Blessed rain

It is raining here in southern Kentucky and it sounds so soothing to sit and listen to the sound of it falling. It is a perfect day to clean, which I have a full day ahead of me doing, because it is cloudy and I can't see all of the dust that I miss.

I stopped to take a picture of this little creek the other day but I can't decide if I like the vertical shot better or the horizontal one.

Which one do you like the best.

Glendale, Ky.

This was the Model T that hailed from Green County, Ky.

Just one of the crowd shots. Booths are lined up

everywhere as well as the people.

Aren't these jackets just adorable?

Here is the husband with out booth.

I just loved these old pots or old canners painted to look like

pumpkins. They were just so bright and cheerful looking.

The Amish are always there with their crafts.

Of course, you have to get some playtime in.

The third weekend of October always finds us in Glendale, Ky. set up at the Glendale Crossing Festival and this was the 30th show we have done this year. The crowd at this show never ceases to amaze me.

The weather was a little cool but other than that it was a great day. There was an Amish booth behind us that sold homemade doughnuts and I think I may have gained 10 pounds that day from eating her doughnuts.

At this festival you will find a little bit of eveything, from antiques to crafts, to wonderful food. It's a great place to visit and if you didn't get to make it this year maybe you can next year. I am sure you won't be disappointed.

Wise words to live by

"An elder Cherokee was teaching his grandchildren about life.

He said to them, 'a fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
One wolf is fear, anger, envy, greed, guilt, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, lies, false pride and ego.

The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, humility, kindness, truth, faith and compassion.

This same fight is going on inside you and every other persoon too, he added. The grandchildren thought about it for a minute and asked 'Grandfather, which wolf will win?'

The elder simply replied, 'The one you feed.'"

Does the ugly in this world ever stop. No, but we certainly don't have to feed it.

Several things has happened around here this week and I have been truly been amazed to the point of gasping at how ugly some people can be. Hurtful words have been spewed, nasty tales have been told, and yet it all continues.

I read stories or watch on television about real problems some people in this world are having to deal with. The sickness of a child, loss of a parent, losing one's home or job, real problems yet others want to dwell on a drama that is going to yield no winners, just more accusations, more lies, more hurtful words that can never be taken back.

I will never understand why people want to hurt other people so much.

I guess the gnashing of teeth is just part of life and always will be.

Pointing the finger, continuing to throw vindictive words out for the wind to carry or worse putting them in print, is certainly not accomplishing anything in this world.

But it won't never stop, will it?

There are still good people left in this world

I just want to tell everyone that despite what you may have come to believe about mankind there are still decent and caring people left in this world.

This point was driven home to me once again a couple of weeks ago in Metropolis, Ill. You know, the home of Superman.

After Mark and I had finished our craft show in Grand Rivers two weeks ago we drove up to Metropolis to spend the night.

We drove into Metropolis the next morning to look around a bit, then stopped at a fast food store to get some gas. As we went to pull out of the parking lot we realized we weren't going anywhere, we had a flat tire that not even a can of fix a flat was going to fix.

So, we unload all of that stuff out of that trunk to get to the spare when we should discover that little cubby hole holding that spare and jack was full of water. Don't ask either one of us where the water came from, or how long it had been there because we don't know.

Needless to say, the jack was rusted beyond use. Now, here we are in Metropolis, Ill. on a Sunday morning with a flat and no jack. The little doughnut spare is usable but we had serious doubts about driving all the way back home on that little spare.

During all of this worry and concentration on how to deal with this problem this man pulls up and inquires as to what is wrong. We go through our dilemna with him when he tells us he will go home and get a jack. While he is gone, another man pulls up, asks us the same question and tells us he will be back in a few minutes.

Man number one shows up with the jack and man number two shows up with a practically new tire. Mark asks him how much he wants for the tire and he replies nothing. Can you believe that, in this day and time someone just shows up with a tire and gives it to you? We thanked him endlessly and told us not to think a thing about it.

Now we have a tire, but need to find a place to get the tire put on a rim. We decided that our little spare should at least make it to Paducah where we could surely find a tire store or a Super Wal Mart open.

At this time, the man with the jack, Keith, makes a phone call to his friend who owns a garage. Much to our surpise the guy agrees to open his shop, put the tire on a rim and put it on the car for us.

Talk about guardian angels.

We follow Keith to the shop, John puts the tire on the rim, and gets ready to put it on the car when he feels a pin hole on the side wall of the tire. Ouch.

But our luck hadn't run out yet. John checked and he had a used tire that would fit our car. So, he takes the other tire off of the rim, puts his tire on the rim and then puts it on our car. The amazing thing about this though is that he did all of this for only $35.

By now our mouths are falling to the ground with wonderment at the kindness of these people and thanking the heavens above for these men who were willing to lend a helping hand to two strangers from Kentucky. Talking about going the extra mile, those three men certainly exceeded any expectations we had of finding help with our problem.

There are still good people left in this world, and there are those who are always willing to lend that helping hand to others. Believe me, we realized how lucky we were that day and will be forever grateful to Keith, John and the man with the tire. I just know secretly one of them had a big S on their chest.

Busy week ahead

It's going to be a busy and full week around the old homestead this week.

My daughter has reached a point in her life where she is finding it necessary to move back home with her two little munchkins, pictured to the left, and I guess that little old border collie will be coming along also.

She is attending college full time and her getting that college degree is a very high priority on my list. Life as a single mother is rough at best, I know, been there and done that.

I will never understand men who can just walk off and leave their precious children behind, and just leave the mother and kids to deal with it the best they can. But it is his loss, that is all I can really say about it.

So, we are having to clear out two bedrooms (and this is only a three bedroom house), clean out closets, relocate furniture, and trying to make it child proof. It has been a long time since I have heard the pitter patter of little feet so it is going to take some adjusting to once again.

If any of you have an extra prayer this week, send one up for all of us, I think we are going to need it.

Have a great day.

Mission Impossible

I discovered something today, a person cannot stop at Baskin and Robbins and get a double dip of Raspberry something and Pralines and Creme on a sugar cone and drive home, much less get through Bowling Green, without getting a drop of ice cream on you.

Just thought you would like to know. Experience is a good teacher.

I FINALLY finished it

I finally finished my Amish Roman Stripe quilt this week. I made this using the Eleanor Burns quilt in a day directions. Needless to say, I didn't get it done in a day, much less a week. But that has nothing to do with Ms. Burns directions, I just don't have enough focus to stand and cut strips all day. Me and a rotary cutter are not the best of friends.

Anyway, if any of you are in Glendale, Ky. this week for their big festival, my husband and I will be there with my homemade quilts for sale as well as his homemade ciders.

We will be set up next to True Kentucky which is behind Benny's Antique Barn. We don't use a tent so just look for the white haired woman (me) who will be sunburning and Mark will have his Retired Army hat on. We love for you to visit.

The two quilts on the top are ones I will also have at Glendale as well.

Tiring weekend

We spent the weekend doing a craft show in Grand Rivers, Ky. on Saturday and then drove up to Metropolis, Ill. Saturday night and part of Sunday. Will write more tomorrow, just too tired at the moment. This was the view from my booth when we did a craft show at Kuttawa, Ky. Kentucky is such a beautiful state. Talk to you tomorrow.

Yay

I finally finished my Amish Roman Stripe quilt last night. I hope all of you have a quiet and serene day, we are off to a craft show. Will let you know all about it tomorrow. Have a good one.

The Pumpkin Patch

Well, like all good grandma's brag books I just wanted to share some photos of when my grandkids visited the local pumpkin patch to pick out their pumpkins. At first they didn't want to pick out any pumpkins and then when they got into the swing of things,they didn't want to stop picking out pumpkins. I left the barn when they started tallying up my daughter's bill. Hope you enjoy them.
Come on Mom, I can get this.

I am the man

I like my green pumpkin

Okay, I've got mine, we can go now

It's not heavy (grunt), It is not heavy

My life as a cattle hauler

(Can you believe this lady, she must be crazy)

My parents just never knew what I would bring home back in the days when we lived on the farm.

After I got old enough to drive, a whole new world was opened up to me. New travels, new roads and lots of new experiences were now at my beck and call.
Since we lived in a two story farm house, my upstairs room was pretty much off limits to everyone.

There would be days though, after I had continually failed to pick up my clean laundry off of the steps and Mama would have to enter into those four walls with the clean laundry just to clear a path on the stairway.

One time, she entered my domain to find I had given haven to three baby ducks. They were perfectly contect waddling around in their box, but after they were discovered they had to graduate to the pond down by the house.

Naturally, stray dogs always found their way to my car. For a time, there seemed to be no end to new wet noses and four cuddly paws showing up on our porch.

Dog food finally got a little too expensive for my checking account and when I was told I would start replacing the eggs the dogs were eating, I thought it was time to slow down on overpopulating our farm with dogs.

Perhaps one of the strangest animals I have ever brought home in my car was a calf. Not only once did I do this, but twice.

The first one was a black Angus calf that a mother had rejected. When my friend told me about the calf, I asked him how much he wanted for it. He replied, "five bucks." I pulled the money out of my pocket and headed toward the car.

"You are going to take it home in your car?" he asked. Of course, I was; my only means of transportation was a three seater station wagon and I sure wasn't going to drive all the way back home just to get a truck. Besides, the calf was just a few days old. How much trouble could he be?
He wasn't; he rode quietly. As I arrived home, showing off my new acquisitiion, Daddy proceeded to tell me how he would not bottle feed that calf for me at all and that he was totally my responsibility.

The next time, however, was a different story. At another farm, another time, the guy told me he had a white charlais calf he needed to get rid of. Now who better to take that cow than the bottle feeing queen of North Logan?

Well, we loaded that calf in my station wagon, much to his amazement, and off to home I went.

This calf didn't ride as well as the other one I had brought home.

He continually jumped over those three seats back and forth; when he landed in the front seat with me one time, I began to worry about my safety as well as his.

I stopped in Lewisburg (about five miles from home) to see if Daddy would come and get the wayward calf in his truck. When he asked where I was, he told me since I had come that far, just to come the rest of the way and maybe this would teach me about trying to bring cows home in a car.

After trying to explain to the calf that he was just going to have to settle down, I headed my car home. Driving very slowly, gripping the steering wheel and learning to duck when needed, I made it home.

Now a puppy licking your face while driving can be really sweet and usually brings a smile to your face, but calf slobbers are another story. That was the end to my cattle hauling days.

have a beeutiful day

Here's everyone is enjoying the changing of the seasons as much I as am. I love seeing pumpking showing up everywhere, the earth is cooler, leaves are falling and it's time to dig out those sweaters. Oh, how I love fall.

Kindness

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

If there is one advantage to growing older it is that one tends to soften their perspective of the world as well as their expectations of others around them. We lose so many people in our lives without ever telling them how much they meant to us or worse still, we let that person slip from this world with angry words standing between two people and never resolved.

I read a long time ago to be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. To me there have never been any truer words. If a person lashes out at you it is usually because they have put up a wall of anger to try to insulate themself against the pain or hurt they may be suffering.

We tend to measure people against a yard stick we think they must measure up to. Judging people on your own expectations of them is wrong and will never gain you any peace in this lifetime. Some people are very content in acquiring the fancy automobiles, the big house with the big tax bill, and all of the worldly possessions they can acquire while others are also very content with a simple lifestyle. But just because one does not desire the other doesn't make either one right or wrong.

It was seeking out the worse in people that finally burned me out on journalism. As you all know, it is the bad news that sells newspapers and gets the ratings on television. But as Charles Kuralt once said: "The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines."

Just because someone is marching to the beat of a different drum, don't criticize or beat up the drummer because it isn't in tune with what you want to hear or live.

Sometimes that one act of a kind word is the only chance you will have to show someone what your total worth is. All of this bickering, back stabbing, finger pointing that goes on in this world today is going to be washed away one day, and if that is the only thing someone remembers about you, then it is your loss.

When I stopped expecting people to change to what my expectations of them should be and just started accepting them for who they were, I began to find more of a feeling of contentment in my life. If you don't like someone or the way they live or cannot accept the things about them you do not like, then walk away. But first look at yourself, examine what you may need to change about yourself in order to like the other man better.

Elvis, snakes and Palin

I have been so busy making Elvis pot holders this week for the upcoming craft show this weekend that I have started dreaming about him.

I am not complaining though, since in my dreams he looked like he did in that 1968 comeback special. Now ladies, that was a good lookin man in those days and I keep waking up with a smile on my face.

Dusty called last night asking Mark how to cook snake. YUCK. When Mark found out it was just an old black snake he was wanting to cook he told him he didn't think it would be very good. I called Dusty back to tell him if he needed some money to go to McDonalds to come by and we would give it to him.

Sorry folks, but I have no desire to eat something that the main cuisine is a rodent. We never did hear back from Dusty so I don't know if he had snake for supper or hopefully came to his senses to get a plain old hamburger.

Did you watch the debates last night? I usually don't watch these things as I am not one who is going to argue politics with anyone. I make up my mind, cast my vote and leave the arguing to the commentators as well as the rest of the world who chooses this agenda.

I have to say I was impressed with Palin, a lot more than Biden. Anyone who knows my family knows we are Democrats, have been for a long time, but this November I am not voting the party, I am voting for the person who I believe is going to keep my two sons safe.

Since I now have two sons wearing a military uniform it has made me listen a lot closer to what the candidates are saying. I have to admit, Obama scares the living daylights out of me. McCain, while I know he can identify with our military better than anyone else, I don't want four more years of Bush doctrine.

So I haven't made up my mind yet. I just think Palin should be given credit for a job well done. All day long critics were talking about how she wouldn't be able to hold up against Biden. She not only held up, but I think out did him.

On Nov. 4, I just may write in Hillary for president and pull the lever for Palin for vice president. I just pray God will put the right man into that Oval Office that He wants to lead this Christian nation.

I am off to the Pumpkin Patch with grandkids and camera in hand. Have a good one people.

(The photo is of my grandson eating a hot dog at a craft show in Auburn. Nothing better than a southern festival with hot dogs.)

Today is Oct. 2

Today would have been my parents' 60th anniversary. When they married way back in 1948 they told my grandparents they were going to the county fair in Franklin, Ky., the same place where June Carter and Johnny Cash got married. I have never heard what Grandmama and Pappy's reaction was to the news, but I don't think I would have wanted to face Pappy with the news of that elopement.

Sunday we finally finished the moving fiasco. My mother is now in her two bedroom apartment and all of her and Daddy's treasures have been divided between four households.

My greatest treasure, by far, is the big cupboard that my grandmother kept in her kitchen. The bow face cabinet went to live with my sister in Bowling Green, the Jackson Press to the sister's house up the road, and since my sister who lives in Columbia, Tn. didn't want the grandfather clock she let my daughter have it.

And boxes and boxes of glassware are everywhere, all gone to find new homes with four proud new owners who have been told the history of each piece.

This is the last house we will have memories of Daddy living in. The house we all considered home on the farm burned several years ago. In a way I am glad that house is gone, because now we have our memories of it, and don't have to see what other occupants have might have changed about the home place.

We divided all of Daddy's books up, everything had been left as it was when he died five years ago. Since he was an avid reader, there were quite a few books to go through. His jacket was still hanging on the hook in the utility room where he had hung it himself for the last time. Since I had been working on this moving project for over three weeks I just didn't have the energy to draw for another item so we let my two younger sisters flip for it. Even though the "baby" of the family won the flip she let Ramona have it. They both cried and I had to walk away before the tears started to flow from my eyes as well.

My mother has worked very hard at this being a peaceable distribution of her things and I think, considering the amount of possessions we went through, she achieved her goal.
One of the saddest aspects of losing a parent, or both parents, is the splitting of a family. Siblings do not speak any longer because one feels the other was given more or treated better than another.Or someone gets an "uppity air" and decides they want to be the one who runs the show.

We drew for everything that was in the house, so everyone got an equal number. There are no need for anyone's feelings to have been stepped on.

We all parted as sisters, a family still in tact.