Harvesting

With a hard frost in the forecast, I spent a sunny day gathering the last of the garden produce. Basil is drying in the mudroom. Three honeydew melons sit on the kitchen counter to ripen. The sweet-meat, butternut, and spaghetti squash are in the basement under the pool table. The red spuds are bagged safely in great grandma’s cold storage. Peach pie-filling, tomatoes, and corn wait in the freezer. Pickles and green beans sit in shiny rows in the storeroom.  I love October.

The cottonwoods are starting to turn, just a sprinkling of gold amongst the green. The dark plum dogwoods and chokecherries contrast against the shiny green regrowth of the irrigated pastures.

As the sun sinks downward in our southern sky, there’s a golden sun-kissed tone to the world. Gone are the smoke and haze of August and September.  I bought a big pumpkin, the deepest most opaque orange, and a pot of rusty-red mums to brighten the front stoop. The colors of autumn.

I made the first fire of the season in the wood stove this morning and dug out the cold weather clothing. I  must love hiding in sweaters and scarves, especially on these warm October days when the chill is off by 10:30 a.m. and it's toasty warm on the sunny side of your face.

We had grass-fed chuck roast with garden vegetables for dinner. When we sit down to a meal, Seth says we eat “from the fat of the land.”

We’re set to wean calves on Saturday. Autumn is here; time to harvest a year’s work. Did I mention I love October?