Here’s a bumble bee pollinating my blueberry bushes earlier this year. It did a wonderful job. We probably picked around ten gallons of berries. There were probably several more gallons that we never got around to picking. We’re thinking about selling them in the future, and letting people pay to pick.

PJ enjoyed the ladder being out in the house while we were painting. When I would climb down, she would climb up.

An apple and a pear that I picked from our trees. I love how the leaf stayed with the apple and sticks straight up.

I love reading articles at lifehacker.com. Lifehacker gives tips for getting things done.  They also post articles about food and cooking. I love to cook. It wasn’t until Michelle and I started purchasing quality kitchen equipment that I realized how much I enjoyed cooking. A few years ago we got a great deal on a set of Calphalon pots and pans at Bed Bath & Beyond, and we found that you really do get what you pay for.

Lifehacker recently had a post linking to a recipe for homemade ice cream that only had two ingredients, and didn’t require an ice cream maker. Being a lover of ice cream, I had to try it. Here’s the recipe from instructables.com:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of honey
• 2 1/2 cups of cream
• Vanilla extract (optional but recommended)

Directions:

1. Whip 1.5 cups of whipping cream (plus 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract if desired) until it forms stiff peaks, refrigerate.
2. Heat honey on low heat until it is very runny and add the remaining 1 cup of cream. Stir together until well blended (and grate in teensie bit of vanilla bean, if desired).
3. Add honey/cream mixture to the whipped cream. Whisk until well blended.
4. Freeze approximately 6 hours until the mixture is the consistency of ice cream.

Homemade Two Ingredient Ice Cream

I made the ice cream before bed last night, and it was ready when I woke up. It tastes a lot like the honey I used, so if you’re going to try it, use a honey that you like. I also added some vanilla extract that dad brought back from Haiti. The homemade ice cream has the right consistency, and is delicious.

I had some leftover heavy cream that I wasn’t sure what to do with. I was watching Secrets of a Restaurant Chef on Food Network today when the host said that she was going to make butter. All she did was dump some heavy cream in the mixer, and turn it on high for a while. She didn’t show the rest of the steps, so I looked it up.

Here’s what you do:

1. Pour heavy cream into a mixer or food processor. I used a food processor since it has a lid that kept everything clean.
2. Mix on high for about 10 minutes until you have butter.
3. The butter will separate, and you’ll be left with curds and butter milk in the bowl.
4. Strain the milk from the curds.

Homemade Butter

I flavored the butter with a little bit of salt during step two. If you want to save the butter milk, you may want to save the flavoring until after step four. The next time I make butter I’m going to try adding some herbs.

One thing that I dislike about Facebook, is all of the status updates that show from Farmville, Mafia Wars, and other games. When people ask me if I play Farmville, I tell them, “No. But if you want to come to my house and help me on a real farm, you’re more than welcome to.”

Last year, after Michelle and I moved back to Hiawassee, we planted a small vegetable garden. We didn’t have much, mostly tomatoes and some herbs. This year, we decided to do a little more. Michelle’s uncle plowed a small plot below our house near the creek. The garden is about 10 feet by 30 feet. So far, we’ve planted tomatoes, broccoli, watermelon, red and green bell peppers, lettuce, and cucumbers. We still need to plant beans, zucchini, sweet corn, and anything else we can think of.

Our vegetable garden.

There’s a lot of wildlife around our house that would like to eat our garden, so we had to build a fence around it. Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, we had two goat pens on our property. Michelle and I tore down one of the fences and reconstructed it around the garden. Hopefully that will keep the rabbits, deer, groundhogs, and bears away from our veggies.

Michelle’s grandfather planted several blueberry bushes many many years ago. They produce some of the sweetest berries I’ve ever had. They hadn’t been taken care of in recent years, and were being overtaken by honeysuckle. While I love the smell of honeysuckle, I don’t want kill my blueberries. The vines had grown to the tops of the bushes, and were not sharing the sunlight with our berries. We spent many hours one day clearing the honeysuckle vines from the bushes. Some of the vines were two inches in diameter, and until we started working, we thought that they were part of the blueberry bushes.

Working on the blueberry bushes.

When we moved into our house last spring, the only source of heat was a small gas heater that barely provided enough heat for the room that it was in. When the house was originally built, a chimney was placed in the middle of the house. After much consideration, we purchased a Quadra-Fire Castile pellet stove. The stove burns wood pellets, which are made from compressed sawdust. The stove is a very energy efficient, and it’s environmentally friendly since the sawdust used for the pellets is waste material from sawmills. The stove is controlled by a thermostat that can be moved from room to room. You set the temperature, and when it gets cold, pellets automatically drop into the pot and start burning. The only thing we have to do is keep the pellet hopper full, and the ash tray clean.

A Quadra-Fire Castile pellet stove.

It performed very well over the winter. With temperatures in the single digits, our house stayed nice and warm. Now that we have new energy efficient windows, the stove should do even better this winter. One other neat feature of the stove, is that it can also burn corn. This summer we’ll plant a field of corn to heat our house with this winter. We’ll still have to use wood pellets, as it can only burn a 50% mixture of corn and pellets, but it will greatly reduce the amount of pellets we’ll have to buy.

Our future corn field, and my Gator. The blueberry bushes are at the far end of the field.

Today I decided to make some smores. I didn’t want to make a campfire, and I wanted the smores to be different. To make the smores without a campfire, I used marshmallow fluff. But to really add to the flavors of the traditional smore, I replaced the milk chocolate bar with Nutella. So if you’re playing along at home, here’s what you need.

Ingredients:
1 box of graham crackers
1 jar of marshmallow fluff
1 jar of Nutella
Glass of cold milk

Nutella

If you have never had Nutella, you’re missing out. It’s a very creamy, chocolately, and hazelnut-y. There are 50 hazelnuts in every 13 ounce jar. Nutella is great on toast or crackers, and a Nutella and banana sandwich can’t be beaten.

Marshmallow Fluff

Marshmallow fluff is also a great ingredient. It’s  a creamy marshmallow spread that’s a great replacement for jelly in a PB&J sandwich. (There’s a recipe on the back of this jar for marshmallow fluff brownies that I think I’m going to try.)

Graham Crackers

I don’t think this needs a description.  I watched an episode of Good Eats the other night about crackers. Alton Brown said that the creator of graham crackers (a Mr. Graham) created them as a food to keep people from lust. The original recipe called for wheat and water.

Step 1: Spread the fluff on a cracker.

Step 2: Spread the Nutella on another cracker.

Step 3: Combine crackers.

Step 4: Pour a glass of milk and enjoy.

Tips:

Michelle and I began changing things in the house before we even moved in. We gave the bedroom we’d be staying in a fresh coat of paint, and re-purposed another bedroom as our office/guest room. We also started renovating the bathroom.

The Bathroom

There had been 4×4 white tiles on all of the walls, and 12 inch laminate tiles on the floor. The sink was old and run down, and the vanity barely supported itself. There had been a pedestal sink in the basement which was not being used. We tore out the old sink and replaced it with the pedestal. Then all of the tiles came down, along with the rotten and moldy walls we found behind the tiles. The cast iron tub, the sub-floor, and the ceiling were the only things to stay.

New tile went up in the shower area and on the floor. The studs were covered with wainscoting on the bottom half, plain plywood on the top, and separated with a chair rail. The top half of the wall was painted a dark green, and the bottom bright white. A white cabinet was hung above the toilet, and a white storage shelf was added to the room as well. The bathroom is only 5 feet by 5 feet. The bathtub takes up about two fifths of the room, so it was very cramped and tedious working in such a small space. After we finished all of the work, I was ready to give up on home renovations. So the next thing we did was design and build a pantry. (Since I started writing this, Michelle has decided to change some more things about the bathroom. I’ll post pictures once it’s completed again.)

The Kitchen

There was no storage in the kitchen for our food, so Michelle and I (with a lot of help from Dad) designed a pantry, and then built it. The pantry takes up one entire wall that was not being used in the “eat in” portion of the eat-in-kitchen. The pantry provides plenty of room for our dry food, overflow from the kitchen cabinets, as well as a broom closet. Once the work was done on the pantry, I decided to give up on home renovations. That’s when we started tearing apart our kitchen.

The counter tops consisted of 4×4 inch tiles. They looked okay, but were impossible to keep clean (and sanitary). The matching backsplash was never completed. The cabinets were original to the house, and were in good condition other than being greasy and an ugly color. Michelle took it upon herself to rip out the backsplash one day, and the next project was officially under way. We took off all of the cabinet doors, degreased them, sanded them, sanded them again, and then added two layers of primer and a couple layers of Sherwin Williams Duration Home paint. I highly suggest this line of paint. It’s environmentally friendly, and it’s incredibly easy to clean. Dirt and grease just wipe off with a damp cloth.

We threw away the old hardware from the cabinets because it looked like it came from a barn door, and replaced it with new hardware that matched the look we were going for. Michelle made a trip to Ikea with her family and purchased three pieces of oak butcher block counters. Dad and Mark came by one day, and as a team, we removed the old counters and installed the new ones.

New 1×2 inch slate tiles went up as a backsplash with an off white grout. It reminds me of brick, which I’ve always thought looked great in kitchens. My partner in (fighting) crime donated about 20 18 inch slate tiles. Home Depot only sold 12 inch slate tiles, so Michelle and I worked out a design that would incorporate the 18 and 12 inch tiles.

Dad and I began to pull up the laminate tiles that were on the kitchen floor, but found it easier to take out the plywood that the tiles were glued to. The original laminate floor was under the plywood. It was still sufficiently adhered to the floor, so we laid the slate floors directly on it. The spaces between the tiles was filled with a grey grout.

Michelle and I had seen an episode of Design on a Dime (HGTV) where they purchased a dishwasher for $15. Since then, she had been determined to pay not a dollar more on a dishwasher. One day, we were driving through town and saw a yard sale in front of a business. She said, “Turn around, there was a dishwasher.” We went back and left with a somewhat used dishwasher for $35. It was a little more than twice what was paid for on Design on a Dime, but it was still much cheaper than a new one.

Dad and I cut out a couple of cabinets, and I hooked it up to water supply a plumber had installed. The dishwasher did not have the drainage hose with it, so we had to purchase one. Unfortunately, Home Depot did not carry the specific connection, so I improvised. (And it worked.)

After all of that, I decided that we would take a break with the home renovations. Shortly thereafter, we started on the basement.

The Basement

The basement consisted of cement floors, and cinder block walls. No insulation, and no interior walls other than those that surrounded the staircase in the middle of the house. Dad and I studded half of the basement. We replaced the window that was in that half of the basement. The one that was there was broken. Michelle’s grandmother said that it had been that way as long as she could remember. We also installed two doors leading from the soon-to-be finished half to the non-finished half. Michelle and I insulated once the studding was finished, and put furring strips on the ceiling so we could later cover it with plywood. Dad and I did some electrical work to fix the lights, and made them function with a light switch. We then covered the walls and ceiling with plywood, and used 1x4s as molding around the room, doors, and window. We plan to stain the cement floor, though we haven’t decided on a color.

The new room in the basement includes a laundry area, and a place for all of my police crap.

The Pictures

There will be more to come, now that I’ve found the battery charger for my camera.

A close up of the backsplash above the stove.	A close up of the backsplash over the stove.	Backsplash and stove. The backsplash glows nicely due to the lights under the microwave.
We took the backsplash up to the top of the cabinets on the walls that did not have any.
A close up of the backsplash next to the new wall color.
New counter top, backsplash, and wall color.	The cross that was given to us at our wedding by Fr. Tim. It has interlocking rings on it. It’s proudly displayed above the sink and window.	This is one of my favorite shots of the kitchen. You can see the butcher block counter tops, the backsplash, the refinished cabinets, and the new hardware.
Above the window, I used some scrap pieces of the counter top (from the sink/stove cut outs) to make a valance.
	I love the colors and the irregularities in the backsplash. Some of the pieces were thicker than the others, and some much thinner. It gives it a nice depth.
		A wider angle of the kitchen showing almost all of the improvements.

Tate City is a small town in north east Georgia with a population of about 30. The unincorporated city is in the far eastern corner of Towns County. The only way to get to Tate City is to travel through Rabun County. (You can get to it while staying in Towns County, but it requires a large truck with four wheel drive.) Unfortunately, Tate City falls within my jurisdiction. It’s a beautiful place, but it’s not easy or quick to get to. It’s about a 30 mile trip, 6 of which are on a single lane dirt road. It takes up to an hour to get there, so if the call is a real emergency, the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office responds as well to assist us. (Fun Fact: The children of Tate City attend Rabun County schools. The Towns County Board of Education pays their tuition.)

In the picture below, you’ll notice that half of the trip to Tate City involves driving through another county.

We don’t have to respond to Tate City often. Since I’ve been with this department, I’ve only been there twice. Both times were regarding guns. We recently responded to Tate City when a man purposefully shot his brother in the arm.

The worse part about responding to Tate City, is that there is no cell phone or radio service there. On a good day, dispatch might be able to hear static when you try to speak on the radio. If you need help, too bad. Also, depending on how many are working at the time, when an officer responds to Tate City, it might leave the rest of the county to be covered by one officer.

I’m not complaining about Tate City. I’m just constantly amazed at how remote some places still are, and I wanted to share it. I grew up in Hiawassee and I never even knew where Tate City was. If you had told me about Tate City when I was working for Cobb County Police, I probably would have laughed and been in awe. Now, when I’m told I have to go to Tate City, I just cry a little inside.

Here’s a great article from the BBC about a 13-year-old giving up his iPod for a week to use the original Sony Walkman. I’m not sure that I would want to go back to using cassette tapes. I use my iPhone to listen to music on a daily basis, whether around the house or at work. I carry all 1,059 songs that I have collected through the years with me at all times.

From the article:

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8117619.stm

Also, I was involved in a serious accident while at work yesterday. I hydroplaned and struck a stopped vehicle at 60 miles per hour. I’m incredibly sore, but no one was seriously injured. I’ll also write more about this incident and post pictures of the vehicle once I get approval from my department.

Michelle and I have been living in Hiawassee for over a month now. We moved from Kennesaw on March 27, and I started with the Towns County Sheriff’s Office on March 30. I started out riding with another officer on day shift (6:00 am to 6:00 pm). Once they figured out that I knew what I was doing, they put me out on my own. I stayed on day shift for a couple of weeks until an incident occurred on night shift that left two officers on administrative leave. Once the GBI completes their investigation I’ll be able to say more. In the mean time, I’m working night shift to help cover the beats.

A self portrait from 2:00 am. I felt as tired as I look.

It’s nice though. I use to get terrible headaches everyday and I lived on migraine medicine. Since moving back to Hiawassee, I haven’t had any bad headaches. That either means that the headaches were stress induced, or the tumor that was causing them miraculously disappeared. It’s also been greet to be able to stop at home and eat with Michelle or stop at my parent’s house for coffee.

There are some drawbacks to moving back to Hiawassee though. I took a 50% pay cut. This blow was softened with a take home car, a county cell phone, and a free house (provided by Michelle’s grandmother, not the county). It’s also difficult to police in the town you grew up in. I’ve had to arrest a former classmate, and I know most people I pull over. If I don’t know the people I come across at work, then they either know me or my family. I’ll be talking to someone, and they’ll suddenly say, “Are you Stephen Smith’s son? He taught me algebra when I was in high school. He was the best teacher I ever had, and the best thing to happen to the school.” It’s hard to write a ticket to someone after they say something like that, but I manage anyway.