Gina and I have taught Project Ride Smart together, periodically, for the last few years. She is a really creative person who makes jewelry and other decorative items by up-cycling bicycle parts. 
Her second bedroom is her studio. I love seeing other people’s work spaces. She’s very well organized.

Volleyball championship game
I tried to go to Sophia’s game this afternoon, but there was a brush fire that closed I-5. All the traffic diverted onto the side streets. When it took me 20 minutes to go less than 2 miles, I knew I would not make it to the game. Darn. Sophia’s St Ignatius volleyball team won. Thais sent me the pictures.

Walnuts gathered
I raked and picked up the final section of walnuts today. Of course by this last day, I finally figured the best way to bag them. It started with Justin’s neighbor, Mitch, who loaned me his walnut-gathering tools. That day I went to the hardware store in Marysville and got my own. A light weight walnut rake and a lightweight fork with a bit of a backstop on it. 
Justin got the walnuts inside the pasture and loaded some of the bags into his trunk for delivery to my garage. The last 5 trees had the biggest yield I think. 27 bags today. Yes, my body aches from the exercise I got this week.
My garage is FULL of bags of walnuts.
Dinner for Six
Drinks at Klein’s
Halloween
Walnut gathering
Justin had the trees shaken a few days ago. There was a dry north wind (bad for fires, good for walnuts on the ground) with no chance of rain so Mother Nature dried the walnuts this year. Hurray! Justin made a nice arrangement of tools for me on the lawn. We weren’t sure which would be the best. I ended up using just the metal rake and a dustpan.

One tree raked and bagged, 14 to go.
Almost half the trees are done. 25 bags today. Using a dustpan to scoop up the raked walnuts means there will be debris to deal with.
My vehicle is full!
Oops! Slow down on those turns, girl!
Volleyball and soccer
This afternoon I tried to go to Sophia’s championship volleyball game but there was a brush fire which closed the freeway about a mile from my house. All the traffic was diverted onto local streets – it was awful. 20 minutes to go one mile. I gave up, went home and tried a new pretzel recipe – a definite success!
Sophia’s team won. Thais sent me this picture:











