Last Saturday, I dressed up in my 'formal wear' and fascinated the children in downtown Snohomish, Craven Farm, and the Farm at Swan Trail. 

Sunday Tom cleaned the roof and gutters and I assisted and pruned. 

Last weekend we harvested over 100 apples from Liberty, Spartan, and Freedom.  I juiced 80 of them and got almost 2 gallons.  I was amazed at how pristine and healthy they all were.  There were very few that needed to be discarded.  I'm rethinking my idea of digging up Liberty and Freedom and planting an Akane and another Italian prune in their places.  This was a great harvest.  Maybe I'll just replace Freedom with Akane?  Will that make Liberty lonesome?  The apple juice is delicious and so are the Liberty apples raw.

Mostly I've been updating my database-driven web app Gardeners Membership.  I have other projects in mind, but I'm putting them off for the month of October as I plan to focus on my health and spirit this month.

Tech projects on hold through October.  Closest I can get to "tech" is cooking right now.  I'm still experimenting trying to make the perfect vegan, wheat-free pumpkin pie.  I'm getting close.  The texture of the pumpkin filling is my biggest hurdle.  I'm thinking about tofu, cool whip, agar.  I already know that tapioca is not going to work.  This is trial and error.  Thankfully by now, even my 'errors' are still delicious, just not close enough to authentic for people who are attached to the egg variety.

It's no fun having 3 root canals fail all at once.  I've been going through dental hell since early September.  First, it was pain.  Then lots of diagnostic visits at different dentists until all 3 were identified.  Yesterday I had endodontic surgery to resolve the one root canal failure that was capable of being fixed.  The other two are going to be extracted, and I'm going to need at least one, but three would be better, implants in the next year or so. 

It's frustrating.  I have good oral habits.  I've always brushed and flossed daily.  Now I'm doing additional personal maintenance.  I had 3 bad dentists at pivotal times in my life and I'm suffering for it still.  As of now I have a mouthful of stitches. 

In addition to my teeth needing attention, we've got a little house problem which is scheduled to be fixed this Friday.  Rats invaded our crawl space from an unscreened downspout that drains underground directly into the storm drain.  No way we could have seen it.  I discovered it in connection with flea bites.  Now we have the heat turned off in the house because the fleas were gaining entrance through the heat vents.  Seriously creepy and disgusting.

A female rose breasted grosbeak visited our backyard and came right up to my window.  The birds have been very active.  The Douglas squirrel has been very visible.  The Eastern gray and/or/combined Western red squirrels have been likewise; and the stellars jays.  We've had plenty of visitors who are not known for being 'feeder birds' like wrens and robins. 

Beth, my neighbor, is happy that the red maple we planted last year has turned bright red this year.  It turned early, as maples do.  She put a pumpkin under it because she is very traditional.  My gum tree is still turning color.  Should be nice by Hallows.  I should probably put one of those giant pumpkins under it.  Maybe I'll have a chance to carve this year.