Gone Again

So the morning after our 6 state road trip we got Richard packed off and off he went to take his Able Body Seaman Class. Its a 2 week ordeal and they learn about fire suppression, fire fighting, getting into life rafts and the such.

Since he was gone I had an entire weekend to do nothing except play with the dogs and do little chores around the house.

Once project we had been trying to get to for several weeks was to make pine cone fire starters. You melt a lot of wax and then dip the pine cones in the melted wax 2-3 times, letting them cool and harden between dips.

The basket below is what I got done on Saturday.



Sunday I had an entire tote of pine cones still to go. I did not finish this project until about 8 pm on Sunday night.


While waiting for the wax to melt I whipped up a batch of Peanut Butter and Oatmeal bones for the kids. Liliuokalani loves them and Morgan was excited about his first homemade treat. The mixture made 3 dozen treats for the kids, most of which I froze.

6 State Road Trip

Richard needed to pick up his T.W.I.C. one day. Its a Transit Worker Identification Card and the TSA people are behind the mess. So anyway, he needed to drive up to Huntington, West Virgina to pick up this card. Since I had some comp time I took a day off and we packed the kids in the car and headed off to West Virginia.

Now for the six state part. We started in North Carolina, went into Tennessee, then Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia and wound up having lunch in Chesapeake, Ohio. Whew!

Once we picked up his card we went over to Marshall University. It a beautiful campus.


Then we found the Memorial Fountain which they show at the beginning of the movie "We Are Marshall"


Richard and the kids waited in the shade while I took my pictures of the fountain.


Next we decided to head over to a river front park we had seen signs for. Along the way we passed a building with this great Mason Symbol stained glass in it.


There were boat ramps at the park and boats at a floating dock just up the river.


We played fetch with the kids and they were happy campers. Liliuokalani loves to be able to run.



Morgan was just beside himself with joy at being out of the car.


After the park we crossed the river into Ohio and passed this place. With a name like Hillbilly Hot Dogs we just had to try it. The hot dogs were great. They fry them in canola oil to heat them up and make their chili sauce from scratch.


I took this photo of Richard as we were driving home and talking about his upcoming Able Body Seaman class.


When we got back into Pikeville, Kentucky-home to actor and country singer Dwight Yokum we saw this marker.


At the end of the day we were happy to get home. We had been gone a total of 12 1/2 hours.

Labor Day Weekend

Ah, at last a long weekend to relax and enjoy the last days of summer which really feel more like the early days of fall.

Richard had to hustle over the Hale Kai to take care of her while Hurricane Earl went past the outer banks of NC. He was to come home on Saturday the 4th and then we were going to a neighbor's house for dinner.

I started out the weekend by braiding all my onions on Friday night. I had never done this before and was rather pleased with the results.



I love the way the house is situated on the lot. During the summer the majority of the sunshine comes in the back of the house. As the days get shorter and the sun sinks on the horizon the kitchen gets the majority of the sun light making it a great place to be in the mornings and early afternoons.



Got up on Saturday and harvested all the Basil, washed it and then hung it to dry.



I made an apple crisp to take to our neighbor's house of dessert that night.



On Sunday we relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the weekend. Richard and Morgan really have this relaxing thing down to a science.

Late Summer Weekends in NC

I was once told that weekends were for relaxing and unwinding from a hard work week. While that may be the case for some people this particular weekend, August 28-29 brought to mind, yet again, the story of the Grasshopper and The Ant. We were the Ants working hard to get ready for the coming cold weather.

We started by getting out the trusty chain saw and taking down a good size Beech tree which had been decapitated during the Christmas Eve ice storm. Once down we realized that it was dying anyway. Parts of the tree were rotten inside.

After it was split it filled an entire row in the woodshed, all the way to the rafters.



The tree work completed I thought I would finish my weekend chores so I could relax on Sunday. I cleaned the house and got out all the fall decorations.



I harvested all the onions and set them on the counter to dry out before I would braid them together.



We started a batch of watermelon rind pickles.



On Sunday Richard just could not resist the urge to finish splitting the Beech tree we had taken down on Saturday. So we fired up the John Deere tractor and got to splitting the last of the tree.



It gave us another half of a row of wood in the shed. As we were stacking all the wood Richard commented that we either need to start going to Synagogue or Church on the weekends so we don't kill ourselves both days.