New tree

Remember the little Autumn Flame Maple tree in my back yard that died in the heat of summer (till I was in Tucson, AZ)...

And here it is the brand new Patmore Ash tree planted this week. I really hope it will live. This is the same type of tree Ingrid has in her back yard, very hardy to AZ summers; hopefully will survive the IL summer also.

And here the "brand new" washed dog :-)

Colder temps

It is now time to use again our blanket and long pants pajama :-)
Taylor is curling up against my stomach when we sleep (not heard off in hot summer nights). Finally I had help and planted the five little bushes on the side of my house. I really hope they will survive the winter and grow fast (the purpose is to have them grow huge and keep shade to the West side of my house).

The nursery guys did not come yet to plant my new Ash tree... still waiting on them.

Saturday we had a small picnic with the international students at Steinman's family.
It got cold as soon as the Sun was going down, nights are cold now.

Picnic with students

Picnic for international students.
It was fun to see all the students and their host families. We sailed the little boats on Cougar Lake, ate, and students learned step dancing.
It was cloudy so it was not as bad, till rain came and everyone found shelter and danced or watched others dance ;-)

Labor Day trip

For labor Day I joined my international students and we visited the Meramec Caverns .
The weather was pretty warm in the mid 90s F but inside we needed sweaters.
We had a little picnic and then entered the beautiful caverns, in search of Jesse James :-)
We even found him... well, not quite, mostly .... his statue.
It was a fun day.