HAPPY HALLOWEEN THURSDAY !!

As this Halloween 2013 started off I had my witch's hat ready for market. G-son wanted me to wear it to school to drop him off but it was too tall to wear in the van.

Several customers wanted to buy my "witchy" earrings.

One lady commented how "becoming" my hat was on me ? I don't know if I should be flattered or what after that comment !!???
With Halloween on Thursday I was the only seller dressed in anything and no customers came in costumes, not even any kids ??   Oh well maybe it's too early in the day !!
I had a decent selling day but nothing like last week so I know this is just the beginning of my slow time.
After market I ran the errands and picked up baking supplies.  I made it home just ahead of hubbie around 4:45.
After we unloaded I ate an early supper while hubbie blew the leaves out of the gutters before the rain starts. It has been another warm day in the mid 60's but very cloudy and damp as the air is heavy with moisture in front of the coming rains.
With the air so heavy I decided not to even light up the Halloween lights that I had out. We didn't have any trick or treaters so it really didn't matter.  Maybe next year !!!
October is always such a busy month with three birthday's ( g-son and #1 son,great nephew Maddox) , the harvest of any remaining garden vegetables, extra busy market days with the changing of the leaves, fall festivals to attend and ending up with trunk or treat at church among a host of other activities, the month seems to fly by.
And this October has surely been a nice one weatherwise as no hurricane's bringing flooding rains or wind happened leaving this hurricane season so far the first in 45 years that the strongest storm was a catagory 1 storm. Temperatures have been really mild except for a couple hard freezing low to mid 20's nights which ended the growing season.
When October ends I always feel like winter is here. The month of November is lost in the frenzy between Halloween and Christmas activities. Sadly Thanksgiving gets kinda over-looked. I love Thanksgiving and refuse to put out any Christmas decorations until after we've celebrated our Thanksgiving.
To make a point this year I am going to end each November post with something specific that I am thankful for each day and hope that my thankfulness doesn't end with the passing of that month.
Tonight as I bid goodbye to October 2013 and look back over this month I see many many things that I am thankful for each day. God is so good all the time and blesses us even when we don't take the time to thank Him. May my heart be filled with thankfulness this next month.
Good Night and God Bless.

2013 TRUNK OR TREAT

A busy day before Halloween and Thursday market day started early as g-son was a very excited little boy this morning. He couldn't wait to finally get to wear his Spiderman costume tonight at our trunk or treat at church.
After chores and breakfast I started baking cakes. After 12 caramel, 2 pound, a chocolate and a blackberry wine cake were all cooling I had lunch.
Tonight my van will be transformed into Noah's ark so I needed to do some finishing touches to that and I had to sew up Noah's (hubbie's) beard I had gotten the material for a couple weeks ago.
Rebekah brought little Evy over for some finishing touches on her little parrot costume. She was darling in her costume. Rebekah did a great job making this parrot outfit!

Rebekah and d-in-love will be pirates for the occasion.
I picked up g-son and he helped me get all my things loaded into the van and was jumping with his own excitement still.
After early chores we all headed up to church to set up before the kids started coming.The carnival started at 6:00 so we were there about 5:30.

Our Ark was a hit and it was good to hear several parents explaining who built the ark and why the animals were all two by two.
D-in-love and Rebekah's pirate theme was a hit also as they gave out pirate stickers along with pirate treasure candy.

There were more trunks this year than in any previous year.

 This Flintstone car was unique with Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty.

There were all kinds of themes for the trunks this year and they all were great.This is just a few of the almost 20 trunks handing out goodies this Halloween.

More families and kids came through than ever before, probably thanks in part to the predictions of rain for tomorrow night.
Both my great nephews acted a little scared of all the costumes.

But little Evy didn't see anything that frightened her, she was just in awe of all the sights the entire evening.

My favorite gobblin of the night.  I'll let you guess who it was !!!

A bond fire and hay ride were also available.

Along with inside food and games.

Aunt T finally made it after her first day of basketball try-outs.

All in all it was a very fun night and all who came had a wonderful pre-Halloween evening and the weather was spectacular with temps in the low 70's.
We got home around 8:30 and I got started on paperwork, bill paying and cake icing.  Got in bed around 1am,whew !!!!
May all the glory of the fellowship and love shown by our church to the community tonight be for the glory of the Lord.
Good Night and God Bless.

NEW ROOSTER

After getting g-son to school,the chores done and having breakfast I called an ad I saw last night about a black Silkie rooster to go with my 2 black hens.
I knew the location, so off I went. I had to stop by daughter's house on the way to pick up my cage she had borrow several weeks ago. I thought I would see a pretty mountain view of the colored leaves from her porch but the fog hadn't lifted yet so this is what I saw.

After getting home with my new rooster, I watched for a while after putting him in the lot, to make sure he got along with the other 2 boys in there. He is handsome, and although he is now the largest roo in the pen he is also the youngest so the pecking order didn't take that long !!

I spent the day doing laundry and housework. Checked on little Evy and was glad to hear she was better today.
A beautiful day getting close to 70 degrees and bright sunshine made for some pretty pics on the way to pick up g-son.

These maples at church are sure bright.

Our lower pasture is still a filled with nice bright green.

After getting g-son set up with after school food I finished the laundry and then took Dolly and Bernie on a nice walk in the warm sunshine.
After #1 son picked up g-son and the chores were done hubbie cemented the gate post for my new hen lot. Once that is set we will be ready to roll out the wire for the lot. They may be moved in by this weekend.
The clouds came back this evening creating a colorful sunset that I almost missed.

Put an Avon order online tonight and headed off for an early bedtime.
Grateful to God tonight for my health and for the blessings of the day.
Good Night and God Bless.

SURPRISE RAINY DAY

No school again today for a teacher workday, so g-son had the opportunity to go back to bed after he got there this morning but nothing doing !!!  Lucky for me hubbie got up with him.
I heard the rain against the bedroom windows and wondered where in the world this came from ?
I snoozed a bit longer under the warm covers to hopefully give the rain a chance to stop.
I dug out my rain hat and boots and gave that idea up shortly.
After chores and breakfast with the rain looking like it had set in for the day the three of us headed out to do some shopping.
We went to Micheal's craft store for me to get some ideas about Christmas ornament supplies that I could use with all the little quail eggs I saved over the summer. I came away with an excellent idea I think, only time will tell if they sell or not but I will let you in on it when I get some made.
We also looked in Target for hubbie a bathrobe but had no luck. We made it home for lunch.
The sun is trying to break through the clouds although it looks like it will loose it's battle hubbie and I went outside to work on the new hen lot while g-son played on his slide.
We got the selected path of the wire cleaned out with shears and a chainsaw and got a gate post in the ground but we will need to wait for hubbie to pick up some cement for the hole.
A lady came and bought 4 pairs of the Silkies I had advertised for sale so that cuts my flock of Silkies down significantly for the winter months.  Also I will be more open to letting them set next spring.
Daughter and her b-friend had his little boy so they came by to pick up g-son to go over to the neighbor's haybale,corn inside maze. They looked like they had a wonderful time.

G-son came home pooped out and supper thirsty so I know he had a wild time over there.
His mom picked him up and they headed home to wait for dad so they could carve their pumpkin.
Rebekah called and said poor little Evy had our stomach bug and was very sick. She couldn't keep anything on her stomach at all.
Thankfully several hours later when she was just about to have to go to the hospital for fluids she kept some Pedia-sure down.
Bless her and mom and dad's hearts as I know it is so hard to watch your little baby so sick like that.
 My stomach feels yucky again tonight but I think it is just because I am thinking about her.
I relaxed after chores were done and snuggled on the couch with my 4-legged kids who are glad it is getting cooler weather and they get to snuggle with mama more.
Grateful to God tonight for my blessings and asking for His healing touch for little Evy.
Good Night and God Bless.

DO YOU KNOW WHO THESE FOLKS ARE ??

Up early to get my eggplant parmesan started for lunch today. When I saw the last of the fresh eggplant of the season at market yesterday I wanted to try this dish out. It looked quick and easy and it was except that I doubled it so that was a lot of scraping eggplant from the shells. I omitted the bread crumbs and actually mixed the parmesan cheese into the eggplant/onion/spice mixture after it was browned.  It was very good and all us ladies liked it but the men were not so sold on eggplant !!

Also if you try this it is better to cook the shells in the microwave about 6 minutes before stuffing them. I don't think it would get done in the 30 minutes if you didn't do this.
Everyone made it to lunch except #2 son who was golfing.
To go with the eggplant we had pot roast with potatoes and carrots, corn and fresh green beans I bought at the flea market Wednesday and a big cake of corn bread, yum yum !!
Everyone had a busy afternoon to get to so it was a short social time after we ate.
Hubbie and I painted our "trunk or treat" project for this year.
Hubbie blew leaves all evening to get them cleared off the lawn before it rains. It has been party cloudy all day today and the next couple days have a 20% chance of rain.
#2 son came in late this evening and said he had been golfing at Mt. Mitchell today. He said they drove the parkway there and back and the leaf color was really pretty.
He looked on the computer for houses and did find one to go look at.
With a non-eventful day as this it is a good time to finish the decade pics for this month. These are the "unknowns" for the month of October.

These next three pictures were taken at the old Edneyville school house.

This has been a nice Sunday afternoon to relax and enjoy a warm, mid 60's, fall day. I even sat out in the outside patio and watched the sun go down this evening.

Thanking God for a wonderful Sunday and a touching church service this morning.
Good Night and God Bless.

NEW RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE SENDS FROST AND FREEZE

Well the weather wizards got this one right as the pastures look like it has snowed this morning and the thermometer says 21 degrees here,brrrr !!!

This is something we hardly ever see before Halloween around here, a thick almost 1/2" of ice on all my water buckets this morning.

There was definitely frost on the jack-o-lanterns this morning !!!!!

Market was really busy today making me glad I decided to add the extra cakes to my baking yesterday. Hubbie stayed until almost lunchtime helping handle the customers.
I bought some of the last fresh vegetables that were gathered before last night's freeze.
Tomorrow I am going to try an eggplant parmesan dish that daughter says is really good.
After market I still feel a bit under the weather so I made one stop and headed home. I know I need to eat something but can't think of anything that sounds good to me.
After I unloaded I had a piece of chicken breast and a cup of hot tea and that made me feel a lot better.
I went outside to survey the freeze damage. Hubbie had already called and said some of his large gourds that were growing in the apple tree had fallen out and busted. He climbed the tree with a ladder and rescued these four large ones.

While he worked on the hen house I gathered the rest of the different gourds around the farm. Unfortunately I found some more of the largest nicer ones had fallen from their vines and broken.
This is the ones I stored in my greenhouse to dry.

Daughter called about market day and reminded me of these baby gourds that were growing up in the edge of the woods.

As I walked around the farm I saw things I haven't seen in a long time and some I don't think I've ever seen. Instead of colored or dead leaves the driveway is now covered with green leaves.

Persimmons hang on for dear life on completely naked limbs.

The Walnut leaves didn't fall separately but on twigs that have rows of green leaves on each side.

Every single leaf fell from this Cottonwood tree leaving the lawn with a thick blanket of nasty soggy leaves instead of dry ones.

Yes, this is definitely a different year than I think I have ever seen or maybe just didn't notice these things before.
The previous record was 26 degrees set back in 1930 on this date and last night we shattered that record. The TV station in Asheville recorded a low of 25 so that will be the new record but all our thermometers said 21 and several of the neighbors said they had 21 also.
These Beauty Berries really stand out now that all the leaves are melted.

Today's temps got into the mid 50's with full sunshine to put last night's chill in what seemed like a distant memory. Now the temps are going to be more normal for awhile with 50's and 60's in the day to 40's at night after tonight goes back in the mid 30's.
Hubbie is almost finished with the hen house. It really looks good, my ladies will love their new living quarters.

They even have a window in the back. I will have to get some heavy duty wire to cover it with before I lower it.

I stood out in the woods and gazed upward through these huge Pine trees and thanked the Lord for always being in total control of my surroundings.

As the chores were done and the sun eased down behind the horizon another day of wonderment and adventure comes to a glorious end.

Praising God tonight and asking for prayers for #2 son in his house hunt.
Good Night and God Bless.