Back at the Aerie, September 18, 2009

I did my clean-up at the Bolt Hole Reconstruction Site this morning, sorted through the tools and toys that had to come home for the next month, packed my bag, changed the sheets, and washed the dishes. Then I packed the Tundra, hooked up the utility trailer, loaded up the log splitter, and headed back to PA.

I had to stop at the beginning of the trip for fuel, at Lowe's to return some unused material, and at Wally-World to cash in some cans but after that it was smooth cruising on the NYS Thruway and Route 14. I checked the tie-downs on the splitter at every stop mentioned and again when I stopped to stretch my legs at a rest area on the Thru-way. No sense having that heavy thing either bounce off the sides or crash into the back of the truck!

The weather was pretty good with only an occasional sprtiz dampening my windshield. The temperature, which started at 55 degrees at 11 AM as I left the Bolt Hole, never got above 65 degrees on the dashboard computer as the afternoon wore on and I headed south into PA.

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So I'm home at the Aerie and the first thing I notice is that the effin' grass needs cutting. Again. Except for those spots where I sprayed Roundup on the thistles. They won't be needing cutting until sometime next summer.

And the beans need to be pulled out before we get completely and majorly swamped by green string beans. The freezer is starting to over flow.

It's chilly here too. The local radio station even used the "F" word in its forecast as a possibility tonight and tomorrow night in some localized areas. Low temperatures will flirt with the upper 30s in the rest of the area. Cold air sinks, though, and being 700 feet above the valley floor, we, and our string beans, will probably not get a visit by Jack for a couple of weeks. Probably.

Which is why I must go out in broad daylight tomorrow and murder those damn string beans; tossing their still lush, green carcasses onto the compost heap. It's really self defense. Me or them. If I have to eat all those string beans past, present, and (gasp) future, I'll be standing astride the garden in a leafy green loin cloth next spring shouting, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"