In Memory of William Pattishall...

There is a good reason for me not updating the blog. Our dear friend William passed away a week ago today. We left for FL Tuesday and only just arrived home Easter Sunday. While it was good to see everyone, we would have much rather visited under happier circumstances.

Ernie, Shane, Chrystal and Britney will all be in our thoughts as they try to accept the passing of the most important man in their lives. William was such a great guy and he will be missed by all of us. He touched many people and this was never more apparent than when the funeral procession drove through the streets of Apopka. There were so many cars, trucks and motorcycles that we had to have a police escort to the cemetery. I think he would have liked knowing that he stopped traffic on highway 436 in a really big way :)

At the corner of Wekiva Springs Rd. and 436 William's son, Shane, did a burn-out in William's truck. He smoked the tires so much so that anyone behind him would be completely engulfed...that person happened to be Wally on the motorcycle! Wally said even though he couldn't see a thing through all that smoke, he figured William would have been laughing his ass off (excuse the language - it was a direct quote) to see that. Yeah - he sure would have!

I have to say thanks to Victor. He was a great friend to William and he gave the eulogy. While it proved to be a difficult undertaking, Vic pulled it off in a grand manner. He made us cry and made us laugh and showed us that it was possible to do so even under the most dire of situations.

Afterwards everyone went over to Connie & Bobby's house where there was tons of food (Bev - thanks again for bringing all that chicken - you're always so considerate that way), coolers of soda, bottles of water and plenty of beer. We saw old friends and met some new ones. We rang the big dinner bell in Williams honor and lit off fireworks in a grand finale gesture. The younger kids swam in the pool, the older kids played that bag toss game and the adults told stories and got caught up on the happenings in each others lives.

Williams passing brings home the reason why I moved to Tennessee. Life is too short. Make sure you're doing what makes YOU happy because you just never know what lies around the corner for you. May our dear friend Ernie somehow find comfort to get her through this difficult time. May William's children live their lives fully and in such a way that he would be proud. May our dear friend William rest in peace.

Life goes on here as days go by and when we arrived at our gate we found that a huge tree had fallen across the driveway. One of the branches completely crushed the gate and the trunk of the tree blocked the driveway. The electric company had been out and had cut the tree into pieces but they left part of it in the way. I don't know why they even bothered doing what they did as it was no help to us to find this huge mess in the driveway. They could have at least moved the part that blocked us from getting in.

We brought Dizzy Debbie with us since she was in FL and had planned to be here Tuesday. The trip in my little car was anything but comfortable for any of us. We drove to Atlanta where we stayed the night with Jay and Teri. I think I slept that night for the first time since hearing about William. I didn't get out of bed until 10:30. I felt refreshed, revived and ready to get back home as soon as possible.

The car was packed so tightly you couldn't slip a hair in it and we were off to TN via I-75, I-24 and the new I-840. From 840 we took back roads. I knew I was close to home when the interstate changed to cow pastures, barns and silos and absolutely no traffic.  We drove in silence for a few miles as we all looked upon the beauty of spring in the hills of Tennessee and remembered our friends in FL.

Since the driveway was blocked, we got out and walked up to the house so we could get the 4 wheelers to go to the barn to get the chain saw and the snaking tongs. After 5 hours of driving, the walk wasn't so bad at all. We rather enjoyed it. The weather was nice, a breeze was blowing, it smelled wonderful and our animals were waiting for us.

The puppies started barking as soon as they heard us coming, the roosters were in the yard and the old dogs shook the dust off as they made their way out from under the back porch. We were home :) and I was never so glad to be there. We hopped on the 4 wheelers and headed for the barn. We got everything we needed to get that big old tree out of the way and got to work on cutting it up and moving it up to the log splitter.

After the tree was dealt with, we unloaded my car. Soooooooo much stuff to unload since we now had our extra passenger and her stuff. I still have more to unpack but thankfully, Debbie is doing the laundry for me so that's a big time saver. I hope she knows how to hang clothes on the line! LOL Hey, not everyone does, you know? Not to mention the fact that I might be just a little bit picky about how they are hung out... I'm sure you would never guess that about me :)  hahahahaha

I took out steaks, green beans and corn for dinner and while the steaks thawed, I took Debbie riding on the trails. She had a blast! Her face was all smiles the whole time! It won't be long before she's on it again today...She now calls me "Daredevil Darcy" because of how I drove through those woods. Admittedly I wasn't very confident on the 4 wheelers last year. I've come a long way! The hills are high so you have to build up speed before you get going upward. The same hills going down require you to lightly hold the brake. There are trees down from the storms so we have to avoid them and there are always new rocks in the path. I don't know how the rocks get there but I assume they are like the ones in my garden...they just grow there somehow! LOL hahaha

Wally cooked the steaks on the grill while the beans and corn simmered on the stove. We were quite hungry after our drive from Atlanta, the clearing of the driveway and the ride on the 4 wheelers so when we sat down to eat, all was quiet except for forks picking up bites and mmm mmm good comments about the dinner. The steaks had a nice crunchy edge that we were hard pressed to make Dizzy leave alone. We didn't mind her eating that crunchy bite from her own steak, indeed we just wanted her to let us eat ours as well. lol!

I made the Italian style green beans with my usual seasoning of beef bouillon and garlic powder and Debbie loved them that way. I thought she had them before but she said no, she would remember if she had. Amazingly we had leftovers. We had a spoonful of corn, a smaller spoonful of green beans and a little piece of steak that probably got eaten at some point this morning if it didn't get eaten last night after we went to bed....Debbie.

For dinner tonight I have pork tenderloin thawing in the refrigerator. It's the tenderloin we got from the meat place during the winter. It's sliced into individual servings and then they run it through a tenderizer. It looks like a cube steak but it's pork. It is wonderfully tender (hence the name hahahaha) and when it's cooked quickly in a hot skillet, it comes out just as juicy as can be. I think we'll have that with some mashed sweet potatoes and maybe some turnip greens. Maybe I'll trade out the turnip greens for some of my canned yellow squash from last year. I think I have a few jars of that left and I know Debbie likes squash.

While we were in FL we rode the motorcycle over to Johnny & Lisa's place in Edgewater, FL. We took I-4 to the first Deltona exit and then followed the road around the lake into Osteen. The lake was choppy and the moss swayed in the overhanging branches of the Live Oaks. The road was lined with palmettos growing wildly on either side and we could smell the swampiness of the ground around us. We got in a really good visit with our friends who showed us their new property and shared what they had been up to in the year that I've been gone.

We stopped by Mom's house and talked with her for a little while. She hasn't opened the bbq pork that we sent home with her but it's canned so it'll keep. She does use the quince preserves that I canned last year. She doesn't eat them, instead she uses them to hold the top down on the cake she bought from Publix! LOL At least Grandma tried them. She agreed with me that they were too tart and that some sort of sweetener needed to be added. Next time, I'll add more sugar while it cooks.

We visited the Oriole's, of course. It was nice to see all our buddies and it was nice to know that nothing had really changed there. Ricky was still calling Bingo on Wednesday, Marcia was still busy as heck on Thursday and even though Kat wasn't at the club, we did see her at the funeral along with Ricky, Marcia, Beverly and Joyce.

Kelly came up and brought Kaylee for me to visit with. Kaylee is really growing up and she is starting to look like a young lady now instead of the little 8 year old kid she was when I left. Marcia had Stacy bring Mikey over so I could see him and he was as sweet as ever. He gave me hugs and kisses galore and told me stories about how well he listens in school. I guess some things do change after all... :)

We saw Derek and got to meet his new girlfriend, Tonya. They seemed pretty happy together. The first thing Derek asked was if I was going to be cooking while I was in town to which Wally quickly replied, "NO." I guess that answered that...I did plan to make some dirty rice for everyone but time got away from me so it never happened. Maybe next time Derek.

Lizzard promised her country fried steak and we'll definitely take her up on that when we come back. I've tried and tried but mine never tastes the same. Hers is tender as can be, crunchy on the outside, juicy in the middle and tastes like grandma made it. There's just something I'm missing. We both agree that mine is okay but it's not Lizzard's! LizAnn came over and hugged me and expressed her sympathy for us all and then played some really good songs on the jukebox. She never disappoints. Shawna and Chris were there and it was good to see them too. It was good to see everyone but like I said before, I wish it could have been under happier circumstances.

Beverly was incredibly generous with her donation of two huge boxes of fried chicken at Connie's house. It came fresh and hot and we were all hungry and ready to eat when we got there so it was perfectly timed in addition to being very tasty. Thanks so much Bev!

My sister and Jack had me wanting to scoop them up and bring them back with me but alas we had no room in the car! LOL Neccy looked so pretty with her hair dark and straightened and wearing her sexy black top that Connie gave her. There's nothing quite like a hug from a wonderful, considerate, caring man like Jack. For all that he does to help take care of my family I am eternally grateful. Even if he is Ernie's boyfriend :) :) :) (ha ha ha inside joke).

Take time to appreciate the people in your world.

I know I've been skipping around in this posting but there's so much inside that has to come out and it comes to me in the order you're reading it. One thing reminds me of another and not necessarily from the same day. I hope there's no confusion :) I have enough of that in my own head!

Because we had to get that big old tree out of the driveway and unpack the car and visit with the animals and start dinner to thawing, it was quite some time before we arrived at the garden for my inspection to begin. I could see from the back porch that the peas had grown considerably since we last measured them. Short of something eating them before I can pick them, I should have a pretty good harvest from those rows. On Ernie's mama's advice, I'll be blanching and freezing them rather than canning them. She says they will be better if I do it that way and mama always knows best. She did say that if my freezer space was limited, canning them would be the next best option. I'll take inventory before too long :)

I looked for carrots and beets but so far, unless I just don't know what they look like, it appears there are no carrots or beets coming up from that ground space. I continue to check for them daily and there are some leafy green shoots in the rows but I have a feeling those are weeds. I'm not quite ready to give up on them though so I'm having to deal with believing those weeds to be food instead....

The red onions have gotten to be about 10 inches tall as far as the part that's outside the ground. Underneath, I have no idea. Mom said my Dad used to just dig one up and see if it was the size he wanted. That would be easy enough to do. If it's still too small, I can just bury it back and no one will know the difference. Ha!

The little scallions are struggling to do their best and there are quite a few of them in the rows. They are very thin and wispy and it appears they will take some time to reach maturity at this rate. That's okay though. I wouldn't want the red onions and the scallions to all come in at the same time - goodness what would I do with all those onions???? lol - I could send some to Aunt Karen - she loves onions like no one I've ever met before!

Finally, it pleases me to tell you that while we were gone, my bush beans not only sprang from the ground but they grew to about 4 inches when they did come up. Amazing! Certainly I hoped they would be coming up when we got home, but just as certainly I didn't think they would be that big already. What a nice, green, healthy, surprise I got! Soon I'll have to get a fence around that 2nd garden area so the deer won't be able to eat my bean plants or the beans that they will produce. Hmmm does that sound like a job for Dizzy Debbie and I to embark upon??? There's a very good possibility!

We walked across the front yard and saw that the grass seed was growing and before long we'll be able to mow it. The little stalks with more grass seed have emerged but aren't quite ready to spread with the mower. I might get to do that this weekend depending on the rain. Down the driveway I saw that my little pink, purple and white flowers have declined to just a green clump. They don't get cut back so I'll be leaving them as they are but I do need to get the weed eater out there and weed eat in front of the rocks so the weeds don't climb in there and take over. Besides, the weeds just make it look messy to me.

Before we left for FL I noticed the delphinium seeds had sprouted in the little circle by the tree stump. There's a picture on the flickr site if you want to see them. I couldn't resist checking the other little spots where I planted them so down towards the gate I wandered. Sure enough in each of the places where I sprinkled them, little green shoots were clustered together and growing up nicely. I think I made 3 places down one side, sprinkled some in the flower bed by the flag pole and on the other side, I dumped what was left in a rotted tree stump. It had lots of decomposing leaves in a hole on the top so I dumped them in there hoping they would enjoy that rich environment. Many thanks to Teri for her generous donation of the seeds :) and might I add that while we were visiting with her and Jay, she said I could have some of her black irises when the time comes to separate them! They were spectacular!! They are so deep purple that the centers are actually black.

We saw many, many colors and varieties of irises on this trip, from yellow to white to lavender and, of course, Teri's black ones. While I have several of them planted, I have no idea what color they be. I think Claudia said the ones she gave me were blue. The ones I dug up from down at the trailer are a mystery since they were planted by Wally's mom some years ago. I'll be digging up more of those again but for now I have to wait until they are done blooming - assuming they actually will bloom :) hahaha I don't have much confidence in my flower growing abilities do I?

The wild roses were blooming on the side of the dirt road but they haven't started yet at the house. I hope they bloom some before Debbie has to leave - they're so pretty! Gosh, I just hope something blooms before she leaves, she wasn't very impressed with my vegetables.

So that's the update on our trip and the farm. I'll be here tomorrow and then I'm out until Friday after I drop Debbie at the airport. I'm sure to have lots of pictures to add so even if there is no posting, you'll still have something to look at :)

For Ernie and her family:

"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight." ~Kahlil Gibran