Beautiful Fall Days

Oak Tree at the side of our drive way

My brother picking corn in back of our barn

October 22nd - Monday - Beautiful Fall Day 72 degrees

It was a beautiful day that started out with a white frost that covered the ground.  We were up early and had to be in town early this morning for an appointment with Lou's orthopedist.  He is still having some pain and can only lay on his back to sleep. Lou had x-rays and the doctor reported that the fracture is healing; however, it is not totally healed and will probably take another three weeks, so we have a follow up appointment in three weeks and he has asked Lou to cut back on what he is doing and give the fracture a little more area to heal.  You see hunting season is on the horizon and darling husband wants to be in his best condition for the romp through the wood in pursuit of four legged deer.

We  have both been having problems with our hips and have been trying to get in a mile walk each day, it has given us a great opportunity to enjoy the the fall days.  I have been seeing a chiropractor weekly for three months and can't seem to keep my hips in place.  I am scheduled to have some x-rays this week and take a different approach to the problem.

Despite the problems we have had, we have our fall work about completed.  Have all of our spent flowers cut down and hauled away.  Lou has been so good to help me divide many of our perennials and we have given many, many plants away.  Hopefully, next year our beds will look better.  Our Autumn Joy will need to be divided in the spring when we return from Florida.  Thursday is supposed to be a very nice day and I hope to get all of our windows washed one last time and our water lines sealed for winter and all hoses put away.  We need to winterize our lawnmower and then we will be finished.  Will cover up the thirty roses after the ground freezes.

We got our flu injections today and Lou got his pneumonia injection, so have our bodies ready for winter also.  We got the RV winterized just before the first freeze and when we did we found that a mouse had found a way in, so we set a trap and so far we have caught seven mice, so we put poison out in the barn along with more traps in the RV.  Now we will have to bring the RV to the house a week before we want to go south, to clean it before we head south.  We had even used the fabric softener sheets as suggested in the       motor home magazines to keep the furry animals out of RV's.  This is the first time this has happened to us.  At least I can get it all cleaned up before we head out.

Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful fall days.  I know some folks are having snow already.

Sunday Afternoon Drive to Waterville, PA

 Taken outside of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in Waterville, PA

 Showing the Brook Trout

 Lou's favorite the train showing the switch-back used in lumbering the mountains

 Some of the tools used in lumbering.  I had not seen the branding tool before

 The beautiful Pennsylvania Mountains in October

This picture shows the Annie S coal mine

September 30th - Sunday  - Cloudy mild day

After a wonderful church service with our Pastor Keith Diehl, which we give God praise for daily, we feel so blessed for he and his wife.  He suffers from many physical problems; however, week after week he is there for us with a sermon that enlightens our week.  We are looking forward to the month of October as we are going to be studying the book of Job and he has asked all of us to read the book.  I hope everyone takes the challenge and does as he has asked.  Lou and I plan to do that, in fact we have read up to chapter seven so far.

We left church and drove to Antrim and then to Morris and made our way to Waterville.  We had read about the new display that was open to the public at The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and thought it would be interesting to see it.

The drive was beautiful, we drove through Little Pine Creek and stopped for lunch at a restaurant and enjoyed a wonderful lunch, that we found we could not finish, I think it was the best Bleu Cheese burger I have ever eaten and they made their own potato chips and the coffee was delicious, just a great meal.  We had a hard time finding the DCNR as we did not have reception with our OnStar , so we had to stop and ask directions, but eventually found the place and it certainly was worth the drive.

The working model railroad that shows what the timber harvesting looked like in the Pine Creek Valley at the turn of the century and interprets the lumbering heritage of the region was Lou's favorite.

There was a 180 gallon aquarium featuring our state fish, the brook trout, as well as other stream dwellers.

A interpretive display of the many large birds common to the skies of the Pine Creek Valley

A Pine Creek flora and fauna display with touch screen that provide information,  about the plants and animals of the region, this was something I really enjoyed, I learned that King Fishers nested in the ground.

An observation deck, this is where they took the picture of Lou and me, that interprets the green roof and native plants used for landscaping and features viewing scopes as well as a log slide replica similar to those used to transport logs down the steep hillsides at the turn of the century.

All in all it was a wonderful afternoon that we spent there.  We came back up route 414 to Morris and came out in Blackwell, arriving home just before dark.  It was a good day.  We have both been at home for some time, while Lou's hip was healing, so we enjoyed our day out.      

  

           

OOPS with Resurfacing Driveway !!

September 27th - Thursday  68 degrees - Beautiful fall day

The day finally arrived to have our driveway resurfaced.  It was the perfect day to have it done.  Mr.  Fay called early in the morning to alert us and Lou took the car out of the garage and drove it down by the barn and got the lawn mower out of the little barn so he could cut the yard when the grass dried off and he fastened both gates so Estee wouldn't be outside, all was set for the men to arrive.

I decided it would be a great day to do the bedding and hang it on the line, so that is what I did and of course, I had to go off the back deck to the clothes line and I opened the gate and never thought about Estee going out with me.  I hung up my clothes and came back in and proceeded to clean the bathroom, when I heard some one calling to me from the front door.  The man that was resurfacing the driveway told me that Estee had gotten on the driveway and had come up the newly stained sidewalk.  I quickly turned to search for her, well I didn't have to search for her long, she sat behind me with the look of "what do I do now".  I quickly picked her up and sat her in the sink and put in some warm soapy water and told her to sit.  Thankfully, she does obey me very well, and I went back to ask the gentleman what I should use to get it off her feet, and he told me soapy water, then I asked him about my carpets and floors and of course, the sidewalks and deck.  Well folks, the secret is WD-40 and it worked like a charm.

I now have a clean puppy, clean sidewalks, decks and will have clean rugs once I wash the WD- 40 out of them. and our drive way looks great thanks to Fay's  Paving.