A Little of This and That

It was so nice to get chilly this morning while feeding. Love, love, love these cool nights and mornings. That just means winter is right around the corner! I can't wait to sit by a nice warm fire with a nice hot cup of tea listening to the cold winter winds blowing outside.

Today was a busy but productive one. There are 6 racks of cinnamon sage in the dehydrator, 5 pints of pear preserves and 8 pints of pear butter cooling on the kitchen counter. Broccoli, collards, cucumbers, and turnip greens are all coming up in the fall garden nicely. I picked tomatoes, peppers, okra, and a watermelon out of one of the summer gardens. Gave Kuma and Rusty a much needed bath, vacuumed the rugs, swept and mopped the floors, raked the chicken pens, cleaned the rabbit cages and raked all the poop and carried to the mulch pile. Yes, it was a nice busy but hot day. I am hoping the hot days will be over after this week. Am hoping Hurricane Earl blows in the fall weather.

Had nice phone chats with Maggie and Megan today. Maggie is absolutely loving her new job. The girls are loving school, well except for some reason "K" doesn't like home ec. Who doesn't like home ec????? They were going to the library after school till Maggie picked them up but seems they got into a little trouble and now go to the Boys and Girls club. Maggie can relax and not worry about them while she finishes up at work.
Megan is loving her new apartment, still loving working at the doctors office and still walking the track and losing weight. I got to talk to G and Q. G had a slumber party for her birthday. She had 5 girls sleep over or should I say stay over as I doubt there was much sleeping going on. Q is playing football again this year. He is running back on offense and quarterback on defense or at least I think that's the positions he told me. He made 3 first downs  when he had the ball. He made 7 tackles, blocked a field goal and something else this bad grandma forgot. I went to every game last year but this year am only getting to go to one. Q asked me to come to his game on Sept. 11th. Its his birthday but he has a home game that night. I am going to be there with my cowbell, signs, and my screaming voice. I can't wait to see him play. He is very excited this year and told me his name and number were announced over the speaker after more plays the first game than it was the whole time last year. I think he has finally found his niche in football.
Didn't talk to Melody today but she had college classes as well as work. She had a awesome weekend though (read her facebook page). They went to a family reunion and then spent the afternoon watching old movies as a family. Sounds pretty relaxing to me.

Today is my oldest brother Marshall's 69th birthday. He lives in beautiful Sapphire Valley, NC. I don't see him very often or even talk often on the phone but know he is always there for me. I am the baby of the family so he and my other brother Don always looked out for me. They may have been mean to me sometimes and teased me all the time growing up but no one else could ever mess with me or they had my brothers to deal with. Marshall is loving retirement. He hardly ever goes off his mountain. He doesn't like or have answering machine, computer, microwave, toaster, or most small appliances. He loves to fly fish and tie his on flies. He loves having his grandkids spend the summer with him. They help in his garden and go fishing with him. His wife died years ago but he enjoys cooking for grands and the rest of the family. He was blonde headed, blue eyed and tall growing up. The rest of us were short, brown or black headed with brown eyes. He took after my grandpa while the rest of us took after daddy and mother. The picture is of mother, Marshall and Don. Taken before I was even a twinkle in daddy's eye. LOL  Happy Birthday Big Brother! Hope I catch you by the phone later.