BUSY SATURDAY

Up to get things done and get to market this morning. We made it on time and I was very surprised to find an almost full parking lot.
Sales were pretty good today with a couple large tour buses coming through. This time of year is a busy time for the tours as the leaves in the higher elevations start to get color.
I found an unusual object on my table today, do you see anything that looks like it doesn't belong ???

Someone left this little painted rock on my front shelf. I remembered the painted rocks that g-son found on our hike to the Dupont waterfalls and wondered if this one was from the same folks ?

Today was back to the 80's so I am back in my short pants for a while.

Daughter and g-daughter I came by market early and hubbie left with her to go out to her  sis-in-law Kristen's house to pick up some hand me down clothes from her daughter.
Daughter came back at the end of the day to help me load .
G-son had a soccer game earlier today and played goalie again today and did a great job with his long arms.

I only made one stop today at Ingles to pick up a small steak for hubbie and I to mix with the zuchini and yellow squash I bought at market today and with some bell pepper from our garden to put on our grill for our supper tonight.
I made it home today around 2:30 for a nice early start to my afternoon.
Hubbie was mowing the lawn and stopped to help me unload then went back to finish mowing while I relaxed for a few minutes.
When he finished mowing we both went up to work on finishing the new chicken tractor he has been working on. We put the wire around it and rolled it into position in the garden.
The big wheels on the back sure make it easy to move around.

I fixed the nest and feeder and water and we will wait for the chickens to roost tonight and move the oldest rooster with the oldest 5 hens in here for a while.

Boy will they be surprised in the morning when they hop down into all the grass and weeds under the cover. We figure we will move it once a week to get all the weeds out of the garden by winter time.
I did my walking this evening looking up at a really pretty sky .

And the serene quiet country landscape that I love.

Hubbie helped me move the hens around as darkness fell and we also put the youngest Moran pullets into the lot where we took the older hens from and blocked the gate between the Silkie lot and that lot for awhile until everyone gets comfortable with their new surroundings.
As hurricane season continues to pick up this year two new storms were named today. The "L" storm, Lee is not  expected to threaten any land and isn't expected to become very strong as it takes a northward turn.

On the other hand the "M" storm , Maria is a very fast moving storm and is expected to quickly gain strength and will follow the same destructive path that Irma just cleared.

 Not good news for the islands that were already 90% destroyed by Irma !!

And of course Jose is still threatening the north eastern coastal areas.

Wow !!!!

I am tired tonight and blogging early to get an extra early bedtime tonight.
Thankful for all the blessings of this day and praying once again for all the folks in the path of this new storm.
God Bless and Good Night.

T. G. I. F.

 Both g-daughter's arrived around 7:15 this morning. Hubbie got R her breakfast while I did chores and then I got about half my oatmeal ate before it was time to take R to her pre-school.
Hubbie and g-daughter I were going along this morning as we had some stops to make after we dropped R off.
She went running right to her class ahead of me and I was glad to see she knew exactly where to go.
We made stops at the Henderson county co-op for some "real" cinnamon that I use in my oatmeal each morning, then to the vet's office to pick up Bernie's medicine then we were disappointed to see that the Amazon returns place didn't open until 10:00 and we needed to get home and feed g-daughter I so that will have to be another days stop .
We got g-daughter I fed and settled in this little entertainment center on the floor for a while.

I started baking my cakes for the day, I baked 12 caramel, 2 chocolate, 4 pound, 1 apple coffee cake and 1 blackberry wine cake. I told hubbie I haven't seen the real slow down that usually comes in September this year yet and for that I am thankful.
Daughter worked late this afternoon grading some papers at school so g-daughter I and her Pawpaw took an extended nap.
After daughter took her home I watched the news and had one of the acorn squash I baked earlier for a nice light supper.
As I did the evening chores I noticed we finally have some blue sky showing up to maybe warm the temps back up for the weekend.

After chores I did some walking for the day and then headed back for the kitchen to ice cakes and get things ready for market tomorrow.
I almost made my 11:00 bedtime tonight even with the extra work. As the days get shorter and darkness comes earlier it gets easier to get the inside things done earlier at night.
Thankful for the blessings of this day and for the love of a Wonderful Savior.
God Bless and Good Night.

GOOD THURSDAY MARKET DAY

G-daughter R arrived at 7:15 today to get this day started. She is always so happy in the mornings !!
I did chores and we got ready for market. I dropped her off at pre school on my way to market today. She is always a bight spot in the classroom when she goes in with her bright smile.
Hubbie got to market before me and was waiting to unload when I arrived.
Today was a pretty slow day but with a couple large multi cake sales I had a decent sales day. The sun and clouds have battled all day and the temperature is staying in the upper 60's for a cool day.
Hubbie left to run his errands and get home to finish cleaning  up the yard.
After market I made stops at Sav Mor, Ingles, Aldi and Walmart to restock our groceries and get baking supplies . Having a hungry growing almost 11 year old around for a couple days gets rid of a lot of groceries as it brings back memories when my boys were that age.
I made it home at 4:30 and hubbie helped me unload and get things put away then he went back to work on our new chicken tractor while I rested for a few minutes and watched the news.
The path of Jose keeps edging closer to the east coast.

And the first early snow fall of the season is forecast for the upper mid west over the weekend. Some locations could get as much as 18 inches !!!

I did chores and found this egg. Lately we have been getting some very large and weird shaped eggs.
Maybe its the weather ???? I've never saw this protruding curly cue on an egg shell before.

I came inside and started my computer work early , determined to get an earlier bedtime started.
I can think of a lot of things that I need to do tonight but tomorrow is another day !!!!
Thankful for the blessings of this day.
God Bless and Good Night.

ANNUAL PHYSICAL REPORT IS GOOD

Back on the regular schedule this morning with g-daughter R and g-daughter I both arriving around 7:15.
G-daughter I was not happy and g-daughter R was willing to give up her favorite dolly to make her happy, she loves her little cousin sooo much.

I took R to school and I was worried this long weekend might make her want to stay home with us but to my surprise she pranced right in and started telling the teacher all about the water that flooded in front of her house.

I hurried back home and started right to baking , I baked 12 caramel and 3 chocolate layer cakes and got 2 pound cakes done before I had to shut the ovens off and head to Asheville to the doctor for my annual physical. G-daughter I had been good through the morning and had a 4 ounce bottle between 10-10:30 but was still acting hungry so I fixed hubbie  2 more ounces before I left to give her. My appointment was at 12:30 , I was supposed to be there at 12:00 for paperwork, I left my house at 11:30 and after a couple traffic problems with power lines still being repaired and the DOT picking up the trees and limbs on the sides of the roads I got to the doctor a little after 12:00. I was thinking what on earth kind of paperwork would take 30 minutes to fill out but it did take me 20 minutes to answer all the same questions that are on the same paperwork every year ?????
I was called back only a few minutes after my appointment time but after the initial blood pressure check and answering some of the same questions orally that I had just answered on the paperwork the nurse left and as I sat in the exam room I began to think they may have forgotten I was in there as the clock ticked to almost 1:15 before the doctor knocked on the door. (my plan was to be home by 1:30 to fix g-daughter I her afternoon bottle)  Needless to say that plan went by the wayside.
I like my doctor and we had a nice visit, she was running late due to several new patients that had more problems than originally thought but with me she found no problems other than my vitamin D level being a little low so that was great news.
I finally made it home at 2:30 an hour later than my plans , but plans hardly ever work out .
This little girl was patiently sucking on Pawpaw's shirt shoulder waiting for her afternoon bottle when I got here.

After she got her bottle I was back in the kitchen to finish my baking for the day. I baked 4 more pound cakes and just got the last ones  out when daughter came after g-daughter I.
D-in-love's mother picked up g-daughter R  from pre-school today.
Hubbie went to gather our recyclables and trash for his dump run tomorrow and start working on picking up all the limbs and leaves from the yard.
I rested and watched the news and then did chores. As I watched the sky cloud over this evening I thought seems as if we can't escape the wrath of Irma as she spins these dark storm clouds back over us with the promise of rain tomorrow as she heads back east toward the coast.

Back inside I did weekly paperwork and paid some bills for the week.
I spent the rest of the evening icing cakes and getting things ready for market.
Thankful for the blessing of good health and good news from the doctor today along with all the other blessings of this day.
God Bless and Good Night.

WIND DAMAGE AND FLOODING FROM IRMA

Wow oh wow , what a night !!!!  Just after midnight the rains became very hard and the winds were really whipping so much so that it was too noisy to sleep much over night.
We kept hearing loud bangs and wondering what hit what and praying that the big oak trees above the house didn't come crashing into our living room or kitchen.
I finally dozed off fully expecting to wake with no power this morning so I was very very surprised to wake up to my electric alarm clock going off.
After looking around the farm this morning I was again very very surprised at the minor damage from all the noise that we heard last night.
There were pretty big limbs blown down and some misplaced things around the yard but nothing major.

One of the hen lots caught a lot of limbs .

 Our bottom pastures were majorly flooded with the 3.6 inches of rain that fell so far and it is still raining lightly this morning.

Thankfully our damage was very minor compared to other areas very close to us.

Many roads all around the county were closed this morning due to flooding and electric lines being down across them so schools were closed once again today.

We had another stay inside day with the grand kids.

This is a rainy day scene in our living room.

I had help with the green beans I was fixing for lunch.

Daughter came here from school and had lunch with us and stayed part of the afternoon before going home to get her baking done.
G-daughter R got her wish to go outside finally this afternoon when the rain stopped. She loves the mud puddles !!!!

She also found one of the pears that blew off the tree and had to sample it.

After the kids were all picked up hubbie and I dawned our water proof boots and headed down to walk the fences in the bottom pastures before we opened the gate to let the cattle back down there.
There is still a lot of water standing in the bottoms this evening.

The creek was still very high with water not far from the road bridge.

Thankfully there were only a couple limbs on the fence and no major damage there either.
While hubbie worked in one place I looked over a place that has always intrigued me. This line of rocks that run down a hill in our pasture must have been a spring years ago because of the placement of the stones and some of them are very large.

While we worked the skies clouded up again and rain started to mist .

We came back up the hill and turned the cattle out then did the chores .
I heard something sizzle and looked up to find this limb hanging on the power lines that go to our house.

And right above this the leaves were blackened by the lines touching them in the high winds.

I will wait until power is restored to the over 5000 folks in the county that are without power before I call to have this limb removed as long as our power stays on.
We finished our outside work and came inside just in time to watch the news. Now hurricane Jose is starting to make his move and we are really praying that the forecasters are more accurate about his track than they were Irma's and he does indeed stay off the coast.

Thankful tonight that my prayers were answered and God choose to place His wonderful loving arms around us and keep us safe from the storm and thankful that there were no lives lost anywhere in the areas the storm went through last night.
God Bless and Good Night

WINDY RAINY NO SCHOOL DAY

A little after midnight I had to go out and move my Honda below the house because the wind was getting so bad. I went to sleep praying for all the folks including us that are in the path of this storm.
This morning we still have our power which is surprising and the wind and rain are not bad this morning. Hubbie and I both got to sleep in a little this morning as daughter isn't working on the optional workday and d-in-love is going in late after taking g-daughter R to the doctor for her 2-year checkup. She was declared perfectly healthy and happy except for the finger stick for a blood sample.
I got chores done and then had a leisurely breakfast before Re brought all her kids over for an hour while she  kept an appointment.
G-daughter R was glad to have someone to play with when she got back from the doctor.

G-son also came and spent the afternoon with us while mom went to work. G-daughter R is wanting to be one of the "big Girls" !!!

She is getting so big and wanting to do things so independently !!

All through the day the weather has gotten worse and this afternoon the wind and rain have really picked up.

I did chores early and there were large limbs blown down in my hen lots and the yard. This one was perfectly placed between the hen house and the waterer.

Hubbie and I went over to Aa's house tonight to have supper with them and Aa' s parents.
While we were there the rain and wind really picked up and we were worried we would have limbs down across our driveway but we made it home and hunkered down to weather this storm.
I pray that all folks stay safe tonight on this windy rainy night.
We are getting gusts up to 50 mph and so far the only thing we have is a blown of roof from one of the chicken pens and lots of limbs and leaves on the ground.
As this day's news gets even worse with the now possibility of hurricane Jose's tracking into the east coast right behind Irma I am going to get off here and get an early bedtime in the safer end of the house where there are no trees that might blow over into it.

Thinking also tonight of the horrible news on this day16 years ago that terrorist had flown 4 planes on suicide missions into the world trade towers, the Pentagon and one had been crashed in a field in Penn. to keep it from hitting another target.
As I think about the high winds and heavy rains of hurricane Irma that pound us tonight I know that soon this will be a distant memory and we can rebuild or recover all that is damaged by her fury. Unlike the 9/11 attacks that will forever stick in our memory because they changed our world forever
and took the realm of safety from us forever and I hate it badly because the kids and grand children were robbed of the safe feelings that I grew up with.

Thankful for all the blessings of this day and praying for the safety of the Lords arms around us thru this storm.
God Bless and Good Night