Sights Around Town

The town we live in is shaped like a circle. The river forms a huge letter C around the north, west, and south sides of us. On the other side of the river are big hills. We have some gentle hills inside town, but the bigger ones are across the water.

So we live in a secluded hilly valley. I'm sure that this is one area of the country that most people associate with redneck hill-billies. And they would be right for the most part. There are lots of 4-wheelers and bass boats around. Everywhere you look there is U of A paraphenilia with the occasional Auburn bumper sticker thrown in. College football is IT around here.

But looking beyond the obvious embellishments of the Deep South, there is a lot of beauty around here. And it's sort of comforting to know that the landscape is cradling you in a natural protective way.

Sorry the pictures aren't that great. Hazy today.

Ah, Books!

My favorite thing to do is read. I have some books I read over and over, but I especially like finding books I've never read before. They are like treasures. Sure, I've found several books that looked like they were going to be interesting, that eventually turned into duds. Some are like Skittles candies: cheap and not any "nutritional" value, but still irresistable. Those are my secret treasures that I probably won't share just because I don't want to be judged for reading such non-literature.

Buxton Village Books--too cute!

Right now I'm reading Peyton's Place and Return to Peyton's Place (both in one edition). I had never heard of this book. I thought it was a TV show of the 50s (it was) and therefore put in the same class as Leave it to Beaver, Andy Griffith, and those other black and white shows they still show late at night. Boy was I wrong! There is sex, drinking, scandal, and a whole host of skeletons in every closet in town. What I find that I relate to with the book, is the need to put a pretty face on everything. Just ask Hubby how I am. One night we were having a heated disagreement and I said maybe I would blog about it. He just laughed and said, "No, you like everyone to think your life is perfect. You wouldn't write anything to show it otherwise." And he's right.

In Peyton's Place the characters are the same way. And I can relate to that. I want them to keep their secrets. I don't want Allison to find out her parents were never married. I don't want anyone to know about Selena's trouble caused by her stepdad. I like the tidy little town, all clean and safe-looking. But at the same time I want the characters to have their problems. I don't think we should live in a Stepford world, I just don't think people need to go around airing their dirty laundry in public.

Peyton's Place reminds me a little of Empire Falls. Another one of my favorites. I like the small New England setting and characters. Maybe because they are so different from what I'm used to.

Update on latest project: I laid 65 square feet of tile today (I am sore!) and the AC is back up and running.

No AC

The floor project has been put on hold due to the fact that the blower on the AC went out last night. In the dark, there wasn't much Hubby could do to fix it. Right now it is 91 inside. If only it would rain, we would get a little relief.


Hubby plans on ordering the part and waiting for it to arrive, possibly several days before it gets fixed. I plan on taking the part number to the local HVAC store and seeing if they have it in stock.


Here is a picture of Mr. C cooling off on vacation. If only we had our own pool...

Why is it that when things are good, they are very good, but when they are bad, they are awful? There's a Mother Goose rhyme about a little girl who acts like that. I can't remember how it goes but I think she had curly hair. I'm sure my mom knows the rhyme I'm talking about; she used to recite it to me.

M is making chicken salad for dinner. Yum!

Another Project

Despite the heat we have taken on another project. Since the bathroom floor turned out so great we are doing the kitchen. Here's the before.

The floor looks fine the way it is so why bother? Well, when we moved in we bought enough tile to do the bathrooms and kitchen (including the hallway down to the laundry room). When we added on the breakfast nook we put down self-stick linoleum tiles as a temporary fix, while we got up the nerve to work with ceramic tile. And this is where the tile has been since then.

So over the weekend we started by putting some backerboard down. Then Hubby went off to work and told me not to touch anything until he was home and could work on it. Since he's planning on going out after work tonight to celebrate someone leaving to go work at VW, the floor would have to wait until Tuesday night. That would be totally inconvenient for me--the fridge is out in the middle of the kitchen floor. So I've started laying the tiles!
Here is the dry fit. Starting in the middle of the floor, with everything squared up.

Time to break for lunch.

I'll probably be able to finish all the full pieces today and then Hubby can do the cut tiles tomorrow.

What I've Been Reading, Watching, & Drinking

I know it's much more interesting to most people to hear about what the kids are up to but I thought I'd just write about me today. A while back I posted on perspective and likened it to a peephole in a fence. I am trying to keep this a positive peephole, so sometimes it is hard to find things to write about. There are a lot of things going on that just don't show up when you are allowed to look through this particular hole in the fence. Here are a few of the things I'm willing to share.

What I've been reading.

I just finished In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. Unlike a Walk in the Woods, by Bryson, which made me want to strap on a backpack and take on the AT, this new book made feel content to stay put and simply read about the varied offerings of Australia. It was interesting, but there were so many negatives about the country: overwhelming size, strange political system, weirdo people (Queensland), and several creatures just waiting to kill anyone stepping off an arriving plane. Plus the places that he found "nice" were comparable to places in the US. So I appreciated the read, but it didn't inspire me to jet off.

What I've been watching.

Besides the normal sitcoms/series, I watched The Last Station this week. It chronicles the last days of Tolstoy. The cast/acting was amazing. Of course I'm not a movie critic so I'm just speaking for myself. I was surprised that I had not heard of this movie when it was out in theatres. We do live in a pretty backwards area, so we don't get every movie that comes out. On a side note: Last year M's class was to go on a field trip to see The Boy in Striped Pajamas. The movie theatre didn't show it when it was released, so they ended up going to see Madagascar 2 since we had already paid for the trip in advance. That is also a view of the education system down here. Back to The Last Station. The movie cover makes it look like it's all about people falling into bed together. While there is some of that, there is more to the story.

What I've been drinking.

I just love this BearBoat wine. It tastes good, but I especially adore the bears on the label. If you can't read the picture it says: What a wonderful round, full body. Why, thank you. There are several different bottle labels. Same bears in the same position, but saying different things. On the back of each bottle, you can read the story of Mac and Zeke, who are the bears on the front label. I wish I could move to California and work at a winery. I would like a stress free job that involves spending most of my time lying in a hammock, drinking wine, and reading delightful books. If you see any job postings matching that description, let me know!

For now I'm stepping out from in front of this peephole and back into the murkier areas of my life.

Sights Around Town

The cotton is starting bloom. I think it is pretty to see the fields full of the pink and white flowers. Also, depending on where you live this might be an uncommon sight. We do have corn and beans down here too. When we lived in SC there was tobacco, but I haven't seen any near here.

I looked up the cotton production statistics for our county. The last year listed was 2007. Here are the last 7 years:

2000: 2900 bales/ 4300 acres

2001: 7000 bales/ 4300 acres

2002: 4200 bales/ 4000 acres

2003: 2500 bales/ 1700 acres

2004: 5400 bales/ 2200 acres

2005: 7100 bales/ 4000 acres

2006: 6300 bales/ 4520 acres

2007: 2960 bales/ 2400 acres

I suppose as with any kind of farming there are weather conditions and market conditions which explain the fluctuation in the amount farmed and produced.

I wish that I had a picture of a bale of cotton. They are as big as the trailer of a semi. The way cotton is harvested leaves a lot of waste. If you hand picked it you could get another bale out of most average sized fields. On a field trip in SC I asked the farmer about all the waste. He said it isn't cost effective to pick up all the left overs on the ground. It just blows away.

I'll take a picture when they harvest around here, if I'm still blogging then. It will be around Thanksgiving or Christmas, depending on the weather.

Funny Video

This is what we consider funny around here. Of course it helps that we have our own swagger wagon. Hopefully it plays... If not you can search swagger wagon on youtube. Sure, like you'll go to all that trouble.

In other news, the ceramic tiles fell out of the tree during a storm on Sunday. Yeah, no more death trap in the front yard.

We had a CityFest on Saturday. I forgot my camera, plus it was raining, so no pictures. There were probably at least 8,000 people there. That's A LOT for our town. It is held at the high school. We live right behind the school, so we could walk. There were all the regular things that are usually at craft fairs (Hubby calls them crap fairs) as well as carnival rides, food, and free concerts all day. We went to see Mr. Blackwell's Petty Thieves. They're the only local band I know. They just graduated from high school and usually play other people's music, but some of their own too. Because of all the rain delays the fireworks which were supposed to go off at 10pm didn't go off until 11:30. They were right over our front yard, so we all just stood on the front stoop in our pj's and watched them. Excellent!