New Livingroom Set

Well Hooray for us - Finally after bunches of years of paying in - we finally filed our income tax and lo and behold we got a tax refund.  Stupendous.  We been paying in for so many years that we thought we'd never see the end of it.  Figured that once we started drawing SS that our paying in was over but nnnooooooooo!!!  They still tax 50% of my SS.  But not this year.  So - we splurged and bought ourselves a new living room couch and love seat.  The old set we bought in 1992 just after hurricane Andrew came through our living room in Homestead, Fl.  Ok - I know - no biggie.   But for us it is.  We been hauling that 20 y/o set around for years.  Happy Valentines Day!!!  
I was talking with Joe, my neighbor, the other day and he was telling me about this guy, our age, that worked for the VA that had recently had to have a leg removed because of diabetes.  Anyway, he apparently has a wheel chair but no handicap ramp to get out of his house. Actually he does have a ramp, it at his back door and is so steep it's hard to control the wheel chair and nearly impossible to get back up into the house.  So - Joe and I went down and surveyed the problem and are planning on building him a OSHA approved wheel chair ramp for access to his house.  He and his wife are pretty much on a fixed income like most of the rest of us so Joe and I are donating most of the lumber and labor for the job.  Really gives ya a good feeling when you can do something to help someone else out of a fix.  Like Joe says - we got more time than money so why not.  Til next time - Ta Ta

 Of course ya'll know who this is.  Why it's Cathy and her loving hands are crocheting an afghan for some lucky someone.

 Don't know how she does this so fast but she's really quick and watches TV at the same time.  I can't even walk and chew bubblegum at the same time.  She started crocheting just before Christmas and is now working on number six (6).

 She's making this one from a lot of yarn that she had left over but it looks good altogether and these things are really warm.  She's made baby receiving blankets and the kids are still dragging them around when their older.

We always keep a couple draped over the couch and loveseat and we have another at the foot of our bed.  Believe me they sure come in handy.  I had made a couple of other pictures for the blog but Cathy wouldn't let me put them on.  She was crocheting at the kitchen table and was wearing her housecoat, plus, I got her when she stuck her toung out at me.  Totally in character for her but HEY - it's her blog.  ENJOY!!

TWO 'N ONE

Simply amazing what you can do when you're bored.  Anyway - thought I'd post pics of Cathy's purse and wallet while I was at it then I'm gonna go catch her at work and photograph what I can and put it on here too. 

This is the picture that I used for Cathy's purse and wallet.

 This is the design I put on one flap of her purse.

 This is a pattern that I had from a previous project that she always liked.  They're Maple leaves - so I put them on the other flap.

CABIN FEVER

Well - Christmas and New Years was here and gone and winter has definately set in here on the mountain. Cathy and I been hunkered down for the most part dodging cold and rain, not so much snow, yet. I had a few days work helping construct a 24' x 48' storage barn which kept me out from under Cathy's feet but now I'm home again full time. We're both coming down with cronic cabin fever. Cathy has started crocheting afghans, her usual winter keep-me-busy thing and I took up an old hobby of leather tooling. In fact, the gal we built the barn for commissioned me to tool a leather chair bottem for her. I'm still working on that but thought both Cathy and I would share some pics of our hobbies. Here goes.

      This first pic shows me carving a pattern of a
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.

 This shows the pattern after it has been cut into the leather and is now ready to be tooled.  The leather has to be dampened again and allowed to partially dry before the tooling process begins.  This process continues throughout the tooling.  I only used 10 tools for this pattern.  You have to hammer the leather down around the design to make it look embossed.  This process also burnishes the leather around the pattern making it standout even more.

This shows the final product and the pattern that I

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 .                                                                                     

Finally Back

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.

Family is Here

Kristy and the girls arrived on Sunday afternoon.  After resting up one day we took them out on the boat on Tuesday.  It was a hot day but cloudy so not as hot as it usually would be.  They all had fun swimming and then we took a ride.  This lake is hugh! Goes all the way up into KY.  They wanted to go out again today but we are having thunderstorms and rain.  Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for the lake. 

I had my appt with the orthopedic Dr. yesterday and he released me.  Now I wait until the other hip starts hurting and he will take care of it.  I was still doing my exercises but now I think I will just do the treadmill and start taking walks.  I am glad to be almost back to normal and will be when everything heals.  We took the two grandaughters with us yesterday and shopped at Penneys before my appt.  They found markdown clothing like 50-60% off plus I had a coupon for an extra 20% off.  They are learning how to get more for their money at a young age.  Jynna is 15 and Kaylee will be 13 on August 8th she will celebrate her birthday here again this year with an ice cream cake and a gift card to her favorite store Rue 21 which they will shop at next week. 

Neighbor left us a bucket of corn yesterday and a few tomatoes today.  I hope to make some spagetti sauce to can for the kids to take home.  Also some salsa.  I did make them 6 jars of dill pickles as well.  Well thats all for now.

Blackberry picking and gardening

Well the blackberries are ripe for the picking.  We have alot of bushes along our fence line and in the neighbors pasture which abuts ours.  Chuck picked a quart the other day and last night he went with out neighbor and picked another quart.  I would like to make some blackberry jelly. 

I put up 6 quarts of dill pickles last week and 3 jars of salsa.  The garden has been planted just waiting for it to start producing.  Everything seems to be up but the carrots.  Chuck thinks he planted the seed to deep.  I still have to get some of my herbs and get them planted.  Today we are going to KY to get our SC peaches we usually buy a bushel and can and also freeze some.  Its alot of work but worth it to eat them all winter.  I hope we get alot of tomatoes so I can can my spagetti sauce.  The neighbor usually gives us tomatoes and cucumbers and last week we got some vadila onions.  Waiting for ours to be ready.  We planted armenian cucumbers from seed again this year they are really good gave some to the neighbor to plant.  His wife just retired and I'm sure will be busy canning all summer.  I had never canned before until we moved to TN.  Everyone seems to have a garden here and cans.  Will have to make a trip in Sunday to Walmart and get more big jars.  I have given stuff away but never seem to get the jars back! 

Waiting to hear if daughter and girls will be coming up for a couple of weeks this month.  Kristy applied for a couple of jobs and hopes to hear something.  There are so many people out of work figure the odds!  If she does get work we will go down and get the girls and bring them up here. 

Haven't been out on the boat since before the holiday we had rain predicted all week but it mostly bypassed us or we got like a 5 minute shower!  We hate going out on weekends because there are so many boats out on the lake especially the fast boats!  We need to get down to the mariner an clean up the boat and vacumn the carpet.  Since we uncovered the boat in April it has gotten so dirty especially the seats.

Doing well since the surgery plan to start the treadmill workouts this weekend.  If I can do the treadmill 3 days a week and my exercises 4 days a week I will strenghthen the muscles.  I see the Dr on the 20th.  I still haven't driven the truck want to be able to get in and out of the truck myself before I drive alone.  I have to be carefull of twisting and bending.  The Dr. says it takes at least 3 months for everything to heal.

Welll thats all for now.  Willl update later this month.