Friday, February 15, 2013

The Day After

GREETINGS!

Here it is the day after Valentine's Day and all is well!  Two of my daughters have/had wedding anniversaries close to Valentine's Day, and I wish them many more.  As for me and my husband, we celebrated the day with a "Happy Valentine's Day" in the morning and that was it!  Well, we did cook a "special" supper.............T-bone steaks and little lobster tails and finished off a bottle of wine we opened sometime before Thanksgiving!  The steak was tough and the lobster was about 4 small bites.  The wine was good, but I think next year we'll just go out somewhere!  :)  Must be a sign of getting older!  ha

I hope you all made the most of the special day, and had a great time.


                                      


I should tell you about our two bottles of wine - 1 Black Currant and 1 Black Cherry.   Back in September of October we went to our favorite place to buy pecans.  (See the red bag below.)  They were the same price, $20 for 10 pounds, and you can choose cracked, semi-cracked or almost shelled, all for the same price.  Just depends on how much work you want to do!  Anyway, when we got to the "farm" there was a new sign saying "Briar Patch Winery".  Needless to say, our interest was peaked and so we entered in to the building that previously was a big pecan operation area, and there was the "micro" winery!  I fell in love with the name and label on the bottles - Briar Patch Winery in where else but Briartown, Oklahoma!

The couple that own the winery are so friendly.  We got the complete "tour" of the winery and of course sat at the tasting bar to sample all the different kinds.  It all started because the doctor told the owner that he should have a glass of wine each night for health reasons; so he decided to make his own!  I don't know how many different kinds he has made, but there are several - one even with onions!  And he has decorated the inside of the old metal building "barn" so darned cute I couldn't believe it was the same place!  They have had several people come in wanting to rent the space for meetings, weddings, etc.  Some world travelers have even told them their wine was as good as some French wines they had in France!  And the best part is...........it's only $13 a bottle!

All in all, it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  You just never know what you're going to find!
 
Today was a good Friday.  The only had to do thing was change sheets, then it was off to Checotah for chicken feed and dog food and a couple items from WalMart.  And of course a stop at Boomerang for a greasy 1/2 pound hamburger and fries for Ronnie and a real Reuben and onion rings for me.  Don't have to cook tonight!  :)  Fill the gas tank in the van to the tune of $3.49 a gal, and stop at the eye doctor's to fix one of the nose pieces on my glasses and then to the post office to mail a bill. 
 
And I think that's all for today!  Until next time, take care...........
 
 

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

School Days

GREETINGS!

Today, a Tuesday, is back to school day.  I may have told you I am volunteering at one of the elementary schools here.  I go every Tuesday and Wednesday morning for about 3 hours.  I "work" for the 2 second grade teachers, tutoring some students in reading, spelling, and vocabulary exercises.  It is really a rewarding "job".  Most of the kids are eager to learn, and I think it gives them a new perspective to work with someone other than a parent or teacher!

After the tutoring time is up, I do some copying of the next week's lessons for both teachers.  This usually takes about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes.  I think it is the one thing that really helps the teachers as far as time savings go.  This year they had to start using the computer for ALL phases of teaching; planning lessons, grade keeping, attendance keeping, grade reporting, etc.  And it is taking time for them to "learn the ropes" so to speak! 

This is the front door to the school, which was build in 1960 or 62!  About the time I graduated from high school.....................

 
 
This is looking down to the right from the front doors.  See all the window A/C units!  This was built before central air I guess, and before 110+ was common!  Can you see the cinder block construction?
 
 
This is one of the 2nd grade classrooms I work in.  Very neat and clean!
 


In Oklahoma each small town has its own school system.  So in another wing of this school is the high school area, and one wing for the lunch room, library, kitchen, etc.  The "middle" school kids are in there somewhere too.  The towns may only be 1 or 2 miles apart, but they have their own school!   And sports teams also.  Very interesting.

I must say I have a new respect for teachers since volunteering.  These teachers have 24 students each, with no other help besides what little I give them.  And the things they are teaching!  Some things I don't think I learned until 5th grade or more.  How times change.........

The flu bug hit the school hard; 1/5th of the school was absent at one point and they closed the school for a day to disinfect it!  That sounds good, but they could not disinfect the kids!  I took a couple weeks off during the worst part just to be safe.

So, if you are looking for something to do, think about volunteering at a school near you.  It's a lot of fun and the teachers surely need help!  Until next time, take care and be safe.

Monday, February 4, 2013

GREETINGS!

I assume everyone survivd the big Super Bowl Sunday!  It was not a big deal at our house, in fact I didn't even know who won until this morning.  Time was, when I was back home in Washington state, when I was a football fan (Seattle Seahawks), but not so much anymore.  I am rather up to my eyebrows with outrageous salaries for big boys  running around playing with a ball and far out commercials - usually with some sexual inuendos - trying to get you to buy something you don't want or need!  Oh, get off my soap box...........

On our trip to Branson we crossed over in to Arkansas and went North to Missouri.  That entailed going through part of the Ozark Mountains, which are beautiful.  And in these pictures we were actually in the clouds.  It looks like fog, but it was clouds!

 
 
I guess I didn't snap the pictures when we were in the midst of the clouds, but you can see how pretty the mountains are.


We had Thanksgiving 2012 at our friends Kathy and John's again.  I love sitting out in their little sun room looking out over the valley.  There is always way to much food, and we eat way to much!  But what a blessing to have such good friends to share the holiday with.

 
This was my apple/cranberry pie contribution to Thanksgiving dinner.  My favorite!!
 
 
And these are my new Gypsy boots I got for working in the yard come Spring time.  Love em.  But I had to buy some heavy socks to wear with them so they weren't so loose.  Got them on sale at Atwoods and I thought they were a good deal at $80.00!
 
 
I guess that's enough reminiscing of the recent past for today!  It's almost time to fix supper - grilled pork steaks, salad and baked sweet potatoes.  Our game day fare yesterday was a delicious turkey vegetable soup I made.  It's always nice to have a pot of soup or chili or some such on the burner to help yourself to whenever hunger strikes!  That's one of my favorite ways to eat on a Sunday, game or no.

I'm going back to my volunteer job at the elementary school tomorrow.  I took a couple weeks off hoping the flu epidemic would subside some.  We've had 13 people die here in Oklahoma.  And the school in Porum had 1/5 of its students out with the flu.  They closed school one day and disinfected the whole school...........problem is, they couldn't disinfect the kids too!  Even though I had my flu shot I'm still leary of contacting the germs..........  Wish me luck!  Oh, I forgot to mention that Rooster George is no more.  He was such a sorry looking sight we had to put him out of his misery the other day.  I'm sure the 3 little hens are adjusting quite well...........

Until next time, take care.  See you soon.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Random Stuff Over the Months

GREETINGS!

Since it was such a long time between September and January postings, I have a few pictures of things that were going on.   They may not be interesting to you, but at the time I saw some reason to snap a picture!  :)  I'll share a few of them and try to make a meaningful caption!  lol

But first:  I've been having a hard time this past week with my Salli dog.  She had been throwing up almost as soon as she eats.  It had been going on for over a week so I finally took her to the Vet last Monday.  The put her out to check her throat and see if there were any foreign objects in it, took some xrays of something, did some blood work, etc.  All came back normal!  So they gave her some pill for vomiting and kep her for 3 days observing.  I brought her home on Thursday with a packet of pills for controling the vomiting and a bottle of liquid worm medicine to give her for 5 days.  She doesn't seem to have these stomach worms that you can't see, but the med is a precaution just in case.  Anyway, I give her a pill 30 minutes before she eats, twice a day, and cut her food down to 1/2 a cup each time.   And if she eats the smallest bit w/o the pill, up it comes!   It worked for awhile, but not always.  And sometimes, like this morning, she won't eat at all!  The Vet has no idea what the problem is, nor do I.  But I'm getting tired of cleaning up puke.  Although it's better than cleaning up poop!  She doesn't act sick in any other way.  Sure is a mystery.  I don't know how long this can go on...........  So if any one has had a similar experience please let me know.

And then there is my rooster, George...........he has no feathers on his breast at all!!  I mean they are all plucked out!  And lots of his tail feathers are gone and his butt is exposed!  And the weather is freezing at night and not very warm during the day.  I think George is stressed out or something.  He is so funny looking, and fun to watch.  He struts around like he's King of the Road!  The 3 hens seem okay though.  Today might be George's last day................

So here are some pictures of the past few months...................

This is the first egg from my chickens on Dec. 29th.  I'd waited months!!
 


 
 
 
People were surprised that they would start laying the end of December, when the days are darker and shorter, since the hens like more daylight to do their thing!  And for awhile it was just one hen doing the laying @ one every other day.  Sometimes there would be 3 every other day (busy hen) and now there are more than one laying (I only have 3) and it averages 1 egg a day.  So we save em up and then have omelets or fried eggs/breakfast for supper!
 
 
Here is a picture of Rooster George with his chest hanging out!  the white area in front if his bare skinned breast!
 

 
This is Buffy, one of my 3 hens.  The other two are Lucy and Ethyl.
 
 
 
This morning I have done up the dishes from yesterday (we went out to supper last night) and frosted a cake I made yesterday.  Now I guess it's time to go vaccuum and mop the kitchen.  Plan on making a nice pot of soup today with some ground turkey and veggies.  Busy, busy!
 
So, have a great weekend and I'll blog some more next week.  Hope you don't get to bored with all the football stuff on TV tomorrow!  :)    Until next time, take care.