11.3.2026

Jim started the day with a trip to the doctor for his annual physical.  He had his bloodwork done last week and the doctor said that he has the physiology of a 60 year old!  Love to hear that!  

After lunch, we headed to our local community center to vote... 

Then we decided to transplant another tree.  This was our target - you can see how closely packed all these trees are...

Starting to dig...

It's out...

Taking it to its new spot...

A little water in the roots...

Filling the hole...

A final watering...

The line of trees looks really good - we're thinking of adding one more to the line.  Plus - that horizon is gorgeous!

This giant tree fell into the woods when we were building - we've just been letting nature take its course...

But Jim said he was tired of looking at the root ball, so he used the excavator to just crush it...

Continuing to break it up...

Looks better - he plans on cutting this end off at some point and we'll take it back to our stump graveyard.

The turkeys were gathering around the stone wall this evening...

High 60.9/Low 49.8

11.2.2026

 Now it's time for the Suzuki to go up on the car lift!  Jim wants to repair the cross member, do an oil change, and put on the winter tires...

In the afternoon, we headed outside to transplant some trees.  It's tough because the trees are so tightly packed in the woods - a good problem unless you are trying to pick one out.  

Scooping it out...

Bringing it out and starting the drive over to the hole...

In the hole and filling it back up with dirt...

Cleaning up the area...

Time to get another tree...

This is a really nice tall one...

Filling in the hole...

Cleaning up the area...

Our two new trees...

This row of trees along the driveway looks so good...

Putting some water on the new transplants...

High 64.7/Low 37.9

11.1.2026

We have some difficult clocks to change - this one above the hutch and our grandfather clock.  Jim thinks he has the chimes all correct now on that one, but it's not a simple task.  We changed all the batteries in the clocks too to ward off any more changes!

Then we did do some Novembering around here.  I took all the Halloween decorations down, Jim schlepped all the tubs down into the auto bay for now, and brought up all the fall/Thanksgiving tubs.

He also cleaned out the leaves from my car mats!  Such a wonderful husband.

High 59.8/Low 27.7

10.31.2026

 

Happy Halloween everyone!  It's a beautiful fall day here, so hopefully the trick-or-treaters will have fun.  

The engine light came on in the 4Runner, so Jim ran diagnostics on it.  It said that something was wrong with the knock sensor.   Jim replaced both sensors as well as the cable, so he struggled to see how that would be wrong.  But in order to get at it, he would have to take the top part of the engine off.  This is the old cable and sensors...

Jim was able to reach the top connection to do some electrical tests...

It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but in checking the connection, he found a broken wire!  Jim tried to get the pin out of the connector, to no avail, so he's going to cut the connector off and splice the old one in its place.

It was a bit challenging, but Jim was able to solder the old connector onto the new cable.  He still has to wrap the connection with some electric tape and try it out - that's tomorrow's job.  We're off to church!

We sure were hoping that the powers that be could settle on one time (preferably Standard Time!), but here we are for another year, turning back the clocks.

High 53.2/Low 34.3

10.30.2026

Yesterday was a busy day - we started with dentist appointments in the morning.  Jim has to get a crown, which he was anticipating, so he'll have some work coming up.  Then in the afternoon, we headed back down to see the cornea specialist, following up after his corneal debridement.  After a lot of testing and a lot of conversations with the doctor, and even a very scary mention of a cornea transplant, the conclusion is that the best step forward right now is to get the right cataract replaced.  There is a new light adjustable lens that allows the doctor to fine tune the prescription using UV light after it has been implanted.  So we're waiting to get things scheduled.  It was a good discussion but a long day; we didn't get home until about 6:00.

Jim started off the day today with getting a haircut and then doing some computer work.  Outside, he got the other handle back on the door of the Bobcat.  Plus, we were admiring how clean the windows look now!

Jim put the battery for the excavator in the battery charger and then he took it up to the excavator.  It's crazy, but we haven't used it all year - we had to take its winter tarp off!  But we have some tree work to do and Jim likes to give it a little workout as well...

After being completely ignored for a year, the excavator started up instantly - this thing is a true work horse!

Jim brought it down next to the driveway to where we plan on transplanting some pines, replacing the ones that didn't survive.  He wanted to get the stumps dug out so that we can just put the new tree in its place...

All three holes dug out...

10.29 - High 66.4/Low 38.6
10.30 - High 58.4/Low 40.5 - breezy

10.28.2026

What a gorgeous sunrise to start the day...

I was gone until early afternoon, doing errands from a haircut, to getting my flu shot, to going to the grocery stores.  

Jim is still doing some tweaking on the car - once I got home and Jim schlepped all my groceries upstairs, we got the hood lifted back onto the car...

All in place and hooking up fluid hoses...

 

High 51.9/Low 30.5