That Hurricane Ike was something else! And we just got the leftovers! From the high winds that we had, gusting to 55 miles and hour, I would not want to be anywhere near a real live one! Sure do feel for all those people down there in its path!

We pretty much stayed in today. I did some laundry, vacuuming, made a chocolate cake, (it was Ed's birthday today), rice krispy treats with carmels and cashews in it. These were for adults, and were pretty tasty! But now my mouth is sore from the crunch of it. Ouch!

I put some sliced apples in the dehydrater to. We like dried apples and eat them like candy. That is why I don't make them very often. But it is apple season, so I should put some in the freezer, right?

Last weekend I canned several pints, but couldn't get my butt in gear today. It was such a lazy, laid back day today. Had the house windows open, until the wind got so strong it was blowing everything off of the desk and table, so had to close those just to preserve housekeeping!

Here is a photo of Maddie, checking out the pile of old hay that Ed was burning. She was so curious! What is that stuff! He had to run her off a couple of times!

Here she is getting tooo close! The other two came to look then went on about their business, but she had to get right there and see what was going on.

I noticed the kittens batting at something near the woodpile and went to check it out and this is what they were playing with! It was shaking its tail and striking at them! It is about the thickness of a pencil and is about 8 inches long! I got it into a bucket and took it up into the neighbors hayfield and let it go. I've never seen a snake like this one before. Have no idea what kind it is. Anyone else know? I don't like snakes, of any size, they give me the 'willies'!!

Nuttin New

Since there is nothing much going on in our neck of the woods, here are some random thoughts and a photo or two.

I have been busy making spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, and apple butter. I have made two batches of apple butter and that should do us for about 5 years! Well, not really, but it should last us a while! I like to have lots of pints of spaghetti sauce and chili sauce on hand, but we didn't grow any red tomatoes this year, so have had to buy them. Therefore, I shan't make as much as I'd like to. But NEXT YEAR, I would like to have lots of our own RED tomatoes!

I did have one nasty mishap! Last weekend we hauled a load of firewood home and as I was about to help Ed unload it, I fell off of the back of the trailer. I took a step and thought there was enough of the trailer to step onto. There wasn't! I scraped my arm as I went down, and twisted my knee as I hit the ground. It made me cry it hurt so bad, but I'm back to my usual self now, with no permanent harm done, Praise the Lord!

Oh, and I had another messy mishap too! Last Saturday, as I was busy in the kitchen I decided to do a load of laundry at the same time. But the washing machine has a bit of a problem. When the cold water is supposed to run into the machine, it just trickles in and can take 30 minutes to fill up! So Ed hooked up a water hose to the nearby bathroom bathtub faucet. I put the hose end into the washmachine and went back to the kitchen, intending to come back in a few minutes. But I got busy with my tomatoes and FORGOT!!! All of a sudden I remembered it and by that time it was tooooooooooo late! There was an inch of water on the floor! I turned it off and frantically scooped up three, five gallon buckes full and dumped them outside. Then called Ed to come and help me clean up the mess. He used the wet/dry vac, (which I had not thought to use). We had to take everything out of the room and put it on the porch to dry out. We couldn't move the freezer so just used towels to dry underneath. What a mess! But we finally got it all dried out and back together again. Sure won't do that again!

We had a large maple tree taken down a few weeks ago. It was between the house and the barn, so if it fell, it would likely hit one or the other. It had a large hole in one side of it that has been there for as long as we have lived here. Probably for many, many years.

Does it have holes or what? After it came down, we found out how rotten it really was! The whole tree was full of holes! Now we have a huge gap where the sky shines down on us!!

My Grandmother Bread just came out of the oven, come and have a piece with me!

Here is a photo I took of a funny looking little man! I think he is kind of cute!