DEVASTATING OIL SPILL GETS WORSE

Had a pretty good market day for a change,even before the large 10 cake order got picked up.
Ran errands and came home to just chill out for a while,I don't feel well at all.
After a short nap and a tomato sandwich I feel some better.I think I'll make it!!!
It is raining tonight after a mostly cloudy and warm day.It is still 67 degrees at 11:30.
All I have heard on the news is bad news about the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Now they are saying not only is it going to effect the gulf coast but if they don't get the spill of oil into the ocean stopped soon it will get caught up in the gulf stream and come around Florida and up the east coast.
On April 20 at about 10 pm the oil rig explosion was one of the worst in history,killing 11 crew members who have never been found.This had to be a nightmare for the people working here out in the middle of the ocean.
Luckily for the workers there was a supply ship there and many of them made it to the ship.
As they fought the fire the whole rig sank into the water. BP Oil sent robots underwater to shut the valves and stop the flow of oil,but their attempts have been unsuccessful so far and they have been working for days.
As you can see in the diagram on the right,there are 3 leaks that are spewing over 5,000 barrels of oil into the gulf waters daily.
As birds fly over the oil and a boat drives through it,I can't imagine how devastating this could be when it covers the coastline and all the wildlife get covered in this oil.
It is unbelievable that only a few weeks ago our president was pushing a bill to increase offshore oil drilling and BP execs were assuring us that something like this could never happen because of all the new technology. I think someone had no idea what they were talking about because now those same execs say they don't know what to do and why the valves won't shut off the oil. If this was their idea of an easy cleanup they were way off base,trying to contain miles of oil slick with 100's of feet of boom doesn't make sense.
Even the booms they put along the coastline had waves carrying oil breaking over them.
The heart breaking pictures of the birds and other wildlife won't be pretty. I remember the Exon Valdese oil spill in Alaska and the pictures of birds, I hate to think this has happened again. This guy is one of the lucky ones who will get cleaned up , my guess is for every lucky one there will be 100 unlucky if they don't get the oil stopped quickly.

The news that this may even spread to the North and South Carolina coast is very disturbing to me as I have visited all parts of these and there is so much fragile area in these coastlines the thought of it being covered with oil sickens me.

As April ended with this bad news that is leaking into May we can only pray that God take control and have His way with this situation. There are martyrs in all situations and these oil covered wild life just might be sacrificed to force men to see the evil of their ways. We can only pray!
Good Night and God Bless.

MAPLE HELICOPTERS

As I swept the steps and porch at church this evening,they were covered with these.Maple Seed Helicopters, as I looked at these ,I said a prayer,thanking our creator for is ingenious ,magical,creations.
These helicopters are perfect examples of His creative wisdom. If you have a maple tree in your yard you know how huge the shade is under the limbs. God knew if the seeds just dropped straight down,there wouldn't be enough sunshine to produce more trees.
Thus the helicopter design to carry the seeds far away from the parent tree. Click on the photo and take a close look at the ridged shaped wing, especially made for the utmost lift and distance. They cling to the tree until they are dry and brittle enough to spin in the breeze to a new location and then break apart exposing the seed to water and soil.
I'll never understand how anyone can look at things like this and not think we have a masterful Creator.
When I got up this morning I was looking forward to a relaxing day with g-son. With the ringing of the telephone that changed shortly after I had the few cakes I had on my list to bake in the ovens. First a 1 caramel cake order, then a 10 caramel cake order,oh my!
After I picked g-son up from pre-school we headed to Walmart to get supplies to make 12 caramel cakes.
I baked cakes right through lunchtime and into the early afternoon,so much for the relaxation.
G-son took a nap while I moved all my potted plants back outside,maybe this will be the last time for that. I wanted to plant some more of the herbs and plants I bought Monday but forgot to get more potting soil.
After D-in-love picked up g-son,hubbie and I headed to church, then it was home to ice caramel cakes and wrap and label all my cakes.

I was surprised today to see these Iris's blooming already. All my azaleas haven't even bloomed yet and maybe I've never noticed before but I think these are a little early. But I've noticed a lot of things seem to be a bit out of sync this spring.
Gorgeous day today upper 70's ,sunny with a light breeze,doesn't get any better! Wish I could have spent more time outside.
That's one of the downsides to my business,there is no set schedule,but then again that is one of the upsides.
I got the orders filled and it is only 11:30.
Maybe some rain moving back in tomorrow,we need it already again. As April comes to a close I fell a little short of my goals for this month,but did get my back yard put back together after our construction. Didn't get any Dr's appointments made as I usually do in April and didn't get anything done in the front yard. No vacation weeks in May this year means it should be easy to add these to May's list,which I will publish tomorrow.
Thankful to God tonight for all His wonderful creative designs and for letting me see proof of His glory.Also praying for all the wildlife and people on the gulf coast where all that oil is coming ashore,looks like only God is going to be able to help them.
Good Night and God Bless.

NEW VISITORS

Market was slow again today, I made 2 towel angels and crocheted tops on 3 towels while I waited for customers. But I noticed we aren't the only business that is slow. There just isn't many people out shopping anywhere. As I ran errands after market, I didn't have to stand in line anywhere,most check-out clerks were waiting to check you out instead of you waiting to get checked out.
I made some Avon deliveries and also stopped at Staples to check out lap top computers they have on sale. Met a very informative,nice clerk who answered all my questions.Now I just have to decide which one I want.
Spotted my first Hummingbird in the azalea blooms today,I'll have to put out the feeders tomorrow. I couldn't get a picture before it moved on but I did catch these new visitors.This Grackle was one of several that I spotted ground feeding.Those irredescent feathers are sure pretty when the sun hits them but there's something sort of erie about their yellow eyes. I noticed that they are one of the few birds that stood up to the big Blue Jay when he came swooping in.The Grackles are large birds and this one actually jumped at the Jay before deciding to just ignore him.These large Crows have been sneaking in from time to time but have been hard to photograph because they are very jumpy and are gone at the slightest movement. This one seems to be checking me out before deciding to take off. When I was younger I always hunted for crow's nest ,I had the idea that if I could find a baby crow I could raise it as a pet. Nature had a way of keeping that from happening.

When Hubbie and I came back from working at church tonight I couldn't help but notice the moon. It was in a different place and looked so close and clear.Very thankful tonight for the love of my Lord and this beautiful earth He made for us.
Good Night and God Bless.

YARD FULL OF SPRING PLANTS

Up early to bake cakes before picking up g-son. Did Yoga while the last oven full baked hoping it would give me some energy,but no luck today.
After picking him up,I discovered he didn't feel good either and was very ill tempered,that makes 2 of us today!
After some trial and error choices for lunch,he finally ate a piece of french toast,some snitched cupcakes from Aunt T's baking and I had a salad.
This is a beautiful day,bright sunshine but a little cool, we didn't get any freezing temps or frost last night thankfully,but tonight is suppose to be even colder. I'll cross my fingers and toes again. I left my pots inside and I'll just have to put my covers back on this evening.
This is another favorite azalea,it is the only double azalea I have.
Last winter the snow that slid off the roof hit this row of azaleas and damaged them,I was sure hoping this one would be okay and as you can see it mostly is.
More bloomers in my yard are this old fashion snowball bush,it's about 10 feet tall and is surrounded by baby bushes. I bought this several years ago from a neighbor at the curb market when it was the size of the babies that now are around it.
This Japanese Maple is not a bloomer but is an eye catching beauty with its red leaves.
These Hosta's are not showy bloomers either,but they are one of my favorite plants. In this Hosta bed there are 2 giant leaf Hostas and 3 variegated leaf ones. The curly variegated leaf is one of my favorites. I have a lot of hostas around as anyone will have because once you get them established,you have to divide them to keep them healthy.These are perfect plants for me as they love shade and I have plenty of shade around my house.

And of course we can't forget the veggies. We have tendergreens ready to pick and eat,the cabbage and onions are coming along,but the leaf lettuce is a bit slow coming up.
The fence has served its purpose well as not one rabbit bite has been taken out of anything. Something happened to the broccoli plants I sat out,I only have a couple left,might have been bad plants since nothing happened to any of the cabbage plants.

Here is daughters Lilys that she bought several weeks ago.
They are so pretty,I have them snuggly wrapped in a blanket tonight. She made this bed for them and hubbie has built her a larger raised bed for herbs and a few veggies ,he is finishing it up tonight so it will be ready for what she gets at the Herb Festival on Saturday.

I did paperwork and payed bills tonight before icing caramel and chocolate cakes. I made extra icing of both so daughter could ice some of her cupcakes with my icings.That way customers can get a cheap sample of my cakes. I have only 1 order for tomorrow but it is for 5 cakes. While g-son slept this afternoon I made 3 towel aprons,fixed some oven mitts with spoons and flowers and finished a Raggedy Ann doll and a baby quilt and pillow that have been laying around for quite awhile.
The towel aprons are made from bath towels cut in half with a waistband,ties and a pocket added. The baby quilt is 2 blocks bigger than the picture shows,it measures 45" X 36" .
The oven mitts make nice cheap ($3) gifts for pet sitters,etc. Craft sales seem to be picking up right now which is really strange,but then I've never been able to figure out buying patterns even with detail records from year to year it always changes no matter what I sell.
Daughter just finished her cupcakes and went to bed. It's 11:00,I'm watching the local news and them I'm outta here also. Hubbie just built a fire in the wood stove downstairs,
this cold weather just won't give up!!!
Praying for God's blessings on my family tomorrow and forever.
Good Night and God Bless.

TRIP DOWN THE MATERNAL MEMORY LANE

So glad I have a very computer literate daughter,who fixed the scanning/download problem from last night. For some reason my scanner is putting photos in TIF format and she showed me how to manually change them into JPEG, thank you honey!!!
So to continue with my trip down memory lane here we go.
This is my grandmother on my mothers side,Vinnie Laughter Ruff. She was born April 24,1893,that's a good day huh Amy, She had my mom,Goldie Jane, who was the oldest daughter on August 8,1914 at 21 years old. Then came my aunts,May 9,1918-Gertie Mae, October 19,1921-Carrie Lee,
August 31,1924- Hattie, September 10,1928-Mary.
Then tragedy struck a baby boy was born June 25,1931 and died,don't know any details,whether he was born dead or died after birth. He was not named so that leads me to believe the death was early. And to deepen the mystery Vinnie died a little over 3 months later on October 8,1931. I have no info on how she died either. She must have been about 40 years old at time of death.

This is my grandfather on mom's side in his WWI uniform.
Jessie Garrison Ruff, always known as J.G., was born February 28,1891. He was a native of Polk county NC,the son of Jessie and Sarah Bailey. He was a woodworker by trade and it sure didn't take him long to find another wife to help with his 5 daughters ,Exactly 3 months to the day on January 8,1932 he married Stella Rhodes. I have no information if they had children. He was married a 3rd time at some point later he married Ora Burgess. In his obituary there is a step-daughter listed,but under her married name so I don't know who's she was. J.G. died June 7,1954 at the age of 63, unexpectedly at his home.I was born July 31,1954 ,but I was not his first grandchild. It is an interesting thing to start trying to piece together the puzzling life of ancestors. Listed in the Obituary was only 1 brother Larkin Ruff of Gerton,NC. But evidently back then they didn't put the names of the preceded in death,so I don't know if this is his only sibling.This is the picture hubbie joking said look like it was out of the Deliverance movie. This is my great uncle Larkin Ruff's family in all their glory. I am assuming he and his wife are the older people in the middle,but am not sure.
I ran across so many pictures that I wish had names on the back. Funny thing a lot of them have the date but no names.
Even though my mom was the oldest,she out lived all but 1 of her sisters. Hattie died of a stroke at age 35, not sure of the date or cause of Gertie Mae's death, the youngest Mary died in her early 40's with a heart attack. Mary, was my cousin's,who is looking for his
dad,mother,he was only 15 at the time of her death and he came to live with us. My dad enclosed a back porch and made him a bedroom. He was like another brother for several years,until we all grew up and moved out. Carrie out lived my mother by several years,she lived in Michigan all her married life and after her and my mom's death,Carrie's husband who's name was Bob Warner, became closer to me than they had been while they were married. He never remarried and he died last winter. They had 4 kids and they all still live in Michigan.

Okay back to the present!!! Had to make a couple of Avon deliveries this morning before housework and laundry started. Finished 4 loads of laundry and was just finishing up mopping kitchen floor when daughter and hubbie got home. I am pooped!
It is c-c-cold outside and they are putting out freeze warnings for the counties just north of us so I'm not taking chances. I carried my pots inside again and covered things up outside. I have my fingers and toes crossed that we don't get freezing temps because my plum trees that I have never had fruit from are absolutely loaded with plums. The temperature here is only supposed to get to 36 and it's 46 at 10:30 so your guess is as good as mine. I know it sure felt colder this evening with the wind blowing but now the wind has stopped and the clouds that brought a few showers during the day today are clearing out opening the door for low temperatures and frost.This is a picture of the wild blackberry and blueberry vines and bushes at Graveyard Fields. Daughter always goes berry picking there when they ripen. They are so good and we freeze them and make jam from them.

I'm so pooped tonight I'm waiting until morning to do my baking so daughter could bake some tonight. I don't have a lot to bake,business at market has been so slow and I don't want a bunch of leftovers to have to try to sell elsewhere. I also have a couple aprons cut out I needed to sew up, maybe tomorrow on those too. I had extra work today due to g-son being here last Tuesday and it amazes me how much more work it creates when I skip a week cleaning. I think my house is invaded with all these little munchkins that love to put dust and dirt all over everything,I know I don't bring all that dirt in here!
Thanking God for the strength He gives me everyday.
Good Night and God Bless.

NEW WEEDEATER WORKS FOR 5 MINUTES

Today started out to be a really nice but cool day. G-son arrived before 7 this morning as both mom and dad had early schedules today. Pawpaw took him to preschool while I delivered Avon all morning.
After lunch here we all went to Lowe's to pick up the things for the old house and took the clean curtains back and hung them up.
We stopped by Home Depot on the way home for some mulch for my front yard beds.
G-son went fast to sleep on the way home.
I bought an electric weed eater in Lowe's,so while he slept and hubbie mowed grass,I was trying out the weed eater. For the first 2 minutes it worked great,then it started making a rattling noise.I stopped hubbie to look at it to see if I had it together correctly. He said it was continually feeding line out and making the noise. I looked for trouble shooting guides in the manual but there weren't any. I decided to go ahead and finish the front trimming,then take it back and exchange it tomorrow,but the darn thing quit working shortly after I started it again. That means another trip to Lowe's tomorrow,grrrrr!!I have not seen any Robins at my feeders,but have seen them in the garden ,so they are here. Robin eggs are so pretty,it amazes me how and why God choose certain colors for certain things. We have a brown bird with a red breast who lays blue/green eggs, have you ever wondered about why things are as they are???
Cousin Mike came visiting tonight ,haven't seen him in about a month. Took a trip back down memory lane with him. He was born to my mothers youngest sister who was never married and he has never known who his father was. He is 50+ years old now and he is just now looking for him. I think it is too late now. We scoured through all the old family pics tonight and he took several pics of his mother in the company of men we didn't know.
Some of the pics of our great uncles family looked like they were straight out of the Deliverance movie according to hubbie.
Well I was going to put the pictures on here but they won't upload for some reason and it is getting late so I'll work on it and try again maybe tomorrow.
God is good all the time.
Good Night and God Bless.

NEW FISHES

Wow!,got woke up several times last night by pouring rain pounding on the roof and the gulleys in the driveway are signs of how hard it rained. My new rain gauge only goes to 2" and it was running over this morning. I'll have to get a gauge that has more space than that one.
Had a very nice church service today,still working through the book of Romans.
Had salad,beef stew and corn bread for lunch,everyone made it today. After we ate the kids all helped set up #1 son's pop-up camper to make photos so they can list it for sale. They need a bigger one with air conditioning.

We have some new members of our pet menagerie (can fish really be pets?) anyway they do come swimming toward me when it is feeding time as though they recognize me.These are the fantail trio ,Calli the calico fantail, Goldie the gold fantail, and Blackie the Black Moor,original names,huh!! These 3 are very active as if they are so thankful to be in their own tank.This is Blueboy the Beta,I rescued (bought) him from a tiny cup with a plastic snap on lid that had 1 small slit in it. He is so pretty with his large tail that waves when he swims.This is Splash, he sometimes will hit the top of the water almost like he is trying to jump right out of his bowl. But his bowl has a lid on it so he will be safe whether he likes it or not.

Hubbie,bro and sis in law and I cleaned up the old house this afternoon. We got started about 3:00 and finished about 7:00 tonight. 4 people,4 hours, but it sure looks different than when we started. I brought curtains home to wash and a list of small things to buy tomorrow to pretty much finish the job.
Daughter worked on cleaning the place where she is going to put her large raised bed today while we were gone. The herb festival she always goes to is on Saturday,they have really good healthy plants.
I washed and dried the curtains and am getting ready for an early bedtime tonight. The last 2 nights have not been good for sleeping,maybe tonight will be!After all that rain yesterday the French Broad River was very high and muddy today.
Our creek wound up about 2 feet below flooding,whew! we were glad because we didn't put the cattle up in the upper pasture last night.
Thanking God for all His mercies and understanding tonight.
Good Night and God Bless.