Last weekend, Jacki and Mike came over so I could show Mike how to make pepper jelly. They grew the peppers themselves, and had them cut and seeded before they got there.

It's best to cook this outside, since the mixture is potent! It's basically peppers, vinegar, sugar and pectin. Steve hauled out my dad's old propane cooker, and it worked great to cook the mixture on. Those are pineapple plants in the pots behind them.

Here we are filling the jars. You have to fill them, wipe the lids, seal them and then get them into the canner quickly, to avoid contaminating anything.

The finished product, before we put the lid on. You can see the chunks of red pepper in there. Mike used hotter peppers than I did with my jam, so it will be interesting to compare the two, to see how they taste.

Sam (on pillow) and Shelby. I think this is the closest they have ever been to each other. They were NOT happy to have me disturbing them with my flash!

After David and Emily's honeymoon, they traveled here, and we had a party for them, for our friends and family who weren't able to travel to the wedding.

From left: my brother Randy, and his daughter April (green shirt)

My nephew Nick (tall one in the back), and his wife Lacey (plaid shirt)

David and Emily

Steve's mom, Myra

Jacki and Mike

Vicky and Steve

A couple more wedding pictures. These were taken by Emily's friend Brandy, and she was gracious enough to let me use them.

I've never seen so much birdseed in my life! Their car was full of it!

Snow on the mountain!

On our way back to Florida, we decided to go through the park, on Newfound Gap Road. When we got about halfway up the mountain, it started snowing! It had been snowing a while, because there was snow piled up on the fencerails, trees, etc. We were quite excited and kept stopping to take pictures. The fall colors were about at their peak, and it was very interesting to see snow, on top of colorful leaves.

You can see how much snow had accumulated. I feel sorry for the backpackers caught out overnight. I am sure they didn't plan for snow in October!

When we got to the bottom of the mountain, on the North Carolina side (near Cherokee) we saw an elk! They are native to the area, but were decimated by the settlers, and have recently been reintroduced. There is supposed to be a herd of over 100 elk, but this guy was all by himself.

Cades Cove

We met up with our friends Dee and Steve, and decided to tour Cades Cove. If you have never been there, you should go if you have any interest in history at all! It's part of the Great Smokey Mtn National Park, and is a restored/preserved community located in a fairly large cove, surrounded by mountains. In addition to being a beautiful place, many of the original buildings are still standing, and you get a real sense of what life must have been like for the white settlers of the cove. There is an abundance of wildlife also, since they are protected from hunting.

There were turkeys everywhere. Guess they don't realize Thanksgiving is coming!
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This is the Methodist church. It might seat 50 people. There are two separate entrances, once for men, and one for women and children. I always find walking through the graveyards fasinating, but soooo sad. So many children's graves..............


There is a working gristmill, where they still grind corn. These are the original grinding stones, now on display outside of the mill. There is also a sorghum mill, blacksmith shop, a couple of houses, and several other buildings.

Steve and Steve.....looking through the barn

Upon leaving the cove, we took Rich Mountain Road back to Townsend. This is a one way, gravel road and is the trail the settlers took to Maryville on their infrequent trips there. It takes about an hour to go the 12 miles. This is a view of the same church shown earlier.

Hiking!

We were able to take two nice hikes while in TN, despite the crummy weather. Tuesday was the only semi-nice day, and we intended to drive to Newfound Gap to see the leaves and scenery. Apparently almost everyone on the East coast had the same idea and traffic was badly backed up. So we drove out to Cosby and hiked to Hen Wallow Falls. It was almost 4 1/2 miles round trip, and the trail was very muddy because of all the rain the area has had recently. There were some interesting rock formations along the way, and we did get some nice views.

The second hike was on Friday, which was supposed to be a nice day but turned out to be crummy all day. We went to Alum Cave Bluffs, which isn't really a cave, but some rock outcroppings. It was misty rain, and damp, which made it seem colder than it really was. I started out bundled up pretty well, and kept shedding layers along the way.

Someone offered to take a picture along the trail for us. It was a very bad hair day!


This was a tunnel we had to go through. There are steps carved out of the stone, and cables bolted into the wall to hold on to. Thank goodness those cables were there, as the steps were very steep and slippery!

The last time we were on this trail was about 30 years ago, with Steve's brother Gerry and his wife. It was winter and the trail was completely iced over. We were too dumb to be afraid, I guess, but I sure wouldn't attempt that now!

In spite of the weather, we had a nice time and it makes us appreciate all the wonderful weather we have had in trips past!