Halloween Feast....

.......to thank Linda and Kenny for making the insulated "cat house" for the parental units outside cat...

"Sparky"

From what i understand the female parental unit.....filled the inside of the house with pine straw and catnip.....and Sparky has moved in..!!

We had ....
Crock pot pulled pork.....soooo easy!!
Corn Casserole
Baked Beans
Cole Slaw
Yummy French Bread with the new butter made with olive oil..
(you must try this butter!!)

After we chowed down...
there was coffee.....coconut cream pie and spice cake with pear preserves...

I may succumb to a diabetic coma today.....
'cause there's left overs.....!!!

Life is Good

Confetti Crumb Cake

Here they are.....my little crumbs from the party on Tuesday...

Added some slightly yellow boarders.....an orange backing.....an orange/yellow mix for the binding.....and since the crumbs reminded me of confetti floating thru the air.....i used an over-all loop-de-loop quilting stitch...

I'm naming it...."Confetti Crumb Cake".....and it fits perfectly on my little tiny hall wall..!

Life is Good

No....it's not....

...fog or rain or low laying clouds....

....that's snow coming up the gap..!!
Nothing like our neighbors to the north..
....but....

Yep ..... we're having snow for Halloween...!!

Life is Good

Hello Tennessee.....

Yesterday...
riding into Boone with the MaleChild..
it hit me...

"That's Tennessee over there..!"

Sometimes i'm a little slow..

Life is Good

(except it's raining and snow will start this afternoon...)

Never Again...??

This is the fruits of my labor.....
and i do mean LABOR...capital letters please..!!

Cases and cases of pears began to appear at the top of the stairs...!!

Seems someone at CityBoy's work has a pear tree that was OVER producing..
And ...."OF COURSE"...CityBoy says...Bring'um to me...
Boomer will do something with them...

Urrrgggg...!!

Welll.....
After peeling ....peeling.....and more peeling...
I ended up with 5 pints of pear preserves and 5 pints of pear butter....

Never again......pears are a lot of work....peeling....peeling and more peeling...

The deer are getting the left over pears...

I can't eat it anyway with the sugar issues....

But....i didn't want to add the pears to the 500 lbs of food an average family throws away each year...

Wait..!!

Does feeding the deer count as throw away...?

Don't think sooooo...!!

Whew....

I'll never again be average...i knew the herd would come in handy someday..


Life is Good

Crumbes Everywhere....

Yesterday the Ashe County Piecemakers Quilt Guild took over the work rooms at New River State Park for a "Crumb" Party.....
Crumbs are small pieces or left over fabric that are mostly too small to do anything with....

We had crumbs and coyotes....
Mr. Coyote was keeping a close watch on those crumbs...

Can you hear those sewing machines humming....??
We hummed away until lunch...
(no pictures of the lunch spread....didn't want to make you hungry)

Comparing fabrics and crumbs...
Lots of chatter and laughter...

Just a few of the crumbs...
Pretty....huh...??

My crumbs....
when way out of comfort zone with these colors...
I'm thinking this could be a made into a wall hanging for my tiny hallway...

Brought home lots of different crumb fabrics...
we'll see what comes of those...

It was great fun..
So much fun that the girls want to do it again..
They declared New River the prefect place to work....!!

Come on gang .... lets set a date....!!

Life is Good

We're Off......

...the female parental unit and i are on the way to a ...
Quilters "crumb" Party.
A crumb party is when you take little tiny pieces of fabric ...
sew them together....and make something beautiful...

Would you believe it's at New River State Park...!!
didn't i just leave there..??!!

Life is Good

ps....pictures tomorrow...

The Twelve Acre Wood.....

....where i plan to just "hang-out" for the next four months...!!

Life is Good

Eviction.....

We evicted an unwanted camper yesterday at the park.
We don't know how he snuck inside.....he did not have a reservation....
But.....he was a happy camper between the rocks on the chimney....
It's dark up near the ceiling....there were bugs to eat ....
plus he had the fun of setting off the motion alarms during the night...
Which did not make for happy rangers....!!

There he is.....!!!
A Brown Bat...
This eviction involved nets and ladders...

(couldn't get the ladder close enough.....due to fireplace hearth)
Bennie the Bat was wedged between two rocks and it finally took a piece of cardboard duct taped to the net to prey the little fellow out the the crack and fall into the net....
It took precision and skill......3 rangers.....2 maintenance men.....2 photographers.....one net.....one very long pole...one roll of duct tape and an unused ladder....to remove one 6 oz bat....

Here he is......outside at last...!!

Look at that face....
Don't think he's a happy camper...!!

Life is Good

On the Hunt.....

Hey Mia...??!!
What'ya doing...???

Hunting.....Mom....

Oh......there's a mole down there somewhere....

Hey Mom....!!
Look what a good boy i am....
i'm not digging up the back yard looking for a varmit...

Mia.....Mia...!!
Stop.....already....!!!
There are holes everywhere...!!

Just a few minutes after i came inside.....
She caught the mole...!!

Now the hunt starts again...!!

Life is Good

Thankful Thursday....

BLAH..!!

i'm Thankful to be inside today....

It's nasty out there..!!

Life is Good

It started.....

....the rain that is....
last night it started with a drizzle...
now we're getting showers off and on...
Temp is slowly dropping...

Yep!
That dreaded "wintery mix" is on the way...

Hope there's sunshine in your neck of the woods....

Life is Good

Answers.....

...for those that asked...

No ...snow in October doesn't really surprise me....we vacationed here in the high country during all seasons before we made the decision to retire and move on up...
I remember snow in September.....April.....May and frost on July 4th....
I just thought it would make a good post...and keep my FL friends up-to-date....

and

The park is not closing nor am i retiring ....again...
My job with the state park service is a "seasonal" position....
which means i work only 8...9....or 10 months....
This year due to budget cuts i worked 8 months......next year it looks like i'll be working 10 months.....'cause one office assistant is retiring and the state will not replace her...
New River State Park will be open everyday .....but..... Christmas....
So if you'd like to come camp in our snow flurries anytime soon....
Come on up.....we'll find ya a real nice camp site....!!

No......!!
I don't miss Florida......
too many reasons to list...
I do miss all my friends and co-workers....

Hey....all you Florida... Guys and Girls....!!
the doors are always open...
between the two houses.....three guest rooms.....rates are cheap.....
no waiting......just ask Candee....!!

Life is Good

What...??

It was a beautiful weekend...
A weekend i spent piddling around the house and sitting on the front porch reading a good book..

Now this morning's weather forecast is calling for "snow" on Wednesday night..
yes...snow again...!!

yoooo...
..Mother Nature it's OCTOBER..!!

This "snow stuff" needs to whole off until we're in the winter season....
I've only got 5 days of work left and
i wanted a few more days of front porch sitting...

Are you listening Mother Nature...??!!

Life is Good

Could It Be....

....the sun trying to peek thru....??

The storm and rains should be moving out of the high country today....
I was beginning to be feel a little damp and willdewy around the edges...

Gonn'a be a great weekend...
Come see the leaves before they blow away..

Life is Good

On the way home.....

The brain finally realized...

We've got some great color across the high country....

better hurry up and take a look...

The winds are picking up and the leaves will be gone before we know it...!!

Life is Good

Almost Wordless Wednesday....

....They're Baaaack..!!

The scarecrow people are roaming the neighborhood again..

Life is Good

100%.....

...chance of rain today...!!
70% chance tomorrow....

Seems the Florida tropical depression the son and male parental unit have been enjoying for the last few days ...has moved to the high country....!!

Wish they had kept it to themselves...
Thanks Guys..!!

Life is Good

Mia here.....

...my favorite things about Fall....

SunPuddles..!!!
and Mommy only has 10 days left...!!

Life is Good

This Morning's View.......

It's a beautiful morning in the high country....

The MaleChild and Male Parental unit traveled down to Florida and are going to spend the week...
CityBoy is doing his "thing" today...
Which means Mom and i can "Fall Festival" until we drop....!!
There's many to choose from this weekend..

Life is Good

The Last Remaining.....

...plant in this years container garden...

Anyone need some chili peppers...??

Don't know why we planted this little guy....
we're not a spicy foods kind'a family..

Maybe....i just thought it was pretty..

Life is Good

The Herd....

...can be very vocal...

Yooooo....!!...Dude...!!
Where's the food...!!

If the corn and apples are not out when they appear...
They wait in the edge of the trees and stare at the front porch...

These aren't "dumb" animals...

Life is Good

Almost Wordless Wednesday....

Why the smug look....??
13 more days and Mommy ends another season at the park ...

Life is Good

Do Those Look Like.....

..."Snow" clouds..??

Yep....Bloggerville Buds...
we had snow here in the high country on Saturday morning..

Parts of Ashe County had .5 inches..
Boone had 2.0 inches..

Hey.....Mother Nature.....
was this a tease..?......will we get fall back...?
will these winds continue...? ...will we get a "Leaf Season" this year...?
It was only October 1st.....!!

Inquiring minds want to know...!!

Life is Good

ps.....parts of West Virginia got 9 inches....!!

I'm Addicted to......

..to this..!!

Wait -a-minute you say......your a southern girl...didn't you grow up eating cornbread....

Nah.......

Florida is not a cornbread eating state......but.....if you want'a talk hushpuppies...

Anyway..

I've never eaten Krusteaz's Honey Cornbread....until now..

Baked a pan to have with chili Saturday night....
and it was just as good Sunday for breakfast......snack......lunch.....snack...

Broke my heart....but....i threw the last two pieces away...
Not an addiction an old....over weight....diabetic.....girl needs to have around the house...
However..
it is now on my emergency shopping list....!!

Life is Good

Uset'a.....

Yesterday....
as i was flying around town
I got to thinking of things i uset'a find important or couldn't live with out...

Ohhhhhh....how my life has changed in the last 5 years...
Here's a few of the high lights..

I uset'a wear name brands clothes and keep up with the latest styles..
Now it's jeans...t-shirt.... bought at Wally World..... they fit better
and last longer.

I uset'a run to the grocery store once a week - grab what i thought we would need and rush home. Now we study the adds....usually hit two or more stores plus the produce stand.
Love the produce stand.....fresh veggies that the owners know where the veggies are from...'cause they've picked them up at the farms...
And i can get "cull" ( odd size/looking) bell peppers......2 for a $1.00

I uset'a get excited if something i actually needed was on sale....Now i get excited if it's on sale and i have a coupon that the store will double...

I uset'a have a drawer full of "beauty" products. Now it's blow-n-go with the hair and chapstick.

I uset'a drive a teal green/blue Ford T-Bird. Now it's a black Ford pick-um up truck with 4-wheel drive and i love to see the leaves fly around when i speed down mountain roads...

I uset'a fuss and moan when the temps got below 70 degrees 'cause i'd need a sweater or jacket. Now i run out in the pj's trying to take a picture of the first snow flake of the year...or the first red leaf...first spring blossom along side the driveway or the first tomato in the container garden...

I uset'a get all upset if some sorta critter made it's way into the yard...causing the dogs to carry-on. Now we put out seed....feed...apples.....call them "our" herd and sit on the front porch watching for them....

And i found myself buying a healthy protein bar at the cash register....
Yikes..!!
In the old "Uset'a" days ..... i would have bought a Milky Way..!!

Life is Good