With All The Little Pieces!

The heart knows what the heart wants 💗

Courts In Session

We stopped in at the Jonesborough court house the other afternoon to take care of a little business -

The Ten Commandments posted at the entrance to the court house - 

Flags a fluttering -

A nice old, historic East Tennessee town.

How Bout Some ETSU Hoops!

We took in an ETSU men's basketball game against Wofford college, at Freedom Hall, this past Wednesday night.

Although, ESTU fell to Wofford 69-72 it was a great take -

Gotta be honest, the ETSU mascot was kinda lame. He was obscure and really didn't get out there to rile the crowd.  Rather he remained more in the background and was just blah -

The highlight of the night was the Honda Small Dog Race that was held on the court during the half time. Eight small dogs (under 20 pounds); defending champion Jubel, marketing icon Poppy, and six newcomers: Remi, Oscar, Oliver, Molly, Fenrir, and Dobby, competed for a $1,000 PetSmart gift card -

Only one of the dogs new what to do and what direction to head in out of the gate, see below, and won easily -

The fan favorite was a three-legged dog but he came up a leg short, DOH -

Another fun East Tennessee event!

This Ain't NO Door Dash Delivery

A new meaning to "home delivery"!

Hark what's that up in the road ahead? Could it be?

Will wonders never cease?! Yes, it's our house finally being delivered! It arrived in two pieces; the back half and the front half.

The delivery crew literally blocked both the North and South bound lanes of Rt 11E in order to back down Oakdale -

The Front half -

Each piece barely made it down Oakdale. The crew was cautious to guide the drivers to stay centered on the road and to ensure they had enough clearance from all wires as they made their way backwards toward Pritchard -

The left turn from Oakdale to Pritchard is extreme. There would have been no way either of those trucks would have been able to take that left, which is why they backed down.  It allowed them to back far enough and then pull onto Pritchard.  However, tree limbs and branched needed to be cut, using a chainsaw, from the roof of the house in order to make the turn without damaging the house -

Both turned and working their way towards our easement and onto our property -

The back half of the house being pulled up our driveway -

They turned the unit around so it was facing the proper direction -

Then put it in place overtop the footers and in it's finally resting place -

We were allowed inside the back half and here is our view looking out the kitchen slider -

The front half making it's way up and being turned -

Before being placed in it's spot a atop the footings - 

The delivery team is also the crew that will be installing the supports atop the concrete footers. They planned to get the supports for the rear section in place and finalized that afternoon with plans to return next week, depending on the weather to set the front half and then connect and seal both half together!

Progress!

Snow Cover Mountain Views

We went back roads to our farm the other morning and instead of jumping on Rt 11E in the Jonesborough area and instead took Old State Road 34, which is a windy, narrower road with oodles of farms and cattle and land all along.

Although, these pic doesn't do justice to seeing the snow covered mountains off in the distance, suffice to say it was beautiful - 

Beautiful East Tennessee!

The 11E Diner

Finally stopped in for lunch at the 11E diner on W Jackson Blvd in Jonesborough.

I've had my eye on this place for a while now.  The parking lot is typically full around noontime, which led me to believe that the locals know it as a good place.

Went with the Philly steak sandwich and fried, which wasn't too bad, although a bit greasy.  Should have gone with the biscuits and gravy, which is really what I had a hanker'n for, especially after seeing someone at a neighboring table have biscuits and gravy delivered -

Perhaps, a better breakfast spot and rest assured we'll be stopping in one of these mornings to try the biscuits and gravy!

IM Spy Something Yellow...

These miniature daffodils don't know whether to keep blooming or pause with this crazy East Tennessee weather... 

Soon, very soon, these lovelies will be popping, as the temps are predicted to warm up considerably in the coming week.

Daffodils are one of the first signs that winter is losing its grip...

Find The Critter

Can you find the critters in the below pic -

These ladies we're hiding out along the fence line of our farm this morning.

Guessing they're a bit confused as to what's happening to their once private and untouched area.

Hoping we can all coexist.  It's nice to see and watch them and I'm looking forward to doing more of it from our front porch, once we're in and settled -

However, consider yourself warned that you all need to mind your Ps and Qs and stay out of our gardens, when eventually planted...

"Shell" Shocked Perhaps

I don't think our pond turtle know what to do with this crazy East Tennessee weather.

We're down into the twenties yesterday and today but a week earlier, when I took the above pic, it was nearing sixty.

Shoot, I don't know what to do with this weather...

However, that being said, I certainly picked the right time to move from Boston!  They just got hammered with over twenty inches of snow!  On top of the twenty of so that was already on the ground.

Kudos to small victories.

We Went To "Flight" School

We stopped in at the Johnson City Brewing Co., on Walnut street, yesterday afternoon and took flight!

We've driven by this past a dozen times or so and it's always been, or looked to have been, closed. However, it was open when we drive by yesterday, so we popped in.

They had quite the variety of beers to choose from -

Therefore, we opted for a beer flight, so we could try several different types - 

The bartender was super friendly. He knew all the beers being offered, made some suggestions and let us try several samples too.

My only critic, which seems to be typical of most smaller breweries, is they don't offer a food menu. Rather they offer, for a fee, snacks, like small bags of chips and pretzels.

Another nice experience.

Oil Change Via Oil Extraction

I finally had the oil in my "cah" changed the other afternoon.

I had a coupon to Valvoline, an instant oil change business here in East Tennessee, so I went there and had a pleasant experience.

As I pulled up to the business, they opened one of the garage door and had me pull right in. I never had to get out of my cah! I remained in the driver seat, where the technician, on their computer, came to me. They gathered my information, asked what services I was interested in and went to work.

Seems this place extracted (sucked out) my oil versus the traditional gravity drain via the drain plug.  They simply removed the oil dipstick and placed a long narrow tube down and sucked the oil out, see first pic below -

They measured the proper amount of synthetic oil needed for my cah into a separate container, then  poured it into my engine - 

All in all it was a good experience. They asked some up front questions about air filters and fuel additives but otherwise NO upselling or "finding" of issues needing replacements. Fluids were topped off, e.g. windshield washer, tested my battery and put air in my tires.  They were friendly, professional and through, even wiping their finger prints (if there were even any) off the hood once they closed it.

(Trying To) Getting "Acquainted"

Our cousins have two dog, Ms. Violet and Mr. Snoop, both still in their puppy stages.

They're both great dogs, well trained and super friendly and personable, however, Ms. Trixie doesn't see it the same way. Ms. Trixie wants nothing to do with them and will constantly bark at them when she see them and will lunge and snap at them if we're all out in the yard at the same time, which is why I usually keep Ms. Trixie on a leash.

Here's an action shot of Ms. Trixie chasing off Ms. Violet -

I'd like to think that by slowly introducing them that they're getting better, see below. You can see they're both relaxed and coexisting but it's short lived -

They don't need to be BFFs but it would be nice if they could behave and tolerate being out in the yard together.  Ms. Trixie is just too set in her ways and at her age I don't see her changing much but we'll keep trying with fingers crossed.

Click the link below to watch and see how happy-go-lucky Ms. Violet is while trying to win over Ms. Trixie's attention, and how grumpy and defensive Ms. Trixie is -

"Trixie and Violet Getting Acquainted" 

Our New Mail Receptacle III

Monkey see, monkey do!

It seems our neighbors followed our lead and installed new posts for their mailboxes -

Here is the pic I took after installing our new mailbox and post.  There wasn't much keeping the other two posts standing, so replacements were overdue -

Certainly looks better!

A Rural King Of A Store

Took a road trip to Rural King in Kingsport yesterday.

It's quite the place. A Tractor Supply store on steroids of sort.  A BIG store with endless farm and garden supplies, clothing, hunting supplies, house hold items and even grocery type food, and all at fairly reasonable prices.

Although, they had about a dozen tubs set up to house baby chicks, ducks, geese and guineas, there were only a couple tubs that actually had residents, see below -

Just like Tractor Supply, these stores offer up these chicks as "straight run" or "unsexed".  Straight run chicks are cheaper to buy from the hatcheries, so I get why stores would chose this option but I don't understand why anyone would want to take a risk on buying straight run birds for their home flocks.  I would never, it's just not worth the risk, the time, the money or the effort to learn 3 or 4 or 5 months down the road of effort to find out you have males.

Also, the signs on these tubs listed the chicks as "mixed" breeds!  Well, I'm NOT interested in that approach either.  I want to know what breed(s) I'm committing to up front.

However, that being said, it was still SO very tempting!  

A Penny For Your Thoughts?

We took in the Ole Crow Tavern today!

It has the words "Ole" and "Tavern" in it's name, so how could we not stop in?

We were pleasantly surprised to see they had Xul's peanut butter and jelly beer on tap, so a couple very frosty 25oz mugs of this wonderful elixir pour-some-more (please)! Plus it's gluten free, so how can you go wrong, seriously -

The "L" shaped bar top is made of US coins; mostly pennies and rather cool looking!

The house made Deviled Eggs with Maple Bacon appetizer was scrumptious!  They're NOT my mothers deviled eggs but the maple bacon kicked it up a couple notches -

Pulled pork sandwich, with their house made fries was delicious too -

So, when in Kingsport, TN, stop in for a ice cold wobbly-pop and some grub!

I give it two thumbs up 👍👍

A Visiting Quartet

We had 4 visitors this morning!

They were on guard but not too skittish and seemed relaxed, as they slowly poked around and nibbled here and there.  They lingered for a while, then slowly worked their way out of site, over the hill -

No gardens or flowers for them to raid today; so today they were welcomed guests.