Vacation Wrap Up

 Sorry about the ranting about work in yesterday's post.  I should say that one good thing happened at work on Tuesday.  I was wearing my Birthplace of Kermit the frog t-shirt and one of the museum visitors was quite enamored with it.  Her husband's name is Leland, so they are trying to visit every place named Leland.  She hadn't heard of Leland, Mississippi, but it's on her list now.

So let's finish up the vacation, shall we?

After leaving Vicksburg, we drove north through the Delta.  It's a good thing we had a full tank of gas because there wasn't really anyplace to stop until we got to Kermit's place in Leland.  While we had grown weary of all the really tall trees when traveling south through Mississippi towards Laurel, we had a very different landscape now.  Corn fields and bean fields made up the majority of the scenery and for the first of June, they were some amazing crops.  The corn was already tasseled and the beans were gorgeous and it looked like it was all growing in sand!  Of course, they irrigate everything.  

After visiting Kermit, we headed to Belmont Plantation which was pretty close by.  It was built in 1857 and is open for tours and as a bed and breakfast and for events.  Our tour guide was very informative even though she was just filling in for Miss Camille who was on vacation.  I only took photos of the outside because I loved the big old magnolia trees.  (You should be reading in your southern accent here because the guide's accent was very thick.)

After the tour and grabbing some lunch in Greenville, we headed on to Batesville, Arkansas for the night.  The goal was Marshall Dry Goods, a fabric warehouse with over 6 million yards of fabric!

We were there bright and early when they opened at 8:30 am.  Here is the fabric I purchased for a backing for one of my mom's quilts...........$1.50/yard!

It truly was a warehouse.  I didn't count the bolts.

And it was very overwhelming.  

They had everything.........wholesale bolts, yardage, sale bins, upholstery, tractor seat fabric, trust me there was something for everyone.  I purchased one wholesale bolt ($2.75/yard), and then some flat folds and paid no more than 3.99/yard for anything.  We were there for two and a half hours.  It was kind of a relief to leave.

We headed north through the HILLS and CURVES of northern Arkansas and Southern Missouri.  We drove through Mansfield, the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little House books.  We stopped at Lebanon, MO at a quilt shop...........an actual quilt shop with a NORMAL amount of fabric!  This was our first actual quilt shop stop!  It was a cute little shop and I loved the way she was displaying some of her bolts!

I picked up a pattern and a quarter yard of a fabric I needed to finish up a project.  We made one more stop at the farmer's market in Sedalia for some strawberries and were home for supper with Sarah.  She had grilled pork chops for us.

So, wrapping it up........

1.  BEST RESTROOM AWARD goes to The American Tractor Museum..........Elvis was a close second.  Restroom facilities got progressively worse the further we went.  More on restrooms later.

2.  FOOD - So, have you seen the commercial about new home owners becoming like their parents and trying to save money.........where they pack food and snacks for trips? (my Mom hates this commercial because it makes fun of things she does)  Well, we did that.  We packed stuff for breakfast and lunch.  We had a nice shady picnic at a rest stop in Illinois the first day, the second day on the way to Laurel, we were parked in the shade next to a weed patch behind a gas station and ate in the car, and we ate our picnic in a park next to the river in Vicksburg.  While the hotels supposedly had breakfast, David doesn't consider a breakfast bar and coffee to be suitable.  We did try the hotel breakfast in Laurel because the clerk told us there were omlets...........turned out to be premade rubbery things and when I asked for bread to make toast, they were out.  We didn't want to eat at any chain restaurants or Mexican restaurants (we have 7 of those in Marshall now) and the only time we did this was at Burger King for lunch on the last day...........I was pretty carsick from all the hills, so it really didn't matter much what we ate that day.  We had BBQ the first evening in Mississippi.  It was ok.  Then in Laurel, we went to a seafood restaurant and it was delicious.  The rooftop restaurant in Vicksburg was also very good, and in Batesville, AR, we went to a local Italian place that was delicious.  We ate lunch out after the plantation tour in Greenville, MS.  It was a Monday, so the selection was limited.  We would have tried Doe's Eat Place had it been open.  We mentioned it to the plantation tour guide and she agreed that it would be the best steak you ever ate, but to not look at the kitchen as they walked you through to your table.  (Elvis liked to get a steak at Doe's.)  She suggested a local diner called Jim's Cafe.  Apparently President Obama has eaten there and Food Network's Alton Brown recommended it.  It has been around for a long time, and they haven't updated the decor or the eclectic memorabilia on the walls EVER!  The lighting was dim (which was probably good), they were the friendliest people, and the food was delicious.  David had a view of the kitchen and we don't know when a health inspector might have ever been there.  Now for the rest of the restroom story.  As I was using the dark dingy small restroom which would have backed the kitchen, I noticed a big hole in the corner of the wall down by the floor that was filled with steel wool.........probably to keep the rats away!  But again, let me say, the food was delicious.

MUSEUMS & TOURS - We did 9!  They were all enjoyable.  Some were free and none were really overpriced.  The only guided ones were the driving tour through Laurel and the plantation tour.  

UNPLANNED THINGS - In Vicksburg we went to the movie theatre to see the new Top Gun movie Maverick.  It was excellent and we loved the reclining seats.

WOULD WE DO IT AGAIN? - Probably wouldn't go to Mississippi again except maybe to Greenville/Leland to stay at the plantation.  When we toured that morning, they had cleaned up from breakfast, but it still smelled wonderful.  And I would love to eat at Doe's Eat Place.  I think there might be a few other small things to see in the area to make it worth a short trip.  I would highly recommend the tractor museum and would always go back to the quilt museum.  I would visit the quilt shop in Lebanon again and would definitely go back to Marshall Dry Goods...........with a plan for what I should purchase!  

So that's a wrap on the vacation!  Time to head out to pick my peas!

Christi

Crappy Start, Delicious End

 Well, it was a crappy start to my day yesterday.  Upon arriving at work, I (the first one there and on time) found lots of broken glass in front of the doors.  At first I thought it was from the doors and maybe someone had tried to break in over the weekend, but the doors were fine, I looked up at the outside lights, but they were fine, then glanced to my left to see my pot of flowers was filled with broken glass from beer bottles.  As I glanced around the front of the building, I saw many more bottles, beer bottle tops, and lots of other trash.  It must have been quite a wedding Saturday night.  Inside the door was more glass on the entry mats.  After chucking my stuff in the office, I scanned the event staff notes about the wedding and they indicated everything went fine...............I'm not sure how they managed to get out the door without stepping in glass.  So I gloved up, grabbed the broom and dustpan and started cleaning from the outside inward.  My first priority of the morning was going to be watering the plants as they are suffering in this extreme heat, but first I had to dig out all the broken glass and beer bottles.  It was already a very hot morning, and I was drenched in sweat in no time.  In sweeping and picking up all the trash, I came across some bright green gum on the memorial brick pavers.  Of course, with the sun beating down on it, it was nice and sticky.  I later found more of this wonderful substance on one of the entry mats inside.  All the while cleaning, I was photographing the evidence.  I'll spare you those photos.  Later when doing my walk thru inside, I discovered the trash hadn't been emptied from the women's restroom........diapers left over the long weekend can leave a lingering odor.  And I received a text from my coworker that he was having air conditioning issues (see, life could be worse!) and didn't know when he would make it in, and then the gift shop worker called to say that she had just gotten up and would be late.  When I finally got to my desk, I got to work on the quarterly payroll taxes!  I opened the museum on time, and kept working, but soon had museum visitors.  The first was a family of five from Texas.  I got them started on the video and dug out my museum script so that I could at least hit the highlights for them since the tour guide was at home with ac issues.  Then two more people walked in for tours, and it was a pretty much constant flow after that with museum visitors and people coming to book events.  Good thing I had cleaned up all the glass and gum!  When the gift shop worker showed up, she couldn't believe there were already visitors for the museum.......well, we had been open for over an hour already.  And when my other co-worker showed up, I finally got to my desk to get most of my Monday and Tuesday stuff done.  Of course, in the night, I thought of things I missed, so will probably be back in the office this afternoon to take care of those.  

Needless to say, it was a relief to get home and be greeted by Willow, Cici, and Esme...........not all at once, of course.  They don't get along that well.  It would have been really great to have a group snuggle, but I settled for the individual ones.  

Needing to put some sweetness in my day, I pulled out some egg whites I had saved in the fridge and mixed up angel food cake.  Once it was in the oven, Willow had the joy of licking the mixing bowl.  And a joy it was.  She had the sticky ears to prove it!  I made the hubs some lemon jello (his favorite treat is jello and lemon seemed cool and refreshing), then took the rotting bananas from the counter and the sour milk from the frig and made 2 batches of banana bread.  Willow was my faithful helper, ready to get anything that dropped to the floor for me.  Whenever she got tired and went to rest, Esme took over the job.  Cici just looked on from the window seat in a supervisory role.  

And then the hubs showed up.  He had to kill one of the market hogs that morning, so had harvested the loins and tenderloins.  So, we proceeded to pound out 28 tenderloins and bread them, a few chops, and some kabob meat.  We cooked 2 of the tenderloins for supper with a leftover pasta salad.  The rest were frozen and are ready to pull out for a fast and easy meal.  Of course, the greatest accomplishment of this meat processing endeavor was that Willow didn't manage to steal anything.  She was right there waiting to get anything that dropped though.

I make a good breaded tenderloin and without going into any secret recipe ingredients, I can tell you that after breading 28, there are no potato chips or ritz crackers left in the house.  A trip to the grocery store, hair cut, and other errands are on tap for today.  

There was still a big hunk of pork loin left, so after cleaning up the kitchen, we took the packaged loin, got in the Stampede with Willow and zipped down to the neighbors to share some pork.  They were impressed that Willow was able to ride that close to fresh pork and not bother it.  She LOVES to ride and couldn't care less about anything else while riding.

When we got back, I checked on the garden.

I will be getting up very early tomorrow (the hubster is getting up to load pigs at 5 am and then weigh 600 more) to pick the peas............hopefully before it's too hot.

The spaghetti squash and cantelope vines are blooming, as are the tomatoes..............yes,  all 16 plants are still alive.  I picked 3 cucumbers which was down a bit from the previous day's picking......

And we have 12 beautiful rows of sweet corn..............which will all be ready at once.  David is predicting in about 10 days or so.  I'll start checking in 6 days.  I know that seems like a lot, but when you allow for 6 rows for the coons and 4 for the deer, that really only leaves 2 rows for us.

I'm taking a couple of Walmart bags with me to get my hair cut this morning.  I'm hoping they will save me a couple of days worth of hair clippings.  Spreading human hair in the sweet corn will deter the deer somewhat.  Not a whole lot stops the coons though.  We have already caught a really big one in a trap.  I know the corn isn't ready yet because when I fed the outside cats this morning, I found coon poop in the shed and the dishes were empty and had been tossed around.  So, if the corn isn't ready, they settle for cat food.  I'm picking up more marshmallows at the store.  That is the bait of choice for the coon traps.

So that was my day yesterday...........from crappy to Delicious!

Christi

Happy Independence Day!

 We'll take a break from the vacation photos and celebrate the holiday with some photos of my patriotic quilting.............

Photo bomber above...........

I'll be continuing this theme today while quilting a small red, white, and blue quilt for one of my piano students as her 4-H project.  I know you've been wondering if I have been spending anytime at all in the sewing room, and I have.  Between Mother's Day and Memorial Day, I quilted 8 things for my mom, and have since quilted 5 more things for her.  I have quilted a couple of table runners for a friend, and she has me lined up for a couple more small items soon, I helped a 4-Her quilt a quilt for the fair.......even showed her how to put the binding on with the longarm, and a quilted a couple of small things for myself.  I'll show those items later.  

Bonnie Hunter announced her new leader/ender project for 2022-23 yesterday and she must have been peeking into my sewing room!  

The first step is 4-patches from 1.5" squares..............and I already have 360 of them made!  Yeah!  I had no plan for these, had just been keeping some by the machine and adding to the pile of squares when I processed scraps.  But Yippee!  I am so far ahead of the game here and that doesn't happen often in the sewing room.

My hammock sleeper is back.  I had been leaving tin foil on the longarm at night if I left a quilt on the machine and that had deterred Esme from sleeping in the hammock.  However, this past week she resumed her old ways and played with the tin foil and then slept on the batting that was draped over the rail.  Since it was only attached on one side, I figured it would just drop her through to the floor, but apparently she doesn't weigh enough for that to happen.  It would have worked on Cici though.  

Esme tried to convince me it wasn't her, but I had the evidence (lint roller and the color and length of the hair).

She tried to get back in my good graces by being cute and cuddly at my feet while I was cutting fabric for a new quilt pattern I picked up on vacation.

Here is the cutting table ready to cut that project.  I have the blocks pieced and am working on sewing them together.  Photos to come.

After I get the 4-H project quilted today, my TBQ closet will only have MY quilts hanging there to be quilted.  This is the first project up.  I'm using it as a practice for a large version of the same pattern in the same colorway.  I won a layer cake - not my normal colors - so put together a large version of this and had enough pieces to make a smaller version.  I even have a quilting PLAN for this one!

We will have a quiet Independence Day as we did our celebrating yesterday and last night.  We attended the Lyceum for a performance of Jersey Boys in the afternoon with some friends and followed that with a cookout and fireworks.  David and helpers are already in the hog barn this morning weighing 600 pigs individually.  I'll take them some burgers for lunch.  I need to check on the garden.  I have been getting 3-4 cucumbers a day and will hopefully have some peas ready to pick soon.  

Cici will be keeping vigil in Sarah's room during all quilting endeavors as always.  

And Esme, who knows what is going on in her mind...........

Willow will be holding down the floor on the back porch as it is supposed to be another hot one today and she'll appreciate the cool floor.

Hope you have a lovely day however you are celebrating!

Christi

How far South did we go?

 Our southern-most point of the trip was Laurel, Mississippi, home of Ben and Erin Napier and the television show Home Town.  And by this time, my southern accent was getting pretty thick, so keep that in mind while reading this post.  If you don't know, the show Home Town on HGTV is a fun one to watch.  Ben and Erin find someone who is looking to buy an old home in Laurel and they give them a couple of options of homes and what they could renovate it to look like, the person makes their choice and then they do the renovation, so they are fixing up their Home Town.  I don't know what we were expecting exactly, but as we drove into town, we thought, "Ben & Erin haven't been here yet!"  Maybe we came in the back way or something, but we were trying to get to Ben's woodshop, the Scotsman General Store.

The General Store was our first stop and we did see the woodshop, but the whole thing is very touristy.  And there were lots of tourists!  So, that small town feel that you get from the tv show really wasn't there.  We did happen to catch the opportunity to take a tour of the town in this beautiful pink stretch vehicle.  Since this was the warmest we had been on our vacation, it was nice to get in the air conditioning, have a cool beverage (water), and a complimentary moon pie.  Our tour guide was very informative, and drove us through the different neighborhoods showing some of the homes that had been on the tv show.  He also gave lots of history of the town and pointed out several more areas where we should not go because those were bad parts of town.  He informed us that there were 80 air b and b's in Laurel, several of which were homes featured on the show and that they were all booked solid for the next 2 years.  So, a lot of the renovations are not for people moving to or living in Laurel, but are for people from New York or California who can buy a cheap old property, have it fixed up on the show, and then make money by renting it out since it was featured on the tv show.  

Anyway, it was a fun and informative tour.  We got to see several homes that we had seen on the show and then David was able to drive us around to look at them again.  You can see the sign for the Rusty Chandelier in the background of the above photo.  This is one of the places where Erin shops for items used in the renovations.  We did go in there and the Southern Antique Mall, but nothing for sale in either place was older than I am, and I don't consider myself an antique............yet.  So it was a little disappointing.  We also went in some other little shops, but again, it was all very touristy.  This little town (18,000 is bigger than Marshall, so not so little in my book) is making some money from this tv show.  Also, with the number of tourists there, they don't have many places to eat.  We did find a nice local seafood place to eat that evening.  

Since Laurel hadn't really met our expectations, we headed out early Sunday morning to Vicksburg.  Our first stop was the Vicksburg National Military Park.  This is a drive thru park which covers a large area  of the battlefield.  It was interesting, but a little difficult to read the memorials or take photos.  We did stop at this lookout point to see the view............

So, this is not the Mississippi River, but it used to be before the channel changed.  The best part of the Military Park was the USS Cairo museum.  The Cairo was one of the first ironclad warships and was the first vessel to be sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo.  It was discovered in 1956, and since it had been covered by sand, silt, and mud, there was a great deal of stuff preserved.  It was salvaged and items recovered are displayed in the museum.  I took several photos, and David really enjoyed this.  So get ready for a photo dump..........

And sometimes my photos started becoming more like the photos we used to try to get for 4-H photography projects...........

A couple more 4-H photography project shots.......

Again it was pretty hot this day.  After leaving the military park, we went to the children's art park down by the river for lunch.  In getting there, we went down a street (hill) so steep that I think it would rival the ones I hear about in San Francisco.  There were several children playing in the fountains.  I managed to get a photo without kiddos so that you can see the big catfish in the pavement.

We also saw the murals on the flood wall........

And behind the flood wall.............

And the markers for how high the different floods got....

We also toured the Lower Mississippi River Museum.  This was a free museum and very interesting.  The main attraction for David was the river towboat that you could walk through.  He got to see the engines, and everything.  

When we came out of the museum, David looked up this hill and wanted me to take a photo of this old house.........

He was very curious as to the plank extending from the upper window.  We pondered the many possible reasons for such a thing on our way to the Coca-Cola museum.

Why is there a Coca-Cola museum in Vicksburg?  This is the first place where Coca-Cola was bottled.  It was a small museum, but interesting.  We then found a REAL antique mall and spent some time perusing the many items available.  It was there that I talked with a nice lady who was adding things to her booth and got some recommendations for supper.  At the river museum, they were very nice and gave us a list of places, but wouldn't recommend anything.  This lady recommended an open air rooftop restaurant.  Of course, she also recommended an ax throwing place for entertainment, so I was cautious about her food recommendation, but we gave it a try and the food was delicious.

The view from my seat.  I was worried that it would be hot, but they had fans running and it was pleasant.  It was in the top of an old bank building, so the whole thing was very interesting.  We didn't try the ax throwing venue, but instead found a movie theatre and saw the new Top Gun movie.  It was excellent and it was our first experience with recliners in a movie theatre.  We highly recommend this experience.  When we left the theatre, I pointed out that we were parked between 2 cars from Louisiana.  Then David pointed out that we were just across the river, so it was logical.  

So, I would recommend Vicksburg as an interesting place to visit.  Just don't hit it on a Sunday as several things were closed, so we were limited in what we could see.............although apparently ax throwing was available on Sundays!

Christi