I hope everything is going well there.

I think winter has arrived. At least we saw snowflakes today. Nothing “stuck” as the ground is still too warm but it’s a sure sign that we are headed for lots of “fun” this winter. The high winds (weather channel said we were getting gusts of 60mph.), cool air, and now snow falling – well it just seems like we’re too early in the year for this kind of stuff.

Gas price has reached $2.69/gallon. Yeah!

I still haven’t put all the window plastic on (2 windows to go..). Oh well – maybe we’ll get a warm stretch yet.

Work continues to be quite busy. I had meetings on 2 days last week and I’ll be at meetings 3 days this week. It’ll be quite busy.

Well, it’s getting darker and colder outside. I should get going and walk the dog again.

Best wishes and take care!

Apples - cheese - popcorn - oh my!!!!!!!

I hope everything is going well there.

The weather is so nice! We hit a record high of 83 degrees yesterday. That was very nice. Today is supposed to be warm and humid. Should be interesting – it’s hard to imagine going from this to highs in the 50’s but that’s what the weather forecasters are saying will happen later this coming week.

I spent Saturday (or at least a good part of it) on the road. I think that after a rough week of work, I was looking forward to just getting out and about a bit. The lower gas prices were also a bit of an excuse. Late morning I set off for Gays Mills. The apple orchards are doing a booming business. I will NOT make the apple orchard run on a weekend again – there are too many people who have the same idea and the crowds were horrible. I ended up going to 3 different orchards and had about a 15-30 minute wait in line at each of them to check out. It was really hectic. Fortunately, the orchards were geared up (for the most part anyway) so products and apples were plentiful. The service – well overall pretty good but I think the workers were getting tired too. At the one stop, I picked up Jonagold apples. The next orchard was apple cider donuts. The last orchard was a few more apples (all known for storage – McIntosh: one of mom’s favorites, and Fuji a nice eating apple), a couple of apple turnovers and some apple cookies.

Anyway, that done I headed south and stopped in Fennimore at the Carr Valley Cheese Company Store where I picked up some fresh and squeaky cheese curds, cheddar, swiss, baby swiss, and a couple of flavored cheeses. From there, it was off to Montfort where I stopped at the popcorn place (Rural Route One – a nice gift shop and popcorn shop). That stop yielded a few Christmas presents as well as a couple of their flavored popcorn types.

After that (and this is where things got really silly – as if it wasn’t enough already) as I went to Platteville where I picked up some additional tape for my window plastic and met a friend to go to the romantic movie “Nights in Rodanthe” (not so romantic when one of the lead characters dies - and sadly it was Richard Gere!…oops hope I didn’t spoil that for anyone).

Today, I’ve spent the day working mostly outside. I got all the window plastic on that I can – there are two more windows (bathroom and one in kitchen) that may be replaced yet so I didn’t want to put the time and effort into putting on plastic and then have it torn off to replace them – if they can get to it. I also tore down my container garden. The dirt is now removed from the containers and stored and the containers are hopefully going to be cleaned out with the rain that we’re expecting Monday and Tuesday. Then they’ll be stored for winter as well. It looks kind of sad without the things growing and green out there. Although it wasn’t a very large garden, it was quite nice and fun to watch and eat the produce from while it lasted.

My work continues to be a challenge. There just isn’t enough time. I need to do more one on one work with the trainee. He’s got so much to learn (and me to re-learn). I’ve found that I’ve been taking some shortcuts that I don’t want to teach him. I’d rather he learn the long way and then adjust as he becomes more comfortable with the procedures and systems.

Well, I’d better get going.

Best wishes and take care!

Things and stuff.......

I hope everything is going well there.

The weather is decidedly more like fall. We had our first frost on Friday night. Today is really quite cool – highs are expected to hit the mid-fifties. I know – we need to get used to it. I have heard that after today’s rain, it should warm back up to the 60’a (still cool at night).

I’m planning on taking care of my window plastic (I have to put it on the outside since the windows won’t allow it to be put on the inside) this week. I’m hoping that it’s warm enough after I get off work (though I may have to leave work early to get much daylight – it’s dark by about 7 now). I also have a picnic table that could use some sanding and staining before winter – I’ll see what I can do about that!

Right now, the house is at about 60 degrees and I’m considering breaking down and at least getting the damp feel out of the air. It’s a bit drafty here too with the wind outside and the lack of window plastic.

My container garden is about done for the year. I did cover quite a few of the plants that were still producing (cherry tomatoes, peppers, tomatoes, basil, parsley, catnip, etc.) so it may be some time until I’m totally out of business (well I can hope!). We’ll see – I do have some containers that need to be cleaned out and readied for winter storage. Too bad the weather isn’t cooperating outside today.

Work - The 4th quarter reports for workload were out on Friday. Our office has been extremely efficient in comparison to other offices in the area. I think that’s a good thing and I’m hoping that it will show our need for more employees. Maybe that’s just being naïve – we’re getting the work done so it may mean that they just expect more and more…

I went to the World Dairy Expo this past week. I got to walk around and look at the cattle and exhibits for only a couple of hours (hardly time to do much more than a cursory view). Then I worked at the booth for work for about 4 hours. It was actually a lot of fun because we had some neat give away items (jar loosener, wooden rulers (no metric), magnetic clips, temporary tattoos and coloring books for the children, and a few other items). A good day – lots of interest in our programs and a good day to learn what new was happening.

Today, I’m heading to work to get some things done. It’s going to a busy week – I have 5 appointments on Monday and the rest of the week seems to be equally packed so there’s little time for computer work. I also need to find the Halloween and fall decorations for the office (I have them stored in boxes in my office). We could really use some more color (especially with the days getting shorter and shorter).

Well, I should get going – so much to do and so little time.

Best wishes and take care!