Fall on the farm...

The days of summer are over.  The cool, crisp air has replaced the warm, summer breeze that used to come up onto the front porch, just in the nick of time when the summer heat was getting to be too much.  No more sweet tea on the porch.  Soon, we will be sipping apple cider while rocking in our chairs (we have enough rocking chairs for each member of the family now- thanks to my parents).  The summer green leaves have been replaced by brilliant colors of orange, amber, yellow, red, magenta and brown.  The sound of the lawn mower has been replaced by the squeal of children as they jump into huge leaf piles.  Each day, the wind helps the children get those precious leaves down to the ground so they can add them into their ever growing mountain of foliage.  Interestingly, the chickens love the leaf piles as well.  It's not odd to see children and chickens alike, kicking the leaves here and there with their feet.

Speaking of chickens, our Araucana's (we think), now named "Merigold" and "Sunflower", have started to lay eggs in their hutch (lovingly created by Farmer J).  Lately, three in one day.  I'm not sure why J thinks they Araucana's are responsible for the eggs...I just go with it.  Anything we make with the eggs turns a brilliant saffron yellow color.  This morning, we used one large egg (with a double yolk) to make our waffles. The waffles had a slight orange tint to them!  When we find an egg, typically in the afternoon, we put it in the egg basket (given to us by my parents) that is hung up high by our mud room porch.  Then we all get to remark on our beautiful egg collection as we all come into the house from our busy days.  We don't wash the egg until right before we cook with it; surprisingly, they are very clean.  Below, you will see a picture of some of our eggs, held cautiously by our youngest!  They are a very pale blue/green.

The gardening season is starting to come to an end but Farmer J is trying to extend it as long as possible by putting up a temporary hoop house.  Just today, we harvested the last of the zucchini.  We have had lots of fun making various kinds of zucchini dishes.  Our children much prefer the chocolate chip zucchini muffins and chocolate zucchini bread over the zucchini pasta and zucchini enchiladas.  Today was also the last harvest of rhubarb.  J will make his famous rhubarb pie tonight-- a recipe passed down from his mom! The pie is a big hit in our house and likely will not last 24 hours!  Farmer J is also harvesting potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, various kinds of lettuce and broccoli.  On the flip side, he is planting winter garlic.  Here is one of the sunflowers that towered over the garden until mid September.

We are still loving this farm.  Just a few hours ago, someone pulled into the driveway and started taking pictures of the place, the log home enveloped by fall.  The stranger said, "I love this place" and we responded, "We do too."  We have now seen the farm over all four seasons.  I can't say I prefer one season to the other.

It is nice to have a break from the hot summer weather but we are bitterly reminded of the this new cool weather every morning and night.  The house tends to run on the cold side, especially in the original log home portion of the house.  Within the next few weeks, the old fuel oil furnace will be replaced by propane heat.  It will burn more clean and will be slightly cheaper to heat 'this old house'.  Until then, we are staying warm with various portable heaters, lots of baking in the oven and lots of down comforters.  I can't imagine how cold it was to live here back in the early 19th century.

Things are starting to settle down.  I love the beginning of autumn.  As a mother, I embrace the early dusk as my children are tricked into thinking it's way past their bedtime before the time has actually arrived.  It will be harder to get them to bed early once they can tell time :)

Time to get going.  Farmer J has a soup cooking on the stove and the youngins' are starting to search for food.  I hope to post more pictures of the farm during fall time in the next few weeks.

-The Wary Farm Wife

~ Our deepest sympathy and love to our friends who have recently experienced much loss.  Please call us when life settles down and we will feed you well!