Just checking in.

Terry's off in Dallas, TX for the annual Smocking Arts Guild of America convention where she is to be installed as the President-Elect. Next year she will become President and I've been informed I MUST attend in Atlanta. It'll play hell with my hunting seasons but, what the hey. Domestic tranquility and all that.

I have been slaving away (HA!) here at the Aerie finishing up the raised bed that I began a month ago and trying to figure out what to do with the couple of yards of topsoil I have left over. A couple of small stone walls to enclose a second bed need to be constructed and the dirt moved from its current location to a spot about thirty yards away which means I'll be playing the "laborer's banjo" (aka "shovel") some more in the next couple of days.

The birding group wants to go biking this Thursday on the newly opened stretch of Rails-to-Trails that starts at Darling Run just west of Wellsboro and heads northeast for 5 or 6 miles along Marsh Creek. I've put one of Rick's bicycles together (hopefully correctly) and will try to test that old axiom about never forgetting how to ride a bike. It has been a very, very long time since I was last aboard one and this baby has ten speeds. Luckily the trail is pretty flat.

Fall is definitely in the air but has been somewhat fickle. One day it's a beautiful crisp and clear 60ish degree day with upper 30s at night and the next it's 85 and quite hazy with temps only dropping into the low 70s overnight. At least the trees are starting to change color. The hills are about 10-15% red and yellow now as the maples, oaks and ashes begin their transformation. There's a little more each day. And the sun has begun moving southward. Each night it sets a little further south of west than the night before.

As much as I'm enjoying the clear days and nights, we desperately need some rain here in the Northern Tier. We've recorded just about 0.9 inches since the month began and everything is incredibly dry. Walking in the woods is like walking on cornflakes.