Sweet Days of Early Fall

Hello, friends.  Last year, a potter friend gifted me several elephant ear bulbs.  Having no idea they bloomed, we were happily surprised to see it does, and there's another bud developing.  Last week, while in town, I ventured to the salvage store I hadn't been to since early in the year.  I found bags of both tri-color organic quinoa and organic lentils $1/#, organic barley $1.50/28 oz, a can of Amy's organic soup .50, and 6 packs of riced cauliflower for $4.  There was no more food than they had the last time I was in, but at least there were a few healthier things I could get for pantry storage.  Several books were returned to the library, and three more were picked up.  I used a $10 off $50 coupon at Tractor Supply to buy laying pellets, sunflower seeds, a mum and dog treats.   Because they were out of chicken scratch, my total came to just a few cents under $50, so I went and found a hummingbird feeder on clearance for $5.99.  

Online, I learned about a cold and flu remedy, and had all the plants here, so gathered yarrow, goldenrod, wild rose hips and mint to dry and keep on hand for tea.  I gathered muscadines, lettuce, eggplant, figs, hickory nuts, pears, a small tromboncino and two yellow squash with borers that the pups got the good bits of.  Needing to buy powder coat paint for our small business, I noticed they were having a $25 off $125 special, so bought just enough to qualify for that.  After an appointment, I went by a supposedly great thrift store I was told about.  It ended up being a consignment store, so prices were higher.  Though fairly large, I didn't find anything I needed.  I stopped at a nursery I've been wanting to check out for a few years, and picked up chard plants and some organic fertilizer.  I've had such bad luck growing chard this year, I don't want to count on the seeds I planted doing well, so this gives me some back up.  I've really missed having chard these past several months.  The broccoli, cabbage, and collard seedlings we planted several weeks ago are growing nicely.

With the comfortable fall temperatures recently, I got some things done outdoors.  There are several stages requiring different temperatures, when I'm powder coating orders.  I'd been keeping up with the times with paper and pen, but wanted a chalkboard in the new workshop.  I painted a board with chalk paint, and M created a frame and little shelf for the chalk and eraser, all of it using wood on hand.  Before the workshop was built, the powder coat oven lived along an outside wall of the guy's shop, so it had rusted pretty badly.  Once it got in the workshop, I knew I wanted to spruce it up, so cleaned it up with a wire brush and painted it last week.  J made a new latch for the oven and cut and placed a filter for the intake vent in the wall.  There are still a few things to do, but I'm happy about each little thing that makes it an easier and more pleasant place to work.  

I push mowed a number of areas that got missed by the riding mower all summer.  Our homestead is a hodgepodge of planted areas, not neat squares, so there are lots of little spots that are hard to get to.  They were push mowed once in the spring, but definitely needed it again.  I also worked a little on the garden fence, pulling down morning glory and virginia creeper vines.  It's been lovely not needing a/c since we got back from the beach.  We're in that in between season, where a/c or heat isn't needed.  I noticed a link to a list of movies on a blog I follow, and added several to my Netflix queue.  I enjoyed a free movie on Amazon prime, and watched the first episode of another that had been recommended, which ended up not being my cup of tea.  I added a free book from prime to my Kindle, and went through Swagbucks for 1% back for a business purchase.

We've been sprucing up things around the homestead recently.  Our kitchen sink faucet began failing a month or so ago, and just before we left for the beach, it broke enough that it wouldn't shut off.  J managed to cobble it together well enough to where it would work, but decided to purchase a new one.  The faucet had already broken several times, and though it had a lifetime warranty, he was tired of how often he was having to wait for and change out the parts, which was not an easy job.  Our old kitchen sink was a used one gifted to me when we were building the house, an enameled cast iron one that now had numerous chips and grout that needed redoing.  He decided to replace that too, and installed the new sink and faucet on Friday.  Earlier in the week, I saw hummingbirds at the feeders for several days, but not in the past few days.  I suppose they are headed south, but I'll leave the feeders up a bit longer for any stragglers.  Happy October, friends.