This and that

Beautiful sunrises here.....

 We've been busy!!  

Well, @#$%  flows downhill....and we measured the "fall" from the trailer to the septic tank and it wasn't enough.  So, the easiest way to fix that is to raise the trailer!  Solution is to get more gravel.    Dump truck is a phone call away....we pulled the trailer out of the way and all is well now!

Next on the to-do list is renting a "Ditch-Witch" for some trenching.  Cool toy!!

We have to trench a water line and a power line - and it totals about 400 feet!  So MUCH easier than digging all that by hand.

I was sneaky and snapped a couple of photos of Duane in action with the trencher....

Don't tell him!

Main water line dug and piping ready to be buried.

Piping at the back of the trailer with frost-proof spigot.

Starting to bury the pipe.  What a pain!!  Wish there was a machine for this part!

And that's about it!  

Avion

Go see what's up at the Avion!!!

Dr. Visit Minor Surgery

I visited my local doc today to have a little "knot" under my skin taken off.   Yes, minor....




Our doctor's office is pretty old-fashioned....they do it all right there in the office.  Setting bones, minor surgery along with the normal physicals and such.  Pretty cool these days since most would send you to a specialist. 

Almost painless - just two stitches that he told me to take out myself in 10 days.  He was puzzled a bit about what the growth was, but said it didn't look harmful (read cancerous).  He'll send it off to pathology and we'll know in a week or so.  No pain yet....but I'm sure the novocaine is still working!

More foodie pictures

I also came away from our mountain trip with some kale from Granny and Cordy....I forgot to snap a photo of the bunches....here I have done a loose "chop" of the leaves. 

But I wanted more of a "slaw" texture - so I forced all the leaves thru my trusty "Emmie" food processor.

Much easier than trying to fine-chop all those leaves!

Added a Vidalia onion, almonds and some tomatoes.

Mixed with the Balsamic vinaigrette - plus several extra splashes of Balsamic vinegar because I like my dishes extra-vinegar-y!

Added the kale-slaw to steamed green beans w/garlic and baked salmon/home-made tarter sauce.   It was a very nice meal!

Collards!

As usual, I came away from Granny and Cordy's with produce.....

Beautiful collard greens -

Chopped up and ready for a long slow simmer.

Dinner!!

Trip to the mountains for the "group" birthday party

My folks do a "group" brithday party in early March for everyone that has a birthday around that time.  This year it was my brother's 50th, so we made the effort to attend. 

Big pile of gifts....looks like Christmas!!

The newlyweds....so far, so good!   :-)

Fun watching all the festivities.

Bridget (a teacher) ended up with two almost identical cool patterned backpacks....

After a yummy meal, we had to eat cake of course!

The obligatory group photo....

We hung around at Keith and Denise's until almost midnight.....Denise needed a pillow so she found Smokey.....silly woman.

The next morning, we woke to a lovely blanket of snow!!!  The perfect snow - beautiful and not a bit sticking to the roadways!

New Lot Progress

We flew down to look over the progress on our new lot in Oriental today.

Fun to watch our contractor - Carl Ollison - at work.

Putting the septic tank in place.

All finished and ready for inspection....then all covered up!

The driveway started.

And a bit of cleanup.   A few more days he'll have our driveway gravel in place and a large parking space, where we'll move the Avion!

A nice look at our newly placed 30' wide pilings.  (on the left)

And it was time to scurry home right before dark!

Trip Planning!

Do you know how incredibly time consuming it is to plan 40 days of hotels, 40 days of rental cars, 40 days of activities around 6 areas and 3 countries??

Very. 

But a LOT of fun too!

Happy March!

Not a lot interesting going on at the McCraw house....I've got a bout of plantar fasciitis going on my left foot, so no exercise for a little while.  I've had it before and it went away after a few weeks of being really careful about not stressing it.  I've got some really good inserts in my "good shoes" - so I hope to cure myself soon!!

We have done just a little bit as we're winding down the small to-do list for the Avion!