We had another sunny day with calmer winds and slightly warmer temps.  There are just a few pockets of snow left from last week's storm.  

Our church had a special music program this evening followed by cake in the fellowship hall.  There were 12 tables, each representing a month of the year and decorated according to the season or holiday in that month. Sara and I went together on November and, after church this morning, we decorated our table with Thanksgiving and fall items.  After the program, folks found their birthday month and sat at that table.  Instead of cake, we served pumpkin and apple pies and there wasn't very much left of either one at the end of the evening.  The ladies did a wonderful job of decorating both the tables and the cakes.

We spent a pretty quiet day watching the NFL games between church this morning and this evening.  The Eagles lost, but the Vikes won, so we are at least half way happy today.

After stormy weather for two days, we finally had blue skies with plenty of sunshine to melt the snow; however, the temps only reached the low 40's.

 We slept in this morning and then John made us a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, coffee, and tea.  Since neither of us had to be anywhere early today, we had a very leisurely morning.  John finished up his project in the shop while I worked on gathering items for our winter in Texas.

The Clearbrook varsity team played this afternoon so John went to the game--I opted out and stayed at home baking cookies and doing some reading.  I also took a few photos of the snow before it melted away.  The Bears won their homecoming game with a score of 36-16.

 

Our garden

 

 Toppled flag pole 

John got the flag and pole down this morning and feels the pole can be repaired, but he'll store them for the winter and get the flag back up in the spring.  By this afternoon the snow had melted and we're back to brown once again.  There are only a few leaves remaining on the trees so it looks more like winter than fall.

We had cold temps and strong winds overnight.  Our flag pole, which has stood anchored to our deck for the last 30 years, snapped in half sometime during the night.  The flag is hung up in the trees while the top half of the pole is leaning on the deck railing.  The weather was just too miserable today to deal with it--we'll have to wait until the temps warm up and the winds die down.

This morning John continued to work on his project in the shop while I did some cleaning up around the house.  Matt called and asked if John would like to ride along to Fargo where he had to pick up some football gear for Sam and was gone until late this afternoon.  He told me that once you got west of Bagley there was no snow at all.  The Homecoming football game was canceled for this evening and will be played tomorrow afternoon.  The visiting team is from the area of the state that got 17" of snow so hopefully they will be able to be make it by then.  

We spent a pretty quiet evening watching some TV and working on the computer trying to organize more photos.

 

Last night with a winter storm in the forecast for late this afternoon, we decided we would get the hoses inside, remove the cushions on the porch chairs, and  get the rest of the autumn chores out of the way.  The store arrived early and we woke up to pouring rain which soon turned to snow.  So much for getting ready for winter. John managed to haul the hoses into the garage so they wouldn't freeze--as for everything else, we'll have to wait until the weekend when it's suppose to warm up and the snow should all melt away.

Since the storm lasted all day with winds up to 40 mph, we were pretty much housebound today.  John spent some time in the shop working on a project while I baked bread and did laundry.  Hanna's volleyball game for this evening was canceled--the kids even got out of school early this afternoon.  We got about 4 inches of snow in our area with much greater amounts to the north of us.  The snow and rain were a blessing since it helped put out the wildfires.  We couldn't smell or see any smoke in the air today.

This is what it looked like at 10 a.m.

when the rain changed over to snow

 

 

John was up and out at the usual time to meet Matt at the job site.  I left the house soon afterward as I had a doctor's appointment early this morning to get a followup blood test.  While I was in Bemidji, I did some banking, got the car washed and gassed up, and went to several different stores looking for a down blanket for our bed.  I was finally successful at Target.  

When I first stepped outside this morning, I could smell smoke.  I thought it was from our outdoor furnace and didn't give it a second thought.  As I got closer to Bemidji I discovered that it was smoke from several wild fires to the north of us.  The smoke was so thick at times that drivers had their headlights on.  When I returned home, John was already here--the guys quite early as the window they need to install still hadn't been delivered.  It should be here sometime tomorrow.

I took this photo out our living room

widow this afternoon--that's not fog,

but smoke.

The weather forecast is calling for a winter storm warning for the northern part of our state, so hopefully we'll get some moisture to help control the fires and put them out. 

I spent today with my sister-in-law over in Grand Forks doing some shopping and catching up.  Her husband, Leroy, left yesterday on a 12 day fishing trip and she wanted to hit the stores and do some visiting today.  We left our place a little after 8:30 a.m. and were in the mall an hour and a half later.  Carol had plenty of coupons for the different stores, so we were able to get some very good deals.  The two of us had a great day--we hadn't been able to get together for our annual shopping spree for the past couple of years, so we made up for lost time today.

While I was gone, John spent his day helping JD do some staining in the shop and then went up to Matt's to cut more firewood and haul it home.  Matt also stopped in this morning after taking Sam to the chiropractor where he got his back adjusted and seems to be doing much better. 

After being gone all day, it felt good to relax this evening and watch some TV before heading off to bed. 

Our weather cooled down a little overnight and we had another beautiful fall day.  The winds were much stronger and the leaves have been falling like snow.  The trees in our backyard are just stripped of leaves, but the Poplars are at their peak golden colors now.

This morning John helped JD in the shop making stakes for yard signs promoting the Clearbrook school referendum which will be on the ballot in November.  After making applesauce into the evening last night, my morning was spent cleaning up the sticky mess in the kitchen and getting all the canning supplies stored away for next year.

Sam had a game this afternoon in East Grand Forks, so John and I left after lunch to do a little shopping at Sam's Club before we went to the game.  The Bears played extremely well and won the game 30-12.  Sam scored two touchdowns and had an interception.  He only played about half of the game because while scoring the first touchdown, he went to dodge a tackle and pulled a muscle in his back.  Matt helped him stretch out and found some ointment in the medical kit to rub on Sam's back.  After more stretching and massage Sam felt he could return to the game in the third quarter.  He looked a little crooked standing on the field, but he managed some outstanding plays.  A trip to the chiropractor is probably on the schedule for tomorrow.

Sam starting run for touchdown

 

On our way home we stopped at McDonald's for a late supper and when we got home, watched the Bears beat Dallas.  That means Sam and Matt are very happy campers tonight.