The days have been filled with doing. Fall seems to have shown up today. It’s getting a little cooler (temps have been in the 70’s lately). It’s cooler, windy, rainy. Fall is in all her glory with the colors. It happened so quickly. One day leaves were starting to turn. The next day they all turned and started falling. Once they’re done falling I can clean the gutters. The meat birds have been butchered. They didn’t weigh as much as I’d hoped, but I have plans on improving that for next time. Yes. I think there will be a next time. Better planning, better coop set up so I’m not crawling in and out all the time, that will help. I’ll grow them out longer since they are on pasture they didn’t grow as fast. I’m thinking about adding a butchering class to my ‘on the homestead’ series. So many ideas for classes are swirling around in my head. Speaking of. Cheesemaking is next week! I can’t wait! I’m going to set my cheese fridge back up and get some cheese in the cave. I feel like I have a lot of time now. Before it seemed like I was just running from one thing to the next. But now. Now I can plan my days and what needs to be done. Get back to homesteading the way I want to do it. Last night the dog and I sat on the couch watching the (Dixie) Chicks concert while she slept and I knitted. The (chicken) girls get some free range time every day now. I’m transplanting flowers, planting new ones, thinking of flower beds and cleaning up and out. Oh! I should mention that I have to move our book group dates. I start the Master Gardener program on Thursday and it runs every Thursday until February! So I totally flaked when setting up our book group meetings. I’ll change everything on the original blog post, over on Facebook, and on the events calendar. I can’t wait to share more of the Master Gardeners with you.

I just poured another cup of coffee because the rain really settled in and it got much, much colder! I love this time of the year! I love snuggling up with my Anna Lee, a quilt, my knitting, and just being. That’s not to say that things aren’t getting done. I think I just do them much faster so I can cozy up with the dog. HEHE. Today’s all about putting things up: inventorying my products, putting them on the shelf, and then making space to dry all the flowers I saved. I’m planning on saving some to use when I make wreaths. Some I’ll save for their seeds. Tomorrow night is craft night. A dear friend and I decided to do a craft night. I was thinking I would like to start a knit night with friends too. We used to do that before we moved to the current homestead. And life has been so busy lately that it’s been hard to get together for knitting. But I think it’s the time of the year to do it! And I am also thinking of programs and classes for the future. Not only butchering, but seed swaps, chicken keeping, canning. This ‘extra’ time that I have has been good for me. It’s really gotten the creative juices flowing.

Before I go, I just wanted to share with you that not everything is a win. Those muffins up there? I wanted to make whole wheat muffins so I found a basic recipe and then I wanted to sub out the white sugar with maple syrup. Easy enough (it’s a 1:1 substitution mostly). Then I wanted to add banana and strawberries. But since the berries were frozen the muffins took forever to cook. I ended up feeding them to the chickens. They were not good. So. You win some, you lose some.

’til next time
-k
xoxo