Thank you for the update, and try to stay warm!

where are you??

I can only remember snow worth mention one Thanksgiving in my lifetime, and we don't get snow every year so the timing was exceptionally odd ;0)

And I agree that the safety while driving overcomes your use of fuel....

Another safety tip that's been pointed out to me, hands plunged into pockets in freezing weather. Or, when chilly on a bumpy ocean. I have a way of doing both, and more than one person has told me how hard I could fall without hands immediately free to to catch myself.

I hope you enjoy your change of scenery, it sounds like you are staying plenty busy. Stay warm ;0)

Near London, Ontario, Canada - within almost spitting distance of 4 of the Great Lakes.

o j (as in "ole joyful") (writ within 3 min. of closing Sun. aft, so edited on Mon)

P.S. Mon: Best to have pockets not too tight, don't push hands in too far, be ready for quick action as required: shorter distance to pull hands out and deploy quickly than head and shoulders to the floor/deck.

(Would you prefer the hands into the armpits?)

o j

thanks joyfulguy., makes sense.... Ugh, not looking forward to that weather here, outside of Philly

You drive and walk verrrrrry carefully, hear, OJ??

A busy morning, as I thought that, though it froze at night, warmer days would mean that veggies in the barn would be O.K. for a while ... but the forecast was for 0 degrees C today.

The two kinds of squash and the pumpkins, 2 - 3 dozen each, were in three locations.

I threw a few bales of straw and some loose down from the loft, moved some things as required and built a wall of bales part way round the one kind of squash, spread more straw on the floor, then moved the other kind of squash and the pumpkins alongside them and threw forksful of straw over and around the whole assemblage.

En route to the village church to pick the veggies left there yesterday, I passed a car in the ditch, with a tow truck fixing to pull it out. I'd understood that I needed to get to the church before noon, when the secretary leaves, but on arrival found a number of cars there and a gathering of artists doing their thing in the hall. Loaded the trays of veggies, took them to the suburban church and left some there. They'd taken three large pumpkins from the sanctuary and one fellow that's a friend thought that, as they'd been inside for three weeks, they'd need to be composted, but I felt them for soft spots, tapped them lightly, and opined that they'd be O.K. to give out as food, but as he and wife are operating the food pantry this afternoon, suspect that I'll find all of the big ones still there on my return to pick them up, but there are some of my pumpkins there, so they won't be short.

Looks like it's time to dig out the long johns.

I started to remove stakes and strings from the garden the other day, but there are lots more of them, including the poles and strings that held the vine beans.

There was to be more snow overnight, and there was some, but it's been blowing quite strongly so there has been some drifting, but they'd forecast upwards of a foot, all told, and it hasn't snowed much today ... so far.

Son's companion is interested in using some/most/all of the wild grapes (small little beggars, they are) to make some jam so will take part of them to her when I go back to town to pick up the veggies.

I'll also have a visit with son, who went to Toronto to blow up balloon animals and toys for the kids during the Santa Claus parade on Sunday, so, being 50+, he was pretty well beat on his return, last night. Had to carry whatever he needed in a backpack ... as storage lockers in the bus station are a no-no, these days.

Hope you all had a lovely/(interesting?) weekend.

And ... good wishes for a memorable, happy - and very thankful - Thanksgiving.

ole joyfuelled ... with some fuelling help from veggies, here and there

That first snow is always something of a surprise even when we've been expecting it - everything looks so different.

Boy, you have been a busy man, OJ. I dont know how you do it all.

Nothing much keeps you down, but try to stay warm, dry and safe in that cold snowy weather, ok?

We are supposed to get snow showers on Thanksgiving day. That is early for snow to rear its ugly head. A hard winter is predicted. I would not do well any farther north!

'Twas to be cold days as well as nights ... so moved some green tomatoes into basement ... in trays, atop plastic buckets, to foil the rats.

They love the squash ... so hope to get them all gone before hard freezing to destroy the ones in the barn.

Dad had a platform hung on wires from the joists in the basement of the large old home near here where I grew up, to foil the rats ... but some could jump across from the shelves near the walls.

We stored apples from our orchard on them.

joyfuelled guy