Getting ready for a Garden & Prom Dress

May 4th - Tuesday Sunny, hail stones, rain and sun again

Today was a rather eventful day. I have had the good fortune of catching a cold again, and can barely speak out loud, so Lou took his two mile walk without me, by the time he was back home, I had dragged myself out of bed and made up the bed.

By the time we had breakfast and were ready to head outside, it was sprinkling, but Lou wanted to get the lawn cut again, so kept at it, as did neighbors on both sides of us, so tonight all the lawns on our end of the road look good. When it started to hail, he came in and we had a quick lunch and then back at it again. He dug up some good top soil to tamp around the white board fence and then dumped the rest of it into the garden. We marked out the new perimeters of the garden and I went to work digging up the plants that needed to be moved and transplanted then to their new homes. I also dug up some spent tulips and crocus to replant this fall.

While we were working on that Krista, Steve and Michelle stopped to tell us the good news of Krista's cancer. She had a PET Scan and it looked good, she doesn't have to go back for three months, can have her port removed, and can stop her Coumadin. They even gave her a purple T shirt with "I survived cancer". This was an answer to many prayers over the last year.

Michelle also picked up her new prom dress that she had ordered and wanted to model it for us, you can see how pleased she was with her purchase, which she did purchase with her own money, from working two jobs this year. Lou was fascinated by the back of her dress and had to take a picture of it also.

Back to work and we hauled stones and filled up the woodchuck holes, so we can watch them now and can bomb the active ones. Poor Estee wants to go every place that Lou goes, and her bad leg won't allow it, so now he is taking her on the tractor with him and she sits and waits for him to pick her up, did I mention that he has spoiled the dog? I don't know who loves whom the most.

I harvested fresh asparagus for dinner tonight and grilled pork steaks for dinner, and had some homemade applesauce with it and some leftover corn. Needless to say, we were both pooped and had an early shower and enjoyed NCIS on tv this evening.

First Anniversary and Garden

May 2th - Sunday Beautiful sunny day with a brisk breeze

Before I comment on today, I wanted to tell about our last night camping on our way home. We camped literally in a barn yard; however, we did have electricity and water, and a huge price ticket with the stay. This camp ground was an hour from Washington, DC and the reason we did this, is due to Ron. He and Lou have been friends for years and he called us as we were coming up the road and asked us to try and stop for the night near Washington, as he wanted to see us. So we did what he had asked.

We arrived at the camp grounds in a down pour, we had to drive around the barn to get to the "house-office", after Lou paid for the night's stay, we drove through a herd of beef cattle to get to our designated spot and pulled into the camping spot. He quickly hooked up the water and electricity and called Ron and told him where we were. Wondering how in the heck this man would find us. Thanks goodness for GPS, he found us.

Keep in mind ladies, I had been sick for two days, couldn't speak out loud, fever and all and DH suggested to this stranger to me, he come out to the RV for dinner, and I would whip up a country dinner for all of us. The only comment I made to DH was, that the thin ice had melted. As I started searching in our once stocked cupboards for what I was going to fix guests for dinner, DH decided it was a good time to "powder his nose" in some outbuilding in the pasture.

Out guest arrived before DH returned from his trip to the potty, so I graciously introduced myself to this gentlemen, that is with Home Land Security through out the United States, Germany, England, you name it, thankfully, he turned out to be a wonderful gentlemen and I throughly enjoyed my evening with DH and Ron and look forward to many more evening with he and his wife. By the way, I prepared barbecued pork sandwiches, potato salad and coleslaw and we had homemade strawberry shortcake with whipped cream for desert, along with desert coffee all served on glass dishes. I used my beautiful hand quilted table cloth that my sister made for me.

Today, being Sunday we were back to our own church at Whitneyville, and what a welcome we received from everyone there, made us both glad to be home. Something very special about that church family. Tomorrow night is Bible study and we are ready to get back into a group Bible study.

A friend had cut our grass while we were gone and he stopped on Friday to chat with us and told us of all of the activity on Reese Hill with the new gas wells and told us we needed to drive up and see what was happening, so after we went out for breakfast after church we drove up and circled Reese Hill, what a surprise to see pads all constructed and lines all laid ready to start the process.

Lou was able to get our grass cut on Friday and ran the weed eater yesterday morning. I have done something to my back and need several more days of medication before I can tackle the weed eater. I started to use my push mower and found a piece had a broken weld on it, so Shawn came over this afternoon and he and Lou got it back in working condition. So if it doesn't rain tomorrow will need to do some trimming.

Saturday was our first anniversary and it was hard to believe all of the people that remembered it, we received many beautiful cards and several letters from family members. We celebrated the special event by going out to dinner and then on to do some shopping for new items for the RV. We didn't finish, but we have a good start on the things we wanted to get. We have our first muster in May, so want to get it all done before that time. It seemed good to both of us to be able to pick out something that we both liked and would get to enjoy together. This year passed very quickly and both of us thank God daily for the opportunity that He gave to each of us.

Tonight, we were on the back deck watching our geese ready to take to the sky and we went to look at our garden site and Lou has decided we need to enlarge it and have more items in it, so that is on the job list for this week also. I think it will take him another week to get through the local newspapers he missed while we were away. His thoughtful sister, has saved all of them and they are in perfect order, just like she never opened them. She is a remarkable person of which I love dearly, she has accepted me with open arms and can't do enough for either of us. A true Christian lady.

The picture of Lou is of him planting onions in with my pansies on our back deck. That is a trick I learned from my Uncle Pete, as soon as the plant boxes thawed out in the spring, he filled them with onion sets, and I have always done the same thing, but this year, was a bit late. DH thinks it will be fine, so he set them out tonight. Will be a little green with the pansies.

Back Home - Wellsboro, PA

April 29th - Thursday Cool and windy, w/ lots of sunshine

We are home and I guess we are glad to be here; however, as I was handing bags to Lou from the RV there were snow flakes falling, as a special "welcome home".

We spent yesterday, going through "mountains" of mail, and we finally finished up late last evening and we were able to put the card table away.

When we reached home, we found we didn't have a land line telephone, despite the fact we had called from Florida to reaffirm the date of our return, so we made a quick trip to the closest place we could find cell service and reported that, and the phone was restored late yesterday. We are without the extras on the phone, but can accept phone calls and make calls.

The mail contained many things that needed immediate attention, so we both made a list of things to do and set out trying to wrap all of it up at one time. That was a joke....; however, I was able to get a claim filed regarding the second incident involving the RV, and that is being taken care of. Poor DH seemed to hit a brick wall with everything he tried to do, so I took over his list today and spend several hours on the telephone and think we have that under control.

I sorted out three months of receipts and got them filed with the statements as we paid all of them. Still have the checkbooks to balance, but that will be the easiest part. Lou is off taking care of the gentleman's check book that he takes care of.

DH is coming down with the same bug I had prior to coming home, so got him started on an antibiotic and hopefully, he won't be much worse than he is now. I know I had a hard time shaking mine and am still taking an antibiotic. We both have appointments for our annual physicals coming up.

I am off to the grocery and pick up the bedding from the RV and get that all washed up and tomorrow will work on getting the clothes sorted out on what stays and what comes home.

Lawn work awaits us also, that is the fun part for me. I did get a plant box of pansies planted yesterday afternoon. Our spring flowers are just beautiful with many blooms yet to come.

Day with Aunt Hettie - Gum Neck, Outer Banks, NC

April 25th - Sunday rainy last pm, cloudy today with a gentle breeze - a bit humid

Lou and I were up and ready for church which started at 1 0:35 am. The church is on the base here and another good speaker. The service was based on the Lutheran service and we did have communion this morning. The only bad part was, I have caught cold and can't talk out loud and they sang all songs that I like and I couldn't make a sound.

After church we came home and changed our clothes and Lou wanted to go shopping, so we spent the afternoon in the stores that he enjoys. The first stop was Ollie's and that is always good for new books. I found Jimmy Carter's new book which pleased me and several of my Christian authors that I enjoy. Found a wonderful book of The Footsteps of Paul and want to give that to Aunt Hettie, I had such a good conversation with her yesterday on of Bible and her studies throughout the years, I just know she will love this book, and it has many beautiful pictures that will bring the Holy Land to life for her.

Our next step was to Applebee's and Lou got to enjoy his favorite steak and I had a delightful chicken salad and we split a lava cake and ice cream for dessert After our tummies were full, we decided we needed to walk, so went to Walmart and we sure did walk. As I mentioned before we are going to do some redecorating in our RV so we made the first step today, we purchased new throw rugs to put throughout the RV, we chose a deep burgundy and we were very pleased with our purchases. That is the first step, and will finish our theme after we return home. We are going to do a Florida theme and that will be fun, as we both enjoy the shells and such. Lou's favorite color is blue so will get sheets that are blue and carry that color through to the bathroom as well.

Yesterday, we picked up Aunt Hettie at the Assisted Care Home in Elizabeth City and drove to Gum Neck, where she was raised, it was so interesting listening to she and Lou talk about what used to be and what is there now, what stories she had to tell. I was amazed at the huge fields of potatoes that were growing, and the farmers were all busy as work tilling the ground to plant corn, what I wouldn't have given to sat upon one of the seats of the huge tractors and gone across the field once. Some different from the fields we tended in northern PA. We went to a wildlife preserve and she got to see many birds, turtles and such, she kept saying, "Kathy get a picture of that". So I want to do up a picture album when we get home and send it to her.

We stopped at The Country Feed House for lunch and we all enjoyed sitting and awaiting our lunch, as the walls were decorated with old fashioned farm tools and we all talked about how we used each of the tools and discovered we could name all of them and what they were used for.

We all ordered old fashioned hamburgers and that is exactly what we got, not the frozen patties, but fresh meat hand pressed served on fresh sour dough bread, with cheese, lettuce and tomato, we all enjoyed our burgers along with some french fries.

After lunch, we were off to points unknown to me, Lou and Aunt Hettie knew where we were going, but they told me it was going to be a surprise and indeed it was, we went to the Outer Banks and that came with mixed joy, as my granddaughter has always wanted to go their with her father's family and when she was asked to go, my deceased husband was bad, and she hesitated in going and he told her to go and have a good time. She got about three hours away from home and he kept asking for her and finally said he wanted her with him, so our grandson, Shawn went after her and brought her back home to her Pa. We all expected he would die that evening, but he hung on for a little longer, and Michelle gave up her vacation at the Outer Banks for her Pa and I know she did it very willingly. I didn't get out to walk to the beach, couldn't bring myself to do that, but did take several pictures for her.

We then went on to Kitty Hawk and I did have to get out and see that, it was very interesting and similar to what the kids and I had seen in Dayton, Ohio, but this was the actual spot in which the Wright Brothers flew their plane. Lou has been wonderful showing me all the things that he thinks I would enjoy and this certainly has been a winter to remember and cherish for both of us.

We delivered Aunt Hettie back to her home with what she said were good feelings and she was so thankful to us f or taking the time to take her and spend time with her. We left her with a promise to stop back next year on our way home from Florida.

Lou and I arrived back at the RV with Estee and we were all tired but fulfilled with a good day of memories for all of us. Aunt Hettie loved Estee and remembered her from October and she really looked out for her all the time we were riding.

Tomorrow we are setting out for the journey back north. We are to meet friends for lunch on our way out of North Carolina and will meet other friends in Virginia tomorrow night. Lou talked with one of our friends in PA tonight and he is anxious for us to return and Lou told him he would call him the minute he hit Catlin Hollow.

Lou and I were delighted to hear that kids on both of our sides of the family have taken care of our lawns, so that will be one job we won't have to tackle the minute we get home. I know Lou is anxious to get our garden rototilled and some things into the ground, so that will probably be number one and I have the landscaper coming to get my yard ready for summer, a lot of things were neglected last year that will need to be done this spring and summer,so sounds like we will be busy once again. Lou wants to enlarge the garden this year, so will let him do his thing and we will both enjoy working together in it.

If all goes as we plan, we should arrive in PA on Wednesday.