Tuesday afternoon. I’ve had a “somewhat” busy morning. We gathered the bills together and Ms. Kate wrote the few checks she needed to while I addressed envelopes and found the roll of stamps. We got our Illinois Property tax statement yesterday and I wanted to get that paid right away. The taxes really climbed again this year for Illinois. Their governor is tax happy and the state is broke. Ms. Kate and I own one quarter of a piece of property over there that My cousin farms. My sister owns a quarter and the two cousins own the other half. But taxes for my sister and I were over $1,150.00 this year which is an increase of almost $200.00 from last year. But, I don’t have to do anything with the property or the farming of it. My cousin Alan sends me a “cash-rent” check every year for $5,200.00 and I get to pay taxes. 

Beyond paperwork, I haven’t done a lot so far. Ms. Kate and I are getting ready to go to the orchard and pick up some apples. I don’t know if we will do “U-Pick” or just buy some. But it is apple pie time again and I don’t want to miss out. 

I worked out in my garden yesterday. I pulled up what was left of the dying cucumber plants and threw them in the trash. Then I pulled up four of my tomato plants that had died off and cleared that area. I have four plants left and they are about done, and I have my magical cantaloupe plants still out there. I don’t think many of those cantaloupe are going to actually get ripe, but it isn’t a big deal since they came up on their own and we didn’t even know they were going to. They grew from seeds in my compost pile. I think there are maybe 15 fruits on those vines but it is starting to get cool enough to maybe stop their growth. It would be great to get at least one or two from them anyway. I tell myself they were a gift from God. So maybe God will make sure they finish getting ripe. 

While we are having these cool days. It is also time to go ahead and pull up all of the Black-eyed Susans, cut back the peonies and Iris and put down some Preen to knock back any weeds that may be wanting to come up. Then I’m going to order my garden dirt, go get my blocks and lumber to make my new raised bed and as soon as the last of the tomatoes are gone, build my new bed. By then the leaves will have started to fall and I’m going to collect them and put them on the bottom layer of the raised bed as compost over the winter. There is always something to do. 

Time to decide whether to take a nap or run to the orchard. Decisions, decisions. Have a blessed day.