Fall at the Homestead

Fall has arrived a bit late this year. WE did our usual thing for Halloween with the pumpkins, we had candy and we were all ready for some trick or treaters but we only got three. The next Monday at a first responders meeting several people told me they brought their kids by but we werent home....turns out they did Halloween here on Saturday since Halloween fell on Sunday this year. Who knew!!

These were some of the pumpkins from our garden this year and the hay was from our first pasture cutting.

Holly, Judy and I all had to carve our own pumpkins.

Boo boo being his normal lazy self

We dont have a very good camera but this full moon was beautiful.

We had a great Thanksgiving with much to be thankful for. We had a traditional meal with my favorite brined turkey and it was cold and snowy out which is perfect weather for a feast. We talked to all the kids, watched football, cooked and ate. The first Thanksgiving in our new homestead; it was special.

The night before Thanksgiving we had temps around 70, thundershowers including high wind and rain (6 .5 inches) and there were three tornados a little to the southwest of us. This was Thanksgiving morning with temps around 29 and it started to snow. The outside wood bouler kept us nice and warm.

The extreme temperature change in the span of a few hours was shocking but the snow is beautiful.

It was so quiet and peaceful. I think my blood pressure dropped about 20 points.

And so on Black Friday I got up early to 19 degree temps, threw a couple of logs in the wood boiler and then got paged for an ambulance call. An elderly lady had fallen outside and laid in the cold for a couple of hours. When we got to her she had an extremely low body core temp and was hypothermic and unconscious and we ended up calling for an aero medivac. I hope she will be okay, its hard to think of the temps here being dangerous after living in Alaska all those years but it can be dangerous and many folks here live in poorly insulated houses and have marginal heat. But instead of going shopping, we walked around the homestead and enjoyed the beauty. Here is Holly and Boo boo by the lower pond.

Some interesting ice shapes in the pond.

Dandy in our upper left pasture

The upper pond didnt ice over except on the sides

The cedars were covered in ice and in the sun looked like they were covered in jewels

Lots of poolen on the upper pond from all the rain we had. The inner row of  trees to the left of this picture are being taken out and we will plant grass for a picnic table and outdoor grill but there is another outter row of trees behind that to give us a wind break. Thousands of birds were flitting around up here today.

Just a view towards the barn from the mid pasture.

Holly with Lil Bit in the upper pasture

View from the orchard of the barn and house. It has a stark beauty with all of the leaves gone.

Most of the snow melted off by mid morning and temps are expected to get up to about 50 today.

Still not sure what I want to do with the old road grader

And finally Holly and Boo boo in the orchard. Boo boo doesnt like to walk in the ice and snow and has to be carried. This is the same wild feral cat we found half frozen in Alaska about 8 years ago....he has definitely gone domestic in his old age.