I had to change my header picture to this one--it is the same barn as in the previous picture, just a little different view. And the one in the post is actually part of our yard--the creek had flooded and was running through it a little bit...It is hard to describe the feeling that washes over me when I see these pictures. It goes to the very core of my being...a million feelings come tumbling in. The happiness we found at this, at the little shack that we lived in is almost too good to be true.

My husband and I moved to Tennessee and lived on the property this barn belongs to for a little over a year. We only had a wood burner--a Buck Stove to be exact--to heat with. We cut our own firewood. I learned to use a chainsaw then.

We had three channels on our TV: PBS, NBC, and CBS. In that time there we became hooked on Masterpiece Theater, though the main show I remember watching was I, Claudius. I don't remember the show as much as I remember the anticipation of seeing the next episode.

We had a huge garden there--I canned enough green beans that year to last us two or three years. Plus I sold enough to more than pay for all the fertilize, plants and seeds that I had to buy. We didn't have to pay for the garden to be plowed--we used my brother's tractor and plow.

I raised both half-runner and cornfield beans (they are very similar to pole beans), okra, tomatoes, potatoes, okra, pepper, and onions I know. I cannot remember if I raised anything else or not. Oh, I know I had cabbage...I remember making kraut with it.

My husband could shoot from the front yard over to the ridge behind the barn pictured above--I think he could place the target 500 yards. He could shoot his bow and arrows in the front yard. Just an idyllic sort of life for us at that time.

We still miss this place--I dream of it fairly often. In my dreams it is always so good to be there. I was only a mile from my mom and half a mile from my best friend..I visited with both almost daily. If not actual visit, then talked on the phone. That seems a lifetime ago.

I guess Christmas is a time of remembering...seeing these pictures and some others really have me in mood. Kind of sad and happy all at once--just thinking and remembering.

I just now noticed my full sized picture is at the top of my blog--hallelujah! And I went and checked on Intenet Explorer and it is back there, too! I am one happy camper now!

Christmas memories

I have not sewn a stitch today--but I did make another batch of Fantasy Fudge. Actually a double batch. And it turned out good for the first time in ages. I wanted some to give to a couple friends...but don't know when I am going to get it to the one. I called her and she was not home..so maybe she went to some of her kids' homes for the holidays.

Husband stayed home today with a sinus infection. He did not sleep hardly any last night and kept the rest of us up most of the night with his coughing. He doesn't go back to work till the day after Christmas.

Christmas is almost here...and I haven't found any hard candy so far. Hard candy, apples and oranges are such a part of my Christmas memories. Mommy and daddy always bought a bushel of red delicious apples and a bushel of oranges every Christmas that I can remember. I was not crazy about the apples, and today I care even less for red delicious. But I remember loving the oranges, or to be more specific the juice from them.

And we usually got at least one new jigsaw puzzle at Christmas...to this day I love jigsaw puzzles. If not for the kitties I would have one out right now.

We always hung up an actual sock Christmas eve and would get up and find hard candy, nuts, and apples and oranges in them. And when I was small, I always got a cap buster. Mom would hide it some where and I would usually hunt and search till I found it...let the noise begin! And our tradition was to have fire crackers on Christmas eve, and it must have been fairly popular for us to be able to get them every year. I have never heard of any one else that did this besides my brothers and their friends. Of course I was always out with them.

We always shot off the biggest part of them after dark, then the next day we would hunt the area for ones that had not exploded. We would do one of two things with them...break one in half, light it if it still had powder, and drop it on a solid surface such as the sidewalk, and stomp on it. That would cause it to go off as if you had lit it the regular way.

The other thing we did was collect all we could find, and unroll them. If they had powder we collected it...I don't remember how many it would take. We would drill a hole in a chunk of wood and make some kind of cork, or find something else we could plug closed. My dad actually had dynamite fuse from when they dug the basement to our house....

We would beg a length or two from him, and use it to light our homemade explosive device! We had a blast seeing what we could actually do with the powder...if it was too big of a piece of wood nothing..I know we used other stuff...but I don't recall what. And I don't recall the results. I just remember us running to get behind cover. We really never had anything that was that big or dangerous--wouldn't have wanted it to go off in our hand, of course but it was nothing to worry about.

That would scare people to death now. Also think of how a kid can't have a knife at school...and I understand but it is still a sad situation. When I was a kid, all boys had pocket knives. For years when I worked at the orchard, I carried a knife and was just as apt to have it with me at the grocery store or Walmart as to not. It just went in my pocket.

Now I am finally getting used to carrying a purse again...for a long time I felt naked without my wallet in my back pocket. And every now and then I will pay for something and forget and put it in my hip pocket still...

Well, I am slowly but surely getting sleepy so will sign off for the night.....