In which we take a few hours to remember why we live this life

It's easy to get my tail wrapped around winter preparations.

Readiness for the dark months takes a lot of work during the hot months.

My handsome hay crew

I like to have 3 tons of hay stored each year for Fiddle and the goats.

That is probably more than we need, unless the winter is very sn*wy, in which case it's barely enough.

The dogs are very pretty, but not useful at all when it comes to splitting firewood

I also like to have 3 cords of firewood.  Last year we only had 2 cords, and we squeaked through...barely.

There was very little left over, which means that we need to really hustle this year to stuff the woodshed full.

The big tree from Sandy's house will give us about 2 cords...but that wood is very green, not burnable yet.  That means we need to find more seasoned wood and get all of it split and stacked before the rain begins.

The garden continues to rampage forward

The garden feeds us in summer and winter, so it needs care too.

Jim canned a bucket-ton of beans last year, and we still have plenty in the pantry, so I planted fewer this year--enough to eat fresh and share during the summer, but we won't can any this summer.

I planted spaghetti squash for the first time this year (Patty planted them last year, and I saved seeds), and we can see a bumper yield ripening in the garden now, alongside a moderate (no! really!  only 2 plants!) crop of zucchini and plenty of corn.  The spaghetti squash stores well without a bunch of special handling--we clean them off, stack them gently into big boxes in my office, and go get one or two whenever we need them during winter.

The tomatoes are surviving, but (as a result of the Tomato Curse which guarantees rainy summers if I plant tomatoes) we don't have tons of them.  On the bright side of the Tomato Curse: it's August and the state isn't on fire. Eating a few tomatoes when they get ripe isn't difficult.

Most of the garden work this time of year is picking stuff for dinner.

beans, potatoes, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and basil from the garden

I enjoy working on the farm, but it's not the only reason we live here.

Oh yeah!  I also like to ride with my friends!

There was a horse lost at the Pilchuck Tree Farm last week, so we saddled up to go look around.  This is not a common thing, but having lots of eyes looking helps speed the homecomings.

We didn't find the horse (he walked out of the woods into his own driveway 4 days after he got loose!) but we did have a nice ride and found something else:

Chanterelle mushrooms!

With the missing horse located, and a bunch of chanterelles already drying on the table at home, I headed to the hills on Sunday with no goal in mind except a pleasant solo ride with my horse.

No fires, no floods.

No herd drama.

Not too hot, not too cold, not too buggy.

Memories of warm days and blue skies are something else we need to stock up on this time of year.

After all,

King of Coziness

Winter is Coming.