yard work day

Good morning.
Well, yesterday didn't turn out as expected. It's amazing the weather forecasters can be so wrong.  On Saturday, the forecast for Sunday was to be sunny and 46. It turned out to be very cloudy, and only 38.
Oh well, be bundled up and went out anyway. I've got a lot to do before the snow comes.
Craig even helped with the burning.

Yes, that's a lot of branches. We have 2 very large Chinese Elms that constantly drop branches. They're really ugly trees shape wise, but the small leaves and open branching provides nice light shade, and in the fall, they don't pile up much like the maples do. And it was such a dry summer, I couldn't burn during the year.

Also this year, they have a new policy in place for burning permits. We had to physical go to the fire department and fill out a permit application and sign that we knew the proper protocol for fire burning.
Anyway, all that adds up to a very large pile of branches to burn. Not to mention the pile of ornamental grasses I cut down the day before.
After I got the fire going good, I left Craig to tend to it while I put the new belt on the riding lawn mower. It took a bit of time, but it's all ready for the last mowing in a week or so. There's still some leaves up in the trees.
And poor Craig got a little ouchy.

He said that's why he doesn't do yard work. I said I think you'll live.   :-)
And since I had a good fire going still, I took advantage and cut down more perennials. I have about 1/3 of the stuff cut down right now.
And today's forecast is mostly sunny and 43. We'll see about that. Right now, it's a bone chilling 22.
I believe this will be our first hard freeze. I'm glad I turned over the last of the bird baths yesterday, and emptied and put away the rain gauge.
And with that, time to get another day going.