Veggies and Dehydrating!

I know this gets old...but I never tire of the beautiful colors of fresh veggies! Between Dick & Lindy, friends from work and my own measly garden - I always seem to have (almost) too much! You can't really tell in the photo, but the bottom left tomatoes are actually the low-acid yellow. Yum! Entirely different flavor.



Lindy has been giving me apples and peaches in abundance also - these I've been dehydrating. (Also been dehydrating tomatoes....)

This batch of apples got a sprinkling of cinnamon - very yummy!


I'd never tried dehydrating peaches, but Lindy did it yesterday and I tried a couple of pieces. WOW, extreme peach flavor. We were concerned that some of the things we read said you had to use "Fruit Fresh" or something like that to keep the peaches from turning brown. Lindy tried it without the additive with good results - so I came home from her house this evening with a bag of peaches bound for the dehydrator....


It is the last of this years crop, so there were bruises and such to remove.....



They have both a white and yellow peach tree. This is the start of the dehydrating process....


About 2 hours in - already looking a bit dried. I'll have to post the final results later!!!

Random ramblings

Nothing much going on around here - just hot, hot, hot. It got up to 100 degrees today. We did some cleanup work outside, but only for 20 or 30 minutes at a time.

The other day, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a passel of motorcycles coming up behind me. I realized it was cops and grabbed my handy camera. They seemed so shiny - and it turns out that they apparently were Raleigh City policemen taking home brand new motorcycles (they all had dealer paper tags). Just thought it was cool looking.....



I have a "embarrassment" of squash. New way to use a word:

Main Entry: em·bar·rass·ment

Pronunciation: \im-ˈber-ə-smənt, -ˈba-rəs-\

Function: noun

Date: 1729

1 a : something that embarrasses b : an excessive quantity from which to select —used especially in the phrase embarrassment of riches


So, being a good southern gal, I have to fry it up! Two different ways - first, the time consuming "single piece" frying. The kids like this best.




But my fav is the stirred up with onion variety!



And to make this post extremely random - anyone need a beautiful girl-beagle? A customer from the Asheboro Airport brought her in the other day. She's a sweetheart but they already have adopted 5 other strays. Just drop me a line and I'll go get her for you!

Lot's of Pre-Paving Activity!

Lot's to do to get ready to have the road paved!

There was a bit of a moist spot across the road at the hangar, so that had to be drained. Nothing's easy, is it? The solution is to dig a ditch and put in a French drain to allow the water to drain. It will be covered over and re-seeded so that you don't even know it's there.



Next up is some areas that need concrete. We need a good "transition" from the ramp to the soon-to-be paved drive. This little piece of concrete will square-up the transition to the paving. Form is all ready -




Cement truck arrives on schedule - (the crew is Eric Pugh's Concrete - nice, hardworking folks)


Looks like fun - except it was 90+ degrees!


See how pretty?


Late in the evening - all done!


Those who have been to the house might remember that our parking pad leading into the garage had a few un-sightly cracks....


What time better to fix them than when you have a concrete truck on site!


First, Duane had to remove the old concrete slab. Sounds easy, but it was actually pretty tedious work to get it all removed.


And drug away....


But it was finally finished - and a large amount of dirt removed that was "spongy" (and that's why it cracked in the first place!


All formed and ready for the magic concrete truck!



Yes, very nice!


All done - we'll have to wait a few days before we drive on it.


And last - the sidewalk at the front of the house. We've lived here for 15 yrs - the front sidewalk has always been gravel. Of late, the gravel has been mostly overtaken with grass (as you can see!) and the landscape timbers were warped. So, I'm really happy to be moving on!



Forms in place for the new sidewalk.

Pretty nifty!


Really all done, now! Just waiting on the paving now!

Love those veggies!

Gotta love this time of year!!

Driveway update

The driveway is really coming together now! Paving date is tentatively Monday a week from now. Yaaay!!

Duane has gotten our driveway mostly ready for the pavers.

Remember this shot from way back in the spring?




Here most of the grading is finished. The road to the left is the new one, the road to the right will be grass/part of the yard.



Grading out a parking spot in front of the house.


Isn't that looking neat? Duane is amazing!




After 7 dumptruck loads of gravel!! Can't wait for the paving!

Do you have a favorite piece of clothing?

My lovely sis took my favorite little gray vest! Very nice of her - I might add. She's going to knit me a replacement for it because it has gotten a little tattered over the years..... Look at her blog.


I looked for some of the photos of me in that vest - this is the earliest I could find - 1995. Aren't those little boys so sweet?


This is 1996 - looking out behind the house - no hangar yet!


This is 2000, on a trip to Amelia Island with the boys. Wow, those shorts sure are, ugh....


Christmas 2005 - in BVI with the boys.


With Sharon in BVI.


Wiped out on a hotel bed.

More recent -


On our boat -


Most recent - just this May on our charter in St. Martin. 15 years - How cool is that?

Our long driveway is finally looking good! The ditches are smoothed out and we're just about ready for (sshhh - don't jinx it) Paving! Yep, after all these years I'm getting my wish. Many (not all, ugh) of the folks that live or have lots down the drive are pitching in to pay for it in a couple of weeks!! Yay! No more dust!


Just a few flowers out in the heat - my Stargazer Lilies are not so pungent this year - the heat seems to be wilting them a little.



Still attracts lots of bees, though!



Oh, finally! The tomatoes are ripe! Yum!