Category Archives: Rural Life in Mendota

Daily adventures in a rural farming community.

All I Need Is Sweet Tea

National Tourism Week was last week and this week, Mike and I had commitments everywhere. (We own a small kayak company www.adventuremendota.com if you are reading this and do not know us.) This afternoon, however, I took some time and washed the mildew off our vinyl fence and then started washing the house. We live on the river and mildew is always present in the spring and summer. However, since we have vinyl siding, it’s a pretty simple process of just spraying it off with a bleach/water solution. I also cleaned the porch and decided to take a few pictures. These pictures are so small when I entered them in the blog. Ouch! Sorry!

Just a swingin’. See that puddle under the swing? That porch is clean!!! I love the bridal veil hanging basket. Those were just $10.99 at Cecil’s Market in Bristol, VA. I went crazy and bought five.

And here’s one of those $14 chairs from Lowe’s. Honestly, sometimes plastic is just better. We can scrub this and stack this and so on. Want to know about those cute pillows? They were $13.99 at Tractor Supply. I am trying not to buy junk, but I had to have these. The girl in line in front of me said “you could make them!” I told her “no, I cannot, and I sure cannot for $13.99.” Obviously she mistook me for someone who can sew well.

And here’s some of my pretty hanging plants…that sad little center basket has seedlings that I stuck in old, old hanging baskets that were in a corner of the barn. They have been in there for YEARS! I reached down and picked them up with some trepidation because I was worried a snake would be curled. I think once the seedlings take off, however, they’ll actually look pretty. At least I’m trying.

I sure like my plants. Look at that clean, yellow vinyl.

I was in Michael’s and saw fake succulents that look so real. Sorry, I’m not buying. The real ones are so easy and they breed and grow like crazy. Real is definitely better in this case. Besides they are FREE!

And basil? I love basil. This basil came from Walmart (Yes, I am a Walmart Woman.) However, there are tiny little seedlings in the pot that will join their Walmart counterpart.

I hope I can start posting here more. I actually need to revamp this as just a blog roll on the RiverCliff Cottage AirB&B I’m going to do. However, that has been slowed down as a SKUNK died near the HVAC and we didn’t know it for a few days. This has left RiverCliff Cottage with a unique smell that not everyone will appreciate. I’ll be going over and airing that out this weekend.

Thank you for stopping by.

Dark Days of Winter

I love snow. I hate winter. We have no snow, so I am hating winter.

I have spent more time than I should on Pinterest and decided I need a new kitchen. It’s not going to happen — at least not for a year or two. I have had a white kitchen and the cabinets turned yellow, but that was 20 years ago. I assume things are much better now. At any rate, I want a lighter kitchen. At the same time, I’m grateful for the kitchen I’ve had for the past 19 years.

But…at this time of year, I am always a little down. I’m very busy so that helps but still….yucky. I normally turn to organizing, but I don’t even want to do that. What does cheer me up are green plants. I so miss Evergreen Garden Center’s Bristol location. I used to walk through the greenhouse during the winter and enjoy the way it felt, smelled and looked.

I started moving plants into the kitchen. The first thing I did is have Mike put these two small shelves up. I got them at Lowe’s, and while they can’t hold more than about 10 pounds, I like that they are “floating” and you can’t see the hardware.

I did not mean to leave River’s picture there, but there it is. I took the old sifter that reminds me of the grandmother I am named after and put a plant in it. I put an old mixer that also reminds me of her beside it.

Now, when I walk by it, I think of her. She always smelled so good because she had a “bubby” bush and she kept the dried bubby flowers in her apron pocket.

Put some plants on the cabinet. I’ve been rotating them with others in the house so they don’t start to look “poorly” as it’s not the best location for them.

Made a little vignette in the corner and put a plant there as well.

The Sweetest Girl Ever DeeDee got me those little piggy salt and pepper shakers from Magolia Market. I love them. I think of her every time I go get dog food from that jar. The little house plant makes me happy as well. Here’s a close up.

Oink.

Here’s something else I finally put on the wall. Neth made me this clock during his freshman year at college. Two years ago!!

I love it.

These are the worst pictures ever.

I even put plants in my pot rack. Pot racks are out of vogue for the moment, but I still have mine. My kitchen isn’t bright like I want it but it is warm and friendly.

I’m feeling better just looking at those houseplants!!! Does winter make you BLUE, too?

January Weather In Virginia

Our weather has been crazy lately. Less than a week ago, we were right in the middle of multiple days of below freezing weather. The river, which is low due to lack of rain, transitioned to a white popsicle. She’s a “purty” thang!!

So that picture was on January 5, and this is the scene today in my backyard. Today is January 9. What you see on the clothesline is my mattress pad. It was sunny and 60 so I hung it out to dry — and dry it did!!! Weather in Southwest Virginia is always interesting!

It as so nice outside that I put my houseplants outside for some sunshine and a good watering. These are a few of them.

I think they enjoyed it. The taller of these plants is a Fiddle Leaf Fig. Do you know how hard it is to find a Fiddle Leaf Fig in the Tri-Cities? Once in a while Evergreen gets them, but I’ve never been able to get there in time to get one. I called a couple of florists and they thought they could get one for me, but they never called back. So…Amazon to the rescue. I never dreamed that I could get a healthy house plant and get it from Amazon, but folks….it worked. I took pictures of it the day it arrived but I can’t find them. It was mid-August. The plant has grown at least 12 inches since that time. So, the lesson here is that even though it’s always best to shop local, sometimes you can’t. When you can’t, Amazon does a fine job — even with houseplants.

North Fork On a Winter Day

We have had several days of below freezing temperatures…morning are 10 or 11 degrees with a colder wind chill. Ouch. My sweet boy, River, does not understand why we are not walking him twice per day. River typically is walked three miles each day. Mike has taken him a few of these mornings, but I have not. I hate the cold. We’ve been taking him to the dog park at Sugar Hollow. He likes this, but he does not see it as a replacement. He sees this as a possible addition to his daily regimine of all things being for River, but no..we have not been given a pass on the no walking thing that has been occurring. The result is that he is getting lots of toys, attention, and yes, food. Poor River. Next Friday is a milestone. River has been with us two years and has never been groomed. That all changes when this little ~~dog~~ shetland pony goes for his appointment next week.

I took this picture of the North Fork in front of our house on Tuesday on my way to work at about 8:00 am. The river had started to gather ice but there were darker spots where the water had no ice on top.

Here’s another picture of the same place in the river taken this morning. We haven’t had any snow to speak of so this is all ice that is coating the water. It’s not thick enough to walk on but it’s thick enough to be “interesting.”

Without snow, I am not liking winter. Snow is magic. This weather is just cold. And there is no snow on the horizon, yet I look at pictures of my niece Lacy and she’s in Charleston throwing snowballs!!

Mendota Trail Update

For those of you interested in the Mendota Trail, there is a newly established website for the Mendota Trail. You may visit it here. The picture below is of the ribbon cutting of the first mile.

Mendota Festival 2017

The Mendota Festival for 2017 was held this past weekend. We started on Friday night with our beloved local musician, Oscar Harris, followed by the Poor Valley Girls. About 100 people showed up for the performance. They got a great show. There is so much “heart” in these small festivals, and that heart extended to getting the stage ready for the performance. Oscar’s wife, Katie, took an old stage in an old building and transformed it into a front porch set up for just a little pickin’ on a Friday night.

Every front porch has to have some flowers to pretty it up and ours was no exception.

On Saturday, we had a breakfast prepared by Liz Kiser and her gang of helpers. I manned a General Store that had all sorts of beautiful creations. Most were made by Katie Harris and Dottie Dye. Here’s a few of them…

I loved this tiger tailed tutu. The tutus are for ages 2-5. I don’t have a 2-5 year old to buy this for, but I’d like to! I can imagine a little cat face painted on with this cute little tutu.

She had every color. The green one was awfully sweet. Most have hair accessories to go with them. Sometimes a wand as well.

Another…if you want one of these. I can hook you up but you’d need to pay shipping.

How about a lady bug?

Or Christmas outfit.

Feeling blue?

I bought this for the About Face Bootox event in October.

Here’s another one.

There was a Mendota history room that was set up…very cool. I’ll take you through it. Here’s a nod to education. At one time, Mendota was a center for education. There’s a thread here…”at one time.” I want that to change but that’s another subject for another time.

Our rural, farming roots…tobacco basket, milk churn, patchwork quilts…a sign for the Mendota General Store. History.

Arts…creativity…shopkeepers. On the second shelf is pottery made in Mendota. It is believed to be Mort’s Pottery. You can Google Mort’s Pottery and get the history. There were several potters in the area because of our clay.

Here’s a closer picture of one of the pieces… and right below it you’ll see a pair of stockings priced at 50 cents from Faye’s Gift Shoppe. She was my cousin, but I was instructed to call her “Auntie Faye” because of her age. I loved to shop in her store.

Faces of Mendota…

Closer….

A nod to the North Fork. Hmmm…where are the kayaks?

The Masonic Lodge which is no longer in existence…this whole thing is beautiful, wonderful and sad at the same time. In the picture below, you’ll see an old jar and some items in plastic. That is a jar that was placed in a corner of the old Masonic Lodge building back in 1917. It was discovered last year.

Churches of Mendota…

And there was a corner devoted to music…Oscar Harris, Bill Clifton, Dale Jett, the Carter Family…all threads of our heritage. It’s behind the beautiful fan quilt.

And this quilt tho… I want this fan quilt.

Here’s some history about the fan quilt.

And others…

A more recent one…

Dottie Dye and Katie Harris put this room together. Pretty awesome. I cannot thank them enough. They have such an eye for beauty and respect for history. We are fortunate that they invested their time, talent and energy into getting this together.

Concurrent with the festival, the Washington County Public Library hosted a book sale in what I recall being the 5th or 6th grade room at Hamilton. I still hold a grudge over this neighborhood school being closed. We bus our little ones a long way in Washington County…or we send them to Scott County which is much more convenient. Or we home school.

Here’s the ladies who manned the booksale. Thank you!

This festival comes at an interesting time for Mendota. We are at a crossroads on many things. Funds that were raised by the festival will go toward paying for a Preliminary Architectural Report which will tell the story of what is required to make the community center and library a safe, warm, attractive place for our community. Or not. Perhaps it’s better to start over.

We do not yet know, but we are not afraid to dream.

September 13, 2017 After The Kayaking

Hello! It’s me again. As small business owners operating only about 100 days per year, we give it a lot while we are open. Once closed, it’s easy to just sit back and do nothing or surf on the internet and waste time on social media. Guilty. However, we closed on Labor Day and it’s been over a week and I’m ready to make sure that the fall and winter are productive — not just in doing projects around the house, but productive in that we enjoy ourselves.

But, today was productive around the house. I cannot recall when we last really cleaned our garage, but this blog can. It was June 2013. That’s not to say that we didn’t sweep etc. but to pull things out and clean behind them, well, we’ve not done as well as we should. It looked so good back then…

I did a pretty good job labeling and putting things in place. Did I keep them that way? For a while, I did. However, this morning while Mike was at the dentist, I walked out and took a hard look at the garage. It looked bad. I took these with my ipad. That corner…it surfaced as a junk spot. I hate that.

In serious need of decraptification. I went through and sorted everything. I did this by myself while Mike was at the dentist. He came home anticipating a nap. Instead, he found everything but the freezer and the two shelves out in the driveway. Everything. In addition, the sky was dark as if it was getting ready to rain. Ouch! Thankfully, he jumped in and helped, and thankfully, it did not rain. One truckload went to the waste disposal station. The rest was wiping items and determining what to do with them. At 3:43 pm today, we came back in the house with a much cleaner garage.

One of the primary uses of this garage is storing my canning jars. I did not can this summer, but I’m not giving it up. Home canned items are tastier, and there is a special feeling in opening them up and thinking “I made this.” Also, in a world where disasters are more common and sometimes the food supply chain is interrupted, it makes me feel safe. So tease me and tell me I’m a prepper wannabe. You are probably right! At any rate, I have have lids, rings and jars on hand for next year.

Here’s how things ended up looking after all of our work. Have you ever seen so much toilet paper? I didn’t realize I’d got a little cray cray over toilet paper. I like to have toilet paper and paper towels on hand at all times and I shop the sales, but I’m at over 50 rolls now.

Garage

Some things in the garage organization project of 2013 that really work well –using Sam’s Club boxes to “house” like things.

Another thing is the chalkboard. We could never recall when the Waste Disposal Station was closed or open. This works out so well. Plywood, chalkboard paint, and four yardsticks!

Another thing that I love is having peg board to hold my grocery store bags and laundry basket and clothespins. (I still dry clothes on the line in warm months.) I assume most people like to use their own bags, but it’s very difficult to get out of the house without forgetting them. Since I have them hanging right by the car door, it’s simple to grab and go. The left side of the garage catches recycling, keeps cat litter easy to store and has my grocery story bags. That has worked very well. Mike wishes the floor looked better. I’m like…”it’s a garage.”

So as I slide back into being busy after a week of being lazy, I’m going to bed with a clean garage. Feels good my friend. I felt so out of sorts this past week, but finishing something as reinvigorated me. Did I tell you I no longer have honeybees? Yes that is a bit of a loss. I came across some honeybee stuff in the garage and felt a little sink.

Not having my little flying friends is a loss, but I think the thing that matters most to me is that life is full and has meaning. I’m 61. I don’t have to impress everyone or be liked by everyone, but I need to like myself. And I do.

My fall and winter is going to be focused on doing some work for About Face, going on several mini vacations with Mike, continuing to organize and clean my house, getting the guesthouse ready to operate as an Air B&B next summer, updating this website and my Adventure Mendota website, finishing up a quilt I recently started and learning some new things. Since I get more done when I blog, I’m going to blog even if no one reads it!

And in the late spring, well, it’s be all about this again…

Mendota Flooding Part I

We have had two full days of rain following an already rainy week here in Mendota, Virginia. The North Fork of the Holston has “just had it” and is getting ready to flood. I called this Mendota Flooding Part I because no doubt when I wake up tomorrow morning, the river will be in the roads.

Here’s some pictures. Standing on Civil Drive looking at the Mendota Bridge.

And here’s another look…

Civil Drive was flooded, but this actually happens frequently. No biggie here.

Standing on the bridge looking forward to the community of Mendota. Clinch Mountain is covered in fog.

And then there’s this…looking back toward Civil Drive.

Driving down Mendota Road where creeks are going crazy…this is at Katie and Oscar Harris’ house.

Water running off of Clinch Mountain…too much for the culvert to handle.

These swinging bridges are vulnerable if the water keeps rising, which it’s suppose to do.

River bank…

Adventure Mendota’s dock. It may hold…it may not. We just do the best we can.

I’ll take more tomorrow!!

Progress Report – 2017 Mendota Cemetery Quilt

Each Friday, provided someone doesn’t get sick, the machines start whirring and the iron starts heating as work continues on the 2017 Mendota Cemetery Quilt. A few weeks ago, I posted and showed you the center of the quilt. The colors are intense and vibrant, even though this picture doesn’t look that way. I love these intense colors. Can you tell who picked out the pieces?

Color and shading of the fabric are important components of quilting. It is a combination of good fabric, math, artistry and sewing skills. And ironing! I included ironing because I am the “ironing person” next Friday. I have not sewn a stitch. I never do, but I suppose that will change at some point. Right now, Patsy Carrier and I do the majority of the ticket selling so we get a pass.

The pieces below are softer in color than the ones that are pictured above. They are the new “row” beyond the center section of the quilt. The next section will even be more muted. We haven’t got that one done yet.

I reached out to the Graphic Arts group at the Scott County Vocational School to ask if they will print our tickets. For nonprofits, they will sometime help us out and it saves almost $50-$75.

Someone asked last week why the quilt is called the “Cemetery Quilt.” They thought –“is it for a funeral?” The answer is no. It is to continued the time-honored Southern tradition of a cemetery being maintained and present for families during their time of need. In lieu of charging for the burial, we ask that these families make donations in the future so that others can also benefit. The reality is that many bury their family members, and we don’t hear from them again to aid monetarily or to help clean up occasionally. Their disappearance leaves a burden on the remaining folks who do honor their responsibility.

If you are reading this and you have family or friends buried at the Mendota Cemetery, please make a donation or buy a number of these tickets. If you wish to participate in a clean-up day, message me and I”ll get the word to the right person.

We all have a responsibility to do what we can.

Home Chef

For the past two years, I have often seen advertisements from Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, and so forth for food that is fresh, proportioned and ready to cook. My friend, Monica, posted pictures on Facebook from Home Chef, and I messaged back and forth with her about it. I decided to give it a try.

The meals are $9.95 per person which sounds expensive unless you are cooking for two people. My first week was for five meals and I received $30 off for being a new customer. Five meals is a bit much. Live and learn. The food arrived by Fedex on Wednesday.

The whole purpose of this experiment is (1) make me cook because I hate cooking; and (2) attempt to eat a bit healthier.

My first dish was the chicken and dumplings which doesn’t really fall into the healthy category. It was very rainy on Wednesday and it was my first try. I didn’t care for it and barely touched mine. I put the leftovers in the frig and Mike said it was so very good the NEXT day. It was a bit runny on day one — so much so that I ended up putting it in a bowl.

Today I fixed salmon. It’s one of the only seafoods that I like, and it is heart healthy. It was Teriyaki Ginger-Glazed Salmon with stir-fried bok choy and carrots. It turned out pretty well. I didn’t “plate” if very well, however, and I didn’t attempt to take a good picture. I hope this does not look like throw up.

I did not sear my salmon properly and it fell apart. However, in spite of the fact that the presentation stunk, it was good. Very good.

In making this dish, all of the ingredients were included except salt, pepper, and olive oil. Here’s the bok choy.

Confession — I am so unsophisticated that I didn’t know what bok choy was. Only by process of elimination on the ingredients did I figure it out. There were also mini containers and plastic bags of ginger, green onions, Fresno chili pepper and garlic. Here’s what all of the greens and spices looked like together.

Looks kind of pretty, and Mike came in and said “I love watching you cook!” Honestly, I’d rather clean house than cook. I love living in Mendota, but I do miss Take Out Taxi, pizza delivery, Chinese food delivery, etc. Take Out Taxi was the best, because you could have food delivered from any restaurant. We still eat out a lot even though we live 17 miles from a restaurant (if you don’t count the Rally Mart gas station which is about 11 miles).

I love the cute little containers that Home Chef uses. Here’s fresh peas in what looks like a 3 oz plastic container that resembles something you’d get at the pharmacy.

I have three more meals to prepare this week. What was I thinking!!! Tomorrow it is some type of pork chop dish. I skipped next week’s order because...because I wanted to!! Actually, I wanted to try more of the ones I have here before I purchased additional meals. If I find several dishes that we like that are healthy, I’m going to continue using Home Chef but I believe I’ll drop it down to twice weekly.

Another good thing about this service is that you learn to cook with ingredients you might not otherwise use. We eat salmon quite often, but for me to eat it and like it, Mike has to grill it. This is the first time I’ve fixed it indoors and been able to eat it.