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

Happy New Year!

We went to the Pier today.  Lots of people were fishing….but so were the pelicans!

This one let me get a good look at him.  I bet he gets really tired of everybody staring at him.  He is obviously used to it.

While I was gazing at the pelican…a man caught this stingray….Needless to say, he was very careful while removing his hook.  Pretty cool to see one this close.

After the pier we ate and then went to get some ice cream….we are on vacation.  So when we got back, Billy decided that he needed to wet a hook in the lake.  I think we had watched everyone else a little too long and got the itch.

In one or two cast Billy had one.  Ellie LOVES to fish too.  When we fish she usually barks when she knows we have one on the line.  If she is able to get into the water, she will go in after it before you even get it reeled in.

He caught this and then he caught …….

this one….Yep, that’s a bass.  My husband knows I LOVE to fish….so he said…why don’t you give it a try….

And that’s when I caught…..THIS.  Yeah, that would be another bass.

It was a GOOD day.

“Be Still, and Know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

Sometimes just to get away from the usual routine is good.  It recharges the ole batteries.  We like to go to the beach.  So we packed Ellie Mae up and we hit the road.

Once we arrived she wanted to play.  She likes for you to throw a stick…she will go after it and bring it back.  Trouble is….she really doesn’t want to let go of it.  Yet she will wag that tail and acts like she wants to do it all over again.   Only problem….she still won’t let go of the stick.    Usually the stick ends up getting broken into two pieces and then the game can resume.   But that only last about one or two more times…then…DONE.  She walks away.  But she seems content….so I suppose whatever works….right.

We decided since she was content, we would head to the beach before it got dark.

The weather is perfect…especially for December.

We saw this bird coming in for a landing.  After he landed I got tickled watching this little girl try to inch closer and closer to him…without him flying away.  She almost touched him, but someone else walked close and scared it away.  I had forgotten that  pelicans were this big.

Then it was time……the sun began to set!

Ahhhh…..Gorgeous!  Now that is “One ” of many reasons to go to the beach!

I passed by this old house and decided to take a few pictures.   The more I took the more interested I became.  I couldn’t help but wonder how old it was and who had lived there.

As I looked at the old wood my mind started reeling.  I was imagining a young man building it with the help of his best friend.  Possibly preparing a home for his bride to be.   Working on it every spare minute he had after a long day of  farming.  Young, strong and energetic with big dreams of his future as a married man.

Perhaps he carried his bride across the threshhold as they went through this very door.  Later that same door would be slammed as they had their first fight and one left to go fume under the country stars and talk to God about what to do.  Before long that same door would be gently opened back up, apologies made and they would hug and forgive one another.  A few years later a midwife would enter and deliver their first of many children.  Needless to say after that….well… that poor door would be swung open and shut many more times with the kids going in and out for the next twenty years.

Perhaps this was the bedroom of their children.  Bedtime prayers were taught and favorite stories were read by the glow of an oil lamp.

What a back yard those children had.  Mom watched them as she hung out the clothes and tended to the garden.  They could spot daddy coming home and would run to greet him, racing to see who would be first.

This tree by the barn was just a sapling given to them as a wedding gift.  Now the kids would climb in it while mom shouted …you kids be careful.  They would hang for what seemed like hours with their legs bent over a branch giggling the day away.

This was a beautiful piece of property.  I am sure that even if it wasn’t the way I imagined it…somebody was very happy here.

I suppose I should just stick to snapping a few pictures and not thinking so much.   But you know…you just wonder.

I am so EXCITED and I am so OVERWHELMED!   My husband has gone over and above this year.  He has made me a little office area complete with desk and nice comfortable chair, and the technology I need….so that I can BLOG until my heart is content.  He is such a sweetie.

(Hmmm….somehow I think having the kitchen table back may have come into play somewhere in all this…oh well…he is still a sweetie).

I had started a blog about a month and a half ago.  It was not a . com thingy. (You can tell I am up to date  with technology terminology….)

Then….my Son….did a labor of love as well and set me up with this Blog for my Christmas present from him.   He brought the post I had already posted on the other site …and now well …. I am a     .com!

That is, if I can learn to operate everything correctly.  So I posted my hot corn recipe.  It was supposed to go into my recipe section….do not think that happened….but I am sure it was operator error.  I will have to work on that.

Today it is cool outside, the wood stove is warming things up nicely, I am gazing into the woods while I write from my new office space.   I feel like I am in the country today for sure.  The trees are bare since they dropped their leaves for the winter.  The ground is covered with them.  I like to hear the crunch they make when you walk through the woods.  The rocks are cropping out of the mountainside, some slightly covered with a pretty green moss.

Yesterday we had our family Christmas brunch at our house.  The smell of breakfast filled the air.  It was great to enjoy our grown-up children and now our grandchildren.   The kids were playing and started singing twinkle twinkle little star all together.  It was so sweet.   Funny how something like that can put a lump in my throat.

Then they get cranky and the lump is gone!

Poo-pa…which is what the grand children call my husband and one of our son in laws took all the kids and Ellie for a hike.  I am so glad that they WANT to be outside.  They all had a great time.    I meanwhile was trying to glean information about how to use my new blog, before all my information loaded up in the car and drove away.

Today, Ellie is trying to recover.

And me….well let’s just say…I’m still trying.  You would laugh if you knew how long I have been trying to work on this one post.  Pitiful….

Some of the Grand kids decorated the Gum drop tree.

This is a tree with the things my mom used in the kitchen with us…like cookie cutters and utensils that bring back precious memories!

I saw decorations in lots of yards and these are a few of them.

Even as an Adult I love to see the lights and listen to the Christmas Music.  There is something really neat about the lights at night.  I remember as a child, my mom would take us kids for a ride and we would look at everyone’s decorations.  There was a lot of oohs and aahs and wow…look at that one!

Our Neighbors had a silver tree and a light that would turn, casting different colors on the tree.  I remember many nights coming home and seeing the tree in their front window….Mom would stop and let us get a good look as the colors would change.

We always had a real tree.  It was a pain to get it to stand up.  But some how some way, she would manage. Christmas music would play as we put on the lights and ornaments.  The house always smelled so good with the smell of the fresh cut tree and all the goodies she home baked. I often wonder how in the world she did it all.

After all the hustle and bustle was over and it was time for bed, I remember sitting and looking at the tree in what was normally a dark living room. I always loved the warm glow the lights gave off.  It was so inviting.  The beautiful reds, blues, oranges and greens.  Funny how you can think about something and it pops you right back through time.  No matter how many years ago it might have been. Those are things I never want to forget.

Many, Many years ago God sent His son for us.  He doesn’t want us to ever forget that either.

This Christmas Eve remember that Jesus is the Light of the World.  Maybe we should just sit and enjoy reflecting on the warm inviting light God has sent to us.

Thank you God for the Perfect Gift!

Merry Christmas

It has been a little hard to get good pictures lately.  This is Clementine and well…lets just say….she wasn’t looking her best.

And as you can see…. Zippy just had her head buried in that hay ring….she could care less about picture time.

Then this is Zsa-Zsa and obviously, she had her head buried at one time or another as well.

Then there is Zippy….again.

So you can see….that they are not working with me here.  However, if there is a positive to this, it would be that I am now able to identify everyone from the back!

Our Friends gave us this salt and pepper shaker last year for Christmas…TOO Cute!

Even as I write this I hear the gun shots ringing in the woods.  The hunters are in paradise.  It seems like the deer are plentiful this season.

This is an 8 point that a friend of ours killed when it was bow season.  Amazing.

Neon orange and Camo are the main colors I see these days.  The purr of 4 wheelers and 4 wheel drive trucks are music to hunters ears I suppose.   Why even men who don’t smile a whole lot, tend to smile when they tell about their day in the woods, especially if it ended with something like this.  Or even if they are telling about the one they saw, but were not able to get a clean shot.

Our neighbor shared some deer meat with us this week. I think it is especially neat when the meat can be shared with others.  Our neighbors and many others we know, often give meat to people that they feel could really use it.  This is a great way to eat healthy and help on the grocery bill.

I passed by a field yesterday and there were about 10 deer grazing.  They were beautiful.  I tried to get their picture, but it was too dark.

It still tugs at me, when I see one has been killed.  However, I do think that it is the cycle of life.

Why even little Ellie is hunting these days.

She came home with this the other morning.  The picture is blurry because she was so excited I could hardly get her to be still long enough to get a picture.

I think she thought I was going to take it from her, but I let her go into a porch area and enjoy her “find”

She put it down long enough to get a little dog food breakfast in her and then settled down for a nice snack.

As you can see, I had a girly bed for her to lay on….but she is a tom-boy at heart.

You can take the girl out of the country….but you can’t take the country out of the girl!