Winter is Here

We have had the most beautifull weather this fall. It was nice being able to go out in the pontoon as late as mid November.

Finally, the canning is done. I still have a half dozen tomatoes ripening in the kitchen window. Our neighbor will have some winter cabbage soon. The mustard and tenderleaf greens died out due to a heavy frost last week. I did manage to put up 6 bags of greens in the freezer. My pantry is full of jars its so nice to go into my pantry and take out a jar of spagetti sauce or salsa. We are thinking of buying a small chest freezer and keeping on the porch and filling it up with more veggies next year. My little 9 cubic ft freezer is full as is my one in the side by side.

We had a nice Thanksgiving Chucks sister was here from Wed night till Sunday morning. Her son was going to Ohio for Thanksgiving so we met them in Ky and brought Diane home with us. Robert arrived here on Sat. night.

We think our daughter and 3 girls will come up either for Christmas or right after Christmas. They were here for three weeks in August and they all seemed to have a good time. They loved going out on the boat and swimming in the lake. In FL, you have to worry about aligators in the lakes and brackess water. Thats the first thing they asked us are there any aligators in the lake. The little 3 year old Lilly couldn't wait to go humming (swimming). She loves the water even did a little fishing with her Dora fishing pole, she loves Dora so we got her a Dora life vest as well.

Its time to start decorating for Christmas will start with the outside first. I hope to get some crafts done this weekend for gifts. And maybe start on crocheting an afgan for my sister. She and husband lost everything in a fire last Jan. and are finally back in their newly fixed home. Since she lost her afgan in the fire, I told her I would crochet her another one.

The weather has gotten considerably colder this week and its to be in the teens the next couple of nights. We did get snow flurries earlier in the week which left a dusting on the ground. Of course as soon as the sun came out it was gone. Everyone around here says we are in for a hard winter. Time to get the camp stove ready and buy candles, batteries for the flashlight and butane for the camp stove. We are ready if the power goes off and the heater in the dining room will be our only heat if the power goes off. We are thinking of getting a ventless gas fire place for the living room or bedroom. Need to do some research on them first.

Well not alot going on here we do manage to get quite a few books read during the winter months since we don't leave the house that much.

We still have to go down to the marina and winterize the pontoon.

This is all that been going on. More later.

This weather is crazy. One day it is freezing - the next it's unseasonably warm, like yesterday. It was 74 and we just had to take advantage of it an get out on the boat again. It was a bit cooler on the lake but it wasn't cold. We did some fishing with surface lures but didn't catch anything. Chuck had a bass hit his lure. It came completely out of the water but didn't hold on. Might have been a keeper. Ah Well - that's fishin for ya. Looks like Friday might be another warm day so we won't cover the boat just yet. When we get ready to winterize it, it has a cover to help minimize the weathering process during the winter. Anyway - have to go to Knoxville today to get Chuck measured for his tux for Stephen's wedding in May. It's about a 2 hour drive but it's the closest Men's Wearhouse to us.

Busy Summer

Its been awhile since I have had a chance to post. We have been busy with company and canning. The end of July Kristy and the girls were here for three weeks. We all had a great time. We took them all to Chattanooga to the aquarium. We all enjoyed it and it was well worth the three hour drive one way. We spent a lot of time going out on the pontoon, humming (swimming) as three year old Lilly would say. Both girls got to drive the boat and Jynna the 14 year old pulled the boat into the boat slip first time with no problem! They all want to come on their Xmas break. They are hoping for snow and a chance to go sledding.

The end of August Chucks oldest brother and grandaughter, he and wife are raising, flew to TN for a week. They hadn't seen each other in over 7 years. The guys got to get together and play guitars and sing. Bob made a tape of their singing. He wants to come back in the spring when wife Patty can come. She started a new job in March and doesn't have any vacation time as yet. Zoey adopted three of our cats and wanted to take at least one home but Dad told her she can leave them here for us to care for. When Bob called we asked when we were going to get our "Cat support check" Ha! They enjoyed going out on the boat but Zoey wanted to go to the beach (they live in RI and the beach is where they usually go). She wouldn't swim in the lake! After seeing a water snake on Friday I don't think I want to swim in the lake either!!

We planted a garden again this year and have gotten quite a bit of produce. We still have okra, tomatoes, peppers and Armenian cucumbers. Our neighbor gave us corn in July and we froze whole and also scraped off the cob and froze the corn. Also peas and beans that he gave us. A couple of weeks ago Joe told us to come and pick all the tomatoes we wanted as they were tired of canning. I have canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, made salsa, spaghetti sauce and marinara sauce. My pantry cupboard is getting quite full! I also froze tomatoes and okra. The green tomatoes I made green tomato relish with. Chuck picked more tomatoes on Friday so I plan on making another batch of spaghetti sauce and giving more to the neighbor. They like my spaghetti sauce. I will have to buy another dozen jars today to finish my canning. I also canned pickles and okra. We will enjoy all these goodies all winter long.

The beginning of the month we took an overnight (8 hour drive) to W VA to bring extra stuff we had to our oldest daughter. She just moved into a small 2 bedroom trailer the beginning of Sept. We hope to make a trip up in Oct and bring more stuff we have for her. I hope things work out for her.

Well that's all the news for now. Hopefully I will keep up with this blog better than I have.

Garden Bounty

This is a snapshot of a days harvest. May not look like much but it's great for two people. The tomatoes are ripening daily so Cathy is canning again. She does tomato sauce, marinara and salsa. Boy does it taste good in the winter. I just checked the garden and we're starting to get our first okra. Took long enough. The beets are the small variety so we need to pay more attention to the variety we plant in the future. I prefer the larger size. Gonna try to pickle some beets this year. I didn't thin the carrots too well so they're a little small but still sweet.

New Toy

In June we bought a 1993 Playbouy pontoon. We had been looking for 3 years to find what we really wanted. Knew for sure that we didn't want a new one (takson okanee- too much money) so Chuck searched the Local Shopping Network. We actually found this one at a local marine repair shop. The original owner had to return to Minnesota and sold it to the shop owner. Keith, the shop owner had serviced this pontoon for the past 5 years and knew its condition. The pontoon is 24' long and powered by an Evinrude (etec) 90 hp outboard motor. It is fully equipped and has a pop up dressing room in the rear, Bimini top and fish finder. We truck along at 3,000 rpm (10-12mph) for 3 hours and use only about 2.5 gal of gas. We can really kick it to about 24 mph with this motor, enough to pull the grand kids on a tube. With off road gas at 3.36 per gal we economize at a slower speeds. The pontoon came with 6 months slip fee already paid, which means we don't have to tow it back and forth. Even if it's only about 16 miles to the marina it's a hassle. Most of the local marinas have a fairly long waiting list for 24' slips so we actually lucked out. We don't do a lot of running around so this will be our main entertainment (cruising, fishing etc). It'll take us a long time to get to know Dale Hollow Lake. It has over 600 miles of shore line and average depth of 90' (up to 150' in the main channel). We already got lost once but managed to find our way back. Got a detailed map now and intend to purchase a GPS in the future. There are soooooo many inlets and creeks that feed this lake that it isn't hard to get lost. Our friends put their boat in the water at a ramp that's about 15 miles down river from where we have our slip and there's a great restaurant on the water about 9 miles southeast of us. We're looking forward to lots of floating time.

Summer fun

We planted our garden in late May and this is what it looked like in mid-June. We have onions, squash, cucumber, radish, carrots, lettuce, okra, a variety of tomatoes, beets, herbs and some asparagus. The okra is super slow growing because we planted from seed. Last year by this time we were up to our ears in okra but none so far (we'll use starter plants next year). The asparagus takes two seasons before it's ready - so maybe next year.

Summertime Garden

Well, the garden is off and running. We kinda coordinate with our neighbor - Joe - about what we plant. He plants corn, taters, maters, cabbage, beans, cucumbers, squash and some okra. These are the things his family eats in quantity. We plant maters, okra, radish, beets, squash, cucumbers, peppers, carrots, herbs, and this year, asparagras. We swap back and forth with Joe and his family and store all his taters under our house for the winter. We usually wind up with about 40 bushels of potatoes in storage and they last all winter.