Random pictures from the past few days

We picked pears at Daddy's cousin's farm for the second time in the past few weeks. We canned some of the pears and made pie filling with the rest. Pear pies sure are good!!

The pears were not nearly as much work as the apples!Yum! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~Photography practice~

JonathanMelissa~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Friday we visited a few cemeteries in the area to see where some of our relatives were buried. Daddy and David were the only ones of us who had been to the Smith Cemetery before. When they came it was way out in the woods. Since then someone has cut down all the trees except the little circle around the cemetery.Walking down the pathIn the circle of trees Many of the graves are marked only with stones, so we have no way of knowing whose they are. This is great-great-grandfather and grandmother Smith's grave. Someone had replaced the old marker with a newer one since Daddy was here the first time.

~At Falcon Cemetery~

Great-great-great-grandparents, Jesse and Betty Gooch Great-great-grandparents, Andrew and Lenora Gooch TeagueI really liked this next picture because it shows great-great-grandparents on the Jones (Daddy's), and Foster (Mama's) sides, and great-great-grandparents on the Gooch side in the background. Jesse Gooch's father, John G. Gooch, was both Mama and Daddy's great-great-great-grandfather! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today we tilled up our front yard to level it and we planted new grass seed. Our soil is not good and, except for winter rye, weeds grow the best. (We're grateful for the weeds, though; they're green and they don't look too bad if we keep them mowed.)

David spreading limeJonathan and David ride on the drags to weigh them down While we were working we heard a noise. Soon this came into view! A closer look ~ Why did the Goodyear Blimp come to Stantonville???? Watering the seed

El Cumbanchero

Last week one of our friends took this video of Amanda, Anna, Deborah, and Jonathan playing El Cumbanchero.

Campaign Rallies

This week we attended two campaign rallies for our State Representative Candidate, Vance Dennis. Winfield Dunn, a former Governor of Tennessee, was a special guest at one of the events.

Some of our family with Governor Dunn.

Click here and here for more pictures from the rallies.

Newsletters!

Every few months we help an evangelist friend of ours, Tom Palmer, get his newsletters printed and sent out. Here are some pictures from last night.

Folding the newsletters...

Stuffing envelopes...

Putting on address labels...

...and stamps.

Licking envelopes

Papa's House

This is the house that our great-grandparents, Papa and Memaw, lived in after they were married. It is over 100 years old! Our grandmother and her three sisters were all born in this house and lived there until they married. Our grandmother inherited the house when Papa passed away 15 years ago.

Our grandmother wanted to fix up the old house, so some of our friends, Steven and Daniel Corbett, came down from MD to do the work.One of the first projects was to tear all these tiles from the kitchen ceiling.Next the boys pulled out all the rotten boards and the rafters.......And put up new boards. Mr. Poole and 2 of his sons came to help today alsoLunch time!Here are some of the old boards, bricks, and other things they have pulled out of the house. Tearing down the old walls in the bedroom We are excited about having the house fixed up! We will post more pictures as the work progresses.

Music Lessons

We started a new year of music lessons this week. Because Daddy is on chemo now and not supposed to be around a lot of people, a dear friend of ours offered to let us use her home for lessons. Thank you so much, Tia!

Here are a few pictures of some of our students.

Our cousin's sons, Will and Tyler

Melissa teaching TrystonMichael has his first piano lessonAnna does music flashcards with BennyAriana