A video of my 101 year old mother-in-law singing Down in the Valley. “Down in the Valley“, also known as “Birmingham Jail” is a traditional American folk song. The song has been recorded by many artists including Burl Ives and Andy Griffith. The verse that mentions Birmingham Jail is in reference to the Birmingham City Jail which was “home” to some moonshiners in the 1920’s. I never knew the history of this song but when I was growing up, I had always liked to sing it with my mother. My
I start getting exciting around March for vegetable garden planting time. I love fresh vegetables and as soon as the nights start staying warm, it’s time to get it ready. We only have a small raised bed garden but we have fun planting our “crops”, watching them grow and waiting to harvest them. This is a picture of our garden in May 2017, only two months after we planted it. We purchased a small gas rototiller this year and it did an amazing job on tilling the soil. During the
Saving money is my thing and one way I do that is with low cost quick meals. I’m going to share some of my secrets with you about how I save and prepare some of my favorites. Saving on meat It’s not always easy to find coupons for meat but some of the grocery stores have coupons on the receipt for saving a certain amount on your next purchase. I’ve had them where I can save $10 on my next $40 and others save $20 on my next $75. Occasionally
In April 2017 I wrote a blog about how a rose starts from a tiny bud, then blossoms into something so beautiful. In time, the petals start to drop off and the rose dies. As a new bud appears, the circle of life continues. I compared the life of a rose to that of the life of people. We are born, we grow up and thrive, then wither and die. But like the rose, life continues when a new little person is born and a new beginning with the circle
I’ve been re-organizing and purging things in our kitchen to reduce the unneeded clutter. Looking at our 20 year old stove, I thought it may be time for a new one. the front panel control with the knobs and clock had yellowed and no matter what I tried, it wouldn’t come clean. I thought the paint had worn off until I did a little investigation. The yellowed panel was grease build up! After I came to this conclusion I could clean this and not need a know stove, I made