Fall Updates

Ok, I've already told you that I'm having a wonderful fall, now it's time to fill in the gaps with one of those big updates. Second to spring, I think fall is our most productive time of year.

The girls and I have been harvesting and processing both wild and cultivated treasures. Despite the fact that we've processed and put up numerous bottles, jars and freezer bags this week, our kitchen table is still buried.

We were given the leftovers of a neighbor's garden, which was mostly tons of tomatoes and hot peppers, so the girls and I have been putting up jars of salsa, as well as enjoying hot pepper eating contests in the evening when everybody is in.

(Peeling tomatoes)

(Operation Onion:)

Forty some tomatoes, forty hot peppers and nine onions.
Homemade tortillas, garden fresh salsa, cow fresh sour cream, homemade cheese and uh--purchased olives. Yummy!

We harvested black walnuts and have been making different tinctures from the hulls as well as getting the nuts, too. A few mornings ago, Mom, Mike, John, Liz and I all stained our fingers processing walnuts out on the picnic table.

From the garden, we've been harvesting carrots (did pretty good this year), broccoli, sunflower seeds, corn (did terrible this year!), root veggies (not so good, potatoes need help) and squash (did too well, ack!). Still covering Mom's greens and tomatoes at night.

From the wild, we've been harvesting dandelion roots (once dried and ground, they're a coffee substitute), wild mint (for us ladies winter tea needs), black walnuts, wild mustard, sumac and, of course, apples.

We got our first heavy frost a few nights ago. Time for those strawberries to go to bed! I got one bed put to sleep, three more to go!

I put Frysta (our half Icelandic pony filly) with the Icelandics a few frosty mornings ago. She's been getting to know them over the fence and really seemed to want to get in on the action and play with them in the big pasture. After a good romp, I put her back with Momma again, where she flaunted the fact that she had gotten to go out and play and Momma didn't get to come. When Momma burst her bubble with one of those discipline-type bites on the butt, Frysta settled down and took a long nurse to settle her stomach.

She was really running for awhile there!


Ah, lets see, the kids are still playing in the leaves, still playing on their ponies, still playing football, still enjoying life, um what else is new?

We have our winter supply of round bales being delivered today. We have to get them arranged up on tires, and fenced off from the pasture.

We have a storm blowing in this weekend. Even if the weathermen weren't predicting it online, we'd be able to tell due to these little fellas:

They're called snow birds, but around here we've picked up on Andrew's nick name for them: the prophets of doom. They crowd the roads, fields and parking lots a week or two before the first snow storm. These guys have been buzzing around us for at least a week now.


After two years of apprenticing, I finally did my first hoof trim on Lena a few days ago. It's been getting hard for Mom to bend over my new sibling (lol, she's pregnant!) to do the trimming, so it was the motivation I needed to give hoof trimming a try. Lena can be a spoiled little --ahem-- at times, which made trimming tougher then it should have been, but I was grateful that she was good to my new sibling! (And Mom.)
Here she is giving new baby a kiss.

We've been experiencing gorgeous fall sunrises and sunsets the past few weeks. I actually get treated with some pretty 'moon sets' occasionally. There were a few times last week that I woke at my normal rising time (about 7) to the moon spotlighting in my room and watched it set on one side of the pasture while the sun rose on the other. Camera simply can't capture it (especially when it's owner is still in bed).


Doesn't it just make you want to roll up your sleeves and get to work?

..or relax and kick your feet up after an accomplishing day?


Wheew. If I were more diligent about updating I wouldn't have these monster updates piling up (in picture form) waiting to go on. How'd that slideshow work for you as a way of picture sharing?

Well, I have a Cabin Update and a special Bunny Report (coming from Theresa!) in the works, so those should be up sometime next week.

Until then, enjoy your falls!!

(Can you believe I live here? Neither can I! )