Cottontail Farm: And then it was Fall.

Fall seems to have happened so suddenly. I guess it feels like that every year. The days are shorter, the mornings colder. It's nice in a way.

Our house looks cute. Squash bugs were terrible this year and decimated everything planted. We produced one squash and one pumpkin. The rest were purchased from a farm up the road or gifted by my father who, God bless him, tossed some seeds in a compost pile and had a great pumpkin harvest.

The big oval one is our only winter squash.

These beauties are in the Ali's parking lot. No idea what they are but it would be nice to plant some here, they are so pretty in the fall.

I love this sedum.

The goldenrod is nearly over. There are a few asters left that the bees are gathering off of. I'll help my father extract honey this month and am really looking forward to it.

The yard from the poultry run.

Bee has been off the charts the last couple of weeks with chipmunk kills. Sometimes I doubt there are any left in a mile radius. We didn't know we even had any here until she started bringing them home. She has a specific wailing noise she makes when she's caught something and this morning I heard her yelling her "Family! I brought you a gift!" seconds before the oldest said "Mama! Bee has a chipmunk! On the porch!" She wanted to bring it inside. Hell no. So she left it in the flower crock. Thanks, Bee.

PIicked up these two stray chicken salt and pepper shakers at an estate sale. They obviously don't match but are really sweet.

I had mentioned to my dad months ago that the oldest needed a bug cage - nothing heavy or glass but just something light to bring critters inside to study. And I didn't feel like paying retail for one. He found this secondhand within a week of that conversation and I think it cost a dollar

We've used it all summer to bring insects in the house, identify them, watch them and then let them go. This is a little snake I found and caught in the garden. My husband recognized it as a tiny Dekay snake which eats earthworms and slugs. You can see it in the fork of the branch in the picture. Our son was SO excited to see it up close, watch it flick it's tongue out and to hold it before we put it back where we found it.

One of my very first memories is from when I was about 5; my dad catching a tiny snake for me to look at. We carried it home in a plastic box for 22 shells so I could study it..

Also of my mother leaving me alone in the woods at that same age when she saw a snake and bolted. She was terrified of them. I was collected eventually.

"MAMA, GET THE BOOK!" He said. Out came the little vintage Golden Guide. We read all about our snake and every other reptile in North America.

Some lovely asters he picked for me.

A walk with the cousins.

I was thrilled to find this at a yard sale today for $15: a brand new Pendleton blanket with the tags. It's lovely and I hope it will be an heirloom (although upon seeing it the oldest announced "Look! Two bears! And a volcano!!!")

Sigh.

Nigel is a Brahma mix and his colors just look like Fall. He's a beautiful gentleman.

The remaining quail have gone in the freezer. I probably *should* do something about the amount of poultry still out there but It's hard to justify sending older hens to the freezer when they're still laying. If asked how many birds there are I would be forced to go out there and count. I have no idea. Guessing, conservatively... a shit load. There are chickens everywhere. We don't have space to house all of these over the winter so some of them will graduate to pot pies and fajitas in the next month. That little one next to Nigel was supposed to be sexed as a pullet but is obviously male.