halloween party

The twins went to their 1st Middle school party. It was a Halloween birthday party. The girls dressed up as hippies. They dyed their own shirts and went shopping in their Granny Bear's closet. It is good to have a hippie in your family Tori says. This theme is also what all of us went as for Halloween. We will send them later. Jenna found a pair of cheetah boots in the closet and there were plenty of peace signs to go around. The girls had a great time.

PIG

Most people come to SAFF for the wool, not me I went to get a pig. After we lost Dylan and Daisy is not pregnant we (the girls and I ) thought we needed a baby.
so, I meet a lady who owns Zippy Zoo and she brought me a pig to SAFF. SAFF stands for Southeastern area fiber fair. It is a 3 day event with classes, showings, and wool of all kinds for all. Donny helps run the thing and Kim has a booth there. This is were the girls showed their sheep and where Jenna and I learned to spin. This is also where I got MooMoo.(Not a family name.) He is a little potbelly pig that looks like a cow. He is soooo cute. He is in a cage in front of the house and every time you go by him he snorts at you to feed him. He loves dog biscuits, the girls don't let me feed him the bacon flavor. He has not been around a lot of people but Jenna is working with him and hopefully by Christmas he will be more friendly.

learning to spin

Jenna and I took a drop spindle class at SAFF. We left school and work early Friday and went to learn to spin. The teacher was very good and I even caught on after a while. Jenna loves it and she takes her spindle everywhere. Most 11 yrs old are playing on a game system or talking on the phone, but not Jenna.

wagon train

We made it to Mills River around 3. We found are usual spot and set up camp.
We wanted to eat dinner and get everything set up before it got dark and cold. We had ribs, polish sausages, and kabobs. Then it started to get dark the Bear, Ho, Tim, Ra, and the girls came out to eat and bring us wood, water, and grape. We went to the raffle and annual meeting (we did not win anything) paid our dues (so we could do this all again next year).
We had hot homemade cider and smores. It was great to see everyone. But as the sun went down it got colder and colder. They all left and Dusty went to hear the band and do a little dance. The girls went to sleep and Donny and I stayed around the fire. Everyone started to head back to their areas around midnight. It got quite and I watched the stars by the fire. Around 1 I couldn't take it anymore and went to bed. After a few hours of sleep I got up and everything was frozen. There was more than just frost on the pumpkins. We started breakfast with hot coco. We had biscuits and sausage gravy. Ok, the biscuits were not homemade the Bear brought them to me Saturday night. Dusty took one look at them and know they were not fresh made but they were good. We hung around and enjoyed the sunrise and the warmth from the sun. We loaded the wagon and started to head out toward home late Sunday afternoon. After we got home we started our own tradition. The girls had a few cans of silly string to thank Dusty for all he did for us. We made it through and really enjoyed it all. There is only 352 more days until next year. Some say we are crazy but it means so much to know that Lewis, Donny, and so many others from our family have done this. It is like a family tradition. The girls love it and we like being the next generation doing it.

we made it through the weekend

The wagon train has come and gone. It was a great time and we have all unfrozen now.
We left out of the farm Friday afternoon.. we meet at the fireman's camp so we could leave at 4:oopm. We went down 191 blocking traffic for miles. The first night we camped in Lake Powatan. We stayed at site 88. The whole gang ate BBQ for supper. We go down to the meeting place after the dinner bell rings. Marty makes the best sauce. Then after dinner the girls made banana boats over the grill. They were great. We pulled out the the marshmallow shooter and hit Dusty a few hundred times. The girls went to sleep and Dusty & I sat up talked and had a few drinks to keep us warm. It wasn't really cold but it did rain a little. Saturday we got up and enjoyed a wagon cooked meal.
After eating eggs, sausage, hash brown, and bacon we had to load everything back in the wagon. We all lined up for the ride over the mountain around 10.

There were 53 wagons this year. We rode the dirt road for over 5 hours. You ask..what do you do for that long? While you look at the view, sleep, or read.

About 1 we stoped to eat lunch. You eat on the road and just set up your tables and start fixing lunch. We had sub sandwiches with chips and dip.

this coming weekend

If you don't hear from us the rest of the week or weekend we are fine just enjoying the good life. The wagon train is this weekend. The wagon is in the shop ready to be packed, the girls and I have made the menu for the weekend, and now we are praying it will not rain Friday like the weatherman says. You know only fools and yankees predict the weather and I am neither. This annual tradition is celebrating it's 44th year this year. Many of our family members have been on this train. It is great to have the girls enjoy it so much. They are not aloud to bring their IPODS or gameboys, just board games, a pack of cards, and a good book. Dusty will be driving the tractor and Jenna will be cooking. This will be our 3rd year to sleep out there. Here is a before picture and after picture of what our wagon look liked from last year. Donny, Dusty, and HO did a great job..all I did was hand them whatever they said to and to stay out of their way. So say a prayer that it will not rain (or snow) and the biscuits will raise this year.

CROP walk

The girls and I did the CROP walk downtown Sunday afternoon with some of our fellow church members. We got there right after church, at 1pm and was told we could register but the walk did not start until 2. So, we all went to Fuddruckers to eat lunch. After we ate we looked down at our watch and it was past 2. Sara had the map to where we were going to walk and the route was going to go right by us so we waited until the crowd came by and we joined the walk. We sat there and eat our cookies waiting. We had a great time. We talked, laughed, and walked over a mile to help feed the hungry. We needed to walk because we were to full!