Paris, October 2011

Our little feathered friends.

We have caught glimpses of beautiful birds on our property, but haven't been able to see them well. So, to get them up close and personal, I filled the bird feeder. We get mostly little finches. This isn't a great picture, but they are beautiful little birds. The one on the tree trunk, I have no idea what it is, but it lands on the trunk at the top and runs down. Then we have the Cardinals! A female and a male. I know we have brilliant blue birds, but haven't been able to get a picture of them yet!

Better than I ever dreamed...

Well, it took most of two days, but my quilt shop is organized, for the most part. I still have a few boxes of books, thread, etc. to go through and organize, but this is wonderful!!

Our little ladies...really their Alex's....

While we were in Kentucky for Thanksgiving, Alex 'allowed' us to take home 5 chickens. Stan really has wanted chickens since we first looked at this property! There is a wonderful chicken coop...just sitting there! SO not right. Stan asked Alex if we could take a few home with us and we would replace them when our eggs hatch...which we have candled and most are doing very well! The bottom picture is a long view of the fenced in coop, totally fenced, including the top! They must have had game fowl in here. The chickens are loving the greens that are growing. They handled the move well and are already laying eggs!! The black chicken is a Turken, it's neck is supposed to be bald. The others are leghorns, including the red one.

When sleep will NOT come.....

Today Stan and I put together my quilting table. It was NOT fun, took hours, and left my hip and knee in a LOT of pain! I soaked and went to bed early, but couldn't sleep. So, at 1 AM I got up and made these!! These are pillow cases for Rising Star Outreach Center in India. It is a group who takes care of the children of lepers. It is a boarding school. In India, it is most common for people to sleep on mats, on the floor, with pillows. Most of these children don't have either. My sister in law, Gloria, and her daughter, Holly, volunteered with both the center and the lepers for a month. Gloria wanted to at least have all the children have pillows and asked for members of the family to make pillow cases for the children, all a little different so they would know which one was their's. It was fun to do this. Having so much, it's difficult to imagine those who don't even have a pillow to lay their heads on. We are SO blessed!

A beautiful day in Kentucky!

We had a great day. The weather was beautiful, so we took advantage and had family pictures. In the back; Brydie, Darcee, and Alex.

In the front; Bridger, Maclain, and Rilynn.

Some people have Black Friday, we just had FUN!!

We had a nice Thanksgiving with Alex and his family. Last Saturday, Alex got a deer, but has been wanting more. His family can get 6 deer on their own land a year, during hunting season, without a license! So, Stan went out with him one morning, I went out with him in the afternoon, and Brydie went with him the next afternoon, which was Thanksgiving. Alex's good friend, Will, on the right, went also, to another area of the property. At the very end, three shots rang out! Alex and Brydie came out and saw a deer down, and Will walked out and said, "Oh, I got that one too?" With three rounds he had gotten three deer! Needless to say, the rest of the evening and the morning after, were spent working on meat preparation. Alex's other really good friend is Mike, on Alex's left. No event that is worth calling an event has to have wrestling! We also had a great fire! It's amazing what a gallon of gas, in the middle of a woodpile, shot with a high powered rifle will do!!!

It was fun to have Eric and Elida and their two little ones come over. It's so nice they have been able to live this close to each other for a little while. Eric will be moving in mid February.

The evil smiles while preparing the 'combustible'.