Hazy days of fall

Harley (enemy of toes)

It's been one of those days that started out good, but has quickly led to discouragement for me.  One of my family members was stupid enough to breed her mutt dog and produce 9 puppies of which she has advertised on Facebook for $450 each.  Yeah right!  What some people will justify for purely selfish reasons like financial gain.  I could never be so irresponsible as to purposely produce so many little lives when there are so very many puppies everywhere in need of loving homes.  Just chaps my hide to no end!!!  Grrrrr!!!

Onward and upward.  Our weather lately has been more dry than wet, which is good.  The trees have mostly shed their leaves and are taking on the stark appearance of winter.  The skies are mostly grey, fog is plentiful and the temperatures are on the coolish side.  Not cold, but cool enough that a fire in the hearth feels really good.  It's a little surprising really, that we're in mid-November and we're still sleeping with a bedroom window open all night.  Nice!  And Thanksgiving is just around the corner...how the time does fly!

Kadie 29-1/2 years old...with a belly.  :)

We're back to ordering fresh fruit and veggies from Bountiful Baskets every other week.  Last week was our first one since last spring, and it didn't disappoint.  We got a head of cabbage, apples, tangerines, spinach, mushrooms, a coconut, bananas, lettuce, tomatoes and some asparagus.  I might be forgetting something, but I think that was just about everything.  And so far, everything has been delicious!

I had leftover beef broth heavy with onions from a pot roast that we had last week.  So, I sauteed the mushrooms with a little garlic in some butter and added a can of mushroom soup to the beef broth; added a little thickener and had a nice sauce that I served over egg noodles.  Yum!  As a side, I steam/fried the cabbage in a fry pan with an inch or so of water and a smidge of bacon grease and seasoned it with salt and pepper.  So good!  That was our dinner last night, and we'll be enjoying leftovers tonight.   I love leftovers!

I'm recovering from a squished pinky-toe on Monday morning.  Today I actually wore real shoes, but after a couple of hours was thankful that I'd brought my soft slippers to change into.  Maybe tomorrow...anyway, I was preparing to lead Harley out of his stall for breakfast.  I threw a lead around his neck and wasn't quite prepared when he immediately moved forward.  Note to self:  be mindful of where your toes are when dealing with a blind horse.  Live and learn.  The real bummer is that I got new winter boots that look all warm and cozy, and I haven't even been able to try them out yet.  New boots and I can't wear them - now that's a drag!  :)

It's supposed to be all stormy this coming weekend.  Winter storm warning and all that...nowadays it's always a storm blowing in when we're expected to get wind and rain.  That's pretty normal for fall in the Willamette Valley, I think.  We have no plans, except maybe unload some more firewood from the trailer into our wood shed and Friday after work I'm picking up my paint order for our living room project.  Before we get to the actual painting, I need to box up everything, including everything from the walls and prepare for a room in chaos again.  I'm seeing a trip to Goodwill in my future.  I'm really looking forward to the renovation because I think it will look beautiful (hopefully!), definitely an improvement; but if I'm honest, I am not anxious to do the work, or have our living room in disarray.  *sigh*  What I'd really like to do, is call up a professional and just have the work done.  But, that's definitely not in the budget.  Oh well, we'll just make the best of it and try to think of this as another one of life's learning curves/adventures.  Yep, that's what I'm telling myself...over and over and over.  :)

We have no plans for Thanksgiving yet, so maybe it will just be the two of us at home.  I will always cook a turkey over the long Thanksgiving weekend because it's so nice having all those wonderful leftovers, but I'm not going to invite guests over this year.  We hosted the family gathering last year, and I'm not anxious about doing all the cooking and cleaning this year.  Uh-huh.  No way.  I envision something much more casual and relaxed this year.  A real holiday.

So, overall we're preparing to settle in and get some work done, beautify where we can, take naps when all else fails and keep on, keeping on.  And as always, we are thankful for so many blessings in our lives.  A warm cozy home, more than we need of everything that we need, healthy and happy horses, dogs, cats and llama.  Can't forget Merlin!  :)  Hopefully you are all feeling the love and blessings that we are, during this time of year when we pause to reflect on all the wonderful things in our lives that we should be grateful for.

Until next time,
Lorie and the gang at Cingspots