Since John didn't have to work for either JD or Matt, he took advantage of a free day, plus the beautiful weather, to catch up on some outdoor jobs that needed to be done before winter sets in.

His first job of the day was to clean up our enclosed porch--the warm weather brought out the flies and ladybugs--so the carpet needed to be vacuumed. He then replaced the porch's screen door with one he and Matt had salvaged from their recent job. After lunch John pulled the carrots, dug the potatoes, and picked a few more tomatoes. The garden is just about ready to be tilled and put to rest for the winter. John then went up to Matt's to pull some more logs out and get them ready to be cut sometime when he feels like cutting and splitting wood again. I had managed to let the receipts and paper work pile up in the office once again, so my day was spent working on the finances on the computer and tackling more laundry.

Tomorrow is Josh's last football game, so we'll be up and out early in the morning.

The cold front came through overnight and brought colder temps and some rain that continued until mid-morning. The temps dropped about 20 degrees, so the high of yesterday in the mid 70's was a high in the mid 50's today. Added to that were very strong winds which made it feel even colder.

This morning John and Matt went back to the job with plans to get the remaining ceilings completed. When they got to the last ceiling, they were short three boards, so the final ceiling will have to wait a couple of weeks to get finished as the boards have to be special ordered.

Hanna had a volleyball this afternoon, so John and I decided to leave a little earlier and take the back roads to Clearbrook so we could enjoy the autumn colors.

This cemetery has some of the most beautiful
colors on the way to Clearbrook

The Bears played super this afternoon, winning all three games. Hanna scored quite a few points with her serve and had a couple of other big plays. After the game, we called and ordered a pizza and then watched Josh's football practice until it was ready to be picked up on our way home.

Team meeting before the first game

Hanna getting ready to set the ball

We spent our evening eating pizza, watching some TV, and working on the computer.

Today was probably the last of our summer-like weather. A cold front is suppose to come through overnight with highs for tomorrow in the low to mid 50's with very strong winds. At least there is no snow in the forecast, yet. Our leaves are just beautiful right now, but the winds may strip the trees over the next few days leaving everything bare and brown. Hopefully they can hold on so we can enjoy them a little longer.

Matt and John where back on the job again this morning and managed to get one ceiling completed and about a third of the way on the second one. Their hoping to finish up tomorrow. First thing this morning I went up to Sara's for a haircut and then spent some time sorting through some things for Texas. John had taken the last of the chocolate chip cookies in his lunch, so this afternoon I baked another batch and got some birthday gifts wrapped. John got home around 5 p.m. so we ate supper at a good time and then relaxed the rest of the evening watching Survivor and a couple other new TV shows.

Our summer-like weather continued for another day with temps in the mid 70's and plenty of sunshine--should be like this for another day or so.

This morning Matt and John started a job installing new doors and tongue and groove ceilings for a customer. They got the doors finished today but the ceilings should take another couple of days. I headed off to Bemidji to take care of some errands. On the way I dropped the trash off at the land fill and then made a stop at the post office to mail the water filters I sold on ebay. When I reached Bemidji, I noticed the gas gauge was getting low, so my first stop was the gas station for a fill up. From there I made several stops at the bank, mall, and Wal Mart, and then headed back to Bagley. John had gotten home just before I did, so we were able to have supper on time and enjoy a relaxing evening watching The Biggest Loser and a couple of the other new fall shows.

It would appear that summer is returning to our part of the country. It was a beautiful day with warm temps--warm enough for shorts and no jackets. The weatherman is calling for 80 degrees by Wednesday. We have learned after living here for over 30 years that when we have warm weather the end of September that usually means we'll have a quick change over to cold weather, so we'll enjoy the warmth while we have it.

John worked in the shop the entire morning while I worked getting the kitchen cleaned up after making grape juice yesterday. There were extra jars and other canning supplies that needed to be put away. I also got the jars of juice stored away in the basement and made a couple of loaves of bread.

Right after lunch we headed north for Sam's football game. It was a two and a half hour drive straight north ending up about 20 miles from the Canadian border. The first half of the game was a big defensive battle with the score 0 - 0 at the end of the half. The second half the Bears had some trouble containing the other team and lost the game with a final score of 16-0. This was their first lost of the season. Sam played a good game, but just couldn't get free for the big touchdown run.

Sam getting the pitch out from Ben

Sam trying to run for a score with Hunter
blocking for him

On the drive home, we stopped at Subway in Thief River Falls for a late supper with Matt's family.
When we got home we watched the end of Monday Night Football and called it a night.

Today was a pretty quiet one for us. We followed our usual Sunday routine of breakfast and then off to church. Our afternoon was spent watching the Viking and Green Bay football games and making about 18 quarts of grape juice. We still have a bucket of grapes left, so it looks like we'll be making some grape jelly this week. This evening I watched the premier of The Amazing Race and a couple of shows recorded on the DVR. Tomorrow we travel again to watch Sam's football game.

We had a beautiful fall day which was absolutely perfect for going to watch football games. Josh's 5th grade team was playing in Clearbrook this morning, so we didn't have far to travel to watch him play. The 5th graders won both their games--they keep improving in their play each week. Today was a family affair at the games. Since Clearbrook was hosting the games, it was their responsibility to provide refs and ball spotters. Both Sam and Matt volunteered to help out and were the officials for both of Josh's games.

Josh (blue sleeves) playing safety and getting
ready to break up a pass play

After lunch John took advantage of the nice weather and picked the rest of the grapes in the garden and then pruned the vines in preparation for winter. He also pulled all the onions--that just leaves the carrots and potatoes in the ground. Hopefully he'll get to them next week. I spent some time cleaning up around the kitchen and getting more jars washed in preparation for more grape juice.

Today was Rachel's 11th birthday, so after supper we headed up to Matt's for a party, cake, and ice cream.

The Birthday Girl