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.

How does your garden Grow?

The garden is doing pretty well considering most everything is from seed. The white and read radishes are growing well. The lettuce is up. We have been eating the onions in salads. We planted about 23 different tomato plants including heirloom, cherry and plum tomatoes. Also green and orange peppers. The cucumber, yellow and green squash started from seed is doing very well. Chuck planted some okra seed today and 5 more tomato plants, 4 asparagus plants and my herb plants. I have Italian and curly parsley, basil and a couple others that I can't remember. Chuck was over in the other small garden area today and found curly parsley growing apparently its a perennial and not annual. Since we haven't had any rain in a couple of days Chuck was out there watering tonight. Rain is predicted for Friday. Most of the long weekend will be nice. We are staying home and will have company coming on Friday and Sunday. Hope to have a cookout on Saturday the usual hot dogs and hamburgers and maybe some brots.

Company

Last week we had the pleasure of having some old friends from our Navy days visit for a couple of days. They were on their way back from Vt and MD visiting family. Unfortunately, they could only stay from Wednesday - Thursday. They had a 16 hour drive to get back to the Austin, TX area where they live. They loved our mountain home and would love to buy a place nearby. We took them down to Dale Hollow Lake about 12 miles from our mountain home in Byrdstown. The lake is high after all that rain 2 weeks ago and was overflowing into the parking lot. There is a restaurant on a floating dock there and a large marina and also a state park to camp the other side of the marina. Anyway, Bob and Kathy will be making the trip again next year and plan on stopping through on the way to and back from MD.

Mothers Day I got breakfast in bed compliments of my husband. Late afternoon we went to the lake and had a steak dinner. Son Stephen always sends money evry year for birthdays and mothers and fathers day so dinner was on him. It was a great day although a little cool had to wear a light jacket. The weather has since warmed up. We are looking forward to the day when we can purchase a used pontoon boat and be out on the lake.

Been busy planting in the garden we still have seeds to plant and I want to plant my herb garden. I hope we get alot more tomatoes this year than last. Our neighbors let us pick tomatoes from their garden as well as pole beans, greens, cabbage and okra. We hope to put up more peaches this year peaches should be ready next month.