Busy November Days

The week began with overcast skies and gusty winds.

November is a time to cherish warm days, as darkness comes earlier each night

and we know colder weather is inevitable.

I walked out into the back fields on Monday afternoon, camera dangling from its wrist strap.

J. had rearranged Pebbles' electric fence during the morning which she always finds interesting.

She doesn't miss anything that happens in the dooryard or in the fields beyond her pasture.

I walked across the harvested corn ground until I could zoom in on this old grey barn across the road.

In summer it is nearly invisible behind the trees.  We think that at one time a house may have stood just beyond the barn, snugged up against the hillside.

Although the cornstalks have been cut the splayed roots are still anchored in the soil.

The combine missed some ears of corn which are providing food for wild animals and birds.

As I walked along the edge of the field a neighbor's dogs noticed me and bounded toward me

with sociable woofs.

Pebbles immediately moved to the edge of her fenced area and stared fixedly at the trespassing dogs.

From time to time the sun has lightened the grey billowing clouds.

This shot was taken looking west up the cornfield toward the neighbor's woodlot.

J. roared up beside me on the 4-wheeler at this point and invited me to 'hop on.'

[My method of getting myself onto the seat behind J. is definitely not 'hopping'--more like 

clambering aboard.]

J. had dragged the trunk of the fallen maple off the line fence and wanted to know what our neighbor, T.L. would like done with the rest of the big tree.

[Turns out he doesn't have a fireplace or wood heater, so J. has been gifted with more firewood.]

T.'s wife raises miniature horses for show.

He delighted to tell us about them.  The dark filly is only a year old, but has placed in several

shows as a "promising" young mare.

Her coat was clipped when several strange lesions appeared during the summer.

The vet wasn't sure if the small circular wounds were caused by an insect or by a fungus infection.

The filly's back is healed now and her coat growing in time for winter.

This one seems to know he is a pretty boy!

On the way home J. stopped the 4-wheeler and scooped up two ears of corn for Pebbles who was watching for our return.

Rain began on Tuesday and continued through the night.

When it let up on Wednesday I put on my wellies and slogged about.

This poppy will surely not blossom before cold weather.

Several more poppies have germinated where the parent plants dropped seed before I gathered the

dried seed pods.

I hope most of the seeds will lie dormant til springtime.

The sweet gum tree is the only one in the dooryard still clinging to leaves.

[Note the 'gumballs.']

Blue sky today and crisp clear air.

J. cut down the shabby Redbud tree which overhung the carport.

Redbuds [also called Judas tree] grow untidly, dividing into several trunks a foot or so above the ground.

They tend to be brittle.

One trunk of this one was cut many years ago leaving a rotten stump.

Several branches have clattered down onto the roof.

The branches had tangled with the sweet gum tree, shading its growth on that side.

The sweet gum stands clear now, but quite lop-sided in shape.

I was possessed this morning to shift the bedroom furniture--no easy task to move that huge lodgepole bed!

J. moved it from one side of the room to the other, dragged dressers about, then hastily betook himself to his tree cutting, while I stood gazing in dismay at the disruption I had created.

The lodgepole bed was very much in keeping with the rustic lodge type houses J. built in Wyoming.

It looks rather silly and cumbersome in this small cottage.

Charlie is distressed by the disarranged furniture.

Teasel doesn't like the mirror and the cat basket dumped on the bed.

I phoned an SOS to G: "Help! I don't know where to put the bedroom furniture.  Nothing fits!"

G. and D. arrived.  Various suggestions were made.  J. and D.shooed us ladies out and firmly shut the bedroom door.

We listened in alarm to the sounds of heavy furniture being moved about.

When the door opened, the mammoth bed had been positioned in front of the double windows.

Not ideal, perhaps, but allowing for a more symetrical arrangement than previously and better access to both sides of the bed.

G. and I tweeked things; I rehung some pictures, removed some cluttery bits.

I have informed J. [who is trying not to hear me]

that he needs to hang the heavy mirror over the dresser.

The room is not photo ready at this point, but is looking better.

The cats are still suspicious, tip-toeing around, considering new routes.

I have ended up with a rocking chair and a small table which don't fit anywhere!

Buttery shortbread and some sinfully good 'chocolate ecstacies'

made yesterday afternoon filled the house with warm smells on a rainy day--and provided

a treat for tea today after our strenuous labors.