The Cooking Ladies Noted Cook Book Authors, Traveling Journalists And Great Friends

Our very dear friends Phyliss (Hinz) and Lamont (McKay) better known as The Cooking Ladies (www.thecookingladies.com) (Donald on the left)  visited with Jane and me this past Thursday.

We had a chance to introduce them to Donald and Kay while the ladies were on their way to another season of RV traveling reporting on luxury resort locations, attractions and recipe collections from across this country and Canada.

Phyllis (above left)  and Lamont (above right) are two happy Canadian ladies that Jane and I met several years ago while RVing in Florida.  Both have been restaurant owners and noted chefs all their lives.  Several years ago, they decided to partner up, sell their restaurants and trade all of their possessions for a luxury motor home and travel the USA and Canada and experience the life of recreational vehicle traveling while continuing to pursue their love of culinary interest.   They are authors of several cook books that have been best sellers in Canada and are very well recognized in the USA.  Currently they are contributing to RV Lifestyle, one of the largest Canadian publication for the Canadian RV industry as well as working on several TV projects and programs.

You really need to go to their website, www.thecookingladies.com. and to their face book pages and check them out.  (They are piloting a new recipe comment page and your participation could help them with their eventual TV opportunities)  The videos of their appearances at many national RV trade shows  are are guaranteed to make you laugh and just feel good.

They shared stories of their recent trip to Cuba (but have opted not to include that on their videos as yet).  Canadians can go to Cuba and many do but Phyllis and Lamont, as we have grown to expect, took a couple of "off the beaten path" visits with some local Cuban nationals.  Some how they became involved with a very private and personal voodoo ceremony and learned far more than they ever wanted to know about the voodoo culture.  Seems they have a strong feeling of protection now?   That story was indeed funny but they also became involved with a caring and giving effort to the Cuban people as usual demonstrating the cooking ladies great love for people and compassion for all.

A special thanks to the ladies for coming and visiting with us and we know they will have great posts
and funny stories on their continuing face book pages and website.

All too soon, the ladies were "on the road again" after leaving us with a happy smile on our face and a need to see them again soon.

Thanksgiving 2011- At The Curry Farm With Donald and Kay

Well, it was that time again, Thanksgiving 2011 at Donald and Kay Curry's home.  A little smaller crowd this year but everyone had a great time.  Both of Tommy and Cookie's children didn't make it, Ashley and Matt Paisley were at home in Fayetteville due to school requirements and Jake and Christen Arendt were lost in Little Rock somewhere?  But, "Crappie" Jake (known for catching crappie with his PaPa) was able to come with Tommy and Cookie.  We all surely missed our beloved Gail (Johnson) who passed away in July and all of her children and grand children.  We'll all make a special effort to get them back next year.

Crappie Jack

 After too much eating we all got together for the family picture and trying to stay awake.

Kinda like "small groups" break off and just visit when you have this many people at one time.

Jane, Kay, Tommy, Mark, Cookie, Donna and Crappie Jack were trying to block the door way to the food line.

Think things don't get close during these thanksgiving gatherings, take a look at the picture below.  I think everybody had about 1 square foot of space in a very large room.   Makes deodorant and tooth paste have a new meaning don't it? (everybody was thinking "when are we gonna eat?")

Well, finally everybody began putting food out on the table.  And man was there some good eating here.  A little cajun influence from Lisa and Dennis including boo dan and cajun dressing, , a little mid-west ham from Tommy and Cookie,  a little venison from Jane and me (actually provided by J-Mac and Betty Tooke) and all kinds of veggies and deserts from Kay and Donald and all the family.

Guess who was first in line?

After everyone just got plain tired from eating the real reason for getting together began to unfold.  As usual, there was a "sisters" table and discussion.  Can't say what was discussed as no men are allowed or  invited.  I think I overheard something about "no matter what we......."

The men were intent on discussing more important things like barns and chicken farming and hunting.  Some of more intellectual ones just stood around with our hands in our pockets and listened (or took pictures).

God is good and blessed our families this past year as in the past.  We pray for the soldiers fighting to give us our blessing of being together and enjoying the good things of life. 

Come see us and have a happy Christmas season.

How About This New Front Porch

We finally got back around to the front porch in our projects.  Our entire process was to work on and complete this remodeling project based on our required needs and our most desired wants.  As you may remember we started with the bathroom, because, well our priorities were arranged to take care of the daily issues and needs.  (Duh!)  Then we moved on to the living room, dining room and kitchen, again our priority needs.   Recently we posted the sun room completion and that was really one of our most desired "wants'.   Finally, we have gotten to another of our "wants", the front porch.

Now we can have a party on the front porch.  We enjoy sitting on this porch each morning at sunrise and evening at sunset.  Its the best place in the world to start a day and finishing a day.  Really, if we do this everyday, we never have a bad day.

We still have a few things to do to get the finished look we want but there is plenty of room for everybody to come and sit with us and enjoy the moment.  We will be completing the walkway and steps in the next few days but we're so proud of this part we wanted to show it.  We'll actually pour a semicircle platform where the step is located now and then add a brick step to get up on the porch.

We also have two swings on the porch and that makes a real good space even better.

Winter's coming, deer season is around the corner and thanksgiving is not that far away.  Come see us and we'll see that you have plenty to eat.

(PS  How bout them Cardinals?)

Fall In Cleveland and Bradley County

Fall evidently comes to south Arkansas just two days before winter.  The temps down here are still in the 90's and upper 80's in the daytime and 60's in the evenings.  But, fall is normally for the time for state fairs and museum openings, etc.  This past week Jane and I visited the Bradley County Museum to see what we could find.

The museum is in the old Dr. John Wilson Martin house, 200 Ash Street Warren AR.   Dr. Martin was one of the first doctors in the area and was involved with the establishment of Warren as a community for logging and some farming.  The house is beautiful old home and very well refinished on the outside.   The design was representative of the more affluent class of life in its time.  Two story with porches on the first and second floors, a "T" type design with the cooking area in the back of the home with room designed for food storage adjacent to the cooking (and most often eating) areas.   The floors and ceilings were all hardwood construction and they are still in fairly good condition.  All materials are from local production of beautiful hardwoods and pine woods.  We wish there were more facts and information about the place and its history but the visit was very interesting and enjoyable.

One of the more interesting pieces in the museum was a device that ladies apparently had to use to get their hair "fixed" in the olden days.  

 This device was about six feet tall and looked like the execution device in a federal prison.  The main power came into a "tree" of off shooting lines with huge "paper clip" ends that were clamped onto the ladies curls.  Electricity or current traveled through the lines and heated the clamps.  Keep in mind the lady sat down under the center of this thing and had all of about 240 volts of power running to her hair (and within inches of her brain).

The closeup will give you a better of an idea about the beauty parlor of the early years.

I know the person that invented this machine was proud but,,,, I think it could have been more adaptable to the armies of eastern european disciplines.

The staff was very helpful and allowed us to freely walk and enjoy the museum.  There were various pictures and artifacts to enjoy and we wish there would have been more information about those items for us to enjoy and share.

Another reason to come and visit us, we'll take you to this museum and several others one in the area.

Great history in the area.

Come see us

Sun Room, Sun Porch, Sleeping Room (whatever) update

We have been waiting to get into this room for over a year and a half and as you may can tell we're really enjoying the finishing touches.  Jane has had a chance to do a little decorating but there is more to come.

The weather cooled off to high 70's or low 80's during the day and upper 50's during the evening hours the very day we began to occupy the sun room.  Boy has it been perfect, no A/C no heat just the normal weather and beautiful sunsets.

Thought you might like to see some more of the improvements we've made just in time for TV football time.

 The room is 18.5' X 17' so its spacious enough to have plenty of room.

The ceiling is original as the wall is and both are tongue and groove bead board.  We were able to save all of the walls and ceiling with a little hard work and paint.

Loving it, we're blessed, come on down and visit us, we'll keep the light on for you.

The Long Awaited "Sun Porch"

Well, we've finally gotten to the back of the house in the remodeling and are we excited.  One of the major reasons we have been so excited about being allowed to remodel this ole house was the expectations of getting the Sun Porch Room completed.

As you may know, the Sun Porch was sometimes called a "Sleeping Porch" in olden days.  The room is on the south and west corner of the house and that's where the primary winds come from.  In the days before air conditioners people would line the walls with windows and open them up in the summer to enjoy the summer breezes and sleep in comfort.


As you may remember we had some pictures of the sun room with the windows being replaced.  This was one of the first things we did when we got here because the old room was in such bad shape we were afraid that we'd loose the windows and the room.   We had to remove all the windows on the west end of the house, rebuild the sash board and most of the windows and put them back in place.




Took all of us as you may remember, including Kay to help get them back in place and re-installed.  We put off any more restoration of the room as we worked from the front of the house to the back taking care of the bath, kitchen and bedrooms as our initial priorities.

We used this room for our work area and store room for about 14 months until we could get the other rooms completed.  This was Jane's painting room, my sawing and framing room and storage for everything we could get in there during the past winter.

For most of the time the room was not heated or cooled while we used it for the storage and work area. 

We, we haven't finished the room totally yet, but, we've got it cooled, heated, the flooring down, the ceiling repaired and all of this is painted.  We just finished installing our wall mounted TV and got some furniture moving in.  Couldn't wait to "show it off".   We'll do more and write about it later but we can finally see some progress and closure to the room.  

The room is a bright green with all white wood work and floor is Oak laminate. This shows a few of the west windows and the door opening from the "mud room" and back door.

The couch-ottoman and chairs were given by Donna (thanks again) and the glass table came from the "River" property that Donald and Kay add for several years.  This view is the southwest corner looking from the TV wall.

This view is coming in from the hall way and the front of the house.  There are more doors in this house than Chin's in a Chinese phone book!  But,,,,, we use every one of them, doors that is, not Chin's.

Once again, we have to say how blessed we are for the opportunity and the experience.  Again, come see us and enjoy with us.

Moving Right Along,,,,, The Hall Way!!!!!!

Finally, we've gotten to the hall way.  By choice this was to be our last inside project because the hall way was the 26' storage room that stored everything in.  Literally, golf clubs, pictures, tables, chairs, you name it and it was there.  The hall way was about 26' long, approximately 5' wide and very dark when the Sun Room door was closed.  It was so dark and depressing we actually never took a picture of it in all its glory.

Just so you know, in the older days homes were built with basically the sleeping rooms and bath room (if one was actually inside the home) and often the parlor  were built separately from the cooking side of the house.  This house was similar but not totally constructed that way.  We have what appears to be two front doors side by side.  One enters the living room, the other enters a bed room.  The living room, dining room and kitchen are on one side of the house and two bedrooms, the sleeping room and the bath room is on the other side of the house.  Both sides are connected with a long hallway down the middle of the house.

Anyway, we've completed the hallway and it has just opened up the entire house just as we expected.   We had to repair the ceiling, paint the "pond green" paneling, and install our flooring.  It was worth every minute of labor and effort.  .

A view from the bathroom area looking back towards the sun room shows off the value add of the hallway.

Looking back from the sun room towards the bathroom and master bedroom is equally appealing.

 This view is from the master bedroom looking into the hallway.  The door on the right is from the dining room.  We mentioned earlier that we were moving the washer and dryer to the mud room and you can see why now.  We will be building another closet where the washer and dryer are here and gain a lot of storage space while removing the laundry equipment from view.

Finally a view from the bathroom into the hallway and dining room really ties all of this house together.

We are excited, this is the final major interior project for the remodel.  Its taken 16 months of a lot of work and planning.  While we have more to do, the end IS in sight.  We'll be doing final touch up projects on the interior but boy are we blessed to have this much done.

Thanks Donald and Kay and everybody else that's helped.

Won't be long till we have the "Open House" and we really look forward to that.

Mud Room Make Over

This old house has everything you can imagine.  The entrance to the back of the house is through what once was a porch and eventually got enclosed.  The area was simply an entry where you could take off your boots, coats, caps and store your guns.  We have always called it a "Mud Room" and it is one of the best part of the house as far as we're concerned.  You don't have to track mud, chicken *&%$$, snow or bugs into the house by coming in back here.

The room was not insulated and was just pine planks with a plank floor due to its evolvement and construction.  So, we decided to re-cover withe walls with pine planks.  The wood was milled from trees that had fallen on the farm for several years.  When the fellow came with his sawmill Donald had it cut to 1'X8"X16" boards.  We had to stack the boards in the barn with "slats" between the layers of boards in order to let the wood "air dry".  The drying took about 2 to 2 1/2 months but the wood turned out great.

We then planed each board, cut it to dimension and installed the planks to create a true plank paneling appearance.   By the way, we also hung "15# tar paper" on the walls before we installed the planks for additional insulation.  The tar paper was also put down covering the floor before the sub floor plywood was laid. Below is the original appearance of the room and some of the steps we took along the way.

The original room was kind of a mess as you can see 

We used this for storage but the appearance needed some improvements.

The wood just totally changed the appearance of this room and we haven't even treated the wood yet.  We were able to move the wiring and conceal the outlets and make the room totally acceptable in looks.

We will eventually move our washer and dryer to this wall and make more room in our hall way that we are working as we speak.  This will allows us to build another closet in the hall and get the washer and dryer back where it is out of site where it should be.

We also were able to build a closet in this mud room (below).  With this close and the one we'll gain in the hallway, we'll have enough closet space for storing all our "junk".   (Just what we need)

One of the things we marvel at and really enjoy is that this wood was just a fallen tree several months ago.  This wood was cut, (fell) milled, planed, fit and installed all from something a lot of people just burn or throw away.  Amazing,,,,,

The hallway is next so, stay tuned......

Love Them Figs,,,,,,,

I tell you what, it just keeps getting better and better down here on Curry Road.  Seems like every week somebody calls and says "if you want some................ come on over and help yourself."

We've been blessed with peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, peaches, blue berries, corn, garlic, etc.


Now, we've even got some Figs.   Man, just how good can it get?

 These are tree ripe, soft, sweet, plentiful figs on trees maintained and carefully watched by Mike and Neda McLean here in Rye.   They are large and firm and make the best jam and sauces you can imagine.

There are two trees and they are loaded.  The Mcleans are just wonderful people and share.  Their yard is a beautiful display of flowers, fruit trees and tropical plants that are ever blooming and  ever producing fruit.

Mike loves his yard and it shows.  While here in Rye he is constantly watering, edging and generally making his place look like a Souther Living garden area.














Neda is the support staff for old Mike and I think she may be in charge of planning and definitely supervision.





This particular day, Neda had just finished canning about 12 bushels of crowder peas.  Both Neda and Mike are long time residents of the area and also enjoy time in the "city".  


We just can't get enough of this country and area.

You come on down and see us soon, we'll share as well.

Thanks Mike and Neda, the figs are already in the jars.

Bob and Mary Ellen's Fourth Of July Pool Party and Bash

Bob and Mary Ellen Nesbitt are two people that have more fun or create more fun that you can imagine.
Bob and Mary Ellen spent their productive years (business years anyway) as event planners and organizers for the Professional Bowling Association union cooperative or what ever.  Anyway, they are masters at hosting and leading the way to fun and joy.    This party is really a "front" for a family reunion of several families of Marry Ellen's side all originally from Rye.  Lots of cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.

Bob is a wounded combat veteran of the Korean war era.   Bob has a gift of welcoming people and just has a ball kidding and joking.   Bob is from New York (yep,,,, YANKEE) but he's 
probably been reborn to be a redneck like the rest of us.  ( I don't think he has changed his car oil on a Walmart parking lot yet, but other than that,,,,he's close)

Mary Ellen now is a "trip".  Never at a loss of or for words, can say anything and "get away with it" and is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.   Pretty good cook and hostess also.  This was a pool party so Marry Ellen had on TWO cover ups....... just to be safe.

Bob and Mary Ellen's house is custom built with a large enclosed great room that can handle a crowd of 30 easily.  That lets two families occupy the same room without a out and out fist fight!?   No, really they all love each other and have known each other for XXX years.

 Jane is seen here enjoying the company and food in the great "Great" room.  Donald Curry is in the back of the room standing and visiting with most likely one of his "First Cousins".  He has about 50 I think.

All of these people are family members and have been together for over 4 generations

The new pool is just to the left of this picture but was  not too busy on this day, since the food line was still open. 

Thanks to Kay and Donald's friends, we have met some great people that enjoy life and are great citizens.  What better way to spend a Fourth of July?

PS  Kay was in Little Rock due to her older sister Gail Johnson having been taken by ambulance to the hospital due to heart problems.  We will update that in the next blog.

We're Almost Done With The West Side,,,,,

Well, after many hours of scrapping, caulking, nailing, painting, cutting moulding and just plain ole hard work we think we are making progress on the Sleeping Room on the west end of the house.  The ceiling and walls are "plank, tongue and grooved bead board".  That means that each board some 90 years ago was installed perfectly in line and square.  Guess what, over a period of 90 years they get loose, some decay and most sag.  Give a little help of decay in the ceiling from previous roof leaks and you've got a project.   We used many man hours and a large amount of caulk tubes but the ceiling turned out pretty good, or at least we think so.  The color is a "beige" but Jane calls it something else.

The walls were also in need of a lot of tender loving care but they finished in pretty good shape as far as we're concerned.  Just keep in mind that if you ever have to paint bead board, it requires almost twice as much paint since you have to force the paint down into each groove and cover the sides of the grooves as well.  A large "1/2" nap " roller is a good start but expect to put a lot of brush strokes with lots of pressure to get the coverage you will want.

We also installed the oak laminate flooring and it just finished the room the way we had hoped.  The white moulding and wood work will set the room off even more.  

We had to take a break during this project for the Annual Bob and Marry Ellen Nesbit Fourth of July Bash so, come back and see what else we have completed real soon, ya hear?

We're Moving On Up To The West Side,,,,,Oopppps

Well the old song was moving on up to the east side but we're moving on up to the west side of this great ole house.  Yep, the Sleep Room-Sleep Porch special place.  Below you can see it was a bit of a mess even from the outside but what an opportunity.

I imagine you don't remember but we had to remove all the west windows and replace the bottom sills due to rot.  It took all of us and a lot of "tractor machine" help as well but we got it rebuilt and replaced in almost exactly the same situation as Mr. WG had built back in the 20's.

Once we got the windows rebuilt and back in place we had to work on the other rooms and we have been awaiting the chance to get to this great ole room and remodel the entire section of the house.  The picture below was after the windows were replaced and after Jane had spent weeks cleaning out the old bird, mouse and Bat, (yes I said Bat) stuff.  But remember, Boy What An Opportunity.

Jane and I both have used the old room as a work shop all winter and it became a "catch all" for anything left over or waiting to be used.  What a mess.  Jane did get her kitchen tiles painted out here and  it was out of the cold and rain.  Thank you Jesus.

Just so you can see the "before" situation the picture below is an idea of the condition of the ceiling before we started our make over.  The entire room is made of "bead board" tongue and grooved plank.  The wood was installed over 90 years ago and its moved, changed in size and endured many coats of paint and less than perfect maintenance.  Since we were going to make this our main living area we took extra precaution to resurface the ceiling as best we could.  We actually put 16 tubes of caulking on the ceiling filling the bead board groves and trying to realign the boards to the original appearance.

Below is the finished surface area and I think we got it.  At least Mr. Donald has signed off on it and Kay has yet to see it and give a thumbs up or down.  The ceiling will be a focal point of the room and the house and it should last forever. 

The walls were in about as bad of shape as the ceiling but not quite.  The leaking roof had taken its toll on the ceiling but the walls were in a bit better shape.  However, we still had to caulk and nail many of the bead boards and try to close the gaps and fill in the openings to try to get the appearance the house once had.  The following picture is our starting point on the walls.

From the two previous pictures you can begin to see the great color that Jane picked out for the room.  It grows on me and I am beginning to really get into it.  Its a Sunshine Yellow, Green or something, Sherwin Williams mixed it for us and I thought boy this bad when I opened the first can of paint.  But, as usual the color will grab you and its perfect for the "Sun Room, Sleeping Porch" effect that we want to have.  The picture below will give some idea of the new paint. (By the way, this is the wall we plan to install several exterior boards from Uncle Cokes house.  We have to wait till the snakes leave the Coke house so we can get in there and get the boards.  Neat huh?)

Looks pretty good with the white trim and the new light oak floor will really bring out the entire room
The final picture below is another view of the partially completed room.  As of today, after over 50 man hours we have finished the ceiling, walls and some of the wood work trim.  Hopefully we finish the remaining wood work trim and then lay the new floors next week.

Boy are we grateful for the opportunity and the chance to help recreate the great old house to its original glory.

Stay tuned for more updates on the completed room.   That leaves the hallway and the "mud room" as the final rooms and then,,,,,,rest,,,,ahhhhhhh rest.

Ya'll come,,, we'll leave the light on for you......