down falls the autumn. today is leaf-fall: i woke to a rain of cottonwood and mulberries leaves, steadily streaming down from a clear blue, and very cold, heaven.
as usual, i’m running a bit behind on photo updates. we’ve put the garden to bed for the winter, and processed the last batch of meat chickens until next summer. turkeys are coming up in just a couple weeks– we still have birds available for reservation for thanksgiving, so if you are interested, please drop me an email!
meanwhile, here’s some autumn on the farm.
virginia creeper on the north fence, in the wayback
curved cottonwood branch, as the year wanes
turkeybirds in the barnyard. these are our mama turkeys from last year, who raised up a batch of 7 wholly free-range poults.
i don’t know what these are, but they’re lovely. i only see them in the autumn in the garden.
the AP system fish tanks by the pond
roses overarching the garden path
and hiding beneath it.
the garden falling into fall. the corn did not come in very well this year, and stayed short in comparison to other years here. we’re tilling again this winter, and re-doing our irrigation system between now and next march, to change this for next year.
grapes on the Gate of Possibility.
there’s a full month out of every year when the simple sight of this tree can knock me over with a breath.
from september:
to october:
bam. the Grandfather Cottonwood, a 200-year old Rio Grande Cottonwood near the acequia, is the first to turn gold and the last to turn green, every year.
beneath that canopy, a sweet rain of massed gold.
this might be what it’s all about, really.
i spend a little time on the roof of my yurt, most years, doing seasonal repairs. i skipped it last year, since it hadn’t been raining, and this year’s summer rains took me off guard and came down in long streamers onto my stove. so i got myself back up there to mend the tape and pull mulch out of the seams again this year.
here’s the view:
Alan’s yurt
tiger on the wall
the woodpile
and there’s nothing quite as sexy as a well-stocked woodpile. this year’s firewood is courtesy of the spring’s demolition work in the remodel project, as it generated a lot of non-reuseable scrap.
the view over the ditch
