Autumn

Here it is October and that puts me in a good mood all month long. For starters there is the smell of woodsmoke in the air, we have not built our first fire of the season, but will soon (we heat with good old fashioned wood). Then there is the fact that the SCIFI channel and others will have more monster movies on! Yippee!!! And it is most importantly the time of year when I start planning out this year's Christmas decorations extravaganza!!! I have found that by at least stringing the miles of lights on the eaves of the house around the first of November I have a far less likelihood of; a) getting soaked from rain or snow, b) falling off the ladder because one leg is on something solid and the other leg found un-frozen oozing muck, c) running out of decorating time because I always try to do too much!

Speaking of fires... Sunday was the day Mr. G deemed we needed to clean out the stove & chimney day. This involves me getting out the brushes, extensions & ladder and pushing a not very happy Mr. G up on the roof (it was drizzling). He does not sing "chim chimeny, chim chimeny, chim, chim charoo" and he does not dance on the roof either. He does it all (bless you Boogers) and after a few hours we are all cleaned out & ready for the cold weather to "Bring it on". (Really, what an ass wipe thing to say to terrorists). While Mr. G does this yearly chore I am worried about the important things... getting out the fall silk plants and will everyone notice they are the same from last year?... Arranging a fall front porch motif using mums and our very own pumpkins!... Laying out all the green tomatoes on the guest room bed,... I did manage to put off starting to stack & tarp all our firewood which is now wet... the drizzle turned to rain.
On Saturday I spent 6 hours putting the garden to bed. The compost pile is now piles. There are still potatoes to be dug & stored but everything else is in good shape for now. I have found a new source for rotted manure and a guy that will haul it at $15 a load so as soon as that damn woodpile stacks itself I will have some more shit to add to my gardens! Oh, and there is still that last case of daylillies that showed up 2 weeks back that really need to get in the ground this coming Saturday. With our drizzle we should have the outdoor burn season open soon and will have a big fire when we light our bonfire pile which is currently in the middle of the rest of my orchard area below the veg garden.