The Great Spangled Fritillary and Happy Anniversary!

Wow, was yesterday crazy busy! I’m trying to use up the food out in the camper…the lazy way. Rather than pack it all up, carry it inside, and put it all away…I’m bringing my sweetheart out to the camper every morning for a little dining “al fresco”. So far it’s been great! We’ve been eating up the croissant breakfast sandwiches and tea. We’re going to have to have bacon and blueberry pancakes soon. Maybe we’ll do that today for our anniversary! Four years…can you believe it???

Back to yesterday. Once breakfast was done, we hit the ground running. Mr. FixIt dug up all the elephant ear bulbs on Monday and let them dry in the sun for a day. Then he trimmed back the stringy roots on them and tucked them in a bin lined with a plastic bag. He didn’t close the bag or anything. They need to get air but remain cool, dark, and dry till spring. 

Once that was done, we took the cover off the pergola for the winter. I put the cushions away in the building and stacked the chairs. Once we get a couple of boards replaced on the pool deck, we can lash down the deck furniture to keep things from blowing around out there in case we have bad storms.

Next up was cutting up the maple tree we took down yesterday. I swear…I’ve used a monster sized chainsaw in my life. We used to cut our own wood. Maybe it was because Mr. FixIt was watching me carefully to make sure I didn’t get hurt, but I was all thumbs. I got the chain caught twice…once really bad when the tree trunk rolled over on the chain bar. Mr. FixIt said a bad word. I don’t blame him…I might have said a few myself!

Once we regained our zen and I found the rhythm, things moved along just fine. We piled the limbs in the back of Mr. FixIt’s pickup and made two trips over to the burn pile. We are going to have one heck of a bonfire one of these days! We cleaned up our work area and I ran the riding mower over the fallen leaves to mulch them up. Then we carried the two tubs of elephant ear bulbs down to the basement.

In the middle of all that, we stopped for a break and I made some broccoli cheese soup…sans biscuits. I didn’t have it in me to bake, too. The soup was wonderful and there’s enough leftover to have more today. We are supposed to get rain all day today so I am hoping to have a quiet “inside day” with my sweetheart. We’ve just been go-go-going for what seems like all year. We still have so much to do before it gets really cold in a few days.

I went out to the camper to get something yesterday afternoon and there was a Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly sitting on the arm of my chair. It was flexing its wings and they looked odd. I think the back pair are malformed or under-developed. If you look at it compared to one on Google images, it’s really apparent. I never did see if it could fly…I had work to do. I hope it went on it’s way. This is why I want to turn part of our fields into native habitat for the flora and fauna to live the way they’re supposed to.

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“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,”

Colossians 3:23 ESV

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