Happy New Years!

It's 12 minutes till midnight! Wo-hoo!

The last day of 2008

My family is visiting with us this week in Richmond Hill. We've had a whirlwind of holiday travels. A party planned for New Year's Eve tonight! Cheers.

Santa Pics

Yeah, so the 'backup' Christmas card pics (since the others turned out dismal) were going to be with Santa... to give you a glimpse of how those turned out...

Solstice * Snowflakes

I haven't made these in ages.

I was inspired by Levi's Montessori instructor, Ms. Amanda, who made several for his classroom from white coffee filters - which I thought was so clever.
Mine are just plain office paper.

I giggled at the end, as my snowflakes were awful 'foldy-looking,' and I gave them a good iron (my Granma would be proud).

I wanted to put a few last decorations up before my Christmas company show's up. It looks magical in the house now.

Tomorrow (well actually, it's almost midnight now) is the WINTER SOLSTICE.

I've just gotten my rec pass for Fort Stewart, and so tomorrow Joe, Levi, & I are going to celebrate by doing a canoe trip on the Canoochee.

From our deepest depths of winter: Happy Solstice!

So, this afternoon I made a special trip down to Joe's office to take some Christmas card pics out by the marsh - you know, for those cards I've been meaning to make & mail out...

I spent nearly two hours getting ready: taking a shower, bathing Levi, putting on makeup, blow drying my hair (which I never do), picking out clothes, & just getting down to the office.

All that effort & there were 35 mph winds (my hair looks ridiculous in all the shots), a blinding glare down by the water that completely wiped out all the pics, and a child who was just short of a tantrum. In short - not a single decent shot. The one below is as good as it get. Oh well.

Bookshelves anyone?

Update: so, apparently I've got the micro mini set of encyclopedias, and just taking a look at the tiny shelf they would make is laughable.... Oh, well. Guess they're off to the paper recycling bin.

When we moved into this house I found a set of encyclopedias in the top of one of the upstairs closets. I love to get rid of anything we're not using & so, I boxed 'em up & took 'em over to the Goodwill- only to be promptly turned around, as they DO NOT take encyclopedias (the guy was telling me this before I'd even stepped out of the truck). So, what the hell do you do with these things if you refuse to toss 'em in the trash?? I was trying to figure out if they'd go in with the paper recycling, when I stumbled across another idea: bookshelves. As in on-line instructions on how to make your very own encyclopedia bookshelf. Cheesy yes - though functional. I might have a go at it, as I've been looking for some shallow bookshelves to put in Levi's room to spread out his toys. I'll let you know how it goes... Here are some of the online pics I found:

Hot Water

The hot water heater went out on Friday night & finally this morn, 84 hours and 3 plumber visits later, it's back online. We made due with a few shallow baths from boiling water on the stovetop. And so this morning I'm off to a long scalding shower!

Levi's room

I found Levi playing with his cars up in the window sill - made for some cute pictures!

Weekend in Jennings

Levi and I took a road trip to Jennings while Mo went to see Angie. Mom, and the aunties (and Uncle Cojo) took Levi to Wild Adventures in Valdosta to see the lights and the critters. Looks like he had a good time!!

Roadtrips

Joe & Levi took a roadtrip & visited the in-laws in Florida while I headed west to the LaGrange area to visit Angie. I love roadtrips & especially the occasional one by myself! We hadn't seen each other in 3 years; she's been living in Tasmania, Australia with her growing family. I got to meet 6 month old Nesta for the first time & see Jack, who is now almost 4!

at a Christmas tree farm on Sunday

some of the choices

Nesta

coffee of a morn

John & Angelina

hanging ornaments on the tree, last weekend in Wildwood

a little jinglebell action

Okay, this was ridiculous = we went thru a Taco Bell Sunday on our way home (which by the way, was a hellacious 10+ hour drive, battling 'holiday travelers' gridlock from Atlanta to Macon). Along with the 3 tacos, 3 burritos, & 1 mex pizza we ordered we asked for 'a couple' hot sauces. We got 41! We would have needed to put almost 6 packs on each item we ordered to use them all! Some Taco Bell executive would go ballistic!

Home for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

T-minus three hours before the trip begins home to Wildwood! We're already packed & the bags are by the door (this is a first, as the bag packing usually begins around the actual time we are suppose to be leaving).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING (a day early)!

National Day of Listening

I get a vast majority of my news by listening to National Public Radio (I do little TV watching). And in the AM I always tune into Morning Edition - every Friday on the show there's a segment dedicated to StoryCorps. I always get choked up listening to the stories that are shared!

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening. Since 2003, tens of thousands of everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share, and is archived for generations to come at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, creating a growing portrait of who we really are as Americans.

StoryCorps is encourages people to start a new holiday tradition & celebrate the National Day of Listening on Friday November 28th, the day after Thanksgiving. Sit down with a loved one and record a meaningful conversation.

I've got our cam corder all ready!

Gypsy Soup

In the fall of 1998, Joe and I moved into an old rambling house with about 10 other college students - we needed a "cheap & by the month" sorta place = we were saving cash to hike the AT the following spring - at $100 a month this was perfect & we even got our own private bath - it was a bizarre houseful of folks (to say the least) - night or day there was always something going on...

In the kitchen pantry I found an abandoned copy of Molly Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook (which I still have today) - I don't remember the details of my early encounters with this cookbook or when I first made it, but one of the lasting recipes I still whip up on a monthly basis is Gypsy Soup - it's a delicately spiced Spanish-styled vegetable soup (that's very versatile, one of those perfect recipes for clearing out random veggies from your Frigidaire) - the herbs & spices make a lovely combination of colors:

tumeric, dried basil, cinnamon, cayenne, paprika, & a bay leaf

Savannah Recycling!

Savannah - Chatham county will begin curbside recycling pickup this January! Yipee! The yellow & black recycling carts have started being distributed - check out this local write-up: City launches recycling program. Now I just wish Richmond Hill - Bryan county would wake up!

Exploring

These are some pics from my new little honeyhole. One of the things I was most looking forward to about moving down here was having hundreds of thousands of acres and two new rivers to learn and explore. After living near Redlands WMA and the Oconee National Forest for so many years, I knew most every river bend, ridge, beaver pond, and pine thicket on the place. Well...here I don't, and learning new country is a blast. While known woods are a comfort, like an old friend, sometimes meeting new woods is pretty entertaining in its own right. It's really just getting to explore and run around wild-eyed like I did as a kid. Like I guess I never really quit doing. The only thing missing is a BB-gun, belt hatchet, and a little white dog named Sugar.

These are pics of the island I've been hunting. So far I haven't seen a soul, and really don't expect to. It's a river island....accessible only by boat, and maybe 300 acres in size. Though its fresh water, its still influenced by the tide which can make for an easy paddle if you time it right. Because I could find no name for the island on any map, I'm calling it Turtle Shell Island for a yellowbelly slider shell I found at the base of a big Tupelo. And also just because I can.

Paddling in.....

The view from the kayak

A water oak and palmetto flat. The majority of the island is wet and covered with Tupelo, Ogeechee lime, and cypress. However, a slight one or two foot increase in elevation completely changes the species assemblage and you get oaks, a few hickories, palmetto, and switch cane. Every critter in the area uses these areas heavily.

In search of deer and pigs

Several creek channels cut their way through...this is one near an area I frequently hunt. The wood ducks pile in here.....

This cypress is hollow and inhabited by some lucky critter, probably a coon. The inside base of the tree was worn down to bare dirt. The pictures don't help with scale, but that opening is over 4 feet tall!

I was slip-hunting along the ground one morning and eased up on these pigs. I stopped at 25 yards to keep from spooking them. I didn't want to kill one, because I had just taken a nice one a few days earlier and really wanted a deer. And also because dragging a pig out is, well...a drag. They kept feeding my way so I eased the phone out for a pic at 10 yards or so. Then another pic at 3 feet or so....then I forgot about pics. The porker was just about sniffing my boot when he finally decided I wasn't a tree. Pigs aren't known for graceful exits, and he was certainly not fluid in taking his leave. There were two cypress knees growing about a foot apart and about three feet tall. In his "haste" he ran between them and got stuck. So I'm standing there in shock while a 50 lb. wild hog is stuck between two roots 3 feet from my boot. The other hogs were a wee bit confused as well. Kilgo wrote that dragging a pig is good therapy. Watching them act the fool is pretty good, too. :-)

This ones a wee bit fuzzier. And closer.