Category Archives: Zach

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. The weather:  We have had 2 nights with temperatures below freezing already!   I don’t like cold so it appears I will be going into hibernation soon.
  2. We received our Electric bill for the month of October. It is $153!  This is the lowest it has been since October 2020!  Yes I checked!
  3. Our best purchase so far for the chickens has been the automatic door. The chickens are going up at night and we don’t have to worry about something getting to them.  It opens at daylight and closes at dark. We are still checking on it since we discovered that it was closed accidently one evening this week.
  4. Kendall has decided that she will swim on the school swim team.  This is a huge first step for her!  She even had to approach the coach on her own to get the information!
  5. Zach missed two days of school this week due to being sick. I am glad we had a couple of extra COVID test. It was negative and he is old enough to stay at home without the need for an adult present to watch him sleep.

Five Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. Hurricane Ian is upon us in North Carolina. This is a huge storm and we have actually been experiencing some of the wind and rain for the past 24 hours. Luckily, we have not lost electricity or internet yet (9pm).
  2. Both the school districts and the Community college all declared remote learning days today.  Everyone was able to spend time working on school and work assignments. I am actually excited to have the time to get my paperwork caught up!
  3. I am loving my new electric canner. I have been able to do a bath of pear sauce, a batch of kidney beans, a batch of navy beans and a batch of mix kidney and navy beans.  I had one can not to seal!  This is awesome. I am planning to make some split pea soup next.  My goal is to get really comfortable with the canner, start to empty out the freezers a little so that next year, the canner will be used for all my spaghetti sauce.
  4. Because I was at home, I actually prepared three meals today. Bacon and biscuits for breakfast, pigs in a blanket for lunch and homemade tomato soup for dinner. Kendall made a pumpkin cake which with grilled cheese was dinner to remember.  I tripled the recipe for the tomato soup, so we have lots for future use!
  5. Because of the storm we decided to leave the chickens in the coop today.  I purchased a second feeder. Zach has been to check on them twice.  Braxton also decided to spend the night.  This is the first time he has asked to spend the night so we are all so excited!

Wordless Wednesday- Camping Fun

Posted on by
Reply

Campus visit for Lily at UNC-W was the reason for this trip

Golf carts are always fun!

Carolina Pines has an awesome mini golf course! We all enjoyed getting to play!

Water park and Lazy river are also part of Carolina Pines.

My favorite part was the hour I spent sitting on the beach. Kendall was the only one to play in the water.

Matt’s favorite part of the trip was ‘Smores”

Our form of camping was fun!

Tuesday Thoughts

Posted on by
Reply
  • As you have probably realized, we were out of town this weekend. Lily, Matt and I went on a campus tour of UNC-W on Friday. We drove down on Thursday and stayed until Sunday.
  • I spent an hour on the beach, we all enjoyed the lazy river, kids played in the pool. Putt Putt was enjoyed as well as a campfire and a couple of card games.
  • We also went to the outlets and enjoyed several hours of shopping
  • We have cleaned and winterized the camper. This includes using it as storage for coolers and plastic totes.
  • I started a batch of pear sauce and have plans to use the new electric canner this week.
  • We are staying very busy. I am still overwhelmed at work. Hopefully this will improve in October.
  • My health is improving, and I am hopeful to avoid a second surgery this year.
  • We have finally turned off the air conditioning which is very late for us. I would love to go any entire month with needing heat or air but the chances are very slim at this point.
  • After returning we have opened the rest of the chicken coop. The chickens are enjoying the extra space and practice flying from one end of the other. We have a automatic door to install but that is down the list.
  • My goal for the remaining three month include reducing the grocery budget and working our way through the freezer and pantry. I would love to do a no shopping challenge but not sure I am ready for that additional stress.
  • The garden is changing as well. We have added the rotating bottoms to the green stocks, we need to dig out sweet potatoes and plant that with carrots. The green beans are finishing and I need to purchase worms to add for the end of summer as well.

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. We are still running our a/c with no end in sight. In fact next week, we are supposed to see temperatures reach 90*. I love summer and this warm weather is still extremely nice.  I know all good things must come to an end, but I am all about enjoying the last few weeks of warmth!
  2. We are starting to clean out the garden. I have been pulling a lot of dead plants and plan to go ahead and pull out the watermelon this weekend. I also have some lettuce cabbage and broccoli starting to grow as well.  I have been able to harvest green beans FINALLY!  Matt harvested 53 pears today as well. It appears that most have some bad spots, but I am hopefully to enjoy a couple and maybe even freeze a few.
  3. Lily has scheduled a couple of college visits over the next couple of months. I am excited but nervous as the expense of college is overwhelming for at least 3 more kids. I am currently encouraging her to stay at home and commute to college, but we shall see.
  4. Zach is enjoying playing football and all the kids have decided that high school football is a cool event. I am thankful that Zach is being allowed to play each game and so far a broken bracket is all the damage.
  5. After lots of research and debate, I have decided to purchase an electric/ digital canner. I am hopefully that this will take the scary part of canning away and allow me to preserve summer items for use all year long.  I also considered a dehydrator and freeze dryer but decided to try this first as it is a significantly less of an investment than the freeze dryer. Dehydrating is another option but I am currently using the green house to complete this on a small scale so purchasing equipment does not seem like the best thing to do right now!

5 Things Friday- Labor Day Fun

Posted on by
Reply

  1. We spent last weekend (Labor Day) in Florida!  We left at midnight on Friday night and returned Tuesday at around 8:30pm.
  2. We spent around 3 hours Saturday at Melbourne Beach.  This was very different from what we are used to but it was awesome. I did manage to get out and jump a few waves myself.
  3. This trip could have centered around food. Saturday night- David (Haley’s husband) made some of the best steaks I have ever eaten. Sunday morning, we enjoyed breakfast at a local breakfast place in their new hometown. Sunday night we ate at “Hoop De Do Review” amazing does not begin to cover the food and entertainment. Monday- breakfast at Ohana’s.  We also eat alot at the “Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween party.”
  4. We attended “Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween party.”  It was fun but not something I would recommend or even plan to do again.  We did collect enough candy to get us to Halloween!
  5. The weather was extremely hot!   I don’t think I can remember when I sweated so much. I did manage to burn my feet in the sand on Saturday. Sunday night was as storm that left the camper sounded like a tin can.

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. School officially starts Monday. Lily is a senior at Davie County High School and completed her second year at DDCC for her associates degree. Kendall is a freshman at Central Davidson High School and Zach is a 7th grader at CDMS.  3 kids at 3 different schools.  I am starting my 5th year at Davie County Schools.
  2. We have a couple of quick trips plan during the month of September. Both are going to be using the camper. This makes things much much easier as we can pack in advance!
  3. The first week back at work full time has been busy and stressful. I am hoping to establish a good routine over the next couple of weeks.
  4. Zach will be playing in his first football scrimmage tomorrow…not sure how I feel about it.
  5. We are finally getting green beans and cucumbers from our garden!!!! Been waiting all summer for these!

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. I was able to plant my fall garden today. It consisted of 2 types of lettuce, broccoli and cabbage.  I am planning to plant a batch of carrots when the sweet potatoes are dug up. I think we are at the end of the tomato run but anticipate one to two tomatoes a week for until the end of September. I may have enough green beans to make a meal out of the third round of green beans I planted. We also are getting cucumbers and squash! This has probably been the best garden we have ever had.
  2. The chickens have learned to climb up and down the ramp to the coop independently after 2 days. We are still working on getting them to go up at night but hopefully this will happen in a couple of days. I did decide to add a water container to the coop at night. I just want to make sure that they can drink if they don’t realize it is time to be locked up.
  3. Zach is currently playing football at the middle school. Games will be on Wednesday.
  4. I survived my first day back at work. I know that I am going to be fairly busy this year but it is good to have a routine.
  5. We are hoping to finish up the new cabinet in the dining room this weekend. I will have to spend a chunk of time rearranging to make things appear less cluttered and more functional.