Crazy Week - November 29, 2023

Since I last checked in, things have been busy around here, with multiple Thanksgiving dinners, lots of cooking, lots of going.   To someone who seldom leaves the property, it's been a little crazy.

This week, The Husband had to make an overnight trip to Nashville.  I was kind of looking forward to a couple of days of slug-hood after so much activity last week.  As he was packing to leave Monday morning, I asked (conversationally) where he would be staying, and when he said that the hotel was just a couple of blocks from the Tennessee State Museum, I stuffed some clothes into a tote bag and went with him.  I've been wanting to explore that museum for years.

The hotel was the Georgetown Inn.  It is an old house in a residential neighborhood.  I forget how many rooms it has, but the number is under 20.  Of all the hotels we've stayed in in Nashville, this was the quietest and most comfortable.  

I toured the museum for half the day yesterday.  It was pretty cool.

The Husband's meeting ended at 3:00.  As soon as it was over, we hit the road home.  

Today is Office Day.  <groan>  It's cold, and I don't want to go.

ADDENDUM:

Guess what? 

The Husband installed the vinyl porch wrap while I was at work today.  All by himself.  Without my supervision.  He did a fabulous job, and I appreciate it, for the vinyl wrap makes the back porch bearable on all but the coldest days.  

Tuesday - November 21, 2023

Today, I'll be having lunch with my former boss.  Our monthly lunch date was supposed to happen last Tuesday, but she was "in a mess" that day and begged off until today.  In anticipation of a trip to town, with Thanksgiving dinner coming up, I put in a grocery order.  

Painting class was cancelled this week, as all of us old ladies need to be cooking instead of painting.

We've already enjoyed one Thanksgiving meal - last Saturday with a daughter-in-law's family.  On Sunday, we went to my brother's house - not for a Thanksgiving dinner, but to visit his children who had come from out of town for the holiday.  He usually throws a big Thanksgiving dinner for the extended family, but they've got too much going on this year.   Thanksgiving Day, we will be joining The Husband's family for a big pot-luck meal.  This is the one I'm looking forward to; his family has some gooooood cooks in it. I'll start my cooking tomorrow.

Speaking of food, I'm sitting here on the back porch looking at an ear of corn that one of the Granddaughters found in the corn field behind the house.  It was missing a few grains when she found it.  The Husband tossed it onto the compost bin after the kids left.  By the next morning, it was on the ground in front of the bin, and it's still there.  The trail cam catches 'possums and the occasional rabbit digging in the compost, but nothing even sniffs at the corn.  Why is that?

De-leafing - November 17, 2023

Since our yard is surrounded on all four sides by trees, we get a THICK carpet of leaves every fall.  We usually leave them alone until spring.  By then, the leaves have flattened into a true carpet (studded with thousands of sweetgum balls) that requires a whole lot of work to remove if we want grass on the lawn. Most of the time we dump the stuff in the gully behind the yard.  There's no telling what creatures might live in that nice, warm hut. 

We bought a leaf grinder last year and used it this spring.  The shredded leaves - several tractor-bucket loads - went to the garden to help fill up the low spot, along with several loads of wood chips.  I wondered if putting all that un-decomposed material into the soil would screw up the soil pH, so this fall I had the soil tested.  It is VERY HIGH in phosphorus and HIGH in potassium.  It needs a big load of nitrogen.  It does NOT need any more shredded leaves and sticks.  It needs compost.  

The compost bin is already full to the top with shredded and unshredded leaves, but still we have all these leaves covering the yard.  "Experts" are saying to leave the leaves for the bees and worms and birds and such, but I want them gone from the "lawn" part of our yard.  I raked for about an hour yesterday, and when I looked at all the piles, wondering how I should dispose of them, I thought, "Screw it," and mowed over them with the riding lawnmower.  I mowed over the whole yard, multiple times, except for a large area in the "way back" part, where the birds and bees can party to their hearts' content.  

The compost pile needs work.  I threw a little nitrogen fertilizer in it to get it cooking, but it probably needs more.  It rained during the night, which packed down the leaves a little bit and should help the fertilizer melt.  The pile needs green material, so I keep putting food scraps in it, which the animals probably eat before the next sunrise.  

By the time I get this composting thing figured out, I'll probably be too old to garden.

 

Oil Painting - November 16, 2023

At Tuesday's painting class, I decided to try to do an oil painting.

Thirty years ago, I dabbled in oil in classes at this same shop (with the same instructor) with a few others who were painting the same scene - a mountain sunset picture.  It was not spectacular.  I also tried to paint The Husband from a photograph.  It was not spectacular, either.  I have not done anything in oils since then.

Before Tuesday's class, I dug around in the craft closet and found eight tubes of oil paints.  Their tops were stuck tight with dried paint, but I finally got them off with pliers.  I rounded up all the paint brushes that might do for oil paints, printed a reference picture (an old rusty tractor beside a shed), and went to class.  On the way, it occurred to me that I probably should have chosen a simpler subject for what amounts to my first oil painting.

This is not my photograph.  I found it on the internet and have no clue who took it.

The instructor agreed with that assessment, but I dived in, anyway.

The shed behind the tractor is built of corrugated tin.  The first challenge was getting the paint colors correct.  The next was painting all those parallel lines with my feeble, shaky, arthritic hands.  I managed to get the shed mostly done before the 2-hour class was over, and managed to get thumb prints in the wet paint as I was taking my supplies to the car.  At home, I fixed the thumb prints and did a little bit of the foreground.  Yesterday was office day, so the paint had dried by this morning, and I had the idea to work on the foreground a little more.  It seemed like a good idea to try it on my own.  It wasn't.  

Oil paints are very different from watercolors.  They go down differently, and oil paints take a long time to dry.  The foreground in my reference picture is mostly dead sticks and plant debris.  I tried thinning the paint and applying it with a small brush, which proved to be a nightmare.  The thinned paint was too transparent, but thicker paint won't make fine strokes.  While the paint was still wet, I smeared it over the already-dry base color and achieved a mottled foreground.  

Maybe the instructor can help me fix it next Tuesday.

* * * * * * * * 

I got a new assignment at the office yesterday.  The New Boss wants me to read over some contracts and summarize them for him.  I told him I would give it a go and tell him if the job is over my head.  He didn't have time to even show me the contracts yesterday.  It might be next week before I see them.

  

Genealogy - November 18, 2023

It's chilly on the back porch this morning.  I'm running an electric heater about 18" from my chair so that it blows under the table.  My feet and legs are warm, but my hands are FREEZING.  I shall power through it for a while, as it is a lovely, sunny day and I don't want to go inside.  Yesterday, The Husband baited the compost pile with an ear of corn that Granddaughter #2 found in the field behind the house.  (No, it's not deer bait; the farmer grew corn this year.)  I'm watching to see what new visitors might show up on the pile.  The camera didn't catch a critter last night, but birds were working the pile before sunset.

Now that I think about it, corn is probably nothing new to the local animals.  There's probably corn scattered all over the field since the harvest.

Oh, well.

* * * * * * * * 

Each morning, I spend about 30 minutes doing genealogy research.  There are two women in my lineage - one on my father's side, one on my mother's side - that fascinate me.  

Mary (my father's side) was born in South Carolina around 1805.  Her family was in Alabama by 1820, during the "Alabama Fever" land rush.  Her father was a blacksmith and, as far as I can tell, never owned an inch of land in Alabama.  I figure he was something like a sharecropper, working and living from farm to farm  as new settlers arrived.  

(A flock of birds just landed in my yard.  Little bitty ones, pecking around in the grass.  I don't know what they are.  There's one up in a tree squeaking its head off, calling the flock, I guess.)

Anyway . . . . 

Mary had at least three children, all out of wedlock.  The youngest two were fathered by one of Mary's neighbors, a married man whose wife the censuses labeled "insane."  In 1850, Mary and her younger two children were listed in this man's household.  The man died three years later, at which time Mary produced a deed for 160 acres left to them by their father.  The man's one legitimate child, a son, contested the deed in a lawsuit that lasted 10 years and went to the Alabama Supreme Court.  The court record paints Mary as a straight-up foul-mouthed hussy, an accusation that Mary's witnesses apparently did not deny.  I laughed when I read that she used foul language.  Daddy and his siblings are world-class cussers.  Is it nature or nurture?

The other woman (my mother's side) was Oma P.  She was born in Mississippi about the time Mary was having "illicit intercourse" in Alabama.  She married a man from Alabama (she probably married him IN Alabama) and had two sons with him.  He died of war injuries in 1866, I believe, and she re-married and had three more children.  They were in Lee County, Mississippi by 1880.  By 1891, all of her children were in the county where I now live.  All of these children, and some of their children and grandchildren, died fairly young of tuberculosis.  They left few descendants.  It is kind of a heart-breaking story.  I spoke with one distant relative whose mother and brother died of tuberculosis.  He caught it and escaped it only because drugs to treat it became available.  

I read a book about Elvis Presley's genealogy and was surprised to learn that tuberculosis was rampant in his family, too.  They lived in/around Tupelo, in Lee County, MS.  I can't help but wonder if my ancestors and his had contact with each other, or if there was just an area-wide epidemic spread by soldiers returning home from the Civil War.  

Oma shows up on the 1880 Lee County federal census as "O.M."  She signed a document (with an "X") as "O.P."  The MS State Census for 1880 lists her as "Oma P."  I do not know her maiden name, and it's driving me crazy.  The courthouse in the county where she lived with her first husband has burned twice since the 1860s, and all the records before that time are gone.  I have searched online records for every Oma who ever lived in a five-state radius and cannot find one that I believe is my Oma.  Of course, "Oma" might not have even been her real name.  It could be a nickname from Naiomi, Salome, or some other "oma-ish" name.

A couple of weeks ago, Family Search dot org suddenly added "Pinassa" as her middle name.  No explanation.

And I was like, "What the HELL?" (hat-tip to Mary).  ;)

Busted! - November 11, 2023

Yesterday The Husband moved the trail camera, and this morning we had video evidence of the critter(s) who have been raiding the compost pile.  Three possums (or maybe just 2 - the same possum might have visited twice) and a rabbit!

I was surprised to see the rabbit.  We haven't seen one around here in a while.  Just last night, as we were on our way to dinner, a rabbit ran in front of the truck, and I commented that I hadn't seen a rabbit in a while.  Hawks and owls live on/around our yard, and I had credited them with the scarcity of bunnies around here.  I'm glad they've missed one, so far.

* * * * * * * * * 

Later today we're having lunch with a few of The Husband's cousins.  At the last luncheon, back in the summer, we vowed to do this once a month.  I should get up a lunch date with my own cousins, as I have not seen some of the locals for well over a year.

A dreary day - November 9, 2023

It's a little dreary and cool on the back porch this morning.   The yard is covered with leaves.  From where I sit, I can see the compost pile.  It looks like some critter dug in it last night.  We have set up a trail camera pointing straight at the compost bin, and it hasn't caught a blasted thing except for me and The Husband going out there to see if it's caught anything.

I went out there just now to rearrange the set-up, and now I really can't figure out why the camera isn't picking up this phantom.  There's a very distinct path up the compost heap, right in view of the camera.  I moved some of the yard equipment away from the bin.  Maybe we'll get footage tonight.

I don't know why we're being so silly about this.  We already know it's Jose, the armadillo.  A couple of nights ago, we heard something scratching in the leaves near the porch.  The Husband shined a spotlight and said, "It's the armadillo," and switched off the light.  I volunteered to hold the spotlight while he blasted it, but he doesn't like to shoot at night.

* * * * * * * * 

Tuesday's painting class was blah.  I was blah.  I did not take the picture of Daddy and my brother to work on; instead, I took some Christmas cards I'd drawn, but didn't paint them.  Just wasn't feeling it.  Since then, I've drawn a few more.  Maybe I'll paint them today.

Or not.

I never send Christmas cards.  

Maybe I will this year.

Maybe.

Home Again - November 6, 2023

The Husband had to attend a two-day seminar in Nashville on Thursday and Friday of last week.  On Saturday and Sunday, Granddaughter #1 was scheduled to ride in another horsemanship event in Murray, Kentucky.  I went to Nashville with The Husband, and we drove to Murray Saturday morning.  

The seminar was held at the Opryland Hotel.  There is a jungle - or, rather, several jungles, complete with waterfalls - inside that hotel.  Tucked among the jungles are restaurants and bars.  The place is a maze to navigate.  

Our room was on a lower floor in the "Cascades" section, facing one of the jungles.  It was noisy.  Waterfall raging.  People talking.  Music playing.  I was glad to get out of there early Saturday morning.  Two hours later, we were in Murray.

The horsemanship event took place in an indoor arena.  There was limited spectator seating, so we took lawn chairs.  Our son, daughter-in-law, and Granddaughters 2 - 4 met us there.  We set up our colony between two bleacher sections. Granddaughter #1 won a 3d place ribbon for her ride on Saturday.  Although we thought she made an excellent showing on Sunday, she did not place in that event.

Curly-haired Granddaughter #4 entertained the spectators near our group both days.  She is almost 3 and keeps up a constant barrage of chatter and questions.  Sunday morning, she spied two pigeons in the rafters.  One of them was fluffing his feathers, and #4 said to me, "He's got crazy hair, like me and you, Grandmama."  

You can't argue with the truth.

After Saturday's event, we all went out to eat.  We wanted to eat at Patti's restaurant, in the "1880s Settlement" near Kentucky Lake, but couldn't get a reservation and they weren't taking walk-ins.  The Settlement had staged a Christmas shindig - lights, Santa Claus, The Grinch - and the place was crawling with people.  We ate at T. Lawson's restaurant across the street from Patti's.  If I heard a waitress correctly, it was their first week of business.  The menu was not extensive, but the food was very good, with generous portions.  Since none of us had eaten lunch, we were all starving.  We ordered appetizers and burgers.  After wolfing down the appetizers, The Husband and I could not finish our huge burgers and took them with us in to-go boxes.  

We left Murray about 4 p.m. Sunday and arrived home a little after 6.  Since we hadn't had lunch, we were hungry and glad we'd saved the left-over burgers.  I was pooped.  I had not slept well in Nashville (because of the noise) Thursday and Friday nights and woke up early Sunday morning, so I was ready to hit the sack by 9.  I crawled into bed with a Perry Mason novel (I've not read any of those novels until now) and managed about two paragraphs before I had to give it up.

It's good to be home, where it's peaceful and quiet.

Stuck in Neutral - November 1, 2023

It's too cold to work on the porch this morning, so here I am in the - 

I'm tired of typing "sewing/craft/office room."  Let's call this room a "studio," instead.  

Yeah...studio.  Maybe the change in nomenclature will change my slacker-ish habits.

[Two hours pass]

OMG...it's working!  

I just cleaned up my sew - er, studio - and made a proper workstation for everything.  There's a computer/printing station, a painting station, and a t-shirt station, and all supplies are grouped accordingly and within reach.  There's even room to work on the center table.

I hope I can actually work amidst all this . . . order.  ;)