First flakes...

Well, it's hard to believe, but we saw our first snowflakes yesterday and today. No accumulation, but a sobering sight when you know what's coming in future months.

We've been busy preparing for the winter though. Our wood supplies are in great shape for our wood stove, which is our primary heat source. Propane tank is full as a back-up furnace just in case. The ATV has been into the shop for some repairs and the snow blade for the front of it has had some parts replaced that were bent from last year. The garden has been tilled up and we're adding grass clippings and leaves for next year. All in all, we're as prepared as we can be at this point!

Bountiful garden

We tried our hand at canning some of our homegrown veggies for the first time this weekend. We had just over ten pounds of tomatoes and a ton of cucumbers so we got ambitious. The folks who previously owned our house left some canning supplies behind and we've often thought about giving it a try. What you see in the photo are jars of spaghetti sauce, tomato juice and a bunch of pickles. Some of the "tools of the trade" are also in the photo. It was quite a task, but I think it'll be worth it in the winter.

We also bought a freezer chest for out in the barn. We've been freezing a lot of the zucchini and yellow squash for future use. Some is chopped up into bite size pieces to put into sauces, pasta and other dishes while others are shredded for zucchini bread and other recipes. We've already gone through one round of zucchini bread to eat and share and look forward to more.

There goes the corn...

Well...it's pretty clear that we won't have a sweet corn crop from the garden this year.

By using our trail camera, it's also pretty clear who the culprit is........or is it?

The Taller They Are, The Harder They Fall

Today Jason and I were inside the house and heard an incredible crash. We threw on our boots and jumped on the 4-wheeler to search out the cause. We found this oak along with 4-5 trees it took down with it laying across our ravine. This old tree was around 80 feet tall and 80 inches around.

This week we’ve had heavy storms with lots of rain and high winds but today there was barely a breeze. It fell from its base which was filled with a large colony of ants, we don’t know if the rot or the ants came first.

Along with friends, we’ve camped down in that area many times and I’m so thankful that we weren’t down there when it finally decided to fall. We’re going to leave the main body of the oak across the ravine until next season to dry out. Plus it makes a great bridge!

Maybe it’s true… an ant can move a rubber tree plant.