~ Happy Halloween ~

May Your Strand in the Web of Life be Blessed Today !!

JoyceAnn

Remembering You Today .................................

3-25-1942 / 10-30-2006

and Always Daddy .........................

~ Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

I've been getting ready for .............................................

Ol' Man Winter the last few days. I've been checking my plants and bringing them in or putting them in the basement before it gets very cold. I had some pleasant surprises , my daughter gave me this plant for Mother's Day. I've never had any luck with this plant , but I put it in a pot and let it be. The plant is called Hen and Bitties around here and today I found it had 4 bitties (yay). My Mom leaves her's outside year round , but I moved mine to the basement.

My next surprise was my Snake Plant or Mother-In-Laws Tongue as some people call it. My friend who was murdered gave me a potted plant when my mother-in-law died 11 years this Dec., this was one of the plants that was in that pot. I repotted it many years ago and was thinking I needed to repot it again , when I went to bring it in I noticed it was starting to bloom. I've heard they would bloom , but I've never seen one bloom. I was so excited I called my friend's Mom to tell her about it. She started laughing and told me she had brought a Snake Plant home from his house and it was blooming too.
I told her I thought he was letting us know his spirit was still with us , she agreed :0)


I stripped the pepper plants and pickled the peppers , the cayenne produced really well this year. The drought and heat didn't hinder it at all. The jalapenos didn't do as well , but we do have 2 quarts and a 1/2 pint pickled , hopefully that will last until the next gardening season.

What have you been up to this week ?

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

The Grands made Halloween Luminaries ........................................

Sunday afternoon. Their Mom's helped them draw pumpkin faces or write Halloween sayings on the milk jugs. I put orange and green paint in a paper plate , watered it down some and gave them a sponge to paint the jug with. I cut out the backside just below the handle so we can add a candle and light them up. After making the luminaries , we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire. It was a bit hectic with all the grands since they're so young , but they enjoyed it alot. Next year they'll all be older and hopefully I'll have time to take pics of them roasting their hot dogs (LOL).

~ Happy Autumn Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

It's been 6 Months ago Yesterday ............................

that my friend was murdered. There's been no arrest and the detectives said they don't have much to go on. I spoke with his Mom today , she's dealing with the situation as best she can. I hope they find out who committed this crime , his Mom needs to know what happen so she can have some closure. It's terrible to think about it everyday and always wonder what happened and why.

I've been thinking about him this week , he loved this time of year. He like to dress up on Halloween or any other time as a matter of fact. He was a clown for my oldest daughter's 2nd birthday party. He actually made his clown outfit and the wig. We lived in town then , all of the neighborhood kids started coming over to get a glance of the funny clown. I didn't know most of these kids , but we invited them in and fed them cake and ice cream , they were all smiling when they left.

I've been waiting for his call , he would always call just before Halloween to tell me all about his latest costume. He loved to dress up and go to a huge street party every Halloween. Although the last few years I was in the video store business , he would hangout at the store with me. We would dress up and give out candy , a few times we hosted a costume contest. I miss those times and my friend.

Please Pray for his Mom and that an arrest will be made !

~ Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Pumpkin Art on the Walkway

Little Froggy's Spider Pumpkin

Curious J's Blue Pumpkin

Nana's Pumpkin

~ Happy Autumn Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Sunday Blessing ~

May Your Day Be Blessed with Peacefulness !

JoyceAnn

This Past Week Around the Farmette ..........................

We've been busy again this week, Dh and I trimmed the goats hooves on Monday.

Dh has been getting the garden ready for planting the garlic , we'll be planting in the next week or so.


I've been cleaning up this years harvest of garlic , getting it ready for storage and saving the biggest cloves for planting. I want to make some garlic jelly this week and I may pickle some too.

Remember the heirloom blueberry bush , I decided to move it again. This is the third time I've moved it. I didn't feel like it was getting enough sun , so I moved it to the edge of the garden. I know it will get full sun there. Hopefully the third time will be a charm and it will grow huge and provide us with plenty of blueberries.

The hens are happy with their clean , fresh hay filled nest.

Well , everyone except for her , she's moulting and looks so pitiful.

I've also canned 13 quarts of potatoes this week. I've been canning all the small potatoes and the ones that have bad spots , that can't be stored. I hope to can at least 2 more batches. We're going to have to add another shelf to the pantry (LOL).

I gathered the last of the red clover I saw in the field, although it's not much. I want to make a little red clover salve to have on hand.

So as you can see , it's been busy around here. That's why I've haven't been blogging or visiting much. Hope everyone is well and having a great weekend.

~ Happy Autumn Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Autumn Fun ................................................

The Grands came by for a visit

Saturday afternoon ..............

the boys had fun tottering .................

Little Time enjoyed a little tree climbing ..............

and they made some " Nature Soup " as Curious J called it ,
in the trunk of the car (LOL).

Little Missy did some barefoot , one arm riding (Smile). She went back to the Doctor earlier this week and received good news. Her arm is healing and he ruled out surgery ( yay ! ).
Thank all of you for your Prayers and Good Thoughts !!

~ Peaceful Autumn Blessings ~
JoyceAnn

Little Missy Rides Again ...................................

Little Missy went back to the Doctor again last week , he said there were no changes , but it wasn't healing as fast as he had hoped it would. Please keep her in your Prayers.

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

Mother Nature ......................................

is always there to watch and care for her own.

( Kiowa )

May you be Blessed with Mother Nature's Love Today !

JoyceAnn

The Autumn Weather ......................................

has been wonderful. I've been exploring the woodlands , the ferns are so beautiful with the falling leaves nestled around them.

The chickweed is emerging from it's summer hibernation and I'm looking forward to chickweed salads and pasta.

As I was walking through the woods , I decided to make a living wreath with the grapevine wreath I made last week. So I gathered a few older honeysuckle vines , a beautiful fungi covered limb and a rotted log with moss on it. When I came out of the woods , I gathered daisy flea bane , goldenrod and lady's Finger. I also gathered some puffy looking things from the grasses growing in the field , not sure what they're called. This is the wreath I came up with , everything held up pretty good except the daisy flea bane , but it can be easily replaced , since the field is full of it.


There was another black walnut tree near the creek , so I gathered up a few more nuts.


I've also been picking the newly sprouted dandelion greens this week , freezing a few for winter. Soon I'll be digging the roots to make tincture.

I've also been melting and straining the raw beeswax I bought back in the summer when Curious J and I attended the bee show. Got it cleaned and put in a jar to store.

I've gathered Plantain .........................

and made salve this week ..................

and stripped a quart of rosemary. It's been a busy week , but I have more time to spend on the herbs now that garden season is over and I'm loving spending time outdoors in this weather. I do have a few potatoes that I need to can soon.

Hope your weekend is Wonderful !

~ Peaceful Autumn Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Our Local Street Fair ~

Last Saturday , Curious J , Little Froggy and I headed out to the local street fair. The weather was gorgeous , perfect for a day of outdoor fun.

The boys stood in line for almost 30 minutes to get a " Ubi " the clown creation. He made them a sword and a helment.


I caught K Gray hoola hooping , looks like he's having fun !


The San-Lee Wildlife Animal Rescue had a display of birds there. That's a Screech owl named " Screech " pictured above , he was sooo cute.


I thought I got a pic of the Great Horned Owl looking at me . But he must have turned his head during the camera delay.

There was a beautiful Red tail hawk .........

and a vulture on display. The birds are brought to the rescue when they are hurt or sick , most are released back into the wild unless there's a reason that they can't be.

The Forestry Service also had a display of stuffed wild animals. It was interesting , there's a huge brown bear behind the coyote with the deer leg.

I didn't get the best pics due to the sun's position , but the red fox was beautiful and look at those ducks.

The bobcat was a beauty .........................

and look at this handsome tom , he's got trouble behind him.

Little Froggy's Dad teaches him to spider fish.

Yep , he's cheating just a wee bit , he took his hand and placed the fishing line down in the trunk (LOL).

He finally got the hang of it and caught about 4 spiders.

The boys bought a fun toy , I don't know what they're called , but I called them a twirly whorlly. They have a spiral shaped rod and a disc that fits on it , when you push the disc up it flies off and spins high up in the air. Curious J lost his disc to a tree before we left the street fair , so we bought him another one on the way out. They've really enjoyed them.

Little Froggy decided he wanted to do a little tree climbing before we went inside once we were home. The boys also got their faces painted at the street fair , Little Froggy choose a rainbow. Curious J got a moon on one cheek and a star on the other cheek , plus a caterpillar on his arm.

We finally made it into the house and settled down , they enjoyed exploring their little treasure boxes they received for spider fishing. It was a fun day , but I was give out and ready for some quiet time too.

~ Many Blessings ~

JoyceAnn