Down on the Farm With Ruthy!

Ya gotta love fall on the farm! This year, a long, cool, rainy summer that wasn't one bit normal for the long, hot, cloudless days of a normal upstate summer on the shores of Lake Ontario challenged our veggies.... and kept the weeds relentless in their quest to take over the world as we know it!

But hard work by Seth and Dave prevailed.... and that was despite bouts of illness and equipment breakdowns and water in the gas and blight, and bugs and did I mention blight????

Despite all that, the fall harvest is a medley of color!

Pie pumpkins and mini-boos, and gourds!!!!!

AND: BIG PUMPKINS!!!!!

AND MONSTER GOURDS!!!!

And little gourds and eggplant and green peppers!!!!!

And Chickens!!!!!!

And here is my borrowed Pumpkin Sign, how cute is that???

Bushels of squash:

Note that I'm not showing you THE HOUSE because my scarecrows that have been living in the closet for years are.... sigh.... still there. I've been busy writing on weekends and while I know I should get those bad boys out and put them on the porch, I'm afraid cowboys in Washington have taken precedence.... DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD THOSE RANCHERS WORK?????

I am lazy by comparison!!!!

And I'm selling cornstalks for folks, but I have none on my porch... First I'd have to clean the porch.

Always somethin'..... ;)

We've been roasting squash regularly, we've tried new eggplant recipes that were as simple as dipped in egg and cracker crumbs and roast.... and that was awesome! Right now the garage has been TAKEN OVER BY SQUASH!!!!!!  There is no room for cars, so we must sell squash because I know the rain and snow are coming!

But it's so cool to see boxes and boxes of God-given food.... and know that folks will be bringing their boxes around and buying bushels of squash to keep for the winter.

I love that. I love preparing for winter, knowing it will come and knowing I'm ready.

I think I'd be a little lost without winter prep. I don't swim, I don't golf, I don't play well with others, so I can do my writing sweet book lifestyle ANYWHERE.... but I love being cozied up for the winter.

Am I weird?

That feeling of preparedness, of work to be done, of laying the groundwork for the future. I love that. Too much time on my hands makes me RESTLESS.... and then I cause trouble. Clearly this summer there's been no chance of that, LOL!

And I got my confirmation of being in "Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Forgiveness" in December, this week...... SO PSYCHED!!!!  We have a LINK HERE.... but no picture yet. But in three months, it comes out! #happy!