Mid- November and the butterflies and small snakes are everywhere

 Today's temps were in the low seventies. Sunny and beautiful. Tonight the rains are coming in for a 2 day visit. The night time temps will stay in the low 50's.  Daytime temps around 60.  We are about to be swallowed up by all the leaves, I sweep and sweep and they come back like magic. The beautiful dance of falling leaves of gold and red and orange is something that never fails to enchant me. 


  I had 2 business meetings today, one that started at noon and the other at 2 that lasted until 4. So ready to retreat home to my sanctuary when it was over !  Before I left the house I had washed dried and put away one load of laundry, washed the second load and put in the dryer, and started the 3rd load. I also made a batch of granola bars for the Irishman's lunches, and got the bars all cut and wrapped. Felt like a productive day. Tomorrow I have to go early to the doc for my INR monitoring blood draw then come back home and start baking french bread (2 loaves) and soft garlic breadsticks (probably about 2 dozen). We are having a pasta potluck and I am also making a couple of pasta dishes. Gonna make a simple chili-mac because it's a local favorite and I just happen to have a lot of leftover chili (on purpose) in the fridge. Not sure about the other dish...either Aglio y Olio  OR  Porcini stuffed tortellini with a butternut squash sauce.  Or perhaps an Alfredo, but that is almost a little too rich. I'll decide once I start cooking. lol  A rainy day will be good cooking weather.


  My chickens have gone insane. If I didn't know better, I' think they were taking LSD.  They repeatedly kick over the waterer that sits inside the coop (it's a gallon size and very heavy when full) and make a complete mess of the floor. They kick all the straw out of the nesting box and insist on laying eggs  willy-nilly all over the place. Then they turn the box upside down . They will lay only one or two eggs a day for a week and suddenly lay 6 every day for 2 weeks. I am seriously considering therapy. For them or me--not sure. lol

  We are considering raising a pig next spring. It would be in a small enclosure back of the property near the pond (but not too near). It sounds like a good idea, but we'll see. 


  The Irishman is going to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving again this year and I am staying here with my family.  Not sure what we are doing, but it may not include my sister in law. She is becoming increasingly sensitive to noise and chaos, and we are a big loud bunch. I have invited my brothers daughter and her kids to come here, as they are basically alone since my brother moved to Georgia. Add to that strained family relations and well...they are still my family and she seems so sad sometimes... There is lots of love to go around. May invite a couple of other friends that have no family nearby...we'll see.  Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner--I'd better get a move on !  I have lost track of this thing you call time...

  No matter what or who--I am cooking a turkey. and that is that.  lol

  The midnight hour beckons and I am tired. Sleeping earlier these days since the knee replacement I started going to bed around 10, but am slowly staying up later and later.Hmmm...good or bad ?  Who knows. 



  Sleep well dear ones...   Namaste.