Fallin' into Winter...

The bright yellow leaves are long gone, the garden's harvested and roto-tilled, and snow blankets the ground. I think it's safe to say autumn's ended and winters pretty much here. 

All the bikes are in the garage, oil changed, and tanks filled with gas. Should be ready to go in the spring.

The dogs are moved down to the winter yard; it rained so much this fall it was like walking on jello. Should be a lot better now the ground's frozen.

Filling all the holes that the dogs dug in the summer yard is a fall ritual. Hard to believe I used a shovel to fill them back in the day, before we got the backhoe. Be nice to have all that energy now!

Another Sigh...

 Not much going on other than trying to finish all the summer projects. A few years ago, I got a hold of a friends son, Cy, who'd worked as tree feller for the local electric co-op, to drop some trees near the house (Firsts 10/22/22). So now we had a few more leaners that had to go. Apparently he no longer does that for a living, but agreed to come over and help out.

Here's Cy fastening a rope to an aspen that was hung up in a spruce tree. He looped the rope around a tree to left and then I pulled as he dropped the tree. Fell right where he wanted it.

He did the same thing with another aspen leaner. This time he had to drop it between the power line drop, to the upper left, and the old sauna and outhouse to the right. He had to drop a spruce that was in the way, but both fell right where he wanted.

The last one was a birch between the shed and the house. It fell right where it should. The stump was hollow and the top branches dead. Gave a big sigh when he was done, it probably was a good time to get'em down.