We had snow overnight!  Amazing!!!  I don’t think I ever remember having snow here this early in the year.  Then we had another surprise.

Hubby got 2 deer!  Last day of muzzle loader season.  YEAH!  We love deer.  We are so happy.  He got a buck and a doe.  Happy, happy dance.  Well, I don’t have much time to talk.  We have got them skinned out and ready to start working up so I better get busy.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday, we went down to watch the boys while Jess went for her ultrasound.  This time the baby was not shy.  Jess will  be having a little girl in  November.  All seems healthy which of course is the most important thing.  About 2 months ago, while in Goodwill, I found this darling little dress.  I thought it was so cute  I just had to buy  it.  You know,  just in case it was a girl.  I figured I could always give it as a gift to someone.  

We had quite a lot of rain last night and today has been alternately overcast and then sun.  I have clothes on the line hoping to get them dry.  It is very humid here with a temperature of 90 but we do still have a slight breeze. 

I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

We had a wonderful surprise yesterday.  We went to the N.C. Zoo.  On Wednesday about lunch time, Jess called and said David had tickets for us all to go to the zoo but we had to go on Thursday as this was the only day he could get off.  We were sooooo excited.  We got up about 5:30 yesterday morning and got home around 8:30 last night.  It was an absolutely great day.  We all had so much fun.  Thanks Dave for thinking of us.  Grace took lots of pictures. 

Of course, by the end of the day we were all getting a little tired.

Well, maybe not the one who rode in the stroller all day.

We hope to go back again as there was much we didn’t get to see. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday evening the girls convinced me we needed to take a ride around the farm.  Grace took pictures for me.  Thank you, Grace.  First we start up the hill.

I almost forgot, first we must get Shadow in the truck bed with the girls.  When he was a young pup, he would run beside the truck.  Now he rides in the truck bed.  He’s too old and too heavy to jump in the truck bed so we back up to this little incline, let the tail gate down and then he can jump in.  He loves it.  As soon as the girls climb in the back of the truck, he starts getting excited. 

See how the fields are starting to get green!

A little stream in the field.

A view from the top of the hill.  These are just a few pictures Grace took.  I will show more later.  We have sunshine today.  We did get some rain last night but I think it has already passed us by.  We plan on getting some more outside work done today.   Maybe even working some more on our surprise.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Our grapevine. You can see another smaller “brash” pile in the second garden.   We are hoping to have lots and lots of grapes this year.  Now that we have our steamer juicer, we are looking forward to making lots of grape juice .   We certainly did enjoy the apple juice we made last year.  I want to experiment with other types of fruit to make juice.

Today is another beautiful day here in Floyd.  Very windy though, as usual.  Temperature is already in the 50′s.  Forecast is for rain over the weekend.  I was hoping for sunshine and warm temperatures but I know we did rain too.   The ladies will be coming in a little bit.  We are planning on doing some more outside work after our study is finished.  The girls work on school while the ladies and I are doing our bible study.    We are working on a surprise outside which I will show you all when we get it finished. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

One of the things I am taking tomorrow for our thanksgiving meal at church will be these rolls.  I froze them ahead of time and have been baking them all day today.  The one difference I have noticed is that the frozen dough did not rise as much as it would if it had not been frozen.  They taste the same though and I guess thats what counts.  I am also making cinnamon rolls to take.  Not sure what else yet.  After our meal, the youth of our church will go shopping.  Every year they get two  ”angels” from the angel tree.  A boy and a girl.  Each family in the church contributes $5.00.  Then the youth go shopping.  They boys buy for the boy and the girls buy for the girl.  It is a very nice tradition.  Our youth really look forward to going.   One year, they were shopping and picked out something they wanted to buy and they were a little short on the  money needed to buy it.  One of the boys said he had some extra from a job he had done that week.  He gave the extra so they could purchase the item.  I love that.   Children being raised to give generously and without expecting anything in return. 

Yesterday I had a WONDERFUL surprise.  Jessica and Sam came up for a visit.  I did not know they were coming.  They just walked in the door.  I was so happy.  Daniel and David were at home.  She stayed until after lunch.  The bible study ladies had not gotten to see Sam yet.  It was a great surprise.  Have I mentioned I love happy surprises?

Beautiful day here in Floyd.  Very nice temperatures with lots of sunshine.  A great day for being outside.  Enjoy your day and God bless.

Yesterday I had a WONDERFUL surprise.  Jessica and Sam came up for a visit.  I did not know they were coming.  They just walked in the door.  I was so happy.  Daniel and David were at home.  She stayed until after lunch.  The bible study ladies had not gotten to see Sam yet.  It was a great surprise.  Have I mentioned I love happy surprises?

I thought we might all enjoy some flowers.  There are not many left as fall is quickly approaching. 

I thought sure these marigolds were not going to come up this year.  They were really late coming up but I think  just in time for the fall show.  They look very pretty beside my front porch.

All the flowers in this bed had already bloomed and gone to seed when SURPRISE these late bloomers just popped out beautifully.  They give such a splash of color to the yard. 

Enjoy your day and God bless.

Saturday while down at Jessica’s we went over to David’s mothers.  There we found an apple tree loaded with apples and ready to be picked.  She said we could have them.  We did get a surprise though.  They are not your normal apple.

We gathered about a 1/2 bushel and brought them home.  We had never seen an apple that looked like this one.  I’m not sure what their name is but they are difinitely different.  What fun we had today working with these.  Grace of course loved them as pink is her favorite color.

After cooking them and running them through the sauce maker, they turn a beautiful, darker color.

We canned 9 pints and put 1 qt bag in the freezer.  I think they look very pretty in the jar.  Tomorrow, if all goes as planned, we will be making spaghetti sauce.  We have  a bushel of tomatoes to work up.  Our pastor’s wife gave us her spaghetti sauce recipe, so I think we will make it tomorrow.  She gave us a can to try and we all thought it was very good.  The recipe I have made before does not get thick enough so I have been on the search for a new one.  I’ll let you all know tomorrow how it turns out.  Take care and God bless.

We went over to our friends house today to celebrate her  daughter’s birthday.    We had homemade pizza and birthday cake.  It was delicious.  Thanks again Vicki.  Then she gave me a surprise.  She made me this beautiful wall hanging!  I could’nt wait to get home and put it on my wall.  I think it looks just perfect in my dining room.  To me, nothing says you care about people more than hand made items.  I LOVE IT!  Tonight’s menu at church is baked spaghetti, salad, bread, green beans, corn, and cake with ice cream.  Sounds good, huh.   Weather here is rain, rain, and then maybe some more rain.  Oh well, at least its not ice.  We now have mud everywhere.  The snow has melted and the ice has melted and they say there is a chance for flooding.  I’m glad the Good Lord is in charge of all this and not me.  Well, I better get busy getting those green beans ready.  God Bless.

Pictures from Christfest Saturday night.  My girls wore puddle skirts,  Daniel is Spider Man, David is Wafer Man and Jess is dressed as a devil.  It was a GREAT surprise when they came to the party.  I had thought they were going to stay at their house to give away candy.  Change of plans, which made MawMaw very happy.  Julie, Grace, and Daniel had a great time playing the games and getting candy.  Everyone probably noticed I spelled the cats name wrong on my last post.  I noticed it too, but did not know how to change it.  Her name is Stripes.  Anyway, I guess I need to use spell check.  We went down to Dave and Jess’ for a few days, worked some more on their bathroom.  The shower stall is now tiled.  We have to put the grout on our next trip.   We worked very  hard today, splitting and stacking wood.  No school today just work.  The girls would rather do school than work this hard, but as I told them we will appreciate it this winter.  I have been blessed with very good girls.  They work hard and complain very little.   They had fun too.  They make work into a game and that makes it fun.  It was a very beautiful day.  Lots of sunshine, temperature around 50 degrees.  Very nice for working outside.   It’s 6:00 and already dark, however, I do like the fact that it gets daylight earlier.  I have always been a morning person.  Well, it time for me to get some stuff done.  God Bless.