PEARL HARBOR REMEMBRANCE 2010

In remembrance of December 7,1941 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
A 93 year old Navy Pearl Harbor survivor spoke today at a gathering to honor the veterans of this time in history.

Another very cold morning as I fought to get all the animals a drink before the water froze again. On these days I have to make several trips carrying water from inside the house at different times during the day so everything gets water.
I checked out the woods above the garden for downed trees but didn't see any. The wind blew the hardest of the season last night,I was afraid we would loose power on such a cold night. Thank the Lord we didn't.
I started laundry and then baked cakes,I have a large order of 12 peach wine cakes to deliver tomorrow right after lunch.
I intermittently baked, did laundry and housecleaned all day today.
I got all the laundry done,all my cakes baked and cleaned the bathrooms and got the other rooms all picked up. Tomorrow I will do all the floors.
When Hubbie got home from work we headed outside to put more bedding in the dog houses and give extra feed,tonight is supposed to be even colder than last but at least the wind has died a bit for now anyway.The bird feeders had a crowd around them all day. This flock of Doves clean up all the spilled seeds.Sparrows are good ground cleaners also as this little White Throat Sparrow looks for his favorite snack.He was joined by this Fox Sparrow,you can't see it in this picture but this birds tail is a really reddish brown color, hence his name.Not sure the identity of this one, I'm guessing some type of Warbler. Ideas welcome .Mr. Cardinal looks too cold to eat !!

After supper of left over b-b-que and baked sweet potato Hubbie and I worked on some more of our bird feeders.Drilling glass jars and plates is a tedious job. We've sold 1 out of the first 3 we made.
Tonight we made 3 more but 2 of them were made from plates daughter bought and she is giving them as Christmas presents. We drilled all things to make 2 more but ran out of long screws and washers. Hubbie will pick up some tomorrow and I'll have 3 more to take to market to sell.
Icicles are everywhere , sure signs of the extremely cold weather we are having.A fire at a nearby apartment complex in the early morning hours left icicles everywhere after the fire was out. Luckily no one got hurt.
Giant icicle !!!!Yes it is cold !!!!
At 11:00 tonight it is 17 outside. Tomorrow is supposed to get to 33 and if it does that will be the first above freezing temperature since last Saturday.
Thankful tonight to be blessed with a warm home.
Good Night and God Bless.

Dancing Santa - B-boy Santa Sneak Attack in Asheville, NC

Santa is getting in shape for his all night run in a couple of weeks !!!!!
I did think this was an interesting advertising gimmick for Asheville??????

Cold,cold day. Again blowing snow but no accumulation here,only 28 degrees for the high today with a wind that would blow your hat off all day !!A lot of roads in all the counties north of us looked like this and schools were closed today.
But not in our county,just cccccccold !!!!!
I feel sorry for the chickens and cattle tonight,it is 18 at 11:00 and the wind is blowing harder now than it has all day.
I had to take some baking pans out to the chickens for waterers this morning so I could keep dumping the ice and refilling them a couple times during the day so they could get water to drink.
They were all in their houses ready to be shut up this evening.
The chill factor tonight is well below zero,I just pray no trees get blown down on anything tonight.
Hubbie rode along with me this morning as I delivered Avon orders and we did some shopping along the way.
G-son came over this afternoon and played under my Christmas tree with the musical Christmas toys and some wooden reindeer I have set up as decorations. He calls this the Christmas house!!!
That makes all the work of putting up all the decorations worth it!!
I still haven't finished the outside but with this wind the ones that are up keep blowing all around so it's best just to wait until this storm passes.
After g-son left and the outside chores were done as I snuggled with Bernie and Dolly on the couch under a blanket I could hardly keep my eyes open. When it's this cold it wears me out just trying to keep warm while I get things done outside.
There is beauty even when the weather is extreme as this sunset over my community tonight proves.
I watched the birds flock to the feeders today to get their tummies full to better fend of the frigid night wind.
Hubbie went up to church to help down the stage for the childrens play yesterday.
Praying for all the people and animals outside on this night,may they be kept warm with the love of Jesus in their hearts.
Good Night and God Bless.

CHRISTMAS FROM 1960

Church was special this morning,instead of a sermon we had the children's Christmas play.
The play was called Angel Allert and they did a wonderful job of telling about the birth of Jesus.I was there Friday while they were building this elaborate stage setting and it turned out beautiful.Pint sized Mary and Joseph .
G-son always gets to come into big church and watch this play,here he is asking his Pawpaw a question.

After church we had everyone here for lunch of b-b-que,homemade by hubbie from a boston butt.
The wind is blowing snow flurries around all day with temperatures in the high 20's.
My goal of finishing my outside lighting came up short in this extreme cold. I got my icicle lights up and called it a day after the wind about blew hubbie off the ladder.
Hubbie and #1 son went to a Deacon's meeting at 4:30 so g-son and I stayed inside where it was warm.
D-in-love picked him up and I did evening chores and got ready to go back to church tonight.
We are on the 5th chapter of the Christian Atheist book,tonight was a good lesson about if you think God is fair. When bad things happen to good people we always wonder how that is fair. But really God is more than fair,because as for me if God gave me what I deserve,well let's just say you probably wouldn't be reading this !

The snow is still coming down tonight,daughter called from Asheville earlier and said there is a lot of snow on the ground over there.
Hubbie and I had to run out for an errand and the snow was starting to get heavy enough to blow around on the roads as we came home.
At 11:00 tonight the temperature is 26 and I still hear the wind howling out there.

With Christmas in December I was able to find some Pictures from 1960 to get the December decade pictures started.Here I am posing under the tree,looks like the presents have already been opened so this must be Christmas day.My first piano.Me with dad,mom and little brother.

Praying for all the people that have to be outside tonight,may they find a place to keep warm and for all the early commuters in the morning,may they be safe on the slick ,snow covered roads.
Very thankful for a warm home tonight.
Good Night and God Bless.

COLD PARADE DAY

A day filled with Christmas activities was seasonably cold with a sometimes icy sleet mixed with a chilling rain.
As daughter and I sat inside market nice and warm we watched the shivering parade goers as they came back through market on their way to their cars.
Our day was okay but not what you would expect with the crowd we had. Sometimes uptown activities hurt our business as our parking lot filled with parade goers today leaving no spaces for buying customers. One of my customers who had an order walked about 6 blocks to pick her order up, luckily Hubbie was still there and carried her 2 cakes back to her car.
Business on days like this depend on parade goers as they shop on their way back to their cars. Today in the cold,wet conditions all everyone wanted to do was get to their cars and get the heater going !!!
Mounted patrol worked to keep the parade watchers safe and out of the street.
Plenty of rosy cheeks on this parade day. Last year it was snowing on the parade.
Wonder how long these mermaids can stay out of water??
This scouting float brought back memories for me as we did a float very similar when we were involved in Cub Scouts.
The cold didn't seem to hinder the crowds today.
Nothing special in the parade here, I just love this section of main street with this old house which is now a bed and breakfast.
I was thinking today in a way I kind of miss the parade hassle but then again I don't miss the frigid weather or the sometimes inconsiderate crowds.
Another Christmas celebration was going on just out of town at the Historic Johnson Farm.
This house built in the late 1870's was built completely from bricks fired on site from the French Broad River mud. It was an operating farm and served as a boarding house for years. Before the 2 bachelor son's of Sallie Johnson died in the mid 1980's they donated the entire farm to the Henderson County School system to be used as a hands on museum to keep the memories of farm life during the late 19th and early 20th century live.In this picture you can see the mud bricks which have weather the years very well.
Today they celebrated Christmas with an open house.
The old furnishing are still in place inside this wonderful old house.
This is a classroom that has been set up in one of the many out buildings on the 15 acre farm.
The front room in the house is available for rent for weddings or other activities. I have been to several weddings there.
After daughter and I left market we shopped for supplies and also for our Angel tree little girl. The school were she works has an Angel tree with names of needy children there who need Christmas gifts and daughter always gets us at least 1 name. We found some great things for her and the saddest part was looking at the list she gave of what she wanted. The second and third things on the list were socks and underwear !!! How many kids in your family are asking for socks and underwear this Christmas??????
The weather is about as crazy as it gets around here today.
This morning it was 28 degrees and cloudy.
During the day it has stayed in the low 30's while spitting sleet or rain from time to time.
This evening early was bitterly cold 20's with light winds.
Later this evening the temps rose into the low 40's for about 3 hours only now to be plummeting back into the 30's with high wind I can hear roaring outside now.
Makes me wonder what the overnight is going to bring???
Daughter and I went down to #2 son's house and decorated it for Christmas tonight. We couldn't put up his outside lights because Flash the dog is still in his chewing everything up stage and would find a way to get to the cords.
I am going to finish my decorations tomorrow and get my cords ran to all my outside things.
#1 son and g-son came by for a while this evening and g-son is in awe of the whole Christmas thing this year.
Thankful tonight for a wonderful day filled with joy and celebration of our dear Saviors birth.
Good Night and God Bless.

WONDERFUL DEACON'S DINNER

Nice sunny morning but still 24 degrees, brrr.Frosty, still flooded fields.
After morning chores I baked cakes for market tomorrow. The weathermen are forcasting snow for tomorrow afternoon in the higher elevations. Last year on this Saturday which will be Christmas parade day it snowed here. We'll wait and see if that happens again tomorrow.
I went to work at church after lunch,I'll have to finish the work there this afternoon as Hubbie and I have a Deacon's dinner to attend tonight.
I got home just shortly before Hubbie and we started the chores a bit early.
The dinner was at the Western NC Justice Academy. Hubbie is a Deacon at our church and each Deacon has a younger man in the church as his yoke man, they also have 3 or 4 widows or widowers to attend to and all these were invited to the dinner also. There was a total of about 65 people there.This is the first year all these extra folks have been asked to be our guest at this dinner and I must say it made it a much more enjoyable occasion.
Hubbie's yoke man which is #1 son didn't make it to the dinner as they had already scheduled a trip on the Polar Express for g-son and only 1 of the widows ( the lady in silver sweater) were able to attend.
The food was wonderful and it was a great time for all.
While we were gone daughter was busy baking and when we got back she was making a new recipe rum cake.
I iced my cakes and wrapped and labeled everything.
Tonight I am grateful to God for my church family as well as my true family and for His graciousness in allowing so much goodness in my life.
Good Night and God Bless.

ICY MORNING, SLOW MARKET

I should have stayed home today and charged for ice skating in our pasture this morning.It was 25 this morning ,but thankfully the wind has died down some.
Market was slow today. After carrying all my cakes in and setting up my hip caught again and in a cold sweat I had to sit down for a while. Luckily no customers came by until I felt better.
It was cold inside market today and I even had long handles on. It was no wonder almost everyone left early. I left a little early but a customer caught me in the parking lot to buy a cake,making me feel guilty for packing up early.
I ran my regular errands and made a couple Avon stops on the way home. It was after 5 when I finally made it here. We were planning to go work at church early tonight but with my hip pain back again I wasn't going anywhere but the couch on a heating pad.
And after putting all my animals to bed for the night that's exactly where I spent the evening. I think I've aggravated my ciatic nerve as I have done many times before,yeow!! If you've ever done this you can relate to the painful nerve pain starting at the waist and shooting down through your hip. Heat is usually the only thing that helps mine.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day because it is going to be a busy one.
It has been a cold day today the high was 39 and tonight at 11:30 it is 30.
Thankful tonight for God and praying for his grace as I strive to be a better person with each passing day.
Good Night and God Bless.

DECEMBER ROARS IN !!!!

Up early this morning to check out the flood damage.
Not much can be done until all this water goes down, this is the roadside pasture,er lake!!Definitely fence work will be needed here. Looks like my cousin's corn stalks from several miles up the creek made it all the way to my fence, what a mess !!!Our farm pond has grown quite a bit over night.THis is my favorite photo place in the back pasture,remember all those pretty purple flowers here in October .
We were lucky our road was back open early this morning as many around the county were still under water.
This house slid off the mountain side in another part of the county this morning,luckily no one was in it.
I poured out 5 1/4" of rain from the rain gauge this morning.That's a lot of rain but not as much as some parts around here got. I have heard reports of 10 or more inches in places.
Welcome December,hope this is not a sign of things to come this month !!!The only things moving in our pastures this afternoon was a flock of Mallards who were enjoying the bigger pond. Guess fence repairs will have to wait evidently the ground is so soaked the water is having trouble sinking in and it's just to cold to go wading.
Although when Hubbie came home from work he could get to the back fence enough to get it cleaned off.
I worked outside all morning repairing wash outs and draining water from the dog's lot.
Man it is bitter cold this morning with the wind blowing even with the sun shining. The high temperature today was 35 !! WINTER HAS ARRIVED !!
I had several cakes to bake and some to deliver and in between that I did a little more decorating.This is my old wood cook stove that sits in my dining room. The small tree contains all handmade ornaments and this is most of my snowman collection.These are my clay pot friends, made from pots and hand painted and decorated.

I actually got some of the decorations up in my sunroom and on my front porch but got neither finished.
It has been a busy day to start out a new month which is traditionally a very busy month anyway. My goal is to have all my decorating done by next Monday.
I twisted my hip today and had to stop putting up outdoor lights so Hubbie will have to help finish those.
It's 29 degrees at 11:30 and is supposed to get close to 20 tonight for the coldest night so far and with the wind blowing out there it is frigid. We'll have a giant skating rink in our pastures in the morning!!
Thankful tonight that we were spared any major storm damage and praying for the folks who did.
Good Night and God Bless.