Alabama – Page 6 – Life on the Farmlet

Image by bella lago via Flickr

Things to do today:

Make “Bone Soup” from the carcass and breast meat of last nights chicken. Today’s version will feature a Southwestern theme using Rotel, a bit of rice, a few black beans for color, some fresh cilantro from the hoop house, and a splash of fresh lemon juice in the bowl. But of course as we all know, this will be tomorrows dinner because soup always tastes better the next day… so why not wait?
Peruse my seeds to decide which need starting this week. I am very much looking forward to this year’s growing season!
Hunker down for a Tornado watch till about 2PM today. Funny what you can get used to. I grew up with earthquakes in California and never really thought much about them, they came and they went. “Hey, that was a good ride, Yee-Haa! Hang on folks!” Of course Alabama is not immune to them, they’ve had a few doosies . But tornadoes? They just get me all a quiver. They send my off the deep end. They’ve passed all around us in few short years we’ve lived here and so far we have been untouched. (Thank you God!)
Watch for HAWKS because they seem to like hunting my yard on gloomy days. Best scare tactic so far has been my trusty metal trash can lid. I have an old oak stirring paddle that I use to bang the lid as I point it in the direction of the hawks. This seems to aim the sound in their direction and they either turn around or keep on going without coming any closer to my girls! Whew!

So what is on your agenda for this Monday, the last day of February? Or, this first week of March?

Today I went out to run errands and took my camera. I delivered three dozen eggs to the Co-op in Huntsville (my first delivery!), went to Tractor supply and bought more chicken feed and scratch, paid for entirely with eggs sales I might add! Then it was off to buy the necessary items I needed for apple butter and green tomato relish. My errands complete, I glanced down at my camera and set out to find something to shoot.

Here are the results of my afternoon off…

The Bunker

~~~~~~

I truthfully don’t know what this is… so if you do then please do tell!

~~~Want to see these in color? Just say the word! ~~~

Wuthering Heights

To get in and take the pictures I had to slip by a gate and hoped that no one would notice me trespassing…

This was awesome to see. The chimney in the background was massive, and what remains is easily over 15 feet tall. Imagine how impressive it was when first made!

Alabama is full of old ruins like this. It is impossible not to turn a corner or pass through a field and not find something that remains from back when. My sense about this site is that the original stone chimney was built in the early 1800’s. The brick is also quite old, but I have no guesses as to its age.

It will be fun to try and find out more about this site and its history. That it saw the Civil War is certain!

Some words on graveyards…

It does not matter where you go you will run into a graveyard. Many in the strangest of places. There is even a small family graveyard in front of the Madison Square Mall, sandwiched there between the parking lot and Highway 72. Grave sites are very sacred here and rather than disturb them, they just build around them.

So today I found this one, and strangely, a road runs through it. Situated out in the middle of a cotton field it is quite old, pre Civil War, and surprisingly well cared for.