Yummy!

It's easy to forget how good true garden grown vegetables taste. These came straight from Suzanne's garden. I didn't waste time peeling the carrots, just ran them under water and ate each one down to the little nub. And the cabbage!! OMG--store bought cabbage tries, but it's been too long from the field.

A confession: I went out to the garden to pull carrots...and didn't know what they looked like. This time next year, by golly, some of the citification will have sluffed off!!!

RAM Volunteers

Cousin Robert and daughter Kimberley came from Richmond to work RAM. Robert's a dentist. He said he was pretty tired of pulling teeth -- literally -- for folks who came to RAM. Bad teeth are rampant here.

Daughter Kim assisted her dad chairside.

She heads to JMU this fall. Have fun, Kim!

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Yes, MountainRose now has a beehive. It's tucked away from the vineyards, out of the path of two-legged critters -- but accessible to the four-legged kind.

Concord is poking around the back of the hive, and so avoids the potential of skittering away yelping from an annoyed bee who just wanted to get back home.

The "hive" is inside that small box. The "super" that contains the frames where the honey is collected will be added soon. Right now, the hive is getting itself established and moving pollen to the workers.

This hive is actually on "our" land, near sourwood and clover.

We have a few acres which share a point with the vineyard and David is growing some grapes and fruit--and now bees--on a bit of it.

It's all in the family, for seven generations. It feels right.

Wisecocare beats Obamacare Handsdown!!!

If you don't mind getting your teeth pulled while sitting in a horse stall, or having pelvic exam in a tent where the temperature is 90 degrees, WisecoCare Is FREE!!!! Just pull over by the horse trailers, bend over, and cough!

Yes, in Wise County, 'cuz we're so poor and so many folks have virtually no access to health care, once a year, RAM (www.ramusa.org/) descends on the Wise County Fair Grounds, and internists, dentists, nurses, OB-Gyns, pharmacists, provide medical care to several thousand people.

So step right up, folks. Step inside our giant circus tent! Dental care available in Horse Stall #3!

No need for that socialist, ebil Obamacare that takes away your constitutional, godgiven right to select your own physician!!!!

Wisecocare is the way to go!!!

No, it just sucks.

I was sitting down to draft this post when I received an email from a friend telling me her mother died on Monday, the viewing is today, and the funeral on Friday. She said they like to drag things out.

I'm deeply sorry that her mother has died. It's hard, and the pain is deep.

When Daddy died last July 30th, we heard deeply felt words of comfort from many wonderful people. Many were from a Christian perspective. "He's in a better place." "He's [points finger to the sky]. "He's with the Lord."

I know these people were trying to soften the agony of Daddy's going. And I know they truly believed what they were saying: that Daddy was with Jesus, and that's the best place to be.

Reading the obits in the Wise newspaper, The Coalfield Progress, today, I found this:

"Although Cricket will be greatly missed by her loved ones, we rejoice
in the promise of our risen savior "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." (2 Cor 5:8)"

This time last year, I would have welcomed that calm acceptance of Daddy's death, that wonderful knowledge that he is indeed in a better place. And he may be. My guess, though, is that he'd just as soon be here flying his airplane, working in his garden, lifting weights at the gym....living rather than dead. He'd choose Dylan Thomas over Jesus:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

We'd certainly prefer that he be here with us, being "present" with the Lord be damned.

And last summer, after one too many soothing "He's with the Lord.", I turned to Susie and said sotto voce "No, it just sucks."

So to Sue, who's mourning her mother's going, I have no words of comfort. It just sucks.

It Was the Tuna Fish!

I'm ensconced on the floor of Mother's bathroom not, unfortunately, the result of a night of drunken debauchery but because of a tuna fish sandwich for breakfast. There was nothing wrong with the tuna fish. I was tired and hadn't eaten healthily the day before and my tender little tummy revolted. And Daddy's bathroom toilet became a tad persnickety so I decided to bed down in Momma's bathroom. Good mother that she is, she brought me a blanket and a pillow and I was quite comfortable. However, the real reason for this posting and the accompanying picture is the canines. They sneaked into Mother's room (why they're not allowed in is another story) and snuggled up to comfort and protect me. They may not be the brightest bulbs in the box, but they are mine own.

The Players

Here in Wise County, everybody's lived here forever and everybody knows everybody else. So, everybody takes it for granted that I know everybody else and of course, I don't since although I'm about the seventh generation, I haven't lived here forever. If I'm confused, you must be so beyond befuddled as to be throwing up your hands in despair. It complicates matters that my maternal grandfather Hobart was the oldest of 17 children: 4 boys and 13 girls. The winery is on the land where he grew up, before marrying my grandmother Gustava and getting his own land, which is where Mother and I are are trying to build our log cabin. However, back to the family tree. Below is a very abbreviated family tree, showing those with whom I play and to whom I will refer in these postings.

Am trying to figure out how to make it bigger without losing clarity. Call it WIP: work in progress.