Pull yourself together........

I have an old decorative planter that consists of a donkey pulling a wagon.  It is an oldie and got broken while in storage in the basement.  I think a cat rubbed against it and knocked it to the concrete floor.  I planted the other oxalis into it yesterday and I will glue the parts back on later.  I didn't want to wait for the glue to dry and then dig the plant.

While cutting flower heads for seed I found these two guys down at the bottom of the growth.  They are genetically not the same as the rest as they were originally brown and single petaled.  I will separate them so that I can plant them again in the spring in a special spot.

Minnesota birch tree that will drop the rest of the leaves by the end of the week.  I need to mow leaves already even tough my trees are not complete bare.

Vocal music and pe substitute today.  I start off with a study hall so it is going fine so far.

Thanks for stopping by.......

Friday's Posting......

I went out and picked some more roma tomatoes.  We will have tacos for supper.  There are still a few green ones out there on the vine and I will pick them if there is a frost danger.  I would rather they ripen out there.  The squash vines are all gone now except for one last strand that has the little squash on the end of  it.

We had a small rain and the zinnia's came back to life for a little while longer.  I was going to mow them down this week but I have been at school all week instead.  The weather was warm yesterday again and it seemed like one of our better fall days.  We are cooling down nights now and the furnace turns on in the morning for a  while but it warms up by noon.

I am a middle school science teacher today.  A large group of the students from middle school and high school are going to spend the day planting trees in town.  They have hundreds of them to plant so it will be nice to have that done.  I will have the leftover students all day.

I have been asked to be a full time sub now and I will just go each day. I will find out what they want me to do for the day when I arrive in the mornngs.  The person was getting tired of calling me each day and this way I do now know what day I will be working, every day.   I will get vacations with special testing days and holiday breaks and other days off so I am going to be ok with it for now.  I figure I can make it for the next eight months and then I can decided if I ever want to do it again next fall.

Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend.

Wishful thinking......

This particular squash seems to think it can make it before the first freeze. I will monitor it to see how it goes as the majority of the vines are shutting down.

I need to now clear the zinnias and collect the seed. I am so glad that I planted this patch even though I was in doubt.

Another view of the vigor of the butternut squash as they just keep blooming.  One  bloom knows that is is over but the other blossom is raising it's head with hope.

I successfully made the chainsaw start up one more time to finish cutting up the last of the trees that we had cleared down on the farm.  It was a song and dance to get it to work but I think I have bonded with the machine now to know it's quirks and all of it's needs to keep it running.

I am teaching British and American literature today in the morning and in the afternoon I follow a nice young man to each of his classes.

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

The alley view.....

While checking out the river birch I looked across the alley and saw the neighbors maple tree peaking over the roofscape.

The zinnia beauties are almost gone now.  I captured this with the Canon and it acts funny with reds just like my point and shoot camera. It is a great color but not the real color of the zinnia.

I did battle with a chainsaw today keeping it running so I could cut up trees down on the farm. I am not a mechanic that understands the chainsaw that well but I am learning.  I bought a new spark plug for it and it ran like a charm.  A new chain also made a great difference in my sawing successes.
Needless to say I may not be able to walk tomorrow with all those new muscles I found while using the saw.

It warmed up nicely today and it was a good warm day.  Everyone take care and thanks for stopping by my blog.

Weathered Warriors.....

The zinnia patch is failing as the stems start to fall over and the bugs are doing their best to find food to eat on the petals.

The tattered petals are evidence of strong winds and now the maturing of the flower to it's seed stage.

The sedum looks spent but I think that it has yet to bloom.  We will see in the next couple of weeks as to it's future.  We were down to 39 degrees last night and our days will hover around the 70's.

The weekend is here and we are off to do some errands with the neighbor in Boone, Iowa.  It is more fun when we know she is having so much fun.  Walmart, Fareway and the Pizza Ranch are on the agenda today.  It is nice to have Saturday off for some free time events.

Have a good day and thanks for stopping by................

Snaps in the sun......

It has warmed up and it is Saturday afternoon.  I wandered out with the Cannon just to see what I could find to shoot pictures of for the old blog.  I have been gone awhile on the Creative Zone, but life does get busy.

I taught Math in the middle school on Thursday and that done me in for sure.  I did a good job but I had to be on task continually teaching, explaining and monitoring behaviors of the early teens.  As I did the job, the room kept getting warmer and warmer.  I was like the frog in boiling water as by the end of the day the room was 86 degrees or hotter and I was in a long sleeved shirt worn because of the early morning cold.

I am booked to teach every day this next week.  Maybe I can get some blogging time in during the one free period per day.

The sun is shining and the flowers are drinking in the warmth.  It gives me shiny photos but it was neat to be out there with all the new blooms.

I spent my entire day on Friday creating a frame for a large map for a customer.  I have been putting it off because it required me to engineer the whole project.  The map was 70 inches by 55 inches and there was not a backing that I could buy that is that large.  I mounted the map on thin plywood but there had to be a seam which I had to make to get the backing to be large enough.  All of that work has to be precision. The framing pieces are so large that I had to connect each corner together one at a time without a large frame clamp.   Of course they wanted it to be a black painted mat frame so I had to spray black paint, wait for it to dry then spray a mat sealer to protect it.  We quit working on it at 9:00 at night having started at 7:00 in the morning.

We are having a quiet Saturday and I picked up a virus from the kids on Thursday.  There is a new summer or fall cold now moving through the school.  Kids were going home throughout the day from stomach aches or fevers.

Thanks for stopping by to visit my blog.  I am back and up and running after a few days of a gap.  I hope everyone is having a good weekend and thanks again............for stopping by. 

Saturday's Posting

A zinnia with it's floral crown seems to be a little weathered. The rains aren't hard on them except that the whole stem likes to lay down on the grown but the wind does beat them up a bit.

The statment is so much softer with this fading rose that what you see in zinnias.  My wife's camera is a marvel compared to my retired joint and shoot.

It has been hot and Yellow Kitty prefers to be out on her porch than in the cool basement.  She lays in the sun and them moves to the shade.  Her serious job of guarding her territory goes on into the night until  I bring her inside to guard the basement.

Have a good weekend and thanks for stopping by my blogspot...............

Wednesday's ways.........

A green mood with all the green paint, mold and the background. A student at school threw this into the dumpster and I dove for it.  The hole is too small for a nest and I need to redrill that so I could get a bird to make a nest in it.

I am planning to get some seed harvested today as it is getting time when I don't want to miss out on the free seed. It can die and fall off the stem so fast that I miss out altogether.

I have been playing migration with the plants.  I take them in with the threat of frost and now I have moved them all back outside. We are suppose to have a warm spell for a few days.

I painted trim boards on the parent's house today.  They were not in bad shape but it looked bad in a couple of places with peeling paint.  I could have left it but that first impression is important in selling a house.  I don't think my dad had ever used a primer paint on his fascia boards and both the house and garage were down to raw wood in spots.  The magic of his extension ladder was incredible and I was glad that I survived it.  I finally got onto the roof and painted down on the peak trim board. It was safer that way. It was a low slopped ranch roof.
I cleared a lot of small tree growth around the property and cut down an oversized rose bush.  I do find the outside work getting to be close to being done.  I have a few more days of it but it is getting so I can see the end of that work.
My wife scrubbed kitchen cupboards today and that was a great improvement on the look of that place.  I have hinges to fix and the wood under the sink needs to be replaced.
One of the major projects left to do is rinse and vac the five different rooms with carpet.  I know that will be also make a great change in the appearance of the inside of the house. 
We are a month off schedule but as long as things keep progressing and things are getting taken off the punch list I feel very encouraged about the work. 
We found a neighbor that wants to take all of the strangling furniture left to get rid of. They want the desk and dresser and a few other things.  I also had a very cheaply made china hutch that they were glad to get.  It was not made of real wood and the bottom doors were plastic.  The overall appearance was ok as you get what you pay for, my mom loved it, but as a piece of good furniture, it was not.  I couldn't find a relative who wanted it so I am glad to give it to the nice couple next door.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I am in a restful, less stressful mode today, but do  have four frame jobs left to do.  I may work on them.  Take care.........