GOOD MARKET DAY AND OLD UNDATED PHOTOS

Brrr, Another cool morning to begin this market day but at least the sun is shining.
Market was fairly busy today especially after a lady from one of the local churches came by for 6 cakes in addition to the orders I already had.
My neighbor Steve was back from a week long vacation in Florida so he and I caught up between customers.
I also had a visit from one of my best friends brothers who has lived the past 38 years in Australia. It was a great "blast from the past " moment for me. I loved to listen to him talk, he sounded just like "Crocodile Dundee" !!
If I choose a foreign country to visit I would probably pick Australia as it sounds like a very peaceful place to live.
After market I ran the regular errands and checked out a couple more car lots but didn't find anything I liked at any of them.
 I have found something a bit different than any other previous time I have went car shopping, now when you drive on to the lots you have to go find a salesman to help you instead of being met as you are getting out of your car by one of them. And it is not that there is anyone else there looking at cars, looks as if all the car lots have cut their sales staff.
I was late getting home and hubbie and g-son, who was staying here while his mom went shopping, were waiting to help me unload and put things away.
We fixed some supper then did chores and got inside out of the cool temperature and wind that feels more like late fall than warm spring time. As I went into the big hen house this evening I heard loud peeping sounds and as I looked around for the source I spotted this little nest tucked away above the door jamb. Looks like a Wren's nest but I haven't seen the mother bird so far. Sounds like she has several little ones in there.

We are under a freeze warning for tonight with temperatures expected to get in the low 30's.

There is a lot of prayers going up tonight for all these beautiful blooms on all the fruit trees.

Hubbie covered our 6 cabbage plants with buckets this evening but if the temps stay above 28 everything else should be okay. It is still 54 at 10:00 tonight so we are crossing our fingers along with a large host of other county farmers tonight.

Tonight would be a good time to finish up the April decade photos. These are the undated old pics for this month. If you have followed my blog you know that I have an adopted step sister who is more than 20 years older than me. She belonged to my dad's second wife,Dottie and her name was Margaret.
This is my dad between Dottie and Margaret standing in front of the old house my dad was raised in where he and Dottie lived.

This is my dad on the left with  Margaret and I am assuming her husband, John Rizzo,

When I was younger I heard my dad always affectionately refer to Margaret as just "Rizzo".
This is Margaret as a young girl. She lived in Oklahoma with my dad during the years he spent out there.

This is a close-up of Margaret, she was a lovely young woman.

Wish I could find her now and talk with her about the time she spent with my dad.
Thankful for a loving guiding Heavenly Father tonight and asking for His ever present loving grace as I stumble through this life.
Good Night and God Bless.

COOL MORNING

Whoa !!!!   37 degrees is eye opening this morning. I always worry that the forecasters will miss the temps and get everything frozen that could have been moved inside. Thankfully 37 didn't freeze anything, but I will be moving things inside today in front of the 34 that is actually predicted for Thursday night.
After chores and breakfast I took a nice walk in the sunshine around the farm. Saw the first butterfly checking out our Blueberry blossoms.

Back inside I baked 6 caramel, 2 chocolate, 2 pound cakes while taking several phone orders so this week is shaping up to be busy.
After lunch I sewed up the baby pillow order I need for Saturday.

As the clouds took over the sky and it looked like the brisk winds would blow in another rain storm I decided to head into town to look over some suv's to see what my choices might be with the cargo space I need.
After stopping at the three new dealerships on the other side of town so far I have four choices, a Buick Enclave, Chevy Traverse, Toyota 4-runner and a Nissan Armada.
But the ones I looked at are not what I want, they were either only front wheel drive, had too many miles on them or too expensive so I'll keep looking.
I got home just as hubbie was getting in from work and we watched the news before heading out to get the chores done before the dark clouds bring the rain.

As I checked on the Quails beside the doglot I spotted this little Dove under their cage. He is evidently too young to fly even with his large size.

But he was very hungry and ate the bird seed I brought to sprinkle on the ground for him.Hopefully he will be safe under the Magnolia tree where he pretty much blends in with the leaves.

After supper hubbie crashed in the recliner with a bout of Tinitis in one of his ears and napped for the evening.
I figured bills and did the weekly paperwork then watched Survivor on TV before icing my cakes and getting things ready for market.
Grateful to God for the blessings of this day and striving each day to be more like Him.
Good Night and God Bless.

FINALLY A FULL DAY OF SUNSHINE

A cooler morning greeted me today as I went outside to get the animals took care of this morning.
After breakfast and devotions Re brought the kids over to stay while she took care of some business in town for their new homesite and stopped by the grocery store.
Little EL saw the sunshine and thought the outside was warm enough for her even it was only in the upper 50's. Baby BB was sleeping so I couldn't go outside. She went out in the front yard with the directions to stay right where I could see her. She minded me beautifully and couldn't believe she was allowed out there all alone. She just laughed and ran back and forth in front of the house. Good exercise !!!

She insisted on climbing the stairs all by herself as well.

When this sweet baby woke up we all played inside until mom got home.
He loves this little monkey blanket.

After they went home to get their afternoon naps I cleaned house. I am getting better about getting everything done on this one day and it only takes me about 2 hours. I finished my cleaning by mopping myself out the back door for a nice relaxing dose of vitamin D for the first day in over a week.
When hubbie got home we watched the news with the prediction of more rain moving in tomorrow afternoon so we decided to get our cabbage plants set out and Re and the kids came over to help plant some beet, kale, and arucula seed in the garden.  Today is not a good planting day according to the almanac but when you have to go between the rain showers you have to do it when you can.
Back inside I did some more auto searching on the internet and then caught up my blog. It is hard for me to find time to go car shopping.
It is 52 degrees at 10:00 headed for 40 degrees for the low tonight, maybe this will be all the "Dogwood winter" we will have,hope so for the sake of all the fruit growers .
Grateful for another wonderful blessing filled day with love, laughter and living the country life that I love.
Good Night and God Bless.

MY BLOOMERS

Thunder, lightening and pouring rain woke me early this morning just before the alarm sounded. I rolled over and shut the alarm off and laid there listening as the storm sounded like it passed to the south of us by a few miles.
I was late doing the chores but I figured nothing would mind waiting for the rain to stop.
As quickly as the storm came up and passed the sun came out shining brightly to begin the day.

After breakfast hubbie went up to his shop to work on cleaning up daughter's jeep. She is going to sell it and left it here while she is in Raleigh today for a teacher's class with 3 other teachers from her school. It is a one day class but they drove down last night so they would be there early this morning. They will be home this evening.
I took a nice walk around the farm in the warm sunshine to admire all the blooming beauties. This time of year there is more color variety in the yard than any other time.
 Azaleas , Azaleas , Azaleas !!

Apple trees are starting to bloom.

Dogwoods set the woods ablaze with their snow white blossoms.

Hosta's are growing rapidly

As is this bed of Oregano that is ready for the first cutting already.

Looks like we will have Blueberries this year.

The Muscadine grapes are putting out leaves.

The old fashioned Snowball bushes are getting all their snowballs.

This Japanese Maple is always a bright spot.

The green pastures are eye pleasing as well with the fresh growth.

When I look around I am always amazed at the way nature takes care of itself sometimes. This  Columbine got crowded out of the pot last summer and has found a new home in the bed beside the pot.

And this large Azalea was always a favorite of mine. I didn't notice until I saw dead branches on it that when we built our new porch roof we covered it with the overhang of the roof depriving it of any rain water to drink. Miraculously the plant has moved itself out from under the overhang into the rain.

I did 3 loads of laundry today along with some odd jobs that have been put off.  I got some plants repotted in bigger pots and got some rooted stuff in the small pots.  We got dead limbs cut out of the Lilac bush in the back and the Azalea pictured above.
The sky turned dark this afternoon and the wind kicked up to bring an eerie feel to the outside air.

We came inside to see what the news was saying about the weather and discovered we were under a tornado watch.

Thankfully as we sat out in the sunroom and listened to the thunder this storm also passed by us to the north this time.
After chore time we rounded up the three outside dogs and put their new flea control for the summer on them. Daughter heard about these collars at the vet's office so we decided to try them this year since they are much cheaper than Frontline and last year the expensive Frontline I bought didn't work. If these work as good as the reviews say they do it will be a God send for my dogs who all hate those drops each month.

#2 son came by for his extra set of truck keys as he is thinking about trading his toyota truck for a jeep. He has had 2 jeeps and that seems to be his favorite vehicle.
I am also thinking about getting a newer vehicle but as I searched on the internet tonight for SUV's that have bigger cargo space I got confused so I need to go look at some of the newer bigger SUVs so I can see if they will hold all my baked goods.
We spent a quiet evening .
Thankful for all the beautiful spring color and all the blessings of this day.
Good Night and God bless.

RAINY SUNDAY AND 1995 APRIL MEMORIES

A wet Sunday morning at chore time.  There was 4/10ths inch in the rain gauge this morning after a rainy night. That is far from the expected amount of flooding rain we are expecting to get.
Church was nice , with a sermon from the book of James 1-27.
After church the rain was still coming down as we all headed here for a big spaghetti and salad lunch.
Everyone made it on this rainy day, #1 son's family, #2 son, daughter, Aa, Re and the kids, Susan and her son.
After we ate and visited everyone went their own ways for a lazy afternoon.
There was another 6/10ths inch of rain in the gauge at evening chore time, bring the total so far to 1".
Hubbie watched a race on TV tonight and I relaxed out in the sunroom and listened to my new CD with some really good "Praising God" songs on it.
This will be a good day to put another decade post on here since there are no pics for today.
In April  1995  there were no Easter pics with the kids pretty grown up now and into other activities.
#1 son has always loved to fish and with the beginning of trout season always opening the first Saturday in April he was in the creek with his fishing pole. This is the nice native trout he caught that year. (don't know why he looks so happy about having his picture made,haha)

Daughter always had a heart for all the little goats that were born on our farm, she raised some of the little orphans when their mothers had triplets and would only feed two. This is one of the Nubians we had that were such great milk givers.

A couple of our dogs at that time were this little miniture Sheltie named Sweetie.

And this Sheltie mix named Go Go, who had a very interesting story. At this time there was a very expensive interactive toy dog named Go Go that looked like this dog that daughter wanted. The toy like I said was very expensive and we just couldn't afford it , a friend of mine needed a home for this little dog so daughter got this dog and named her Go Go instead of the toy dog.  I don't remember her ever mentioning the toy dog again. I do remember this dog had a hyperactive personality and ran lap after lap around and around our house.

We kept both these dogs until they died of old age, they both were real treasures. More great memories to end a nice Sunday evening.
God is good all the time, all the time God is good !!!

MARKET SATURDAY AND 1985 EASTER MEMORIES

Cloudy morning again as I hurried through chores to get ready for market.
Market was surprisingly busy for a cloudy morning. Maybe everyone is getting used to the dreary weather. The sun tried to peak out several times but never really made it. The temperature stayed in the mid 60's all day feeling pretty cool under the clouds.
Daughter came out and helped for most of the day before she went home to plant the 30 junipers she bought last week for a bank below her house.  They didn't go as far as she had hoped and now she will wait for another sale to buy more.

When they spread out they will grow down hill.
Hubbie had left market to stop by Sam's and then mow our lawn before the rain started today.
When I left market I made a stop at Aldi to pick up baking supplies and then came straight home to get unloaded with the clouds darkening.
Hubbie was still rushing to finish the lawn and I unloaded and got things put away before the rain finally ran him inside.
We rested while a light rain fell for the evening. We are under a flood watch with up to 4 or more inches of rain coming tomorrow.

After chores this evening we had supper then relaxed for our Saturday night resting time.
Back in April of 1985  there wasn't any resting time !!  With three small kids we stayed constantly busy and made some wonderful memories as we went. In 1985 Easter was on April 7 and there was an Easter egg hunt at Jackson Park on the Saturday before that we took the boys to.

#2 son was not impressed at all by this Easter bunny , haha !

The horse and clown were not near as scary as that bunny ?? !!

The Easter bunny stopped by our house and left a really nice collection of surprises that year.

We got all dressed up for church on Easter Sunday.

The boys and their 12 day old sister !

The whole family.

After church it was off to Granny Moore's or as she was affectionately called by the boys "Crunchberry Granny's"  for another Easter egg hunt with all the cousins on hubbie's side of the family.

Here is #1 and #2 son between 2 of their older cousins Tashica and Melanie.

All the kids really had fun on this day and we all had a huge lunch prepared by Granny with help from her daughters. Her farm was almost at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain and there was a lot of room for the kids to run free without worries of traffic.

Wonderful memories are stirred when I look at these old pics of the early years with my kids. I am so grateful to the Lord for the life I have lived and for the opportunities He gave me with my family.
Good Night and God Bless.