Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Winter Won't Be Far Behind


It’s blustering outside. Autumn winds are disarraying empty buckets, flapping loose tarps, dislodging dead branches, and rolling over the glider near the chicken yard. The chickens last night wisely called it an early evening and trooped up the ramps into the relative calm of the coop well before dark. The first freezing temperatures of the season are in the forecast for later in the week, which sets in motion a flurry of farmstead tasks.
The rain barrels must be moved inside, and since we value using this precious resource in the greenhouse next March on the emerging seedlings that means storing several of the barrels — full — in the garage. Yesterday, then, saw a bucket brigade; first emptying a barrel, then setting it up in the garage, then refilling it with buckets filled by emptying another one of the barrels, repeating, until now we have four full barrels stored and ready in the garage, and the remaining four empties stored away in the shed.
I finally gathered up the remnant bales from last winter’s duty around the chicken coops and spread the straw over the newly planted garlic rows as mulch. And, of course, there are still vegetables in the garden — peppers galore, beets and radishes, cabbages and chicories, drying beans and diakons. We made an initial gleaning yesterday that was transformed into salsa, but there is still much to gather and find a way to store. There will be more sauces and salsas, relishes and dehydrations, ferments and freezing — and, of course, eating.
There is a frenetic side to these otherwise quieting days of autumn’s decline, revealing in the rushing just how abundant the summer and succeeding weeks have been.
It is a hurry and a run...
...for which we are amazed...blessed...and grateful.