Fall Is Here !!!

In case you haven't noticed - IT'S FALL !
This year the colors took a while to come out,
but when they did, they were beautiful!!! I took
this picture a couple of miles from the house on
the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is looking down
off the mountain into North Carolina.

Racing potties is town's specialty!!

CHECK THIS OUT !! (I missed it this year)

The town of Independence hosts the only privy race in the state at its Fall Foliage Festival. (Independence is our County Seat)















INDEPENDENCE -- If the Grand Privy Race were the Tour de France, the Lightning Lube team would play the role of Lance Armstrong. The six-man team maneuvered their outhouse-on-wheels with speed and drill-sergeant precision, their grip so sure on the $500 first-place prize that the only suspense at Saturday's competition was over who would come in second. During a break between rounds, longtime Privy Race veteran Chad Fitzgerald pointed to Travis Jones, co-owner of the Lightning Lube garage. "He provides our steroids," Fitzgerald joked. One might as well call them state champions. There isn't another outhouse race in Virginia, though there is a national race held each year in Gravel Switch, Ky. Nestled south of Point Lookout Mountain in Grayson County, the small town of Independence has hosted this lighthearted lark for more than 30 years as part of its annual fall festival. Town officials are hoping to call more attention to the event, and the town itself, by lobbying for official state recognition as Virginia's privy racing site. There's no word so far on whether this will happen. "We're pulling for it, though," said Doug Carrico, 56, a member of the Grayson County Board of Supervisors. Quite a bit more goes on at the Fall Foliage Festival, including the selling of arts and crafts, music and the cooking of sweet-smelling popcorn. But once the races start, "All the crafts and the music kind of take a back seat," Carrico said. The man who thought up the race, former public works director Darrell Ward, described its creation this way: "Somebody said we need to do something unique, and I should've kept my mouth shut." But despite Ward's mock humiliation, he remains a key organizer of the race. On Saturday, he organized the heats, lined the teams up along Main Street and yelled to start them running. Of the racing potties, which bore resemblance to go-karts, the black-and-yellow Lightning Lube rolled quickest, with team members switching positions the way the rules require as if they'd practiced for months. They went on to their sixth team win. The rickety-looking but lightweight outhouse pushed by the Grayson County Republicans won the $300 second prize. The Mill Creek Arts two-seater, the Double Dumper Express, came in third for $200. The Grayson County Democrats, an all-woman team, showed a lot of spirit, but in the end they were bested by The Bad Boys Gotcha Covered, a shiny black john manned by a team of boys no older than 13. A group of friends who dubbed themselves the Soggy Bottom Boys spent five weeks, off and on, turning their mobile outhouse into a working dump truck, with a truck bed that could actually raise. Unfortunately, the contraption proved too unwieldy to be seriously competitive. The team did win a people's choice vote for style, however. Their prize: a trophy, and a complimentary roll of toilet paper.

Horse girls!!

Here is another picture from Saturday. My father-in-law
has a horse and he was letting the kids ride her. This was
the first time the girls were brave enough to get on her.
Her name is Penny and the girls have fed her carrots,
corn etc all summer, so they have enjoyed her. She is in
the field right beside our house.

Apple Butter !!!

We started the day off at 6:00 AM. Had the kettle
on the fire by 6:20. It was just my Father-In-Law,
my Brother-In-Law and his son, and myself.
Had a good cold frosty morning until about 8:30,
then the sun came out and it got windy.

Here are a few pictures from Saturday.

Around 8:00, several more showed up. By 10:30
we had quite a crowd. Here are most of the older
men swapping tales - and there were some big ones!!

Had to keep stirring all day!

Adding the sugar and spices:

50 lb of Sugar!
1 1/2 vials of cinnamon oil!
3 bags Red Hot Cinnamon Candy!

Filling the jars.

The Finished Product !!

And here is the finished product !! Approx 105 quarts.

Just Changing Light-bulbs !!!

Had to get a little creative to replace a bulb
at the church this week. I just couldn't
figure out why they insisted that they have
a prayer meeting while I changed it !!!

Apple Butter !!!

Need something to do this weekend? We are going to be
making a kettle of Apple Butter on Saturday. We do it at
Susan's parents and cook dinner over the fire also.......
Fried Taters, Pinto Beans, Cornbread..........

Come See Us !!

New Church Windows !!!

We are in the process of remodeling our church.
Our stained glass windows were installed this week!!
The windows we had were like a frosted orange, and were
looking horrible. What a difference they made!!!
Here are a couple of the windows. (There are 10 in all.)




















Jesus blessing the children medallion.



































The medallions are hand-painted. Awsome detail!!!
(They are painted in layers, and then put in the oven
between layers at 1000's of degrees of heat)

Close enough to be twins?

Here is a picture of the girls. One is Mikayla and
the other is Natalie. Same age and same dress!!
Do you know which is which?