FIRST FREEZE PREDICTED

Thankful this morning to feel normal again and rested after a good night's sleep.
There is no school today for an optional teacher workday so g-son and his family are at Great Wolf Lodge for part of g-son's belated birthday gift.
Daughter who is a teacher called on her way to work to say she had the stomach bug last night but felt better this morning and had to go to school today to work on all the homecoming things for tonight.
The thermometer said 32 degrees at 8am today but the wind blew enough to keep Jack Frost at bay.
All the animals were glad to get outside in the warm sunshine this morning.
After breakfast I went to Walmart to pick up some extra baking supplies so I didn't get started with my baking until after lunchtime.
I baked 18 caramel, 2 chocolate, 1 coconut,1 pound cake and 2 blackberry wine cakes.
This is usually a housecleaning day but very little of that got done today. I did vacuum the rugs in the sunroom and living room.
When hubbie came in from work we dug the rest of our potatoes. We didn't get as many this year as usual but got more than we expected with all the wet weather we had. A lot of the potato rows actually stood under water for many days at times.

We usually store them in hubbie's shop for awhile before bringing them into the basement but with the mid 20's temps predicted for tonight we brought them into the basement today.
Rebekah came after some of the ones that were hit with the diggers as there was more of them than usual because the ground is very hard this year.
After chores with the thermometer already at 28 degrees we brought Flash (the basset hound) and Sadie (the elderly Aussie) into the basement also. They have crates down there to sleep in on the coldest nights.
This is strange to have a hard freeze before we even have a frost around here.
I spent the entire evening icing all the cakes I baked today and finally got into bed around midnight.
Checked the temps then and it was 26 already and that was the predicted low and the record low that was set back in 1930 for this date, so I think we will set a new record tonight.
Grateful to God tonight for the blessings of today.
Good Night and God Bless.

STOMACH BUG BITES

WHEW !!!!!  What a night I had !!!  After finally getting to bed after a nice warm bath I had trouble getting warm so I could go to sleep. Granted it is the coldest night of the season outside,34, but we do have our heat on.  Finally I put the heating pad to my feet in hopes that would relax me so I could get to sleep. Not so, yes my feet did get warm but then I developed another problem, a stomach ache !!
After numerous trips to the bathroom and the garbage can beside the bed I reserved myself to the fact that I must have eaten something bad somewhere today.
As hubbie's alarm sounded at 5am and I was groaning with the waves of pain through my stomach he decided to stay out of work again. He took g-son to school and then went to the Curb Market for me with all the cake orders.
I stayed in bed only getting up to help label the cake boxes with names and then doing the chores of feeding and turning out the dogs and chickens.
As my stomach ache eased off and sleep finally came I didn't get up until noon.  I was so weak I ate a pack of cheese crackers with my hot tea and then had to head straight to the bathroom,oh well !!
I laid back down and waited for hubbie to get home from market.
After he got here I had to go into town to take care of the weekly errands and pick up some baking supplies for tomorrow.
On a completely empty stomach I got all this done without even feeling that weak. 
I have spent most of the evening on the couch wrapped up with my 4-legged kids as I am still chilling.
After talking with #1 son who said he had something like I had a couple days ago and also Rebekah said Aaron had it so maybe it wasn't something I ate after all.
I'm just thankful it didn't last long !!
I had some new little potatoes that hubbie dug this afternoon for supper to keep it real bland on my raw feeling stomach.
Tonight is supposed to be even colder than last night around here and then tomorrow night is the real deal as we will probably set a new record.

This is the almanac page for today as you can see we are quite a bit below normal but not near the record for today.

I am going to get into bed for an early bedtime tonight and hope my troubles of last night won't come back.
Praising God for all the blessings of His miraculous creations.
Good night and God Bless

PICKENS FLEA MARKET DAY

Up earlier than usual this morning as hubbie is off today and helping with g-son so we can get to the Pickens Flea Market. We have been looking for a nice Wednesday for several weeks and today is supposed to be perfect down there.
It is a bit cool up here with a temp of 35 this morning. I did chores while he took g-son to school and Rebekah and Evy came over to go on their first trip to this market with us.
Evy was a very good traveler on the way down there making it for almost the entire one hour plus trip without a peep.
It was cool when we got there and the place wasn't as crowded as I have seen it before.
Evy had on her cow blanket.

She found herself a great deal on a an old wooden rocking horse.

Hubbie got a good deal on this felt hat, for the price of $1 he bought a $60 hat that hasn't been worn much at all.

I found several things of course that I couldn't live without.
I've always wondered how this  patterned cake was made.

Of course I had to add to my Christmas decorations !!!

And I couldn't pass up this twin bed size newly crocheted afghan.

But the best deal of the day was this fern. As I was standing in the aisle discussing with hubbie something on a table,the man across walked over and asked if I would like a large fern for free.
Of course I can't pass up a plant so this nice fern cam home with me.

He said he didn't have a place to put it inside and didn't want to see it get killed probably tonight with freezing temps predicted. It will join my other four in the basement where I moved them Sunday evening.
We had a good trip and everyone got some good deals. Our van was packed full as usual on the trip home.
After we got unloaded and Rebekah and Evy headed to their house daughter brought g-son in from some pumpkin shopping they had been doing. She was at a workshop today so she picked him up from school and got to visit with some folks at his school where she used to work.
I took several more cake orders today so I needed to baked more caramel and chocolate cakes tonight before starting my icing. I iced 12 caramel, 5 chocolate, 3 coconut cakes and got everything ready for market. I finally got to bed a little after midnight.
Thanking God for Safe travel today and for the grace He gives me each day.
Good Night and God Bless.

TUESDAY WORK DAY

Up early to begin another beautiful fall day. After dropping g-son at school I headed out to Walmart to pick up milk and a couple other things we are out off. I love going to Wallyworld early in the morning when there is hardly any customers and no waiting in check-out lines.
I did chores and had a leisurely breakfast before starting the Tuesday laundry and housework.
After lunch I delivered a cake order and then stopped by Ingles to pick up some pineapple rings for a pineapple upside down cake I took an order for earlier.
I just had a few minutes when I got home from this before it was time to pick up g-son.
Today is a nice warm day mid 60's and it is the last warm day for awhile according to the forecast.
The clouds fought hard with the sun all afternoon for equal time,everytime I had a few minutes and thought about going out to soak up some Vitamin D the clouds would roll in.
After g-son had his after school snack he wanted to help put up the Halloween decorations. We got out a couple new things and he thought they were really cool. It got too dark to make pictures before we got finished so they will come later.
His dad went hunting today so he walked home when his mom came in.
Hubbie had a meeting at church at 6:00 tonight about some cemetery business that lasted for an hour and half so anymore hen house construction has to wait.
I took several cake orders for Thursday today and had one large order for Saturday changed to Thursday so I baked 9 caramel, 3 chocolate,3 coconut , a pineapple upside down and a pound cake tonight to get a head start.
The weather forecasters actually have the sssss word (snow) in the forecast for the end of the week !! And it looks like we should get used to the colder weather .

Yesterday d-in-love took her camera out to the gym where daughter was finishing up practice with her volleyball team. The girls had an idea for a photo to use at the pep rally during this homecoming week. D-in-love took this photo of the girls using flashlights to form the school letters. It turned out great !!!

Unfortunately for the girls and coaches tonight they lost their game at St. Stephens down around Hickory in three very close sets.  That concludes their volleyball season for this year.
Basketball starts next week !!!
I will end with this prayer that I thought fit my prayers perfectly.

Good Night and God Bless.

HENHOUSE CONSTRUCTION AND MEMORIES FROM 1993

Brrrr !!! Another 37 degree morning in the mountains. Thanks to hubbie I got to snuggle a few extra minutes under the warm covers as he got up when g-son got here to fix his breakfast and take him to school.
After I did morning chores and had breakfast we made a trip to Southern States to pick up animal feed and we bought a 100 ft. roll of wire for the new chicken lot. The house is framed in already.

We also made a stop at Sam's Club and made it home with enough time to unload and get everything put away before a lunch of left-overs from yesterday.
We worked on the hen house after lunch. Hubbie found an old door stored in the barn years ago and we cut it off and modified it to fit the hen house. These hens are going to think they are moving into a castle after the small box they have been in !!

While I went to pick up g-son from school,hubbie went up to Scot's , our neighbor who runs a sawmill to get some boards for the siding. We also painted some rusted metal pieces left over from a previous roofing job to use on this roof. We don't have much money invested in this venture so far.
G-son played with his new toys from yesterday and ate more birthday cake. He said we could have just one more party if we wanted too !!!!
After his dad picked him up I did the chores and settled in for another chilly night but we have no frost warnings tonight.
Back in October 1993 our church made a new directory. These are a couple of the pics on the collage pages. This one is hubbie with #2 son and a couple of girls from our Sunday School class, Carson Walker and Christy Jones.

This is daughter with a couple of her friends.

The front of the directory has a picture of our church then on it. It sure looks a lot different today !

This is our family photo that is in the directory. We were all laughing at something the photographer said.

My niece's husband was a senior football player that fall. He is number 31.

Tonight has been a nice relaxed evening. Hubbie and I both are resting up for a busy week starting tomorrow. I figure this will be my last really busy week at market as really cold temps are predicted for the end of the week.
Praying extra tonight for my #2 son as he searches for that perfect house to buy as I know he is getting frustrated, I pray for God's grace and guidance for him in all that he does.  Praying also for daughter as she takes her volleyball team to Hickory for the second round of the state play-offs tomorrow, may they have traveling mercies and play their best.
Good Night and God Bless.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION SUNDAY

The coolest morning so far this season at 39 degrees,brrrr.
Church was good this morning as we got acquainted with the book of Malachi .
After church we had a smaller lunch bunch with #1 son,g-son,daughter, Aaron , Rebekah and little Evy who slept through lunch.
Daughter left to do some homecoming planning at the high school. Rebekah ran to Walmart to pick up some things for g-son's little party, Aaron went to work. #2 son is playing golf today and d-in-love is working at her parent's restaurant but they both will be here for g-son's party at 4:00.
Evy stayed here while her mom went to Walmart and she ate almost an entire jar of homemade carrot baby food.
G-son is so excited for his birthday celebration !!

He was vibrating with excitement while he waited for everyone to get here. He begged to open the presents first as he couldn't bare to look at the wrapped packages any longer.

He got everything he wanted and more !!!
He had to place some decorations of his own on the caramel cake he ordered for his birthday cake.

Happily blowing out all seven candles !!!

After we celebrated with cake and ice cream everyone went on to their Sunday evening duties.
An added duty for me this evening was gleaning the garden in advance of the freezing temps predicted for this week.

Some of the forecasters are saying we could get frost any night starting tonight so I spent the evening gathering the last of the peppers and basil from the garden.

 I gathered 3 baskets plus a big bunch of the basil left over in the garden.

Hubbie and I spent the rest of the evening carrying plants inside to their winter homes. This doesn't look like a short lived cold snap and it is getting time for our first frost and freeze around here.

We are under a frost advisory tonight as temps dip into the mid 30's . We will turn our heat pump on for the first time this season !!

This year started off with a very warm winter during the first months then the rains came  and came and came all through the spring and summer along with cooler than normal temperatures. We had very few thunderstorms during the summer months because of the cooler temps. Fall brought less rain and warmer than normal temps with no hurricanes or extreme weather so far there either thankfully.  Now I'm rally wondering what these last couple months of this strange weather year will bring. Only God knows and He's not telling !!!
I rest in the knowledge that God does know and He will not be surprised by anything that happens and it will be His will.
Good Night and God Bless.

DRAW DOWN FUNRAISER

Mid October market days are usually crazy busy and this one started out just that way but then the customers just disappeared around lunchtime. Making me very thankful for the large orders I had taken for today.
Aaron and Rebekah came by with little Evy and visited with me for awhile , she found some nice fresh vegetables to make some baby food from.
I was glad to finally get packed up to leave as the last hour or so surely crawled by without hardly any sales at all. I hardly ever have seen the customers vanish like they did today and I kept thinking there would surely be more folks come in but that didn't happen.
I went by the estate sale place on the way home and found a few things at 1/2 price but nothing big.
When I got home hubbie was just finishing the lawn and now we need to get the leaves raked up so they don't get ahead of us.
After a short rest we did chores early and headed out to the high school for their yearly "draw-down"
fundraiser. All the coaches had to sell tickets so we bought one from daughter. They sell 300 tickets for $100 each. For the $100 you get 2 steak dinners,furnished by Out-Back Steak House, a gauranteed price in the ticket drawing that ends with the last ticket winning $5000 !!
Al the coaches helped out the Booster Club and daughter was the ticket drawer.

#2 son bought a ticket and daughter shared a ticket with a friend of hers so we had three chances at that big price. Second to last got $1000, third to last won $500 and every 50th ticket drawn won $100. Every other ticket won random prizes donated by the school or surrounding business.
From our three tickets we won several free passes to any of the school's sporting events and a coffee mug filled with coupons from the Honda dealership ,oh well !!!  It was fun to watch.
This idea for making money is a very smart one as they estimated the money raised tonight would be around $25,000. Thanks to the generosity of local business and athletic supporters of the high school it was a very successful event.
Oh and last but not least daughter's volley ball team won their first state play-off game earlier in the day against Erwin HS.
Here daughter gives instructions to the players.

Alot of purple on this day!!!!
She came home with us and took my old letter sweater and a couple uniforms of mine from my high school basketball playing days to wear this week during their homecoming week festivities.
Thanking God for a wonderful blessing filled day and praying for d-in-loves grandmother tonight who has went into kidney failure and doesn't want any treatment for it.
Good Night and God Bless.