October 17-31, 2026 Most Recent Posts:
Greenfield Mountain Farm October’s Early Days
Afton, Virginia A Very Full Second Half of September
First off, I cannot believe I forgot to mention that Winnie the Pooh’s ONE HUNDREDTH birthday was on October 14.
I hope you celebrated it despite that oversight on my part. We certainly did! I also hope I look as good and spry at 100 as he does. He of course will be coming with me when I leave to head south at the end of the month.
On Saturday the 17th Laurie and I met at our favorite pizza restaurant Dr. Ho’s which is closer to the farm than just about anything else. We shared a large Kale Bacon and Mushroom pizza which was a short term special. We’d never had it before. It’s described as “garlicy curly kale, Virginia smoked bacon, wild mushrooms, roasted tomato, fontina, Gruyere and mozzarella cheeses”. I like it very much. I think Laurie preferred what we had last time though she said this was good.
I am moving along through The Chymical Wedding by Lindsay Clarke which I read years ago and who knows why I decided to reread this 500+ page chunkster but I’m enjoying it and am surprised that I only remember it vaguely.
I have several reading spots both inside and outside. This poor picture is from my bedroom wicker rocker overlooking the pond. Too chilly today to be sitting outside.
I always have a list of things I want to take care of when I’m back at the farm and somehow they seem to wait until the last two weeks I am there. Such as the refrigerator gaskets. My 20+ year old refrigerator is humming right along but running too much so I ordered new gaskets. Couldn’t take a picture of myself installing them but here is the new freezer gasket just before installation after the old one was removed. The picture will remind me that I didn’t have to pay someone else to do this.
That’s not the case with doing repairs and repainting to this old house, a job far too big for me. It won’t be finished until after I’m gone but Shannon is busy repairing, scraping and painting.
When the person I’d hired to wash and wax the RV wasn’t able to do it at the last minute Shannon rescued me again and with the help of one of the guys that works for him did that big job. Getting Winnona washed and waxed at least once a year is a very very difficult thing for me. I can’t take her to any place that uses pressure wash because of the age of her decal stripes and just in general. It’s a headache every single year no matter where I am.
I did wash and wax the two cars I maintain at the farm. My 2014 gray honda that replaced Ruby after the stupid woman plowed into me and totaled Ruby as well as David’s 1996 Honda Accord that I drive when I’m in Virginia because it runs like a top and is great to have “just in case”. 286,000 miles. I wonder if the 2014 will make it that far is such great shape. I didn’t take pic of the newer car mid wash/wax but here’s the old reliable. Don’t get me started on how much better things were made 20 years ago……RV’s, Refrigerators, cars.
The morning the guys were working on washing and waxing Winnona, I noticed this stuff on my brand new kayak decal. It looks like it was flung/splattered onto the decal and nothing I’ve tried to remove it has worked. I have no idea what it is and I’m just so unhappy about it. Anybody with any ideas of how to get this off, please let me know. It is not raised up and I’m worried it has just stained the decal and I’ll never get it off.
During my last week in Virginia I had two doctor’s appointments. Not a good time but that same week Laurie and I went to Carter’s Mountain Orchard for lunch and apple cider donuts. This is an annual excursion for us.
All sorts of fall goodies for sale, apples, pumpkins, cider, donuts and more.
There is food available and picnic tables overlooking the city of Charlottesville.
In addition to our donuts, Laurie bought a dozen and I a half dozen, we each had an ice cream donut sandwich. SO much sugar in one dessert.
Back at the farm the moon was rising over the fall colors.
During October I made a big dent in reading The Chymical Wedding but got so caught up in The Agatha Christie Cure which I just loved, that I didn’t quite finish wedding yet. I’m a Christie fan, both Hercule and Miss Marple, so this unique biography/memoir was very interesting to me. Have you ever read either of these books? Tell me what you’ve been reading this fall.
After my final doctor’s appointment (thankfully), I celebrated by taking myself out to First Watch for two of their “humungous” chocolate chip pancakes. That is a regular sized plate. Pancakes so big I brought half home for breakfast on another day. If you have a First Watch near you, give them a try if you can stand the terrible acoustics. At least in the one near me.
A clear sign that it was time to head south was the frost I woke up to that last week-end of October. Shannon came to continue work on the house and he was dressed in his heavily padded overalls.
My final sunset over the mountains wasn’t spectacular and I’m glad since that would have made it all the more difficult to leave.
But leave we did. Here we are as we exit the valley down the farm lane for points south where I hope it is warmer but not TOO warm. Aren’t they both shiny??
Heading on down the road. The Blue Ridge Mountains are ahead of me here on the narrow road from the farm lane. This road always gives me white knuckles when I see a car or worse a truck coming toward me. It’s barely wide enough for 2 cars. But the Blue Ridge will soon be behind me as I head East away from the mountains and south away from the dropping temperatures.
