Someone's Not Feeling Well

I thought Eler Beth was getting sick last weekend, but she got over it quickly. By Sunday afternoon she was as bouncy as ever. She was fine when she went fishing on Wednesday, but by Friday she was feeling bad again. I think it's just allergies, but she's getting a lot of congestion in her chest, and last night she was up coughing.

I'll probably have to take her to the urgent care center tomorrow for some medicine. I don't think I'll want to wait until Monday. I've doctored her up all day, but about an hour ago she started REALLY complaining about the coughing; and it is getting worse. She has been adamantly against taking Thera-Flu, which I know will relieve the cough. I had told her earlier that if the cough came back really bad tonight, that she'd either have to take the Thera-Flu or some whiskey, honey, and lemon. She chose the whiskey, honey, and lemon. So I mixed some up for her and she took the first tablespoon easily. The second one didn't go down quite so well, though. I didn't push for a third.

A few minutes ago she came to me, crying, complaining of being dizzy. "Whisky can make you drunk, right?" she whimpered. "You get dizzy when you're drunk, don't you?"

I assured her that she was probably dizzy from the congestion in her head, and that the amount of whiskey she had had would neither have made her drunk nor dizzy. Poor baby. I hope she can drop off to sleep soon and get a good night's rest.

We had some rain Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and the temps were 20 degrees colder than the day before. But Thursday afternoon was full of very bright sunshine, and we've had nothing but sun and fairly mild temperatures since. Okay, I guess that catches up my rather boring week. I hope everyone is having a good weekend, and I'll try to get by to say hi to each of you soon.

Another Beautiful Day!

It's a glorious day again. Thomas and Eler Beth went fishing this morning. They just came in about a half hour ago with four large bass. The catfish weren't biting, but the bass were -- sorta. Four nice bass will make a good meal, though. Eler Beth caught the largest of the four. They were both bearing a very happy mien and seemed quite satisfied with themselves. That first really good fishing day -- weather-wise, at least -- always makes them feel like they've got something accomplished, even if they don't get a lot of fish. It's Opening Day for them!

While they were gone I did my housework as quickly as I could, played a bit on the computer, and puttered a bit outside. I remembered once again to set out my recycling. They discontinued the curbside recycling service in our county a year ago and just recently reinstated it, and it has taken me a while to get used to the schedule. But I'm very proud of myself. This is twice in a row that I haven't forgotten it.

I'll get Eler Beth on her school work soon, and hopefully she'll get it finished in record time so she can play outside this afternoon. I think Thomas is going to bread and fry the bass for a late lunch before he goes into work.

Not else to write about right now, so I'll close. I hope the weather is as nice where you are as it is here.

Happy Anniversary to Dusty Pages

I just realized that Dusty Pages (the original J-Land Journal and the continuing Blog) turned four years old on March 15!

So Happy Anniversary to me and my blog! I may have to post a few old entries to celebrate this month.

What a Great Day!

I am very satisfied with our weather right now. We hit the 70s today with constant sunshine. I love to see the forsythia and daffodils blooming. I have crocus, hens and chicks, iris and lots of other things coming up, and it is SO WONDERFUL being able to have a window open and a nice breeze coming through the house.

I video-taped Eler Beth playing a song on her ocarina today, and when she gives me permission I'll post it here. She is doing very well, and I'm learning a lot about the ocarina myself. Did you know that the opening music from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is done with an ocarina? And the bridge in Wild Thing is an ocarina too. I always assumed it was a flute or piccolo. Her music-reading lessons are going well too. Andrew says she is picking it up quickly. I heard them play a duet a few days ago; he on the keyboard and she on her ocarina.

I think Thomas is taking Eler Beth fishing early in the morning. They have both been tugging at the line to go. I have to say I wouldn't mind a mess of fresh fish myself. I have been "green-hungry" lately, as my mother used to say. I get this way in the early spring, where I really want lots of fresh green things. I was craving turnip greens yesterday, but didn't have any, so I made a big pot of green beans and red potatoes, and that seemed to do the trick. You can't go wrong with that and a pan of corn bread.

I caught up my laundry today. I posted on Facebook that I was $4.75 richer after doing laundry this morning and I wondered when my family would learn to check their pockets. Then this afternoon I found two more one-dollar bills in my last load. $6.75. Hmmm. Wonder what I'll treat myself with with that kind of largess.

Okay, well, I'm off to blog-crawl for a while. I hope everyone has had as good a day as I have had.

Perhaps Not

I'm re-thinking changing to private. If I do that I can only allow 100 readers, and there are 103 on my Followers list, and then some who read but don't follow. So. I guess I'll put that decision on hold for now. Just thought I'd let everyone know.

Going Private

For various reasons I have decided that I am going to no longer let this blog be open to the public. I will be making it private in the next few days. If you are on my list of followers I will automatically add you as a reader. If you aren't on my list, please email me, and I will add you too. There's no big drama behind this decision, but it's something I've thought about since AOL Journals closed. After I go private, if you have any trouble getting in, please let me know so I can fix it.

Pictures from the Festival, Part Five and Final

This was my favorite of the exhibits. You can see Thomas and Eler Beth enjoying checking out everything too.

Pictures, Part Four

Throughout both weekends there were music programs, and we got to listen to a bit of one on Saturday. We got to see this gentleman making baskets. There were several people there of Native American descent, demonstrating how Native Americans made maple sugar candies, among other things. Many people brought their dogs out, including some of the vendors. We met a couple who grow lufah in their back yard and got to see how to grow and cultivate them, and even how to cook and eat them! We bought some seeds to try our hands at it this year. There was a small petting zoo, and we enjoyed the miniature llamas, especially -- their coats are so soft!! There were also some dog agility demonstrations. The poodle jumping through the hoop is a female (can't remember her name) who is a therapy dog. The standing male is her partner, and his name is Sweet Danny Boy.

More pictures in previous posts, and a few more to come . . . .

Pictures, Part Three

Another activity was trying your hand at throwing a hatchet. There were games for little kiddies, too, and mule-drawn wagon rides. The farm sits in a nice, snug, little hollor (that's a "hollow", for all you city folk ;) with a pretty creek running through. Notice the clay wall. And if you look closely, you'll see the much-anticipated ocarina hanging around Eler Beth's neck. :)

More pictures in previous entries and more to come . . . .

Pictures from the Festival, Part Two

One of the activities was sawing a maple log with a cross-cut saw. So Thomas and Eler Beth tried their hand at it. You got to keep the piece of maple that was cut off, and if you wanted you could have a maple leaf branded in it. So that's one souvenir for Eler Beth. The man in the green shirt, sitting on the log while they sawed, was a member of the family who own the farm. He and Thomas had struck up a friendship the previous week. He sat on the log to hold it steady while they sawed. When they were finished they needed to replace the log because the old one wasn't long enough anymore, so Thomas pitched in and gave them a hand settling it in. It was very heavy!

More pictures in previous post, and more to come . . . .

Pictures from the Festival, Part One

We've had a few nice Spring-like days in a row, but tomorrow will be cooler again. I can handle 40s and 50s, though, because I know that Spring really is just around the corner.

I mentioned on Facebook that my cousin Mark had a severe heart attack Sunday morning. He is doing very well. I do worry about him though, because he is only 40, and he has already had several heart attacks and bypass surgeries. I'm not sure they could do another one or put in a stent if needed. (His father was my first cousin Mike who died last year.) Thank you to everyone who expressed concern. He says he actually feels better right now than he has in ages, but I hope that lasts.

Here are a few of the pictures that I took on Saturday at the Maple Syrup Festival (see previous entry).

There was such a crowd we had to park way out in the "lower forty"! That's Thomas and Eler Beth in the pictures above.































Freshly made Pure Maple Syrup. We bought some of the Dark Amber and some of the Light Amber. It is SO delicious. I don't usually have syrup on my pancakes, but I have been eating this syrup. It is really good. Thomas used some in his home made BBQ sauce Sunday, and it was great! Have you ever had maple cotton candy? DELICIOUS!!! And the maple hard candy was pretty devilishly wonderful, too!

There were various demonstrations, like this one, showing how the Native Americans made syrup using logs and stones.






















The Sugar House. The first weekend we went, it was a good place to go inside to get warm. We didn't have that problem this past Saturday.



















The first Saturday we came, we had breakfast in the dining hall. We had pancakes and sausage, and we bought BBQ chicken and pulled pork lunches to take home with us. (Their home made cole slaw was the best I've ever eaten, by the way!) This past Saturday we ate before we came, and it's a good thing, because look at these lines. There were three entrances into the dining hall and the lines were long at each of them.
































More pictures to come . . . .