Today is the anniversary of the horrible battle of Culloden in Scotland. It was a brutal massacre by the English army. The last battle for freedom. Those who were left alive were imprisoned and either executed or banished from Scotland forever. Many were put on ships to the New World and some found the mountains of North Carolina to be much like their highland homes.
Here's to the brave Scottish families who settled in the North Carolina mountains!
Dominic and James
sweet cousins
Monday, April 16, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
newest baby
We are proud to announce the arrival of newest grandson, James Petros Sarantopoulos. He is such a handsome fellow. Oma and I took Xavi (Figueroa) to see him today after James' sisters Lily and Zoe went home with their dad. Then Oma and I went in the evening to see the Indian Land Elementary School's production of "The Wizard of Oz", in which Dominic Figueroa portrayed a munchkin. It was a precious production and very innovative in the staging process. We enjoyed it immensely.
Last weekend at the farm, Jim and I took another load of log house debris to the dump. We measured for the back window of the kitchen and I will be on the lookout for a replacement. I will try and find something at the Habitat Store, but sometimes I find things on the side of the road. I might call Tom Ratliff, a builder we know, to see if he might know of someone doing reno work.
At the dump, there were the cutest 2 shepherd looking puppies. I cried to see them foraging around. Jim said they probably live around there and tramp about on the mounds all the time. I will believe him. Down the street from the dump is the kill shelter.
Oh, if I could only save all the puppies and dogs. I just finished reading a book called, "City of Thieves" about the siege of Leningrad during the second World War. (Benioff) It was a quick read, funny and sad. But there was a section in it talking about the foolish plan by the Russians to use their dogs as suicide/homicide bombers on the German Panzer tanks. Cruel.
So I can only pray to St. Francis when I see strays now. Jim says I have done my duty and will not allow further rescues. I am so lucky that he allowed me to rescue throughout our 35 years of marriage.
(at one point we had 7 dogs). We give them love, shelter, food and basic medical care. However, no dental appointments. So here's to Sam (1) '76-'84; Jessie '84-'99; Frannie '85-'95; Thumper '89-'01; Elvis '91-'97;Potter '93-'03; Jack '93-'09; Sam (2) '96-'11; and Dooley '98-'04. These are the years they lived with us after "we" were found. And of course we have our Penny and Hannah since '01; Riley (only dog purchased, a gift from my children) '04; and Frank '05. May they continue with our legacy of long canine lives. And here's to my children carrying on this legacy of rescue/adoption. In our family the count now stand at 12 dogs, Matt's dog Manny just being adopted out to another family.
I am not going to mention our cats at this time....mostly because at this point we are suffering in the Weddington house from neighborhood cats who are coming by to leave their scent under our screen porch! (cats should live indoors!)
To anyone who reads these posts, (now over 500 readings throughout the world) please feel free to comment. We realize many come through our website and are interested in "an American family".
But please, no haters....
Living the life of Riley......
Last weekend at the farm, Jim and I took another load of log house debris to the dump. We measured for the back window of the kitchen and I will be on the lookout for a replacement. I will try and find something at the Habitat Store, but sometimes I find things on the side of the road. I might call Tom Ratliff, a builder we know, to see if he might know of someone doing reno work.
At the dump, there were the cutest 2 shepherd looking puppies. I cried to see them foraging around. Jim said they probably live around there and tramp about on the mounds all the time. I will believe him. Down the street from the dump is the kill shelter.
Oh, if I could only save all the puppies and dogs. I just finished reading a book called, "City of Thieves" about the siege of Leningrad during the second World War. (Benioff) It was a quick read, funny and sad. But there was a section in it talking about the foolish plan by the Russians to use their dogs as suicide/homicide bombers on the German Panzer tanks. Cruel.
So I can only pray to St. Francis when I see strays now. Jim says I have done my duty and will not allow further rescues. I am so lucky that he allowed me to rescue throughout our 35 years of marriage.
(at one point we had 7 dogs). We give them love, shelter, food and basic medical care. However, no dental appointments. So here's to Sam (1) '76-'84; Jessie '84-'99; Frannie '85-'95; Thumper '89-'01; Elvis '91-'97;Potter '93-'03; Jack '93-'09; Sam (2) '96-'11; and Dooley '98-'04. These are the years they lived with us after "we" were found. And of course we have our Penny and Hannah since '01; Riley (only dog purchased, a gift from my children) '04; and Frank '05. May they continue with our legacy of long canine lives. And here's to my children carrying on this legacy of rescue/adoption. In our family the count now stand at 12 dogs, Matt's dog Manny just being adopted out to another family.
I am not going to mention our cats at this time....mostly because at this point we are suffering in the Weddington house from neighborhood cats who are coming by to leave their scent under our screen porch! (cats should live indoors!)
To anyone who reads these posts, (now over 500 readings throughout the world) please feel free to comment. We realize many come through our website and are interested in "an American family".
But please, no haters....
Living the life of Riley......
Monday, April 9, 2012
day after Easter
Well, we are up here at the farm again. Last weekend was very eventful. We went to Hendersonville to visit Stuart Van Meter and his wife Caroleena (sp). They have a beautiful place up on a mountain. About 70 acres with chickens, even Jim was impressed with how pretty they were. (I thought I might have Jim convinced to let me have a few, but no dice....) And a very nice lab named Ria.
There are several log buildings on the property and Stuart has done the renovating work on most of them. In particular, a house that was rebuilt and written about in "Cabin, a Mountain Adventure" by Barbara Hallowell. We purchased the book and have enjoyed reading about the Hallowell's family excursion into log house rebuilding. It is a wonderful read and very nice to have seen the property.
Stuart was showing us how to chink our old house. We are almost ready to take this on, one side at a time...
The next day we met an old friend of Jim's (from 1st grade!) and his wife at Black Mountain for lunch. It was a very pleasant day and we ate outside at the pizza place on the hill, cannot remember the name. Then we drove to Old Fort to see our old friend Randy Lowery to talk about log benches. We sketched one out and hopefully he will be able to make it in the next few monthes. He is very busy with the craft fairs right now. His wife is very sick right now, and we wish her a gentle but full recovery. And he told us about how he lost his mother beagle and four of her pups to the coyotes. That scares and saddens me. He told us that he has bought bells for his other dogs to wear. The bells seem to confuse the coyotes.
We know we have had coyotes up here. We saw one a few years ago when our little Hannah (who looks like a small coyote) went up our mountain after a snow storm. She has a bit of brain damage from being hit by a car when we found her 12 years ago. We worried all night, and drove and walked around calling for her. At one point we were driving down our street and we saw her, I got out of the car and called her but she ran away. I followed her but could not track her. (This was happening at about 2 am) Early the next morning we hiked up our mountain because we could hear her. She was up there and could not figure out how to come down. She must have followed the deer up there. Then we realized that what we saw and thought was her was actually a coyote.
So now at night, before we go to bed, I take the dogs down to the pond with a flashlight and a big stick. I make plenty of noise, even growl a bit to scare the bears and coyotes off!
Living the life of Riley....
There are several log buildings on the property and Stuart has done the renovating work on most of them. In particular, a house that was rebuilt and written about in "Cabin, a Mountain Adventure" by Barbara Hallowell. We purchased the book and have enjoyed reading about the Hallowell's family excursion into log house rebuilding. It is a wonderful read and very nice to have seen the property.
Stuart was showing us how to chink our old house. We are almost ready to take this on, one side at a time...
The next day we met an old friend of Jim's (from 1st grade!) and his wife at Black Mountain for lunch. It was a very pleasant day and we ate outside at the pizza place on the hill, cannot remember the name. Then we drove to Old Fort to see our old friend Randy Lowery to talk about log benches. We sketched one out and hopefully he will be able to make it in the next few monthes. He is very busy with the craft fairs right now. His wife is very sick right now, and we wish her a gentle but full recovery. And he told us about how he lost his mother beagle and four of her pups to the coyotes. That scares and saddens me. He told us that he has bought bells for his other dogs to wear. The bells seem to confuse the coyotes.
We know we have had coyotes up here. We saw one a few years ago when our little Hannah (who looks like a small coyote) went up our mountain after a snow storm. She has a bit of brain damage from being hit by a car when we found her 12 years ago. We worried all night, and drove and walked around calling for her. At one point we were driving down our street and we saw her, I got out of the car and called her but she ran away. I followed her but could not track her. (This was happening at about 2 am) Early the next morning we hiked up our mountain because we could hear her. She was up there and could not figure out how to come down. She must have followed the deer up there. Then we realized that what we saw and thought was her was actually a coyote.
So now at night, before we go to bed, I take the dogs down to the pond with a flashlight and a big stick. I make plenty of noise, even growl a bit to scare the bears and coyotes off!
Living the life of Riley....
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