Seasonal Thinking

~~~Autumn Phyllocide~~~

Yup, it was as blatant as it comes yesterday.  

Jack Frost was on a murderous rampage, taking no prisoners.

Leaves were hanging bravely in their last hurrah.

Soon, I'll have work to do---the major project of Fall. 

I'll have to go to Big R to buy me a new rake cuz my plastic model with the big wide sweep broke a week or so ago.

I tried duct taping it back together.

Then, I tried using the rake. 

Even duct tape won't work for some fix-its.

Anyway, within the next few days a new rake will be sweeping up Jack Frost's collateral damage into piles.

I'll also use my pull behind lawn sweeper for the major collections.

Leaf pickup around here can last for weeks cuz some leaves die a slow death, hanging on as long as they can.

The leaves get hauled to Pasture No. 1.  After a few dumps, the growing pile gets ignited as fast as possible before rain and snow weight it down to stay there for the winter. 

Any leaves that don't get torched in the fall get eaten in the spring.

Seems that horses don't care much about conventional health standards.  They'll eat just about anything, and after a winter of dining on my board fence, those winterized leaves must taste pretty good.

Yesterday's gray day turned out pretty productive for me with my pre-leaf clean-up projects. 

I finished painting one of the fences.

The barn now has a new layer of gravel extending through the aisle from one end to the other. 

And, I engaged in what I view as one of the ultimate activities of living on a farm:  brush hawging the pastures.

After a summer's worth of grazing, the fields could use some manicuring, especially where weeds have found their way in and stand tall and proud.

I love wiping out the tansey and thistles while sitting on what was my dad's Ford tractor.  

While going round and round as the field gradually transforms into a tidy-looking pasture, I enjoy the simplicity of eyeing the land around me and symbolically pinching myself.

I do have to keep a close eye on Annie Dog, who, at 15, still thinks she needs to be standing (rather unsteadily) directly in the pathway of the tractor---every time it rolls around the field.

Annie always manages to "MOVE !" at the last moment. 

Anyway, while brush hawging in the fall, I revel in the fact that we get to live here, and life can be so good.  

They always say that men have to have their tractors, but I'll tell you that it's an equal-opportunity world:  women love 'em just as much.

Today I'll head over to Samuels Store, load up on some more gas and take that old Ford with its brush hawg for another spin through yet another pasture.

So, you'll know that there will be one very happy camper at the Lovestead today.

Now, leaf pickup, that's another story!

Happy Thursday.