On a Saturday night, we gathered around our first fire of the year. It was welcomed warmth and relaxing after we worked outside to enjoy the perfect fall weather. It was only a high of 65 degrees. Not too hot and not too cold while trimming up the canopy of our trees.

Raising the canopy achieves two goals

1. Get more sunlight into the forest floor & increase the view of the sky.
2. Allow some of the smaller trees along our fence line to grow upright vs. out to the side trying to get a sun ray or two.

In the over exposed pictures below (I was trying to get the camera to show you the shadows and color depth) you can see this is an amazing view. When the sun comes up, the dark contrast of our forest trees with the background of the trees across the lake and street make an amazing fall view .

Since my wife (Mel) works as a Physical Therapist Assistant, she mentioned we should check and see if we could go and see my Grandmother. She has been locked away safe from everybody for the last 8 months at her Assisted Living Facility, and we only saw her one time for a drive by Birthday when she turned 103 last month! So I called my Aunt to see if we could arrange a visit. You see the facility Mel works at is a similar retirement home to my Grandmothers.

They have now finally allowed in-person visitations and for meals. Why not see if we can go and see Grandma? They gave us a 30-45 minute time period we were allowed to visit with her so we seized the opportunity to take a meal and a coffee (from Wendy’s one of her favorites) to her. It felt really nice to see her even if we had to keep our distance and could not hug her. She said I don’t care and we agreed but we did not want to get a strike from the workers and not be able to see her again.

First fire of the season

I hope that each and everyone of you get a chance to spend time outside with your family. In a year like 2020 the bonds that are built this year are forged for life. I see it in the relationships with my daughters and friends. I am thankful that we had the opportunity to get outside and enjoy Gods creation(s) including my Grandmother. I hope you can sit around or enjoy the first fire of the season at your house, (even if you only have gas logs) with the ones you love. We are really enjoying our Fireplace in the living room that we worked on earlier this year!

Until next time!