Fall Nearly Done

I guess I had better hurry, if I want to blog at least once this month.

The leaves fell from the trees too quickly this year with all of the rain that we had. But I am still enjoying the cooler days. My oldest Granddaughter and I spent nearly a whole day exploring our island and the Indian Creek creek bed.

We had tons of fun opening muscle shells, looking for pearls, watching the fish and a big old crawdad. We gathered odd rocks and looked at tracks in the sand, Indian Creek is a very sandy creek.

While we were on a gravel bar down in the bed of the creek, I pointed out to her how beautiful a creek is when you are on the same level with it. Looking upstream and downstream, as opposed to looking down on it from the bank is a much better view. I wish I had taken my camera but when I asked her, she didn't want to be bothered with posing and asked me not to take it.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are sneaking up on me as usual. Arranging dates to meet everyone's Holiday schedules is the hardest part. Finding money to buy gifts is another challenge this year. I normally have all of my shopping done way before now but couldn't get that accomplished this time.

Tomatoes

I was so excited last night! I was really late putting out my tomatoes this year and while everyone else was already reaping their harvest, I just had plants with tons of green tomatoes on them. I got my first ripe tomato last night and I gently carried it to the house, washed it off and grabbed the salt shaker.

My tomatoes are always better than anyone else's for some reason. They are very acidic and will make you get blisters in your mouth if you eat too many. Our neighbor has been giving us some tomatoes over the last few weeks and they are slightly sweet and do not have good tomato flavor. I think that he waters them too much.

My neighbor kept asking me if I had tomatoes yet and smirked about how many he was getting from his plants. I told him that was fine but I would still have ripe tomatoes for Christmas.

I really do have ripe tomatoes for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I just cover my plants for the first few light frosts and then pick all of the green tomatoes off of my plants before the first hard freeze. Then I put the green tomatoes in a cardboard box and cover them with newspapers.

My neighbor will have already cut down his non-producing plants while we have plants loaded with tomatoes. This happens every year because he gets his plants out just as early as possible and I am lazy and procrastinate.

The Day After

We had our Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday evening. I made the Turkey, Dressing, Sweet Potato Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and 5 Pies. It was the pies that done me in. By the time I got all of the dough rolled out and apples peeled, my lower back was screaming, Enough already!

So, today my DH had to go to his family's Thanksgiving Dinner alone and I am barely walking with a cane. As I type this, I am enjoying a heated, message cushion. I still don't have all of the dishes cleaned up from last night and that will have to be done today.

I regret having to miss seeing my Husband's family and all of the wonderful desserts. What I will miss the most is my Sister-in-law's Oyster Dressing. I asked my DH to bring me a plate or at least some of the dressing.

The Faithful

To my faithful blog follower and friend; I am so sorry that you lost your mare to EPM so quickly after you learned what was wrong with her. I know it hurts and I know that it isn't fair, because no one takes better care of their horses than you do. I knew when the phone rang on Sunday morning that it was you and my heart sank.

To my faithful blog follower, cousin and friend; I missed you this weekend, sorry to hear that you were under the weather and I hope you are feeling much better.

To my other faithful blog follower and friend; I owe you an apology, I have new pictures of Buddy, Bullseye and Fancy from this Spring and Summer that I have never taken the time to send to you, maybe after Thanksgiving.

To my other faithful blog follower and friend; I see that you signed up at Goatbeat.net, now introduce yourself and join the conversation.

To my other faithful blog followers, who are also family members; We hope to see you on Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon.

To my other faithful blog followers who don't fit in any of the above categories; Thank you for reading my blog and just in case I forget to tell you, have a wonderful Thankgiving!