Stuff here has still been pretty busy, but the end is in sight. I am half uber stoked to have all winter to hang out and work on whatever projects I feel like, and half slightly terrified at that much free time stretching ahead of me. More because I'm unused to it than because it is actually a terrifying prospect ... I am mos def aware of how lucky I am to be in this situation. It's pretty crazy how close we are to winding up all the gardeny/farmy stuff and how close winter is to descending as well. The montains nearby have epic snowy tops already, and the snow is descending down shockingly fast. We already had a few flakes blustering around one morning last week, so more can't be too far away. The weather has been the kind of classic autumn I've really missed after three years of living in Victoria, the land of wishy washy seasons. It's freezing when we wake up, the ground covered in hard frost, the ducks' water crusted over with ice, but by the late morning when we're out working it's incredibly sunny with that amazing fall light, and it gets so hot that you're peeling off layers pretty quickly.
We are pruning raspberries, hauling away irrigation lines and hoses, mulching the buttloads of garlic we're planting, setting the crawlspace up as a makeshift root cellar, filling the freezer full to the top with lots of tasty protein for the winter (a pig! chickens! ducks! all raised by us!), eating lots of homemade pumpkin pie, and generally doing a last push to get hunkered down for winter. There's still a fair amount to be done, but we've had lots of rad and helpful guests, and it's been going quickly and smoothly. I have had to really really gear back on the amount that I do because of the whole full of babies scenario, and that's been a surprisingly hard adjustment for me. On the plus side, it makes me realize that I usually do a hell of a lot of work, which is a good feeling. On the minus side, it definitely reminds me that I am somewhat neurotic about how much I am accomplishing, and I'm not great at setting limits for myself, even when it is logical and necessary to scale back. I'm starting to look and feel a lot more pregnant now, though, and my mobility is starting to be a bit limited, which is a good reminder that I just can't do what I used to. My belly is definitely way bigger all of a sudden, and bending over is getting to involve a bit more effort and huffing and puffing, which is crazy.
I added a picture of the ducks hanging out in one of their inexplicable favourite spots, under the truck. The drake with the black head and funky red stuff around his beak (Bill) in front is still with us, but the other two are gone. We slaughtered last Saturday to make more space for the winter confinement in the duck house. We spared Bill and two ladies (Dolored and one lady who has yet to be named). It was actually uber hard to give them the big chop. I was pretty bummed. They were just so nice and friendly and lovely, y'know? I didn't feel weird about this stuff with any of the other animals, not even the pigs who I totes loved, so it was kind of surprising. Anyway, it had to happen and it went smoothly, so what can you do. Bill and the ladies don't seem to be too traumatized, so that's good.
Tonight we're off to a friend's place for epic Thanksgiving dinner, and this week should be filled with sweet bro downs, work and lots of time for chilling as well. Good stuff!
