October Snow and Latest Family Members

Please enjoy the first fallen snow we had up here on the mountain and also we would like to introduce you to our latest family members we recently adopted. Note the date on the clock. The high for the 18th was 35.





Isn't she adorable? This is Little Kitty. She loves to sleep on laps but she's on our bed in this picture just chillin'

Next is Big Kitty and she rules the roost, so to speak. We have nicknamed her EC because she is "Extremely Curious" Gets into everything! She is more extrovert than Little Kitty who just takes things in stride (except when Cadie chases her then she can hiss and spit with the best of em).

I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything but today is a special day on the mountain. Remember last year when we had our first snow in early November? Well, this year we are having a "snow day" here in mid October. The high for today (at midnight) is 38 and currently it is 33 degrees. Very tiny snow flakes with no accumulation is now occurring. Wayne is outside trying to place an extension cord on the little heater that is wrapped around our water pipes to avoid the hard freeze that is to occur tonight. We have planned to get a battery to do this job this year so we don't have a cord dragging across the yard but we don't have the money for the battery until the end of the month and unfortunately, the weather is not going to wait until then to get cold.
Visibility is about 50-100 feet everywhere outside. The leaves this year started out looking beautiful but the wind, rain and cold weather has pretty much wiped them out as I feared it would. I am so not ready for winter. We haven't had enough of a Fall to be ready for winter yet it feels like it is already here. Some say it will warm up again before winter..... hummmmm, we'll see. Hope they are right. Hope our young bamboo shoots we planted a month or so ago survive this weather (donated to us by a neighbor who got some of our cut down locust trees to use for his fence posts) . They are fairly hardy "trees" so we are hopeful that they will survive and start putting forth that good ole evergreen for us by next year.

Great Barrel and Garden Stuff

After two years of working with or compost barrel, AKA the Scrap Eater, we finally got some things to grow and make it look pretty. On the left of the pic you see a volunteer tomato plant that actually has tomatoes on it! Beside it is a volunteer pepper plant that has just bloomed and until a pepper actually grows, we won't know what kind of pepper it is. The pretty flowers are the Candulas that Cris gave us many seeds for and they are growing all over our yard in at least 5 different places. There is also an asparagus fern that I added for some evergreen effect. It is a bit hard to see. Enjoy.
Yes, that is a hummingbird feeder. The hummingbirds seem to have left for the summer.


The pic below shows a single day's haul of vegies. We are so proud of our garden this year. We are hoping to have a much bigger one next year! Now don't misunderstand, we don't get that big a haul every day but every two to three days we do ... :)

Strangest Thing

I discovered this by accident one morning as I was laying on my bed, awake and pondering. This picture was only able to be captured on a later day at just the right time of day when the sun was shining on it. The window actually looks clean as a whistle as soon as the sun moves to shade. I would assume the ghastly looking stuff that shows along with the bird wings is pollen and probably accounts for why the wings left their mark. This is actually not a window but is the sliding door in our bedroom. The bird evidently flew away after the "smack" as do most that we happen to see when it occurs. I feel so bad for them.

It's Only Been Two Years

A couple of years ago, my daughter, Mary, asked me to take some special fabric she had and make her a scrub top. I agreed but since we were just before moving into our new home, and all that goes with that, I knew that if I didn't get it finished before the move, it would be lost from me for quite a while. Recently, I got a sewing bug when I was asked to split five table cloths in half for the Baha'i Center and stitch up the raw side to create ten table cloths. I came across the scrub top fabric and guiltily decided it was past tiem to get it done! Well, now I remember what my delay was in finishing the top in 2007. I couldn't figure out how to do the V neck. Now some might say what's the big deal but I had never sewed one before and the directions were very vague and unclear so I struggled then laid it aside until after the move. Today, was the time to deal with it. Wayne found a nice web site but its directions were no better than the ones I had. So after messing with it long enough, I finally got it done! Then I took a pic for all to see... especially Mary.

Nature's Wonders

Look what landed on my front porch yesterday









My blueberry bushes on the day of planting in April. I am amazed at how much they have developed in such a short time. See below.
Both bushes are just full of berries. We have a lot of stuff growing but nothing else that is very impressive yet...

In the Garden

I know, it has been forever since I have blogged. Been busy and could not think of anything interesting enough to keep from boring everybody. Here you see our garden efforts both flower and vegetable. The bird bath is surrounded by perennials that we hope will eventually fill up the surrounding rock circle. The other picture is of my pansys and some new annuals I just put out.

Well, that's it for now. Gotta lot of things to do so I will do more blogging later. Oh, and the greenery you see around that tree trunk that the bird bath sits on is the tree's attempt to grow new branches. Amazing, huh?

Down on the Farm

On the way home from Asheville, via the back way out Leicester Highway, last week, (Wayne, Eddie and I) Wayne says, "All right, look for a sign along the way that sells eggs and we will check it out." So I looked on the right and Eddie looked on the left to cover the area most efficiently. We were within a mile of our turn off to head toward our house when Eddie spotted a sign. It said "Organic Eggs and Feed, 2.5 miles as we raced by it. So we had to turn around and go back and then turn right onto South Turkey Creek Road. We crused along slowly until we came to a dirt road with an "egg" sign on the left so we turned. We had to cross a wodden bridge that said "go slowly across this bridge" and here is where we wound up. Boy, were we in for a treat. Chickens running around everywhere.
Baby goats, mommy goats, horses, guinas, and little piggies abounded.













This is Amber sitting next to Wayne. She thinks she is a dog so she snuggles like one. She had had twin kids but they both died (preemies who didn't make it) so she found her a new baby (who had its own mother) and she adopted it and began to nurse it herself. Now that kid really has it made. Two moms who love it dearly and all the milk one can imagine! Amber fell in love with Wayne's shirt and kept trying to nibble on it (goats only have top teeth and as such, have to really work on things to be able to get items into their mouths so Wayne's shirt was unharmed. She also began to lick Wayne's neck and ears (just like Buddy used to do, Cade used to do and Cadie now does). Remember, she thinks she's a dog. :)

Now let me introduce you to some of the Kings of the Hill amongst the chickens: There are 8 of them but I only got shots of a few. The first one is Foghorn-Leghorn and he thinks he is hot stuff(he crows the loudest).















Next is Spot. How proud he is. But not the noise maker of his fellow King.


Now the last one I am going to show is Star. Doesn't he just look like he thinks he is a star?
Each of the roosters are a different "make" of chicken and they pick their harem from those chickens who belong to their "make" (if that makes sense).








Anyway, we had a great time yesterday on our second visit to the Farm, known as the Double G Ranch (for the couple who own it who are Valerie and Lance Graves). This time we had gone to get Sara and Carmel and we took them with us as a special surprise. The horseback riding they got to do was a surprise for us as well.

Then and Now

This is Cadie last winter(late October). She actually had longer hair than this when we clipped her this week. We just clipped away at her hair until we got it where we wanted it and said forget the groomers! Too much money.


See results below! You'd think you were looking at two different dogs.


What a great before and after...

6" of snow and still falling

This is unreal, yet awesome. Snowbound in April. That would make a good title of a book, don't you think? We were supposed to have house guests today and tomorrow. The guys were going to go fishing... slightly postponed, to say the least. Cadie is having her usual good time playing in the snow when outside. We actually are in blizzard conditions up on this mountain. By Thursday all of this will be gone, most likely. Temps are supposed to be in the 50's to 60's. Today we are in the low 20's.

One of my "can't sleep" moments

Here it is, 5:17 AM and I am so wide awake you'd think that it was time to get up. I get tired of just lying there so sometimes I get up, like today, and find something productive to do. Then I may go back to bed and get a few more hours of sleep before rising for the day. I checked all of the blogs to be sure I was up to date. Saw that hilarious email pic from Tag of the winner in the dog obedience class. I am still laughing from it.

It is getting close to Spring and we are going to have to bite the bullet and shave Cadie's hide to get rid of all the mats within her 6 inch long fur. We have been dreading it because we do not have sheep shears and that is probably what would be the best thing to use... It must get done before we go to AZ the last of April, that's all there is to it. Hope to have before and after pics because one may not recognize her when she is clipped that closely. She has really enjoyed Eddie's presence in the house. They play frequently and she adores this. but then every time he comes out of his bedroom suddenly, she jumps up and barks loudly and scares my ears!! (an expression Bonnie used to say when a loud noise sounded off in her ears as a young toddler).

We visited my cousin, Anna, last weekend in Huntersville (now truly a suburb of Charlotte). Had a great time. We went to Charlotte's brand new Ikea! Yeaaa! And we also went to one of three Trader Joe's! Isn't that the greatest? Anna says she is impressed with Trader Joe's and plans to go again. Mmmmm, no surprise, huh? They drove us all over Charlotte and I nearly flipped! I don't even recognize this city any more. Except for the same street names I am just flabbergasted at the many changes that have been made. I did shoot some pics but haven't imported them into my iPhoto yet and my camera is not in here in the room with me. Don't want to wake others so, will post the best ones later. They have (a sometimes) elevated electric driven train going thru town for commuters. Can you believe it? We gotta make another trip to this city and look over all of these many changes again. The Carolina Panthers stadium is smack in the middle of town covering the ground that the first company Wayne worked for back in 1961, used to sit on. We were just in culture shock.

Guess that is enough rambling around for now. Need to get back to bed and catch some more zzzzzzzzs.

A Thorn in His Crown and "my flesh"

Three days ago Wayne was outside cutting away brush from our large crab apple tree in our side yard. In the process he inadvertently backed into a large thorn on the limb of one of the many trees that have thorns on our land. A thorn broke off and lodged in the top of his head. I caled the doc's office before 5 to see if we could get seen as I had not been able to get this hard thorn out with any of my tools at home. The first picture shows you the size of an entire thorn. The second picture shows the actual piece of thorn that the doctor removed from his scalp. It may not seem impressive to some but it was a real booger to remove and we were at the doctor's for quite a while last night. We had not had supper so on the way home we stopped at the first and only cheapo food place (McDonald's, ugh) and grabbed a quick burger and salad. Then we started our 25 mile treck home. We were almost to the last exit of the interstate and with only 7 miles to go realized that I had left my purse at the restaurant. I was mortified. We called (Mary did for us) to alert them and we turned around and started back to the restaurant. They said they did not see anything in their lobby. I began to envision having to replace all of my bankcards, insurance cards, Costco, library, etc.... Not to mention that I had my last $10.00 in my new wallet that was in my leather purse. yada, yada, yada.... So I prayed in tears all the way back. I ran into the restaurant and there my purse was right on the seat where i had left it. I thanked God and we went home. Needless to say, it was after 10 PM by the time we got home.

Pondering in my heart

How can it be said that one "feels your pain" when this statement is made? Well, if it is your child, I think the bond between parents and their children creates this. Nothing makes me any sadder than when I feel the pain or stress that I know any one or more of my children are suffering. As a parent, I think we must just feel so guilty that we cannot make it go away just like when your children are/were little and get a skinned knee. We did make that pain "better," so to speak by tending to it. That's physical pain and much of the pain we are all having today is psychological pain or stresses.... Much harder to "make it all better." Feelings of helplessness abound from both sides. Love keeps us strong and helps us to carry on. What else can I say? I love them so much, it hurts!

Been too long

I did have a more recent blog (back when Windee, also known as Peewee) was injured by the coyotes. It almost didn't save for some reason so in my attempts to keep from losing all I had typed and the two pictures I had posted with it, it saved weirdly and no one could find the comment poster so I just deleted it. It was ugly in the format that I saved it with.

This is starting out to be a bit of a "down" day. Two of my children are so down in the dumps (for justifiable reasons) that I feel their pain so I am blue, too. I did get a lift when my child, who no longer blogs, called me yesterday. I also got a lift with my child who is waking up his creativity and starting to really get serious about writing again... I do so love all my children. They are just so dear to me. They all have children and I know they know what it means to feel the pains of being a parent with no control over life's dealings of your children, especially when life gets so sucky (coining that from a daughter) as it is right now for so many more people in the world than just my children.

Hope to find a creative picture to write abut soon, but not today I feel... :(