Journal: Saturday, 11/08/08

►  Had to crank up the wood stove this evening for the first time in well over a week. (42ºF/5ºC @ midnight)

►  Out of propane. Need to swap propane bottles. The kitchen stove is the only propane burning appliance we have. (54ºF/12ºC and sunny @ 10:30 AM)

Got the propane bottles swapped out with no problems.  I'll get the empty bottle refilled on my next trip into town.

►  Hearing gunshots in the distance every so often. Today is opening day of modern weapons deer season. (60ºF/15ºC @ noon)

►  A brisk north wind quickly dried the towels hanging on our clothesline, making them very fluffy too. (Mostly clear skies and 57ºF/13ºC @ 2:30 PM)

►  Afternoon walk not all that relaxing with deer hunters out and about. Our dogs thought we out to track the hunters. Chasing their 4-wheelers would be even better. (44ºF/6ºC @ 4:45 PM)

Even though Rusty and Bucket seldom get to travel, they are really pretty good dogs when we are away from our place, but they are terrible about barking, pulling on their leashes and just generally going crazy when we are home.  Too many territorial impulses kick in, I suppose.

►  Got Jo's kiln started on a bisque firing. (Clear, calm and 36ºF/2ºC @ midnight)




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Journal: Saturday, 11/08/08

Journal: Monday, 10/20/08

Morning: Each new day warmer than the last as our last cool front fades away. Mostly clear skies with only a few high, thin clouds. Light to moderate south wind. Weather conditions have not gone downhill as rapidly as I expected. Rain is still in our forecast for mid-week, though. 75º F (23º C) at noon.

Researching, cropping photos, etc. for a blog post on squash bugs, but I need to get on with my day leaving the post unfinished until this evening.

Afternoon: Lots of little projects. None of them really worth talking about.

This photo was taken about a month ago and shows poison ivy growing up a pine tree providing our earliest fall color.

Dogs: Play with the dogs for a while again this afternoon. When I discussed playing fetch with Rusty and Bucket yesterday, I made it sound like a purely altruistic activity. It isn't. Yes, I am concerned about them becoming total couch potatoes and preventing that is one of the reasons we play, but we also play fetch to burn off some of their energy. Someone once said, "A good dog is a tired dog." There's a lot of truth to that. Our cooler fall temps have boosted the dogs' energy level several steps. We burn off a little of that excess energy playing fetch, helping protect the inside of the house from being totally destroyed when Rusty and Bucket play with each other.

Cucumber: Jo harvested a cuke this afternoon. That's got to be a late season record for our garden. Of course, this cuke did not come from one of the vines we planted. Those sucuumbed to wilt before producing more than a half dozen fruits. A volunteer cucumber vine in the strawberry bed produced several cukes and this is the latest of those.

Temperatures: 79º/55º. 61º at midnight.

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Journal: Monday, 10/20/08