HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2017

Halloween is a day for frights but I wasn't expecting to get mine so early this morning !! Last night when I went out to shut up my chickens I noticed about 1/2 my pullets were not wanting to go inside their house. I looked inside the house with my flashlight where the other 1/2 were already roosting and didn't see any reason for the ones not in there to be afraid. So i picked them up one at a time and put them in the house and shut the door.
Well next time I will be more intuned to their fear as this is what greeted me when I opened the door of that house this morning. A hissing  young opossum that thankfully hadn't damaged any of the pullets. We don't like to kill these little guys as we think there is a purpose for them just like all other creatures so hubbie put him in a big bucket and relocated him a couple miles up the road.

I came back inside and got g-daughter RL dressed in her shirt for "orange" day. IR also had her orange on.

I took RL to school for a fun Halloween day.
Back home hubbie and I cleaned house this morning. Everyone rode back to pick up RL so we could make a trip to an extended family's fruit stand and stop by the vet's office to pick up Bernie's pills.
Both girls were asleep after these stops and on the way home.
IR is in a very good mood today and is all smiles as she celebrates her 19th week birthday.

RL slept until after 2:00 and then wanted to be held awhile.

After the girls were picked up hubbie and I got the chores done a bit early and then #1 son picked us up to head over to Biltmore Baptist church's Halloween Hoopla.
This is our second year for this fun night and like last year there was a beautiful sunset.

We had 2 little kittens with us .....

And g-son borrowed one of our yellow slicker raincoats to portray Georgie from the movie"IT".

He still is not feeling the greatest but did make it all day to school today.
Re also brought the kids and followed us over there. We all split up and helped with the kids and everyone had a great time. There was a good crowd attending the Hoopla.

G-son met up with his friend Nicholas and they had fun riding the train and doing all the games.

These two little kittens also had fun.

We stayed until the games were shutting down then headed home.
The kids were so tired they could hardly wait to get home and in bed.
We saw no evidence that any "trick or treaters" had been by our house. We live too far back off the road and very seldom have any kids make it this far.
Tonight was a fitting end to the fun month of October around here. G-son finished his Fall soccer season and G-daughter IR and I attended all the JV home volleyball games while daughter kept score for them.
I have had thankfully another busy market sales month and spent many hours baking .
We celebrated 2 birthdays as g-son turned 11 and #1 son turned 36 years old on the 16th of the month.
We had fun trips to the pumpkin patch and the Hay Bale Maze with the kids as well as celebrated 3 Halloween events with them for lots of fun and candy.
October 2017 weather will be remembered as we set new high records , had a major flood near the end of the month and had snowflakes on the 29th of the month.

Hurricane Nate brought high winds and rain knocking out power to many as well as a night of high wind from a cold front at the end of the month knocked power out to many in our area along with #2 son when huge trees still top heavy with green leaves fell across roads and power lines. The month ended with very little leaf color this year and a surplus of almost 12 inches of the rain for the year.

On a sad note this month also will go down in history for 2 horrific events , one at the beginning of the month when a crazed gunman opened fire on a music concert in Las Vegas killing 59 and injuring many more and his motive is still a mystery. Just today on Halloween day a terrorist drove a rented truck down a bike path in New York City killing 8 and injuring many more . He was a lone wolf terrorist following online instructions for these type killings.
Sadly this is becoming the norm in our country and the safe carefree feelings we were able to enjoy for decades has now turned into keeping a wary eye out all around anytime we are in crowded places.
All in all this has been a good month for the family. We have all took turns fighting sickness as hubbie and I have carried a cough throughout the month and g-son ends the month with his first case of strep throat. We are very thankful for the love of Jesus Christ and look forward to what He has in store for us next month.
Hubbie and I are pooped and went to bed early ourselves.
Thankful for the wonderful blessed day of today and for the gift of all these kids to be part of my life and have the joy of watching them grow up .
God Bless and Good Night

SICK G-SON AND HAY BALE MAZE FUN

This Monday morning started with a text from d-in-love saying g-son had gotten sick during the night and was running a fever and complaining with his throat. She was taking the day off work and taking him to the doctor this morning so she was dropping g-daughter RL at pre-school on her way.
Daughter brought g-daughter IR at the regular time. We got her settled and I did the chores in the cold morning. There was a layer of ice on all the water pans this morning.
I came back inside and had breakfast then got weekly laundry started. I had to remove the cover from IR's little bouncy seat she watches TV in because she had a blow-out poop in it last week and we could tell she missed sitting in it this morning.
 D-in-love sent this pic of a sick g-son at the doctor's office. Bless his heart he has such a bad looking throat they are treating him for strep even though the test was negative.

#2 son and Tif still don't have power this morning as a huge tree just past their house fell across the road taking all the lines and a pole down.

There  are so many green leaves still on the trees this year it surely has been a strange Fall season .
I did laundry until it was time to pick up RL from pre-school. I am keeping her away from her brother today so hopefully she won't get what he has.
She went to sleep on the way home and took a good 2 hour nap.
IR took a good morning nap but didn't sleep after lunch , she just sat with hubbie and watched cartoons while her cousin slept.
When RL woke up and had something to eat she and IR seemed happy to see each other and both banged on this little piano and laughed.

We decided this would be a good day to visit a friends hay bale maze with the girls.
RL was a little intimidated at first with all the tunnels and scary things along the maze paths so she insisted I go with her.

She helped push me through this tractor tire !!!

Aaaaaannnnnddddd we found the slide !!!!

She thought it was hilarious when I slid down that slide behind her !!!!

After that first trip she was zooming through that maze on her own and having a ball.

IR thought sitting in the corn was funny !!!!

Daughter came by after she got out of school and played some with RL and IR until we all wore out.

Reading IR's mind , I'm sure she was thinking just you wait until next year then I will be right in there with you RL.

My special little pumpkins !!!!!!!!

It was hard to get g-daughter RL to leave there was so many things to look at around the pumpkin farm.

We bought tomatoes that hubbie had to climb a ladder and pick from the very tall vines in the green house and some Asian Pears that they raised and made our way home with very tired girls.
RL finished out her afternoon swinging while she waited on her mom to pick her up.
It has been a chilly ,low 60's day with plenty of sunshine but tonight it is cooling off quickly headed back down near freezing.
Thankfully g-son is feeling better tonight after a couple doses of medicine.
A friend of mine, Markeeta, who lives up the road where the power was off brought all her food from her frig and freezer over here this morning and put it in ours today and she came back tonight after her meeting in Asheville to get it and said they finally have power back on late this evening.
Thankful for a wonderful blessed day and praying that g-son gets over his sickness quickly.
God Bless and Good Night.

CHURCH FALL CARNIVAL

Another  flooding overnight rain. As I drifted off to sleep last night to the sound of pouring rain I knew the forecasters had missed the amount of rain predicted for our area.
This morning the bottom pastures were for the second time in a week standing full of water and there was 2.8 inches of rain in the gauge instead of the less than 1 inch predicted.

There were a lot of Mallard ducks enjoying the wind moving  water .

Lots of Canadian Geese are flying over headed south for the winter under the clearing skies today.

I finished chores and ate breakfast then we got ready for church. A crock pot filled with beef stew has been simmering all night and we put on a pressure pot filled with some of the fresh Kale greens and Collards from our garden to cook while we are at church.
#2 son and Tif are spending the morning here since they have a house showing today.
Church was full today and Pastor Craig preached a good sermon.
Everyone made it to lunch even d-in-love's mom stopped by for a visit and had lunch.
They changed our trunk or treat from outside to inside since the temps are in the low 40's and the wind is really high so we had to re-think our decor.
We were going to fix the Honda up to look like the whale that swallowed Jonah .Those decorations would not go inside so I combined with Re who was also doing a water scene. Hubbie drew a smaller whale .

Just as we got ready to head up to church to set things up the first snowflakes of the season were flying around outside  whiting out the distant mountains.

We sat our booth up and then I came home to get the chores done in the chilly afternoon.
The trees are really swaying with all the leaves still attached and lots of folks are already without power this evening.
The carnival tonight at church started out with a puppet show in the sanctuary that mesmerized all the kids.

Both grand girls were definitely mesmerized.

Our booth looked really good.

 I was ready to wade in the water !!!!  I had a rain sicker on but it got too hot really quick with all the people in the classroom.

D-in-love sat up her Fruit of the Spirit booth in our room and she and g-daughter RL looked great in their fruity costumes.

G-son did his own costume  !!!

He and his friend Nicholas had a good time.

RL had a great time and ate lots of candy !!!!

RL and BB cruised all the booths several times for more candy !!!

 It was a super fun evening and I am always amazed at all the kids who get dressed up and come through our carnivals. Their was a hotdog supper served in the fellowship hall with games ran by the church youth.

And hayrides outside if you were brave enough to get out in the cold wind.

We cleaned up our booths and headed out into the windy cold night.
 Hubbie and I came home and crashed to rest for the evening praying that we wouldn't loose our power in the high winds.
#2 son lost his power already and he just lives right up the road from us so we are going to bed with some extra blankets handy and crossed fingers .
Thankful tonight for the blessings of this day and praying that our outreach tonight gave God all the glory we intended.
God Bless and Good Night