As I walked through the kitchen today (my favorite room of the house), I noticed one of my writer’s notebooks on the counter.

I hadn’t put it there, so I knew it was bad news—a job list.

I cautiously picked it up and began reading. “Things to be done before winter.”

I see this list every fall, even though I don’t need this reminder of the things I need to do to prepare for the cold months ahead.

I don’t know if the list gets longer every year, or if it just looks longer because I am getting older. (I just turned 75 in late September.) I think Susie just stands in the house and starts this list. I take the notebook and walk to the front window. I think this must be what she does also.

“Fix emergency address sign on mail box.”

This is a yearly job. During the winter, the snow plow comes down the road and knocks the sign loose from the post. With the small amount of snow last winter, the sign was still hanging, but wouldn’t stand up much longer. I would have to semi-permanently fix it so it wouldn’t end up in a snowdrift down the street somewhere.

“Take down and clean hummingbird feeders.”

I usually leave these up with food to accommodate late migrating hummingbirds from up north. When they come down, I clean them so they are ready to return to their usual spot early next spring. At the same time, I will rehang all of the other feeders and fill them for our winter guests.

“Trim back and cover rose bushes.”

Susie usually helps with this job because she likes the roses. We trim them back to about six inches tall and cover the stems with the remains we have cut off and mound up some leaves we have raked. I’m not sure they need all of this, but I do it anyway. Wild roses I see when I walk in the woods make it through the winter without this help.

That is all of the chores I can see when looking out the front window, and from the list, she didn’t see anything else there either. I walk to the back of the house, look at the list, and notice it gets a lot longer.

A riding mower, push mower, two rototillers, a gas grill and a wooden porch swing immediately come into view. All of these will have to be covered or put inside the shed for the winter when the time comes.

Some folks use their grill all winter, but when it gets cold outside, I cook inside. It will be covered.

The swing used to go overhead in the shed, but I can’t lift it anymore. It will be covered with a tarp also.

The snow blower inside the shed will come out, be rolled around to the front of my garage, and be covered to await the first heavy snow of the season. (Hopefully that won’t be until March.)

With the blower out, it will leave room inside for her riding mower around early November. The small mower will go inside also. Both tillers will be tarped down until spring.

A quick look around and I don’t see anything else that jumps out at me that has to be done soon.

Closer inspection and I notice the rain gauge on a post. This is a great National Weather Service gauge that I have had for many years. It measures to a 100th of an inch. I don’t want water to freeze inside and break it. It will be stored in the garage until spring.

Not on the list, but one of my jobs is to set all of the mouse traps in the garage and the motorhome. We have never seen a mouse in the house, but the attached garage is heated and seems to attract the little critters. Since spring, the garage has also attracted a lot of junk, tools, wood for my craft projects and assorted other items. It will all have to be cleaned out the first time Susie leaves for work and finds frost on her car windows. Then, her car will be inside every night.

Susie took away my snow shovel and ladder a couple years ago. I really liked shoveling the driveway. (I’m weird that way.)

Because of my breathing problems (which turned out to be heart problems), I quit shoveling. I’m still allowed to use the snow blower, which actually is harder than the shovel but I don’t tell her that.

The gutters will need to be cleaned when the leaves stop falling. That’s why she took away my ladder. I trade my neighbor a pie or cake for cleaning the gutters for me.

My leaf blower will come out and I will blow all of the leaves from the enclosed part of our back yard. This keeps our dog from carrying leaves in the house every time he plays in them.

I’m sure she will find some other jobs for me to do to add to the list before I get all the chores marked off.

I won’t mention the fall window cleaning because she might read this. I’m sure she will notice it when the birds start feeding and they look blurry through the dirt.

At least I am allowed to use the oven again. This summer when the house was so hot, I wasn’t allowed to bake anything.

Rich Creason is an award-winning outdoors and travel writer whose work has appeared in local, regional, national and international publications for 40 years. Born in Anderson, he is a graduate of Markleville High School. He lives in South Madison County with his wife, Susie. He may be contacted at [email protected].