A Fall Friday

This morning was a lovely fall morning for walking the dogs. Thankfully, with a four-day school week and typically no school on Fridays, I could do that today. Iggy, Harvey and I headed out for a brisk, but windless and sunny 25 degree jaunt down the road. With Harvey, we're trying to reinforce with him that his harness does not = thunder, fireworks, or campfires, so with the bright, sunny morning, I thought we'd be safe.  He was a little hesitant to put it on the first place, but as soon as we got outdoors, he was off like a rocket! The harness didn't seem to bother him at all.

Right now on the farm, we're finally feeling like we're settling into fall. Harvest and fall seeding, which are the two biggest projects of early fall, are both in the books. Daylight hours are getting much shorter and nights are getting cooler, which means workdays are also shorter. We can have several cups of coffee before needing to head outdoors, instead of the single to-go mug that summer often entailed, consumed in a pickup on the way to the farm implement du jour. I actually see my husband again in the evenings and he is around more to help with things around the house. To that end, I've started to label harvest in my mind as Farm Widow Season, because there would be several days in a row where I'd see Jeff for maybe 5 minutes total. Even for an introvert and mild recluse like me, it gets lonely.

Look at that sweet face! 

Those days are over for this year. Now, we're looking forward to yummy fall and winter foods, hunting season, football games, and beautiful fall weather. I am excited to attend some North Star (school where I work) sporting events-- Volleyball and 6-Man Football, here we come! In my running world, September and October have been and will continue to be chock full of races, too. I did three races in September and may get to that many in October, too, depending on how far I feel like I want to travel to get a race in. We'll see.

Hard to tell, but those white-ish blobs are a herd of antelope!
They were on the move, so the photo's a bit blurry.

What's left for the remainder of fall projects on the farm? Well, we have several CSP projects to work on, such as re-spacing some fence wires, and seeding some grass and pollinator mixes in a few of our fields. We're also working on cultivating a large chunk of ground in preparation for spring seeding. And, fall is a little more intensive with the cattle. In fact, next Friday, we'll be doing our fall pre-conditioning, which I'm a little sad I may have to miss. We'll see.

Can you spot both dogs? Harvey is really hard to tell-- he looks kind of like a rock or a clump of grass! 

What does fall mean in your home, or on your farm? Do you have any favorite fall foods or traditions?

I'm looking forward to many more walks and runs with Harvey!