Holy Cow … October!! It seems to me that just a moment ago, we were entering 2021 and here we are October … pre Holiday season and early Autumn.

This is my favorite time of year … cool, crisp, sunny days alternating with cooler, darker, rainy days … before the snow flies (hopefully!! ***)

It is also Friday and I got myself up early to do some cooking and baking:

Friday morning bagels! I started the dough yesterday afternoon, in the frig overnight and out this morning to shape, boil and bake. I enjoy the routine very much, especially now that mornings are dark and I work with lovely low light …

Meanwhile, I roasted Anaheim peppers and chopped Jalapenos for pickled Jalapenos. Another favorite cooking thing and the aroma of roasting peppers is wonderful.

Everything Bagels :)

And Bolillo, a Mexican crusty roll.

After the roasted chiles cooled, I chopped them up and froze portions. I used to buy the canned chiles, but they tend to have a “can” taste and I discovered that the chopped roasted chiles taste MUCH better.

Other morning projects included assembly of a new rack for a closet …

A weekend project will be some reorganization of my pantry cupboards. I am keeping more backup supplies and the system has come a bit disorganized … hence the new rack and a new plan … I like things organized!!

And another weekend project…

After my “not so great” Moose photos, I did some looking into a pocket sized camera with better zoom than my phone … but THEN … I found this kit which is a phone attachable lens kit: zoom, wide, macro … for FAR less $$$ than even a low end pocket camera.

SO.

This weekend I hope to play with this kit and see what it (and I and my iPhone) can do! BIG.FUN and my favorite kind of weekend project.

Emmett in a sunlit spot of the woods. We are having good times outside: walks, play, games … all so enjoyable in these beautiful Autumn conditions.

October 2021 … all is good!

***About the snow flying … there are many of us who have lived her for years and are recently impacted by many who think that they want to live here. It is good news/bad news. Good news [for me] was incredible increase in property value which allowed me to do some financial reorganization to my benefit – YEA! Bad news … the traffic has been horrendous, the good news for me re home/property value has also served to price locals out of the market :( . There are other impacts from the Montana wannabees and so there are some of us who hope for a VERY snowy, VERY cold winter that the wannabees might reconsider. It is bit of a catch-22 … see prop values, etc. The ramifications of one or the other are … well good news/bad news. Me … I would LOVE a real Winter because I love snow and cold and that a good Winter means reduced insects in Summer and I like to snowshoe … It will be what it will be :)

I know … mattress and logging … they go together like ????

Anyway.

In July 2015, I bought what I thought would be a great mattress. I went to a local store, spoke to a sales person, tried out several mattresses and made my selection.

But.

Not a great mattress and over the past year, I have tried to decide what to do.

Making a long story shorter, after spying an ad: “I am a mattress tester and this is what I sleep on” … and no, I did not rely solely on that ad. I read reviews for the choice and looked at a number of reputable rating sites. The mattress referenced consistently had good reviews as well as rating in the top 3 on the rating sites.

Considering that my last purchase in a store with “testing” was not a great purchase … I decided to go for a “virtual” buy and ordered.

The new mattress arrived yesterday: white glove (removal of old, removal of packing material and placement of new). It was slightly more than I paid for the store version.

Last night was the first sleep and WOW!!! early days, but I am very happy. Emmett is also. Emmett has always been a good and quiet sleeper, but this morning, he did not even get up with me … snuggled down for a bit of a lie in :)

We will see how it goes with time … there is a 180 night trial and free return, but based on last night and how good we both felt this morning … I think we might be good to go.

On to the rest of Thursday.

My neighbors … the ones with a backhoe and dump truck and chain saws… are doing some cutting of standing dead trees.

That is 4 trees, I think. I have plenty of firewood, but needed those dead trees down so the trade is: logging for firewood … they will take the firewood and I will benefit from those trees down and out vs maybe falling down in a wind storm. I am thrilled!

The mark of the beast :) … backhoe tracks.

Those 2 standing dead are left to come down … maybe tomorrow.

Meanwhile … the weather is gorgeous with sunshine, blue sky and mid-60F temperatures.

Terrific Thursday: lovely new mattress and logging operations at my little spot in the woods.

Several years ago, I transitioned from 100% paper towel to using flour cloth towels with paper towels as a “super messy” back up option.

Convenience-wise paper towels win, but landfill-wise the cloth towels win … and as I have transitioned to 14-21 days between shopping trips (COVID-19) … cloth towels win BIG!

BUT. The cloth towels must be washed, dried and … FOLDED :( … not my favorite chore. And as a side note, since I also transitioned to a bidet attachment on my commode which entails baby wash clothes for drying … there are those bity things to wash/dry/fold as well.

So, somewhat bi-weekly I am washing/drying/folding flour cloth towels or baby wash cloths. It is always a pile of cloth things to be folded.

It sometimes seem a bit daunting in the day to day must do things …

BUT, one thing at a time and all is done!

One thing at a time. One towel, one task …

Washing the motorhome! One bit at a time.

My plan … a bit at a time and then “MUCH more difficult than I thought” … and a call to the firm that helped me 2 years ago … BUT, then that person injured and …

Anyway, I finished all myself.

But, it was a little bit, day by day, over 7 days, i.e. one thing at a time.

Last week, I happened on this YouTube…

There are so many life lessons in this video!!

If I had to summarize the best things (life lessons) from this video:

When you are making such a big change, do look at the bigger picture …

But in order to actually do it, you need to take tiny baby steps

Break it down into manageable chunks

If I thought about how much work, coordination and money would have come into this …

But once I broke it into small chunks

And got help with certain things

It was doable

Doable!!

One thing at a time is doable.

Whether it is folding a pile of towels, cleaning a motorhome, learning video editing or learning French or whatever!!!

One thing at a time.

OR … GETTING. THROUGH.A.PANDEMIC :)

Yep, one thing at a time.

At my house, Emmett and I are focused on loving time together, loving time outside, loving Autumn light and just enjoying being alive and being healthy. I know all of that can change in a moment so I choose to live in the present moment of good health and good times.

Lovely Autumn color from a Friday Kalispell errand spot.

Lovely, lovely Autumn light and vibes … and one thing at a time.

Onward!

According to my reading, Autumn begins at 5:21 p.m. today in my time zone (U.S. Mountain Daylight Time).

But, we have been enjoying Autumn-like weather since August 17 … with the exception of a handful of 80F-smoky days, but those are easy to forget!

This morning…

Coffee at sunrise in the woods.

Emmett enjoyed a stick with his sunrise!

The sun was just about to hit the front porch when we returned from our walk…

There we are: sunshine on the front porch!

Lovely, lovely morning to start Autumn.

So, not Bullwinkle and Rocky, but … this morning…

Now … I have never seen a moose on my property or on the state land. I have seen elk and I know there is an elk herd that moves through regularly.

So, I jumped to the conclusion that this was an elk … gah!!

Emmett had gone down the ridge after a squirrel (more on them later) and then looked toward the moose and did a kind of jump-fake run. I hadn’t seen the moose yet, but was concerned maybe a skunk or bear or ??? I called him and he came – YEA!

THEN, I saw the moose. But, I thought elk and I was a bit excited because I didn’t want Emmett going back out there and I only had my phone AND it was big, even if it was some distance away from us.

Took my photo, got us home and then cropped and enlarged…

I still had elk on the brain and posted to Instagram as elk. But just after I hit send, I finally woke up and noted that the antlers were wrong and the nose and the shape … MOOSE! Wow. Embarrassing mis-identification, but WOW!!!

Exciting morning outing.

Squirrels. I would not be writing about the squirrels except that I wanted to title this post “Moose and Squirrel”, but anyway, the squirrels are a bit of an annoyance. There seem to be more than usual and they are noisy, drive Emmett bonkers and make a mess under the trees. Neighbor Mike will concur if he reads this :)

This is just a small sample of the mess they make. Multiply that by 20 or more. And those bits are sharp as well as unsightly.

I have turned it into a training game for Emmett, though. If he spots one and then sits at the slider, I allow him out for the chase. He is a smart cookie and has figured out the sit, although I have observed that his bottom is nearly off the floor … still, SQUIRREL!! … so I give it to him.

And we are having lovely weather for going outside: no smoke, sunshine, mild temperatures: my favorite!

Tomatoes and basil from the front porch garden!

AND, it is almost Friday!

Moose and Squirrel(s) and all kinds of fun here – Happy Thursday!

So … Wild Thing is about 1/2 cleaned up on the outside.

AND, I called in reinforcements…

I took Tuesday off from cleaning. Wednesday, I really felt the ladder climb muscles and did not get much done. Hence, called Malloy Auto Detailing …

I am so pleased and happy! Dan Malloy’s customer service is excellent! And it has been a tough year for his small business. Last round, as a “high end” auto and rv detailing business, he was a bit hesitant about working on Wild Thing, but showed up and did EXCELLENT and above and beyond service at a reasonable price.

This round is so much easier as we had a small established work relationship … and he remembered “working on the RV in the forrest” :) … yep!

So, I moved Wild Thing and put her back on jacks and leveled and am mostly working inside. I would like to do a bit more outside pre-Malloy but that is a bit weather/schedule (mine) dependent.

Weather … we had a mini heat wave last week … mid 80’s forecast but, it was not too bad heat wise. The “bad” was smoke. The smoke came down with a vengeance on Thursday afternoon. Thursday night on our last outs in the dark … the amount of particulate (ash?) that showed in the flashlight was horrendous. Friday was socked in as thick and low as I have ever seen it. Emmett and I were out for only brief times for “business” and a little play.

Meanwhile … I thoroughly enjoyed a sourdough how to with my friend and neighbor! The loaf above was in progress when she came over for some info. I shaped the dough while she was with me and it was a great opportunity to show how to handle a high hydration dough.

And the end result was beautiful as well as delicious.

Saturday (yesterday), the weather changed: some rain, smoke cleared and we are to slide into Autumn-like weather with slight chance of rain, sun, partly sunny and no smoke conditions … my FAVORITES!!

Emmett and I are so happy to see the smoke gone and even if overcast, we breath easier.

Good stuff!!