Weather Eye

Chilly, but sunny and bright when I went down to the barn, the weather made a U-turn and went south.  A cloud cover moved in, the wind picked up, and the temperature plummeted.  It was a good day to turn on the oven and get those pumpkins baked and ready to puree.  I'm fortunate to have double ovens and it only took four hours to get all six seeded and soft.  The seeds will be toasted today and sprinkled with a little salt for snacks later on.  I'll bag up the pulp to freeze for soups, cookies, maybe some pumpkin tea bread.  The chickens will be the happy recipients of the shells and inner pithy parts.  Little to nothing gets wasted as long as one has chickens.

I'd been holding off, adding a sweater or a pair of sweat pants on the cool days and evenings, but by afternoon the house was cold enough to warrant a fire in the wood stove, the first of the season.  The last chimney sweeping had worked magic and the fire caught in no time and soon the house was cozy again.  As convenient as it used to be to just turn up the thermostat when I lived in the valley, there's nothing like a wood fire to take the chill and dampness out of the air.  One drawback to a sealed stove is that you have to go outside to get a whiff of that wonderful wood smoke.  Going out in the drizzle that had begun just as I was putting the kids to bed, I found that I wasn't the only one on the hill who'd lit a fire...the air was perfumed. 

Rain began to fall for real after dark, and it brought out the confused pine beetles again.  Joel said his cat is afraid of these bumbling beetles.  Frank and Pearl think they are toys made just for them, little whirring Hot Wheels to chase and bat around.  Bessie Anne lay with her back to the wood stove and ignored them all.

The larder is stocked with new supplies.  The critters, feathered and furred, are all warm and dry.  There is more than enough firewood for winter.  It was a good day.