Cold & rainy here, so I'm working on my cookbook & then will make some old-fashion peanut butter cookies after we reconfigure the front room for winter...
I mowed the grass, but i am going to call the Chamber of Commerce about this weather. It was 42 degrees yesterday morning and 90 degrees by noon. 90 degrees again today, and they are either going to have to change the weather or their advertising, because they are not matching anymore.
Went to town to pick up lumber to do some cattle pen repairs. While I was there I picked up 15 lbs of Fajita meat (really good price) & vacuum packed it when I got home. Guess what we had for dinner, LOL!!!
Started burning out another tree stump after moving the cattle & feeding them.
Today I'll need to: Clean the gutters again
Mow the lawn Take my wife on a date (ice skating and dinner we think)
Move the jack-o-lanterns off the front steps
Have a beer Trim the maple growing too close the house
Over the last week I've:
Blown and shredded 4 lawn bags of fall leafs
Cleaned out and chopped the tomato, pepper, and eggplant plants
Made new worm composting bags (like the worm-inn) and moved the worm composting operation inside
Baked a pumpkin which I still need to post about[/S]
I bought a new Fiskars 14' extending tree pruning saw that I first used yesterday. The saw blade is SHARP and efficient. This was the easiest-cutting extension saw I have ever used. That said I was standing on a 16' extension ladder that was leaning against my house with the saw extended to reach the limbs I wanted to cut. I also had to use some paracord to pull the neighbor's phone line out of the way. All together I trimmed five branches that were between three inches and six inches in diameter out of the soft maple.
I still have about half the branches in the yard where they fell. I plan on putting this up as more fuel for my grill. I've found that the small twigs are great to start the fire fast in a chimney starter and have been mixing wood chunks in with the charcoal when I want hot fires. Yes the bark is trimmed off the chunks.
Watered the hanging baskets & potted plants in preparation to moving them into the green house. Got the heaters & fans ready to go as well... Thursday is forecast to be a high of 52 & a low of 34... the rest of the week looks to be pretty cold as well.
Almost time to bring up a load of firewood & break out the puzzles.
Vicente came over and we strung the drip tube in preparation for planting onions this week, planted some carrots and beets, took bird net off of fig tree, and he sucked and chopped the Pecan leaves from the Statice bed.
Then i took Linda to San Diego to hear Vince Gill. I was probably the only man there that could not hear the music, but had a good time watching the band, and while the lights were dimmed, it was interesting to see how fast some of the men and women with weak bladders can walk without breaking into a run.
Moved hanging baskets & other porch plants into the greenhouse after installing the covers over the louvered windows.
Put the insulated covers on the hose bibs.
Ops check the heat lamp in the well house, as well as the greenhouse heater.
Brought up a load of firewood as the temperature started dropping at 0700 hrs. Winds are now out of the north & suppose to increase to 17 mph. in the next hour or so...
Day 2 of being stuck in the house... Built our 1st fire of the season yesterday & another this morning... The high today was 41 & the low is suppose to be 25 (wind chill will be about 13 here).
I'm just trying to stay busy... today I replaced the garbage disposal in the guest house & then did some cleaning over there. Also brought up another load of firewood, drained the irrigation system (to prevent any riser/sprinkler head damage) & turned the heat lamp on in the wellhouse.
None of us like cold weather or being cooped up in the house... BRRRRR....
I walked past my garden today. about 19 F when I left for work. Snow in the air but the wind was blowing too hard for any snow to stay in one place.
Last night I pulled in my hose which I forgot about and it froze with one end open and a nozzle on the other. I hope the hose is not damaged. The hose is currently on the floor of my basement with the ends over the drain.
Last night I started to clean out the basement and tossed a contractor trash bag of old molding. I have another bag full at least but ran out of time.
It is 22 F out and dark right now. My rain barrel is still full of water. The rain pig capacity is about 60 gallons. The top and sides were frozen over and I used a pick ax to break the top layer of ice then a bucket (about 4 gallon bucket) to bail some of the water out. I was doing this wearing a knit wool hat, turtle neck, and head lamp. I am just getting feeling back in the fingers of my right hand.
Man I gotta empty this thing. Our 7 day forecast has us flirting with freezing for the high on Saturday then highs back in the 20s until Thursday.
We were mid sixties on Saturday when I was trimming the maple tree. We don't get fall or spring. The weather jumps from summer to winter.