Closing Up an Active Summer

All good things must come to an end but as we move into autumn our summer seems to hang on. The trees here have barely begun to start changing colors given our warm temps of the past few weeks. We’ve been spending time trying to get the yard in order for its winter slumber. The recent main task for Marc is rewiring the control situation for the well from the shop to the house. Since this required a lot of trenching Marc rented a trencher Saturday and got most of the wiring completed and buried. Next will come the wiring and electrical boxes necessary in the basement to complete the job.

He recently purchased a rototiller and has started working the garden area soil and around the perimeter of the house. We are working the grade and will install black plastic and gravel to help mitigate weed growth and attempt to keep water flowing away from the basement. I found some perennials on sale and got a few more of those planted in an attempt to help cover up the basement window well; next up will be some trees if we can find large enough ones at a reasonable price but the bulk of our planting and ideas will wait until next spring to be completed.

I finally got the shed painting completed but the job will likely only last between two and three years given the snow that will sit against it for months at a time. We will need to ultimately replace the wood with vinyl siding if we hope to salvage it but Marc would really like to replace it with a much larger one.

Saturday dawned bright and cool and fall-like for the Waupaca Fall-o-rama, which showed off small town living to its best as families strolled and shopped the vendor booths. We had two booths representing the Waupaca Humane Society—the bake sale under one tent (with my 16 loaves of artesian bread) and our Pets Rock display of three puppies and a full grown dog drawing in folks like a petting zoo. Hopefully they will end up adopted as a result of their exposure because they sure are cute little guys!

The park itself is very well done; immaculately clean, quietly sitting lakeside and well equipped with picnic areas, a beach, restrooms, artwork and mature trees. It’s a real treasure to have right downtown. In winter, the lake supports ice fishing with little huts dotting its surface. This climate provides such a change in scene from summer to winter. It’s been a very good year!