Hazardous Weather Outlook

We've got a hazardous weather outlook for our area for this week. Today has been breezier than yesterday and cooler, so bad weather may be on the way.

I noticed these ducks swimming in our neighbors pond, wonder if they are on their way south?


I visited with Misty and Santana for a bit this afternoon. I just love horses eyes! They are so expressive and beautiful. Here's a shot of Santana's eye. They don't like to be still long enough for me to get a good closeup, but once in a while I luck out.

Sound

I noticed all day that everything sounded louder and clearer. I wonder if something in the air was conveying sound better today. When John got home we sat out under the locust tree and he noticed it too. We could hear neighbors talking, dogs barking, music playing, and it sounded like it was right there by us. It was a cloudy day and as we sat the rain started gently falling. We could only see it where the sun was shining on it against a dark background it was so light. Don't know if the rain cleared out the air and let sound travel farther or what.

I still have a few flowers that haven't frozen. Nice to see some color and green.

Cloudy Day

John was wishing for shade so he could finish cutting up the hay rake he got a while back and he got more than he asked for, LOL! It clouded up, cooled down and we even got a bit of rain.

The swelling in his poor face is starting to go down, that cheek has looked like a chipmunk with his cheek stuffed full of nuts! He says his jaw only hurts in one spot, where the jaw bone was thinner than expected and the doc drilled clear through it and out the other side! Ouch!

Most all the Virginia Creepers I see in town are a gorgeous red, except for mine! Most of them just froze. I do have a few leaves that are still alive and I found this one that's going red, yeah!

That's a load of wood!

The other day while driving down Main, we saw a trailer full of the biggest load of wood I've ever seen. It was so full, the sides were bulging out and the only thing keeping it in was bungie cords fastened over the load from side to side! Today, we saw this pickup loaded so high I don't know how it stayed on when the truck was moving! I've heard you can tell how hard the winter is going to be by the size of your neighbor's wood pile. Judging from the huge loads of wood coming into town, it's going to be a long cold winter!

Dentist Visit

John got his dental implant today. Now he just has to wait a couple months for healing and then he can get a crown. While he was in the dentist chair I waited in the truck to see if the customer we'd had an appointment to meet with before his appointment showed up late. While I was waiting I took this photo of a pine branch and pine cone that we were parked under.

These "ghosts" were dancing around a tree in the dentist's yard.

During a remodel of this building, the false front was removed and this old sign showed up. Gambles was a store that was there in the 1950's!

We saw storm clouds on the way home. I've been playing with the different modes on my camera lately, learning how to shoot in manual mode and I got the idea to try manual mode and overexpose the shot and make the storm clouds look more threatening, here's how it turned out.

Time marches on

The sun continues to move south, I'm amazed at how far it has gone in such a short amount of time! Right now, it's coming up to the right of the tree in the middle, a month ago it was coming up at the point of the hill, in the summer it comes up at the far left of the photo.

Wow, the recent winds have blown lots of dead pine needles to the ground!

Burr, it's been cold!

In spite of the cold and freezing temperatures, my tomatoes are surviving. There are some frozen leaves on the top, but the tomatoes are still ripening.

Concho Chili

Today I dug up the Concho Chili plants, put them in pots and brought them inside to my mini greenhouse in the sun room. I got the seeds when we visited the Lavender farm, so they were planted late in the season and they were just starting to bloom and make chili's when it got cold. I put a wall o water over them and that has protected them so far, but the other day when I checked them the water in the wall o water was frozen so I knew it wasn't long until it got the plants. I've got quite a few chili's on the plants!

Picnic in the Woods

Andy called and invited us up to where his family was camping to have lunch with them today. We took the makings for dutch oven peach cobbler and John and Andy whipped it up for desert. Yummy. They were camped on the Mineral Creek. It was nice to get out and we had a fun day.

The boys are off on an adventure.

The girls posed for me on our walk up the creek.

Josh shot his arrow high up in a tree and Andy, Susan and John shot arrows and threw rocks and sticks at it to get it down. They were successful! Whew!

Wow, that's one HUGE sword!

Making cobbler.

The coals just weren't hot enough to cook the cobbler, so Susan is lighting some pine needles we put on top of the dutch oven to speed things up.

The kids are having a great time! I took this as we were leaving camp.

Ten Ten Ten

Someone pointed out today that this date won't happen again for a millennium! That will be 10 10 3010. But wait! What about 10 10 2110, wouldn't that count? That's only 100 years! Seems like I should do something to celebrate today, whichever way is right, but I don't know what. Maybe I should bake the cinnamon rolls that are in my freezer, yup, that's what I'll do!

I was making the bed this morning when my eyes fell on the stuffed animals that reside on each side of our bed. They were given to us by grandkids. Mostly Nikki and Jessie, they love to share their animals with us. When Nikki comes to visit she will sometimes bring us each a special animal that she feels that we will like and we always love what she brings us! John has a Marge Simpson that Jessie gave him and when he's feeling under the weather she will remind him that "the Simpson girl with the blue hair" is there to take care of him. Makes us feel very special to be the recipients of such thoughtful gifts! I need to pin notes on the animals so I can remember who each one came from, I'm starting to forget.

I knew it was going to happen, but it's still a sad day!

Last night marked the end of the growing season here this year. It got down to 28.9 last night and my poor plants are frozen solid this morning. I forgot to cover my tomatoes last night and when John told me about 5 this morning that it had frozen I went out and covered them. I'm hoping that up next to the stucco wall they were warmer and will be okay. We'll see when the sun has a chance to do its thing on them.

Stir Fry for lunch!

Checked my garden today and found a few tiny squash, so I picked them and a few other things and cooked them up for lunch. Yumm! Everything here is from my garden. The plants are still blooming and putting on veggies, so fun! Wish I had an underground greenhouse so I could pick lunch all year round!

Clean Bill of Health

I saw the doc today and she said I'm doing fine and the biopsy report says no cancer. I'm glad that's all over. I'm wondering if I really even needed to have anything done. I guess the results could have been different, but still, I wonder. . .

We did a bit of shopping on the way home, stopped at Walmart for a few things and at Home Depot looking for a step stool. We found Christmas has invaded Home Depot, too. Ho, ho, ho time is approaching fast!

What a Difference A Day Makes

I'm amazed today at how much better I feel. Today and yesterday I've improved immensely! I felt so good that I requested a ride in the "real woods" and so we got Subway sandwiches and set out on an adventure. We went out US 60 to the road going to Green's Peak, took the turnoff to the Whiting Homestead and after a bumpy ride arrived at our destination.

Our destination for lunch was the EZ and Lula tree and bench. Much to our dismay, we couldn't find the spot! Closer examination and we found where the bench and one of the trees should have been. The bench was gone and the tree with the initials carved into it had fallen down. In 1952 EZ and Lula and family either camped or picnicked at this spot and someone, probably EZ, carved their initials in a tree and fastened a board between that tree and one next to it that over time grew into the trees and made a nice bench or table. When we first found it, in about 1974, we were camping in our usual spot nearby and were exploring. At that time, the trees and bench were in an area that was overgrown with trees and it was hard to get to. Since then, the entire area has been camped in so many times that it no longer looks wild and abandoned. When we started camping in our camping spot in the early 70's, I don't think anyone had camped there in years, if ever. The first time was an accident, our usual spot at Hall's spring already had campers and so we went down the road a bit looking for a place, pulled off the road and promptly bogged down and got stuck, then high centered on a rock trying to get out and decided to camp where we were. We explored the area and found a perfect spot a bit farther off the road and that became our favorite spot to camp for years to come.

On a walk after lunch we spotted these initials carved by Charles into a tree on a camping trip many years ago. I think this is the only carving left from our family, the other trees have died over the years and either fallen down or been cut down.

After lunch we rode through the woods enjoying the changing colors of the aspens. I love this road, it's narrow and in places the trees almost touch overhead.

A group of horses caught our eye and we stopped to visit with them and take photos. They were very friendly, and wanted visiting and petting. LOL, or maybe they thought we were going to feed them and that's why them came over.

We came home by way of Greer, we didn't go out that way because they are working on the road between Greer and town, eating up the pavement. By the time we traveled over it this afternoon, the workers had gone home, so we weren't stopped.

Doctor Day and a Brotherly Visit

Dawn this morning was a gorgeous one, I love the colors of sunrise!

This squash plant is still going strong, blooming and producing zucchini.

John and I both had Doctor appointments today. John went with me to see Doc Hamblin this morning for a checkup. He sent me for x-rays and listened to my lungs and did an EKG and said my lungs look and sound good, all cleared of liquid, and the EKG was fine, I didn't have a heart attack. Doc K told me in the hospital that the EKG done there showed I'd had one, but she didn't think I had. Whew, made me feel much better just to have him say I'm doing well. John saw Dr. Heap for an eye checkup this afternoon, then about the time he got home, Harv showed up. He is in SJ visiting their Mom. We had a good visit with him, can't believe I forgot to get a picture of the brothers together!

Cooling weather

We got rain today and it has cooled things off. Burrr, I can feel winter coming on!

John likes to go eat breakfast at the Sunnyside when he gets up from his last night shift sleep, so we went down. The last few times we've eaten there I haven't liked my food and I'm still having a hard time eating, so I had chocolate pudding while he had 2 humongous pancakes, eggs and bacon.

Cabin Fever

I thought for sure we were going to get a frost last night, but we didn't. It was cloudy and cool when I covered my tomatoes, but I guess the clouds kept the temperature up. Look at this nice cucumber that I picked today.

John took me out today to Sonic for a corn dog. I haven't been anywhere since I got home and I think I have cabin fever! It was good to see something besides the inside of the house and the yard! I haven't felt like driving, and with John working nights, he couldn't take me anywhere. My brain still isn't working full time, I have a hard time thinking and figuring things out right now, it's like a fog is interfering with me. I took this shot of the new clinic going up on Main Street on the way home.

Happy Birthday Mabel

Happy Birthday Mabel.


Dawn this morning was a nice one.


It was cool and rainy today, we didn't get a lot of rain, but enough to make it cool off. We've had wonderful warm weather so far this fall and I don't want to see that end! Just in case, I covered my tomatoes last night, it was kind of cold and breezy when I went out.

The Day After the Day After

Still feeling very tired. I slowly tottered outside to check my garden and water it. When I got dressed this morning I put on purple shorts and a red T shirt cause I'm feeling very old today, and I wondered if I'm old enough now to be be a red hatter? I'll have to check on that, LOL. Several ladies wearing purple clothes and red hats came into the barn the last festival and that reminded me of the red hatters. I sat in my recliner chair out under the Locust tree this morning and soaked in some oxygen. It felt good to be outside!


Wow, it's so cool that we've only had one mild frost and my tomatoes are still producing! They actually look better than the photo shows, it kind of washed them out.

The Day After

John sitting on the sofa he spent the night on and the waiter that brought my breakfast. Having a fancy waiter like this should cheer anyone up and make them feel better!

I got released to come home this morning. I'm not sure what time we got home, but it seemed so good to be here! My sense of time is still off, I have several hours missing from yesterday, hard as I try I can't remember. Weird feeling. I'm still headachy and feel beat up!

I talked to Mom this evening and she told me Bonnie Rogers was hit by a drunk driver yesterday and killed! So sad, she's such a sweet lady!