Cutting A Rug

Jo and I are doing an art fair in Sequiota Park in Springfield, MO, this weekend. Heavy rains are predicted for the area over the next couple of days. Even if we get lucky and the rain stops over the weekend, the show site is likely to be a total quagmire little muddy. Jo came up with the idea of setting our booth up on an old piece of carpet. That should help it from becoming a mud hole. And, we just happened to have an old carpet on hand. All it needed was trimming to size. It would be better if the colors and pattern of the carpet were more subtle, but it should get the job done.

Cutting A Rug

Journal: Saturday, 10/18/08

Early Morning: Chilling down, but not quite as much as last night.  52º F (11º C) @ 2:00 AM.

Late Morning: Another beautiful fall day in the Ozarks.  (Yes, that's redundant, but I will never tire of saying it.)  A little warmer than yesterday.  The wind has become variable and picked up a little -- probably in the process of shifting around to the south.  66º F (18º C) at 11 AM.

Afternoon:

Houseplants:  Jo finished transporting all our potted plants and hanging baskets into the house for the winter.  I helped by carrying a few of the larger ones.

Young Buck:  A young buck came down for a drink at the small pond visible from our kitchen window.  Doesn't he know this is the fist day of muzzle loading deer season and he should stay hidden in the woods?  Having never been a hunter, I am not familiar with the terminology describing a young buck's antlers -- the degree of antler formation necessary before he can be legally shot.  This one had a long and a short tine on each side of his head.

Another Fall Art Fair:  Both Jo and I applied to the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Covington, LA.  Jo did the show last year for the first time.  Considering the distance from our place to southern Louisiana plus all the great things we'd heard about the show, Jo's sales were not up to our expectations, but they were good enough for us to give it another shot.  However, neither Jo nor I got into the show this year.  Both of us were placed on the standby list.  Today, Jo received an email saying someone had cancelled and inviting her to exhibit in the show.  Jo accepted.

Blog posts from last year's Three Rivers show:

• Thursday:  The trip south.
• Friday:  Setting up for the show.
• Saturday and Sunday:  At the show.

So, it looks as if Jo and I will be heading south in a few weeks.  That means Jo will be busy, busy, busy in her pottery studio.  It also means that we need to find a new place for boarding Rusty and Bucket that's south of us.  In years past we boarded the dogs at our local vet's.  Her office was right on the way if we were heading south and only slightly out of the way if we were heading north.  However, due to a variety of unfortunate circumstances, she was forced to close her office early last spring -- and we were forced to find new places for boarding our dogs.  We found a vet up in Harrison that we like for boarding, but that's an extra 80 mile round trip if we're heading south.  We also used a vet's office to the south for boarding last spring, but did not think our dogs received adequate care.  We must find a new boarding facility.

Weather:  Temperature range = 74/48.  Clear skies.  Light and variable wind. 

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Journal: Saturday, 10/18/08

Journal: Friday, 10/17/08

Early Morning:

Blog post on Hodgepodgery: Trying out the slide in the playground at Sequiota Park in Springfield, MO.

Chilling down tonight. 45º F (7º C) @ 3 AM.

Blog post on Nature in the Ozarks: Spider Wasp.



Late Morning:

A beautiful, cloudless, windless fall day going on here. 65º F (18º C) @ noon. I need to get off this computer and get outside to enjoy this wonderful weather.

It seems strange: Here it is Friday and we're not driving to a show. Nor must we set up a booth later this afternoon. Woohoo!

Afternoon:

Jo began the process of migrating our potted plants from the porch to various places inside the house. She washed off their leaves and made room for them inside. In my capacity as the strong-backed, weak-minded member of our family, I assisted in moving the heavier pots out into the yard for their baths. Tomorrow they will again become houseplants, a status they do not appreciate. Many will drop most of their leaves in protest. Little do they know how much worse it would be if we left them outside.

Jo also blanched and removed the skins from a few tomatoes so she could freeze them. In 20+ years of gardening in Arkansas, this is the first time we've had excess tomatoes in October. Most years, the majority of the plants succumb to the heat and arid conditions of August.

Mystery smell solved: All week we've been catching whiffs of a slightly sweet, slightly acrid smell, but could not figure out its source. On her way out to the brush pile this afternoon, Jo discovered where the smell originated: A large quantity of persimmons have fallen to the ground and fermented. I'm sure Rusty and Bucket would love to clean up the fallen persimmons, but I'd greatly prefer some raccoon, opossum or coyote eat their fill of fermented fruits. Cleaning up after wild critters is not my job.

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Journal: Friday, 10/17/08