The Stockings Pick UP! The Tomatoes Fall Down.

Stockings are building.

 A quick post about the seasons stocking progression.   Looks like the orders are picking up as the last three days have been fairly busy.   I'm only just getting to the blog at 6 P.M.!    Any day when we do more than 10 stockings seems like a full day, even thought it is not even close to those torture days that are quickly approaching.  

In Muscatine.

And to be fair, we did visit Muscatine this morning.   It started out a chilly 29 degrees but eventually warmed up to the mid 50's.  But, of course, not until we had finished our outdoor activities.    At least the Fall color lingers in Iowa.   I'm very surprised!  

Fall colors.

Even some of the flowers are still blooming.   Granted,  this is by the Mighty Mississippi, so I'm sure the water helps regulate the temps near the river.... Possibly keeping things just above the dangerous freezing point. And the leaves are still on the trees!   Even after those two snow events.   I tried to capture Cheryl in as much as I could.  

Red sumac and pink flowers

Not Frozen yet.!

But after Breakfast Pizza and some grocery shopping,  we got to the stocking assembly.   It always seems to take longer than we want, but I still had time to change the oil and repair a hot water heater malfunction in the apartment.   ( I shut the water off until the Landlords could come repair it...  Lessening the "flooding")  

Victory!

Stocking alliteration. 

And finally,   Our tomato plants are all dead!  There are a few green tomatoes still left on them, but I don't think they will be ripening any time soon.  I ran out of time for the day, otherwise I had plans to cut them all back and clear up the garden area for next year. 

On a bright note,  the Tomatoes that we brought inside before the snow have been slowly ripening up and changing color.  All of those Heirloom varieties now are revealing their true colors. 

The Cats take over. 

I'll try to make this one short.   I had big plans today on a possible video for the stockings.  Looks like my Chi and energy have all been drained away though....  so maybe tomorrow.   We shall see.  

Leo guards the Packages.

Hope everyone is having a fine Middle-of-the-week so far.   Thanks for stopping in.