Back to Something Like Normal

One tired man, after so much driving
and stress. But back home!

Hurricane Irma passed, did her damage and is now part of weather history. My son and his family returned home, a grueling 15 hour drive with a lot of time in there searching for gas. But they are home, and all is well at their condo. So praises be! They saw much damage along the way, more than he has ever seen in his life, he said. He is going back to work today. What a week.

Sorry for the blurry photo!

 Here at home, we stayed busy. We cleaned up the cellar top, getting rid of a lot of junk in the process. I continue to sort out totes that are stored in the garage and taking a lot of things to the thrifts.I also went through the canned food in the cellar, tossing anything too old and moving older stuff to the front to be used first. Come spring, I will do it again; any green beans left over from any year except this one will be fed to the chickens. I love those little recyclers!

Larry managed an "Appalachian repair" on his riding mower--the steering shaft broke but he was able to modify one on the parts mower he keeps for replacement parts, and now the mower is fine again. He also finished rebuilding a motor for it so he will have a replacement when the current one gives out.

I finally got around to making some jam from the berries we froze over the summer when I had no time to use them. So we have 16 pints of Cherry Berry in the cellar now. Larry made cider and continues to give the old cider to his honeybees--more recycling at work.

Yesterday we worked on our Marietta booth, adding new items and doing a little rearranging. Sales are slowing down again unfortunately, but still the booth pays its way and then some. I think the hurricanes have impacted some buying as people are giving to charities and helping family. Even eBay has slowed to a complete stop for me right now. Part of that was because I had no computer so I put my store on vacation; but since I restarted the store sales have been zero. Which is okay in a way since I am covered up with other work.

And storytelling--I have a full weekend coming up that I need to prepare for, Celtic, German and American stories at the Mountain State Art and Craft Fair this weekend. So my head is in the books, researching and planning what to tell. I've also added several performances in October, two that happen almost as soon as we get off the plane from Ireland.

We have been making time each evening, though, for the firepit. That is our relax time, time to hang out with the pets and enjoy this beautiful fall weather. The calendar might not say it's fall yet, but tell that to our trees and temperatures! It's been cool and low humidity for quite a while and I am loving it.

That's a little bit of what's going on here. How about you? Were you or your family/friends impacted by the hurricanes? What have you been up to?



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