Apples, Apples and More Apples!

We went to Delaware on Tuesday and came back Wednesday evening. Jerry had gotten done what he needed to do there and really needed to get back home to put the new engine in the chipper from you-know-where, so we didn't stay in DE long. While we were there, Jerry's friend who keeps us in produce called and asked if I would like some apples.

This is the man we have an exchange with - he provides the produce if I keep him in goods made with said produce. Jerry told him yes, and so he said he'd be bringing some apples over. We had no idea how many apples! The picture that is below is only part of them. There is a plastic trash can full in the garage too - and I'm talking about a huge outdoor trash can.

On the way home we went to a kitchen store and Jerry told me to get the biggest stock pot I could find so I could make the goods a little faster. He's so good to me! He has seen me make batches and batches of stuff in my little dutch oven pot because it's the largest I have. Well, I do have the canner pot, but I can't use that because then what would I use to process the jars in?!

Anyway, I got the largest one that I thought would fit on the stove and I hope to start processing tomorrow or Saturday at the latest. Apple sauce, apple butter and apple pie filling are first on the list. Then I'll see what else I can find to do with them. I'm also very grateful that I have tons of jars!

I forgot to post about this, but last week Jerry's friend called him and asked if we wanted more watermelon (he's already given us a few). Little did we know! He brought us 28 watermelons! We have eaten some, given some away, and there are more watermelon pickles on the way. I think I'm turning into a watermelon. Well, at least until next week. Then I'll be an apple.

We had to stop for a train and we counted the cars - there were 75!
The sunset was absolutely beautiful.
Another sunset picture. The sun looks like it is sitting on the wires!
These are the wonderful apples that were waiting for me when I got home.

Today a little girl came to my door selling things for a school fundraiser. Today was the first day of school here - the school didn't waste any time getting the fundraiser started. Anyway, what bothered me most about this wasn't the fact that she was selling stuff, but the fact that she was dressed in a very tiny bikini and going door to door to strangers. Almost every house on this street has been sold since last year and there are now plenty of strangers living here. Yes, she was just a little girl and any other time her attire wouldn't have bothered me, but there are plenty of sick people in this world. She wasn't by herself - she was accompanied by another little girl dressed similarly. It's not that we live in a bad neighborhood, but isn't that what you always see the victim's families quoting in the news stories? "We never thought anything like that could happen here."

Parents - use your heads! First of all, your children have no business going door to door in this day and age. If for some reason you have a major lapse in judgement and allow them to do so, pay attention to what they are wearing and how they might appear to people with sick minds. If you think something bad can't happen to your child, maybe you should ask someone whose child is missing - they didn't think so, either.

Back to School

Tomorrow Andy and I will start homeschooling again for this year. We had originally planned to homeschool through the summer, and we did manage to do quite a few lessons, but it wasn't consistent. Oh, well. We got a summer break, too.

I recently got in touch with my friend Amy in West Virginia whom I haven't heard from in over a year. We had a lot of catching up to do. She is one friend who I really missed but our lives got so busy that eventually our emails dried up - sort of like this blog!

Andy and I went grocery shopping this afternoon. Note to self - NEVER go grocery shopping at noon on a Sunday. It was packed! There were actually lines waiting to get into the aisles, and then people were just plain rude! Luckily, I had a thorough grocery list. I followed the list exactly and got out of there! Then Andy and I got ourselves a Starbucks Java Chip. Well, we deserved it after that ordeal!

Well, I have grocery shopped, cooked lunch (frozen pizza!), cleaned the kitchen and bathed the cat. Now I guess I'd better go and finish planning Andy's lessons for tomorrow. Jerry is hard at work on the chipper from H-E-double toothpicks. I don't know if I noted it in my blog before, and I don't feel like looking back to see right now - but about a month or so ago the engine blew up in it. Literally. There is a huge hole in the side of the engine. We were in Delaware at the time and Jerry's uncle had used it on a job and he called Jerry and informed him that the chipper had - in his words - "blown up". When we arrived home the chipper had been parked back in front of our garage and there was a cardboard box on the ground near it containing "blown-up" engine pieces. So now Jerry is putting a new engine in the thing. Surely it will behave now - it's basically a whole new chipper with all the parts he's had to put on it!

Anyway, off to do stuff. Happy Sunday, y'all!

Spoiled again!

It's been a long time since I posted - I didn't realize how long until I looked at the date of the last post. Time flies when you're having fun - and even when you're not!

We finally have air conditioning. Back in May we tried to turn it on and it wouldn't come on. To make a long story short, everything's finished now and we are spoiled once again. I actually enjoyed cooking in my kitchen again. Jerry's friend has given us lots and lots of produce again this year and he only asked that I make him zucchini cake and bread. Well, I did that (plus some for us - yum!), and still have a ton of zucchini left. He gave us a bushel of tomatoes that I made spaghetti sauce from last week - BEFORE the air conditioning was operational. Whew - that was a hot day in this kitchen. I made the spaghetti sauce recipe up as I went along, and I'm glad I wrote everything down as it went into the pot - Tom says it's our secret family recipe now. It is really, really tasty. Tom insists that we should market it! Jerry's friend got a jar of sauce, also. Yesterday he came by and gave Jerry three watermelons, a huge cantaloupe, and three 5-gallon buckets of green tomatoes. Time to break out the cookbook! I'm not as creative with green tomatoes. He also gave us a bucket of cucumbers that are awaiting pickling. I hope to get those made by the weekend. Now with the air conditioning fixed, I can go back to Delaware with Jerry. I didn't go before because I didn't want to leave the house all opened up in case it stormed during the day. If I closed the house up, the cat would be miserable in the heat during the day, and Tom would be miserable in the heat when he came home from school in the evening. There was one good thing about being without air conditioning all this time - we got used to it, which served us well last night and today. Our electricity went out at about 3:00 this morning and didn't come back on until 12:30 this afternoon. I'm sure the neighbors were busy complaining, but we were just fine with it. It wasn't very hot today, anyway and it wasn't bad at all.

Tom wants to go out for his birthday, so he chose Macaroni Grill. He has eaten there before, but we haven't and are looking forward to it. We looked at the menu online and I just have two words - elastic waistband.

Well, off to do stuff.

Milestone July

This July holds milestones for our family. Andy is 13 today, and Tom will be 21 in a few weeks. I see Andy's upper lip peach fuzz and hear his cracking voice and feel like I'm about to cry. This is my baby - who is now 13 and taller than I am. A word of advice for mamas young and old - hold your babies as long as you can and when they're older hug them for as long as they'll let you. I can still manage a hug or two out of Tom, but only for special occasions!

One of those occasions was when he was leaving for his week-long trip to North Carolina with Sam's family again this year. He is back now and says he has pictures but I haven't seen them yet. I will post them when I get access to his camera. Right now he has his camera with him because I made him promise to take a picture of Sam opening her birthday present from him (her birthday was last week and her family is celebrating it today). He gave her a diamond journey necklace (teeny tiny diamonds, but diamonds nonetheless!) and I thought he would burst waiting until today to give it to her. This is another thing that brought tears to my eyes - Tom wanted my help choosing a necklace for her. He also made me come right out and cry a couple of weeks ago when he told me that when it was time, he wanted my help picking out an engagement ring for Sam. He has it all planned out, when and how he wants to propose to her, but it's a surprise and won't be for a while yet, and so, not knowing who might be reading this blog, I can't divulge details. Suffice it to say that this Mama cried a good while after that announcement! *Warning* Any grandmamas reading may become teary also!

Well, I'm feeling a bit reflective today and think I'll spend some time with my new teenager. I told him that when I was growing up, turning 13 meant that we were allowed to wear mascara and so I offered to get him some, but the withering look I got in response tells me he'd rather have something else!

A Wonderful Sunday

What a wonderful Sunday this has been. It doesn't take much to amuse me, but this has been a great day - and it's not over yet! It started with the sound and smell of rain - much needed, blessed RAIN! My poor herb plants have been struggling in the sun and heat since I planted them. My efforts at watering them each day still didn't seem to matter very much. Also the cooler air was a blessing. Two weeks ago we tried to turn the air conditioning on and it didn't work right. We're not sure what the problem is, but we're really not in any hurry to fix it now. We had a new unit put in two years ago and it probably just needs charging based on the way it's acting. Anyway, in the days waiting to fix it, we decided we could get used to the heat and deal with it (for a while, anyway - the dog days of August aren't here yet!). I must say that I have not missed the high electric bill. I was rather shocked to get our last one and it was only $160.00. I can't remember the last time it was that low, and I was in no hurry to run it up again using the air conditioning. I think it was that low because we have been dividing our time between Delaware and here and so have only been here half the time. Anyway, the wind and cooler air were definitely welcome today.

Then our neighbors came over to bring us some wonderful goodies from the Philippines. They watched our house while we were in Delaware almost a month in February, and we watched their house while they were away for a little more than a month in April. Our neighbors' names are Merriam and Jim. Merriam is from the Philippines and they go to visit her family every year. Last year they brought us back beautiful wind chimes that I have hanging on the deck. This year they brought us gorgeous placemats with matching cloth napkins and chopstick sets. The chopsticks are black and ornate, and really beautiful. Now I need to learn how to use them! They also brought us deodorant stones. Don't laugh - evidently this is a commonplace item in the Philippines. They look like large crystals and you are supposed to wet them and use them as you would deodorant. Tom had heard of them before but I hadn't. I asked if we offended them! Actually, once before the subject of them had come up in conversation and so they wanted to bring us some to try. They also brought us a coffee cup with a map of the Philippines on it, and dried mango. The mango is DELICIOUS. When they watched our house, we brought them coffee cups with the sights of Rehoboth Beach on them, seashells, and tiger's eye fudge. Housesitting (from your own house) is great! It was nice talking with them about their trip. Jim has to be careful about where he goes - there is some animosity towards Americans there and there are certain places he absolutely cannot go because it's too dangerous.

After meeting with the neighbors, Jerry and I went to BJs to do some grocery shopping. The boys didn't want to go, so it was just the two of us. We went to BJs and then Lowes so Jerry could get some bolts to put the gas tank back on The Chipper From Hell. Don't ask about the gas tank. Just suffice it to say that it is still The Chipper From Hell. Then on the way home Jerry surprised me and stopped by Pizza Hut and told me to go in and order enough pizza for dinner (they don't deliver as far as we are). Next door to Pizza Hut is a Dunkin' Donuts, so after I went in and ordered the pizza, I ran next door and got some donuts to take back to the truck for Jerry while we were waiting for the pizza. I also got myself a mocha swirl latte. Yum!

To top things off, when I weighed myself this morning I had lost another four pounds. Doesn't sound like much, but I have been trying - really watching what I eat and exercising every day. I noticed that I am needing to tug my capris up throughout the day now because they are getting a bit baggy! Yay! I am not brave enough to wear shorts yet, and it's just too hot for jeans, so capris are a happy medium right now.

Well, that's it for now. Happy Sunday, y'all!

My original first sentence of this post was "Not too much going on here." I deleted that. Something must be going on here because I sure don't feel like I have time to do anything anymore! Well, nothing I can identify with any certainty that would cause my days to jumble up and eventually lead to surprise that another week has ended. Work, teach Andy, clean (yeah, right!), cook dinner, fall asleep and start again the next day.

I recently found Flylady. For those of you who were born organized (I most definitely WAS NOT), you don't need Flylady. I do. The site is Flylady.net. The whole premise is baby steps. You didn't get disorganized in a day and you aren't going to get organized again in a day, either, but by taking small steps and making them routine, eventually the whole thing comes together. I am ashamed to say that I have fallen off the Flylady wagon these past couple of weeks, but while I was using it, believe it or not, my house was actually in order and company-ready anytime. Close your mouth now - flies might get in. Yes, it was hard for me to believe, too. I very highly recommend Flylady for anyone who needs a little nudge in the organization department.

The weekend before last Jerry and I went to the local farmer's market where I purchased a flat of herbs that I chose from the offerings. My bounty included two lavender plants, two tomato plants, two thyme plants, an oregano plant, a chive plant, lemon basil, lime basil (smells wonderful!), and regular basil, ginger mint, lemon mint, two rosemary plants, two sage plants, and a tarragon plant. We bought them on Saturday and I had intended to plant them Sunday, but on Sunday we unexpectedly ended up helping Hilda get ready to move. This is the lady who has lived in front of us for 10 years. We were leaving for Delaware first thing Monday morning, so my plants never made it into the ground. Then this past week I was home, but I still didn't get them planted. Now we will be leaving again for Delaware first thing tomorrow morning, so I had to make time to get them planted, as they were all spilling out of their pots. Something else I need to make time for is furniture rearranging. Hilda gave us furniture she couldn't take with her to her new home, but, like my plants, we haven't gotten it "planted" yet, either!

So, now I guess I'd better get going and get things together for tomorrow morning. The plants are all planted (some in the ground, some in pots on the deck). Jerry likes to leave early. And by early, I mean EARLY. Like 3:30 AM early. *YAWN* No one should be up at that hour. Anyway, off to do stuff!

Gotta Love This Place!

I do not claim this county as my hometown. No way, no how! Read on and you'll see why. (Taken from news account of local rescue squad).

A Complete Mess in Huntingtown

By Chief Jonathan Riffe
May 14, 2007

On Monday May 14, 2007 at approximately 1330 hours, a tanker truck departed the Prince Frederick McDonald's with a load of used cooking oil. However, the driver accidentally left open one of the valves causing him to slowly dump his load of oil for several miles causing a huge hazard. At Route 4 and Plum Point Road, he stopped at the traffic light, leaving a huge pile of slick oil. Once green, he continued on. About the same time, 911 dispatched the local for Company 6 for the wash down bringing Squad 6 (Sgt Kerns). While in route, a car attempting to make the turn into Plum Point Road hit the "icy" roadway and slammed into another car. The call was upgraded to an auto accident bringing Chief 6 (Riffe), Chief 6B (Montgomery), Chief 6C (Hayes), Squad 6 (already responding), Engine 61 (S/O Collins), Ambulance 68 (Hayward) and Prince Frederick Ambulance 48. Units arrived to find several miles of Route 4 covered in grease. A total of 3 patients were transported to Calvert Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The crew from Squad 6 and Engine 61 closed down the outside lane awaiting State Highway with several loads of sand. Emergency Management was also notified due to the run-off in a nearby creek. Squad 6 remained on the scene for several hours assisting. Chief 6C held the Huntingtown command. On a side-note, the driver was found by authorities at the Dunkirk McDonald's awaiting to pick up another load of used oil, but found that he had an empty load from previous.
Units:
Chief 6, Chief 6B, Chief 6C, Squad 6, Engine 61, Ambulance 68

*Sigh* Only in Calvert County.........

I am HERE! I am HERE! I am HERE!

For those of you who aren't into Dr. Seuss, that's from Horton Hears A Who. (Yes, it's WE are here, we are here, we are here - but you get the point). For those of you who ARE into Dr. Seuss - beezlenut. You will know what that means. For those of you who just think I'm a little, well, off, beezlenut to you too!

Hey - I was under extreme pressure from family members to write. Don't blame me!

Actually, I don't have time right now to write, but I will write - soon! In the meantime - beezlenut. And that's all.

Blogging is like a chore. Some days you feel like doing it, other days you don't. But when you don't do it, at first you feel pressure like you should be doing it, then gradually you get over it and time just s-l-i-d-e-s on by. But you're always glad when it's done, and you realize afterwards that it wasn't so bad after all!

We have been back from Delaware for a couple of weeks now. Jerry has gone back though, to finish up a job. He worked there on Saturday and needed to be back there Monday, so he had originally planned to come home last night (Saturday) and go back early Monday morning. Well, he stopped to put fuel in his truck last night while we were on the phone talking, and he exclaimed about how $20.00 only bought him 7 gallons of diesel. That's when we figured we'd better do the math for him coming home for one day. Turns out it would cost him $80.00 round trip in fuel. Now, don't misunderstand - I love my husband dearly and I miss him terribly, but $80.00 is a week's worth of groceries, for heaven's sake! I didn't tell him that, of course! I left the decision up to him, but in the end we decided that he'd be home soon enough, so I'll be seeing him about mid-week, with $80.00 intact.

Some time next week we'll be going to visit an Amish farmer in St. Mary's County. The pick-up point for the co-op where I get my milk is quite a ways down the road. Since Tom had class on Thursdays, it was right on his way to stop and get it on his way home. Well, this class semester he doesn't have class on Thursdays. The thought of going 30 or so miles down route 4 at rush hour in the evenings does not thrill me, to say the least. I had to go to the bank at rush hour last week for Jerry, and I came home a quivering mass of mush. Route 4 is terrifying at rush hour! People were actually passing each other on the right shoulder of the road, and twice on the way home people cut across the road from intersections and the entire bumper-to-bumper lines of traffic had to screech to a halt to avoid a pileup. Not once, but twice! I realize that I have my thing about driving, but this was just NUTS!

Anyway, I wrote to the coordinator of the co-op and asked if there was any need of a host pickup point down in this end of the county, as I would be willing to do that. What that means is that I provide a place for the delivery driver to drop off the coolers with the farm goods and then people pick up their stuff, leave their checks in the bag provided, and then I mail the checks to the Amish farmer the next day (and I also get a discount on my stuff - that doesn't hurt!) I don't even have to be here when the food is dropped off or picked up by the co-op members. I just need to get the checks in the mail the next day (or have a neighbor do it for me if I'm away). What I was trying to do was avoid having to travel so far just to get my milk, but I didn't know what I would be getting into. She wrote back that it was such a coincidence that I asked that question, because she had met and was working with a farmer in St. Mary's County who wants to start selling his products (because the group has gotten too big for just the one farmer in Pennsylvania) but they didn't know of a pickup point that would be convenient for him and potential customers. You guessed it. I kind of walked into that one. They are leaving it up to me to go and meet him and see what he has to offer and discuss prices and such with him and then the coordinator of the group will post his item list (once I get it) on the co-op board and make it known that there is a group that will service the southern end of this county and St. Mary's, and that the pickup point will be here. Jerry said he would go with me to talk to him (he's the business person of the family!) Since the farmer is Amish, he doesn't have a phone but he told the coordinator who met with him that I could come by the farm any Monday or Friday. It feels kind of rude to just show up like that, but Jerry said that's how they do business. He and his uncle get their chainsaws worked on and sharpened by an Amish man in St. Mary's and his uncle has had some furniture made and Jerry has gone with him to see about that, and he says that is how it's done. Without phones, they expect you to drop by. Well, except Sundays, of course!

Whew! See? Blogging is therapeutic. It seems overwhelming just thinking about it, but before you know it you're blogging on and on and on and on and ............

Guess what Andy and I did on Thursday when it was 73 degrees outside?

Guess who Andy and I visited on Friday!

Well, we're still in Delaware. I have posted some pictures of the snow we had a few days ago. Andy and I really enjoyed our walk through the neighborhood that day! We will be going home one day this week - not sure which day just yet, but sometime this week! I hope the pets haven't forgotten us!

Andy and I have been having a good time here, though. On Friday we took the day off from work and school to just go everywhere we wanted and spend the day out. Can you believe it?! I'm actually driving places here! We went to all three outlet centers, a different shopping center, an EB Games (for Andy, of course!), and then we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch. Andy had the veal parmesan and I had stuffed shells. GOOD STUFF!!! We were tired when we got back, but we had a great day. Tomorrow we plan to explore the library here, and I'd still like to go to the state park where they have the towers that were built for lookouts during World War II. Since we just happen to be studying WWII in history right now, I don't want to leave without doing that. Actually, the weather is supposed to be nice this week so we may head down to the beach again on this visit. I don't mind driving to the beach at this time of year because the parking is free and there's hardly any traffic, but in the summertime we'll take the bus like we did last year. Parking is expensive during the summer, and you're lucky if you can even find a space. There's a bus stop almost right at the entrance of the community here so it's easy to ride wherever you want to go.

Anyway, off to clean and finish laundry. It is easy to clean this place - there's hardly any stuff, (i.e. clutter) here! In the almost three weeks we have been here, I have learned that there is probably A LOT of stuff I can do without at home! The square footage of the trailer here is about the same as the square footage of the upstairs of our house at home, so in theory I should be able to clean them in the same amount of time, right? No, not when there's a ton of CLUTTER to work around! Well, off to do stuff!

Update!

Shortly after I posted yesterday, it started to snow. It didn't amount to much, about a half inch, but it was still very nice to see. Andy and I took a long walk through the neighborhood in it. At home Tom still got quite a bit more snow than we did, but I was happy to see any at all.

I just noticed my counter at the bottom of the blog page. Evidently when the new blog format switched over, it also began my counter back at zero, so what it's showing now is only actually the count for about the last month or so. Oh, well. The map with locations of visitors next to it has kept a little bit better count. I noticed that a couple of days ago I had visitors from China and Australia. I can't imagine that my ramblings about my boring home life would be interesting reading for an international audience, though!

This week has really gone by quickly. We have been in Delaware this week and will probably still be here for a while longer. Jerry is working on a job here and Andy and I tagged along. This time, though, I brought my old computer (yes, the 747) and my work machines and so I'm working every day from here. It's not really a vacation, since between my work and Andy's schooling (yes, I made him bring his schoolbooks), our days are pretty much like they are at home (busy!), but at least we get to see Jerry in the evenings. I will be leaving this computer here so that in the future I can just pack up my work machines, which isn't too much trouble, and work from here so I can tag along whenever I want to. Andy and I have been making time for a walk each day, though. It's nice being able to walk around without fearing for my life - well, unless we walk on Route 1! The afternoon walks chase away the sleepies that seem to descend on me around 1:00 in the afternoon. It's very hard to take long walks at home because even though you can walk on the individual streets, to get from one to the other you have to go out on the main road which is usually VERY busy, and there are no sidewalks.

I talked with Tom not too long ago, (he is babysitting the pets at home), and he said that there are at least four inches of snow on the ground there, and it's still coming down. Then Jerry just called from where he is working in Dover to ask if it was snowing here, because it was there. All we are having here in Rehoboth Beach is rain and a little ice. I am the only one that really likes snow, but I'm the only one not getting to see any today!