Bring on the Turkey!

Our big news for this month is a brand new stove! This was a much needed improvement as the old one had a bad scary burner and an oven that didn’t heat properly. So just in time for Turkey day we have our brand new stove. They had to cut out part of the counter top and cupboards and they did a fabulous job. Looks great and its works great too!

Now I think the major issue is going to be to get some meal trays so that we can freeze some tukey dinners. I suspect that neither of us know how to make a Thanksgiving dinner for two! Good think we like leftovers huh?

We also went to a neighborhood meeting, The Lee Acres Neighborhood Association. We thought it would be a good place to meet some neighbors. Well, there was a grand total of 6 people that showed up……2 of which were us! And one was an elected official to report on city issues, etc. The main topic of discussion was whether to disband the whole shebang or not. It was decided to cancel monthly meetings since attendance was so poor and try for once every few months. Such a shame, but not surprising with the frenetic pace everyone seems to keep these days. We did have a nice lunch of pizza, cookies and sweet tea! And we met a couple of nice ladies too!

Our temps have been mostly in the 60’s so we have been enjoying the days. Not a lot of work on projects right now as we are both doing crafty things for Christmas instead. The next big project will be painting the kitchen cupboards and we don’t want to start that before holiday cooking so will probably not be until next year. That sure isn’t very far away when you look at the calendar. We do already have a couple of free calendars for next year so bring on 2020…..but first lets get at that turkey!

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue……

November 10, 2019. Patti and I took a little day trip to Fulton, Mississippi to the Midway Marina located on the Tn-Tombigbee Waterway. Very impressive marina with cabins to rent and lots of boat slips. Some of the boat owners actually live on their vessels.

The Nina & Pinta were docked there for the weekend. The Nina is an exact replica to the original Nina and was built to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage in 1492. The Pinta is about 20 percent larger than the original. They travel on tour 11 months of the year and this was their last stop before taking a winter break for repairs. The original Nina had a crew of 24 and the Pinta 26, today they operate with 7 on the Nina and 9 on the Pinta. The crew are volunteers from all over the United States and the Caibbean.

. They are looking for help too! The ships were built in Valencia, Brazil by 8th generation Portuguese shipwrights. It took 32 months and 20 men for the Nina and the Pinta took 36 months.

The ships are black because they were covered in pine tar, a natural water resistant.

The weather was absolutely beautiful with a clear blue sunny sky and temps in the 60’s. Here we are on the Nina!

We enjoyed our visit on the ships! and the answer to where is the Santa Maria?? The Columbus foundation does not have a replica for 3 reasons: she never made it back to Europe, she is too big to make it throught the waterways these ships go through and Christopher Columbus did not like the Santa Maria because she was very slow and clumsy. There are no plans to build her….Sorry Santa Maria. A watery grave somewhere for her, location unknown.!

We took a ton of pictures, some of which are here and we will share some more on facebook. So glad we got out to enjoy the day as now the weather has taken a big turn for the worse . All over the U.S. so I guess we are sharing the cold with everybody else, lucky us! Oh and we also visited one of the Antique Malls in Tupelo that day, we made it through one floor, left the second story for another trip! Huge place and lots of fun things to browse. I did find a couple Fiesta pieces that I could not live without! Keep warm everyone!

Almost 5 months already!

Well I can’t believe it is already November. I swear I can blink and another week has rolled on by.

This month started out with a visit to Tupelo by our POTUS, however even though we had tickets to attend the rally, we passed it up due to the fact that the weather had turned chilly. It would have entailed standing outside for hours and we just didn’t think it was doable. So I guess the fact that he was in our town will be the closest we ever get to a President!

We have been finishing up some projects around the house. The remodeled night stand for the guest room is finally done. We had some issues with this thing, but in the end it turned out A-OK!

You also might remember the lamp that Patti had picked up some time ago. Another hair pulling project as we struggled to get the paint removed. Turned out it was just a matter of finding the right stripper–namely Citristrip. This stuff works fabulously with paint removal on glass or medal, however I had less success using it on wood. Here’s the lamp in all its glory. She decided to leave the bottom portion the original color. Well, not really sure what the original color was, but this is the finish that was on both the base and the lamp shade when she rescued it from Goodwill. So pretty now!

Now on to the footstool and the odd little table/stand.

This is what they looked like when we brought them home. Now after some TLC, here are the finished projects in our home!

And we rearranged the living room – for the third time—I think the third time is the charm! Still need to paint the fireplace mantle in there and then that room will be done!

The weather has been up and down here with temps in the 70’s and then down in the 30’s, usually in the same day LOL. Dress in layers seems to be the best idea to cope with the rapid changes. And if its just too chilly – well—just curl up with our knitting and crocheting and wait for a warmer day! Gotta love retirement right?