We had a great day today! I froze bell peppers from the garden this morning and Ali Grace shucked corn  with Mama most of the morning.

Addie Belle would have no part of the "kitchen work". Of course she had to be in the middle of the men working on the swimming pool! 

She can host a tea party and drive a tractor. What a gal!  

It's supposed to be a scorcher today outside and so the crew is starting work early this morning. They have worked so hard to have the swimming pool finished by the 4th of July holiday. The liner is going in this morning!  I can't wait to post pictures of the finished project. I'm not making this up y'all- my daddy really can do anything.

High Tea

I just realized my last post before I left for the kayaking trip never posted. 99.9% of the reason I blog is to remember things, events, people, etc. This was an event I did not want to forget. 

Addie and I were walking home one afternoon from Nanny and Poppy's house. She was filthy. She had torn up one of her flip flops in a mud puddle so she was limping around in one shoe. Her hair was matted to her head with sweat. She looks up at me with this precious face full of freckles and dirt and says "Mama I want to have a tea party" I wanted to say- honey girls with Georgia red clay in their ears really don't do tea parties but I didn't. I figured she was kidding. She was not. She finally hounded me enough to where I knew she was serious. Since her sister and her dad were gone to 4-H camp and I knew she was lonesome, I decided we would have a tea party. My friend Beth had to come over to make some final kayaking plans and so she ended up right on the tea party list. She's about as out of place at a tea party as Addie Belle is! Beth brought her sweet as can be mama, Ms Linda. Addie Belle Bennett was beside herself! We served cookies and banana bread made by my favorite Italian ever, Maria. Addie picked fresh magnolia blooms to decorate the tea room with and she gave me one for my birthday. As is always the case, when it was time for our company to leave, Addie disappeared. She does not say goodbye well. Unfortunately, she'd wanted to give Ms Linda a magnolia bloom to take with her and had forgotten it. She was in a tizzy. I called Beth and they turned around to come back and get the magnolias. Such sweet friends they are. Blessed is she who can play hard in the mud and the next day host a perfectly perfect tea. Just love that girl to pieces.

Darien or Bust.. The True Story

Pete and I signed up for this trip on a whim really. We both got teacher scholarships to become certified in the Adopt a Stream program which allows you to monitor local waterways and report data to the EPD. Although, we were technically "in class", our adventure turned out to be much much more.

         There's no way to really prepare for a week long trip down a river like the mighty Altamaha. I love the outdoors but I'm not a camper. As my friend Cathleen said "camping is for those who like to pretend they are homeless." I'm not really into that. But I must admit, it totally allowed me to leave the world's worries behind. I did not worry about anything bugging me back home and I needed the break. What I needed most of all though was to see if I could do it. I did y'all! I did! The most difficult day of the trip was a 22 mile paddle. We fought a headwind most of the day and I was tired by the time we reached Penholloway Creek. We had to make a hair pin turn and then head UPstream for 2 miles. At first it wasn't so difficult, but the creek narrowed and the current got more and more swift. Midway through you could not stop paddling or you would be swept backwards. Imagine your arms screaming for rest but you cannot rest or what you just accomplished will be wiped out. It was terrible but I kept at it. Everyone was struggling up the creek. No one was talking. Everyone was fighting the current. Little did I know, Pete had gotten ahead of me a good ways and could not see me when he looked back.  He was worried and turned back downstream. Bless his heart. I couldn't have paddled upstream twice. I barely made it once! He paddled a good portion twice though since he came back for me! He told me where to go to avoid the worst part of the current and showed me where to pull off and catch my breath.

        I paddled that damn creek by myself but I don't know if I would have made it if he hadn't come back for me and talked me all the way up the creek. It was awful y'all!  After reading Bear Grylls new book "Mud, Sweat and Tears" I remembered a verse from Isaiah that Bear recited to himself during his SAS selection when he was waist deep in snow and trying to get back to ranger camp. "I am with you, do not be dismayed... I will strengthen you and help you... I hold you in my right hand." I kid you not- the last half of that creek, I just said to myself "He has me in His right hand.. He has me in His right hand over and over.. It was quite funny when I thought about it later. We were all so tired when we took out of the creek that we hardly said a word. The words that WERE said aren't suitable for young readers. I will say this though- for the first time in my life I totally understand what runners feel when they describe "runner's high".

               I was amazed at the ages of people on the trip. There was an 80 year old woman who paddled with us. AMAZING woman! My 37 year old body just about gave out and she was pressing on! She got into some trouble on that horrible Penholloway Creek and someone went ahead of her and told the DNR she needed help. When the boat came for her, she said "do NOT touch my boat. I made it this far and I'm going to finish this creek." Finish, she did. How inspiring. If the DNR had offered to drag me and my boat up the rest of that creek I would have taken them up on the offer! I'm glad they didn't though. 

Top Ten Things I Heard During Paddle Georgia:

10. One mile my #$#!

9. I really hope that is a stick floating by...

8. I don't care if my hoo ha shrivels, I need to go to the bathroom!

7. I lost my hoo ha in the Altamaha

6. If that #$%% rams my boat like that again, she's gonna be floating face down.

5. I have blisters on my butt, so Paddle Georgia officially chaps my behind!

4. Would you all like a surgical mask to wear today? Response from one great guy behind me- "No ma'am we would not and please don't go out and embarrass us on the river today. We are guests here."

3. There's no dignified way to walk into the woods with a roll of toilet paper.

2. Charles, Charles, Charles.(waterguns pointed)..we heard you tell that little Georgia joke back there. 

1. The takeout has GOT to be around this bend. 

oh and there is ONE more quote from a non-southerner I must mention- "If I learn to yell that Gooooo Dawgs Sic 'Em thing, can I have a Riverdawgs shirt?"

So there you go... a wonderful trip with wonderful people and memories I will not soon forget. 

"Friendship isn't about whom you have known the longest... It's about who came, and never left your side"

I knew I'd make it down that river one way or another. In fact we promised each other we'd make it out each day even if we had to drag each other! It was a wonderful experience going down the river with friends, playing on the sandbars and teasing each other at every turn. I wouldn't have had it any other way. I will be back next year with the Riverdawgs on the Geech!! Gooooo Dawgs! 

Clawing my Way Into Darien...

This 105 mile trip down the Altamaha was such an adventure, it's quite difficult to put into words. I'm so tired from the trip, I just don't have the words. So, I decided to share a few pictures with a few short captions and I'll write a few stories from the trip in the next blog. Below are a few of the pictures I took. All of them look quite leisurely because when I was paddling for my life, I couldn't get to the camera!

Beth and Timmy make a great team. They were great boat buddies. I could always spot Timmy a half mile ahead because of his red cooler on the back of his kayak!

Some of the bluffs were so high it gave the appearance of a canyon.

There are leaning trees all down the Altamaha.  I thought it looked interesting when Candy passed under the tree since it appeared to be falling into the river.

I met Candy on this trip. She was hysterically funny and after a couple days of TOUGH paddling, I surely enjoyed her comic relief.

My favorite stretch of the trip was Rifle Cut. It was toward the end of the trip, the last day to be exact. I wish I hadn't been so tired and could have enjoyed it more. Rifle Cut was cut out by slaves in the early 1800's to make a shortcut to the Darien River for turpentine ships.

In front of me, is Christine, from Effingham County! It really is a small world and I was amazed at the connections some of us had even though we were strangers.

Becky and Timmy and some woman with a wopped up kayak paddle. I don't know how she paddled with this oversized pencil looking paddle.

My prince, who was such a good samaritan on the trip, helping everyone onto the river each day, got on my last nerve the last day. I just wanted to paddle to the take out and see my babies. I really wasn't in a charitable mood.

The tall cypress trees around the Altamaha are just gorgeous. At times I felt like I was kayaking down the Amazon.

This cypress tree had turned over in the river and the roots were all exposed. So cool!

All our kayaks hung out on the sandbar while we took a swim break.

When I go places, I always like to get a picture of my feet there. I don't know why. It's one of my quirks. So here are my feet in the dark tannic waters of the Altamaha.

Pete was standing almost in the middle of the river in this picture. Although the river was VERY wide in a lot of places, it was usually quite shallow. However, the current was somewhat fierce and could sweep you down river in the blink of an eye.

Thankfully Becky found a shady spot for lunch on this particularly hot afternoon on the river. This is the Riverdawg crew headed up the sandbar with our sack lunches.

I was so happy to finally see the marsh grasses as we approached Darien on the Georgia Coast.

Loved these Osprey nests.

And finally in the distance I could see the tops of the shrimp boats and knew I was getting close...

and finally made it to the takeout. It was so phenomenal to hear other paddlers and onlookers cheering us on as we paddled into Darien.

Special thanks to "The Teacher of the Gifted" for convincing me that I could do this. I am proud to call her my friend. Also a special thanks to my sweet husband who turned back on Penholloway Creek to look for me because he was worried. A prince he really is....That story in the next blog... 

This has turned into a GOAT SHOW!

One of my very best friends from Effingham, Donna, is married to a football coach. Her football coach husband used to describe a game that had gone particularly badly as "a total goat show". Being an animal science major quite familiar with livestock shows,  I always giggled at that description. This evening the girls worked hard with their show goats. We don't want our first goat show to turn into "a total football game" so we are working hard so that the goats will behave and do what they are supposed to do! We had a great day together! We had boiled shrimp for supper and Addie Belle Bennett ate way more than I did! 

Ali Grace is so proud of the fact that we trust her to drive the gator around by herself. Recently, she got good enough to transport passengers!

Of course, since Ali Grace is now driving the gator around, Addie will NOT be outdone and insisted on her own driving lesson today.

These are some pictures from the garden work this morning. The girls picked mostly cucumbers and squash.

Ali and her Daddy, "the bee whisperers".  :) They are watching bees emerge from the excess comb they scraped off the hives. I'm actually not sure what they're doing. I know nothing about bees. I just like honey. 

The Pursuit of Happiness

I was talking to a friend today just casually about something she'd written in her blog about being happy. She was right about a lot of things... like having a refrigerator on your porch and good flowers but mostly she inspired ME to think about things that make me happy.  I hate to say these things MAKE me happy. I believe personally that happiness is mostly a choice.

1.  I don't watch the news. Really. I don't. I used to. I did. I swear. But it's so damn depressing now and I just don't watch it. Was there REALLY anything on the local news that amounted to a hill of beans? Was there really anything on the news that I needed to know? Nope. Mostly not. So for the most part, I turned it off. And I have yet to regret it. No CNN or FoxNews. They both rot your brain.

2. I laugh a lot. I really laugh a lot. I don't know why. Well I sort of know why. Funny stuff just happens to me and I've just learned to laugh about it!  It's my coping mechanism. So while to some I may seem down right irreverent at times, trust me when I say I just love to laugh my way through all sorts of circumstances. I laugh when I have to chase the chickens back into the coop. I laugh when our Chihuahua, Roxy chews up another barbie doll. Well- I mostly laugh. Sometimes I curse under my breath and grit my teeth and smile and talk sweetly to her while I threaten to send her to the pound.


3. Listen to music. Good music. I don't listen to music that is degrading or ugly or sounds like pots and pans clanging together. I listen to everything from Billie Holiday to Billy Joel to Billy Currington and I feel good when I listen to music. I've always loved music and it makes me happy.

4. I have bloomed where I've been planted.  Thank GOD in Heaven I was planted in the country because I'm not sure I could bloom so dang well elsewhere. Despite the fact that our phone goes out when it rains, heaven forbid we need a firetruck in the rain because our dirt road is impassable, and we're a good ways from a Wal Mart, I love it here. I do y'all. I do. I know I say it a lot. It's because it's true. I've read magazine articles about women who live in the city but long for the country life. They are "urban homesteaders" and I am amazed at the country life they've carved out in the city. Awesome. It's not for everyone I know, but it is the only life I can imagine. A number of years ago, my former principal kidded my mother about living on the Ponderosa. The name stuck. Although it's not 600,000 acres on the edge of Lake Tahoe, it's pretty dang close in my opinion. My daddy loves it here more than anyone. He and Mama scratched and scrimped and worked their butts off their whole lives and I'm glad they love it here. Pete and I gave up VERY good jobs near Savannah to bring the girls here to grow up and I know they love living here too. Addie already picked out a spot to build her house right behind Poppy's garden.

5. I try new things.  I'm not so good at trying new things...mainly cause I'm stubborn. It's a character flaw that I inherited from my mother. I'm working on it, but like cholesterol, it's in my genes and I can't guarantee success. I do try though. I have always been repulsed by the whole idea of animals in the house. Dog hair, messes in the floor, etc... disgusting. However, my sweet Addie got a chihuahua for her birthday back in February. She is just the sweetest thing ever.  Heck I've gone from not even wanting a fish in this house, to allowing Roxy to sleep in a basket of clean clothes. She is a doll. I don't want another one mind you, but she is a doll.

6. I count my blessings, even in a recession.  I make less money than I made 5 years ago. I work harder than I did five years ago and it really doesn't seem fair. It irritates me when people say be glad you have a job, as if those being battered but not defeated by this economy don't have a right to be a bit disgruntled. I have a right to be, but I'm mostly not. I still like my job, but it's my colleagues who are my biggest blessings at work. I love laughing with them every day. There are no better teachers ANYWHERE. I also thank God for my two children whom I adore. I read somewhere recently a quote that said "the most valuable thing you'll ever have around your neck are the arms of your children".  I love them to the moon and back. Thinking about what a precious gift they are, makes me happy. Nowadays a good husband, two healthy children, a beautiful home and good food to eat are abundant blessings.

7. I get outside and get my children outside. Few things make me happier than watching my children play outside. (With SPF 80 sunscreen of course). Kids need the dirt y'all. Maybe my sweet Addie takes it to a bit of an extreme, but studies show that children raised in rural areas have fewer instances of asthma and other ailments. Researchers seem to think it has something to do with early exposure to germs in the soil. If that is all true, Addie will live to be the ripe old age of 346 by my estimate. I am glad that the children love to read, but reading can be done when the sun goes down or when it's raining. Get outdoors in the meantime! Even though I complain about it, dirty hands and faces melt my heart. I've also learned that if I want their butts outside, then I have to get MY butt off the sofa. If I want the kids to be active, then I have to be active. If I want the kids to eat veggies, then I have to eat veggies. See how that works?

8. I blog. I don't know if there's a single solitary soul out there who gives a hoot what I have to say about anything. I don't give a hoot if they give a hoot about what I have to say either! Mostly I say it to get it off my mind, or in the case of the children, so I won't forget. I don't want to forget Ali Grace's sweet smile right on the brink of growing up. I don't want to forget Addie's dirty hands and her sweet hairbow hanging desperately off the side of her head. If I don't write it down, I might forget and that would be terrible. I don't want to forget Pete shooting that mistletoe out of the tree a couple Christmases ago either. I just told that story today and figured I'd better write it down so I don't forget it.

9. I enjoy company and friends. I like having friends visit. We worked hard to build this house and I love entertaining here. The floor creaks in spots, the inside needs to be painted and I could keep myself busy every weekend for the next year and a half fixing what's broken or needs sprucing up. Don't care. I don't have the kind of friends who care about those things. Just friends enjoying each others company and remembering good times while something cooks on the grill. If that doesn't make you happy, I don't know what would. Our friends, the Tomlinsons, know they are good friends of ours. Why? Because when they come to visit no one has made the effort to make sure there's toilet tissue in the guest bathroom. They're family. I don't put on a big show for family. They know where to find towels and toilet tissue. That's how you can tell you're a close friend of mine. If you're a friend, I don't stress over you.

10.  Deleting and hiding people on facebook. Yes. It makes me happy. I LOVE deleting people who stress me out. People who constantly post their political opinions and religiosity irritate me. Is religiosity a word? I think people who do that are trying to make up for something that's missing in their heart. The more pious people try to "appear" the less pious they probably are. I hope they fix all that but in the mean time, I don't have to read their constant judgmental nuttiness on facebook.  Life's too short people. It really is and hiding people on facebook is a much more Christian thing to do than to cuss them like a low down cur dog or whacking them in the back of the head with an iron skillet like I really want to. People who post all that liberal wackiness and people who post all that right wing insanity annoy me. If you do that more than 3 times a day, you are probably victims of the hide or delete feature. No hard feelings but you are almost as annoying as people who use commas to make a singular word plural.

Happiness really is a choice. I need to remind myself of that fact some days. Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. This might be something I need to re-read often.

An Empty Nest

You can't really tell in this picture, but my husband has on a Hawaiian print shirt and is fastening a kayak to the roof of the vehicle. Am I the only one who's suspicious when he says he's going to a "continuing ed class" for the next few days??  

The girls took off to Jekyll Island with Gran and Papa so it's just me here on the Ponderosa with Mama and Daddy. Since Daddy was tinkering on the farm this morning, I rode with Mama on the gator to feed up and look at the garden. You know you're farm livin' when the back of the gator looks like this:  veggie scraps for the chickens and goat feed.

Check out these cabbages FRESH from the garden this morning!

I fed the goats this evening. I think they miss the girls. She looks kinda sad doesn't she?

It really seemed like they were looking for Ali and Addie today... They looked THIS way...

and THAT way....

up high.....

and down low...

Poor things! They'll be happy when the girls return! In the meantime, we'll all be lonesome. But as my grandma "Dada" used to say "it's a sweet kinda lonesome".  Sometime towards the end of June, all four Bennetts will be back together again under one roof. It is ONE CRAZY MONTH around here y'all. Hope y'all are enjoying your summer "break". Is your house as crazy as mine right now?