another new year

Its hard to believe we are on the doorstep of another new year. 2016 Its almost mind blowing to think of. I remember as a kid, in 2016 we would all be in flying cars, and living in space like the Jetsons...

2015 had its up and downs for our family. Through all the good and bad and whatever we were handed, God continued to bless us and make us stronger.

I was thinking of the best thing to look forward to in 2016, and the one thing that immediately popped into my mind, was the  fact its Obama's last full year as President. ( at least I hope it is, and that he doesn't try to executive order himself into a third term). It is my wish that more Conservatives turn out to vote, even if you don't like the candidate, because this country can't deal with Hillary in office. I will say and go on record for the fact that I am not overly joyed with the field of Republicans thus far, except maybe for Trump, Carson and Fiorino. Why? Because they are not the status quo politician.  And I think that's what America needs right now to help salvage her.
I got into a bit of a discussion the other day with a friend who doesn't like Trump because of his attitude. I asked her if she had to choose between him or Hillary in the general how would she vote? She said she wouldn't. I reminded her that mentality is why we got stuck with Obama for this past four years...conservatives who didn't like Romney, chose to stay home. 


Anyways,  I was thinking about resolutions, and while I am not one for making them, I would like to go to church more, and add more to our preps. We are working on new ideas for our chicken coop, and possibly adding goats in the spring. And of course there is always the monster garden...........

So now I ask you , what would you like to do more of in 2016?  whatever it is, I wish you all well and have a prosperous and blessed New Year.

-JUGM

Merry Christmas 2015

To all of my blogger friends far and wide, from my family to yours:

 We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas. 

And to our Troops who can not be home this holiday, Thank You. 

frequent flier kindness

Right when you think you have lost your faith in humanity, something happens to reignite that faith. This is a true story, it happened yesterday on a domestic flight.

A friend of mines husband, we will call him "J" works for a paper company. Friday, he was returning home from a three day business trip. As it is the weekend before Christmas his flight was crowded with holiday travelers, one being a soldier who was going home for Christmas who was seated next to him.  The two struck up a conversation, the soldier was entertaining J with some of his experiences being overseas. Just after take off when the "stay in your seats" light when off, the stewardess approached them and told the soldier that a man in First Class wants to trade seats with him. The soldier, politely said its okay, that he was fine sitting in coach.
The stewardess said the man in first class was being a bit persistent, and insisted the soldier have his seat.
The soldier then agreed, got up, shook "Js" hand and moved up to first class. J sat there for a bit with a smile on his face, that is when the first class passenger came back to the seat in coach. J looked at him for a bit, and asked "Why"
The passenger was an elderly man, obviously wealthy, and explained that his son had died in Afghanistan, and he has made it his mission to give back: when he could and as much as he could for our military- including something as trivial as a airline seat "The sacrifices they make, giving up a seat to say Thanks, is the least I can do"........

When I first heard this, I thought about the true meaning of Christmas: "Giving, instead of Receiving" ....   With things the way they are in this country, with this "Me, Myself and I" generation. Its good to hear that there are still people out there who do nice things for others....  

Things round here #5- teacher gifts and chickens

Tomorrow will be two weeks since we acquired our Barred Rock girls "Checkers and Chessie". Almost all of the tension in the coop is gone, and everyone is getting along. I think in this picture that the bucket says it all--the new girls learned where the water comes from, and taught themselves how to get a drink. They are adapting well, and also started to pop out eggs.

Today is the last day of school for this year. Which means class Christmas parties. I like doing "gifts in a jar" so I bought dry cookie mixes, added in some more chocolate chips, dressed up mason jars a bit, printed the recipes on decorative card stock and the boys are giving them to their teachers. I do these quite often and its always a hit.

Today is also a Christmas lunch thing at Seniors work, so I made "White Trash Candy" for the occasions. If you have never had any, its like crack, you cant get enough of it. And if you have had it, then you know what I mean. I told Senior that since it is so addicting to please not bring any home. I also put some in quart baggies, and added to the teacher gift bags for the kids. 

If you are looking for a quick snack to make, its really easy, just add dry cereal, such as rice or corn chex, cheerios, salted peanuts, pretzel sticks...coat it all with white chocolate, let it cool...and there ya go!  

In this case I also added in Christmas colored M&Ms, but I don't think you can see them too well. Anyways, if you have questions on making it, just go do a google search, there are tons of recipes for it. 

Well I can not believe that a week from today is Christmas. Is anyone else in shock over that? I have about all my Christmas shopping done, just got little things left to pick up. It has not been a bad year for shopping, Amazon has had amazing deals, and they had a free prime trial, so I had free shipping on everything. Yahoo!  lol . I just keep reminding myself to cancel it in the next few days so I am not charged 99.00 for it. 

So now I am off here to finish things up before kids get out of school. Happy Friday everyone! Stay safe out there...

-JUGM

Army / Navy

As a girl from a family with a long naval history I have always loved this rivalry..

Let's keep the streak alive Navy!

YUP!

A good comparison....

a facebook friend had this posted today, the comments she got was overwhelming and I thought so much of this comparison that I wanted to share with you guys.

      Folks, these Rattlesnakes are in need of a home. They're refugees from the Brush country pushed out by snake hunting, and feral hogs. Now, we think most of these are good snakes and won't bite you, but we are sure some of these will bite you without provocation. We can't tell you which snakes in the bunch are the ones that will kill you because they all came in together and we can't tell which is which! Some of the biting ones were actually trained to seek out anyone and bite and to hide among the good ones. Our federal government has promised to figure it out, so don't worry.

So who wants to give all these snakes a good home?

chickens and a birthday

First the birthday, yesterday our girl Liberty Bell aka "Libby" turned 3. She is the alpha female and full of piss and vinegar. Ruger and Jack the Cat bow to her when she passes... But, she is protective and a faithful companion (as long as her bowl is full). Needless to say, life without her would be boring.  

do you know how it is when you start out to get one thing, but bring home other stuff? Well, here is our other stuff. See, I got this guy that sells barrels, and he had some nice, clean metal ones. Senior and I jumped on them. The mans son raises chickens for his 4-H Poultry Club, which I think we might join. Anyways, he was selling a pair of Barred Rock Hens. I jumped on the chance and brought the girls home. ND quickly named them "Chessie, and Checkers" because of their coloring. They are only about 6 mos. old and should start laying soon.Since they were from 4-H they had been vaccinated and accustomed to other chickens, so we went ahead and  added them in to the big coop. But, things there are a bit stressful and I am not sure if Senior should build a separate place away from all the alpha female chickens, as I am not seeing them drink much water. Every time they try, they get ran off.  My plan is to mate them with the Jersey Giant Rooster ( Black Jack) I think they would turn out a nice bird, that is not only a good egg layer, but good for meat too.The chicks should also net me a little profit at auction.

I know Senior just talked about this over at his blog last night but, remember back over the summer when I did the post about buying pullets from the feed store, only to have two of them be roosters? Well, we gave one away to our buddy Mr. Farmer, and the other one - was  a horrible nuisance crower. All the time, non stop, it could be 3 am and you would hear him. Black Jack who is housed in the large coop behind where this one was, is not at all that way. You can spend all day outside and not hear a peep. So, we had enough and butchered him.

 I got to say, Jersey Giants do make a nice meat bird. We roasted him last weekend, I do need to work on the marinating issues and seasoning, because he was a tad bit dry. I think next one we will do over the spit outside.

The leaves have been taking up our weekends, and I am happy to say that the majority is now off the trees. Christmas is literally around the corner, and  I have started my shopping and think Amazon and the free Prime trial is a wonderful thing. I just have to remember to cancel it before months end.
Take care all and have a wonderful day

-JUGM

Happy Thanksgiving

Senior had to work today and the boys were out of school, by the afternoon they were not getting along so I made them sit and write 20 things they were thankful for, it was met with groans, grunts and rolling eyes. What they wrote made me smile:

Then I started thinking of all the things I am Thankful for every day of the year. The list really is long, because there are so many things. But top of it would be my husband and children... A love that has endured lots of rough times and how we have stayed together through thick and thin. The three men in my life holds my heart in their hands and we have all been truly blessed

From our home to yours..We hope God blesses you all with a Very Happy Thanksgiving...

Things round here #4

We have had rain, wind and warm temperatures. But that will soon end, going to be around 24 Sunday morning. Brrrr!

The leaves are falling like crazy so are all the acorns and hickory nuts. The squirrels attacked our one and only pecan tree and stole everything. Dang democrat squirrels!

Our good neighbor Mr.Farmer came up one day and raided the dumpster provided by the builder, he cleaned out all the scrap wood thrown out . A few days later he returned with this beautiful bird house made out of the wood scraps.  I Love it!  This past weekend Senior  mounted it on a wood post and put it near the garden where we will be able to see it from the new house

The boys and I made a trip to the public library yesterday. And I found a book I have been wanting to read. From what I understand the movie is being released the day before the Iowa primary. 

Sorry that I am short on words today, but I" ve reading to do. I hope you all have a great weekend...stay safe out there..

-JUGM

refugees : a rant of sorts

Lots of liberal people I know, saying those of us who want a stop the refugees are non-christian, and hypocrites has me irked. The things they are saying is making me wonky to the point I want to pull my hair out. 

 A liberal German friend threw in everyone's face that her country has taken in thousands why can't the U.S.? This is also the same friend that thinks Bernie Sanders is a Role Model and thinks school lunches and health care should be free for everyone. 

  I am a Christian and I know all too well what the bible says about helping your neighbor and being a good Samaritan. While I am a firm believer in the bible, I also know that back in bible times, the ancient Philistines and Egyptians didn't have nukes, chemical weapons, guns, and bombs to torment the Hebrews.  Imagine if they had?

I am not apologizing for caring more about our own people maybe those liberals have forgotten about them -  You know the millions who are out of work, homeless and hungry. I prefer to help the many, American Veterans who gave selfishly to defend our country only to have that same country slap them in the face, the ones that are homeless and hungry and sleep every night on the street. 

 I have given out dollars here and there to those standing outside of a store holding signs asking for help, and pumped in 5.00 of gas to a ladies car because she was on empty and forget her wallet and was just trying to get home. More recently, we donated bags of clothes to a family who lost everything in the South Carolina floods. And, as a child I would go with my dad who was a fireman to buy food for the homeless that would hang out near his station. 

 So please stop telling me I am not a Christian or care about my fellow human being. 

 By not taking in Syrian Refugees and closing our borders does not make us "mean" And it doesn't make us insensitive to their plight, I just feel that for every legitimate refugee wanting a new start, there are those out there who aren't and only mean to wish us harm. And it is that percent no matter how big or small that I worry about.

A guy on twitter made this appropriate analogy today: " I lock my doors at night not because I hate those who are outside...I lock my doors because I love the people inside". 

-JUGM

Veterans Day

Thank You to all those who selflessly put their lives on hold to serve this great country we call home.

So, here is a bit of veteran humor for today. I know lots and lots of you can relate.....

smack my head!

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.....

things round here #3

Have been on the quiet side. The new house is moving along well and we hope to be in it by Christmas.
The leaves are in full turning mode, and I must say that I can not get enough of them. So, Senior and I decided to load up the kids and take a day trip to the mountains. His stepdad is buried up there, and as we did some of his moms ashes over his grave, it was only fitting we paid our respects.

 

Down here in the lower elevations, the leaves have gone into full changing mode as well.   The colors are brilliant and makes me happy with our decision to move up here, I love having all four seasons,and being surrounded by the brilliant colors.

 



 

This is NDs  other pumpkin he was growing, it grew flat, So, since he was entering the schools "Book Character Pumpkin  contest" he chose it to be his "Headless Horseman" From the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He said the thing look distorted an extra level of  creepiness.

 

And after his paint job:

NW deicded the day before all pumpkins were due that he too wanted to have an entry-I went out and bought a small one and he chose "Frankenstein" :

 

 

In other news, our oldest NW went on his first camping/fieldtrip without us. The entire 5th grade goes every year. I have began making cuts in those apron strings. but I can't help but feel that a part of me is missing. Senior and the boys are my heart, and right now a part of my heart is not here. Senior and I miss him terribly. And even though he won't admit it, I know ND misses his older brother too.

He loaded up a large backpack Tuesday night so much to the point we all thought he would fall over backwards..lol  It was funny watching him hump that sack. The kids boarded a bus and left yesterday morning and will be home tomorrow afternoon. I know he will be excited and full of stories of the trip. I can't wait to have him back and hear all about his adventure.

-JUGM

things round here # 2

Things have been going good, not only for us but all our friends to the south. The Midlands are finally drying out, but the damage is done and much work is needed to fix what the flooding destroyed.

  A couple of weeks ago Senior bought us this double burner stove. When the new house is done, we will be moving it into a storage building that will sit right out from the side porch, I will move my umpteen canning jars, and all the supplies in that as well. Thus making it the canning supply room.
 Senior had Monday off for the Columbus Day. So we did some potatoes. The best part is being able to have two pressure cookers running at the same time. It is also great in case of emergencies, just another way to be prepared for whatever life throws you.

ND was about to pee his pants to finally cut his pumpkin, The kid is so excited about Halloween that he  couldn't stand it any longer. While it was no where near the size it could have been, it isn't bad. Bigger then a basketball, and weighs around 10-15 pounds. Next year though we will get them in the ground much earlier.

  Libby absolutely despises "Black Jack"the rooster and I believe the feeling is mutual.The two crack me up when they get started going at it. On this day his feathers were getting incredibly ruffled and he was trying to spur her through the wire.

 

 

 

It is turning much cooler here, lows will be in the 30s next week.We have enjoyed beautiful fall weather, and keeping the windows open. It is a welcome break from the drought and hot temps of the summer.  Have a blessed Day...    -JUGM

a reminder of why we prep

The South Carolina flooding is again a good reminder as to why we prep. The middle of the state that we have adopted has been devastated. Some people have lost barely anything, while others have lost everything.  My Aunt lives a block off the ocean in Folly Beach, her entire bottom floor was flooded, when I talked to her, she was in tears, one of the things that was destroyed was an antique doll house that my uncle bought her before he passed, it is irreplaceable. But while in tears,  her spirit still was not diminished, she knew others were worse off and had lost much more. ....she told me that even Hurricane Hugo wasn't this bad.

My faith in the human spirit has been a bit renewed as neighbor has been helping neighbor The donations are pouring in from everywhere. and I am happy to know that in a time of need, people can put differences aside and help others.

in 2004, while still living in Florida, in a two week period we were hit with several tropical systems. the local big orange store, announced that evening on the news, they were getting a shipment of generators. Senior, immediately rushed there to get us one. The next day, our area was hit, Power was out for a week. Fortunately we were one of the few who had a generator and was able to keep our fridge going, make coffee, and run some fans when needed.
That Thursday, the Red Cross announced they would be giving out ice, and sandwiches to those people in our neighborhood who were still without power. So, I went. and I stood in the long line that you so often see on the TV.  And what I witnessed made my stomach turn. People there only to get something "free" the items were not truly going to those in need. I left.
 Like Scarlett O'Hara eating a raw potato...I swore that day I would never be one of those people standing in line waiting for others to help me. That entire ordeal was a turning point for Senior and I. Buying that generator was the first step we took towards prepping.

Do you remember what triggered your concerns? Can you recall what it was that made you realize that you needed to be prepared?

Our prayers go out to all those people across the midlands of our adopted state that have lost so much with this disaster.

Rain...

When the weatherman uses terms such as

" Historic Levels " and "Biblical Proportions"  perhaps it's time we build an ark...

We are somewhere under those dark yellows. The flood advisories have gone up and it isn't suppose to stop until sometime Monday morning....

Things round here ( take 2)

( blogger was wonky earlier and I have no idea what happened with the first post about this so this is another shot at it)

Things are here have been busy. The construction of the new house is moving along nicely. We are growing accustomed to the coming and going of subcontractors. This week it has been the masons who are doing the brick work around the base. Senior and I thought they would run out of the red brick  so, this morning I slowly approached and politely asked if they would be getting another delivery. I was looked upon as if I had three heads, unbeknownst to me  none of the workers spoke a lick of English...  They just kind of smiled like they understand and nodded their heads as if agreeing with me.

ND has been giving me fits these past few days. He is expanding his vocabulary and the word for this week is "Apparently"  everything begins with : "Apparently Mom"...   Yesterday  he put the word to use while ratting out his older brother  it was " Apparently Mother your older son is to blame"   I rolled my eyes and silently giggle...  Kids! you just gotta love the things they say...

The fall garden is in full swing and we have been blessed with an abundance....This is NDs gigantic pumpkin, it has grown quite a bit since the last post about it. But it still has a ways to go before Halloween.

These are the two vines that the boys planted:

The fall green beans are being more prosperous then the spring and summer ones, so we have decided in the future to only do a fall planting of them.

We get half of a 5 gallon bucket every 2-3 days. Thus it  has become the ritual after our evening  baths to sit at the kitchen table, and snap them. We have 3-4 gallon bags frozen and plan to start canning some this weekend.

I was told "Apparently Mother, ( lol)  I have picked and snapped so many green beans, they are growing out of my nose" 

 OMG! 

I had to take a pic

We got the collards in earlier this year, thus they are exploding:

We are being blessed with cooler weather, the lows are down in the 50-60's highs in the 70s. Hopefully those stiffing hot and humid days are gone until next summer.  And rain is back in our forecast, which is much needed for our region. Everyone is hoping it will start to cut into the drought we have been under since April.

It is the first day of fall and the only positive thing about being so dry and hot this past summer is the fall leaves are expected to be very brilliant... they are currently turning a bright yellow, with some reds and oranges splashed here and there.

-JUGM

our ebenezer

We have lots of boulders, and rocks here at the estate,  lets not kid around, you can't walk or dig without stumbling over rocks of all shapes and sizes here. So, it was not abnormal for the foundation crew to find and have to unearth this behemoth rock.
I thought it was cool, and another one to add to the many others, so I actually blew it off.
 Then Friday, I was flipping through the bible in the book of  1 Samuel and came across the story of Israel and the many battles they have had against the Philistines. The battle was incredibly fierce and the Israelites cried unto the Lord for help. As the philistines drew near for battle, The Lord caused a great thunder upon them and were defeated by the Israelite's. 
 After that Samuel grabbed up a stone, used it as a monument and called it "Ebenezer" it is a combination of two Hebrew words that literally means: " the stone of help"  What it did though, was remind the Israelite's that God is with them and provides for their needs, no matter how big the problem is...God was there protecting them.

Okay, I know Samuel used a stone, and this thing is a massive boulder but during the past year of our family moving to the estate, The problems we faced and challenges we had did seem"boulder sized" to us. There were many times we talked about  about throwing in the towel. But, I would give it to God because there was no way I was going to be beat.

Now, with Seniors job, and the house construction started, we have seen Gods work in action.
So when the rock was unearthed, and reading the story of Samuel  it reminded me that  much like he did back then with the armies of Israel, God has and will provide for us.
like the stone Samuel used, this big rock serves as an everlasting monument that our needs were provided for.  When we felt things were so dark, God provided. 

We have discussed where to move the thing to, and we have all decided to keep it in front of the house. So we can never forget where we have been, and where we are going......  

-JUGM

Say a prayer, stay vigilant and never forget

Roots run deep....

"If we know where we came from,

We may better know where to go,

If we know who we came from,

We may better understand Who we are"

-unknown

When one starts searching through the past, you find the most interesting things. Senior and I had heard of a book about his family- when they came to America, and roughly about the entire family tree..starting in 1698 and going to 1978. We knew  at one time Seniors dad had a copy of this book as it was written by a cousin. But, in our search through his belongings we have not found it.

So, a few weeks back I took to the library. And found a copy resting in the reference section, among the South Carolina archives.  It is frail and you can not check it out.

I flipped through it and found the history of his family fascinating.. Who they were, and who they had become in life. My search led me to Seniors 4x Great Grandmother, and to her grandfather, Captain John Blakeney Sr. He was born in Ireland in 1732, came to the colonies in the 1750s  and fought in the Revolutionary War. He achieved the rank of Captain, and served in the South Carolina militia along side Francis Marion ( the swamp fox). Once the war was over he chose this area to set up his home and raise his family. He was brazen and tough, and died at the age of 100.

Searching for him, led me to a monument erected in his honor in 1956 by the Daughters of the Revolution. And it was in fact not 20 miles from here.

I was excited about this and showed it to Senior who in turn was equally excited that he had an ancestor who fought in the militia. So, we found the address for the cemetery that the monument and grave are in and took off Saturday to go find it. It led us to a ruddy dirt road with a large mud puddle. Senior suggested we return in our 4x4. This we did the next day.

This is the only marker showing the entrance to the cemetery, long been worn down by the elements, it once had a brass plaquered attached but it was either stolen or fell off, and never replaced.

This is the road in to the cemetery:

Captain Blakeney ( Seniors 6X Great Grandfather)  monument and grave, erected in 1956, near the Blakeney homestead

Along with the Captains grave were other markers for other family members:

 

After taking the pictures and thinking about what kind of man Capt. Blakeney was, I thought about how sad it is that so much history is here, and not being taken care of. I am sure one time or the other it was , and those family members have since died off.

Seeing this gives me another reason why I love living in South Carolina...this area is so rich in American history, We cant drive down a road without seeing some sort of marker referencing something from the past.

My search into Seniors family is not over. I am stuck at the his paternal 5x grandfather who married Capt. Blakeneys granddaughter. The book in the library will tell me more, and holds the answers to filling in Seniors family tree. I have tried to get a copy but the publisher is out of business and the book out of print.

As for my family tree...my dad and aunt actually researched that some time ago, and traced us back to Scotland in the 1400s. We were of Clan Gunn, which was one of the oldest Scottish Clans,  and our motto? " Either peace or war" 

-JUGM