911 - Help!

We had an exciting and scary time at the farm Sunday afternoon. My DH has contracted a young man to come do some welding for us and build a good fence in front our place for extra security and to keep people from turning around their car in our front yard (yes, stupid, insensitive jerky people DO do that). DH and the welder were doing their thing with the auger poking holes in the ground for the fence posts.

Me? Well, I was watering my mums (they are in the last throes of blooming) and pansies, when we all startled at the sound of gunfire. Pop! Pop! and then several more Pops! To our east across the front 25 or so acres runs a power line and a pole towards the end of the pasture. Boom! The transformer blew up, I'm tellin' ya it exploded! Fire and brimstone rained down upon our land and then the fire ran down a length of the power line burning up part of the line and raining down MORE brimstone! All across the front width of our pasture. DH and the welder ran down toward the pole to see what happened and quickly vamoosed out of there when the wire started burning.

I got up on the porch where I could see better, and a line of fire was engulfing the hay and the south wind was blowing it several feet at a time across the pasture. I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911, and the operator patched us through to our local volunteer fire departments. In minutes the first one showed up with two small trucks. They took turns spraying and then had to run down the road to the water tower and fill their trucks back up. In the meantime, the other department sent a couple of big trucks out they, too, started spraying.

Gradually, they got the fire under control and in about 30 minutes had it contained and sputterin'. It burned out to the road, too, where it stopped short of jumping the road and burning 250 acres of Prime High-Dollar Tifton Horse Hay. All in all we lost about 25 acres. It's blacker'n black. But next spring it oughta come in beautifully and hopefully get rid of some bahia that was runnin'

through there messin' up the coastal.

Those beautiful shiny red fire trucks were black and wet and gloppy and so were the faces of the firemen. Now you know you're in po-dunk when the volunteer fire departments' wives are drivin' the trucks. But they all did a great job! I imagine we'll send 'em both a donation.

Also, one of the local TV stations came out and filmed part of it. My dear daughter who loves her parents so much and is so proud of them, flat out told me, "mom, you need to go in the house. Do NOT let them interview you!" How's that for love??? And then she said " MOM, make dad pull his jeans up! He's havin' a severe crack attack! Do you want to see THAT on TV!!!" (and he really was, bendin' over and diggin' and helpin' the welder) Which made me want us to be interviewed even more, but alas and alack, the reporters never did come up to the house. : ( I personally thought we'd've fit right into our little po-dunk community at the farm!

The Lord was watchin' out for us. If we'd not been out there, if the wind had been blowin' from the other direction, if, if, if, it would have burned up our little farmhouse, our shed, and all the work we've put into it over the last 18 months would have gone up in smoke.

Thank goodness for volunteers - of ALL KINDS! Where would we be without them?

It's Finally Here!

It's Finally here!!! Miss Sandy at Quill Cottage had a giveaway several weeks ago and she sent me a beautiful handmade gift. Only the Post Office must have delivered it to the wrong place for it only showed up just today! What a nice surprise when I got home from work. I've been checking on it at the Post Office and hoping that since we live in such a little town that perhaps the person who received my gift would send it on to me. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but it's here. Look!

When I opened the little package, it had a sweet note to me and her Quill Cottage card on the envelope. A lacy paper doily tied with a vintage tag wrapped up a sweet little tiny notebook that she had adorned in wonderful fall colors! On the front it has old lace, buttons and the word "inspire".

I think I'll use it for telephone #s, and/or birthdays! Thanks, Miss Sandy, for your thoughtful gift. Isn't it wonderful to receive hand-made items that come from someone's own heart and talents? I love things like that and treasure them so much.

Now, it'll be up to me to pass such a nice Gift-Away on to someone else.

I still can't get over how many nice ladies I've met via blogging. It just touches my heart to read your words of encouragement, heartache, joy, sadness, laughter and tears, and I feel like I can be myself here. I also feel like the "right" people will find me, and I'll find them - those who I make a connection to - kindred souls, if you will.

I've tried to explain it to my husband, and he just jokes about it and kids me about it. Since my son is a songwriter in Nashville, DH is trying to collaborate on a song about me being a "blogger" - I'm sure some kind of silly spoof. I'm sure they'll do it, too, just to irritate me. They are both big jokesters and LOVE to get under my skin. I try to be a good sport.

We were in College Station a couple of years ago with Adam, his best friend in the Corps, John, John's mom and several other friends eating at On the Border. We had a huge table of people, and were placing our orders. DH wound up at one end of the table and I wound up at the other. When I placed my order, my loving, sweet DH said in a loud voice, "Man, that gal can eat!" Everyone looked at me to see what my reaction would be. My kids died laughing (cuz they know their dad) and some of the other adults looked slightly bewildered and wondered what to do. I smiled and started laughing, I'm sure my face lit up cherry red, and then all the other people started laughing. I imagine the people sitting near us heard, too! I still haven't gotten him back for that one!

Which leads me to thinking about all the silly things he puts in my Christmas stocking every single year. Not ordinary things. He always has liked to come up with embarrasing or totally off the wall stuff to surprise me with. It's okay most of the time, but there have been several times when my kids have said," mom, let me see, what's that?" when I unwrapped a box of condoms, or the year I got a camo g-string. It's not like everybody's tearing into their own presents or stocking. At our house, we all take turns opening stuff so everyone can see. Plus, it makes Christmas last longer. I've gotten so many wierd things I am almost scared to open my stocking. I have to usually just tear into the end of it and make sure it's okay before I open it up in front of anybody else - I never know what to expect. I keep thinking I'll outdo him every year, but not so far!

Well, gotta run - the weekend is here and DH will be home soon. I'm going to stay home tonight from the farm - my house is a mess and I've got to get some stuff done. My kids will all be home for the holidays and so I've got alot to do. Can't wait til the last minute! I'll visit you all later!

Clay

Well, here's my sister and her son, Clay, who is leaving for Navy bootcamp in a week. We all hate to see him leave, especially my sister. We had a wonderful time at his going-away party, and sis decorated her home and yard in Navy stuff. Her hubby is hoping his schedule will allow him to go with her to Clay's graduation in Great Lakes (Chicago area). If he can't, I wish I could go with her. Clay's always been my buddy. Ever since he was a little bitty thing. He's always got a big hug for his Aunt Vickie. He'll hang all over me. I love it! Sis is 5'9", so you can see how tall Clay is! He's been a beanpole for a long time, and they tell him that he'll be a "double rat" for awhile. That means he has to eat first and then go eat again at each meal. They want to pack some pounds on him. Must be nice....

I'll be so glad when tomorrow is over with, and the decision has been made as to which candidate has been elected President. I think it's going to be ever so close, and we may all be surprised at the silent majority that comes out to vote. There are still lots of God-fearing, Christian people in this land that are praying for God's will to be done. I'm one of 'em and I know most of you that I follow are, too. Let's all band together and be on our knees tomorrow, in our hearts if not physically, and ask God to do what's best for our great land and to continue blessing her.

Halloween Night

Hi all my dear ones! Guess you're all either going with your kids trick-or-treating or answering the door. I'm answering the door tonite. Princess was home last year and she loves Halloween. She loves seeing the little kiddos all dressed up. Scuse me..... A little two-year old glow-in-the-dark skeleton! Very cute~~~ Princess and some of her friends are having their own Halloween party tonight at their townhouse. She's going to be a safari hunter (who'd have thought...)

I have Twix, Snickers, Bubble Gum in ooky colors that slimes you when you bite it, candy Dracula fangs with blood oozing out (I tried to get what my kids would have liked), Skulls & Bones tart candy, and some other Chocolate stuff, oh yeah, Tootsie Pops. The kids so far LOVE the Dracula teeth! One of my best Halloween memories as a kid was - my friend down the street, well, her daddy worked at Sunbeam bakery. On Halloween, he'd bring home little tiny loaves of fresh bread in tiny little wrappers. They were so cute and they smelled heavenly! We had to go to the Biggs' house FIRST to make sure they didn't run out of bread before we got there. Then we'd hoard our bread loaf and just take a bite or two at a time to make it last!

It's been a long week at work. Since we now have a new office manager, he's keeping me pretty busy re-organizing, re-arranging, re-filing, you name it. I have to admit that he's doing a really good job - very kind, upbeat guy, and he's going to get our office whipped into shape - it's just making me have lots more work to do. I guess when we get all the kinks worked out and it's running like he wants it to, then things will settle down and we'll operate like a well-oiled machine. I've been swamped. Almost too tired when I get home to do anything to my house. I just wanna fall down on the couch and not do anything.

Margo and I wound up at a neat Estate/Barn sale last weekend. I found a couple of cool items, and she did, too. As we went into the house, there was this neat arbor all grown up with different ivys. It was pretty neat, still had some flowers on it.

Tomorrow, we are going to my sister's house a couple of hours away. Her son is about to go into the Navy and she's having a combination Going-Away, Thanksgiving, Christmas party for him and we'll all be there. She's even doing a Thanksgiving dinner. THat's what he wanted. Hope to show you some photos of our get-together later. I think Mom and Dad are riding with us.

My DH is beginning to have problems with sciatica. He's never had any health problems at all since we've been married. It's really bothering him, not sure whether it's the pain or the thought of actually having a health problem. I think THAT is what is really bugging him. He likes to brag to people that he's been so healthy all his life and that he never even had childhood shots. (Of course he did - he just likes to mouth off). He's always accused the rest of us of being sickly weaklings. Guess I can tell him he's joined the ranks of sickly weakling now!

Doin' Girlstuff...

Hi, I'm back from visiting my daughter at her college town. I don't have any photos for you tonite, but let me just say we had the best weekend. Of course, we spent the entire day Saturday shopping, eating, and visiting. I am so impressed with the growth I've seen in her in only a couple of months. She seems to be the most mature one in her townhome she shares with 2 other friends. She does the shopping, the organizing, the cleaning, etc. She shares in the cooking. Unfortunately, her friends are slobs, to put it mildly. My girl is becoming more independent and self-reliant and isn't that what we all want?

As we crawled up in her bed Saturday night to watch a movie, she laid her head in my lap and said "tickle me, mom". That was always our "thing". I tickle her neck and play with her hair, and arms and back. She loves to have her feet tickled too. Over the years, no tellin' how many hours I've tickled. When she was little she would curl up by me in the pew at church and I would tickle her during the sermon. Even now, when the sermon starts, she'll lay her hand across my lap at church for me to rub her arm and the palm of her hand.

As we were leaving church this morning to go eat lunch I was telling her how much fun I'd had this weekend with just me 'n her doin' "girlstuff", she smiled and looked over at me, and I said "you miss me" like she does to me sometimes. She grinned even bigger and said, " OOOOO-KKKKKay, I miss you."

I think she was glad to have me there in her world for a couple of days. I know I was glad to be in hers. I miss her, too.