A touch of Fall

It's going to get down to 52 tonight so I guess fall is definitely here! This morning, at breakfast, we heard a honking sound and saw these geese on their way South. I guess they stopped in for a rest stop on the pond.

I got the camera to watch them swim and soon heard a honk and then they all
took off.

We've had rainy days for almost two weeks so since this week is dry, Michael and Duane Jones worked on getting the roof on the storage building part of greenhouse. They got all of the wood foundation up and hopefully the roofing and shingles will go on Wednesday!

Become Who You Are

Last weekend was out stake conference. Pres. Duquette gave a great talk. He is from French Quebec and joined the church as an older teen and served a mission in Paris where he, incidentally, learned to speak English! He works for the North American Headquarters for Michelin and said that when the head of Michelin retired he was at a meeting that honored him. The head of Michelin spoke and told the leadership there to "Become, who you are." Pres. Duquette said he thought a lot about that statement. He said he could just visualize Heavenly Father sending us to earth with that same statement, "Become, who you are." We are of divine heritage and birth, we must find ourselves and "become, who we are."

Haily is 2!

Our little Haily turned 2 on September 14th. She is so cute. She's an angel but those are not her wings!

She was dressing up as a fairy with her sister Sydney!

The party was fun for everyone and she got some cute new toys.

Garden and Greenhouse progress!

It's time to get caught back up on our backyard project! We've had a week of rainy days so it's been kind of muddy in the greenhouse area but with all of the mulch, I've been able to get into the garden.

We're ready to put on the roof of the storage building side of the greenhouse. The big poles are for the supports for the ribs of the greenhouse!

I've also got a fall garden going so our raised beds are still all full. These are the broccoli and brussel sprouts that I started in July. The broccoli is just starting to head up but it all looks beautiful. Behind them is a bed that still is producing a lot of peppers of various kinds and eggplant.

These are collards in another bed that includes a little lettuce and Swiss chard. Besides them are also several types of cabbage. They are best eaten after a frost so we'll be eating them later this fall.

We've also started peas and carrots. Usually in the red clay soil and heat they are hard to grow here in SC but with the raised beds, we should have some carrots without problems and with a fall garden, it's cooler for the peas. There are really a lot of crops you can plant in the fall. We just started picking a new crop of green beans.

Here are our sweet peas with edible pods. The rain was great for what I had planted including cauliflower, onions, and asparagus.

I've started some more seedlings to put out as soon as we have a little bit more room in the garden and maybe for the greenhouse! Boy we've enjoyed the garden and with the greenhouse we should have fresh vegetables year round!

Sparanburg II Hmong New Year

Last week our ward had a Hmong New Year. It was wonderful evening learning about our friend's culture and eating wonderful food! Look at the colorful costumes that they made! Papa Lor is an American Hero from helping the US in Vietnam. Their stories are amazing that food was wonderful! We love having them in our ward!



Papa Lor playing an instrument.



We need to make this a yearly event!

A day at the Florida Beach!

One family activity we did (besides eating delicious food) was to go to the beach! Haily didn't like the sand but Ryan and I persuaded her to go for a little walk on the beach with us.

Sydney had a great time playing in the water and building a sand castle.

Tracy and Will, Bonnie's dad enjoyed the umbrella to relax and enjoy the view.

The kids had a ball in the water. Unfortunately a big wave hit Eric and Ethan and he grabbed Ethan and lost his glasses!

Here's Michael and I with the ocean behind us! I did get a little sunburned but it was a beautiful day!

TWO BIG EVENTS IN FLORIDA

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Florida for two big events. One was for the blessing of our new baby Katy. . .

and the other was Maggie's baptism. Two sweet little girls from a sweet loving family!

Eric and Tracy and family along with Ryan also came to visit.

The kids were so great together and had a wonderful time together! I played a lot with the kids and it was fun to have 7 of 8 of my beautiful grandchildren together!

WOW! LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THESE!

Wow, look at these sweet potatoes. You can't tell but they measure 10" each and are huge! I went down to the raised bed that has the sweet potatoes and merely put my hand into the soil and pulled out five big sweet potatoes that were under one plant. i just love our raised beds and how easy things are to grow.
It looks like it is going to be sweet potato harvest time! We ate two smaller ones for dinner and they are wonderful!