Tears!

The Eagle Cries

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Well, I have taken a deep breath and shed a few tears after our election returns. Everyone was surprised, and I don't know where they got it wrong, except I think some of the people that were polled were ashamed or afraid to say who they were actually going to vote for. How else could they have gotten it so wrong? Actually the majority of people voted for the woman but she didn't win the electoral vote! Which I wish they would do away with. Any election should be decided by who gets the most votes! I was hoping I would be able to tell my great granddaughter that she could grow up to be President of the United States. But I wonder if we will ever be able to say that. I don't understand why people think that only a man can be the head of the country. When a woman is actually stronger. Who has the babies? Who takes care of the household? A woman usually takes her time to think things through before she makes a decision. I can only hope and pray that the president elect is not the same man as the man who ran for the office. If he is that, he will be an embarrassment to our wonderful country. I am ashamed of his actions to women. I am ashamed of his actions to small businesses by not paying them when they did the work. But I will keep an open mind and hope for the best.

Tomorrow we celebrate Veterans Day in the USA. I would like to add my thanks to all of the veterans that fought and died for our country. 

Have a great week end.

Country Winter Painting

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VOTE!

 First Snow on the Farm

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I have a bit of time to write on the blog so I am going to encourage everyone in the US to get out and vote now, tomorrow or on Tuesday. It is perhaps the most important election in my time. I am not going to suggest how you vote, just vote. We are lucky in Washington state and we vote ONLY by mail, so you can take your time to do your duty. We sent our ballots in this week. 

Are you beginning to think about Thanksgiving? I am. We are invited to our son's home Saturday to start our Thanksgiving celebrations. And I will have our small Thanksgiving dinner with our kids on Thanksgiving day. This will be the 59th year in a row I have fixed dinner on Thanksgiving. The first Thanksgiving dinner I made was just 9 days before our daughter was born. I remember I kept having to sit down and rest between cleaning and cooking. I was 19 years old and had  a 1 year old to take care of, too. We couldn't afford turkey so we had chicken. My Mom raised chickens so if I remember right, I think she probably gave me the chickens! At times during the past 59 years we had as many as 30 people for dinner, but as happens, families grow and then they get smaller. I have loved every Thanksgiving day but will probably have to pass it on to someone else one of these days, but as long as I can do it, I hope to be able to do so.

I just noticed I have some new fans. Welcome and hope you check in every so often. 

I am working on winter designs and am going to have to start submitting more because I have so many made already. 

So get out and vote if you are eligible to do so. It is your right and if you don't vote, don't complain!

Thanks Giving

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Trick or Treat!!!

Down in the Valley
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Happy Halloween everyone. It is pouring rain here so it won't be a very nice Trick or Treat evening for the kiddies! I have bags of treats ready for the great grandkids, as I am sure they will show up.

I remember the "good old days" when our kids were young and would go out trick or treating. We had to drive them around because our closest neighbor (when we lived in the mountains was over a half mile away and down a long driveway). Back then no one gave out boughten candy, etc. The women would bake cupcakes, cookies and candy for all the neighbor kids. And the costumes the kids wore were all made by Mom with stuff put together from what you had available. To me that was the good old days but times have changed so much. And not to the good. I think one of the things that changed it all was when someone put razor blades in something. I can't remember what it was, but...how sad is that? But of course we knew exactly who our neighbors were back then and had been neighbors for years.

Last week was one of those week when you want to pull out your hair. I had been nursing my desktop monitor for a couple weeks and thought I had the problem figured out. I thought it was the graphic card driver, since my grandson had to replace mine before I could update to Windows 10. But after a few days it started acting up again. I had purchased a new one the last time I went to Costco and had just about decided I could take it back. I am so glad I didn't because I had to hook up the new one. Well the new one has HDMI cable and not the old serial port kind. I didn't even know if my computer had HDMI since my grandson built it quite a few years ago. Luckily it does. But I couldn't get my speakers to work after I got the monitor hooked up! Well, I had accidentally unplugged the electrical cord to the battery back up. I have so many ugly black wires, etc. stuck in behind everything! Tacky looking!

We went to a family celebration Saturday night and it was so special. It was a very special occasion and I won't go into the reason for it but there was lots of food and lots of tears flowing. Something we had been keeping our fingers crossed for for years.

This October has been the wettest October in history in Western WA. It has not rained only about 5 days out of the whole month! And they are saying our winter will be colder and wetter than usual. Not happy about that but maybe they will be wrong.

Hope your Halloween was treats instead of tricks!
Our little goblins have been here and got their treats. So darn cute! We had Spiderman, a Unicorn and a Swat guy!

Wind and Rain!

Sunset at the Beach

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Weather! The east coast got it last week and now it is in our corner of the US. Rain and wind and more wind to come. Supposed to get up to 70 MPH gusts. I don't like it. But I guess it is better than earthquakes, hurricanes and typhoons. I am expecting the lights to go out any minute. I have a battery back up for my computers, router, etc. so it gives me at least 5 minutes to shut everything down without it crashing. 

I think we got our new TV set up finally. Not the way I want it, but it is about as good as we are gonna get it. I haven't even tried to turn the DVD-Blue Ray player on yet. I am sure it will have to be all re-set but we don't watch it that much since we have Netflix on the TV now. We had to watch Netflix through the DVD player before. I tried the On Demand with the Comcast remote so the great grandkids could watch something different and they finally agreed on something, so I clicked OK! And then they asked if I wanted to buy it? No, I did not want to buy it, so we shut it off! Cheap Great Grandma!

Can you believe what is happening in our Presidential election? It is not very Presidential if you ask me, but what does this old Granny know about anything? I am afraid it doesn't make our country look very intelligent. I am at the point now I will just be glad when it is over. 

 

Grandfather's House

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/grandfather-s-house-by-madonna/ 

The above theme reminds me so much of my Grandparent's farmhouse. It was a homestead that my Mother's family had owned since right after the Civil War when my great grandparents loaded up and traveled from Illinois to Iowa in a covered wagon. He was a carpenters mate on the USS Cairo during the War so he built a small house. They lived in that for awhile until later when they built the big house as the family grew.  My Mother was born in the big house. I think the house is gone now but I don't know for sure. I know my cousin's sold it when there weren't any son's that wanted to farm. It really made me sad when I heard it was sold. I really felt like a part of me was gone. That happens all through a person's life. Little parts keep falling away. New parts are added but we still miss the ones that are gone.

I hope you all have a wonderful week end and I hope your weather is better than ours. Have a good one!

October!

Legends of the Fall

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As you can probably tell, I love all the little cabins, etc. Always dreamed about living in a big log house. Guess it is the western life that I was born with!

A professional psychotherapist in the UK asked for permission to use my Lilac Prediction wallpaper for her website and since I was very pleased she asked, I gave her permission. You can check it out at: http://www.carolinecounselling.co.uk/ I think it looks very nice and I wish her the best of luck in her new venture. The way things are in this world right now, she could be a very busy professional. 

We were watching Blue Bloods last night and all of a sudden the new TV started talking to us, telling us that 'Danny is running", etc. so I had to figure out how to get that taken off. I love being old with all this technology!! My dear hubby hates everything tech. He has a flip cell phone! But he can fix your car or your hot water heater so I am not complaining! But it does get frustrating. I really don't think a television has to have so much "stuff" on it. I got on Amazon last night and ordered my husband a Big Number remote so I am hoping I can get it synced to the TV so it will work for him. He just wants to be able to change channel and volume so I am keeping my fingers crossed it will work. 

 Getting things around for our 3 year old great grandson's over night visit. And then the Hawks play tomorrow early. Our daughter always comes for a visit on Sunday afternoon and we snack and visit so will be a busy one.

You all have a great week end and good luck to Caroline Marshall.

Losing September

Fall Forest Refuge

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Two more days and September will be over. Wow, is all I can say! We had a fairly nice September but not as good as last year's as far as weather goes. 

Did you watch the first Presidential Debate? Sounds like at least 84 million people did. I have to admit I really enjoyed it. And am looking forward to the next one.

Our old TV started acting up again last week. It didn't want to come on and the red light for the lamp kept coming on. Sometimes it took me a half hour to get it up and running, so we finally decided we were going to have to finally break down and buy a new one so we went to Costco (only place we will purchase electronic items) and couldn't find a parking place so we came home and I ordered it on line. When I told my husband we weren't going to get it for 10 days, he said to go ahead and buy the replacement lamp. We had to replace it several years ago. It was $248 from Sony and Amazon had it for $34. So I ordered it again and it was only $22.00  this time! We got it in 2 days, had the lamp in in 10 minutes and we had TV! We couldn't believe how bright it was. We knew it was getting darker and darker but when it happens so gradually you don't realize how bad it really is! 

Then we had to go to the Comcast store and get a box! It is totally ridiculous that you can't just plug the cable into the TV and get a picture. Our old TV had a cable card and it was a one time charge of $15 and that was it. The man at Comcast said we wouldn't have to pay extra each month for the box, BUT we shall see. We told him we weren't going to have a new tv set for awhile as we hadn't even looked yet. No problem, he said, "When you hook it up, call this number and they will activate it." But when we turned the old set on that night, it said we weren't authorized! He had unauthorized the cable card, so I had to call and get it reactivated. So I am wondering about that monthly fee.

The new TV is out for delivery right now but I don't think it will get here so I will have enough time to get everything set up. So I have that to look forward to tomorrow.

Then our hot water heater started acting up. Actually it has been for awhile but my husband always fixes everything and for the last 6 months I have complained every once in awhile because the water wasn't hot enough when I washed my hair, etc. It is strange because sometimes it is nice and hot and then if I don't use a lot of water that day, it won't stay hot. So, he finally called the people who installed it and they are supposed to come out and look at it. If we have to replace it I think we will go back to electric because we can install that, plus they are much cheaper than the propane. 

They say everything happens in threes so I wonder what will break next!

Jack and Black Cats

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I have been working on some Halloween themes and they are so much fun to make. It seems a long time before Halloween but a lot of people collect a file of their favorite holiday designs so I don't want to put them all on at one time. I try to gradually submit them. 

Our 3 year old great grandson is staying with us this Sat. night. He has never stayed overnight but I am sure he will be find. He is such a fun little guy and we enjoy him so much. Makes you feel happy to be around a 3 year old.

Well I better get back to work. Everyone have a great week end and Go Hawks!

I am just hoping that Wilson's knee and ankle hold up!

September

Autumn Buck and Doe

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September is here so I guess we all have to hunker down and get ready for winter. I put the fall door decoration on the back door this morning. And got out a fall arrangement for the dining room table. I guess I might as well brighten things up even if I can't brighten up my mindset. My husband took a great grandson grouse hunting this morning. He was afraid he wouldn't get to go out with great grandpa this year because school was starting, but he doesn't have to start until the day after Labor Day. He spent the night so they could get an early start. I feel so thankful that we get to spend time with our great grandkids.

I spent yesterday pickling with our daughter and granddaughter. We spent as much time laughing as we did making pickles. Got 80 pounds of cucumbers processed. And one bottle of wine gone!  Last year was the first year my granddaughter did pickles so I gave her the old family recipe. My Grandma Joe's dill pickle recipe..the recipe my grandmother, my Mom and myself used for years. The recipe has to be over 100 years old but that was the dill pickle that all of her friends liked best. She made several different recipes, marked them and blind tested. So I guess my Grandma Joe knew what she was doing. She didn't have a lot of recipes. She just did it! Her buttermilk biscuits couldn't be beat and she made them every morning, without a recipe. She would add stuff till the texture was right and rolled them out on the kitchen table to cut out. They were so good...with fresh honey. She had another recipe in her head that we tried to get her to write down...it was something our family called Hot Stuff! It was shredded cabbage and some kinds of hot chili peppers, etc. that she canned every year. It was a family favorite but not one of us could manage to copy it so Hot Stuff died when Grandma did. We all tried!

I just read a series of books I enjoyed very much. They were The Laramie Series by Karen J Hasley. They were so good. You can read them book by book but it is better if you start with Lily's Sister and read them in order. I am hoping there will be a 7th. I get all of my books from Amazon so I can read them on my tablet. And I get a lot/most of them free. I subscribed to Book Bub and they send you a list of books in categories you choose that are free or lower priced. I think I managed to get every one of them free over time. I just save it on the Amazon Cloud until I get the entire series. The author manages to bring members from prior books in the series to be the main character in the new one, so it is mainly all about a family. The first one starts right after the Civil War and the last one was early 1900's. 

Well, I should get back to work. I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day. And thanks for taking the time to read my silly blog. 

One Leaf Fallen

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