Gracie is rowing for her college -- we went to see her at the Head of the Charles, Foot of the Charles and Princeton races this year. I'm not milking this fall so that we can visit our girls as much as possible. I miss them so much!

Vermont sunset last friday night

The girls are coming home for the holiday! I'm so happy. Today I'll make granola and mama's bread, a silky white concoction with powdered milk and potato flour in it. I'll clean out the fridge to make room for Thanksgiving dishes. The dining room table is covered with papers that I'm trying to organize for work -- that chore has to be done in time to unfold the sunflower covered tablecloth and lay it out in place.

In addition to farming, parenting, working, and getting ready for the upcoming holidays, I'm also painting more these days. I stopped for about a year and recently challenged myself to paint a simple still life of apples and indian corn. I really love painting, just ran out of ideas of what to paint so this is helping getting the creative juices flowing. I'm looking at the world a bit differently too, taking mental notes on scenes that I'd like to capture on canvas.

The co-op is meeting here today for a delivery too. We're getting our veggies and fruit from a local distributor who specializes in native foods. They do a great job, but their prices have been skyrocketing. Still cheaper than the grocery store for us to buy in bulk together, but we're only doing it once a month, instead of weekly, the way we used to. Everyone is getting much more careful with stretching their food dollars around here.

Rose's grocery store in NY State had London Broil for $2.99 a pound and it was very nice meat -- our tourist town store had a lesser quality cut for $6/lb. Vermont's store prices are too high, so most people stay away from certain foods nowadays. We'll have USDA inspected grass-fed beef for sale soon and I hope we can sell it at a good price to our co-op members and others.

Ahhh -- I also have to render pork fat into lard today, before the girls get home. They like the pie crusts that are half butter and half lard, but they don't know the lard is in there. They think it's toxic or something. Makes the best pie crusts though!

We are still getting ready for winter around here. More wood to be stacked. Porch furniture still idles out front, even though no one has lounged there in 2 weeks. But Bob is motivated and ready for work this weekend -- which means, we'll all pitch in and he'll organize our annual retreat from the outdoors.

The cows are happy - chickens are happy -- and even the bees seem busy on the warm days and quiet on the cool, just as they should be. I will cut kale and brussels sprouts and dig carrots and beets from my garden thsi weekend, and then wash off the shovels, forks, and rakes and store them in the barn. We'll wind up hundreds of feet of the loosely strung electrical fencing that separates the interior pastures of the cowfield, pull up the fence posts, and pack them away.

I'm preparing for Thanksgiving -- ordered my turkey from Someday Farm, and we'll dine on sweet potatoes and apple casserole, roasted veggies including beets, carrots, and brussels sprouts from th garden, creamy mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pies. Most of it grown locally or by our own family. Control over food quality remains a priority to us and we'll probably give up farming the moment it stops being since it is so time intensive.

So a few cows are slated to go to meet their maker in a month. We'll have one main mama cow and a steer here this winter. I hate to do this, because you do get attached, but we can't afford to keep feeding them with the high cost of hay. We found a USDA inspected facility in NY State and we'll sell all-natural beef starting in December.

I need to do a little brogging. You know, bragging while blogging...our chickens each lay one egg every day. They are the Navratilova's of the chicken world -- like machines. Red Star Sex LInks. Get em. You won't be sorry.

The pork from the collective has been wonderful. The Muenches were wonderful to raise 3 hogs for our group again this year. The new slaughterhouse we're using was absolutely wonderful too. We took a tour and they showed us how they hold the animals, kill them, and cut them, then smoke the meats. We were very impressed by how much the people like animals and how they told us to please never send them a pet cow or pig! They said they couldn't bear that. The process seems very humane and immaculately clean. We were thrilled we found them: Eagle Bridge Custom Butchery in Eagle Bridge, NY.

We got the hay on Sunday -- enough for the winter for our 2 cows and a steer we're raising for meat. We're hopefully going to have 2 other animals processed at Eagle Bridge, or one of the cows sold. We have to be careful about how many animals we keep each year. But it is nice ot know we have plenty of hay stored for the winter.

I've really thought about this: The New York Times is the best newspaper I've ever used to start a fire in the woodstove. The two local papers are two heavy and don't burn well, and forget US Today since it appears to be made partially from plastic. THe Grey Lady is the best. I could do the NYTimes Sunday puzzle online each week, but usually buy the paper instead just to have it on hand, to crush 3 sheets, throw on 4 sticks of our kindling, and a couple of dried maple logs, split by Bob.

The kale has finally succombed to the cold nights. It stood under a white crust of frost this morning when I went to feed and water the cows. We still have the bull here, but he will return home in two weeks. He is eating up all our hay, although he appears to be doing his business with abandon.

This time of year makes me think of poetry. The woods are beautiful. I think of Robert Frost's "Road Not Taken"..."Two roads diverged in a yellow woods, And sorry that I could not take them both. And be one traveler, long I stood."

I think of James Whitcomb Riley's "When the Frost is on the Punkin"..."When the frost is on the punkin and the fodders in the shock. And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin turkey-cock." "Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms of the trees, and the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin of the bees."

He says - "It is a pictur that no painter has the colorin to mock." It is true - the colors are too perfect, too lit from the inside to capture on canvas. Those old fashioned kodacolor calendars of Vermont probably come the closest to doing the landscape justice.

I love this time of year - the barn is full of hay, the pantry is full of colorful jars of stored fruits and vegetables, the root cellar and cellar floor is lined with bushels of onions, potatoes, and apples, and the freezer is stocked with chickens, vegetables and is waiting for beef and pork to come soon. We worked hard this summer to tend the animals and garden - we worked with our friends to create a collective garden, and we're rewarded with a sense of satisfaction on these crisp days. We are very lucky indeed.

The leaves are so pretty - but town is crowded with tourists who pull out in front of you, running a stop sign, and then go half the speed limit. I try to look for what possible reason I could have for not minding that one bit, because indeed it makes me a little nutsy. I try imagining myself as the marketing person who promotes Manchester and the Mountains. Then - i just wave at the other drivers no matter how wacky they are. I'm patient. I feel good. Phew. The leaves will be gone soon!