Autumn On The Farm

        It is hard to believe that summer is over and we are starting to shut the farm down for the winter. It seems like just yesterday that I was planting peas and stuffing colourful annuals into rusty old milk pails and washtubs to scatter all around the farm yard, making endless batches of freezer jam from the prolific strawberry patch and buying fluffy, peeping chicks. Now I am all pumpkin, falling leaves and cold weather sweaters!

       The girls are enjoying the autumn days, pecking around the yard and scratching under the trees for the last of the juicy bugs. Too soon, they are going to be locked in their snug henhouse and there will be no more days of free range bliss.

The fresh snow in the mountains each morning, reminds me that winter is coming and the days of frozen hoses and chilly mornings doing chores are right around the bend! It will not be long before I will be doing chicken chores in total darkness, to be able to be at the workshop on time to start breakfast for the ladies. Oh, I am going to hate that!! But, I know that it is just weeks away! The pumpkins and corn froze the other night, so I can harvest the pumpkins and zucchini this week - they were grown to feed my girls during the winter, to give them something to peck on and pass the long winter days. Boredom busters, so they won't start bad habits in the henhouse, like pecking on their friends and family!

     A couple of times, early in the morning, as I was feeding the ducks, I have smelt wood smoke from our neighbour's place. It is a satisfying, "full circle" kind of feeling. Part of me is ready for winter rest, a slower time, less outdoor work to do, no more "projects" or items on a list. It is getting time to hunker down with good books, photographs from summer activities to scrapbook and my cookie sheets and cake pans. It is time to test recipes. Time to fill the house with the smells of ginger and cinnamon. Time to see all my friends again. 

     But for right now, I am content to wander among the trees (with my camera in hand) and soak in the last little heat rays of the summer, try to capture the falling leaves and listen to the birds as they flock in the grain fields and the honking of the geese as they fall into line behind one another in the classic formation. It is a time to give thanks for all the glittering jars of fruit and veggies, safely stored in the pantry. A time for tidying up the garden tools and storing them safely away until the spring. It is my time! I am an autumn girl! 

      Bring on the pumpkins!