I said I was baking bread...he asked me what I was really doing

Baking bread...and cake and spare ribs.

The weather is COLD here so I am taking advantage of the down time to do some baking. It's very cozy, with the wood fire blazing and the smell of fresh bread baking. Will also get some bookwork and filing done. Hopefully it will warm up within a few days.

Had some sad news this morning...our friend Rolf Bergenn passed away. Ralph and Marie are friends who live near Poughkeepsie, NY and own a summer home here on the island. All our best to the family.

Here is a check on the Aero....from sprouts to little bitty leafs in another 24 hours!!!

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.....

After being home for a day and a half, both Salt and I have a list of things we forgot, ran out of or just need. So.....we are headed to Watertown in the RAIN. My boat is not in the water yet so we are headed out in Salt's Lund, which has no top. Now the real fun part of living on an island begins......

Oh Yeah....he's got a "thumbs up" here but you should have heard him complain as he loaded everything in the boat in the POURING rain!!!

And here we are back in NY where they don't even list the diesel prices...

Salt filled his truck and came back with his piggy bank....looking a little thinner!

Check out the Aero Garden after only 16 hours....already sprouting. I am SO fascinated with this little machine (it reminds me of the Hydroponic Gardens at EPCOT). You all must realize by now you are going to have to watch the progress until I cut the greens and make my first gourmet salad! I can't wait until we can take the caps off and watch them (7 pods) really take off.

Everyone has been asking me what I plan to do this year now that the house is finished and I am not working.....well you can watch the progress (or lack of??) as we start the landscaping. This is pretty much how the whole exterior looks right now. LOTS of clearing and then trying to figure what I can plant that the deer won't eat. I have a pretty extensive list right now but need to keep researching......ah the beauty of the Internet.

This is the beach area which we plan to clear. We will cut enough trees to be able to watch the spectacular Canadian sunsets from the sun deck. After that we need to put in floating docks and actually make it into a beach. Needless to say I won't be bored. I am hoping Salt will have some time to help with the chainsaw work and heavy clearing before he is totally swamped. This is just a small portion of the beach area; it is actually 217' of waterfront.

And last but not least for the evening....here is Emma in yet another hand-me-down from her cousin Rachael. She loves everything and now wants to wear only the clothes she got from Rachael. As you might guess...she loves Rachael so they are very special to her!! Thanks Rachael!!!

We finished the evening with a visit to Erma's to catch up on some of the winter happenings and a good cup of coffee.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary....how does your garden grow?

We are back on the island! I stayed in town for 2 days and packed up the motor home and did the shopping while Salt came to the island to open the house. Everything weathered well...no problems.

Lots to catch up on....now that we are home we can finally use the Aero Garden that Mike, Robin and the girls gave us for Christmas. What a perfect gift for someone living on an island. Going to town for fresh produce is not fun and since it is still too cold to plant this will be great. Salt just planted all kinds of salad greens. They are supposed to sprout in 1 - 3 days and be ready to start eating in 3 weeks. When we can finally get a small garden in I will use the Aero Garden to keep fresh herbs in the kitchen.

While we were in Florida, one of my girlfriends was going to trash this table. I immediately laid claim to it, as it was exactly what I was looking for for the island house. When we built the kitchen, we decided to put an eat in counter so we could have more counter work space. I didn't want to crowd the family room with a table so this was exactly what I was looking for!!! It is also a perfect fit in the hallway. When both leafs are raised there are 4 wooden chairs stored underneath. We have a large table on the sun deck overlooking the river and a table on the screened porch so this is where we usually entertain. However now in case of rain I can just wheel this one in the family room and wallah!!! Thanks Diane!! I told you it takes so little to make me happy....especially free things!!

Great news from Sarah...she got the job she applied for at Coastal Edge. This will be her first "real" job so she is very excited. Of course the first thing she is saving for is a car. We're hoping the temptation won't be too great to spend her whole paycheck on clothes!!

Thursday night (the night we arrived back in Clayton) was Emma's Art Show she had no idea we were home. I had Betty pick me up and surprised her. Here she is holding the decoy she painted. She was so funny, she was looking through them and told me "Grandma look for a Merganser". Her dad (who is a decoy carver) has her pretty apt in identifying the different species.



Mike called last night and said he was meeting Robin and Rachael at the hospital, as Rachael had stepped on a nail. We called Rachael today to see how she was doing... she wanted me to post some pictures on the blog so here they are Rachael!!

This was the rusty old nail....

OK Rachie, next time you have to find a less painful way to be featured on the blog!!!

Robin and Mike wanted some pictures of the new house....they will finally get to see it this summer. I took a few but since I have only been home a day and have not cleaned yet, this is all you are going to get for now!

This is the family room looking down from my office in the loft! Everything looks miniature...the ceilings are REALLY high!

The pantry which was empty 2 days ago....I love this pantry...the opposite wall is all pegboard!

The stairway leading to the loft...my office, master bedroom and bath.

The kitchen......

Enough posting for tonight.

I was born country and that is what I'll always be...like the river and the woodlands,wild and free!

We are on our way home (?) back to the river. At this point with a place in Florida, a home on the river and a motor home (which we have lived in for 7 months and 3 weeks), I guess the real question is "where is home"? Maybe it IS "where you hang your hat"!

We had a wonderful week and a half with Mike, Robin and the granddaughters. The moving van was unloaded, boxes emptied and all the pictures, shelves and TVs hung. Salt and Mike also installed a new door with the "dogie" door option.

Replaced the flooring in the downstairs bathroom....they took it down to the original floor and...

here is the finished project.

While the boys worked on their projects, Robin and I had an opportunity to do some shopping and pick up a bunch of "needful things" one always needs after a move. We also found a new computer desk for the family room.

I had promised the girls to take them shopping for spring clothes but with everyones' crazy schedule we only managed to get Sarah a new dress for her job interview. They were both quite satisfied to have us leave the money and have mom take them when things settled down.

As hard as we all worked, we still managed to have a lot of fun while we were with them. We had a couple of family movie nights where we all cuddled up with some Ben and Jerry's and a couple of good movies we missed when they were playing at the theater.

Last night we took a vote to see where we wanted to go for "the last supper". It was unanimous for the Outback Steak House.

As I had so little time to blog over the last week, I missed several posts. In trying to catch up I will just add a few pictures here and try to get back on track when we return to the island.

I love the fact that Salt is cruising 60mph down the highway while I sit with the computer on my lap connected to the Internet.....love my Verizon wireless card and my new inverter!!!

Here's Emma trying to steal Grandma's Hula Hoop Championship title.

You can see how devastated she was when she was swallowed by the shark! What a ham! This was taken when she and her mother visited the Virginia Beach Aquarium. Emma, who is a little science nut LOVED it!

I'm glad it's your birthday...happy birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Robin....

Hopefully, pictures will be worth a thousand words as we have all been too busy to write much.

Mom decorating the party area....




Emma and Rachael decorating the cake......




Blowing out the candles and making a BIG wish.......



Rob and Sarah at the campground pool.....

Opening presents......

Mike and Emma bonding......

We are back to work....yesterday Salt and Mike put a new door in with a "dogie door". Today they are laying a new floor in the downstairs bathroom.

I'm movin' on...At last I can see life has been patiently waiting for me...

For all of you who have been concerned or disappointed because of no blogging... We are all fine, just trying to get Mike and Rob unpacked and settled into their new digs before we start back to the island. Betty and Emma even gave up their vacation at Myrtle to spend the time with all of us here. We have all been working til late into the evening and just kind of fall into bed when we are through. Tomorrow, however is Robin's birthday so we are all taking the day off for a day at the pool and a cookout/birthday party.

Rachael and Emma unwrapping and cleaning up packing material. The girls have all been so good and helpful!


The truck was several hours late on Tuesday so we took the opportunity to get the windows cleaned inside and out! Salt and Mike took the outside, Rob and I did the inside

Rachael and Jen handing down the small boxes...

Mike and Salt getting ready to face the music!!

Will post more after the weekend!

Got friends that would be here fast...got a brother whose got my back....

As promised...Uncle Joe had Betty and Emma back on the road by 10:00 this morning.

Salt and I arrived at the campground around 3:00. After getting the motor home set up we headed over to Mike and Robin's house. We had a chance to check out the house and then all met at The Red Robin for dinner. As you can see, we were all happy to be together again!




Tomorrow, Betty and Emma are headed for the Virginia Aquarium, while Salt and I head over to meet the moving van and help the kids unload and hopefully get a lot of the boxes unpacked.
Salt is taking the grill and we will cook out tomorrow night. The kids are off school on Friday so they will be over to the campground with us while we plan and prepare for a surprise birthday party for Robin.

Well, it's after midnight and since we are up and out early tomorrow, I'm off to bed!

Sun tanned toes tickling the sand...cold drink chilling in my right hand

So we did in fact get over to Stub and Karen's for coffee this morning. Stub, who seldom spends any time on the beach decided to grab some rays yesterday. Karen told him to make sure he put sunblock on but being a typical "man" he didn't see the need.....oh yeah...he had a very rough night!! But always the good sport, he did let me photograph him. I love blogging and being able to remember all these silly things we all do.

No parts available on a Sunday in Owego. Renting a car in that area is ridiculously expensive, so Betty and Emma just decided to take the day and chill at Uncle Joe's. Betty spent the day doing homework and as you can see Emma enjoyed bonding with her cousin Matt. These two are (and always have been) a couple of knuckleheads. What they don't come up with.

I'm not exactly sure what they are doing here but it appears they have found a way to turn on the treadmill and use it as a chute. The pictures aren't very clear as they were taken with a cell phone but I still love documenting this stuff for when they are college age!!!


Now it's Matt's turn and as you can see he really got some air!

And here they are trying to find parts for the truck so as Matt told Betty "so we can get you back on the road". I am not sure if he was trying to be helpful or get rid of Emma????

Here is my princess Janna....all grown up and beautiful! She just got braces and even though Betty says she looks great in them she wasn't into showing them off. Can't wait to see her...won't be long now!

Once we found out Betty was going to be delayed another day both of our minds started recalculating. I checked the weather in Virginia Beach (long range forecast) and it is going to actually be better than here in Myrtle Beach. Since Betty had already planned to head home a day early to spend some time with Mike and his family we decided we might all just as well meet there and save her another 14 hours of driving. SO....I called Mike and Rob and they are ecstatic that we are coming early, as now Salt will be there when the moving van comes in on Tuesday. The girls have no school on Friday so they will have a long weekend with all of us. As you can see, Emma (who is SO like her grandmother) has no problem adjusting to whatever happens. We will find some new things for her to do in VA. We will be very close to an aquarium so will check that out for starters. And I am she will be very glad to see Dave (Reinke) again....he picked on her the entire Christmas vacation and boy did she give it right back!

This is the beauty of having one of your homes on wheels. I went to the resort office and they refunded our total payment and the resort in VA was happy to see us come in a week early. We are on the road again as I type. Not sure how far we will get tonight but will be in VA sometime tomorrow.

She says things are falling in place...seems like they are falling apart

Betty just called Salt: She is 36 miles out of Binghamton and the brakes locked up on the truck...11:20 at night. Fortunately, Uncle Joe owns a tow business and is on his way to pick her up. They will spend the night with Joe and Rindy and Joe will call one of his mechanics in the morning, get him to come in and see what the problem is. If they can get the parts (being Sunday) he will get her back on the road some time tomorrow. If they can't get it fixed in the morning she is going to rent a car and drive that down. Emma is NOT happy but at least she is going to get to see Matt and Janna. I am just thankful they were that close to Joe and she isn't having to deal with strangers and stay in a motel! Thanks Joe!!

We are headed over to Stub and Karen's hotel tomorrow morning for coffee and then we will just wait until we see how long it takes Betty and Emma to get back on the road.

Life isn't about how to survive the storm but how to dance in the rain..(author unknown)

The kids (Mike and family) called first thing this morning....they are just outside Oklahoma City, headed for Arkansas. They have some bad rains but have managed to escape any of the tornado areas...so far. I think they are pretty well out of the danger area but are probably going to be in some pretty heavy rains for a good part of the day.

The weather has been "OK" here but not exactly beach weather.....good excuse to do a little practice bowling and...

a trip to one of my FAVORITE stores, for a start on decorating the new house in Florida.

We also found a couple of neat items for the Grindstone home. Just starting to get the itch to get back to the island. Definitely going to keep it under wraps until the ice is out of the river. According to Betty it is going fast!

We took a walk around the park and grabbed a few pictures.

When Emma gets here these ducks will gain 10 lbs....she feeds them all of our bread if I don't hide it!!

One of the many lakes within the resort...

the outside pool....as you can see everyone was at the inside one.

We received a text from Janna yesterday....they aren't going to get down next week. Janna has started track and there is no way they are going to let her out of practice. We are disappointed but she, Sarah and Rachael are making big plans for time on the island.

Salt just got back from his beach walk....he has also been doing a lot of biking. Getting a little nervous about getting back to the "real world" of working 6 days a week....I think he is going to get a good warm-up when he gets to VA Beach. Rachael said they are leaving him lots of boxes to unpack and Robin is starting a "to do" list for him and Mike.

The sun is out and we are off for some new adventure. Karen and Stub will be here some time today. Salt is looking forward to a fishing buddy!!

Look at who's looking at me looking at you looking at me.

Today was beautiful! A great beach day.....so I of course am checking out the guys. Here's the kind of guys I am checking out and ....

here are the kinds of guys looking at me....

So....the golden years do have some setbacks...ha ha

Karen and Stub Lashomb arrived at their hotel last night. Karen came over and spent the afternoon with us and then we met up with Stub for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Karen insisted on treating...I think she was feeling sorry for me after I got a call from my accountant with our bottom line tax bill...ouch!

Talked to Sarah right before we went to bed and she said they were an hour from home....so assume the kids arrived in VA Beach somewhere around midnight. Hopefully they will sleep until noon.

As soon as Betty finishes class, she and Emma are headed for Myrtle Beach to join us for the week. Emma is probably on the ceiling...driving Kriston nuts asking "how much longer until Mom gets here?" We are now thinking we may leave a day earlier than planned so Betty can spend a day with Mike and his family before she goes back home. She and Mike who were SO close when they were kids kind of drifted apart over the past 10 years with their crazy lives. They really bonded again during Christmas last year and it is so nice to see them close again!

Salt and I are off to the new "Lowes grocery store"...it's kind of like a Wegmans. Wish we had something like that in Watertown.

Get ready....get set....don't go!!

Mike and his family are on their way back to Virginia Beach. They had planned to leave early yesterday morning. By time they said all their "goodbyes" and got on the road it was late afternoon. Sarah was very emotional about leaving her steady boyfriend....tough for a teenager!

Once they got on the road we started text messaging with the girls which kept us amused and kept them busy for their trek along 40 and through the desert. The sorrow died down and the enthusiasm picked up once they were on their way!!! They had planned to go as far as Flagstaff, AZ but with leaving late they would not have arrived there before 2:00am. I am hoping they stopped before then but won't find out until they are back on the road. I will be so glad when we no longer have that 3 hour time difference.

So, I took my camera in and it was not the card...there is a problem with the lens. I am going to send it in and see what they say but it is really time to upgrade anyway. I have put thousands of pictures through that camera and it has been in salt air, through hell in my jeans pocket as we traversed the country so it is time to retire it. Emma can now inherit it which will make her happy!! It still works fine except for the black dot that appears on pictures with a white background. I bought both of my girls a Cannon Sure Shot for Christmas and they both love them so I imagine that is what I will purchase for myself.

Salt and I are headed to Old Time Pottery as there are a few things I want to pick up for the new house (Grindstone). I LOVE that store!! Depending on the winds, we may head out to the movie theater and see "Leather heads". If the winds die down, we are back to the beach, Salt with his fishing pole and me with my book!! Three more weeks and then we are back to the "real world" where Salt will be working 6 days a week (or more?) and Betty and I will start clearing the land and putting in my perennial gardens. LOTS of clearing.

Oh yeah....here's a tip....Don't fall asleep on the beach with "BIG" sunglasses on. I now look like a raccoon!!! This day should add a few more wrinkles to the already large collection!!

Are all sad songs about rain???

The weather hasn't cleared yet....it was another windy, rainy day. I just cuddled up with a good book and was very content. I did take time to make some reservations I have been putting off. We are confirmed on our cruise for January 18 with our Florida friends.

We talked to our daughter-in-law and found out there is a great RV resort almost across the street from them...Holiday Trav-L-Park. We will be checking in there on the 20th. We plan to leave here on the 19th right after all the kids leave. We will stay in Virginia Beach until the morning of the 28th when we will head for home. Betty instant messaged today and said she had the heat off and all the windows open.....spring is on it's way to NY.

We haven't been able to contact Tag-a-Soke yet as they are not opened for the season. We will be spending the 4th of July weekend there with our friends Dave and Diane Kone. Betty and Emma will be going with us on that trip.

I am so glad we decided not to sell the motor home. We will be headed to Owego this summer for our niece Evelyn's graduation and to Plattsburg, NY to Liz Bacci's wedding. It's always so much nicer to have our own home with us rather than have to do the motel thing!!

Wanna whole lot of love?

So, today we went for our 90 minute spiel on time shares. Well of course it turned out to be 3 hours....it took saying "no" that many times. When we got into the room, the guy giving the pitch asked how many came just for the "free gifts"? Of course, I was the only one who raised my hand. You know darn well, NO ONE in that room went with the intent of buying. I must say it is a very interesting concept. You actually are purchasing a deed and buy points in the resorts which gives you a lot more flexibility, and does not tie you into one specific timeshare. IF I were to purchase a vacation plan, that would certainly be a consideration. Salt got a little bored with the sales reps standing on their heads trying to wangle a deal., but as you can see he is happy with his $125 worth of gift cards. He really shouldn't be that happy since we will probably end up spending them in the restaurant in Bass Pro when the kids are here. The company actually has a pretty good reputation according to both Forbes and Fortune. I might just do this again sometime! It was an interesting way to spend a rainy day. The weather started clearing tonight and is supposed to be beautiful all next week.


Right in back of the resort is the new Hard Rock Amusement Park http://www.hardrockpark.com/ . It is the first of it's kind and the first amusement park to be built in the US in the last 7 years. This is the Led Zeppelin roller coaster. It is interactive with the song Wanna whole lot of love? The park also has 3 other roller coasters...wahoo...here we go Betty and Mike! The official Grand Opening is not until June but they will be opening evenings starting April 15....just in time for the kid's spring break. Emma won't do it but Matt and Janna will love it!

I guess after using the same card for over 2 years and thousands of pictures, I need to replace it. That little black spot is evidently burnout???? Another trip to Wal Mart tomorrow.




Trace Adkins and Kellie Pickler coming to the Turning Stone Casino in July. Ordering tickets for Betty and myself and hoping to meet up with my friend Diane Kone. Should be a good show!!

My brother Joe called tonight...great news! His son Joseph won the election for student body treasurer at Oneonta University. Quite an honor Joeseph...we are all proud of you!!!