A Busy Fall

So, I have been busy. 

At the end of September Hurricane Helene came through our area and left her mark. 

Fortunately, the tree uprooted in my yard (that fell over the street) did not hit the houses on the other side of the street. And, neither my house, Terri's house, nor the store had any damage. 

There were trees down all over town, most of them uprooted. BIG oak trees, and at one time there was no way to get in or out of town. We all were blessed that as bad as it was, it was nowhere near as bad as the mountains of North Carolina. And there were places in South Carolina that were hit worse than we were as well. We knew we would have wind and rains, 

but never expected to have such strong winds for so many hours.

We lost two days of business because there was no power at the store. 

Terri and the store were without power for 2 1/2-3 days. 

I lost almost a week of production time due to having no power at my house for 6 days.

However, I was able to continue to create enough Gnomes and Friends to stock my booth at Mistletoe Market at the Anderson County Museum the beginning of November. 

I had a great show and have brought most of the remaining angel & gnome stock to the store. 

My booth at Mistletoe Market.

Limited Edition Christmas Gnomes in the background.
Penguin and Polar Bear ornaments, and Black Bears.

In between, I had house guests (my sister Regina & her husband Matt, as well as my brother Bill) who were in town for a surprise 70th Birthday celebration for my sister Sue. 

(Brother Rick also came to town but stayed at my nephew's house.) 

Sue's comment when she saw Bill & Regina the first time was "It's not nice to surprise old people!"

The whole family that was here including Sue's children (Bobby & Karen), son & daughter-in-law (Matthew & Shelly), grandchildren (Blake, Logan, Cara, and Sawyer), and grand dog Tic, Terri's husband (Rodney) and son (Ben), Rick's wife (Alice), his dog Wrigley, Regina's husband  (Matt), Aunt Celeste, and Betty (Dad's friend in his later years).

While everyone was here we took to opportunity to place Dad's ashes in the columbarium with Mom's. This was something that Terri and I did not want to do with just the two of us, 

we wanted as many of our siblings to be there as possible. 

Dad in the car on the way to the church's columbarium.

Dad on the kitchen counter wearing his Elon cap that Rick gave him and Mom's crab hat giving him a hug. The urn was designed by my father-in-law Wally Higgins and made by my sister-in-law Laurie Higgins Lang.

At the beginning of October Terri created a scarecrow display for Scarecrow Season in Pendleton. Those scarecrows are only 12" tall! The title of her display was "Fairies of the Garden".

Faeries of the Garden

Now we are prepared for Christmas at the store. And, I need to get my house listed for sale again...