This is not the Dixie Stampede!

Remember the horses we herded a while back. Well, they must have enjoyed their visit to the Ponderosa because they came back on Saturday. There were only four this time. You just never know what you will look out the window and see. And people think it is a nice quiet place here!!

What's on your Thanksgiving plate?

Most people prefer a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey

and dressing.

But others prefer pink milk

plenty of pink milk

and bacon and bread.

That is turkey bacon by the way!

Wordless Wednesday

The King of the Ponderosa is Three

It's hard to believe but the King of the Ponderosa is three years old today.
His P-pa and Nana say Happy Birthday to the world's most handsome and smartest boy!

Sunday's Blast from the Past Photo

These two both have a birthday this week. Here they are a couple of years ago when they were younger! The King of the Ponderosa celebrated with a party today, his momma will celebrate her birthday by staying out all night and shopping on Black Friday!

Making Brownies

When you are at your Nana's and you need some brownies all you have to do is ask. She will help. First, you stir up the mix really well. Use two spoons if necessary!

Then, you better taste to see if is just right.

Taste some more to be really sure.

And just to be certain--do more tasting.

Help Nana get the brownies into the pan and off your hands!

When they are baked take a whole bowl into the living room.

Watch some TV while you eat. . .

After you've had four or five or six you start to act silly!


And you may even bounce around on the furniture!

But then that sugar rush causes you to crash and you just have to rest, no matter where you happen to be!

Parker Goes to School

Parker and P-Pa visited Nana at school today and read to some boys and girls in second grade. Parker took over Nana's desk and watched Curious George! He also visited with the pre-k kids and tried to make P-Pa leave him there! He played with Miss Veda in the library and watched a movie with some first graders. He talked with the 7th graders in my last period class and made lots of new friends today!

What's Blooming on the Ponderosa

The Ponderosa still thinks it is summer! Even though we have experienced several frosty mornings this month, we still have flowers on the Ponderosa. There is just enough shade from the remaining leaves and shelter from the house and buildings that some of the flowers are still blooming away!
The last yellow flower is a frost hardy pansy and will last most of the winter, but the others should have been killed by the frost.

Sunday's Blast from the Past

This week's blast from the past is in honor of Veteran's Day, which is this Wednesday, November 11. The sixth graders in our school have created a wall of honor in the hallway. They ask anyone in our school who had a relative that had served in the military to bring some information about them and they have posted it. For the wall of honor, I found this picture of my dad who was a Captain in the 2nd Armor Division of the Army in the early 50's. That means he drove tanks! He was stationed in Germany. In 1954 my mom flew to Germany and they were married. They lived in Germany for 9 months. He also served in the National Guard for many years.

The forecast says:

As we were putting away the porch furniture today and vacuuming some of the 80,000 spider webs around the windows, I saw this wooly worm. It looks like he/she had been in one of those webs!
I remembered that wooly worms aka woolly bears are used to make weather predictions! So I googled this idea and here's what I found:
Wooly worm forecasters say that the size of the brown band of color will tell you what kind of winter is coming. Legend says that the thinner the brownish red bands, the harsher the winter will be. If the wooly worm is mostly brownish red in the middle, winter will be mild.
So, there you go, looks like it will be a mild winter. Not good for those of us who enjoy a good snow day. We'll see if there is anything to this wooly worm forecast!

Conjugation

Fall
Fell
Will Fall
Have Fallen

Frosty morning

It was a little cool on the Ponderosa this morning, so Peanut started a few fires to warm the place up!

Give Me Candy!

This little Dracula didn't like to pose for pictures!

But he had a great time going around his neighborhood and getting candy. He said, "trick or treat" at all the houses and thanked everyone politely. He even told one nice lady who offered him crayons, "No, thank you." She gave him candy instead!

He loves the candy!

Sunday's Blast from the Past Photo

This week's Blast from the Past is all about me! Every time I give my students a writing assignment, I try to model it for them. Right now in eighth grade we are working on writing Where I'm From poems based on a poem by George Ella Lyon. I actually met George Ella at the KY book fair last November. We had a nice chat and I told her about my students using her poem for a pattern. She also autographed a copy of her children's book Trucks Roll for Parker. Her grandparents once lived in an area of Fentress County which is now part of the Big South Fork, so she was familiar with Byrdstown, TN . Here's my version of her poem and and a picture of my little five or six year old self!

Where I’m From

I’m from patent leather shoes with white socks trimmed in lace,
I’m from sitting on the front steps eating ice cream sandwiches,
I’m from hopscotch boards and bikes and baseball games with the neighborhood bunch,
I’m from lightning bugs in a jar.

I’m from an independent , stubborn bunch
The first granddaughter of a farmer and a trader
I’m from “Don’t dispute my word” and “You, young’uns get out of that creek.”
I’m from great grandparents who taught in one room schools
Their school bells sit on the shelf in my home.

I’m from Vacation Bible School and kool-aid and cookies
From macaroni glued on cigar boxes and painted gold to hold all our treasures.
I’m from waffles every Sunday morning,
From the cabin on the lake where family and friends gathered.
I’m from parents who gave us the most important gift--their time.

On the pages of family Bibles my name joins all those carefully written
by mothers and grandmothers
Forever in ink on the pages of my family's history.