Fall, Glorious Fall!

This has to be one on my favorite times of the year. The weather is cool and the days are beautiful. It was perfect Saturday night for a meal at the picnic table and s’mores around the fire pit. If you look really closely you can see the barest hint of color in the trees.

MUM’S THE WORD. The Beta Club has been selling mums as a fund raiser for an upcoming trip to New York City. Jenna (and Vicki) got busy and sold 53 mums, not counting the 6 that we bought. They spent Thursday and Friday evening delivering flowers all over this end of creation. All their hard work sure saves us on her trip expenses.

Vicki and Jenna have also been busy making pear preserves to sell for another fundraiser. Jenna hopes to visit the orphanage in Haiti that our church is supporting and these monies will go toward that trip. They are finding it takes a lot of work to make preserves.

Speaking of fundraisers, Saturday afternoon found the boys and I selling popcorn in front of a grocery store once again. This time we were at Al’s in White House. We didn’t sell nearly as much popcorn but got a lot of donations.

WATER WORKS. Thursday afternoon I came home with a cutoff valve from the hardware store to replace one below the bathroom sink that is leaking. When I went outside to cut the water off at the meter so I could go to work the valve at the meter broke leaving our water almost off. Since this valve is on the utility’s side of the meter it was their responsibility to fix it.

The next morning I was eating breakfast when Steve Freeland called. He had passed by on his way to work and noticed a small geyser in our front yard. I went out to check it out and sure enough we had a fountain of water about a foot tall bubbling up from the ground. This too was on the utility’s side of the meter so they had to come back out. They wound up replacing the segment of the water line connecting our meter to the water main. All I have to do is reseed the area where they worked.

I did get a kick out of Maggie when we went out the check out the water. She hadn’t seen anything like it before and kept running around the leak barking at it.

ADDITIONS TO THE SHOP. I have been really bummed that I now have the shop I have dreamed of having for years and no time to get out there and work. This has changed in the last couple of weeks and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. What is an extra blessing is that I helped someone at church clean out an industrial building they want to sell and have gotten two large counters and a work bench for my shop. These are a welcome change from the wobbly old kitchen table and sawhorses that I have been using. The building is starting to feel like a place where I can actually get something accomplished.

Joe