Tricky Tennessee Weather.... fooled me!

ALL my big weekend plans for working outside came to an abrupt halt Saturday morning when we awoke to major thunderstorms passing through the area. The wind was howling across that big tin roof like nothing I'd ever heard before and I've been through the hurricanes in FL! What with the wind, the rain and the chilly temperatures, I resigned myself to indoor activities. You Day Lilies out there in the yard - you'll just have to wait a little longer :)

Before coming downstairs I crossed the bridge and started hunting through boxes for those scrawled with "Spring 2010" across them. They weren't hard to find as they were the last ones to go up there. They were pretty much on the outskirts of the box collection. LOL

I brought down a box filled with my sunflower candle holders, the bunny candle holders and the King Frog and Queen Snail candle holders. I found my spring table cloth, some empty picture frames that needed filling and the very last jar of "Bloody Mary" mix that Wally and I concocted and canned as the summertime tomatoes came to an end. It took me two trips up and down the stairs and back and forth across the bridge. Can you say "Whew!"

I set the boxes on the dining room table and started unwrapping the tissue paper that protected each piece throughout the fall and winter seasons. Not until everything was unpacked and unwrapped and rinsed clean of dust did I realize that my winter place mats, napkins and pine cone filled gourd were still adorning the table. Back into the boxes and onto the floor did everything springtime go...just long enough for me to grab up the darn fall and winter stuff that I had forgotten and move it into the living room until I was ready to make yet another trip up the stairs and across the bridge. One can get their exercise around here...

First things first - the spring tablecloth goes on. The area is immediately brighter and fresher looking. I set the candle holders out on the table debating where everything should go. I had a pretty good idea but you know how easy it is to change your mind when it comes to decorating? LOL I tried everything in probably 6 or 7 locations before finally coming to rest with my decision. Now, that's not to say it won't change again a couple more times before I'm through but suffice it to say I was done for that particular Saturday morning.

As you can see by the flickr photostream, the sunflower candle holders went on the bathroom windowsill. I used some of the pictures from last spring to fill the lucite frames (my first day lily and the "mystery" plant) and in the center is the candle holder that Marcia sent me for Christmas. Thank you Marsh!!! Love it! If anyone would like to print a picture of the windowsill and show it to her, I'd be ever so appreciative :) 

I don't think I've ever done so much decorating on a bathroom windowsill. Have you? It seems silly but that window has a nice view, great sunshine and a very slim chance that anything will get knocked off of it. For whatever reason I tend to go there first when I'm decorating. LOL Remember Christmas? Yeah - weird - I know.

The King Frog and Queen Snail are made of clay and can be used inside or outside as you see fit. They came from Partylight back when I was having candle parties all the time. We used them at the outdoor kitchen to burn citronella candles during our cook-outs. I don't know how effective they were on the mosquito population since we all wore insect repellent but they were very pretty and the glow from the candles was nice when the late afternoons turned to dusk. I promise to overload you with pictures this year now that I know how to use the camera and the little download thing that Ernie sent :) I hope you don't get bored!

There are two turtles and two frogs that go with the King and Queen and they are equally fun to burn candles in. The only problem with them is that the evening summer showers quickly doused the flames. Ah but they are cute and since it all matches... what the heck?

The bunny candle holders are back in their rightful place on the bookshelf but in a different arrangement from last year. They're so versatile that I tend to move them around a lot. There always has to be one next to the picture of Jarrett when he was just a little guy (jeez, have you seen that kid?) because his nickname was "BunBun" for the longest time. He had many more nicknames throughout the years but BunBun just kind of stuck. We went to a garage sale with Aunt Karen one morning and she bought him a plastic coffee cup (no, he didn't drink coffee but he wanted something...anything...you know how kids are) with the word "Bun" on it. I guess it came with one of those fancy coffee makers...anyway, that was his garage sale score on that particular Saturday and we started calling him "BunBun" from then on. He drank from that cup for so long it finally cracked and had to go by way of the trash can. Funny how a little thing like that stays with you forever but you can't remember what you wore yesterday...LOL

So I busied myself for the better part of Saturday morning just piddling as I've described. We did have breakfast in case you were wondering...lol Of course it was those fresh eggs - I picked the biggest one for breakfast - bacon, mayonnaise biscuits and orange slices. You're probably saying to yourself, "cholesterol ridden and artery clogging." Well that might be true in the case of the bacon but fresh eggs have less cholesterol than pasteurized eggs have. It's proven - really - I can provide documentation upon request. As an added benefit, they also have omega 3 fats that you typically get from salmon and other fatty fishes. Imagine getting that "good for you fat" in an egg instead?

We had just two slices of bacon, two biscuits and a half of a navel orange each to round out the meal. So while it may have had some saturated fat and probably loads of calories, it was filling and, in part, healthy but most of all, it kept us satisfied until up close to dinner time. I worked most of it off with all the stair climbing and bridge crossing...LOL or so I tell myself anyway :)

Well, if you don't feel like leaving the house and you've done all the decorating you can do for one day, what else is left? I started in cleaning...lol you thought I was going to say take a nap, read a book or watch tv, didn't you? Don't get me wrong, those are all very good options, especially for a rainy Saturday, but the bathroom was in desperate need of my attention. That's what I get for being in there decorating...made me notice my laziness hahahaha.

After the cleaning was done there were animals to feed. I couldn't feed them earlier because it was raining so hard I didn't care to venture out. Apparently the dogs didn't care to either because they were all nestled up in the ho-dog house not to be seen or heard from until much later in the day. The horses were another matter entirely. They were out there at the gate and every time I went around to do the laundry, they whinnied at me and pranced around as if to let me know I had forgotten them. I knew they were getting tired of waiting so when it finally let off - I didn't say it quit - it let off enough for me to don my muckboots and gray jacket and head on over there.

As I gathered their buckets, they snorted and stomped and generally showed some attitude that I haven't seen in quite some time. Even Rebel who is usually so good natured, wasn't impressed with the lateness of my appearance...LOL I filled their buckets and threw a handful of sweet feed to the roosters (still just the 4). Since Rebel was about to come over the fence I went ahead and held out the bucket so he could get a quick bite before I set it on the ground. Jeez he must have been really mad about something...he pushed his head down in the bucket so hard he almost made me drop it. As I scratched Smokey's neck, the rain began to pour again so I headed back up the porch steps to store my boots in the box and get back to the warmth and dryness of the indoors.

Late Saturday we watched the Nationwide race coming from Las Vegas and we were please to see Mark Martin win. Too bad the same couldn't be said for Sunday or I would have won $100.00 in the race pool. LOL Good Job Mark on a well-deserved win on Saturday.

I guess all that box sorting,toting and emptying combined with animal feeding, house cleaning and laundry doing had me pretty well exhausted. It was after dark when we went to bed... but not by much :)  LOL

Come Sunday, the rains had passed but it was COLD again. I think it was in the 20s when we got up. Darryl and his son came over eggs in tow and a huge bag, literally filled to overflowing, of the first crop of turnip greens for the season! Oh JOY!!! I was so happy to have green food (not rotted - that's gross...you know me better!) in the house I just stood there sniffing up the fresh, crisp, earthen smell for the longest time.

I rinsed them and rinsed them again and then let them sit in the cold water so whatever dirt might have been left, would fall to the bottom of the sink. As you can see from the pictures, they are beautiful in their greenness and I can't wait to sink my teeth in. That day would have to wait as we already had more than enough food out for Sunday. So the greens were rinsed again and yet again until I was happy that they were clean enough to go into freezer bags to be saved for another day. The timing was perfect as I was down to just one more small bag of turnip greens in the freezer - now, I'm all set! I sure hope Ernie, William and Britney like them :)

mmmmmm maybe I'll make my warm turnip green dip from the Southern Living website. It's really good, huh, Ernie???

I set some eggs to boiling so I would have hard-boiled eggs to carry in my lunch bag during the week and began gathering up all the things I would need for cleaning the upstairs bathroom and floors. Yes, it was another day of up and down the stairs! lol  Before heading up I cut two slices of cake for Darryl and his son and topped them with some fresh strawberries. I also bagged up the empty egg cartons so Darryl will have them for refills - he always laughs when I do that.

I rode my broom upstairs (hahahahahaha) and started in on the bathroom. Keep in mind that this is a log cabin. The floors are wood, the walls are wood, the ceiling is wood. This means there's very little to do scrubbing-wise but lots to do, floor-wise. Armed with Scrubbing Bubbles along with Windex and paper towels I finished that job in just minutes.

Problem #1 - Wally hung the medicine cabinet to his height. This means I can only clean the mirror about 1/2 way up even on my tippy toes. After that, he's going to have to take over...LOL It looks kind of funny to have half your mirror clean but that's the way it goes here in Wally World!

Problem #2 - my swiffer wouldn't work!! ARGH! There I was with the porcelain and glass all clean and shiny, the floors and trim were swept and ready for mopping and no swiffer action was to be had....ugh ugh ugh.

This is something that will really put a damper on your cleaning mode if you know what I mean? Well, there was nothing I could do but go BACK downstairs and fumble with the swiffer until the guys showed up. You already know the extent of my mechanical prowess so there's no real hope of me fixing the problem...LOL!! oh that's so funny! I took the batteries out (proud I could even find them!) and put new ones in. There, that should do it, I pushed the button - nothing. I shook it - still nothing. Hrmph? So much for that. I rinsed the hard-boiled eggs in cold water, put them in a baggie in the refrigerator and took out the shrimp to thaw for dinner.

It wasn't long before the guys showed up and when I went outside it felt like it was freezing cold. They assured me it was and they even saw a couple snowflakes while they were at the barn. I gave Darryl his goodies and they came inside for a few minutes to warm up before taking off back towards Centerville. They described all the work they got done at the barn and I'm sure it was a lot but it may as well have been in Spanish for all I understood of it....jeez, I can't even get a stupid swiffer to work - hello?

As they headed off down the driveway I explained my swiffer dilemma to Wally. He took out the batteries that I had just put in - wiggled something around and then used a knife on it. He put the batteries back in and pushed the button. Of course the stupid swiffer worked for him - Whatever! UP THE STAIRS I went...LOL!

I swiffered the bathroom, the landing, the steps down from the landing and the entire bedroom floor. It's a big floor - come see for yourself if you don't believe me... lol! Then I mixed some Murphy's Oil Soap in a bowl of water and by hand I cleaned the spiral cedar staircase. It came clean pretty easily but it's no easy job just because of the angle and the fact that the steps are about as long as I am tall...at least 3 of them are. Well, before long the spiral staircase was clean and shiny just like a new dime. Cedar takes on a reddish hue when it's wet and looks absolutely beautiful!

I collected up all my cleaning supplies and started putting them away while Wally talked on the phone with the Dish Network people. We had to move the one TV from the hot tub room to the living room as the big screen tv in the living room has decided to crap out on us. He is in charge of remote control programming as I'm about as good at that as I am with mechanics - just ask my kids or Neccy. Whatever that takes - I don't have it.

While he was getting assistance with the programming, he figured he would have customer service help with the remote upstairs too. They were very helpful and in no time all the remotes in the house were working better than ever before. Yeah!!! I'm still not sure how to turn on the tv but we now only need one remote for changing channels and volume control - cool huh?

I went to finish folding my last load of laundry and as soon as I walked in that door I noticed foot prints on the steps of the spiral staircase where I had just spent a good 45 minutes cleaning by hand!!!!! Oh My Goodness....talk about counting to ten to remain calm. Well, I still had my rag with the Murphy's Oil Soap down there so I grabbed it up, squeezed it out and once again, cleaned that staircase. You can imagine my pleasure :) :) lol!

As I was dumping the dirty water down the toilet, I mentioned to Wally that "someone" had dirtied up the staircase that I had just finished hand scrubbing...I said I wondered who that might have been. He looked at his shoes and said it might have been him. He said he might have done it when he went upstairs to mess with the remote and he also said he was sorry... I had to laugh. He really had no idea he had even done it...I also put a rug down at the foot of the steps.

The race was coming on and Wally had bbq ribs on the grill even though it was really too cold for cooking outside. I put the pan o' shrimp in the oven and grabbed a cold Bud Light. The time for resting had come. I sat in my rocker and he sat in his recliner and we enjoyed watching the NASCAR race at Las Vegas motor speedway probably more than either of the first two races.

Sorry about the Bush boys Kris - they normally do so much better there. I like Carl Edwards as a driver but still I haven't decided who to pick for MY driver. I wish I would hurry up - it makes watching it so much more fun. We stuffed ourselves on shrimp and ribs and still there was plenty leftover for both of us to have for lunch.

The roosters were cock-a-doodle-doing and the dogs were all in the ho-house with their red light warming them up. The horses had wandered back out of sight and the sun was still high in the sky when we hit the hay. It had been a weekend of stair-climbing for me and I was tired. This morning I wondered why my legs were cramping and stiff with soreness as I came downstairs and then I remembered why...lol! How out of shape I must be from this winter of inactivity!

Hope your weekend was fun! Hope you enjoy the new photos - there'll be lots more to come as things start to green-up around here :)

"If the shelves are dusty and the pots don't shine, it's because I have better things to do with my time."
~Author Unknown