Sunbathing ..grid down update and gardens

 Charlotte... 

At least she waited until after I brought the tomatoes in from the deck table so I didn't have to step over her.

I showed Hubby these pics I took while walking the perimeter. It's our east maple tree. Usually the west maple turns first on the south side. It's still green completely.

If we go by old timer's weather, we will have 20 snows (we had 20 fogs in Aug) and a colder winter as the apples skins and corn husks are thicker. Waiting for Oct. 9th, if it's sunny the winter will be very cold, if cloudy then mild. Hubby is hoping for cloudy as it's his birthday also. BUT with Alaska getting hit with Hurricane type weather we can see that affecting what comes our way and when we get hit with colder weather.
 

I am definitely not ready for the weather to turn. Looking at the Weather channel and seeing I have about 10 days before the weather goes down to the 70s. Nights are already in low 50. Slows down tomatoes ripening. We don't usually see orange leaves until after the first frost which has not happened yet but the nights are cooler than normal. 

A mini celebrations... 

The solar water pump batteries are in  and less than budgeted.

The jumper boxes for the truck (so you can jump the truck/car without another car) are in and less than budgeted.

Oil for lamps is in so Hubby can go get that. It's under budget also since he is the one that hauled it he knows what the price set is. He forgot to take our can to get filed. Not a big deal as E's dad is the one that sells it along with the guy we ordered our wood/coal stove from.

2 sawblades for buzz saw (Hubby uses to cut firewood) is being ordered today so that cost should be in later this week. Another English driver for Amish offered to order them and pick them up when ready as he is in the area of the dealer every two weeks. Saves Hubby the trip across the state as they only do in person orders. The Amish gave Hubby estimation of the costs as they buy that size also.  

The wood/coal stove $$ is in Ally savings earning interest where our local bank interest rate sucks but I like my checking local( or should say was local as they closed that branch but we can use the one every 2 wks. when we go to Chiro) and not online only.

I have 1/3rd of our 2023 medical out of pocket/co pay in Ally also.

I reworked the budget. Our electric average has raised $25 due to increase of kWh costs. I just bumped everything to costing 25% more than it does now. Still will be able to reduce pull from Hubby's IRA. 

We started clearing the gardens. We have more baby butternut squash curing. Sweet potatoes curing. We pulled 1/3rd of the tomato plants. I have a 6 ft round patio table full of  green tomatoes and very few ripe tomatoes. Hopefully today when we go for just the ripe ones, I'll get enough for a canner load. We have more crockneck, yellow egg zucchini and green zucchini to eat. Peas are starting but not getting much... maybe 1/3rd of a cup was ready. I'll take what ever I can get since I freeze them.  

M sent over a pumpkin pie (Amish pumpkin is NOT orange, it's tan when cooked.) She makes a meringue and adds cooked pumpkin... she doesn't use much spices and she forgot the sugar this time... We liked it... wasn't sweet at all. She called it squash pie. It ended up a good laugh. Also let me know I could leave the sugar out of our pumpkin pies LOL.

Sitting down today and figuring out what still needs done before we get hit with autumn weather. 

Blessed Be 

Prayers for peace