Saturday, November 7

We were up by 7 a.m. this morning to get ready for an outing to a town about 45 minutes from us. We packed a picnic lunch, and left home about 9 a.m.

Before we left town, though, we stopped by the store that has a sale every weekend. As I mentioned in a previous blog, we purchased a coat for Mother from the store, which was on sale, plus an extra $15 discount. It was a pretty good deal, but yesterday there was a circular in our daily newspaper that showed the same coat would be on sale from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. today for $30 less than we paid. So I took the coat back and asked for the discount price, which I got.

After that, we headed to the other town. When we arrived, we spent some time shopping. First we went to the $1 shop, where I picked up a few scrapbooking items. Then we went to a home improvement store to check out the washers and dryers as a comparison to the ones at our local store.

From there, we went to the city park to have our picnic lunch. It was a warm, pleasant day, despite gusty winds that kept threatening to carry away our tablecloth, foam plates, and napkins, and sort of dried the bread of our sandwiches before we could get them eaten. But at least there were no flies or ants.

After lunch, we went to open house festivities of the town's pioneer village. The village, established seven years ago, is a work in progress. There are several buildings, farm implements, and a windmill at the village, and today, docents dressed in period costumes talked about the structures and their antique furnishings. At one house, a woman was churning butter. Outside the house, another woman was making stew in an iron kettle over an open fire, and serving homemade biscuits and butter. At the schoolhouse, four musicians played gospel tunes on guitar, dulcimers, and an organ.

The village is cared for by the local historical society, and the town's Master Gardeners take care of the gardens. The village is always open to visitors, but the houses are locked, except during twice-yearly open house events. The next open house is the first weekend of May, and if nothing comes up, we plan to go back then. The gardens should be pretty in the spring.

We were back home around 3:30 p.m. I had recorded our favorite college football team's game while we were gone, and about 4:30, we began watching it. For supper, we heated leftover chili-mac and stuffed peppers, made cole slaw, and took our meals to the den to continue watching the game. We were pleased that our team won.

Later, Hubbie and I watched the movie, "Evidence of Blood," a 1998 PG-13 film starring David Straitairn and Mary McDonnell. A Pulitzer prize winning true crime writer goes home and gets involved in a forty year old case of the murder of a teenage girl. He and the daughter of the man convicted of the crime get caught up in a conspiracy surrounding the murder.