On Monday I was home. I had planned to make jelly that day. I have raspberries and elderberries I need to use up. But it was a dreary, rainy day – not good jelly-making weather so instead I made applesauce. I went out into the drizzle and picked the rest of the Snow, Jonagold, and Roxbury Russet apples and made a gallon and half of sauce that I froze.
That night the temperature dropped to 30° and we finally had a freeze. I was thankful for it since it meant that my cleanup could finally begin in earnest. And the freeze killed all the Japanese beetles and that’s good. The nighttime temperature has dropped below freezing every night since then. I have to allow extra time in the mornings to scrape frost off the windshield and warm the car up. I’ve switched to a heavier jacket and my fleece lined work gloves now. I have to break ice off the water barrel down at the barn every morning. Soon I’ll have to empty the water barrel and carry water down from the house every day. This is how it will be for a long time now.
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| Dead dahlias. |
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| Josiah helping me clean out flowerbeds. |
Unfortunately, the cold has also brought rodents into the house seeking warmth. They are mostly white-footed deer mice (Peromyscus leucopus) not the common house mouse (Mus musculus), although we have those too. Deer mice are pretty little creatures, but they are not welcome in the house. Hannah and Miriam both report hearing scampering in the walls of their bedrooms. There is a mouse that has taken up residence in the kitchen that has managed to avoid the traps so far. Josiah has also shot a few rats down in the barn. This always happens in the fall. It’s just part of living in out in the country.
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| White-footed deer mouse. |
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| Common house mouse. |
Speaking of animal pests, our battle with the skunk remains unresolved. It’s still ripping up the lawn. I planted daffodil bulbs last week and the next morning I found that the skunk had dug them all up. It didn’t eat them, just dug them up. One night while on his regular prowl around the yard looking for the skunk, Josiah reported six deer in the orchard. The apples are almost gone and when they are, maybe the deer will go too.
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| Daffodil bulbs dug up. |
Our barn was too cold for our peafowl. I had a space heater there for them, but it only kept a small area warm and the poor birds spent all day huddled under it. So on Friday Miriam and I took them down to spend the winter in the barn that belongs to the people Stacey and Hannah work for. It’s a heated barn, just right for the peafowl. When they are bigger they’ll do better with the cold weather and then they can come back to our barn. My chickens are much hardier than the peafowl and have no problem with the cold.
I observed more rituals of the changing of the season last week. I put the lawn chairs away and took the cushions off the benches on the front porch. It will be a long time before it is hospitable enough outdoors to want to sit outside. I also observed one of my favorite fall rituals on Thursday – I gathered milkweed pods from various places around the yard and scattered the seeds. I love to set the silky seeds loose on a breeze and watch them float away.
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| Milkweed seeds. |
On Thursday morning we woke up to find our first snow. It wasn’t much and it melted right away. It was sobering to see it. We’ve had snow in October often enough that it wasn’t unexpected. Even so, the arrival of the first snow triggers something in me. My “batten-down-the-hatches-winter-is-here” mode kicks into high gear.
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| Wednesday evening. |
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| Thursday morning. |
We went down to the Thayn’s house for the weekend. We left on Friday afternoon and got there at dinner time. We like to take them things from the homestead. This time I took them some squash, some big pumpkins, some carrots, a gallon of cider, a dozen eggs, and a bucket of apples. We spent most of the day Saturday working in their yard. We cleaned out flowerbeds. Rachel and I planted a bed of bulbs. Josiah worked at ripping out poison ivy vines. He and Tabor removed some unwanted bushes. And we had plenty of time to play together too. Today we went to church with them, had lunch, and then headed home again. We had a great time. We just got home a little while ago. That’s why this journal is a little later than usual.
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| Mabel. |
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| Cleaning out flowerbeds. |
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| Stacey entertaining Mabel and June. |
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| Planting bulbs. |
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| Josiah ripping out poison ivy. |
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| Removing bushes. |
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| Me and Mabel. |
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| Stacey playing a game with June and Hazel. |
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| Dancing with Uncle Josiah. |
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| After church. |
As we got closer and closer to home, we noticed snow in patches here and there. It snowed while we were gone, but most of it has melted. It was almost dark when we got here, so I didn’t have time to inspect the yard. I did close the chicken coop and noticed new skunk damage in the lawn around the barn. Tomorrow morning I’ll have to do a closer inspection before I leave for school. Then Josiah and I have plans to do some intensive work on as many projects as we can before it gets any colder and snowier. It will be a busy week.
Dan
