We had a pretty good frost last night, but I think our garden, being well covered, has survived again, although some leaves are showing definite signs that it's really the end of growing season. I tried something different last night - I released the tomato plants from the stakes and laid the vines on the grass/hay mulch and then covered them with a thick layer of grass and leaves topped by a heavy sheet of black plastic. This morning I pulled the covering back and left them on the ground. I'll need to cover them again along about Thursday, but in the meantime, I'm hoping a few more will ripen. Then I guess I'll just pick everything, green ones included and hope let them ripen off the vine. Or maybe pull the vines and hang them in a warm spot and let the fruit ripen. I've heard that works well if the fruit is mature enough.

Today was another bright and sunny fall beauty. There was a steady breeze and if you were out of the sun too long, it was quite chilly. But the foliage is lovely and it was an invigorating day to work outside. I have lots of work to get my flower beds ready for winter, but that can wait. I wanted to get the tractor garage organized so we could store the deck furniture, and I got that done - with some help from Fred. Mostly it was a matter of deciding to throw out stuff we don't need, like carpet remnants, parts for machinery we no longer own, and just plain junk. I'm the saver, so it was mostly stuff I needed to make decisions on. Fred wanted to continue hauling in more wood for winter, so I only bothered him a few times to help move some of the big stuff. It's all finished except for hauling away a fairly large pile of junk for recycling.

It's amazing how much stuff accumulates. We both save stuff, but I admit I'm worse than Fred. I think it's a combination of probably being overly thrifty and unwisely confident I'll need these precious items one day. I hate throwing away anything that still has some "life" left in it.

I believe the trait is in the genes. Today I found one of my father's many tool kits. It was one of those metal ones with a tray, a couple of latches and a handle. When I opened it, there were all sorts of odds and ends of screws, washers, wrenches, cotter pins and some stuff I couldn't identify. I dumped it all out on a plastic bag to let some of the sawdust and dirt blow away, and discovered it had not one, but two wooden bottoms neatly fitted inside. Ah-ha, I thought, I bet Dad put the wood in there to keep his tools from rattling, or maybe so things like saw blades or chisels wouldn't get dulled on the metal. There was some rust on the sides and I decided I'd use a wire brush and give the old thing a coat of paint and it would be good as ever. The few rusty spots cleaned up nicely. Then I turned it over and started working on the bottom. My wire brush scraped off several layers of rusty metal revealing a couple holes about the size of a quarter. I guess Dad didn't want to throw it out, either, so when it began to rust he reinforced the bottom with wood.

I sorted through what I'd dumped out, put the wooden bottoms back in place and arranged the tools in the bottom and the small stuff in the upper tray - minus the miscellaneous valve caps, rusty nails, and sawdust. I may eventually give it a quick spray of paint just to keep it from rusting more, but whether I do or not, I won't be throwing it away any time soon. Now I have another place to store more stuff when I start rearranging things in the garage.

And then there's the basement, my office, the kitchen drawers - it'll only take a few weeks - or maybe months - well, possibly years if we're talking my office. But what the heck, sometimes it's fun to just sort through the treasures we've saved and forgotten and by next fall we'll probably need to do the tractor garage again . . .