Summer coming to a close.

I can't believe it is already August.  In just a couple of weeks Bear starts Kindergarten.  Tom starts school this week.  Well, not really school just yet but he is working at any rate.  The garden is starting to really put out some good produce.  We've gotten a couple of tomatoes out and the carrots have gone nuts.  Actually most of the vegetables have gone nuts in there.  Bear's kale patch is growing nicely despite the fact that almost every day he goes out and plops down for a snack.

Since it is the end of summer we have some cleaning projects to do.  Actually that is what I'm procrastinating at the moment.  I'm not looking forward to my floor scrubbing.  Somehow we have neglected them to the point they are driving us crazy.  It is time to dig out a big ol' scrub bucket and brush and go to work.  I do wish we had a lottery win or something so we could replace carpets.  The new puppy and Mia have completely trashed our carpets.  Ugh.

The carpet replacement won't come for awhile so I'll just have to deal with that.  We are putting in a wood stove this fall though.  That is exciting news.  It means that if the power goes out we'll still have heat and a way to make food and coffee.  This is the one place that being out of town is a bit of a disadvantage.  When we lose power we lose water (the well pump is electric), heat, and because of the water loss we always lose the use of our bathrooms as well. :(  None of this is really fun to have happen.  Because of this we keep a stock of water in the basement and the wood stove is going in.  So far we haven't had a power loss for long enough to really worry about needing water to flush the toilets with. 

To that end at the moment we have water in a rain barrel that can be scooped for flushing toilets.  One of these days I'll fill the stock tank we have too.  Otherwise we do have the advantage of no neighbors so we can just go outside to pee.  I think we'll have to consider an outhouse of some sort as well.  Not right away but at some point.

Now, off the subject of bathrooms.  I have floors to scrub and laundry to do.  Well, and wool to wash.  My yarn/spinning venture is picking up so I'm busy trying to keep up.  I also need to e-mail our market manager and work out a deal for the rest of the market season.  Since it is already August I suppose I should get some Christmas present kits together too.  After all, Christmas is fast approaching.