The recipe for success for a fall weekend in Chatham-Kent for the Corcorans included food, beverages, cake, football and grass cutting.
Well, the grass cutting was part guilt and not enjoyed as much as the rest, but I digress.
We encouraged my sister-in-law to hold the birthday party for Football Nephew’s dad out at Bayside Brewing Co. Saturday. They’d never been there, so we thought it would be time to partake in that little bit of beverage and culinary heaven.
Did I mention Bayside had just come out with its brown ale two days earlier?
So off we went, 13 in total, through the rain to Erieau. The funny thing is, when we got there, the rain stopped and the skies grew brighter. As usual, the food was awesome and the beer tasty.
We refilled our growler with the new brown ale so we can enjoy the local beverage at home. Another growler headed northeast to Lindsay, to spread the good word about Bayside’s products.
The evening of revelry – well, everyone having a slice of cake and then sitting around chatting about kids and life – ended rather early so we could all attend Football Nephew’s final Chatham-Kent Cougars game of the season the next morning. Yeah, morning football, in Wallaceburg to boot.
But it was worth it, as the gridiron boy’s team showed up to play Sunday, shutting out the competition.
And morning youth football sets the stage for afternoon NFL action. Thumbs up, recliner open, Detroit Lions in action, heavy eyelids by halftime, and snores through more than a quarter of the game.
That’s just plain sweet.
But it also makes one feel guilty for sleeping on a beautiful sunny fall afternoon. So I rushed out at halftime of the second game to cut the back grass for what is likely the final time this year.
And I celebrated by watching more football into the evening while dining on my daughter’s leftover pulled chicken sandwich from the night before.
Yeah, that’s all right.
Waste diversion
Thanks to readers for their feedback. I heard from a few folks who aren’t happy over the cancellation of the fall leaf curbside bag-a-palooza program. I’m sorry, but being allowed to haul out 10 extra bags to the curb a week for long stretches in the spring and fall just never made sense to me.
I came to Chatham from the Kawartha Lakes region where I lived on an unassumed road and had to haul my own trash to the dump, or pay to have someone take it away.
We also composted our yard waste in our backyard. I had a huge leaf and grass clipping pile, and a compost cone where kitchen waste could go into the mix.
When we moved here, it was great to get curbside pickup for our trash. As for the yard waste, we had a composter for some of it and fill the pickup truck every fall to haul the excess off to the yard and leaf depot.
People are viewing the change as a reduction in service (and technically it is), but it really is an effort to divert compostable material from the landfill, and to prevent people from abusing the garbage bag limits.
Readers suggested mulching the grass clippings right back into the lawn. It’s an excellent suggestion, as it feeds your lawn with each cutting. I’ve been doing that ever since we purchased the house. And I did it with the leaves on the weekend.
Whatever doesn’t get down deep into the grass will get sucked up in the coming weeks by our lawn vacuum (locally purchased last year), which also mulches up the leaves.
