Halloween Came and Went With No Trick or Treaters at the Cabin...

Surprised? LOL nope! For one thing, I don't know any kids who would walk 3/4 of a mile for a couple of pieces of candy... ha ha ha Certainly not mine. They thought they wanted to walk to Taco Bell one day - you should ask them how that worked out for them. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Suffice it to say, they never asked to do that again :) 

From the Farmer's Almanac for November: "Time on his wing fast hastes away, and chills each warm succeed; to Capricorn Sol hastes each day, so nights the day exceed."  Does this have something to do with the time change? I'm not sure. Did you know that it was Nov. 22nd, 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated? Yep - 47 years ago. The year Neccy and I were born.

Friday after work we headed into town to pick up a few things we needed and while we were out, we went back to the Mexican restaurant where we had visited the week before. This time we ordered taqitos. They served two chicken and two beef taqitos and the usual sides of rice, beans, lettuce and salsa. We sat at the bar and ate since it was too cold to sit outside. The food was great once again but this time the order was much more reasonable in size. We ate all of it without feeling too full and then made our way back home.

Remember me telling you about the warming light for the doghouse? Well, when we got home, as we drove by we could see that both dogs were curled up snugly in their blankets with that nice, warm, light softly glowing down on their fur. It looked so cozy in there and it really must have been so because neither of them greeted us as they normally would. lol They were staying in and staying warm that's for sure.

The roosters had already put themselves to bed so they were nowhere to be seen. The dogs were tucked in and warm and there was no sign of the horses. We were tired just like the animals so we watched a little tv and then called it a night. I'm sure having full bellies helped... lol I slept like a log and it felt good!

Saturday dawned a bit overcast but we were not to be deterred. We wanted to drive over to this farm where the owner sells fresh cuts of pork and beef right out of a shed on his property. This is the meat that doesn't go to market so it's at a lower cost to us and it's cash in the pocket for him. Legal? Doubt it. Good prices? Most definitely! Last year we went several times and even took visiting guests with us. Dizzy Debbie can attest to the flavor of the pork sausage and chops. We saw two deer crossing the road as we were leaving the neighborhood :) Still not hunting season but only days away :)

When you first step inside, things are a little hectic. The beef is on styrofoam trays and wrapped in plastic just like at the store. It will be labeled with just the price. No weight, no description of what it is, but you can tell easily enough. There will be ribeyes, ground beef, roasts and this year I'm hoping for a tongue. Sorry to gross you out but it's for me and Rebecca. Anyone else is welcome to try it or not, as you see fit. We like it very much so if you decide you don't want any - that's okay - more for us :)

The pork is usually in plastic bags. You can get boneless chops that have been run through a tenderizer (my favorite), bulk sausage, ribs, ham steaks, tenderloin, summer sausage and the list goes on. He even has country hams hanging from the rafters if you should so desire one. So you tell the guy behind the table what you want, he takes your name and notes the packages and loads them in a box for you. The box will be waiting when you get to the end of the table where you then hand over your money to the owner. It's all cash. We asked for a box of bones for the dogs the last few times we went and he gladly had his men fill up a box for us.

The big benefit, if you ask Dizzy Debbie, is that there is another guy on the other end of the room and he's back there cooking sausage and offering free sausage biscuits to anyone who wants one, or two, or three, or...well, you see how it goes. I don't remember how many times Debbie and Wally went back in for more but needless to say, I didn't have to make breakfast that day... lol! That's about as fresh as it gets when it comes to sausage. You can smell it cooking as soon as you get out of your vehicle.

Oh my if you could just imagine for a minute... A cold winter morning about 7am, you can see your breath. You're bundled up and still groggy from sleep. The next thing you know, you're in this little outbuilding picking fresh cuts of beef and pork all the while smelling the savory scent of sausage frying in a big cast iron skillet. There are probably 8-10 other people doing the same thing. You make your way to the back only to find that the biscuits are complimentary so you help yourself to one of them. You pay for and collect your goodies, load everything in the back of the truck - no cooler necessary when it's that cold and you make your way back home.

The sky is a little cloudy and the sun is just breaking through as you wind your way down around the little back roads where no traffic lights even exist. The leaves have fallen from the trees so you can clearly see the white tail deer running off into the woods while the hawks soar above looking for prey on the ground below. Perfect Tennessee morning for me.

Well, I guess we were too early in the year because he wasn't open for business yet. We'll try again this next weekend. Meanwhile it was only 7am and we were already out and about so we decided to go have breakfast on the square (in Centerville). We ended up at a place called Breece's Cafe. It's a typical meat and 3 but we were there for breakfast and we weren't disappointed. We took our time and lingered over our plates as we were early yet for what is called "The Grinder's Switch Hour." I wrote about it last week when it was part of a tv show called "Tennessee Crossroads."

We found the building where the show is held and then we walked around the square just to kill some time. We went into the Prince Hardware store where you can find a little bit of everything. We ended up buying a new fly swatter (they have the ones with the metal handles!) and a corn cutter. The corn cutter will be perfect come summer when Debbie brings me another couple of bushels of corn for canning. With the cutter, all you do is set the blade to the right height and slide the ear of corn down the grooved wooden bed. As it runs across the blade, the corn drops into the bowl that you have set beneath it. Makes it so much faster!

As we were leaving I noticed a sign on the register that read "It's funny how you think I'm listening." Ha Ha Ha that reminded me of Kat. She always wears t-shirts with funny sayings on them like that one! I got a kick out of it.

The Grinder's Switch Hour was so much fun that I plan to be back as many Saturdays as possible with our busy schedules. We stepped inside and the band was just starting to test and tune their instruments. There were two or three guitar players, a mandolin player, later on a fiddle player showed up, there was a slide guitar player and a guy on what looked like an organ maybe?

Pews were set facing the stage with extra chairs lined up along the window wall that looks out on the square. That's where we chose to sit. Since the program is aired live on the local radio station, there's a sign above the stage that is lit with "On The Air" and unlit when they are on commercial break.

They played their instruments and sang their songs and everyone tapped their feet or clapped their hands in time to the music. A few folks even sang along. I would guess there was probably about 25-30 people in attendance. A special guest singer showed up and she did a couple sets of songs. She said she'll be back in two weeks to sing some more. One of the guitar players had to leave early so he could get his son to his soccer game in Howenwald - just down the road.

They took suggestions from the audience and played quite a variety of songs from old Hank Williams and Patsy Cline to Billy Currington and, of course, some gospel. If you wanted to, you could buy a newspaper for .50 on the honor system. There's an old coffee can with a slit cut into the lid where you drop your money. Of course I had to have one. Whenever we were on commercial break, we checked out the local headlines, coupons and weekly fliers. Even though we were there on Saturday, the paper was dated Monday, November 1st. Don't ask me, I have no idea why. 

In the back of the room is a museum of sorts where you can check out the Minnie Pearl memorabilia and others of country music fame who have visited the town or donated items to the county. We were there from 10 am until 11:21 exactly. LOL The TN Vols football game was to be broadcast on the same station so they had to call it quits early (remember the show is called The Grinder's Switch Hour...) but promised that next week they would be on for the entire hour. lol. Maybe they don't count the break times? 

I wore my "joe-veralls," a long-sleeved, black shirt (hush Rebecca) and my black cowboy boots. I was over-dressed :)  Just kidding. Some people went all out, others were dressed like me and still others looked like they had issues with coordinating their outfits. It was so much fun!

We stopped at the Co-op so I could see if they had any good deals on their coats and jackets. Well we happened on the Carhart jackets and I was hooked. They are warm and very well made and I had my choice of brown or black. I tried on several sizes, picked out a brown one and finally had my choice in hand. I have a winter coat!!!!!! Betcha you never thought it would happen... LOL!!

Well since we were so close to Pee Wee's Place, we figured we might as well stop and say hi to Darryl. He had only been open about 20 minutes when we got there. We were reading through the paper I bought when Wally told me about how they put all the arrests in the paper. Sure enough, no matter what happened, it was reported right there for the whole town to read about. One guy called the police because his house had been robbed. He reported that the thieves stole a watch, some jewelry, some cash and his moonshine! LOL how 'bout that?

We stayed too long at Pee Wee's and needed to get back home so we could get some things done around the house. On the way home we stopped at a garage sale. Big mistake - my goodness these people were selling everything and selling it cheap. She said make them an offer because they didn't want to have to pack it all back up and she sure wasn't going to bring it back out once the cold weather sets in.

Okay... we ended up with some plastic chairs for the outdoor kitchen, a shelf for what-nots, a medicine cabinet for the outhouse that looks really old but really isn't, (ha ha ha) a couple of video tapes (yes, vcr tapes, I still have my vcr so hush), some metal piping (maybe that's what it's called, I'm not sure), and a bunch of other assorted junk. You know how that goes... The deal of the day for me was a pair of Timberland shoes that were somewhat worn but just my size. I tried them on and they fit like a glove. I asked what she wanted for them and she said make her an offer. I had a dollar in mind when she said "how 'bout a dollar?" It was meant to be. I grabbed them up and then remembered seeing some shoe laces on a table a couple of rows over. I went and grabbed the laces, got them for a quarter and we loaded up what we could into my little car. It was stuffed. Wally is going back today to get what we couldn't carry. I have no idea how much we spent but the shoes alone were a great deal so you really have to consider the savings.

What do Timberlands go for these days anyway? I found out the next day that they are steel toed making them even more valuable! :)  :)

Well, it had turned out to be a really pretty day so we blew off the chores and took off on the 4 wheelers instead. We brought the 9 mm gun so we could do some practice shooting and we rode the fence line making sure the hunters hadn't made any cuts. So far, so good. We stopped to see the horses and gave them a couple of carrots. Boy their hair has really thickened up in the last week or so. It just made me want to snuggle up to them or brush them right then and there. They probably wouldn't have gone for either!  

We rode all the trails, took several breaks for shooting and drinking beer and began to make our way to the cabin on the hill just as the sun was getting ready to set. We went to fire up the grill but found we were out of propane so I cooked ribeyes inside in the cast iron skillet. We had corn and peas to go with them and by the time I was done with the kitchen, we were both ready for bed. We shut the doors and turned on the heater, I put some clothes in the dryer and we hit the sack. My eyes may have been closed before my head even hit the pillow.

No sign of nary a trick or treater... no candy even if one did happen to show up... lol!

Sunday we had sausage biscuits (c'mon, after anticipating the ones at the meat place, we deserved them!) with butter and honey slathered all over them and scrambled eggs on the side :) I got my laundry going and cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen counters. The oven and dishwasher doors needed cleaning so that got done too. I started on the refrigerator doors but was called to watch my Tennessee programs on tv. There are three; Tennessee Wild Side featuring Bill Cody, Volunteer Gardener, where I'm learning how to garden in this zone and Tennessee Crossroads which you've already read about.

In all I'm learning lots about this new place where I'm living, not just where to go and what to see but how the land is being protected and how the people are all involved in conservation efforts and restoration of old buildings. I could go on for days but instead I'll wait until we make visits to these places and then I'll tell you all about them.

Joe showed up so Wally took him down through the holler to check out the trees that he wants Joe to take down. They made their deal and then Wally and I settled in for a day in front of the tv watching the race at Talledega Speedway in Alabama. I was rooting for Kevin Harvick but it was not to be as Clint Boyer was ahead by a hair when that darn caution came out. Oh well, sorry Ricky Kline. Better luck next week.

I cooked the kale that came in the basket and it was better than I expected. The first time I made it, I wasn't too fond of it but since it came in the basket again, I decided to give it another try. This time I chopped it up and added it to a pan that had olive oil and garlic heating up at a medium temperature. The kale slowly wilted like any other green will do and I sprinkled a little salt on it to finish it up.

I washed, peeled and sliced the turnips then added them to a pot of water seasoned with chicken bouillon and whole pieces of garlic. That was the base for the mash. They were ready in no time so I drained them (saved the juice for the dogs), mashed them, added some butter and black pepper and we were ready for the ribeyes. I know we just had steak the night before but they were frozen in packages of 4 so what else were we to do with them I ask you? lol

Dinner was a quiet setting at the table. I had one of my candles lit and sitting on the table in the living room. The dogs were hanging out on the back porch awaiting their luscious, beefy scraps, the temperature had cooled to the 50s, and me and Wally gobbled up our food with abandon. In all we had a delightful weekend - no scary costumes or movies, no kids ringing the doorbell, no traffic on the street (as far as I know... you can't see it from where we are), no big party to attend which was okay with us. It would only take us away from the farm anyway.

So I got my jacket shopping out of the way just in time. Friday the high is 48 and overnight it's expected to get down to 29 before sunrise on Saturday. Out of procrastination comes some perfect timing after all LOL!

I have my Timberlands, my wool socks from Mom, my new coat, my gloves from Ernie and I have a scarf for around my neck. I guess I'm as ready for winter as I'll ever be... lol time will tell.

I hope you had a delightful weekend with nice cool temperatures. I hope you made it to a fall festival. I hope you had fun at your halloween parties or just hanging out with family and friends.

"Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
For there the heart can rest."
~Henry Van Dyke