Preparations

Not the best day for hunting today. Though it's actually at least 15 degrees warmer than yesterday, it is wet and so foggy! I took a ride into town to get a few last minute things before my trip back to Illinois tomorrow and couldn't see any of the buildings on either side of the road while driving on Rt. 14. Coming back to the farm I couldn't even see the grain elevator at the intersection of Railroad and Cherry Grove. Spooky and beautiful. Here is a shot I took earlier today before the fog became really dense.

You can see one of the yellow mums that I put in the ground today. The 4 front mums went nicely into the spots vacated by the dahlia bulbs. I didn't want to dig any new spots in case there are bulbs lurking there. Now I have 4 empty stone urns which I will fill with holiday "greens" when I come back next week. Terri brought me osage oranges and there are red twig dogwood branches and several kinds of pine here to add. I'll bring my gorgeous pine cones from Illinois too. Should be pretty and fun to do.
I put together my corn tassel wreath this morning. It turned out just fine. I also added the last of the tassels I had displayed in vases in the house to the grapevine frame so there wouldn't be any around to tempt  either Dovey or the mice. If I had known how well they would work, I would have cut a couple more boxes of tassels before the harvesters got to them. Tassel wreaths would have made great gifts.

Well I hope I've learned my lesson about putting things off. For days I had been telling myself it was time to  disconnect the hose and turn off the outside tap. That new hose is very stiff and hard to manage even on a warm sunny day. Well finally yesterday I attempted to drain the hose and found it frozen. What had I expected with such cold grey days? Well let me tell you what a pain it was just to drag onto the back porch to try and straighten it out yesterday afternoon. I ended up bringing it into the bathroom to warm up so I could drain and wrap it in a warm place. It laid on the bathroom floor all night with the ends in the tub and this morning I wrestled it into a decent coil, emptying it into the tub as I struggled with it. From now on my mantra about getting jobs done when they should be done will be something like "Don't let the hose get into the tub!"

Too bad I won't be able to see the full moon tonight. It's pitch dark out right now and I can't even see any lights from across the fields. In the last couple of hours no cars have driven past on the road either. Just too foggy to be out. Feels cozy inside though. Candles lit, Dovey near. And tomorrow I'll see Jerome and Mya. Ahhhhh.