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Autumn stayed seven weeks with us this year. She arrived in a hustle and bustle, bursting through our doors, but then proceeded to settle in slowly over the course of many weeks. Indeed, we wondered if she didn’t plan to board through the winter! Whether by our bidding or hers (I think it must have been hers), she made her mark on every room in the house. No table, shelf, or corner escaped her whims. Out of her brocade carpet bag came leaves, pinecones, and pumpkins to “warm the place up,” she said.
Pansies, snapdragons, calendula, and other little ladies on the way continued to call long into her visit. Mrs. Autumn received them cooly at times, welcomed them warmly when she fancied, and other days, for no apparent reason at all, shooed them away with outright, cold unfriendliness. Gradually, we became used to these bouts of balm and boisterousness; her hot and cold tempers, her sometimes compelling and always colorful personality. In fact, truth be told, we fell for the fiery charms of this irresistibly unstable old soul.
Then, as suddenly as she came, and not gradually at all about her repacking, she vanished. You might think we were relieved to find her gone, but no. When Madame Autumn vanished in the night, taking all her resplendent frocks and coats with her, and leaving behind only a few colorful trinkets here or there, embossed in gold and umber, we felt quite without, even desolate. Looking down the road after where we imagine she must have left by, everything is, inexplicably, as it was the day she arrived. Indeed, we can’t seem to discern whether she has left us or whether she never came at all.
Her wiles add to her fabled mystery.
Be her frock in velvet green or yellow?
Be her tresses frosted silver or gold?
Be her nature of sunshine or of snow?
Has she a’ready come or did she a’ready go?
Yes, my dear ones. Let it be understood:
She is Madame Autumn of the Wild Wood.
Finally feeling that “End-of-Year-Three Victory”
Color hasn’t been the only blessing of the season. I am positively ecstatic to update you all as promised in 🌻Everything we did our THIRD SUMMER+FALL on the Homestead🪚 with a resounding yes! The homestead workload does indeed decline after the end of year three. I hope you are even half as happy about this confirmation as I am! We had far fewer and easier projects on the docket this growing season than we have had the previous years. And I’ll tell you; less is surely more! We have all been enjoying this shift on the scales from less work to more play; less to plant yet more to harvest!
Among many other triumphs this growing season, we picked our very first homegrown nectarines and peaches which were truly the best we’ve ever tasted. We also feasted on wild huckleberries and everbearing strawberries for weeks on end. Our tastebuds have become so spoiled, I don’t know if we will be able to truly enjoy a storebought berry ever again. Thankfully, the deep freezer has enough berries under ice to keep us juiced up until the thaw!
For all you current homesteaders, I hope all your harvests were bountiful! And for any hopeful homesteader reading this, all I can say to encourage you is dig in, my friend!
Dig into hard work.
Dig into rich soil (or build some).
Plant those seeds.
Breathe that oxygen.
Gather a rich, rigorous life.
And taste the difference
on your tongue,
in your mind,
in your bones,
in your soul.
Everything We Did Our Fourth Fall on the Homestead
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Harvested Pumpkins & Potatoes!
The kids weren’t the only ones helping us harvest this year. Yeti and Otis were very involved, too! They harvested rotten tomatoes and potatoes out of the compost bays and carried them to the lawn for us. They harvested cardboard out of trailer we had loaded for the dump and proceeded to “process” it for us on the porch into tiny, itty-bitty pieces. They even harvested tools and pots from the garden to etch with their signature styles. Thanks, boys! The kids don’t have any competition for being helpful, that’s for sure.
Potato varieties we grew this year:
- Huckleberry Gold
- Yukon Gem
- Sangre Red
Finally built that composter!
This has been one of those projects that has been listed and moved, listed and moved, on to and from every season’s to-do list since we moved onto the property four years ago. In retrospect, it was such a quick project (only took the guys a few days) that we should have knocked it out way sooner, especially when you factor in the time and money we’ve spent in picking up and unloading purchased compost. Isn’t that the way this homestead life goes? We’re always just short on daylight and manpower. Oh well. We are so excited to finally have a compost system in place!
The guys made this composter out of cedar planks to prolong its lifespan and put in three bays so that one pile can be building, one can be composting, and one can be finishing! I’ll update everyone in the summer on the quality of our “black gold!”
Continued Project “Snow Globe”
This greenhouse/sunroom has been a lengthy but rewarding process. The expanded deck is now our family’s favorite place of the entire homestead. We absolutely love hanging out back there and soaking up every bit of sun we can get in the warm months. And of course, I am beyond excited to get my seeds going “below deck,” come spring! I may just have to put a little hot tea station down there and lose myself in sun-warmed teapots and potting soil. I can get on board with that.
If you are wondering why the deck is leaning or “wonking to the south,” it has been designed that way for rain and snow shed with a 1/4″ pitch per foot. We used Duxxbak decking; a very cool interlocking, composite material which basically fits together to create a series of tiny gutters. Anyway, the rain sheds off, you guessed it, like water off a duck’s back, so we are happy. Snow, of course, is a more complicated matter with a battery-operated snow blower required. Send me happy thoughts. As for the railing system, we went with a minimal look; wire and black metal to understate the material itself and maximize what we really want to see . . . the mountains and woods! By happy “accident” (God’s mercies and blessings), the wires also happen to serve as perfect perches for our favorite feathered friends!
Next step for the snow globe over the winter months. . . interior!! Stay tuned.
Stripped the Birdies Beds
We cleaned up the beds a bit, but also left plenty for the birds and the soil to feast on through the winter months! We also gleaned anything left to harvest before the first frost.
PSSST!! We’ve got our EXLCUSIVE CODE for Epic Gardening’s Cyber Monday Sale, live now! We love and highly recommend the Birdies Raised Beds and fantastic, hard-plastic seed cells in particular!
Sale Dates: Sunday, November 9th – Monday, December 1st
Details: 25% Off Almost Everything Sitewide & Gifts with Purchase!
Discount link: https://shop.epicgardening.com/HOLISTICHOMESTEAD
Use this code: HOLISTIC HOMESTEAD
Happy spring dreaming!
Mulched perennials
What a joy it is after five months of winter to see shoots and blooms poking up out of the snow! We spread pine chips on strawberries, lavender, and echinacea. The trees all still have a heavy layer of mulch that we never removed in the spring, so we skipped that this year. 😀
Feasted our eyes on autumn!
Every autumn astounds me all over again for radiant, glowing color. The gold on green with splotches of fire red never disappoint.
Welcomed the first snow!
And since we’ve no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
And just like that, I’m ready to start making stuffing and get the hot apple cider brewing! Thank you for following our fall adventures! Stay tuned for winter wonderland and hibernation homesteading updates.
I hope you all enjoy a wonderful holiday season, dear friends!
Love, ~Candace Arden~
