Happy New Year!

I've mentioned the country idea of 'neighbor' before.  My 'neighborhood' extends a few miles in any direction and my 'neighbors' live anywhere from a few hundred yards to a few miles from my house.
It's the season for exchanging gifts and homemade goodies like cakes and pies, and cookies and.......

One of my neighbors gave me this as a New Years present........... and that ain't water in that fruit jar.

I just love homemade goodies.

Happy New Year!

Wild Turkey

My daughter Marissa and son-in-law Justin came for an overnight stay the weekend before Christmas.  We had our family Christmas celebration and gift exchange while they were here.  For our Christmas feast I cooked some of our traditional dishes - butternut squash with white cheddar cheese, creamed onions, ham with raisin sauce, baked apples and a new center piece dish - ROAST WILD TURKEY!  My cross-the-road neighbor Allen Green gave me a beautiful 12 pound (dressed) wild turkey he got on the edge of one of his pasture / woodland margins (about a 17 pound gobbler, live weight).  Everyone who says wild turkey is more flavorful than commercially raised turkey is 100% right - and of course it's the ultimate organic free range bird and not pumped up with hormones or injected with salt water.  It was delicious.

 

First I seasoned the cavity with salt, pepper and thyme, stuffed it with celery, lemon halves, and bunches of sage and parsley.  Next I lightly coated the bird with olive oil and dusted it with a mixture of flour and corn starch.   (this helps browning later).  Then I seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme, poultry seasoning and sage.  I placed the bird on a bed of celery in a large roasting pan, draped the bird with strips of applewood smoked bacon over the breasts, legs and thighs, added a cup of chicken broth to the pan, and sealed it up tight with aluminum foil.  I roasted it for 15 minutes per pound at 325, basting it every 1/2 hour and resealing the foil each time.  After 3 hours I raised the oven temperature to 375, removed the foil and the bacon and roasted it for an additional hour, basting the bird every 15 minutes.  After removing it from the oven I covered it with the foil once again and let it rest for 45 minutes before carving.  I have to admit that the wings, which were very meaty because they actually use those suckers to fly, were tough, but all the rest was tender and flavorful.  Really a great meal.   

Mosa update - Packages under the tree

Good news on the family critter front.  Back in November we (the vet and I) thought her infected eye ulceration was so bad that her right eye needed to be removed.  After a couple of weeks of antibiotics it had healed up so amazingly well that the surgery was not needed.  She is blind in that eye, but it is completely healed and the whitish haze is getting smaller and fainter.  She had also been scheduled to be spayed, but when she was opened up on the operating table the vet discovered she had already been spayed!  She has a great personality and is very sweet.

Christmas Lights

Several neighbors have commented on how nice it has been to see the house with some lights on it, saying that it is the first time EVER that lights have been put up.  Well - that sure convinces me to put up even more next year!  Definitely candles in the windows, more bushes draped with lights,  maybe the columns wrapped and maybe even icicle lights along the roof..... mmmm......35 feet up - maybe not.

It doesn't look all that big, but the rooms are so big and the ceilings so high, it's hard to tell that this tree is 10 feet tall !!  The 600 lights and many ornaments and candy canes aren't enough - more next year !

Playing King-of-the-Hill

There is an old brick barbecue in the yard.  Cracked and broken as it is, it really needs to be demolished..... but what would the neighbor's goat play on when they all come over to visit, mow the lawn and munch on the wild shrubbery growing on the unkempt fence lines?  Actually because we moved into the house, my neighbor has now fenced in the goats on his property.  They don't have a barbecue to play on in their pen.  Too bad.

Interior pictures

My friend Michelle (not cousin Michelle) asked to see some pictures of the interior of the house.  So lets start with the floor plan.

The original 2 story 4 room house was built in 1859.  The 'family room - dining room - screen porch' was added in 1905, and the 'Kitchen - Laundry Room - Bathroom' was added in 1940.

Dining area & Kitchen

Family room - "World's ugliest paneling & linoleum"

"Parlor" facing the front of the house

"Parlor" opposite side

Foyer - front door

Foyer - stairs

1st floor Guest room - southern yellow pine floor

Guest room - east wall fireplace

2nd floor east bedroom - stove pipe thimble in the wall

Winter Storm

Yesterday our first winter storm arrived.  It was right at the freezing mark all day and last night and  continuing today.  We had rain and freezing rain off and on all day, all night, and today.

Fortunately it was mostly rain and not so much freezing rain so ice did not accumulate too thickly on the trees and power lines.  The lights have stayed on....... so far.

I wish all the seed catalogs that come out at this time of year had already arrived.  Today is a good day to sit by the fireplace or stove, and plan the garden for the spring.

Adopted by a cat

'Mosa' by Brent Brokeshoulder - Hopi

This is Mosa - one of the hundreds of Hopi Indian spirits represented in full costume during certain religious dances and represented in hand carved Katsina dolls made by exceptional artisans.
Mosa is the Hopi word for 'house cat' and they are important and respected in the Hopi culture, well -any culture that grows and stores grain for food.  House cats do what house cats do - keeping the mouse population in check protecting the grain.

'Mosa' the one eyed mouser

This also is Mosa - a 7-12 month old wild female feline who has adopted us (cats adopt you - you don't adopt cats).  She has been around people before - probably before being abandoned, and wants to be affectionate, but has been wild long enough to be very wary and skittish.  She was so skinny and scrawny and had a badly infected eye when she showed up.  A little food on the porch kept her around on and off for a couple of days until she made up her mind to stay.  She was meowing insistently at the back door and marched right in when I opened it.  In and out, back and forth, here and gone for several more days until she would let us scratch her behind the ears and purr like mad - but not touch her otherwise.  I managed to corral her - not without a few scratches - and got her to the vet.  I knew she was already blind in the infected eye, which the vet confirmed.  It needs to be removed.  We have had her on antibiotics to clear up the infections, had her wormed, and are scheduled for the eye surgery and spaying next week.  She is eating, gaining weight and becoming less skittish every day.  Now she sleeps on the blanket on the couch right next to you instead of off in a protected corner somewhere.  She is a welcome addition to the household despite the fact that this 'free' cat will cost about $400.00 by the time all is said and done.

Halloween Pumpkins

Here are this year's pumpkins I carved.  I haven't done this for awhile I warmed up on the not so difficult witch before tackling the more advanced skull.  Carving out all the teeth without breaking through the small ribs in between was a challenge.  I could not have done that one without the assortment of specialty knives I have for doing decorative Thai style fruit carving for fancy arrangements.

Cleaning up

The weather was warm and pleasant yet with a touch of early fall in the air for a couple of weeks.  Dry, dry, dry though. There was sufficient rain earlier in the summer but very dry for most of the later summer and now.  We have been taking advantage of this weather to work around the property trying to clean up the over grown areas.  It's a lot of work but satisfying because there is such of huge and obvious improvement as each job is done.  Right now it's cool, blustery and rainy.  The rain is so important and needed for planting the soft winter wheat crop soon.

before

before

after

As is so often the case, the landscape shrubs in front of the house were planted way to close to the foundation.  All will have to be removed and relocated or replaced.  I'm thinking azaleas along the front of the house?

before

after

 This area was not cut by my neighbor Joe because of the trash and bits remaining on the ground from the small barn/shed that used to stand on this spot when he generously mowed almost the entire property.   The old propane tank belongs to a company that I am not doing business with and will be removed by them eventually after much prodding, I am told.  The compost piles will be in this shady area.  You can see some of the tin roofing from the shed in the background as well as  the beginnings of the first compost pile.

controlling the ivy invasion

We removed a jungle of ivy in this corner to find the heat pump for the 2nd floor, an old unused fuel oil tank, and the propane fueled 'gas-pak' furnace/AC unit for the first floor.  It was like an archeology expedition finding a lost city in the jungle.  The old fuel tank will be removed and scraped and the area,  including the new propane tank just off screen right, will be fenced off from the dogs, chickens, and other critters and eventually include a large water tank for rain water collection from the roof for watering the garden and orchard gently down slope from this spot.

Tools, tools, tools!

At the far end of the screen porch on the west side of the house there is a storage room that had an interesting collection of junk in it.  One of the items was a hose and nozzle from a gas pump.

I wondered if at one time there had been a tank somewhere to fuel the tractors and other powered equipment when this house and surrounding outbuildings had been the center of a working farm.  Once again my neighbor Allen Green had the answer.

country store cabin

This old cabin on the property down at the road was a little country store in the 1920's - 1940's.  There is an underground fuel tank and concrete base where a gas pump once stood at the left front corner of the building.  The hose is from that gas pump.  According to Allen the cabin was kept up by previous owners and in good repair until about 2002 when no one lived on the property full time any longer.  Once the roof started to leak and not repaired, the water rotted the logs in the back corner.  The building collapsed just a couple of years ago.  Too bad.

Anyway - back to the storage room.  There was a rusty two man saw in the room, lots of mice droppings, glazed tiles for the kitchen back splash, red tiles from the kitchen cook stove hearth and cut nails (like the kind used for flooring) and some hand wrought iron nails in the walls for hangings tools.
We swept out the room, removed all the nails in the walls (saving them, of course), patched a couple of small holes in the floor, and loaded all the camping equipment and some of my inventory of rough rock into the room

all cleaned out

camping equipment and cabochon rocks in crates

On one wall be put nails back in the wall to hang all of our garden tools.  One day all the tools will go into a garage/barn/workshop we will built out back by the garden area.

Tools, tools, tools

Recipe: Basic soft white bread

This recipe is my personal adaptation of many subtly different recipes I have come across for basic soft white sandwich bread.  It makes one excellent large easy to make 1.5 pound loaf.  Measuring the flour by weight is key, I think, in all baking.  If you don't own a kitchen scale - buy one.  They are not that expensive and will improve all your baking significantly.

Ingredients:
20 oz. unbleached white bread flour
1 Tbs. active dry yeast
1 Tbs. honey
2 Tbs. oil or  2 Tbs. butter, vegetable shortening or lard - melted and cooled a little
1 tsp. salt
1.5 cups milk, scalded and cooled to about 100oF or 1.5 cups warm water and 1/2 cup dry milk.


Tools:
4 quart bowl
2 quart bowl
four sifter
wooden spoon
glass measuring cup for liquids
1 Tbs. measuring spoon
1 tsp. measuring spoon
9x5 bread loaf pan


Method:
Set a large bowl on the kitchen scale and zero the scale.
Add flour to a sifter and sift the four into the bowl until you have 10 oz.
Remove the large bowl and set a smaller bowl on the scale and zero the scale.
Sift 10 oz. of flour into this bowl.

Add all the remaining ingredients except the salt to the larger bowl of flour.
Vigorously beat with a wooden spoon to make a smooth batter (called a "poolish")
Set the bowl aside for 15-30 minutes until the yeast becomes active and starts to expand the batter.
If you get involved in something else - no problem, you can let the poolish ferment for up to 4 hours on the countertop or  24 hours in the refrigerator.

The 2nd 10 oz. of flour, salt and the active "poolish"

Add the salt to the poolish and mix in enough of the flour from the small bowl until the dough comes together and pulls away from the side of the bowl.  DO NOT ADD ALL THE FLOUR!
You should have about a 1/3 to 1/2 cup of flour remaining in the small bowl.
Sprinkle your clean counter top or other kneading surface with some of the remaining flour.
Dump the rough dough blob onto the flour, scrap the dough off your wooden spoon and sprinkle the top with some more of the remaining flour.  Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you wash your wooden spoon and large mixing bowl.  Rub some flour on your hands and begin kneading the dough - adding very small amounts of flour to the dough and dusting your hands with flour only as needed to keep the dough from sticking a lot.  If the dough seems just too sticky just let it rest for 10 minutes covered with a tea towel - it won't be so sticky after resting.  Knead the dough for about 10 minutes.

Kneading doesn't have to be one long aggressive marathon.  Take short breaks if you don't have lots of arm strength and stamina yet and let the dough and you rest.  There are three things you are trying to accomplish at this stage:
(1) Try not to add all the flour to the dough.  Try to have a few Tbs. of flour left over at the end, but if you don't - no sweat.
(2) knead the dough well for a total of 10 minutes and if that takes a 1/2 hour with rests - that's fine.
(3) ENJOY - this should not be stressful AT ALL.  If it is - you are going at it too frantically. relax.

Kneaded dough and remaining flour

OK - we have all heard that well kneaded bread dough should be springy, elastic, and smooth as a baby's bottom. Yes - but not a dry powdered baby's bottom.  Dough like that has too much flour in it.  It should be more like a baby's bottom with lotion on it - smooth and slightly moist, not bone dry.  While kneading the dough it should be slightly tacky - like a 'sticky note' but not outright sticky.  If with rapid kneading motion the dough pulls off your hand like a 'sticky note' and leaves no residue - that is about right.

Return any remaining flour to its' container, wipe out the bowl and coat the interior with a small amount of oil (about a 1/4 to 1/2 tsp.).  Plop in the dough, swirl it around in the oil, flip the dough over and swirl around again to coat the entire surface with oil.  Set the bowl aside, cover with a towel and let the dough rise until double in size.

dough after the 1st rise

What's double?  Many new bakers over do this step.  Double means double and no more.  To calculate this, plop the kneaded dough into a large 1 quart measuring cup and see how much dough you have.  It will be about a quart for this recipe.  Remove the dough and measure water into a smallish bowl equal to twice the amount of dough.  Find a bowl that is completely filled with that amount of water or make a mental note of how high the water level is in the bowl you want to use.  That full small bowl or noted mark is your guide for "double".  I'll bet the bowl is smaller or the water mark is lower than you had thought "double" was - isn't it?  Also, the time it takes for the dough to double is so variable it is useless as guide and is totally irrelevant. Ingredient temperature, room temperature, humidity, freshness of the yeast, vigorousness of kneading, amount of salt in the dough, - all effect the time it will take for the dough to double.  When recipes say "..... let the dough rise for about xxxx minutes or about an hour....until double in volume",  ignore the time.  

I use a 4 quart stainless steel restaurant utility bowl to mix the dough in and a 2 quart bowl for the 2nd portion of flour and for the 1st rise of the dough.  When the bowl is full my dough is "doubled".  I have a bunch of these stainless steel bowls in a variety of sizes and use them for all my kitchen work.  They are light weight, sanitary, indestructible, and incredibly cheap at restaurant supply stores.

When the dough has doubled in bulk, grease your loaf pan with butter, vegetable shortening, lard or baking spray.  Turn the dough out onto your clean kneading surface, deflate the dough and shape it into a log as long as your loaf pan.

This is another step that concerns a lot of new bread bakers because many, actually most, recipes say to "gently deflate the dough".  Baloney!  The dough must be thoroughly deflated to ensure you don't get large empty bubbles in the loaf.  Squeeze it, mash it, I actually knead it for a few turns - then shape it into a log that fits the pan and put the dough into the pan.  This is not a soufflé that you need to tip-toe around.  You do not have to treat it gently.

Shaped dough in 9x5 greased loaf pan

Cover the pan with a towel and let the dough rise a second time.  When the dough has just reached the top of the pan - preheat your oven to 350oF with the rack in the middle of the oven.  When the oven is heated and the dough has risen to an inch over the top rim of the loaf pan - Bake for 20 minutes and then tent with a piece of foil to prevent over browning and bake an additional 20 minutes.

after 20 minutes - now tent with foil

Remove form the pan immediately and cool the loaf on a wire rack.  You can brush the loaf with softened butter while it is still very warm to get an extra moist soft crust if you like.  The loaf should cool for one hour before slicing.  Stand guard over your creation and be prepared to beat back the voracious barbarians ready to pounce on the warm bread.  Good luck - this never works.

after 40 minutes baking it's done

mmmmmm...........

Fireplaces, chimneys, flues and firewood

I had the local Chimney Sweep come out to the house and check out the fireplaces and chimneys in the house to be sure they were safe to use and make any needed repairs if they needed attention.  When looking at the house before buying, it was thought that the two large tall chimneys in the old part of the house were the original rough granite rock chimneys built in 1859 which had been faced with modern brick in the past 20-40 years.  It was also thought that in the 2nd floor bedrooms the original open fireplaces had been blocked off, a thimble (round opening for a stove pipe) install in the flue above the fireplace, and the fireplace wall covered over with a sheetrock wall leaving only the thimble opening.  This all turns out not to be true - a very beneficial not true.  My neighbor Allen Green told me just the day before Rodney the chimney sweep came by that the two brick chimneys were new modern chimneys and fireplaces built about 30 years ago on the original rock bases of the old chimneys and the flues on the 2nd floor were just that - only flues and thimbles for stoves - no old fireplaces behind the walls.  This was all confirmed by Rodney's inspections.  This means that in the old part of the house there are only 2 fireplaces - not 4 as originally thought, but they are new modern brick terra cotta tile lined chimneys and in excellent condition.  The 2 flues in the 2nd floor bedrooms have never been used.  There is not a bit of soot in the liners and are ready for wood stoves to be attached.  Despite not having actual fireplaces in the upstairs bedrooms, having modern fireplaces, chimneys and flues saves the likely expense to repair old mortar in original rock chimneys and the expense of having an old rock chimney lined with clay or steel pipe to make it safe to use.

The fireplace and chimney in the 1905 addition IS the original old rock cooking fireplace of the detached kitchen building and dates back to the original construction of the home in 1859.  The fireplace, which has been blocked off can be re-opened.  This chimney has 2 flues - one for the fireplace on the family room side and one on the kitchen side for a wood burning cook stove.  Both of these flues are stainless steel pipe lined and are ready for use.

Interestingly a previous owner, despite having spent a considerable sum of money to have two chimneys and fireplaces built the job was not complete - there were no screened caps on the tops of the new chimneys so birds and squirrels had nested in the chimneys in the past and water dripped down the flues when it rained.  I had the tops of the chimneys mortared around the tile flue pipes with a slope to shed rain water and had stainless steel screened caps added to keep critters and water from entering the chimneys.

West side chimney with new cap  

The old kitchen chimney had both its flues lined with 6" stainless steel pipe,  but the brick top of the chimney needed to be 'tuck pointed', meaning the old cracked and failing mortar between the bricks had to be ground and chiseled out and new mortar put in.  Additionally the base of the chimney at the tin roof needed to be re-flashed and sealed to prevent water leaking in.

Kitchen chimney repaired and ready to use

Seasoned firewood for sale is not easy to find.  There is plenty of green wood available, which is how most people buy their firewood - well in advance and set aside to season a year or more before burning.  I found a good man with seasoned wood for sale and bought a "load" (a pick-up truck full).  I will likely need another load of seasoned wood for this winter season and plan to buy 2 loads of green wood now for next winter's heating season.  Raymond Jones is his name and he drove 20 miles from his place to bring the wood.  He fell in love with our little homestead here and we walked around a good bit admiring the house and the beautiful oak trees I have on the property.  I showed him the wood floors in the house and we all - Raymond, Kenny, Billy (Raymond's helper) and I - gathered around the bed of the pick-up truck and chatted for a spell.  Men gathered around the bed of a truck, arms folded on the edge of the bed, maybe one foot up in the rim of a wheel like a foot on the railing at a bar - is a scene that you will see every day.  Raymond would not only not take a little extra for the load to cover the extra long drive, he wouldn't even take the full quoted price for the load and told me he'd bring me some extra next time he delivered.  I expect Raymond and Billy will be back time to time for a some talkin' round the bed of his truck and maybe a barbecue or two.  Just love the people here.

a "load" of seasoned oak firewood - about 1/3 of a full cord

So in celebration of the clean bill of health for the fireplaces from Rodney and the good seasoned wood from Raymond we built our first fire in the "parlor" fireplace.

aahhhh - nothing like a good fire......

Tobacco Harvest Time

This rural Virginia County and the others surrounding it are a prime bright golden leaf tobacco growing area and has been for a very very long time.  The past two weeks have been harvest time in this area and as they say around here - the speed limits in the countryside are suspended during the harvest - as pick-up trucks towing over stuffed tobacco wagons from the fields to the flue curing barns and back race down the narrow country roads.  Speaking with the county clerk the other day he said things were pretty laid back in the county and as far as following the few and lax rules "you can generally get away with murder, and during tobacco season you can get away with two murders".

from this

to this

to this

all in a day

Real Tomatoes!

A Southern tradition and one of my favorites! Tomato sandwiches made with REAL, ripe, sweet/tart flavorful, heirloom garden grown tomatoes - white bread and Duke's mayonnaise.  The star of this show is a 'German Pink' purchased at the farmers market.  Life can hardly be better than this.  Next year Kenny and I will be growing our own - lots and lots of our own.

During the Internet Blackout

Sep 5th - Thursday

The big day has arrived.  One of countless "Big Day's" to come, I'm sure.  I have contracted ABF U-Pack service to move our belongings cross country.  I can't say enough good things about this service.  ABF is a conventional freight hauling company that will move household goods for a very reasonable price.  They will drop off a 26 foot trailer at your home, you load it up, paying per foot for the space used.   A ramp for loading is provided and a lockable plywood partition wall (your padlock) secures your goodies in the front of the trailer.  Space left over is used to haul freight or "pod like" furniture containers belonging to other customers.  They estimated 17 feet of space would be required and that is exactly what it took.

Sep 6th - Friday
Well, the belongings are on their way and we spent the day doing final clean-up at the mobile home in Tucson.  Vacuuming, sweeping, mopping and paint touch up  --  everything neat and clean and we were on our way cross country ourselves in the late afternoon - only making it a hundred miles down the road before stopping for the night, but hey - it's a start.

Sep 7th - Saturday: New Mexico
Sep 8th - Sunday:  Arkansas
Sep 9th - Monday: Tennessee
Sep 10th - Tuesday: North Carolina

Sep 11th - Wednesday
Arrived!!  Driving up the house looks as impressive as ever and knowing how huge a project we have undertaken - looks a bit daunting now, but the weather is fine, the birds are chirping and the squirrels in the oak trees look particularly fat and happy.  Yes - we have arrived, in many more ways than one.  Our furniture is at the truck terminal in Richmond and we arranged to have the trailer dropped off at the house on Friday.

Sep 12th - Thursday
After spending the night at a motel in our new "home town" of South Hill, VA, about 20 minutes south of the house, we returned to the house to start cleaning the top few layers of dirt and grime off before the furniture trailer arrives.  We stopped off at Home Depot to buy a pole saw for trimming tree branches in the way which would scrape the sides of the trailer pretty badly if not removed.  We encountered our first not unexpected challenge at the house.

12" bore well 40' deep with 14' of water and old tired pump

The jet pump at the well is screaming like a jet engine (bad bearings and an impeller about to seize up or fly apart) and will only lift about 2 gallons per minute to the spigot on the well casing at pump height, but will not  lift water to the plumping fixtures in the house.  The water is also pretty rusty and a bit muddy too.  I went across the road and introduced myself to my neighbor, Audrey Weatherman, who was delighted to have folks moving in and sure I could get as much water as I needed from her well.  Thus begins a period of getting drinking water from Audrey's well and water for cleaning, mopping, hand dish washing, bathing and flushing the toilet from our well gathered in 5 gallon buckets from the spigot at the well.

Sep 13th - Friday
Spent the night at the motel in South Hill again and received a call at 7:15 AM from the ABF truck driver that he was at the house!  So much for a one hour prior to arrival phone call.  I told him he would have to wait a 1/2 hour until we arrived.  We packed our luggage, checked out and drove on up the road to the house.  We had the driver spot the trailer near the back door on the west side of the house - all friendly and courteous, no problem waiting, sorry for not calling, and so forth.  We drove back to town to have breakfast and another stop a Home Depot for more stuff.  On the way back to the house we stopped by Rocky Top Lock and Safe, which is located at the owners home about a 1/2 mile down a dirt lane just north of the river.  Brenda followed us back to the house and picked the lock on the front door which had not been opened in maybe twenty years - partly because no one had a key and partly because the door was jammed from the house settling.  She got it open, got the antique lock set working again, installed a new lock set for the dead bolt and keyed it match the back door, and made a couple of extra keys for us.  The price for all this including a trip charge and a round trip of 12 miles from her place to ours was $139.00.  Of course we can't get the door completely properly closed again because of the settling, but I'm unwilling to plane the antique door to fit the out of square opening until I get the house jacked back into place and only then shave the door if necessary.

I nearly exhausted Kenny in the afternoon, working him like a rented mule to unload enough of the trailer to find and move the mattresses and bedding into the house so we could sleep for the night.  Twice I filled the bathtub with buckets of water from the well and heated 5 gallons of water to boiling on the stove (Gemma's giant size stock pot) so each of us could take a nice hot and soothing bath.  Ahhhh!!!!  We slept like rocks that night.

Sunset overlooking the pasture next door

Sep 14th - Saturday

Marissa and Justin drove down from Charlottesville, VA to help unload and clean.  Marissa did a great job cleaning all the kitchen cabinets, inside and out and unpacking many boxes of kitchen stuff into them while Justin, Kenny and I, and Marissa too, finished unloading the trailer.  Slept like rocks again that night.

Sep 15th - Sunday

Definitely living in the country!!  I looked out the kitchen window this morning to see a bullock and a heifer grazing under the pecan tree in the backyard.

Black Angus bullock and heifer

Somehow they got out of their pasture on the west side (sunset picture), actually she got out because the heifer is the brains of the outfit and the bullock, with his one track mind, is just sticking close to her to get what he wants.  The pasture is owned by my neighbor, but is leased to the owner of the small country store a few miles away on the main road to South Hill.  As this is Sunday, the store is closed, I'm on my own.  I went down near the road where there is an "Oklahoma Gate" (a gap with the fence line with the wires stapled to a couple of 2x4s and held in place next to the fence posts with wire loops).  The top wire was broken off the 2x4s and the whole thing was laying down on the ground so I knew how they had gotten out of the pasture and into my back yard.

I also knew I was not going to be able to drive the critters around the house through the trees in front of the house and through the gap in the fence back into their pasture so I had my morning coffee and waited until they had grazed the row between the soy bean field and the tobacco plot down to the pond, back up and around to the front of the house and were next to the fence line of their home pasture again.  By this time the rest of the heard was at the fence line on their side having a conversation with the two wanderers about how the grass actually was greener on the other side.  I opened up the gate and then drove the two down the fence line and through the gap back into their pasture.

In the afternoon, being tired and bored with unpacking boxes and trying to figure out where to put things, Kenny and I spent time wandering around the property and tackling some weed and overgrowth around the house.  Kenny ripped out all the weeds, woody shrubs and vines that had grown up near the stairs to the cellar and I cut down all the weeds and tall grass around the foundation of most of the house with my trusty new commercial grade heat duty weed whacker.  That particular implement is going to get a lot of use around here - I can tell.

before Kenny

After Kenny

Sep 16th - Monday

More unpacking, more wandering around the property day dreaming about what it will all be like in the future,  Still living out of buckets of water from the well and out of a very large cooler full of ice.  Eating REAL heirloom garden tomatoes before they are all gone soon.  Daily trip to Home Depot for more stuff.  I their is a customer of the year award - I'll win it hands down, no contest.  I already know many of the staff by name and they ask "what's today's project" when they see me.

My neighbor Allen Green who owns the property to the west on both sides of the road came by last Friday.  I had met him back in June when Kenny and I were looking at the property before buying it.  He said he would come by in a few days and mow around the house, happy to do it, being neighborly.  Allen's son Joe, who lives around the corner (which around here means between a 1/4 and a 1/2 mile away)  came by with a zero turn radius mower and cut the entire property except for the back part planted in soy beans and tobacco.  He cut about an acre and a half, more or less and quit only because he broke the main drive belt on the machine as the sun was setting.

neighbor Joe mowing

Country people are the best!  Genuine, unpretentious, down to earth - absolutely the best!

Sep 17th - Tuesday

Tony and 'Bo' from Moseley & Nash Well Drilling arrived this morning and installed a new 1/2 HP shiny stainless steel submersible well pump and 20 gallon pressure tank.

new 1/2 HP submersible pump

Installing the pump

WATER!! YIPEE!! ........ but wait......... now that there is water pressure we find there are at least three leaking pipes under the house, one is a gusher.  Still no water in the house, but at least we have a quiet high volume water flow from the well to the spigot at the well.  The 5 gallon buckets fill much faster and I can attach a hose to the spigot and drag it into the house to fill the bathtub.  This a real progress!!

Sep 18th - Wednesday

Ray Skelton - Plumber and Hero arrives at 7:15 AM to fix/repair/replace plumbing wise all that is wrong under the house.  He drives 10 miles each way, spends 3 hours at the house and uses $50.00 in materials.  He fixes three leaks, checks and disassembles and reassembles the shower valve assembly cartridge to be sure it is working properly and installs a new sprayer at the kitchen sink.  All this for $125.00 total.  Unbelievable courteous people that are open and friendly and honest.  Love every last one of them.  I discussed with Ray a future project to put a bathroom on the 2nd floor of the house and he checked all that out and proclaimed it very do-able.  NOW we have full use of that taken for granted modern convenience - INDOOR PLUMBING!!  Now we can retire the buckets and do the laundry.

Solar clothes dryer works just fine

At the end of the day a crew harvested 8 rows of tobacco from the field to the east.  That property belongs to the man who carved out these two acres and house and sold it to me.  The small harvesting was just a test to check the maturity of the crop and get a final grading for the performance contract for the sale of the crop to the tobacco company.  The equipment has changed a great deal since the 80's when I used to see tobacco being harvested in North Carolina.

Harvester carries a wagon on it and loads the leaves in it.

The harvester cuts the leaves from two rows simultaneaously

Sep 19th - Thursday

Another milestone in our march toward the 20th century! Refrigeration.  Early this afternoon the new fridge and freezer were delivered and the ice chest was retired.  We bought a matched pair of appliances in anticipation of a future kitchen remodel.  An all refrigerator unit and an all freezer unit that when sitting side by side are essentially like a gigantic refrigerator/freezer combo unit.  Yeah 20th century technology!

Sep 20th - Friday

Today we advanced to the 21st Century.  ViaSat/Exede/Wild Blue installed a satellite internet dish.  We are back on-line, meaning it took me awhile to plow through the many emails that had been piling up since Sep 5th and spent some time reading my downloads from Mother Earth News and Grit magazines.

Satellite internet dish

Also today Chris from Service Plus Gas came and installed a new 325 gallon propane tank near the house to replace the old tank belonging to another company.  He checked the furnace and it's working but needs a thorough cleaning of the coils and so forth.  Now that we have gas I can have a heating & air contractor come out and thoroughly inspect and adjust the furnace and repair/replace damaged heating ducts under the house.

325 gal. propane tank

Sep 21st - Saturday

Today is a cool overcast day with an 80% chance of Thunderstorms.  It has been very dry here for the last few weeks, but it is time to harvest the tobacco so....... the rain is needed generally, but not when you are trying to harvest a crop.  It seems too overcast to generate thunderstorms and feels very humid and tropical....... I don't know.  Well it finally started to drizzle about 5 PM and slowly, very slowing increased to a general steady rain that lasted until about midnight.  Another good day in the country.

Sep 22nd - Sunday - Today
Today is a fine day, 75 degrees, sunny and breezy.  The rain is gone.  The kitchen and pantry are unpacked and the blog is all up to date.  This afternoon is time to unpack the books and fill the bookcases. Maybe do some raking and collecting and starting the compost piles.  We have about an acre and a half of mowed grass, acorns and leaves to get things started.  Lots of raking.