fall

The tomatoes and green peppers as well as the eggplant finally quit for the season last night. When I walked out through the garden to check the cattle this morning of October fifth, the leaves were curled from the frost and the faint smell of green chopped feed was on the air. As I made my way through the cornfield on the field road a rooster pheasant surged up from the side sounding his rusty caw-cackle as he zoomed low over the standing corn, settling in toward the other end of the field. The cattle are putting on weight fast on the fall grasses and they were busy harvesting the last crop of hay where we had them temporarily fenced. In several weeks there will be the cornfields for them to glean, while the sow herd picks through the last of the pasture growth. The drought closed in this year, but we had excellent yields on the oats, what looks like a good corn crop and adequate hay crops. We have much to be thankful for, but the soil is very deeply dried out and we have a bushel full of worries for next year. Something is afoot that it is going to be hard to live with. The upcoming winter is for rest, for planning and finishing the new farrowing building, and for planning and studying a more weather durable approach to our cropping pattern. But if we are alive to the earth, we cannot fail to notice the beauty that surrounds us in this fall season. We do not get to come this way again. Jim