Finally summer has rolled into fall and everything around us seems to be shifting gears a bit. It is still hot and we could sure use more rain, but there are signs that the cold and wet will be coming even if they aren't really here yet. But the air smells a bit more crisp, we are starting to see some leaves on the ground, and the days are getting shorter. We are ready for autumn and wet and cold, but we don't have the same work to do that the animals need to prepare for winter. We always have work to do however, and we are still enjoying late evenings outside while light allows.
This little nuthatch and its friends spilled so much seed out of our birdfeeders while picking out the little nuts. The chickens were pleased:
The hot and early summer seemed to stimulate more large fir cones than usual:
Many of our trees suffered sunburn this summer. Lots of big ones have brown needles near the trunks and several little trees died, but hopefully the young trees like this will be in good shape in another couple years:
One of our late sunflowers catching the sun:
Beautiful twilight and sliver moon:
This sunset was spectacular:
The sky just looked ablaze for a few minutes (this photo is not retouched):
Nearing the end of the atmospheric display:
A dehydrator full of fruit:
This is something unusual - a convention of two lizards and a cricket:
A very exciting harvest including our first cantaloupe!
We loved the dried apples and pears. They were hypothetically for storage, but we ate them all:
Our cantaloupe was delicious!
Tux is 15 now, showing his years but still happy and spry:
There were so many katydids this year!
I'm not so sure about this whole growing broccoli thing... It had about a thousand more problems with pests than any of our other plants:
We culled this small side broccoli after we discovered it was demolished from aphids. The alpacas were pleased:
Bringing in dead wood to split for winter:
More delicious produce, including some of our best harvests from our youngest fruiting apple trees:
And the Harvest Moon Eclipse. It is wild to think about how this might have seemed before astronomers had the scientific understanding to explain it:
It was interested to see a different part of the moon in shadow from a different body obstructing the light:
The broccoli, finally ready for harvest!
Craig showing off our one flower crop:
This was the yield: One large serving of broccoli for each of us, and almost 3 dozen caterpillars removed. I can't conceive how many aphids were removed with the leaves, and then subsequently with my prolonged washing around the flowers. Broccoli is one of my favorite veggies to eat, but by far my least favorite to grow. It was more work intensive than any of our other plants, requiring as much attention but not producing anything edible until the end of the season, at which point it was covered with aphids and caterpillars and required about an hour of my cleaning before I was ready to cook it. I'm very happy we tried out growing broccoli, but I had no idea it would be like this. It was fun but I think we'll stick with squashes and leafy greens next year.
