Halloween 1970.

On the front porch of the County Line homestead where my parents still live.

Is anyone else in my neck of the woods feeling like we're getting a little cheated this year in terms of fall colors?  I'm thinking this is the best it's going to get, with massive rain and storms headed our way this week that will surely bring most of the leaves down.

But I did take advantage of a gorgeous fall afternoon with a friend, shooting at nearby Memorial Park.

I think I'll shut up now and let the photos speak for themselves...

Breakfast for the Shenandoah volleyball team at the cabin before they headed to play dreaded Muncie Burris (a small private school...don't get me started...and a perennial volleyball power in Indiana and indeed the nation).

What a privilege to be photographed (that's me in the middle back) with such a sweet and classy group of young ladies...who also happen to be pretty awesome volleyball players!

As I followed my man with his trailer full of apples, I knew it was going to be a very long afternoon that I'd been dreading all week.

Kim decided to finish off our bumper crop of apples by doing an all-out cider blitz Saturday with a goal of selling 100 gallons of cider.

I spread the word on Facebook and started taking orders.  When the orders total reached 120, he told me to stop.

Kim spent 10 hours picking 60 bushels of apples all by his lonesome.  That is a LOT of apples, folks!

My beautiful daughter-in-law Anique is a very good soccer player in her own right, and has enjoyed coaching girls' club soccer since she's moved back to Indiana.

Now that our sweet Anique is 6 months pregnant and nurturing her own little future player, she truly is a soccer momma.

Miss Kelsey has a new trick.  She's discovered how to turn Gramaw's lights on and off...and she likes to practice.

For some reason, I have a hard time saying "no" to that sweet face!

Sitting on the couch watching the Colts game Sunday night, the almost-full moon was shining on me through the front door window.

I couldn't resist going outside for a few shots.

Pretty amazing!!!

I certainly don't have the most sophisticated camera or lenses, but even so it takes a pretty good photo, especially when you consider that the moon's a mere 238,900 miles away from earth....

Wow. 

Kinda makes you feel small and insignificant.

And it was this very same moon that David marveled at on a bright clear night centuries ago when he penned Psalm 8...

"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory above the heavens....When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in plac, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"

I still marvel at its mystery. 

Shine on, shine on harvest moon up in the sky.  Shine on...

...shine on, harvest moon.

Even beautiful peacocks would be green with envy if they saw our pretty precious peacocks!

October is a big birthday month around the Gray place, and Thursday it was Kim's turn to be the birthday boy.

I made the traditional Gray family favorite jelly cake (the sweetest rot-your-teeth concoction known to mankind!) and cooked up a big country dinner which 12 of us shared together.

When I asked Kim what he wanted for his birthday dinner, he said it didn't matter as long as it involved potatoes.  So potatoes he got...along with baked chicken, dumplings, homemade rolls, and corn.