How to Take a Vacation.....or Not!

Near the end of July, JR and I took a little vacation through the beautiful hills and mountains of Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.  I have only one thing to say about leaving on vacation......make sure you are over the "intestinal bug" that previously kept you anchored to the toilet for three days.  And make sure you go to the doctor before leaving on vacation just to make sure you don't have some kind of parasite that needs medication.  Of course, you can be a complete "air head" like me and determine you are well enough to travel only to be hit in the gut four days into the trip with the same intestinal problem that plagued you previously.  Needless to say, my camera was not utilized as much as I would have wished since you can only creatively photograph so many restrooms before going crazy!!  I did manage to take a few pictures so here are a few highlights from our "vacation that wasn't".......(Yes, I know this post is nearly 3 months delayed but so goes the crazy life on a farm!)

I love the excitement of preparing for a trip....I kind of go crazy researching places that we might want to stop at just in case we are passing nearby......

This picture shows the location of Cabela stores - a must stop if you are in the area - even if you are not into hunting or fishing.  The displays are fabulous!  I keep a picture on my phone -  just in case.

I also photograph images of intersections just in case we have lost our way or need a place to eat and sleep....This is as important as keeping a box in the car stocked with necessities....paper towels, toilet paper, cups, alka seltza, snacks, band aids, water.....and the list goes on and on.  I am nothing if not prepared!!

Once on the road, I photograph our rental vehicle just in case it's stolen.  Then I send a picture to Meme T and Papa G and say, "Hey, look what we are driving!"  JR and I usually rent a vehicle on long road trips so we don't have to worry about breaking down a million miles from home!

Whenever we stop for gas or food, or just to stretch our legs, I peruse the souvenir shops looking for the perfect gift.  I definitely had to tuck this shirt in our suitcase for "The Little Cowboy"!   

  

JR tried to tuck this pretty blue tractor in the suitcase but it wouldn't fit!!  And yes, I have a file full of tractor pictures that JR contemplated purchasing.    

I take tons of pictures while we are driving just in case we get lost. If we do have to backtrack, I can always look back and say....."Yes, we have passed this way before".... (How poetic is that?!) This picture shows the  Daniel Boone Parkway in West Virginia - a rather desolate and isolated mountainous area. (Which comes in handy if you have to pull off and use the "porta potty" in a hurry - but no, I won't go there!)

Here we stopped to stretch our legs on top of a hillside one late afternoon.  

Beautiful blue skies!  Maryland has some picturesque farming country.....

.....as does Pennsylvania.  This picture was taken not so far from the family farm where we stopped to look at a tractor.....and purchased the darn thing!!  And that's all I am going to say about that except somehow that darned tractor was going to have to be shipped to Alabama!   

This was a quaint, little town squeezed in among the Pennsylvania farms.

This picture was taken in a nearly deserted town in western West Virginia.   The streets were extremely narrow and some porches hung over the streets.  Most homes and storefronts were empty with few cars in sight.  We wound up in this bygone area by taking a wrong turn, and then another wrong turn, and then another wrong turn until we were totally lost and turned around!!  However, this "ghost town" once boasted over 30,000 people but due to the decline in mining, now holds only about 3,500 folks of which 55 are attorneys.  ???  (This was told to us by an "old timer" sitting on one of the porches that precariously edged out over the road.  Scared me to death to see those folks sitting on those rotting decks waiting for the BIG CRASH!)

Having watched the Hatfield and McCoy miniseries on TV, nothing would do but for us to hunt down the graveyard where Devil Ansel Hatfield was buried.  This part of West Virginia was once wild and wicked!

No vehicles of any kind were allowed to enter the Hatfield cemetery.  No golf carts, no four-wheelers, no jeeps, no anything with wheels!!

A peek into the past....

I imagine, at one time, this creek was the main water source for this tiny community.

The trek to the cemetery was up a steep, gravelly path...I know this path does not look steep but trust me, it was!

And surprise!  What did we discover when we got to the top?  - NOTHING!!  Only then did we find out we had to go up an even steeper, gravelly path for another ten or twenty miles!!  Or so it seemed.    

Finally, after a climb that makes Mt. Everest look like pea soup, we reached the top.  No, I should say, I reached the top.  JR decided that my pictures would satisfy his curiosity and that "Old Devil" was not worth the sweat and tears!

There is OLD DEVIL HATFIELD himself, carved in stone, presiding over his cemetery.

In addition to the main cemetery, several beaten paths led off  through the woods with gravestones sprinkled here and there.  Might I add that this is not a place you would want to wander about on a dark, stormy night.  Or any night for that matter!!

I climbed a bit further up the hill - I mean mountain - to snap this photo.

Alas, as I started down the mountain side, there was JR waiting patiently in the shade.  Did I mention the temperature was about 95 degrees?  It was!!  Only part of me made it back to our vehicle.  The rest melted and will forever be part of  "Old Devil's" cemetery.

As we descended "Mt. Everest Jr.", the rooftop of an old, abandoned church could be seen to the north.  Maybe it was to the south.  Or the east.  I was a bit lightheaded by then and gasping for water!  Anyway, legend has it that "Devil Ansel" became a preacher in his later years trying to right the wrongs of his family history.  

I hope someday the old church is restored and music once again rings out across the mountain tops.

And this my friends, is what I ate once we entered Alabama territory two days later!  Not being able to eat for the past four days gave me a powerful appetite.  I promised myself that if I made it home to Alabama without having to make a "quick stop" within the past 6 hours, I was going to eat whatever I could stuff in my mouth!  I had been dreaming about a McDonald's "frappe" and a chicken sandwich.  Pure delicious junk food!!  But hey, I had them hold the mayo and it was GRILLED CHICKEN so it didn't count against me!

Coming soon: Our yearly trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  Yes, it is October!!  That wonderful month when the heat and humidity migrates further south and the air is full of autumn scents.  

Hunting for the perfect pumpkin,
Dee Dee

July Heat!

The dog days of August arrived early this year.  A whole month early!  July was HOT!  Maybe I have already said that but I am going to say it again.  JULY WAS HOT!  AND HUMID!  Nevertheless,  life on the farm/ranch goes on regardless of the weather.  On one such hot, humid, early evening, JR and I set out to pile up some brush and pick up some big rocks that were interfering with the flow of things in the pasture.

Along the way we met these three, nosy beauties.  They are so, so, so camera shy! That would be, from left to right, Gypsy, Snowball, and Pluto Two.  

Something I learned pretty quick living on the farm -- brush piles are never ending.  No sooner do we trim and pick up dead limbs when....WHOOSH!....another wind storm makes an appearance and we do it all over again.

ROCKS!  What can I say about rocks?  They make my heart go "pitter patter"! (They really, really do!  Over exertion will do that!)   They are everywhere!  Pick them up, throw them in a ditch, and like magic they are back in the fields!  Caution - Rocks wreck havoc on equipment so they have to be picked up frequently.  

These were some nasty looking briers......and some nosy cows and donkeys!

Nothing like a little bit of "sugar" to end a working day!

4th of July!!

We all gathered at Mama T's and Papa G's to celebrate the Stars and Stripes!

Papa G's daughter, Tosh, contributed this delicious cake to go along with grilled hot dogs, baked beans, and chips.....

Papa G's parents brought homemade ice cream....chocolate and cherry!!  I died and went to heaven right then and there!  What could be better than eating a chocolate covered cherry in the form of a frozen treat??

Some of the family ate inside.......

Some of the family ate outside......

Some of the family ate triple helpings of ice cream......and grinned about it!!

And some of the family ate ice cream, cake and cookies!!!  And lived to tell about it!!

Some of the family went to the fireworks show.....and some of the family snapped a picture from the TV!! 

BIRTHDAY WISHES!

A few days after the 4th we celebrated Pooh's 23rd birthday!  Definitely some gray hairs showing up!

It doesn't get any better than chocolate cake and ice cream.....just ask the Little Cowboy and his mama!

A FEW FAVORITE PICTURES

Sometimes, umbrellas are better than a whole mountain of toys......

They bring out that big smile on a damp, drizzly day!

And then there is always finger painting to help wile away the time....

The messier the better!!  

Mama T, Big A, and Barsha hunting for a new born calf - This was Big A's first calf born to one of his cows.  Big A is one proud "daddy"!!

After much hunting the mama cow was found with her hungry, new born calf!

It never fails to amaze me how a cow's newborn can walk and start nursing within an hour after birth.  Makes me dizzy just to think about it! (Think about it - what if when children were born they jumped up and started running around the house all the while looking for a bottle of milk - Horrors!)

And then there was the day the Mule wouldn't start while we were visiting Meme T and  Papa G.  Really, we weren't a bit worried knowing that this budding mechanic would have us up and running in no time!  

And now it is August.  Where did summer go?  School has started back and vacations are but a memory.  Ahhhh, but the summer heat lingers on.  

Dee Dee

Father's Day and Blackberry Picking!

June is one of my favorites months.  Fresh fruits and vegetables are plentiful.....strawberries, watermelon, blackberries, tomatoes, cucumbers....an endless list of nutritional bliss!  Yes the days are hot but the late afternoons and evenings are splendid as puffy clouds and cool breezes herald the onset of twilight - most of the time.  If that's not enough to put you in the summer mood,  along comes Father's Day!  I LOVE Father's Day!!  No fancy gifts involved. The guys in my family are easy to please - just feed them and they are good to go.  So, what better way to make the day special than to share a watermelon at Meme T's and Papa G's on a late summer afternoon.....all dogs included!!.

This Little Cowboy knows how to chow down on a piece of watermelon.  (Barsha, one of the family dogs, waits patiently for the rind.  That dog is beyond goofy!)

Forget the fancy knives and spoons....just grab it and attack!

This picture reminds me of my childhood when the "relatives" from New York City would visit my family.  Often we would grill hot dogs outside and eat watermelon. (Sweet, sweet memories) The "relatives" always made the day special and fun!!  My three brothers and I tried our best to outdo each other to gain their attention.  Sometimes we landed ourselves in Big Trouble!!  Let me rephrase that.....MOST of the time we got into trouble......Ummm.....maybe ALL the time!! (I still carry the scars!)  Regardless, we loved when the "relatives" brought a bit of excitement to our seemingly dull childhood world. (That fluffy, gentle, white, hairy, giant of an animal is Molly, sniffing around for a handout!)

Moving on,.... As breezes ruffled the leaves and shadows lengthened, Big A, Pooh, and the Little Cowboy worked up a game of softball.....

The Little Cowboy is getting quite good at hitting the ball!  Big A makes quite a terrific catcher and Pooh, as a pitcher, can't be beat!  The "spectators" weren't so bad either!!

A FEW DAYS LATER.......

BLACKBERRY PICKING TIME!!

Yes, it was a hot, hot, hot, humid day, but a promise is a promise, is a promise, so...,

.....with visions of blackberry cobbler in MY  head, JR, the Little Cowboy, and the "crazy one", which would be me, headed out, during the heat of the day, to search the meadows for......

.....big, juicy, ripe blackberries!   We found some!!

Picking blackberries is hot, prickly, itchy, sticky work!

"Hmmmm.  There's lots of blackberries in this here pink bucket."

"Dee Dee won't miss one....or two....or three....or....

...four....or five...or...etc. etc.  Uh Oh! "

"There all gone, Dee Dee!  Let's go pick some more!"

(Now, as I am about to melt into a puddle of sweat, I am thinking to myself......Seriously?  I don't think so...not today....the temperature is 95 degrees and rising.  This here "crazy one" had a decision to make.  It didn't take me long - maybe a total of 2 seconds - pick more blackberries and bake a blackberry cobbler or wait until there is snow on the ground and make snow cream??

"No more blackberry picking?  That's okay... I'll just play the clown for awhile!"

("Ain't" it great that kids are immune to hot temps?)

Back at the house.....

A dip in the pool to cool off.....

.....while JR hurried to the shade of the barn and I sat in front of the fan, dug briers from my fingers, and tried to breathe!!

Once our body temps cooled back down to a comfortable 101 degrees, we met at the barn to grab an ice cream cone before delivering the Little Cowboy back home.

"No way Pappy!  You are NOT eating my ice cream cone!"


Once back at the Little Cowboys's home, visions of blackberries and ice cream were quickly forgotten when ........

............a friend with his horse, on his way to check his cattle, made an unexpected stop. 

No way was he getting away without the Little Cowboy getting in some "giddy-up" time!

And so life goes.....from watermelon, to baseball, to blackberries, to horses!

Dee Dee

On A Mission!!

The Little Cowboy and a friend visited JR and me one afternoon on the farm a few days ago.  Over the years, I have learned that when little boys want something there is NO stopping them!!  They do not comprehend the words - "ruin your supper".  I may as well have been speaking German, or Greek, or Italian.  These two little guys were determined to get to the barn and secure a banana pop no matter what the cost and before being stopped!

 "Hurry!  Hold my hand and I'll show you the way."

 "Uh Oh - I think we've been spotted!"

 "I'll run on ahead real fast and meet you at the barn."

 "It won't take me but a second to get the lock off the door and grab a few banana pops from the freezer.  Then we can hide out with Pappy!"

 "Pappy said we could have all the banana pops we wanted!"

 "Mmmmm.  These banana pops sure are good!"

 "I'm going back to get me a vanilla ice cream cone before Dee Dee spots me.  Shhhh - don't tell."

"Ooops!  CAUGHT AGAIN!  DARN IT!"

Loving little boys, summer, and a freezer full of frozen treats!

Love,

Dee Dee