Groceries

It was a beautiful day yesterday. Cool, but as long as you were in the sun it was warm.

I had a few errands to run at lunch.  I (and Walt Kowalski) am one of those people that doesn't have to have a front row parking space.  I don’t mind walking a few extra steps to the store AND if I'm driving Big Red, I really don't mind parking away from everybody to give myself more room to maneuver. 

The dollar store was one my list, so I parked at the back of the parking lot.  But as I was on my way, I thought about the grocery store in the same plaza.  They have gift cards on sale. Ok, slight detour to the grocery. It's not a far walk.  The weather is good. I'll leave my car parked here.

Gift cards are easy to carry.  But as I picked up my gift cards, I saw a few other things on sale.  Oh, I'll grab those.  Also easy to carry. Yams.  I need some more yams.  A jar of apricot preserves.  I need that, too. OK, now I need a buggy.  Well, now that I have a buggy, I can get a few other large items I need.  They are on sale.

And I have a $10 coupon, so I better get enough to use the coupon.

25 minutes later, I have a buggy full and I exit the store.  Only to remember I am parked WAY over there. 

Crap.  OK, through the parking lot I go with my buggy full of groceries. 

Now, it didn't seem like a long walk when I was just carrying my wallet.  But when you're pushing a cart full of groceries, suddenly it's not a short trip. 

You can't even see my car in this photo!

Push the buggy through the parking lot, past the truck full of construction workers having lunch.

Unload the groceries.

I'm so far away, there are no cart corrals and I won't leave a buggy unattended.

Push the buggy back through the parking lot, past the truck full of construction workers having lunch.

Walk back to my car, past the truck full of construction workers having lunch. They watched me every time.  I'm certain they had a good laugh at the crazy lady pushing the buggy.

Finally, finished. Back to work.

 

And I forgot to go to the Dollar Store. 

Timber!

The extended warm weather has allowed us additional time for tree cutting, log splitting, and forest clean up.  Log splitting and forest clean up can continue even after the weather turns cold and rainy and snowy, but tree cutting becomes dangerous. 

These trees aren't pretty.  They are crooked and twisted.  Some are dead.  Others have diseases and are dying.  We aren't just cutting trees to cut trees. 

We have a few piles of wood.  There is the pile for this year, the pile for next year..

The pile by the garage.  The pile for the neighbors. 
 

 
Then what happens, we get a call from Chainsaw Johnny's aunt.  She is having a tree cut in her yard (we're not cutting it, she's hired a company.) and do we want the wood?

Of course!  It's maple, it's precut for us, it will make nice warm fires, and it was FREE. But that also means another pile of wood.

 
It was a big pile of wood. These are only the branches of the tree!

 
There's still many branches to go and the trunk of the tree is 4 feet across! It was a beautiful tree at one time, but has grown too large.  She had concerns about it falling on her house and it was providing so much shade to her house, that she was having moisture, dampness, and moss issues IN her house. 

We filled our Big Red truck and Chain Saw Johnny's truck and there is still two more truckloads of logs just from the first cutting!  We're going to be overloaded with wood.  If there is a cold disaster, we'll be ready.  

What comes after hauling...splitting.

 
Walt Kowalski said "We're wood groupies.  We'll go where the wood is." I said I think we're more like wood junkies.  We need another wood fix.

Come on over for a fire.  It's great!

Croak Croak

It's the season of cleanout up outside.

We got the swing moved and wrapped, dragged the patio furniture up the hill to the shed, emptied the flower pots, pulled the peppers, dig up the dahlias.  Rake leaves. Rake leaves. Rake leaves. Just normal fall activities. 

I still need to bring in the solar lights.

The hostas got frosted, or rather frozen, and they are done. I have been in the process of cutting of the top leaves. 

 
It's a simple process.  The hand trimmers don't cut very well now that the leaves have withered, so  sharp knife is a better instrument. Grab a handful, pull to the side, cut, cut, cut, throw in wheelbarrow.

I love hostas, so there was plenty to cut.  The leaves mixed in and will be raked out later. Except as I grabbed a handful of leaves, I think a leaf moved. 

 
No, wait, that leaf didn't move, it hopped.

Well hello there Toady. You were hiding in the leaves.  (He's in all three photos!)

I don't know who was more startled.  He was a big guy, and hopped away into a new hiding place in the rocks.

Feeling of Forebording

While out walking for my lunch today, I kept looking over my shoulder.

The clouds were moving faster than I was walking. WALK FASTER! I had an umbrella with me, but the wind started and it would have been useless.

Luckily, these dark clouds passed with only a few sprinkles.  Let's hope it stays that way for football playoffs tonight.


UPDATE:  I made it inside before the rain came and ended before football started.