Here on Marshmallow Ranch, we have two creeks bordering our property. They join down at the end of what I call “the far field” where it pretty much comes to a point. At this time of year, temperatures during the day can get quite hot but drop to really great “sleeping weather” temps at night. The ground is saturated from all this rain we’ve been getting so we get fog in “the bottom”…the lowest spot on the property. We have two neighbors within sight…both situated on the other side of the creeks. When we went out to star gaze Wednesday night, the fog rolled into the bottom and the neighbor’s porch light cast an eerie glow in the mist.
I love waking up and looking out the window into a milky fog. It takes me back to when I was a child growing up just six blocks from the Ohio River. We often waited for the school bus in a pea soup fog so thick you heard the bus coming before you saw it. With the fog and the cooler night temperatures and the chorus of bugs all around, I’m really enjoying knitting this warm, cozy sweater. I know the house will smell like apple butter soon and leaves will start falling from the trees.
Didn’t even make a dent!
Up until I moved in with Mr. FixIt, I dreaded autumn because it meant winter would be fast on its heels. Now…after mowing five acres for the last five years, I’ve learned to relish the cool, crisp days of fall. And with all this beautiful yarn, I’ve learned to appreciate winter. Actually, it took the Covid lockdown to make me appreciate being safely tucked in the house with my sweetheart by my side. After all, I can dread winter or I can embrace it. Either way…it’s still going to be winter. So why would I want to just plan on being miserable for three months or so?
We’re working hard on the projects we want to finish before the snow flies. Mr. FixIt and I got the second railing put up on the deck stairs. I took the hedge trimmer out and cut the heck out some big forsythias and flowering quince along the field side of the house. I went around front and cut down the peony bushes and some tall weeds that got out of hand. I knitted through the heat of the afternoon, but I didn’t look at the pattern, and relying on my mistaken memory, I forgot to decrease stitches before I knitted the cuff. I’ll need to tease that out today. My mom would have said, “You need to stop and lick your cat over.” One of her folksy sayings that meant…fix it. Lands, she was something to deal with when I was sewing my own clothes. She made me rip out so many seams the fabrics would wear thin.
Here it is…Friday. Big’s last weekend at home before she heads off to college. When your kids are growing up, you think…”Maybe when they’re out on their own, I wont worry.” Ha! Then things settle down and if you are blessed with grandchildren, you get a whole new set of concerns. She is going to do great and you want to know why? Because her parents did great and they poured their hearts and souls into their kids so they’ll do great, too.
Today, I’ll help Mr. FixIt with anything he needs, then I’ll head to town to look for produce to can this weekend. I need to drop a jar of half-runners over to the former Mrs. FixIt’s house to thank her for the home canned salsa she gave us a couple of weeks ago. I’d like to can tomatoes and peaches. And, all this brush I cut down the last couple of days isn’t going to grow legs and find its way to the brush pile on its own!
Our work is never done…but I tell you what. I cherish every moment I’m given on this little slice of paradise we call home.
?
“In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.”
Proverbs 14:23 ESV