The Chill of an Early Fall
The canners have been running today, beans and pickled beets, and tonight there is a kettle of tomato sauce simmering away on the stove. When I took the last bucket of canning scraps out to the hog the sun was setting bellow the next hill. Crimson red and bigger than life, few things are as pretty as sunset on Mt Hunger. In the distance the coyotes were making their songs and the night bugs and frogs were adding to the harmony. All the wild critters singing praise to the Lord. The old familiar chill is back in the air these nights. Been down as low 40 on the hilltops and dipped down into the high 30’s in the valley. Flannel shirts are back in style for morning milkings. We’re still doing hay, been a tough haymaking year. Won’t be long now and it will be hog butcherin’ time and time to harvest a few whitetails to help stretch out the beef for the long cold winter ahead. Hard to believe its that time of year again. I’ve really got to get at the firewood, I’ll feel better when the woodpile is stacked tall and the cupboards are stocked full of canned goods and dry goods. Soon traps will need to be repaired and dyed and lines mapped out in my head. Might hit the beaver again this year, don’t know. They say coon and fox will bring decent money this year and every penny helps. I’ve said before that this life revolves around winter. We give it all we have to survive the winter and spend the whole rest of the year preparing for it. Oh we’ve got a little while before the snow starts blowing, but today it hit me that its not as far off as I’d like it to be.