Visit home

 My nephew playing T-ball, his mom had a hard time getting him to go play!

 This is the sunrise has we were leaving Illinois.

Dixon, Illinois the arch that you see as you go through town.  It is the home town of Ronald Reagan.   Didn't do too much while we were there.  Just visited with family and of course, Matt and I got sick as we were there so didn't really feel all the well to do much of anything else.  We did go out to a nice Mexican restaurant and  did get to order out my favorite pizza that has the best thin crust around (Manny's Pizza!).  When I go back home, that is one of the first things I do and that is go get my favorite pizza of all time.  They even make pizza ahead and freeze it now.  I just happened to bring home ten of them!  We also can't find good brats around here so we bought 20 lbs of fresh brats from the local meat processing plant and brought those home also!

We so wanted to get out to visit a couple of wonderful people in Wyoming and South Dakota, but funds just didn't allow us too this year and time was a big factor also.  I told the hubby that I will be saving tax money next year and that will be our vacation this time.  Sorry family but I will only be staying for one day and that is it!  I will be making it out west come He--- or high water!

Hope you have a wonderful day.

George Washington's Distillary

The Distillery is the only site in North America that demonstrates 18th-century distilling from seed to barrel.(that is legal)  George Washington continued to diversify his business operation at Mount Vernon throughout his life.  In 1797 he began construction of a large whiskey distillery  Completed in March 1798, the distillery became a very profitable business for Washington.  Inside the distillery there were five copper pot stills, making this one of the largest whiskey distilleries in America at that time.  Recently reconstructed, visitors can learn about Washington's whiskey and the steps that go into making a fine spirit.  I learned that they sell the whiskey twice a year and that the first time this year it sold out in just three days.  The fresh whiskey sells for 80 dollars a pint and the aged stuff sells for 180 dollars a pint!  It is made with a mash of 60% rye, 35% corn and 5% malted barley.   They actually stir by hand the mash starting with the rye and corn and it is pretty sticky stuff and then when the malted barley is added they said that it thins out rather quickly!  My pictures aren't the best, but it was a pretty impressive place to see. I didn't get the picture of the bigger barrels but they were pretty darn large, looked exactly like the smaller ones in the picture but much bigger.  If you look close you can see in the bottom picture the copper pot stills.

My step-dad looks a lot better than I expected, which is good.  I unfortunately came down with a sore throat and a severe ear infection.  Matt came down with just the cold.  I now have antibiotics for it but the throat and the ear feels just a tad better.  I got a little concerned when I had blood draining from it but the doc didn't seem too concerned.  I guess I won't be unless it doesn't start to feel better by Thursday.  Have a good rest of the week.

George Washington's Gristmill

View of the gristmill from across Dogue Run Creek.  In 1771 George Washington constructed a large gristmill at Dougue Run Farm.  Washington changed from tobacco to wheat as a cash crop in the 1760's and needed the gristmill to process this wheat and corn into flour and meal.  In 1791, Washington installed the automated flour mill system invented by Oliver Evans.  This system greatly improved the milling process and made Washington's mill more productive.  This restored Evans system is the only working example  in the U. S. today.  I have more pictures of the mill that I hope the hubby got that I did not.  I have lots more to post on George Washington's, distillery and his home that we visited in Mount Vernon, Virginia.  I will not be posting for the rest of this week.  I need to take a quick trip out to see my sick step-father.  When I do get back I will post more on the tour that the hubby and I took.

The top picture is of the Gristmill, the second is the water wheel that they use for power to run the big wheel grinders to mill the whole corn and wheat, the bottom picture could of been better but you can see where the corn was ground into cornmeal.  We actually bought some cornmeal that was made at the gristmill.

Hope you all have a good week.

Graduation!

Our daughter graduated Saturday afternoon with a Bachelors degree in psycology.  We are so proud of her!  It was very long day though, two hour drive up and a two hour drive back plus a three hour program!  It has been a very long three days so far.  We drove back from DC which is an eight hour drive, then Saturday we drove, Sunday we were on the road for six hours and then of course we are going to Illinois which is a 14 hour drive.  The husband is tired of seeing the inside of the truck.  We defiantly give a thumbs up for all the long haul truck drivers that is for sure.  The husband says he drives enough that he couldn't imagine driving truck all the time!

Another day in paradise!

Spring is here and the horses are shedding and look a little ragged but they will be looking better soon.

I came down with the hubby to DC,(90degree weather)  we are thinking of going to Mount Vernon and maybe to see the Washington gristmill and distillery, also.  I, of course, forgot to bring my camera thinking that I would be stuck in a motel room for the week and not knowing we would have time to play tourist.  I will have to use the phone camera.

Lots of news, we are going to Illinois to see the family, the step-father hasn't been doing good and it is time to see him before things get worse.  We bought a different truck, it is a 98 dodge diesel with no rust and in great shape, at least compared to the truck we had, we really didn't need that big of a truck but the price was right and we got a good price for our dodge that was a complete rust bucket and on its last legs.  I will have pictures later this week.  Hope everyone is having a good week.

Wordless Wednesday (new bird house)

Good Morning

The horses say good morning.  I now have to bring in both horses at night.  Annie has gotten a little skinnier than I like so I have upped her feed and to keep Sirocco from eating it, I bring them in at night.  Annie had a stone bruise and the vet came in and used the hoof tester to try and find the abscess and of course she didn't find it.   The farrier called the very next day and I told him about it and of course he found it for me.  I told him from now on I was calling him and not the vet!  She is lots better now.

Now that school is done for the semester I will be getting a lot more horse time in.   I did get all A's for the semester and I now have a 3.90 GPA average.  I do have just one class this summer, but it is online, which makes it a lot easier.  Then, just one more semester to go.   Hope to get lots of weaving in and put up a website just for the weaving part.  I will let you know.  I will be attempting to do the site myself, we shall see how well that goes!

Hope you all are having a good week so far, I will be blogging a lot more now.  So, have a wonderful day!

Not the only smart one!

This is my smart son!  He was inducted into the National Technical Honor Society last night.  He is in Info tech which is computers.  He plans on going to FMCC which is the college that I am going to at this time then he plans on going to Suny IT in Utica, NY for computers and criminal justice.    I am so proud of him, he has struggled through school from bullies picking on him all the time and not having that many friends to having a hard time with his regular subjects in school to being inducted into an honor society.  He was even awarded a scholarship this year from what is called the Clark foundation out of Cooperstown, NY.  Congratulations, Kegan!

Kegan put our new desktop computer together.  He actually put all the components that go inside the computer together and built if for us.  All I had to do is buy the parts.  I am posting on the new computer as I am writing.   I was so used to using my laptop that I forget to come over and use the big computer.  All I have to do now is get a bigger desk to work on.

Hope you all are having a good week.  One more day and it will be Friday for those of you who have a regular Monday through Friday day!

At the beginnning

Yes, it all started with having to get the big tractor and the post hole digger to dig four holes for the strawberry arbor.   The holes were at least 3 feet deep.  It will be amazing if we can get the strawberries to grow and survive and then have them dangling down above our heads.  The hubby saw an idea for the strawberry beds from Pintrest, but they used house gutters to make the beds instead of wood.  For us the wood is much cheaper!

This is the last week of school and I have done two tests out of four.  Tomorrow is a final and then Friday will be my final test and hopefully by next week I will know for sure how well I did.  I anxiously look every day to see how well I did on the test but so far no grades have been posted.

My husband tells me to quit worrying and that I am going to do fine and it is what it is.  Easier for him to say and harder for me not to worry.

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Still going backwards (done to beginning)

As you can see, I am still going backwards from the finished project to the beginning of where it all started from.  The hubby sure doesn't do things half way!   He asked me after it was all done, did I really have to build this strawberry arbor this elaborately?  Then he looks at me and said, YES.  He is a gluten for punishment!   But it sure does look nice, we put the picnic table under it but then we decided that the  table hides the pretty rock and brick work they did under it, so the table is going and I will put some lawn chairs under it instead.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Strawberrry Arbor

The hubby wanted me to do this backwards, so I am showing the finished project and working my way back to how it was put together.  The rocks are some granite that the hubby brought home and some bricks that I had around the garden pond and the middle rock is a piece of Turkish onyx.  The pictures don't do it justice.

Finals

As you can see things are blooming and living among the pond area.  The weather has been pretty darn good this spring.  

My posts for the next couple of weeks are going to be pretty few and far between.  I have two tests this Friday, I have four tests next week.  It is going to be a very long and hectic week next week.  I will try to get back into the groove of blogging after school is out for the semester.  

Hope everyone is good and I will try to visit each of you soon.  Take care and enjoy the spring weather.