Last night at the campground, we enjoyed Goldie’s new amenities…
We slept well and were up early, arriving at Pop Century around 10:30. After moving in to our room, we grabbed a bus over to Disney Springs and met up with the Jrs..
After a little shopping, we’re back at Pop, relaxing, resting up for the next five days of Magic.
It was an interesting trip…Somewhere near Chula, Georgia we saw the usual treasonous display…
And again, just north of Lake City, FL…
Tell me again: who won that war?
We’re going to have a great time this week. Hope you do, too…
I ran into a little problem over at the Garden Blog: I’m out of storage for uploads (pictures and what-not). I have to either upgrade ($$) that site or go through ten years of posts and start deleting. As we prepare to leave town on Saturday, I don’t have time for either of those fixes, so I’ll decide later. For now, I present to you, the first Garden Journal entry of 2021.
The Edible Garden in Winter…
The garden is still covered with its winter mantle of leaf mulch, but we cleared enough over in the corner to plant some peas. I planted our tried-and-true Oregon Sugar Snap and added Little Marvel this year, just for fun.
I didn’t want to take up the space for potatoes, so we are trying out these 10-gallon growing bags with cool viewing window and sturdy handles.
They came in a pack of four, so we planted three red in one, three gold in another; now we’ll wait a month and plant the other two bags. It seems a lot easier than digging trenches and hilling, so I hope they produce! Keep on Growing!
We’ll celebrate the Arrival of Spring while driving south for our vacation at Walt Disney World. After our return, we’ll begin our seed starting and get serious…Plus I’ll figure out what to do about the other blog.
Wishing you All the Blessings you can handle, from the bottom of my Scots-Irish Heart…
We finished up the Upstairs and it doesn’t look too bad, if I do say so myself.
Of course, when I say “finished” I actually mean “got to a stopping point”. There’s more painting to do and we haven’t even started on the bathroom, but that’s for another time because…
We’re into The Countdown to Disney 2021…! 7 days from today we will be at our resort and the Jr. girls are stoked… I’m pretty excited myself. We’re getting Goldie ready and she’s looking good. The weather is predicted to be warm and I’m angsting over pasty-white legs, but I think I’ll survive.
We’re going to plant our peas and potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day and that seems like a good time to fire up the Garden Blog, Growing Every Season. I hope you you’ll take a gander at that on Wednesday.
Don’t be fooled by the beautiful weather, don’t be taken in by the abundant sunshine, bluest of skies, or the buds on the forsythia–it’s Not Spring…yet. It’s time for the crocus and the snowdrops to pop up, and the buds are in sync with the season. It’s time to plant peas and potatoes and any other cool weather crops, but don’t get too carried away, and be prepared with covers for the crops when winter returns for its final frost, as it inevitably will.
Inside the house, we’re finishing up some painting in our upstairs bedroom where Casey put up new beadboard. We’ve moved a lot of the furniture to the attic, shuffled the rest around, and cleaned the filth that has accumulated.
We found a couple of twin-size headboards on the fb marketplace for $15 each; our mattresses are scheduled to arrive today, just in time for us to put it all back together and move on to outside work.
The Best News from the last week has been the announcement that I can travel to New York without covid testing or quarantining! I am going to see the New Yorkers! The last time I was with Emma and Eliza was last July when they visited for two weeks. I have gone this long without seeing them before, but the last time I saw them in their natural habitat was Christmas 2019, 15 months ago!
I am so excited to return to NYC and visit Emma’s new school, their new Irish Dance School, and Hug them until they squirm out of my clutches.
First, though, we’ll be setting out with the Jrs. for Disney World on the 20th. After a week there, we’ll head over to Sebastian Inlet State Park to do a wee bit of camping and a certain birthday celebration in Melbourne. Returning home on the 29th, that will give me enough time to do the laundry and fly off to New York on the 31st to spend the last days of the New York Spring Break with the EEs.
Back in September, I merged my garden and ancestry blogs with my primary blog Sonnystone, thinking, correctly, that more people would read them. Last week I changed my mind. I can’t explain why, exactly, because it’s a lot of work to move 45 posts and re-publish them, but I like working on each topic individually. I also un-earthed my old travel blog, down for a couple of years, and started moving any trip posts; that will take longer and since it’s called “Trailer Trippin”, it will have to be re-branded, probably as Adventures with Goldie or some-such.
So, I’m Busy again. I love it. The Jrs. are coming over for a Disney Movie this afternoon. The week looks Sunny. Hope yours does, too.
In my humble opinion we’ve had a perfect kind of snow, deep enough to cover the earth with a blanket of iridescent white. A good snowstorm feels like the sky is tucking me into my cocoon. The temperatures outside were arctic, but inside the radiators were cooking and the fire was glowing, a perfect excuse to curl up and read…or binge-watch some shows…and cook…and watch the birds.
There were dozens of birds that needed feeders, including some bully birds that we don’t want to encourage (starlings and some cowbirds-ugh), but you can’t be picky when there’s no place else for them to go. The squirrels stayed in their nests for the first couple of days, then returned and took advantage of the extra elevation to make the feeders into their personal buffets; they have their own food in another spot, but would rather own the birds’. The birdbath heater has worked well, always keeping enough melted for drinking.
Now the temperatures have risen to 40s with predictions of rain. All the beautiful snow will melt and leave a mess of mud…and it will start to feel like Spring. Just a Tease, but I’ll take it…
After hearing all the stories of horrendous waits and desperate travel to other counties for the shots, I’m here to tell you it was easy. I had signed up for notifications from the Indiana Department of Health through Deaconess Hospital. On Monday, I got a text from the IDOH saying the vaccines were now open to those 65+ (down from 70+). I jumped right up, went to my computer where I had bookmarked the Deaconess appointment site and literally, honestly, within 3 minutes I had Casey and me signed up for 6:10pm just two days later.
The clinic area that we chose (the old Welborn Clinic) is not currently being used, so it was a great idea to open it up for these purposes. We were quickly signed in, waited less than 5 minutes in a large waiting area, escorted back to an exam room where a pharmacist explained the process and administered the Pfizer vaccination in our left arms. We returned to the waiting room and sat for 15 minutes before exiting. Voila!
The Health Department checks on us via text every day, asking if we’ve had any side effects, which is kinda cool. We return on the 24th for our #2, which is supposed to be the one where you feel like crap. #1 caused no problems for either of us.
Of course, we’ll still be wearing the masks for a While, but this is a nice feeling of protection. I expect these will become like flu shots and have to change up for variants in the future. In my younger years, I would Laugh in the Face of Flu! Every year when the season surrounded me with complaining patients, I would Scoff derisively at their puny immune systems, arrogant about my own, and sure as hell didn’t wear a Mask. I was SuperNurse and in all those years I never caught the flu virus.
It was After I retired, when all exposure to germy humanity was minimal, that Influenza got me. I discounted the symptoms, calling it a ‘bad cold’ for a while, until I coughed so hard I couldn’t breathe, ran a fever to 103, sweated it off, and finally showed up at the doctor with pneumonia…good nurse… I was sick for over a month and my lungs have never been the same… This old lady gets a flu shot now…
What I saw of Covid looked like pneumonia on steroids…or should I say off steroids…and I’m not sure I would survive it.
Anyway, that’s the big excitement this week, other than last night’s snow. It’s a pretty snow, about two inches of it outlining the tree branches and just covering the ground. The bird feeders are busier than ever as the temperatures go arctic, so we’re making sure there’s plenty for everyone.
I’m going to make some potato soup and get back to my new project: I’ve torn down the upstairs in order to clean and it looks like there’s plenty of filth to keep me busy for a couple of weeks as we make our way through Winter.
We spend a great deal of time taking care of our bird buddies. While we haven’t had much snow, the temperatures are frigid, so we keep the feeders full and the water warm.
There’s a new bird in town: a mockingbird. There may be two of them, but so far we’ve only see one at a time. He/she has a different way of eating the suet, standing on the squirrel baffle and pecking away.
Saint Francis of Assisi had a special relationship with birds, who often followed him around and rested on his shoulders, arms, or hands as he prayed or walked around outside.
The story is told that Francis and some others were traveling through the Spoleto Valley in Italy when the Saint saw a flock of birds that had gathered in some trees beside a field. As he watched them, they watched him and Francis felt that the birds were expecting something, not the food offerings that I give, but rather a sermon just for them. The monks who were with him wrote down what he said and published it in the book, The Little Flowers of St. Francis.
“My sweet little sisters, birds of the sky,” Francis said, “you are bound to heaven, to God, your Creator. In every beat of your wings and every note of your songs, praise him. He has given you the greatest of gifts, the freedom of the air. You neither sow, nor reap, yet God provides for you the most delicious food, rivers, and lakes to quench your thirst, mountains, and valleys for your home, tall trees to build your nests, and the most beautiful clothing: a change of feathers with every season. You and your kind were preserved in Noah’s Ark. Clearly, our Creator loves you dearly, since he gives you gifts so abundantly. So please beware, my little sisters, of the sin of ingratitude, and always sing praise to God.”
The monks who recorded Francis’ sermon to the birds wrote that the birds listened intently to everything Francis had to say:
“While Francis said these words, all those birds began to open their beaks, and stretch out their necks, and spread their wings, and bend their heads reverently toward the earth, and with acts and songs, they showed that the holy father [Francis] gave them great pleasure.”
Francis “rejoiced” at the birds’ response, the monks wrote, and
“wondered much at such a multitude of birds and at their beauty and at their attention and tameness, and he devoutly thanked God for them.”
The birds remained attentively gathered around Francis, the story goes, until he blessed them and they flew away—some heading north, some south, some east, and some west—going out in all directions as if on their way to pass along the good news of God’s love that they had just heard to other creatures. (1)
Peace
(1) Hopler, Whitney. “Saint Francis of Assisi and His Sermon to Birds.” Learn Religions, Aug. 27, 2020, learnreligions.com/saint-francis-assisi-sermon-to-birds-124321.
When we bought our travel trailer back in 2016 we had a vision of freedom to explore the United States, staying under trees, in open spaces, feeling the Earth as we went. We were going to stay put in some places long enough to get a glimpse of what it would be like to live there. We’d avoid the dull Eville winters, roaming from sea to shining sea.
The reality was much different. Winter is winter everywhere in the contiguous 48, and where it’s the least bit tropical or desert-ish there is a serious shortage of places to park a 30-ft. travel trailer. Those state parks in warmer climes are cheap, but generally unavailable during the winter months, as are the nice RV/campgrounds that cost more than a hotel room. It’s almost like a whole lot of people had the same idea and got there first. The weather between here and there is often prohibitive of travel in winter, too. The trailer had to be loaded up in freezing weather and de-winterized after arrival in warmer temperatures. For two years we spent March in Florida; though it was warmer, it wasn’t necessarily “nice” weather and we weren’t real happy with our campsites, either. By the time we returned from New Mexico in September 2019, we had decided that we wanted something smaller for our Adventures.
As You know we sold the travel trailer quickly and started exploring our options. Particularly we considered just How we wanted to use a camper. We didn’t like the snow-bird camps in Florida — too clique-ish, felt like it was a secret society. KOA was helpful for overnights when there’s a lot of driving involved and affordable, too. We wanted the capability to drive up into the higher elevations and/or to boondock. We ended up buying Goldie, a 20-ft high-top conversion van, and started making changes to meet our needs. Casey reworked the electricity so that we can plug into shore power; we removed the passenger seats and put in two 3-drawer plastic bins. The bed folds down and we figured we’d be able to sleep sideways, curled up, without difficulty…but maybe not…
Starting a couple of weeks ago, I checked forecasts daily in our closest “warm” spots, generally along the panhandle of Florida (about 10 hours driving), and prepared to make a test run for an overnight stay in the Goldster. Just after the inauguration, the prediction was four days of warm temperatures, January 24-28, so off we went…to Disney World, of course…with a stop at Casey Jones Campground in Lake City, FL.
It was an easy drive, no major slow-downs, no stops in Atlanta, and partly cloudy skies to shield us from glaring sunshine as we traveled south, arriving just before dark. We hooked up to cable, watched some shows we hadn’t seen in a long time, and ate sandwiches. So far, so good. The low temps were predicted 60degrees and we didn’t need a heater, just our cozy blankets. Tired, we fell out early. I woke up several hours later trying to get comfortable and repeated the process several times during the night, to no avail. By the next morning, I had brainstormed a way to improve the sleeping facilities, but my back hurt, my legs were stiff, and my arms felt like they were still asleep.
Good thing we were going to do a lot of walking in WDW, where we stayed at Pop Century Resort…
At first I was planning on camping one night down and one night back up, but when the temps dropped, they dropped into the 30s, so we drove straight back, leaving early in the morning of the 28th.
We learned a lot on this short trip! I’m real excited about adding a foot of length to our bed, and a new storage box to replace the chest of drawers behind the driver’s seat. Casey went right to work on it and it’s looking Great so far.
This is much more like we had envisioned our travel, giving us freedom to Go Now when the conditions are right. Since WDW is currently the Only Place I know of where a mask policy is strictly enforced, and it’s usually warm there, I’m grateful to have an annual pass so I can visit often. However… I’m seriously looking forward to the time when we can Go Someplace Else. Hopefully, that will be in the Fall, after we’ve brought in the crops.
In the meantime, we’ll be visiting our Disney Pals with the Jr. family for Spring Break this year. We hope the Jose’ fam can join us there, too.
… And we may just run down there when the weather’s just right, and our modifications are complete, just because we can…
The News from Sonnystone Acres 