Traipsing in the Falling Leaves

It must be fall: the combines are in the fields, frost is decorating the weeds and the mosquitos have finally ceased their attack.   

The winter garb has been freed from the basement storage and is ready to keep us warm on our long backyard ramblings.

Coyote, wolf or a combination thereof?

And is that a poor rabbit who has left his prints in flight from a gnarly-toothed predator?

 Tarzan would be proud of J's foray into tree swinging!

(His yodel could use some practise ...)

 Scooby sat still for about a second during our walk; he loves running free in the leaves and sunshine.

 Do you see a soaker in his future? Well, he confidently crossed the makeshift bridge and landed safely on the other side!  Mission accomplished.

 This print is larger than it appears. Yikes!  With those claws I'm heading the other way.

Closets and Such

We need some shelves!  After trying to find something at the very bottom of the pile of junk in the office closet, I convinced the renovators in my family to revisit the shelves which are essentially non-existent.

 Scooby wants to help, but he's not very handy with a hammer, what with his lack of opposable thumbs.

 Here's the man with the tool belt who looks like he knows what he's doing. Plus he's wearing some awesome boots that are quite attractive.  Can't show them here, though.  All I can say is that Lara would be jealous.

 Et voila!  A finished project.  This means there are a few more boxes from the basement I can clear out! Yay! Linens within reach.  I love this renovation thing!

Fall Mums

Just when I thought the gardens were finished for the season, out popped the mums, and glorious they are, in great bushes in the front gardens. Before we know it they'll be covered by snow ... !

Burnin' Down the House - Part II

It took the better part of the day, and needed encouragement to get going, but the fire burned up the shed and all but the most wet and rotten tree stumps.

It was smoldering for hours until the last bits and pieces finally collapsed under Bop's watchful eye.  Now, to gather up the nails and metal roof and haul them away!

This area just might make a good fire pit on a permanent basis; it's sheltered from the wind and has a shade tree close by.  It'll look great once we trim up the long grass around the edges of the old shed.  With this eyesore leveled, our farm looks a little bit tidier!

Burnin' Down the House - Part I

Thanksgiving weekend was gloriously sunny and amazingly productive at Hawthorn Creek Farm thanks to GT and Bop's inspiration.  The biggest project was getting rid of the apparently mis-named Skunk Shed, reducing it to ashes.  The weather was warm and bright and the leaves golden and red, a perfect autumn day!

Autumnal News

In May, GM brought over a clematis for our new garden on the east side of the house, and it struggled all spring and summer to anchor itself and embrace the wooden trellis against the house.  And finally, after hours of tender, loving care (and encouraging sniffs from Scooby) it has bloomed gloriously!

All this gardening resulted in a nasty hawthorne thorn in my finger, so I dialled Dr J to operate.  You'll be glad to know that all is well.  I can still count to 10.