Country Life

CONTENTS

COUNTRY LIVING

LIFE HACK

BAKERY REVIEW

RV PARK Revisited

BOOK REVIEW

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COUNTRY LIVING:
Yes, I've come to realize that even though Walmart is only about 12 miles away, we are still in the country.

We can't get high speed cable internet or phone. Luckily, there is at least DSL and cell service.

There is no recycling garbage...sigh...I drove 30 miles to the county recycling center to check it out. Since there was no recycling pick up, I figured, I go once a month and deposit them at the county center. Maybe I'd even ask the neighbors if they could recycle just one type of item and I'd take with me. But, alas, I was very disappointed. I arrived way out in the back country, to see large garbage containers with no labeling on them, so no way of knowing what should be deposited where. A sign by the building stated to not drop off anything before seeing an attendant. Hmm, where's the attendant? In Neptune, NJ, if you drive up to the recycling center, an attendant comes out immediately, all full of himself, asking what we were dropping off and proof of residence. Not here in Carroll County, TN.

No grouchy attendant giving me the 5th degree. I REALLY want to recycle my garbage. What a waste of resources and space to throw plastic, paper, glass, aluminium in with the regular garbage. So, I go inside the building. I see a lot of shredded paper, a large factory fan blowing and making a lot of noise, but no humans. I peek in the big work areas...no one. I go into the office...no one! Am I in a horror film? Have they all turned to Zombies and are going to attack me? I was actually a little nervous. Out here in the middle of no where. No witnesses. Help!!!!
No one came out to attack me, nor did anyone come out to help me. So much for the recycling center. I may have to write to "someone" in the County and ask what's up with this?

Some bills have no option for on line payment or even credit card payment. I actually have to write a check & mail or drop off the payment!! But the bills are fewer than NJ living. No water bill, no sewer bill, no gas bill.

Local folk don't understand fences, except to keep cattle, horses, goats in, but not dogs. Dogs come by to greet the neighbors.

For any "big box" stores other than Walmart, we have to drive 27 miles.

The only grocery store is Walmart, unless we drive 27 miles to Jackson.

NJ Turnpike

It's quiet

We can't see our neighbors.

There is no dog licensing required.

The major highways are not crowded
No toll booths.

Population of Cedar Grove is only approximately 2400. That is a population density of only about 26 people per square mile. Compare that to our old location, Shark River Hills, NJ had a population density of  4200 people per square mile.
42 HUNDRED!!!!

Ooh, ooh, just saw a deer trot across the front lawn! Ahh, the country life.
I'll accept the negatives of country living because the positives oh so very much outweigh the negatives!
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LIFE HACK:
How to eat a gourmet cupcake. You know the "in" cupcakes, the cupcake stores that was all the fad and now fading. The cupcakes are large and the icing is even larger, higher, than the actual cupcake! I enjoy trying out new cupcake places. Most times I am disappointed but it's still fun trying all the unique flavors.
But how do you eat those darn cupcakes with all that icing?? They are too big to really take a bite with both cake and icing included in the bite. I usually end up using a fork and knife and eating it like a meal. But the icing top heavy cupcake usually topples over. The mystery is over.

Cut the cake part in half horizontally. Then take the bottom half and put it on top of the icing. Genius! You now have what is basically and piece of layer cake! I have tried this and it works wonderfully.
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STORE/BAKERY REVIEW:
Speaking of cupcakes, I have tried two "local" (if you can call anything local to itty bitty Cedar Grove) cupcake bakeries.

Woodstock Bakery - Jackson, TN
My rating 3 out of 5
Prices were better than most "gourmet" cupcake shops at $2.25 per cupcake. The cake part was moist, dense and tasted home made. They had the correct, in my opinion, amount of icing. Although icing swirled high on top of the cupcake looks impressive, it can be too high and too much icing to really enjoy the cupcake. You need a more balanced ratio of cake to icing, which Woofstock understands.
Their flavors are unique and named after many Beatles tunes.

L & T CAKERY, INC - Milan, TN
My rating 2 out of 5
First off, be forewarned. You will be heartily laughed at if you mispronounce local town names. The town where this bakery is located is called Milan. Now us "Yankees" would pronounce it mee-LAN, like in France. But no, this town in TN is pronounces MY-lin. I snicker every time I have to say it that way.
Back to the review...
Very expensive. $3.00 per cupcake. $2.50 if you buy 4. But, if you buy the 5th, that is $3.00. I would think they'd continue the discount after 4 purchased.
Cake tasted like a box mix. Very airy. The icing was double the height of the cake. So with an airy cake and a very top heavy icing, this was even difficult to eat using my split the cake method.
And to top if off, not very good icing.
But I'll end with a good note. Their refrigerated Coconut Creme cupcake was excellent.
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RV PARK Revisited:
COLUMBUS-BELMONT STATE PARK - Louisville, KY
I have reviewed this prior in my June 17, 2014 post. We returned to this park for the first 2 weeks of July, our final days before settling down in a house again. We had a different site this time. Although the first site #34 was nice in that it was an end site, it was in full sun. Our last 2 weeks, we were located on the other side of the park. What a fabulous site #26! Huge, lots of shade, but open enough for clear sky for satellite set up.

View from our front door

View from behind the RV

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BOOK REVIEW:
The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Could have been a bit better if the responses "unh-hunh" were not repeated over and over and over.
Exciting, action packed,suspense. I'm surprised how much the PI gets away with. Elvis and his side kick Pike are a couple of macho types, with Elvis having a soft side and Pike has a not so much soft side, but if you get to know his character a little, he can be likeable in a scary way.
I look forward to reading more, but hope the conversations have a little more depth. My husband has enjoyed the series a lot.

Fish Farm by Walt Sautter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book. It reminded me of Carl Hiaasen books, but minus the quirky characters, but the characters certainly get themselves into difficult circumstances. How do they deal with the problems? Ahhh, that's the sick charm of this book.
People end up down and out for a number of reasons. These guys all have a different story, but they are all brought together and become friends in this bad area of town. Gangs are harassing and demanding what little money these low income guys have. What to do? What can they do? How long can they take this extortion? If you stand up to the gang, you may just get yourself killed.
There is a hero in a morbid sort of way.
There were many, MANY editing mistakes, misspellings, words left out which interrupted the flow of the book because I had to take a second or two to fill in the missing, sometimes essential word.