Retirement dreams.

I don't know what I'm going to do when Steve retires and we are not moving to a new location every couple of years. But if we must settle down, I'd want to restore an old farm house like the one pictured. We don't own it, I just wish that I did. It would need to be sitting on at least 10 acres. I'd have a HUGE garden, some chickens (if I can get over my irrational fear that they will flog me and peck my eyeballs out). I would have flower gardens with sitting areas.  Another thing I would like to try with my homegrown vegetables would be canning. I have never done it, but I really, really want to.  I would like to grow and can all the vegetables out of my garden so I can avoid going to the grocery store for them.  I think that my hubby would be adorable driving one of these around my little mini farm: 

Speaking of canning my vegetables, I have been looking at canning websites and this one:  http://www.freshpreserving.com/getting-started.aspx looks like a pretty good one.  I also have some books.  But I imagine the best thing I could possibly do for myself is to convince my grandma to come to me and show me how it's done.  For some reason, I keep picturing exploding jars and tainted botulism infested food. Grandma if you're reading this, HELP!

Steve and I still have no idea what we are going to do when he retires from the Air Force next spring. He's still young and has another career ahead of him.  I will see what he says when I suggest that he becomes a Farmer so I can putter around in a vegetable garden.  Well, I guess he doesn't have to be a Full time Farmer. He just needs to be home long enough to do all the manual labor for me.

I hope that eventually we settle fairly close to family because I miss them. I think I've had enough of living far away from everyone, but where my husband goes I will follow.  I don't even want to think about what I'm going to do when I grow up.  That's a whole other Blog topic.



It was a lovely day for a Grape Stomp!

Fortunately for us here in Charleston, we did not sustain any real damage from Hurricane Irene. So, the day after Irene left our area Steve and I went to the Irvin House Winery in Wadamalaw, SC for their annual Grape Stomp Festival. Just a sidenote: The owners of Irvin House Winery also started a fantastic vodka distillery called Firefly - home of Sweet Tea Vodka. The distillery is also on the same property as the winery and for $6.00 per person, has tastings as well. If you've never tried it, Steve and I  recommend mixing 1.5 oz of Firefly sweet tea vodka with Lemonade.  It's delicious and dangergous because you can't taste the alcohol. Anyway, they also make some delicious wines with the Muscadine grape, so the the flavor is very distinct and the aroma is much like grape juice. 

The winery had a portion of their harvest available for sampling the grapes.  Eating a muscadine grape is not like eating a grape from the grocery.  The skin is very thick and it's difficult to just bite part of the grape.  If you try this technique, it will squirt all over you (experience talking here). So, you have no choice but to put the entire grape into your mouth, but be careful of the seeds. If you bite into one, they are very bitter.

There was also a Lucy look-alike contest.  It was entertaining to see all the ladies dressed as Lucy. The lady in this picture was the winner. She did a very good Lucy impersonation.

It was a nice break for us to sit under the trees in the South Carolina heat and share a nice chilled bottle of wine and listen to live music.  We did have to wonder if switching to wine is a function of getting older. We seem to gravitate more toward having a nice glass of wine when we're relaxing rather than a beer these days.  Back in my twenties, I swore I could never be one of "those" red wine drinkers. 

Change is good y'all!