September 1, 2017 Getting Ready For Winter & Our Annual BBQ

Our new umbrella stand.

One of our tomatoes
wearing a necklace.

Two of the grouse enjoying
the damp earth in my flower bed.

Wednesday 8/30. Couldn't let this cool morning go to waste so I used Miss Kitty to haul all the rounds from the smallest tree down to the splitter in four loads.  Then JB helped me load her up with rounds from the large tree and I took them to the splitter in seven loads.

After lunch we brought one of the large rounds from the dead pine tree down to the yard on a dolly.  JB drilled a hole in the middle and we now have a stand for our umbrella.  But that was it for working outside.  Our high for the day was 86.

There are a lot more grasshoppers Up Here now and if any of them get into the girls run, they fight over them.  Fresh meat!

It was quite windy all day and was supposed to blow the smoke out, but now that there is a fire to the south of us near Cle Elum, the wind coming in from the southwest seemed to be bringing more with it.  It became quite thick and we even had some ash falling on us.  Then suddenly around 5:30, it disappeared.  By sunset, the sky was clear.

Thursday 8/31. Another cool morning of 56, clear skies and wind.  We couldn't see any smoke, but we could smell it.  My bladder got me up at midnight and when I got back to bed, JB said he just heard the wolf howl.

Couldn't waste this cool morning either, so after morning chores, I did about an hour of splitting.  JB did some weed eating around the house.  After lunch we put up the food tent.  Then JB did more weed eating and I baked some brownies from another recipe in the cookbook I made in 1962 for applesauce-orange brownies.  So good!

After dinner I trimmed four large branches, taking the long ends too large for me to cut with my trimmers to the wood cradle.

The weather was much more pleasant today with a continuous breeze and a high of 80.

Friday 9/1. It is 63 with clear skies this morning.  As I write this, I can see smoke moving in to the west and obliterating the mountains.  

Thought for the day: Sometimes the only means of transportation is a leap of faith.  Guideposts Sept 2017