this for my brother. I like the beets, too, but not like he does.

Lookin' good!

My brother pulling grass out of his sugar cane!

Our abundance of berries!

Lunch yesterday!

Lunch today!

WTH!

I dropped my mom off at the hairdresser's yesterday on my way home and my brother picked her up later. She was perfectly fine...even baked a cake when she got home for someone who lost her mother. Last night at 8:30, my brother went to drop off some groceries he had picked up for Mom. When he walked in, she said, "Good morning!" Uh, Oh! It's not morning and she has cooked breakfast thinking it was Saturday morning. Did she not wonder why she was still dressed in her clothes and it was dark outside? Strange. Blood sugars were all ok, but she had taken her meds and her insulin just like she would in the morning! CRAZY! Anyway, they put the breakfast all away and checked on her later and she was fine. Today she is fine, but Holy Moly, that is some scary stuff. I guess she slept a little too long during her nap!!!

Yay me!

It's done!

Today I was able to join my Thursday lunch bunch for the first time in a couple of weeks. We ate Chinese and solved all the world's problems in  about an hour. We rock.....Now if people would just listen to our solutions. Now I am about to kick back and wait for the rains to come. NO WORK TODAY! Not one bit!!!!!