RAINY MARKET SATURDAY

A little extra sleep this morning after a pretty cough-less night for me. I put Vicks salve on my feet last night and swallowed a big spoon full of fresh honey before bedtime.
I'm hopeful that I am getting over this crud but every time I think this I get proved wrong so we'll see.
I did chores and got ready for market in a cloudy morning but thankfully no rain yet.
Market was pretty slow today but I am thankful for all I did sell. I need to start cutting more halves and quarters of cakes it looks like.
I was dressed in my Halloween attire today since this is the last market day for me before Halloween.

About noon hubbie left to get home and get things ready for the rain and cold that is predicted.
The heavy rains started just in time for me to get loaded up so I got wet getting things in the Honda which is something I really didn't need to do. It just made me cough more. And to top it off I got wet 2 more times at Ingles and Aldi as I stopped for grocery and baking supplies on the way home.
Hubbie helped me get unloaded so now we both got wet to help our crud get another hold on us !!
We both got dry clothes on and rested for the afternoon, me on the couch and him in his recliner. He napped but I just snuggled and enjoyed the warmth of the blanket in the warm house.
Reluctantly we both headed out in the hard rain to get chores done and both got wet once again. With rain this hard it is hard to stay dry even with rain gear on.
There was already 1/2" of rain in the gauge at chore time but I didn't empty it so I can tell the total for the entire rain storm tomorrow.
In the news today with the arrival of our coldest temps of the season comes the naming of the "P" tropical storm, Philippe.

After choretime we had some chicken soup for supper and snuggled back down to rest for the evening.
Thankful for the blessings of this day.
God Bless and Good Night

GETTING READY FOR THE COLD

Ahhhhh Friday !!!!!    Both girls were in good moods this morning and the day got off to a great start. I did chores then took RL to preschool, this is her other g-ma's  Friday to pick her up so we said our goodbyes in the car before we got to her classroom. She is never happy about not being able to come to our house in the afternoons because of not being able to see her cousin IR.
Speaking of IR she has found her feet and that provided countless hours of free entertainment today.

I spent the morning baking cakes, 6 caramel, 2 chocolate, 1 coconut, 1 pound, 1 peach wine and 1 blackberry wine with 2 pans of brownies mixed in.
We had lunch and then IR took a great 2 hour nap this afternoon. Hubbie went outside to work and I did some housecleaning.
I did chores this evening and today was the date to add the plastic coverings  to the hen house windows. With rain and wind moving in tomorrow and a cold day and night Sunday I want the hens to concentrate their energy on laying eggs and not trying to stay warm on cold nights.

Daughter is in charge of homecoming tonight at the football game so she came by and fed IR after school then went back to help the girls with pictures and their presentations on the field. This is the first year they have changed from evening gowns to business suits and the girls look so neat in their suits. When I went to school we always had to wear business suits on the homecoming court .
Daughter left after the homecoming ceremonies at halftime and came to pick up IR who was ready to see her mommy .
Funny she is happy during the day but when she stays here at night she seems to know this is not routine and is always fussy. She wasn't as bad tonight as she has been so maybe with age she is getting better.
After IR left I iced cakes and got things ready for market. One thing I have noticed in my baking business is the seasonal flavor favorites of different cakes but chocolate is something that is always in demand no matter the season.

I am thankful for the blessings of this day and for the love of my Savior Jesus Christ.
God Bless and Good Night

FIRST HALLOWEEN OUTING FOR G-DAUGHTER IR

Up early to greet the girls on this cold frosty 33 degree morning. First heavy frost for us this season.

After chores I got ready for market. RL took a turn this morning crying for no apparent reason. I think she feels cruddy like the rest of us.
We got all loaded and on the way only about 5 minutes later than normal so that was a win for a Thursday morning.
My niece arrived at the preschool at the same time and sat with IR after she took Noah, her son into his classroom while I took RL to her classroom. Thanks Brianna.
I met hubbie at market and then Connie, Josh's mom picked up IR about 9:30.
Market was as expected slow today but I did sell several cakes to folks heading south for the winter for their freezers.
I left market and made stops at the bank and PO then at Walgreens to get some new cough drops and medicine to try and stop the coughing at night. I also stopped at Aldi and Walmart for baking supplies and groceries.
I made it home at 4:00 and hubbie helped me unload. We did chores early and headed out to the high school to meet daughter to help with g-daughter IR while daughter helped the FCA club she sponsors set up their truck or treat for the school's carnival for kids.
G-daughter was a little kitty tonight !!!

This was the FCA's trunk.

There was lots of kids there all decked out in costumes to collect candy.

G-daughter IR said to heck with the candy she wanted this puppy !!!!!

It got really cool as the sun went down and we left to get home and finish the chores and get things put up for the night.
Hubbie and I both relaxed for the evening.
Thankful for the blessings of this day and praying that this be a safe happy holiday for everyone.
God Bless and Good Night.

2007 MEMORIES

Up to greet the grand girls at 7:15 today as usual. I did the chores and then took RL to pre school .
Back home I had breakfast and then started baking cakes. I baked 2 chocolate, 2 pound, 1 blackberry wine and 1 pan of brownies. I think things will definitely slow down this week with the cold weather and rain predictions for tomorrow and Saturday.
IR has played and watched cartoons all morning with only a very short early nap. After her noon feeding she slept for about 30 minutes then woke up crying and hubbie and I took turns trying everything we knew to get her calmed down and back to sleep but today nothing worked. Finally after over an hour she stopped crying and layed in hubbie's lap just looking around until sleep finally over took her.
She was still sleeping when her mom came after her at 4:00 but when she work up she didn't seem hungry at all. Maybe she is getting older and her feeding schedule needs to change.
Daughter said she hasn't been nursing as much as she was even just last week.
After they left hubbie and I rested and watched the news. The "s" word is in the weekend forecast for the higher mountains for the first time this season and we are expecting the coldest temps of the season over the weekend also.

I did evening chores and you certainly can feel the chill in the air tonight. Now if it will just stay cool so we can all get over the cruddy coughs and snotty noses it will be great.
I came inside and did weekly paperwork and paid bills.
I joined hubbie to watch Survivor on TV then iced cakes and wrapped and got things ready for market.
I am tired tonight so thankfully I finished so I could get an early bedtime. However my cough has reared it's ugly head again tonight and I can hardly catch a breath without coughing !!
Just when I think I have this thing kicked seems it is determined to prove me wrong !!
Since I made no pics today it is a great time to finish out the decade pics for the month. Back in October 2007 g-son was the light of our lives as he celebrated his first birthday and his first Halloween.
His first birthday party was at d-in-love's parents house in Chimney Rock.

D-in-love's dad's mother and hubbie and g-son styling Pawpaw's sunglasses.

Bernie always let g-son do anything with him.

He was a little stinker alright !!!!

If my memory serves me correctly I think g-son's first Halloween was a stay at home sick affair. He and Roxie his dog celebrated together quietly.

Thankful for the blessings of this day and for the love and grace of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior.
God Bless and Good Night

MINOR FLOOD DAMAGE THANKFULLY

Up to get back on a regular 2 grand daughter greeting this morning. Both girls were happy today and glad to see one another !!

I took RL to preschool and came home and had breakfast. Hubbie fed IR her morning bottle and she conked out for her nap. Hubbie wasn't feeling very good so I put on my high boots and walked the bottom pastures to check if the fences were washed down or not. I was pleasently surprised that they were just covered with a bunch of trash but none were completely down.

The upstream neighbor got the worst of it in his pasture when our fence acted like a block for the trash..

Never doubt the power of flood waters !!!

These Mallard ducks were certainly making good use of the extended farm pond waters.

I am amazed at how high the water was this time with only 4 inches of rain. I am 5'7" tall and my head would have just been above water !!!

The creek is back to a lower level quickly this morning.

It always amazes me at how vicious the flooding water can be but how quickly things calm down and after a day or so the memory of the high rushing water and these water height marks on the gates and trees will be all the evidence that is left.

I came back up the hill and let the cattle out of the upper pasture before coming inside.
I saw this very confused Azalea on the way back up the driveway. Some years I've seen a bloom or two on some of the bushes but this entire bush is in full bloom !!

IR was watching her favorite Daniel Tiger cartoon and hubbie said he might feel better if he got outside so he took a pitchfork and went down to clear the trash off some fence .
I cleaned the bathrooms while he was gone.
He came back in time for me to go pick up RL. She loves for the sunroof to be open while she eats her little lunch I bring her before we start home.

She is always fast asleep before we get hardly out of the parking lot of the church.
Hubbie carried her inside and she slept on the couch.
IR was on the table awake and bouncing in her little seat.
Hubbie and I watched the noon news and saw many areas with lots of damage around the area and some folks still without power close to us.
The rain that made the creek so high was the 7 inches that fell on the mountains toward the head of the creek. All 7 inches fell in less than 3 hours.
IR fell asleep before her 1:30 bottle and  and with both girls sleeping hubbie took a nap and I watched birds in the backyard to relax.
Both woke up and RL went to swing outside with hubbie but made it inside in time to help with IR's late bottle. She was so proud of herself !!!!

I let IR get her exercise in this saucer and RL had to come in and show her how all the things around it worked.

After both girls were picked up hubbie went back down to do more fence clearing and I went out to get the chores done.
I pulled up some of the remaining pepper plants and gave them to the chickens as the cold nights begin again I don't think they are going to have time to put on any more peppers.
The sun sets on mostly dry bottoms this evening .

Hubbie finished clearing the fences so now we wait for the next challenge .
We are both still feeling the effects of this crud we have tonight and are headed to early bedtimes.
Thankful that we had no damage from the storms yesterday and praying for all the folks who had storm damage.
A day hemmed in prayer is a lot less likely to unravel !!
God Bless and Good Night

MAJOR FLOODING

I had a rough night last night. I couldn't quiet my coughing enough to get to sleep until finally I got up just before 3am and let a couple tablespoons of honey slowly slide down my scratchy throat then coated the bottoms of my feet with Vicks vapor rub and put socks on.
This helped and I slept until my 7:15 alarm when g-daughter RL arrived.
It had rained during the night and when I finished chores and checked the rain gauge there was already .8 inch of rain in there. I left it in to see how much this predicted storm for today would bring us.
I took RL to prechool and on that side of town the weather was much more extreme this morning with hard rain and wind.
I came back home to have breakfast and then the hard rains started here. Daughter who had taken the day off work to take g-daughter IR to her 4 months check-up came here to stay while her house was being shown this morning. IR was declared a very very healthy little girl and had the height of an 8 month old with 89% in weight range for her age. Wow !!!!

I did our weekly 3 loads of laundry this morning while watching it rain steadily.
I went to pick up g-daughter RL at noon and once again the weather at the church was worse than in our area but by the time we got home the really bad rain and wind had moved to our area. I could hardly see to drive home and the roads were getting covered by leaves and limbs off many trees.
Thankfully we arrived safely. RL was asleep and hubbie carried her in and put her on the couch to continue her nap while we all had lunch.
This little girl got to sit in the bouncy saucer for a little while after the doctor recommended it.

We couldn't even see out the windows it was raining so hard and the wind was blowing it sideways.

When I got home with RL at about 12:30 the water was just starting to escape the creek banks.

After about an hour of hard rain it looked like this.

Hubbie isn't feeling well today but there was no resting when this one woke from her nap.

Daughter left and made it safely home having to drive through a couple flooded places on the roads she traveled.
Lots of roads are starting to be closed by flood waters.
Another hour of rain and our bottom pastures are filled ,thankfully all the cattle are in the hill pasture.

About 3:30 the rain stopped and the sky immediately started to clear with the cold front pushing quickly into the area. We walked down to #1 son's house to see how high the water was in his yard.

The back pastures are all filled with more water than we have seen in several years.

D-in-love had to work over at school trying to get buses re routed off flooded roads and trying to get parents routed in to pick up their kids since one of the main roads, highway 64 was closed due to flooding. I even had folks calling me getting directions around the flooded roads to the school. It was a trying time with bridges washed out and trees and mudslides across many roads.
This little girl thought it was all great fun !!!!

We did chores in shifts since all the mud was so appealing to RL.
D-in-love picked her up and then we all walked down to their house to check out the still rising floodwaters.
This is the highest flood waters we have had since the new bridge has been in and with the fast current spreading out to an area twice the width of the creek it is going to be interesting to see what this does underneath this section of bridge. There was a total of 4 inches in the gauge in our yard but by the way the flood waters continue to rise I suspect areas up the creek from us must have gotten more rain.

Now there is only one barb wire above the floodwater in front of son's house.

Water, water everywhere and watching some of the huge objects that are washing by we know there is going to need to be some fence repair going on as soon as the waters recede.

It was "crazy hair" day today at g-son's school !!!!  I told him only old ladies were supposed to have "blue hair" !!

We came back to the house and I shut up all the chickens who were gladly in their warm, dry houses.
Praying for all the folks who had major damage from these storms and for all the workers who are out there to try to repair damage.
Thankful that we are all safe and thankful for the  blessing of a nice dry place to stay in these storms and for the greatest Gift of Jesus Christ to help us all weather all of life's storms.
God Bless and Good Night