The Sun is OUT!

Finally, after days and days of rain, the sun is shining. For the moment tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and inches and inches of rain are behind us. Yesterday never made it out of the 40s here in Arkansas. Today should be in the 60s with 80s by the weekend. Things should begin to dry out. This doesn't save the gardens that washed away in the torrential downpours, nor does it negate those whose homes are destroyed by flooding and/or the tornadic activity of the last two weeks. My heart and thoughts go out to each and every person who has suffered from Mother Natures fury. The last few weeks here in the south has been a tragic time for many.

As summer continues to approach, we here in the Backwoods have a lot to do. Another movie is being shot this weekend. Titled "Truth of Becoming" it is based on a short story I wrote years ago when we were infested with ticks. Kevin adapted the story into a nice short horror/thriller and I cannot wait to see how it screens on the big screen once we have edited it.

More recipes and other articles are new on the Backwoods Living website. Just click on the new page to what is available.

Garage Sale Finds

Whenever we get the chance, and this is most often on Saturdays when we go to town, Kevin and I like to hit gargage sales and make-shift flea markets. The past weekend was no exception and while generally we find little of value other than some decent clothing or other items we can use for props in out films - this time we hit the jackpot.

First stop I found a small camera bag, perfect for one of our Sony Nex-5 cameras. Lightweight enough, I can load the camera, an extra lens and and an extra memory card and not have it weigh me down like much larger bags. Looked the manufacturer of the bag up when we got home and was truly surprised to see a retail price of $39.99. My cost, 25 cents.



Second we found a 921 All American Canner. Kevin was expecting the woman to say she wanted 50 dollars for it. He was going to try to talk her down to 30. Her price 5 bucks. For those that don't know, these canners retail for around 200 dollars. So cha-ching.

My favorite personal find was a dulcimer. Homemade and old, but beautiful sounding. I have wanted one of these instruments since I first heard them back in the Tennessee hills during folk festivals in the Great Smoky Mountains. Since I don't know how to play, I could never justify the two to three hundred dollar cost for one. My find, 25 dollars. Even that, for reasons mentioned above was hard to justify, but I knew I would probably never have the opportunity again. I brought it.

So in the end, we spent $30.25 for approximately 450 dollars worth of stuff - and other than the dulcimer, the other two items were needed additions. And as I spend a few hours daily, attempting to play my new to me instrument, I'm finding I may just have needed that too.

Updates

New articles are now posted on the website. Most have to do with cooking, simply because it's something I love to do. You can find them at the top of the New page.

For a brief two minutes last weekend, my adorable grandson was a movie star on the big screen at the Ozark Foothills FilmFest. While grandma may not be the best filmmaker in the world, his cuteness more than made up for my failings. :)

Speaking of filmmaking, we put our first short, The Fan, in the can so to speak weekend before last. Now comes editing and getting ready for the next short, Truth of Becoming, the week-end of May 7th.

It's raining here, and other than the occasional boomers, I'm glad to see it. Firebugs don't bother me much when the ground is wet. Just north of here last weekend, over 700 acres burned. I can live without that.

So keep watching the website, I'm trying to add a couple of articles every day (at least during the week). Oh, and back to work on my next novel or screenplay...still not sure which direction this story should take.

Busy, Busy Week Ahead

So much to do and so very little time. Kevin started his new job today and I've got less than a week to get the house ready for our film shoot on Saturday. Got the final menu planned for the feeding of cast and crew. Still have to iron clothing that will be used for costumes and print out scripts, production sheets and shot lists. And clean house and, and, and...

To update on the Arsonist situation last week. We went to the sheriff's office on Friday and identified the guy. There is now a warrant out for his arrest (at least according to rumors) and it appears he has other warrants outstanding also (again according to local gossip). We'll see where it goes.

Now off to get all this stuff done!

My New Roaster

Bought this last week and used it for the first time on Saturday. Love this appliance. Cooked up 10 pounds of BBQed chicken quarters in very little time and didn't heat up the kitchen. I've had roaster's before, and Nesco is still the number one brand to buy.

Watch Backwoods Living for tips and recipes using this tabletop oven. As we'll be using it to feed a crowd while we are filming - I'm sure it will lead to a number of articles.

I Like Excitement..but an arsonist?

Went outside a couple of hours ago, and saw a man walking down the road. Kevin saw a half dozen small fires burning to the other side of the property down the gas line. We walk out to the road only to see this guy start another fire. Kevin stays at the road, me, I run in and call the sheriff and the neighbors.

Now, it appears he's deep in the woods, still starting fires. Sheriff called for backup and the Forestry Department and several fire departments are now up here putting out flames.

Sheriff found a truck in the ditch up the road, so we're assuming it belongs to this guy. Guessing also he's either drunk or cranked up on something. Just hoping they find him soon - probably won't sleep well tonight if they don't.

More later as I find things out. (Which the way things work may be next week in the newspaper) :)

Progress

As with all things we do, it's one thing at a time with twenty other things running through our brains simultaneously. But that's the way we work best. Concentrate on one thing, whilst thinking about other goals needing to be reached.

The Fan script is locked down and the actors appear happy with the story. Way cool. Kevin spent yesterday making false walls so we can change the appearance of any room in our house during filming and even create rooms within rooms.

Backwoods Living is slowly but surely becoming transformed into a more easily readable website. Categories are being added, so our readers can find the information they are looking for. That will be a plus for both them and us. :)

Temperatures today are in the low 70s - perfect for early March. I am truly hoping that winter is over for us; I am so ready to put away coats, hats and boots and bring out the warm weather clothes.

So onward and forward...

And so it begins...

Feels like spring outside, daffodils and daylilies are springing from the ground, and with spring always comes the hopes of new beginnings. Things are changing and hopefully all the changes will be for the good.

First of all, we plan to devote a lot more time to the website, Backwoods Living. Plans are underway for a minor site redesign and many, many new articles over the coming months.

Filming begins for us in less than three weeks. The first, on March 19th, will be a story from my book Kats Tales - Journeys Into the Velvet Darkness: Revealed Evil. It is one of several stories we plan to turn into 'moving pictures' before the end of the year.

We've already begun the remodel of the house. Both for using it as a 'film set' but also for our own comfort and enjoyment. Bedroom, dressing room and bathroom are done. Part of the living room is complete and plans are well underway for the new library (so we'll have a place for all my books).

So keep watching...things are a changin'.

It's Been Awhile

I'll admit it, we've been busy. But we have just updated the Backwoods Living website with new articles. This new batch includes alternative uses for spring roll dough, killing tree stumps, Briggs and Stratton carborator fixes and other simple solutions for getting by in tough times.

Kevin and I have also been learning a new skill - movie making. We have both done one short film as part of a challenge presented by the Arkansas Talent Database. The films will be shown on Sat. March 26th at the Ozark Foothills FilmFest in Batesville, Arkansas. To get a sneak preview of our shorts, click Here for mine and Here for Kevin's. As part of the challenge, these films had to convey a human emotion is 2 minutes or less, with no dialogue and only one actor. It was indeed challenging.

Later this spring, we begin shooting 5 more short films based on short stories I've had published over the years. Some of which can be found in my book, Revealed Evil. To prepare for this undertaking, we're having to remodel the entire downstairs of the house. A new library will be added, which will allow us to move the four thousand some odd books we have in the downstairs now and free up the space for filming. A bathroom remodel is also in the works, but that will happen later this year.

So as I said, we have been busy and I don't see it letting up any time soon. But we will still be updating Backwoods Living when we can, so keep checking the new page for updates.

Rain, Rain and More Rain

October has been wet. Saying that is truly and understatement. I really think we've had more dreary days than we have had hours of sunlight. It's definitely fall and Kevin and I disagree on how bad the winter is going to be this year. I'm voting for cold, damp and miserable.

Lots of new articles on the website (find them here). So we've been making good use of the time indoors. More articles will follow soon, including the new well house pictures and such.

The grandchild is growing like weed and talking up a storm. Complete sentences too - albeit short one, but not bad for not quite being three yet.

Other news includes the release of my book Kats Tales: Journeys into the Velvet Darkness - Revealed Evil. It is doing pretty well on both Amazon and Smashwords. The next book, tentatively titled, Traba of Tredecim (The Table of the Thirteen) is on track for a year end release. The audio of Revealed Evil is almost half completed and it should see an early spring release. So for all that, I'm very pleased.

Fall is Quickly Approaching

and at least for the day, the rain has stopped (momentarily anyway). Things have been hectic as we have been getting ready for the season change. Kevin built a new well house and the garden is about done for the year.

Much of the summer has been taken up with getting my first book, Kats Tales: Journeys Into the Velvet Darkness - Revealed Evil published. Thirteen short horror stories, written over a number of years, exploring the wickedness that lives in the heart. The book is available on Amazon or in ebook formats on Smashwords.

Between the normal homestead stuff, writing content for cash and the book, we've had little time to do much else.

But now that the outside stuff is slowing down, look for updates to the website in the very near future. We've got a lot of new articles ready to go - just have to find the time to post them.

The KatWalk

In my last post I was bragging on how wonderful Kevin has the front yard looking. Well, he's managed to improve on what was already almost perfect. He built a new walkway bridge and gate that is absolutely gorgeous.

Named the KatWalk, the bridge connects the driveway to the front yard across the small retaining wall we built several years ago. Along with an awesome gate, he put a sexy little bench on the walkway that probably no one but us will ever sit on - it just looks way cool.

He'll be back at the mill here in a day or so, and once he has the material cut, the summer kitchen will be completed. I swear, the man never quits or takes a day off (unlike me, who is perfectly content to sit behind the computer and write when there isn't any work screaming to be done).

Summer has kicked in, with temps here in the high eighties to low nineties and humidity that feels like 200 percent. Which leads to the summer thunderboomers which crop up in the late afternoons and evenings. Such is the weather in Arkansas and I don't expect it will ever change. All I can say is a big thank you to the person who invented the home air conditioner.

20 Pints of Sweetness

Well, got the frozen strawberries all turned into pretty pint jars of Strawberry preserves. They are going to taste so good this winter (okay, won't be waiting till winter, but have to eat this one jar of store bought stuff first cuz it's already open). Later this week, I'll be making plum jelly and from there it's blackberry season and judging from the blackberry canes, it's going to be a great year for berries.

Kevin spent most of the day weed eating. Soon, he's going to have to break down and buy a mower because we now really have a yard thanks to all his efforts. What started as a small patch of grass under the clothesline has expanded into a wonderful array of color as the roses, daylilies and wildflower garden have burst into bloom and the grass has exploded all over the front fenced in area of the property.

Hopefully in another month, I'll be canning tomatoes. The cucumbers and squashes will be another project too as they continue to grow. And then there are the eggplant and peppers too. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water for stuffed peppers and fried green tomatoes.

As promised...

We've been adding lots of new content to the website, including a new video and a new slideshow. More to come, this weekend and in the future.

We've been doing a lot of pea picking this week. Put up almost ten pounds in the last harvest from the garden and will probably have that much again when we pick tomorrow or Monday.

It's almost time for making strawberry preserves too. I've frozen pounds and pounds of the beautiful red berries and after this next picking, will begin canning preserves. That alone will save a ton at the grocery store, as much as we both like plain, simple peanut butter and jelly (or preserve) sandwiches.

Kevin's been hard at work on the summer kitchen and me, when I'm not writing articles, I'm working on what I hope will be my next screenplay. So we've both been at things slowly but steady and in the end, it will get all done.

So enjoy the new articles and keep watching for more in the future. We're back!

We've Gone High-Speed

Finally, after years of waiting, Wild Blue came
last Tuesday and installed an Internet Satellite system for us. It's amazing, it's remarkable,it's almost like I'm in love all over again. No more dial-up and no waiting forever for a page to load. I mean, now I don't have time to get up and
go get a cup of coffee while waiting for my favorite writing board to show up on the screen.

And downloads and updates - don't have to wait until night time to let the computer do its thing without being interrupted. Bottom line, we are happy campers.

That said, we're updating Backwoods Living. Already it has a clean, shinier, fresher look and over the next couple of days we'll be adding more content. So if you haven't been there in a while,
now is the time to go check it out.

Around the homestead, the growing and harvesting season is in full swing. Peas, asparagus and strawberries are keeping me busy at the moment getting them in the freezer for later use. Not to mention what we eat fresh. The garden is fully
planted with tomatoes, eggplant, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, onions and garlic. The fruit trees have small apples, plums and plumcots and it shouldn't be too long before we start filling jars with plum and plumcot jelly. The blackberry vines are full of flowers and we're expecting another bumper crop of berries again this year.

The rain this year has been steady and often, so much so that putting the garden in was delayed, but with any luck the pattern is changing a bit.

Kevin still has several tons of logs, salvaged from the February ice storm, sitting at the mill waiting for slicing into boards. The summer kitchen, where I hope to do all my canning this summer is almost complete.

And the grandson, well Zayden is now almost 2 1/2 and growing like a weed. He's typically two and doing a great job of keeping us on our toes. He's a joy to be around (most of the time) and now that he's becoming more vocal, a whole lot
more interesting. :)

So we've been busy. Watch the website for even more in-depth articles about everything we've been up to.

Kevin's Been Busy

Finally, after many a month, Kevin spent the icy day yesterday updating the website with a baker's dozen of new articles from the both of us. As winter continues, we both going to try and do our best to add articles at least on a monthly basis. You can always look for new posts here.

Yesterday was Arkansas's first ice storm of the year. Not a huge event, (we didn't lose power) but it will take a day or two of the promised warmer temps to thaw everything out.

The kitchen remodel is almost done. Watch the website for pictures and videos of just how much it has changed. It's absolutely beautiful.

Beyond that, we've both just been writing a ton of articles, (alas for other people) and working on the mill and yard. We have entered a few screenplay contests, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

And the boy, that wonderful grandson of ours, is just about to turn two. Time flies, especially with a growing child.

Back At It Again

Okay, so it’s been months and months, but to be honest, I’ve been busy. Between the content writing I do, the garden, the harvest and everything else, I’ve spent little time at this blog or on the webpages. But, that is changing. Kevin has posted several new articles to Backwoods Living and I’ll be doing the same in the coming weeks.

Plus, we’ve started something new. Zayden’s Toys – old fashioned, folk art types of real, homemade wooden trucks. Why? You ask. Simple, we saw (and actually purchased) one of the cheap, plastic trucks that are on the market today. Does Zayden like it? Well, he likes the noises the steering wheel makes, but that’s about it. And one of his action figures can fit in the cab. What more could a little boy want?

From the time Kevin brought in his ‘new’ dump truck, it became his favorite toy. Why? Because he can stack his wooden blocks (also homemade) into the dump bed and dump them all over the living room floor. He can also push through a wall of blocks that he stacks himself. (For some reason, this seems to be great fun.)

We decided that if Zayden had so much fun playing with his dump truck, other little boys would too. We expanded the line to include the dump truck and a flat bed with push blade, a crane truck that will hold a small load, and a huge tractor trailer rig. So, Zayden is a happy boy and hopefully there will be many more happy boys around the country enjoying their trucks too.

So stay tuned, folks. All of our websites are undergoing updates; Lo Gap Woodworks, Little Red Cedar Mill, the new Zayden’s Toys and continuously on Backwoods Living. Check them out if you get a chance.

On Dead Modems and Backup Laptops

Okay, so I finally caught up with this century a couple of months ago and retired my trusty ThinkPad 600. In its place, I bought a ThinkPad T42. It has everything, wi-fi, wireless radio and a host of other features I don’t need, plus it has XP Pro on it. That, I finally figured out, I did need as it allowed me to access software and some websites that Windows 98SE couldn’t touch.

But three months later, the DVD/CD-R died. IBM/Lenovo replaced it within three days. On Sunday, the modem just up and died. One minute working, the next minute gone. No back-up modem for the machine either.

So what did I do to meet writing deadlines? Pulled out the 600 of course. Met all the deadlines and remembered why that laptop has lasted me six years. It is one tough computing wonder.

I could send the T42 back to IBM/Lenovo and have it fixed. But I didn’t really want to be without it – I’ve come to really like the feel of it for writing, surfing and a host of other computer stuff. So, instead, I bought a couple of PCMCIA modems and now I’m back in business. With a double backup – extra modem. And the 600.

I had thought about selling the 600, but now I know for sure I’m going to keep it. I’ve formatted an extra hard drive and now it will be my DOS machine. It flies. And when I’m serious about writing, well, there’s no World Wide Web enticing me to procrastinate.

Best of both worlds, me thinks.

Severe Weather Again

Rain, lightening and thunder. Wave after wave. The weatherman just said Clinton was getting hit with walnut sized hail. Just what we need. More bad weather. With any luck, it will all be gone by morning. At least, so far, there aren’t any tornadoes associated with this storm. And while we get rain, a few miles north of us, they are talking ice storm. I suppose I should count my blessings.

Kevin is at work and my wonderful grandson is here, asleep in his bed. The girls are asleep beside the sofa. I think the storm has them slightly nervous too. Me, I’ll be perfectly content when Kevin gets home in a few hours. I hate it when we have bad weather and he’s in one place and I’m in another. Heck, I hate that anytime, but even more at times like this.

Tomorrow will be a week since the tornado hit town. I still haven’t gone to look, I saw enough on the news. And from what I hear, town has enough gawkers anyway. Daughter dumpling told me a marine stopped her as she came through town coming here to drop off Zayden. Once she explained where she was headed, he wished her well and sent her on her way. They do have a curfew imposed in town, but it must be really bad if they have to call in the marines.

And now, I’m just about out of battery power on my trusty laptop. So, while the sky is quite, I’m going to post this ramble before the next wave hits.

Too Close For Comfort

By now, most everyone has either seen the news or read about the tornadoes that ripped through Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee last night.

Kevin and I sat riveted to the television screen as the first killer tornado fired up in central Arkansas. We watched as it followed the road down the hill—really only about 3 miles away as the crow flies. We got our bug-out bags together and put them in the closet, along with his wallet and my purse and extra drinking water. We didn’t know how close this one was going to come. We watched the weather. Thankfully, Channel 4 (KARK) never went to regular programming and stayed with the weather until it was no longer a threat.

The rain poured from the sky and as darkness took over light, the sky lit up with shards of lightening. Thunder followed, but that was as bad as it got—here.

The tornado stayed on the ground and made its way into Clinton. Then continued to the next town and then the next. Over a hundred miles of devastation.

Next, came worrying about the kids. We have both a son and a daughter that live or work in the area. And then, there was Zayden - our precious grandson. I paced the floor for hours while waiting for word - finally we heard daughter dumpling and grandson were fine. Sigh of relief.

This morning, the news showed us how lucky we had been. The boat factory, where Kevin and I met, worked together and fell in love, is gone. What they showed on the news was nothing short of unbelievable. Yet, I know it’s true. Almost a dozen people tried to find shelter inside the offices, most escaped with cuts and bruises, some were more seriously injured and one young man lost his life.

On the news, I see across the road to where the dentist’s office once stood. A building made of solid stone; gone. As was the little clubhouse at the golf course where I used to occasionally walk across the road to buy lunch. Not a trace.

In the end, over seventy homes are damaged or destroyed and three people in the county have lost their lives.

Son child finally called this afternoon - he's okay too.

It all just serves to remind me how temporary we, on this earth, really are.

Today, before Kevin left for work, we walked outside. Our purpose—to decide where to build a storm shelter. We know the closet is no protection for something like this. It's time to get serious.

Then we took a walk around the property. We found shingles, we found metal, glass and wood shards; every bit debris from who knows where but, all signs of just how close that tornado came to us.

Today, we feel blessed.