Cooler Days and Earlier Nights

 

   It's that time of year. I woke up this morning wanting to start a fire in our wood stove. Our days lately have been nice and cool. Our nights are pretty chilly. The leaves are starting to turn colors and fall to the ground. The animals are putting on their winter coats. It's getting dark quite a bit earlier now. We've been having to get our chores done earlier in the evening to keep from walking around in the dark. These early nights are nice and peaceful. Everyone has been winding down sooner. We've had coffee-and-a-good-book kind of evenings instead of working outside until the sun goes down. The kids have been settling down with a book or playing on the living room floor. We are slowly moving towards that slower pace time of year. Not that all work is done in the cooler months. Our winters are pretty mild so we garden throughout the fall and most of winter. Right now in the garden we have cabbages, brussel sprouts, greens of many kinds, green beans, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, radishes, carrots, and herbs. Fortunately we have been having plenty of rain so we haven't had to water the gardens. And because of the cooler temperatures the weeds and grass aren't growing like they were. Less work! Also, the goats come in this time of year. We are only breeding two does this year. Although love is in the air out in the goat pasture we have decided to A.I. instead of do live breedings. This is something new for us and we are excited to introduce some really nice bloodlines into our herd.

So, that's life on our little homestead this time of year. What is fall like in your neck of the woods??