It was an almost eerily beautiful Fall morning, gathering clouds, a strong wind, cold enough to bite a bit. The gardens have all gone barren after two nights of hard frost, we’ll be feeding hay to the animals in a week or so.
My Will Cather wife loves days like this, she is out for hours cutting, digging, re-arranging.
Yesterday, Matthew Ross came to trim the donkey’s hooves, and today, Maria and I shoved the manure pile into our wheelbarrow and hauled it out to the gardens, thinking ahead to the Spring.
Our donkey manure has been something of a miracle, bringing even the most tired gardens back to life. This is a chore Maria and l love doing together, I did the shoveling and the wheelbarrow rolling until my back protested, then we took turns.
People tell us we could sell the manure for a lot of money, but we would rather give it to friends and use it for our own gardens. Scott Carrino used to come in his old army truck and haul it off, but he doesn’t come for it anymore.
Once we start haying the animals, we start on a new manure pile. The digging and shoveling wore me out, I’m still sore from all the walking at the Bronx Zoo Friday. Walking on concrete for a long time messes up my legs.
Fortunately, there isn’t too much of it up here. Maria dug up the Dahlia plants that did so well this year and brought them into the Cold Storage room in the basement, along with our Fig plant. Our strawberry bush will go into the vegetable garden which got most of the manure.
We’re planning to go to the movies this afternoon to see Ad Astra, the new and reportedly gorgeous space adventure movie with Brad Pitt. I might so see the Joker tomorrow by myself to write about it and see what all the fuss is about.
The reviews are very, very mixed, which is exciting. Fall hints at the big changes in our lives. Tuesday, someone is coming to clean out the wood stoves for the winter, we’ll start burning our wood towards the end of next week.
We’ll have to get up earlier to feed the animals. No more lounging around in bed for hours, talking and hugging and loving. I feel the cold more than I used to, but I would never give winter up for a place like Florida, I don’t need to be warm and sticky.
I’m still discovering the beauty of the winter pasture.
Everything gets a little bit harder and more challenging. Soon, Liz Willis, our shearer is coming to shear the sheep, and we’ll make another trip to the Vermont Knitting Mill.
Maria has sold just about all of her yarn, just a few left on her Etsy Shop. That was a huge success for her this year.
We are very ready for winter. In my role as farm quartermaster, I’m happy to say the shed is full of wood, the barn is full of hay, the water tub is heated again, the stoves will soon be lit.