Fifteen Years

 

Marmalade came walking into our back yard in Florida, 14 years ago.  Skin and bones and so hungry.  I guess I'm soft hearted  when it comes to orange marmalade kitties.  It took me a few weeks to get him to come to me and he's been a very frightened cat ever since.  Unless it's just Chuck and I here in the house, he won't come out from under my bed.  He became friends with the "other yellow marmalade cat" that won my heart over when we were building the house..." George".  They are buddies.  About a month ago, I noticed that Marmalade was acting like he couldn't see good.  Each day got worse.  We took him to our good ole country vet and he said that the blood vessels were drying up behind his eyes so the blood wasn't getting to his retinas, hence he was going blind.  He also only has one kidney that is working.  These things happen to old cats.  I know this in my head but in my heart, I want him to get better and live forever. It's not going to happen.    Meantime, I put the food plate right under his nose so he can smell where the food is and carry him back and forth to the sun room and my bed.  He has become weak and has a very hard time jumping up on my bed.  I know we aren't going to have him much longer but he's been a part of our lives for the past fourteen years and we were really lucky that he picked our yard to come walking into.  This is the hard part of loving a cat for so many years.  You have to give them up one day and it breaks your heart.  You just have to remember all of the happy days they gave you over the years.  Marmalade sure is doing his part.

Surprise Table!!!

 Even with the new table/chairs and new little rocker.  That "Prohibition Table" stayed on our minds.  I wanted it!!!  The day I had " sit n sew" and Chuck went to the forest with his "hiking group", I decided to run to Hartselle and talk to the lady about the table.  I just knew she could come up with a better price for it and she did!  I asked her to please hold it until Saturday morning so I could get Chuck to look at it again.  Just to check it all out.  She was happy to do so.  Well, you guessed it!  We were there first thing on Saturday morning when she opened the shop and we bought the table.    The people who owned the shop said that is the only table they have ever seen like it and will probably never see another one.  Chuck got on line to research the table.  Come to find out, it's not called a " Prohibition Table" from the 1920s.  It's called a " Surprise Table" and they are from England in the early 1900's.  The two pictures that Chuck found on the Internet, the prices were over three times what we paid for it.  The wood on those were a lot more ornate than ours but we think ours might be worth twice of what we paid for it.  So be it.  I won't get rid of it for any price!  Like I said.  All this started because I wanted to put the leaf in the dining room table that we already had.  HA!  Ya just never know what is going to happen around here.  It's just a fun place to live!

The Leaf in the Table

Our new dining room table/two chairs

1800's sewing rocking chair

It all started with putting the leaf in our round dining room table.  We needed a table large enough for six people to sit at, inside out of the cold weather.  I really didn't think the dining room table would fit in the dining room with the leaf in it, but to my surprise, it did.  It was tight for walking around the table but it worked.  The only thing was, now we needed two more dining room chairs.  So we set out looking in the local antique shops.  You know how it is when you are looking for something...you can't find it.  Well, we still had the shops in Hartselle to look in.  The first shop we went in was this wonderful shop where everything in there was just beautiful and very expensive!  The lady was so sweet.  As I was standing there talking to her, this table caught Chuck's eye.  It had these interesting hinges on it so the two ends of it opened up.  It had a glass and wooden tray with handles on it in the middle and each end had a piece of white porcelain on it.  The lady said it was a " Prohibition Table" from the 1920's.  They would put their booze on the tray, cut their fruit for the drinks on the porcelain and then as you closed the table up, the tray dropped down and the table top closed up.  It looked like a regular table.  When they put a doily on the top of it, it covered up the crack where it opens and it looked just like a plain end table.  BUT! it had a key and the lock was on the back side of the table.  I fell in love with this table!!!  So, as we went down the street to look for what we really were looking for, the two dining room chairs, we went into one of our favorite shops there in town.  Half way back in the middle of the shop, were two chairs AND a table!  You had to buy the table too but the three pieces were only $100!  The table was square, had a leaf to make it rectangle, dark wood with pretty Queen Ann shaped legs.  The two chairs were a little bigger than the ones that we had but they would do.   We had brought the Explorer with us and now the table and chairs wouldn't fit in it, so Chuck went home to get the truck.  I stayed in town.  To kill time, Chuck told me to go in the nice shop that the lady who has recovered two of our chairs owns, to look around.  Ha!  That was a mistake.  Well, not really.  She had several pretty antique rocking chairs in there.  I love rocking chairs!!  There was this one, where she had a bunch of old quilts stacked on it.  As she moved the quilts for me to see the chair, she told me that it was the oldest piece she had in her shop.  It was a " sewing rocker" from the 1800's.  A " sewing rocker"!!!  Can you believe it????  It's the cutest thing ever.  The price tag had $65 and it was marked down to $25.  She said if I wanted it, I could have it for $20!!  SOLD!!  She thought the seat cushion on it was original.  It looked it!  So, when Chuck came back to load up the new, old dining room table and two chairs, he also had a little rocker to load too.  When we got home, I couldn't wait to redo the seat on the rocker.  I sat down on the floor and got to it.  I knew when I saw it, I would use the lavender/white toile fabric that I already had.  I did use the original tacks that were on it.  It turned out just how I wanted it.  I love it!!!  Now, back to the dining room table and two chairs.  Since our old dining room table was from a set that was made from light oak, I always had to keep a table cloth on it to hide the wood.  Everything else in our dining room is dark wood and the table just looked so out of place. We are using the light oak chairs in the kitchen. Chuck took the old dining room table down to the barn and we are using the new dark wood, rectangle one.  We covered the two chairs with the blue/white toile to match the other four chairs.  TA DA!!  New dining room table where six people can sit. The story continues though......

Brambly Pines Yard Art

Every time I mowed, I said " this has to be the last time for the year" but it rains and the grass and weeds decide to grow just a little more.  So, " for the last time", I mowed and Chuck bush hogged.  I think Chuck likes seeing how he can stack the fire pit furniture all up in one pile to make Brambly Pines Yard Art.  As I'm mowing around in the circle, I'm thinking, " man I hope I don't knock up against one of the legs of one of the chairs and the whole mess comes falling down on me".  Well, I made it without a disaster, " one last time" for the year.  

Four Men and a Lady

Fast moving water

The Dam

My new best fishing friends

Beautiful colors

Paddling down the river

Old bridge

Chuck eating his lunch on the bridge

Charlie and his camera ( of course)

Parked for lunch

Found some lunch

Pretty Fall colors

Loading up at the end

Let me tell ya the story of our last kayaking adventure.  It was me and four guys.  I liked being the " Queen of the River"...ha.  Well, we met up with everyone along the way to the Elk River in Tennessee.  Jim, took his SUV to the "take out" point and the rest of us went on to where we were going to "put in".  It was at the Tim's Ford Dam.  The guys unload all of the kayaks and got ready to drive all of the SUV/trucks to the take out point  so Jim could bring them back.   With a gun in the cubbie of Chuck's kayak, I was left to keep an eye on the kayaks.  There happened to be a couple of guys sitting on the bank of the river, fishing.  Also there was a guy on the walls of the dam, shooting at buzzards that were flying over something dead.  Could have been a scary scene but I got talking to the guys that were fishing.  They were just two " good ole redneck nice guys".  Told me their whole life story.  When we first pulled up to the river, the generators were turned on and it made the river move 100 mph.  I'm not kidding you!  We would have "flown" down the river in the kayaks.   I was looking forward to the fun of it.  By the time ( 45 minutes)the guys got back in Jim's SUV, the "dam people" had turned the river off.  They turn on the generators every two hours for a couple of hours.  I missed out on " flying down the river" but it was still a fun float/paddle trip.  The high light of the trip was that we saw a "bob cat", just walking along an edge of a canyon.  Once it discovered that we were there, it took off and climbed out of the canyon.  I was so tickled that I got to see one in the wild.  I had only seen them in the zoo.  Of course my camera was locked away in the cubbie of my kayak but it wouldn't have shown up in a picture any ways.  It was well camouflaged with the woods and it's spots.  We had a hard time finding a place to pull over for lunch since the river was down about two feet from them turning the generators on and off.  We finally did find a place that all five kayaks would fit and we could get out to walk around.  There was this old bridge that led to a corn field that had just been cut.  After getting refueled we got back in the kayaks and finished off the trip.  Almost ten miles.  Another fun kayaking trip under our belts.  Until next time the guys want to go again.  I'll be ready!

The Colors of Fall

How can Fall not be every one's favorite season!!  I think it's mine until the next season comes along.  I often think of all of the real Falls that I missed out on from living in Florida for 59 years.  I'm making up for it now though.  I can't help but to take a billzillon pictures of the beautiful trees before they lose their leaves soon.  Winter is just as much fun with being able to wear all of your winter clothes, fires in your fire place and fire pits and the crossing of your fingers that you will wake up and look out the window and everything will be covered in " white".   We're suppose to have a really cold winter this year, so here's hoping that the snow comes with it!

It's That Time of Year Again!

It's " Cotton Picken Time!"  Yep, It's that time of year again.  Time to harvest the cotton and take it to the gin to be processed.  It's so neat to drive by the fields when they are all white with cotton bolls.  It looks like it has snowed.  I think one of my favorite months here, is October.  The pumpkin patches, the beautiful trees in all their color and then the cotton fields.  Now, that's a true Fall!