What Did I Do While Bruce Was Gone?

January 30, 2026

After we moved into the house at Blackberry Homestead, I unboxed the books we kept, mostly my cookbooks. As I opened the boxes, I put the books in the rotating bookcases that I had put together. I sorted the non-cookbooks as I unpacked the boxes. I put my cookbooks in any which way in a cookbook section. The cookbook section takes up most of one of the bookcases.

While Bruce was gone, I sorted my cookbooks. I took them out of the bookcase and reviewed them. I put them in sections based on the type of cookbooks. I have sections for Asian, Mediterranean, bread making, science of cooking, Donna Hay, dinner party, parties, appetizers, vegetation, and general cookbooks. I love my Donna Hay cookbooks and have enough of them that they get their own section. In my dinner party section, I placed my napkin-folding book and a picture book on tablescaping. Some of the sections are small and others take up several shelves. I felt like I accomplished something.

I made my Great-Aunt Hazel’s molasses cookies. I realized the type of flour makes a difference. She used all-purpose Gold Medal flour. So this time, so did I. When I had tried to make the cookies with all-purpose King Arthur flour, it wasn’t the same.

The copper colored cookie cutters are the ones my Great-Aunt Hazel gave me. She had them for a very long time. When she knew she wasn’t going to make cookies anymore, she gave her cookie cutters to her various nieces. The dragonfly was picked up at the Lodge store in Athens, AL.

I baked the cookies a tad too long. The edges shouldn’t be browned. It makes the cookies taste burned. Luckily, the centers were edible. I was so happy the center of the cookies tasted like Great-Aunt Hazel’s cookies. The cookies were a comfort food from my childhood.

I started another art project. I am drawing Jeanne’s (ajeanneinthekitchen.com) other dog, Dorrie. It is a smaller picture than the one I did of Juneua.

Friday, I went to the RV and closed it up due to the coming cold and the ice storm. I pulled in all the slides and drained the water from the RV using the low point drain. I wanted the slides closed in case we got an inch of ice. An inch of ice might damage the slide toppers. Bruce asked me to check the propane levels. We had one full tank, which he thought would be enough.

Friday evening, before the winter storm Fern hit, there was a beautiful sunset.

I woke up to a small amount of snow on Saturday. I laughed! After all, I was used to the snowfalls in Colorado and this was just a dusting. I considered if it would have been safe for Bruce and me to drive to Jekyll Island, GA.

Then, the wind and sleet started. The sleet covered the snow and coated the grass and leaves. We got a quarter inch of ice on the grass and leaves. The back patio and front sidewalk was covered in a half inch of ice.

Nox hated it when I took her out front. The front was safer since the eaves covered the steps and part of the sidewalk. The wind was blowing in the opposite direction of the porch. Nox hated walking on the ice-coated leaves. Once she was finished peeing, she didn’t want to walk on the leaves, even though I was trying to get her to come directly back to me. Nox made it to the sidewalk. She promptly slipped and fell hard on the ice covered sidewalk. I tried to figure out how to safely rescue her without slipping on the ice. Nox was able to slowly get up and make it to the dry part of the sidewalk and then to the steps. I was able to pick her up and carry her inside. The fall undid some of the good from Nox’s arthritis shots.

The crazy weather warmed up and the sleet turned to a pouring rain. I tried to take Nox out front again, but the water pouring from the downspouts turned into ice water about two inches deep. I couldn’t put Nox down in that. I tried to take her out back. I realized the patio and patio step were iced over and very unsafe. I poured several pots of boiling water on the patio steps and patio to thaw the ice out. The backyard still had a quarter inch of ice on the grass. Once I put Nox down on the grass, she was very unhappy. She needed a pickup right after trying to melt the ice by peeing.

The rain continued partway through the night, melting the ice on the grass. The temperature then dropped into the teens after the rain stopped, freezing the rainwater. The patio had mostly been cleared of ice by the rain, but some patches of ice remained. Nox was much happier with the grass in the backyard. In the evening, when I took Nox out, snow was falling.

I was so glad Bruce stayed and didn’t try to come home to get me for the visitation and funeral.

Sunday morning, I saw a light dusting of snow when I took Nox outside.

It didn’t get above freezing all day. Where the sunlight hit the snow, the snow melted.

I made red beans and rice as it is one of Bruce’s comfort food. I knew he’d be happy to eat them after he got home.

We talked and decided that since it would warm up into the 40s from 14 degrees F on Tuesday, it mm Bruce could safely come home Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Nox was unhappy to be outside in the bitter cold in the morning. As the temperature warmed up into the 40s, she was much happier. She even wanted to take a stroll around the backyard doing Nox things.

I made beef stew and dumplings for supper. Bruce made it home just as the sun was setting. I timed supper so Bruce would be able to eat about 15 minutes after getting home. He very happy to get something warm and comforting to eat.

On Wednesday, Bruce and I walked around Blackberry Homestead. The hoop covered green were wilted. I am not sure they survived. After walking around and looking at various plants, we ran a bunch of errands. Bruce wanted to check on the RV and and the propane levels. We were surprised to discover the full tank was close to empty. (Well, it did get down to 9 degrees F and didn’t get above freezing on Sunday and Monday.) The propane tanks needed to be filled. We didn’t have much luck finding someone to fill the tanks, because most places were out of propane. I suggested we try an RV park in Tuscumbia. They did have propane, so we were able to get both 40-gallon tanks filled. We went back to the RV and connected up the propane tanks. We drove back across the river into Muscle Shoals to pick up a prescription. Bruce was ready to get home.

Thursday, we were just lazy. We read and talked. Nox was happy to hang out with us.