OH NO! Real Change is Here…

This edition of my blog site represents real change for us.  We did know that the end of our green and wooded neighborhood as we knew it was near but the sudden change was still both sad and ugly!

This was our view from our front porch just a few days ago… I took this photo just in the nick of time!

A truck and trailer had pulled up along the side of the road right next to the lot that is directly across the street from us… The second photo shows what had been unloaded from the trailer.  It was an instrument of destruction!

It didn’t take too long for two workers with chain saws and their tracked destroyer to rip down the woods.  They were very efficient and we were pretty depressed even though it had been expected.  

A couple of days later, 2 other workers appeared with a big shredder and a forklift.  In short order they wiped out the big stacks of limbs and brush…

In addition to huge piles of limbs and brush, the lot clearing crew also built up that huge pile of logs from the larger trees.  When they departed for the day, we checked out the pile and noted a plethora of ants running all over the place looking for a new home.  I put out some ant bait to insure they didn’t cross the road.

Here is a view of the home lot following the denuding of the property… I know that it is less expensive to build home on a completely cleared lot but it would be nice if a couple of trees could have been spared.

There were a lot of stumps still extant when the crew that cleared the lot departed.  So one day we looked out the window and saw a machine following its owner around, much like a dog following its master.  It turned out that this is a remote controlled stump grinder.  

Its owner simply guides it from stump to stump and it just chews them up.  He completed the task in no more than an hour.  We spoke to him and he said that the speed of operation combined with it being a one-man operation makes this tool a financial winner.  He told us that new, this Vermeer grinder, cost $87,000. 

What about all of those logs?  Just a couple of days following the stripping of the lot, another new contraption appeared that was equipped to deal with the remaining timber.  Again, it was a one man operation.  I’d seen plenty of log trucks over the years as well as log trucks with a fork lift attached to the back of the truck bed, but this built in crane for loading the logs was new to me.  The operator was very efficient and he completed his task in about an hour.  The only logs left were those that were hollowed out and rotten.

So much for that lot and the woods that sheltered us from the late afternoon sunshine.  On a positive note, at least for now, is the fact that there still are 2 wooded lots on the north side of our house and another wooded wedge shaped lot at the back of the house.  Who knows how long they’ll survive?  The ongoing rampant inflation with higher interest rates may slow down development for a while.   In fairness, I’d rather see inflation tamed and prices for just about everything brought back under control.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Our Anniversary Dinner plus Thai Comfort Food

This is the last summary of local happenings before I begin my chronical, my series of posts, about our mini back roads exploration of North Georgia and Northwestern North Carolina.

It’s hard to believe that we recently celebrated our 43^rd wedding anniversary!  Better yet, we still even like each other!  This year, with severe cases of Covid-19 minimalized we were finally willing and able to go out for an anniversary dinner. 

Bonefish Grill in the Turkey Creek Shopping complex (Knoxville and Farragut), has been one of our anniversary go to spots ever since we moved to East Tennessee from Chicago back in 2009.

Pictured above are the bar and the main dining room at Bonefish Grill.  We were seated at about the center of the dining room.  The surroundings are pleasant and the atmosphere casual.  I did ‘dress up’ for the occasion though, complementing my shorts and New Balance tennis shoes with a collared golf shirt! 

For an appetizer, we chose the Shrimp Caprese Dip. ($10.90) This was a warm and creamy blend of mozzarella and parmesan cheeses layered with roasted shrimp, basil and blistered tomatoes.  As you can see, it was accompanied with some crusty Italian style bread.  We were off to a great start for our anniversary dinner!

In honor of the occasion, we both partook of alcoholic libations.  I had my 9^th beer/alcoholic beverage of the year and my bride went for a 1901 Dirty-‘Tini’ with Absolute Vodka. ($4.30 and $10.10)

Laurie’s favorite food is probably lobster.  She prefers lobster tails or lobster rolls.  No fuss in either case, and both dishes offer lots of lobster!  Featured above are her Cold Water Lobster Tails…a pair of 5 – 6 oz. lobster tails, seasoned and steamed and then served with warm drawn butter. ($36.90) For her sides, she chose rice and green beans… Happy Wife, Happy Life!

For my anniversary dinner, I chose the Mahi-Mahi and Shrimp. ($23.90) My nice mahi-mahi filet and the five jumbo shrimp were brushed with a light citrus-herb marinade and then were grilled over a wood fire.  My entrée was accompanied by some nice vinegar based coleslaw and rice.  I also requested some spicy ‘bang-bang’ sauce that I could use with my shrimp.  It was an excellent meal!

This particular Bonefish Grill is located at 11395 Parkside Drive in Knoxville Tennessee.  They are open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week.  Phone: 865-966-9777.  The specific website for this Bonefish location is found at: https://locations.bonefishgrill.com/tennessee/knoxville/11395-parkside-drive.

Another evening and yet another opportunity to dine out!  Thai Bistro is located in Loudon Tennessee close to the Tellico Village residential development.

We are very fortunate to have Thai Bistro in our neighborhood.  During the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we probably ordered take out from this restaurant more than any other in the area.  The food was always fresh and tasted just like it would have if we’d dined in the restaurant itself.  We can’t say the same for a couple other venues…where carry out didn’t travel well.

I can’t help it!  I’m pretty much addicted to Pad Thai with chicken added. ($13.00) Of course, I do order it spiced up to “Thai Hot”.  Diners can order Pad Thai with chicken, pork, beef, tofu or vegetables.  The rice noodles are stir fried with egg, beansprouts, scallions (not on mine), and peanuts.  The spice makes my head sweat!  I truly love this Thai comfort food.

FYI, we started our meal with Spring Rolls, ($5.50) but I’ve featured them so many times that I didn’t take a photo on this occasion.  They consist of deep fried rice paper stuffed with bean thread mixed with cabbage, celery and Thai herbs.  Three spring rolls are served with homemade sweet and sour sauce.

Laurie likes to roam the menu, trying different offerings for her meals.  I guess that I’m just a creature of habit when it comes to food while she is fairly adventurous. 

She ordered an entrée called Double Delight. ($16.00) It’s simple enough, just chicken and shrimp sautéed in a sweet chili sauce with mixed vegetables.  It was sided with some rice…which was a good thing because it gave her (and me) something to soak up that sweet chili sauce with!  She was very happy with her meal.  I might try it myself the next time…

We rarely eat desserts out and we haven’t tried many Thai sweets despite the number of times that we’ve eaten here.  This time our smooth talking waitress convinced us that we should share an order of Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango. ($8.00) This dessert is drizzled with coconut milk and topped with sesame seeds.  We were surprised with just how tasty it was and we’d order it again.

Thai Bistro is located at 222 Lakeside Plaza in Loudon Tennessee…just about a block off of TN Hwy 444.  Phone: 86j5-657-6440.  Website: https://www.thaibistrotellico.net/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Food, More Changes and Flowers

Continuing with my pre-trip posts from North Georgia and Western North Carolina.  Food and spring flowers dominate this post…

I ‘had’ to attack a pile of roasted red potatoes that were leftover…and I wanted to use one of the attractive new plates that Laurie bought at an estate sale.  In addition, I had a little French style fougasse bread that I didn’t want to go to waste.   For this simple breakfast I sliced up and fried the potatoes until they were golden brown, sliced the bread horizontally, heated it and buttered it.  Then of course, I topped the whole thing with a couple of easy over fried eggs.  Excellent!

We’d purchased some thick and luscious boneless pork chops the last time we went to Costco.  Time to give them a try.  Laurie seasoned and lightly breaded them and then I seared them in order to ensure a nice crust and so they’d retain their moisture.  Laurie finished them off in the oven.  We sided them with more of those red potatoes and some applesauce.  It was a fine meal indeed!

On this occasion we decided that each of us was “on our own” when it was time to prepare dinner.  Laurie loves mushrooms and we’d purchased a package of Portobello mushrooms for her as I don’t like them.  She simply sautéed them in butter and garlic and her entrée was served.  For her, this was a real treat!

OK, so what did I have for dinner that night?  Well, I finished off those roasted red potatoes…adding chopped up pieces of one of those big pork chops to the mix.  I fried the pork and potatoes, in butter of course, to give them a little more crust and then it was time for a couple more easy over eggs.  Add my Tabasco to that pile of goodness and I was very happy.  I am pretty sure that Laurie's dinner was healthier than mine though...

On another occasion, we had decided to go out to a movie followed by a casual dinner.  “The Lost City” with Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum and Brad Pitt was a comedy drama love story…all rolled into one.  We enjoyed it even more since, thanks to Covid-19, it was the first movie we’d seen at a theater in about 2 years.

We’d dined at Wings, Etc. Grill and Pub in Knoxville once before and we wanted to try it again mainly because we’d only had wings the first time.

We started out with one of Laurie’s favorite appetizers…deep fried pickle chips. ($8.49)  We’d eaten some of them before I remembered to take a photo.  They were pretty tasty but I thought that the little container of ranch dressing for dipping was a bit skimpy. 

Well, we couldn’t really not order some wings…they are in this restaurant’s name.  Laurie decided that after the pickle chips she didn’t have room for an entrée and wings were perfect for her.  We ordered 10 wings with bleu cheese and celery on the side. ($13.99) Half were coated with ‘hot buffalo’ sauce and the other half were coated with ‘Asian Kick’ sauce.  Laurie was not happy as all 10 wings were ‘wing drumette’, and she much prefers the other segment which is known as ‘the flat’.  In any case, the wings were pretty good but I ended up eating too many of them.

For my meal, I built my own “Stand-By” burger with 2 beef patties, cheddar cheese, iceberg lettuce, pickles and tomato with mayonnaise on the side. ($11.49) It was sided with some very tasteless coleslaw.  The dining area was deserted except for us.  I did have to go find the server to get a knife so I could cut the burger in half as it was too messy to pick up in one piece.

My burger was juicy and had decent flavor but the bun didn’t hold up very well.  Our server was very pleasant when she was around but with little to do, she spent more time back by the kitchen.

Wings, Etc. Grill and Pub is a franchised chain of more than 50 locations that is based in Ft. Wayne Indiana.  The Knoxville restaurant is at 319 Lovell Road near the Turkey Creek shopping complex.  Phone: 865-392-1021.  Website: https://wingsetc.com/knoxville/.

Once in a while Laurie prevails on yours truly to go for a walk around the neighborhood.   Change continues to dominate our peaceful partially wooded surroundings.  In this case, yet another new house is nearing completion about a block and a half away.  Its owner did do something that I didn’t do but wish I’d been able to.  She purchased the adjoining lot at the left of this photo…as well as the lot her house is being built on. 

We now know of 3 homeowners in our general neighborhood who are preserving a lot next to or behind their homes.  Monthly POA fees apply to empty/undeveloped lots as do property taxes, so this preservation of greenspace isn’t for everyone. 

Along our walk, we stopped to admire the variety of Iris in the front yard of one of our neighbors.  I really like that rust colored version…

Iris is a genus of between 260 – 300 flowering plants.  It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow…which is also the name of the Greek goddess of rainbows, Iris.  FYI, Presby Memorial Gardens in Montclair New Jersey is a living iris museum of sorts, with over 10,000 plants.

Back to our yard… Our azaleas are in bloom.  In addition to the red ones shown here, we also have pink and white azaleas.  Yes, our Iris are finally blooming as well.  We’re a little behind the neighbors as our plants are shaded for a good portion of the day.  We do need to add a bit of color to our Iris grouping…

We had our first Japanese maple tree when we lived in Attleboro Massachusetts.  The first tree or trees shown above grace another neighbor’s front yard but the second photo is of our very showy Japanese maple that resides in a corner niche next to the garage and just outside Laurie’s plant room.

The Japanese maple is a shrub or small tree, aka a woody plant that is native to Japan, Korea, China, eastern Mongolia and southeast Russia.  They are very popular due to their striking and colorful appearance.  Over 1,000 cultivars have been chosen for various characteristics.  They are primarily propagated through grafting but some can be propagated by budding, cuttings, tissue culture or layering.  Traditional Chinese medicines are made from this tree’s branches and leaves.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Family Pride plus a Variety of Photos

Before I launch into a series of posts regarding our recent mini-trip to Georgia and North Carolina, I’m going to post more recent activities and photos…some positive, some negative and some weird.

Let’s start with not only positive but proud!  As I’ve previously mentioned, our youngest grandson, Emmett, is about to graduate from High School out in Omaha.  Better yet, he was sought out by the University of Nebraska’s Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management, where annual enrollment is limited to only 45 students…and he was offered a full scholarship to sweeten the offer.  He hadn’t even applied to this special school within the University!

His mom, Amy, and dad David II, were very proud indeed as were Laurie and yours truly!  Congratulations Emmett! 

Laurie captured this photo of an Eastern Towhee rummaging around in the mulch in our yard.  They seem to be living in our bushes.  Eastern Towhees are fairly solitary, they are quite aggressive when warning off other towhees who violate their territory.  They aren’t seen as often as many other birds because they tend to look around for their food under bushes and in overgrown thickets.  They do live year around here in Tennessee but will breed as far north as southern Canada. 

This is one view of Laurie’s plant room.  The previous owners apparently decided to close in the breezeway between the house and the garage.  With both heating and air conditioning plus extensive windows facing both east and west, the room gets plenty of light and it has truly become a green space in our house.

Eureka!  For the first time ever, Laurie’s Hoyas have bloomed.  The first photo shows the budding blooms before they opened up.  They were like little packages ready to open!  These delicate and sweet smelling flowers now permeate the room.  It appears that all 4 of the Hoyas may bloom, with 2 out of 4 already showing off their flowers.  Hoya is a genus of over 500 tropical plants that are native to several Asian countries ranging from India to New Guinea.  They are also found in Australia.  Recent studies have shown that Hoya are an excellent remover of pollutants in an indoor environment. 

Laurie’s Christmas cactus obviously doesn’t have a calendar handy!  Officially called Schlumbergera, these plants naturally occur only in the coastal mountains of south-east Brazil.  Cultivation in Europe began in 1818 and by 1852 a successful hybrid from 2 separate types of this plant was created.  By the 1950’s the popularity of this houseplant had spread around the world.  

Actually, these plants can bloom at different times of the year depending on their environment.  The name, “Christmas cactus” came about in Europe where the plants were largely produced for sale in the period before Christmas.  It remains the most common name for the plant in many languages no matter what variety of the type that it is…or when it blooms.

Out for a drive in the neighborhood…and another lot and its trees bites the dust!  In this instance, it was just about a block down the street from our home.  At the end of March, 349 homes were under construction in our development with the ‘village’ being about 80% built out.  

Everywhere we drive in our neighborhood, we’re dodging contractor’s vehicles and heavy equipment parked along the edge of the roads.  It is a bit depressing… It would be nice if a couple of trees could be spared rather than doing a 'clear cut'.

We continued to cruise through our community, stunned at the number of new homes just completed, under construction or evidenced by newly cleared lots.  What the HECK!  It isn’t Halloween but some homeowner either has a sense of humor or they’re trying to make a statement of some kind… That is the biggest skeleton that I’ve ever seen and she’s quite fashion forward too!

Home ownership does bring issues that need to be dealt with.  As evidenced by the photo above, after several years of use, the straps used to support the cushions and folks using 2 of the chairs and a couch on our screened in porch had stretched to the point that we were sitting on the base of the furniture with only bad protecting our backsides.  Ouch!  Plus the seats were so low that it was hard for older folks like myself to get up out of them. 

Laurie found a local company that exists for one reason and one reason only…strap replacement for outdoor furniture.  The owner told us that he and his wife are the only employees but that they make a living just replacing straps like these… That’s quite a business niche.  The good news is that replacing the seats, 5 in total, is a heck of a lot less expensive than buying even one replacement piece of furniture.

I’ll end this post with photos of these attractive flowering plants that Laurie purchased to brighten up the front porch and entrance to our home.  Lantana is a genus of about 150 species of perennial flowering plants in the verbena family.  They are native to tropical regions of the Americas and Africa.  Lantana’s are ‘naturalized in the southeastern USA, especially in the coastal regions from the Carolinas and along the Gulf Coast.  Bees and butterflies benefit from these flowering plants…

However, some species of Lantana are invasive and they are considered to be noxious weeds in South Asia, Southern Africa and Australia.  The spread of this plant in nature is aided by the fact that their leaves are poisonous to most grazing animals while their fruit is a delicacy for many birds.  Then of course, the birds spread the seeds and more Lantana is ‘planted’.

That’s about it for now!  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Food, Shopping, More Food

…continuing with Laurie’s sister Bonnie and Bonnie’s husband Bill visit from St. Louis Missouri.  Food and shopping…or at least browsing, these are the things we seem to do best.  

The last time that Laurie and I shopped at Costco, we’d picked up a box of mussels and 2 baguettes.  Bill and Bonnie love seafood of just about any variety and we thought that we’d serve the mussels with the bread as an appetizer during their visit.  It was a hit!  I’m not a huge fan but the mussels were OK and the sauce was very tasty indeed.

Two packs of mussels came in the box, so Laurie and I recently defrosted them as well as the second baguette…and it was dinner for us one night.

Note: The mussels were packaged by Sogelco, with 2 one-pound packs in the box.  These fresh cooked and pasteurized mussels were cultivated on Prince Edward Island, one of Canada's Maritime Provinces.  This is just one of Sogelco's seafood products.

More home cooking…or in this case, grilling.  Unfortunately the only photo we took of our ribeye steaks, roasted potatoes and sautéed portabella was this one of Laurie’s dinner.  She and Bonnie split a ribeye steak…while Bill and I ate our ‘whole thing’!  The steaks…purchased from Fresh Market…needed about a minute less time on the grill.  We all like our steaks medium rare and they were just a tad over cooked.  Still, no one except me complained…and I was the ‘grill master’.  I'm guessing that Laurie had already eaten half of that mushroom cap...

Rather than venturing to downtown Knoxville, Bonnie and Bill decided on an alternative ‘adventure’.  They had never been in a Rural King Store so our first stop was the Rural King located on US Hwy 11 in Sweetwater Tennessee.  We looked all around the store and did a little shopping but Laurie and I were underwhelmed when we compared the stock levels and variety of items to what we experienced on our first visit.  Perhaps much of the problem is related to supply chain issues, product availability and staffing needs.  We won’t be back for a while…

FYI, Rural King has taken over a number of big empty Kmart locations in our area.  Our first impression was that Rural King is much like a Tractor Supply location, only on steroids!

Our next stop was the Sweetwater Valley Farm, a place that Bill and Bonnie had visited before but wanted to visit again.  With 29 or so different cheeses on hand, this dairy farm also offers pickled/preserved vegetables, ,cured meats, a number of sauces and salsas, honey, jams and jellies, apparel and other gift items. 

Of special interest is the sampling ‘bar’ which is available for customers to taste most if not all of the cheeses.  It 'greets you' as you enter the building.  Can't miss it!  An assortment of cheeses and jellies found their way into our SUV before we moved on… 

Love the fake cow!  I could use one of those in our yard… Our property owners association would really freak out! 

That big barn-like structure serves as Sweetwater Valley Farm’s gift shop and restaurant.  The “Seed to Sandwich Café / Home and Gift Shop” was fortunately closed.  They are not open on Sunday or Monday.  The Café offers a variety of grilled cheese sandwiches, milk shakes, coffee and desserts and the gift shop is a couple of levels above typical with its quality merchandise.  From my point of view, we saved a few dollars!

Tours are of the dairy operation are offered Tuesday through Saturday.  Adults are $12.oo and children from 3 to 12 cost $8.00.  This large dairy farm milks 500 cow’s daily using robotic technology.  Sweetwater Valley Farm is located near Philadelphia Tennessee on US Hwy 11.  To learn more, just go to their very complete and informative website, which is found at https://sweetwatervalley.com/. 

Time for dinner and we didn’t want to stray far from home given the fact that the four of us were taking off on a mini 2 night road trip early the next morning.  So Bonnie and Bill decided that they’d be interested in having dinner at Tellico Village’s Toqua Sports Bar and Grill.  It is one of the 3 golf course restaurants at Tellico Village.  Laurie and I had been there recently…the first time since it was remodeled…and we had been happy with our meals.

Note: The previous photo was taken on our first visit to the Grill in late winter.

Both of the ladies decided to have dinner salads.  Since Laurie likes a bit of spicy, she ordered the Boom Boom Shrimp Salad. ($14.00) The fried shrimp were tossed in Boom Boom sauce and then placed over mixed greens with cheddar jack cheese, cucumbers, tomato, red onion and hard-boiled egg.  The salad was served with blue cheese dressing.

Bonnie opted for the Razz-berry Chicken and Walnut Salad. ($13.00) This creation included char-grilled chicken on mixed greens, walnuts, dried cranberries, tomato, red onion, cucumber, and feta cheese served with a Razz-berry vinaigrette.

Laurie and Bonnie really enjoyed their salads but they were so big that Bill and I had to ‘help them out a bit’.  Mixed greens are off limits to me but I did scoop up some cucumbers and tomatoes with some blue cheese dressing.

During our last visit to the Toqua Sports Bar and Grill, I’d ordered the Pastrami Sliders ($13.00) and I’d been very happy with my selection.  In this instance, Bill decided to order Pulled Pork Sliders with coleslaw as his side dish for his entrée.  It must have been a 'special item' as they aren’t on the posted menu.  In any case, he did enjoy his dinner! 

I decided to try something new from Toqua Grill.  I ordered the Mahi Tacos. ($14.00) As you can see from the photo, this entrée included 3 grilled flour tortillas stuffed with a bit of lettuce, cheddar jack cheese and pieces of grilled Mahi-Mahi.  The tacos were topped with pico de gallo and chipotle ranch drizzles.  They were served with lime and sour cream.  While they were quite tasty, they were way too messy for someone like me who has a tendency to ‘wear his food’ in the first place.

The Toqua Sports Bar and Grill is located at the Toqua Golf Course in Tellico Village in Loudon Tennessee.  To learn more about this restaurant just go to http://www.tellicovillageyachtclub.com/restaurants/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave