A Hole In The Wall It Is!

We’re learning that many places of business are closed on Sundays and or close early in these East Tennessee parts. Places like mom and pop stores and restaurants, co-ops and feed stores and most Mennonite establishments.

Well, after breaking our backs cutting, hauling and burning limbs and brush last Sunday afternoon, we opted for a bit of lunch during our break time. Alas, all the local little eateries we closed…except for the Hole In the Wall Diner in Chuckey -

This hidden gem is open till 2:00PM on Sundays and only 11 miles away, so off we went! 

As you might expect, since being one of the few places open on Sunday, the place was busy.

With only one waitress and one cook things were a tad slow. However, that wasn’t an issue as we were in no hurry. We were definitely outsiders and may have gotten a few stares or two. Several parties looked to have come from church, we on the other hand NOT so much and filthy dirty too.

Think I’m a liking these cowboy commandments -

Our smash burgers eventually arrived and they ended up being well worth the wait! The prices were super reasonable and the waitress was super nice.

We’ll definitely be keeping this place on our go-to option list and plan to stop in one of these days for breakfast, as their menu looked delicious.

Find The Critter

Can you find the critter in the below pic?!

Apologies, as the pic is a bit blurry -

I saw oodles of praying mantis egg sacks when we were clearing brush, so I’m pleased to see this little and encouraged to this there are many more out there -

This dude was crawling on the inside of the sliding screen door. It was not very cooperative when I tried to gently catch it so I could move it to a safer place, very speedy!

A Deluge I Tell Ya!

We got a bit of rain yesterday afternoon, geesh -

The skies opened and it poured! Kinda came out of nowhere too.

However, as you can see, the water is draining off Pritchard and running down our easement in a torrent! 

There used to be a trench that ran parallel along the right side of the easement but it’s long gone. We’ll be mulling this issue over and giving some serious thought to having a new trench dug to manage and control all this water, when it come and to minimize the erosion.

A Little Privacy Please

Insect fornication -

There’s just no privacy these days, geesh!

A Little Privacy Please

I spied this deer 🦌 peering into the house last evening, right through the sliding glass door! Geesh, how bout minding your own business dear (see what I did here 🤣)…

I was too slow on the camera draw. She ran off as I was trying to get closer to the window, you know to take that perfect pic, alas.

However, my brother was sitting in the living room and in a perfect spot with a perfect view . He was super quick on the camera draw and snapped this rather coolio pic.

Redneck Relics For Sure

Do you youngsters know what theses are -

I finally stopped into the Redneck Relics antiques store the other day, which is just down 11E.

An interesting place to say the least. Not very organized, rather quite messy but a fun place to get lost in.

Every Little Memory Still Finds A Way

 I Deleted Your Number Not The Pain

💔 

Shameful Really!

Tell me pro sports is out of control without telling me it’s out of control-

 Seems there should be NO complaining about the cost of food or gas or anything, when you have people willing to pay this kind of money to attend and watch prima donna, cry babies run around!

Seems we’ve lost our ways and values…

A Beer Garden

We hit up The Gentry in downtown Greeneville Friday night for some cold beer and wood-fired pizza 🍕-

It’s an outside venue situated in an old alley. The buildings on either side are in a bit of disrepair but suppose this adds to the unique charm. There’s plenty of seating options from picnic tables to couches to Adirondack chairs, covered and uncovered, even an igloo bubble. There’s a stage and they had a lone dude up there singing away on the night we stopped in. It was a relaxing atmosphere -

The pizza was tasty but smaller than we expected (not our pizza pictured) and took a while to come out -

Still getting used to the fact that generally speaking there just are not a lot of people out and about hanging and socializing in these parts.

When I was in Chicago last week we went out to an outdoor brewery on Friday night and it was hopping! Families, kids, dogs, a beehive of activity but alas not in Greeneville anyway -

Not my pic above but a good look at what the alley looks like.

Suppose I’d go back again, as the pizza was tasty

And the 16oz beers were frosty 🥶 cold.

DQ Blizzard Treat!

A choco something or other Blizzard, I don’t remember the official name, but suffice to say it was del-licious 😋 -

Rise And Grind People!

Happy Saturday morning!

It was a tad foggy here this AM at the old homestead -

But that didn’t bother the local wildlife from venturing out -

#Blessed

Striking Blue Plumage

Saw my first Indigo Bunting, a male, hanging out around our pond.

Little factoid for y’all - Buntings are known as a songbird in the cardinal family -

Like the cardinal and how their red sticks out, the Buntings blue pops and does the same !

Koulouria & Kourabiedes

I picked up some Greek cookies when in Chicago -

There is a Greek store a couple miles from my daughter’s house in Chicago that has all things Greek! From olive oils to baking ingredients to snacks and candies to delicious pre-made Greek foods, yummy 😋!

They’re not my mothers cookies, which I miss SO much, but enjoying these with a cup of coffee still rushes back some wonderful memories of my mother.

Stop by and try one before they’re gone…

What A Treat

Treated to an amazing rainbow the other afternoon while doing a bit of front porch sitting -

And no, this had nothing to do with pride month, haha, rather a mere coincidence.

#Blessed

Up Up And Away

Heading home, thank you Chicago!

It was great to see and spend time with my daughter and daughter-in-law! It was emotional and amazing to see my baby pregnant! She was a glow and looked beautiful!

Although, it was a quick trip it was perfect!

We knocked off a lot of honey-do items from their list.

I’m already looking forward to flying back out, when I’ll officially be a grandfather!

#Blessed

Proud Grandad-To-Be

The nursery looks fantastic, it’s adorable!

A few more decals to be added and curtains to be hung.

You can feel the love ❤️ in the room already!

Opa! Brunch With A Greek Twist

Sunday breakfast at Elia cafe!  The best Greek and Mediterranean brunch in Park Ridge, IL, absolutely delicious!

I went with the Spano Benedict, which is spinach and feta pie, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce with hash browns and sourdough toast - 

Great service and HUGE portions, SO delicious!

#Blessed

Up Up And Away!

I’m no longer in East Tennessee -

I’m outta here and Chicago bound!

Me Me Me

Honestly, why are people SO clueless?!

If you were boarding a plane, would you wait until you placed your bag in the overhead compartment and then, while holding up the boarding process, proceed to root around in your bag to find and take out your tablet?! All the while taking your time, as if you’re the only one that exists?

GRRR! Inconsiderate POS!

Phew! Okay, I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

Got “Flipped” Off!

Here’s an interesting one for y’all!

Actually, I find it a bit troubling if I’m being honest, and perhaps a sad sign of the times and where we are as people.

So, the picture above is an image that Amazon provided as proof that my package had been delivered - package circled in red; standard Amazon protocol.

However, the first issue is that is NOT a picture of my house! It’s NOT a picture of my stoop and front door! Nor is it a picture of my table! Which means, the package was NOT delivered to me!

The good news is that’s a picture of my neighbors house. Her stoop and front door, and her table. So no problem, we’ll stop by and simply pick up my package…

The second issue - Our neighbor, Merle, an 82 year old woman, answered the door. She was very friendly, chatty and welcoming to the neighborhood. However, she played Mickey-the-dunce and with a straight face, following a slight pause, flatly denied seeing or having any knowledge of my package - I kid you not!

The package contained a small cookie spatula, which works perfectly for flipping over easy eggs. It also had my name and address on the package too. Now, I’m guessing she wouldn’t know or recognize my name but she would most definitely know my address seeing that’s it’s new to the neighborhood! 

The one certainty that is highly unlikely is that Merle ordered a cookie spatula too. 

I’m struggling with a 82 year old nana type woman doing something like this, alas. 

All I can say is karma baby! It’s called karma and it will come a knocking on old Merle’s door one of these days.

We’ve Rehomed Some Veggie Plants!

And we’re off!

We picked up some veggie plants and got them in the ground yesterday afternoon!

Nothing fancy but that wasn’t the goal, rather hoping to further kickoff our homesteading -

(2) Early Girl tomatoes 🍅, (2) Better Boy tomatoes 🍅, (2) Green Bell Peppers 🫑 , (1) Red Bell Pepper, (3) Zucchini and (4) Cucumbers 🥒 

I have no idea how anything, except kudzu and poison ivy, can grow in this East Tennessee red dirt! We did our best to add some compost with each plant we planted so we’ll see how green our green thumbs 👍 are…

The Sky’s A Fire Tonight

What a beauty tonight -

Can’t beat front porch sitting!

#Blessed

Lights! Too Bright!

No, this is not am image from the Iran war!

So much for peaceful, relaxing nighttime front porch sitting -

This is a light that’s mounted below a cell tower, on a hill to our left when sitting on our front porch. 

As you can see it’s extremely bright, and for some odd reason, it’s pointed out not down towards the base of the tower, and directly at us!

We mistakenly assumed our homestead would be in complete darkness at night but that’s just not the case with this dude and a couple other neighbor's lights, alas.

Guessing it’ll be more bothersome come fall when the leaves have all dropped, we’ll see. Until then we’ll make the best of it, as the saying goes - “you can’t pick your neighbors…”

A tad obnoxious for sure…

Shoo! Scat! Scram!

Um, seems we have a cat now…

This was an odd site to see first thing in the morning because we do NOT have a cat!

Believe this is one of the many cats we’ve seen down at one of the neighbors houses off Pritchard.

I’d sic Ms. Trixie after it but worried she’d get her butt kicked, alas.