many in my family have served… both my parents, my father-in-law, uncles and my son-in-law… as I watched the service on Parliament Hill, as I have done for many years, I was remembering the sacrifices made by Canadians to make my life safe…
last year I put my poppy on the door as I didn’t leave the house at all…
this year I’ve worn it a few times when I’ve been outside…
well, today I put running shoes on instead of my sandals…
always a sad day for me as I would be happy to wear sandals all year long, but once it gets cold and I am going to be walking for a while, the shoes come out…
I walked in a different area today and came across maple leaves all over the sidewalk… they are very cute;-)…
in our neighbourhood we don’t see them so it was a treat…
the weather was delightful and I spent a good portion of the day emptying and refilling the hot tub…
I got a new pump in the summer to use for removing the water from the tub… the hose was a bit on the short side, so had to use a table to get the water into the grass… it took 3 hours, including using a pail and dumping bucket after bucket… may be getting something that works a bit quicker next year;-(…
once it was empty, I ran the extendible hose up from the basement, through the screen door, over the deck, and filled the tub in just over an hour…
a few tense minutes when the electricity on the tub didn’t seem to want to start… but, at last, it started and will now be heating up for a few days…
won’t have to change the water out until Spring… glad that job is done…
I have been working on the fish condo for weeks now… spent a good portion of a day cleaning the fish tank… lots of scrubbing and emptying…
I researched a second tank and we went out and got the tank and two pumps so that they were on the ends as opposed to the back of the tanks…
after numerous measurements, we set the new tank up on the counter along the North wall of the dining room… then the bottom was filled with rocks and water and the new pump set up… this tank will be for the baby fish as the other tank won’t be able to hold all of the fish…
I worked with my grandson and we were able to move the big tank to the spot beside the small tank… it looks good there and it almost appears like one single very long tank…
after putting river rocks in it, I ran the hose from the outside tap through the house and was able to fill it up in nine minutes… it probably took me that long to fill the small one as I used a pail and walked back and forth to the kitchen sink for that one, lol…
had a bit of an issue with the pump as there wasn’t quite enough room in the large tank for it on the edge, but we were able to remove a piece of plastic and now it fits perfectly…
once the water was in and circulating for a few days we began catching the fish… we have been at it for quite a while… we started on October 22nd and today I think we caught the last one… I had to break ice for the last few collections, lol…
it was quite a process because since about the middle of October the water has been brown as leaves have fallen into it so it has made spotting fish difficult…
we also brought in some of the water lilies, which hopefully will survive until next spring when they can go back into the pond…
the tanks look great and I am pleased with all of our work…
I’ve been having fun watching the birds coming to the window feeder in the living room…
so far there have been chickadees, house finches, nuthatches, and blue jays… I had hoped to be able to take photos but the plastic distorts the pictures…
now I just sit and enjoy them;-)…
I’ve had to go out and wash the glass as they have made a mess of the window…
they make quite a noise as they decide which seed is the one they need and then sometimes open it right there by tapping it on the edge of the drawer…
they have also knocked out the little drawer that sits in the feeder… eventually I taped it down and so far it hasn’t fallen out again…
decided it was time to change the items in the drawer on the living room table… it is divided into four squares…
I took out the gardening books, summer kids books and cards I’ve received over the last while…
as I thought about what I would like to do with it I realized it was too soon for the Christmas display…
I came across my L O V E letters and thought they might be a nice addition…
I used them… reorganized and left items from my Happy Mail for Chocolate Lovers envelopes… had a magazine I haven’t finished reading as well as a few sticker puzzles I want to finish… added a few amethyst pieces and some hearts and was done…
herbiggirlpants 