There is no doubt that Fall is really here. The weather is still erratic - the temps swing all the way from the 20s into the 70s, sometimes within a single day. At least we have not had to use the air conditioner for quite a while now and sometimes we don't have to use the heat either. It had been fairly nice on most weekends, which worked out in our favor as we were still working every weekend at my MIL's until after November 10th. It sometimes cools off and is rainy during the week so I have been getting up early in order to get my outdoor chores done before it rains. This week had been warm all week but it cooled off and was only 36 today. The sun has been out some though and I love that. In Fall and Winter here we don't get a lot of sunshine. Benny and I took a nice, long walk yesterday and today.

My plants finally got frost-bitten, with the exception of some of my impatiens which I had covered with floating ground cover. Years before I kept them alive until mid December but they looked scraggly this year so I decided to dump them early. I finally got my raised beds ready for winter. I cleaned out the hosta beds, perennials beds, and herb beds. I need to cover the veggie garden with black plastic. We brought home 3 Rose of Sharon bushes from my MIL's and planted them by the pond. When we did, we discovered a dead deer that had been shot in the gut with an arrow. Hubby had to drag it off to keep it from stinking. It really upset me as I'm sure it is probably one of the ones who was born here and came to our pond to die a gruesome death. One of the local does used to hide her babies by our pond. Hubby doesn't want me to romanticize it so I won't say much other than I really have a problem with all of this senseless killing. I wish I would win the lottery because if I did I would buy up as much land as I could afford and provide a refuge for the wildlife before they are all murdered.

We are knee deep in leaves and are usually dealing with them but the Mow N Vac needs a new hose. So Ian and I have been blowing them off with the leaf hog. Not very efficient when you live in a hardwood forest.

The tree expert from our power co-op came and indicated that the trees in question did indeed need to be cut down and he got rid of them for us.

We got the fountain out of the pond and put it up for winter. Hubby had been cleaning up the pole barn some.

Blocker is doing well from her surgery on September 23. Porkie was still sick after his first surgery on October 6 and Squeaker started to have problems too so we had to go to the vet in St. Louis again and have surgery on them both on November 4th. We stopped at Petsmart and got some food. Squeaker had a lot of problems post op and Bun developed problems too so we had to take them on November 18 for surgery. Bun is finally getting better but Squeaker is still struggling. We are having to syringe feed Squeaker and give her pain medicine. She is just now eating a little more on her own. So right now we have 3 chinchillas that have to be spoon fed several times a day as Reek always has to be. Porkie and sometimes Baxter and Runtster like to be hand fed as well as they like the attention. Blocker is the only one who snubs this. She's an old tough bird like me and takes care of herself. LOL.

Ian has been having more time off lately and has only been working 4 days a week even though some of the days are 12 hours long. So he has been helping me around the house a lot. Black Friday he put in a killer day and I think they made about $14,000 in sales.

The people who put the new tires on the van may have damaged it as the brakes went out on it immediately. So hubby was driving my car to work and I was driving the truck until he had time to fix the van. My son had to drive my car, his dad had to drive his truck, and I had drive the FX4 on the Saturday we cleaned out my MIL's house. LOL. Benny spend 3 days fixing the van and a front light on my car plus my driver side door as it would not open from the inside. Hopefully the vehicles are going to be okay for a while. He is tired of messing with them.

I am still not feeling the greatest but am doing better. I got rid of my 10 fever blisters, got a new one, got rid of it, and now I have another new one. We were having to eat out a lot as we were out of town more than usual. Wendy's, Culvers, Backyard Burger, Burger King, McDonald's, Long John Silver's. Ick. I am so sick of fast food. I used to love it but I am so not into this any more. My guts hate it and I'm trying to get my probiotics in. I'm ready to eat healthier and am looking forward to it. Ready to get back to a regular exercise schedule.

Our lives have been a whirlwind of activity working on settling my MIL's estate since we got the offer on the house on October 6. We finally got her final taxes done and sent off and her accountant paid. We got some banking issues taken care of. We had an estate sale on October 13, 19, 20, and November 2 at her house. Several of them were 14 hour days but we did fantastic. Everyone was amazed at how successful we were. On October 27 we did all of the repairs for the inspection and it took us 11 hours. Hubby had to put a new shower head on, pump the water out of the storm shelter, fix the lid on the storm shelter, put a pan under the water heater, and adjust the patio door. We were exhausted but the next day we went and mowed the yard for the last time, fixed the gate, and sold some more of her possessions to people who just came by. On November 3rd we got the remainder of what wasn't sold all moved to her garage and we cleaned the house and shed. We hauled our first small load home. On November 10, hubby drove my son's truck and I drove ours and we loaded the rest of the stuff by ourselves to take home and shove in the sheds. It took us two trips but we got everything cleaned out and told the realtor that the house was ready for immediate possession. We were 5 days ahead of schedule and pretty happy with ourselves. The realtor called on Monday and said there was a snag with the title company. The snag got bigger until it was a huge rip. My BIL's lawyer did not fill out the proper papers so the legal guardian could sign the papers to sell the house. So the closing has been postponed until December 14 but we had to go ahead and let the potential owners move in because they had already hired a moving van. Such a mess. They do love the house though.

Other plans fell through. We had plans to divide the rest of my MIL's possessions among his brothers. There isn't that much left and most of it is junk but we found out we would not be able to proceed as planned. The reason? His schizophrenic brother, who is on probation for multiple charges, got in trouble again this summer by assaulting a young girl. Some charges were dropped but it sounds like he held her captive with a knife. While in jail in the next county he confessed to a crime he had committed in 2010. He had hit and run a 13 year old girl who was riding a bicycle. She had injuries. So he is on a $50,000 bond in our county now and will most likely go to prison according to his financial guardian.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. Hubby had a few days off. I made a turkey breast, gravy, stuffing, bacon green beans, sweet potato casserole, low carb cranberry sauce, crescent rolls, relish tray, pickled cucumbers, pumpkin dessert, apple dessert. Daisy, the abandoned neighborhood lab, got a bowl of turkey and gravy too - no bones. LOL. The chinchillas got extra treats. They got treats for Porkie's birthday too.

I don't do Black Friday but we had to go to the bank for hubby to do some work for the estate and while there we went to Tractor Supply and got a really good buy on some suet and sunflower seeds for my feathered friends.

I'm looking forward to getting some work done around here soon. Holidays for us will be low key as we are in need of some rest and we need to catch up with overdue work. We had to let our own home-life slide while taking care of the estate and trust. We are ready to reclaim our lives.