Thursday This n That

The other morning, just before sunrise, the crows were kicking up an unholy riot out there in the woods.  I tried to see what they were freaking out about and they were pretty focused on one tree.  Just then, I saw something large fly out of the tree, surrounded by crows.  It landed on a leafless branch. Silhouetted by the sunrise, it's species was clear. It was a great horned owl.  Awesome.  It didn't stay long because the crows were divebombing it, but there it was.  Yay.

That's one awesome thing about Fall - leafless trees.  We can see all sorts of stuff in the fall and winter that we can't see all summer.  We're seeing stars again, and birds of all kinds, and planes.  Woot.

Another awesome thing about Fall is the cooler temps.  Well, cooler than Summer anyway.  Yesterday, it got up to 75F.  Blerg.  Pardon me while I whine... I want to go in the woods and play!

I was playing rough with Sawyer and now my hand is scratched up.  He likes to lay between my legs and attack my hand.  I usually cover it with a shirt or something, so it's not too bloody a game, but he got past the cloth.  :shrug:  Oh, the things I do to please my babies.  For some reason, after we play rough for a little while, he settles down and goes for a nap, instead of constantly circling like a shark.  The boy needs active play.  Sure, he's got Finn, but Finn's a lover more than a fighter.

French toast sounds good today.  I probably won't make it, but it sounds good.

The sapsuckers have returned to my woods.  Yay!

I don't think there's enough coffee on the planet to keep my awake today.  Not sure why.  I mean, we stayed up like 15 minutes past our bedtime, and I think I got to sleep okay, but I am pooped.  Derp.

In the spare room, there's a container of green tomatoes.  They're ripening one by one, which is okay.  There's just enough of each tomato to make slices for hamburgers.  Next year, I'm planting potatoes and carrots, too.  Fingers crossed it all works.

Okay, that's enough out of me.  Have a great day wherever you are, and feel free to leave a comment to tell me about your thisses and thats.

Thursday +1 This in That

 Okay, so it's not Thursday, but it's Thursday +1, so I'm doing this.

I don't want to suggest that we control the weather, but see, it's like this... We've noticed that every time Hubs mows, it rains the next day.  Except he hasn't had to mow in a while and now we're in a drought.  Also, back when I was fishing way more often, it seemed like every time I said I was going fishing the next day, I'd wake up to it raining.  Last night, I was talking about fishing this morning and I woke up to rain.  And another thing, I started thinking that maybe I'd still go fishing, because it's warm and warm rain is nice to fish in.  I no sooner thought that then the sky flashed and there was a big clap of thunder.  So, yeah, we control the weather.  To a certain extent, otherwise I could make it stop and go fishing. ROFL

If you think I actually believe that, you don't know me very well.  I do think it's a funny coincidence, though.  Well, we were laughing about it.

Man, it is pouring outside.  Yay!  The last time it rained like this was September 21st.  Hell, that was the last time it rained at all.  And we only got like two rains in September.  It's been dry here since like July, I think.  I'm not sure if this is going to spark a trend, but it's nice to hear rain on the roof again.  The cats, of course, are confused and have vacated their spots to probably hide under the bed.

So, I bought worms yesterday from my regular dealer.  When I started buying worms from her, they were $2.90 for a dozen.  Then she raised the price to like $3.15.  Yesterday, worms were $4.23 (after tax).  Frickin' inflation.  

My regular worm dealer is an older gal who runs a little corner store.  I wondered if she'd recognize me because 1) it's been a couple years since I've been there and 2) she's a stroke victim.  Yep, she remembered me.  Unfortunately, she's gotten more crochety since I was last there, so I've got to work on rebuilding the report we had.  :shrug: Life happens.

Fall colors here are really in full swing.  It's lovely.  And it makes me happy.  I do wish we had more maples here, so there would be more red added into the palette, but even though I didn't get to choose the painting, I still enjoy the art.

And wish that profoundness, I'll let you get on with your day.  Have a great one, wherever you are.

Sunday Update - Week 41

Not sure where the week went, but here we are again at another Sunday.

Okay, so most of the week disappeared into edit hell.  Lucky for me, edit hell is not pink*.  I am this close to having this edit pass done.  Like 177 pgs out of 189**.  I worked on it every day, but it wasn't a quick process.  I hope to have those last twelve pages done today.  Right now, the book is at 63390 words.  I don't expect that to change too much.  Unless the proofers tell me they hate the beginning.  

I'm thinking about doing a sale on the genie books next week.  I need to stop thinking about it and make it happen.  I'll schedule a sale for the model books once I know when I'll have this last one published.

Alas, with all the editing going on, reading fell by the wayside.  I didn't finish any books.  I am making progress on an Agatha Christie short story paperback, though.

In baking news, I made chocolate chip cookies and granola bars and zucchini bread.  We're full up on baked goods right now.  Yay.

On the activity front, I did manage to get something active done 6 out of 7 days.  Okay, some of the activities weren't super active, but they weren't 'sitting on my ass in front of the computer', so they count.  Weight:179.4.

The trees are starting to turn here.  And the bucks are starting to come around.  We seen three now.  The main one, Arthur, was looking kind of puffy faced on the right side last week.  This week, we know why.  He must've had an abscess.  And it burst.  He's kind of gnarly looking right now, but he's healing and it's not affecting his ability to eat.  Other than the gnarly face, he looks beautiful.

I have some spreadsheet work to do today - both my own and payjob stuff.  I also have a blurb to work on for a friend and one to work on for myself.  Then there's dusting and vacuuming and I probably should get a walk in there somewhere.

I think that's about it.  What about you?  How did your week go last week?

*You'd understand the pink thing if you read Ugly and the Beast.
**The number of manuscript pages does not reflect the number of published pages.

Trees and Leaves (Or The Joy of Raking)

This is Oberon.  He's the fairy oak that lives in our front yard.  Now, this picture doesn't do him justice.  There's nothing for perspective.  Just understand, that's a two-car wide driveway next to him.  Or to give you something better to go on, here's me standing next to him for my author photo shoot.

His sprawling limbs stretch the length of our house and then some.  He's a big boy.  A big boy with lots of leaves.  Lots of leaves that dump down onto our yard.

Oh, he's not the only culprit.  He's just the worst single offender.  We also have 6 black walnuts, three hickorys, two smaller oaks, two black cherries, and two elms.  (Plus, 4 cedars, but they don't cause me any grief at leaf raking time.)  And that's only the trees in our yard, not the trees in our woods or the trees on our neighbor's wooded lot next door.  He's has sycamores that cheerfully drop leaves onto our south lawn. 

Don't get me wrong.  I love our trees, even if Oberon's the only one I've named*.  I even love raking.  It's a lot of work but it's great exercise that I only get for a while in the Autumn.  I'm just being funny this morning because the raking we did these past couple days has left me a little sore.

Hubs and I moved all the leaves into like 5 piles over the past week or so.  Then the piles were moved down the hill or across the yard into position to be shoved into the woods.  The last couple of days, we've been shoving those piles into the woods.  We've only got half of the biggest pile left.  Then we'll go into the woods and spread the leaves around a little.  Should be fun. 

Hubs likes to joke that we're working on filling up the valley behind our house, but by the time next Autumn rolls around, the leaves will be mostly gone through a process of decay and animals walking through them, kicking them around, and degrading them further.  Kind of like a bunch of natural compost piles except the critters are turning the compost for us. And then we'll start the process over again. 

The joys of living in the woods.  I mean, we could leave the leaves, but then our yard would have no grass at all (it's pretty piddlin' as it is).  We could also burn the leaves like some of our neighbors do, but that leaves a nasty burnt spot on the ground and the heat from below isn't good for the trees.  So, we rake.  It's a small price to pay for the shade our trees provide all summer long.

What about you?  Do you rake, mulch, ignore your leaves?  Gah, do you even have leaves?  I can't imagine living somewhere that doesn't have to be raked.  


*After I wrote this, I remembered I also named one just off the yard - Little Red.  It's a red oak I've been babying since we found it back there.  It was maybe 4 ft tall when I took it under my wing and now it's easily double that.  It's so pretty in the fall.