It's a nightmare! Just in time for Halloween.

At least that is what Retired Mountain Man calls it.  A nightmare!

We are getting ready to have new carpet installed in the living room and we are having a piece of the old carpet installed in the music room in the basement.

Today I shampooed the carpet.  It will dry faster upstairs than downstairs so I wanted to have it done before the carpet install.

All of the shelves are empty....

The china cabinet has been cleaned out.

I hope this was a good idea.   Retired Mountain Man wants to run away.  We have had this carpet for 36 years.  We bought it from Sears in 1980.  I do think it's time.

Born on a mountain top in Tennessee.....

I am cleaning and moving things to get ready for carpet installation.  Apparently I had not cleaned in one area for about 30 years.  I know, that sounds really bad, but the location was extremely difficult to get to.  A closet in the basement that is four feet deep.  I found these on the concrete floor in the very back corner.  There was a blue box and an old plastic grocery bag with ???? in it.  I admit that at my age I had to get a broomstick to pull and drag them out.

I could be wrong but I think this record player was a Christmas gift to Jamie when he was 5 years old.  His favorite song back then was Davy Crockett, the theme song to the mountain man's TV show.   He played it over and over.  He liked it so much that when his baby brother was born, he chose his name, David.

We've had water damage in the basement several times, so it's a little worse for wear, but I bet it works.  The problem is that I don't have any vinyl records left to test it out.  Darn.  I just might have to buy one to find out.

So what was in the grocery bag?  Treasures that went with the "Army Battle Mountain".   It was a Christmas gift to David in about 1980.  I searched for photos of the playset on the web and found one that sold on ebay for $250.00.  Wow.  Too bad I don't have the rest of it.....

It's time for it to be donated to the thrift store.  There are no flashing lights or obnoxious noises that came with these toys, but there were originally about 200 assorted army men.  I can't tell you how many times I stepped on one with my bare feet.  They were pointy little things....."OUCH!  I'm gonna kill that kid".  Oops, I don't think you're supposed to say those kind of things anymore.   Fortunately for him, he's still living.


For your listening pleasure.....

Kolache's, Almond Crescents and Christmas Wreathe Cookies

It's another rainy day.  I think it might be the 15th day in a row.....? It is making me think of my mom and grandmother and some of my favorite recipes that they used to make.

My grandmother, Ella, was a really great cook.  My mom on the other hand, had a few "go to" recipes, but she was a bigger sports fan than a fan of cooking.  That didn't mean that she ever stopped baking her famous Almond Crescent Cookies or her Christmas Wreathe Marshmallow Cornflake Cookies.  Everyone loved them, especially the kids, because the green food coloring in the cookies would turn your tongue green.  What could be more fun!

You can find the recipe at Allrecipes.com  Yes, your tongue will turn green when you eat just one.

When Grandma's cookie package arrived in the mail at Christmas, there was a lot of "hording of the cookies".  Let's just say that they were frequently hidden in strange locations to keep others from eating them.   I do not have a photo of them, but I did find one on the Internet.  The only difference is that my mom did not make them crescent shape.  She rolled them and shaped them into little rectangular bars and then rolled them in the powdered sugar while they were still warm. They were not "dusted" with powdered sugar, they were rolled in it.

Recipe Link

 The recipe at All Recipe's is fine, but she never used almond flour.

Last, but not least are the fruit-filled Kolache's.  These are awesome.  My grandmother always filled them with the prune filling.  At least that is what I remember.  I have never been able to make them taste as good as she did.

There is an excellent blog by Tori Avey that has wonderful recipes and tells the history of Kolache's.  The photo is from her blog and here is the link.   All I can say is that they are worth the effort it takes to bake them.

The end of summer 2016

A hungry bear eats the last of the currants.

 Cottonball morning clouds.

 Petunias showing off.

I Believe it's Bigfoot

I have a few photos of the Bigfoot search at this year's Oyster Party.  The grape arbor was transformed into Bigfoot's Den.

Bystanders watching the search....

And we're off on the search with our Bigfoot feet on!

Waiting for the Pinata.

Nolan pulled the correct string on the first pull.  The rest of the kids were a little disappointed, but it was great for Nolan who was having his 5th birthday party the next day.

All of the kidlets on the stairway.  What a great group of kids. Some of the group have already grown up, finished college and others are just off to college.  It doesn't seem possible.  Thank heavens there are some little guys like Quinn.

I am including some photos of Retired Mountain Man's insect project.  He put this lovely guy in the insectary yesterday.  We will have a beautiful butterfly in the spring.