Vacation Ahead!

Soon we will be heading to the East coast of Canada. We'll be visiting the four Maritime provinces: Newfoundland/Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia & New Brunswick. Everyone raves about the "fall colours", so we'll be expecting to see some pretty fantastic foliage while we're there. Other things we are hoping to experience include some of the world's highest tides in the Bay of Fundy (and maybe whale watching there, too!), the Reversing Falls in Saint John, NB, the world's longest covered bridge in Hartland, NB, Magnetic Hill in Moncton, NB, Anne of Green Gables in Cavendish, PEI, as well as Confederation Bridge (PEI), the Citadel in Halifax, NS, the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island, NS, and probably other things as well, like going gemstone hunting on the beaches near Parrsborro, NS, and going to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Baddeck, NS, as well as Fort Louisburg National Historic Site in Louisburg, NS. Of course, Oktoberfest is on in Lunenburg, NS, so maybe we'll head down there and see the Bluenose II! :) Lots to see, lots to do, and a very limited time to do it all, so we'll see how much we accomplish. It's all about the journey, anyways, so it doesn't matter too much if we don't squeeze all these sites in.

Juicing again today - it would be nice to make it a once-a-week thing. It feels great to be on juices, yet I do get my fair share of, shall we say, concern from well-meaning people in my life about how "healthy" it is.

Yesterday I emptied one of my compost bins that was done and spread the finished compost under the fruit trees (apple, plum), bay leaf tree, and around a special fir tree and huckleberry bush. Two wheelbarrows full came out of the compost, which is great. I'll harvest the other compost bin in the springtime.

Other than that, it's a beautiful sunny (yet cool) autumn day here. Laundry is on the line, I've got all my juices for the day made, dishes are done (dishwasher is STILL broken), and it's the first day of ice skating lessons for the year. Later today I'm hoping to can 20 lbs of peaches, which should be 2 batches (14 1L jars). Yesterday we fixed the deck glass that's been broken for a couple years (had a piece of plywood over the hole) and also the leaking bathroom roof vent (thankfully a quick easy fix, if we've done it right). Very grateful to get some maintenance done around here, especially before 'monsoon season' starts.

Laugh of the day: DS and his buddy were playing outside... a game they made up called Samurai Soccer. If the goalie doesn't do well, the samurai soccer player comes and kills him (they're 8 yr old boys; as much as I try to redirect their play, it always seems to come back to this; as long as it's imaginative play and doesn't include physical contact, I try to let them have a safe outlet for their energy, which yes, includes some play like this). So anyways, Grampa's the unfortunate goalie and says, well, what happens to me if I die? Do I get to become the soccer player and you become the goalie? DS says, oh, well, if you die, you either go to heaven or that other place. His friend says, That other place? DS says, you know, you get to be reborn. Grampa chuckled to himself: so those are my two options, I either go to heaven or I get reborn?! Both good choices!! :) It was too funny.