I know its been long while since I have posted on the blog. Between our daughter and her girls here in July/August then all the canning I have been doing, I have been busy. My pantry is getting pretty full with all the canned tomatoes, tomatoe sauce, tomatoe juice, Mississippi peas, salsa, and spagetti sauce which should last all winter and into spring. Hopefully we won't start our garden late next spring. My garden is still producing armenian cucumbers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and okra. I pulled up all the vidalia onions they didn't get that big like my neighbors did. He gave us several bunches of his which I chopped in the food processor and freeze packed. I can use them in stews, soups, chilli etc. I also froze some okra which I usally put in my homemade vegetable beef soup. The way our weather has changed the last couple of days with temps dropping from 99 to 65 high it won't be long and we will be eating soup! It started raining on sunday and hasn't quit and is suppose to keep this up thru thursday.
Chuck had to have Jim put down while the kids were visiting this summer. He had gotten into a hornets nest and had over 100 stings which just about killed him. But he began a slow recovery with antibiotics and pain medicine. Then about three weeks later, he was bitten by a rattlesnak. We think it was just too much for his system and he was over 38 years old. He just didn't bounce back. We had Jim for over 18 yrs and will really miss him.
The end of Sept. we have a trip planned to Ft. Campbell, KY. Chuck has to get a new retired ID card since he goes on medicare in Oct. No more military retiree medical since they will take $115 out of his social security every month. Tricare will be his secondary and he will still have his precriptions covered by Tricare. Of course Obama may mess up our military benefits and retirement! Anyway, while we are up there will shop in the commissary and stock up on meats and whatever else we can't get here. They were building a new commissary while we were up there end of April hopefully it will be open when we are up there. We usually stay in billeting which is A$47 a night with free continental breakfast. The PX is hugh and all the facilities are right around where billeting is located. I really miss shopping in the commissary prices on meat are lowere and quality is excellent. Its about a 3 hour trip one way so going up twice a year isn't to bad.
We have had alot of problems with our computers getting a virus on them. We have had the laptop and desktop ones in twice now. We thought that we had a good virus program (McAfee) but whatever this virus was it was shutting down our McAfee. Our computer guy said alot of people have been having problems with their computers and what we all have in common is being on Facebook. So beware! I should get my computer back this week.
Last Friday we took a trip to Monticello, KY and grocery shopped there. Their sales tax is 6% and they don't charge sales tax on food as they do here. Our sales tax is 9.50% and 8 % on food. We only live about 15 miles from the KY line. We only grocery shop once a month so may be worth our while. Their gas was higher there though than us. We may make this a monthly trip. We also saw a meat place which we will check out next time. We are working on cleaning out our freezer so we can restock at the end of this month. I had stocked it up the end of April and we used alot of the meat up when the girls were here. Kristy isn't able to buy alot of meat with her low budget so I think they enjoyed what I fixed while they were here. Kaylee, the 13 year old was a big help with the cooking and canning. She had her 13th birthday while here again this year and we got the usual ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Since they would be starting school shortly after returning to FL, she wanted clothes for her birthday. I gave her a gift card to her favorite store Rue 21. They also liked to shop at this store in Jamestown that has used as well as new clothing and were able to find some stuff for school there.
Hoping my Aunt will be able to fly here for Thanksgiving. Depends on the plane fares and we told her we would help with her plane fare. So maybe she will find a cheap Southwest fare. I found out while checking plane fares on Southwest that Sr. Citizen fares aren't cheaper than their regular special fares. Hopefully son and daughter in law will fly up for a visit soon. They are talking about it.
We had been going out on the pontoon regularly till this rain started. Finally took out our neighbor Joe and his wife. We took sandwhiches and had dinner on the boat. They really enjoyed themselves and are willing to go again. Joe wants to do some fishing to. At age 65 here in TN you pay a one time fee for fishing/hunting license for life. We both have our license and have done some fishing it will be better when its cooler. Those 90+ temps were not good for fishing.
Well thats all for now. I hope to keep up better with the blog from now on.
wild rose on a piece of leather. You can free hand draw a pic onto tracing paper and transfer it on to the leather or trace an existing pic. I've done it both ways. You have to wet the leather first and let it partially dry for the knife to cut right.
that I used. The knife you see in the lower left is the swivel knife used to cut the leather. Of course there's more to it than just hammering, you have to learn what and how to shade, what to cut and what not to cut, and lastly are the freehand cuts that you make with the knife to make the object look realistic. The edges of the leaves are an example. I tooled Cathy a purse and wallet for Christmas. I transferred a pic I found of Jim our old horse onto leather for her. I'll post a pic of that next. I also want to get Cathy making herafghans. She's super fast and watches TV whiledoing it. She was thinking of having the neighbors in for a quilting bee while she crochets her afghans. I thought it would be a super idea . 
