GOOD BYE JUNE 2013

A cooler morning greeted us today but clouds were gaining on the sunshine quickly.
I got to church a little early to check out one of the younger ladies July 4th sanctuary decorations. She had asked me a couple weeks ago if she could put out the patriotic decor and I was glad to have her do it. She did a great job, thanks Steph. Before I made a picture I got distracted and forgot all about the pic.
I am always awed at how many servicemen we have in our congregation as they marched in and were honored at the beginning of the service.

As the sermon was about to begin,hubbie asked if I had put the turkey in the oven. Shoot !!! No, I forgot all about that smoked turkey that I found in the chest freezer last week that was defrosted in the frig downstairs. I looked at my watch and it was 11:15, the turkey needed 2 hours to heat up as it is already cooked and smoked. I left church, drove home put the turkey in the oven so it would be done at 1:30, our regular lunch time.
I thought about going back to church but figured I would only be there about 15 minutes by the time I drove back so I broke the green beans and had everything ready by the time daughter and hubbie arrived.
We had a small lunch bunch today with daughter and #1 son's family here today.  #2 son came by for left overs after his golf game.
Everyone left after we ate and hubbie went over to daughter's to work on her weed eater and help her get her yardwork done before the week of predicted rain sets in.
I enjoyed an afternoon of reflection and relaxation all alone.
After choretime this evening hubbie and I sat in the sunroom and watched the rain slowly begin to fall.
From excessive heat in the west to flooding in the east, July 2013 is already making a bad impression.

I can hardly believe that another month has slipped by. This June has been a fairly calm month for our family.
 #1 son went on his first youth chaperoning trip to Myrtle Beach ,SC and g-son got to tag along. They both enjoyed the experience very much.

D-in-love made a trip to Myrtle Beach to do a photo shoot and got to help with the youth for a couple days while they were there. She also traded her Jeep Patriot which was starting to have many problems in for a new Toyota Corolla.

G-son enjoyed the beach but came down soon after getting home with his second bout of strep throat in this month. He graduated from kindergarten and has had an exciting summer vacation so far. Playing with visiting friends, swimming at the lake and great aunt Sandy's pool with friends and family.

 #2 son sold  the house he bought last fall as long as all goes well with the buyer  and he also closed on a piece of property he had an offer in on.

Daughter went on the beach youth trip also and had a good time. She came home and returned to her very busy life. She is still working for the elementary school but is going to all the teacher and coaches meetings with the high school she will begin teaching at in August. She has had several dog sitting jobs and has sold her baked goods well this month. She has begun dating a new guy who is a deputy sheriff . We haven't met him yet but look forward to getting to know him in the near future.

Hubbie has started his summer schedule at work of being off on Friday instead of Monday. He has taken several days off this month and we have gotten several task done that had been put off.

I have had a great month. Along with g-son who is usually here at least 4 days a week this summer I have been blessed with time with little Evy who is the baby of Aaron and Rebecca, the couple who live in #2 son's house.  I keep her on the days Rebecca goes to work at the hospital at night to the time Aaron who works on a local sod/ soybean farm gets home from work. She is a sweetheart and I enjoy my time with her.  I have steadily gotten busier at market especially the last two Saturdays.

June has been another wet month with several rainy days each week. A total of 9 inches fell during the month, that's 4.35 inches above normal, bringing the yearly total to 38.12 inches which is a whopping 15.22 inches above normal for this time of year.
So far we have been effected by only one hurricane of the season, Andrea, that caused some minor flooding issues around WNC.

As midnight nears tonight I bid June 2013 a fond farewell and welcome the adventures of July 2013.
I know God will be beside me as I go through this next month and I know He will be my guiding light on those dark busy days that are bound to come. I leave this month with this message.

Good Night and God Bless.

OLD MILK TRUCK DELIVERY MEMORIES

Had a busy morning at market. Daughter brought in her first batch of early blackberries and they drew a lot of attention to our tables. My new set up worked out beautifully and we had plenty of room. Too busy for pictures today. The blackberries were gone long before lunch time and we almost sold out of baked goods. Daughter left about 1:00 to go visit Rhondria, her friend that just had the baby.
After market I walked up on Main street to check out the old milk trucks that were on display today.

 There were trucks there from as far away as Ontario,Canada and as old as 1931 models.

My favorite milk cow was a Guernsey we had named Peggy !

 This girl blocked one of the streets.

It was a nice history lesson and brought back memories for me when I was a child and looked for the milk truck each week because he also had ice cream bars.
I also stopped in the Hospice resale shop up town and found some new large table cloths for our market tables and some woven placemats for my tables at home.
After making a couple supply stops I got home and unloaded. Hubbie was finishing up his weed eating on  a bank we have been trying to get a stand of grass started on. He said he couldn't believe how fast things were growing this year with all this rain.
I took a break off my achy feet this evening out in the sunroom for some bird watching. I love to see these Doves around. They are such peaceful birds. Usually they are ground feeders but this guy decided the seeds were fresher up here.

As I relaxed the sweet aroma of all these Mimosa blossoms wafted in through the open doors and windows and made the evening especially nice.

I usually see several hummingbirds sampling these blooms, but not today.
I haven't seen many hummers at all this year.
After my rest hubbie and I treated all the dogs with their monthly Front Line and then made a concoction of vaseline and 7-dust to rub into all the chicken's feet. I am pretty sure the skin-so-soft oil treatment last week rid them of their leg mites but just to be sure and to give them a little more moisture for the scales that are falling off I thought this one last treatment couldn't hurt.
The hens acted like they enjoyed having their feet and legs rubbed with this greasy concoction. Usually when animals have problems they know when you are trying to help them and do their best to co-operate.
Looking forward to praising our precious Lord with my church family tomorrow. Prayerfully thankful for  all the blessings of today.
Good Night and God Bless.

POOL PARTY FRIDAY

A strange morning without g-son here !!  He is with his aunt T for the day. They are picking blackberries this morning,then going to his last doctors appointment to have his elbow checked, then to the pool at sis-in-laws house with no telling what other fun in between !!!
In the blackberry patch !!

Hubbie and I did the morning chores then planted a pound of okra seed that had been soaking overnight. We want to have enough okra to pickle this year and the first planting pretty much didn't show up !! I know the soil is warm enough to make this batch grow.
Hopefully we will have our first squash this weekend and maybe a cucumber or 2 . Meanwhile the chickens are enjoying the spent lettuce and onions.
With our gardening done for the day we made a trip to Sam's Club. We came home to get our regular work day projects started. He got the weed eater out and I did some house cleaning and baked cakes. I baked 12 caramel and 2 chocolate cakes today.
The sun is shining nicely today but the mid 80's temperatures feel like mid 90's with all the humidity.
The clouds kept building all afternoon and finally just after chore time this  evening the rain began. By dark we had 3/10ths in the gauge and it was still raining lightly. Thankfully no storms or gully washing rain.
I iced cakes tonight and got ready for market tomorrow.
These are some pictures daughter sent me today of g-son and his cousins playing.
Sis-in-law keeps a watchful eye on all the kiddos as they cool off with freeze pops !!

 Good looking cousins !!!

 And we are off but Kalie doesn't look to thrilled about this ride !!??

Looks like g-son had a wonderful afternoon and they topped it off with a pizza party for supper,doesn't get any better than that !!!
Listening to the weather tonight I am glad he got to go swimming today as it doesn't sound like much swimming weather is in our next weeks forecast.After tomorrow the rain chances are pretty high,but the cooler temps will definitely feel better.

Thankful for the many blessings of the day.
Good Night and God Bless.

ANOTHER MARKET DAY AND TODAY'S BLOOMERS

Up early to get to market before any customers with orders show up.
The day was good and I stayed busy when there were no customers I shuffled my tables around to better show off my merchandise and get more baked things room. Daughter came by earlier and brought her baking so we need more space to get everything displayed attractively.
After market I ran my errands and did  weekly shopping in a hot afternoon as the temperature climbed into the upper 80's and the humidity level must have been 100%.
I got home before hubbie and had things unloaded by the time he got here.  #1 son and g-son came by to work on his lawnmower.
Little Evy came while her mom went to work and her dad came by to pick her up and visited awhile.
I emptied another 1/4" of rain from the gauge this evening from an early morning storm that passed through and as I type this I hear rain starting again tonight outside.
As I did chores this evening I noticed these beauties around the yard. Another fragrant bouquet of pink Roses this time.

This wild Mountain Laurel that I have in one of my flower beds against the house is just now blooming. A bit late for these beauties !!

My Day Lilies are showing some nice color but not lasting very long in all the rain.

So far our garden is holding up but is slow to produce any summer vegetables.
One of the counties north of us this evening got flooding rains that caused some major damage. Hopefully we won't get any of that pouring rain her overnight.
Thanking the Lord for being my Guide as I find my way along life's journey.
Good Night and God Bless.

LEAK STOPPED AND 2003 TRIP TO THE OUTER BANKS

G-son got here a little late this morning as mom got up late. Hubbie is off another day from work so he fixed breakfast for he and g-son while I called the plumber, who happens to be married to one of my cousins. He said he would be here to check the leak around noon.
While hubbie entertained g-son I started baking , I baked 24 caramel, 4 chocolate, and 4 pound cakes.The plumbers came in around 11am ,so I had to catch some water to use in my baking just in case they had to leave the water turned off for  awhile.
They found out the entire shower faucet was cracked. So they put some water cut-offs on the lines and took the old faucet set to get us a new one. They said it might be tomorrow before they could get back.
The weather has been iffy all day with intermittent clouds and sun but the clouds finally won and the thunder boomers commenced shortly after lunch.
Wednesday is usually cleaning day for the livingroom, hall,office and bedroom but as I looked in the living room and saw g-son spread out with his racetrack and other toys I decided I needed to come up with a "summer" cleaning schedule.
The plumbers were back in the later afternoon and got things all fixed up and all the leaking stopped thankfully.
The rains were nice today, slow and steady with only distant thunder. I poured about 1/4" from the gauge at chore time.
I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen icing caramel and chocolate cakes and getting ready for market. I have the big 10 caramel cake order for the camp tomorrow plus a couple other 1 and 2 cake orders so I should have a pretty good day.
Since I wasn't out of the kitchen long enough today to make any photos for this post it is a good time to finish up the June decade pics with what was going on in June 2003.
Back in those times we were making a family trip to the Outer Banks of NC each summer. This year #1 son and daughter took their best friends along on the trip.
Getting ready to cross the bridge onto the island,this bridge has since been replaced after one the hurricanes in later years caused some structural damage.

The water up here seemed bluer than at any other beach we have been to.

One of the first days we were there the girls made out a traveling agenda for us. The boys opted to stay  on the beach and fish so Hubbie and I, daughter and Andrea left early for a day of exploring.
We stopped at the Wright Brother's memorial where they took the first flight.

Next stop Jockey's Ridge which is a giant mountain of sand.

Yea. that's me needing a little help at the steepest part,I made it though !!!
We  stopped at the Bodie Island light house.

Hubbie and the girls also climbed the Hatteras Lighthouse but not me I am afraid of heights !!
This is hubbie and daughter with Andrea as the photographer.

 At the bottom of the island chain we drove on the ferry for a ride to Okracoke Island.

There was a shorter lighthouse on Okracoke.

We also explored several old ship wrecks and hunted treasures along the way from one end of the island to the other.

Fishing is always a fun family activity.

Here #2 son grapples with a Horseshoe crab who looks like it means business !!!

At the northern end of the Island the road goes onto the beach. It was so strange to see Lowe's trucks and all the traffic traveling on the beach road which runs all the way to Virginia.

This is hubbie with our Isuzu Trooper on the beach. We had four wheel drive and I was still nervous about getting stuck in the sand.

This beach was where the wild mustangs came to fight the black flies during the heat of the day. I was surprised to see how unafraid these wild horses were.

We were there one morning when a thick fog rushed in and made visibility almost 0.

This is the entire gang out for supper one night.At far end of table is #1 son, Andrea and Chad with backs to camera, daughter and hubbie facing camera and #2 son at nearer table end.

And the photographers turn to have a picture made with hubbie.

While we were there me and the girls went over to Manteo so see the "Lost Colony" play that is held every summer. We enjoyed it very much but the barrage of mosquitoes, not so much !!!.

I would love to go back up to the Currituck area to see how much it has changed in the last 10 years.
The Outer Banks is one of my favorite places to visit.
I am writing this on Thursday night and back dating since it was midnight when I finished icing and headed for bed last night.
Grateful to God for the blessings of this day.

BUSY DAY ENDS A LITTLE LEAKY

Hubbie is off for another day using up his about to expire time off for the year. G-son was here at 7am. After chores were done and we all had had our breakfast we loaded the van with all the rugs and dog beds for a trip to the laundry.
They helped me get things carried in and then took off to explore while I stayed and watched the laundry wash !!!

I chatted  with a lady that was visiting from Goosecreek,SC. She and her husband were staying in their camper in one of the local camping parks.
In about an hour hubbie and g-son came back helped me load everything back in the van and we headed home to hang things out on the clothesline and hope for at least a couple hours of sunshine.
We had lunch then hubbie went to the garden to plant the next planting of green beans while g-son and me got our regular laundry started.
I sat up my laptop for him to play games on while I did some housecleaning.
I have been putting off defrosting my large chest freezer downstairs long enough. I got everything out of it in coolers and put large dishpans in it to catch the ice as it fell from the sides. This freezer is easy to defrost as it never has that much ice.
Hubbie came inside from his gardening in the hot humid afternoon and he helped me put back together the old desk from my office that has been sitting around downstairs in several pieces.
We got it set up in place of a folding table down there.
With thunder getting closer with each boom I gathered the rugs from the line  and hung some of the still damp ones inside. This was just in time from a short shower of raindrops with this passing storm.
#1 son came after g-son after working over about an hour .
Hubbie and I had supper and did the evening chores as the storm clouds blew past us again tonight thankfully.
I went downstairs to get the ice out and dry the chest freezer and put away the dry rugs. While I was down there I went into the bathroom down there and happened to look up the ceiling. I almost screamed when I saw 2 panels of the drop ceiling in there completely circled with dark rings and sagging badly from leaking water.  I yelled for hubbie and after taking out the ceiling tiles we discovered a slow leak in one of the shower feed water lines. We emptied the shelf upstairs so we could see the waterlines that go to the shower and were amazed to see all the standing water on the floor under the shower stall. Hubbie was glad we used treated plywood for our flooring.
There was a lot of water from a leak that appears now to be very slow so I am calling the plumbers who installed these new fixtures a couple years ago to see where they think all the water is coming from. We wish we could replace the entire shower stall but since it was put in and the room built around it we don't know if that is possible.
Always  something to keep life interesting around here !!!!
Hubbie asked me how long it had been since I looked at the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom and I have no idea or why I actually looked up at it this time !!!  Thanks to that little guardian angel that sits on my shoulder each day I did look up !!!!
All the "extra duties" for the month of June are finally done even if I did wait until the last week !!
I started some of my July decorating tonight just because I knew if I sat down I would probably be asleep.This is the sunroom table.

Now it is time to go to sleep and I humbly thank God for all the strength He gives me each day and for turning my eyes upward  this evening,may my eyes always look upward !!
Good Night and God Bless.

RACEDAY MONDAY

Woke to a cloudy morning and about 4/10ths inch of rain in the gauge from yesterdays and last night's rain showers. I layed in bed for a long time last night listening to the distant thunder and wondered if it was coming our way. I guess it never did or if it did I slept through it.
G-son came at 7am to get back to our regular routine this week. Hubbie is off again today so after chores and breakfast we went shopping in Asheville. We made stops in Big Lots (at g-son's urging), Target, Micheal's , Pet Smart, Walmart and then picked up all our animal feed at Southern States as we came back into our county.
We had lunch at Subway and then brought g-son's pizza home for him to snack on the remainder of the evening. He says his throat still feels bad when he swallows so he isn't eating much today but hasn't had any fever that I could tell all day. Hopefully this new medicine will once and for all get rid of the strep throat.
He spent most of the afternoon playing with this little race car set that he picked out of the "clearance" toys in Walmart. Dolly likes it also !!!

 This was well worth the price we paid for it and he got a lot of enjoyment out of it and even little Evy who came this evening loved watching the 2 little cars race around the track.
I got these 2 aprons that had been laying on my sewing machine for several weeks made today. The white one is made from  one of the tiers of a set of curtains I bought for my kitchen window and only used the valence on the window. I will see if this one sells before I make the one from the other tier. The curtain material isn't very thick and no one really wants to use a white apron !!

There was a couple other "honey dos" that I didn't get done today but I did get all the oregano that I had drying downstairs put in plastic bags and got fresh basil cut to refill all my drying boxes along with some sage and rosemary.
It rained just a little in short spurts thoughout the afternoon and with temperatures in the upper 80's and 100% humidity outside was a miserable place.
#1 son came after g-son and Aaron came after little Evy about the same time so we all had a very nice visit.
Thankful for the blessings of today and praying for all the lost souls tonight.
Good Night and God Bless.