Azalea Bush Leaves In Fall

Random Ramblings

Made In America, Or Is It?

Dear husband had to buy a new pair of work boots this weekend. He bought a pair of Red Wings that had this tag attached:

He was pleased to find a pair that were made in the U.S.A. He bought them and brought them home only to find a label inside the boot that said "Made in China". He was not one bit pleased. This really should be against the law.

Another Photography Contest

Yes, I, the one who said she would never enter another photography contest, did. Forgive me for lying. I had no intentions of entering, but dear husband asked me if I would enter another local contest. This one was much bigger and scarier than the one I entered earlier. I took second place on this pix in the Flowers category:

Opossum
We saw the opossum last night. We were pulling in the driveway and the headlights caught him scurrying along the creek bank. He hasn't been back to the bird feeder since dear husband moved the wire he was using to climb up onto the roof. He looked fat and sassy, so I am pretty sure he has found another food source. That's good.

Elk
I saw my first elk in the wild this week! Well...he wasn't really in the wild; he was on the side of the road and several cars had stopped to watch and take pix. What makes this especially interesting is that elk were introduced into this area in 1997 and I am just now seeing my first one. It only took me 10 years. I hope to get pix soon.

Random Ramblings

Snow Birds and Snow
Wednesday night we had a thunderstorm with lightning and strong winds. It was very warm and we even ran our ceiling fans. I heard the heat kick on around 7:30 that morning and by noon it was snowing!

The Friday before, I had watched a Dark-eyed Junco on the pump house roof. The minute I saw the bird, I knew we would be getting snow. We have been bird watching for years, and I have never seen a Junco without seeing snow. I know that sounds hard to believe, but it is true. They always bring snow. We only see them in winter. I think this one paid us an early visit.

Putting The Books Away

Today is our last day of school until January. We have already finished our first semester and it feels good to have it behind us. When we first started homeschooling, we followed the county school's schedule. Then, after a couple of years I decided to make out a schedule that would fit our needs better and prevent burnout. It is the single greatest decision I have made in making our homeschool experience a success.

Now, we start the week after the Fourth. It is so hot and buggy here that we are inside during the hottest part of the day anyway. We take a week long fall break. We go nine more weeks and then put the books away for Thanksgiving and don't start back until after the first of the year. This gives me the whole month of December to shop, decorate, bake, wrap gifts and really enjoy it. I am not in a rush because we have set aside this time to be with family and friends. Any school we would do during this time would just be rushed and half-done. We still get out around the second week of May. We also take off all days that dear husband is off from work. Below is a sample of our schedule. I color code each quarter and leave blank all days off. This is the easiest way I have found to keep up with my schedule with just a glance. Here's a sample of my School Calendar:

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Brownies From A Box

I have never been able to make brownies from a box. They always end up hard as a brick on the edges and soft or even raw in the middle. I was looking for a little something sweet to put in dear husband's dinner bucket this week and picked up a box of brownies. Guess how they turned out?.........Perfect! They are delicious and the texture is perfect. Fudgy from one end of the pan to the other. They were Duncan Hines brand and I think they were called Chocolate Chunk. I followed the directions for "cake-like" brownies, but they are very fudgy and "brownie-like". I baked them in an 8x8 disposable pan. Just had to share this in case there is another person out there who is brownie challenged like me. :-)

I guess that's it for now. Toodles.

But Only God Can Make A Tree

Sweet Potato! Mighty King Of The .....Yard!

Poems Are Made By Fools Like Me...

Color

Mr. Personality! OR No Animals Were Harmed During The Writing Of This Blog Entry

This is our new cat, Sweet Potato. Sweet Potato was a stray that took up at our doorstep. He was in very bad shape the first time we saw him. He had been attacked by another cat or dog with a large gash on his back and front leg. I doctored him back to health and he has been here ever since.

Before Sweet Potato, we had a miniature schnauzer, named Ginger that we had raised since she was a puppy. She lived to be 15 years old and when she died I vowed I would NEVER have another pet. Never say never. When this poor cat took up at our house, I couldn't turn him away. He was in such bad shape. Every morning I thought I would wake up to find him dead and every morning he would be waiting for me at the back door.

All of his wounds are healed up now and he is starting to act like a real cat. He is learning to hunt and he loves to play with falling leaves. He is still so gentle. He never nips or scratches. He loves to be held and petted. He also loves to sneak in the house. Dear husband cannot make it in the back door without letting him in and it has turned into such a funny situation. When you scold the cat or try to make him go back out he will instantly flop over on his side like he has been shot. Especially when dear husband scolds him. I usually just pick him up and carry him back out, but dear husband tries to make him go back out and it is so funny. Everyone knows you can't make a cat do anything. So there is dear husband trying to make the cat mind and there is the cat sprawled out in the floor playing dead.

Here are some pix of the cat asleep in the yard. He loves to sleep on his back! I know these are not very good pix, but I wanted to share them anyway. They make me smile every time I look at them. He is not any easy animal to photograph. He is either asleep or crawling all over you, so I was happy to have taken these. I will keep at it, though. I would like to have at least one good pix of him.

Photography Contest: Winners and Losers

Scenery: 1st Place
Fog on Laurel Lake



Flowers: 1st Place
Dandelion



Flowers: 3rd Place
Iris Bud



Open: 1st Place
Spider Web



Open: 2nd Place
Dew on Leaf



Animals: 3rd Place
Pufferfish at Aquarium


The Losers

Cumberland Gap

Tickseed

Butterfly

Iris

Clinch Mountain Sunset

I finally entered a photography contest! You all can't call me a big sissy chicken girl any more. The contest is held every year at our local Swappin' Meetin' and is sponsored by a local newspaper. This was my first contest and I entered as an amateur. I used black mattes on all eleven pix.

By The Creek And Through The Woods

Remnants Of Summer

It's Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Ahoy, ye landlubbers! Aye!

This lilly-livered scallywag done walked the plank!

He be found at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies.

YO HO (A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME)
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, and loot,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot,

Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

We extort, we pilfer, we filch, and sack,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Maraud and embezzle, and even high-jack,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

We kindle and char, inflame and ignite,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We burn up the city, we're really a fright,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We're rascals, scoundrels, villans, and knaves,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

We're beggars and blighters, ne'er-do-well cads,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads,

Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

Lyrics by Xavier Atencio and music by George Bruns

Pirate Vocabulary

Pirate Day History

Find your pirate name here. Aye! I be Mad Morgan Bonney!

Our Garden's Furry Little Train

Fuzzy, wuzzy, creepy crawly

Caterpillar funny

You will be a butterfly
When the days are sunny.

Wiggling, flinging, dancing, springing
Butterfly so yellow,
You were once a caterpillar,
Wriggly, wiggly, fellow.

by Lillian Vabada

The Bug Whisperer

I found some bright yellow insect eggs on the side of the van. I was going to scrape them off the van and place them in our bug catching jar to see if they would hatch. I forgot until the next day when I saw my dear husband washing the van. I ran out yelling at him to stop. I do think sometimes that homeschooling has turned me into a nut. Nah.

I placed the eggs in the jar and put them on the back porch and waited. I really didn't think they would hatch, especially since they had been washed! As the days went by, the eggs started to fade in color and developed a dark spot in the center. I wondered if they were maturing or dying.

Then one day I went out and saw little black spots in the jar. They were hatching! I placed the jar by the van, hoping they would crawl out and know what to do. They didn't. They all stayed in the jar. I moved them to the garden under a tomato plant. When I went back and checked, all but three had left. Remind you of another famous animal story? I got the remaining three to climb onto my finger one at a time and placed them on a tomato leaf.

They were so small it was hard to identify them, but I did google yellow insect eggs and I think they were ladybugs.

Another Bunch

I found these hatching on the back of a tomato leaf in the garden. I can't really identify them either, but they kind of looked like aphids.

Early Morning

Sweet Potato and Green Beans: The Purr-fect Combo

These were taken before the hot weather hit. I had walked up to the garden to pick beans and the cat followed me. Every time I would squat down to pick beans, he would jump up in my lap.

Fireworks 2007

My first attempt at "shooting" fireworks. I ran out of film and then the batteries in the camera died. Thankfully, I had more film and batteries. Hope you had a happy Fourth!