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| Evening light |
Now we’re in town so that we can rest up from two days of hard work at the farm.
Friday morning, we loaded the bed of the old pickup with some of our lifetime supply of firewood stored in the barn. Mike tossed and I stacked.
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| Load of firewood |
Next, we cleaned the closet under the stairs again. Earlier in the morning, my nose detected mouse activity in that closet. It was just a partially-built nest, but it still required a thorough cleaning of the closet, which entailed removing paint cans and boxes, searching out and clogging any points of mouse egress, and putting everything back. The work is difficult because a person can’t stand up in that closet. Mike crawled in and handed stuff out to me, and then vacuumed. I handed everything back in. Every time we clean this closet, we throw out some old paint. And of course, the good news is that the closet is clean once again. (And the mousetraps reset.)
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| Old maple at farm slowly changing to fall colors |
I also transplanted a lavender from the town garden to the bank behind the house. I’m sure my grandparents never thought of developing a “high country” drought-tolerant garden here. They tried to have a lawn and a regular garden with peonies, roses, lilacs, and vegetables. Grandma Ina was proud of her clematis on the south side of the front porch.
I devoted Saturday to making jelly – two batches. The first was a combination of weak elderberry juice and leftover haw juice combined with apple juice made from cooked apples. It turned out well – a nice soft set. While the canning equipment was in place, I decided to use up the rest of the apple and weak elderberry juice and make a batch of elderberry apple jelly, which also turned out well.
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| Blue aphids fill the air (hard to see) |
It was 64 in the house when we arrived in town at 10:00 Sunday morning. That’s the coolest the house has been this season. The days warm slowly now, but it did reach 79 for a while in the afternoon. We opened the slider to allow some warmth into the house.
The “October bugs” (blue aphids) are now dense in the town neighborhood. They are bad this year, making an afternoon walk most uncomfortable. I saw our neighbors start off to walk their dog yesterday, only to turn around and go back home. KW
4 comments:
Oh those blue bugs! I remember hating them when I walked to junior high and high school. It seemed better if I walked in the middle of the street rather than the sidewalk--they seemed to always be worse near shrubs. I haven't noticed many up here yet this year. And now the cold weather is on the horizon so hopefully they'll all be gone shortly.
I remember those days, too, Chris. The bugs would cover my clothes and my books. And yes, it was better to walk in the middle of the street away from shrubs and trees.
I look forward to cooler weather. I'm tired of the cold / hot routine -- and the bugs.
I don't think I've ever seen a pickup so nicely stacked with wood!
That's what your dad said, Hallie, and suggested I take a picture before he started unloading. I stacked it, but I don't know that I can take credit for neatness. The pieces had square edges, and I fitted them so that they wouldn't roll.
This wood was from a big tree and had been split with an electric splitter.
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