Almost Halloween

 

I haven't done a post in almost a week. My goodness. I can say that my chicken coop is clean, my flowerbeds are ready for winter. My house is clean and I feel like winter can come in at any time. I have tried to stay caught up with your blogs, I would work myself silly, and come in and take a break and see what you all have been doing. You are all so inspiring to me. It made me long for a needle and thread or a hook.

I don't share recipes very often, but I am going to share this one. I went through and cleaned out my old cookbooks. I had so many diet cookbooks and other kinds that I felt were just unhealthy. I got rid of almost a half of a trash can. We have big trash cans. I did keep Susan Branch and my Gooseberry Patch cookbooks.

Cookies in the cookie jar, I cannot take food pictures to save my life.

This recipe comes from "In the kitchen with Family & Friends by Gooseberry Patch."

Molasses Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
4 T. milk
4 1/2 cups flour
2 t. baking soda

Cream together butter and sugar; add molasses and milk. Combine flour and baking soda; add slowly to the molasses mixture. Roll the dough into 2 logs, about the size of a paper towel tube. Slice the dough into 1/4th slices. Arrange on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. ( I chilled the dough for easier handling about 5 minutes.) A perfect cookie.

Pattern from Notforgotten Farms

I finished Old Tom. Nice little pattern. It was fun to do and it came together quickly. I am still working on my Give Ye Thanks. I feel like I hook and hook and I just don't get anywhere. It is nice to have little projects to make me feel like I am accomplishing something.

That is it. I hope to have some super heroes over this Halloween.

My Super heroes.

 This was last year. They will be bigger this year. I don't know who they will be this year.  It is always fun.
Have a great Halloween too. Since I have been so lax in updating.
 Thank you so much for stopping by,
~Kim~

 “‘Dear God,’ she prayed, ‘let me be something every minute of every hour of my life.’”
—Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Getting Caught Up

Mums

During the summer, it is hard to work in my front flowerbeds. This year, they really got away from me. After the scorpion being in the house, I decided the flowerbeds were going to have to be cleaned. I shudder to share this as you will see just how out of control the flowerbed had got.

Before

 You can't tell where the lawn stops and the flowerbeds begin. I don't think I have ever let them get this bad.
We worked and worked. Ron is always a good sport and he helps me thank goodness. He used a shovel and I used a hula hoe. Together we got it cleaned.

After

My bulbs had really multiplied. I gathered them up so I can divide and replant. I have that on my list of things to do next week.
Here is my bucket of Iris bulbs.

Almost a five gallon bucket. I only planted 10 bulbs when I moved here. They really like it. As I was digging and sorting and dividing. I thought of my mom who was an incredible gardener. I was thinking of how after her tulips, and daffodils and things like that bloomed she would always dig them up and store them all summer in the freezer. It doesn't get cold enough here to get good blooms but she did, because she did that and she always used fish emulsion when she put them in the ground in the fall. It is funny how when I am  working like that memories flood back like it was just yesterday.

I was and am too sore to do anymore work. So I started working on a little rug by Notforgotten Farms
I was looking at photographs of wild turkeys, and I had never noticed how much wild turkeys and guineas resemble each other. Here is my latest rug, Old Tom

Pattern by Notforgotten Farms

I downloaded an App for my phone for Librivox. Right now I am listening to a book called A Woman Who Went to Alaska. By May Kellogg Sullivan. She lived there during the gold rush years from 1899 to 1900.
I have listened to such fun things that are in the public domain. I really enjoy hooking and listening to books that I might not have ever even heard of before. 

I have had these cans of pumpkin in my pantry. I decided yesterday, to make a pumpkin pie. The only thing I changed this time was I used pumpkin pie spice. Instead of all of the other spices. Ron and I between ourselves at a whole pie!!! Most of the time I end up throwing pumpkin pie away. I really had to use a bit of self control and of course being so sore, to not make another one. I love fall.

It feels nice to get things back into shape.( I am glad that round is a shape.)  Thank you so much for stopping by,

~Kim~

if you just go on dreaming then it stays a dream and becomes stale and dead. But first to dream and then to do isn't that the way to make a dream come true
Meindert DeJong

Keepin' It Real!

 

It is Thursday afternoon, and I have been trying to do a post all day. I hope your Thursday has been very nice. Mine has, I have just been scattered brained. Do you ever have those days, when you have so many good things going on it is hard to settle down? I finished the pillows I was working on this week. They turned out cute I think, at least I hope the boys like them.

 

I am going to an open house for Bumblewood tomorrow so I will give the pillows to them then.

This morning when I got up, and I always make Ron's lunch after I start my first load of laundry. Just my routine. I turned around to go get something out of the pantry and on the counter was this. Just like this with the arrow pointing at this jar. 

Here is a better shot of the note. 

He added air holes just in case it wasn't dead.

I started laughing as I ran in the bedroom to get Ron where he was getting ready for work to come see.
We both stood in the kitchen laughing and then he took the lid off. The poor thing was sadly deceased.

Later, when William came in to get his things for work, said, " I came in to get some water and I stepped on it in my bare-feet in the kitchen, it skittered off to the cabinets. He said, I told Elliot because he was going down to get water too." Elliot knows how I have a fondness for seeing things like this, caught it and it was in the kitchen this morning. The pest control guy was coming today, so I saved it to show him. The pest control guy we have makes it all worth it. He gives the right kind of shivers. He lives fairly close by so he is always freaked out at the wild life we have out here. This is a first though. We never had one in the house before.

Without giving anything away, One of these guys isn't married, the other one is married to Emilie. One of them bought a piece of jewelry. Soon very soon, I hope to be able to say, I get to add another member to our family. I am sort of  really, really happy. I told Ron this morning, " Mr. Bennet, God has been very, very good to us." I guess that isn't very good as it makes me Mrs. Bennet. ( You have to know the Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth to know this line best.)

 

  I have to be very, very careful, that I am not like the girl in this picture and don't count my chicks before they are hatched. I am just counting a tiny bit though.

Wishes do come true!

Thank you so much for stopping by,
~Kim~

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe —
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!"
Said Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

---One of my favorite American Poets, Eugene Fields first published in  1889

Today on Tuesday

 

Isn't October lovely? How are you today? Have you been busy, getting things ready before winter comes? I managed to get my porches cleaned and my windows washed. Fan blades are all clean and walls washed. We had some really warm weather so we cleaned carpets too. I feel all set for cold weather now. I felt like a criminal washing my porches with water. I haven't done that since about May. Everything was coated in dust.
The water police drove by after I had put up the hose. I was so happy, I had the water hose put up by then. Here is a little political pointer. What ever you do do not give up your freedom to the government agencies that are in place like in California. Do not loose your freedoms to fish, or lizards or sagebrush. Last year Ron registered our wood burning stove, This year we got a letter, stating that we must have it inspected and must pay a fee to use it. It continues to become more and more totalitarian. Okay rant over. I have said enough to have some agency knocking on my door. Hello George Orwell.

 

Here is my pillow that I made. I am still trying to decide if I want to put it in my store or just keep it. I like it and since I am on a pillow making kick, I am making our grandchildren pillows for their beds. It is a good thing I had the practice when our kids were at home making things by sixes. Now making things by nine is no big deal. I am very blessed, don't you think?

I am still working a bit on my Give Ye Thanks rug. This is such a big rug.

I think it is the biggest rug I have ever done. Mrs Rabbit was big but this one is so much bigger. Lots more going on in it. I had to put it on the free standing frame because it is so big I couldn't keep it in my lap.

Just odds and ends today. This is one of my first rugs. I like to look back at my old hooking and I still keep this one out on my table. Life continues to be full of surprises at every turn. Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing my life. I appreciate each and everyone of you and each one of you continues to bless me.

Have a lovely day today,
~Kim~

I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."

[Notebook, Oct. 10, 1842]”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks

A Perfect October Day

 

It is a perfect October day. It is cloudy, we had a front move in from Alaska last night. The song sparrows are outside my office door, singing and it is lovely and quiet. I have the doors opened and finally jeans and a long sleeved shirt. I imagine by the afternoon, it will be back to shorts and a T shirt but for now, it feels like fall. We still have unsettled weather around with thunderstorms in the forecast. Bliss. The Canadian geese continue to fly overhead. I am enjoying seeing all of the different birds flying through.

 

 Do you love Mums? I know I sure do, and this time of year, I start pining to plant some, I love all of the colors in the fall. Ron planted my sweet peas for me in the garden yesterday where my tomatoes were. He is such a better gardener than me. He worked manure into the soil and then worked it all in before he planted seeds. I am not very kind to seeds in my garden, I am more of the type of gardener that says, " Buck up there, you need to work hard to get down in the hard dirt to make yourself stronger!" That is why he always has such nicer, longer lasting gardens than me.

 

I hope your day is lovely. I fixed biscuits and gravy this morning for breakfast. This was a first for me. I just normally buy that package of gravy mix at the store. I have I am embarrassed to say, never made gravy from scratch like that before. It turned out perfect. So did my biscuits. I felt pretty happy about it. We don't normally eat like that anymore, but today just felt like it needed a celebration of some kind for the lovely weather.

Happy Sunday!
~Kim~

The irony is that the more we fight age, the more it shows. Paint on a 50-year-old face brings to mind a Gilbert and Sullivan comic figure. Smooth the cheeks, and suddenly the ear lobes and hands look out of place. Do we run around in October, painting the gold leaves green?
Karen DeCrow

El Nino is Here

Happy Friday!! If you watch the news, I am sure you have seen footage of the mud slides and the rain. This is where I live, most of the roads leaving or entering Bakersfield are now closed to mudslides and flooding.

Here is a news article link.

 

We are supposed to have more rain and unsettled weather for the rest of the weekend. Yesterday, we had the most amazing rain storm that just lasted for over an hour. Here when we have a rain storm our rain is measured by tenths. Rarely inches. So to get rain like this in such a short amount of time is amazing. Not to mention with all of the years of droughts and fires there are no vegetation left on the hill sides to keep the hills from sliding. This is just the beginning. I didn't expect it to look like this already. This morning because of the rain we have had, it was so foggy. We never have fog in October either. Or not in my memories.

 

 No one has been hurt, so that is always a good thing.  I did my rain dance all week. I washed cars, I washed windows everything that could be washed. At least now when I watch the rain, the windows are clean. It is still very warm though. Which is interesting. To be sitting outside on the porch watching rain in shorts.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend,
~Kim~

Rain
The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.

Changes

 

Changes. Do you feel the changes happening all around you? I love October, but I feel like it is about changes at every turn. The dark has come in the morning, so that now Ron goes to work before the sun is up. The sun sets and I am reminded that soon the days will seem that it was dark all day. The afternoons are blue and gold. I really feel happy when I go out in the afternoon, and all around me is the world of gold and brown and yellow and green.

I read this the other day, from one of my favorite books, The Scent of Water by Elisabeth Goudge.

"There was gold everywhere, drifts of it on the elm tree, flakes of gold under our feet, gold dust on the hedges, liquid gold in the refracted falling light."

I read once that October is a bright blue month. It wasn't until we moved here that I understood what that meant. I loved those words that said, " liquid gold in the refracted falling light." I thought it best described my afternoon walks. All around me that is what I see.

October is such a nice month, because I can still hope that the rains will come. I can open the house and the windows to let in the outside. Changes come and changes go. In October, it seems they are easier to live with somehow. I went out this morning, and in the early morning sky, was the Moon, and Venus, and  Jupiter and Mars. It was so lovely, as the sky wasn't blue yet so they looked like they were on pieces of velvet.

This is when I wonder at my brain.  Did I sing praises to the Lord for His creativity? No, I launched into singing, " When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter lines with Mars...." So go figure, I was in sixth grade when that song was popular and I knew those lyrics like the back of my hand.

I hope you have a lovely weekend. I have to get some of my flowerbeds cleaned and start getting ready to batten down the hatches around here. Time to put summer away.
What ever you find to do, I hope you can do it with all of your might.
~Kim~

 

 

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."
C. S. Lewis

My First World Monday

 

This morning, our upstairs shower broke again. Now I have to wait for the plummer. The water won't turn off. I can only turn it off at the outside which turns all of the water off. On Monday, which is house cleaning, laundry day. I sat and thought about my first world problems. At least I have water to turn off, and not like South Carolina who can't and water is everywhere. Or some place else where people don't have any houses anymore. So I have stopped myself, and thought of how thankful I am that I can call a repairman who will come out sometime today and fix my problem. That is how my Monday is so far.

I sat down to have a attitude adjustment and I was doing my Gomer study this morning. I just have to share the author's take on Psalm 23 because, I laughed out loud as it is me.

" The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall want my own way, He will make me lie down in green pastures, but I will keep getting up and wandering off to eat dead grass. He'll pull me to quiet waters, but I will refuse to drink. He ends up dragging me along right paths and I did my heels in the whole way. So, when I end up in a dark valley, I am absolutely terrified because I am not sure He is with me. I think He is, but, I am so self-absorbed that all I can see is the dark. His rod and staff don't comfort me; they drive me crazy and I resent them. He prepares a table before me, but I clamp my jaws and refuse to eat. He anoints my head with oil and I buck and kick the whole time. My cup would overflow if I would just be still, but I am bent on my own way. Amazingly, His goodness and Mercy still follow me all the days of my stiffed-necked life and despite myself, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever...but, by golly, I will choose my own room!

---Jennifer Rothschild,  (Hosea---Unfailing Love Changes Everything)

 At least I can dust and vacuum. That is good. We have nice cloudy weather and it is cool and breezy like October should be. The shower will get fixed and all shall be well. I hope you have a lovely Monday wherever you are.

~Kim~

“All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”
― Julian of Norwich

Lovely October

 

Isn't this a beautiful way to start an October Morning? All I could hear in my head was the lyrics to Lucy in The Sky of Diamonds,
"Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies..."
Now that song has been stuck in my head. I love October mornings. The air smells wonderful. I always forget the smell. Our trees are already turning. It smells like damp earth and cold grass and tired leaves. That doesn't sound so nice, but it really is just lovely.

Peter started his new job yesterday.

This is one of our local news stations. They let him explore everything. He even got to stand on the part where they do weather. There is only a green screen. He is the IT guy.

 

One of my silly little hens thinks she has found a secret place to lay her eggs. This is my pot of mint. It is in under a rose bush so you really can't see her until you walk up. Every day this week, she has laid a egg here.
I just love when hens do funny things like this.

 

One of my hens laid that tiny egg. The big one is a regular hen and a bantam and then the tiny egg. The tiny egg only had egg white. I always love small eggs they make me laugh.

When we watched the boys a couple of weeks ago, Jack asked for a rug, and this was his design. I am almost finished with it. I love doing little things like this. I think it is going to be a pillow for his bed.

 

This is going to be the matching pillow that goes with Feed My Sheep. I hope you have a lovely weekend.
I know so many of you are going to be having a deluge of rain. We might get rain too.

Stay safe.
~Kim~

"The leaves fall patiently
Nothing remembers or grieves
The river takes to the sea
The yellow drift of leaves."
-   Sara Teasdale