Iced

  • Early October Maximilian sunflowers

Seems like the hummingbirds that quarreled over the feeders all summer decamped about the first of the last week of September. We have only seen a couple at the feeders since then and those were probably just passing through. We will keep the feeders out another week or two in case any travelers need refreshment.

We continue to be dry but I’m not complaining. Since I couldn’t find anyone to do the touchup painting I wanted I’ve been doing it myself. The porch posts tend to weather and crack at the base so I caulked the cracks after sanding away the loose paint, primed and painted the whole post. In the mean time I found someone to refinish the front door. It faces south and the lower half takes a beating during winter when the sun is low in the sky. It looked bad; now it looks like new. The man did the work over several days since he needed to let each stage dry. It may have taken him eight hours total and it wasn’t cheap, but he showed me what I need to do every three or four years to keep the finish in good condition. It will keep the door looking good, save money and probably only take me a few hours since I’ll only be refurbishing the outer layer of lacquer.

We didn’t make the trip to Garland for Vivian’s birthday this year because of the virus. We did celebrate Rebecca’s birthday with dinner at her house. We were all set to head out on our fall raid but Joyce had a touch of a bug so we postponed our trip a week. When we finally did go we enjoyed a pleasant trip and pulled it off about as planned with just a few challenges to spice it up. I’ll share details and pictures in a separate post. When we got home we found things about as we left them, which is to say, dry. Kari had planted pansies in front of the kitchen window for Joyce’s birthday.

The weather was good this week and I started mowing the place. There is a nice crop of gramma grass seeds. The place looks like a wheat field. I managed to get the southwest and northwest sections mowed and trimmed but the weather is changing and it may be November before I can work on the other sections. I first thought I would try to have it all done by Thanksgiving. Then I decided it would be nice to finish before Halloween. Looks like I’ll miss the Halloween deadline but I should be able to finish well before turkey day.

Indeed the weather did change and we were socked in nearly all this last week of October. Joyce and I spent some of those afternoons by the fire. There has been rain, sleet, snow and ice and our rain gauge registered 1.43 inches when the sun came out late in the week and it all melted. We needed the moisture, no question, but it came at the price of some tree limbs. There are probably five or six loads that will need to be hauled off to the brush site. I don’t remember a mushier snow but it has just about all melted and soaked in now. That will relieve me of watering while I concentrate on brush removal.

Last thought: Don’t vote and be thought a fool. Vote Democrat and erase all doubt.