The signs of summer

The signs of summer are here. Every one's tomatoes are coming in and a lot of sharing is going on. The BNOE brought us over a bag of her tomatoes. I picked our first ripe one, today. I also picked FIVE big, fat green tomato worms off all my plants. Charlotte says I should feed them to " the girls". I don't think I could stand to watch them eat them. I also picked a big batch of beans this morning. I snapped them right away and put two bags of them in the freezer. Oh yeah.....three more cucumbers....sigh! lol.

The FLOOR!

Yay!!!!!!!!! We have a floor!

looking down the hole where the steps to the basement will be.

standing in the back bedroom.

As usual, the worker B's were here around 6:30 am and were hammering away. After lunch, our neighbor, Billy White came over to see what all was going on over here. Come to find out, Troy built his house also....twelve years ago. (I finally found someone else to give some cucumbers too....I had Billy take some to Linda. Might have to make another batch of freezer pickles. The recipe says they will keep up to a year. )By the end of the day....the flooring was all down and a pair of temp. steps made. All the rooms have been marked on the flooring so they know where to put the walls. ....that they will be starting tomorrow. It's so weird to me, watching them build Gene and George's house here at Brambly Pines.

The Joists

The wood for the joists came yesterday morning and the Worker B's started in with the sawing and hammering by 7:00am. They worked all day and they came back this morning at 6:30 for another days worth of sawing and hammering. This afternoon a huge truck brought the sub-flooring boards. I guess in another day or two, that will be going down and the next step will be the walls! Soon it will look like a house.

cucumbers and more cucumbers....

I only planted one row of cucumbers....honest!!!! So far, I've made three batches of "freezer pickles" and have given the BNOE a hand full. I try and give Troy some every other day when he comes to work on the house but he won't take them cause he has them coming out his ears too....lol. He said he's not planting as many cucumbers next year...ha. We compare gardens every day. Today he said that they put up corn over the weekend and he was going to bring us some but the ears he had laid aside, got shucked and put in with the corn they put up. That's OK cause I think our corn is going to be ready by the time Shell and Genavive come up. Troy said over the weekend, he fried some okra and some squash. Well, I guess I'm half way to being " southern" because I fried okra and squash the other night too. First, I dipped it in "buttermilk"..(ewwwwww...my Mom used to drink that stuff!) and then covered it with corn meal. Fried it in veggie oil and OMG! it was sooooo good! I told Chuck that I was going to plant two rows of okra next year. I think to be " all southern" I have to make " grits" next. Maybe one Sunday morning to go with our eggs and southern biscuits with the pink plum jelly we were given last week. Sounds pretty good to me! They sure do know how to cook and eat up here.

The Piers

All of the block work is done on the house. ( until it's time to do the fireplace) The last was the angled kitchen wall and the piers to the porches. Early this morning, the truck showed up with all the wood for the floors. Let the hammering begin!

Little Red gets accessories

Chuck figured out how to build wooden sides to my cart so I could haul more and I kept telling him I needed some kind of basket behind my seat to carry stuff when I don't have the cart on or it's full of mulch or what ever. So, he found a white plastic basket that we had in the barn...you know EVERYTHING is in the barn and he tie wrapped it to the springs to the seat. Being white, it stuck out like a sore thumb so we bought a can of black spray paint for plastic....(yep, it really does a great job on plastic stuff) and Chuck painted it for me. It looks great!...just like it belongs there. I'm all set to haul and carry anything now.

Just another kayak Sunday........

the wasp nest

Chuck bringing me my black eyed susans

stopped for lunch

one of the houses on the river

the martins flying all around






the martin mud nests

We started the day with 67 degree weather and eating blueberry pancakes on the porch. ..ahhhhhh! I just love summer up here. ( I think I've said that before) I packed our lunches while Chuck packed up the kayaks and all the other stuff we take with us....and we took off for where Smith Lake and the Sipsey River meets. We paddled down the Sipsey River part. Chuck looked at the map when we got home and said that we paddled 12 to 14 miles....dang! That's enough exercise to last ya a week. We'll see if I'm sore in a couple of days. The first amazing thing we came across was...as we went under the bridge we saw tons of martins flying all around us and as we looked up under the bridge, there were about 50 or so mud nests that the martins had made. They were really strange looking. On the first part of the river, there were houses. It was really neat seeing how each and every one of them built decks and stairs down to the river. Then, we came to a part of the river where there were no houses and no one was on the river but us. It was so quiet and peaceful. The only noise you heard was the birds, crickets and the noise of the paddles entering the water. We stopped for lunch at this little beach area and Chuck got out and took a walk into the woods. He didn't come back for a little while but when he did, he had a handful of black eyed susans for my vase in my kayak. What a sweet thing! After lunch we continued down the river a little ways before deciding we should turn around. On the way back, I came across this HUGE wasp nest hanging in a tree. The wasps were really pretty....black and white. Before we knew it, we were back to the bridge and loading the kayaks into the truck. We doubted ourselves when we bought the kayaks....should we spend the money on them just before we were moving. We are sooooooo glad we did. They are providing a lot of advertures for us and the doubts are gone!

Footers and Foundation

They came yesterday and dug and poured the footers to the house. Then, early this morning the masons came back and laid the foundation walls. They pretty much finished it. All but the supports to the porches and the one wall to the kitchen. They will be back in the morning to finish it off. THEN...next week we will have a big delivery of wood and they will start framing the whole house. At least with the foundation done, Chuck and I can figure out what room is where. It helps that we are building Gene and George's house with a few little changes. It's all going up so fast and here I thought it would seem like FOREVER before it was done. It could even have a roof on it in the next couple of weeks. Can you believe it?

Big haul

I went down to the garden early this morning to see if there were a couple more cucumbers that I could use for my pickles. Needless to say, I was surprised on what else was ready to pick.

It took two baskets to carry it all back to the TT. One thing was pretty funny.....our zucchini cross pollinated with our summer squash and we ended up with an orange zucchini. Chuck says " a squash is a squash"...so we're gonna see what it tastes like. I ended up putting four bags of green beans in the freezer and made four containers of freezer pickles. Oh...put a bag of okra in there too. I can't give away all the yellow HOT peppers that I picked. No one wants HOT peppers. ...even the Mexicans that did the cement work on our house. They just might go into the compost pile and next year I will pay more attention to what KIND of peppers I buy.

Chuck's sunflowers

Chuck's first sunflower is blooming! I'm sorry to say....the bunnies got my sunflower house. I think I have one that might make it to the stage of blooming. If they can make it to a height that the bunnies can't reach the leaves....then they are pretty safe. Unless the deer get them. We haven't seen any deer so far this summer.

See how it's grown.....

The garden is in full swing. It's everything I had dreamed it would be. ...well, minus all the bugs, animals and weeds. ...lol. It's so much fun to go down every day to see what else is ready to pick. My little watermelons are so cute. The pumpkin patch is all filled in and we are finally getting little pumpkins. We have cucumbers coming out our ears...along with green beans and squash. " The Lady of Carmichael Hall", sent me two new squash recipes....bless her heart! I am already planning on what next years garden is going to be. I have learned so much by trial and error with my first garden. I didn't do half bad though...for not knowing what I was doing. It is so much fun to wake up every morning with our new lives in " the woods".

House all drawn out

Late afternoon, Troy and a couple of his workers came and measured the house. They spray painted the rooms and where the footers are to be dug....which will be tomorrow morning. The exciting part is now starting.....the house part!

Picken on the halves

This morning I asked Chuck if we could go " pick on the halves" and of course he said " yes"! So, after we watched the guy back fill the basement walls for awhile and we walked down to check out the garden and then let the chickens out in their yard, we left. First stop was to Tractor Supply to get some " big girl chicken feed, some gravel for them to eat and some chicken scratch food. Then, we went to our favorite produce stand about 20 miles out in the country from Moulton. They let us " pick on the halves" which is....you pick a bucket for them and our bucket is "free"!! So we each picked a bucket of blackberries, ( I know...you are thinking....why are they picking blackberries when they have 22 acres full of them?....well, these are hybrid berries and they are HUGE!) and a bucket of blueberries. So that means we got each of those for free. We bought a basket of peaches and a few tomatoes....plus we shared a bowl of peach homemade ice cream that they make right there at the stand. It was a fun morning. On the way home, we decided that now we need to go buy a freezer. We have talked about it before and since we have all this fruit available to us, it's time to do it. I am going to attempt to make " freezer pickles" out of our cucumbers from the garden. ( we have so many of them, we can't eat them all right now) Plus, we buy our meat from Sam's once a month when we go to Huntsville....so a freezer will be much needed up here. On the way home, we stopped at the Amish Bakery and bought a big roll of butter. It's the best! Made with nothing but milk, cream and salt. I keep that big roll in the freezer also. I've been buying all of my spices there too. They are really cheap. Sooooo our day was another fun one in Sweet Home Alabama.

Back filling

Early this morning, the guy came and unloaded his bulldozer and started back filling all the dirt around the basement walls. We had saved a huge Mimosa tree next to the one retaining wall but I decided that it was going to be very messy...with dropping leaves and flowers all over the gravel drive way so we had the guy knock it down and drag it away....no more tree...as easy as that! He was still working on spreading the dirt when Chuck and I left this morning. When we got home, he was done! Next step.....staking out the house.

The basement is done!

The cement guys came back yesterday and filled all the holes in the block and poured the ceiling to the safe room. The basement is done! We are looking for cap blocks to put on the top of the retaining walls though. It needs a more " finished look".