Autumn Is on the Way

It's a bit subtle yet, but signs of fall are becoming plentiful with the brisk air and slowly evolving colors.  A full day of rain on Saturday cleaned up the outdoors and accentuated the process where green leaves and grass are taking on their final shades of beauty before making way for next year's growth.  

Another more prominent sign of the upcoming season comes Friday when the annual draft horse show opens at the fairgrounds. 

We'll probably be seeing the last of our dirt-road evening practices with the horse-drawn hitches in the next few days, since the horses will be moving to the fairgrounds long about Thursday. 

In other horse news, one of my sisters set off this morning for what is turning into a fall regimen for her. She loaded up one of her horses and is headed south to pick up a friend and then make the long drive to Nampa for the Arabian Sport Horse Nationals.  

This year Laurie has a young horse getting his first experience at the big show, but he's been doing well at his Spokane competitions over the summer, so who knows how things will turn out?

Annie, in the meantime, has taken off for a work-related retreat near Yakima.  She took along her fly rod and shared pictures with her dad of the flies purchased for this week's outing.  

By the end of the week, she'll be socializing with European geocaching friends in an adorable town in Germany. She told me last week she'll leave the retreat Wednesday and drive straight to Sea-Tac, where she'll board a plane for an overnight flight to Munich. 

Meanwhile, Bill just took off for a day of work at the same early time he used to do before "retirement?" 

He says today's project is weather-related because it involves spraying.  And, it if rains, the spraying will stop.  So far, though, it's looking like a great day ahead. 

I've decided to start harvesting my onions and bringing in more tomatoes for ripening. We have a few cold nights ahead, and I believe the growing season has pretty much ended.  

So, I'd rather have that produce safely inside rather than worrying about losing it.  

This has been the strangest tomato year ever----kinda been strange in a lot of garden crops.  Tomatoes, for some reason, don't want to turn ripe on the vine, and I've heard the same observation from numerous people. 

So far, we've eaten all of about three garden tomatoes, and those ripened in the kitchen window sill. All the more reason I'm gonna pick 'em and not worry about covering them at night. 

The 2016 garden season at my house has been great for carrots, potatoes and pumpkins. Flower-wise, roses have enjoyed a banner year. The rest has been dismal to average.  

I'm still holding out hope for my sweet potatoes, which are producing some little taters beneath that rich manure pile soil.  If we can hang in there for a few more days without their freezing, I'm hopeful that we'll be able to gather enough for a holiday meal. 

Lots of projects this week----many aiming toward preparing for a first-cousins' reunion here the weekend of Oct. 1-2 where the head count is 30.  

Good excuse to spruce up the place and to get fall to-do's done sooner rather than later. 

Happy Monday.