With the help of Papa, Tutu and Mom we got 140 quarts of applesauce canned today. Papa, Rolo and I found that we could can 121 quarts at a time in the maple syrup pan which speeded things up considerably. Needless to say we were thankful when the day was over..... 
and the sun was set. We are looking forward to seeing our family in a few weeks.
Well Papa got his new splitter today. It works very well, even better since I lengthened the handle you pull up on to activate the splitter improving the mechanical advantage and making it easier for Papa. I also added a trailer hitch so we can easily move it around the wood lot. But we have a problem we are hoping some one could help us with; we are able to split fire wood so fast now that we are afraid we may run out of wood to split long before we are tired of our new toy.
The sunset started out like this and then it started to rain so I turned around to go in and....
I saw this rainbow, the first I've seen at sunset. then I turned around again and .....
Another week of work is over and quiet has come to our home. A pot of Mom's Dahl fragrantly simmers on the stove all ready for Sabbath dinner. Rollo is resting on the front porch after a vigorous walk out the lane with us. Merlin surveys him somewhat disdainfully from a safe distance and though he wouldn't admit it, draws some companionship from his presence. Merlin has been eating a good bit more heartily of late and is putting on some poundage against the coming winter's cold. Only the oaks still have their leaves and are fast thinning. Miss you all but draw comfort knowing you are each in the hands of an Almighty God. Happy Sabbath, Dad
As you can see things have gotten a bit desperate around here of late as we are short of help so Papa has decided to advertise. The pay isn't great but he guarantees a more rapid gain of muscle than you can get in a health spa and also guarantees rapid weight loss if desired. You can apply even if you don't have any particular skills. All skills needed can be gained on the job. Job benefits include fresh air, good company(Papa and Rollo), time at the sea shore (collecting sea weed for the garden), time on a beautiful sailboat(scrubbing it down and covering it with tarps for winter), no mosquitos (it is too cold for the beasties now). No need to apply just show up at sunrise and Papa will be up and about. If you arrive before sunup check for him in his basement he'll be there splitting kindling.
Papa had quite a good garden this year with Lots of tomatoes which we are still enjoying and lots of onions that we are braiding for the winter and fresh basil that we just picked the last of yesterday and made into two quarts of pesto which is now in the freezer and beautiful kale (seen to the right of Papa's foot), But the pumpkins took the prize. This one weighed over 100 pounds and was moved along with its brothers using the front end loader on Papa's John Deere tractor. Of all the produce that has come from the garden this year Tutu likes the pumpkin best, for its ornamental value of course. We were wondering if anyone had a pot we could borrow that we could cook the pumpkin in so that we could have a pie or two for Thanksgiving. None of ours are big enough. Please let us know if you can help.
Some run, swim, and cycle but the two above with a combined age of 140 years entered a two day woodathalon during which they cut, loaded, transported for over 1 mile and then unloaded six cords of oak. They won first place but of course we must tell you that there were no other participants. The next phase of the trials comes when the above attempt to split and stack the six cords in record time. The truth of Thoreau's observation that wood warms you twice was verified by their endeavors.