our October

 The very first day of October was a beautiful
fall day and we enjoyed it in the woods on my
Uncle George's hilltop for the annual 

Walk in Penn's Woods.

(This ended up being the only nice-weather weekend day all month!)

We are blessed to get our new car!

(people that didn't know our car was totaled won't 

even know we got a new car - ha! ha!)

It was chilly and rainy on this first Saturday of October, 

but that didn't stop the bikers from riding past our house

during the Rock Oil Foliage Frenzy ride.

Nathan went up to the check in station to help

and I sat on our front porch {wrapped in a blanket with coffee}

ringing our cow bell and cheering on the riders.

It was so much fun to cheer for people I didn't even know!

While Nathan and I were cheering for and helping the bikers,

Matt and our new hunter were out in the woods small game hunting.

Grace has caught the "hunting bug" and has enjoyed

going out with Matt even though she hasn't shot anything

and I think it has rained every time they've gone out.

Matt, Nathan and Grace are all gearing up for deer rifle season coming soon.

And Nathan has been out archery hunting a lot.

Matt got a black squirrel one night when they went out.

We sponsor a "granny" in Uganda through ROTOM.

A couple from our church went over early October

and delivered this prayer shawl that I made for Nosiata, our granny.

You can see her smile below when they delivered it.

Between life and weather, we weren't able to go on our much loved

fall camping and hiking trip.  I was disappointed, but still wanted to

do something special for fall.  When I asked my family,

one of their favorite things unanimously is when I make homemade donuts 

to go with our fresh cider.

So I decided to try different recipes for baked donuts each Saturday

of the month while the cider we pressed lasted.

So we had...

pumpkin donuts

maple glazed donuts

apple fritters 

and apple cider donuts (which got eaten before I got a picture).

Good thing each batch only makes a dozen or less!

A friend from church (who is a knitting queen and helped

me in my endeavor to learn to knit socks last year)

gave Grace sock yarn for her birthday so I could

knit her a pair of socks. 

(So far I'd only made socks for our moms.)

And here they are ...fun fall colors!

We helped our church host the US Celebration for the 20th anniversary

of  Reach One Touch One Ministries.

The evening was inspiring and we are blessed to be

part of this ministry!

(even though Matt was quick to say "no!" when I asked if we could 

move to Uganda to be part of this ministry there)