Some final words for Clementine...

Clementine
12/10/2011

Dear Clementine,

Aside from saying my final goodbyes to my Granny Knott, saying my final goodbyes to you has been one of the absolute hardest things that I have ever had to do in the past 29 years. A very special person in my life told me one time that the best way to deal with losing someone so special to you is to write them a letter. I know this works because I've done it before, so I'm doing it again. You weren't a person, and I'm sure you can't read my blog, but this is something that I had to do. To some it may seem silly, just like they thought it was silly of me to bring you home in the first place. To those folks, I elegantly extend the lovely digit between my pointer and ring finger on my right hand. I'm sure those folks know who they are.

Anyhoo, moving right on along...

I just want to take a short lil bit to THANK YOU so very much for letting me and my family take care of you for the past year and three months. From the first minute I saw you and Jasper, I knew that you both belonged at Roads En Farm. It was obvious that you were much older than Jasper and not quite as spry as he was, but I instantly knew what a sweetheart you were and I made a promise to myself that no matter how much longer your life was going to be, that I was going to make it the BEST that I could for you.

I will forever cherish the times that we had together. I won’t ever forget the few times that I was actually able to ride you before I felt like I was a lil too much for you to lug around. You helped me fulfill a lifelong dream – to ride and own an animal like you on my own land. Just for the record, you are the only equine that has ever set foot on my front porch and then walked into my hallway. I really wish I would have had my camera ready for that one...

Thank You so much for letting Hudson experience those same feelings of pride and happiness when he would grab your halter and lead you all over the farm. And thank you for letting us sling the family lil ones over your saddle time and time again. You never complained or acted grumpy – as if you knew the happiness that you were bringing us.

 

 

Your gentle patience will really, really be missed – not only by us, but by Jasper too. You were such a calming, guiding force in his life and I hope that you can somehow let him know that you are fine, and that everything will be okay.

From this point on, I have done all that I can for you. The one last promise that I can make to you is this: I will do my best to make sure that Jasper is happy and well taken care of until his final resting day comes and he can be with you once again.

The song below says a great deal about you two...I will always think of yall when I hear it:
 Little Pony and Great Big Horse - Drive By Truckers 

Thanks again Clementine, for everything that you brought into our lives…You will forever hold a very special place in my heart and you will forever be a special part of Roads En Farm…

Rest in peace my sweet sweet girl.

lIVE mUSIC!

I love music.

Especially LIVE music...I have ever since I can remember. I was blessed (and still am) to have a musician as a parent. Both of my parents from the get-go exposed me to a ton of music and helped me to cultivate and develop a never-ending love for the art.


Up until a few years ago, I really hadn't been able to experience LIVE music the way I have always wanted to. You see, I am a bit of an old soul when it comes to music. As a kid, sure I had a few NKOTB tapes (and yes there was even a Vanilla Ice tape too that somehow found its way into the mix), but my faves even as a kid were the The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers, The Outlaws, Marshall Tucker, The Doors, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath...(I could go on for days). Anyways, my point is with such an age gap between me and my faves, seeing them live has always been impossible. The Grateful Dead for example - Garcia passed away in 1995. I was only 13, so there went that possibility. Then, The Doors, of course was ruled out waaaaay before I was even a thought of a thought when Morrison passed away in the early 70's. See the pattern here?? All the others either weren't together or touring anymore, or I was simply too young to catch them when they were.

I was lucky enough though that I eventually did catch some live shows with my parents...My first ever full-blown concert was the Allman Brothers at Walnut Creek. I was probably 15 and the bug bit me hard...I knew right then that if any of my favorite bands ever came close enough for me to go see live, that I would do everything possible to make it happen. Over the next several years, I saw the Allmans again, Boston, AC/DC, Kiss, and Lynyrd Skynyrd with my parents. The last time I saw the Allmans, I was about 8 months preggers and I almost got into a fight...When you hear frat boys a few feet away saying "Dude!! The pregnant chick was gonna swing!!" You know that it's prolly time to be headin' fo the exit. It was rainy and I was barefooted surrounded by people under the influence...'Nuff said.

After having our son, we took a break from shows...Not that we wanted to, but we just couldn't swing it with everything we had going on. Plus, you have to SAVOR those moments when kids are always sweet and totally adore you. Save adult fun for those moments when you are considered 'uncool' amongst the 6-10 year old crowd. 

Shortly after having Hudson, I heard that Phil Lesh and Bob Weir were touring as The Dead and were coming to Greensboro! Not only that, but Warren Haynes was touring with them!! There weren't even words...This was my chance to see and hear the closest I would ever get to the Dead!! One of my all-time faves!! The very day that tickets went on sale, I stood in line with about 30 deadheads at the ticket booth for about three hours (the most pleasant time I've ever had waiting in a line and boy do I HATE lines). I was eighth in line and the rest is history. It was SUCH an awesome show and I got to share it with Chris and my parents. How cool is it that you get to enjoy a Dead concert with your parents and spouse AND you know that they are enjoying it just as much as you are?? I really had a 'things come to full circle' moment...it was nice.

Us on Shakedown Street...April 2009

Also somewhere after we had Hudson, we discovered Widespread Panic. From the very first note I ever heard, I was sucked in (we both were actually). Here was a band (minus one member) that has been together for a considerable amount of time and was playing kick ass music that sounded NOTHING like what was on the radio. After hours and hours of getting lost in CDs and DVDs our chance finally came to see them live back in April of this year. The Dead will always hold a very special place in my lil musical heart, but Panic blew me away. We hit a two night run in Asheville with several friends who had been to numerous Panic shows and decided that we would all have to hit every Panic show possible together. This past September, we all got another two night run in Raleigh AND we were lucky enough to get tickets to their New Year's Eve show!

Us @ PANIC - April 2011 - Asheville Civic Center

Seeing Panic live has given me the chance to live out a few of my dreams...They are one of the first bands that I have LOVED and have been able to go see live! Seeing the band or act live that you absolutely love is like no other experience. It makes my heart feel like a kid on Christmas morning. We were lucky enough to have FRONT ROW both nights in Raleigh, so not only did we get to enjoy two great shows, but we got to really see the band enjoy putting on two great shows as well.

Sept 2011 - Jimmy, JB and JoJo

Sept 2011 - Schools in session

Sept 2011 WP makes me smile

Another thing that I absolutely love about going to a Panic show is the other fans...Everyone seems to be on the same page (okay, maybe some stray away, but everyone for the most part is at least in the same book) and is there to have a great time while enjoying the music. Sure things get wild from time to time, but for that many people to be in a confined place for several hours and have NO violence or problems is a beautiful thing.

CAN'T WAIT TILL NYE!!! 

Our most recent show was about a week ago at Ziggy's in Winston-Salem.

Drive By Truckers!!

We have been listening to DBT for a few years now and finally had the chance to catch them live. WOW. We wound up front row again and even after two nights of Panic front row, my ears rang nothing like they did after DBT. Gibson SGs cranked up will do a number on your eardrum when you are 5 ft away from the monitors.

Us @ DBT - Nov 2011

 This was an awesome show too because the opening act, The Alabama Shakes blew my socks off...I am not ashamed to admit that I now have a girl/music crush on their lead singer, Brittany. I swear, she is the reincarnation of Janis Joplin times like fifty. I have NEVER ever heard another woman sing AND play the guitar like that. Brittany Howard, you rock!!

The Alabama Shakes!

The Shakes and DBT rocked Ziggy's out! From the first note to the last beat of the drum, they sweated out song by song and shook the walls of that tiny lil place.
 

DBT doin' their thang

Patterson Hood and John Neff jammin' it out

I seriously think some of Mr. Hood's sweat got slung on us several times...Def. not a problemo

If you love music, you should definitely see your favorite band or act STAT...If fans don't support their faves, then artists can't do what they do!! The experiences you have at a live show are ones that you can't get anywhere else. Being able to actually see the people that created the music that you love actually perform it is an amazing thing. Being able to share it with folks that you love is a special thing too...Chris, my parents, our friends and I have so many memories over the short few years that we have been seeing live shows together that I will treasure forever.

They're NOT Shoes!

I'm one of those folks you see fall after fall, clinging onto my flipflops and sandals like there is no tomorrow. I don't know why either because I LOVE shoes, but I just have a hard time transitioning from ffs and sandals to straight up shoes that smother my lil piggies. Yep, I'll admit it...I'm one of 'those' you see rockin the North Face AND a toboggan with my fave ffs frozen to my feet. I know I'm not the only one that does this, so I haven't ever really felt that bad about it. To each his/her own, right?!?




Example#1
November 2010
North Face (check), Long Pants (check), Birkenstocks (check)



Example#2
November 2010
Double-Layered Shirts (check), Long Pants (check), Rainbows (check)

                                                                           

Mmkay, so you get the picture....

For some reason this year, I haven't felt the need to cling to my Rainbows and Birkenstocks the way I always have. Not that there's a shortage in the love dept for my two fave pairs of shoes, but I was ready to tell them buh-buy a lot earlier than normal and that struck me as being weird. Am I feeling okay? Am I coming down with something? WTF Abigayle?

Because of this, I have had to get way too creative with my shoe/outfit selections here lately. My body was saying I need shoes covering my toes and my toes were saying "Noooooo....don't cover us up yet!!" I have already broken out the Uggs (normally waaaay to early for me), I have pushed the business casual envelope at work with my cowboy boots and Chucks, and my beloved Mary Jane Crocs are on their last lil legs.

Enter these guys...

Sanuks!!

The Hubs and Hud surprised me with these for my birthday! I gotta hand it to my boys...They know me like no other. Chris picked up on my shoe dilemma without me even having to rant and grumble repetitively AND he knows that I have a penchant for all things funky/eclectic. He also knows that most anything that I wear to work can't push the business casual envelope too hard. BAM! My boys hit the nail right on the head with the Sanuks! (Thanks Chris and Hud...Yall are the absolute BEST)

I could rave on and on and on about these AWESOME shoes! I absolutely LOVE them! They are super comfy, lightweight and they look good with almost ANYTHING!

You want to know what the absolute BEST thing about them is though??  THESE ARE NOT SHOES. Yep...The tag even says so!

They are actually sandals (yoga mat bottom and canvas top). These shoes sandals, ladies and gentleman allow Abigayle to have her cake AND eat it too! Sanuks are the perfect transitional weather footwear. See, I'm not totally jumping from the ffs and sandals to the  boots and sneakers, but a comfy place in-between. They are lightweight enough that my feet don't get hot during the heat of the day and they are warm enough for chilly fall evenings outside.

Aren't they adorable???

I am definitely a fan of these  shoes sandals for life (or until they quit makin them, which I hope is never). Soooo, if you are like me and have a hard time transitioning your fall footwear, or if you just love shoes, you should definitely check them out HERE.

Let me know what you think!!

Halloween 2011!

HALLOWEEN FUN!!

Chris and Hud gettin one started

Boys love power tools!
And so do their mommies...because seriously I will not carve help carve another pumpkin again unless I have one of these nifty little battery powered doo-dads. Definitely worth the extra 5 bucks!

Batman is ready!

LOVE pics w/my boy. 

I'm always behind the camera, so these are usually pretty rare...

Batman at his first house of the night...The only pic I was able to sneak, I mean take of him actually in action b/c "someone" (whose name I will choose not to call) didn't want me takin' pics with people's houses in them. Understood, but really, I could care less about the house - I just wanted trick-or-treat action shots. With this being our 6th year trick-or-treating, I know that our trick-or-treating days are numbered.

Hope everyone else's Halloween was a great as ours was!!

Bumper Stickers...Decoded

Is it just me, or is one of the funnest things to do while riding down the road is checking out bumper stickers?! Lame, I know but simple things amuse me...

Some of them are self-explanatory, some of them are not so self-explanatory and some of them make you laugh, while some of them make you say WTF?!? (don't lie...)

I currently don't have any on my car...Not that I don't want one, I just haven't found the right one yet. I have had them on previous vehicles, but there is something special about my car (it's my fave one EVER) and I'll know the right sticker when I see it. I feel like bumper stickers are pretty much an old school form of social media...from the plain yellow smiley-faces to peace symbols to the Jesus fish, people have been using them on their vehicles for decades to express themselves.

Here is a good little round-up that I have compiled on stickers that you may see a lot, but might not necessarily know exactly what they mean:

These little guys below are actually what spawned this post...For months Chris and I have been trying to figure out what the heck all of the white oval stickers with black numbers meant. Some of our better guesses were: radio stations, diving distances, and temperatures...I won't share the others - yes, they were that pitiful...

They are marathon stickers! The numbers represent the distance(s) the runner has ran. Awesome to know - Many props to folks that have the get up and go to run like that!

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Let me start off with this one by saying that Chris and I are mountain people at heart. I can count on one hand the number of times that we have been to the beach in the past nine years, so you would understand when I didn't know exactly what this one was all about. I could draw my conclusions, but wanted to know from the source exactly what 'Salt Life' entailed...

Basically anything to do with the 'hardcore waterman' surfing/fishing/diving lifestyle. Kay...Got it.

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Speaking of the coast, if you haven't ever been to Myrtle Beach, you probably wouldn't know what these two were up to...

They are shaggers! Get yo mind out of the gutter....Shag dancers. You know, the dance made popular at the beach waaaaay back in the day. Still popular today as a matter of fact...Listen to 920am and you'll see what I mean. Oh, and a VERY similar silouhette just happens to adorn the NMB water tower. As I said, we are mountain people at heart, but we know our beach/shag history too (thanks to Chris' Uncle Dan).

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And this cutie pie!! I have loved these little guys ever since I was a little girl. I'm sure lots of other folks have thought they were cuties too, but do most people REALLY know their history??

The 'Dancing Bear' was a creation of Stanley "Bear" Owsley in the Height-Ashbury heydays. Mr. Owsley was a long-time producer/sound engineer/family member of the Grateful Dead. Being the hairy fellow he was, he gained the nickname "Bear" - combine that with his professional ballet stint in the 50's and voila! the 'Dancing Bear' was born.

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Our next subject is kinda self-explanatory, but I thought it would be cool to actually know what all of the symbols mean/stand for.

Folks that sport these are showing their support of religious freedom, tolerance and understanding. The C is the Islamic crescent moon, the O is a Peace symbol, the E is a combo of the male/female gender symbols, the X is the Star of David for Judaism, the I is the pentagram for Wicca, the S is the Tao symbol for Taoism, and the T is the Cross for Christianity.

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And last, but not least...EVERYONE has seen the stick family decals plastered on the backs of family trucksters across the country. But have you seen these????

I freaking love these...AND they even come with the farm animals!!!

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Any stickers out there that have you scratchin' your head, goin' WTF about?? Got any stickers that you wanna make fun of or rant about?? Please leave me a comment...I'd love to hear some feedback!

The Nest!

So, we have had this hornet's nest in one of our pastures for quite sometime now and everyone at Roads En Farm (two legged and four legged) has managed to steer clear of it's inhabitants ever since we noticed it back in the spring. Seriously, the thing was bigger around than a basketball, so we have all made conscientious efforts to steer clear of THE NEST. Over the past few weeks, we started to notice that there wasn't any activity going on around THE NEST AT ALL. Sunday almost simultaneously (we are that much alike, its scary) Chris and I decided that it would be a great idea for us to take it down and donate it to Hudson's school.


Needless to say, Chris and I had a stunning moment in redneck engineering. I'm going to go ahead and apologize right now because I don't have any pictures of our glorious "nest gettin down rigup". I was able to sneak in a pic of THE NEST before removal, but that was it. So here it is...

You can't tell from this picture, but the nest was actually a good 15-20 feet in the air.


Just in case anyone ever wants to get down a large hornet's nest, I have compiled a few *need to know* tidbits for future references:

Materials Needed
* 1 Pickup Truck
* 1 Really Tall Ladder
* 1 Handsaw
* 1 Handy-Dandy Husband
* 1 Handy-Dandy Wife


Directions
* Have Handy-Dandy Wife help Handy-Dandy Husband gather necessary materials
* Have Handy-Dandy Husband drive and align bed of truck under desired removal spot
* Have Handy-Dandy Husband set up the really tall ladder and stand on it with saw. If the ladder doesn't work for all of the job, the top of the truck cab works well also.
* Have Handy-Dandy Wife be ready for whatever Handy-Dandy Husband needs and await anxiously until removal of nest is complete. **Note to Handy-Dandy Wives...Don't try to take pics for your blog while Handy-Dandy Husband is on ladder sawing down nest/limbs. He needs your utmost attention while doing something so crazy, i mean tedious.**

Anyhoo, the nest made it out of the tree safely and was hornet-free MUCH to our delight (hornet and wasp colonies die out every year, thank goodness). After spending two nights in our Dutch Barn, it made it to school yesterday morning...You would not believe some of the looks that Hudson and I got from other kids while walking in with it. LOL. Probably not as entertaining as the looks we would have gotten while getting the nest out of the tree though....

Fastforward...

Okay, so one post and then not another one for nearly two months...Slack, I know but oh what has happened in the past two months!

First of all, apologies for not following up on the 2011 Silk Hope Old-Fashioned Farmers Day...In a nutshell, the show was great and the weekend was great all up until Sunday morning loading the equipment up. To save myself of replaying the horrific scenes over and over again in my head, I'll just be blunt...Chris flipped over a tractor and it SHOOK me up. The only other thing I'm gonna say is he didn't roll the tractor over, it flipped over...END...over....END. Fastforward ahead one month and Chris is fine, the tractor has already been fixed, and the poor people who witnessed my Faulkner fit first-handedly are fine as well. Mess with this gal's best friend/hubby/lil boy's daddy and ur gonna hear it. Needless to say, since Silk Hope was going to be my next post, I said skrew it...There's no way I can write about this or anything else right now. Nuff said. Anyhooo, here are a few pics of the show...the good memories for me (ha).

Wagon Train Replica
aka Food Cart from back in tha day

Our babies at the show. The lil guy in the middle was the poor thing that did the somersault with Chris...

Blacksmithing! Always super cool to watch!!

Spinning with a loom...wow...I was totally amazed. As many times as I have been to Silk Hope every year, I never got a chance to see this special lady in action. What a talent!

It's night night time! Beds from way back when were pretty hard core...Rope for the frame where the mattress goes, and a mattress stuffed with hay, leaves, etc anything that could be found for filler. Gives a tangible meaning to the phrase "Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite!"

   

Look at this handsome boy just waiting patiently for his turn working...

After watching the cotton press, saws, and several other machine/tools I pondered the fact on what the heck an OSHA rep would have said about farm working conditions around the turn of the centry...So many open moving parts, blades, belts, etc - I wondered how many limbs got yanked off while folks were just tryin to do their jobs.

I just love this pic...It literally looks like I stepped through the farmin-time portal to snap this. Somehow, I managed to NOT include all of the bystanders around because seriously the place was crowded.

          

Moving on...since then we have been running in overdrive with school, the farm, tae kwon do, and football. At one point, Hudson was going to two tkd classes a week AND we had three nights a week of football. Its all good, but it's also enough to run you ragged. 

Just look at that lil Warrior....So worth the time and sweat!

#56...The farthest blue jersey to the right

There are only two more football games left for this season and they are next week, so hopefully we will have some much needed breathing time before basketball gears up!

Now that we are all caught up, this weekend is already shaping up to be a busy one...So many fun things to look forward to though! Fall festival at church, my niece's 3rd birthday party (at the park of course!), and plenty of chill time with the fam in this LOVELY fall weather.

Have a great weekend!

9*1*11

Wow...I can't believe that it's September already!! Well, actually I can since August was such a complete BLUR. In order for you to understand what I mean when I say a BLUR, I'll save myself a ton of typing and you a ton of reading (what a turn off on the first blog post) by stuffing it in a nutshell:

All in one month we: Went to Furthur (awesome!!), spent a week in Gatlinburg, TN (also awesome!!), paid to have a brand new roof put on the house (big thx to All About Roofing!); paid for and installed a brand new hot water heater; got tons of farmin stuff done (physical and financial); completed three weeks of 1st grade (yes, there was homework); logged in 16 hours of football practice; pulled out and installed a rebuilt starter on the big farm truck, and still somehow managed to keep things around the house looking halfway decent!

At this point, we are all running on fumes...We love every minute of it though, because even though we have been incredibly busy we have still made time to really enjoy each other's presence and have FUN with no matter what pops up along the way to break up the monotony of time...

Coming up soon: 2011 Silk Hope Old Fashioned Farmer's Day