Good morning. First day of beach vacation is done. I can't believe we were awake before 6am this morning. Guess no sleeping in for us even on vacation. Luckily there is a Dunkin Donuts almost next door. I can see a lot of donuts in my future.
Our first stop was our favorite pizza place, Chicho's Pizza. It is just as good as ever. They have a spicy sauce that is worth the 6 hour drive. It truly puts our local Domino's to shame. Next stop was our hotel. Small room but big enough for just the two of us. A quick unload of the car and into our swim suits then it was off to the beach. My husband thinks the walk to the beach is longer than it was at our campsite that we stayed at the last couple years but I think it is close to the same distance. The waves are stronger here than at the campsite but not too strong. There is a lot less people here than at the Virginia Beach proper area. The wade distance is a lot shorter than at the campsite beach.
Neither of us seem to have gotten sunburned from our first day. My husband did get some sun on his arm while he was driving here. I was thinking if we got sunburns we could try that Grey Earl tea sunburn treatment, I even brought some to try it but I hope to not need to.
The area we are in is about 4 miles north of Virginia Beach. It is a lot less touristy. We like to go further north when we go out to look around, it is more the locals area. Lots of fast food and small shops. A lot cheaper prices. I found three thrift stores already and we stopped at one last night. I love thrift shops. Tomorrow is suppose to be rainy so I figure we will be doing some shopping then. We are going to look for some pawn shops, we think there might be some good things there considering we are close to a couple of military bases.
I can't seem to relax yet. When we first got to the hotel room I had to unpack and put everything it its place. At least we didn't have to set up a tent and pump up an air mattress. I think that is why I like the beach so much because once you get on the beach and get your blanket spread out and you get done swimming and walking in the surf you have nothing left to do but sit around and relax and take in the sounds and scenery and nap.
Well my husband is making plans to go walk around. I think he is getting antsy and wanting out of this hotel room. I may write again or I might not, we shall see. Have a good day and week, we sure will.
April Whitehair
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Thursday, June 19, 2014
June 19, 2014
Good morning. Not much going on here today. I have just been working on getting ready for vacation. Just a few more days before we leave. I am so excited. Planning a vacation is so much work but hopefully the week away will be relaxing.
I am not sure if I will write any while we are gone. I didn't think I would last year but I was able to every morning. Now I can look back and remember all the fun we had. But the way I think is that this is my vacation and if I don't want to write than I won't, if I do want to than I will.
My husband and I went for a drive in the country yesterday morning looking for berries. It is just a little to early for them to be ripe. Didn't see many on our drive but I just love getting out and seeing things. I love seeing other peoples gardens and farm animals. Oh the things I could do if I had just a little more land.
Well I need to get off here and get this day started. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
I am not sure if I will write any while we are gone. I didn't think I would last year but I was able to every morning. Now I can look back and remember all the fun we had. But the way I think is that this is my vacation and if I don't want to write than I won't, if I do want to than I will.
My husband and I went for a drive in the country yesterday morning looking for berries. It is just a little to early for them to be ripe. Didn't see many on our drive but I just love getting out and seeing things. I love seeing other peoples gardens and farm animals. Oh the things I could do if I had just a little more land.
Well I need to get off here and get this day started. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
June 17, 2014
Good morning. I can't believe we have less than a week before leaving for our yearly beach vacation. I am so excited. But I seem to be getting a cold. Runny nose, sneezing, and coughing. I so hope it is gone before we leave. I really don't need to be sick now, I have so much to do this week to get ready. I first want to say a big Thank You to my niece C for house setting for us and looking after our inside animals. She doesn't want to take care of the chickens, I think she is afraid of them... It will be nice to know that she will be here all day spoiling our cats like we usually do. I also want to thank my sister H and her kids for taking care of the chickens while we are gone. And I have to give a big thanks to my sister M and brother G for taking care of Mom while we are gone. And a big thank you to Ms. M for being on call for my sister M when she needs a break. This is a much needed vacation.
Last week was Bible school. We had a good week with a good group of kids. I am so proud of my niece C for stepping up into the position of beginner teacher. She was so good at it. For her being a young lady at 18 years old and having that kind of responsible, God loving spirit that she has is admirable. Her boyfriend J came with her to Bible school everyday and helped her with the little ones. It was so good to see a young man help the little kids with projects. He was our much needed snake killer when the kids ran across a snake in the church yard. It was very interesting to see him kill a snake with an ice scraper and pocket knife. LOL !! The week at Bible school was interesting to say the least. We had a bad storm Wednesday night and had two mud slides which blocked the road to the church. We had to cancel Thursday's class but we made up for it on Friday. Plus the kids enjoyed watching the state road on their big equipment clean up the road and ditch. We are all very thankful that the slide missed the church but it was close.
The Bible school lesson was on Galatians 5:22-23, the fruit of the Spirit. The lesson was wrote by our wonderful youth educator extraordinaire June. She is such a wonderful mentor to me. I learn so much from her. She seems to be able to do all things and do them well, plus she is very humble and honest. She tried to count how many kids have attended Bible school at our church over the years and she counted over 90. That is a lot of kids! I have a lot of feelings and experience with being a kid attending Bible school then growing up to try and walk my own way only to return to church and God because of a simple song and message that I learned in that little church. Even if it seems that the young kids are not listening or retaining anything, they are. It is hid in their hearts to be used later in life when they need it the most. All you youth church leaders, educators, and fellow church goers keep up the good work, it does make a difference.
So now on to the chickens ! This last week has been very eventful in regards to the chickens. After the loss of two of my first feather babies and the injury of one more my husband said we had to get more. I can't believe he was the one to say it. I was on the fence about getting more. I felt very bad about being a bad chicken mother by letting a coon get to them. They are my responsibility to keep safe and I failed miserably. But now I am very glad that he pushed for me to open my heart to other chickens. I think I wrote about finding a lady locally that had chicks for sale.. I went and bought five off her though my husband only wanted me to get four.. oops! I just couldn't say no. Anyway... After I had the new babies for a couple days we noticed the rir mix had a crooked beak. This condition is common is severely inbred chickens. The crooked beak makes it had for the chicken to eat, some people feed them separately and with different food than the rest of their flock. Their decreased ability to eat can lead to malnutrition and sometimes death. There was no way I could go through that. I get so attached. The lady I got the chickens off of let me bring her back and get a different one, another Easter Egger! I am now slowly letting my self get attached to them. But they will never take the place of our poor Josie and Leo. Miss Emma has now stepped up to the role of mother hen. She takes care off all the chickens and keeps them in their place. She also takes very good care of her sister Cloe, the one that was injured in the coon attack. Cloe is doing better, her tail is healing nicely and she is getting around better but still has a limp. Being a chicken mom is a learning experience to say the least. Yesterday while they were out in the run I was in their spreading their treat feed on the ground and it scarred one of the newer girls so bad she flew up to the top of the wall and just walked out of the fencing !!! Then she got trapped in the wall between the plywood and cross-ties. It was a scary situation. But we was able to rescue her safely and we put smaller hole fencing up. Her name is now Houdini. Our names for the chickens are getting strange, we now have Emma, Cloe, Houdini, Jelly Knife (a play on my nephew's cat named Butter Sword), Peanut Butter, Carmel, and Cookies-n-Cream. They are more of joke names but I have a feeling they will stick.
So I have wrote enough for today. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
Last week was Bible school. We had a good week with a good group of kids. I am so proud of my niece C for stepping up into the position of beginner teacher. She was so good at it. For her being a young lady at 18 years old and having that kind of responsible, God loving spirit that she has is admirable. Her boyfriend J came with her to Bible school everyday and helped her with the little ones. It was so good to see a young man help the little kids with projects. He was our much needed snake killer when the kids ran across a snake in the church yard. It was very interesting to see him kill a snake with an ice scraper and pocket knife. LOL !! The week at Bible school was interesting to say the least. We had a bad storm Wednesday night and had two mud slides which blocked the road to the church. We had to cancel Thursday's class but we made up for it on Friday. Plus the kids enjoyed watching the state road on their big equipment clean up the road and ditch. We are all very thankful that the slide missed the church but it was close.
The Bible school lesson was on Galatians 5:22-23, the fruit of the Spirit. The lesson was wrote by our wonderful youth educator extraordinaire June. She is such a wonderful mentor to me. I learn so much from her. She seems to be able to do all things and do them well, plus she is very humble and honest. She tried to count how many kids have attended Bible school at our church over the years and she counted over 90. That is a lot of kids! I have a lot of feelings and experience with being a kid attending Bible school then growing up to try and walk my own way only to return to church and God because of a simple song and message that I learned in that little church. Even if it seems that the young kids are not listening or retaining anything, they are. It is hid in their hearts to be used later in life when they need it the most. All you youth church leaders, educators, and fellow church goers keep up the good work, it does make a difference.
So now on to the chickens ! This last week has been very eventful in regards to the chickens. After the loss of two of my first feather babies and the injury of one more my husband said we had to get more. I can't believe he was the one to say it. I was on the fence about getting more. I felt very bad about being a bad chicken mother by letting a coon get to them. They are my responsibility to keep safe and I failed miserably. But now I am very glad that he pushed for me to open my heart to other chickens. I think I wrote about finding a lady locally that had chicks for sale.. I went and bought five off her though my husband only wanted me to get four.. oops! I just couldn't say no. Anyway... After I had the new babies for a couple days we noticed the rir mix had a crooked beak. This condition is common is severely inbred chickens. The crooked beak makes it had for the chicken to eat, some people feed them separately and with different food than the rest of their flock. Their decreased ability to eat can lead to malnutrition and sometimes death. There was no way I could go through that. I get so attached. The lady I got the chickens off of let me bring her back and get a different one, another Easter Egger! I am now slowly letting my self get attached to them. But they will never take the place of our poor Josie and Leo. Miss Emma has now stepped up to the role of mother hen. She takes care off all the chickens and keeps them in their place. She also takes very good care of her sister Cloe, the one that was injured in the coon attack. Cloe is doing better, her tail is healing nicely and she is getting around better but still has a limp. Being a chicken mom is a learning experience to say the least. Yesterday while they were out in the run I was in their spreading their treat feed on the ground and it scarred one of the newer girls so bad she flew up to the top of the wall and just walked out of the fencing !!! Then she got trapped in the wall between the plywood and cross-ties. It was a scary situation. But we was able to rescue her safely and we put smaller hole fencing up. Her name is now Houdini. Our names for the chickens are getting strange, we now have Emma, Cloe, Houdini, Jelly Knife (a play on my nephew's cat named Butter Sword), Peanut Butter, Carmel, and Cookies-n-Cream. They are more of joke names but I have a feeling they will stick.
So I have wrote enough for today. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
June 10, 2014
Good morning. Well it has been an eventful few days here on our mini farm. A coon got into the chicken coop and killed two of my chickens and injured a third. We found Josie dead in the coop and poor Leo(Cleo) was never found. I believe he died trying to protect his girls, what a good rooster would do. The one that is hurt I think is Cloe, she had lost all her tail feathers and has an injured leg. Emma, the one that wasn't hurt, is being a good sister and won't leave Cloe's side and is very protective of her. I want to thank my cousin John who made two trips to my house to help us during this difficult time and gave us lots of good advice. The floor of the coop now has three layers of fencing which has already proved to be working because the next night the coon tried to get in again. We had a couple live traps set up which the coon was able to get the bait but not get trapped. Last night I sat on one side of the coop and my sister H sat on the other side and happily I must report that I have now avenged the death of my baby chickens. One coon down. I have never killed anything before but I didn't feel bad at all for doing it. It needed to be done and I think my Dad would have been proud of his girls for protecting the property. But this morning I have learned that my hunting isn't quite done just yet. My sister seen another coon in her back yard in the middle of the night and a possum this morning.
On a better note I found a local lady who had baby chickens for sale. I came home with five. Oops I was only suppose to come home with four but it was so hard to say no to them. I am proud of myself for only getting five of them. They had so many and so many kinds of chickens plus turkeys and gennys(sp). They took me all over the farm and showed me everything they had. Very nice people, chicken people. All of their baby chickens were mixed breeds. So I don't know what exactly I got. I know one has Rhode Island Red, another has New Hampshire Red, one is a Easter Egger, the other two I don't remember. They are lighter in color than my first ones and some even have a lot of white on them. The Easter Egger is all black and very tiny. They all are a lot smaller than my first ones are. She said they were four weeks and mine are almost six weeks but the new ones look smaller than month olds, maybe I have just spoiled mine and fed them to much. So now we have seven chickens.
This week is Bible School. Ms. M is coming down every day to stay with Mom so that I can go teach at Bible School. Thank you so much Ms. M. I am also getting to take Ms. M's daughters to Bible School with me. We had, I think, 15 kids yesterday. I teach the middle class, the same class that my Mom use to teach. She was such a wonderful Bible School teacher. I am no where near half as good as she was. I loved being in her class. She always studied and prepared extra things for us. She could control a large group of kids, me I have four and I feel at times I am in over my head.
That's all I am going to write for now. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
P.S. Happy Birthday to my sister Michelle. Love you.
On a better note I found a local lady who had baby chickens for sale. I came home with five. Oops I was only suppose to come home with four but it was so hard to say no to them. I am proud of myself for only getting five of them. They had so many and so many kinds of chickens plus turkeys and gennys(sp). They took me all over the farm and showed me everything they had. Very nice people, chicken people. All of their baby chickens were mixed breeds. So I don't know what exactly I got. I know one has Rhode Island Red, another has New Hampshire Red, one is a Easter Egger, the other two I don't remember. They are lighter in color than my first ones and some even have a lot of white on them. The Easter Egger is all black and very tiny. They all are a lot smaller than my first ones are. She said they were four weeks and mine are almost six weeks but the new ones look smaller than month olds, maybe I have just spoiled mine and fed them to much. So now we have seven chickens.
This week is Bible School. Ms. M is coming down every day to stay with Mom so that I can go teach at Bible School. Thank you so much Ms. M. I am also getting to take Ms. M's daughters to Bible School with me. We had, I think, 15 kids yesterday. I teach the middle class, the same class that my Mom use to teach. She was such a wonderful Bible School teacher. I am no where near half as good as she was. I loved being in her class. She always studied and prepared extra things for us. She could control a large group of kids, me I have four and I feel at times I am in over my head.
That's all I am going to write for now. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
P.S. Happy Birthday to my sister Michelle. Love you.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
June 4, 2014
Good morning. It has been a while since I have wrote anything. So today's post will probably be a long one. First of all Mom is doing well. Nothing new to say about her. Ms. M still takes care of her a couple time a week, thankfully.
The chickens are doing well. They are growing like crazy. They are still picky with what they eat but that may be us spoiling them. I believe Cleo is a boy so his name is now Leo but my husband insists on calling him Cletus. His name will not be Cletus! Anyway a while back I had posted a question on one of the Facebook pages for chickens and asked if I would be able to tell them apart when they get their regular feathers. They said most likely I would not be able to tell which is which. Some nice lady from the UK offered to send me some colored leg bands for them, free of charge. See there are some nice people left in the world, they are chicken people! I put them on them when I got them, a different color for each one. They wore them for a couple weeks and the other day when my husband and I was trying to take pictures of them I noticed the Leo's leg band was way to tight. We had a heck of a time trying to get that thing off of him and it had left an indentation on his leg. We went ahead and removed the bands from the girls also. So now sadly, very sadly for me, we don't know which one is Emma or Cloe. Cleo/Leo is the boy so we can tell which he is and Josie's comb is slightly bigger and redder than the other two girls so we can tell which one she is. Yes I cried and my husband laughed at me. I felt like I lost a baby by not knowing which is which. Today I do feel better about it. I will just call Emma and Cloe one of those names and have a 50% chance of getting it right. I don't think they will mind.
Vacation is coming up soon. Under three weeks now. My sister M will take care of Mom and Ms. M will be here as needed. And hopefully my sister H will take care of my animals. Her kids and her can take care of the chickens. The chickens shouldn't need much tending except their food and water topped of every now and them. And their coop door opened and closed daily.
We made the vacation hotel reservation back in March. We always go to the same area. The same place we got married and return for our anniversary. We had always stayed at the First Landing State Park, tent camping. Last year we got their a day early and found a hotel, we stayed their one night and loved it. It is a small cheap hotel not in the main tourist area of Virginia Beach. In a little town a little north of VB. It is a short walk to the ocean. We decided last year as we lay suffering in our tent with major sunburn and no way to cool off except for a small hand held battery powered fan that we were done tent camping. We decided it was better to spend less days on vacation to pay for a hotel then spend less money to suffer in a tent. Ok anyway back to the reservation.... We made it and paid for it back in March. Yesterday morning my husband and I was talking about how excited we were to go and all the good, fun things we are planning on doing. I looked at the reservation confirmation email that has been in my email box for months and looked at several times. I was reading all the room details to him and being super excited... Then it happened. The worse thing possible! We missed it! We actually missed our vacation!!!!!! Somehow the reservation was for March 24 not June 24! How did that happen we checked and double checked and tripled checked before we actually hit the pay button when filling out our reservation. I freaked out to say the least. I was sick about it!!! My wonderful husband calmly called the hotel and explained the situation to the lady at the hotel and was told to call back at 3pm when the manager would be there. We had all day to worry and check other hotels to try to find a room and worry some more. Well my husband called them and talked to the manager when he was told to and thankfully that guy was very nice and understanding. We luckily were able to get the room with the accommodations we had wanted, we had to pay more than we had originally. How did we not realize that the rate we paid was way too low for June anyway? Since the March reservation was considered a cancellation we were charged the cancellation fee but he deducted that from the price of the new reservation. My husband decided that if the manager was nice when dealing with this problem then we would book an extra day at the beginning of our stay, which he was so he did. We had planned on stopping along the way at some places and probably staying in a hotel in the middle of Virginia before going to the beach but now with this extra day we will be able to not worry about finding a room somewhere along the way.
While trying to plan our route to the beach I was wanting to find some places to stop and see. You can't find much info on yahoo or google maps like that. I came across a site that I just loved. roadtrippers.com You put in your start and end locations and it will show you all kinds of things along the way. Nature, museums, lakes, shopping, history, entertainment, and more. You pick what you want and you can print it off, a map and directions to everything you want to see and do. I highly recommend you check it out before your next road trip.
Last week my husband and I went on a date day while Ms. M was here. We went to Grafton, his hometown. He knows how much I love water and putting my feet in the water. So he took me to Tygart Lake. It was so quiet, no one was around. Very peaceful. I was able to put my feet in the water for the second time this year. The first time was on the way home from the casino in the Ohio River.
I seen a Amish sign in a window of a store in town and made him turn around and go back so I could check it out. I was the Tygart Valley Bulk Foods. Loved that place. All kinds and types of food. It was a small place but had lots of stuff. They did have some Walnut Creek (factory Amish) products but they had so much more. Flour organic real stuff, cheeses, jams, fudge, mixes and more stuff than I can remember. They also had a small deli where you can get sandwiches on fresh breads of all kinds. I got the chocolate covered peanuts, the were very good. I will definitely stop there again when we go to Grafton.
Monday my husband and I went to Dickey's Barbecue Pit for the first time. I had been hearing a lot of good things about that place. My opinion of that place is this. The pulled pork sandwich was very good. Their bun toaster was broke down while we were their so the bun was not toasted so I can't comment on how they are with a toasted bun. My husband ordered the mac and cheese with his meal and he ate it so fast I didn't get to try it but he said it was very good. The barbecue beans were ok. The jalapeno beans are just larger sized beans and fairly hot. The waffle fries were not great, I am use to seasoned waffle fries and these were definitely not seasoned. The sweet tea was way to sweet a lot sweeter that McDonald's sweet tea. Over all I would go there again and try some other things. Also I want to say that the staff did not seem very polite and the seemed quite disorganized. And the cashier if she doesn't hear what was ordered has to ask you what you got. It was just a little odd.
That is all I am going to write today even though I have a lot more to talk about. Maybe I will find time to write again this week sometime. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
The chickens are doing well. They are growing like crazy. They are still picky with what they eat but that may be us spoiling them. I believe Cleo is a boy so his name is now Leo but my husband insists on calling him Cletus. His name will not be Cletus! Anyway a while back I had posted a question on one of the Facebook pages for chickens and asked if I would be able to tell them apart when they get their regular feathers. They said most likely I would not be able to tell which is which. Some nice lady from the UK offered to send me some colored leg bands for them, free of charge. See there are some nice people left in the world, they are chicken people! I put them on them when I got them, a different color for each one. They wore them for a couple weeks and the other day when my husband and I was trying to take pictures of them I noticed the Leo's leg band was way to tight. We had a heck of a time trying to get that thing off of him and it had left an indentation on his leg. We went ahead and removed the bands from the girls also. So now sadly, very sadly for me, we don't know which one is Emma or Cloe. Cleo/Leo is the boy so we can tell which he is and Josie's comb is slightly bigger and redder than the other two girls so we can tell which one she is. Yes I cried and my husband laughed at me. I felt like I lost a baby by not knowing which is which. Today I do feel better about it. I will just call Emma and Cloe one of those names and have a 50% chance of getting it right. I don't think they will mind.
Vacation is coming up soon. Under three weeks now. My sister M will take care of Mom and Ms. M will be here as needed. And hopefully my sister H will take care of my animals. Her kids and her can take care of the chickens. The chickens shouldn't need much tending except their food and water topped of every now and them. And their coop door opened and closed daily.
We made the vacation hotel reservation back in March. We always go to the same area. The same place we got married and return for our anniversary. We had always stayed at the First Landing State Park, tent camping. Last year we got their a day early and found a hotel, we stayed their one night and loved it. It is a small cheap hotel not in the main tourist area of Virginia Beach. In a little town a little north of VB. It is a short walk to the ocean. We decided last year as we lay suffering in our tent with major sunburn and no way to cool off except for a small hand held battery powered fan that we were done tent camping. We decided it was better to spend less days on vacation to pay for a hotel then spend less money to suffer in a tent. Ok anyway back to the reservation.... We made it and paid for it back in March. Yesterday morning my husband and I was talking about how excited we were to go and all the good, fun things we are planning on doing. I looked at the reservation confirmation email that has been in my email box for months and looked at several times. I was reading all the room details to him and being super excited... Then it happened. The worse thing possible! We missed it! We actually missed our vacation!!!!!! Somehow the reservation was for March 24 not June 24! How did that happen we checked and double checked and tripled checked before we actually hit the pay button when filling out our reservation. I freaked out to say the least. I was sick about it!!! My wonderful husband calmly called the hotel and explained the situation to the lady at the hotel and was told to call back at 3pm when the manager would be there. We had all day to worry and check other hotels to try to find a room and worry some more. Well my husband called them and talked to the manager when he was told to and thankfully that guy was very nice and understanding. We luckily were able to get the room with the accommodations we had wanted, we had to pay more than we had originally. How did we not realize that the rate we paid was way too low for June anyway? Since the March reservation was considered a cancellation we were charged the cancellation fee but he deducted that from the price of the new reservation. My husband decided that if the manager was nice when dealing with this problem then we would book an extra day at the beginning of our stay, which he was so he did. We had planned on stopping along the way at some places and probably staying in a hotel in the middle of Virginia before going to the beach but now with this extra day we will be able to not worry about finding a room somewhere along the way.
While trying to plan our route to the beach I was wanting to find some places to stop and see. You can't find much info on yahoo or google maps like that. I came across a site that I just loved. roadtrippers.com You put in your start and end locations and it will show you all kinds of things along the way. Nature, museums, lakes, shopping, history, entertainment, and more. You pick what you want and you can print it off, a map and directions to everything you want to see and do. I highly recommend you check it out before your next road trip.
Last week my husband and I went on a date day while Ms. M was here. We went to Grafton, his hometown. He knows how much I love water and putting my feet in the water. So he took me to Tygart Lake. It was so quiet, no one was around. Very peaceful. I was able to put my feet in the water for the second time this year. The first time was on the way home from the casino in the Ohio River.
I seen a Amish sign in a window of a store in town and made him turn around and go back so I could check it out. I was the Tygart Valley Bulk Foods. Loved that place. All kinds and types of food. It was a small place but had lots of stuff. They did have some Walnut Creek (factory Amish) products but they had so much more. Flour organic real stuff, cheeses, jams, fudge, mixes and more stuff than I can remember. They also had a small deli where you can get sandwiches on fresh breads of all kinds. I got the chocolate covered peanuts, the were very good. I will definitely stop there again when we go to Grafton.
Monday my husband and I went to Dickey's Barbecue Pit for the first time. I had been hearing a lot of good things about that place. My opinion of that place is this. The pulled pork sandwich was very good. Their bun toaster was broke down while we were their so the bun was not toasted so I can't comment on how they are with a toasted bun. My husband ordered the mac and cheese with his meal and he ate it so fast I didn't get to try it but he said it was very good. The barbecue beans were ok. The jalapeno beans are just larger sized beans and fairly hot. The waffle fries were not great, I am use to seasoned waffle fries and these were definitely not seasoned. The sweet tea was way to sweet a lot sweeter that McDonald's sweet tea. Over all I would go there again and try some other things. Also I want to say that the staff did not seem very polite and the seemed quite disorganized. And the cashier if she doesn't hear what was ordered has to ask you what you got. It was just a little odd.
That is all I am going to write today even though I have a lot more to talk about. Maybe I will find time to write again this week sometime. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
May 27, 2014
Good morning. It seems like it has been a long time since I wrote. I has been a busy last week and sometimes I can't find the time to set down or a quiet time to think. Hopefully this week I will be able to get back on schedule.
Thursday we had a girls day out. Ms. M found, on Facebook, a new local business selling Amish goods and antiques and also having a yard sale. I love anything to do with the Amish and also yard sales. So Mom, Ms. M, and I took off for an adventure and just to basically get Mom out of the house for a little bit. The woman had advertised quite a lot of things and we were excited to go shopping. The yard sale was quite small but I did buy two Longaberger purses, I love those and will buy any that I see but I wont pay full price. Now the small store that that woman had advertised was a let down. Most of the things she said she had to sell she hadn't even put out in her store yet and the things he did have displayed was very expensive or had no price at all. She had an old coffee grinder that I was interested in. I asked about it and she said she didn't know how much to sell it for and that her husband gets mad when ever she sells anything for cheaper than what it was worth. So she never quoted me a price, I walked away shaking my head, not a very good way to do business. Also I was disappointed with the 'Amish' goods they were selling. The were the Walnut Creek brand that you can buy in most grocery stores. Plus the prices were way marked up. Like a can of beef broth for more than three dollars, I looked at the local IGA and theirs of the same brand was under three dollars. I love to support new local business but this one needs a lot of work before I can give it my approval. The owner said that the 'Amish' products were not selling as well as she had expected and they might stop selling them and focus on the antiques. That may be a better route for her to take but I very rarely see an antique store do well for very long especially in this area and when you ask full 'internet' prices. I think she may do well with the Amish products if she would sell homemade Amish goods not factory made 'Amish' products. Just my opinion. After stopping at that place we decided to go on to Ollie's. Ms. M had never been there before and I figured Mom would like to get out and see something different than just the inside of our house. After that we stopped at Hardiee's for lunch. We had a good girls day out. Had some laughs and hopefully Mom had a good time as well.
Friday my husband and I finished the chicken coop and got the girls (baby chicks) into their new home. Well they aren't really babies anymore they are almost a month old now. I must say that they are quite boring... I had read so many chicken owners say how much fun it is to sit and watch their chickens. But I must admit that even if they are boring I do enjoy sitting and watching them, it is kind of relaxing. I was worried at first, when be put them in their pen, because the would just lay down and roll over and look dead. But I quickly figured out that they were just sun bathing. They had never been in the sun before. The have been outside for four days now. The first night they were out I was so worried about them, afraid something would get to them, like my cats, but the coop and run seem to be secure. Every morning when I go out to let them out of the hen house and into the run they seem to just stay in the hen house, I have to actually make them go out and shut the door or they will just go back in. They have plenty of food, treats and water out in the run and also shade. I don't think they understand yet how it all works. Hopefully as they get bigger they will get smarter.
So I am thinking that one of the girls just may be a boy.... I am not sure yet but all the signs are pointing to rooster. Which would be fine with me. My sister H/neighbor my not like it if it is a boy and he wakes her up every morning. The hatchery where I ordered them from said it has a 90% accuracy on gender. We shall see in a couple months if we have a Cleo or a Leo.
We finally got most of the garden in... all but the buckwheat and wheat left to plant. I also my try to find another place to put more sunflowers in. I hope to grow some of the chicken's feed by growing corn, buckwheat, and sunflower. I also have started a meal worm farm but I don't think it is doing all that well.
Saturday night my sister H took care of Mom so that my husband and I could go out on a date. We went to the drive-in. Did you know at one time there was over 4000 drive-ins and now there is only about 400? I believe this is something we all should support to keep them around. So everyone go to the drive-in some time this summer. The first movie was Blended it was good. The second movie was Godzilla but we only stayed about twenty minutes into it because I got a bad headache and we had to leave. I seem to always get a headache when I go to the drive-in.
The rest of the weekend was spent planting and yard work. And ya playing with the chickens.
I painted the inside of their run, the plywood, with paint I got for ten dollars at Lowe's, it was one of their reject cans. I also got a ten dollar rebate, so I pretty much got it for free, which is good because it is very ugly. But the chickens don't seem to mind unless that is the reason they don't want to go out into their run...hum.
Well I need to get off here and get something accomplished today. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
Thursday we had a girls day out. Ms. M found, on Facebook, a new local business selling Amish goods and antiques and also having a yard sale. I love anything to do with the Amish and also yard sales. So Mom, Ms. M, and I took off for an adventure and just to basically get Mom out of the house for a little bit. The woman had advertised quite a lot of things and we were excited to go shopping. The yard sale was quite small but I did buy two Longaberger purses, I love those and will buy any that I see but I wont pay full price. Now the small store that that woman had advertised was a let down. Most of the things she said she had to sell she hadn't even put out in her store yet and the things he did have displayed was very expensive or had no price at all. She had an old coffee grinder that I was interested in. I asked about it and she said she didn't know how much to sell it for and that her husband gets mad when ever she sells anything for cheaper than what it was worth. So she never quoted me a price, I walked away shaking my head, not a very good way to do business. Also I was disappointed with the 'Amish' goods they were selling. The were the Walnut Creek brand that you can buy in most grocery stores. Plus the prices were way marked up. Like a can of beef broth for more than three dollars, I looked at the local IGA and theirs of the same brand was under three dollars. I love to support new local business but this one needs a lot of work before I can give it my approval. The owner said that the 'Amish' products were not selling as well as she had expected and they might stop selling them and focus on the antiques. That may be a better route for her to take but I very rarely see an antique store do well for very long especially in this area and when you ask full 'internet' prices. I think she may do well with the Amish products if she would sell homemade Amish goods not factory made 'Amish' products. Just my opinion. After stopping at that place we decided to go on to Ollie's. Ms. M had never been there before and I figured Mom would like to get out and see something different than just the inside of our house. After that we stopped at Hardiee's for lunch. We had a good girls day out. Had some laughs and hopefully Mom had a good time as well.
Friday my husband and I finished the chicken coop and got the girls (baby chicks) into their new home. Well they aren't really babies anymore they are almost a month old now. I must say that they are quite boring... I had read so many chicken owners say how much fun it is to sit and watch their chickens. But I must admit that even if they are boring I do enjoy sitting and watching them, it is kind of relaxing. I was worried at first, when be put them in their pen, because the would just lay down and roll over and look dead. But I quickly figured out that they were just sun bathing. They had never been in the sun before. The have been outside for four days now. The first night they were out I was so worried about them, afraid something would get to them, like my cats, but the coop and run seem to be secure. Every morning when I go out to let them out of the hen house and into the run they seem to just stay in the hen house, I have to actually make them go out and shut the door or they will just go back in. They have plenty of food, treats and water out in the run and also shade. I don't think they understand yet how it all works. Hopefully as they get bigger they will get smarter.
So I am thinking that one of the girls just may be a boy.... I am not sure yet but all the signs are pointing to rooster. Which would be fine with me. My sister H/neighbor my not like it if it is a boy and he wakes her up every morning. The hatchery where I ordered them from said it has a 90% accuracy on gender. We shall see in a couple months if we have a Cleo or a Leo.
We finally got most of the garden in... all but the buckwheat and wheat left to plant. I also my try to find another place to put more sunflowers in. I hope to grow some of the chicken's feed by growing corn, buckwheat, and sunflower. I also have started a meal worm farm but I don't think it is doing all that well.
Saturday night my sister H took care of Mom so that my husband and I could go out on a date. We went to the drive-in. Did you know at one time there was over 4000 drive-ins and now there is only about 400? I believe this is something we all should support to keep them around. So everyone go to the drive-in some time this summer. The first movie was Blended it was good. The second movie was Godzilla but we only stayed about twenty minutes into it because I got a bad headache and we had to leave. I seem to always get a headache when I go to the drive-in.
The rest of the weekend was spent planting and yard work. And ya playing with the chickens.
I painted the inside of their run, the plywood, with paint I got for ten dollars at Lowe's, it was one of their reject cans. I also got a ten dollar rebate, so I pretty much got it for free, which is good because it is very ugly. But the chickens don't seem to mind unless that is the reason they don't want to go out into their run...hum.
Well I need to get off here and get something accomplished today. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
May 21, 2014
Good morning. I know I am writing on the wrong day but yesterday was just to busy and I didn't have time to sit down and write. Mom's caregiver was here yesterday to make up for a day she had to call off last week when she and her daughter had that nasty flu bug. So my husband wanted to go out to breakfast then we got started on the chicken coop. We got the roof of the hen house done and the chain link fence on the run on and the plywood up over the cross-ties and both doors up. We are so close to being done, we just have to put up the rest of the fencing and the roost and nesting boxes and move the chickens out. I will be very happy when they are out of this house. They smell ! Well actually I think the smell is coming from them splashing their water everywhere and getting the pine shavings wet, I can't stand the smell of wet pine shavings. They are getting so big and have most of their feathers. So I think they will do ok outside. I will probably put their heat lamp out their just to use at night if it is going to be a little chilly.
After working on the coop we worked on the garden. I have so many things I want to grow that he had to extend the garden. I got more corn in and potatoes. We also planted sunflowers, beans, and peas. I planted the first two packs of peas before I realized they were sugar snap peas, not the regular kind that I wanted to plant. Oh well I will figure out something to do with them.
The other night we had a frost warning, well it was two nights in a row. We had to cover all the plants. It looked like we were trying to grow sheets and pillow cases, they were all over the place. Now I am working on washing and drying all of them so I can pack them all away to have to use next spring. This is when I would love to have my outside clothes line up, all the ones I had up last year has been taken down when people were working in different areas in the yard. I would love to have the T-posts to put a permanent close line up. Maybe after we get the chickens settled outside and the garden all finished I can start figuring out a way to get some T-posts.
So Saturday was a difficult morning for me. Mom was being overly difficult and my patience was gone... Also it was the third day in a row without help due to Mom's helper calling off when she was ill. I was at my limit. I got her up, out of bed, dressed, and fed. Then I set her in the recliner with snacks and drinks, my husband was asleep in the next room with the door open. And I took off in search of some patience, some distraction. I went to the small farmers market in town. And I mean SMALL ! There was two tables set up, I understand it is early in the year. I wonder if more people will set up tables as the summer goes on. I have had some thoughts of setting up a table and selling some garden goodies but I don't think I will have very much to sell now that I have lost all those seedlings that I started. Anyway one of the people who were selling was the Staddon family that sells their honey. The same people who I went to their house back in the winter and bought honey from. I had to buy from them and support a local family, I only bought a small honey bear bottle from them. I love their honey. The other person that was their was selling homemade breads and other kitchen goodies. It all looked good but I have issues with eating other peoples homemade goodies, but I can eat at restaurants or at others houses but not buy things at places like that. I know it may sound crazy but I am a little crazy at times. She was a very nice lady and she was also selling farm fresh chicken eggs and I started up a conversation about chickens. I do feel like I am in some kind of a secret chicken club now. Also I am very proud of myself that I was actually able to have a decent conversation with a stranger. I have always been so shy and kind of felt a little backward in the conversation department. But now with chicken people I feel like I belong..... I could kick myself because I didn't see how much she was selling her eggs for, I may one day need to know how much a dozen fresh farm eggs go for around here.
After the farmers market I decided I would drive around and check out some yard sales, being that it was suppose to be the big RT 50 yard sale day. I found one sale and didn't find anything to buy and the other place I found was way way out in the middle of nowhere but I drove to it but their driveway crossed the creek and the water was up a little due to all the rain, I was too afraid to cross it so I just turned around and drove all the way back. That is all the yard sales I found and I was all over the place around here, all the way to West Union and almost to Clarksburg. I did go out one road and just enjoyed being out in the country. There was a lot of farms and barns and things that helped me feel happy and calm and brought my patience back. I think I have found a way to recharge with out spending any money, except for gas. Just get out and take a drive in the country. Seemed to sooth my soul.
I made it home Saturday after my adventure and Mom didn't even realize I had been gone almost two hours. She was happily watching tv and petting her dog and probably feeding him some of her cookies I had left her as a snack. I don't think my husband would have even realized that I had gone if he hadn't gotten up and seen the note I left him on the table.
Well Mom is up and wanting my attention. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
After working on the coop we worked on the garden. I have so many things I want to grow that he had to extend the garden. I got more corn in and potatoes. We also planted sunflowers, beans, and peas. I planted the first two packs of peas before I realized they were sugar snap peas, not the regular kind that I wanted to plant. Oh well I will figure out something to do with them.
The other night we had a frost warning, well it was two nights in a row. We had to cover all the plants. It looked like we were trying to grow sheets and pillow cases, they were all over the place. Now I am working on washing and drying all of them so I can pack them all away to have to use next spring. This is when I would love to have my outside clothes line up, all the ones I had up last year has been taken down when people were working in different areas in the yard. I would love to have the T-posts to put a permanent close line up. Maybe after we get the chickens settled outside and the garden all finished I can start figuring out a way to get some T-posts.
So Saturday was a difficult morning for me. Mom was being overly difficult and my patience was gone... Also it was the third day in a row without help due to Mom's helper calling off when she was ill. I was at my limit. I got her up, out of bed, dressed, and fed. Then I set her in the recliner with snacks and drinks, my husband was asleep in the next room with the door open. And I took off in search of some patience, some distraction. I went to the small farmers market in town. And I mean SMALL ! There was two tables set up, I understand it is early in the year. I wonder if more people will set up tables as the summer goes on. I have had some thoughts of setting up a table and selling some garden goodies but I don't think I will have very much to sell now that I have lost all those seedlings that I started. Anyway one of the people who were selling was the Staddon family that sells their honey. The same people who I went to their house back in the winter and bought honey from. I had to buy from them and support a local family, I only bought a small honey bear bottle from them. I love their honey. The other person that was their was selling homemade breads and other kitchen goodies. It all looked good but I have issues with eating other peoples homemade goodies, but I can eat at restaurants or at others houses but not buy things at places like that. I know it may sound crazy but I am a little crazy at times. She was a very nice lady and she was also selling farm fresh chicken eggs and I started up a conversation about chickens. I do feel like I am in some kind of a secret chicken club now. Also I am very proud of myself that I was actually able to have a decent conversation with a stranger. I have always been so shy and kind of felt a little backward in the conversation department. But now with chicken people I feel like I belong..... I could kick myself because I didn't see how much she was selling her eggs for, I may one day need to know how much a dozen fresh farm eggs go for around here.
After the farmers market I decided I would drive around and check out some yard sales, being that it was suppose to be the big RT 50 yard sale day. I found one sale and didn't find anything to buy and the other place I found was way way out in the middle of nowhere but I drove to it but their driveway crossed the creek and the water was up a little due to all the rain, I was too afraid to cross it so I just turned around and drove all the way back. That is all the yard sales I found and I was all over the place around here, all the way to West Union and almost to Clarksburg. I did go out one road and just enjoyed being out in the country. There was a lot of farms and barns and things that helped me feel happy and calm and brought my patience back. I think I have found a way to recharge with out spending any money, except for gas. Just get out and take a drive in the country. Seemed to sooth my soul.
I made it home Saturday after my adventure and Mom didn't even realize I had been gone almost two hours. She was happily watching tv and petting her dog and probably feeding him some of her cookies I had left her as a snack. I don't think my husband would have even realized that I had gone if he hadn't gotten up and seen the note I left him on the table.
Well Mom is up and wanting my attention. Have a good day.
April Whitehair
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