Safe Vinegar Based Cleaner!!

Yesterday my friend Emily told me about a cleaner she found on Pinterest that works wonders on soap scum and hard water build-up in tubs and on faucets/shower heads. 

I am going to share my story....

I came home and gathered the necessary ingredients......white vinegar, lemon juice, dish soap and an empty spray bottle.

First I filled the spray bottle about half way with white vinegar.....

Then I added 1/4 cup lemon juice.

And then squirted in dish soap to fill the bottle about 3/4 full.

Closed the bottle and shook it good.

This is my new, pink, safe cleaner. :)

I was going to spray it on and work at my "problem tub" yesterday, but my camera batteries went dead. So this morning I sprayed my nasty tub with the above concoction and left it sit for 30 minutes. I took an old toothbrush and scrubbed a bit. Then I took off the faucet covers, which were NASTY inside, and sprayed everything good again. I scrubbed once more with the old toothbrush and a little scrubby.

Sprayed it one more time, scrubbed one more time, and it now looks beautiful!! :) I am so thrilled. I learned that this is also a great toilet bowl cleaner! Yay!! :)

The tub BEFORE:

And AFTER:

 (look at that shine!!)

I still have a little scrubbing to do on the ring in the tub, but I am thrilled with how well this worked. I also used it on the bathroom sink faucet, but didn't get pics.

BTW, I have scrubbed that brown ring in the top tub pic with all sorts of cleaner and nothing would touch it! Look at the difference this cleaner made in just a short time!! :O I am beyond thrilled!!

I wanted to share....I hope it works for you, too!! :)

Of Wild Animals

As I mentioned in a previous post, Danny got a turkey 2 weekends ago. Since Dan doesn't have any experience in dealing with turkeys, he didn't want to butcher it till he knew what was required by a taxidermist if we wanted to get it mounted or at least get the beard and tail mounted. So they neatly wrapped it up and stuck it in my freezer! :O

In our research we discovered a full turkey mount was around $500-600. So that wasn't an option. Mounting just the tail, beard and spurs was around $90.

In the mean time, Danny told us he would like to mount the tail, beard and spurs himself. He could get a kit at Walmart for $20 and he had been watching YouTube videos enough that he was confident he could do it. We decided to let him try it.....after all, this is HIS first turkey and it would be more special, even if it doesn't turn out taxidermist quality!

So Sunday night we got the turkey out of the freezer and Monday afternoon he tackled the job ahead of him with great eagerness. I sat on the porch and watched him, because what fun is it to work alone? :) And of course I needed to get some pics! :)

The first thing he did was cut the beard off.....and discovered it has two beards!! :) He's heard of that before and so he was excited to discover that was the case with this one!

Next he cut out the breast meat. I got the job of cleaning and freezing it! :)

Here's the tail, beard and spurs sitting with salt drying them out. Not sure how long they have to be like that till he can mount them, but they are sitting in his bed room! :P

He did a fine job so far....I think I can say he is a true hunter!! I'm impressed with how well he did in taking care of this task! I enjoy watching him do something he enjoys! :)

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Sunday night we were visiting with our friends Dave & Shannon Z. and on the way home, just down from their house, a deer came bounding out of the woods right into the side of "Sally" :( We stopped to see what kind of damage there was and Dan could see the deer on the road behind us, so we turned around and went back. She was sitting in the middle of the road and had blood coming out of her mouth. So we went back to Dave & Shannon's and the guys went out to put her out of her misery, but she wasn't there any more! 

I think one poor deer had a serious head ache that night....who knows if she even lived? :(

But this is what the van looks like. Monday I went to a local body shop and the man so kindly took out the dent in front of the drivers door, so we could actually open the door right!

The insurance adjuster came out yesterday and gave us an estimate, now we have to get it to the shop! 

Hopefully we/they can fit it in next week~

Quick Trip

We left the house yesterday morning and drove to Tallahassee. We had two items to return, one to Hobby Lobby and one to Walmart and did just a bit of very necessary (and fast) shopping. We also went to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital to visit our pastor, Ivan Nissley, who had  surgery on Thursday to open a clogged artery in his neck. It was good to hear he would be released last evening!! We pray that he is feeling much better now!!

From there, we went by the fairgrounds were we were planning to have a food stand at an auction today! Got to meet the man in charge of it all and drop off a bunch of our supplies.

From there, we headed up to my sis in Camilla. Had an enjoyable evening outside, making mountain pies for supper and chatting till the mosquito's drove us inside! :)

The kids waiting impatiently for supper! :)

Mountain Pies! Yum!!! :)

(The camper in the background was our "home" for the night.)

Two of my fun nieces! Crazy might be more like it! :)

Watching them makes me wish Tamara had a sister. I know how much fun she is missing in that area, since I grew up with 5 of them! :)

This morning we got up at 6:30 (EST) and made our way to the Thomasville Georgia Exchange Club Fairgrounds. We got there and set up the coffee and muffins and got the hot dogs and chili warming up!

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This is the story behind this venture. Our friends, AT & Traci Peyton, have friends Dan & Sue. Dan is an auctioneer and this was his first auction to do on his own. He wanted a food vendor there, and mentioned it to the Peyton's who thought of us. We agreed and so here we were......

Danny, ready to serve, with Trulie as his sidekick! :)

Dan and A.T. excited for the day! :)

Tamara, Laney and Izzabelle chatting in the corner. Seemed they had lots to talk about! It was great they had each other to keep them company! :)

 Mr. Dan had some quality products, household items, tools, etc. Some people got some great bargains today!! 

Even though we were there to do food, I got a nice 10 qt. Farberware stock pot for $10 and a Juicer for $12.50!! Happy me!! Now I need some good "juicing" recipes!

Dan was also thrilled to be able to get an air compressor. Ours had given out and he's been looking at them for some time, so I was happy he got one and at a steal! :)

This is a pic from their facebook page which shows the tables full of items for sale!

We came home with lots of leftover hot dogs, buns and chili, but it was a really good day and we enjoyed doing something different and making new friends! We might actually consider doing it again! I think we learned a few things for "next time" too! :)

 A big thank you to A.T. & Traci Peyton and Dan & Sue for all the ways you blessed our family!! Wow, we are so grateful!! 

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Tonight after we got home and unpacked, it was down to business for Dan. He had ordered a new catalytic converter for his Jeep a few weeks ago and never had a good chance to replace it. I was a little concerned what we would do if he ran into problems and couldn't get it done by bed time, because he has to go preach in the prison tomorrow and the kids and I need a vehicle to get to church. He was sure he would be able to get it done. He and Danny got to it and things were going well till he realized the parts store gave him an O2 sensor for a Dodge, not a Jeep!! :( That was a part that they had to order, so we were afraid they wouldn't have the right one in stock....but they did! :) He just got it all done and took the Jeep for a test ride. 

I am so thankful that my man is able to fix problems like that and can save us labor costs!!

While they were working on that project, I worked at putting things away. I'm still not quite done, but I needed a break! I also washed the van tonight. Imagine this.....this was the 2nd time I washed it in 1 week! Definitely a record!! :) But it needed it after being driven down dusty dirt roads and covered in pollen!! It looked more yellow than blue! :)

Turkey Hunt

This was a long awaited weekend for a certain young man in our house! The weekend that he and his Dad could go turkey hunting!!

This was their set up in the woods.....

Standing with his inflatable Jack and Jill! Never saw the likes! :)

Danny looking for turkeys. Not sure, maybe he was using his turkey call here?

Danny "talked" with a turkey for over 1/2 hour in the morning but it never showed its face.

About 11:30, when they only had an hour and a half left to hunt, Dan got a phone call. He was talking on his cell to one of this friends, when Danny whispered, "Dad, there's a turkey!!" And Dan said before he knew what happened, Danny had fired a shot.

And he was successful! :)

(no, the tree didn't fall on the turkey) :)

Someone is very, very happy!! :) He's been practicing his turkey calls, watching turkey hunt video's on YouTube and reading up how to butcher turkeys. It was not in vain! :)

It was a nice sized turkey.....had an 8.5" beard, 3/4 " spurs and 1 3/4" hooks.

Weighed in at 16.5 lbs. 

I am so proud of him and happy that his hunting dreams came true this year! I think he's been bit by the bug!! :) Now he can swap hunting stories with Grandpa Horst when we go to visit! :)

On another note, I am looking forward to a nice spring week with high's in the 70's!! May have to do some outside work. I think the garden may be calling, too! :)

 This weekend, we are doing a new venture for our family. We are having a food stand at an auction about an hour and a half from here. We are excited, but a little nervous about it. Hopefully I remember to take my camera! 

Have a great week and enjoy the coming of Spring, wherever you are! 

Winter or Spring??

Seems the weather here can't make up its mind and it is causing lots of sinus turmoil in our family and in many others in this area! One week we will have days in the 70 and nights in the 50's, then the next week the temps won't get out of the 50's during the day and it'll be rainy or cloudy and windy....and nights are in the 30's.

 Well, today was one of those cooler day....quite chilly in fact. It is 61 now, but this morning when our home-school group was at the park and it was overcast and breezy (and about 55*), I was so cold! Granted, the longer I live in the south, the wimpier I am becoming in dealing with the cold!! :P Now I think I understand why Dan could never warm up during winters in PA! He grew up in the south and had thin blood. I think it's a conspiracy....he moved me to the south and is keeping me here till my blood thins out and I don't have much of a  desire to move back north! ;) Haha! Just kidding!!

 This past weekend we had rainfall of epic proportions!! Friday we got 4 1/2", Saturday, 5" and from Sunday till Monday night, another 3 1/2".  The rivers are over flood stage (flood stage is 15') and expected to crest tonight or tomorrow near 25' (at least that's the forecast, seems to me they are already falling though)

Friday, we were trying to do school, but at the rate the rain was falling, it was a little distracting....or was that Monday that it rained so hard?? I forget....I think now that maybe it WAS Monday! :)

Anyway, here are pics from Monday....the ditch in front of our house filled up in 1 hours time. The weather alert had went off and said we were in the line of a severe T-storm that was dumping 2" an hour.....and I believe it was close to that!!

I had just wrote on facebook how I was so thankful for a warm dry house! About 15 minutes later, we were finally getting back into doing shcool and I hear.....DRIP....DRIP....DRIP. The kitchen ceiling was leaking! :(

So a bucket to the rescue!! (I caught a drip landing!) :D

Not long after that, I walked back to our bedroom and there was water around the one window. :P So, I laid a towel there to soak up the drips, since a bucket wouldn't fit on the sill.

I was still thankful for a dry, warm house!! :)

About an hour later, the puddle in the driveway and the flooded ditch were about to meet.....they didn't quite accomplish that before the rain slowed down.

This is the creek that runs in the woods between our house and our neighbors house. It is normally about a foot or two across.

That little creeks runs into a larger branch (below) that runs into the Appalachicola River. That's the river you will see on the next few pics. (Normally, you can't see any water in the pic below)

After the rain quit on Monday, we drove to the Blountstown Landing and this is what we saw. It was already about 5 feet above flood stage.

 Yesterday I had to go to town, so we ran down by the landing again. The river had rose another 2 feet.

The water is very close to coming into the parking area....

After spending the morning at the park with our home-school friends, we drove down to the landing again and this time, the water had went down a bit.

Just a few weeks ago, Tamara and I were sitting on that bench looking down the creek bank at the river. Now there is no bank to the river! In fact when we went by yesterday, the water was covering the bottom of the bench legs!

 I thought this was humorous! :)

This is not the worst Blountstown has seen (I think 1994 was a big flood) but it's def. near the top of the list!!

In other news.....

Danny and I were hit with sinus cr*p Sunday and by Monday I saw big improvements in myself, but Danny was still hacking away. Then Tues. night I got hit with some stomach pain. It was strange and while I'm not sure what it was, my "gut" is telling me that it was a weird stomach bug. I had pain all day Wed. and Thurs.with no other symptoms till last night, it became an issue to get to the bathroom in time when I felt I needed to go. Today I still have been "running" to the bathroom, but the pain seems to be gone. I hope that's all it was and is nothing more serious!! :P BUT, then this morning I had awful sinus pressure and headache again. 

I'll be ready to feel better and to have some warmer weather!! :)

Today was Park Day for our home-school group, as I already mentioned......twice in fact! :)

This winter we have been blessed with some beautiful  warm days, but those days never land on the same day as park day! In fact, some of the Mom's have been known to burn textbooks to stay warm on Park Day!! ;) (Okay, so they were old public school teacher's books that were going to be thrown away anyhow) :) 

 Today, I took gloves and an extra blanket to be sure I stayed warm enough....and guess what? I was still freezing!

We do have excellent fellowship and the kids have a great time and that's what really matters!! :)

I am looking forward to staying home and relaxing tonight!! We are watching Lord of the Rings with the kids and are ready for "The Two Towers". That may fit into our evening.... 

Hope to be back soon. It's been a long break!