WARMER WEATHER BUT MARKET STILL SLOW

It was a warm night , at least to me, for some reason I had a very hard time getting comfortable to go to sleep.
Up and off to market a little early this morning as the temperature is warming up quickly and is already 44 degrees at 9:30.
Market was pretty slow today but I am thankful for what I did sell.  I had a really nice visit from a new friend who I met last week. Susan came by and visited the boredom of the slow day away and then helped me pack up and reload the van.  Thanks bunches Susan !!
Susan is a very sweet Christian girl that is going through some challenges but through her deep faith in God she is working her way through these challenges with the grace of a lady twice her age.
 Last week she didn't have a job  but this week she has a really good job thanks to her faith in believing her Heavenly Father will provide.  Talking to her gives my faith a "shot in the arm".
After market I stopped at Aldi to pick up some things for lunch tomorrow. Since the day is supposed to be 60 degrees and sunny and is probably the only day this nice for a while we are going to try out our new grill with a lunch of hamburgers , hotdogs and bratts  with all the fixins.
When I got home hubbie and I unloaded the van and then we gave the older hens and pullets their second leg mite treatment. Their legs look remarkably better after the first treatment so hopefully this will finally get rid of these little pest.
Re ,little EL and baby BB came over on their walk and El did not like the flopping hens at all and didn't want to have anything to do with any of the chickens.
She played in the yard and walked down to the pasture to watch her dad building a new gate until we got the treatments finished.
The wind was starting to pick up dropping the temperature so we came inside so she could have a cookie and play with hubbie for a while.
After they left and the chores were done we had supper then veged out for the evening with the 4-legged kids.

We watched some basketball and a vet show that comes on Saturday nights while we relaxed.
It has been a nice upper 50's day with plenty of sunshine and tonight is supposed to stayed a bit above freezing for the first time in a long time.
Don't know that that will happen because it is already 36 at our place on our thermometers at 11:00 tonight as I hear the lady weather guru saying it is 44 degrees where she is checking the temperature right now ????
Daughter as one of the student council sponsors at the high school she teaches at was one of the chaperones tonight at a formal Valentine's dance that one of the parents gave the student council tonight. The Petree's decorated one of the buildings on their property for the occasion.
These are all the chaperones.

The kids look like they are having fun.

This is daughter with Mrs. Case her favorite high school teacher when she went to this high school and now she is working beside her as her pier.

 Saying a prayer for d-in-love tonight as she called and said she was very sick with a really nasty head cold tonight.
Thanking God for the many blessings of this day and asking for His guidance as I go through each day.
Good Night and God Bless.

1965 NEWS

After chores and breakfast this morning it was baking time. Sometimes I have to really discipline myself on Fridays to get any baking done. After going all week without actually having to do anything it is hard to make myself work on Fridays.
But I need to make some money to help out even if it is very little some days this time of year.
I baked 6 caramel, 2 chocolate, 2 pound and 2 blackberry wine cakes before having lunch.
The weather today is nice and sunny and still chilly in the mid 40's with a breeze blowing around.
Another winter storm has formed and is headed across the northern states , the same areas that have been hammered so many times in the last month with heavy snowfall.  Marcus is the latest named storm.

I guess these folks are used to snow in these areas but wow, this winter so far has put them to the test I'm sure.
I spent time this afternoon getting out the February xxx5 decade photographs from years past and doing some more shredding.
After chores this evening hubbie and I watched the news then I iced my cakes and got things ready for market.
February is a pretty boring month unless we have snow and that was evidenced by the amount of decade pics I found today.
I did find in one of my old scrap books these clippings of the death of Nat "King" Cole.

Apparently there was plenty of snow in February 1965 as this newspaper clipping announces the re-opening of school after a weeks closure because of snow and ice.

I would have been in 5th grade in February 1965 so I'm sure I didn't have a camera for picture taking and my mother was not a big picture taker so there wasn't any pictures of the snow around our farm.
As I finished chores this evening I notice this pretty sky after the sun went behind the mountains.

I pray everyone has a happy and safe weekend as this first week of February 2015 comes to an end.
I am grateful for all the blessings of this day.
Good Night and God Bless.

PICTURE DAY

Up and out to do chores a little early this morning. Made a blueberry smoothie for a quick breakfast. I am going over to the Asheville mall with Re and the kids this morning to have pictures made of the kids.
We have a 10:00 appointment,but with another stop to make on the way and neither of us very good at driving around Asheville we decided we had better leave around 9:00.
We used "Ceri" to get us to the mall and we made it in about 30 minutes.
The kids were pretty good during their session and she got some good pics of the two of them together.

While Re decided on which pictures she wanted little EL and I looked around in an interesting store next door. She thinks she is a grown up some times !!!!

They had an entire wall of these eye mask in all different colors and styles,EL couldn't resist trying one on.

We ate lunch before we left the mall at a deli and it was very good.
The wind was really blowing and the temperature has steadily dropped all day as we headed back for Hendersonville.
When we got to Ingles baby BB was soundly sleeping and little EL was watching a DVD so I sat in the car with them while Re grocery shopped.

Love the dimples in this photo of EL.

It is a beautiful day but cold.

As I sat with them I thought back to the days when my kids were the age of EL and thought how much technology has improved these situations through the years.

We came home and after getting things all carried in to Re's I walked across the hill home to the surprise of Annie who was very surprised to see me come waking up in the yard. I had to laugh at her reaction as she didn't know whether to bark or not and hesitated to come up to me until she heard my voice. At least I know she is on guard duty while I'm gone !!
I vacuumed and mopped all my floors this afternoon.
Hurriedly went through chores this evening as the water was already frozen in their waterers.
Tonight is supposed to be a cold night, temps in the teens so we built a fire upstairs and downstairs.
Thankful to God tonight for a blessed day and for the warm house on these cold nights.
Good Night and God Bless.

GOD IS GOOD

A cold morning today, colder than was predicted for sure. The frost looked like snow in the bottom pastures even at a little later than usual chore time as I tried to wait for it to warm up a little before rousting the animals out of their warm overnight places.

After chores and breakfast I figured weekly bills and then headed for town. I am a day early but I needed to get a couple things done today rather than wait until tomorrow.
I ran all my errands, stopping at Aldi and Walmart for baking supplies and groceries then headed home for lunch.
I spent the afternoon catching up some paperwork and continued some shredding.
I also filled all the bird feeders again today so that the birds could get some extra food to keep them warm through this next cold spell we are expecting tomorrow and tomorrow night.
Re and the kids walked over to visit late this afternoon. Baby BB is growing in leaps and bounds. Little EL is also getting so big and is such a sweet little girl.
Aa got off early and came over , they all left to go home and fix supper.
Hubbie and I finished chores and relaxed for the evening.
I should get up and do something tonight but it feels so nice to spend the evenings just snuggled with the 4-legged kids on the couch !!
God is so good all the time, all the time God is good.
Good Night and God Bless

JUST A LYMPH NODE !!

Yeah, they can tell us this all day long and we will still fear the "call back".  After getting a call back after last Monday's yearly mammogram, today was my re-check appointment.
I got up hurried through chores ,grabbed a protein bar and my travel mug of coffee and headed across the mountain. Only good thing about early morning appointments is I didn't have time to think about being nervous.
I was called back immediately and called in for the specified mammogram shots before I could even sit down in the little waiting room with all the other ladies in our pretty pink wrap around tops.
When I saw the original mammogram of last week and the area that was in question, my heart sank, I knew this did not look like the lypoma that was found in my left breast a couple years ago during my last "call back".  This was more denser and round in shape. 
The machine operator had a special paddle on the mammographer which zeroed in on the area in question only.  It hurt when she tightened it down but she told me it would and that she was terribly sorry, like that was going to make it any easier ??
From there I was taken to another even smaller waiting room where only one other lady was sitting quietly. There was no TV in this waiting room like the other one and silence was heavy. I guess neither of us felt encouraging at this point. I was called back first for my ultrasound.
The ultrasound operator kept searching until I finally ask if she saw anything. She said not yet it was a very small spot.  To make matters even more scary the questionable area was almost under my right arm in the back side of my breast.  (I'm thinking , not a good spot at all, to close to all kinds of lymph nodes).
She finally said I think I've got it so lay very still while I go get the doctor.
When he came in he was a foreign looking man, maybe Indian, just like the last doctor at my last "call back".   He had a friendly face and as I watched his expression while the operator attempted to find the spot again, I thought how he must dread these meetings with patients. I can't imagine a more difficult job than to tell someone they might have cancer.  I tried to read his expression as she said she found the spot and he said zoom me in.
I saw his face soften and a quick smile come to his lips and felt relief even before he delivered the news that he was looking at a perfectly healthy lymph node.  I asked why it showed up this time for the first time and he said it happens all the time. It could have been because of the weight I lost that moved things around a bit.  Anyway it was sweet relief, although he did ask that I pay close attention to this area in my self exams to make sure this node doesn't enlarge and I be able to feel it.
I almost skipped aback to the van and headed home. I could hear the relief in hubbie's voice when I called him.
As I passed the gas stations along the road home I thought about what they said on the news last night about prices being as low as they are going to go and now will start climbing again.

Gas has been the cheapest it has been in years this winter , but I guess all good things must come to an end, sigh !!
It is a beautiful ,beautiful day !!!!

I made it home just in time for lunch.
After I ate I did house work until it was time for daughter's basketball game. This is officially the last home game of the season unless they make up a JV only game they missed because of testing earlier.
Daughter gives final instructions before the game starts.

They lost this game by a pretty good margin to Pisgah high school, the varsity girls also lost tonight.
I came home after her game and did chores then had supper of kale chips and some of the left over Boston butt #2 son brought by to vacuum pack for his freezer.
After he left hubbie and I relaxed for the evening.
Today has been a sunny but cool day with a high temp of 43 degrees but thankfully no wind.
Grateful for God's company this morning and always as I know He is always with me no matter what and He is loving me all the time.
Good Night and God Bless

GROUND HOG SAYS: 6 MORE WEEKS OF WINTER

A rainy night left 6/10ths inch of rain in the gauge this morning. Our high temperature for the day , 47, was already passed by the time I went out to do the chores this morning.
On this Ground Hog day 2015 , our local Grady the groundhog saw his shadow today meaning 6 more weeks of winter.

Hubbie and I decided to get the Silkies house cleaned out and get the insecticide on them before the wind got to bad this morning.
Because of the low netting over their lot and the larger number of them it took us longer to do them than the other hens. It was almost noon by the time we came inside to clean up. I had to wash my hair because I got some of the vaseline mixture I was using on their legs in my hair.
We had lunch and then made a trip to town to get some errands done. Hubbie wanted to check out the sale at Mast General store up town. I'm glad we found a close parking space as by this time the temp was 36 and the wind was really gusting.

Neither of us found anything we had to have in the store today. And as you can see in this pic their were not many folks shopping in this weather today.
We stopped by Sam's Club to pick up a few things and headed home to re-kindle the fires and get warm for a while.
I stayed inside and did 3 loads of laundry while hubbie braved the wind and cleaned the smoker.
I also worked some downstairs moving more things around clearing out space for more sewing machine room.
I still haven't located a surger machine I know I have somewhere. I'm thinking since it hasn't been in any of the places I have looked so far, it must be in one of the upstairs closets.
The blowing snow picked up this afternoon, making the mountains disappear in a white cloud.

We also experience a "snow bow" this afternoon as the skies cleared.

Driving on the roads was dangerous today, not only for the snow and ice but for falling trees as the driver of this semi was prayerfully thankful this blown down tree landed on his trailer.

I hope he was thanking God for sparing his life after this !!
The temperature has steadily dropped all day and the winds got harder as the sun went down today.
We  got all the animals fed and settled in the warm places for this cold night then had supper before watching UNC loose a basketball game to Virginia. I like Virginia and pull for them when they aren't playing UNC. I like how they handle themselves and the clean way they play basketball. Up until the very end they were patting UNC players on the back when they made good plays.
It is 25 degrees at 10:30 tonight , we have fires in both our wood stoves tonight and the house is very warm.
I am very thankful for the warmth and for the food on my table tonight as I pray for the homeless who aren't as fortunate. May the love of God keep them warm tonight.
I am also praying that it be God's will that my second mammogram appointment will be okay tomorrow.
Good Night and God Bless.

ALL KINDS OF WEATHER BRING IN FEBRUARY

An early Sunday morning for hubbie as he is up at 7:30 to get wood chips soaked and meet #2 son who is coming over to get the smoker going with a couple butts for his super bowl party tonight and our lunch chicken in there to get smoked.
Hubbie and I went to church, leaving son here to watch the temperature on the smoker. As long as the wind doesn't blow it usually is good at holding a steady temp but sitting out in the covered patio where the wind comes up over the hill it can drop the temp inside substantially if you aren't there to turn the heat up.
At church this morning we had a lady join our congregation and also on a sad note, our youth director resigned today to take another job on the WCU college campas.
Hubbie and I left as soon as the last song started and came home to help son wrap his butts in foil to continue cooking and get our now done chicken out of the smoker.
Hubbie put a rub on the chicken thighs last night and let them set over night, he also added some apple juice to the water he soaked the chips in. This was the best chicken we ever smoked, we are waiting to see what son says about the butts he smoked. He coated them with mustard before putting them in the smoker this morning for a different twist also.
Everyone made it to lunch of rice, green beans, corn and yeast rolls with triple berry pie for dessert to go with the delicious chicken thighs.
We all had a nice visit after we ate and daughter and I shared holding time for baby BB who made his first lunch visit. It is amazing how fast he is growing.
After everyone left hubbie and I cleaned out the house of our younger pullets and put insecticide on their legs. We were going to get the Silkies done also but the rain began early and we retreated back inside for the evening.
#1 son who was changing the oil in his suv and Aa who was fixing fence also had to cut their afternoon work short and get out of the rain.
On this first day of February the weather is the main story as we are under all kinds of advisories and alerts for tonight and tomorrow. A winter weather alert and a high wind warning are given for our area plus  thunderstorms are possible with damaging winds.

With this current radar showing a line of rain along the cold front that is pushing through ahead of winter storm Linus may make for an interesting night and early morning to bring February in like a lion for our side of the country.

This storm is predicted to drop another 2 feet or more of snow on the already hard hit areas of the northeast.

 On this first day of February this is the current snow cover map for the country.

We are fortunate that only rain is forecast for our area, maybe mixing with a little wet snow tomorrow as the temperatures drop throughout the day.
Watched parts of the supper bowl tonight but had really no interest in which team won. The Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots were playing. The Patriots wound up winning on a really bad play call by Seattle on their 1/2 yard line.  Anyway like I said I had no favorite in this game.
I didn't even think the commercials were that good and the half time show we turned off when you couldn't even hear a word the singers were singing over the loud banging music.
Maybe I'm just too old for this stuff !!!!

Thankful to God tonight for a wonderful Lord's day filled with family and friends and the love and grace of our dear Savior Jesus Christ.
Good Night and God Bless