Potatoes anyone?
October 8 – While tomorrow will probably be mostly an indoor day due to rain, today was not. We were off to volunteer at the church for Harvesters just before nine this morning, and when the big truck arrived we managed to snag the bagged potato compartment. It was one of the easier ones to do, as all we had to do was put in two bags of potatoes for each family. Next to us the gang from Summit View Academy had large bags of onions, with smaller bags inside, so they were quite easy to hand out. The school principal and his class of about eight were there, as he had taken the morning off to give the kids an idea of volunteering. Next to them was a compartment of red cabbages, three per family, and that wasn’t very hard to do either. Next to them was a compartment of tomatoes, and that took more work and sorting and messy tomatoes to cope with. Several volunteers for that area, and everyone kept busy.
After Harvesters we went home and got ready to go to Pleasant Hill, since we had dental appointments for teeth cleaning at one o’clock. On the way there we stopped at the bank and Price Chopper and then went over to the dentist near by to be questioned about our daily toothbrushing, with manual brushes, flossing, and I had to sign that I did not want any x-rays again. I had no cavities, so figure I made the right choice. The dentist was concerned about my weight and figured I should be a bit heavier than I was. He felt my wrists and ankles and said he could feel bone and that I was losing muscle mass. Must be all that mowing and hoeing I do in the summer.
Cactus plants moved indoors
After leaving the dentist we drove down to the thrift store and dropped off a bag of things we were donating, and a tray of aloe vera plants I had pulled from my potted plants that had multiplied, and was offering them free to customers there. Didn’t do any shopping there as it was Wednesday, and the senior citizen discount is on Thursday. Got a tube of sand at a hardware store to mix in with my potting soil to make it more porous for my cacti and succulents. Filled up with gas at $2.89/gal – gas prices have been going down each week for some time now.
Earlier this week Chris saw a coyote in the pasture across from us, trotting along and stopping now and then to look around. She called me to come watch it, and it was nice to see wildlife like that, with no hunters wanting to shoot them down. Of course we have no livestock that would be food for coyotes. As a young teenager long ago I was a hunter too, but have since changed course and now even hate to see simple creatures like snakes, spiders, velvet ants, etc. destroyed. Don’t feel q-u-i-t-e that way about brown recluse and black widow spiders, but they are the exceptions.
This butterfly has seen better days
We had our only meal of the day quite late this afternoon, and after washing the dishes, Chris suggested we take a walk around our trails, so I put on a sweater, she took off her jacket, and away we went, camera in hand. You’ll see some of the pictures she took later on when the time is ripe. I had just asked if it was this same time each year when we see the little stems of wild white orchids growing along the trails, when there was one and then more later. At our iris bed by the creek, Chris was pleased to see the first stem of re-blooming iris, still in bud. Seems so late to have orchids and iris coming into flower.
Time for our nightly session of Rummikub, so I shall be signing off and wishing you all a good night. – DALE
Chris 'n' Dale 