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This Texas Giant spent the summer outside the kitchen window. He would spin his web across the entire half of the window and wait patiently for us to turn the light on and attract insect to his lair.

The Moonflowers didn't even start blooming until the heat broke and temps started dropping. As the days grew colder, the blossoms were smaller and smaller. The last one was out on the garden fence about 2 weeks ago. What a sight. I'd thought I wouldn't see any from those vines and what a nice surprise. I have found someone else that says they don't have any scent at all. Thank you Aunt Dorothy Tweedt.

Sly-kitty is a solar powered kitten. He is too huge to be called a kitten and he's probably old but he answers to the name.

This is Sly-kitty impersonating a sleeping cat. He is actually a stealth guard Panther. Here he is on his office chair. No one else uses his chair and he is never moved off. It is on the same tall height as mine and all I have to do is to reach over and stroke the kitty to chase away any cobwebs or writer's block. I must mention that he does snore and will usually prop his head up on the back cushion. If he wakes and wants attention, he taps my elbow or shoulder with his paw or his wet, cold nose. He is quite the "talker" if you ask what he thinks and take the time to listen to him. A regular conversation but I'm glad I don't know what it all means. He'd be wanting a window perch and kitty videos to watch.

This is the Shop. The most recent picture shows the roof half covered and the wall to the right almost complete as well. It has now rained for two days and everything is WET. The big tree in the foreground remains until we get another chain saw and get back to clearing again. I haven't finished dragging a lot of what was last cut, many months ago. I don't get a lot of time or energy for such long term projects. This will soon be a good time for burning brush piles.

I haven't even started cleaning on the garden. I do have hopes that the few remaining tomatoes will survive this cold spell. We should clear soon and temps get back up near 70 in the daytime. That's autumn. Randy tried to hook up the propane heater and the valve wouldn't tighten enough to not leak. Some things you just don't know if they still work until you try them.

The flies, wasp and bees that had hatched out are just about gone now. The cold at least slows them down. The ants are gone deep underground and I have not see one of the singing bug in almost a week now. I killed two in one day and then they were gone. Those little critters can make you tear your house apart until you find them and squash them. The noise is like a cricket but non-stop. No pauses. I tried to take some pictures but they are so small and translucent and make such a LOUD noise.

We do have new neighbors. We hear them coming in every evening. They spent thousands of dollars to put in a "real" road. It is suppose to be a white caliche but it still looks red like all the rest. They've not had any trouble getting in or out though so that makes it work. This stuff is suppose to set up when it gets wet and be more a solid. The regular type just turns to mush when it gets wet. Our road is all sand, first packed down by the utility company trucks when we had our electricity hooked up and then had the trailer brought in.

I am about to figure out how to knit a pair of socks using Patty Ramsey's instructions in her pages. I am a dummie who has never used more than two needles at once and had to stop and ask more questions before even casting on the first 40 stitches. I am enchanted with the idea that I could make my own socks. Aunt Dorothy Tweedt had crocheted a most beautiful afghan and I want to learn her pattern of a chain stitch crochet. I have all sizes of the crochet hooks but I've never figured out how to turn on even the first row and continue. I've collected lots of websites with patterns and instructions and am still at a loss. Now, I have smart people handy to ask questions and get the answers I need. Even my knitting is my translation of what I learned from my blind left-handed teacher.

A quick email to SCORE brought me the answer to our business question. This would be the third year in business and no income yet. The IRS has rules and regulations but some are not set in stone. When we file our return this next year I will present our plan for staying small and working slow as to not need a big loan or big advertising bills we cannot afford. I don't think we'd stand a chance of attracting the big companies like Tyson and Wyler's. The long term plans are a lot more attractive and realistic.