The Fall Out of Fall........

As I look around on the ground I can see evidence of many different trees losing their leaves.  The neighbors tree which is a block away has leaves that have blown down here and mixed with my maples, silver maples and birch.

When there are lots of leaves on the tree I don't see the curve shape of the trunk.  I know it is normal growth but this photo shows its true curve.  I am hoping the disease that hits this kind of tree stays away from our town.  They have finally declared Dallas County, our county, as one that has the ash borer beetle.  I earlier thought my ash had been hit but later found out that it was just the  droughts that was effecting it.

Just for fun of it I brought up my Indian corn from the basement.  I haven't put it out for decoration yet but it should go out very soon.  I think I have some fake sunflowers that could go out with it.  I really enjoy seeing this variety of corn and keep thinking I will plant some in the spring and grow my own.

I am really enjoying my fish tank.  I might pick up some smaller feeder fish for it to have the three different sizes in there.  At one time in my life I kept tropicals with my gold fish but I guess it isn't a good idea unless I keep a heater in the water to keep the tropical fish warm.

I am getting things figured out in taking photos of the fish.   I have to combat the large window behind the tank with all that light shinning behind the.  The back lighting makes the fish blur. I take a lot of photos for fun and throw a lot of them away. The mulitcolored rocks are complements of my younger son. He left a smaller tank with me years ago.   I used that tank but now  have moved the gravel to my big tank.  I bought the blue rocks to contribute to the cause so all the tank can be cover with rock.

I am on a new adventure today as I am in charge of the middle school office desk.  If things work out for me I will be here two more days.  So far I am doing good.  Taking down names of callers are hard because no one wants to pronounce their name clearly.  I make them spell it and that saves the day.  I will have down time as the kids are all in classes so  only between classes do I get some business to attend to.  I am collecting physicals from students to hand on to the next person who wants them. I can even blog while I sit here during the quiet times.   I hope the whole day goes well for me.  Thank you for stopping in to my blog spot today.  I wish you all well.

The Beginning.......

Green leaves look good too even though the silver maple tree usually has more of a yellow leaf in the fall.  I looked down and saw it laying there among the hosta leaves.

The fake green spray that is filled with grass seed and fertilizer is all down and now is getting covered up with leaves.  They used the battery power leaf blowers to clear out all of the leaves before they sprayed it with the miracle grass.  The one guy used a tiller earlier last week to even out all of the banks in the ditches and he sort of sculpted it into good shape.  They will be luck if it doesn't rain for a week or so.  They removed all the topsoil that had built up from the previous rains washing dirt down to this area.  It will build up again.

 It is a nice view with many colors as the cold snap effected the morning glories. I did catch a few spare blue flowers on the vine on Saturday. 

 The red maple shows off best with a bright sun shining through it.  I like the line design that is made by the branches.  I will be interested to see if the tree will fill out in total red or if it will remain patchy like this.

The older leaves that fall tot he ground are starting to  look more red than brown.  It is going to be sad when they have all fallen to the ground.

I did get the sunken ship and some plastic greens planted in the aquarium on Saturday.  I bought one more bag of rock to cover both ends of the aquarium.  It was bare glass there as I just didn't have enough rocks.  The whole aquarium is still in a development stage as I have a few more greens to put in with there being more rock.  It there isn't any loose gravel toput at the base of the plants, they just float to the top. Sometime a larger fish will mess with the rocks and one can find plants floating at the top.  I use to have koi who were great at rearrange the rock floor on a regular basis. 

I mowed the boys' backyard on Saturday and the green chair got moved to the patio.  My hardy geraniums look like it is spring.  I couldn't have sat there earlier as it was too cold but today it has warmed up to a nice temperature.  It was strange to wake to 68 degrees F.  outside.

I am in the special education room today and it is cold in the room.  The air conditioner doesn't know that it is cold in here or the thermostat doesn't work correctly.  I missed working for three days last week but I am already now booked everyday to work this week.  I will be doing a lot of different jobs for sure.

I hope all are well out there and thanks for stopping in today at my posting.   

Sunday's Showing.......

As fall moves in to full swing, we keep getting threatened by freezing temperatures.  They will get it right pretty soon.  The coldest part of Iowa is only a few counties away from us.

No solution for great photos of the fish but I haven't purchased any bulbs for my overhead aquarium cover.   You can see here I did get the plastic plants planted.

The outdoor vine looks dramatic at night with the porch light.  I will share it when it finally freezes here and kills all growth of such things.

The excuse to bring in the dahlias works to the best for us as we get to enjoy them all the time when they are inside the house.

We attended an open house yesterday for our Asian minister and his wife's first house purchase.  The house is an older one that is really perfect for them and their three kids.  The house is actually a newer house than ours as it was probably built in the late 20s or early 30s.  The children are all so proud of having their own rooms and showed them off to us.  We are use to living in an old house so it is fun to see the different floor plans of old houses.  This one was actually designed a lot like a row house with one side lined with bedrooms and the other side with dining and living rooms.  The alley kitchen in the back of the house is a classic which will require work to fix it up.  The whole house is in the original state as they bought it so it will be neat to see things be changed and improved as they live in it.

It is cold outside right now but but we are promised a warmer day.  I hope everyone has a great Sunday today and thanks for stopping by today.

No Freezing for Us......This Time.

It is cold but not freezing.  Half of the Iowa in the northeast did have a hard freeze.  We may miss it but as the days keep getting colder our chances of getting frosted over will increase.  I have the impatience plant in already and I notice the glory vines really don't like the cold air.

Our sky views are clear and cold so we know winter is coming. I bought the cheap tree on the left and the one on the right is a volunteer.  The have been good trees but they are just like the lombardy poplar tree that live a short life and then it dies. 

I won't hire anyone at this time to take them down.  I am going to wait and see if winter weather won't bring down some of the limbs.  The smaller one I could cut myself but the larger one is too big for me to cut. I have a friend who likes to cut with chain saws and maybe in the spring I will turn him loose on them.

My one burning bush has started to turn red.  It is only turning at the very top of it so it looks like a flattop haircut.  I have two mature bushes like this and every fall they turn their leaves in a different manner.  The red berries are plentiful and the birds are already eating them.

I spent my Friday afternoon outside by the shed.  I have a mess out there that I am clearing and organizing everything.  I have brother in laws junk in temporary storage out there and I moved some of it into the shed.  I have restacked the old iron wagon wheels into a neat row and I did get some of the car tires cut up and removed from the rims.  If the tires were not on rims they would have been gone months ago but recycle places don't want rims attached to the tire. 

I still need to get the climbing rose attached to the shed and I have mowing of weeds that I can now get to around the shed.  I moved milk cans inside of the shed and threw some things away which I am not telling to any one about what it was.  What one can't see, one can not remember.

 We have an open house to attend this afternoon.  A family that had been renting, bought a house and they are now home owners.  Their house is an older one but perfect for them.  He is our Asian minister and he is having egg rolls and caramel salted cookies for us to eat.  Both of them are superb as he makes them.  We will do some errands before we go to the party.

I wish everyone a great Saturday.  I wish everyone to be well and thank you for stopping in to my spot today.

FRIDAY.......is GREAT.

Looking out my computer desk window this is what I now see.  The birch and its leaves gives off a great glow as the sun is coming up in the morning. I you click on the the photo you can see the green mulch that was sprayed yesterday on our ditch areas. I don't know how grass will grow out of that mulch but I am hoping that it works.  They had a battery powered leaf blower clean out all the leaves in the ditches before they started spraying it.

Another photo of the same area shows how the sun makes the trees leaves a lot brighter in color. The above photo was taken out of the small window on the other side of the bay window.

This is a great time to have the bay window as it gives off such great views of the trees with different colors of leaves.  The green ditch reminds me of the yards that the Arizonians  have with painted green rock instead of grass. Sometimes I think they have picked the wrong green to spray their gravel but I guess each person has their own idea about what it should look like. I will have to mow up leaves soon but I hope I don't have to dress up in winter clothes to do so.

I really like the colors of this dahlia but I thought I had planted  a couple of different colors. This seems to be the only color that I have. I may cut some of these to bring inside as we will be one degree from freezing tonight.  I hope we don't get that cold as town temperatures stay warmer than prairie temperatures.

Last night it seemed very cold so I brought in the impatience plant.  I will put that in the birds room so it can get good sunlight each morning.  I must make a decision on the one or two hardy geraniums that will remain potted.  The rest are getting pulled up and put upside down in the basement as stems and roots. I also will have to remember to dig the dahlias after a hard frost and try to save them over the winter.

The fish were held in a smaller 5 gallon tank all day yesterday and then last night after supper I transferred them to their new winter home.  I had treated the water for chlorine and had slimmed it for them so they wouldn't go into shock.When netting the fish in the morning I sort of knew that I didn't have one small fish.  I went back to the pond after I had dumped these into the small tank.  The water had cleared out there and there was one floating next to the brick not making a move, a black and orange one waiting for me to net it.

 As you can see it is bare essentials at this point with the tank, water and rock, but sometime this morning I will start adding the decorative stuff. There are two larger goldfish, one orange and one white.  They are a year old now and were small feeder fish when I bought them. 

There are five smaller fish that were bought as feeder fish this past spring. They have grown a lot too.  I buy them because they are cheap and I can wait for them to grow. I suspect I will buy a few more feeder fish to put in there so that there will be three sizes of fish. I am still kinda of proud of figuring out how to run the outdoor garden hose through the window to get this filled.  That would have been 20 trips with one gallon buckets to fill it otherwise. I guess with a bigger bucket I could have made 10 trips. I spill a lot of water when I carry water and pour water into the tank.

I don't want the frost to come as I will lose these blooms.  The vine took a sharp turn in color last night so the colder weather is getting to them.  Both places where I have planted glories are blooming profusely.

I am home again today and not a school.  It will be nice to get some more of the fall stuff done.  I tried to work out by the shed yesterday but I was invaded with fiber optic people out in the alley.  They look like they have finished the job so I can return today.  I will have to dress in layers as it isn't going to get warm today. It will take all day for it to get to 56 degrees F.  Around 4:00 we hit our peaked high temperature.

Rain in California is good and bad.  I hope all are ok and not having damaged property.  The rest of the country is moving into the fall season and I hope all is well with everyone.  Thanks for checking in on my blog today.

Thursday's Things.........

Bright early sunshine helped to make my birch and red maple more colorful.  Leaves are falling already from the birch as you can see on the ground under the tree.  The maple looks a lot redder with that bright sunshine.  The fallen leaf still looks more brown than red.  The ditches are getting sprayed with a seed and mulch material in hopes to get some grass grown soon.  It is almost too late but we it can soak in a little and not wash away with heavy rains, it might just work. They had to rake the leaves out of the ditches and then roto tilled them first.  It looks good but now we have the green fuzzy stuff out there.

The 20 gallon fish tank has been cleaned out and is ready to go into the house.  That was yesterday's task.  I carried it inside this morning and took a bucket of water to it to clean up the mineral buildup.   It didn't take long to clean it up.

The one window of the bird room I opened and put through the garden hose.  I pulled it into the room and then turned on the water.  I didn't have to carry a single bucket of water.  I did not get it shut off soon enough but it was about a quart of water that landed in my overflow tray that I have below the tank. I will soak it up with a big towel and all will be well.

The birds were moved out of the windows yesterday and are sitting nearby the tank which is now in the window. Birds aren't suppose to be placed next to windows especially in the winter.  Drafts are dangerous for tropical birds.

After all of that I needed to drain the outdoor pond area. That became a fiasco but it did work out well at the end.

I hooked up a water pump to my garden hose.  I ended up having hose and pump not being the correct sizes.  I took picture framing wire and electric tape and created a great connection.  I would have used duct tape but I couldn't readily fine mine.

I started up the pump and started draining the water out of the cattle tank.  I went inside to do something pertaining to the collection of the fish from the water.  I was told by my wife that my cousin from New Mexico was on the telephone line. She and I talked for a very long time.

An hour later I returned to find the tank almost empty.  That isn't good with fish still in there.  Fortunately the water level ended up being about 6 inches from the bottom.   Surprised that it didn't take a long time to drain it I readjusted the pump and kept draining it.  With a bucket of rain water sitting by the tank,  I netted out all of the fish.  I have them in a temporary tank while my setup allows the water to set for a half day.   I will transfer them into the tank later this afternoon or wait until morning.  I put a chemical from the store that is suppose to take out the chlorine into the water and another chemical that puts slime into the water so the fish won't go into shock. Photos of the fish in their indoor home will follow of course in a couple of days.

Evidence of fall shows with this wild volunteer vine that grows next to my back door. I will leave the vine as long as I can because it is a good batch of colors to enjoy.

As the road crew is finishing up the ditches and the sides of the streets, we still have fiber optic people at work.  Our alley is the very last alley that they have to finish, so it won't be so long now.  This is a deep hole and they will be placing a precast plastic insert into the hole.  It will be used to make wire connections for our house and the house east across the alley.  They got into a big root from some bush there and I assume they will have to remove that before they proceed.

While out working on an "old tires from the farm" project I was able to move things around so I can get to this rose.  I found the William Baffin rose with one cluster of buds getting ready to bloom.  If it frosts in a couple of night I may just wrap a towel around these buds so they won't be hurt.  We are warmer in town than in the country so we may not get that frost. I would really like to see these bloom one more time.  I can now tie up the branches of this climber to the shed because I can get to them.

 As I am blogging late again this day I guess I will close this down. I was out and about and saw this blue bloom asking me to take its photo. I noticed while out there working that I still have a few apples on the trees. I may work on getting them picked before the frost. The biggest apples were the ones to fall last from the tree.

I didn't get work at school again today so I was pleased to get projects done.  If I have to beat the frost date I will have to put longer days in to get things taken care of for sure.  I hope all are well out there and that today was a good one for you.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Wandering through Wednesday.......

An Iowan sky is as plain and clear as the corn field is stripped of stalks of corn.  In this photo you can see the neighboring field has also been picked. This view tells me that winter is on its way.  Last year it snowed for the first time on November 11th.

When you looked down to the ground after the combined has passed, you can find lots of different kinds of things.  In the old days the combine would put out a whole corn cob but the new machines must break them up so the cob will compost easier.

You can see some good Iowa black dirt and also a free spirit maple tree trying to get started in the field.  When the giant disc comes by and chops this all up that tree will not survive.  The disc has two rows of blades and the back ones bury all this leftover material under the soil. The first row is the chopper.

The cycle of planting starts again in spring after the soil has been under a layer of snow all winter.  The corn waste breaks down some through the winter but it actually breaks down during the next growing season. I mentioned to one of my students who drove the disc over this field that it didn't do a very good job of burying things.  The high school boy smiled and said if his Dad had seen that he would have made him go over it again.  He wanted it to be our little secret. It is rental ground and they have hundreds of acres to do.

Being the transitional time of the year when taking live blooms for photos to share is about done.  To now lose those things, I will have to shift my kinds of shots to other things.  I know that I can get many fall shots but I have to look in different areas to find things to share and blog. A lot of people think fall is wonderful but I am not a big fan.  I will go into dreading winter pretty soon and all that comes with that season.  One nice gentle snowfall will be a treat but after that I am discouraged about it. 

I am home today so I can get to some of the pressing projects. I will have to wait for it to warm up before I go out there.  I don't want to put it in writing of what I am going to do today because I find I don't do what I write down.  I should write an independent list out and keep it to myself.  I just hope that by the end of the day that I have made some progress toward getting things done.

We still have fiber optic people in our alley setting up connection boxes in the sides of the alley.  I walked out yesterday by my shed and crew was out there covering up a big hole with plastic fencing to keep dogs and people from falling into their holes.

Collecting seeds from zinnias and morning glories is high priority the next few weeks.  The winds blew down a large section of my zinnias and I am at the stage I probably won't try to set them up again.

Unfortunately for my blog followers the morning glories are going crazy with blooms.  I know that I have way too many shots of them.   I noticed yesterday while at school I could look out a emergency hallway exit and the fence there next to the house was covered with heavenly blue glory blooms.  Maybe when it is 13 below and the snow is a foot high, I can dig out some glory photos and people will be glad to see them again.  As I work outside today I will just keep my camera in my parka pouch to be ready to shoot anything that doesn't move. If something moves I might take its photo too.

Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope all is well with you and your family.  Have a great day.