Summer Temps in the Fall

What's going on here? We haven't had a killing frost yet. Matter of fact, our temperatures are rivaling those of a summer's day. Today is October 7th which means we're really pushing the growing season this year. (And me with a barren garden! Rats.)

My volunteer cherry tomato plants are still producing like there's no tomorrow and have enough green tomatoes on them to last until Christmas . . . but somehow I don't think we'll be lucky enough to go frost- free until then!

I never did look at what our thermometer on the south side of the house got up to today, but both Papa Pea and I were sweating while working outside. It must have been close to 80 at least. It was a strange sensation to have my jeans sticking to my legs again. I actually thought about going inside to change into shorts. But then I realized that just wouldn't be right on the 7th of October. Heck, there have been years when we've seen snowflakes by now.

With plenty of outside jobs still to do this fall, we'll not complain about a little perspiration activity or jeans being too warm. The longer we go without having to don two or three layers of clothing to be comfortable outside, the better.

So, I'm curious. How about all of you? Are your temperatures higher than normal this fall?

Spicing Things Up

Now that I finally have a big enough kitchen to have my old spice rack hung on a wall . . .

. . . it's been up and in place for a couple of weeks now but still barren of herbs and spices.

How come, you may ask?

Because in the umpteen years since I last used this rack, my jars of seasonings have become a mismatched mess of various sizes that no longer all fit in the spice rack.

My dear hubby finally convinced me (remember the old spending-money problem I have?) to buy a whole bunch of jars that would be just the right size to accommodate my variety of ingredients.

Tonight my daughter asked what I was going to do for labels on the jars. I told her I was going to type, print and cut out the names of the various herbs and spices on the computer and affix them to the jars.

She said to whoa, Nellie, hold up a bit as she's pretty sure she has some labels (appropriately bordered with pine branches) within her wide repertoire of graphic design special things that would be just the trick for me to use. So I'll eagerly await to see what she comes up with.

Who knows? I may actually have this little task completed within another week. Or two.

This One's For You, Erin

I took my annual fall picture of my Virginia Creeper this afternoon.

Here it is in all its fall splendor of color. It didn't get as big or thick this year but I'm pretty sure that's because (dummy, dummy, dummy) I didn't get around to pruning it this early spring when it was still dormant. It was already sprouting little green leaves when I finally made it out there with my pruners and gave it a bit of a shaping up. I'll know to make sure to do it at the usual earlier time from now on.

Our trees are just about at the peak of their color season right now. Here's hoping we can get by a few weeks without a wind storm that rips all the leaves off the trees.

Oh, if we could only make this particular time of year last about three months!

At Last

I can now finally stop complaining to you about the polying I have left to do.

I can scarcely believe it, but I got the very last coat of poly on the last fourteen cabinet doors today. Wa-hoo!

Oh, I know there will no doubt be something here or there that I'll still have to put some sealer on before this gargantuan remodeling endeavor of ours is done, but these cabinet doors are the last big project to be done.

Hold it.

Rats.

I just thought of the living room. I know what is going on the ceiling. No polying. I know what is going on the floor. No polying. But we haven't made the decision on the wall covering material yet. Arrrgh! Might I be polying pine boards for paneling? Yeah, it is a possibility. We don't have a lot of wall space in the living room . . . but I suppose it will still amount to more boards than I want to lay out and work on in the garage this winter. How 'bout if I just paint the foil-backed insulation that's been there for umpteen years? That'll give it a new fresh look, no?

Well, I won't think any more about that right now. I'll just celebrate that I can clean my poly brush for the last time for a while anyway. And that feels purdy darn good!

No Gory Pictures Involved

Chicken Mama came in to help us butcher chickens today and, boy, was her help (as always) appreciated. Three people is a good number to keep things moving along on butchering day. We did a total of fourteen birds in a little over three hours. Six roosters from our spring chicks, four old, geriatric birds that had had a long, happy life in our main flock and four roosters from Chicken Mama's spring chicks.

Above is Chicken Mama tickling the feathers off a bird using the chicken plucker.


Hubby picked this cool machine up from a retiring farmer a couple/few years ago and it's one of the best investments we've made.


The age of this particular model is unknown, but it sure does a bang-up good job. Don't know how a brand new machine could do much better. (Unless, of course, you had a custom-made one like Pig Pen made Apple Pie Gal not too long ago! Dang, I tried, I really tried, but I cannot find the post of her showing his unbelievably handy chicken plucker. Sorry.)

We set up a large tarp to catch most of the feathers, but still and all, it's a less than tidy operation.

Chicken Mama snapped this picture of the two of us working on a couple of naked chickens. (Please understand I was NOT trying to make a fashion statement today.)

I served the very last of the chicken meat from our last butchering for dinner tonight so two of the old birds butchered today didn't even make it into the freezer. They went straight into my big stew pot along with some herbs and veggies for flavoring. The aroma wafting out is making the house smell wonderful right now.

Feels mighty good to have this job done, that's for sure. And a very satisfying feeling to know we have some really good, healthy, homestead-raised chicken meat in the freezer for this winter.

Both Of Us Are Now Totally Worthless

I woke at 2:15 this morning and couldn't fall back asleep so I padded into my quilt studio and played until Papa Pea woke at 6.

He left home at 9 this morning to go help a friend work on a concrete project. At 6 p.m. he returned home looking not quite as sparky as he was when he left. At dinner he did a little figuring and says today he lifted and moved approximately 2,700 pounds of concrete mix.

As he was going up the stairs to his office a couple of minutes ago, I head him trip, stumble, catch himself and ask, "Where's the elevator when you need one?"

Even after being up since too, too early this morning and not being worth a tinker's da*n all day, I think I'm ending the day in better shape than he is.

So what are we going to do for relaxation tomorrow? Chicken butchering if the weather cooperates. Do we know how to have fun or what?