Happy Thanksgiving!

"Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labour when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain."~Alexander Pope

"For, after all, put it as we may to ourselves, we are all of us from birth to death guests at a table which we did not spread. The sun, the earth, love, friends, our very breath are parts of the banquet.... Shall we think of the day as a chance to come nearer to our Host, and to find out something of Him who has fed us so long?" ~Rebecca Harding Davis

"To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven." ~Johannes A. Gaertner

"None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude. Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy." ~Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

"Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now." ~A.W. Tozer

"The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!" ~Henry Ward Beecher

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." ~Thornton Wilder

And a little humor to top it off:

"Thanksgiving, man.... Not a good day to be my pants......" ~Kevin James

(We're heading to the Carolinas for the holidays..... Hope you all have a wonderful feast with family and friends as we acknowledge all the blessings in our lives....)

Little Cabin in the Woods........

It was quite apt that Sir Laughsalot and I had been reading that first book by Laura Ingalls Wilder when we went to this Harvest Party at Fiddle Girl and her husband's cabin.... I could have sworn we went back in time and were at Half-pint's little house in the big woods....

The bounties of the harvest were brought by everyone..... canned and preserved, baked, or made into other tasty dishes.... the tables overflowed.....



Home-made chicken and dumplings were cooked in the kettle over the fire.....

Even Fiddle Girl's son got in on the action and showed his young entrepeneurial spirit by cooking up Hot Chocolate in his own little kettle..... 50 cents a cup, he said.... to go towards buying a steam engine. I guess you can't start dreamin' and schemin' too young....

And if you drank too much hot chocolate, or enjoyed the fruits of the harvest a little too much.... you had to wait your turn to use the johnny-house, as there was no indoor plumbing or electricity.....

We drew the evening to a close by getting our instruments out and playing by the light of oil lamps and candles that were scatterred about the cabin.... Even Sir Laughsalot played along on his harmonica.

Living history.... or maybe a more appropriate term would be 'Living traditions'......

"Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields, The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth.

And you walk under the red light of fall..

The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain

The sharp, gentle chill of fall.

Here as we move into the shadows of autumn

The night that brings the morning of spring.

Come to us, Lord of Harvest...Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us ..."

Apple Butter time........

It's that time of year in the mountains..... time for making apple butter. On any given Friday or Saturday, you can drive the backroads of Appalachia and stumble upon families, churches, and community groups gathered around huge kettles, sitting in lawn chairs, tables piled with home-made food cooked by the womenfolk to sustain the workers through the 24 hour process.

This weekend, it was our turn for stirring the big pots at Sir Laughsalot's little, rural school. It was a perfect fall day for the venture.... cool breezes and blue skies.

Selling apple butter is our school's big fall fundraiser along with an ice-cream social in the spring. We feel extremely blessed to live in an area where the small, community schools have been able to remain open due to community and parental involvement. I am a strong believer in small class sizes and parental involvement.... there are only 13 children in the whole Kindergarten class at this school, which ensures a lot of individual attention and more time and energy for creative teaching.

For this particualr venture, we worked in shifts, parents and kids. It was a great opportunity to meet other parents and the kids enjoyed helping out.

When their arms got tired, they played

on the school playground or climbed the woodpile...

I cherished the morning.... the sense of community, coming together to support our kids and school.... the smell of woodsmoke and apples... kids helping and learning to work together.... stirring a huge kettle full of apple butter, outdoors, surrounded by the beautiful, fall-hued mountains......

Our mountain ancestors might have been doing the very same thing on a similar weekend, over a hundred years ago.

Connection, Community, Family, Simplicity......

Life is good!

Fall Fun .....

A taste of what's to come...


Forward Thinker...

Over-achievers...

End of season slump...

Trend Setter...

For some more Fall Fun, head to my new blogging friend, Brandy's, site for a fun fall give-away. And spend some time reading her delightful posts...she lives simply and is very creative and inspiring!

Raking Leaves...... we still haven't finished raking all the leaves from our yard and it is now December. We have the only yard on the block with trees, so we feel the neighborly duty to rake so the leaves don't blow into everyone's yard. But we tend to rake up one bagful here, one bagful there. And we get plenty of "help"- the kind of help that makes it "one step forward, one step back". But that's the best kind, isn't it?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING.................... (I probably won't post the next couple of days with all the preparations and activities. Have a wonderful time with family and friends!)


Thanksgiving

The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go.
The harvest all is gathered in
And chilly north winds blow.
Orchards have shared their treasures,
The fields, their yellow grain,
So open wide the doorway ---Thanksgiving comes again!
~~Old Rhyme.~~

November in Appalachia........the last installment :)
(again, you can click on a photo to enlarge)

November in Appalachia continued...............

November In Appalachia............ I took these on a recent drive on a foggy, overcast November day and will follow up with more. You can click on an image to enlarge it.

Country Boys and Girls Getting Down on the Farm.......

A growing trend in our area is for local farms to do elaborate corn mazes in their dried fields. It is a really fun fall activity and we went with friends to one of the best ones recently. You can even do it at night with flashlights and they have bonfires going and provide hot dogs and marshmallows to roast. These are the things that i hope will make for lasting family memories.....
(you can click on the pics for a larger version)

1. Getting lost in the maze

2. View from bridge in the middle of the maze

3. Me with my fellow mountain momma's

4. Guard your hearts all ye lasses

5. How tall in the fall?

6. Winding down at dusk

TRICK-OR-TREAT NIGHT

(as you can see... sir laughsalot didn't stray far for halloween dress)

1. fighting a dastardly pirate

2. boys just wanna have fun!

3. pets on parade

happy halloween!!
Here are a couple spooky poems that
Sir Laughsalot and I have been reading ....


THEME IN YELLOW

I spot the hills ...
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvestmoon:
I am a jack-o-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know ...
I am fooling.

carl sandburg








NOVEMBER NIGHT

Listen............
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisped, break from the trees
And fall.

adelaide crapsey