Leaves are falling...

Remember that cold week I told you about?  The one where the low temperatures were hovering around 22 degrees?  Yeah, that one.  Well, it's long past and now it's on to Indian Summer, just what I wanted.  Cool mornings, warm, sunny afternoons, and cool, crisp nights.  It's good weather for me, and it's good weather for leaf-turning.  The poplar tree in the yard is releasing its golden leaves while most of the other trees are just beginning to turn.  Gold is the prominent color here except for some rich red Halogeton which grows in the alkali flats in some of our pastures.  It's pretty to look at, but poisonous to livestock. 

I've been doing lots of things lately.  I took a hike with my son, GentleSasquatch, in Spearfish  Canyon where we went to Community Caves and then to 420 Cave.  (Here's a link to his blog.) Both were steep climbs with high look-outs amidst sandstone rock caves.  It was great fun.  I so loved the varied mountain plants and awe-full views from rock cliffs.  I kept wanting Sasquatch to take pictures, but we both knew they would never turn out just like we saw them with our own two eyes.  S. made the comment:  "The best cameras in the world cannot see like the human eye.  They only wish they could capture what we see."  True.  He does have some nifty fotos on his blog of the views from 420 Cave if you care to take a look.  Here's us (duo-selfie).

I finished up two batches of Zucchini Salsa.  O man!  It was good stuff!  The only tweak I made to the first batch was to add five jalapenos to the recipe for a little extra heat.  The second batch I added more jalapenos for more heat.  The recipe was one of the very best canned recipes I've made.  The taste and texture is a lot like Pace Picante sauce.  Click here for the dandy recipe.

Our local sweet corn grower is calling it quits for the season today.  JJo and I went a couple days ago to fetch several dozen ears of that delicious sweet corn to freeze.  She processed six dozen and I did ten.  By the end of the day, I had 44 pints of delicious corn-off-the-cob for my freezer stash, much more than Hubs and I need, but we can always share it with our kids and guests.

I think I'm done canning except for applesauce.  My dad's apple trees are bursting with beautiful apples so I intend to get some homegrown sauce made and maybe a little apple butter too.  Dad has an apple press; I'm hoping to help him press some fresh apple juice.  Yum!

Our basement, which had the sewer backup problem, is now fixed.  It feels like a totally new place, even though all that was done was drywall repair, texture, and paint, and a new carpet laid in the bedroom and living room, hall, and stairs.  Oh, it's so nice.  All I have left is to finish painting the closet doors and set up the bedroom again.  I'm so blessed to have CarpetnerSon here to fix things up for me.

Now the men are on to a new project -- building a shop that looks like an old barn.  I'm so excited.  CarpenterSon really needed his own space to do his thing and so the men decided to go ahead and build it while we've still got the good weather to get it up.  So far they have the cement poured and the rafters built.  Next the walls will go up and the rafters too.  They'll try to enclose it before wet weather comes our way.

I think that's all that is on my mind for now.  One more thing that I've been thinking about, actually.  From My Utmost for His Highest today, excerpts:

Show to the other man what God has shown to you; and God will give you ample opportunities in actual life.  To be a disciple means that we deliberately identify ourselves with God's interests in other people.  "That you love one another as I have loved you." God's life in us expresses itself as God's life, not as human life trying to be godly.

What are you up to these days?