This last day of November 2016 started out warm, cloudy and with rain expectations. I did chores and had breakfast while deciding what the day would hold for me. This is a hard baking time at market as with any holiday the week after is typically very slow but early Christmas gatherings sometimes cause this not to be the rule for this week. I decided to bake 6 caramel and 2 pound cakes and even if tomorrow is very slow it will give me a jump on Saturday which I already have several orders for.
I had an early lunch then turned the Christmas music on and began my decorating for my favorite holiday of the year. I love getting in the Christmas spirit zone !!
I finished the big living room tree and it is very pretty with the addition of these little red and white checkered bows this year.
Another change I made I really like is these Boxwood trimmings from my yard on the mantel this year.
I had some other ideas in mind for this area but with all the stockings we are blessed to hang this is what I wound up with and I like it.
As I decorated I watched the radar bring these storms closer to our area. Usually a line of storms like these will break up when they hit these protective mountains but these defied that rule prompting warnings for our area.
We only received another 8/10ths inch of rain but the high winds blowing the rain sideways was a scary sight.
Thankfully the storms were moving quickly and were moving out as hubbie came in from work and we went out to do the chores without getting completely soaked.
I buried myself in the pile of paperwork on my desk when we got back inside. It is always amazing to me how missing only one week of this seems to multiply this task a million times !!!!
I took a break to watch Survivor on TV then finished and started icing the caramel cakes.
We watched parts of the UNC / Indiana basketball game which gave UNC its first loss of the season.
As I thought back over this month and all the history that was made it is good to see this one in the books.
The month started out with summer like temps and mostly stayed above average all month. This warm sunshine fueled the continuing drought and wildfires began breaking out all over the western part of the state with one very close to us as Chimney Rock was evacuated. The normally cool fresh Fall air was continually filled with smoke each day.As the month ends some of the fires are mostly contained but only after scorching a record total of over 60,000 acres of our beautiful WNC mountain forest.
The worst fire of the season came this last Sunday night as a fire in eastern Tennessee burned over 700 businesses and homes around Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge areas and 10 people lost their lives as 70 mph winds sent people actually running for their lives.
Another historic item was the 2016 presidential election which Donald Trump a multi-millionaire businessman with no political experience won in a close vote. This sparked riots and discontent all around the country.
Daylight savings time began on the first Sunday giving us an extra hour of sleep each night.
With all the smoke I developed a very bad head cold and it hung on for a couple weeks and has still left me with a cough that keeps me awake at night.
With the unseasonable weather and a very late light frost we enjoyed fresh garden tomatoes longer than usual and made our annual track to glean in the commercial tomato field but with no water the tomatoes are rotting quickly and not keeping as they usually do.
I sold most all of my older hens and really lessoned my feed bill there.
The annual draw down fundraiser at the high school was fun for the family and we also enjoyed each other at a couple Thanksgiving family gatherings and all ate too much delicious food.
I have been very thankful for the busy market I have had this month as Thanksgiving orders were up this year and the nice weather kept folks out all month buying. We ended the month with our Christmas open house celebration which packed the aisle one last time for the month.
Well as the month came in like a lamb with summer like weather it ended like a lion today with the rain and wind storms that are wreaking havoc across the area even tonight.
My prayers go out to the folks in the wake of the tornadoes and rain tonight and for the folks in Tennessee as fires still spark burning more houses and causing more evacuations while thousands of evacuees are left to wonder what next as they have lost everything they own to this fire and have no where to go.
This Christmas season is one to get back to the real meaning of the season and pray thanks to our Gracious Loving Savior for sending His son to save all of us. Praying that many hearts will open to God in the wake of all the disaster that is seemingly besieging this country right now.
God Bless and Good Night
I had an early lunch then turned the Christmas music on and began my decorating for my favorite holiday of the year. I love getting in the Christmas spirit zone !!
I finished the big living room tree and it is very pretty with the addition of these little red and white checkered bows this year.
We only received another 8/10ths inch of rain but the high winds blowing the rain sideways was a scary sight.
Thankfully the storms were moving quickly and were moving out as hubbie came in from work and we went out to do the chores without getting completely soaked.
I buried myself in the pile of paperwork on my desk when we got back inside. It is always amazing to me how missing only one week of this seems to multiply this task a million times !!!!
I took a break to watch Survivor on TV then finished and started icing the caramel cakes.
We watched parts of the UNC / Indiana basketball game which gave UNC its first loss of the season.
As I thought back over this month and all the history that was made it is good to see this one in the books.
The month started out with summer like temps and mostly stayed above average all month. This warm sunshine fueled the continuing drought and wildfires began breaking out all over the western part of the state with one very close to us as Chimney Rock was evacuated. The normally cool fresh Fall air was continually filled with smoke each day.As the month ends some of the fires are mostly contained but only after scorching a record total of over 60,000 acres of our beautiful WNC mountain forest.
The worst fire of the season came this last Sunday night as a fire in eastern Tennessee burned over 700 businesses and homes around Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge areas and 10 people lost their lives as 70 mph winds sent people actually running for their lives.
Another historic item was the 2016 presidential election which Donald Trump a multi-millionaire businessman with no political experience won in a close vote. This sparked riots and discontent all around the country.
Daylight savings time began on the first Sunday giving us an extra hour of sleep each night.
With all the smoke I developed a very bad head cold and it hung on for a couple weeks and has still left me with a cough that keeps me awake at night.
With the unseasonable weather and a very late light frost we enjoyed fresh garden tomatoes longer than usual and made our annual track to glean in the commercial tomato field but with no water the tomatoes are rotting quickly and not keeping as they usually do.
I sold most all of my older hens and really lessoned my feed bill there.
The annual draw down fundraiser at the high school was fun for the family and we also enjoyed each other at a couple Thanksgiving family gatherings and all ate too much delicious food.
I have been very thankful for the busy market I have had this month as Thanksgiving orders were up this year and the nice weather kept folks out all month buying. We ended the month with our Christmas open house celebration which packed the aisle one last time for the month.
Well as the month came in like a lamb with summer like weather it ended like a lion today with the rain and wind storms that are wreaking havoc across the area even tonight.
My prayers go out to the folks in the wake of the tornadoes and rain tonight and for the folks in Tennessee as fires still spark burning more houses and causing more evacuations while thousands of evacuees are left to wonder what next as they have lost everything they own to this fire and have no where to go.
This Christmas season is one to get back to the real meaning of the season and pray thanks to our Gracious Loving Savior for sending His son to save all of us. Praying that many hearts will open to God in the wake of all the disaster that is seemingly besieging this country right now.
God Bless and Good Night
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