Tuesday, I started taking the ornaments off the tree. When Woody came home around three, we both worked on the tree and got all the ornaments off and packed in tissue paper into various boxes.  Then Wednesday Woody took the lights off, I packed them away with a few ornaments that showed up.  Then Woody hauled it out to the woods to rejoin the earth and serve as a refuge for small animals until it decays.  Then of course came the job of cleaning  up the living room and putting the furniture in the places it belongs.  We’ll be finding needles for weeks here and there.  Schwartzie is in mourning.  From the second night, he slept under the tree every night.  Even last night when he was upset that the ornaments were gone. He kept looking for them.  All the cats used the tree as a place from which they could ambush each other – the tree came down to the ground on two sides.  Zena liked to sit in the evenings on the chair right next to the tree and enjoy the lights.  The two younger cats had several ‘kills’ each night, as the lower third of the tree is all unbreakable and they could knock them down and carry them off with no problem for us.

We’re spending a quiet weekend – three parties is enough and another dinner party besides.  We’re making seed orders together every evening except when football interferes as it will tonight.  I order from Seeds ‘n suck, Burpees, Fedco, Pine tree, Territorial and Stokes – the most form Fedco, although this year they raised their prices a lot.  Still most things are a bargain and I trust their assessments of seeds.

Tomorrow I hope we can finish up the orders so they can begin to go out Monday.  Woody  has to do a shed inventory tomorrow and also see what garden supplies are in the storage room.  With that information, I can do the last part of the orders and get them ready to send off. I have notes what what we orders last year [and the year beore and the year before that] so I can gauge how different strains worked out for us.  Of course, so much depends on weather.  Last year was unusually wet – much, much rain. Other years can feature drought. We never know.