It's a little nippy on the back porch this morning.  I don't like it.  This porch is my work space and my refuge, and I don't want to give it up for the winter.  Fortunately, we have a plan.

The first year we built this porch, we wrapped it with thick clear(-ish) plastic come winter.  The plastic kept the porch far warmer than the outdoor temperature.  But The Husband didn't like it because he couldn't "see out."  So we didn't wrap it for the next several years.  A couple of weeks ago, The Husband came up with a plan.  We bought a 10' x 30' wedding tent.  It has windows in it.  We are going to staple the side panels to the porch.  He can "see out," and I can stay warm.  Win-win.

Since we're supposed to get a frost in the next few days, I went down to the garden yesterday to salvage the last of the tomatoes.  Had to fight my way through the  spider webs between the rows.  Most of the tomatoes were spotty, and many had seen their best days a long time ago, but a few were usable.  

There was also one serrano pepper plant so full of ripe peppers that it looked like a Christmas tree. I should have pulled up the whole plant and brought it home to make pepper jelly.  This year, I planted a lot of pepper plants, and most of them performed well.  However, something ate the leaves off of the six jalapeno pepper plants, which I planted especially for pepper jelly, and they never did recover.  We won't have jalapeno pepper jelly this year, unless I use grocery store peppers.

I got some hopeful news last week.  I believe I've told you that The Boss is retiring next year, and I will be out of a job.  Ever since she made her coming retirement public, I've been bugging lawyers' ears - "If you need a legal assistant, I'm your girl!"  Last week, one of the attorneys, a Public Defender, slid into a chair beside me and said, "Send me your resume.  I think we've got something for you."  One of their assistants is retiring next year about the same time as The Boss plans to wind down her work.  The timing would be perfect.  I sent him my resume the next day, and also sent it to the D.A.  The D.A. and P.D. assistants make a LOT more money than I make.  If I can get a job with one of their offices, it should significantly boost my retirement pay.  My fingers are crossed!  

The down-side is that I might actually have to work.  ;)