Keeping the Home Fires Burning

The view of our road

I could say that the weather has gone to the dogs around here. It has been rainy, nasty and cold, but that wouldn’t be a fair statement, because my dogs don’t even like it.

This month should be Indian Summer around here in the Ozarks. Instead, it has has been the 4^th coldest on record and the 8^th wettest.

For a brief moment yesterday, I thought the sun might pop out. I really think the dogs even noticed the change in light in The Belle Writer’s Studio, but it faded before even really gaining any momentum, and they did again as well.

We’re expecting a frost on Saturday morning and they’re calling for a hard freeze by Sunday morning. This isn’t supposed to be happening here, not in mid-October. We moved to the south, just far enough to have a change in seasons, but to also have a little longer warm season. We tolerate the humidity and bugs in the summer so we can have better weather for longer.

There was even the year we celebrated New Year’s Eve on the party deck – until Midnight – with just a jacket.

The woodburning stove in The Little House

The only thing positive I can think of to say about this type of weather is that we will literally be keeping the home fires burning this weekend and hunkering down in The Little House.

Last weekend was about getting out; this one’s about staying in. We heat exclusively with a wood burning stove and not only does my husband need some time to cut some wood, we will be burning it too.

We also need to figure out how to get my huge plant that lives on the party deck in the summer, over to The Belle Writer’s Studio, where it resides in the cold weather. My mother in law gave me that plant in a little pot for a wedding shower gift over 23 years ago.

Today, the plant and pot weighs over 200 pounds – and that’s not when it is full of water – so it will be tricky moving it this year.

While Dale is working hard chopping wood and dragging in my huge plant from the party deck all the way over to The Belle Writer’s Studio, I’ll be laboring on assignments, taking just a couple of hours on Saturday morning to attend my book club.

I would rather be lazily snuggly warm under a blanket with one of the books I have backing up on my “to read pile,” but it’s been a tough year for freelance journalists and I’m just happy I have the work.There will be many more weekends in the coming months when the work isn’t here, I’m sure.

If the sun does make an appearance, I will have to do some laundry. I use a clothesline to hang most of our shirts and pants out to dry and it’s a little hard to get them dry in the pouring rain.

Actually, my friend, Roxanne has an excellent post this week on her Champion of my Heart website for Blog Action Day about air-drying clothes. I hope you’ll click over and read it.

Sunset Behind the Little House

As the sun (hopefully we’ll see it by Saturday) sets, we’ll come together in the evening with a couple of movies from Netflix, one of my crockpot recipes and maybe even some marshmallows to toast for dessert.

The weather isn’t doing anything for me, but the thought of turning it into a cozy weekend at Campbell Town has already got me looking forward to keeping the home fires burning.

Will you be doing to prepare for the coming winter months this weekend, or what is on your schedule for the next two days?