My Hero !!!!!

Things I have learned living in Virginia!!

1. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH them.
2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in Virginia.
3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in Virginia, plus a couple no one's seen before.
4. If it grows, it'll stick ya; if it crawls, it'll bite 'cha.
5. "Onced" and "Twiced" are words.
6. It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy.
7. "Jaw-P" means "Did ya'll go to the bathroom?"
8. People actually grow AND eat Okra.
9. "Fixinto" is one word.
10. There is no such thing as "lunch". There is only dinner and then there is supper.
11. Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar!
12. Saying "I know you backwards and forwards" means "I know everything about you."
13. The word "Jeet" is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat?"
14. You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM Virginia IF:
1. You measure distance in minutes or hours.
2. You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
3. You use "fix" as a verb. For example: "I'm fixing to go git some more ."
4. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal.
5. You know what a "DAWG" is.
6. You carry jumper cables in your car. (For your OWN car.)
7. You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Texas Pete, Tabasco and Ketchup.
8. The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and motorsports.
9. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday. (This is in PA too!!)
10. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit "a bit warm".
11. You know all four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, still Summer and Christmas time.
12. Going to Wal-mart is a favorite past time known as "goin' Wal-martin" or off to "Wally World."
13. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good soup weather.
14. A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola or pop... it's a Pepsi, (or Coke) regardless of brand or flavor.
15. Fried catfish is the other white meat.
16. We don't need no Driver's Ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive dag-nabbit.

You Might Be A Redneck If......!!!!!!

It's that time again!!!

Anyone care to make Apple Butter this weekend??
We will be starting early Saturday morning!!
Come enjoy the fun!!

We're On The Way !!!

Uncle Tim, are you ready for this !!!!! Woooo Hoooo!!!

Labor Day - Here We Come !!

Ok folks. To those of you who will be at the Hoch reunion
on Labor Day Weekend, you know we have the annual auction.
Here is one of the items I will be bringing for the auction.

These are Salad Tongs:
Flip them one way and they are spring loaded;
flip them the other way and they fold flat for storage!!!

We will have a few other neat items and Mikayla will also
be baking some ... :) ..... :) ..... :) .... to auction off!!!

Non-Typical !!!!!

Look what I saw Saturday on the fence here at the house!!!!

New Family Photos !!

What A Feast!!

This is what we had for supper Saturday night (before the crash)!!
Maybe I was just top-heavy!! :)

P.S. - It was very good !!!!!

Weeeee!! Oops!! OUCH!!!

Okay, so here I was trying to get a few miles on my old bicycle to try and keep ahead of my cousin Jason who is racking up the miles. Susan, the girls and I were taking a little ride. The girls had stopped to climb on up rock pile. I was riding around and I reached back to turn on my wheel-powered light. Just then I hit a patch of small, loose gravel. The gravel and my narrow wheels didn't mix real well!!

Here's what I wound up with:

My left arm wasn't to bad (It did bleed some) but my right arm had this hunk a meat just torn out!! (It didn't bleed at all) I should have went in and had stitches, but my insurance dosen't cover our local hospital, so I went to a nurse that goes to church with us. She bandaged it up and gave me supplies to take care of it. (This picture is after it has healed for a day. It looks pretty good compared to what it was!!)

Wooo Hooo !!!!

Not too often ya see a power bill like this!!

72nd Annual Galax Old Fiddlers Convention

Once again, we have the Fiddlers Convention in town.
Lots of good Bluegrass music to be heard (and some not so good)!

http://www.blueridgecountry98.com/bluegrassmusicstreamingonline.aspx

To those that may be interested, here is a link that will take get you a live feed of the music. The link is to our local radio station, but they won't go live to the Convention until about 6:00.

Thursday night, 6:00pm, starts the Clawhammer Banjo, Autoharp, and Guitar Competitions.

(Uncle Tim, you would enjoy the guitars. They should be on about 8:30-9:00.)

Friday and Saturday nights are the Bluegrass band competitions. They start at 6:00pm also. They generally sound pretty good unless they sing along with it. The singing gets a little screechy sometimes!! I prefer just the music, myself.

Heard A Lot Of Good Guitar Last Night!! Posted 8/10/07

My New Bumper Sticker !!!

I like it !!! Do you?? :)

Beans, Beans and more Beans!!

Aaaah!! I think I've seen enough of these things for one week! On Monday we picked 14 gallon and last night we picked another 13 gallon. So far we have canned 47 quarts, and should can another 18 or so today!! (Like to can at least 50-60 per year.)

The last three years they have not done so well so we're glad to have them this year!!

We need these guys for labor Day !!!

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will fire rockets into the sky to scatter any rain clouds ahead of next year's Beijing Olympics to ensure perfect weather, state media said on Tuesday. China has already guaranteed perfect weather for the August 2008 Games, but until now had not said how it would make sure its forecast comes true.
Zheng Guoguang, head of the China Meteorological Association, announced the decision to use rockets in Beijing on Monday, the China Daily said.
"As summer is a rainy season, this practice will become the focus of the meteorological services for the Games which will be held in the same season next year," he was quoted as saying.
China's Olympic hosts fear the normally bone-dry capital's stormy August weather could put a damper on the Games, and worry that an untimely deluge could affect the opening ceremony on August 8 at the uncovered National Stadium.
Beijing, which is chronically short of water, is well practiced at firing chemical-infused rockets into clouds to prompt a much-needed downpour, but organizers concede rain prevention remains a much tougher prospect.

Oh, what a surprise !!

Paramedics place the driver of a Ford Taurus onto a stretcher after a 1,500-pound wrecking ball slammed into the back of it North Main Street at Randolph Street in Meadville, Pa., Monday, July 9, 2007. The wrecking ball damaged numerous vehicles after it broke loose from a crane on the campus of Allegheny College and rolled down North Main Street before hitting the Taurus. Two other people were also taken to the Meadville Medical Center for treatment of injuries they suffered in the accident, police said. (AP Photo/Tim Hahn)

The World's Best Dad !!

Happy Father's Day!! We Love You!!
(What is that on top of Diggers head?)

Congratulations to our Church Graduates !!

Here are the young people from our church that graduated this spring.

Left to Right:
Stanley Rice, Susan's Nephew, Galax High School, Going to be a doctor.

Nate Ledford, Pastor's Son, Wytheville Community College, RN Nursing degree, going on to be a Physicians Assistant or something.

Steven Smith, Susan's Nephew, Lee-McRae College, Elementary School Teacher.

Kendra Smith, Susan's Niece, Grayson County High School, going to God's Bible School for music and possibly a teaching degree.

Leandra Wengerd, from our church, Carroll County High School, in school to be an RN.

Esther Ledford, Pastor's Daughter, Wytheville Community College, RN Nursing degree, going on to be a Physicians Assistant or something.

Family Vacation !!

Since Susan is finally off for the summer, I took most of the week off (6/5 - 6/8) for family vacation. We went out to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg for three days - Tues, Wed & Thurs.

Here are some of the highlights from the week:
Monday - Packed!! Woohoo!
Tuesday - Shopping, playing in the creek, Texas Roadhouse, walk Gatlinburg streets......!
Wednesday - The girls rode some rides, Dixie Stampede, walk in the park and feed the ducks, mini golf.....!
Thursday - More shopping, more playing in creek, more walking on Gatlinburg streets, Bennett's Bar-B-que, home!
Friday - Mow and trim the woods behind the house, go to downtown Galax to the String & Leaf Festival for lunch (Polish sausage), grill steaks, corn-on-the-cob, etc. at the river for supper......!
Saturday - Work at Susan's Granny's, relax in the hammock, RJ's pizza for supper, walk at the park, baked apples in the fire......!

What a good week it was! We enjoyed every minute of it! Below are a few pictures from the trip.

This is a picture of the girls on the porch Monday night.

Happy to be in the Smokies!!

Dixie Stampede

Our favorite attraction!! Been a dozen or so times!!

The rides at The Track!

Check out the girls on the racecars! The was the first
time they had driven them themselves!!

Mini Golf

Playing in the creek!

Happy Birthday Babe !! - June 13th

She says 31, but I don't think so! :)

Here We Come !!!

Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN.........6/5 - 6/7 !!!

Happy Memorial Day !!

A very SPECIAL THANKS to all our Veterans!!

To The World's Best Mom!!!

Happy Mothers Day, Mom!!! We Love You!!!

Here is what I have been into recently. We have been remodeling the church - new textured ceiling, new paint, new stain on the wood, new carpet, new pews, new windows....... We also went with a new pulpit and added a communion table. Along with all the normal work, I was talked into building the pulpit and communion table. This first picture is what we decided we liked, so I took the picture and drew it out how I wanted it. I used wood that came out of our old pulpit and made all of the moldings etc, except the dentil molding and the crown molding. It took a while, but it finally all came together!! We really like the finished product.
(For those wood people among us: Birch & Oak Plywood, Solid Oak trim, Poplar moldings)

Jeepers !!!

I killed one of these last night at the house!! It was outside in the mulch.
I had killed one about 6 years ago too!!

Next best thing to Helicopters !!!

Alright Uncle Tim. Let's see you get 6230 on here!!!

A Visit from Mom & Dad

Mom & Dad came down for a few days a couple weekends ago. Sam and his family also came over. We had a really good time. It was a beautiful weekend!

Here is a picture of the girls that weekend.


















What a motley crew!!! Good dinner though!!

The Girls at Easter !!

Here are a few pictures from Easter! Enjoy!!

I'll Have Mine On, Will You !!

Wild Weather !!!

I'm sure most of the rest of my fellow-bloggers got
some of the crazy weather that came thru with this
Nor'easter this weekend. Here is a forcast for today
here in Galax. Notice the wind speed. We had gusts
in the 50's -maybe some low 60's Sunday night.
We lost our power early Sunday night and didn't have
any all night. We had wind gusts in the 50's - maybe
some low 60's all night. There is one fence post
between me and the North Pole, and the fence post
is not stopping much wind!!!

Other than that, LIFE IS GOOD !!!