The last two weeks have been relatively slow in terms of “exciting” action or events. Most of our time has been taken up with routine tasks and getting ready for the approaching fall season. Here is a bit of what has occupied our time recently.
I won’t have a lot of photos this time around, but I do have a couple recents of three pets. The first is Elmo relaxing on my lap:
Snickers taking a nap near Bru:
I spent some time in the garage upgrading the LX176 riding lawn mower to an electric fuel pump, replacing the failing vacuum unit that was causing very hard starting. The conversion took a couple hours but the results were worth it as the mower now starts right up every time I need it. Small victories.
Also in the garage, I replaced a badly bent top rail on one of the garage doors. This rail had been bent went we bought the place and I had tried to straighten it out, but it failed again and was making the door hard to open. The replacement U-channel was not expensive, around $23.00, and was purchased from a garage door outfit in Rochester. Now in place, the door opens quite well.
Porch rail repairs have begun once more, with a new bottom rail and a few replacement spindles cut to size and painted. Now I have to remove the old section, replace the rotting bottom rail and spindles, repaint the entire unit, and re-install so I have a few hours of work remaining on that project.
The lawn has been raked several times, in places, in attempt to stay ahead of the falling acorns. I think the heaviest of the falls are over, as fewer and fewer acorns are to be found on the sidewalks over the last few days. Each raking included a trip to the compost site to empty the utility trailer so each clean-up takes some time. I will be doing another raking session later today.
Along the same lines, with fall approaching the grass does not have to be cut as often. I had been doing it weekly as of late but this week I have been able to increase the interval. However, I did get out the edger and edged all the sidewalks, something I do only a couple times a year. This makes the sides of the walks nice and straight and, in my opinion, makes the entire yard look neater.
As part of a lawn upgrade Pam had me install several pavers between the east porch and the 7th street sidewalk. This is a project we had been talking about for several months and the advent of cooler weather seemed to be the right time to get it done.
We used the garden hose to outline the gentle curve needed to align the pavers to the porch and sidewalk.
Pam has also been busy with yard work, dead-heading flowers as needed and cutting back bushes as she sees fit. She opened the catio for fall use as a recent spell of colder than normal temperatures, into the low 40s at night, had left the neighborhood cats looking for a sheltered place to stay. While not completely ready for winter (no heated cat water dish and space heater yet), several cats have taken advantage of the sheltered space the last few nights. Warmer temperatures are expected to return in the upcoming week.
Pam has also been gathering materials for the annual Winter Solstice card and will be trying out a few designs she has in mind. That project always takes several hours of manual labor and a few trial-and-error prototypes until the final card design is ready and assembly can begin.
We did take a half-day trip east toward the Mississippi River, near the town of McGregor, to look at a couple houses listed for sale and drive through some areas new to us. (Becky came over to stay with the cats and dogs, and we appreciate that!) While the houses were somewhat of a disappointment we enjoyed seeing the country and getting out for a bit. Pam would like to live in a location that overlooks the Mississippi River but few properties are in our price range, and the ones that are require much TLC to bring back to life. Not sure we want to go the renovation route again.
So, all in all, it has been a pretty quiet couple of weeks since my last post. We have been busy but not in a particularly newsworthy way. Life is like that.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
Must be fall, I made my first apple pie of the season. Seemed right, with the cooler temps.
Another full moon reminds me it’s been a month since JoJo passed. Miss her quiet presence around the house. Bru is hanging in there; her sixteenth birthday comes up soon. Grayce still can’t be trusted to free-roam in the house, mainly because she is now in her chewing/destructive mode.
Holiday cards: I discovered cut-and-paste was my super power many decades ago. That skill was refined in the 1990’s when I administered a Gifted and Talented program for K-5 kiddos. Looking forward to Heart House holiday cards for this year, cut-and-paste will feature prominently once again. Which means I start early, take my time, and get into my happy place well prior to the holiday season.
Happy Trails!
Today’s humor:
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