Not a lot to report again this week. I managed to clean up the mess that caused last week's toubles (that's nice).

We're still getting ready for Winter. We've put plastic up on the old windows (the new ones don't need it). We've moved wood to the Three-Season room so that it's handy for our woodstove.

We've also turned on the Central Boiler – it's running like a Champ and providing a ton of heat. I think I've figured out the settings for Spring and Fall better now, so there's less waste.

The big news this week is that I've finished my welding project.

Let me back the truck up.

I was visiting with Mom and Dad about a month ago and noticed that they had little footstools under their kitchen table. The table is a Pub Table and is higher than a normal table. That means that the chairs are higher too and your feet don't touch the floor. The idea is that you rest them on a rung on the chair.

That put too much pressure on the backs of their knees and was uncomfortable after a while. So Dad built footstools – exactly 7 ¼ inches tall.

I offered to weld up a Bar Style Footrest to go with their Pub Table and they thought that was a great idea!

So I measured the space under the table (45 x 23) and welded up a couple of lengths of steel pipe into a foot rest. It has height-adjustable feet so that you can level the unit or raise/lower whenever you need to.

I think it turned out pretty nicely and that's pretty much where this last week's project time went. That and moving wood.

It was fun.

Ever had one of those weeks where very little goes well?

Ya. Me too.

Fall is a great time to prepare for winter.

It's really nice having the days be warm enough to get things done – knowing that in a few weeks the weather will be pretty nasty.

This time last year we were still madly building stuff – we still hadn't insulated the place and we were just finishing up the install of the Central Boiler. Yikes.

This year I've already winterized my John Deere (that actually never happened last year!) I took off the deck, power washed everything, scraped off the old paint, brushed the rush off and put a new coat of Tremclad on the deck (I did it in Fire Engine Red – I now own the only Green, Yellow and Red John Deere that I've seen)

While I had the deck off, I cleaned out all the caked on grass and gave the underside a quick coat of Implement Paint (it was on sale at TSC – my new favourite store!) I also sharpened the blades and oiled all the moving bits.

Now I just hope that it doesn't get warm and sunny again – I really don't want to have to mow the lawn with my push mower!

My wood lot is just about ready for winter. We've been installing a drainage ditch to whisk water from the low spots in the field directly into Derbyshire Creek.

Rob from ERCA is really pleased that he can see the trees from the road now – I'm sure that he'll be here several times in the Spring (a couple of the trees were DOA and he promised to replace them) – we're also hoping for a few more trees to fill in some holes in the plowing that I did!

We're in the process of putting plastic on our windows now (the older ones, anyway) and the new Centennial Door is now fully installed and finished (I need to write a thank you note to Don – he did an outstanding job of making sure that I was happy by the end of the install). I do have one little concern about the heat that gets trapped between the storm door and the steel door. That'll have to wait until late Spring now.

I love Fall – cool evenings, long sleeve shirts, the changing colours and the anticipation of the first snow fall.