Turn Your Clocks Back And...

Change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. You do have these in your home, don't you?

Change the furnace filter, water filter and air filter on your vehicle.

Change the Bug Out Bag in your car from Spring/Summer to Fall/Winter.

Change or rotate your tires. Check the belts and plugs and other connectors beneath the hood. Saves headaches later. We found a wire frayed and a line to the radiator rusting!

Stow the summer lawn chairs, rakes, decorations and bird feeders that are out of season.

Check out all your winter equipment - snow blower, shovels, wiper blades, windshield scrapers, gloves, mittens, boots, ice melt, jumper cables, vehicle tool kit. Around here it's not uncommon for something to be borrowed from one vehicle for another purpose. I opened the BOB in my car and discovered ants! Seems Sweetie went looking for something and discovered a bag of candy - which he opened!

This is also a good time to check your vehicles and garage for items that will freeze in cold weather. Our bottled water was brought inside and half full drinking bottles as well as three 2/3rd full gallon jugs were placed in each vehicle for emergency use.

This year we finished the new deck & blocked off the opening our outdoor cat used to go beneath the mobile home. He punished us by disappearing for two days. I was so distraught I couldn't sleep until he magically returned early today. After cuddling and talking to him and feeding him, he wandered off to the barn and I went to bed.

Later today I found him napping in the bass boat that hasn't yet been parked in the barn. Cats can confound the best intentions, so I pulled our 10' jon boat up near the back door, tipped it over and propped rough wood boxes on end beneath one end of the boat. A few scraps of old towels and Slick will have new winter digs - we hope. His new environment may be ignored for awhile but I'm willing to entice him. He is, after all, a great mouser.

Have a great weekend folks!