Basketball

Clayton is trying basketball.   Hope he loves it, but will have to wait and see.  He sure has the height for it.

Sun is shining again today.  I worked in one of my flower beds yesterday.  I filled it with monkey grass.  Bermuda takes it over every summer and I am hoping the grass will crowd out the Bermuda.

Yesterday, I had a bad grammar mistake in my title.  I hope you did not see it.  Laura scolded me and I fixed it.    I  knew better than to use that verb but did anyway.  Sometimes, it seems that I just don't think.    Today, I just used one noun as a header so I will not make a mistake.

Leaves Have Fallen

Most of the leaves are off the trees.  December is around the corner.  I always think "if I make it through December".  I don't really like holidays, but I don't know why.

Sister gone two years yesterday.  The sun is out today and I am happy for it.

Keefe Falls

This is from "Explore the Ozarks"

Here are five neat waterfalls along a short length of road next to Falling Water Creek, and just a few miles north of Falling Water Falls. This road and Falling Water Creek skirt the edge of the Richland Creek Wilderness, which is full of many other waterfalls and scenic treasures. All of these falls are just a few miles south of the Richland Creek campground.

We are going to visit five waterfalls in this description: Horsetail Falls, Fuzzybutt Falls, Intersection Falls, Six Finger Falls, and Keefe Falls. All are accessed from FR# 1205/CR# 68.

Horsetail Falls: To get to first waterfall, Horsetail Falls, travel EAST on AR HWY 16 from Pelsor, which is located on Scenic HWY 7 between Russellville and Jasper. Travel about 9 miles on HWY 16 (past Pedestal Rocks/Kings Bluff) to the community of Ben Hur. About a mile east/south of Ben Hur, turn LEFT onto FR# 1205/CR# 68/Upper Falling Water Road. Follow this road for 5.3 miles, past Falling Water Falls, and PARK at a pulloff next to the bridge that crosses Falling Water Creek (N35 45.1524, W92 56.2890). You should see a horse trail on the west side of the bridge. Follow it downstream to the first creek crossing, then leave the trail to the LEFT and bushwack your way up the small stream until you reach Horsetail Falls. You can continue steeply up the left side of the falls, and you will find Upper Horsetail Falls.

Fuzzybutt Falls: The horse trail that leads by Horsetail Falls can also be used to access Fuzzybutt Falls, especially when Falling Water Creek is too high to wade across. Simply continue on the trail until you reach the mouth of a canyon on your left at 1.0. TURN LEFT and follow up the canyon a couple hundred feet to the falls.

Intersection Falls: Back at the bridge, continue to drive along the forest road another 0.4 miles, to the intersection with FR# 1219. Continue STRAIGHT ahead a few hundred yards, past the sharp curve in the road, then PARK on the LEFT side of the road. Bushwack down into the woods and to the left to Falling Water Creek, then hike upstream a few hundred yards to the base of the falls.

Six Finger Falls: Back on the road, continue on FR# 1205 for a couple hundred more yards, then PARK at a pulloff on your LEFT. Six Finger Falls will be just below you on Falling Water Creek. You can access Fuzzybutt from here, by wading the creek, then hiking downstream a few hundred yards to the mouth of the canyon, but sometimes it can be too dangerous to cross Falling Water Creek when the water is up.

Keefe Falls: From Six Finger Falls, drive down the road another ½ mile (0.6 from the intersection with FR#1219), to a spot where a small creek come in from the right and goes underneath the road. PARK here, wherever you can, and follow the little creek upstream as best you can. You will cross the Ozark Highlands Trail alomost immediately. You can either follow along the bottom to the base of the falls, keeping left when you come ot a fork, or you can climb up to your left to the base of a tall bluff, and follow along the base of the bluff to the falls.

Astrid at Keefe Falls November 27, 2016

Keefe Falls is on Falling Water Creek.  It is a 78 foot waterfall.  Not much water yesterday, but Laura and Astrid are hiking again.  Laura can't do much in warmer summer as the Poison Ivy eats her up.  But now the sap is down and they have visited two falls this week.  One was near Heber Springs.   Astrid thinks Falling Water Creek and Richland are the most beautiful places of all the areas she has hiked.  Her roots are there!

Get up early

From today's devotional --

Get up early and watch God make a morning.
Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.  Ps. 65:8

In the holy hush of the early dawn

I hear a voice--

I am with you all day

Rejoice, Rejoice!!

Cinderella Pumpkin Cake

Helen, Erin made this Thanksgiving.  It was really good.  Try it with just a drizzle of frosting.   Sharing it for you.

Greta and I talked about Aunt Helen being my Sister.  How are we different I asked and Greta said, "Aunt Helen is a lot of fun".   Pooh!

Thanksgiving Feasting

 Sigrid's meat and cheese tray was a gobbling hit!

 Laura loaned me the runner for my table.

 Greta arrived all dressed up but changed in the first two minutes here.

 Laura made Erin this bowl out of clothes line rope and fabric for her birthday.  I love it.  Really neat.  I made her a afghan for her new couch in her new house but forgot to take a picture.

 Table loaded with food.  As I cooked a lot of the items, I did not enjoy them much.  I don't think I am a very good cook anymore.

 We don't need toys to entertain Clayton.  If he can go outside he is happy.  Can you spot him here.   He is literally inside Pop's brush pile!

Happy Birthday, Erin

From sippy cup to all grown up!!

Today

I think today is Cheryl Ann's birthday.  She was born in 1965.  I think Brenda Gail was born in April of 1961.  Gary in 1963.  

 Saw this from Helen's FB.  Our little niece Brenda is a Grandmother again.  The baby's name is Alexis.  Brenda favors Momma.

 Girls got their hair cut today.  First time since right before school started.  Ingrid's hair you can see was really, really long.  She got it cut to the top of her shoulders.  It is really attractive.

Here is Astrid with her Basketball team.  They play Cabot today.  She plays on Jr Varsity.  These girls are a great bunch.  I spotted Astrid at the foot of the table!

 Our neighbor growing up Dan Norton passed today.  He was 89.  He was still Fleta and Helen's neighbor.  He lived a long life and was very active until the last year or so.  He looks very young.  He was born Newton County, AR as was his wife (Burlie Thompson Norton).  She survives him.

All Orange

 Jonell's Granddaughter Vanessa got rid of another pest.

Laura baked a pumpkin and then pureed the pulp.  Looks good.  Pumpkin is almost 2 bucks a can so this gold is pretty valuable.

Puzzle

 I like puzzles.  This one Larry and I did this week.  I am not good at jig puzzles but I worked on this one all week and it occupied my buzzing mind.  Larry finally said he would help if I would follow some sort of system.  It was 750 pieces.  I really like just a 500 piece puzzle the best.  Erin, Astrid, and Larry all love these puzzles and are really good at putting them together.  I have read that math intelligence goes along with jig puzzles.    Astrid could put together the smaller kid puzzles at just a year of age.  She does well in math too.

 Above is a photo of Harrison I saw this week.  Grandpa Gaddy likely shopped here in this year.

 Larry got the rest of the limbs hauled away.  It did not take him long at all to remove them.

 This is the stump of the dead tree.  He will dig it up with the back hoe.  But that job can wait til another time.

 I burned a lot of the small pieces in my fire pit Laura and Eric bought me one year.

In The Print

 Astrid's team made third in State and she is All State.   Ingrid is cheering this week at a Jr High Basketball Tourney.   Astrid started basketball this week.

Working With Dad

 Clayton and Greta helped out with building the  backyard fense yesterday,  Greta really enjoyed the work.  Clayton not so much.  If I had to live amongst strangers, I would want a fense like this.  If I lived around anyone but my relatives, I would live around strangers as I am a recluse.

Back Yard Work

 We had a dead tree in the back yard near the house.   Today we hired a guy to come in a bucket truck and take it down plus trim the Maple that was full of dead limbs and a huge one was over the house.  At one time we would attempted all this ourselves but we can't do heights any more and the dead tree could have fell on the house.

 Larry already has most of the limbs in a pile on the garden where we plan to burn them so the ash will go into the soil.  So proud to have a good big tractor with forks.  The forks work lots better than a bucket does.

This is our one pretty tree.

Blackbirds and Leaves

 Blackbirds come each fall.  I guess they are stopping over as they migrate.  We had a little frost yesterday morning.  The postcard is from Boone County, 1910.  The house is called a "dog trot house" because of the seperate sections connected in the middle.  Usually the kitchen was in one so when one cooked the rest of the house was not hot in the summer...but guess it would be cold in the winter.

Thanksgiving Program

Greta had a Thanksgiving program today.  She was all excited and rose before anyone which is not normal for her.  She got dressed up in clothes that did not match.  Erin made her change but she said, "I am supposed to get dressed up nice today."

 After school, Clayton and Greta played in their new yard.  So much larger than the old one.

Sigrid's Dad got this message from one of her teacher's today:
Hey, I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of Siggy. I debated her today and she did phenomenal. Well prepared, professional, and passionate. You should be very proud of her! Hope you have a great day!  

Making A House A Home

 Helen sent me these pictures.  She has been shopping.  She bought this used frig from Judy Ussery Darby's daughter.  It looks really nice and has ice and water in the door.  The old frig in Momma's house was one Momma bought so you can imagine how old it was.  And....I think it was green.  

 She bought this used table at Cassville, MO and Fleta got her material at the thrift store and she has already recovered the 6 chairs.  It really looks nice for 60 bucks.

 And here is the quilt rack I gave her and the coffee cans she painted blue to keep her dry goods in.  Lots of bugs in an old house and she has to keep all the food sealed or bugs find a way in.

 She bought a used treadmill and put it on the back porch.  She is trying to walk everyday.   I hope she is able to succeed.  I always end up using these machines for a clothes rack.  I just drape clothes over them.

And here is the quilt Winnie gave Helen displayed.  Grandma Powell was an artist.  I love the photo of my brother, Richard with sweet Barb on the wall.  I think Momma would like the house and how Helen is keeping it so clean and getting a few things to make it her "home".