Taking three days off from work next week yields nine days in a row home. Whoo hoo! I have a list of things to do, beginning with the final garden harvest and moving a few pots into the greenhouse. I have a few more gaps to caulk, and to fill the water barrel and put the oil heater in place.

For those who sell on eBay, this is the time to have any gift-type listings ready to run by Thanksgiving and keep them up through the New Year. There are shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving, there are shoppers from home and from work in the days between Thanksgiving and xmas, and there are people with holiday cash who are shopping after xmas through the New Year. Since people will by things they need as well as things they want, you can list all sorts of things that might be in demand. If what you have to sell also allows you to declutter, all the better!

Tomorrow ends a week of dog-sitting, and I've got those dogs to now sit and wait before they eat. Finally they "get" it - and the trick is a good one - they do it right and they get to eat, so they are encouraged to keep doing it right. There were four dogs, but one got out of the yard 3 weeks ago after a wind storm took down a section of fence. She was a pure-breed small spaniel and the fear is that someone kept her instead of looking for the owners. Signs and notices have been posted everywhere, but she hasn't turned up, been turned over, or found on a road. But removing one dog from that pack does make it easier to work with the three remaining, and it brings them into compliance with the village rules (three pets per household). One hopes that pooch found a good home in her escape.