Last post of the year.

Wow. This year went by so quickly! It didn't seem that way weeding the garden this summer, but tomorrow is New Year's Eve.

Our trip to NC went well. Too fast, but well. The house there is empty, so we stopped by to look at it. The company that is handling the rental said this is the worst market they've seen in 36 years! That's what happens when it's a military economy and the military is being given pink slips.
We'll just have to hope for the best.

We took two days to get there. Rented a U-haul. Left it at son's apartment to load. We went to eat dinner at a favorite restaurant in New Bern, and found it had closed. However, a similar restaurant, Osaka Express Grill in James City (called New Bern also) was open so we decided to eat there. The meal was excellent.

On the way home we drove through because there was a really bad thunderstorm going through from Texas, to Louisiana and Mississippi. We were fortunate that it was mostly just rain when it hit Alabama and Georgia. Five people were killed in Mississippi.
We were blessed. Our youngest boy was home alone with the three cats. He messaged us several times about the rain and wind. We told him to stay inside. We had received a tornado warning; but didn't tell him that as he would have freaked out.

The power went out about ten PM that night. The impetus for us to consume mass quantities of caffeine and get home as soon as possible.
At one point the youngest boy told us he could smell smoke. Fortunately it was not our house.
The power came on about an hour before we drove in the driveway.
No internet as the modem had fried.

Turns out lightning had hit an oak tree in the pasture.

Very grateful it hit the oak tree and not a pecan. A house about a mile from us had a pecan tree hit by lightning and pieces of the tree went through their windows and into the next yard as it exploded. Hubby told me oak trees are very hard wood.
We've got two oak trees in the pasture close to the house. The one most recently hit is about 70 feet from the house. The other one I'm pretty sure that's been hit, is about 150 feet from the house.
Very thankful it was the oak tree.

We bought a new modem.
Middle son is settling in. Took him to the VA hospital to get him in the system. Took him to the VA office downtown to get paperwork started for hearing loss, and possible PTSD from his two tours in Iraq. He commented after being here only a day that he saw more help wanted signs in town than there were businesses in Havelock where we left.

We've talked about all the work he can help us with and right now he is more than willing to do it.

We're looking at rain most of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. All this rain usually comes more in February. We'll see.
It's nice to be home.

Hope you all have a safe New Year's Eve and a wonderful, blessed New Year. ♥

P.S. Pecans are up to seventy cents a pound. Life is good.

Merry Christmas!

Or happy whatever you celebrate.

I haven't been keeping up with blogs, sorry. Don't know if it's the time of year or what, but I just haven't. I try, but there you have it.

We may be headed to North Carolina next week to bring boy number 2 here. No jobs where we left, and where he lives; and a part time job with about 10 hours a week if he's lucky.
The job market is better here, so hopefully between that and/or college, he can get back on his feet.
It will be a quick trip. No side stops. Will make it a bit harder and boring; but that's what it will be. Still probably a five day trip. We'll see.

Been getting a lot of rain, which slows down pecan picking. We need some good days or they'll stop buying them. If pecans sit in wet for too long, they start to split or fungus. Or both.

Hope you all have a safe, wonderful, holiday weekend. Tax time soon. Yuck!
God bless. ♥

P.S. That stupid Obamacare/Affordable health care or whatever is a bunch of crap. You can't even GET the insurance if you don't meet the minimum income/poverty level. Make less? Tough. CAN'T GET IT. I THOUGHT IT WAS FOR PEOPLE WHO COULDN'T AFFORD HEALTH CARE!

Sorry. End of rant. Remember to thank the Good Lord for all you have. :-)

Shrike cache

Shrew kabob anyone?

Wonderful day here. Have a blessed Sunday.

Wow. Two days into December.

Time for a little update, I guess.

Been picking a few pecans. Price is 60 cents a pound this year, and they aren't buying the little ones. Go figure. Back in '94 they paid more for the little ones, now they don't want them.
There are still pecans on some of the trees;

We have a tree in the center of the pasture with a lot of... little divot holes around it.

A dozen or so of them. Hubby speculates an armadillo has been finding some good eats in the holes.

Hubby is doing well, pacemaker wise. However, he's had to have two root canals and his back and feet are bothering him more. We are feeling really blessed though.

A road from the past...

I know I've posted about this before, but I felt like doing it again anyway.
The whole driveway used to be paved like this. And paths to the out buildings were made of the same bricks. As we speculated when we put the water line in, most of the bricks have sunk down. The ground is soft (except when you want to dig a hole!) from the higher water level. And before the levies were built, the farm used to flood.
This section, another smaller section closer to the cattle gap, are all that's left of the driveway and walkways. The rest will be left for future excavators to find...

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Have a wonderful, safe December. ♥