Tis the season...

to wish everyone a very
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

God blessed us with his Son, and continues to bless us each day!
Enjoy your celebration with family and friends!

Power!

Power! After six days without, we have power in our rural area! And T. "gets" to go back to school tomorrow. :-)

There have been crews from Texas and who knows where all helping get the lines back up. Today I heard the number of electric poles down in our two-county cooperative was more like 1300 than the 800 I mentioned before. We really appreciate the help everyone has given.

We all rely so much on electrical power. But there's a much greater power that we don't always remember to acknowledge. Thank you, Lord, for your wonder working power!

And then came snow.

Here's the same broken tree shown yesterday from the front porch, with snow covering the ice and downed limbs now.

Here's a view out back from the kitchen window.
The photo may have to be enlarged to see where the limbs are broken off the elm in the background. The clean cut you see on the hackberry limb on the ground is where B used the chainsaw, so it wouldn't be hanging in the air.

Brrrr (adford Pear Tree, and others)

It feels like I've been gone forever, but that's only because I couldn't post for awhile. (You probably didn't even miss me here, since I don't tend to post every day. :-) I haven't had a chance to catch up on other blogs yet, just in case anyone wondered why I haven't commented much lately!)

Late Monday we started hearing strange sounds outside that continued through the night and next morning. It was the sound of tree branches breaking and dropping because of the ice that had accumulated on them. Daylight showed some of the damage, with more breaking under the weight as time went on. Of course we had no power, because the same thing had happened to the power lines. Our rural electric cooperative has at least 800 poles to replace. There has been no school since Tuesday, and still none tomorrow (Friday)! We're doing okay at our house, since B and M hooked up the generator that we have--so we have heat, water and electricity. What we didn't have for awhile was telephone/internet service because the system's back-up batteries ran down until they could get generators around to recharge them. Enough chatter... here are some photos! (most are better if you click to enlarge)

The Bradford (of Nov. 16's post)--surprisingly, it only lost one branch, and will likely shape back up nicely once the ice is gone.

The hackberry also surprised us with just a few branches toward the top broken off.

A roadside view of the front yard shows "pruned" maples and others.

These branches from the tree just outside our front door covered the ground. We lost some bigger limbs in the backyard, but I don't have good shots of those.

Icicles and shadows on the garage.

Heavy, but pretty!

Go to the ant...

Just for the record, the grumpiness is not so severe now. :-)
The list of stuff needing done is just as big as ever, but that's life.

We have snow!

Some blogger friends and I are reading through Proverbs this month. Verses 6-11 (in the Revised Standard Version) from today's chapter have been favorites of mine for a long time. "Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways and be wise." Prov. 6:6

Grrr...

This is how I feel today,
because this is how I feel today.

It's Still November

Subbing--that's it. I'll blame my blogging absence on the fact that the calls are finally coming in this year. In fact, I've subbed every school day since the 16th, with tomorrow also scheduled. This run has ranged from Kindergarten and 5th grade to junior and/or senior high math, social studies, and "home ec" classes.

Yes, Thanksgiving is over, but awhile back I told a cousin I would post my "greeter". This bird spent most of November on the breezeway, welcoming all who entered our home via the back door. (The way our house is set up, the front door is rarely used by guests.)
We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with B's sister, then traveled to my mom's home for another dinner on Friday with my side of the family. We have much to be thankful for!

Sorry, Brad (ford Pear Tree)

In the previous post I said. "We didn't have this much color around our place this year." Today, as I approached the house on my way home from school, this was what I noticed. Okay, so the other trees just dropped their leaves, but this one got all decked out for us!

Terrific Trees

I had a hard time choosing which photo to post on a group blog I'm part of, but finally chose this first one. The others were also possibilities.

Smoochie, Smoochie!

This was from a couple of years ago in Kansas Town Famous for Maple Trees. We didn't have this much color around our place this year.

Towering Cottonwood at the Pond.

Neighbors Who Moved to Alaska left this behind.
Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh Tree Too Tall!
Cemetery Cedars
Close-up of Blue Cedar Berries
Shiver Me Timbers!
January TreetopsTrying to Touch the Moon

S'more Fall Fun

Toasted to perfection!

Do you want s'more?

Fall Fun

It's that time of year. Two weeks ago we hosted our church's fall festival, even though we had a DOWNPOUR just after roasting the hot dogs. You'd be surprised how many people you can fit under a carport! We still managed to have s'mores for dessert, since B scooped some of the coals into a metal wheelbarrow.
Last weekend, when K was home, we had the same menu.And now tomorrow, we're scheduled to go to sister-in-law's for her annual fall party. I'll try to get "s'more" pictures there. :-)

Buzz, Buzz

The first annual Kansas Senior Spelling Bee was held a couple of weeks ago in Salina. I had read about it in our local paper, thought it sounded like fun, and decided to enter since I met the criteria (not by much-I think I was the youngest one there!)
There were 48 "senior spellers" from around the state who took a written test of fifty words. Eighteen of us spelled all of those correctly, and got to advance to the oral spell-down.
Round by round, more spellers were eliminated. I really wasn't nervous, because the main idea was to have fun! That's what I did, until I met up with the word garrulous. So... sixth place isn't bad, eh? And there's always next year!

(This is a link to KWCH's television coverage of the event, in case you're interested. It takes a long time for me to play, but maybe your computer is faster.)

Out of Season

This poor young apple tree is all confused.
Maybe it was planning to produce its first apples last spring, but then, like all the other fruit trees around, found that impossible because of the badly timed freeze.
So..... last week.... BLOSSOMS! Not very many, but definitely blossoms.
It will be interesting to see what it does next spring and if we get apples from it next year.

Goodbye, "Treasures"!

Two weekends ago a nearby town had "city-wide" garage sales, so several of us along our road decided to have them the same day. That way we could be on the map, too, and get a little more business directed our way. We actually ended up with a good number of people stopping by, and were able to get rid of many things that had accumulated over the years. I didn't even recognize some of the items--some were from auctions or garage sales that B. or I had gone to, or I think part of them might have come with the house! :-)

I always say that our huge attic is a blessing/curse since we can keep a lot of stuff/keep a lot of stuff! I'm happy to report that MOST (not all) of what we put out did not come back into the house. With what didn't get sold, we literally filled the back of the Caravan to donate to the nearby Habitat for Humanity thrift shop.

The sad thing is, we could probably easily do the same thing again. But at least this was a start!

Kansas State Fair

The middle of September we went to the Kansas State Fair. I used to live in Hutchinson, and still have family there, so I've probably attended just about every year for about, hmmm, forty years!

I always think of Dad when I check out the garden entries. He would have been impressed with this year's 976.2 pound, grand prize pumpkin!

I always look over the afghans, quilts, and decorated cakes on display.

Cake or quilt???In junior high and high school, the Fair meant the Midway, with all the exciting rides. This year we didn't even go on the ferris wheel.

Of course, the Fair isn't the Fair unless you eat a Pronto Pup, which I ate before thinking about taking a photo of, so you just get to see the mustard-yellow stand!

Hope you had fun. Maybe next year I'll take pictures of the animals and cotton candy!

High Water Again

I finally realized how long it's been since I posted anything. So.... you get to visit the pond.



Usually we could have a campfire on the left side of the cottonwoods. And of course the diving board should be a little higher above the water. But this was the morning after we had Five inches of rain, so the water was rather high for awhile. It went back down pretty quickly.
Last weekend we went to the State Fair, so next time I'll have photos from there.

Purses

This line-up in the church basement before last Sunday's potluck caught my eye. We teach them young--the owner of the little red purse is 5 years old!

My turn to "confess"--"What's in my purse?" Several pens, lip gloss, ibuprofen, bandaid, comb, cell phone (usually), kleenex, extra keys, pocket calendar (that's my "brain" or I wouldn't know where to be when!), church ladies' booklet, a CD (probably could replace that with a thumb drive, or just leave it out), checkbook, emery board, nail clipper/small tool set, mints or hard candy, dental floss, chapstick, billfold (coins, credit cards and cash, plus insurance cards, driver's license, and every store seems to want you to have a "discount card" or a "punch card"), mini-flashlight, misc. coupons, shopping list, . . and sometimes I squeeze in the camera!

I've always liked a purse with a long shoulder strap, and with lots of pockets and compartments, preferably zippered or snapped--so I can keep track of where everything is, supposedly! :-) I remember one white purse with an exceptionally long strap in 5th or 6th grade. Hmm... I probably I wasn't very tall at that age. Do you suppose that's why it was so long?

I feel lost if my purse isn't hanging from my shoulder when I go somewhere.

An Update

• July

• It wasn't our turn for a great wheat harvest. Happy for those in the western Kansas county where I used to live--their crop was super this year!
• T took top gold in her project at FCCLA nationals! She spent the next week at our church camp (where K was a counselor this year.)
• B entered two "old treasures" in the county fair, earning blue and red ribbons.
• We helped some good friends load up and move/lost our best renters ever.
• T went with a friend to the friend's church camp for a week.
• K, for the first time in her twenty years, visited the emergency room and had to have stitches (seven on her chin) after bouncing too high on our teeter-totter! : o
• Canned over 100 quarts of dill pickles.
  

• August
• We actually found a few days on the calendar available for all five of us, so took a short family vacation to Missouri.
• Table Rock Lake-B's sister and brother-in-law were wonderful hosts, as usual, and we had lots of fun time on and in the water.
• Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun-a great, though long, day. We ALL did the Ripcord this year! What was I thinking--180 feet up, with only one way down?! It was awesome!!!
  
• My mom visited for a week! We took part in the Relay for Life, hung new dining room and living room curtains, got those rooms cleared of clutter just in time to host a neighborhood ladies group, and just had a good time!
• T- started her senior year in high school!
  
• K-headed back for her third year of college.
• Had my church circle and hubbies here for (an indoor) picnic/farewell for our interim pastor.
  

Coming soon...

to a blog near you (this one!)--An Update--but I don't think it's going to happen today.
Just wanted to let you know I'm still here--enjoying summer and some good time with my family. Thanks for checking in, and I'll try to post by the end of this week.

Sorry, Stacey, It's Not Red!

I don't think I ever mentioned or showed what carpet we finally decided on this spring. Here Ching is checking it out before we moved the furniture back in. This isn't the greatest photo... mostly it shows vacuum cleaner tracks... but you can see it's much lighter than the "gold tones" carpet we had before. And it's not sculptured... hooray!

Oops-sorry if you have sculptured carpet and like it! : ) But like I said before, our old carpet had done its duty! This sure brightened up the front rooms and hallway, and I love how it feels to walk on it!

Day Lily Fun

Summer Lunch

Corn, cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden. Green beans for supper!