Happy Anniversary Tari

I am very lucky this morning as I have been married for twenty eight years today.
I know everyone is thinking Tari deserves a medal for putting up with me that long.
And you are right as I tend to be a bit moody at times and the more time that I spend at the farm the worse it is. and when I get down her and the Little boy get the brunt of it and for that I am sorry. If it were not for Tari I do not know what would of become of me, as she has always pulled me back to the straight and narrow.
I know she gets aggravated at me at times like birthdays and holidays as to me they are just another day and she is very sentimental about such things and for this I am sorry also. I have been thinking about all the times I have left her alone while gone on a hunting or fishing trips for several days or a week. She does not like being left alone and she worries that something will happen. Like the night I was gone to Arkansas, I had just arrived at a motel for the night and called her like I always do. we had just hung up and her phone rang again and it was the Highway Patrol calling to ask her if her husband was Kenneth R. Brewer , and she said yes.
They said they were sorry but he was killed this evening in a auto accident. She said I do not think so I just got off the phone with him two second a ago. I have often thought if I had not stopped for the night when I did or went to get something to eat what she would have went through.
She once told me that if I ever divorced her she only was going to tell the judge she wanted a couple of things. She said I want your hunting dogs and guns that will hurt more than anything. She was wrong I could not stand to lose her. I have been asked several times how have we made it twenty eight years as we are different as night and day. And I tell everyone it would not of if I was not so flexible. And they begin to laugh and say right. I am a very lucky man even as write this morning She and the Little Boy are in the living room putting up the Christmas tree and bickering about where the tree should go and the lights. Tari and I usually bicker about something everyday just like my Grandpa and Grandma Patton used to do. My mother even calls us Robert and Myrtle.

The blessing of laughter

We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner yesterday,
Tari fixed an excellent dinner we had a Brewer and son raised twenty pound turkey and a huge pot of chicken and dumplings and all the trimmings.We were blessed with with fifteen friends and family members. And according to sister Lisa even the coffee was better as Tari purchased a different brand than my Maxwell house.She even called me after she got home to let me know how much better the coffee was.After dinner the adults piled into the living room for conversation while the kids played
hide and seek and video games. Kenny Ray hid is cousin Emily Grace in the clothes dryer they had a great time. One of the things that I am truly blessed with is laughter, and the house was full of smiles and laughter.I wish for everyone is laughter with family and friends.

God corrected my plans

It seems my plans for the weekend were not correct or just not in the sequence that God wanted. Now the first part started like my plan Kenny Ray, cousin Lester and I went out to Greene county fish and game for their annual youth pheasant hunt. Kenny Ray killed his limit of two pheasants and we got about eleven thirty, we cleaned them, loaded the truck and picked nephews Dave and Dan up and started toward the farm by twelve thirty.
We arrived at the farm and unloaded and the first thing on my list was to drag some timber out of the woods as I had two big Chestnut Oak’s fall back in the spring and they would make about two truck loads of firewood. Second was to clear a spot of land for my orchard that I want to plant in the spring. And if there was enough time before dark I intended to set a couple of traps with the boys and try and catch the Jester Hill Panther {see other blog Ramblings of a Appalachian American}. And lastly the four of us would go into town and have a pizza for supper. Well so much for my plans, Kenny Ray and Dan jumped in the bed of the truck and Dave rode up front with me. And just as started down the old logging road into my woods I heard a pop and hiss, I just busted a tire and the worst part I had not put the spare back in the truck it was back in the city seventy miles away. So I limped my ole truck out of the woods and back to the cabin driveway. The boys started back into the cabin as they thought the work detail was over.
I sad hey boys grab these tools and trap basket and the chainsaw I have a different job we can do still they moaned a little as they grabbed the tools and began to follow me back the lane toward the pond. We got back to a place I had cleared a couple of years ago that had grown up little with some saplings that had just got a little to big for the bush hog to go over and I cut them down and the boys dragged brush which they dearly love doing {ha ha}. Now this job only took about and hour and we finished about four in the evening. Which left me plenty of time to spend with the boys to set some traps which we did and had fun doing as we discussed why I set them where I did and what we might catch and what to do if we caught something that we did not want to catch. I think this morning that God wanted to spend time with the boys, and not working till dark as which would have probably would of happened had not been for the busted tire on my truck.
One other thing I learned last night was that I need to keep more food here than what I have been doing. Lucky I had brought down some chicken a couple of weeks ago and put in the freezer for deer season. I managed to fix us a good supper of barbeque chicken, corn and macaroni and cheese. Well I am going to get me a cup of coffee and sit out on the porch and wait for my friend Shane to bring me my spare so I can get the old man and old truck home again.

Last of my Tomato's

Well these are the last of my tomatoes for the year, as I will not pay four dollars a pound for them at the store. Kenny Ray pulled them just the other day for before the frost and they finished turning on the counter. So for breakfast this morning I decide to use the green one for my last fried green tomato , spinach, mayo and bacon sandwich see photo below. These tomatoes produced just about all summer they did not get to there full size, which is fine with me as I am the only one to eat them. Tari will eat them as fried green tomatoes and in sauce and Kenny Ray will only eat sauce and ketchup and prefers barbecue sauce for french fries. The tomato plane is Kentucky beefsteak. I will finish the ripe one this week with a baloney sandwich for my dinner at work. It is funny as I was writing this story the mail came and I received a Gurneys seed catalog for spring of 2011. this is the earliest it has ever come, they usually come the first of January. I usually order from several companies as each has a variety that I like best and usually I end up getting free seed or plants from specials that different companies offer. I really enjoy looking thru the catalog during the cold winters days and thinking of next year, so this is going throw me out of my routine.

Fried green Tomato , spinach, mayo and bacon sandwich

11 days and 26 halloween days of bliss

I am very sad to see October go, as it as been one of the best Octobers that I can remember. They said on the radio yesterday that we had twenty eight days of sunshine and clear skies with just above average temps. The only thing that was really not good was the fall color as I can remember much more colorful years, but good nonetheless. I was thankful for being able to spend 11 days at the farm including part of this past weekend. In fact I spent this past Sunday morning on the porch drinking coffee and listening to the church bells that where ringing in town. Then took a walk out to the pond and drank another cup. Then went down to Uncle Ken’s to fix his chainsaw and drop off the four wheeler so he could pull the log splitter around, we visited for a while then I headed home around two pm. as I promised the Little Boy I would take him trick or treating.
We went down to Tari’s Aunt Pam’s in Waynesville, where we got together with some of her family. As I was walking with the kids it dawned on me that I have been taking the kids trick or treating for over twenty six years. It started with my nephew and niece Matthew and Monica, he his twenty six and has three boys ages two to seven, Monica has a little one year old girl, in fact she turns one today. Then I had Kenny ray who is thirteen and his cousin Skyra who is ten years old. The kids got a lot of candy and exercise we had fun.
Since I have had no chickens or turkeys to take care of this month I have been spending my dinnertime over at Carriage hill Farms Park. While I am there I usually write or plan some work to do down on the farm. This week I have been planning my orchard to get planted in the spring. I want to plant five-apple trees and two peach trees as well as two cherry trees and a couple of grape vines. I have the new Fedco catalogue and will be placing my order next week if I can choose which variety I want. I want apple s early mid summer and late fall. If you remember I planted two trees back in the spring but my neighbor trying to help this summer bush hogged them down for me I am sure it was an accident though. I like coming here to the farm in some ways as it helps to remind me what I am working for. And in other ways it depress me as it remind me that I am not on my own farm working it. Even here with all the highway noise and being in the city it is very peaceful watching the sheep graze the pasture with one lone red maple in the pasture, and the Dominick hens scratching the fallen leaves and dusting themselves in the dirt road. Well it is time for me to head back to the rat race as I am now late must return to work