Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers has been helping us shape up our homes during the month of September. And while I know she will get to these things as the month progresses, I thought in the spirit of the theme, I’d share what I did today.

Last night we experienced our 4th (that I know of) frost and so when today turned out cool, brisk and clear (at least it started that way) I decided to undertake the major fall deck transformation. Here in the north woods we get a significant amount of snow so I always put away EVERYTHING versus just covering it. Thank God for the barn!

So this morning I started with:

• Straightening the barn and making room for everything.
• Then I tore apart the BBQ and ran all the pieces (grills, grease traps, tools and burners) through the dishwasher.
• I picked up all the various sprinklers, hand nozzles, trowels, plant supports, rakes and shovels and put them away.
• Then I made sure the lawn mower and trimmers were put away too.
• I emptied the dogs pool and scrubbed it clean with soap and water and set it aside to dry.
• Then I drug and I do mean drug (I think they gained weight over the summer) all the lawn furniture into the middle of the yard and rinsed them off.
• While everything was drying I collected all the summer lawn stakes and bird feeders (we use only suet hangers in the winter) and put those away too.
• I got out the fall lawn stakes and my stacking pumpkins. I’ll leave the rest of the Halloween decorations till next month. These are just my harvest ones.
• When the lawn furniture and dog’s pool were dry I drug them up to the barn and put them away.
• After the dishwasher finished I put the BBQ back together, covered it and stored it in the barn also.

I tracked a lot of stuff into the house and then had to vacuum too! While I was on a roll I drug out the shop vacuum and did the basement stairs and basement too! WHEW! I’m tired and it’s only lunch time.

We ended up with a surprise visitor(Eric) for the week so I’m editing my menu plan quite a bit and am making Taco Ring Salad tonight. I decided while I was at it I’d do enough meat to freeze 1/2 for the meal during the Christmas gang’s visit. So all in all it was a VERY productive day!