Good morning! I’m still reeling from singing Bible School songs…suffice it to say at this time, I know I am one of the sons of Abraham. It has been such a fun week, and we’re not quite finished, but tonight is an easy night. We have singing, refreshments and then Johnny Wolfe is taking us on a hayride. If you are reading from far away, it’s worth the flight to Bristol just to ride with us in the haywagon behind the tractor. We are going to have fun!!

Because of all the fun I’ve been having, I have not posted the winner of the dishtowel. In fact, I haven’t been on the blog to see who won the dishtowel myself. It is Brenda Dean of Hiltons, Virginia, and DRAT…I just saw her at the Rally Mart!!! I could have given her this had I got on this blog earlier today. Congratulations Brenda on your great dishtowel from Target. Here it is…you will be basking in loveliness as you dry your dishes. Oh wait…Brenda is married to Alan (Allen?)…maybe she’ll be one of the lucky ones and he will be the one basking in loveliness.

I haven’t done much around here this week. Good intentions but no results. I did, however, make a quick trip into the jungle that continues to call itself a garden…here it is…

There are about 500 little gourds that volunteered and survived because I didn’t bother to hoe the garden. I used to grow decorative pumpkins in this area–that was about five years ago–now each year these little guys come up. I went out yesterday and tossed a few to the side…here they are..

Washed them off…must have got a little soap in this baby’s eye…it’s crying…

Once they dry, I sometimes spray some poly (I will not even try to spell that word) on them. It makes them last longer. By the time I get these gathered, I usually have about 200 tucked in corners of every pot in the house. I’ll keep them and enjoy them until around Thanksgiving…or until the rot smell starts. At one time, I thought my cats were peeing everywhere because I had such a strange smell in the kitchen. Poor kitties…they took so much abuse, and it turns out, I had about ten rotten pumpkins tucked in above the plate rack that had went beyond looking bad to dripping yuck, gook and ugh. Nasty stuff.

But today, we are far away from the time of smelling rot. They are all nice and shiny….

I put a sheet that I use as a drop cloth underneath the gourds when I’m spraying them.

Now…this would be the time for me to show you these gourds in a pretty bowl in a clean room. However, I don’t have that. Yet. Instead, I’m going to show you what the den looks like…NOT CLEANED. Later today, you’ll see it all cleaned with my gourds on display.

It’s a mess…those ladders are where I’m cleaning the bookshelves and I accidentally discovered a book…I started looking at it…I started reading it. You get the picture.
Will update you later today!!

Update:

I’m not sure how many gourds I actually got but there was enough to put them here and there. They’ll really look good when fall arrives and I add some pumpkins, etc. Fall is my favorite time of the year for decorating the house.

>

Picture above the mantle with little gourds below…

Hope you like the picture…chestnut genus. It’s framed in wormy chestnut. Mike made it. He and my brother-in-law, Gerald, also made the mantle which is also wormy chestnut. I love the story of the chestnut tree and what it meant to the people of Appalachia. I’m hopeful we’ll see the chestnut tree again. Lots of good work being done at the American Chestnut Foundation in Meadowview, Virginia.

Here’s a chestnut coffee table. I really like it as it’s so hard and durable. It takes a beating with feet, Wii games, etc. That’s tobacco barn siding on the “apron” of the table.