It's Autumn Time!!

What beautiful weather!! I love Indian Summers creeping into Fall. So far it's been creeping so slowly, we've barely noticed it's almost October! Pretty soon the leaves will start turning in the valley and the air will stay crisp and clear all day; none of this 85 degree weather ;)

Last night we decided that it was time to take out the last gasping breaths of the garden.

Too many squash bugs destroyed the pumpkin crop and even the zucchinis.

The blackberry bushes had gone crazy and were reaching spiny tentacles out to encircle everything in sight. The corn stalks stood proud and crisp after drying in the sun.

We didn't get much purple broccoli or orange cauliflower and really, not one large tomato, although we got several small cherry ones which we were happy for.

No peppers and two small tomatillos rounded out our pitiful harvest.

Even though I wouldn't call our garden harvest a success, I love planting a garden.

And boy you can bet we have great plans to improve the yield for next year. (More on that later.)

I love being out in the yard and seeing the first tender shoots push up out of the ground in spring. I love the first zucchini in the summer and I love the clean up in the fall.

As we pulled our plants out of the ground and drew out all kind of new bugs and microbes from under the surface, our chickens had a hey-day pecking at the earth. For the first time in months they were allowed in the garden area to roam free and I think they were happy.

We built a fire in the fire pit and cooked hot dogs and roasted marshmallows when we were done and watched the chickens file back into their coops for the night as we ate our dinner. Our friend from next door came to join us and we looked at the stars and enjoyed a still warm, Indian summer night.

Not too many days like this left. Next up...raking leaves