Busy....Busy....

Things have been busy around here since I last posted. Every day has brought something that needed to be done or somewhere to go. We have gone to the Manchester VA twice this week,for follow up appts and for Compensation/Pension exams. Rick has a few things that the VA has not rated him for yet,so he had an appt in Neurology and another general appointment with a physician that went over the items in question. VA appointments are always draining,especially when there are a hundred questions. Rick will answer what he can,but some things he can't remember anymore (such as everything that happened when he was in the RPG attack). He then turns to me to answer,and some things I can't answer for him. Some things I can. His brain gets tired and he gets confused. Sometimes he can't even remember what unit he was with. Today is his third day completely off morphine,and he is still feeling the effects. His hypervigilence continues to be high,and it wipes him out.

There hasn't been a lot we could do outside the last few days,between appointments and the rain we have been having. I have been able to get my herbs dried,though:
My German Thyme,Greek Oregano,Rosemary,and Sweet Basil are waiting to be used. Fresh herbs smell wonderful,but rolling the leaves between my hands to crumble them up kicked up my allergies.

The above is the view from the front edge of our property,looking down the road. You can see the colors are starting to come in a bit. I took this photo Saturday,and since then the colors have increased quite a bit.

The above is looking up our road on the same day.

Today we are cleaning off our screen porch so we can load wood onto it. Monday we started our furnace for the first time,and last night was our first night starting up the wood stove. We only had a small fire,but it was lovely to look at,and I love the smell of a wood stove. I am also going to pick up some mums for the front yard,and I need to put out my pumpkins.

Yesterday we lost power for an hour and a half,and because it was cloudy out,it was darker than normal at 3:30 PM,so I lit the oil lamps and discovered we need to stock on paraffin oil,and get a new wick for one of the lamps. I lit some candles as well,and do need to get going on making more. We have noticed that the sun goes behind our red pine trees in the backyard earlier now,around 2:30,so the backyard is now shaded sooner. Soon we will go out to the bus stop at 2:50 and the sun will be halfway down the pine trees. Before too long it will be dark at 4:30. Not a big fan of that!