The Mountain Thymes

According to Cliff's weather station, the temperature reached 69 degrees today.  I needed this.  Even the house plants asked to go out on the porch and bask in the sun.  Maxine has been sleeping with one eye opened keeping it on the birds.  We were able to stain the TV cabinet that we bought unfinished back in the fall at our furniture store in Marble. Next warm day, we'll take it back out on the porch and polyurethane it.  And maxine has been on mole patrol all day.  This is her favorite kind of weather.  Lauria's kindergarteners have a project for their class so after we went to the diner for coffee and breakfast this morning, we headed into town.  Hayden's snowman has come to visit us and see where we live. We took the snowman to the Cherokee Historical Museum and collected some other pictures to send back to the school for the project. I love these kinds of assignments and they are fun for the children. As I was picking the meat off th...

Jim Cantore is predicting more snow Tuesday and Wednesday!!!    help!  I need spring!   Made this spring dress today.  Not for me...............................

Last night Cliff was at fire school again so I was flipping through the TV channels looking for something light and mindless without drama or adrenalin.  I stopped on channel 4, which is our local Murphy broadcast station, when I heard a familiar voice.  Even the face looked like someone I had seen before but couldn't place how I knew that woman.  She and the gentleman wore white lab coats and stood behind a large table surrounded by herb mixtures.  Suddenly it hit me who they were.  They were the "owl lady" and her husband, "turtleman" who own and run The Whole Store in Ranger (20 yrs) where we buy all our pure fish oil and other supplements.  They have a time slot each Thursday night when they talk about herbal medicine, promote a healthy organic lifestyle, and answer questions from their audience.  At Wal-Mart and some other stores, in order to keep prices cheap,  many vitamins and supplements come from countries where there are no safety stand...

The cold snowy weather has been great for business!  I've been busy making lined drapes and curtains since the Christmas snow and the last snowstorm we just had.  These lined curtains are a winter-white and the customer may order more for all her windows if she likes how they make the room feel.  It's foggy and 45 degrees today.  Rain has melted more of the ice/snow mess on our mountain road so now we have mushy slippery clay but we're thankful we don't have to walk dogs.  The people who have dogs up here have to bath them daily after every walk.   We love our new little Tacoma and the freedom it has given us.

Made these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies last week when I found this recipe under "lifescript...healthy living for women." These oatmeal cookies have the familiar flavors of brown sugar and chocolate, but get a sophisticated twist from tahini (sesame paste).  Tahini helps lower the saturated fat by more than 66% while adding a nutty flavor. I combined Splenda and white sugar for the 2/3 cup of sugar and used all Splenda brown for the packed brown.  If you use Splenda brown, read the back of the package because you use less than regular brown.  I never add salt to my recipes. Also I threw in a couple of tbls. of wheat germ, also heart-healthy.  I like wheat pastry flour and use it often in recipes.  Most supermarkets carry tahini and whole-wheat pastry flour now.  They can both be found in health food stores. These are good cookies.  OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES  Ingredients : 2 cups old-fashioned oats (not quick-cook) 1/2 cup whole whe...

In order to fit into the rural community profile, we have added another vehicle to our driveway.  It's not a discarded old school bus or a rusty tractor, but we're looking for some of those to add to our collection.  What do you guys look for under the hood.......do you know? This was the most laid back car purchase experience we've ever had.  No pressure, no leaches approaching you with the sales pitch.  When we took the truck for a test drive, the salesperson didn't want to hold Cliff's car keys or make a xerox copy of his license.  We drove to an icy snowy parking lot andCliff liked the way the truck handled in 4-wheel drive so decided to buy it.  We drove off the lot with this temporary tag.....no numbers, no expiration date.   We even drove to CVS in Blairsville, Georgia to pick up our Rx and never got pulled over.  After signing papers, Cliff gave the dealer a check for the whole amount to hold until the money transfers on Wednesday...

How did I miss it?  Friday was National Dress-Up-Your-Pet Day!  Every Morning I "feed" the cats and dogs some kibble on freekibble.com after answering a trivia question.  Today's question started out with the fact that Friday was National Dress-Up-Your-Pet Day.  What stunning outfit did Chissie wear? (Larry and Pat's cat has her own closet full of fashionable wear for each holiday.)  Chissie even had her picture taken with Santa. OK.................who volunteers to put clothes on Maxine?! Yesterday turned out to be heavenly!The sun was with us all day which allowed the temperature to reach 51, normal here for January.  Saturday I received my new Lang calendar from Amazon.  Last year for Christmas, Lauria gave me a gorgeous calendar that featured colorful images of herb gardens.  As the end of December approached, a sadness come over me because I would have to say good-bye to my year of watercolor herb images and recipes.  Even more than ...

Yesterday morning when we got up at 5 AM the temperature was 5 degrees!......but the day ended up being sunny with a high of 44.  We had some melting and by Sunday we hope to be able to drive the red car back up to its rightful place in the driveway.  This morning was 21 when we got up, still a little below normal.  Maxine is out watching the mourning doves sit on the frozen birdbath and the cardinals, Carolina wrens, towhees, and juncos flit from feeder to feeder having breakfast. Cliff's been online looking at Jeeps and other 4-wheel drive vehicles.  Two months and sixteen days til the "for sale" sign goes up on Candlewick.

Made hot oatmeal for breakfast.  Sun is trying to break through the cloud layer.  Temperature is stuck on 20 and may soar up to 24 by afternoon.  Gusts of wind blow the loose snow around and send the little birds on an unknown journey.  Even the deer have hunkered down to stay warm.  When I went on the porch to feed the birds I noticed three deer cuddled up in their snow beds in our back woods. (at 9:40 they are still there) Yesterday we decided to try getting down the road with chains on the truck, but it wasn't going to happen.  Not in a no-wheel drive vehicle.   We got out of the driveway and part way down Clay Durrett Rd, lost control and slid.  Cliff was able to back up into the driveway where we left the truck.  Plan B........dress warmly and walk down to the car.  We were heading out to buy more kerosene for the heater so needed some form of a sled to pull the containers back up the road. We're alternating between the keros...

 Our front yard.  Right outside of the bathroom window. My deer made their appearance again this morning.  These were taken through the screened windows.  I tried to sneak out on the porch but they can hear every creak and step and the smell of human.  Up close you see how thick their coats are.   After the deer bounded off into the woods, I went out with my camera and tromped through the woods to see what other creatures might have visited us last night.  Fresh bear tracks.  You can see the claw and pad prints.  Imprint is 5-6 inches long. I think these may be bobcat.  Bigger than the fat yellow cat that visits us at night. Today we're going to rig up a "sled" to be able to drag our groceries and more kerosene up the road.  Four-wheel drive vehicles are able to make it up here but we only have a no-wheel drive truck and a front-wheel drive old car.  This is why we so desperately need to sell our Florida house, pay ...

About 7:30 AM  Cliff went out just to sweep but ended up shoveling at least 10 inches off the porch.  We have 10-12 inches according to where it drifted and fell.  One of the neighbors has two outside cats that have shelter and protection, but the big fluffy yellow one comes on our porch nightly and sleeps curled up in our cushioned chairs on the covered end of the porch.  You can see his little paw prints on the left side of the porch near the door. Maxine spotted the deer for me when she went out on the covered porch to check out what animals had trespassed on her territory in the night.

Yesterday we made our last trip to Wally-World, after having scrambled eggs with jalapenos, onions, and green peppers for breakfast at the diner, to buy things we think we can't do without while being holed on the mountain.  Observing what people can't do without when preparing for a hurricane or snowstorm is entertainment in itself. During this visit, items that filled the shopping carts in order of importance were beer, soda, water, and toilet paper.  I bought more bird seed and cat food.  Cliff has enough fuel for the generator if we lose power again and the little red car is parked down at the bottom of the mountain.  Let it snow............

We went to Lowe's yesterday for nails,storage bins, and some electrical supplies.  Lowe's is beginning to set up their spring gardening teasers.  Seeds and bulbs are on display.  Shelves are cleared of the Christmas merchandise to make room for incoming spring supplies.  I bought basil seeds and a mix of different lettuces to start and put in my sunny windows.  I know I'm jumping the gun, but it gave me spring fever.    Now we're in for another round of snow.  So we'll hit Ingles today and get more cat food, then of course, more litter to go with that, milk, wine, etc.  Cliff bought more gas for the generator, chains for the truck, and we'll put the red car down at the bottom of the road again so we can get out if we need to.  Sunday night after 8 PM is the targeted time according to Jim Cantore.  Last week I bought a dozen mysteries from Twice Upon A Time, our new-and-used bookstore.  Some lady had just brought in her collecti...

This is a hearty old-fashioned soup!!   Barley is high in healthy carbs, has a moderate amount of protein, and contains calcium, phosphorous and B vitamins.  Great soup for promoting heart health with no animal fat.  Also, I found a salt-free vegetable broth, added no salt at all, and it was still very tasty.  I'll make my own vegetable stock another day and use that.                                             BARLEY and VEGETABLE SOUP                                                      ...

Where have I been??   When did Dagwood start texting??  Boy, it's been longer than I thought since we've  bought the Sunday paper!!  In Florida we had the heavy mass of Sunday paper delivered.  We each read only the pages that were of interest to us, then discarded the papers into the recycle bin like so many other people did.  When we first moved here, we missed our routine, our habit of reading the paper and strewing it all over the floor.  But papers aren't delivered at the doorstep in our neck-of-the-woods so to try and create that "Sunday read-the-paper-and-throw-them-on-the-floor" feel, it became an effort.  We had to drive out to the little convenience store in Ranger or go to the Hot Spot, purchase the Chattanooga Times or the Asheville Citizen Times or if you really wanted to read about big-time crime and murders, the Atlanta Journal.  We did that for awhile.  I only read the comics, the living section, and cut the coupons,...