Scrambling to the end of September

It's been an eventful end to the month of September. With full-on fall weather arriving early this year, we've been scrambling to get a few essential things done. There was the last of the firewood to pick up from Rick's client and get undercover:

(Yes, our woodshed is in serious need of rebuilding/replacing.)

The middle and upper pastures desperately needed mowing:

(It looks so much better without the long, scraggly, dead stalks! The sheep will be able to go back out and eat green, green grass again. 😍)

There's been produce to pick/purchase and prepare:

I picked one last big bowl of tomatoes-traded-for-eggs and made two more batches of condensed tomato soup, picked more garden produce at home, and picked up a locally grown 11# cabbage for a nice price. Needless to say, cabbage has been featuring in many of our meals since then. 😉

And Brian has had two more soccer games, one of them in Salem (above) and one almost three hours away in Redmond. The drive up the Cascades for the second one was stunning, with blue skies overhead and red Vine Maples glowing like wildfire under the conifers. Not being able to stop for pictures was so hard, but I had three players in my car that needed to get to the game on time. The best I could do was hand my iPhone to  Brian so he could snap one through the windshield:

Last Friday Rick brought home two heaping boxes of apples from his mother's trees; for some reason hers produced this year when ours didn't. I was planning to turn them into sauce and pie filling on Sunday, but a messy, ongoing washing machine crisis sucked up all my time and energy.

Saturday night we lit the first fire in our insert; the temps have gotten downright brisk! I kept it going through this morning; the dogs seemed to enjoy it. Of course, laying around is what both of them do most of the time anymore anyway. I have to coax them to go outside, and coax them to eat. 😔

When petting Jackson I stumbled upon what felt like a crusty scab on his neck just about his chest. That's where his fur is the thickest, so it took some work to get at it and finally remove both the crusty scab and what caused it.

Ugh; one of those NASTY foxtail awns had imbedded itself in my poor dog! I feel so bad that Jackson was dealing with that along with the discomfort and decreased mobility from his arthritis. Glad I found and removed it, so the festering hole in his neck could heal up!

This is pretty long already, so I'll try to do a colorful post tomorrow to welcome October.

Sayonara September, from . . .