Autumn

The photo above was taken at my mailbox. My neighbor lives on this ridge and we share the upper part of the driveway. It drops steeply down into a hollow.

There is something magical about the late afternoon light on all those maples and oaks. I could pull up a chair and sit there all afternoon to watch the leaves and trees. 

This week we've had some amazing sunrises. I mean brilliant and startling in colors. 

Sunrise at PeeWee's: Harvest time.
Sunday morning

The Sumac Tree I have been watching since August:

We had a killing frost two nights in a row so the garden flowers are all done it and turned into slimy gobs of gooey green. But at least I could appreciate them just before they turned.

Cosmos

Other jobs for the Autumnal weekend were replacing the stock tank heaters and pulling burrs from my an-ni-mule tails. The redheads always get into parts of the forest where stick tights and burdock are, no matter how diligent I am about pulling or cutting them down.

That is Sunshine staring at me. 

I'm happy to report that their winter coats are soft and fluffy. 

After this last blast of color, November ushers in the Brown Season or the colorless season.

I find it hard to be motivated to take photos of anything in our forest during November. 

But I generally use that time to tidy up the house and do indoor projects anyway.

I have a new 'old' Christmas Chair for this year that I found in one of the sheds. A old bent Hickory.

But since we are all thinking about the end of October.....let's enjoy these days were the temps are still above zero!

Do you like winter? Yes, I do. 

Water and butterflies....

I knew that the next two days were going to be filled with water coming down in copious amounts.
As in 2-4 inches of rain. So I went for an afternoon walk to check on the cool fungi and 'enjoy' a record breaking hot day of 87 degrees with incredible humidity.

 The shot above and below is the same fungi, two days apart!

And then because it rained so much yesterday, I thought I'd have some fun ...
the NOAA said waters, creeks, and streams would be dangerous ....

Indeed.

And by yesterday afternoon after doing a house deep cleaning...I sat on the porch...

....and watched a lone Monarch on my last few zinnias....

Updates

Harvest is in full swing again after a few dry days. Of course that all changed over night when another round of rain swung through the area.

Most of the soybeans in the area around where I live are harvested. Some of the larger Big Farms may not be all in.
There is still a lot of corn standing. Some of it still looks green, some fields are brown/golden and ready to be harvested.
Since we had such a strange spring the planting was delayed in areas and in other areas everything went as ... I hesitate to say smoothly as nothing in farming goes exactly smoothly.

Mules. They are all happy! Siera and I were out the other day, I took time to saddle her and ride her to go and check fences. I could have easily walked, but felt like it. 15's education is at a stand still as is Sundance's. I need to work with both of them but it always seems that something else grabs my attention.

Morris. He is doing rather well. When he isn't sleeping he is more like his normal old self. He likes to nag. He wants out, he wants his new food [he loves that nasty smelling stuff!] and he still enjoys his daily walks on a leash. He won't hike with me anymore but that is fine. He still seems to get confused once in a while but that is okay too.
He gets playful once in a while and will 'zoom' around the house, being his goofy old self for a bit.
He has to get up more at night to go out and do his business, and lately has been waking me up at 4AM to go out and feed him. Well. I am making adjustments. After all, he is the aged dog.

Rich. He is back to driving locally. He went last week to an auction by himself. It was a tiring day but he came back with a Pony Tiller for the garden. I imagine it needs some work, but he says it runs. Yesterday was his first solo trip to get small bales of hay from our Hay Man.

The Dexter Cattle. We have had the ones we are keeping separated for all summer now. Our Bull is scheduled to go to processing in January. I think we'll have plenty of beef from him. Rich has put off sending the others to auction. He needs to make some decisions quickly. Deer Gun Season is only 4 weeks away and if winter settles in, hauling the cattle out of here will be too tricky on our hilly driveway.

Fall Color. Wow.
I think this week was the last of it. Within days we went from glorious brilliant colors to the Brown Season.
Next week they are predicting our first frost. Usually we have a frost by the first weekend of October.

It is time to turn inward to the household things. Painting the kitchen, organizing and building shelves in the basement, and putting away the warm weather clothes and digging out the coveralls and long johns.

It will be a challenge to keep finding interesting things to photograph in the 'Brown Season'. I actually look forward to some hikes in the woods where I will be able to see now that the undergrowth is dying off.

That wraps it up.

Out and About with fall colors

I haven't had a lot of time to go out and actively seek fall photos this year which is ... a bummer.

However, I had my FujiFinePix camera with me for errands and running back and forth to work.

Here is a few.

Crops. Beans and Corn from the edge of the road on County J.

Corn strips, neighbor's field on the ridge off from our gravel road.

The geldings, time for hay to return to the fields and get prepared for winter.
This is the aged mule lot. These guys are in their late 20's and have had a good life. They are in retirement.

The Merry Meadow in an edited 'painted' version. 

I am hoping this weekend to get around to more areas in the county and grab what color is left.

This morning we had a pretty good frost.

Happy October!

After two fairly cold nights I expect that the trees will do some rapid coloring and changing.

For those who like fall this is the opportune time to get out and enjoy the weather.  We are expected to have nice sunny days and temperatures in the 60's for the rest of this week.

After Morris and I visit Dr. Piper for his check up and rabies shot...also an exam of his teeth ~ we will be heading out to Duck Egg for a walk together.
My assistant loves riding in cars and hiking.

Have a wonderful day.