Girls' Road Trip 2013

There's nothing I love more than being on the homestead, but every once in a while I find it is good to get away for a bit. I like to have new experiences whenever I can, and I always end up appreciating what I have even more when I return home. This past week I had one of the most fun trips of my life with two of my best girlfriends, Heather and Angela. We decided early this year to take a road trip together and agreed our initial destination would be New Orleans! Our first stop there was Café Du Monde for the world famous beignets (fried squares of dough dusted in powdered sugar) and café au laits. We decided to go through the take out line and eat our beignets behind the restaurant in a cute little area with the most beautiful doors.

From there we spent the rest of the day exploring the city. We took a little ride on the trolley, just because, and kind of got out of the way a bit so we ended up walking the rest of the day.

We saw the farmers market, flea market, Jackson Square, and visited the St. Louis Cathedral.

St. Louis Cathedral

The cathedral is absolutely gorgeous with old wooden pews, stained glass windows, and murals all over the ceiling and walls. Plus it was air-conditioned, so it gave us a nice break to sit and cool off a bit after walking around in the humid heat all morning long.

After Jackson Square, we headed over to Bourbon Street. We really wanted to see it, but the nightlife scene isn't our thing, so we made sure to go during the day (apparently it can get kind of dangerous at night as well). On the way down to Bourbon, we heard some awesome live music, so we stopped and watched the street performers for a bit. They were amazing! I even took a quick video so you could get the authentic New Orleans experience.

I made sure to give them a few dollars before passing by. I love music and try to support the arts whenever I can.

Just a short walk past the performers, we reached Bourbon Street. It was neat to see all the different shops and signs, but we didn't end up spending too much time down there. We are glad we went to see it, but agreed it wasn't our favorite part of the trip (the smell didn't help much!).

One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting the Garden District in New Orleans. The houses in this area are some of the most beautiful and grandiose I've ever seen. Heather was driving, so I enjoyed just looking out the window as we drove past all the estates.

I loved the marble staircase and dark entry doors.

After a quick bite to eat in the Garden District, we headed back downtown because we had a steamboat cruise planned for the evening. It was actually a crazy night, because just as we arrived at the dock, we saw a steamboat taking off into the Mississippi and thought we missed our cruise! We figured we could at least ride the ferry to get the river experience, so we rode that a couple times. After exiting the ferry, Heather saw another steamboat getting ready to take off at a different location on the dock and come to find out, that was the boat we were supposed to board! The gates were closed, but we made it just in time to get on board before the boat took off. Phew! It was such a lovely cruise and when the sun went down all the buildings looked so pretty all lit up.

After the cruise it was getting late and we were exhausted, so we called it a night and headed back to the hotel. The next morning we were heading to Gulf Shores, AL to spend a day at the beach, but things didn't go as planned and we didn't make it there until just before dark. We did stop at Gulfport, MS on the way there and checked out their beach after some shopping at the awesome outlet mall. We weren't too impressed with the beach there, but we did see some of the cutest gulls. I tried to get close to them to get their photo but they kept flying away from me! I did manage to get this shot which I think turned out really cute.

The next morning we headed home, and stopped in Memphis for an early dinner on Beale Street at Miss Polly's Soul City Cafe. This was actually my favorite meal of the whole trip because it reminded me so much of my grandma's "soul food" cooking that I grew up with. It was so delicious!

I've always wanted to see the ducks at the Peabody Hotel, so before leaving the city we checked them out and I was in love! I didn't get to see them take their parade through the hotel to the elevators back up to their rooftop home, but maybe I'll get to see it someday.

We really packed a lot into our four day road trip and I have so many happy and funny memories that I will cherish forever. I kept joking that we'll have so many stories from this trip to tell our kids someday. The kind of stories we will tell them over and over again and they'll know them by heart and get sick of us telling them, haha.

For me, the best part of coming home is seeing all the animals. Gizmo seems to have grown so much in just a few days while I was gone! As much as I enjoyed returning home, I think David was even more thrilled to see me. He had to tend the homestead all by himself while I was gone, and this week was a crazy busy week of band camp for him, so he had his hands full. Maintaining the garden and tending to all the animals while working full-time is definitely hard for just one person. But he did a great job and the garden totally exploded while I was gone.

It was a fun trip, but it is good to be home :)

~Tammy

PS - I'm still playing catch up, but I look forward to checking in with all my blogging friends soon!

City To Country

Now that we've been on our homestead for nearly two years, we can reflect (and laugh a little bit) about some of the unexpected differences between city and country life. David and I had both lived in the city our whole lives up until moving to the country in May 2011, so we basically walked into this thing totally blind. It has been an adventure, and some things have been more surprising than others in our transition.

For one, we had to get an address and buy a mailbox!

The house we moved into was just built a few years ago and the previous owner had a PO box in town, so there was no physical mailing address or mailbox. We wanted to get mail delivered to our home, so we had to get an address. It took a while to get all the kinks worked out, but we now have a rural route address. We normally don't have issues getting our mail, but have found that FedEx and UPS don't recognize our address so they won't deliver to us.

We also learned all too quickly about the danger of ticks. Just two weeks after we moved, David was bit by a tick and developed the "bull's eye rash" associated with Lyme disease. Thankfully, if caught early enough and treated with antibiotics, Lyme disease can be prevented. But that really scared us, so we immediately got a flock of guineas to wage war on the ticks. The guineas have worked surprisingly well at reducing the tick population (when they're not busy dust bathing in our herb garden, that is).

We knew before we moved out here that our water would be supplied through a well, but being the city girl that I was and not knowing much about well water, I didn't realize that the water got to our house through an electric pump. Of course this means that if the power goes out, we have no water. Obviously we (and our animals) need water to survive, so this became a huge concern. We could deal with losing the lights and maybe the heat for an extended period of time, but water is the ultimate necessity.

David's mom and stepdad heard about our concerns over the possibility of losing power and being without water, so while they were in town visiting for Christmas, we got a VERY unexpected blessing...

They bought us a generator! We had been talking about buying one after this last power scare and were trying to think of how we could pay for one, but now we don't have to worry about that. I don't think I've ever received such a generous gift and we are so very grateful. Thanks again, Cindy and Ramon!

Have you made the transition from city to country life? What took you by surprise?

~Tammy

Shared with Down Home Blog Hop, Farm Girl Blog Fest  

Wedding Weekend In Alabama

Over the weekend we traveled to Montgomery, Alabama for the wedding of one of our best and oldest friends. David was in the wedding, so we drove all day Friday to get there in time for the rehearsal at 5:00 Friday evening. Even though we forgot our suitcase and had to backtrack, we somehow made it to Alabama with a little time to spare.

The rehearsal dinner was delicious and a lot of fun. The table settings had a nice southern touch with the mason jars. And, of course, there was sweet tea!

 
After dinner, I was excited to see a cute dog roaming around the back yard!

Being the animal lover that I am, I was excited to see Fred the dog. Then I saw a cat running around and got to get some play time in with him as well. He was so cute and looked like a cross between our cats, Jasper and Fitz.

On the wedding day, Fred dressed for the occasion with a bow tie.

The wedding was in the evening, and everything somehow became even more beautiful when the sun went down.

After the wedding, some people had the crazy idea to jump into the pool, fully clothed. I almost wanted to jump in, too! The ambiance was perfect.

Towards the end of the night the boys got silly. Who knows what they were pointing at!

It was nice to get away and have a change of scenery for the weekend. We had such a blast. Everyone was so gracious and we felt really welcome. I was loving the Southern hospitality!

Congrats, John and Samantha!

~Tammy

After The Rain

Over the weekend we received the aftermath of Isaac in the form of heavy downpours. We really needed the rain around here so I'm not complaining, but it forced us to be inside a good part of the weekend when we desperately needed to get some work done in the garden.

After the rain died down a bit on Saturday just before nightfall, I noticed the creeks were full of rushing water so I did what any normal person would do - pulled on my rainboots and splashed around.

Of course I had my sidekick with me.

There's something so fun about splashing down the creek. Just forgetting everything else and letting my inner kid come out and explore. No agenda, no time constraints (except for the decreasing daylight), just allowing myself stay a little while and enjoy nature.

 
Our creek only fills up when there is heavy rain, so it is always a nice reward after being stuck inside all day to go out and play in the water. I am thankful for the rain and the boost it will give our garden. I love not watering for a couple days and still reaping a nice harvest!

~Tammy

Shared with Watery Wednesday

The Color Run

Last Saturday I did something I never thought I'd do...

I ran a 5k! Well, walked and ran, but you get the gist. A couple months ago some of my friends stumbled upon this amazing 5k called The Color Run and we agreed to run it together. You may remember from this post that I took up running earlier this year, so I figured I could complete the 5k no problem.

Well, life happened and I got off track with my running. Instead I picked back up on rebounding to get in my exercise. I figured I'd be keeping my legs strong so I'd be good for the 5k. While running it I felt pretty great and finished at a time I was shooting for (about 40 minutes - it wasn't timed, so I don't know exactly), but the next morning the muscle aches set in! I am still pretty sore, especially first thing in the morning. I feel like an old lady! I guess I can't be a weekend warrior after all.

But even with the pain, it was so worth it.

We started off the race nice and clean with bright white shirts. Along the path of the 5k, there are different checkpoints where runners get pelted with powdered color (non-toxic corn starch based dyes).

And we're off! Thanks to my friend Heather for snapping photos :)

After crossing the finish line, you come out looking something like this.

I didn't get too covered in color while running the 5k, but the after party was another story. Everyone gathers past the finish line and on the count of ten throws a packet of color up in the air. It was complete and utter chaos!

And this time, I got COVERED in color.

It was such a cool experience and I'm so glad I did it. The Color Run is a great way to break into 5ks because it is such a laid back and fun event. It's not timed, so there's really no pressure. Many people walk the whole way and there's no urge to jockey for position and get ahead of the pack. It's more about enjoying the scenery and the morning with about 15,000 fellow runners. Oh, and coming out as colorful as possible of course!

~Tammy

Bollinger Mill

The last time David and I took a long vacation was in July of 2009 when we went to New Mexico to visit his parents. We were there for about a week and had a blast. Our first flock of baby chicks arrived in August of 2009 and we have not been on a long vacation ever since! It's really hard to get away because if we are gone overnight we have to arrange for someone to take care of our menagerie of animals.

The solution - day trips! These tend to work out better for us anyway because it can be a spontaneous thing, requires no time off from work, and of course is way cheaper.

This weekend I was feeling a little adventurous and wanted to do some exploring. David and I hadn't been to Bollinger Mill since we were kids, so I thought it would be fun to check it out again. It's just a short 30 minute drive from our place, so it was a great afternoon getaway.

Inside the mill, there are a lot of great displays featuring old equipment. I loved these old grain bags and the huge grain cart!

To me, the best feature is the covered bridge next to the mill - it's one of only four remaining covered bridges in the state.

Taken through a hole in the wood from inside the bridge.

If you want to, you can go down and take a dip in the water. After seeing this, though, I decided I'd stay on dry land. Unacceptable bacteria levels? No, thank you!

This would be a really great getaway for families because there are lots of picnic tables outside and there is plenty of open land for kids (or adults!) to run around and play. Just stay out of the water! :)

After checking out all the mill had to offer, we went to the cutest little antique shop just up the road.

I got an adorable chicken platter and David got a game called Dragonriders. So predictable, I know!

He couldn't wait until we got home to check it out!

I also found the most perfect piece of furniture ever. I want to put it in the bathroom for storage, so we took the measurements and are trying to figure out if it will work. I'm so obsessed with it! So obsessed, in fact, that I'm not going to describe it or post a picture for fear that someone else will swipe it!

If you've never been to Bollinger Mill or haven't been since you were a kid, you should definitely check it out. It's worth the drive!

~Tammy