Lovely things

I finally felt up to getting some photos together to post. I've had an awful cough with no energy. But I'm back!!!

I have a photos of the greatgrandson.

He had his first field trip to the pumpkin patch.

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I finally talked the youngest son into sending me photos of his ship. 

I have a video that shows him as he accesses the boat. But blogger won't let me load it. But basically they load them on with a boat crane. 

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My sister sent me some photos. Their church has a prayer walk garden. They tried for a long time to find someone to make this for the garden. One is from one side view and other is from other side so no matter which way you are facing it, you see something. A young man and his wife who live near me local made it. I think it is gorgeous. 

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On a crafty note. My oldest granddaughter sent me a photo of a ghost doll that she saw in a store display and wanted me to make it. Her birthday is halloween. Well I didn't have a chenille bedspread to make one and I had making and stuffing arms and legs so I made this instead.

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I went the annual arts and crafts fair in Hot Springs and bought me a shirt. It is supposed to be for Christmas but since it looks like a gnome I will wear it more often than just the holidays.

And it is more pink and aqua anyway. 

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Our church is having a fall festival tomorrow. I made caramel corn.

I wound up making 80small bags.

This is my process...

I use cheap popcorn which was $1 per large bag. I used the entire bag. Popping it took some time since I use a heavy cast iron pan.

I lost count on how many pots I made but 3 pots made 2 roasting pans full. I made 4 batches of 2 pans each so 8roasting pans total.

It was more than shown. 

Once it is popped....I use a heavy pan for the syrup which is 1 stick of butter, 2 cups packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup corn syrup. You bring this to a boil. Once it boils stop stirring and let it boil for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes turn off heat and had 1tsp. baking soda and 1tsp. vanilla flavoring. And stir. Add to 6quarts of popped popcorn and stir well. Put in oven at 250F for 1 hour stirring every 20 minutes. Take from oven and stir again. When cool break up large piece. And that's it. It's not hard, just time consuming. 

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Last photo is of Sonny's deer. This is the photo caught on the game camera. and after.

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And as always...

Catch Ups

I had several photos saved to post and failed to post them at the times they occurred so thought I would catch up...

First (no photos with this one)...the face mess up is about faded. You really can hardly see the spot where I landed on my cheek and my glasses hide what's left there.

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First....my husband and I had our 40th anniversary on May 25th. We only had one of the sons and family to celebrate with us so the nicest man took our photo outside the cafe where we ate.

I might have posted this already but not sure.

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We had our 1st great grandbaby this past spring. He is now a strapping cowboy. We got him the boots and he has already outgrown them.

It is amazing how fast they grow at this age. 

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Our middle granddaughter won Pike County Fair Rodeo queen. She entered last minute and even had to borrow a horse to ride. And she WON!!

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Our oldest granddaughter has had the same boyfriend for 8 years. They finally set a date for their wedding. I still have a year to finish their wedding quilt. 

I might have shared this photo before as well.

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Now a couple of newer photos...

First the kids came out this past weekend...the youngest granddaughter of the middle son got a new car. She is still trying to pass her driving test but she is at least set up.

My spider lilies are blooming and I've never seen so many to bloom as we have had this year.

I just bought some new bras. I have a hard time finding bras I like. I want an underwire and most after a few wearings poke through to the inside and finally have to pull the wires out. But I found these that have the underwire sewn to the outside. I bought 4 as they are the most comfortable bras I've ever owned.

Well that's all folks...and as always....

eye saga

The eye saga continues. I got the CT scan and thankfully no fracture. And the bruise is finally fading. Here are the next few days in order. 

Day4. It still looked pretty bad.

Day5. Beginning to fade

Day 6

Day7

Day8

day9

You can see it has really faded and the soreness is almost gone. 

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Our persimmon tree has really been dropping it's fruit...I made persimmon bread today and the rest we are freezing for Sonny to use to feed his deer on his lease. We have sure had the deer in our yard too. 

Photos of other things will come another day.....

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As always

Accident

I'm having problems lifting my left foot due to needing that hip replaced. I do have it scheduled for early next year as want to get my bloodpressure in check before then. But in the past week, I've fallen twice. First time I rolled backwards and just earned a bruise on my hip and shoulder but nothing serious. Sonny accuses me to walking too fast which I do...but that wasn't the case in both of these incidents. The second one happened outside on our front concrete walkway. I was walking behind him so know I was going pretty slow. But I fell forward and landed on my cheek bone. I didn't think it was that bad at first and immediately iced it. About an hour later this is what it looked like. 

It's the beginning of a black eye. Sonny drove me up to the local clinic where the doctor himself looked at it and decided I needed a CT scan. Not wanting to make the long trip to Hot Springs that evening, we scheduled it for the next morning. This is day 2 of the black eye....

It looks terrible and very swollen. And I was sore all over. Today it is better. I got a pretty good night sleep and not near as sore today. So this is day 3....

You can even tell I'm not in as much pain...but it sure looks terrible. Finally got the phone call on the results of the CT scan and thankfully the bone was not broken or fractured. It could have been much worse. So so thankful. 

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Last Friday was Friday the 13th and a Full moon. I did manage to get this photo.

I also got some good shots of sunrise.

Usually when the sky is red in the mornings we have rain that day but NO...we are in burn ban and drought now so think it is just dust in the air that is causing the red sunrise. 

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We got our outside furniture painted. It really needed it as it has been 3 years and paint was really chipping. This year it is all white. We have had them red and aqua but now white again. I do like how clean they look.

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We are still dealing with Kinzey especially at night. She has settled a lot but some nights she wont do anything when we take her out the last time so then she wakes us early to go out. It is not a problem if it is 4 or after but 1a.m. isn't going to cut it...so to break her from this, we have just put her out in back yard when she wakes us that early. She doesn't like it and she is quick to learn.

This is her favorite spot in our house. She does not get on any other furniture except our double recliner and she really loves sitting with us. She does not like her picture taken so as you can see, she is cutting her eye at me about that. 

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And as always...

One of my favorite photos of a momma dove protecting her babies. Reminds me of this Scripture...

fruit canning

It's been a busy few weeks with our fruit all coming off about the same time. I've made jams and preserves mainly and it takes some time to do all the fruit we have had this year. But it is beginning to wind down now. We mainly have a few figs coming off...most have come off...and then the muscadine grapes are at their peak now. But here are a few shots of some of the things I've made.

These are my pear preserves. I cook my pear and fig preserves in my crock pots. I have 2 large and 3 small pots and kept all going while making this. Sonny helps alot. I peel the fruit and he cuts it up. I also make apple sauce in my crock pots but with very little sugar. 

Now I'm working on muscadines. It is a little more complex. I first cook them down some on the stove and mash with a potato masher and then strain. 

My plum& peach jams and my muscadine and apple jellies I make using Sure-Jel and follow the cooked recipe in the box. 

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Lately I've been getting up early to watch the sun rise. It has been so hot and humid to be outside later in the day but today is supposed to be the last real heat day.

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I've mentioned before about our 3 grown sons. All 3 started their careers in working on off-shore drilling ships. The middle son is the only one who has continued with the same company. The oldest son was laid off a few years ago with a good severance package which he used to purchase his own semi-truck. He is leased to a company called Oakley and hauls a hopper bottom which mainly hauls grain or gravel ...things loose.

The youngest son also lost his job and went to work at a place that makes airplane and jet parts. He was laid off there with major cutbacks and just this year went to work on a supply ship that supplies to drilling ships and platforms. He finally got his permanent ship. It is really like a tug boat and they are usually small compared to the drilling ships. This one has about  a 12-16 crew where some only have about 6...compared to a drilling ship with hundreds of workers. His ship is called the Timbalier Island.

There is a cute story he shared when he got home this hitch and thought you all might enjoy it. This is in his wife's words...

Last week Sean's boat was in port fourchon(?) getting supplies to take out to a rig in the Gulf. They traveled the 120 miles or so out & start unloading. Sean hears something & tells the guys he thinks he heard a meow. Looks under a load of boxes on a forklift & sees one little eye. They coax this baby out!
So when they get anchored out they are there a week or more & now they have this teeny-tiny kitten that has a messed up eye! On a ship in the middle of the Gulf! The crew took care of her & gave her milk & tuna fish & doctored her eye.
They named the kitty "Tim" after the ship they were on. ❤ SHE got to live on the Timbalier for a week ❤
Yesterday when they came back in, one of the crew took her to stay with a lady & in two weeks one of Sean's shipmates will pick her up for her forever home!
How sweet is this story?! How could he not share??

(my favorite part might be that she is going home with another guy because I am pretty sure my house is at max capacity for animals....)

The update is Tim kitten is doing great and eye is healing. They had talked about getting her an eyepatch and call her the Pirate kitty but we are all so happy she has a home. What my daughter in law said about animals is right. They only have 4 dogs and 1 cat. But she is so like me in wanting to save all the homeless animals she sees. Bad thing is my son is the same so was surprised they didn't bring it home. 

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Now I have to show our baby Kinzey...she is settling more and more and will be 2years old this October.

She is not getting up at night to follow us to the bathroom as often but she does wake me every morning at 5 as she knows now that is my time to get up. She does get restless when there are storms but not as bad as some pets.

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Our cantaloupe plants in our front planters are beginning to die now. Two rotted before I could pick and finally got one to eat. They are miniature size but so tasty.

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Well that's all folks..