GARDENING & PAINTING

Tom is gardening and Erma is painting!   Since we returned home from our trip to the East Coast, our time has been consumed with picking vegetables from the garden,  processing some to be put in the freezer , sharing a lot of veggies with friends and family, and continueing the project of painting our house.

This is how our garden looked when we got home from vacation on May 13.

Here is some of our first picks from the garden!  Love those frech picked veggies!

At the end of May, we traveled south to the Houston area.  We stopped by to see Patti H., Tom's neice who graduated from high school, and plans to attend U.T. in Austin in the fall.

Patti & her Uncle Tom!

Then we attended Donald and Becca's wedding. (Donald is my son, Darrell's, oldest son.) He and Becca had a beautiful outdoor wedding on May 27th, their sixth anniversary of their first date!  So sweet!  I enjoyed being with my son and his family for this special day in Donald & Becca's life!

The "Happy Couple"!

It is Summer in Texas!  It actually hasn't been that hot yet, however today it may reach 100 degrees, and we haven't had any rain here at our house in a couple of weeks now.  Unbelieveable to us is the fact that Tom has not yet watered the garden this year.  We were blessed with regular rain showers until now.  This is a first for Tom, because he can't ever remember a year that he did not have to water the garden!  We have really been blessed this Spring!

There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about my Thru-Hike on the Appalachian Trail last year.  I began on March 13th last year, so this year on March 13th, I began to read each day from my handwritten journal from the Trail, to remember and relive each day whatever I was doing on that day last year.  I am amazed how much I recall (that I did not record) each day as I read my journal. I was so tired at the end of each hiking day, after walking up and down mountains carrying "everything I needed to survive" on my back, that usually I was barely able to hold my eyes open long enough to write as much as I did in my journal.  But now as I read each day's journal account of that day, I think about all the things I left out.

Today,(a year ago), was the sixth day of Tom's visit with me on the Trail!  Together we hiked 4.6 miles, and made it to PenMar Park (before lunch), which is on the border of Pennsylvania/Maryland. Tom toughed it out over some very difficult, boulder-strewn trails for 23 miles in Maryland with me during some very hot days!

                                             Tom "Pyro" navigating the rocky trails in Md.

Tom's visit really lifted my spirits and made me even more determined to finish so I could go home!  I missed him so much while I was on my Hike!

I'm happy to be home this year with my Sweetie!

CALABASH SEAFOOD

On Wednesday night, before we left Ocean Isle Beach, "Skid", Pat, Tom and I went to the quaint town of Calabash for some of that world famous Calabash-style seafood.  We were not disappointed!  The shrimp, flounder, and everything else was scrumptious!  While we were having dinner, overlooking the fishing boats moored in the channel, it came a big thunderstorm and downpour of rain, however the skies cleared by morning, and it was a beautiful, spectacular day for our drive across the top of South Carolina and into Georgia.

We had one more stop to make on this long road trip.  We headed up into the mountains of north Georgia, to visit with Tim and Kathy H. at their beautiful home in Big Canoe, Ga.  Tom's brother and sister-in-law always make us feel so welcome in their home, which sits on the side of a very steep mountain!  What a workout it is just to walk up or down their street!  Steep!  Very steep!

I took this photo while standing inside their home, looking out the front door.  See how steep the street is!  Crazy!

Tim, my brother-in-law, is currently planning his own thru-hike of the A.T. in 2013!  He plans to retire at the end of this year, and will celebrate being 66 yrs. old next year by thru-hiking the A.T.  I will be rooting for him and cheering him and supporting him in any way I can, because I know first-hand how much that means when you are plodding along every day, up and down mountains, swatting bugs, getting rained on, getting blown around by strong winds, sleeping on the ground, sweating, being dirty, and on and on and on!  A kind word or goodies goes a long way to making it  all seem worthwhile.  I know I couldn't have made it all the way last year without all the support I had from my family and friends back home.

Tim & Kathy's neighbor, Paul, is planning to thru-hike with Tim!  Amazing!  We went to their home for dinner Thursday (May 10th) evening, right after we arrived at Tim's home.  Talked about the Trail and their plans!  Fun!  Paul and his wife Suzanne are such great people, and we always enjoy seeing them while we are in Georgia, visiting our family.

The next night, we went to see Tom's nephew, Jeff and and his family, in Cumming, Ga. and enjoyed dinner with them.   

Here, Tom is playing "microfone" with Grace, Jeff & Elizabeth's daughter!

An this is Emma!

We also saw a bear in Tim's neighborhood while we were out and about!  Also, there was the coolest spiderweb on the hill in front of Tim's house, I told him to leave it. (He probably got rid of it after I left!)  Tom and I also went for a "walk in the park" with Kathy on Friday while Tim was a work.

I'm so glad we don't live where the bears come right up to your house!!  I would be afraid to go outdoors, especially at night!

We got up early on Sunday morning and made the 12+hour drive home safely.  There is no place like home!

Hello Atlantic Ocean!

After our hike up McAfee Knob in the fog, we sat near our car at the trailhead parking area, waited a few minutes, and sure enough more northbound thru-hikers came along to enjoy some of our Trail Majic of cold drinks and chocolate!  Among them was Barbara "Mawmaw B" Allen, who Pigeon and I met last year at the Spence Field Shelter in the Smokey Mountains.  Wow!  What great timing!  Barbara has done a lot of backpacking in her lifetime, but she tells others that I was her inspiration to attempt a Thru-Hike of the Appalachian Trail!  I feel honored and really hope she sticks with it and makes it all the way to Mt. Katahdin in Maine!

On Tuesday morning, May 8th, we drove over to Wilson, N.Carolina, and stopped in for a brief visit with Brenda T., my sister-in-law, while she was at work.  My neice, Christy, stopped by to chat while we were there.  It was really nice to see them again, and I hope they can make a trip to Texas soon to visit all of us!

We then headed south to Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.  "Skid", who was part of my "Trail Family", and his wife Pat welcomed us into their beautiful island home.  What a tropical paradise!  I loved it!  While we were there, "Skid" took us on a bicycle tour of their island, and we walked along the beach, wetting my toes in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, all the way up to the north/east tip of their island.  Their darling little 4yr. old granddaughter, Sarah, walked with us on the beach.  The weather was spectacular while we were there, and "Skid" and Pat treated us with such awesome hospitality in their lovely home!

 We were pleased to meet their daughter, Andrea, and also their son Nate, while we there.  Nate was actually getting married in a beach wedding ceremony on Thursday, the day we left. 

On Thursday morning, May 10, we left the beautiful, tropical paradise of Ocean Isle Beach, and headed west, thru the lush farmlands of South Carolina, and on over to the mountains of northern Georgia.  More later about our "3,000 mile road trip"! 

MY, HOW TIME FLIES!

Time really does seem to fly so quickly sometime!  It has been 28 days since I sat  down at my computer to post anything at all on this blog!  What in the world have I been doing with all of my time?  Between work, painting, mowing, gardening, laundry, tidying up the house (sometimes), walking, and countless other activities,  the month of May has slipped on by!

On Saturday, May 5th, Tom and I left our house around 4:00 p.m., and drove all night and arrived in Roanoke, Va. at 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning.  We took turns driving, switching off every couple of hours, when we stopped to stretch our legs and move around a little bit.  We encountered a little rain occasionally, and Tom drove through some pretty dense fog in Tennessee.  We were pretty tired when we reached Roanoke and were very glad our room at the hotel was already available, thinking we would crash and nap for awhile.

However, I checked our email and found that Greenstone & Thimbleberry had just left Waynesboro earlier that morning.  So we decided to drive another 100 miles north, and try to find them as they cross Skyline Drive at Turk Gap.  It was a cool , misty day in Shenendoah National Park, and we had only gotten to the parking lot at the  Turk Gap Trailhead about 20 minutes before they came walking up the Trail.  Surprise, Surprise!  We had ice cold sodas and chocolate candies waiting for them!  Two more hikers, "Caps Lock" and "Applesauce") came along and enjoyed the Trail Majic also!

It was so good to see "Greenstone" & "Thimbleberry" again and glad to see them doing so well while hiking  their next section of the A.T.

Following our short visit with G. & T. and the other hikers, Tom and I drove back to Roanoke to our hotel. In the rain!  By this time, all we had the energy left to do was grab a sandwich to take back to the room to eat and fell asleep soon afterward!

The next morning (Monday 5/6) we drove west on Va.Hwy. 311 for about ten minutes to the Catawba Mtn. Trailhead parking area where the A.T. crosses, just south of McAfee Knob.  With water and snacks in our daypacks, we headed north up the trail for 3.9 miles to the top of Catawba Mtn. so Tom could enjoy the view and "dangle his feet" off McAfee Knob!   Unfortunately, the clouds and fog and mist never lifted from the peak!  I was so disappointed that Tom could not have the views and experience on McAfee Knob as I had on my thru-hike last year!  We sat up on the rocks at the top for an hour and had a snack and waited for the fog to lift.  We shared McAfee Knob with a lot of  Va. Tech college students who were rejoicing their completion of 4 yrs. of classes and their upcoming graduation.  It was interesting to chat with some of them and hear of their dreams and goals for their life ahead!

O.K. So here's the view from McAfee Knob when "Flame & BooBoo" hiked thru last year!

  
And here is the view that Tom and I had this year on Monday 5/6 !!  Waaaa!!

Painting, Painting Painting

Lately, when I am not at work at Wal*Mart, all my time is spent painting!  I am tackling the job of painting our house, one side at a time.  I started with the new carport addition, and the entire west side of our house first.  Scraping off the old flaking paint around the windows and under the eaves, recaulking any cracks, then applying a coat off Kilz Primer over all surfaces.  After our house being green for more than 20 years, it seems to look larger with its new color of paint, "coffee w/cream", that we have chosen.  The trim around the windows and doors is called "red sedona", but actually looks more like burgundy.  We will also have a third color, "apple orchard", which is a light green, on the vertical boards that form the upper triangle on the front and back of the house, under the peak.  What a changed look it will be when I am finished with all the painting! 

A couple of years ago,my friend, Mary Ann, gave me a cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks (Recipes From An Accidental Country Girl), by Ree Drummond.  Well, it has lots of pictures of step-by-step directions for each recipe, plus lots of stories behind each recipe, plus lots more photos of life on their ranch in Oklahoma.  Needless to say, it is a very unusual cookbook!  I began to read The Pioneer Woman blog also.  Well, she has come out with a new cookbook this year, and I read on her blog that she would be at a Sam's Club in Dallas for a "book signing" on April 14th!  So, Mary Ann and her two daughters, and another friend, Lanette, and her one year old granddaughter, and I decided it would be fun to go and get our original cookbooks signed and buy her new one to have her autograph also.  When we arrived at the Sam's Club (which we entered through a multi-layered parking garage, that also serves the Wal*Mart that is on the second floor above the Sam's Club), they had already sold out of the "new cookbook", (only 600 were available), before we even got in line to meet Ree!  There had to be a thousand people waiting in line!  Unbelieveable!  Who's idea was this, anyway?  We were in line before noon, and around 2:00pm, the couple in line ahead of us had just acquired one of the new cookbooks!  (the husband had left his wife to hold their place in line while he made the quick trip to a nearby bookstore and purchased one for his wife) Wow!  Maryann and her two girls immediately left me holding our place in line and drove over to that bookstore and purchased a new cookbook for each of us!  She was back in line by 2:30pm!  We finally arrived at the autograph table around 5:00pm!  Ree was still smiling and cheerfully autographed all of our books.  Thankfully, my friends were not upset with me for suggesting this little adventure, and all three kids with us were extremely patient and so well-behaved.

Lanette's granddaughter patiently waiting---------Ree Drummond signing my books, finally!


A couple of Thursdays ago, I rode my horse, Tex, with the Saddlebags at the Mineola Nature Preserve.  It was a splendid Spring day to be out on the  equine Trails there!  Here is a photo of Mary Ann on her new horse, checking out the herd of longhorns that have a few buffalo mixed in with them!

Spring Has Sprung!

Springtime is my favorite time of year!  I love it when the "brown world of winter" springs forth new life in the form of green grass, leaves on the trees, and wild flowers bursting with color.  I walked around our yard and snapped the following photos to remind me of how much I love this time of year!  

Sedum

Privet (has a stong sweet smell, similar to honeysuckle)

Iris

Spiderwort

I'm not sure what the name of these are.(I call them primrose) They grow along the field behind our house.

I'm not sure what these are either! They grow amidst the "primrose".

Honeysuckle

A Sea of Honeysuckle!

Indian Paint Brush

You can see why I love Springtime!  All this color ablaze just right around our house!

One thing I don't like about Springtime is the local "hoodlums" are cruising our country roads more than usual,  looking for "trouble", like "bashing mailboxes"!  The last few times they hit ours, Tom would leave the old beat-up box alongside the new one he installed.  We had a "monument" of three old bashed-in mailboxes, and they still hit us again about a week ago!!  Now, Tom went out and bought a new mailbox that is supposedly "baseball bat proof"!  Time will tell, I guess!

"Dead Soldiers" 

The New Tough Mailbox!

Can you see my horse, Tex, peacefully grazing in the background?

Sunshine and New Carport

Wow, there was stormy weather all around us yesterday, however we were very fortunate to have only a little wind and more rain here at our place!  The sun is shining today and it is a little cooler!  Yippee!

I know the construction crew that started on our new carport on Monday is very glad to see this sunshine today.  They were rained out on Monday afternoon and also Tuesday afternoon!

However, we are not going to complain about any of the rain we are getting, after last year's drought.  As I was working around the yard the other day, I walked upon a turtle that was crossing our yard.  By the time I ran in the house and got my camera, it had changed it's mind and was trying to get under my horse trailer to hide from me.

Tom and I managed to get a row of tomatoes and half of a row of assorted peppers planted last weekend in our garden.  The ground is very wet still, but I know it will be hot and dryer before long.
Another great thing about Springtime that I really enjoy (and missed out on last year while hiking) is watching Tom grill outdoors.  He tried a gas grill a few years back, but really didn't like it as much as he likes his charcoal grill, so he went back to it.  Oh my, he cooks so good!

On this day last year, Pigeon and I  were in the Smoky Mountains at Derrick Knob Shelter, waiting for the thunderstorms, which were  followed by sleet and snow during the night!  Boy, am I glad to be home in Texas this Spring!!

Today, I have cleaned out my horse trailer, put clean linens in it, packed some food for tonight and tomorrow, and am getting ready to load my horse and go on an overnight campout with my Saddlebag women friends, before our trailride tomorrow.  I have not been camping with my horse since the fall of 2010, before my hike.  I'm looking forward to it!