Fall means getting ready for winter

It's been a glorious fall so far -- the colors are magnificent, the air smells so good! Sunday was my first day off in a while, and I just couldn't stay inside, even if the household needs some major attention. Instead I kept myself busy outside: cleaning the yard, winterizing, etc.

I took this picture of Mt. Cumulus yesterday. The snowline is still above4000 feet (1200m).
-- before long the snow will blanket us and it will look like this:






















As my family can attest, I started the day grumpy with "there's so much to do..." Besides the usual of raking leaves, covering the canoe, bikes and lawnmover with the quintessential "big blue tarp", I'm trying to clean up the garage to get make room for the car (we had our first frost at the house last night!) . I've finally finished moving over a chord of firewood from the west side of the house to it's new location near the kitchen/dining entrance.
And finally, around 3 in the afternoon, I got started on stripping our old picnic table & benches, so I can give them a new coat of weatherproofing. I love woodworking, even though my arms hurt last night after a couple of hours or sanding -- but I slept like a baby after a busy day of physical labor, proud of all I got done. Now I just wish I could bottle some of this energy for the dark winter months...