I've Gone Country A blog about a city girl learning a whole new world

I am not sure who is in charge of making sure plants are labeled correctly.  I mean….. is there a label posting person….I have never seen that as a job title….but…somebody must do it.  I suppose he may have been sick the day he was supposed to label the blackberry bushes I bought a couple of years ago.

These were supposed to be “THORNLESS”….they are NOT….I repeat…”NOT THORNLESS”.  THEY hurt…they really, really hurt!!!

I will say that since I picked another 8 cups of blackberries today I am otherwise VERY pleased with the bushes.  It has been amazing to see so many berries this season.  And it looks as if there are more to come.

Saturday I decided to go for it….and make Blackberry Jelly.  After all how hard could it be.  I googled a little here and there.  Then I purchased my little water bath canner pot.  I got some cute little jelly jars, lids, rings, labels, pectin and a canning book…just to make sure I do it right.

I was all geared up to do this…..then I read that I needed jelly bag, or cheesecloth to strain my berries if I were going to make jelly.  Of course that is why I was making Jelly and not Jam, because I didn’t want those little seeds.

Saturday morning….I go back to another store…because the store I had bought all this other from…. didn’t have that stuff.    I finally found a package that contained cheesecloth. WOO HOO….

Back to the house….now I was ready to start.

My Canning book warns me that the canner shouldn’t be used on a glass top stove.

O.K.  so I guess people don’t can much anymore….because there are a lot of people with glass top stoves!

I decided that I could still do this….I could use the stove at the cabin.  It is a gas stove.   Now I got it….so……I start loading up my stuff.

Berries, Canning pot, jars…sterilized…trying to keep them sterilized in the move….fun….cheesecloth,pot for berries to cook in, lids for jars, rings for jars, pectin and sugar.

Almost all loaded now….as I bring the sugar out to the car….

Nooooo….. it drops….and spills all over the garage floor.  Hey, that is alright….at least it didn’t spill in the car!

So….back to the pantry…to see if there happens to be anymore sugar.  It is going to take a good bit….hopefully there is more than what is in the little sugar bowl.

Alright…I found just enough…1/2 cup to spare.  YEAH!!!!!

Back in the car….up the hill, unload the car…..

Light stove…..

huh?……doesn’t want to light on one side…

that’s  ok…..I will just light the other side.

I can use the two burners on the one side….no problem…

Canner water boiling.  Berries on the other eye and off we go.  Oh, but wait…that big ole canner is hogging the both stove eyes.

ARGH!!!!!

Finally get the canner water boiling…move it over cook my berries add all my ingredients …..and bring it to the second boil…the one they say you do for a minute, a rapid boil….where you can’t keep up with the foam that builds..and builds, and builds

It’s coming along….woo hoo it smells so good.  Oh my….it throws me back to the kitchen helping Mama as a kid.  Wow, this is GREAT.   Oh, my this is all worth it….WAIT…WHOA…WHOA….WHOA>>>>>>>

HMMMM.  Now I have a really nice spill going on …..the cook top in flooded in berry juice.

That’s ok….I got the minute of the hard boil in…so now it is time to fill the jars…..

I just have to put the canner back on the eye, because I am about to have to boil the jars in it….

Alrighty….Jars are filled….sure is a little trickier than I remember when I was helping mom.  It is like I needed another set of arms to do all that pouring and leaving a 1/4 inch head space and wiping the jars off so the lids will seal…..and ouch…ouch…ouch….those jars are HOT!!!!

MMMMMM, but it sure smells good.

I just can’t bear to look though……The canner is hot and ready for the jars…..but the sticky berry juice that has spilled all over the cook top is cooking as well.  That is why it smells heavenly.  It has that caramelized look now.

Oh….well….I am almost done….

It is at this point that I think….OH…I was going to take pictures ….

But as you can tell…..there was no room for picture taking in the midst of all my MESS!

The actual process didn’t take long at all.  It was just one of those days I probably should have stopped when I didn’t have the cheesecloth.  And especially when the sugar dropped.  You know sometimes there are RED FLAGS.

So….after about an hour of applying hot cloths onto the cooked on sugar/berry juice….to melt it off the stove top…..

I got home

I told Billy…hey, I got the Jelly made.

You did…where is it.

It’s at the cabin…setting up.  BUT….. I brought you a little bit of the foamy stuff to try!!!

great….He tried it….

it’s….. alright…

I looked at him with that….don’t go there look….

He said…I mean…… all I can taste is that wheat thin…you put it on…..!!!!

That was the end of that discussion for the night.

Much later we did discussed further things we might want to do with the berries.

Today….I made blackberry Jam.

He likes the seeds…

The process went a good bit smoother, a few snags…but nothing major.

I even got a few pictures of the process along the way.  This is really just proof that I actually made Jam and Jelly in the days to come.  Nobody is going to believe that I made it from scratch.  Including picking the berries from our very own bush!  Because by then….the scratches from all over my arms and hands will be gone.

so there it is!  A thing of beauty!  Eight Jars…..

I really do hope he will like HIS Jam.

Because I am perfectly happy with my Jelly!

I see some hot buttered biscuits coming into the VERY near future!

Today was the first day of Vacation Bible School at our Church.  I  help here and there with decorations.

This is the Great Barrier Reef wall…..I can hang things….but…..

We have a lady in our church who has amazing skills.  She can actually build props, making things that will have your chin dropping.

These planes are hanging from the ceiling….

she made about 6 of them….each one is about 5 to 6  feet long.   Incredible.

I’m sure the Kids LOVED them!

They meet here every morning before class and again for a Worship time, at the Worship Rally Hangar ….learning lots of new songs, before they dismiss each day.

There were Recreations at the Grand Canyon, Snacks at the Paricutin Volcano, Music at the Matterhorn, Crafts at the Great Barrier Reef, Bible Study at Victoria Falls and Missions under the Northern Lights.

They will see God’s power through these natural wonders.

While decorating, I have been in and out of the church a lot this week.  But this morning…it hit me….

Have you ever had your heart so full that it runs out of your eyes and down your cheeks !!!!!

Probably a female thing….I don’t know.  I just know that I was overcome with emotion  as I thought about all three of my grandchildren together….learning about Jesus….under one roof.  Seeing each other in the halls and being filled with excitement.

I have to admit…sometimes….I let task burden me and zap my enthusiasm.

Today….I was humbled….as I thought that children were on their way….teachers were in place… to train them….and love them.  Teachers that have kept the enthusiasm….the excitement and were ready to share it with the children.

I remember Vacation Bible School when I was a child.  I even remember the kind of Kool-aid and Cookies they served.  I remember making certain things that went along with the Bible story taught that day.  I remember my Mama asking me about my day….and the thrill of being able to tell her.

I remember MY children going, the songs they would memorize and sing in the car at the top of their lungs.  All three of them…in the back seat….sometimes it seemed a bit noisy…little did I know, that would be some of the most beautiful music I would remember.  And believe it or not…I still have a few of the crafts that they made for me.

The last time all our grandchildren were in Vacation Bible School together…Andy and Layla were just babies.

I drove up early one morning to get ready for registration, before the crowd arrived.  That is when I saw Ashley and Layla….ready to help.

Layla was a little over three months old.

And Andy was 9 months old.

Riley was around three and was able to do some things with her age group…she was too busy to get a picture taken.  But I remember her waving to me in the hallway, and I got a big lump in my throat then….because it was soooo sweet.

It takes a lot of dedicated people for an event like this to happen.

Today….. Layla got to ride the bus!  I was probably more excited than she was.

Just a little while ago, I got a call from her.  She wanted to tell me all about getting to ride on the WHITE bus!

I asked her if she had fun today…..she said with such excitement in her voice…”TOTALLY” !!!

I can’t wait to hear from Andy and Riley too.  It is always fun to hear what they found exciting or interesting.

The attendance for today was 463.  What a blessing.

I am sure that they will all sleep really good tonight.  And I know that the teachers will too.

Tomorrow….they do it again….WHAT FUN!

Matthew 19:14

¹⁴ Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

So we have pretty much always been a one animal family.  However, here on the land….the animal list keeps growing.

A friend of ours had a cat that kept making the rounds at her house.  The cat was expecting and around Easter she delivered.   Knowing that Billy had been wanting a cat…..we were put on the list for taking one.

The kittens have reached the age to be separated from Mama.  Billy picked up our kitten on Wednesday.

It is a girl and they already gave her a name.  We think the name is “purrrr fect”, it is Phantom due to her markings.  They resemble the mask from Phantom of the Opera.

She is used to being in a garage so that is where we started her off on Wednesday night.  Thursday morning Billy pulled the truck out and quickly closed the door so she wouldn’t run out.  He looked everywhere for her…but couldn’t find her.  Of course being as small as she is we just thought she was behind a box or curled up somewhere.  We looked and looked.  No Kitten to be found.  Well….we both said.

We made sure she had water and food and assumed she would come and get it when she got hungry enough.

Billy headed to work.  He stopped down the road and spoke to our neighbor.  Their dog went nuts at the back of the truck.  Billy decided that the cat had to be somewhere in that truck.  So he headed back home….parked in the garage and took the big truck to work.

When I went to see if I could find the kitten ….this is what I saw.  She likes that old Ranger truck too…..

That little kitten had decided to crawl up onto the spare tire under the truck.  See her little head?

Here Kitty Kitty…..

She peered back at me with a tiny little MEOW.

I contacted  Billy and let him know that he was right and thanks to SAM, the neighbors dog,…the cat was back home and safe.

Can you imagine if Billy had not stopped at the neighbors house…..Poor cat….she would have had a ride of her life.

As far as we know she didn’t come out all day.  So Thursday night Billy and I made it our mission to get the cat away from the truck.  Finally we did it.

We put her in a cat box on the back porch for Thursday night.

She will be an outside cat here.  That was our intention from the beginning and so we inched her into the outdoor surroundings.

Friday morning we let her out…she was scared, but she let Billy and I hold her a little while.  I put a collar on her that has a little bell.  Maybe this time we can find her more easily if or maybe I say when she tucks away.  Reluctantly we let her down…we were so afraid she would run off.

She checked out her territory and meowed a little.   She climbed a tree…. or two.

And decided to just hang out for a little while.

I wasn’t real crazy about it….but that is where she wanted to be.

I checked on her every little while…..she would just be looking back at me.  Eventually I had to leave for work.

When I got home….she wasn’t in the tree….and I was a little concerned.

But on the back porch, by her food bowl and her box, she left us a present.

I would have liked for it to have been a dead mouse instead….but I do appreciate the gesture.

Apparently that is her way of telling us thank you.  We now know that her Mama’s skills are paying off.

I think she is going to be just fine!

Today is my baby sister’s birthday.

I KNOW…..isn’t she beautiful!  She was our walking, talking baby doll !!!!!

My older sister Charlotte couldn’t keep her hands off her.  She has always LOVED babies.  Charlotte would be getting ready for school and Mama would say…be quiet so you don’t wake the baby.  Somehow before Charlotte would walk out the door for school she would end up with Debbie on her hip.  She would usually say….Well…look who I found!

She was our blonde headed, brown eyed barrel of fun.  And she still is!

She is always full of surprises….

This is my son Garrett and his Aunt Debbie.  He was only a few months old here and you can tell he wasn’t sure about her.  I laughed as he looked at me like “MOM…help”.

This captures a tiny bit of her quick humor.

Funny, I was only about four years old here, but I remember getting this picture made.  The photographer used one of those camera’s that is black and on a tripod and he covered his head under the cloth while taking the picture.  My arm is around my baby sister.  I can remember wanting to make sure she wasn’t going to fall.  I suppose that was the big sister in me.

I haven’t out grown that….I never like to see her hurt.

I have enjoyed her so much through the years.   Oh…. sure, we all tortured her just a little when she was younger… but that’s what siblings do.   Charlotte and I would tell her that she couldn’t play with us unless she would go and get us a glass of tea.  And so…she would.  Hey, when you are young and something like that works…well you keep doing it.  Eventually she wised up and quit.  Then of course, we still played with her.

One Christmas I got a baby doll that sat in a special high chair.  It had a little tray with a card in it.  You would put the tray in front of the doll in the high chair.  The picture would be of carrots or peas or whatever.  The baby doll would then shake her head yes or no, to tell you if she wanted it or not.  This baby was a really special baby.  This was back in the day when you cried for your babies…they didn’t make noise and wet and all that stuff like they do now.  One day Debbie wanted to take it to her friend Donna’s house.  I told her no.  I didn’t want her to break it.

Well, a little while later….here comes Debbie with my doll and it’s arm was hanging with wires everywhere.  Needless to say I wasn’t happy.

Now… I really do not remember anymore to the story than that….Debbie might.  But for years I would tease her about what she did to my baby doll.

I was about 35 years old when I opened a Christmas present from her at our family Christmas get together…YEP, she bought me the closest doll she could find that resembled the one she destroyed.  We ALL had a good laugh.

She has brought a lot of laughter to our family…seems like the baby of the family is the one who seems to do that best.

I am sure she especially brought a lot of joy to Mama.

Mom had a really hard time during that pregnancy, and then three months after Debbie was born, Daddy died.  Can you imagine….I really couldn’t until I had my own son and reflected on how young she really was at 3 months.

The good part of that is….Debbie was a blessing to Mom.  She was someone to hold and cuddle up to.  She had to make Mama smile when she started doing all the cute things babies do.  I am sure that got Mom through a lot of tough days.  She brightened all our lives.  I am so glad God sent her to our family.

She has loved and been so supportive to my children and now my grandchildren.

And she is my prayer partner.  We constantly tell one another about prayer concerns.  It is so special to have not just her but both of my sisters  join me in prayer for people that cross our lives.

She is an awesome Wife and Mother.

She was always our little coppertone girl.  She used to look just like the little girl on the ad.

She has always loved the beach.

Today she is celebrating her Birthday at the beach!

I hope you have a wonderful time!

I love you Dootles.

Happy…Happy…Happy…. Birthday!

When I was a little girl I always checked the coin return at the pay phones in front of stores or wherever we were.  Mom would get tickled, because I would often walk away with a dime.  That was a nice find for a little girl.  That was also when penny candy was a penny.  So you know what that meant.  Ten wonder pieces of candy at the U totem store.  That was the name of the little convenient store.

Pay phones are almost impossible to find now days, but I do not hesitate to pick up a coin off the ground.  It seems like I can spot a coin a mile away.   Ok…well maybe not really a mile away….but I always keep my eyes peeled.

I really get amazed when I see someone drop a coin….and they know it….and they just walk off.  I am in shock…..why not pick it up?

I decided about a year or so ago to start saving the money I find on the street and or parking lots and see how much I accumulate.

This is the label that I put on my used Cranberry juice bottle.  I try to keep the change I find in my pocket until I get home and put it in the bottle.

This is $14.33 so far.  Not too shabby.

The ten dollar bill you see there was a “REAL”  find.  The first week I decided to start my little adventure I found this ten dollar bill in a Lowes Parking lot.

That however, is not the norm.  It is usually pennies.  I am alright with that.  I still get excited when I see one on the ground!

Billy thinks I am just a little nutso.  I am and I am not ashamed to admit it.  One day I was so excited I was finding a quarter here and dime there every few feet while we were taking a walk.   Now I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I did figure that one out…..Billy was dropping them without me seeing…just to watch me get all excited.

Well…I had to laugh….that was a pretty good one.  But I did not put that money in my jar.  I am trying real hard to be as accurate as I can…so I can just see how much I accumulate strictly from what is laying around.

Most of the time the money is really banged up.  This is a penny…but it sure has a lot of dents and dings.

Sometimes you can’t tell what it is until you feel the weight or wipe it off a little.

On occasion I find a nickel or a quarter, but a lot of people will pick up a quarter they drop.

I was at a drive through restaurant window the other day.  The cashier gave me back my change.  You know most people do not count back your change anymore like they used to.  So she hands me the change inside the folded bills.  Since I was in a car, she tilted her hand down towards the car and the change went on the ground between my car and the building.  Oh….sorry she says, and hands me my food.  She just expected me to drive away I guess.

Bless her heart, she didn’t know I was a nutso….so I put the car in park…opened my car door and picked up my change.  Besides it was more than just a penny.

So this weekend I found .51 cents and tonight I found another penny.  Which I deposited into my street money jar.

For a grand total of $14.85.

Some days I find more than others, but hey….every penny adds up.

So it doesn’t take much to amuse me and Billy.  We like to stop and look at stuff on the side of the road as we travel.  When we go to Talladega sometimes we take part of a day to look around at this metal warehouse.  We hang out there and look at everything they have.  I know crazy huh.  This is by the way,the same place that we got the Boon Docks sign last year.

They have a lot of different stuff.   We refrained from buying some really neat items…but it was hard.

Like this Billy goat…..

It was so cute….

I couldn’t help but think about my cute Billy goat Jed at home…..

Oh….. and then I saw these….

A Nanny goat with her kids….awww now you know I needed these!

But they didn’t look as cute as Jethro and Violet did this Winter.

But then I saw this and I really wanted it….

Well… now there were a few really good reasons why this didn’t make it home with me…..it was toooooo expensive and it was like  6 feet tall.  I have no idea how much it weighed…but it was more than I could handle.  I just kept thinking….” it sure would be CUTE in the front of the pasture”….But then again….how much cuter can you get than the REAL thing.

Ahhhh….this is Clementine….the first year in our pasture.  It has been fun watching her grow.  Now she really is the biggest cow we have…

I think the biggest thing about her is her heart though…..she is a real sweetie.

As we continued to look around, we did manage to find a few things we really needed.

Like this cowgirl….

for the girls restroom door at the cabin.  I love that she is wearing an earring.

And we got this cowboy for the boys restroom door.

It is really cute…..

Just not as cute…..

as the cowboy I already have!

So Miss Ellie and Billy have been really close through the years.  He often takes her with him when he goes places.  Especially if he hasn’t been able to spend much time with her.

We have this little white Ford Ranger truck.  It is a really great truck, but it is not the prettiest thing around.  Garrett had one when he was first learning to drive it was a green one.  He came home one day, he was 16 years old, he said…Mom….my windshield wipers just come on out of nowhere.  I said….well you must have pushed something you didn’t know you pushed.  He said no…it has done it several times…and then they will go off all by themselves.   Hmmm.  We laughed.  It was a used truck when we bought it with a good many miles on it…so we marked it up to that.

Years later we bought another used little Ranger, well…I’ll be dog gone if the windshield wipers don’t come on out of nowhere.  The first time they did it…it startled me…then I just started laughing.

One of the things that made this truck …not so pretty is that it had a dark window tint on the windows.  Some of the tint had peeled off on the back window, which gave it a really used look.  But the tint helped keep the car cool on the inside.  This truck has an air conditioner that can turn the cab into a meat locker in a matter of seconds.  When you are working, you can really appreciate that on a hot summer day.

It started out as our work around the land truck.  We haul bark chips in the bed of it, rocks, firewood and I usually haul all my little discount plants in it.  It has been on all kinds of building mission trips with us and has never given us a bit of trouble.  It probably is one of the most reliable vehicles we have ever had.

Here is Billy and Ellie on one of their days of hanging out together.  She cracks me up with the way she sits up like a human.

Billy has gotten to where he drives the truck a lot lately.  The gas mileage is great and of course with the air conditioning….that is a real plus.  The other day I took the truck up to the Feed Store.  I needed to load some fencing and things in it.  As soon as I got on the main road a police officer pulled me over.  I wasn’t speeding…so I didn’t have a clue why he pulled me over.

He comes to the window and informs me that my tint is in violation…and so I had to show my license and then he runs the information and ask for my proof of insurance….which of course was not in the glove compartment box, because we forget to put it in there, because we had not been using the truck every day…until recently.

Thank goodness he was nice enough to write me a warning about the tint but I did have to go the court house and show that I really did have insurance on the truck.  I suppose I looked like a thug in that thing.  It did have the peeling tint on the back and the little dents and dings on the truck and of course it was dusty dirty from the back roads.  I had those dark tinted windows rolled up nice and tight so I could thoroughly enjoy my air conditioner and I’m pretty sure I was rocking to some country music too.

I can’t blame him for stopping something that looked like that.

So Billy and I had a job to do that evening…we armed ourselves with razor blades and  window cleaner and scraped all the gross tint off the windows.

He found the proof of insurance in his brief case and we placed it in the glove compartment like it should be.

And I will have to say….I admire our police officers.  If my son was one, I wouldn’t want him having to stop people and not be able to see who was in the vehicle…for his safety.  Soooo as aggravating as it was…it was my own fault.  It forced me to fix the problems and it does look a little better now. I kinda chuckled to myself thinking  it would have been really great if Ellie and Billy had gotten stopped.  That officer probably would have thought…. man that guys wife looks like a real dog…. HA.

Anyway, as far as the windshield wipers….well, they still come on whenever they want.  Looks pretty crazy when it is 90 degrees outside and not a cloud in the sky…and there you are going down the road with the wipers just a going.

Occasionally I see Garrett’s old truck around town…..it is still just chugging along.  I laugh…because that person knows how I feel when the wipers do their thing!