So this was the day we were going to the county fair.....but.....
We went to the local cheap grocery story and stocked up yesterday. The cupboards were bare so it took some cash. We spent over 500 dollars! So much for going to the fair.

We also bought Trouble some pants, he was down to ONE pair. The kid is growing like a weed.
But we DID manage to buy bulk of everything and we concentrated on dry goods and non-perishable type items. We feel GOOD! Buying the food was more important. I'll be cooking everything from "scratch", we didn't get anything pre-prepared except canned chili, which is the favored food of the men around here. We also got a couple cases of pork and beans because they were dirt cheap and we figure if we had to, we could eat those cold & uncooked. We also got sacks and sacks of rice and dry beans, oats, flour, sugar, baking soda and baking supplies. And spaghetti sauce...I have to learn how to can my own and grow enough tomatoes next year to make a supply like this myself.
I really wanted to check out the animal barns and figure out how to show my rabbits there next year. Oh well. I will just have to spend time with the animals in my own yard I guess if I want to see animals, and I'll thank God I have them every day. I'm also sooooooo grateful that my SSI check will come at the end of the month and we can buy Trouble his school stuff just in time.
The sun is coming up here and the clouds are stuck on the mountain. I was watching a travel show last night and saw photos of the Smokey Mountains in the south. That is almost exactly what it looks like here! They should call these the "smokey mountains". Except that could be a self fulfilling prophesy, there is a nearby town that is famous for having a huge forest fire around the turn of the century which leveled the whole area over there. This area has not burned....
We have never been able to learn why or how our mountain got named. I tried to find out online but couldn't find any references. There are some local books that I checked out from the library as well that show local history, but nothing about naming the smaller mountains. There is, of course, the stories about Mt. Saint Helens and Mt. Hood and such, there is a fun Indian tale about them, kind of how the native americans explained the volcanic activity I guess. I am very interested in the era of history when this area got settled and the Oregon trail many of them took to get here.