"THE GREAT FENCE"

 Before I get into the saga of The Great Fence, I want to show off the gorgeous colors of the autumn trees around here last week.  I went with a friend for lunch and we drove over to the Umpqua area.  My kind of photo shoot!  Old historical homes, pasture animals, old barns and beautiful fall colors......plus the ever wonderful Umpqua River.  "My cup runneth over!"   We had lunch at a delicious bakery.......The Lighthouse Bakery.  It's also a cafe and has vegetarian food.  Being an animal eater, I usually avoid vegetarian restaurants, but that menu has changed so much from what it was years ago.  Just delicious is the new version.  The Lighthouse does a great business and this is what supports, at least in part, a spiritual retreat center that I've yet to visit but sounds pretty amazing........That will be the subject for another day.
In the travels of last week, we stopped by one home that had such an assortment of  an autumn themed garden.  Not only the gorgeous trees, like this first photo of a liquid amber, but a cute outhouse, hay wagon, scarecrows, beautiful fall flowers, and just too many odds and ends to list them all here.  I put a couple of photos of it on Facebook, if you follow me on there.  The family all came out when they saw us out in front......first the son, visiting from Chicago, then his mother, then his son, then the father, then the daughter.....and then the family dog.  One by one and we all had a great gab-fest.  Such nice people!  And they do it up for Christmas also, so I'll be hoping to see that come December.....
The second photo is of a group of fishermen taking off on one part of the Umpqua River.  And the third photo is of one I took of the river from an overpass........I usually don't put my own photos on my computer's desktop but this one I had to........It's so beautiful!  And it was a beautiful day.

 So now it's the sage of "The Great Fence".   When we moved into our new home we noticed that a part of the fence in the back was leaning but didn't think it was that big a deal.  Then we had a storm come through that dropped quite a bit of water.  Compared to what we used to get in Port Orford, we didn't think it was much of a gully-washer, but it did do some damage out back.  It washed out a gully between the sod of the lawn and the weed-guard that held decorative plants against the fence......It looked like it washed under the garden beds and under the fence.  I couldn't see beyond the fence to see what the backside looked like but the fence was REALLY leaning after that.  Obviously, something was going on that needed looking into.  So......we had a maintenance man and contractor, Scotty, come out and take a look.  It appears that when the backyard was re-landscaped, the drainpipe that went under the lawn, either broke or just stopped without continuing out beyond the garden area......meaning under the fence.  No one actually knows this for sure at this point since it's underground but that's what suspected.  Another contractor came out and those were his thoughts also.  Doesn't really matter, except it has to be fixed.  Next week, the project will start........digging up part of the garden and lawn......dropping steel I-beams, a cement wall, 2 layers of treated plywood and some kind of cloth, layers of rock....a French drain and the the fence pulled forward attached to something or other. They say that the garden will look back to what it looks like now (minus the leaning fence) but I really, really have my doubts about that!  So today, there have been all kinds of utility men coming and going to make sure that there are no lines, wires, etc. that will be impacted by the work....Plywood has been delivered, and different men painting words on the lawn that means something to them.  Good Grief!!!  And "Yes, this will cost a pretty penny".  The good parts are that (1) it will be fixed so no further damage can occur and (2) they will start next week and will work at it straight through to completion..........5 or 6 days.  Oh.....a third plus is that we're meeting a lot of very nice people....and that counts for a lot, right??

The weekend is coming up and I wish you all a happy and fun time to be had by all!

TRICK OR TREAT??

 It's been so long since we've been living in a place where we get the Halloween trick or treaters and this year was just great!  Our very first trick or treater was our new friend pictured above.  Myrna did NOT have her parents with her but braved it on her own..........actually she was in costume for handing out the treats which her daughters and grandchildren went out to treat everyone with their 'family of bones'.........All dressed in skeleton costumes.  Myrna was so decked out I couldn't pass up taking a photo of her.  Not long after that the kids started arriving......in hoards!  Some of the very little ones were so funny.  A number started to just walk in the house like it was it was where they belonged.....one little guy who was only about 1 1/2 years old didn't consider my putting the candy in the bag his Mom was carrying to be legitimate and when he thought I wasn't going put any candy in his own little hand, his face started to scrunch into what would become 'the big square mouth wail'.  Of course, I quickly put another piece in his little hand before the dam broke and he, satisfied, went on his way.
 The various parents were pretty funny, too.  They almost always had to tell the younger ones to say "Trick or Treat".....which translated into "Twick or Tweet".........then there was the duty "Thank You".

 A tall young girl dressed up like Little Boo Peep, gave a very deep voiced thanks that had me commenting on The Voice.........When he told me a bit defensively "I'm a boy!".
  After I gave one little one his treats with his father standing there with him when I saw a flash from out on the street.  I said "Oh, picture taking?"  And the young father said in a bit of a tired reply "Of course"........guess Mom makes happy and frequent use of her camera!  Another pre-teen boy suggested I give him ALL the candy.......then gave a thank you and a "God Bless".  I wondered whether he knew it was a heathen holiday.......8-))

Now we are left with about a couple of dozen little candy bars and/or packages of M&M's.  Hmmm.....I wonder what we're going to do with them?  It is a dilemma.........

 These flowers are perfect for the autumn of the year, aren't they.  They above chrysanthemum grows in our garden.  It seems to be a prolific producer........And the beautiful variegated cyclamen was given to us by a friend, Sarah..........I've never seen one like this before with the variegated leaves and the very deep dark red blooms.  I think we've found the perfect place for it and enjoy watching it thrive.......Fingers crossed that I don't do anything to change that.

Hope you all had a fun-filled Halloween, too.  There were probably Halloween parties at the schools and churches.  Some merchants in shopping malls hold a Halloween costume parade for the kids to march in and collect treats from the various shops and stores.  Unfortunately, we have to worry more now-a-days on keeping the kids safe from the real-live bad guys.  Thankfully, last night showed Norm and I that the kids are having just as much fun as they did when we were kids.