“Autumn
has caught us in our summer wear”
~ Philip Larkin
While
not yet Autumn, Sunday I could not get warm.
The weather has definitely cooled down (like 10 degrees below normal) and the a/c units are out of the
windows. Along with Spring this is my
favorite time of the year.
A
walk along the barn road shows dead leaves starting to accumulate along its
edge.
A look up into the woods and you
notice the trees have lost their vibrant green.
They now wear coats of army green and drab olive. Soon they will be vibrant again in hues of
red, orange and yellow. The wildflowers
or weeds depending on who is talking are blooming.
The multi-flora rosehips are turning
red.
The hops are past their prime.
The acorns are plentiful and the black
walnuts
are making walking across the yard without turning your ankle an
impossible feat.
Autumn
seems in a rush this year. The bear is a
regular visitor as he tries to put on his winter weight. The puppy doesn’t like
him! He growls with his hackles up while
walking from door to door. Something
took down one of the fawns in the field.
It took ½ one night and ½ the next.
We believe it is the coyotes which are getting to be nightly visitors on
the mountain behind us….another thing the puppy doesn’t like! A small buck was in the yard yesterday, the
velvet is off his antlers and his neck looked like it had already started to
swell. And at the man’s worksite there
were deep marks of hooves being shoved in the dirt where two bucks had been
fighting.
I
have spent the last month canning, knitting and working on the genealogy. A
friend knew my tomatoes were not producing what I needed and picked me up 125#
from a farm near where he works. I was
kept busy enough that I missed the Endless Mt Fiber Fest.
I
did however enter into their completion and I won on both entries!!!!! Cyndi from Riverrim was nice enough to take
them up for me as she vends there with Grace Hatton. This year’s project was a cowl. I entered a crocheted version
(Main Street byKrista Wolf) which won first place and a knit version
(Beaded smoke Ring by
Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer with a few changes due to time restrictions) which
won third place! I know it’s not like
entering into a huge competition such as MD Sheep & Wool or Rhinebeck but its
fun.
But
back to the gardening/canning….With the addition of the 125# of tomatoes, my shelves are now stocked with all the BBQ
sauce, chili sauce, salsa, bruschetta in a jar, rotel tomatoes, crushed
tomatoes, tomato sauce and V8 that I need to get through the year. The green beans which were late to start are
still producing. I slowed down picking
so I can save seed for next year. The
summer squash were nothing to write about but the winter squash are doing
fantastic. I planted two spaghetti and one
LI Cheese in the regular garden and I must have 10 spaghetti squash still out
there and three cheese. Up by the barn
in a manure pile I also planted one LI cheese, 1 striped cushaw and some saved
seed from a sugar pie pumpkin I got from Walmart last year. I intended to keep moving the fence but the
vines soon grew through the roll so I couldn’t move it without breaking the
vines.
However I have four cheese, three
cushaw and some sugar pie’s. The
chickens have discovered the sugar pie and are pecking at them. I had to wrap the others that are growing
outside the fence in old feed bags so as not to lose them.
We
went blueberry picking in August at Herrick Hill Huckleberry Farm and it was awesome.
Toddler O kept eating and every time we asked him how many berries he picked
and put in his bucket the answer was three.
His brother Baby B went from person to person, stomped his foot,
grunted, put his hand out and waited for it to be filled. We brought home 30 pounds.
I froze some, and then canned blueberry/lime
jam, blueberry syrup and blueberry pie filling. This past weekend we went apple
picking at Roba’s. You can quickly fill
a ½ bushel as the trees are loaded
so it wasn’t as much fun as berry picking
for the adults or the grandkids. Closer
to Halloween we will go back pumpkin picking and after looking at their cut
your own Christmas trees we might have to get our tree there this year. And did
you know there are less than 100 days until Christmas?
And
in genealogy…I got back into it after being contacted by a relative on my father’s
side. This past week I contacted someone
about my grandmother’s sister (or daughter as has always been assumed) on my mom’s
side and it ended up being her granddaughter.
Now maybe we can make some head way on our great grandparents.
And that about wraps it up.
