I already have $68 more to deposit in the lilac labyrinth account! That means I have sold something like $1089 worth of lilac spoons. I still have a dozen or so more lilac spoons and one more piece of the bush I didn't cut up yet. (I'd better do it pretty soon. It'll be a wonder if there isn't significant loss by cracking.) But that is a lot of money to make off one lilac bush. So I'm sorry for the old man whose bush it was but it was certainly valuable to me and the lilac labyrinth that his sons cut it down.

I am going to write a new post instead of answer the comments on my last one individually. By the time I got to the bank I had $80 to deposit to the lilac labyrinth account. I got a few more dollars today, I think $8.
There is a guy who works at the shop where they repair things like my 4-wheeler, who lives a few miles farther away from there than I do, and he said he'd come over and get it this weekend to take to work with him on Monday to fix it. I did some more testing and monkeying with it myself and I find the battery is OK, the headlights and the electric winch work, since I shined up the piece that connects to the battery, but the starter still doesn't give even a click. It could be the starter motor, the relay, the push-button start switch, one of the 2 safety interlocks meant to keep you from starting it in gear without the brake on, the ignition switch, or just a bad connection. I'm going to let them figure it out, since I have to get them to replace the cracked gas tank which keeps getting rainwater in it, anyhow.
I will answer Margie's question here, because it may be something I should make clear to other people: Yes, you can use a lilac spoon for cooking or eating. It is more important than most woods to keep putting some olive oil on to prevent cracks developing on account of swelling and shrinking, because it is so hard. It is the only wood I've been able to make an eating fork out of without the prongs breaking off, which shows it is very strong.
I was eating some of the last picking of beans of the year when I started writing this post. I think the bean plants are still surviving, in spite of light frost, but they won't produce any more, so I got my nephew's stepson to pick all that remained.
I heard from my friend Kathy that her brother in Pennsylvania reports the same thing about the leaves there, and a friend in Maine also says the same thing, that the leaves are falling without turning color. It gives a strange feeling, but today it did feel more normal, because a lot of the remaining leaves have now turned color.

Terron

I just added up what I sold this week and it comes to $64 worth of lilac spoons. That is $60.02 more than I needed to reach my goal! So, I can tell them any time to come clear the land. But I want to go in there myself and look first, if I can, which depends on getting my 4-wheeler to start. I continue to have electrical problems.
But it's the middle of the night, and I can't go on about it now.

I got out my bank book this morning and did some calculations and it shows only $8.98 left to go!

Well, sold one more lilac spoon today and deposited $44 in the account, which included the amounts from last week. Only $10 or so left to go, according to what I remember, but I didn't check what that was before I sat down to write this, so I don't know if I remember correctly. But I have to go the dentist tomorrow in Sydney, which is 1 1/2 hours away, so I probably won't get much else done. I forget what I reported in my last message, so I will not go any farther, in order not to repeat myself.

Well, not much to report, but I guess I should report it anyhow. I have not sold much of lilac lately. One spoon and 2 spreaders, I think, for a total of $26. I have gone down to cut the logs across the road, but not worked on it a long time any of those times, because I have too much else to do. I have been picking my cornmeal corn ((and wishing I had done it sooner) and making salsa and canning string beans as well as applesauce. So I have made slow progress. I have one tree that is up in the air, leaning across the road into the trees on the other side. I could go under it for now, but I suppose I had better get it out of there. Then one little pole over the road a little farther along. Then nothing else in sight, and I won't know til I go around that corner if there's anything on the next stretch.