Snow

Can you believe we are getting snow? Amazing!! I can’t remember ever getting snow in October in Floyd. Maybe years ago, but not since we have lived here. Anyway, we are getting it now. It is COLD here-well, maybe not real cold but cold compared to last week. It has been a drastic change in temperature. We are right now in the upper 20’s with wind gusts of 40 mph which makes it seem much colder. Needless to say, we are so thankful for a dry wood supply. Definitely makes all that hard work on Saturday seem worthwhile.

Last night we had an intruder in the meat chickens coop. It was an opossum or as we call them-possum. We leave off the o part. Jasper and Hubby took care of it though. He is definitely becoming a valuable part of our family. Shadow is getting too old for critter chasing. Well, that’s about it for now. We will be starting school in just a little bit. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

October 29, 2012 6

Wood Splitting

A little while back, Hubby was working on a bathroom remodel. Him and the owner started talking about getting wood for winter and the owner showed him the wood splitter he made. He said he would be glad to come over and split our wood for us so today we took him up on the offer. It was an awesome machine.

He started around 1:00 and finished about 5:00. It is a really fast splitter.

Here they are just getting started. Notice our ever present helper, Shadow. He is always where we are. He’s such a good dog.

So while the men split the wood, us girls stacked it inside the building. We are now 3 rows deep and 1 side row. There is still much more to stack. Time ran out for today. Of course, they could split much quicker than we could stack.

This is where I would have liked to be. Oh well, sitting won’t keep us warm this winter. I’m just kidding, I really enjoy work especially when we are all working together. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 27, 2012 5

A Ride Down The Parkway

Hello everyone! I thought I would share a few pictures from along our beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway. It is lovely this time of year.

I have always loved this church sitting upon the hill. Saturday was a wood cutting day here. Chuck and his family came over to help. We brought down 2 huge trees. We got them all cut and brought home. We still have to split them though. It was a really fun day. Chuck’s girlfriend had never been part of wood cutting. (She’s a town girl). I think she had a good time though. The kids had lots of fun.

Today the girls and I went to Roanoke to pick up a few things. We went walking through the mall, which is something we don’t do very often. I stepped into Macy’s-my first time. You all remember that I have been looking for a hard anodized pot to use for cooking down my sauces. One like Mrs. Sally let me borrow this summer. Well, they had one on sale for 1/2 price!! Yeah, me!!! I was very happy. I very seldom come across deals like that. I certainly am glad I walked into that store.

Well, that’s about all that’s been happening here. I hope you all have a great day and God bless.

October 15, 2012 3

Birthday Cake

Yesterday was David’s mom’s birthday. Jess is learning how to make and decorate cakes. She did this one for David’s mom. We think she did a very good job. It looked and tasted delicious. I did manage to get this picture of Katie while we were there.

Hard to believe but next month she’ll be a year old. Time marches on. We are chilly here this morning-30 degrees with wind. I built a fire as soon as we got up. It was 59 degrees in the house. I now have a big kettle of homemade soup on the woodstove simmering for supper tonight. The girls and I are going to do school and then heading outside to work. We need to dig potatoes, clean off the garden and clean out the chicken houses. I’m not sure all that will get done today but we hope to at least get some of it done. The sun is shining beautifully so I think it will be a good day to be outside.

Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 11, 2012 5

Tweetsie Trip

Saturday we went to Tweetsie for the last time this season. We had a lot of fun. The fall colors were beautiful!

Sam was so excited. He loves riding the “choo choo”.

Daniel had a great time. He loves riding all the rides.

This guy has a magic show. The girls loved it. They have always been interested in magic tricks.

Friday we went bowling with the Horn’s. We had so much fun. On the first Friday of every month our bowling alley has homeschool day. They offer discounts on games and shoe rental is free. We are hoping to get to go again soon.

School is going good so far. Of course, the first week or so usually does as it is mostly review. I helped Hubby yesterday so we took our school to the job site, which is one of the reasons we love homeschooling.

Speaking of school, lunch break is almost over so I better get busy. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 9, 2012 4

Fall Colors

Here are a few of the pictures we took Saturday at Grayson Highlands. The colors of fall are looking pretty good here.

We have had rain for several days so lots of the leaves have just fallen off.

Hopefully, not all though. I love the colors of fall.

We started school yesterday. So far, everything is good. Mostly just review right now. We had some rather chilly weather yesterday so I built our first fire. It was nice to feel the warmth and smell the wood smoke again. Today we made a huge pot of chili beans for supper. We plan on canning some of it-if there’s enough left. It sure does smell good.

Well, lunch break is almost over. Enjoy your day and God bless.

October 2, 2012 4

Grayson Highlands Festival

I thought I would share with you all some of our pictures from our visit to the Grayson Highlands Festival today with the Horn’s. We saw lots of crafts and hand made items.

This was one of the biggest attractions. The making of molasses.

Here they are pouring the hot fresh made molasses into jars for selling. We, of course, bought one.

There was lots of food and lots of music.

But these little guys were the main attraction. They auction off these wild ponies every year. We stayed for a little of the auction but the rain finally forced us to leave.

It was a really fun day. I will show you some more of the pictures with the fall colors in my next post. I hope you all have a great weekend and God bless.

September 29, 2012 4

New Package

Hello everyone! I thought I would show you all my new idea for selling the homemade laundry soap. This is what the package looked like before

I think I like the new ones better. I am hoping they will catch customers attention more. We’ll see.

Well, that’s my day. It took a little longer to sew these little packets than I first expected, plus we had to make up the laundry soap. All our soap had sold at the Bread Basket. Tomorrow is a big day for shoppers here in Floyd-the annual craft festival. We wanted to make sure we had plenty of aprons and laundry soap on hand for selling.

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

September 28, 2012 5

Wednesday

Hi everyone. I’m sorry about no pictures lately but I have been having trouble with my computer. Hopefully all is fixed now. Saturday, Dave, Jess and kids came up for a visit. Dave and Hubby went to Pastor Tom’s shoot. They had a great time. Then on Saturday afternoon, Chuck and his kids came over too. I was one happy mawmaw. All my grandbabies here at one time. I hope this becomes a habit. We all went to cut wood. I so wish I had taken my camera. It was so cute seeing them all carrying wood to load in the truck. Everyone went. We even had Katie and Sam in the stroller, which did not make Sam happy. He kept saying, “I wanna help PawPaw too.” We thought Sam might be a little too much “help.”

We had a great supper of pork, pintos, mashed potatoes, rolls, peaches and pears. After cutting, loading and unloading two truck loads of wood, everyone was hungry. As they were leaving, I gave them all an apple for the road. Alexius was getting in the car and got her finger shut in the car door. Chuck asked her how she managed to do that and she said, “I was trying to hold my apple and I wanted to give MawMaw another hug”. I felt so sorry for her.

I have been helping Hubby all this week with a bathroom remodel. We finished it today. Tomorrow, he will start installing the cabinets at the old farmhouse he has been working on. We plan on going with the Horn’s this Saturday to Grayson Highlands for their fall festival. We are looking forward to it. It sounds like lots of fun. Well, I think that’s about all that is happening around here. I hope you all have a great evening and God bless.

September 26, 2012 3

Rainy Tuesday

Hello everyone! We are really getting rain today. I think it is predicted to get about 5″ but I think we have already gotten that much. Well, we really need rain so I’m thankful besides I love the sound of rain on our tin roof. Makes me want to curl up with a good book and a cup of coffee or tea. However, that is not possible as we are still working on apples. I love the fact that we have all these apples but I am getting a little tired of working on them. So Thursday or Friday, Mrs. Faye and her hubby and us are going to Mt. Airy to purchase new crop pinto beans. We will be spending the day looking at little shops along the way and fun things like that. Then she and I are going to get together next week and can them or at least that’s the plan as of now. I went to her house yesterday to help her with her apples. We did apple juice, applesauce and canned apples. We had a lot of fun together.

Well, that’s about it. Sorry I haven’t posted much but there’s not much going on here. I don’t think I mentioned it but Mt. Airy is the home of the Andy Griffith show. Have any of you ever watched it? I’ll try to take some pictures to show you all. Enjoy your day and God bless.

September 18, 2012 3