Fall decorations

 

Hubby wanted to decorate the front of the house for fall, and create a scare crow,  so we headed down the road to The Pumpkin Patch.  They must have 25 different types of pumpkins there, from the traditional orange to squat purple ones. We loaded the back of the truck with three bales of hay, large and small pumpkins, and two corn stalks.  I went to the local thrift store and picked up an old pair of jeans, a sweatshirt and straw hat.

To make the scarecrow I stuffed plastic grocery bags with crumpled newspapers and stuffed them inside of the pants and shirt.  I then sat the pants on the glider on the porch and placed the stuffed shirt on top.  To make the head I used a piece of muslin over top a newspaper stuffed bag and tied it around the neck.  I used permanent markers to draw the face and orange yarn for hair.  To finish it off, I put my rubber boots on his feet.

Hubby stacked the hay bales and put the pumpkins around them.  He attached the corn stalks to the poles on our front porch and I weaved leaves through it.  Now if I can just figure out how to keep the scarecrows hat from blowing off in the wind....

  

Dried Flowers

I am constantly amazed at the beautiful flowers in Ashe County.  When you live in Florida you are very limited on what you can plant outside as the heat kills most plants, so I am in awe of what you can plant in North Carolina.  Wildflowers start blooming in the spring and continue until the frost of autumn.  Yards are full of roses, hydrangeas, black-eyed susans, lilacs, and so many others I don't know the names of.  This year I thought I would try drying the flowers I find along the sides of the road, down by the river, in our neighbor's yard, as well as my own blooms.  I made cuttings and brought them home and laid them out on newspaper on top of the counter.  I wrapped a few flowers together using yarn and hung them upside down in the cellar and one of our closets.  You have to watch for bugs as they hide in the flowers.

After a few weeks they were ready to be taken down and saved.  Dried flowers aren't easy to work with as they fall apart and are messy.  After some trial and error, you can create beautiful displays that can be used for gifts or decorating.

My creations

Harvest Festival

Our ladies group at church puts on a Harvest Festival each year.  This year they wanted to be more family-friendly and added entertainment, a milking cow, face painting, cake walks, dog show and a live scarecrow.

Blue grass band

Milking cow-what fun!

 I helped out by making a gallon of beef vegetable soup, crocheting three baby blankets and manning one of the cash boxes.  A lot of ladies made soup and it was combined and sold along with a chicken salad or pimento cheese sandwich.  The next day we sold the leftovers in containers to the folks after church services.

Cider press

Everyone agreed that this was the best festival we have ever had.  It was a ton of fun.   The entertainment kept people in the room buying craft items, jewelry and food.  We did not make as much money as last year, but we all enjoyed it more.

Scarecrow

I went home with a cake that I won in the cake walk, some glass vintage dessert cups, earrings and a necklace.

Ohio/ Pro Football Hall of Fame

Our final stop on our vacation was to Canton, Ohio to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  Football is one of my least favorite subjects, but hubby loves it.

The exhibits began with the history of football and I actually found the displays interesting.  The helmets players wore in the early 1900's were made of leather and the padding was very minimal.

The rest of the hall was filled with helmets, shoes, jerseys, videos, pictures, old contracts and football memerablia.

The most disturbing exhibit was the busts of the inductees.  It was a room full of floating heads.

Ohio/ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Our vacation ended with a trip to Ohio and a scenic drive through wine country.  First stop was Cleveland.  We found the city to be clean, friendly and easy to get around.  Our hotel was within walking distance of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was the first place we went to.   We LOVE rock and roll music.   After all, we grew up in the 70's.

The exhibits began with the history of r&r dating back to the early 1900's.  The hall is filled with instruments, sheet music, lyric sheets, clothing, vinyl albums, pictures, films, memorabilia of all types and of course music.  There are listening stations through out the hall.  One could easily spend the whole day there.  After 3 hours we were ready to leave, but not without a stop to the gift shop.  Do you remember the little round plastic piece that was fitted in the hole of a 45 record to play it on a stereo?  That item is featured on clothing, mugs, key chains and made into jewelry.  What is that little plastic thing called????

We finished the day with dinner at our hotel.  I had the Cleveland Chopped Salad without the bacon.  It was a regular green salad, but  with a lot of cold, diced red potatoes on top.

I was really hoping to run into Drew Carey while we were there, but that didn't happen.

On to Canton.

Niagara Falls, Ontario

Niagara Falls is a short two hour drive from Letchworth State Park.  If you like looking at acre after acre of corn fields, you'll enjoy the ride.  Our hotel was within walking distance of the Falls.  First stop was brunch and we headed to Perkins.  We ordered from the senior menu and spent more on eggs and a sandwich than we would have at the Outback back home.

Armed with our Adventure Pass we were on our way.  First stop was the Maid of the Mist, which is a large boat without any seats.  Each passenger was given a blue poncho, the consistency of a dry cleaning bag.  The view of the American sides of the falls was fantastic.  But as you got to the Canadian side, the only view was mist.  We were glad to have our skimpy ponchos as the water came from every direction.

We made the 15 minute walk to Table Rock to see the Journey Behind the Falls.  After donning another bag-like covering we carefully stepped through the tunnels down below the falls.  The view of the falls was like looking at your shower turned on full-blast.  All we could see was lots of water falling in front of us.  We went back to our room to get ready for dinner at Skylon Tower.

The Skylon Tower is 775 feet high.  There are exterior, glass-enclosed elevators so you get a fantastic view on your way to and fro.  The restaurant revolved so we could view the city and eight miles in all directions.  I think this was the highlight of my vacation.

The next morning we went back to the Table Top area to see the movie Niagara's Fury.  We were handed a yellow poncho on the way in.  (poncho for a movie?)  The preshow was on a 360 screen and depicted the forming of the Falls and the surrounding area.  We were ushered into another room where the floor was steel and you could see water underneath.  The room was cold and dark and it began to snow and rain and mist.  The floor tilted and water was sprayed.  Hubby and I were near the front and we were glad we had put on our ponchos and just as glad to get out of there as we were freezing and wet.
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The weather had turned cold and rainy so we went to the casino near out hotel for lunch and a little diversion.  For $12.00 we ate at the buffet and we gave ourselves a $25.00 limit in the casino.  I can't think of anything less entertaining than sitting in front of a slot machine pushing a button watching your money disappear.  But, hubby did win $10.00, which we later put towards dinner at same casino- $17.00 all you-can-eat.

Niagara Falls was on my bucket list.  Now that I have been there, I have no desire to go back.  While the Falls are amazing, the surrounding area is very touristy with places such as Galaxy Golf, Fear Factory, Ghost Blasters, Movieland, Ripley's Believe it or Not, Mystery Maze and the Fun House.  I did learn to that casinos offer the best food at reasonable prices.

Letchworth State Park

Time for our fall vacation.  This year we are going to Letchworth State Park, Niagara Falls and Cleveland.

Letchworth State Park, also known as the Grand Canyon of the East, is located in Castile, NY.  We stayed in Portageville.  Never heard of it?  This little hamlet has no street lights, stores, or restaurants.  We had to travel abut 20 minutes to find a place to eat.  But, we were only a short distance to the park.

On our first day,  we drove into the park and were amazed at all of the people there.  Come to find out, there was a huge craft show going on.  The park is very picturesque with waterfalls, canyons and rivers.

We spent two days in the park, walking and marveling at the beauty of the trees, water and sky.  There were 300 vendors at the craft festival selling everything from fried pickles to paintings.

What I never did figure out was where all the 1000's of people visiting came from or went to.  The roads around the park were empty as well as the few restaurants we were able to find.

Tomato Sauce

Hubby was reading the Mother Earth News magazine and turned to me and said, "Why don't you do some canning?"  "Why, what a good idea" I said.  Thus began my canning adventure.  First, the purchase of some canning books and supplies.  Lots of supplies: large pot, small, medium and large jars, jar lifter, food mill, large funnel, canning salts, pectins, rubber gloves....

How about some tomato sauce?  Welch's produce stand was selling 40 pound boxes of Roma tomatoes for $12.00.  The recipe looked easy enough-throw tomatoes in a pot (1/3 of the box), crush with potato masher, stir in onions, garlic and boil for two hours.  After they cool a bit, put in the food mill and turn the handle a million times.  What I ended up with was sauce the consistency of tomato juice.

Before food mill

Okay-new recipe.  Blanch tomato, peel, remove seeds and cut up-this part took two hours.  Saute onions, peppers and garlic, add cut up tomatoes and cook about 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, heat up the soupy sauce from the day before and stir in large can of tomato paste.  Mix the two together.

Much better.

Now for the jars.  Wash them really well and put them in the big pot that has been filled with water.  Heat them up.  Pick up a jar with the jar lifter and dump the hot water out.  Put the large funnel over jar, dip ladle into hot sauce and fill jar up.  Run a chop stick along inside of jar to get rid of air bubbles, wipe jar lip and screw top on.  Using jar lifter, put in hot pot of water.  Repeat.  Cover pot and boil like crazy for 20 minutes.  Take top off and wait 5 minutes.  Lift hot jars out and put on top of towel for 24 hours.

Look at kitchen, shake head and wonder where to start.  Open  bottle of red wine and sit outside in the sun for several hours.

Yum