Ready to Camp

This will be a busy week as I prepare to take our camper out for the first time since fall. I am excited that we are going, but we will be camping primitive and the weather is supposed to be hot and humid with chances of thunderstorms. It also means that food will be in coolers as well as drinks and that ice will be mandatory.

We have two campers. We have a bumper pull Springdale that I really like and we have a nice Corn Pro horse trailer that has living quarters in it that have been fixed up nicely. In the horse trailer, we have a table, sofa, bed, refrigerator, and microwave along with cabinets in it. We also have a nice camp toilet in it so that we don't have to go out to the restrooms in the middle of the night. I prefer taking the bumper pull camper when we camp primitive as it has a gas or electric refrigerator and we have an actual bathroom. It has two sinks and plenty of storage.

My husband wants to take the horse trailer this time because if not he will have to make two pulls down and he doesn't want to do that. I understand, but I feel that the horse trailer is not as convenient as the bumper pull in this situation. Both are better than a tent, as I truly did not like that. I am by far a fancy, spoiled person, but I was truly miserable the weekend that we took a tent and camped.

I am happy to say that I am excited about the first campout. I just wish the weather would have been predicted to be a little better. Memorial Day is usually a full weekend at the park. Once we return from this trip, we will only be about three weeks out from our big campout that we take yearly. It is usually a 9 day adventure. It is at a lake where we will be camped lake side and the horses will have a barn to stay in. We usually do some fishing on that trip. I'm sort of excited about it although I wanted to do something different this year.

Cooking over the open fire is one of my favorite things about camping. Our friends that camp with us like to cook as well so we do some great eating while we are there. I do enjoy that and breakfast is simply the best over the fire. 

Well, I have the granddoll today and I work with my in-laws so I better get busy. There is some serious work to do this week.
Until our trails meet again, have a great ride!

Royal Wedding Day

Along with thousands of others, I am watching the royal wedding this morning. Prince Harry, the youngest son of the late Princess Diana will be marrying Meghan Markle. This wedding brings with it some broken traditional rules as well as some controversy with Meghan being a divorced woman and some family turmoil in her life.

Rachel Meghan Markle is an former American actress as well as an activist and humanitarian. She is the daughter of Tom Markle and Doria Ragland and was born on Aug. 4, 1981. She was in the movie "Horrible Bosses", as well as "Suits" and "Dater's Handbook". She was previously married to Trevor Engelson from 2011-2013. She is currently on her way to Windsor Castle for her wedding to Prince Harry.

Meghan's father will not be attending the wedding and walking her down the aisle due to heart surgery or as rumors have flew that he did not want to embarrass her following photos that appeared this week of him being fitted for a tux. The only member of her family attending will be her mother. Her two half siblings will not attend as well and rumors are that she does not have close ties to either of them.

Meghan has spoke her being the child of bi-racial parents, which she fully embraces. Her engagement to Prince Harry brought about many comments as to what social significance this would have to the country and the world. I personally do not think that it truly matters to the royal couple.

Well, I will be signing off now and watching this wedding as she is about to arrive at the castle.

Rain, Rain

Rain, the glorious water falling from the sky. Yes, it seemed like we had quite a bit in March and maybe early April, but then it seemed to stop. I am thankful for the water that fell this morning. It was a brief rain, lasting maybe 20 minutes, but it was rain.

The farm was getting very dry and dusty and I was beginning to think that the garden would dry up before it ever started growing. I am thankful to say that I am not as worried now. I know it was a harder rain than I would have preferred, but any moisture is going to help. I won't need to water flowers today and I am hoping that we may get more later today.

I know many people are struggling with heavy rains and severe storms and I pray for safety for them but I am very thankful for the showers we were blessed with today.

Farm Work

Spring has been a long time coming this year and now that it seems that the weather has broke and we are almost having summer weather, it has been time to start doing some spring chores around here. One of the first things that I like to do is begin to clean up from the fall and winter activities that never seem to get cleaned up. I also like to start working on some flowers and making it spring pretty.

A few years ago, my husband built these flower boxes for my back porch. It is not a covered porch so everything on it gets all the winter weather and rain that we have. Things begin to not look so great. I had some old paint that I wanted to use up and I wanted these to look weathered but wanted them to be some color this year to brighten them up. I spray painted these and they now have flowers in them which I will show later. 

Both of these tire planters are in the yard and are the perfect spot for some garden plants. I prefer tomatoes and peppers in them. I didn't have pepper plants yet, so they both got tomatoes. The plants looked a little sad at first, but they are looking better. 

This bare spot here by the front steps needs some color and some fencing. I have now added lilies to it and I am thinking of adding a holly bush as well. I will show you the finished spot when I write my next post or as soon as I do something else to it. I think the turtle and the fountain will stay although the fountain doesn't work. I like it a lot!

What have you been doing? Welcome to spring!!

Adventure off the Farm - Berkeley Plantation

Step back into time as you step onto the grounds of the Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, Virginia. The year is 1619 and is Berkeley is the site of the first Thanksgiving in America. ( Yes, for many of us this goes against the history we were taught in school, but many interesting facts that we not taught in school were learned on this trip.)  Berkeley Plantation is a must see for visitors going to Williamsburg, Virginia. The scenic road that leads you out of town and to this plantation is a relaxing break from the hustle and bustle that we lead in our daily lives.

The mansion is the birthplace to Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independence and the birthplace to William Henry Harrison, who became the 9th President of the United States. The plantation also has the rights to say that "Taps", a familiar tune that is played at many military funerals and other services was written on these very grounds by  General Daniel Butterfield and first played by O.W. Norton, his bugler. 

Being that the plantation sits on the James River, the scenery is simply breathtaking and you can only imagine what it would have been like to have visitors arrive to this home and see the beauty of the plantation for the first time. 

A guided tour is given daily here by a guide dressed in era clothing and is very informative and fun. The tour takes about 45 mins and then you are allowed to tour the grounds on your own. There is a nice display of items in the basement and a video that shares more about the plantation. I highly recommend that visitors spent a few hours here to take in the beauty and history. 

Also, located on the property is a family cemetery where you can see tombstones of Benjamin Harrison and other members of the family. I personally, love to tour old cemeteries so I found this to be quite interesting. 

I highly recommend this as a point of interest to anyone traveling here. I think that you will find it to be one of the most historical plantations that you can tour here as well as one of the most informative.

Adventure Off The Farm Continued- Williamsburg, VA

I promised all of you that I would return with some more stories from my recent trip to Williamsburg, Virginia. This beautiful spring morning, I would like to share with you a place called King Arm's Tavern.

My friends and I found this to be a very unique place to eat and probably one of our favorite lunch spots of the entire trip. ( By the way, we never had a bad meal the entire trip!) If you google, King Arm's, you will learn that the original tavern was open in 1772 and that it was known for being "where the best people resorted". The rustic renovated tavern is just as beautiful and elegant as I am sure it was at that time.

 We arrived within a few minutes of them opening and we waited a few minutes to be seated. The servers were all dressed in time period clothing. Once we were seated, someone brought us water and menus and took our drink orders. The server also explained a few of the meals and allowed us time to look at the menu, which was not a huge menu but had enough of a selection of items.  Two of our group had the chicken pot pie and said it was amazing. One had crab cakes and said that they were good and I had some sort of ham and it was delicious as well. Although, it was not ham as we think of it. It was pork shoulder with some kind of sauce over it and was served with sweet potatoes that were absolutely some of the best I have ever had.

While we were waiting on our food, a gentleman dressed in era attire came out and sang for the lunch crowd a song that was done in old English and played an instrument. He was very good and it was quite the unexpected treat. The entire lunch experience was simply thrilling! Young and old seemed to be very happy to be there.

The  staff was friendly and very knowledgeable about the food. One of my friends has many allergies and had to ask a few questions about the food and was the staff was more than helpful enough. The atmosphere is very quaint and very old English, but such a break from the traditional places that we tend to eat lunch.

The tavern furnishings were that of Old English as well and very beautiful. I was only able to take a few photos but I want to share with you. The entire building seems small, but it truly is not as the upstairs is filled with tables and seating as well.

The restrooms are upstairs so I would say that if steps are an issue for you, it would be advised to find a restroom before you enter to eat. Otherwise, you are doing yourself a misfortune if you do not eat here when you are in Williamsburg. 

Have a blessed day until our trails meet again.