We arrived home Tuesday evening and now have a few days break before leaving again next Thursday. I'm trying desperately to catch up on the "must be done before it freezes/snows" tasks.

Tonight I mowed the back lawn, which also cleaned up all the fallen leaves there. I blasted my "bird pond" with water from the garden hose to remove most of the leaves and berries that had fallen from the tree above and filled the pond with clean water.   

Then I brought four winter tires down from storage, put them on my car and stored the summer tires. While I was doing that, my laundry machines worked through the large pile of clothing that had returned with us from out most recent travel.

I still have about 30 geraniums outdoors that must be inside the house tomorrow night or they may freeze. (I got 16 potted and onto inside window ledges a few weeks ago.) I worked fairly hard this evening and am hoping that the pain won't be so bad tomorrow that I won't be able to dig the plants up.

There is also a large compost box to empty. I was hoping to use some of the compost to redo a couple of flower beds, but haven't gotten around to that and it seems very unlikely now with snow forecast this weekend. I'll have to pile it up for use in the spring, that's if I can find the time, energy and motivation to move it.

rags