Delightfully Chilly

Tingling fingers, zipped up hoody, rosey cheeks. It’s here – the real version of fall. The trees are magnificent – incredible bouquets where ever you look. Contrast those with blue skies and sunshine … it’s hard to keep your attention on anything else!

Today was errand day. About once a week we make a foray into the city. I love grocery shopping days. I grew up in grocery stores. My parents owned a number of them over the years. We always had a job waiting for us … cash, produce … even the meat department. When I am wandering around a store I find I’m looking at it from the grocer’s viewpoint. I note how things are displayed, how nicely the shelves are faced (we spent ‘spare time’ facing isles), whether things are tidy up front by the cashes, and what technology staff are using. I could happily wander up and down every aisle checking out products and new food ideas. Knowing this Ede does a great job of planning the list to match the order of the store layout so there is no practical need for browsing. 😉

I’ve enjoyed discovering the vegetarian meal options and even the vegan section. Did you know there is a vegan section in large grocery stores?! You can’t really put a ‘non-dairy’ product in the ‘dairy aisle’. I know that as the grocer’s daughter. I can actually eat everything we normally do without eating a single animal product … interesting. I find there are lots of good reasons to look into that approach.

The coop project continues. It sure is great that we have lots of time to putter away at it. Ede is an expert when it comes to planning and carrying out building ideas. We’re pretty much able to complete it using ‘found’ materials (code for the wood and spare parts that Ede has kept stored for … years). However it did mean that we needed to wander in Home Depot looking for a few extras. Now there is another place that is fun to explore.I used to have a lot of trouble walking through the plant section without filling my shopping cart. There is an entire aisle dedicated to nuts, bolts, screws, nails … And at Home Depot ‘aisle’ means a space about the size of a village block!  Today we ended up in a ‘housewares’ aisle looking for some thermometers. Housewares … there were more kinds of mops there than I’ve ever seen. We came across a large appliance that I didn’t even recognize … and found when I opened the door it was a dryer. I must be getting old when I come across a dryer that looks so different from what I even think a dryer’s shape is! Sort of the wringer washer effect in reverse.

Eventually we made it back home and I headed outside to get the chores done. The jennies were very glad to see me. I had put out timothy hay this morning and then purposely left them only that for the afternoon. They had managed to eat more of it than if I had put the grass hay out at the bottom paddock. As I was scooping up manure I was also flicking through the remains they’d tossed on the ground to find seed heads to offer up. That then gets them looking through again. They sure need prompting to eat that bale … It’s not mouldy, it isn’t even particularly dry. It is just coarser and need more ‘jaw’ action to chew it up well. So they were happy to help me pack hay bags for this evening and tonight with the fresh grass bale.

The keets are surviving. Funny how nervous I am going out in the morning to check their shed … I put a thermometer in there today. Under the lamp (not a heat lamp bulb but a soft coated 100 watt one) it is about 20’C. I need to research more into how to gradually wean them off of the heat. All in good time!

And now – time to put my feet up on a Friday night. Happy weekend everyone.