Happy Fall Y'all

October is typically one of our Ram Fam's busiest months of the year and this year was no exception.  While Chris and I were busy tending to the final garden crops of the season, we also celebrated three October (and three September) birthdays, our wedding anniversary, and treated a HUGE Halloween crowd of trick-or-treaters at month's end.  In addition, this month, there was a lovely party to shower gifts upon the new Ram Fam parents-to-be!

Final crops from the garden

A second planting of green beans for fall harvest was picked and we also dug-up the potatoes.  It was a second year for growing white potatoes (from saved sprouted potatoes of the 2021 harvest) and our first year to grow red potatoes from purchased sprouts.  The white's didn't do as well as the reds after planting approximate 10x more whites than reds.  We were hoping for an overall harvest of around 100 pounds of potatoes (according to planting estimates), but harvested about 30 pounds instead.  We absolutely LOVE the red potatoes and learned a lot for garden changes next year!

Birthday Celebrations

Mid-October, the Ram Fam got together to celebrate three October and three September birthdays.  We enjoyed Walking Tacos and the family favorite peanut butter pie served in individual cupcake papers.  Of course, the Jets were playing that Sunday afternoon AND WON (beating the Green Bay Packers) so Holly's basement bar was extremely loud and rockin' with all the Ram Fam Jet cheering going on.

Here's the six September/October birthday honorees, plus a June birthday pumpkin who wanted his picture with Papaw!

The six birthday ages are:  6, 15, 31, 37, 46, and 63.  Can ya match 'em up?

Wedding Anniversary Celebration  

Cheers to 41 years!  We celebrated this year with an extended weekend get-away to Hocking Hills in Logan, OH.  We booked a cute little cabin ... teeny-tiny house style!   It was super clean, adorably decorated and furnished ... and we LOVED it!   But before we could check in at 4:00 pm, we made reservations for a 2-hour Hocking Hills Fall Foliage Train ride.  Since neither of us have experienced a train ride (other than Franke Park Zoo...lol) we were really looking forward to the amazing scenery and new experience.  

While I don't like to be negative, it saddens me to say we were really, REALLY disappointed with the train adventure.  It began as a 45 minute viewing of many sad, impoverished residences living close to the tracks (some abandoned, many others lived-in with excessive hoarding/junk issues). There were only occasional peeks of open fields, several commercial mining operations and a lumber yard.  At the 45 minute mark, the train slowed to a stop.  We were hopeful for the fall foliage part.  However, we re-traveled the disappointing 45 minutes ... backwards!  The train did stop briefly again on the other side of the depot at a primitive village of uninhabited old cabins for about 15 minutes.  But we were so ready for the experience to be over, we stayed on the train and laughed hysterically and quietly between us (with tears and holding our laugh/hurting stomachs).  We couldn't even look at each other without another laughing episode.  Our "Ramsay Luck" struck again ... never failing an entertaining story to tell. 

Anyway, after that experience... the rest of our trip was absolutely beautiful and relaxing!

Check out the cabin details here.   We checked out the other three cabins hosted by Carefree Cabins and decided if we wanted a larger cabin, the Lovebirds Landing cabin would be our next choice.  It was at the end of our shared driveway up on top of the hill.   The other two cabins down the road were up extremely steep and tight driveways.

Even though there was a furnished gas bbq grill on the patio, we preferred to enjoy Chris's famously delicious hamburgers cooked over an open fire.  

The next day, we visited the Visitor's Welcome Center for hiking recommendations.  We settled on hiking Ash Cave, a 30 minute BEAUTIFUL scenic drive from our cabin.  The hike and cave was absolutely breathtaking!!

There was the tiniest waterfall above the stairway.  Usually it's much larger in the spring and summer, but the dry autumn season resulted in dried-up creek beds and waterfalls.  But it was still beautiful, non the less.

We returned to our cabin and started a fire for our last night there.

Click here to watch a YouTube video of a crackling, night-time fire with a Chris shenanigan!

The next morning before check-out, we enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL sunrise, deer, and bird watching with our coffee on the front porch rocking chairs.

Chris took a brief walk down the driveway while I wrote a note in the cabin journal, before we left for home.

New Parent's Baby Shower

The end of the month, family and friends enjoyed a lovely party for the Taylors while showering them with an abundance of baby gifts!   Baby Remi, Mommy, and Daddy are all set with everything needed for the nursery, car, bathtub, library, and toy box.  However, they joked they are now lacking in one thing ... an extra closet for all her new adorable clothes!

Trick or Treat Fun

When we bought our house, nearly thirty years ago, the previous family didn't warn us about the HUGE crowd of trick-or-treaters that visit our neighborhood each year.  The fifty piece bag of candy I bought that first year was gone in like ... minutes. We quickly joked that a "Halloween Candy" line item would need to be added to the household budget spreadsheet.  While the crowds have been slightly unpredictable in recent years due to weather and the pandemic, we were prepared for a steady stream of 500+ trick-or-treaters.  We filled the large, cauldron pot with 600+ pieces of candy ($100 worth) and tried to ration a piece or two per costumed treatee.  When it's gone, we're done.  Some years, that's happened in less than an hour, this year it lasted about one and a half hours.  We think next year, we should plan for 1000+ pieces.

Another big hit at our house with the trick-or-treaters is the friendly greetings from Orlando.  The Ram Fam crew adopted him in 2004 while visiting our oldest son in college in Florida.  Hard to believe Orlando is 18 years old this year.  Old enough to vote next month!  Most treatees and their parents enjoy his welcome and will pause a bit to watch him.  It's so fun to see the kid's reactions of awe and child-like wonder as we answer their questions about him.  They giggle and give him high-fives.

Click here to watch a YouTube video of Orlando greeting Trick-or-Treaters.

All-in-all, it was a very busy October 2022!   See ya next time... as we journal a Month-in-the-Life-of-the-Ram-Fam.

For Him,

 

"Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice!  Let the sea and everything in it shout His praise!  Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy!  Let the trees of the forest sing for joy."  ~ Psalm 96:11-12