OCT’ 20

24

 It's hard to believe that wildfires are raging in CO even with frost gilding everything in sight and the light dusting of snow on fences and roofs. My in-laws had to evacuate their home. They came and stayed with us from Sunday through Thursday. They were lucky in that the house was never in any real danger. We were lucky because we really enjoyed having them stay with us. It was quite challenging for them though because they boarded their dogs at the home of friends. Our house is a bit too small for two big pups who can't stand to be alone in the yard or garage. Anyways, it all came right. Everyone is safe. But, I can't help thinking about the next time…

We've got a long day of yard work ahead of us. We need to finish sheet mulching a small section of our front yard. We also need to plant garlic, tulips, and crocuses. The garden beds need to be cleaned out and put to rest under a cozy layer of compost. I think we can get it all done today. The weather is forecasted to be well below freezing tomorrow so we don’t have much of a choice.

I made significant progress on Willa's Halloween costume. I sewed her capelet. It was a (now) hilarious ordeal. What should have been a very simple sewing project took me nearly the whole of Thursday to complete. I couldn't print out a template for the Peter Pan collar and had to figure out how to create a very accurate version myself. I didn't read through the instructions which led to a few missteps. And, I tried to forge ahead through those missteps, realized I couldn't, had to pin and re-pin a number of times. Figure some other stuff out. Rummaged around for sewing machine parts. Needed to work out how I would edit the original template to replace the button closure with red ribbon ties instead. I mean it went on and on. BUT, I finished it and I am pretty pleased with how it all turned out. All that's left is to sew some red ribbon to Willa's straw hat. Sew a nun's headdress for Davis and paint "the house covered in vines" onto a large piece of cardboard for myself.

That’s all.