Boathouse Update!

When we listed the boathouse for the World Equestrian Games coming in September,  we did not expect the amount of renters we would get the month before.

Every week in August we have renters of different ages, so we had our guy Jake put up a kayak launch making it easier to get in and out of the water. 

This was something we have needed for ourselves now that our balance and upper body strength is not what it used to be.  This will make it so easy to zip around the lake.

My favorite guest so far, Liz and her spaniel Banzai, seen in this photo at Niagara Falls.

Here is Banzai, our first canine guest to go out on a kayak.

Jo came for a night by herself. 

Hazel is there as I write with a friend and two dogs.  Doing a B&B is a lot of work, but we're tweaking it and things are getting easier.

In the garden, lots of mushrooms are popping up.  This has been a rainy summer . .  .

. . . and the pumpkins love it.  They are getting very big!

Still painting the bathroom at the farmhouse.  Getting ready for your October visit!

In rescue, busy week.  This is Ariah, now Bria.  She was listed as a chow in a high kill shelter in GA, and I knew she was golden.  So I contacted my friend Chantal in Knoxville and she found rescue to get her out.  70 dogs were killed right after we got her out of the shelter.

Bria, on the right, at her foster home in Knoxville, TN.  Adopt-A-Golden took her in.  Lucky girl!

This is Katie, at a high kill shelter in Memphis.  A Georgia rescue friend wanted her if I could set up volunteer transport.  It took me all week to get drivers, then Katie got out of the shelter and chewed through leashes, tried to dig out at her foster and was super stressed.  

She even ate a hole in Roni's car door!  Transport cancelled after all that work.  No way she could go from car to car, so Alisha of the Georgia rescue drove to Memphis to get her.  All is good now.

This is Chiffon (I named her) in a Kentucky shelter.  Another friend, Karen Dickson, called to see if I could find her rescue.  I did.  She is now out of shelter at Karen's home until we can move her to NC to my friend Tracy.

This is Ethel, a sad senior in a TN shelter.  Sara Kay in Pennsville, NJ asked for my help in getting her out, on transport and to NJ.  OF COURSE!!

Here is Ethel, now named Annie Maria (Sara named her in my honor, sort of haha) at her new home in NJ.  A lot saved this week, but four that I worked on were killed.  Rescue can be very depressing even when you are saving some. 

Our little movie theater in town has opened!  The Tryon Theater has been closed for months while being renovated.  Renovated in the Art Deco style.

Everything is new, the carpet, the seats, the bathrooms.  Hoping to get to see a movie soon.  

Opening day they were showing Wizard of Oz, sold out both days, then Yellow Submarine, sold out.  Maybe when my family comes in October, things will have settled down and we can go see a flick!

Colors of Autumn

Mom, this is the pretty afghan I found yesterday when going to get calzones for dinner!  It is unique in that it has a big crocheted ruffle.  The colors are perfect for fall.

I also found this lamp that matches it at the same Salvation Army that was $8 and the glass is gorgeous, looks like the old tiger's eye glass in the sunlight.  You can see the swirls of cream with the light gold.  Wouldn't these look nice in the farmhouse?!

All Over the Place!

Craziest week ever!!  So much going on, so just threw up some photos of things around here to let you see what is going on.

In the garden, the pumpkins are looking fantastic!  They are porcelain dolls, I saw them last year at the nursery, wasn't going to pay $12 a pumpkin, so grew them myself this year!

YUM!!

Love wild poke berry.  I always think of that time I came home from a trip and Ramon had mashed the berries and had them on his head trying to dye his hair purple. UGH

Down at the farmhouse, the bathroom is waiting for its paint job, but I have not been down there in a week.  You can see in these photos the white paint is going to make a BIG difference.  

The area we cleaned out a few months ago and planted ferns got mulched and looks even better.  Ferns are getting bigger.

The monkey grass I transplanted along the path I re-worked is blooming.

When my torn ligament was painful, I was soaking in the tub every day and watching videos on youtube of how to prune wisteria to get it blooming again.

This is the wisteria after it's first heavy pruning.  I have July-Aug to cut it back the first time, then I prune it back even futher in Jan-Feb, then it should bloom in the spring.

This is a nightmare of a job.  I have so much wisteria that has been growing for decades.  I was happy to know I could just cut it way back.  You can now see through the fence.  I still have a way to go though :(

My suet-eating pileated came back!

Piles of cut wisteria.

This is a "before" picture of the fence line with the wisteria.  I hope to have this all done by the end of the month.  I have to get it pulled down out of trees, especially the dogwoods.

This are has all new wisteria plants growing.  Once I finish the fence line, I need to cut each one of these to make them into "trees" of wisteria.  I don't know that I'm going to live to see the finished product!

These are torenia "Susie Wong" which I named one of my chows after.  A flower I found once and could never find again, searched for years, and finally in a plant forum online I found someone with seed that would grow six plants for me and he was in NC!!

I will now have seed for the rest of my life and have others in the forum writing me asking for seed.  I don't know why growers don't do this one anymore, it's gorgeous.

The hummingbirds really like it.

One of the reasons I'm all over the place this week is we put our boathouse on Airbnb for the Equestrian Games in September, but we are getting renters for August!  Tomorrow we get our first renters through this website, so I have been over at the lake with Bob fixing windows, the shower, cleaning, the list goes on and on.  

I really like the Airbnb site.  They send you photos and bios of your renters.  This is Jayna and her boyfriend and their dog.  All three will be here for the weekend!

Camile and her husband are coming next Friday for one night from Ohio.  They are moving to the area and looking for a home.

This is Julia.  She and her sister are coming from France and are our only renters so far for the World Equestrian Games.

Another thing I have been working on this week is Pooh.  He is a senior with bad vision and hearing who lived his life on a chain, even came to the shelter wearing the chain.  He was to be killed tomorrow, but we have an adopter in Indiana, so I am trying to get him from South Georgia to his new home and that has been taking up a lot of my time . . . but worth it!!