We had a beautiful Saturday--sunny skies, cooler temps, and winds that weren't quite as strong as over the past couple of days. The Ironwood trees in our backyard are completely stripped of leaves which now cover the ground. This morning I raked the leaves away from the house and John used the mower with the bagger to gather them up and dump them on the garden.

Before tackling the leaves, we worked on winterizing the porch. We took up all the chair cushions, packed them in plastic bags, and stored them away. John then hauled several of the chairs to one of the storage trailers. We decided to leave the carpet down for the winter thinking that mice would not bother it on the porch, but would probably nest in it if we rolled it up and put it in storage. I gave the carpeting a good vacuuming and we called it good to go til next spring.

John had pulled all of the carrots a couple of days ago, so we got them blanched and into the freezer. The only thing left to do in the way of canning is to make one more batch of salsa--then we'll be done with canning and freezing for the year. In between the chores, we would take a break and watch some college football.