"and the days dwindle down to a precious few...

September, November....
and these few precious days, I'll spend with you."
Jerome spent a few sweet days here for Thanksgiving, and as always happens during his stay at the farm, we accomplished MUCH! The weather was about as mercurial as it could be. He arrived Tuesday and though it had been foggy all day it was also mild for this late in the year. We made a stop in town at our favorite agri-center and then stopped to drop off some music Jerome was donating to the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists. We had a lovely though short visit with friends in town then returned to the farm to have dinner.  I had been planning on attending my quilt guild meeting that night but Mother Nature intervened and produced fog so thick the meeting was cancelled. I got a call just as I was getting ready to leave the house. Now wasn't that a splendid surprise? Sorry to have the meeting cancelled and miss the agenda, but so very pleased to stay home with my sweetie his first night here.
Wednesday and Thursday were 60 degrees and we spent the days outside putting the gardens to bed for the winter, pulling out nuisance weeds, preparing the summer machines for winter storage, caulking the gaps in the garage where the west wall didn't quite meet the floor, adding weather stripping to the door frame out there, refilling the bird feeders, getting the car washed, cleaning out the chicken house, and spreading the vegetable bed with all the grass clippings, shredded leaves, and chicken bedding.

cleaning out the old bedding was a dusty, not a smelly, job

When we built the chicken house I spent a good deal of time thinking how to protect the wooden floor. I came up with the idea of lining the floor and the lower portion of the walls with a sheet of vinyl. The floor is ridiculously easy to clean and the wood below it is as new. 

a bit windy for spreading the bedding so eye and face protection was needed

We were blessed to have such good weather to get all this done. By Friday the wind nearly blew the chickens off their feet and the air was full of horizontal snow showers all day. It was freezing! and never got warmer than the low 20s. So we turned our efforts to inside work, including adding a shelf and  putting three coats of finish on the basement work bench we built the last time Jerome was here.

the new shelf going up over the work bench

Jerome is doing the initial sanding 

Despite the cold and wind, we decided we'd brave the elements and attend the town's Twinkle Fest Parade at 7 Friday night. We first ate at our favorite restaurant, The Driftless Cafe. Then we did a little shopping in the stores in town, open late to start the holiday shopping season. Then the parade, 39 floats ending with Santa on the town's hook and ladder. Lots of folks came out for the event and I was pretty proud of this small town of 4400 people. The theme of this year's parade was The Angels Among Us. Though chilled through we were really glad we went.
Saturday we stopped at the recycling center to get rid of our collection and reorganized the garage. I practiced starting the snow blower again and walking it to and from the chicken house should I need to do this some time this winter. A few last branches clipped on a bush that Jerome thought made it hard to see traffic when driving out of the driveway and a bit of weather stripping on the first floor windows, and it was time to say goodbye again.
Though my heart is heavy in its loneliness for my sweetheart, it is also full of thankfulness.