Category: holidays and parties

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New Years Eve

Well we’re completely booked for New Years Eve through Sunday.  What a wonderful way to bring in the New Year.  I really hope it will snow.  That would only make it better for my guests.  That’s one of the things they look for this time of year, snow.

We will have a buffet set up with all sorts of finger foods, eggnog, wine, and champagne for midnight.  There are plenty of noise makers and Little Joe is one of them!!  He’s been running around since Christmas laughing and squealing like crazy.  I love it too.  Nothing like joy in a child to bring this old house to life.

It’s been a year full of blessings, surprises and additions to not only my bed and breakfast (the barn and animals) but to our lives in the form of Celeste and Little Joe.  I can’t wait to see what the new year brings to us this time.  If it’s half as good as last year, I’ll have another wonderful year.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

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Hey, wanna see my place?

I realized that all I do is talk about my Bed and Breakfast and haven’t shown you what it looks like.  Well I had to do a lot of work to get it turned into what I wanted but I loved every single minute.  I have already told you about the different rooms that I rent so there’s no need to repeat myself.

This picture was taken when we got an early snow before I got the Christmas decorations put up but I still think it’s a pretty picture of my place.  My new barn and animals are off to the right.  My garden is off to the left.  You can see the gazebo on the back of the wrap around porch.  Now you can see why there are deer, and other animals that come around the house.  Anyway, here it is.

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The house smells of Gingerbread

The house smells absolutely wonderful.  Celeste is in the kitchen making a Gingerbread house.  She has been working on it every night for about a week now.  She’s a very talented young lady.  From what I have seen so far, it’s going to be absolutely beautiful.  Little Joe ends up with more Gingerbread than the house does it seems sometimes because Celeste wants it to be perfect and if it’s not, there stands Little Joe ready to eat the imperfections.

Oh I don’t think I told you that we’re having a Gingerbread house contest this weekend.  First prize is a $100 gift card and a weekend stay here whenever you choose.  Second place is $75 and one nights stay.  Third place is a $50 gift card.  So far we have 10 contestants that I am sure of.  There are 8 other applications that haven’t come back in yet so they could still be in the contest too.  Most of the contestants are locals.  We do this every year and then leave the houses up for viewing by my customers.

Last years winner also sold theirs to a lady that paid $150 for it.  I almost fell over.  It was a big Gingerbread house and it was beautiful but everything has to be edible and I guess they could be kept for a while.  I don’t know.  Anyway, Celeste is making the barn, animals and manger scene.  So far, it’s absolutely gorgeous.  I can’t wait to see it when she’s totally finished.  No I’m not one of the judges.  There are judges that come here from other contests to judge them.  Here’s one from last year.  Isn’t it amazing?

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Here comes the snow!!

It’s already starting to get cold enough for the ski slopes to make snow and we have gotten natural snow for three days in a row now.  The natural snow hasn’t added up to many inches but the temperature is low enough that what fell has stayed.

Thanks to the snow, we are booked solid this weekend.  People love it when it snows and the mountains is where they want to be.  Once the ski slopes are all up and running, I tend to be one more busy lady.  Oh I’m not complaining at all because this summer has been a bit skimpy to say the least.  Now that gas prices are coming down, people are venturing out a little more but still not like before.

If we have a winter that is just close to usual, then the year won’t end in the red.  If not, somethings gotta give before long.  Luckily I have several hunters that donate deer to us during hunting season so that really helps with the food costs.  People look forward to my deer roast and deer stew every winter.  I just hope it’s enough to pull them back in this winter.

One good thing, I do have a couple reservations for the week of Christmas already.  I was afraid my usual Christmas patrons wouldn’t show this year but they’ll be here as they have for the past 4 years.  They’re more like family now than just people that come here to stay.   That’s what I have tried to build here, a family atmosphere and I must not have done too bad of a job.

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Throwing a Halloween bash

We’re having a Halloween bash!!  The place is all decorated in spooky stuff, have a hay ride through a spook trail, bobbing for apples, and a best costume contest to boot.  It all starts at dark and the whole community is invited.  Well most of it anyway.

I’m Scarlet O’Hara of course, Grace is a clown, Celeste is Snow White and Little Joe is one of the seven dwarfs, Happy!!  He’s always smiling so Happy fits him perfect.  All the adults have to bring a big bag of candy to help with the candy we give out to the kids that come by Trick-or-Treating and other than that, the party is free.

Hey, if you’re in the mountains of North Carolina, stop by and see us.  I promise you’ll have a blast.  Don’t forget to come in a costume!!!

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I love these animals

I grew up in the city and had absolutely no idea that I would love these animals but I do.  They have become great pets and have also brought in a lot of people just to see them.  Now that the gas is flowing again and the prices are coming down, people are starting to just come up to see the leaves turning and stopping by to see if I have any openings or just to see the animals.

Oh the animals haven’t MADE me any money yet but it does look promissing.  I figured it would take me at least a year to see any profit from them and until then, they’re more for pleasure than profit.  When they start bringing in profit, that’s all the better.  You got to keep your establishment enjoyable in order to bring in more people and the animals add a little more enjoyment factor in other ways than we already had.  Glad I thought of it……….well glad I let someone talk me into it. 😉

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Fall Festival

Well with fall finally here, to kick off the weekend, we always have a fall festival here at the bed and breakfast.  Friday night starts off with a ‘pig pickin’ which is where we have a whole 75 pound pig barbecued and then there’s the usual fixins which are barbecue slaw, potato salad, baked beans and banana puddin’.  Some of the local musicians (and there are a lot of them in these hills) stop by for some pickin and grinnin.  I guess you could call it a mini fiddlers convention.

Then Saturday, some of the locals bring their arts and crafts for a craft fair here on the grounds.  We have everything from handmade quilts, home made jellies and preserves, fresh vegetables, and some of the most amazing paintings and crafts you have ever seen.  Anyone is welcome and many come from all around just to spend the day if I’m booked up which I usually am for this weekend.  This year wasn’t any different which surprised me.  There weren’t quite as many here just for the day as there usually are but that’s the only difference.

Today, we had a good old fashioned gospel singing.  There were choirs from several different churches here and again some locals just got up and sang solo.  The air was just crisp enough that I made hot spiced apple cider for everyone.  The whole weekend was a complete success not only in fun but financially for me and several in the community too with the arts and craft fair.  It’s one of my favorite weekends throughout the year.

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I’m a farmer

Well I checked to make sure my insurance was good with the animals, made sure I had all the proper permits, and even got a pair of pot belly pigs, pygmy donkey’s, and a miniature horse so I guess I’m now officially a ‘farmer’.  I got the little donkey from the ‘Little Ass Farm’ up the road.  I love the name of that place.  It’s a sweet little donkey too.  Her name is Blossom.

So far, the animals have been a huge success.  I even have people stopping by just to see the animals.  Yeah, I do charge for them to pet my animals.  Hey, you gotta pay for feed for all those critters ya know.  I even got a pair of pheasants and some quail too.  Man those are some pretty birds.  I can sell the babies they hatch because I’m not eating their eggs, that’s for sure.  Maybe we could have ‘pheasant under glass’ for dinner if they raise babies.  I’m not killing them if we do.  That’s going to be someone else’s job, not mine.  I’ll just sell the babies, I’m not eating any of the animals!!

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Chicken coop

Well the chicken coop is finished and it’s great.  He even found me some Rhode Island Red chickens that are grown and already laying.  I also got some Jungle Foul too.  Those are supposed to be the original chickens, or so I was told.  One things for sure, the rooster is absolutely gorgeous.  The hens are rather small but the rooster is about as big as the Rhode Island Red rooster.  I also got some Bantam hens and a rooster.  They lay little eggs and are just the cutest things running around.  Of course they are each in different ‘runs’ and have separate parts inside the barn too.

Now he has talked me into getting a few pygmy goats and pygmy sheep too for a petting zoo type thing.  He’s trying to talk me into getting a couple of those pot belly pigs too.  I think he’s trying to make a farmer out of me.  I’m thinking about the pigs.  I guess I need to check and make sure there won’t be a problem with having a small petting zoo and what if any, special insurance I would need too.  I better call my insurance agent right now before I get in over my head.

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Another Monday

Well here it is another Monday after a pretty busy weekend thank goodness.  The funny thing is I got an interesting suggestion from one of my ‘guests’ this weekend.  They asked me why I don’t have chickens to have fresh eggs for the guests since I have a garden to provide fresh vegetables for them?  They were saying the chickens would also provide education and entertainment for the children since a lot of the city kids have never seen a chicken up close and personal or seen eggs being gathered either.

I thought that was an interesting question so I called a friend of mine that does all my repairs and building that I need done and asked him about building me a chicken coop.  He said it wouldn’t take too awfully much to fix one since there’s already a small barn on my property.  He said he could attach it right to the side of the barn and make it so that the nests are inside the barn in a small fenced in area where the kids can see the eggs in the nest but can’t get to them.  He’s going to start on it tomorrow.