Spooky Halloween Story

Today is my house cleaning day. I also thought it would be a nice time to finish decorating. I keep some of my things out in my shed, and as I walked out there and opened the door, I had this very scary thought. " What if someone was waiting in there with an ax or machete or anything else sharp." Don't ask me why, it was just this weird thought. Nothing was in there by the way.
Which led me on another rabbit trail as I was mopping the floors. Mopping for me is where I think deep thoughts. I like mopping.

I am going back in time for this post. When we moved out here I was four years old. My parents and grandparents were busy trying to get the houses ready for us to live in, my mom and dad and my younger brother and sister were going to live in the old farm house and my grand parents in a Quonset hut.

The Quonset Hut today.

 My Dad and my Grandpa  needed to see how the wiring was up in the attic of the old farm house. They climbed up into the attic and they brought down old toys. One was a very old beanie with the helicopter blade on top that still worked. A super scary looking old doll. Dad brought down a very old Ouija Board. My Grandmother wanted to see it but my Dad was as it seemed to me at four was very mad. He walked outside. He took it to this hole in the ground that was very deep and threw it in. I was forbidden to even go around that place and he placed very large pieces of wood on it.

There it is today. It still gives me the creeps. Same old wood and timbers.

Fast forward a few years. My parents bought a old house and had it moved onto the other side of the property. The city had condemned a whole bunch of houses so they could build a new freeway. My mom and dad bought one of those houses. It had been originally built in the 1920s.  I still remember watching from my Grandma's house as our house went by on trucks. It was up on blocks until my Dad could get the plumbing done and the electrical wiring finished. ( My dad wasn't very good at that because when you flushed one of the toilets scalding water came out.) The day came while I was at school when they removed the blocks and it settled on its foundation. Then my parents began to turn this house into a home. They worked on it day and night. 

In the middle bedroom. My parents hadn't started working on it yet. There was drop cloths and paint cans and a trash can. The trash can was over in the corner of the room. I was about six by this time and I walked in the room and sitting on top of the trash can was that Ouija board and the planchette. It freaked me out because it seemed to be that same one from the attic that was thrown in the hole in the ground earlier. I couldn't understand how or why it was there. My Dad walked in and saw it and started yelling at me. He started accusing me of getting in the hole and getting it out. Thankfully my Mom came in and talked sense into him. I still can't figure out how it got there. He took it and I have no idea what he did with it.

There has always been weird things that have happened with that house. We kept our television in what was then our library. My Mom hated television and we rarely got to watch it. (She also didn't let us eat between meals nor other junk, like cookies.)  One evening, it was a Friday night. I walked by the library and the T.V. was on. No one was in the library. My Mom was in the kitchen making dinner and my younger siblings were in the kitchen with her. I walked in and sat down and to this day, I am still scared of what I saw. I won't tell you all of the horrifying images that are indelibly still in my brain but one of them is a man looking up as an ax comes down and cuts his head off and the head rolls down the hill into a lake. I think I screamed. Now you know why I said what I did in my first paragraph. My Mom didn't believe me when I said I didn't turn the on the television.

 

A few months later, same thing, I heard something on in the library and I walked in and a terrible movie was on again. I watched it for a little bit and turned off the T.V. and left. This was 1966 or so, but I can still see the horror in my mind as clear as day.

I was thinking about that house. We only lived there 10 years after my Mom died. The people who bought it after us claimed it was haunted. The older lady who lived there alone, was finally moved to a convalescent home because her stories of the beings that were in the house talking to her freaked her family out.

 

  When I went next door to the renters that moved in after the house was redone and  wanted me to see the inside. I went room to room looking at the changes and how modern the new owner had made the house. Then the weird thing was out of the clear blue sky, the lady asked me, " Is this house haunted?" I kind of jumped and asked " Oh I don't know, why?" She told me how they had put new towels out in one of the bathrooms and when they came back they were changed and in a different place. They had asked each person in the house if they had changed the towels and no one had. Then they wanted to know about the footsteps they heard at night. I didn't really say much, but I knew about the footsteps. I told my brother one day when I went to visit him and he said, " Oh gosh the footsteps, he said, do you remember the time I stayed home alone and I have never been so scared in my life, there were what sounded like people in every room. He said, I never stayed there alone again."

I often wonder if the people that live there now hear things. I think about it all of the time. You know some houses are brooding and sad? That is how I think of that house. The worst trials of my life happened in the years that I lived there.
 So that is my Halloween creepy story.
There have been too many weird and unexplained things that have happened in my life. To not be aware of the supernatural.

~Kim~

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!

---Scottish Prayer.

At Sunset

The sun is setting so fast now. I feel like I run that last hour of the day to get every thing finished before the sky is dark and velvety. I was cooking dinner tonight as the sun was dropping behind the trees. The trees that are turning red are now becoming with the setting sun like trees on fire. I wanted to run out so bad with my camera but dinner was already late. I made cornbread and it needed butter. Steaming cornbread and melting butter is its own treat.

I am so glad that Ron planted all of these trees that change color every fall. You know if you had palm trees you just get flags that wave in the wind. One of our sons and his wife are in Portland, Oregon today. He kept sending me these beautiful pictures of Mount Hood with snow still on its peak. The lake that they were standing by was like a dark purple looking glass with Mount Hood reflected in its depths. Our daughter and her husband are in Northern California and they were sending pictures of the Golden Gate bridge and then of the rocky beaches up there.

Seeing the pictures reminds me of the beauty of the west coast. I think that every place has its own quiet beauty. Right now every time I go outside to get my 250 steps, the weather is perfect. The skies are blue and the air seems sparkly. I wonder why in October the skies turn to azure and the air seems to crackle with gold.

I just had to write tonight. Seeing the sun and the leaves, just makes me feel so happy to be alive.

I hope your day is just as wonderful.

~Kim~

Guess Who is Back?

November is usually such a disagreeable month as if the year had suddenly found out she was growing old and could do nothing but weep and fret over it.    

Anne Shirley

Saturday Critters

I am linking with Viewing Nature with Eileen today. 

Hopefully it will get me busy taking pictures again. This was in the spring when I found this little guy. I hope it grew up to be a full grown bird. Does anyone know how to tell a male mockingbird from a female? I have never been able to tell. The males and females fights just about more than any bird I have ever see.

I have only seen one flock so far this year. I don't know if its because its been so warm. Our flickers are back now though.

Just crows on the beach.

Terror from the skies is back to its winter hunting ground. He has been racing through my back yard.
He is still hoping for chicken dinner.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.
I realize from these pictures I have, I am very interested in birds.

Kim

Game cam picture of our little invader.

Happy Friday!

Don't you just love this time of year? Snow in the Midwest, Heat wave in California. Fall colors on the East coast. Weather everywhere. I love weather. We have one more day of hot weather. This time of  year I feel like I laugh at the hot weather. " I say, hahaha weather its almost Halloween, and then you are gone." It laughs back at me in February when we have a 90 degree day.

When the kids were little, it would be warm right up until Halloween. On Halloween, they would finally have to put on shoes and coats. I try to remember this when yesterday I had to drag out my shorts and short sleeved shirt. I am so ready to wear nice warm clothes. Next week. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

These are old pictures. I hate to admit this but I need a new camera. I am having to rely on my past pictures because my camera just wants to give up the ghost. It only works sometimes and my camera and my computer are becoming less and less compatible. Its war of the old and older right now.

I haven't mentioned this too much, but Ben and Megan have been working on their house this summer. They are going to take a year off and travel the U.S. They are selling every thing and they are going to live in a travel trailer for a year with all of their family. They will be looking for a place to settle down. A place that is not in California. A place that they can raise their kids without government intervention.
I have mentioned it before, but it really is like living not only in a third world country, but Jerry Brown has lost his mind. Completely. The laws keep getting crazier and crazier. I wonder if they sit up there in Sacramento and see who can come up with the next crazy law. I know I need to come up with examples. On Monday the new tax on gasoline goes in effect.   That is the link to the article.

I wanted you to know though, I am very happy with life in general. The kids are good. The grandkids are good. Ron is good. God is still in control and He knows what He is doing. I am just watching and seeing all of the wonderful ways that God continues to leads us.

 

Saturday night, a man was drunk and crashed into our fence in front. He wasn't hurt. He was speeding and lost control. He hit our fence. He took out the AT&T telephone and computer box, he took out the mail box, in fact the mail box was about 200 feet in the middle of the yard. He took out the street sign and our tree that was there. He ended up in the yard too. Some young girls stopped and they said he had passed them going 100 miles an hour. Another young man stopped and he thought the guy had rolled his truck. I was so thankful he had not hurt himself nor anyone but our fence.
 Ron talked to him when his wife stopped by after picking him up at the county jail where he had spent the night. Ron was so kind to them both. You know as I listened to Ron speaking to them, I whispered up to God, " Thank you so much Lord, for letting me have him as my husband."

So life goes on, things happen when we least expect them to and still I am so thankful to be here right now. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog. I know I haven't been as faithful to blogging as I was in the beginning. But I am really trying not to whine. You know how if you can't say anything nice... It means writing it too.

I hope you have a lovely weekend. I hope to take out the garden this weekend. Get the chicken coop cleaned and all of that good stuff. I would love to be able to welcome winter with a clean slate.

Happy almost November!
~Kim~

“November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.”
---Clyde Watson.

Complete and Utter Twaddle Today!

I always have to post that picture of our now long gone sugar maple tree. It says fall to me. How have you been? Its been beautiful around here. Ron made it home after a week in Texas. Which I think If he could uproot me from here that is where we would move. He loved everything about the freedom to live in Texas.
You don't realize until you go some place else the lack of freedom we have in California. But I digress. I didn't come here for that.

I wanted to tell you a joke. Yes a joke. If I were in person, I wouldn't be able to tell you because I can't tell a joke to save my life. I always forget the punch line. This one I heard and I think I can type it out.

A Preacher was invited to give a talk at a woman's health symposium. His wife inquired about his topic, and he was too embarrassed to admit he has been asked to speak about sex. Thinking quickly, he replied, "I'm talking about sailing."
The next day at the grocery store a young woman who had attended the lecture recognized the minister's wife. "That was certainly an excellent talk your husband gave yesterday," she said. "He really has a unique perspective on the subject." Somewhat chagrined, the minister's wife replied, "Funny you should think so. I mean, he's only done it twice. The first time he threw up, and the second time, his hat blew off."

I don't think I have ever wrote a joke out in my whole time of blogging but I laughed at that joke and when I told it to Ron he laughed so I hope it makes you laugh too.
I think it will be time to take out the garden this weekend. I picked one of my Cinderella pumpkins last night but its still to dark to take a picture of it. I don't know if any of them will be very orange.
They look kind of like this.

Well sort of without the lovely orange lines. We might have rain tomorrow then I can work out there because it won't be so dusty.

I hope you have a lovely Thursday.

I wish you a lovely day,

~Kim~

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. Emily Dickinson

Just Thinking

I am sure that you have seen the devastating fires on the news. I am just in shock. It is always scary when the weatherman announces that the Santa Ana winds are going to be blowing. Its never good when an East wind blows. Monday the wind was stirring in the tops of the trees when I went for my walk. With a Santa Ana wind, it comes blowing in across the deserts. Its hot and feels unnatural. That is when the tumbleweeds pile up along my driveway.

On Monday, I was praying for the people in Northern California. When I looked out my front window and there was smoke billowing. Black, scary, ugly smoke. When the east wind blows, one spark can cause terrible fires. Because it looked from my vantage point the fire was moving toward me, and the fire trucks going down the street, I just sat there wondering what I was going to do.

I found out that fire was not as close as it looked. That day there were 7 fires burning here in town. It did look like the whole city was on fire. Though nothing compared to Northern California. But to the people that lost everything, loss is still loss and saying that you have to start over, is nothing like living through it.

Yesterday I spent the day cleaning up the mess from the wind. You know I thought as I picked limbs and trash, I kept thinking of how the poor people whose houses burned up, how do they go about picking up the lost parts of their lives. It becomes about relationships. It is the people in our lives that become the most important. All of the things that have happened in this great nation of ours in just the last few months makes me pause and think about what is important. What do I spend my time doing? How in that instant life changes maybe forever.

 I was sewing, and looked up to see that wall of smoke. That fast. At the end of the street, a truck loaded with pipe lost the load at the light. So not only was smoke filling the air, there was oil field pipe scattered all over the road way. Thankfully no one was in the way of that truck. It did give me a surreal feeling. There I stood, all by myself, feeling very small and very alone.

I don't like that feeling.

I wish I had some kind of pithy statement to make. I don't. I just wanted to share my thoughts today.
I wish I was smarter and I could come up with better words. A lady the other day told me that when she was a girl, her Mom would say to her after something terrible had happened, "The sun will come up tomorrow." She thought it was terrible, but now that she is a older woman, she sees the wisdom in it.

We really only have today. Its all about what I do with what I am given today. Not next week, not tomorrow. Today. So today, I will make it the best day of my life. Doing what I can do in my sphere of influence, to make as many people happy as I can, serving those God gives me and being a encouragement
to every single person, God brings in my life...Today.

 So today, I wish you joy.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. You are a gift to me.

~Kim~

“The autumn leaves blew over the moonlit pavement in such a way as to make the girl who was moving there seem fixed to a sliding walk, letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward. [...] The trees overhead made a great sound of letting down their dry rain.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Lovely October

My zinnias are tired. I think I like zinnias even at this stage too. I hope you have had a nice week.
This week has had an unreal quality to it with what has gone on in Las Vegas. That is all I am going to say about it. I am sure you have have read more or heard more than you want to hear from me.

My washing machine broke on Monday. I felt like it went from bad to worse every day. I called someone that I was not familiar with and after the third day of them trying to fix it, I was getting a little panicky. On the second day, when they brought out the saws-all to work on it, I was just sick. Yesterday, as I sat white knuckled listening to sounds I am sure no washing machine has ever made before, they finally got it fixed. Today is is quietly purring along. I think I got a few more white hairs from it though.

I picked my first bushel basket of pumpkins. I need to wash them. I thought you would like to see these pretty pumpkins. I cut the stems long. I just love pumpkins.

I still have some growing and we will have a bit of a warm up this weekend so I hope these begin to turn colors.

These are those Cinderella pumpkins. There are quite a few out there. I do love watching pumpkins grow and change colors.

Yes, I know I have done this rug before. I like this pattern and I had sold the last one. I wish I hadn't so I thought I would do another one for me. I had to dye wool this week for the back ground. I like to cook, but I love dyeing wool!! There is just something that makes me so happy to see the colors. I have hooked and listened to Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens. The lady from Librovox that does Charles Dickens is the best reader I have ever heard, there are times I forget and think I am listening to lots of different actors and its just Mil Nicholson. Its my favorite thing to do, hook and listen to audio-books.

This is my page 9 of my embroidery book. It was the buttonhole stitch. I have my bullion stitch page all drawn out. This has been a fun little project. I can't wait to see what the outside covers will be as soon as we get the directions. I have loved learning all of these stitches.

I hope you have a lovely weekend. Today is Kessie's birthday. My goodness where does the time go flying by to? She was born at 3:31 on October 6th. Now she has five kids and her hands are so full. So happy birthday Kess, I am proud of you. :) I wish I was there to babysit. Or at least bake you a cake.

Tomorrow we are having a birthday party for Ron. We are having a early Thanksgiving dinner. Smoked turkey and all the fixings. It just sounded good.

I hope your weekend is nice and the weather is perfect.

Blessings to you all,

~Kim~

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical
explanation is that I was made for another world." C.S. Lewis
"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."
C.S. Lewis