Missing: Fall

Last night we worked on cutting stone right up until the sky turned an ominous shade of blue and the fat raindrops spattered the concrete floor of Castle Aaargh.  By the time we tossed all the tools in the wheelbarrow and slammed the barn door shut, the rain was hammering the leaves off the trees.

When did that happen?  The leaves falling off the trees, that is?  Since it was raining steadily, Carl and I decided to take a little ride after we came in to see the Fall scenery.   It was almost 6PM  (someone forgot to tell us that the sun sets so early now) but we thought we'd clean up and hop in the car and enjoy the sunset.  We drove through pouring rain and finally came out on the other side of the thunderstorm only to see the sun slipping down behind a woods consisting of bare-naked trees.

What the heck?  When did the leaves completely fall off the trees?   We were both stunned.  We missed Fall. It's like someone pulled the plug on the trees and the leaves vacated the premises.  Plop.

Carl goes to work in the dark, leaving home at 5AM, so of course, he doesn't see anything except the highway in front of his headlights every day.  Yeah, we noticed the pesky leaves were landing in the bag of mortar and in the mortar mixer every time the wind blew a little, but just pick them out before you slap a stone down. 

I know this is going to sound really pathetic, but neither of us noticed Fall this year.  The past month has been spent concentrating on the stone work to the exclusion of just about anything else, and the unseasonably warm weather we have been enjoying was making us both feel like it was September at the latest.  Why, we have LOTS of time left.   And we have LOTS of conifers in our yard....see them in the picture?  We're surrounded by cedar, pine, and spruce by choice (since we planted them) and deciduous trees were an afterthought.  Since this is the part of the yard we're spending all our time lately, of course we didn't notice things like falling leaves all that much (except for cussing at them for being in the mortar). We were both dumbstruck last night by the fact Winter will be here before we know it and we've been gadding about, knocking stones around and not paying attention.

Carl went back to work on Monday and then surprised me by arriving home by 11 AM after being given the go-ahead by his foreman to leave.  He has the vacation hours to use or lose, so we're using them.  He did the same thing on Tuesday, worked from 6AM til 10AM and was home and back to work on the stones again til dark.  He's worked the same job at the same place for over 34 years, starting there at age 19.  (Where did that time go?)

I know where my time has been going, though.  The house we live in is a wreck.  I did manage to get laundry done with the trusty ol' wringer washer yesterday and on the line and off again just before the rain hit.

Maybe the whitey-tighties aren't as white as they could be, but they smell better, lol.

Carl came home from work early these past two days and we immediately take up where we left off.  On Monday afternoon we ran load after load of mortar through the mixer and laid up all the stone we'd cut on Sunday.  Joel came home from work and lent us a hand again Monday night which was phenomenal.  On Tuesday I had to mow the lawn before it looked like no one lives here (just the parts that show, lol...like my housekeeping) and then joined Carl cutting stone again until it rained. 

He's been working on cutting as much stone to shape as possible and then carting it over to the job site to see what fits.  We're working on the pillars right now and the wall around the doorframe and the bigger pillar where the round window will eventually go.

I know, it looks about the same, doesn't it?  But if you can see the area to the right of my green stool, you may notice there's a small pile of stone on the wall?  That's the beginning of a pillar, and the same thing just above that black pail by the door frame.  The windowsills on the south side are now mortared in, too; there are three of them in this picture, two high ones and one low one for the bigger window. 

We went on our little ride last night and discussed stuff as we drove.  Carl's not so sure about my choice of the title 'Castle Aaargh' for the stone thing.  He's worried it sounds too grand.  I told him I could simply shorten the name to 'Aaargh' (it would cut down on carving all those pesky letters).

Or we could go with Camelot.

But that's a Silly Place.