A New Year's a Coming!

      I just thought I'd pop in and say hello! I have not written in awhile because of so many things going on. But now that the new year is embarking upon us, I feel like I need to get back to blogging. Funny how I have pushed it to the back burner. I really enjoy sharing my life with ya'll! I've even been contemplating Youtubing! If that is a word. I'm not sure about that yet. I'll let ya'll know.

      The holidays have been nice. But we lost a dear loved one. My husband's father. He was 75, and died with lung cancer. He battled it for a long time. He smoked all of his life, but quit about 15 years ago. That wasn't enough. The damage had been done. We will miss you, H.L.!

      Since the drought has ended, although we're tremendously still in need of rain, the weather has turned cooler. It was quite cold the last couple of weeks, but this week has been quite warm! I wore shorts and raked leaves Saturday, which was Christmas Eve! Air conditioners were on Christmas Day, for awhile! We do have odd weather here in the South. I never really get used to it cause it's always changing! The heat this year, though! I still can't believe how hot and dry the past few months have been! But I'm ready to start gardening again! I lost total interest in the garden during the drought and heat! The cooler temps have gotten me outside and digging again! I turned up some large sweet potatoes in the garden today. One looks like some sort of animal fetus or something! It's huge! I probably won't do anything with it because it will be so hard to cut. The others are in my pantry, curing. I hope they will be edible. Time will tell!

      Speaking of the garden, I really hope to get wood chips brought in soon. I know where a pile is that is in the decomposing process. We can get it any time. There just hasn't been time! Randy has been re-doing our heat. We had a power surge in this area and it demolished our downstairs unit! Randy has been wanting to switch back to a heat pump, so that's what he works on in the evening. We're running strip heat, which makes the power bill very high, but at least we have heat when we need it. 

      I pray that ya'll will have a wonderful holiday season and a safe and prosperous New Year! Thanks for reading and commenting! Blessings from Bama!

One load of the many I raked Saturday!

My new 'Christmas shoes'! I just need to wear socks next time. Got a blister!

The tree has some of my homemade ornaments.

Our lovely 2016 Christmas tree!

Gold and silver wreath I made. The bow is on a  wreath on the other side of the door.

Another wreath I made.

A nice set of two from my sister-in-law.

The silly goats kept jumping into the wheel barrow while I tried to scoop their poop!

Santa brought a trampoline for the girls! I love it! It is the best baby sitter!

My sweet potatoes! I'm going to dig and see if there are more.

My new profile pic.

Sherry and Gavyn.

Three of my sweeties!

Smoky Mountains.

I love this man!

Smoke on the mountain!

I love the mountains, even if I got vertigo driving around in them!

Hey Ya'll! Happy Fall!

      In my area, it's late summer! As I write this, it is 91 degrees! Yikes! No wonder I'm in the house! We have been enjoying much milder temperatures the past couple of weeks, with the highs only in the eighties. And low humidity! It really felt nice! Then all of a sudden, the thermometer started rising again, as well as the humidity! I am so, not happy! I was actually able to go outside and enjoy being there! I can't work the ground because of the drought, but I can do other things like paint projects in the shade. Oh did I mention we're having a drought? It has been so dry! No rain since early September and that was only a slight drizzle! The ground is so hard! I won't even think about a fall garden! Or plant mums! What I've got will have to do. At least the leaves are finally turning pretty colors! I was afraid they would all dry up and fall off! The leaves on the trees I shared in the last post did fall off. Those trees are bare now. I hope your weather is better where you are!

      October is birthday month for our family. My baby turned 21 Saturday! I can't believe it! It just seems like we brought him home yesterday! Where does the time go? He's a hard working young man. He is training and learning how to be an air/heat tech. He seems to be excelling in his work, from what I hear. He also loves to do mechanic work on cars and trucks. He gets all that from his dad, who does the same. Happy Birthday, Skylar! 

      April and Amber also has a birthday this month. They are the Moms of all those beautiful little girls who spend time here. Happy Birthday Amber and April! Randy's Mom also had a birthday this month. Happy Birthday Helen! Michael, Randy's brother had a birthday this month. Happy Birthday, Michael! I'm sorry if I left anyone out. Happy Birthday just in case!

      I am enjoying learning more about my Cricut. It is an amazing machine! It is helping with my card making endeavors. I believe it will help me with much more than that in the long run! I am embarking on a new craft that I hope the Cricut will help me with. I haven't gotten started actually making anything, just buying up the items I need. I hope to have some things made to share with ya'll soon. 

       Ya'll enjoy your mild temperatures and the amazing color God has blessed us with this Fall! Blessings from Bama!

My brother, Cliff, is sitting in Sandy's chair. She's such a big pet!

The mums are getting taken over by a climbing black-eyed Susan.

I love the color of this mum!

I made this simple wreath.

I just wanted to show ya'll the beautiful ferns at the front door.

Too bad this isn't smell-a-blog! The rose smell is outstanding in aroma!

If I wasn't watering these flowers, they would be dead by now!

The beautiful and awesome smelling gardenia!

The dog wood trees are so beautiful this time of year!

More fall color.

Wrong time of day to see the beautiful colors! But they are beautiful!

I absolutely love this spraggling rose bush! It smells good too!

Little Riley gluing and coloring!

This handsome fellow is Gavyn!

Pretty Winterlynn and her great coloring!

I made the kids plaques with their names. Each one was different. I don't know what happened to the pictures of the others.

It's Looking Like Fall, Ya'll!

     

The picture really doesn't do it justice. This photo was taken today. The one above was taken in late September, early October.

Usually, this time of year we see lots of yellow and lighter green leaves. Now, we are seeing not only yellow and green leaves, but brown as well. I've never seen the trees turn this color in only September! It's usually mid October before we see real Fall color! It's been so dry the past two months! I think our last good rain was in early August! The ground is like cement! We have had an unusually hot July and August, and now September! Thus the reason for the dry ground and turning leaves. I just came in from taking photos and it's 94 outside! The sun is scalding hot!

      The weather has not affected the fruit production at least! I've harvested quite a few grapes, scuppernongs, and apples! I am in the process of extracting juice from the apples given to us by a neighbor, to be used to make jelly. And I'm going to make apple turnovers from previously cooked apples from our apple trees. Vegetables in the garden are as good as dead, so there won't be any more peppers, eggplants or tomatoes. The peppers and tomatoes didn't do that well anyway with all the rotten spots. I don't know if it was black spot or what, but I fed them with extra calcium to prevent that. Guess it wasn't enough.

      I have taken up a new hobby: brush lettering. I love it! I can't really write anything yet, but I practice everyday. I feel like a first grader, learning to write the alphabet! There are so many font styles to use! And so many writing instruments to use! One reason for learning brush lettering is to write on handmade cards I've decorated. I'm really practicing Merry Christmas in hopes of having it down pat by Christmas! I've been contemplating which electronic die cutting machine to purchase in the making of the cards. There are so many options and reviews, but I finally chose the Cricut Explore Air. I found the best price on Walmart.com, believe it or not! The main reason I chose Walmart is for the extended warranty. I purchased a four year one. I don't think the other stores or sites offer that. I can hardly wait for it to come in! The Youtube videos I watched showed that Cricut Explore was much less complicated to operate than the Cameo. I'm not a very techy person, so that was a seller for me.

      Life has kept me from Facebook and my blog, but I'm not giving up either one! Thanks for hanging in here with me and commenting! Have a wonderful week! Blessings from Bama!

From our garden! I made pasta sauce for spaghetti and baked ziti.

From our garden.

Our own grapes!

My first homemade card.

These were abundant this summer!

You may not can see this streak, but I've been seeing it at certain times of the day. It showed up after severe storms in August. I'm wondering if it is a lightening etch?

Jalepenos from the grow bag.

Three of my girls spent the night a few weeks ago.

Gavyn spent the night too!

Grape jelly!

Pear relish. The pears were given to us by some friends.

Did ya'll know we had a two-headed goat? Lol!

Steamer and canner going at the same time!

More pear relish!

Grilling on Labor Day.

'Fimming' on Labor Day.

Riley reading Brown Bear.

Napping in the chair!

Riding with Uncle Randy in the bucket truck!

Our new puppy laid like this for the longest!

Apples ready to be steamed for juice.

Prepping apples for the steamer.