COLD SUNDAY

After a very cold snowy night I was surely surprised to see only slight traces of snow left in this morning's bright sunshine.

Church was good this morning with a smaller crowd than usual I'm sure due to the cold weather today.

Everyone made it for lunch today of  beef pot roast,baked potatoes, corn and green beans.
G-son isn't feeling real well today and is just laying around. Hope he hasn't picked up a bug at school.
After everyone left I worked on my blog book for a while this afternoon in the nice warm house.
This is one of few in house catch-up days I've had this winter  and I kind of miss having several of them !
Day's like this are hard on the outside animals and the folks who don't have a warm house to stay in.
I saw this photo of snow in Florence, S.C., this city is close to Myrtle Beach and this much snow is a rarity for them.

A couple years ago daughter went to Myrtle Beach to run a marathon and it got snowed out.
This year these beach towns may get more snow for the season than we do here in the mountains,we'll have to wait and see but now we are playing catch-up already !!
Hubbie built a fire in both wood stoves tonight again as the high today only got to 38 and it is already down to 27 at 10pm.
But warm weather is on the way once again in the 7-day.

Thankful tonight for a wonderful family and praying for guidance in some upcoming decisions.
Good Night and God Bless.

FIRST MEASURABLE SNOWFALL SURPRISE

The alarm and the phone sounded at the same time this morning. #1 son called checking in from work to let me know there was nothing on the roads at least yet. He works for the DOT as I have said before and is spending this Saturday since 6am waiting in his salt truck for the promised messy roads.
Hubbie and I got ready for market ,watching the sky all along.
We turned my laptop to the weather radar when we got to market and watched the bulk of the snow and ice skirt south and east of our area.
Market was very slow today with not many customers braving the mid 30's temps and blowing snow showers.
About 1:00 I noticed the snow pick up and the flakes get larger so I started packing up and then the manager decided she would just close market so everyone could get home safely just in case this wasn't another passing shower.

I made it home with no problem and the sun soon came out and melted all the snow.
Hubbie and I relaxed and watched UNC/ Virginia  b-ball game which UNC won.
At chore time the temperature had already dropped below freezing and the water was frozen in all the waterers.
All the animals went to bed early in their nice warm houses and settled in for the night.
After supper I snuggled with my 4-legged kids on the couch and watched the fire flames in the woodstove. I love to relax and watch the dancing flames inside the glass door on a cold winter night.
The phone jolted me out of my nice rest around 9pm with #1 son on the other end asking if I had watched the weather lately. He said how long is this snow going to last ? I said what snow I was just outside with the dogs an hour ago and there wasn't anything here. As I looked out the window I got a real surprise as the ground was covered and it was still snowing pretty hard.

With the temperature already at 24 degrees this snow fall isn't going anywhere and the road by our house is a slick sleet of ice as cars are sliding in the ditches. Luckily all the cattle and horses are in the upper pasture so we shut the gate so we can check the fence along the road in the morning before they get down there.
I checked with daughter and she said there wasn't hardly anything at her house just a few miles from here.
It is still snowing lightly at 11pm so we may have an interesting morning.
Grateful to God for the blessings of today and praying for His loving arms of safety around my family and all who must be out in this mess tonight and tomorrow.
Good Night and God Bless.

BILTMORE HOUSE TRIP

Hubbie took today off so while he drove g-son to school I finished chores and got ready to go on our trip to the Biltmore House for the day.Thanks to blogger friend Betsy who gave us complimentary tickets.
It was a beautiful day for the trip.

THANKS   BETSY  !!!
As both hubbie and I have been inside the house we decided to spend the morning roaming around the grounds which we've never seen in the winter time.
As we crossed this outside patio on the side of the house I thought this vine was gorgeous and I loved that all the twist could be seen without all the leaves.

Below is a photo from this patio looking at Mt. Pisgah, (the highest peak in the distance) it is said that after the house and grounds were completed one goal of Mr. George Vanderbilt was to own all the property between his house and Mt. Pisgah.

A place neither of us had been in before was the large greenhouse on the property. It looks like a tropical paradise.

One of my favorite spots was filled with all kinds of Orchids which were in full bloom to my delight.

This was just one of my many favorites that I have photographs of.

From the garden area we headed down the "Bass pond" trail.
 This was one of my favorite creek crossing ideas.

And this was my favorite spot on the bass pond. I could just feel the peaceful feeling that sitting here in this quiet, beautiful little finger of land that extended out into the lake would bring.

The waterfall below the damn of the lake was a nice place for a photo op.

With no leaves on the trees or bushes and not much color at all around we still found beauty on these grounds.

The drabness of winter reveled a beauty of its own. This cypress like ones in the swamps with all its shoots coming through the earth to get nutrients from the air.

This huge Purple Leafed European Beech tree has a beautiful smooth bark and shape and was one of many imported species that these gardens contained.

I loved seeing all the curls and twist in this small walking stick tree.

We finished this trail walk just in time for lunch and decided to dine in the cafe that was converted from the old stables. It still had all the stalls and hardware from the days of housing both the pleasure and work horses for the Vanderbilts.

After a delicious lunch of BBQ and baby back ribs we were on our way again. We passed by these ponds where these Koi thought we were going to feed them and all came swimming up.

There were so many of them the water seemed to sparkle with gold.

I was surprised at how many folks were here on a Friday in February. We made a quick trip through the house just to see if they had opened anything new since our last visits.
If I lived here I would have spent many,many hours on this veranda, just look at that view !!

When we came out of the house after less than an hour the skies were filled with dark clouds and the wind had picked up causing it to be really cool. We were so glad we chose to take our hike early before lunch.

As we drove toward the winery and farm area we had to stop for "goose crossings" a couple times as these guys no longer migrate from these food filled fields.

I love animals so of course I liked these large percheron horses and of course the chickens.

Our last stop was at the winery where we shopped in the shops of Antler village.I bought more of my Wassail mix that I use in my green tea and then we headed out to beat the Friday afternoon rush hour traffic out of town.
We got home with just enough time to get chores done and then get out to watch daughter's (she's in the grey blouse) varsity girls team play a conference tournament game. They won the game so they get to go to the semi-final game next Tuesday at Tuscola HS in Haywood county.

After the game I came home to ice caramel,chocolate and coconut cakes for market tomorrow.
Giving praise to God tonight for His beautiful world and for the ability He gives us to enjoy it.
Good Night and God Bless.

VALENTINES DAY 2013

HAPPY  VALENTINES  DAY  !!!

My day started off not so good as I couldn't go to sleep until the wee hours of this morning for some reason. I didn't even hear my alarm this morning and #1 son had to call twice to get me awake to come to the door when he brought g-son up here before 7am.
After school and chores I went into town to run weekly errands and pick up some baking supplies.
The weather gurus are predicting some snow showers for Saturday morning so baking is a gamble this week.
When I got home I had lunch then went outside to take a nice walk. I was so tired from not sleeping I cut my walk short and came inside. I was looking up an address on the internet when I almost fell asleep sitting at the computer so I figured it was time for a short nap.
Other g-ma is picking up g-son today so no reason not to relax for a while on the couch with my 4-legged kids to keep me warm.
I never really went to sleep but did appreciate a good rest until I looked around at what I could have gotten done this afternoon !!
#1 son brought g-son here while he worked on his jeep for a while this evening.
After chores and supper I worked some more in my office,filling some new storage containers that I bought this morning.
In my tired state of last night I forgot to post about the Presidents visit to a company called Linamar in Asheville yesterday.
For the fourth time air force one landed at the Asheville airport, this time on a dreary February 13 morning.

And President Obama is off and headed to the plant to make a speech about our economy in front of only the Linamar emplyees and one guest that they were each permitted to bring.

 His visit went off without a hitch and he was even able to avoid roads lined with protesters as he took a back road into the plant.
This evening when d-in-love came after g-son she got out her valentines for g-son and #1 son.
Hubbie and I have never been into giving each other gifts at anytime of the year, that's just how we are.
Today's weather was very nice with sun and low 50's temperatures.
I hope everyone had a happy Valentines Day, whether you got gifts of cards,flowers and candy or not please remember God gave the greatest gift of all time.

Good Night and God Bless !

"AH HA" MOMENTS

Today was a routine Wednesday for the most part.
I walked into school with g-son today to help carry his valentines and valentine snack cookies for his class party tomorrow.
After chores and devotions I cleaned all my floors and then had lunch.
Don't you just love those "ah ha" moments when you realize something that has been right there in front of you all along? I had a couple of those today. As I cleaned in one of our bathrooms I was thinking about maybe painting this little corner table in there.

And then in an "ah ha" moment I realized it was exactly the same color as the walls in there !

A little later I realized this little shelf was the exact size to hold this set of small drawers, ah ha !

I worked intently all afternoon on my office re-arranging and got my desk finished anyway.

I have come to the conclusion that keeping this area really neat just isn't in the cards for me but as you can see by the old desk set up below this is a little better.

After #1 son picked up g-son hubbie and I hurried through chores and got ready for the special Wednesday night church service our associate pastor gives once a month.
With daylight lasting longer each day this will probably be our last Wednesday night. It is so hard to get all the animals to vary from sun time !
Tonight we were about 10 minutes late getting there. I took my first secret sister gift in and placed it on the special table set up for this purpose.
It was a good service but there wasn't nearly as many folks there tonight as there has been in the past.
We came home and watched Survivor on TV. Hubbie watched the UNC/Duke b-ball game while I did weekly paperwork and payed bills. Duke eeked out a victory in a very close game.
I am tired from all the rushing around this evening  and look forward to a restful night's sleep.
Grateful to God for the Blessings He sends me each day.
Good Night and God Bless.

ANOTHER HOUSEWORK TUESDAY

The sun made an appearance this morning as I drove g-son to school.
But by the time I spent the morning doing laundry and housework, had lunch and got outside for a walk this is what it looked like. These lighter clouds were soon replaced with dark rain filled clouds.

I just needed a light jacket as the temperature was around 55 degrees but the wind made it feel a bit cooler.
I have my chickens spoiled now when they see me come walking around the garden they all run to the fence to wait for their kale greens I've been pulling up for them.
I worked in my office the rest of the afternoon taking a break to pick up g-son and stop by Dollar General for a few more storage containers. After I got him all settled in with mac and cheese and cookies I went back to my work. All the boxes are emptied and all the things in them put a way. Now I can move on to  some other areas of the room tomorrow.
I need some new shelves for the closet in there which I cleaned out but hopefully I can get everything else finished tomorrow,I'm missing my relaxing evenings!!
About dark tonight the rain started falling outside and the temperature at 9:30 is 42 degrees.
This is the next seven days with maybe even some of that "S" word mixed in !!

Our neighbor died Sunday at the ripe old age of 90. Her and her husband Foy have lived across the creek from our farm all my life. I have many memories of her while I was growing up. She used to cut my mom's hair and I remember sitting in her shop or playing with her kids who have remained my friends all through school and even after as our kids were friends.

Tonight I pray for comfort for this family during this time and as I know they love the Lord I am sure they will find peace.
Good Night and God Bless.

BORING DAY

As I sit down to write today's blog I think how boring this post may be. We woke to a cloudy drizzly day (boring). Hubbie took g-son to school while I did chores and had breakfast.
After he got back we decided to go into town just to have something new to do on this dreary day.
Belks and Pennys were having really good sales and we both managed to find something at both stores.
Hubbie's phone has been loosing it's charge before the day is over so I found my old LG from last year and it was still fully charged after laying on my desk for over a year so he took it and had his number changed to it. Both of us are due for upgrades in October of this year so there was no sense spending any money on a battery for his old one.
It was after lunch time when we left Verizon so we stopped at Subway to have lunch. We like the Italian BMT and have it  toasted ,yum,yum.
I was looking for a sliding file drawer for my new desk so I checked Staples and Walmart. Staples had some but they were too big to fit. Walmart didn't have any that slid out but hubbie and I did decide to take the plunge and buy a Keurig coffee maker. All the kids have them and rave about how good the coffee is from them. After having to put my cup of morning coffee in the microwave to get it hot enough this morning I'm in the mood to try this.

I came home to a boring afternoon of more work in my office and hubbie moved some blueberry bushes in the misty rain.
I poured about 6/10ths inch of rain from the gauge at choretime,well short of the predicted amount thankfully.
After #1 son left with g-son hubbie cut some kale greens from our winter garden to have with our supper. It's always good to  have something fresh from the garden. This winter has been so mild these greens are really growing and they taste so good.
I ended the day with more boring work in my office re-organization.
Praising God for all His blessings tonight.
Good Night and God Bless.