Oak Glen...and Bees

Ever have one of those days where you just need a whiff of cinnamon and a good dose of country cheer? Well Saturday was one of them for me. (I've already taken out my fall candles and burned them tons!!) Thanks to my wonderful hubby (who does NOT like this sort of excursion too well) our family drove up to Oak Glen to walk around, experience apple paradise and sample various food items. I love it up there and the weather on Saturday was absolutely perfect. It was overcast and sort of foggy - the perfect fall weather where you can just smell the harvest spices and feel the dampness on your skin. MMmmm....

I thought this just SAID country harvest. In one of the shops there was a whole tasting of cheeses, salsas, candy, meats and jams. I could have had a whole meal in there if you let me. We almost walked out with some Blackberry Raspberry jam, but we realized it'd be a while before we got to it with my plum jam and my parents' blackberry jam that they just made waiting in my pantry. Maybe next year... The candy store has a REALLY good peanut butter bar, too. I got one last year. They combine peanut butter and butterscotch to make this YUMMY treat. Since I'm always on a peanut kick, it satisfied that craving. We were good this year and just looked....ok, and sampled a few various things. You've GOT to!

At the top of this hill (or is it a mountain?? - considering how steep it is) there's a petting and feeding area for deer. There was a little candy dispenser with corn in it that you could pay to get a handful of corn from. Being the cheapskates that we are, we scrounged the corn off the ground to give to the boys to feed the deer. What?... It's not like there weren't several 100 uneaten corn pieces laying around. Besides, if they aren't fed to the deer, it's wasteful. hee hee. What made me laugh was you could HEAR the crunching of the corn pieces in the deers' teeth. Ugh. You'd think that'd hurt it was so loud. Actually, it was pretty haughty...right, Riv?

This precious lady offered to take our picture after seeing us try and fail miserably. She even gave each of the boys one of her sausages from her breakfast that she'd just bought. Sometimes I'm amazed at the kindness of strangers. It gives me hope that there are still nice people out there. She got a good picture even while holding her breakfast!

There it is - the gleaming beacon of copper/orange light in the parking lot. Now do you still wonder why I picked this color? Look at how it is illuminated!! Ya, needless to say we didn't have a hard time seeing our car in the parking lot. I LOVE it and I'm still so happy with it!

And then we have more on the joys of home ownership. Some local bees have decided that they'd like to move into the small space in the roof above our bedroom. They've been swarming there for about a week or two, and even though Bryan shot water up there, they didn't leave. So this weekend he bought poison and shot the heck out of the hole. Bees were dropping everywhere and Bryan was running away at times. Poor guy. About two weeks ago he just annihilated a wasp nest that was being built in one of our birdhouses. So far the bees are trying to find a way back in (since it's soaked in poison), but we're hoping they'll move on. Maybe we can patch that hole and leave the rest without food....but does Bryan risk it? That morning he had gone up in the attic and shone a light on the hive - the bees were not happy about that and went to charge him. I guess they're not morning risers...