PERSIMMON SEED WINTER PREDICTION AND STORMY SEPTEMBER ENDING

Wow, is that the sun I see peeking out this morning ????
After chores and breakfast I started my baking, I baked 6 caramel, 4 pound, 1 blackberry wine, 1 apple spice, and 1 pumpkin spice.
I watched the sun struggled to share it's warmth through the openings in the clouds all morning and the temperature got up to the mid 70's for the first pretty nice dry day in a while. These  pretty purple astors were soaking in the sunshine and made me smile as I walked by.

Hubbie came in from work and started work on the threatening limb hanging over our driveway. With the long pole saw he was able to cut the large branch that was holding the dead limb and they both dropped in the drive.

He also sawed up the whole mess and we got quite a bit of oak firewood out of it.

We had an entire crew of supervisors as we worked to get things cleaned up and the ditch opened back up.

 Thankfully we got all this finished as about 6pm the distant thunder warned of an upcoming rain storm that dropped  a little over 1 inch of rain in less than an hour. We were on the edge of this storm as some areas of the county got over 3 inches in the same amount of time.
I got the evening feeding done ahead of the rain thankfully and retired to my office to do the weekly paperwork and pay bills while listening to the storm pass.
I spent the rest of the evening icing cakes while I watched Survivor on tv and then got things ready for market.  Too late for any blogging tonight I'll take the laptop to the market tomorrow as I'm sure I will have plenty of down time in the predicted rain.
As this September 2015 comes to an end I am humbly thankful for the blessing of a new grand daughter born the 8th of the month. I am graciously thankful for g-son who continues to do well in his 3rd grade year in school and for his acceptance of his little sister with such love only a big brother could give.
This month has had some downs as our community and church lost one of our precious mentors,Mrs. Betty Jones, and a scary day at the high school sent daughter and her class into hiding in a small closet in her classroom while police cleared the campus of a gun wielding x-wife of a middle school teacher.
Market has been slow as expected after labor day, giving me time to have my ovens worked on.
I have only been able to get to one of daughter's volleyball games this season so far but she is having a good year with only a couple losses.
To end the month also I wanted to get the Persimmon seed winter weather prediction on here. There is a perfect knife in every seed we have cut open this year so we are in for a very cold winter.

This is the choices of what shapes could be in these seeds.

The weather started the month out bone dry causing much worry over falling dry leaves and a couple woods fires already as the yearly deficit of rainfall climbed to almost 9 inches. But the last week the rains began and haven't stopped as we are expecting flooding to begin October.
With the collision of the rainy front that is here from the west and a strong hurricane that keeps gaining strength, to a cat. 4 , with many forecasters having it coming into our mountains as a major rain maker we are battoning down the hatches and praying for the best as the weekend approaches.

With this scenario shaping up to bring maybe more than a foot more of rain over the weekend that is going to be devastating to some areas that have already seen a record amount of rain in the last few days.

Praying that God has different plans for Joaquin than our earthly weathermen and he stays out to sea.
Thankful for the blessings of this month and the grace that our Heavenly Father graciously gives each and every day as I go through this life.
God Bless

FALL DECORATING AND MORE RAIN COMING

Another rainy morning. Up and out to slosh through the mud to get the chores done. All the animals look distressed with the cool wet weather as they don't hurry out of their dry overnight houses when I open the doors instead of their usual competition for who is the first out the door.
After breakfast and devotions I started  housework. The oven repairman who was a different one from last time came about 11:45. When he walked in I said so you are the oven expert, he gave me a questioning look and said "I've never seen one of these before" gestering toward my Pro Series double oven. I told him they told me last week when they rescheduled this appointment that they were sending the "oven Specialist", he laughed !!!
After going through the entire story about what had happened with the oven and what the first repairman did 2 weeks ago he said hopefully it's just a bad part that the other man put in. If that's not it then he doesn't know anything else it could be.  (I've heard that statement before )
I told him that it was fine if it couldn't be fixed but I wanted the $430.00 that I paid to have it fixed back !!!!    He said I should get it if this new part didn't fix it.
 After he left I resumed my housework with a new zest to work off my frustration for the day.
 The Fall decorations all came out today to help brighten my mood after all the dusting and vacuuming was done.

These two took up their usual Fall season guard spots on the front porch. I still have to get creative to keep them out of the reach of Flash the Basset Hound !!!

 I love Fall !!!!

After a full day of cleaning and redecorating I was tired and my frustration was gone so I  took a short rest in the sunroom before hubbie got in from work. It was pouring rain outside now.
I was surprised to find only another 1/2 inch in the gauge after the hard rains.
I went over to my friend Rita's house this afternoon to give her money for our dinner at the mini class reunion we are having in a couple weeks.
Her daughter is getting married in April so we shared some ideas on our wedding plans. She gave me a good lead to a videographer for daughter's  wedding.
When I came home I found hubbie in our driveway working on this.
I think this is what is known to tree cutters as a "widow maker".

This is a large dead tree top that blew out of this large dying oak tree and lodged in another dead limb. Only trouble with this one is it is directly over our driveway !!!
Hubbie and #1 son who came up a little later worked for over an hour trying to dislodge the tree top with no success. They were tossing a rope over the limb and trying to pull it loose.

Hubbie will get a pole saw from work tomorrow and try to cut off the entire limb that the top is lodged in. In the mean time the driveway is closed to all unnecessary traffic !!
Our area is under a flash flood watch tonight with more rain on the way.

We are fortunate that we haven't had the amount of rain that some places have had.

Even Asheville had some flooding this morning from a round of very heavy rain.

A very interesting set of  circumstances could set off some major flooding depending on this newly named tropical storm in the Atlantic. If Joaquin, who is expected to be a category 1 hurricane overnight, chooses one of the paths that bring it into the coast of North Carolina  it could mean devastating amounts of rain as far west as the foothills of NC.

This system combined with the system in the gulf that is coming over us could certainly make things interesting through the weekend.

I keep remembering all the wishes for thirst quenching rain just over a week ago.  Like I said we are fortunate right here to have had about 4 & 1/2  inches of rain which has fallen slowly and been just what we needed so far.  But with the ground now saturated this extra rain could cause major problems. I still am glad we have had the rain that we've had but this caught my eye tonight and made me smile !!!

Talked to daughter tonight ,she said they lost the volleyball games tonight to cross county rival West Henderson.
 She also sent this picture of some of her business students she drove to the Biltmore house today. She is second from right. Crazy she still looks like one of her students more than the teacher !!!

I am thankful that God is in control of all things and I can rest in the knowledge that He knows best and all is in His plans for us.
Good Night and God Bless.

MISSED BLOOD MOON VIEWING, RAINY SHOPPING DAY

BOOOO !!!  All the overnight clouds last night here prevented us seeing the full lunar eclipse or the blood moon.

I've seen some photos from other blogger friends in western states and it was a beautiful site.
Oh well I'll only be 79  when it happens again, I'll still be able to lift a camera !!!
We woke to misty rain continuing this morning. After chores and breakfast we looked at each other and decided to do some loafering today since neither of us had anything on our "to do" list for today.
I needed some more of that special Wassail mix I use in my green tea that the Biltmore gatehouse sells so we headed across the mountain to make that our first stop.
Then we took I-40 over to the Farmers Marker. I love this place in the Fall with all the pumpkins and mums.

 There weren't many customers there on this rainy day. We found some really yummy Muscadine grapes and a couple cantalopes that turned out to be the best tasting ones we've had this year !!

From there we made our first trip to the Asheville outlets that recently opened. These remind me of the ones we always go to at the beach.

 I loved this pretty fountain with fire on top.

We found some really good deals. We really didn't go shopping for anything particular but we both found a couple things that were to good of a deal to pass up.
This is a much smaller outlet center than the ones we've been to before and it only took about 2 hours for us to get through all the shops that we were interested in going in and I even took time to try on things in a couple stores. There are still alot of empty stores in here and the big Field and Stream store is opening October 8.   It sure is a better shopping experience than the previous mall that was located here. It was 2:00 and we checked out the food court for lunch but there was only one place and it was Chinese so we came home to eat left overs from yesterday.
We didn't get a drop of rain on us as we shopped but the sky threatened the whole time we were there.
On the way home the rain started sprinkling again but never got much harder. We must have gotten some heavier rain overnight as there was another 1/2 inch in the gauge this evening at chore time.
Looks like September is going out wet and October is coming in wet to break the drought of the last couple months.

When we got home from shopping I spent the rest of the evening doing 3 loads of laundry while hubbie worked on putting an electric wire under the upper pasture fence  to stop Flash and Annie from going in the pasture and barking at Cayenne the horse.
D-in-love and g-daughter stopped by to drop off some things on their way grocery shopping. Little g-daughter is such a precious baby.  Doesn't seem possible that she is already almost 3 weeks old.
Hubbie and I spent a nice quiet evening as the misting rains continue.
Grateful to God for a wonderful day and the grace He shows me every day.
Good Night and God Bless.

FUN SUNDAY

Up and getting the chicken/enchilada bake things prepared to go in the baking dish as soon as we get home from church. The casserole has to cook 40 minutes so the chicken breast that cooked all night in the crock pot have to be shredded the green pepper and onion has to be chopped and added back to the crockpot with the frozen corn and salsa to simmer while we are gone to church. Then when we get back this mixture will be layered on corn totillo shells with sour cream and shredded cheese before going in the oven.  We also had fresh green beans and corn on the cob , probably the last of the fresh vegetables like this for the season.
I was a greeter at church today so I headed up there a little early to have an umbrella handy if anyone needed it as the misty rain is still falling.
The sermon was from John  and our associate pastor Craig did a great job of delivering the message in the absence of the senior pastor who is on vacation.
Everyone was here for lunch today for the first time in a while. #1 son's family, #2 son, daughter and Josh, Aa and his family all made it on this rainy day.  I love the house filled with conversation and laughter and the kids playing hide and seek games.
After everyone went their separate ways , #1 son,d-in-love and g-daughter went to Waynesville to buy 2 more car seat bases and a stroller for the car seat they bought for g-daughter, with the 2 extra bases one will go in my vehicle and one in other g-mas so she rides safely.
#2 son and hubbie went to look at an older truck son is thinking about buying in Laurel Park.
Daughter and Josh went out to the gym to open it for some volleyball open gym.
Aa and Re took their kids home for naps.
Leaving this guy and me all alone to enjoy an afternoon of games and laughter.

I love it when he wants to play with me now as he is getting so big and independent and I know these days are numbered !!!
He didn't want to go home when mom and dad came back to get him we were having so much fun.
I must admit I am tired from the games, I'm going to have to get back into the swing of playing these games with g-daughter soon.
Today is d-in-love's parents last day in the restaurant business as they are closing down for good.
In the spring of this year they changed from a sit down restaurant named The Lake Lure Smokehouse,

 to a take-out type eatery called Papa T's BBQ and Broasted Chicken.

 Today at closing time will be the end of their restaurant running careers after opening a huge BBQ restaurant in Chimney Rock in the early 2000's after moving here from Charlotte,NC. Couldn't find a photo of the gorgeous log building that housed the Cajun Pig but this sign was untouched by the fire and has been displayed in the two latest ventures to serve as a memory.

  This very popular restaurant was burned down by an arsonist that has never been caught shortly before #1 son and d-in-love were married in 2005.  I'll always remember the middle of the night phone call from #1 son and his tearful voice on the end of the line describing the devastation.
It was the Cajun Pig that brought #1 son and d-in-love together as both #2 son and daughter worked at the restaurant during their high school years and Deb, (other g-ma) and I became friends. We decided our two oldest children had a lot in common and should meet. She brought d-in-love to our house one night when I knew #1 son was going to be here in the pretense of picking up a cake order. Deb and I disappeared into the kitchen, leaving #1 son and d-in-love alone in the living room.  The rest is history !!!!!!!
I wish for Deb and Tim a new normal of a more slow and restful lifestyle.  But I know they will miss this chapter of their lives and all the people they met through these ventures. Good Luck to them !
After evening chores in a still misty rain hubbie and I spent a relaxing evening. I emptied another 4/10ths inch from the gauge this evening.
I got all my August pics downloaded to my Walgreens site so that is caught up. Now to get another 3 months blog book started !!
Thanking God for a blessing filled Sunday.
Good Night and God Bless.

RAINY SATURDAY MARKET DAY

Yep   it sure is !!!
Hubbie got up at 7am and turned the radio on to see if they announced anything about Old Timey Day at market. He was planning on going out early to help get the stoves outside and get them fired up. He came back to bed and said it was postponed until next Saturday. I could hear the pouring rain outside and the wind whipping it around. Not a good day for anything outside it doesn't sound like.
We got up at 8:00 and got ready for market on our regular schedule. Thankfully the rain had slacked off and only a light rain was falling as I did the morning chores before we left.
Market was pretty good this morning as some folks came in thinking we would be having the hot wood stove cooked breakfast. I was surprised at how many people were braving the nasty day.
#2 son , who was delivering the mail, came in for a visit and he was very glad it stopped the heavy rain as he was on a walking route downtown today.
Daughter and Josh came in also for a little while after their Saturday morning work outs. Josh has a kidney stone he is trying to pass and wasn't feeling great. He had to go to the emergency room yesterday morning for medicine.
Hubbie went to Sam's Club to pick up some groceries and some supplies for tomorrow's lunch.
After market I only had one stop at Aldi to make and then made it home at 3:00. We got unloaded and then relaxed for a restful rainy Saturday evening.
The temperature has been really cool today hanging around the lower 60's all day. This is the first day for my long sleeves, flannel and boots !!!  That flannel jacket felt really good today !!!!!

There is a system in the gulf that is going to keep the rainy days coming thru at least mid week.

Since this has been a day for few pictures I am going to finish up the decade series with the undateds for the month.
These first 3 pics are of my Aunt Carol Ruff Warner, my mother's sister. The first pic she is in Florida with her husband Bob who was in the navy stationed down there and she got a job as a nurse down there that lead up to their meeting and getting married.  They later moved to Michigan when he got out of service so I don't know where these two houses were in the other pictures of her.

The next two pics are of my mother, Goldie Ruff . The first I don't know where she is but the second she is in the snow in front of the house she lived in on Pace Road, here in the community I still live in, this was where she lived when she met my dad.

As I did the evening chores still in a light rain I emptied another 1 inch from the gauge to bring our total rain fall from this system to 3 inches total, just what we needed.
God knows when to send the rain as He takes care of all His creations.
I am grateful tonight for the amazing world He created for me to live in and I stay in humble adoration of His great love.
Good Night and God Bless.

RAINY DAY AND BUSY 2005 SEPTEMBER

A rare rainy morning makes me just want to snuggled deeper under the covers and listen to the relaxing sound of the rain on the roof.
But there are animals to feed, so off I go to get this day started.
After slogging through chores in the pouring rain I was glad to get back inside. I'm still not complaining as we need this rain really badly and it is coming at a great time before the dry leaves start piling up on the dry ground.
I spent the morning baking cakes, I have no idea whether we will have Old Timey Day tomorrow or not so I'm not going crazy baking a bunch of things.
I did bake 12 caramel, 1 chocolate, 2 pound and 1 apple wine cake.
My lower oven is still playing games with me and shutting down in the middle of baking time at least once a day, grrrrrr.
After having a late lunch I looked for a rainy day activity and decided to finish editing my latest blog book and getting it sent off to the publisher.
I even found a 25% off coupon so I went ahead and ordered it, completely getting done with the first 3 months of this year.
I also decided to get out the apple peelings and cores from the apple butter making Tuesday and get some apple jelly made.
This is the prettiest apple jelly I have ever made. It must be the dark red peels of the Hoover apples that gives it this deep pink color.

G-son came to have supper with hubbie and I while his mom went shopping this evening. He said school was going great this year .
He kept following his nose into the kitchen to see what smelled so good while I was making the jelly.
His dad picked him up when he came in from work.
After evening chores, again in the rain, I emptied 2 inches from the gauge from last night and todays totals.  It also has been a really cool day at 63 degrees.
This is a good time to get a really long decade post done. In September 2005 we were a very busy family.
#1 son's best friend, Chad, from high school married a friend of daughters, Brianna, who graduated high school with her and had become very good friends with d-in-love ( who actually wasn't d-in-love yet at that time).   It was a lovely wedding and we went to Chad's parents to have a BBQ for the reception. Everyone had a wonderful time.

  Chad was not happy with his uncles and the decorating job they did on his truck.

#1 son and d-in-love after the ceremony.

#1 son who had been living in our rental trailer with Chad moved back home so the newly married couple could have a place to live.
He and d-in-love were planning their wedding in December and he was working on their homesite that month on property we gave him.

#1 son got a lot of help from his cousin Bobby who also worked for Zach and his friend Chad after he got back from a honeymoon cruise.

This is Zach King who he worked for back then and is now back working for him.

Here the girls and #2 son check out the work progress.

Another exciting thing that was going on back then was the completion of our new church sanctuary.

This is for memory purposes as I want to remember the history of our church as compiled at that time and the involvement of my grandfather, uncles, aunts and cousins as our church grew though the years.

I guess that is all for this long blog post.
I am grateful for the role God has had in my life as my family has ebbed and flowed over the years and am so grateful for the generous blessings from  above.
Good Night and God Bless.