Sunday - Capstones and Compost

Sunday was a lazy day and that seemed to be echoed by our two sports teams in their play yesterday. The Vikings took their first loss, looking haphazard on the field of play, and the Wild just couldn't get it together on the ice at all. But DH and I had a productive day despite the fact that we watched a lot of losing plays on the football field and the hockey ice arena.

The capstones are trapezoidal in shape, but DH has been doing
a lot of cutting to get the stones to match exactly across the steps
and along the curves of the tiers. He'll still be working on
capstones next year, but wants to get as far as possible this year. 

We started the day out by going out to the home supply store. We needed more capstones for the castle. He's been working on topping the tiers and wants to try and get as far as possible before the weather and colder temps shut him down. Considering that next week begins November, I'd say that Mother Nature and the calendar gods will succeed, and he will have to hibernate for the winter months. The home supply store had 34 of the capstones left, so we bought all of them. It will get him just that little bit closer.

Do you have some brilliantly-colored leaves
on a nearby tree? Bring a bit of color into your
home for a few days. These lovely maple leaves
can warm up a cool room just by being on
a side table. 

We had a windy weekend and a lot of our leaves are down. Soon it will be time to take out the rakes and blowers and get the leaves collected. Many people will be taking them to the various compost collection points around town. The lines for drop off at these get excessive at this time of the year, but next spring everyone gets to reap the benefits - strong, black earth that they collect in containers to take back home for their gardens. The cycle of life and death continues as each brings the turn of the next.

The leaves and other vegetative materials are brought to the
composting sites where they are moved by large earthmoving
equipment. In the spring, people will return and collect their
spoils - black dirt for their gardens. 

I'll be starting today out by a quick drive to White Bear Lake for my swim time in their YMCA followed by my every-two-weeks chiropractic appointment. I'll get the opportunity to rinse and repeat on Wednesday, although my appointment that day will be for my car to be winterized and have an oil change, rather than my back being adjusted. Either way, I rarely go to that Y twice in a week, so I'll startle the girls in the pool there on Wednesday. Today they'll just say hello in the locker room before we all begin work on our form and lap times.

We take our composting very seriously here in the Frozen Northlands. After
waiting in long lines to deposit our leaves, we wait in long lines once
again to pick up our pay-off - black dirt. Here is one of the earthmoving
machines turning a bucket full of black dirt. 

I hope each of you have a wonderful Monday. I'm hoping that my Denver Broncos don't follow the examples set by my Minnesota teams when they take to the field tonight in Monday Night Football. It would be nice to put one into the "Win" column. Have a great day!