Halloween 2026

Guess what, y'all!  I finally made that there squash pie!  

It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  

I don't know what it is, if my ovens are consistently off temperature wise or what, but it always takes so much longer to bake pies than the recipes say.  I always have to add at least 15 minutes to the cooking time for them to get done in the middle.  Even the pumpkin pies I make do this, despite me following the recipe exactly.  

No matter.  It's done, and that was the last thing on my list of stuff I wanted to cook.  Now I just need to finish eating up all of those canned goods and I'll be good to go.  I opened one of the cans of pulled pork for lunch, and I must say I didn't really like the BBQ sauce they had in there.  Oh well, I'll probably still get another can or two, just in case there is a power outage or something and it's not long enough to drag out that generator and hook it up.  

Other than that, I haven't really done much today.  After watching It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, I spent a little time working on cleaning up this mess a bit.

I know you can't really tell, but I am slowly making progress.  I suppose I could have done more, but I'm already feeling all the work I did yesterday, so I figured I probably ought not to overdo it.  Still, I got a little bit added to my firewood pile, 

and a bit more raked into what will eventually be a compost pile.  The in-between stuff -- you know that's too small to be firewood, but to big to be compost -- is going to get put into the brush pile I started in the woods a few years ago. 

It will provide shelter for small animals and beneficial insects over the winter, and will eventually break down to enrich the forest floor.  And I'm using that term forest very loosely, since it's just a thin line of trees back there now.  

Besides, if I need it for anything -- like starting a fire or filling a raised bed -- I can always go back there and get some.  

In knitting news, the orange hat is coming along nicely.   

Yarn:  Mainstays

Colorway:  Orange V

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8

Mainstays has some decent yarn, and this orange is so much brighter than any of the Red Heart or Caron they had in stock.  I figured my cousin would like it better.  He said he starts his treatment in December, so I want to have both hats finished and mailed by then.  That should be very doable.  

That's pretty much all I have for today, so I'll just leave you with my traditional Halloween prayer:

And say good night and Happy Halloween!  

Back Into The Swing

It's been a rough week trying to get back into the swing of things -- mainly waking up at 2:30 AM -- after having a whole week off to sleep as late as I wanted to.  I don't know what's going on, but I've been so exhausted.  Heh, I put on the Cowboys game Monday night and didn't even last until the end of the first quarter.  I woke up with 4-ish minutes left in the game, and said I was going to watch the end, but didn't make it that time, either. 

I've been feeling so run down all week.  In spite of that, I managed to stain the rest of my fence today.  Mostly.

I wanted to get it done before the rains tomorrow-- hopefully we'll get some.  And hopefully, it'll settle whatever it is that has got my allergies all stirred up.  One day, I think it was Wednesday, my eyes were burning so badly I couldn't even see.  We won't even talk about my breathing...

But about that fence, I got one coat on the entire inside, and everything to the left of those orange flags has two coats.  I have one more gallon of stain, but I'm the one who ran out of steam.  I might not be able to move tomorrow, but that's one more thing I can almost mark off of my list.  

Except I still have to do the outside, but that will require talking to the neighbors since I'll have to trespass on their side to get it done.  I don't think they'd mind, but still....

Speaking of the neighbors, it looks like they're planning a Halloween party.  They might get rained out, but they moved their car out of the carport and have a table set up there, so maybe not.  

In other news, it's also been a rough week for Trekkies, losing Mr. Chekov and Captain Picard in the same week.  Mr. Chekov was one of my first childhood crushes, along with Mr. Greenjeans.   Nothing romantic, per se.  I was still a bit too young for that, but Mr. Chekov and I spent many hours exploring strange new worlds in my childish imagination.  Someone on FB posted that we now live in a world where there are no more Pavel Chekovs, since the young actor who played him in the reboots was killed in a tragic accident ten years ago.  Almost to the day... 

In spite of it all, I managed to finish the sailor hat to match the scarf I'd knit. 

I got a message from one of my cousins last week.  He's got cancer and has requested I knit him a couple of beanies for when his head gets cold.  I didn't say so out loud, but I was thinking, "You're already bald headed, how much colder are we talking about?"   Anyway, he wants one in orange and one in purple.  Guess which are the only two colors I didn't have?  I ran into town after work one day -- I'm so tired I don't even remember which day it was-- and picked up a skein of each.  

Yes, it looks blue in the photo, but it really is purple.  I've got the orange hat cast on, but haven't taken a photo of it. 

In a bit of better news, the chicken wire on my raised bed seems to have worked well keeping the cat out. 

Look at this!  My crimson clover is germinating.  

So is my bachelor's button.  

I don't know how well you can see, but my second planting is absolutely loaded with tomatoes.  

I doubt I'm going to do succession planting next year, because I don't think they'll ripen before the earliest chance of frost.  We've had them in the last week of October before, and if we got one this year, all of these tomatoes would be toast.  I might have to cover these, even so.  I'm watching the forecast pretty closely, but I think next year, I'll just plant something more cold hardy.  The extension office put out a list of things to plant in October.

Alas, there isn't a whole lot on this list that I really like, and the stuff I do like, I wouldn't be able to eat it up before it goes bad.  The spinach, for example.  I love fresh baby spinach, but don't like it cooked.  Wait, I like it in stuff like spinach quiche, so that may be a possibility.  But a small one, since I'm allergic to eggs.  I still eat them from time to time, but don't want to over do it. 

Abrupt change of subject, despite my lingering fatigue, I got up and walked the Bottomland Trail at the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve.  

I wish I weren't so exhausted after a long day at work, or I'd go more often.  But what with them moving us back to the lines, I probably won't have to.  Back when we were on the lines before, I'd usually end up walking 3-3.5 miles just in the course of an average work day.  That's what we'll be going back to, whereas now, with us close to where we need to be, I only walk 1.5-2 miles per day.  

Someone on FB posted this:  

and I felt it to the depths of my soul.  I remember one time when the brazers were on the assembly lines last time.  I was working on line 2, and neither of line 1's brazers showed up that morning, so the supervisor asked me if I would go work on line 1.  Alas, the other brazer for line 2 was lazy as all get out.  I'm telling you, if she brazed 50 headers per day, she was doing well.  For context, we were supposed to be doing 250 per day, but she was also boinking the group leader, so she got away with it. 

Well, said group leader told Supervisor that she couldn't keep up by herself, so said supervisor told me to run back and forth between line 1 and line 2 all day.  Go do a few orders for line 1, then come do a few orders for line 2....all so group leader's side chick wouldn't have to make any effort whatsoever to do her job.  

 I definitely got my steps in that day.  

Out Of The Blue

 I had a former coworker contact me a couple of days ago completely out of the blue.  

We'd been friends back when he worked out at the plant, but had mostly lost touch when he quit out there and moved out of town.  We were friends on the Book Of Faces, but he hardly ever posted.  Well, he messaged me and told me he was thinking about moving back so he could help take care of his dad and was considering trying to get back on at the plant. 

I had to be honest with him, and told him I would not recommend that place to anyone.  It's gotten so much worse out there since he left.  He replied that he'd heard that from other sources, and thanked me for confirming.  I suggested a couple of other facilities in the area that pay much more and treat their employees so much better, and if I weren't so close to retirement, I'd put in at one of them my own self. 

It's a shame when your work place is so bad you warn people against applying there. 

We chatted a bit more and he was impressed that I still had Slider.  He's the one who gave him to me all those years ago.  He said, "I knew you'd take good care of her."  TBH, I don't know if Slider is a him or a her, but I've always said him and I'm not going to stop now.  Probably because my coworker called him him when he gave him to me.  Maybe he forgot.  It's been 19 years after all...

Speaking of work, I had to turn my alarm back on this morning and it made me want to throw up.  I woke up at 4:00 and made myself stay awake to try to get back into the swing of getting up at 2:30, and boy was I not happy about it.  In fact, I felt so sick about it I didn't really do anything today but watch cheesy Christmas movies, both Hallmark and Great American Family.  

While I was doing that, I played around with AI a bit trying to come up with an autumn picture to use as a thumbnail.  I put the same prompt in:  Create an image of autumn scenery, and this is what they gave me.  

ChatGPT: 

Grok:  

Gemini:  

I think Gemini won this round.  I'd like to be walking down that road myself.  I wish I weren't so exhausted when I got off work.  If I weren't, I'd go walking every day.  As it is, I come home and pretty much collapse.  

In garden news, I forgot to show you this yesterday.  Look, one of my garlics is coming up!  

This is the only one so far, but I'm not panicking.  Garlic really needs a good cold spell to start growing.  Lots of sites recommend putting it into the refrigerator before planting it, which I wish I would have known ahead of time.  Oh well, it'll get cold soon enough.  

I did go out and cut all the green cayenne peppers I could find, but I didn't string them to dry.  I just put them into a Ziploc bag and put them into the freezer.   I also cut a bit more French tarragon and hung it to dry.  That'll probably be all I harvest from the garden for this year, except for the tomatoes, of course.  

And finally, remember how I said I was going to eat up all these canned goods?  

I've made a pretty good start of it.  I ate the corned beef hash for breakfast this morning, and ate the Sweet Sue chicken and dumplings yesterday.  I've used the cream of chicken soup in my squash casserole, and made chicken salad from both of those cans of chicken.  

In an eerie no-such-thing-as-a-coincidence coincidence, a recipe for salmon patties -- sometimes called salmon croquettes-- popped up in my FB feed.  I think I'll make those one day this week.  Then I'll make tuna salad out of the two cans of tuna.  I don't even know why I bought the stuff.  I don't like tuna.  But it's there and we don't waste food.  

In fact, I think I'll go right now and open up that big can of pear halves and make pear salads with them.  I haven't had a pear salad in ages.  

Laters.

Lonely Little Hornet

I gave in this morning and turned on the heat.  No, not the central heat.  It wasn't nearly cold enough in the house for that, but the little space heater was just enough to take the chill off the living room.  

It sure felt good to sit under a blanket in front of this thing, with hot cup of coffee in my hand.  

After it warmed up a bit, I went out back and saw one lonely little hornet hovering around what used to be a busy nest.  I almost felt sorry for him.  Not sorry enough to not try to kill him, but sorry nonetheless.  He kept his distance and I was able to get part of the mess behind the fence...I was going to say cleaned up, but really all I did was toss it over the fence into the back yard.  

Still, at least it's on my property now and I can take care of it at my leisure.  I did cut up a few of the branches, but I've started feeling all the work I've been doing these last few days, so I just did a little bit of work.  Now, I just need to start working on the rest of it.  Most of the stuff I'll be able to get with my mini chainsaw or manual loppers, but there are a few bigger pieces I'll have to break out the full size chainsaw to take care of those.  

I just hope I can get the thing started, since it's been in storage for so long. 

Before I came inside to settle in with some knitting and football, I recorded a new garden vlog, which you can watch here:  Garden Vlog.  I think I did a little bit better this time, because I got more sleep last night, but I still ended up rambling some.  Oh well, maybe I'll eventually get the hang of it.  Maybe over the winter, I'll figure out how to edit and make them look a bit more professional, but I'm not sure I want to get into all of that.  They're mostly for me anyway, to review what I've done this year and see what i need to do differently in the future. 

In the vlog, I mentioned the average first frost date, and do you know I checked five different websites and they gave me five different dates.   So I have no idea when our average first frost date is.  Usually it's sometime during the first half of November, but what with the Super El Niño and all, I don't know what to expect this year.  I'll have to keep checking the forecast. I just hope my second round of tomatoes have time to ripen before it gets here -- or at least grow to full size.  Tomatoes will continue to ripen after you pick them, so that's not really much of a worry. 

I said I wasn't going to harvest any more cayenne peppers, either because I've got them running out of my ears, but somehow I managed to snap an entire branch off of one of my plants.  I didn't want them to go to waste, so I brought the peppers in anyway. 

I'll probably put them into a Ziploc and put them in the freezer with the other two Ziplocs I have of peppers.  Cody said he and Brennan are probably going to come visit one weekend before Thanksgiving, then spend a quiet Thanksgiving at home, just the two of them.  Working retail around the holidays is exhausting, and she wants to rest instead of traveling.  I don't blame her, so we're going to have our dinner then, and they'll help me put up the tree as well.  I think I'll try to talk Cody into putting up my outside lights, too since he's a bit taller than I am.  

All that to say I will give them some of the frozen and pickled peppers to take home with them.  In fact, I might go cut the rest of the green peppers before they start turning red so they'll have a nice little bunch of those to use. 

Speaking of, I got my squash casserole made and put into the freezer, so that's one more thing I can mark off my list.   This is the recipe I use. 

For what it's worth, you can use regular chicken broth instead of bouillon if that's what you have handy.  And whatever stuffing mix you have, as well.  I usually use Stove Top or even the Great Value brand, since those are what I buy.  

Tomorrow, I'll make the squash pie, using this recipe. 

Only I'll use evaporated milk instead of scalded milk.  That's how you know this is a super old recipe.  I won't put this one into the freezer!  Well, maybe I'll put a few slices in, but I'm going to eat most of it.  

And finally, the official Hunter's Moon isn't until tomorrow night, but it sure is big and bright out there this evening.  

You really ought to go look at it, if you haven't already. 

Bummed

I'm bummed.  

Why?  Because I finished watching Heartland today.  Well, the 18 seasons available on Hulu, that is.  I didn't realize I was so close to the end, or I'd have slowed down a bit.  Maybe they'll get seasons 19 and 20 up soon.  In the meantime, I need to find something else to watch.  I'm open to suggestions, but bear in mind, I've already watched quite a bit, so please don't take it personally if I've already seen your suggestion.  If it helps, I have Hulu, Prime, and all the free streaming services -- that I know of, that is.  No Netflix, no Paramount +, no Max, and no Peacock.  

In other news, today was one of those totally beautiful days that made it nearly impossible to stay inside. 

So I didn't.  I got up early this morning, and piled some red clay over the hornet's nest, hoping that would inspire them to move on. 

Then I got dressed and went to walk out at the lake.  This time I walked the lake circle on the south side of the spillway.  I almost went to the fitness trail again, but thought I needed a little variety.  When I got back home, I checked the nest and there were still a few hornets buzzing around, so I zapped them with some ant spray.

The thing about wasp spray is that it shoots in such a tiny little stream that you waste most of it missing the wasp.  Ant and roach spray covers a much larger area, and it still kills the wasp.  Maybe not as quickly, but if they get any on them, they'll eventually die.  

Anyway, I decided that I'd killed enough of them that I could work safely in that area, so I got out my mini chainsaw-- wearing proper protective gear of course -- and started cutting up some of those branches.  I made a pretty good start before I remembered I'm not 25 any more and should probably take it easy.  

I also really need to get it through my head that I don't have to do it all in one day.  Which is why I put off starting to dig the clay out of that last 4' x 4' bed, like I had planned to do.  I don't want to overdo things, especially since I've just started walking again.  I want to be able to move tomorrow.

Instead, I had to come up with a way to keep this thing out of my clover and pansy bed. 

She can't dig anything up because I have that plastic stuff down, but she still gets in there and naps.  Or just sits.  Even so, I believe that's why my clover isn't growing, so I pulled some chicken wire off the old coops the previous homeowner had built and covered the bed with three layers of that. 

Maybe that'll keep her out long enough for the clover to get a foot hold.  Or would that be a root hold?  I'm probably going to have to adjust it a bit to get it out from over the pansies, if the cat doesn't get the idea to stay out of that bed. 

My other plan for the day was to get my squash casserole and squash pie made, but that didn't happen. I got to poking around in my pantry, and do you know what all of this is?  

This is all canned goods that are past their Best By date.  Why I have six cans of pork and beans I do not know.  I don't even like pork and beans that much.  I guess I thought it's easy to heat up in a power outage and can be eaten directly from the can if need be.  I went through a bit of a prepper phase a few years back.  It was in 2020 when the Easter storms knocked my power out for 4 days.  I said I wasn't going to get caught out like that again, so I bought a camp stove and a bunch of canned goods.  The funny thing is, I didn't even use that camp stove during the ice storm, because I could heat stuff up on the top of my wood stove.  

But I digress...

You know, Americans waste so much food by throwing away so much food because of that Best By date.  It's not like your food turns instantaneously rotten the very next day.  If the ends of the can aren't pooched out, it's still likely safe to eat.  I'm going to eat up all of this stuff -- providing it passes the sniff test followed by the taste test.  If it doesn't smell or taste off, it's going into my stomach. 

I guess I'm going to be eating quite a bit of beans on toast in the near future.  Hey, we laugh at it, but it actually tastes pretty good. 

Speaking of food, my friend posted this, which has been going around socials here lately.  

The thing about it is, it's as phony as a $3 bill.  For one thing, who hangs on to a receipt for 24 years?  And as one of my other friends pointed out, the ink would have faded long ago.  It might still be legible, but it sure wouldn't be that sharp and clear.  

Secondly, the prices on the 2026 receipt are absolutely fabricated.  In an amazing coincidence, I had been at Walmart the same day my friend posted that meme, and I had actually taken a photo of the price of a dozen eggs. 

I'd taken it with the intention of reminding people that a mere 2 years ago, eggs were $9 a dozen and if you don't want to go back to that, you better get out and vote -- and not for the party that gave us $9 eggs.  But the point is, this is the price of an actual dozen eggs, not what the phony receipt has listed.  In fact, even the fancy schmancy organic free range brown eggs aren't but $5.96.  The rest of the stuff on that phony receipt can be easily price checked on the Walmart app.  The only one that is accurate is that price of the coffee.  

And that brings us to my third point:  The items on the receipts are not listed like they would be on a real receipt.  Those eggs would appear on the receipt the same way they appear on the shelf label:  GV 12 LRG A EGG.  I didn't buy eggs, but you can see on my actual receipt from yesterday how bread and milk are listed. 

For those of you with old eyes like mine and can't see it, the milk is listed as GV FF GAL and the price is $4.32.  The bread is listed as GV SWICH WHT and it cost me $1.52.  

That's your meme debunkeration for the day.  

And in case you're wondering why I spent $245, the biggest expense was this indoor safe propane heater, just in case.  

I guess I haven't completely gotten over that prepper phase after all. 

Inventory

Once again it was time for annual inventory out at the plant, and once again it was the same old … we had a word for this when I was in the Navy which I will not utter here. 

I want to maintain my PG rating on the blog, you know.  

In other words, everything went as it usually does.  I keep saying people might not hate inventory so much if they would at least pretend to be organized, but they can't even do that.  And I desperately wish they'd give these counters some training!  But no, they just throw them out there and we card writers end up having to train them.  

The poor counter I ended up with...we were inventorying stacks of metal parts.  The way we normally do it is to measure the stack, then multiply by how many parts per inch.  Very simple, very easy, and it's always the same because all of the parts are the same thickness.  The counter I had said she didn't feel comfortable doing it that way, so she was hand counting every single stack of parts...and bear in mind, some of these stacks had 400-500 parts in them.  It took her like 30 minutes just to count the first stack.  By that time, I'd counted three stacks myself and had written up the cards for them.   

Eventually, Uncle Supervisor went over and had a talk with the counter, and things picked up after that.  We eventually got everything done, then I noticed Uncle Supervisor over replacing some of the cards I had written with the green Do Not Inventory cards.  I walked over and said, "You'd think they'd have a way for us to tell which ones we don't inventory before we write the cards.  I asked about it last year, and they said there's no way to know until the computer kicks the cards out.  To me, that's just..."

"Asinine," Uncle Supervisor interrupted. 

Laughing, I replied, "I was going to say unorganized, but that works, too!"  But that's how it is out there.  It's like they try to do things in the most chaotic way possible. 

I think the worst part about inventory is that you can't leave when you're done.  You have to stand around waiting for hours and hours.  I don't know about everyone else, but I definitely felt like I was being watched. 

That is a real photo I took.  I'm not exactly sure what was making that reflection, but it sure looked like a face to me. 

I thought it was funny.  

Good News!

But first, a bit of bad news.  I got stung again this morning...in my kitchen. 

I'd gone out pretty early while it was still too cold for the hornets to be stirring and raked more stuff away from the spot where I'd seen them hovering.  The plan was to see if I could locate the hole so I could eliminate the threat.  

I was back inside washing out my coffee cup -- I know, I know, but I didn't start drinking coffee until after I'd gotten out of the Navy -- when I felt something like a sting on my side.  Huh?  I went and looked in the mirror in my bedroom and saw something that looked like a sting.  "There must be something inside my shirt!"  I said, taking said shirt off and shaking it out. 

Sure enough, one of the little demons flew out of my shirt, but this time it would be different.  "You're in my territory now, son!"  I exclaimed, running into the kitchen and grabbing my ant and roach spray.  It does work on wasps, too, even better than wasp spray in my opinion.  I gave the thing a good soaking -- probably overkill, but I wanted to make sure he was dead, then scraped him up with the fly swatter and flushed him. 

Now for the good news, I'd taken a 24-hour Claritin before I went to bed last night, so hopefully enough of that was still in my system to prevent a breakout from the venom.  So far, it seems to be working. 

A bit of bad news, I did not sleep at all last night.  Seriously, it was after 3:00 AM before I even fell asleep, and was back awake by 5:30.  I believe it was from the steroid ointment I'd been putting on my wasp stings, and steroids have wicked side effects.  Sleeplessness is one of them, and it would also explain why I couldn't seem to stop eating yesterday.  

Despite feeling terrible, or maybe because of it, I decided I wanted to go for a walk this morning.  I haven't been able to do that at all this week.  Monday I had to deal with the tree guy, Tuesday was the dentist, and tomorrow I have to go in to work to do inventory, so today was the day.  First I drove down to the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve, but they were out there getting ready for the Enchanted Forest thing they are doing this weekend. If you're local, it would be a great thing to take the kids to.  Starts at 4:00 PM, according to their Facebook page. 

I didn't want to get in the way, so I drove on down to the lake and walked the fitness trail by the tennis courts, for you local folks.  

(This is not the trail by the lake.  It's a photo I took on the Bottomland trail several weeks ago, but I didn't take any today, and I needed a thumbnail for the link.)

About halfway through the trail, I realized I'd worn the wrong shoes.  Out of sheer habit, I had put on my work boots instead of my hiking boots.  Oh well, nothing could be done about it but to finish the trail. 

The only thing wrong with that is that I tend to buy my work boots a size too big, because my feet tend to swell when I'm standing on them all day, especially in the summer.  

I had to laugh a bit when I passed a guy out on the trail.  He was jogging one direction and I was walking the other direction, and as we passed each other we both said, "Morning" as you do.  Here in America, I mean.  I watch some European channels on YouTube and they all say they don't do that over there.  

And now, the best news of all!  When I finished my walk and came home, I walked out into the back yard while I was still wearing my jeans and hoodie, and glory be!  I found the hornet's nest!!  I immediately ran -- and I do use that term very loosely-- back to the house and grabbed my can of wasp spray, then ran back --again, using that term very very loosely -- and emptied the entire can into the hole where they were nesting.  I followed that up with two -- yes TWO-- cans of ant and roach spray, then dumped a bunch of diatomaceous earth into and around the hole.  That should take care of any who managed to survive the first two assaults.  

Even better, I think I managed to kill the queen.  There was one hornet that was much bigger than all the rest, which I believe must have been the queen.  Once she's dead, that's the end of the colony.  

I hope.  

The last step was to pour some vinegar down the hole to keep any hornets from coming back.  They supposedly don't like the smell, from what I've read.  I'll give it a couple of days, then I'll take some of the red clay and fill the thing in.  

Once that is all done, I can finally start cleaning up all of that mess back there.  

I really didn't do much else today.  That sleepless night finally caught up to me and I spent most of the day watching TV.  Hopefully, all of the steroids have cleared my system and I can get a much better night of sleep tonight.  But for now, I'm going to go take a quick shower -- even though it's still pretty early, I feel like I need to be under some hot water.  

And I'll catch you on the flip side. 

Dreaded Dentist

I didn't cook a thing today.  Not one single thing.  Unless you count the microwave macaroni I made for lunch, I mean.  But no soup.  No casseroles.  No nothing.  I've cooked so much over the last few weeks, I needed to be done for a while. 

What I did instead was go to the dreaded dentist.  Who isn't really all that dreaded, but that's not as exciting to say, is it?  He got my tooth prepped for the crown, and I'm telling you he pumped me so full of Novocain that even my eyelid was numb.   The good news is, I didn't feel a thing.   For about six hours...

But the tooth is all ready and my crown will be here in about 10 days.  

By sheer coincidence, while I was waiting for the numbing to take effect, I thought to myself, "I probably ought to silence my phone, just in case."  So I did.  Good thing, because I actually got a call from the eye doctor telling me my safety glasses had come in.  Even more of a coincidence, the eye doctor just happens to be between the dentist office and Walmart.  

I swung by and picked them up, then went to Walmart and got two more bags of garden soil.  All of that done before 10:00 and I was able to come home and spend the entire rest of the day for myself.  It actually almost felt like a vacation.  A working vacation, but the weather was so nice, I opened the doors and windows, put in a cheesy Christmas movie and knit on some -- surprise surprise -- more hats. 

Yarn:  Red Heart Super Saver

Colorway:  Hunter Green

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

I also wanted to give you an update on this one, since I've been working on it off and on.  

Yarn:  Forbidden Fiber Co. Fortitude

Colorway:  Star Fall

Pattern:  Sockhead

Needles:  US 2.5/ 3 mm

Once the cheesy Christmas move I'd been watching while knitting was over, I stepped outside and worked in the garden a bit.  I'd managed to go outside before the sun came up this morning and rake up some of the leaves from behind the fence before the hornets woke up.  I collected enough to put a thick layer in the bottom of each wooden bed -- after I'd dug out the red clay, of course, 

and before I added the garden soil.  The last thing I did was to add the protective plastic to keep these beds from being used as a litter pan. 

And those beds are now ready to plant.  All four of the ones alongside that fence will be for my pollinator gardens.  I've already got Bachelor's Buttons planted in one, but they haven't shown any signs of life yet.  I'll probably put zinnias in one, since I still have plenty of seeds left.  For now, I might just sow some more of my crimson clover seeds, until I decide what to do...or spring comes.  Whichever comes first. 

Anyway, I still have to finish filling this bed, which I won't do any time soon.  I want to let all of this compost break down a bit before adding soil. 

Now, I only have this one and one more of my 4' x 4' beds to fill and my little garden spot will be done for now.   

Kind of like this day is done for now, at least as far as I'm concerned.   I'm going to bed.

Goodnight. 

Time To Recover

How in the world are my days off going by so quickly?  It feels like I just got up, and now it's evening already.  Time needs to slow down a bit, and now that I've got one more thing accomplished, maybe it will.  

Well, the tree guy got something accomplished, that is.  He came by this morning and removed all of the dead and broken branches from the tree, and I'm glad someone actually showed up.  I don't have a good track record for hiring people who actually show up, you know.  

But he did, and the job is finally done, and at least I don't have to worry about dead limbs falling on my head any more. 

He also trimmed up a few of the lower hanging branches, especially the one hitting the house, so that's much better.  Some of those made the back yard feel...ominous, if you know what I mean.  I kind of miss the shade they cast, but that's better than them snapping off in a storm, I guess. 

I'd told him to pile the trimmings by the back fence, but I guess I should have been more specific because I meant inside the fence. 

You know, on my property.  Which ends at the back fence.  Not that it matters, because I've never seen anyone back there  -- not that close to the house at least.  And I'll still be the one cleaning it all up no matter where it's piled.  

Speaking of fences, he pulled out this whole section so he could get his truck into the back yard.  

He asked if I wanted him to put it back, but I told him not to worry about that since the plan is to get all of that fence pulled out anyway.  And when I start offering that red clay up for grabs, it'll be a lot easier to get it out this way.  

As soon as they left, I went out there and started cleaning all that mess up.  I got this much into my compost bin,

And started putting some of the bigger stuff into the raised bed, 

before the hornets found me.  I'm not sure if they were in the tree or in the ground where I was raking stuff up, but I quit after I'd gotten stung twice.  One of the tree guy's employees told me she had also gotten stung, so they might have been in the tree.  Do hornets nest in trees?  I've only ever seen this kind in holes in the ground.  She may have blown leaves over their hole since she was using a leaf blower.  I swan I think she was trying to blow every single leaf out of my yard.  

I finally told the tree guy that it wasn't necessary, just to get her to stop with the noise.  Plus, I like leaving my leaves over the winter for the bugs and things that hide under them during the cold weather, not to mention it's free mulch for my lawn.  

But I digress...where was I?  Oh yes, hornets...

At least I had long pants on, so maybe these won't be as bad as the last time.   Maybe after my dentist appointment in the morning, I'll go out while I still have jeans on and see if I can find a hole or something and pour vinegar down it. 

It worked before, and I have plenty of vinegar...because I forgot I had already bought some, so I bought some more.  Twice.  

I don't want to talk about that.  Let's just say, I won't run out of vinegar any time soon...

Anyway, when all is said and done, that's one more thing I can mark off my to do list.  

Which now looks like this:  

I think I'm going to take a break before I have to deal with someone else -- which I suppose should be the handyman/contractor to get the rotten wood in my soffit and fascia replaced.  Hopefully, I can find one who is also a licensed electrician and can check that breaker for me.  Then I'll know which direction I need to go as far as getting my dryer working again.  But first, I need some time to recover from all of this human interaction.  

While I was nursing my wasp stings, I made some sweet potato soup, which will be the last batch of soup I'm going to make for a while.  I'm all souped out.  

I still have to make the squash casserole to put back for Thanksgiving.  And squash pie, which will likely not be put back for anything.   I'll likely eat it right away.  It doesn't even have that much sugar in it, so that's good.    

I'm also done with this scarf, finally. 

I've already cast on the matching hat, but that's as far as I've gotten.  It was too pretty of a day to stay inside, so I went out and sat by the fire pit for a while.  Sans fire, of course.  We are still under a burn ban because of how extremely dry it is. 

Oh, I should probably mention that I finished the book I was reading, The Baker Of Lost Memories.  It was pretty good.  I was so smug thinking I had figured out the twist, but as it happens, I did not in fact figure out the twist.  And that's all I have to say about that.  

Now I'm reading Lady Of Uncanny Charms, which is the fifth and final book in the Whimbrel House series.  I've enjoyed this whole series, and if you like Victorian fantasy, I highly recommend it. 

Now if you will excuse me, Halloween Baking Championship is about to come on, and I need to go watch.  And knit on this hat.  

And wonder where my day went...

Laters