OCTOBER 2022

OCTOBER. Early in the month, Nat and Mal called to ask if we wanted to meet them for lunch in Greensboro. What a wonderful idea. We met at a great BBQ place. They announced they were expecting their first baby by giving us a pair of tiny yellow Crocs. . .we would be grandparents.

The baby is expected to arrive in June. Wow and a big happy dance for all of us.

We had fun with various photo ops, thinking about what this new addition to the family would mean for us. However, our house is not yet set up to entertain young ones.

With a new person on the way, I decided I need to add walls to the shed and make it more or less "kid-safe" and usable as a craft area too. Again, Tim figured out the material list and we headed to Lowes. We worked together adding walls until it was complete – cozy and ready for all my stuff.

It was also time for garden and yard cleanup. My focus was replacing as much of that black mulch on the flower beds as possible and to continue nurturing the orchard. I bought a 5 x 8 trailer for the job. There is a place about 30 minutes from the house where I can get free “real” woodchip mulch. I had been taking our recycling tubs and filling them. So far, that had been about 8 trips, and the task was moving VERY slowly. Now I was in business and managed 8 trips filling the trailer. Alas, I had to stop for the season – orchard mulched and many of the garden beds complete.

State fairs in this part of the county are late September - October. We attended the Virginia and Eastern North Carolina fairs, making sure to stop at the extension service/4-H displays and beekeeping areas. Tim is always interested in meeting other beekeepers and to see what others in the area were doing.