It’s about time for another address. Goodbye September and hello October. September packed her bags at midnight last night and made a hasty retreat. She did have a smile on her face. This is because she brought good weather with her and everyone appreciated it. October is nervous because she can’t guarantee that she’ll be able to pull off a full month of sunshine and warm temperatures. Already, we’ve had light frosts, not enough to damage the tomatoes or the peas but pretty close.

The shelves are full of canned goods, sauerkraut, tomatoes, cranberry juice, raspberry juice, raspberry jam, and pickles included.

There were closures, so we did not get any salmon. We also ended up purchasing organic blueberries. We vow to do better next year.

We are going into the remaining part of the year here in very good form. The harvest has been successful. We’re still getting peas on the vine, and today we dug up a large part of the potato patch. All the potatoes were large this year, no specimens the size of one’s thumb.

The horses are going into winter in very good shape. They are now barefoot and their hooves are looking better than they did when they had shoes on. We’ve changed their diet – they are getting zinc, copper, and vitamin E supplements and soon these items will come from a single mix, called California Trace.

We managed to get the September videos done. Hrimmi was the superstar. Tyra and Raudi finally came through, after Pete and I did several video sessions.

Tyra’s new saddle is being ordered tomorrow.

Ryder has been full of energy lately – the squirrel that lives in close proximity to here continues to taunt her.

Stormy is looking very healthy. At the beginning of summer she looked scurfy. I haven’t seen her act like she’s in heat. I think that she’s being discreet about this. She most likely does not want to have babies and be milked.

Chickens are molting right now, but I suspect that in another week we’ll again be getting eggs.

We’ve gotten a lot of projects complete or near completed in the past month. Pete recently ordered one load of gravel and one of sand. Some of the sand is now in the Playground. It’s packing down nicely. And some of the gravel is now in the horse pen. It too packed down nicely. And some of the gravel is on the far side of the driveway. Pete spread it with the tractor, yesterday. It’s going to be the foundational footing for a garage for the man truck.

Today Pete turned the compost. It was steaming. We added some of the dirt that I dug out of the pit. I keep telling him this has to be most nutrient rich dirt/sand around because it was in the drainage area.

We’ll see what October brings. I am leaving for America tomorrow. I am always glad to get home, and I don’t think that this time is going to be an exception.

Next: 274. October 2, 2018: Safe and Sound