Train Fasination...

Teddy was younger in this photo as he played with the train. It is one of his favorites when he comes for a visit. The blog is going to be shutting down for ten days.  We are off on an adventure. If I can post photos and some words as time goes by I will do it. We are well. 

Monday's Mentions......

The burning bush at the old place still isn't fully red. I was up there a couple of days ago and was raking and burning.

It took many tries to get this pile set on fire. The days to burn are scheduled and limited and I had to burn on Saturday no matter what.  I did have this all burned down before I left on that day.

Our bush here is looking redder and leaves are starting to fall off of it.

I still do not have the sealer on the deck and steps.  It is cedar wood so it is pretty durable. I just intend to get it done when we ever get a warm day.  I have the box for this done but I guess I don't have the photo.

The cold keeps coming and I am already tired of it. Snow is predicted on Wednesday. Sometimes when that happens we will warm up again.  I am not so sure that will happen this fall.

I am making a trip one more time up to the old place today and then we have a lot of errands to do this afternoon. I hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for stopping by today.

Great Fall Leaves...

My neighbors at the old place have wonderful maples in their yard.  They have been there with many previous owners.  I remember the maples being small back in 1976 when I move into the neighborhood.

Friday's Frolic......

This is the skylight ceiling at the mall. It has some wonderful features like this and yet there are some businesses closed.

. The train is ready for the Christmas sales season.   It will be up and running on black Friday for sure.

The train station is already assembled but no Christmas trees are up. I bet they will be going up pretty soon. The mall has lost one major hub store so the south end of the mall looks pretty bleak.

The one of two major stores is ready for Chistmas. This is a shiny brite display as the market for glass blown ornaments is catching on again. I haven't seen these being brought out at Mennards but they may sell them where the Halloween decorations are presently. If you click on the photo you can do some early shopping.

Errands and odd jobs are on the agenda today. It is going to warm up a bit so I can finish mowing my yard.  It was covered with frost this morning with below freezing temperatures.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Down on the Corner.....

I zoomed in to the tree at the bottom of our hill. I could not see that I was capturing the light pole too. That tee is one of our best in the neighborhood.

Sitting in my chair in the living room I can zoom in on the mourning dove feeding on cracked corn. It really could not see me but it did have a sense that someone was there.  The indoor plant adds to the photo as if I am peeking through the jungle leaves.

The neighbor's clump birch gives a good show of changing leaf colors.  It makes me think of my birch tree at the old place but that one had Japanese beetles chew up all of its leaves. They also took out one of my apple trees leaves.

It is coincidental that we happen to buy a house across the street with the birch trees. It made it easier to leave my big tree.

I had such a busy day that the blogging is at ten o'clock at night. It is tough to get all the things done necessary to be ready for winter. We have a snow flake symbol on our Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. 

Thanks for stopping by.........

Wed....

As I walk around the bush it does show more red on this one side. The bush is slow compared to the one that I see up and down the street.

A couple of blooms are straining as they put out weak small last blooms.

I am hoping to mow the yard today as it has warmed upt to 60 degrees F.  Unfortunately it looks like rain.  Thank for stopping by today.

Aftternoon Delight......

The cupola looks lonely as the flowers have been removed. The red twig dogwoods are looking sick in the background.

The most photographed rose by me is now in the ground.  I planted it a little high from the ground as I need to but  I will put a two by six board box frame around it and fill it in with more dirt. The cold wind has not really hurt it yet but one good frost will know all the leaves off of it. I actually getting tired of setting the potted rose back upright for the past full week. The wind just kept blowing it on its side.

I bundled up for the cold and forced myself to work on the other edging of my pavers. It was too cold but I just gutted it out. I had brought down some more brick from the old place so I did have enough bricks to finish the east side.

It isn't a very pretty sight but I call it my temporary fix. I wanted it to be put down before winter and I will keep filling in the cracks with sand as often as I can.  I could wash some of the sand in but it was too cold to mess with a garden hose today.

If it ever warms up before the snow I will go back and pull a few side bricks and level them better. The leftover bricks will not stay there but it look like a good idea to support the board until things settle in good. I actually don't know how I am going to finish that all off.  I may back soil up against it and have it slop out to the yard.

Our young family to the west of us planted this last year.  In a few years it will be a very tall impressive specimen. Every year we will have more to enjoy. We have three neighbors next to us that don't have a single tree planted in the yards.

Thanks for checking in on me today. 

Monday's Moments......

We had strong winds and heavy rain filling up my milk can.  I dumped the the rain gage from a couple of rains and the total was just three inches.

I found a place to plant my rose but it was too cold to get out there today.  I want to box it in like I did the yellow rose on the other side. I didn't get my yard mowed as I just didn't want to be bundled up to do so. The winds are strong making good wind chills.

I need to get the wood sealer on the steps and deck. I am hoping on one good dry hot day to do so.

I am blogging late today so I will just cut this short. Thanks for stopping by today.

Silent Visitor.......

Saturdays Sharing......

You can guess where we are here.  The mall was really crowded again this Saturday. We both had mocha lattes and shared a cookie. 

The burning bushes at the old place are starting to turn. The one in the foreground is just  barely starting.  Our one at the new place has not thought of turning any leaf to red yet.

Some of the leaves on the trees are turning brown which is not a good sign.

The neighbors across the street have only the one changing its leaf color. I don't have to mow so much up there but I will have to mulch leaves eventually.

It is a small world story for you today.  I was born in an area, the rental farm was considered my home base, which had a small town of Hopeville nearby. It was southern Iowa. That was back in 1950.  My wife has been doing some digging on her side of the family. She knew things but not specifics.  She found out that the small town of Elston, Iowa, which is 15 miles by the way that the  crow flys, is where her great grandparents lived. It would have been a whole generation and a half before me, but her great grand father was buried in one of the three cemeteries in or near Elston. He is in a cemetery called Pumptown Cemetery. She found that he does not have a stone to mark his grave but the Great Grandfathers siblings are all buried in his same cemetery and in another one there. My wife really had not know specifically but found the Ringold County is the one next to my Clarke county. I consider that a very near miss when it comes to having lived near where her distant ones lived.

My wife's grand father from that family did move up to Valley Junction, now called West Des Moines. He and others from his family moved there and worked for the train companies that were there. A lot of that next generation is buried there in a cemetery called Jordan Cemetery. I am sure more will be found as my wife keeps digging in the past.

We are having a nice warm day today with sunshine and very little wind. It did rain almost all of the morning but we are drying out now.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Last of the Week.....

The morning view is shown with the sun up over the horizon. The clouds are streaming away and a jet vapor trail is also in the photo.

The vine honeysuckle is putting out two sets of blooms one last tim. I really like this shrub as it needs no upkeep. I inherited this on the east side of the house along with some terraced asparagus all down the side of the hill. That end of the house has a steep hill that is rough to walk down. I am getting use to it but I think steps really do need to put in there.

I worked on this patio again yesterday.  I dumped some good soil in the area next to the post's base. I can plant something there in the spring and some water from the deck above will land on it. I filled in the cracks of the pavers with sand yesterday and it really did firm up the area.  I  know in the spring that I will have to refill the cracks as it does all settle.

My collection of bricks that were at the old house are being put to good use now. I put dirt in to level up the bottom surface and then placed the  old brick in lengthwise. What is neat now is that I can pick out the bricks that I have saved and each brick has its own history. A lot of the plain bricks I believed came from the old chimney that was built at the kitchen, summer kitchen.  I could see where it once was on the cedar siding outside. I bet an old wood burning stove had that as a chimney. The brick from that seemed to be buried here and there all over the property as I would dig for garden work. Other bricks came from my parents home and some were in a pile down by a mining town called Moran.  The houses were being tone down to make way for the new double lane of the highway.

It actually was a lot of work to get them placed in there but it really was worth it. It will keep things from growing along that wall. I was told that there was an old coal house on the old property and I think that some of these came from the foundation.  I am going to line the opposite side of the patio with this same design.  I had to collect another dozen of the brick from the old place today while I was up there mowing.  I had lined some of my flower gardens with the brick.  When I started moving these down to the new place I had a sidewalk in mine for ther use but this is good too.

It has warmed up finally today.  I mowed with a parka and hood to keep warm today but now it is almots 66 degrees F.

I hope all is well with everyone.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Second T-day.....

The one last petunia is a tough one. All the other plants have frosted and are gone. I bet this one will be gone this morning. The bed is cleared now of all zinnias and petunias.

The tomato plot is now cleared also. If I get the strength up I will try to get a mulch product put on top of it. It seems like a long time before we get to spring. The chive is doing well and I noticed a new sprig of it has started growing next to it.

One marigold did survive the frosts.  I was surprised as to how quickly that the marigolds died back over night. This one must have been in a protected area. I line the tomato patch with these and it does make things look a lot better.  I don't plant to the edge anyway with tomatoes.

I did get the glad separated from the foliage yesterday. I still need to box them but that is done getting them out of the ground. I have a truck full of yard waste now and I think I will take it to the old place for burning. I am thinking that I will mow today when it is warmer in the afternoon. Right now we are about four degrees away from freezing.  It has been a busy week and it is only Thursday.  I hope all is well with everyone out there. Thanks for stopping by today.

Harvest Complete....

With this last minute picking done I have to keep sorting and checking to see if a tomato is going bad among the good ones. I found about five more tomatoes as I was tearing apart the vines.

I was inspired to clear up the patch yesterday morning and this morning all of the stems and marigold plants have been put into the back of the Tundra truck.  I can now do a little more refinement on the bed when it warms up. I may just buy a couple of bags of mulch to put on top of it.

The zinnia patch is a lot more messy with all the stems being piled right here. Also this is all gone now with the trash being put in the truck.  I also got the glad bulbs cut away from their leaves so I can put the bulbs into storage in the shop. This bed is a new one that  I put in during the spring and I do think I need to get about six more bags of soil dumped in it to make it look more like a raised bed.

This is another view of the vase of phlox that I salvaged from outside. They didn't seem to be bothered by the cold wind. I know that the phlox will come up next spring thicker and stronger. I have three varieties in the one side with one of them being the old fashion one from my old place's garden.

Walmart had four of these and they were marked down to a very low price. I suppose they needed to get them out of the store as Christmas things were invading the greenhouse area. I don't know where I will put it but I know it will go into the back yard. The neighbor has two of them next to the lot line so I will plant this away from that side of the property. This may go on the other side of the new deck stairs to balance the yellow one on the north side. I was happy to get it and I know it won't hurt it to plant it now. The roots are already in soil. Digging the hole will be the worse thing of this whole story.

Thanks for stopping by at my blog today.  I wish you all to be well.

Tuesday's Things.....

The neighor's tree is getting brighter with fall colors. Most of our trees really have not turned yet but some of the smaller crab apple trees are the first to change.

I was prompted to go outside in the cold last night after viewing others shots of the moon on Facebook. I just had to go down the steps and turn left to see it up there in a clear sky. It was cold and the best shot that I took was this one with a chopped off top. Some were saying it wasn't a full moon but it sure looks like it to me.  We call them harvest moons at this time of the year as it does cast a lot of light on the earth this time of the year.

I am headed out for sand or limestone today to fill in the cracks of the pavers. I want to line the space to the right with some old bricks that I have collected from many places.  I don't know if I have the strength to do that today but I could start with a small number today. It is still cold and I just am not excited about doing any of it. My yard was fertilized yesterday by a lawn treatment service so I will just wait a few more days to mow the yard.

The sedum is darker red now but I don't have a photo. I planted this last year and it did come back tall and strong.  The older plant is a pale pink one and can be seen at the bottom right of the photo. It seems to be a different variety that is shorter.

The next two days are going to be a little bit warmer and no rain is predicted. I need to get some yard work done at both places but I should get it done in the next two weeks. I am going to be able to burn this year at the old place as they normal dumping place is having construction work done in the area. We can take it to the dump where they burn it so we burn it on our own properties.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope all is well with all my blogger people.

Monday's Report of the Day......

The light behind me helpsd let the screen wire to be a part of the photo. The frost was on the roof tops and all over the yards. It is a guarantee that things will be dead in the gardens. The neighbors' tomato patch is done in now and they still had some tomatoes on the vines. My tomatoes were planted a few weeks later so mine did not start to die like theirs did.

My zoomed shot really isn't that good especially when I was taking it through a screened window. The one dove seems to blend in so well that it is hard to see his head without looking closely at the shot.

This morning the one dove was on the deck outside the living room window. He was looking for fallen seed from the bird feeder. Having three doves together seems unusual but maybe one of them is an offspring.

A blurry shot shows the colors are changing quickly on this tree. If it were not so could I could go outside and take the shot. Today I will do that as 61 degrees F. is tolerable with a coat.

It is Monday and I have some projects that I could work on but it does have to warm up. I have sand to place between my paver bricks. I don't think I should mow yet even though I have energetic older men around me who have done so. We have an errand to run today and the rest of the day should be resting time.

Thank you for stopping by today.